From Decatur Next…

New/Amended Zoning Districts
Wednesday, April 23 | 7-9pm | Decatur City Hall

The Strategic Plan’s goals for a more diversified housing mix reflect a gap — what we’re calling the missing middle — between our predominantly single-family residential and our downtown. This session explores the idea of transitional districts in the Unified Development Ordinance to accommodate things like live/work units, downtown-friendly townhouses, small-scale apartment buildings, neighborhood-scaled mixed use, cottage courts, and more, and gauges the circumstances under which such solutions might make sense.

The site also provides specific examples of what it’s describes as the “missing middle” and notes there will also be discussion of

• Modifications to existing zoning districts
• The possibility of a new R-50 residential zoning category
• A suggested neighborhood mixed-use category

Photo courtesy of TheTinyLife via Decatur Next

Do you like to discuss stormwater runoff and infrastructure in your spare time? Well then…

STORMWATER | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 | 7-9 PM | DECATUR CITY HALL

Join us Wednesday, March 26, from 7 – 9 p.m. at City Hall, 509 N. McDonough St., for the second of our UDO Drill-Down sessions. Members of the UDO engineering team will be on hand to present on Decatur’s stormwater challenges and how those challenges are currently managed.

More information about this and future Unified Development Ordinance meetings is available at DecaturNext.com

A recap of the Community Character meeting can be read here.

Also a new post on Decatur Next gives a more detailed overview of the issue and what you can expect at the Wednesday night session, including some interesting “unresolved questions”:

1. Trees. Trees aren’t currently recognized, at least in the code, for their ability to absorb water and contribute to stormwater reduction. This results in trees being periodically removed to allow for required stormwater retention systems, creating a scenario in which addressing one problem (retention) exacerbates another (tree canopy). Should the UDO rectify this?
2. Green Infrastructure. A variety of low-impact, lower cost, green interventions — such as permeable concrete, grass-paving systems, rain gardens and cisterns — have reached the point where they’re now proven and recognized within state ordinances. Should Decatur add these approaches to its list of choices in how homeowners can meet requirements? Which green approaches do you prefer? Is there anything we haven’t thought of?

Photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute

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.

Do you to write code?  Well, this meeting ain’t for you.  Unless you also enjoy unifying development code (aka ordinances).

Tonight from 7p-8:30p, the City of Decatur will host the Unified Development Ordinance kick-off meeting at City Hall in the City Commission room.  What sort of thrilling time can the public  expect at such an important and exciting shindig? Well, the DecaturNext website says…

• Representatives of the consulting team will present a sort of UDO:101 to get us all on the same page — what it is, why it’s important, and how it works.

• Attendees will then be given Idea Cards and asked to hack the code by responding to a fundamental question: In what way(s) do you feel our existing development regulations fail to address the intent and/or goals of the Strategic Plan or other adopted policy documents?

I, for one, am hoping there will be theatrical vignettes where the city staff and consultants act out scenarios where the ordinances don’t sync up.