In June 2017, the City and County working through the Planning Board, initiated a major update to the existing Zoning Regulations for the City and County. The process has been a collective effort of over 32 volunteers who serve on a project Steering Committee or Working Groups, or both.

Timeline so far:

• June 2017 – Planning Board initiates Project Re-Code and appoints a 20-member Steering Committee to guide the process of tearing down and re-building our local zoning regulations for the City and County.
• City Council and County Commissioners approved a $160,000 budget (June 2017) for Project Recode to hire a consultant team to help the Steering Committee with the code tear-down and re-build.
• August to December 2017 – Steering Committee meets to agree on major areas of focus for the re-build, identifies critical issues in current code and adopts a set of Guiding Principles to be a blueprint for the zoning code re-build.
• January 2018 – Steering Committee creates and appoints members to four working groups – Urban Issues, County Issues, Sign Code and Landscaping.
• Planning staff solicits bids for a consultant team – SafeBuilt, Codametrics & High Plains Architects selected and approved by the City Council as the team to help the Steering Committee.
• Working Groups and Steering Committee have collective met in public sessions over 90 times since January 2018, and have spent well over 6,300 volunteer hours working on drafts of the new zoning code. 

Collective progress so far:
Working groups, staff and consultants are mostly done drafting the following (see attached progress report graphic):

•  Neighborhoods, Mixed Uses, Commercial Corridors, Heavy Commercial, Public and Industrial districts
•  Landscaping (County already adopted and City public review draft completed)
•  The Map

Working Groups are still working on drafts for:

•   Signs
•   Alcohol and Gambling Uses
•   Planned Neighborhood Developments (for the urban/rural interface)
•   Off Street Parking

Staff is still working on drafts with the consultants to complete a discussion draft for the Working Groups for:

•   General and Specific Procedures
•   Short-term Rentals
•   Wireless Facilities

We expect to have all the pieces knitted back together by the end of February 2020.

Public hearings with the Zoning Commissions will likely happen in March with recommendations to the City Council and Board of County Commissioners for hearings in April. We intend to make each hearing with the Zoning Commission topic focused - for example, a hearing focused on the map and new zone districts, another for signs and site development standards, another for alcohol and gambling uses, and one for general comments and testimony.

We would like to schedule future Council Work Session discussions on “hot topics” such as Alcohol and Gambling Uses, Signs, Short-Term Rentals, Specific Procedures or other issues the Council believes are critical for discussion.

A Project Re: Code Success Story:

• Consensus agreement on allowing Accessory Dwelling Units as a housing choice in all of our Neighborhood zone districts. This involved six, 2-hour Friday morning meetings from mid-April 2019 to June 2019 with a special subcommittee to hammer out details on this re-emerging housing choice in Billings.
  • Both the Urban Issues and County Issues Working Groups affirmed the subcommittees consensus agreement on ADU regulations to be included with the draft code.
  • Planning VISTA Dave Drennan provided data and information critical to the success of the subcommittee.

 

No formal action is needed at this time, but staff would like Council direction on select specific topics areas described above, like Alcohol and Gambling Uses, Signs, Short-Term Rentals, etc. for including on future Council Work Sessions before the public draft is completed for public hearings.