the building director Greg Pace this department has issued several stockwork orders and Co holes due to zoning review errors these errors are simply a new interpretation of the existing code that has been used and applied for 46 years that was not changed by an amendment was no not changed by case law nothing propelled these changes of the 46-year precedent of how the zoning was applied in the sp8 overlay we believe that Mr Pace has created a new interpretation as a vehicle to take vested property rights away from your constituents this campaign is very aggressive and has impacted several if not all residential developers in home park this issue will compel owners like my client Dr zakai to demolish part of his home even though it was thoroughly reviewed and legally permitted my client like many others in home park legally permitted his project it was reviewed by senior officials in our case Lori Leland and the project was reviewed and approved at after several months of revisions and re-reviews any reasonable person would accept that heavily reviewed permit issued by the city on good faith here's the trouble we spent over a million dollars developing this property exactly by the terms and conditions of our permit the city placed a CO hold on our project by the orders of director Greg Pace we received a notice from Mr David Thompson and Zoning that he was asked to pull the application and re-review our permit in doing so he disagreed with Lori Leland and found our basement to be below the 50% below grade now he didn't come out and measure it this is based on the drawings that Lori Leland review and said that he interprets it differently so I disagree with on that issue I'm going to resolve that issue I'm going to get a a a licensed survey to go out and verify that we are above that because I know we are that's not the issue Mr Thompson also reviewed our average setback survey that senior planning official Lori Leland approved and said that she approved that in Era as well this is a major problem the city is now asking that I pick up my completed 400 ton home and move it back 8 ft or apply for a variance this is absurd the hpci 25 member neighborhood organization is responsible for putting enormous pressure on city council members and director Pace to harrass developers in the neighborhood and now our only recourse is to is to demolish our homes or apply for a variance which we know we will not get they have and will vote developer requests down as they recently did on a Snyder Street project they unanimously voted that that Builder demolish his encroaching building what makes our issue unique is the fact that the complaint was not generated by the public there was no formal complaint through code Busters or code enforcement it was in fact initiated by director Pace himself Mr Thompson told me on the phone that director Pace personally gave him a list of permitted properties in home park told him to pull and re-review and find something surprisingly Mr Thompson later admitted again in a face-to-face meeting in front of another zoning official she's my eyewitness let me State again director Pace put together an enemies list and pulled a plan reviewer away from reviewing legitimate permitted applications which already take 6 months to get approved and told him to audit already approved permits why I I fed a for your request hopefully I'll be able to find out there are many developers getting these stop workk orders due to the original reviewer made a mistake comment mostly due to parking comment Mr Tidwell your your time is sorry but I know that you had people defer time to you so you can finish up your comments if you'd like to okay you may not be aware of this but KET homes unilaterally decided to reinterpret the SPI 8 text that the city used for 46 years last year she sent out a memo to interpret the parking requirements in the most Draconian way possible note there was no change to the 1977 ordinance and no action by the council that made the 46-year application of the spia different just one employee memo out of the blue now plan reviewers will make Building Homes at home park almost impossible for example the old interpretation would have made a proposed four-bedroom duplex both sides with an unfinished basement with a three rooms with three rooms be be required to park two cars four total off street parking now that interpretation requires 14 total off street parking spaces and all of those spaces have to be parked in the side or the rear of the home home and none of the parking pads can be located in the sidey yard 76% of the homes in home park are non-conforming that means less than 25% of the lots are 75 ft or larger so here we're being asked to develop huge parking lots on these small non-conforming Lots which is impossible I was at a zrb meeting several years ago where that was brought up that that over 76% of the homes in home park do not meet the R5 minimum requirements and one of the the um panel members or board members said that we need a complete rezoning of home park if if seven if three out of every four applicants have to come for a variance the whole zoning need to be rechanged he suggested r4b instead we are getting stricter and stricter interpretation of SBI 8 and I believe the reason is to run developers out of the neighborhood they have been they have a war on Developers for years and now they're trying to bankrupt us and make us leave and to be honest this worked cuz I'm building my last home in home park but I am so angry for my fellow Builders and my investors and my and my homeowners that I came here today to say something about it thank you thank you next up on our agenda is presentations without objection colleagues I'm going to move us to a fairly quick legislative agenda and then we can come back to our report item number G is a public hearing um our first agenda item requires a public hearing I will make a motion to open said hearing second by Bach TI Council B who has joined us the vote is open what all members please the vote is seven Z seven y zero Nays 7 y zero Nays the public hearing is open director Holmes item number 1 24144 mrpa 2305 an ordinance by zoning committee to Grant a certificate under the provisions of the metropolit river protection act to allow the construction of a new single family dwelling with a pool patio and garage for property located 3968 basis Ferry Road Northwest 2.01 acres in landlock 235 of the 17th District Fon County Georgia owner HC gatl properties 3 LLC applicant Richard Taylor mpua Council District 8 no members of the public signed up to provide comment so I'll make a motion to close the public hearing seconded by Council M bakari please open that vote the vote is open vote is closed 7 y0 a 7 y0 a the public hearing is closed I'll make a motion to approve 240 1144 second by Council Bach Jerry the vote is open the vote is closed 7 y n 7 y z n the item is approved next up ordinances for first reading there are seven ordinances for first reading that will be sounded at the next full council meeting on May 6 2024 no action is needed today following that ordinances for second reading we will take without objection items 9 through 13 as a block it item number 9 23 l173 Z 2370 in ordinance my committee to Res Zone from light industrial conditional Beltline overlay to mix residential commercial Beltline overlay for property located 1111 Ridge Avenue Southwest staff and ZB recommendation is approval NP recommendation is denial item number 10230 1710 z238 4 and ordinance by zoning committee to amend part three Land Development code part 16 zoning chapter 20c Martin Luther King junor Landmark District section 1620c 04 3B and section 1620 c0071 a to amend the sidewalk requirements and for other purposes staff mpu and crb recommendation is approval item number 11241 1137 z246 in ordinance by zoning committee to Res Zone from mix residential commercial Westside Park affordable Workforce housing overlay to mix residential commercial West Park Westside Park affordable Workforce housing overlay for propery located at 1576 only holw World Parkway Northwest staff npu and crb recommendation is approval item number 12 24141 z410 and ordinance my zoning committee to reone from single family residential to single residential for property located at 1970 Grant Road Southwest Sab mpu and ZB recommendation is approval and item number 13 2411 66247 in ordinance by zoning committee for a special use permit for a helicopter landing facility or pickup or delivery stations pursuant to section 168a 006 for property located at ad Jesse Hill Jr Drive Southeast staff mpu and ZB recommendation is approval all right I'll make a motion to approve these items is there a second second by council member shook any discussion seeing none please open that vote the vote is open the vote is closed 7A z n 7A Z nay those items are favorable next up without objection we can take items 14 and 15 as a block item number 142 24139 z248 an amended ordinance by zoning committee to reone from single family residential to single family residential conditional for property located at 1474 Brooklyn Avenue Northwest staff npu and ZB recommendation approval condition and conditional in item number 15 24143 U2 2405 an amended ordinance by zoning committee for a special use permit for replace of worship pursuant to section 16 0051 0051 C for property located at 2744 P stre Road Northwest staff mpu and ZB recommendation is approval conditional I'll will make a motion to approve second by council member Norwood any discussion please open that vote the vote is open the vote is closed 7 y Zer n 7 y Zer n those items are favorable on condition um that concludes our legislative agenda final item for the day is the zoning ordinance rewrite ATL zoning 2.0 presentation by assorted members of our team Chrissy um good evening or good evening good afternoon um good morning city council zoning committee I'm Caleb Roso TSW it's been a long couple weeks getting to where we are today so I appreciate your consideration but um thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to present today at a very exciting point in the process of updating the city of Atlanta's zoning ordinance um what I wanted to do this morning was to walk through some of the stuff that our team has been working on for over a year uh that includes myself Caleb Rosa with tssw uh Christy Dodson with code Studio and then of course uh Jeff hymore with our legal consultant uh so we're going to be updating you on that process then we're going to be talking about some of the big ideas that are going to be incorporated in the new zoning ordinance when it begins to be unveiled next month uh we'll also talk a little bit more about that unveiling process and then finally talk about next steps um so as a little bit of reminder which I know the zoning committee is all very familiar with I did want to mention though that um this is a truly exciting time in the history of Atlanta because we are both updating the comprehensive plan which is the plan for the city it is the framework the legal policy document for the type of City we want to be and we're also updating the law the zoning that implements that and so this has been a truly exciting opportunity to coordinate those efforts we've been working very closely with the plan a team and have put forth a zoning proposal that has really taken advantage of those opport unities to align them um this benefit of coordination is extremely significant again this is something that is sort of how you should do it um you should plan for the city and then write the code but this has given us an opportunity to F put forth a unified framework for thinking about growth and development as you know today the zoning ordinance and the CDP are really joined at the hip and by looking at both of these at the same time by updating both of these at the same time we have an opportunity to make sure that the new CDP and the new zoning ordinance are equally joined at the hip if you will the other thing that's been really great about this process of collaboration is that we on the zoning team and the city's uh comp plan team have been really able to share information so as you'll see in a moment we received a lot of comments about CDP issues during the first part of the zoning work we've shared that with that team and they are doing the same with us as received comments about really zoning issues through the CDP process and so we continue to um work together in good faith to make sure that that sharing is Central to the process and the reason for that which again you all know very well is that for the public it is often very difficult to determine what is sort of city policy what is the CDP and then what is the zoning code so this process really allows us to have meetings where we ask questions and then we feed them to the appropriate parties for incorporation and as you know um also that process has been um intentionally coordinated now and so we are at a point in time of the zoning process where we are about to unveil the first draft of the code a series of CDP meetings have already occurred have already sort of began to talk about the framework for regulating future growth and development in the city and have fed that into both both our processes so that by the time the comprehensive plan has had updated land use maps there will also be a new zoning code that will be available for uh future changes to implement that um so again really fantastic opportunity so a little bit of background on the zoning rewrite so as many of you know we've been working for several years now on um asking the public a wide variety of um questions and exercises related to the future of zoning in the city of Atlanta I am pleased to pronounce that we have had tremendously positive um public engagement so far we received over 10,000 unique comments related to zoning and development issues in the city of Atlanta during that time uh these were at a series of public meetings these were online these were through emails we even received many folks who actually sent me letters in the mail that we scanned we digitized and we entered into the process so I'd really like to um thank the the the citizens of Atlanta who helped us shape the process to where we are today now within that General framework um we actually received some really sort of heartening findings there was a lot of support for 99% of the ideas that we had shared um as you may know from the zoning process we presented some ideas for consideration we asked the public do you think these ideas are something we should at least think about incorporating into the zoning ordinance and then we told them we would be coming back this year with drafts to review and so again very very positive feedback a lot of the support for some of these ideas was very conditional because as we all know when you talk about an idea you really need the details and so we've proceeded with those ideas with public support as much as much much as possible and then finally I did want to mention that about 30 to 40% of the zoning comments were really comprehensive plant comments they were you know this area is designated industrial it should be mixed juuse one day or they were about uh we need additional density in this area or we need less density in this area and so all of those kind of zoning comments were given directly to the comprehensive plan team to incorporate into their process so from that process we have um put forth worked on a new zoning ordinance that is foundationally based on several Big Ideas emerging from that process the first one is something that I'm sure many of you will appreciate which is that we are making a deliberate effort to make this one of the most userfriendly zoning ordinances in the nation uh the code today is extremely difficult to understand it's very complicated to interpret and so we have we are in the process of rewriting your entire code to be easy to understand to have as many graphics and tables as possible and really with all due respect to the lawyers in the room to move away from a document that you have to hire a lawyer to interpret and so when you get that new draft I hope you'll be truly pleased by the the reconceptualization the rethinking of who the intended user for this zoning ordinances we think it'll make it easier for the city we think it'll make it easier for applicants and we think it'll make it easier for neighborhoods in your constituents to understand what the law truly says and to take out some of some of the uh areas for for interpretation the other big theme that I'm very excited about in this zoning ordinance is that we are doing something that from a national level is truly unique we are creating a zoning ordinance that is absolutely tailored to the needs of Atlanta's diverse neighborhoods uh you may recall we've done a lot of pattern analysis we've looked at what makes neighborhoods physically unique from other neighborhoods and we've Incorporated all of that into the zoning approach that Christie will talk about momentarily uh and we've done that in a way again that coordinates both with opportunities to preserve the existing pattern where that's desired and that's desired in a lot of places places but also through the comprehensive plan to begin to shape and guide better new development in areas where there is a desire for patterns to change and again generally that's the commercial corridors where you may have Redevelopment that's um you know very limited areas around Mar stations that aren't already appropriate for higher density so we're going to give the city a lot of very exciting new tools and then finally I think this is a also really important piece is that one of the things that was very clear to our team three years ago when we read through the zoning ordinance was that the current framework of zoning has set it up such that the neighborhoods that have resources that have the ability to hire a consultant or to use council's discretionary budget to write custom zoning today generally have better zoning protections than areas that don't and so one of the things we're doing with this new zoning code is we're equalizing the ability of zoning to support neighborhoods to support plans across the city and we're doing that in many ways again which Christy will show you but the central way is that when you look at the new zoning ordinance you will notice that we have developed a series of Citywide what I call use standards for types of uses that we know are problematic we asked during the zoning meetings are these problematic so there will be Citywide standards for things like gas stations uh there will be Citywide standards for things like Self Storage again we we do have those today but we're we're recommending a couple of adjustments there will be city-wide standards for data centers there will be Citywide standards for U certain vehicular repair uses so that the areas of the city that are really feeling the brunt of these uses because they they are that there is an equal level of protection Citywide I can't think of a single neighborhood that has ever said give me more gas stations give me more data centers give me more self storage and so those kind of problematic uses will be treated equally Citywide additionally we will be treating streetscape requirements the same Citywide um today your streetscape requirements depend on your zoning we will be coming up with a very strong base level of good Urban design standards again so that if I'm if I'm just a uh a uh say I'm a C1 property today where there are no design standards once this code is adopted I will have some minimal standards of of where the building has to sit what the sidewalks have to be that are not currently in the code and then finally as you'll see um we have identified a couple of opportunities to consolidate some of the zoning districts so where director Holmes has I believe 260 unique zoning districts today to administer which is a really extremely high number there will be a much uh smaller number but again through the use of Zone strings which Christie will talk about in a moment the protections will will still be there so with that said I'm going to turn it over to chrisy Dodson to talk a little bit about some of the the more specific aspects of the code thanks Caleb um so as Caleb said I'm going to dive into some of the weeds so bear with me please have ask questions as you have them uh but I really want to talk about some of the specifics so you can start to get an ideas as this rolls out how we're thinking about how we take this idea of reflecting all of Atlanta's really unique patterns but also simultaneously put it in a document that's easy to use easy to understand and easier for K and her team to administer so one of the things we've been talking about all along is this idea of Zone strings um so we are continuing with that conversation and one of the things that we want to show is how we're thinking about modifying those Zone string so it really strikes that balance they can be unique and be applied throughout the different patterns in the city but also easy to administer and easy for folks to understand um what this does is it avoids a one- siiz fits-all zoning so we know that all areas in the city right now that are R4 looking feel very different they may not fit those patterns and so Zone string gives us an opportunity to to resolve that um it reflects the unique patterns and eliminates the need for custom zoning districts so that is where this um huge number of zoning districts that exist today has has occurred because we've just created these zoning districts over time as we've needed them to reflect our patterns um and this also allows for some consolidation so we get to go from over 250 zoning districts to a much more manageable number so functionally how are we doing this uh zoning really control every zoning zoning today um in Atlanta's ordinance controls for these four things form that is the the scale the size of the building how big it is Frontage that's how the building relates to the public realm how it relates to the street site those are things like Landscaping parking requirements sign requirements and then use the activities happening within the building the idea with Zone strings is that we can take this form and Frontage the bulk scale of the building and how that building sits and relates to the street so you know a house that sits further back feels like a different pattern than a house that sits much closer to the street um and so we can think about those things in form and Frontage together that's one character um site those are things that exist really throughout the city so that'll be in one section of the code all the those Citywide um regulations that control for things like parking and signs um that'll be in one piece and then use that'll be in another chapter um so you could have something that looks like a house feels like a house um but maybe a business and that's one string um there could be a thing that looks like a house feels like a house and is a single family home um that is another way you can combine those and so you can essentially take particularly the elements of form and Frontage and use and think about how those two digits can come together um and create different um reflect different characters of place um because a lot of places want similar form and Frontage but they may want different uses that are allowed within that same um building that that looks the same but has different use allowances within it um so we essentially can take in particular those two pieces of the Zone string and cre create a lot of really unique combinations that help reflect the patterns of the city I do want to talk a bit about how the existing zoning districts will be converted into this idea of Zone strings they will all be reformatted so even though the metrics and outcomes will be identical they will um appear very differently and the idea is putting them on a two-page spread with some graphics and tables so it's very easy to understand what are my requirements and what is the intended outcome of this District um so that that is one way that we're reformatting everything so it will look different but we are making some updates to improve outcomes um one thing to note is in R1 through R5 all of those permitted uses today will be carried forward to those permitted uses tomorrow so there will be no we're proposing no change to use in R1 through R5 um One update that we are proposing in R1 through R5 is an idea of an average Street setback um so that's how close the building is or the houses to the street and we're essentially saying that you can be no closer than the closest house on your block and no further back than the furthest back house on your block so you have to match the existing pattern of your neighborhood um and that really gets to this this idea of being contextual and reflecting existing patterns um we're also proposing some updates that were found in the pattern analysis that were done several years ago with that zoning diagnostic increasing set side and rear setbacks in R1 um that reflects the built pattern a bit better maintaining R2 and R3 side M set setbacks those districts seem to work pretty well today and then R4 R4 a r4b R5 um making those setbacks reflect the built patterns these are the um older neighborhoods in the city they tend to be a bit closer to other more traditional development patterns and so we need something that reflects that fine grain nature of those districts a bit more um in particular setbacks are a big issue in those areas so we are proposing that those would be updated um one tool that we are thinking about would be a new idea would be a form and Frontage um piece of the Zone string that would allow for areas that don't necessarily want to be historic districts but they do want to have um some additional standards applied to those areas um so that would be things a a a sort of small scale example would be in today's standards we have um some portch requirements for our for districts are five districts um so it could be things like that requiring certain types of building elements like porches there could even be things like height so requiring a lower height that reflects maybe more of that Bungalow pattern um so story and a half for a certain distance um deep on the site and then if you wanted to go higher it would have to be further back so it maintains that street feel um these are just examples of what could be included in that conservation Frontage um so not quite as far as a historic district um but something that is a bit more than what the standards are that exist today uh another thing that we're thinking about are creat districts that could be used Citywide that better Implement some of these new development patterns that have been talked about during the CDP um so that loaden City Residential and residential Flex um I think this is a great example in cabbage toown where we have a lot of these existing patterns but we don't have great tools Citywide to be able to allow for this to happen in places that want it um we do have some of these tools that exist in the zoning but they're in specific spis they're in specific NC districts and so they're not available Citywide and so we want to make sure that as we're building the new tools for the zoning District that we have those tools that can be applied Citywide and not just in geographically specific areas and that's really um how we're thinking about converting those and again these are um places that will be determined during the CDP rewrite um and that's that's how that would be identified so this isn't something that's being done proactively just the tools would be there in in the spectrum of districts that we would be proposing and then finally I do want to uh emphasize that there will be a new new official zoning map but it's not really new it is um it's going to show where the districts are in the city that's what your zoning map does today but this is a onetoone translation show it's so it's going to show the renaming of the districts um in any districts that are Consolidated but fundamentally it is a conversion of the existing districts into the new naming structure and into the new framework so those entitlements really aren't intended to change um any place where a new pattern or a new type of zoning district is desired that is a conversation that is happening at the CDP level and then the zoning can come behind and Implement that so the map will truly be a translation of those districts um pass it back over to Caleb to talk more about the preview great thank you Christie and I did want to add a very important point to what Christie just mentioned there will be a you because of timing the CDP land use element will very likely be adopted by the end of this year and so the CDP will be adopted the new land use maps would be adopted under the current zoning ordinance and so we again are working very closely with the CDP team to make sure that there will be two separate land use and Zoning compatibility tables so there would be one under the CDP that works under the current zoning and then once the new zoning is adopted there would be a whole other CDP land use and Zoning compatibility table the idea is that as we create new zoning districts we want to make sure again that they're only available for rezoning in areas that are appropriate so that table will probably be arguably a little bit more complicated than what we have today because it will be looking at both the form of the property meaning the density and the use of the property but I wanted to assure councel that that is an area where we with our legal advice working with the Department of City Planning are very aware that we're going to have to sort of do it twice we're going to have to do it one way to work with the current Zone and then another way to work with the future zoning so again that the public policy represented in the CDP and the ability to zone is tied very very strongly to that public policy in the CDP in the same way that it is today so I wanted to talk very briefly about the draft code um we are going to be unveiling the the ordinance in three separate meetings the first meeting which will be in about a month is going to look look at form and use and so at that meeting chrisy and I will unveil all of the potential uh proposed form districts all of the potential proposed use districts and then really call the attention to the specific use standards that we talk about we will have the entire ordinance of those modules available on the project website and we'll have a series of interactive exercises where people can read the code they can tell us what they like what they don't like what they think we're missing what they think we perhaps should should remove and we'll incorporate that sort of into the the final ordinance this first discussion draft is really about making sure that we've heard the public correctly making sure that we've heard the public policy directly and getting comment on that preliminary draft after that uh we will unveil the site and development standards again these are the sort of General Citywide Provisions that Christy was talking about so sign ordinance uh coordination with tree preservation in fact potential incentives to encourage coordination with tree preservation um and then then sort of parking and all the sort of less less glamorous aspects of zoning and then finally the third piece is going to be a module about the procedures which we would unveil very likely after Thanksgiving as you'll see in a moment this is where we talk about okay here's what we've heard today here's how we've modified the draft and here are the administrative procedures or the public hearing procedures that would support it and so generally uh that would be through again a series of public meetings the first one is scheduled for May 20th at habitat on Memorial Drive uh that's where we'll be unveiling these ordinances the development standard one would be August September we're we're still trying to figure out exactly a good place to have it and and time and then again as I mentioned procedures would be around Thanksgiving you know maybe a little bit before maybe a little bit after and then very importantly we know that the minute these drafts go out there are going to be a lot of questions from your constituents a lot of questions and so when we initially bid on this project we built a large contingency fund for additional topic focused meetings so for example if we hear that there's concern about the tree preservation aspect the coordination with tree preser ation we are committed as a consultant team and a department of city planning to have additional meetings to talk about those uh there may be discussions about storm water there may be discussions about housing there's going to be a whole variety of things that will Bubble Up that we're going to be available to have relatively rapid meetings with folks to discuss particular issues and to hear what their concerns are um in a very very very interactive method and so I would encourage you to share this with your constituents I would encourage you to um ask them to attend the meeting on May 20th but again let them know that if they're unable to attend there will be a identical process available at the public website um and we know that you know these codes are going to be pretty long and so people are probably want to going to want to review them and send in comments for for consideration so with that said um I would like to thank you very very much for your time and would love to answer any questions that you may have thank you very much um for both the presentation and the work that's gone into it uh we are going to start off with council member doer followed by council member Norwood and council member over street thank you Mr chair and thank you Caleb and Chrissy for all yall's hard work on this um my first question is I recognize that the department of City Planning uh went through a pretty robust uh process to find you to uh make sure that we have the right team doing this work uh I'm curious if you can share some Maybe successes y'all had in other communities I know you y'all have gone to different parts of the state and other parts of our communities to do similar sort of projects uh what can we expect to see on the other side of this that we can take back and show like hey we know we're doing a lot of work uh we want to make sure our constituents knows as for yeah I'll turn over I'll let Christie speak um after but we have TSW has done a lot of work in Georgia implementing public policy uh locally we rewrote we and code Studio rewrote the city of decar um zoning code about 10 years ago now which came out of their comprehensive plan I think from the city of decor's perspective that's been very successful at terms of um supporting the kind of housing that was very important for them uh we have you know TSW and code Studio also worked in the city of Roswell on zoning ordinances uh and we've more recently TSW has finished up a city-wide zoning ordinance and rezoning process actually in the city of Statesboro and I know that they are extremely pleased with the outcome they're experiencing a lot of growth from the Hyundai plant going up in uh in Brian County and so we did a city plan we updated the code to support that and now um they actually have the tools to manage the growth from Hyundai and what was really interesting there is it was like Atlanta a relatively diverse Community you know there were certain roles that made sense in certain areas but not in other areas and so we tailored the code so that it wasn't Zone string based but so that certain rules that may be more appropriate in the older parts of town could be there versus the newer annexation areas may have different rules I know code studio uh they have a very very long list they are one of the nation's preeminent code writers and I'll let chrisy talk about them yeah thanks Caleb um I think some of the things you can expect it it's going to take people a couple months to get used to the terminology how the documents organized but after that initial learning curve there tends to be um a a lot of really good feedback from people that immediately understand how to move through the system they understand what is um required of them and they understand what they need to do both from a design perspective and from a process perspective and so I think both communities and um neighborhoods and the development Community are happy because they understand what is required of them and the code is doing the heavy lifting there doesn't have to be all this negotiation back and forth to try to get the right conditions but because we've already codified that in a really clear way um and so that also leads to more predictable outcomes and it means that your Builders and developers are spending more money on the buildings and the designs and getting good outcomes rather than spending money on process um sorry to the land use attorneys in the room for that but it you do get better design outcomes because of that um another thing that we always encourage our client communities to think about is um you know we try to anticipate as much as we can we've done this for hundreds of communities of every size of across the us but every place is unique and we know we're not going to get everything right so commit to um doing a wholesale evaluation of your code annually and doing a batch of text updates um markets change uh development patterns and what people want to see change and so commit annually to um just testing making sure you're you're um doing the getting the right metrics in the right places take a look at what variances are coming through do we need to just make a tweak in the chain so you aren't seeing all these going to bza they can just be handled with a text Amendment um so it it is continue to think about zoning as a living document um our framework and the ones that we've put in place that Caleb has referenced um it it stays in place people really like how it's organized and the document works well but that doesn't mean that particular regulations shouldn't evolve as the community involves thank you Council M doer if I may add I I want to really emphasize the variance piece that Christie mentioned um one of the pieces of giving neighborhoods regulations that support their patterns especially in your district and especially in West End which I'm very familiar with uh we are chrisy mentioned we are sort of mandating that front yard setback so if you want to match the historic pattern you don't need to go to bza I think that's a huge win but we also also are making some adjustments to the sidey setbacks in those older neighborhoods that effectively already have it through the historic overlay but it's not in the underlying zoning um so the the seven foot sidey yard which really doesn't match the pattern of West End or Mechanicsville or summerh Hill or really any of the older neighborhoods that will be reduced to a more historically contextual pattern of I think 5et is the minimum that we put it now and we we do believe that has been based on measuring property but we also believe that that'll take away a lot of these sort of unnecessary variances that that everyone supports but they still have to go through the process thank you and that was going to be my other question was you know to what you alluded to I have three historic districts or historic communities in my district and um recognizing that this is a pretty big sea change how does this change uh contemplate the reality of our historic districts across the city and I imagine y'all you live in one I imagine y'all looked at that pretty in detail but um I I know that's going to be something that's going to come up from our constitues correct there there should be there will be no change to the historic districts other than making sure their termin matches the new term so for example if we no longer use the term multif family and we' use multi-unit we would have to update the historic districts but all of the the sort of most fundamental pieces of the historic district the compatibility rule the co type 1 through three type four all of that is going to remain unchanged we're just going to Simply clean it up to make sure that the words match the new words but the procedures are going to remain identical and just my last just recognize that there's I mean you said that the the new changes will make it so that a late person can read and understand whereas the old version the current version you know we rely heavily on lawyers um I know y'all are looking at putting the new code Language online so people can peruse I recommend maybe even including the old language so people can see what that change is so they see uh and can feel what the improvements are because in a vacuum it might seem like okay this is I I know get it but when you do a comparison that before and after I think it it'll be helpful for people to pict that's a great idea I think one of the way we can do that is we're in addition to the code we're going to have a conversion table so that if you're if you're R2 today you can go to R2 and you can see what it is in the new code and I think having a reference to the current R2 in that table is probably the best way to do it I versus modifying the PDF great idea sh a thank you thank you council member Norwood uh yes uh explain to me what residential Flex is residential Flex is a CDP term um it was one of those new development patterns that the CDP is creating to identify areas of the city where they want a house scale but they may not want an exclusive house use so the best example in the city there are really two that come to mind is Carol Street and Cabbagetown where the buildings are very small they look like houses um but they're generally detached that's what that is intended to allow we don't know where the CDP is going to even recommend putting that but that's one of those areas where the current CDP doesn't do as good job at reflecting patterns because you can go from single family to medium density and then you're in mixed use there's no way to have have a category a land use category today that gives you a house scale but with a little bit more commercial use in those areas that want it okay thank you Council M over street thank you and thank you so much for this presentation um I've asked for a copy for my mpu chairs so that I can meet with them about it um so I I do have a couple questions but I mean I we can meet but in general I think that like could you say maybe that residential thing and this is just a a question that came up while you were speaking uh council member Norwood would you say that a residential Flex is like um Hilton Head Island you know how it it kind of looks like McDonald's looks just like um I would say we're actually helping Hilton Head right there um LMO right now so very familiar with the community um not it's not it's not as um curated from a design perspective as that I would say um the reason residential Flex was created was more to get at that um the sort of fine grain nature of how uh Carol Street for example or some of the older like street car commercial areas where you you get lot by lot a house next to a little coffee shop next to a little hardware store um so it's more reflective of those more historic patterns than something that I would say Hilton Head is more design curated if I can may I sure also Carol Street is Carol Street is on my dist in my district so I was going to say to feed into that it's also the concept of this 15-minute City where you're able to walk to everything you need if I can Carol Street we have on that street people are living above these commercial P so you have the restaurant down below but apartment up up top you have a chiropractor on that street you have um a tattoo shop on that street you have uh food on that street you have a little Bodega where people can go and Shop on that street and then people are living all a top it okay and so it makes it much easier so many people don't even have to leave the neighborhood because they have everything they need right there that they can reach on foot okay and so when you say neighborhoods that want it it would be a developer saying I'd like to create a residential Flex ideally it would be coming out of the ongoing CDP process okay all right well I mean like I said I we can speak I'm I'm going to get to my question with your presentation uh but that's I I just wanted to get a better idea of what you all were speaking about um overlays you know we've really worked on like the Campton Road overlay for a couple years and now tweaking it at as we go how would this Citywide standard affect something that we've delved into and and put together yes um this is what I've spent my past three weeks working on so I can talk about it uh very DET in depth U so Campton road is actually not an overlay it's SPI 21 is that correct director homes or 22 there are SBI 20 in The Green Brier area long Campton Road there is the campon road overlay brand new different different one um first one ever the idea is that all of the overlays M will remain so if there are true overlay they don't change the underlying zoning the classic one is Beltline that those would be carried forward into the new code they would be cleaned up a little bit um so what does that mean see the reason I'm asking is because we have painstakingly worked through every single uh whereas sure Council if you um if you if you if I may so the Campbellton Road overlay um as it is right now will not change the language however does need to change but it's more consistent with the current language that we have so it will be written to be more user friendly but the prohibitions and the design controls will remain as as they are right now okay um so in general that that is what I wanted to hear I just want to make sure that we're not starting from fresh oh no absolutely okay all right um cuz that's going to be a question 100% um and I don't know I I I forgot the other question because I went off into the residential zoning Flex okay well but I am going to meet with you because I want to make sure that when after I give this packet out to um these mpu chairs that I am a little bit more ready for their questions a little more well-versed in what we're doing but in general I think that this is um really good work thank you and I I love the way that you all have gone through all of the processes and making sure that you're um oh my question came back just so layman's terms and I'll I'll get back to you know your praise report in a little bit but so just so you know so when you said we may change like single family home zoning to single unit the layman term is actually family it's not unit so I I think that we need to be uh clear about what people understand as we go in and and change these this wording up yeah good good good point um the definition would remain the same um but many communities and again this is a this is a relatively simple change if if Council does want to use that term many communities are not using family because oh that doesn't even sound right to me I I understand U because it it can be people who are unrelated and they can live together um and so that the new term we're using is household I like household which is which is much more um reflective of the way people actually live the other reason we're not using family is because under federal law um the ferally you have to allow certain types of unrelated group living everywhere in the city and so for example um folks who may have a certain disability have the right anywhere in the country to live together in a single family District but they aren't really a family um and so the term household we believe encompasses that encompasses that much better okay I like household okay great yeah I like household just fine just just saying just in general you know Layman may be relative if I could anecdotally the the funny thing we um when we rewrote decator code the image that really stuck with them was The Golden Girls because they were four or three unrelated women living together in a sort of group living situation and so they weren't really a family right they were more of a household that was living together and so we used Golden Girls in decater and soad everyone just understood it immediately I do so okay we no but but two of them were were related that's they sort of three three technical like families related by blood I really get it um but yeah so again back to the praise report I I really do think you guys are doing a great job in with something that is terribly unapproachable to most of us and um for that I I just thank you and I know it's not going to be 100% perfect the whole time but I do appreciate your flexibility and your willingness to um just stay fluid I appreciate that okay thank you and and I would again like to commit on behalf of the team when this draft comes out if there's anything any thing that we have missed absolutely talk to director Holmes or commissioner Prince um we've been relatively conservative in applying new standards where they didn't exist but you know you set the policy for the city you and your colleagues set the policy for the city and and this is about this is what we're here to to implement through the code and and that's exactly what I I mean um you're still open y it's not but up and I really appreciate that so thank you and we're months and months away from adoption um Council Bacher thank you um yeah so I I find it interesting that you keep bringing up Carol Street I like that you keep bringing up Carol Street uh it also just with it coming up so much I'm certain I'm going to start getting emails about what the traffic plan is for Carol Street so thank you for but uhuh uh you want to say that louder in the mic and you can say it to my neighborhood too um I agree with you so I thank you so much for this presentation and the work that went into it I'm over here looking at ket's face because I know when this is introduced my district is going to give her an earful and I'm certain she is so excited for that look at her uh the piece on the gas stations I was just curious because that will impact me a bit differently I mean I'm all for it but because my district I incorporate so much of decab and we border so much of unincorporated decab is there any conversation or is there we can't dictate to them obviously how they do their zoning code but for example at fville and flat sches which it'ss right on the boundary there's five gas stations going in there two on our side they're putting in three or four on their side so there actually might be more it has created a massive heat island situation um also a ton of safety issues I mean just health issues in general air quality heat heat issues trucks coming in off the highway nearly taking out pedestrians and just the complete uh just the infrastructure just completely disintegrated because of the weight issues so I'm curious if there's been any conversation about how we can I don't know what you could do but if there's anything we could do in terms of working with the county on that is there something that we can take into consideration in terms of I don't know Zone like from a zoning perspective on areas where we share with unincorporated a cap to have maybe more restrictive zoning on our side is that is that even a thing we can do is there like more restrictive zoning on our side when it when it abuts parts of unincorporated what what we could do and and I apologize if I'm getting in the weeds but today most of your zoning districts have a 1500 foot separation yes for gas stations does that include if they're not in the corporate limits so that would be an easy change if if legally we could do it I'm looking at the attorney over here um that might be an easy change we actually just had this come up Saturday where I'm fac ating a zoning update in in another Community where they realized that their zoning code didn't require buffers adjacent to residential in other cities and so they have a very well-known neighborhood in another city and they're building basically commercial property right up to the lot line I see and the adjacent city is mad mad mad so I I think we should at least talk about whether there are things that we apply across jurisdictional boundaries and and it or one thing is like could we require a sustainability plan from gas stations in terms of don't make that face of M in terms of in terms of like green space requirements or like a certain Roofing to help dispel some of that effect that's just something to think about obviously don't have to get into it now ke had already gave me a look so I think we can talk through it a bit more later but that's something I was actually thinking about in terms of when we have so many of them that come right next to each other yeah the issues that occur with impermeable spaces with everything else that happens as a result of that um the which brings me to my next question in terms of with the zoning and I'm with the zoning rewrite one of the things that we one of the big issues in my district with R5 zoning is we have developers who have really taken advantage of certain loopholes to build to the outermost limit which is creating massive flooding issues our storm drains are not meant to take in more than a certain amount of cubic inches at a time and so obviously things are flooding and this permeable thing that developers in my district really like to do in most districts where they put that permeable Rock thing down the middle of the driveway that is not a permeable space I swear to God and so the fact that that is counted in to that footprint how about you they come tell you what they think it's permeable they can come shovel the water out of the streets in my district then and rold toown especially but if there's a way for us to take in if there are you taking into consideration in terms of a I do not want I don't know how this has occurred where discussions around Green Space and sustainability are directly Contra like it seem to be in competition with housing when to me the two seem like a natural partnership um and for some reason in today's climate they are pitted against each other I'm hoping that that begins to change with some of our zoning reite but I'm I'm curious if this is taken into consideration I mean we don't need to I don't need a a duplex is not 6,000 square ft on either side that is a those are two massive houses connected by a shared wall or a shared garage and so is are we taking into consideration one that and two these setbacks to allow for there to be less INF we already have a crumbling water infrastructure system anything that can help alleviate the burden on that is there any conversation around that yeah so one thing that you should look out for when um we looking at the pages and how we're thinking about converting so R5 will be converted to something that is similar to what R5 is today y but we are proposing some form controls that can help and be dialed up or down based on what conversations you think need to happen in in your District um so things like we only talk about lot coverage today um we are proposing introducing things like building coverage and that really gets at both the scale of the building because lot coverage it can be a driveway or it can be a building and those feel they still have very different outcomes right like so you get a 6,000 ft duplex um whereas if you have building cover you're more controlling the box of that um and you're simultaneously thinking about the impervious cover of the lot um so you could be reducing that building footprint sum so there were will be more dials that we can think about turning um to an appropriate level once you see what those conversions are so there will be more controls to think about that um in particular a lot of the issues on those site requirements that will be in module two so when you don't see any of the um like Landscaping requirements know that they're coming um we're just giving the districts and the uses first and then all of those site standards will come out in the second module so it's not that they won't be coming um I also think this is a great example so Atlanta's code you know is is not unified zoning is in one chapter storm Waters in another um once the zoning is adopted in place it is a great time to look at how it um intertwines with tree protection and storm water to get those outcomes working together in a way that makes the most sense you got that zoning Mr zoning here uhhuh he's going to love that I I did want to mention one thing she said too we are only releasing form and use on May 20th many of your constituents are going to want to see the whole thing please know that that is a deliberate effort a deliberate action on our part because if we were to give your constituents an 800 page document or whatever this is going to be something will be missed and by unveiling it peace meal based on similar uses similar areas we believe it will be much better vetted through the public process obviously and I think that um many of our we can all share this our that the constituency fears by not seeing it all at one time it's not going to happen and we're going to say at the meeting on the 20th you're not going to see the tree preservation incentives here you're not going to see the affordable housing incentives here that that's or or is that going to be in so it's going to indicate a bonus but we're not going to have all the details in how you get there yet we need to we need to take this sort of baby steps but these are not baby steps these are you Giant Steps but we need to take it incrementally thank you and I'll I know that we are like like it's like the last man standing over here so I'll try to speed it up but I'm also hoping that in the rewrite we can also the jump from I would say R5 to mmu for many of our constituencies is super severe to go from 4 to 12 and so I'm hoping that in the rewrite we can incorporate something new in between maybe like a four to six unit in between to kind of soften this um to help continue to soften the concept of density and add more tools to our skill our tool chest to allow for more housing without people being terrified of more housing that is a that is a central new tool of both the zoning ordinance and the comp plan in much the same way that councilwoman over Street was asking about what is residential flex and councilwoman Norwood was asking that we're creating tools where neighborhoods that want to open the door a little bit just a little bit to new commercial or maybe four units a lot they will have the CDP policy to support that and they will have the zoning to support that without without having to create SPI 33 or something like that it will all be baked in in a way that is intentionally thought about in terms of outcomes thank you and the only thing that I I'll say this in last question just in terms of what I hope to work with you on the coming months with the CDP and I've said this to commissioner Prince so many times is a housing deficit map trying to look at rolling it into CB like kind of rolling it um into this concept of looking at all neighborhoods where we lack housing based on our next our 20-year growth and how that can go in hand in hand with our CD an opportunity to roll in that deficit plan into the CDP and this idea of how much housing does each neighborhood need to add over the next two decades to you know and giving them numbers to work with um and then hopefully being able to build a transportation plan off of that I I I think that all this goes hand inand so a housing and a transportation plan and a Greenscape plan all go together and I'm hoping with the rewrite we'll be able to start bridging those gaps and I also hope to talk you all about how we can tie and sidewalk impact fees into this um so that we can actually start getting sidewalks in our districts uh with the new zoning that was introduced in I want to say 2020 or 2021 with any new development having and I I think that that can fold into this so that we stop putting on homeowners finding areas to put sidewalk in and instead having an impact fee to pay into and I think that could be incorporated into the zoning code so that we can build sidewalks in our district from that where it's most needed so we're also not consistently fighting over the general fund um and then also I'd love to talk to you about uh adus and cdus at some point so thank you thank you council member Norwood yes I just want to make sure y'all are aware I have put legislation in to do a district 8 Transportation traffic plan looking at Transit traffic sidewalks and trails and that um if it's approved at Transportation this week and at full Council we will get started the end of May and so I want to send y'all all the information as soon as I have it on times and and presenters but it will be very comprehensive Arc will be there Co we inviting so we're inviting Arc we're inviting cob link we'll have g dot we'll have um livable Buckhead Buckhead um Coalition we have all the different groups who will make presentations on how we can deal with the oppressive congestion we have and the oppressive you know as we talk about density uh I just think it's so important for us to see where the density is and both of these Council ladies at Council for Quality growth said buckhead's done this their commercial Carters are really dense I mean and so it's really important of us going forward to acknowledge that it is a very diverse City and um and looking at what we already have on um in different areas and how the city together can figure out um where livability is truly everywhere and um and so we'll be doing that uh my game plan is to start it end of May and end at end of August so it will dovetail very effectively with y'all's second module and then um we'll go from there thank you thank you thank you all right thank you much we are adjourned