Marysville City Council has again tabled a plan to amend the city’s zoning code.
Council was scheduled to take a vote Monday on a rewrite to code. Because of the response at the November public hearing, Mayor J.R. Rausch created an ad hoc committee to discuss the plan ahead of Monday night’s vote. Based on the progress of that group, council agreed to again table the matter allowing the committee to meet again and hopefully work out any final concerns.
“By the second meeting in January, we would have to make a decision by then — up, down or we could approve a majority of that and pull out a portion of that to work through,” Rausch said.
Donnie Warner, with Calfee Zoning, told council the ad hoc committee met for about three hours ahead of the council meeting. Warner said that while the group was “very engaged” there were only about 12 issues that needed resolved. Those issues included what type of materials could be used, city oversight, conditional uses and density.
City Planner Ashley Gaver called the ad hoc meeting, “positive.”
“I think we did answer a lot of those questions and answer a lot of their concerns,” said zoning inspector Ron Todd.
Gaver said many of the issues stemmed out of the new Village Residential zoning district. The new code would not allow homes in the historic district to use certain types of material, including vinyl siding. Critics said too many changes would need to go through the city’s Design Review Board. Additionally, some residents have asked that conditional uses in the district be permitted uses instead.
The proposed Village Residential District (VRD) extends from Main Street east to Cherry Street; from Main Street west to Maple Street; from Sixth Street North to First Street; and from Sixth Street South to Eighth Street.
Officials said the area was developed like a traditional neighborhood with lot and building sizes increasing with distance from the Uptown Districts. Over time, single-family homes in the area have been converted to small-scale commercial uses.
“The desired development pattern in the Village District is to accommodate medium density single family and multi-family development, including detached single-family homes, attached single-family, townhomes and quadplexes,” according to the proposed plan. “Where appropriate, small-scale commercial development may be conditionally approved to promote a mix of uses within the district.”
Zoning Inspector Ron Todd said the area “is a transitional district.” He said the area has some older homes as well as some newer homes and buildings. Todd said it is important to “integrate some newer homes, but we want to make sure we keep some of that character.”
Gaver said she believes the committee will be able to come to an agreement at its next meeting, at 5 p.m., Jan. 7 in the meeting room at the city’s courts and police building on West Fifth Street.