Decatur Cemetery, Decatur GA (pic submitted by Joe)

Last night, the Decatur City Commission unanimously approved the UDO that’s been in the works for over a year, which cleans up the city’s current ordinances, creates an almost readable document out of a bunch of rambling, random ordinances, and also adds a few new laws to the books.  The UDO is 400+ pages long, and you can check out the approved draft as part of the meeting agenda here.

Among the new ordinances on the books,

• a high efficiency building standard for new buildings and “substantial improvement” of residential buildings. The former goes into effect in November 2015, while the later goes into effect in February 2016.
• A 15 notification period for a demolition permit
• New zoning types – R50, R22 Multi-family residential, and Neighborhood Mixed Use District.

The majority of the UDO goes into effect February 1, 2015.