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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 09 18 AIS for Code Update WS 8_15_18AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Meeting Date: 9/12/2018 Meeting Type: Work Session Staff Contact/Dept.: Mark Rust/DPW Staff Phone No: 541-726-3654 Estimated Time: 45 minutes S P R I N G F I E L D PLANNING COMMISSION Council Goals: Encourage Economic Development and Revitalization through Community Partnerships ITEM TITLE: DEVELOPMENT CODE UPDATE ACTION REQUESTED: Review the status of the Development Code Update project. Staff will be presenting preliminary information to the Commission on draft project plan elements at this early stage, including the objectives and purpose. ISSUE STATEMENT: The City Council recognizes that the Development Code is difficult to use, understand, and implement. Resolving the complexities and outdated nature of the code will help achieve the economic and housing goals for our community. The Council has directed staff to complete a full Development Code Update. ATTACHMENTS: Attachment 1 – Council Briefing Memo DISCUSSION: The Development Code is the principle document that implements local, state, and federal land use, transportation, and environmental laws applicable in the City of Springfield. This ongoing mandate is the platform on which the City creates and fosters the successful development, redevelopment, and economic prosperity of the city. At the same time, the City relies almost entirely on the code to ensure that specific initiatives and policies are implemented and have the best chance of success, such as the redevelopment of Glenwood, affordable housing, economic prosperity, and downtown revitalization. The evolution of the code over the last 30 years has resulted in a complex code that is not easy to understand for either the community or staff. The Council has recognized the need to update the code and has directed staff to proceed with a complete Development Code update. In February of 2017 the City Council started discussing with staff ideas around updating the Springfield Development Code. In June of 2017 the Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2018 budget that included funding for a project manager for the development code update project. The City was unable to staff the project in FY 2018, so the Council again committed to funding a project manager for three years starting in FY 2019. The new project manager for the Development Code Update has begun work on the project and will begin to discuss some of the components for moving the project forward. The attached Council Briefing Memorandum outlines the beginning steps for the initial phase of the project. COMMUNICATION MEMORANDUM Meeting Date: 9/18/2018 Meeting Type: Work Session Staff Contact/Dept.: Mark Rust/DPW Staff Phone No: 541-726-3654 Estimated Time: 45 Minutes S P R I N G F I E L D PLANNING COMMISSION Council Goals: Encourage Economic Development and Revitalization through Community Partnerships ITEM TITLE The City Council recognizes that the Development Code is difficult to use, understand, and implement. Resolving the complexities and outdated nature of the code will help achieve the economic and housing goals for our community. The Council has directed staff to complete a full Development Code Update. BACKGROUND In February of 2017 the City Council started discussing with staff ideas around updating the Springfield Development Code. At the time the Council began to articulate the city’s goals for updating the code and endorsed a complete rewrite of the code. In June of 2017 the Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2018 budget that included funding for a project manager for the development code update project. The City was unable to recruit a project manager at that time. In November of 2017 the City Council heard from staff in regard to identifying the project priorities for the project and looking at guiding principles. The Council discussed and supported a set of guiding principles and provided input on expectations for the project. In the Summer of 2018 a project manager was selected from in-house staff (Mark Rust), and his work as a current planner has been back-filled with the hiring of a limited duration planner to allow Mark to devote his time to the Development Code Update project. In early September 2018 the project manager was introduced to Council and they were provided with information on the beginning steps of the project. At this meeting the project manager will be introduced to the Planning Commission and he will be presenting preliminary information to the Commission on draft project plan elements at this early stage, including the objectives and purpose. WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENT CODE? A development code is the principle document that implements local, state, and federal land use, transportation, and environmental laws. The State’s ongoing mandate is the platform on which the City creates and fosters the successful development, redevelopment, and economic prosperity of the city. At the same time, the City relies almost entirely on the Development Code to ensure that specific initiatives and policies are implemented and have the best chance of success, such as the redevelopment of Glenwood, affordable housing, economic prosperity, and downtown revitalization. The following language was included in the Council Briefing Memorandum from November 6, 2017 and is included here for context. Every aspect of land use or development or redevelopment that the Council wants to regulate or wants to limit or wants to allow, or that the state requires the Council to regulate or limit or allow, is found exclusively in the Springfield Development Code. It truly represents a one-stop, one size, and one source, for every citizen, developer, and investor; our partners and elected officials, for everything we do with our land and buildings, Attachment 1, Page 1 of 5 public or private, everywhere. The alternating source of all power, all authority and all grace that may be conferred by the Council to all of their constituents is a prodigious responsibility unlike any other single duty that resides with the Council. We all should be so lucky to have the honor of this experience. As discussed below under the section “What the Development Code Update Is Not Expected To Do”, there are certain aspects of the development process that can’t necessarily be addressed through the Development Code Update project. OBJECTIVES for the DEVELOPMENT CODE The following objectives for the Development Code were formed based on the guiding principles discussed with the Council in February of 2017. 1. Enable quick review of development applications. 2. Be easy to understand with clear code language presented in a user-friendly format. 3. Provide a straight-forward processing path to development decisions. 4. Support/further economic development in all sectors. 5. Protect and enhance the beauty of our city to boost or stabilize property values, encourage investment, and improve the image of the community. 6. Comply with mandatory regulatory requirements. 7. Implement the City’s adopted policies. Through the Development Code Update project, sections of the Development Code that do not meet these objectives will be removed or revised to meet these objectives. Embodied within these objectives is an effort to allow the code to be responsive and flexible to future uses and development. The Council has previously expressed a desire to allow a wider range of uses. This project will evaluate the options for allowing more uses in certain zones where applicable, either through defining specific uses that are not allowed or listing more general categories of uses that would encompass a broader range of uses. There has been discussion about the code being short in length. An easy to use and simple code does not necessarily mean a short code. Including more white space on pages, tables, diagrams, etc. can be used to help make a code user friendly and less complex, although it may add to the overall page count of the code. It is anticipated that these types of formatting tools will be utilized to simplify the code and make it easy to understand. PROJECT PURPOSE Based on the above objectives, the following draft purpose statement has been developed for the code update project. The City of Springfield Development Code has become more complex through multiple revisions and additions since its initial adoption in 1987. This has resulted in a development code that can contribute to unclear standards and longer review times. The City Council recognizes the need to update the Development Code so that it is easy to understand, facilitates efficient application reviews, and supports economic development throughout Springfield. The purpose of the Development Code Update project is to Attachment 1, Page 2 of 5 change the Springfield Development Code to support efficient, timely, and clear development review. The updated Development Code will support Springfield’s economic development priorities and will honor Springfield’s home town feel now and in the future. With the new updated Development Code the City of Springfield and the community can continue to implement Springfield’s community vision together. POLICY CONTEXT Perhaps the most overarching constituent of policy in regard to the Development Code Update is the following state law: ORS 197.175 - each city and county in this state shall: (a) Prepare, adopt, amend and revise comprehensive plans in compliance with goals approved by the commission; (b) Enact land use regulations to implement their comprehensive plans; This mandate provides a clear and enduring relationship between the Statewide Planning Goals, the local comprehensive plan, and land use regulations which in Springfield are codified into the Springfield Development Code. Cities must adopt policies that comply with the goals; cities must adopt regulations that implement those policies; cities must achieve goal-plan-code consistency for the use and reuse of all land within its urban growth boundary. The state land use goals referred to in ORS 197.175 and which apply to Springfield are: Goal 1 Citizen Involvement Goal 2 Land Use Planning Goal 5 Natural Resources, Scenic and Historic Areas, and Open Spaces Goal 6 Air, Water and Land Resources Quality Goal 7 Areas Subject to Natural Hazards Goal 8 Recreational Needs Goal 9 Economic Development Goal 10 Housing Goal 11 Public Facilities and Services Goal 12 Transportation Goal 13 Energy Conservation Goal 14 Urbanization Goal 15 Willamette River Greenway Each of these goals is addressed either in the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area General Plan (Metro Plan) or the new Springfield 2030 Comprehensive Plan; the current version of the Development Code is significantly consistent with policies in these local comprehensive plans. However, the effect that the passage of time has on practical code implementation of policy can be striking, particularly with the emergence of new technologies, new market trends and changing demographics. For example, the recent project to update the city’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) standards relied on the same Metro Plan policies in effect in 2002 when the ADU standard was first adopted. The difference now is the Council expanded, adapted, and modified its 2002 ADU decision package to respond to the changing circumstances of housing access, Attachment 1, Page 3 of 5 supply and cost present today and of key interest to the Council’s position on affordable housing. One mandate of significance that may influence prospective revisions is the requirement that land use inventories for the planning period must be preserved and protected through zoning. This means that zoning districts consistent with the planned use and development of the property shown on the plan map and described in the plan text will need to remain in the code. There are opportunities to amend the list of permitted or prohibited uses, or in fact to create new zoning districts, but zoning as we all know it will likely remain a fixture of municipal development codes until the state law is revised to say otherwise. The City has developed and adopted an Urbanization Element, Economic Element, and Residential Land Use and Housing Element as part of the Springfield 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which include policies that will help guide the Development Code Update project. There are many visionary policies contained in these new elements of the Springfield 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Given the extended time horizon of some of these policies and the desire to complete an update within three years, fully implementing the newly adopted policies is outside the scope of this project. However, any new code language that is created must be consistent with adopted policy. Other policy guidance documents have been developed as well including The Springfield Look – an economic development strategic plan, and Springfield’s Affordable Housing Strategy. Two strategies within The Springfield Look relate to updating the Development Code Update include: World Class Customer Service, with tactics for code amendments and improving process; and Minimum Development Standards, which includes tactics to update the MDS provisions and shorten timelines for processing. The Affordable Housing Strategy includes the strategy to “Promote Housing of Diverse Types”. One way to accomplish this diversification of the housing stock is through development code amendments. New State law (SB 1051 passed in 2016) requires updating the code to allow for a variety of housing types to be reviewed with clear and objective standards. The City is pursing technical assistance through the Oregon State Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to obtain consultant help to identify residential standards that are not clear and objective. Springfield has a Transportation System Plan (TSP) which is part of the Springfield Comprehensive Plan. There is currently a TSP code update project underway to implement the adopted TSP polices. The Development Code Update project will not modify or duplicate these efforts. WHAT THE DEVELOPMENT CODE UPDATE IS While important from a customer service perspective, there are many aspects of the development process that are outside of the scope of the Development Code Update Attachment 1, Page 4 of 5 NOT EXPECTED TO DO project. Below is a list of topic areas that are not anticipated to be addressed with this project. 1. Sign code regulations 2. Building code requirements 3. Fire code requirements 4. Infrastructure construction standards (Engineering Design Standards & Procedures Manual-EDSPM) 5. Annexations 6. The supply and inventory of buildable lands (Urban Growth Boundary- UGB) 7. Internal processing and coordination with departments and outside agencies 8. Fee’s/costs 9. Funding for infrastructure 10. Application forms-format and structure 11. Business licenses 12. Nuisance code (municipal code) NEXT STEPS Staff is scheduled to return to the City Council on October 1, 2018 for another work session for the code update project. More detail will be available at the next work session in regard to a work plan, anticipated timelines, and advisory committee formation. Staff will be seeking Council’s guidance on these additional items to move the project forward. RECOMMENDED ACTION This topic is for informational purposes and not action is requested. Attachment 1, Page 5 of 5