Planning and Zoning Commission requests building code delay
The Columbia City Council on Monday will discuss a request from the Planning and Zoning Commission to delay adoption of the Unified Development Code.
The commission voted unanimously last month to request a two-month extension, which would mean that it would tentatively have a document near the end of October.
Development services manager Pat Zenner said the commission would like more time to analyze the code, a 400-page document containing more than 1,000 city zoning and ordinance changes.
“It’s just a meaty issue and the commission just needs to have time to sit back and say wow how do we want to approach this,” said Zenner. “We knew we needed to make changes, we just didn’t know to what extent and that extent being a little bit more clearly painted for us.”
Clarion and Associates helped the city develop the new code back in 2014, ditching most of the old zoning regulations and references for a “form based” style of development.
At its regular meetings these past two months, the commission has been soliciting public comment on different parts of the development code related to different zoning regulations, including downtown development.
“I know we work at the pleasure of the council, but we are also the voice of the citizens of this city,” said Lee Russell, a commission member. “I don’t want to put my name on something that I don’t really feel comfortable with yet.”
Zenner said the commission is trying to incorporate as much public comment into the code as possible and work with the community to implement important changes relating to the new code.
