Oct. 12—Decatur’s zoning ordinance rewrite has a path toward possible approval that some residents say is too fast even though it’s been six years in the making.
The City Council held a first reading of the proposed new zoning ordinance at Monday’s meeting and set the second reading with its required public hearing and a likely vote for the Nov. 4 meeting.
The city also announced that it will hold a public review of the new ordinance Oct. 22 at Turner-Surles Community Center from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The 401-page ordinance and a zoning map are available at cityofdecatural.com.
City Director of Development Dane Shaw said the Planning Department is requesting that residents email any questions they have to planning@decatur-al.gov before that review.
The city began working on a new zoning ordinance in 2018 when it hired consultant Clarion Inc., of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The city paid Clarion $195,000 to lead the effort to rewrite the zoning codes as a follow-up to the One Decatur comprehensive plan.
Clarion held a series of public meetings and then unveiled the first half of the rewrite in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of changes in Planning Department personnel delayed completion of the new ordinance multiple times.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing in April and a work session in June to review the ordinance before voting to recommend it to the City Council later that month.
However, several residents urged the City Council on Monday to delay consideration even though Shaw said the proposed zoning ordinance and map have been available for review on the city website since May.
Andrea Hoffmeier-Wilson and her husband, Rob Wilson, of Carridale Street Southwest, protested the council’s schedule. Hoffmeier-Wilson said city officials now seem to be in a hurry.
“This is an abomination,” Hoffmeier-Wilson, chairwoman of 1DUCK (OneDecatur United Citizens Kaizen), a coalition of residents interested in city issues, said of what she perceives as a rush to approve the new ordinance.
“This is not going to age well if you guys do not slow down and not hold the vote on Nov. 4, which by the way is the day before the election,” she continued.
Hoffmeier-Wilson said the proposed ordinance doubled in size before a review in 2021, and then the city recently added roughly 30 pages so it’s now 401 pages.
“There’s no reconciliation from version to version,” she said.
She told the City Council it should give the public “a chance to understand what is in this massive document. There’s no way to know in this what has changed. I feel like I’m back trying to do my master’s thesis in two weeks.”
Harris Mountain Road Southwest resident Mike Faruqui said he has multiple problems with the proposed ordinance.
He said he doesn’t believe the Planning Commission should have oversight of site plans. Instead, he believes this should be handled by the City Council. He said he also thinks the city has issues with enforcement through the Planning and Building departments.
Faruqui said he particularly doesn’t like a provision in the ordinance that only requires direct notification to those within 500 feet of a proposed development or pending planning decision.
“I will tell you where three building activities right now on Central Avenue (Southwest) where 300 homes are to be built and maybe three total houses will be notified,” Faruqui said.
He said his suggestion is if a development would include 300 homes, “300 residents should be notified, and a quorum should attend any community meeting.”
Later in the meeting, Rob Wilson pointed out to the council that it made no move to delay the ordinance as his wife requested.
Council Pro-tem Carlton McMasters, who was running the meeting in Council President Jacob Ladner’s absence, said they introduced the proposed ordinance for a first reading.
McMasters said the council likely won’t discuss possible delays until Nov. 4.
Hoffmeier-Wilson said she thinks “it will be prudent to delay.”
“It has been five or six years, what’s another couple of weeks. I don’t disagree with that,” McMasters said. “But, on the flip side, it has been five or six years, so we need to push this over the finish line.”
Suzanne Johnson, of Stratford Road Southeast, suggested the council should consider a series of roundtable meetings for the public throughout the city like they held before approving the One Decatur comprehensive plan in 2018 “instead of winding up it all in one day.”
Mayor Tab Bowling said the Oct. 22 meeting will be like the One Decatur meetings. They will have multiple stations set up where people can ask questions.
“I understand that, but people have jobs, schools, children and all kinds of things that are going on. Why do they have to be on one day?” Johnson asked.
Johnson said the One Decatur-type meetings would allow the “people at different locations to have intelligent conversations” about the new zoning ordinance.
Bowling said Shaw and the Planning Department want this input, and they could consider her suggestion. However, Shaw pointed out that they’ve already had four public reviews of the proposed zoning ordinance.
Shaw said the Oct. 22 meeting will give the public a chance to review the zoning map and the ordinance and ask questions. While it’s set for 90 minutes, he said they won’t stop the meeting until everyone is satisfied.
Planning Commission chairman Kent Lawrence said he would be OK with a delay on the council’s vote on the ordinance, but he wants to wait until Oct. 22 and then decide whether the vote needs to be delayed.
“We’re working on a document written (mostly) in the ’50s and ’60s and it’s going on six years now,” Lawrence said. “We want everyone to understand it. We just need to meet Oct. 22 so we can answer these questions.”
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432
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