City works to update zoning chapter

WORLAND - After months of public hearings, comprehensive plans, and revisions, the Worland Board of Adjustment and Planning Committee is requesting public input for the proposed revisions to “Chapter 24 – Zoning of the Worland City Code.” A public hearing will take place Thursday, Jan. 21, with two meetings from 5-6 p.m. and another 7-8 p.m. at the Worland Community Center Complex.

Ronald Vanderpool, the planning consultant for the City of Worland, strongly encourages whoever is interested to look at the proposed revisions on the city website at cityofworland.org and have any questions ready, because the public hearing will be answered in a yes and no format.

Updated Versions

The existing code isn’t too different from the proposed revisions. It’s just reorganized.

“The big thing is it’s not a brand new chapter 24. It’s reorganized, re-identified and built to cater more to the newer needs [of the city],” Vanderpool said.

The original zoning map is 30 years old.

“It was drafted in ’84 and adopted in ‘85,” Vanderpool said. “A lot of things have changed since then and that’s one of the reasons why we felt things needed to be updated.”

“The existing code … it was a regressive approach,” Vanderpool said.

If a resident wanted to do something they would have to go through so many zoning codes, and it regressively cascaded with people leaving thinking “How did I get here?,” Vanderpool said.

Progressive Zoning

There are four types of zoning: euclidean, performance, form-based and incentive, and the proposed revisions to chapter 24 are less restrictive.

Euclidean zoning started in Euclid, Ohio, Vanderpool said. “There was a big court cases that was won because a city administrator and said you can’t do that and we have to protect our city by doing that.”

It went to Supreme Court, and became known as the euclidean zoning, Vanderpool said. “All it does is set prescriptive measures; it draws boundaries around certain areas.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), performance zoning ” is a land use planning concept that has its roots in building codes that established performance standards as opposed to specification standards… Performance zoning is for managing land use grew out of fairly successful application to industrial zoning.”

“Incentive zoning tools is that a community can gain qualities it wants — such as natural resource conservation, energy/resource efficiency, and/or affordable housing — in exchange for something the private developer would like — such as higher density,” according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Form-based isn’t typically used in the United States, but “form-based zoning codes is evolving as another approach to land use planning and zoning that looks at the essential characteristics of the community and its environment and its perceived image of itself, what it presently is and what it wants to be,” according to MDNR.

Worland’s existing zoning type is euclidean, but the proposed revisions combine euclidean and incentive type zoning to entice developers, Vanderpool said.

“It’s called the carrot and stick method,” Vanderpool said. “You entice developers with things that are pretty good, but you still have some regulation so it’s not just a free for all.”

Changes

The changes made are for a cleaner, user friendly format for people to read.

“Making it an easier, more usable code was the goal,” Vanderpool said in reference to the proposed revisions.

There are a few changes to the proposed revisions from the existing code that were necessary for clarity. Some of zoning names, like R1 (real low density) have been changed to eliminate confusion between the current names and the building code names, Vanderpool said.

Other major changes included modified landscaping requirements and parking lot requirements to have the progressive upper hand for a developer point of view, according to Vanderpool.

“The most prevalent changes were in the size of travel lanes, parking space size increase, reduction in the amount of parking spaces required, and surfacing changes. The landscaping changes also reduced amounts and sizes of some various landscape units, allowances for xeriscaping and artificial materials,” Vanderpool said.

How will changes impact residents?

“They really won’t impact residents or commercial or industrial uses. It’s actually going to be a little more forgiving because of some of the things we changed and how they are grouped together,” Vanderpool said.

The changes that could positively impact residents most is the consolidation to the revisions.

For example, all types of fences are grouped together now, whereas before certain fences zoning rules were separated by who was using it, Vanderpool said.

“The typical resident of the City of Worland is going to find a positive impact,” Vanderpool said in reference to the proposed revision to Chapter 24 –Zoning of the Worland City Code.