Unified Development Ordinance

[kermit]

This is a topic that I think deserves its own thread.  

Plan Charlotte has a nice discussion of the planning commission requesting that the city council accelerate the development Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) (adoption is not currently planed until 2020) and also that the UDO include an aspirational vision for the city. 

Quote

The letter also said the [planning] commission – an appointed, advisory body – “strongly supports” development of a Unified Development Ordinance but has concerns about the project’s slow pace amid booming growth and development in one of the country’s fastest growing cities. 

Some visioning efforts were presented in this pdf

I am reassured that there is at least one organization that is concerned about the slowness of the process. Moving forward at our current speed means that the city will will add around 100,000 people before the UDO is adopted. 

Example 1 of the problems associated with slow-rolling the UDO is new multi-family moving into areas that are unlikely to ever be served by transit: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article188332319.html

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by kermit

[tozmervo]

Hopefully the new council will actually work toward appointing a permanent director of the planning department. McKinney has been interim director for quite a while now, which I'm sure is a very difficult position to be in from a practical and functional standpoint. Hands tied because of the interim part, but getting all of the flack because they won't put permanent leadership in place. 

[kermit]

It took three years but CharMeck finally has a new planning director:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/12/18/after-3-years-city-of-charlotte-names-new-planning.html?ana=TWT_staffAF

Quote

Jaiyeoba has most recently been working for HNTB Corp. as associate vice president/regional business development leader for its Southeast division. Prior to that, he served as transit principal and market sector lead for HDR Inc. and AECOM, respectively, in Charlotte. Jaiyeoba's previous jobs also include executive director of planning and development in Grand Rapids, Mich., and director of project management and director of planning in Sacramento, Calif.

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by kermit

[Spartan]

While speeding up the process odes sound good - the zoning ordinance is massive in terms of how it affects the development process in Charlotte. Speeding up "gets it done" quicker, but it may result in things being overlooked or implications not thought through as thoroughly as you would expect.

The new guy is going to have his hands full. He's got a lot of transit experience according to his LinkedIn page, so the choice is definitely a different one. 

[kermit]

27 minutes ago, Spartan said:

 Speeding up "gets it done" quicker, but it may result in things being overlooked or implications not thought through as thoroughly as you would expect.

I don't disagree with you but I'll add that going slow only gets us more sprawl which is really hard to remediate.

[archiham04]

Does anyone know if there have been any publications re: UDO?  a friend on the planning commission said that some progress had been made recently.

Edited December 21, 2017 by archiham04

[Guest]

https://charlotteudo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/0-02_22-TODRELEASE.pdf

 

If anyone wants to read the first draft. Its great. I'm working on a critique of the first draft for C5 right now. Ashley covered it nicely for CBJ today.

https://charlotteudo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/0-02_22-TODRELEASE.pdf

[Scribe]

CBJ has a paywalled article on TOD near Lynx stations...

a snippet of interest (to me at least) [emphasis mine]

Quote

Height is a big theme in TOD-A, with a proposed maximum building height of 250 feet with a bonus. Current TOD ordinance permits buildings to be no taller than 120 feet unless a developer rezones the property for an optional provision.

"TOD-A is really meant to be closest to the station, with the highest intensity and design standards," Carney Holmes said. Development directly connected to high-activity Blue Line stops would likely fall under TOD-A, whereas development along stations farther out, such as the Archdale Station in south Charlotte or Tom Hunter Station on the Blue Line Extension, would likely encompass one of the other districts — B, C or D.

...

TOD-A in its current form would eliminate all current parking minimums. If, for instance, a developer builds an apartment project in South End, he or she would have a limit of one space per dwelling unit in a surface lot or 1.5 spaces per dwelling unit in a structured-parking deal. That maximum may only be exceeded by 50% if the developer provides public parking within the lot or deck.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/02/28/how-charlottes-new-rules-for-development-near.html

[kermit]

also two upcoming opportunities to discuss the UDO with our new head planner:

Quote

Friday, March 23rd at 8:00 am at the Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse Studio, Mitchell Silver and Taiwo Jaiyeoba, Charlotte's new Planning Director, will discuss the new Unified Development Ordinance for Charlotte: What Can UDO Coffee Talk 

Saturday, March 24th, the City of Charlotte will host a summit about the work to rewrite Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance (which is like the DNA for new development) and the Place Types that make up our neighborhoods and neighborhood centers. The What Can UDO Summit will be at UNCC Center City.

 

[tozmervo]

2 hours ago, Scribe said:

CBJ has a paywalled article on TOD near Lynx stations...

a snippet of interest (to me at least) [emphasis mine]

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/02/28/how-charlottes-new-rules-for-development-near.html

So it not only eliminates the minimums, it actually imposes a parking maximum, which is a critical new step. Most blue line developments have built parking beyond the minimums the zoning code already has. 

[Popsickle]

So, there is a maximum height in the zoning ordinance, but is there a minimum height? Or is that just driven by the market?

[archiham04]

Speaking of building height and transit proximity:  I read about this recently. not sure the status of the proposal, but they are apparently looking to upzone all parcels within certain proximity to transit  to allow taller buildings... STATEWIDE... legislated.  UDO obviously won't go there, but if we are looking toward the future with this rewrite, I wonder if it is worth considering?

[tozmervo]

19 minutes ago, archiham04 said:

Speaking of building height and transit proximity:  I read about this recently. not sure the status of the proposal, but they are apparently looking to upzone all parcels within certain proximity to transit  to allow taller buildings... STATEWIDE... legislated.  UDO obviously won't go there, but if we are looking toward the future with this rewrite, I wonder if it is worth considering?

I'm super uncomfortable with the state being involved with that level of local governance. I know that's already happened in some ways (like banning a lot of aesthetic controls by cities), but in general I think it's a terrible idea for the state to get into zoning like that. 

[Cadi40]

Can someone explain the UDO for the less intellectual like myself.

[archiham04]

No... no one can.

Edited March 1, 2018 by archiham04

[jtmonk]

1 minute ago, Cadi40 said:

Can someone explain the UDO for the less intellectual like myself.

I'm not too versed on Charlotte's UDO but I'll try to tackle this for you since they all pretty much work the same in every city.   A UDO, or Unified Development Ordinance,  is a set of regulations that guide growth and development in a city, almost every city has one.  Along with the UDO you have zoning districts within a city that are also used to guide growth and development.  The UDO sets specific regulations on each zoning district, so for instance, for areas in Charlotte that are zoned TOD-A, you will have requirements that promote walkable, mixed use, transit friendly developments, because that is typically what you want around transit stations.  I wish I could go more into this but since I'm at work I only have so much time, I'm actually working on updating the UDO for the City I work for as we speak.

You can also go to charlotteudo.org and there is a lot of information on there that's helpful.  

[tozmervo]

24 minutes ago, Cadi40 said:

Can someone explain the UDO for the less intellectual like myself.

Take lots of different highly complicated, sometimes contradictory, hundreds-of-pages-long planning requirements and manuals, and condense them into one highly complicated, hundreds-of-pages document. That's called the UDO

[Cadi40]

Great! Sure hope this really helps separates areas of Uptown from others. Hopefully they can use this to their full advantage but these days everyone finds a loophole.

[archiham04]

I know a good bit about Zoning, Place-Types, Form based codes, and  Unified Development Ordinances in other cities.  I have listened to several presentations about the UDO in Charlotte and have been very disappointed every time.  It is always a very complicated explanation about how things are being improved by simplification.  Nothing in our UDO that I have seen thus far approaches simple.

I hope and pray that they can find a way to simplify.  I am worried that their current thinking is that it just needs a better delivery.  That it IS simple, but people "just don't understand it yet"....  I think they need to work to ACTUALLY SIMPLIFY IT, instead of trying to convince people that it is simple.

[archiham04]

as fate would have it, i ran across this today. Algorithms  they solve EVERYTHING.

[KJHburg]

Great summary article on the UDO by one of our own UPer.  https://www.charlottefive.com/transit-zoning/

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Great summary article on the UDO by one of our own UPer.  https://www.charlottefive.com/transit-zoning/

Unfortunately this was turned in before last nights kerfuffle over zoning and UDO at city council. Tried to get in some sound bites but was unable to with short notice.  

[jtmonk]

7 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Unfortunately this was turned in before last nights kerfuffle over zoning and UDO at city council. Tried to get in some sound bites but was unable to with short notice.  

oh nice, can you elaborate a little bit on what was said at the city council meeting?

[pathb]

I wasn't able to attend, but Ely Portillo had some good tweets throughout the evening - you can see his twitter page for more.  Generally it seems like council is frustrated with the slow progress and is not satisfied with how the proposed UDO rules would change their role in rezonings. 

[SgtCampsalot]

What rules would help accommodate it so that a landowner could build something like a four-plex on a single family home plot without rezoning it (at least in certain areas)?

Every other area should be allowed to do one increment of intensity up by-right.

Charlotte Planning seems obsesses with keeping use-based zoning. It doesn't look like we're getting away from that, huh?

Edited March 6, 2018 by SgtCampsalot