Technical Advisory Committee Presents Update on Zoning Ordinance Rewrite

On Tuesday, May 19, the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), under the Office of Buildings, held a meeting to present an update on the city’s Zoning Ordinance Rewrite. The last revision of the zoning ordinance occurred in 1985, however, there have been incremental amendments in response to changes in practices and new policies. Therefore, the current zoning ordinance is inadequate and difficult to understand. In order to address these issues and make the ordinance more user friendly, the City is doing a comprehensive review and update of the zoning regulations. In the meeting on Tuesday, the committee gave a presentation that outlined Phase 1 of the rewrite process.

Task A – Assessment of Existing Zoning Ordinance

Task A – Interviews: Purpose is to understand how current regulations could be improved and learn about areas of concern.

  • Individual – the meetings will involve a single person from the Mayor’s office or a city council member.
  • Small Group – the meetings will include a maximum of 8 people from various organizations, such as the Office of Planning, Law Department, Zoning Review Board, and Architects/Designers, just to name a few.

Task A – Feedback Gathering Session: This session will focus on the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board (APAB) and include the Office of Planning, as well as NPU leadership.

Task A – Website: A website will be created to receive input from the general public during the first 45 days of this project.

Task A – Presentations: The following groups will be part of the presentation on the information gathered throughout Task A.

  • Office of Planning
  • Office of Buildings (TAC)
  • Office of Watershed Protection
  • Zoning Committee of Council (Councilmembers and Work Session)
  • APAB

Task A -Deliverables: Purpose is to produce a draft assessment report of zoning regulations to key City staff, receive feedback, and then produce the final assessment report.

Task B – Identification of Zoning Ordinance Models

 

Task B – Identification of Zoning Models: A minimum of three zoning models will be created for consideration by the City and each option will include:

  • Case studies of how the model is used in other cities
  • Detailed explanation of how each model in implemented and administered
  • Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using each model in Atlanta

Task B – Deliverables: Purpose is to produce a draft written report presenting the requested information for each model, receive feedback from key City staff, and then produce a final report with examples to support findings.

Task C – Models’ Response to Objectives

The purpose of Task C is to provide preliminary recommendations on how each of the models presented in Task B would address the City’s objectives for rewriting the Zoning Ordinance.

 

In addition to presenting Phase 1 of this project, the TAC gave a contract update. The target date for executing the contract is June 30th. The TAC is aiming to

complete Phase 1 of the project by December 15th.