From the Decatur Next site…

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12 | 7-9PM | DECATUR CITY HALL

On March 3, the city commission approved Phase Two of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) process, clearing the way for our next steps: drilling down on currently unresolved issues; and preparing a comprehensive draft for community review.

As you’ll recall, Phase One involved two goals: establishing how our various regulations could be consolidated into one unified, easy-to-use document; and determining if any particular areas of those regulations required further discussion and consideration by the community.

Four subjects emerged and were affirmed by the community January 8: community character; stormwater; sustainability; and the prospect of new zoning district options to allow for additional housing types.

Now, we drill down. To better discuss the complexity of these subjects, and their potential impacts on competing community goals, we’ll be holding a series of subject-specific, interactive meetings during March and April. The complete schedule of those meetings can be found here.

First up: Community Character. Join us Wednesday, March 12, from 7-9pm, as we explore the look and feel of Decatur’s neighborhoods, and consider what, if anything, we should do to better protect or enhance it.

Participants can expect to:

1. Discuss how neighborhood character is perceived and how, to them, it’s being impacted by development, renovation, new construction or other related efforts;
2. Learn how particular issues of concern can be regulated; and
3. Make recommendations on what issues should be regulated, and how.

If you’ve got ideas or concerns about how our neighborhoods are or should be evolving over time, this is your opportunity to make your own impact. Please make time to join us.

Yesterday, City Schools of Decatur held its pre-K lottery for 190 slots at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center.

As recapped in an email from CSD’s Community Liason Courtney Burnett, “Bright From the Start allocates 9 Pre-K classrooms to City Schools of Decatur that is included in our grant agreement each year.  Class sizes are determined by Bright From the Start.  Currently, we have 4 inclusion classrooms with 20 students enrolled and 5 Pre-K classrooms with 22 students enrolled which totals 190 slots for College Heights ECLC.”

This year, a total of 263 children were involved in the lottery, so 73 children ended up being added to the waiting list.  This is up from 47 children added to the wait list across all of last year.

According to Ms. Burnett, 17 children from last year’s list remain on the waitlist for this year.  With yesterday’s addition of 73 children to the existing waitlist, Ms. Burnett confirmed that “This will be the first year that families who participated in the lottery “probably” will not be offered a slot prior to the start of school.”