ZCC delays sending zoning code to City Council for 10 weeks

ZCC Special Session

The sole item on the Zoning Code Commission’s agenda today was to vote on a resolution to delay sending the draft zoning code to City Council. ZCC Chair Alan Greenberger said that leadership at Council and the Commission mutually agreed to the delay to allow Councilmembers to focus on the budget process and provide additional opportunity for the ZCC to resolve remaining issues in the code. Although the legal significance of the vote was questioned, a resolution passed unanimously to adopt the most recent version of the code as the “Draft Preliminary Report,” continue to meet with stakeholders and make revisions to that draft, and send a final “Preliminary Report” to City Council in about two and a half months. ZCC member and Councilman Brian O’Neill continued to voice objections, however. “Ten weeks is a mighty challenge,” he said. “More than 90 percent of the civics in this city does not understand the changes this code will bring.”

Brian O’Neill repeated concerns that ZCC staff and consultants do not understand the full impacts of the draft zoning code. “My argument is that there is a whole lot of de facto remapping going on here that needs to be clarified,” O’Neill said. “We need to reach out to the little groups that have not been part of the process and clear up extraneous issues.” Councilman O’Neill did not initially want to specify what issues he thinks will weigh the process down, but suggested that there are about 25 of what he calls “dead on arrival issues.” When pressed, O’Neill named bed and breakfasts and home occupations as examples that may make sense in some areas, but allowing them citywide is “like throwing dynamite into the room.” ZCC member and Councilman Bill Green agreed. “If people come to testify against the things in the code at Council hearings, there will be no dialogue or problem solving,” he said. “It would not pass as it exists.” Green voiced concern that the draft code distributed to the Commission today did not fully reflect the changes the ZCC agreed to make in the two special public sessions held on February 18 and 28, but seemed satisfied that staff and the Work Plan Committee have committed to doing so over the next two and a half months.

Although Councilman O’Neill wants ZCC and Planning Commission staff to work harder to communicate code changes out in the neighborhoods, some think that is the responsibility of City Council. David Feldman of Right-Sized Homes said that it is time for Councilmembers to have the meetings they think are needed to get the word out to people that haven’t understood what’s been going on for three years. “Today’s vote gives City Council a breather,” Feldman said, “before the code falls like a hot potato in its lap.”

ZCC Director Eva Gladstein added that staff is preparing a packet of information for each District Councilmember that will explain the code’s impacts in that particular area. The ZCC also plans to organize a series of bi-weekly meetings that will be open to the public and provide opportunities to ask questions and discuss concerns.

While some expressed disappointment with the delay, most Commission members agreed that an additional 10 weeks will only serve to enhance the code. Alan Greenberger stressed, though, that there will still be differences of opinion about what is good public policy. “I want it on the record that you are not going to get a document that is universally agreed to,” he said. A motion was then put forward to vote on a resolution to delay transmission of the draft code to City Council. The ZCC passed the resolution with a unanimous vote. The next meeting of the ZCC is scheduled for April 13.

Click here to view the resolution. The latest green-lined draft of the code is available at www.zoningmatters.org/.