Pictured above is a zoning map presented to City of Marysville officials Monday showing proposed changes to the city’s zoning guidelines, which are centered on making them easier to understand and use.
(Image submitted)
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City of Marysville officials got a crash course in zoning Monday night.
At a joint planning commission and city council meeting, officials were presented information and suggestions that could help update Marysville’s zoning guidelines.
Sean Suder and Donald Warner, both of Calfee Zoning, spoke to officials about their recommendations.
According to an email from City Finance Director Justin Nahvi, the city has a contract with Calfee for $102,500, of which the city has paid about $50,000 as of today.
Suder said the new code would reflect the comprehensive plan adopted by the city in 2018. Suder said his goals have been to make a zoning code that’s easier for someone to understand at a glance. He said many cities like Marysville have a zoning code that’s relatively simple to begin with, but becomes convoluted as more is added.
Right now, there are 22 zoning designations used by the City of Marysville. These are all given an acronym or letter-number designation, like TOC for traffic oriented commercial, or R-4, which refers to low-density, multi-family residential.
Calfee recommends the city consolidate those 22 districts into 17. He said that would make the code more “user friendly.”
“A cumbersome zoning code with inconsistent text … can make it more challenging to invest in a community,” Suder said.
According to Suder, the letter-number designations for zoning are standard, but unhelpful. He said it can be difficult to differentiate what is R-2 in Marysville and what R-2 is in another city.
“I don’t think that really speaks to most people,” Suder said.
As a result, Calfee has made zoning areas that reflect where they are and are intuitively named. He used the current Uptown districts, like “uptown commercial” and “uptown single-family residential,” as examples of designations that are well named.
“That’s an example of modernizing zoning districts,” Suder said.
For example, Mill Valley, which is currently zoned R-2, medium density residential, would turn into the more simply named “suburban residential.”
Warner said the new districts Calfee made reflect what the city would want to see in the new classifications and where officials would want to see them. He said it would also cut down on the amount of time a business owner needs to come before a committee.
Warner said if a business owner wants to put a sign up that might add to the community, but the zoning code doesn’t allow it, he would need to get a variance. These new codes would be more lenient for those smaller aspects of a business.
“That business owner now doesn’t have to pay for a variance application,” Warner said.
Suder said another way to make zoning clear is a mix of graphics, pictures, charts, words and other visuals.
“We always use the Sunday recliner test,” Suder said. “If I’m sitting in my recliner on Sunday watching football or whatever, could I read and understand this while doing that? We want it to be that simple.”
He said pictures and charts are also harder to misinterpret than words.
“What we’re trying to be is simple and clear,” Suder said.
“In most of our codes, there’s no provision for a micro brewery, or distillery, or any of the things you’re seeing communities embrace now,” Suder said.
Citizen Katie Crocco asked if the new zoning would result in fewer planned use developments (PUD) coming before the city. Developers currently use PUD applications to increase the allowed density on their sites.
Crocco said she’s concerned about affordability within the city. She said the best way to combat that is density.
City Planner Chad Flowers referred to a possible density bonus for residential developments willing to include open space or other desirable features on their properties as a way to increase density. He also said the new codes would have other, site-by-site ways to increase density.
“It allows us to get away from that six-month PUD process,” Flowers said. “The planning commission will have the ability to monitor (new developments).”