The Land Development Code (LDC) contains regulations which guide the development and use of property within the city by addressing matters such as: zoning, building densities, setbacks, parking requirements and other related land use activities. When appropriate, the city staff updates the code to assure compliance with state and federal regulations however consistent updates to eliminate unnecessary barriers, redundancies and contradictions do not occur regularly. As such, the LDC which incidentally was originally adopted in 1990, is not nearly as responsive to the land use issues of the city as it could be.
It can be said that an effective LDC is the foundation upon which great communities are built. In that regard, LDC’s do serve as the framework that regulates the where, how and what type of development that can occur at particular locations. A well put together LDC enables a community to not only establish but to implement its vision. However, if the LDC is out of date or not in line with the community vision codes can easily be an impediment to a city from achieving the type of development that is wanted or needed.
The City’s LDC has reached a point that in order to effectively represent the intentions and purposes of: enabling the progressive development of the city and providing for an efficient, effective and equitable development review process a redraft of the document is warranted. People Places, LLC has submitted a proposal to conduct the work necessary to prepare the document. The $10,000 fee being requested by People Places, LLC to perform the work is fair in consideration of the amount and complexity of work required and the local industry standards for this type of work. The proposal also outlines additional services that may be required therefore an additional $3,500 is being requested in order to be reserved for those services if needed.
In addition to their working knowledge of the community, People Places, LLC has a good amount of experience in drafting codes that support smart growth development in communities that want to create vibrant walkable neighborhoods that mix uses and give residents options as to walking to work or operating a home business. Lastly, Mr. Starkey himself has considerable experience as a developer in the city and as such will certainly provide valuable insight into the development review process from a perspective much different than that of the city staff.