Published: August 25, 2008 10:07 pm      

Council discusses zoning

EDMOND — The Edmond City Council met in a special workshop Monday afternoon to discuss editing recommendations and clarifications for Title 22, Edmond’s zoning code.

City Councilman Charles Lamb and the Edmond Planning staff have worked together to make zoning and site plan codes in the document more conducive to actual city government procedures. Editing changes were first submitted to the council in May. Title 22 was updated in March 2007 after a four-year review.

“I think it has served our community very well,” Edmond Mayor Dan O’Neil said.

Title 22’s explanation of sensitive borders is an important editing issue, Lamb said. A Title 22 language clarification about border yards would be added in the Sensitive Border chapter. The border yard is a requirement in the zoning category for a separation distance from residential property.

“We offer you the opportunity to better clarify the appropriateness of base yards,” Lamb said.

Another option for Title 22 would give the City Council more latitude in unique conditions to grant a variance of zoning standards, he added.

“All of us know that we have the authority to do anything with the law that we write,” Lamb said. “But there have been people who’ve said we didn’t have that authority. So this is adding it back clear that authority does exist that we develop.”

Another Title 22 change calls for fences to be no less than 6 feet in height to be site approved. Revisions also call for a consolidated list of development fees. Child care centers and funeral homes would be included in the dialogue of appropriate use zonings after having been omitted. And phasing of heavy commercial could be changed to general commercial.

“We’re making it match the underlying zoning that it’s drawing from,” Lamb said.

Redevelopment in the Downtown Edmond Urban District needs to be encouraged in blighted areas, O’Neil said.

Councilman Wayne Page added the perspective that a well rounded culture needs to protect a housing market for its labor force. Lower income homes could be lost if they are not protected, Page said. The working class of people needs to be saved because they are needed in the community, he said.

“If we don’t we’re never going to become a city that doesn’t have to import or export people to maintain and be able to live here without commuting back and forth,” Page said. “If we don’t protect those neighborhoods by proper zoning and proper sensitive borders of some magnitude, we will have the erosion of what has happened in the past.”

None of the items were ready to go to hearing but were pulled for further discussion. A list of agreements will be taken to the Planning Commission and City Council process.