Commissions Talk CodeNEXT

The Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission met for a joint work session Tuesday night, June 27, to resume briefing on the land development code rewrite. At the request of PC chair Stephen Oliver, David Carroll and Tyler Stowell, two representatives from the American Institute of Architecture, led a breakdown of AIA's CodeNEXT charrette findings. Among many issues, Stowell said, the one-day intensive study identified "a lot of barriers" to building middle- and working-class housing, specifically under the prescriptiveness of the transect code. Stowell called the form-based code a "killer" for missing middle housing, claiming that the location of a heritage tree could impede the building of a fourplex under such strict guidelines. Regarding the map, Carroll said "expectations were higher than what was met." After the presentation concluded, several commissioners expressed concern that the current code draft incentivizes demolition and ultimately threatens community character.

CodeNEXT consultants followed AIA's presentation with an unexpected update: Draft 2.0 will now likely remove transect zones to move toward a more aligned and uniformed formatting. An edit of this magnitude might look more like a completely new plan, rather than a second draft. Oliver noted that the "burden" falls on commissioners to relearn the language used in the code. The next joint ZAP and PC meeting is currently scheduled for July 25, but Oliver requested another work session be planned for the two commissions prior to that date to continue the conversation.