Care about the city’s direction with the currently under-review tree ordinance?  You must attend this meeting.  Ripped from the DecaturNext website…

How Decatur manages its tree canopy has always been a component of the Unified Development Ordinance initiative currently underway. However, recent community concerns brought an increased level of urgency to the subject, prompting city commissioners to pass a 90-day moratorium on tree removal and fast-track the UDO’s tree-related requirements. That effort is now in process and its work-in-progress will be presented and discussed Wednesday, December 11.

PLEASE JOIN US:

Trees! Crafting Decatur-Appropriate Regulations
Let’s find some common ground for a healthy canopy.
December 11 | 7-9:00pm | City Hall Commission Meeting Room

The meeting will begin with a 30-minute presentation by the city’s tree consultant, Connie Head of Technical Forestry Services, followed by an opportunity for attendees to consider various policy direction alternatives and provide feedback on their preferences.

Resident input will then be factored into the working draft and finalized recommendations will be completed. Those recommendations will be posted here for review prior to the Commission’s consideration, which will take place January 21, 2014 at 7:30pm in the City Hall Commission Meeting Room.

Join us at the meeting then check back often for updates. And in the meantime, provide your own considerations in the comments below or submit more general comments and questions directly to the city here.

Photo courtesy of Decatur Minute

At last night’s meeting, the Decatur City Commission agreed to add an agenda item to the October 22nd meeting that would entertain a moratorium on single family home demolition and tree removal (in excess of 12-inches at chest height) from October 22nd to January 24th.

The mayor pointed out that the city commission doesn’t normally give so much notice on an action item, but “…we did it tonight because this is stepping way out of our normal range of options.”  He also noted that the moratorium was needed to limit an extended flurry of activity surrounding these two actions between now and the first stage of the Unified Development Code is set to be completed in January.

City Manager Peggy Merriss said that the details of the moratorium would be available for viewing by the end of the week.

Proponents on both sides of the issue showed up to state their positions on the subject.  Decaturish has a good report of how things played out.

Decatur has a Town Center plan.  A transportation plan.  Parking studies. An Environmental Sustainability Board.  We legalized backyard poultry a long time ago.

Basically Decatur has put a lot of codes, ordinances and plans in place over the last many years.  Plus, there are additional codes/ordinances and revisions that have been proposed over the past few years that have been back-burnered, waiting for this process to occur.  Well, it’s looks like it’s time to get started.

Last night, at the Decatur City Commission meeting, the commission approved the “Decatur Coding Studio Team” of consultants who will work on unifying the city’s codes into one document.  According to a letter from Planning Director Amanda Thompson…

The team will be led by TSW, a local full service planning, architecture and landscape architecture fum. TSW was the project manager for the City’s 2010 Strategic Plan. They have assembled a team that includes: Code Studio, a national fum based in Austin, Texas with expertise in zoning and development codes; Placemakers for public outreach; Pond Engineering; Karen Hueber a specialist in historic preservation; and, Maddox Nix Bowman and Zoeckler for legal review services.

TSW and Placemakers both worked on the 2010 Decatur Strategic Plan.  Code Studio is based out of Austin and has worked with other “liberal” leaning cities like Denver and Chapel Hill in developing a unified code.

What is the Unified Development Code?  Well, the City of Roswell’s website on UDCs describes it as…

…a single (“unified”) tool that addresses contemporary development and zoning practices in a format that is consistent and easily understood by administrators, developers, and community members.

The City Commission will also establish a “Stakeholder Steering Committee consisting of seventeen (17) members including representatives from each appointed volunteer authority, board or commission, and City Commission appointees from the community and other special interests. This committee would serve as an advisory group throughout the process.”, according to Ms. Thompson’s note.

The City Commission set a budget of $83,000 for phase 1 of the plan, which includes…

…establishing the overall public involvement schedule, communications methods, stakeholder interviews and a stakeholder steering  committee. It will also include the preparation of a detailed technical report that will outline the new table of contents for the UDO and exactly what will be changed. The technical report would be presented for adoption by the City Commission in January 2014.

So dust off your “I live for public involvement” hats and iron out your “I’m Proud to be a De-Communicate-R” t-shirts.  This certainly isn’t the last you’ll hear about this process between now and January.