As Planning and Zoning Technician during the development of the Comprehensive 2030 Master Plan I was tasked with providing long-range planning initiatives. In the plan, I made the recommendation to integrate form based development code in the zoning ordinance. For a small town, we are blessed with consistent industries investment, but downtown has struggled with vacant parcels and structures.
My inspiration was to create a sense of place while, integrating form based code, came from experience and meeting with several downtown stakeholders. Correspondingly, I assisted multiple property owners through the rezoning and conditional use process to accommodate uses not permitted by the original conventional zoning. This was another strong indicator for downtown to meet market demands, a form based development code is
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This lead the city to survey and identify infill properties in and surrounding downtown. The city has completed a redevelopment plan for two neighborhoods that feed into downtown. These plans show a need for more market rate and affordable housing. Downtown is a desirable location due to nearby churches, schools, and the walkability to the downtown business district. By providing a form based development code downtown, I advocated this will create economic interest, affordable and market rate housing on infill lots.
The challenges of this project are to allow flexibility of uses by mixing commercial and residential while promoting a high quality of life. Another challenge, downtown has existing contributing historic buildings that do not fit the original zoning lot sizes or setbacks. Adding residential will create additional pedestrian traffic and the need for parking. As a part of the planning process, I identified two areas to place parking decks along with public and private partnerships to facilitate the additional downtown