Zoning ordinance update suggestions reviewed
By Grace Lovins
Birmingham Planning Board members reviewed preliminary recommendations for changes to the city’s zoning ordinance during the Wednesday, October 14, meeting, continuing the months-long process of updating the ordinance to reflect the most recent master plan adoption.
The city selected Chicago-based planning and urban design firm Houseal Lavigne in January to begin the comprehensive update of the zoning ordinance. Carrie Papelbon, senior project manager, explained during Monday’s meeting that, since January, the firm has met with the planning board, city staff and gathered public input on the current ordinance to formulate their Preliminary Recommendations Report (PRR).
Houseal Lavigne’s report separated the recommended updates into themes: usability and administration; district framework; housing; commercial growth and redevelopment; and site and building design standards.
Among the plan’s recommendations are consolidating several residential and commercial zoning districts to eliminate redundancies, expanding housing options in certain areas, allowing greater flexibility for commercial uses and streamlining development approvals by allowing staff to have more authority to approve minor adjustments.
The PRR also looked at reducing minimum residential lot sizes to better reflect existing neighborhoods. Papelbon noted that the firm will always keep neighborhood context and character in mind when recommending changes, and she also presented their analysis on how these changes could reduce the number of nonconforming properties.
Other recommendations included expanding allowances for accessory dwelling units, potentially updating parking requirements and encouraging sustainability in development practices, among others.
Planning board chair Scott Clein emphasized that the recommendations were preliminary and that the meeting was intended to determine whether the report accurately reflected the master plan and identified areas that should be looked into further rather than to decide on individual policy changes.
“This board, in front of the public with public comment, will vet every single one of these points if they’re left in the report, and will vet every single change that is proposed in this ordinance at the appropriate time over the course of the next many, many months,” Clein said.
No formal action was taken by the planning board, but as Clein stated, they expect to return to this topic many times over the course of the next few months.
