10.
City Council Work Session
- Meeting Date:
- 03/25/2025
- From:
- Tiffany Antol, Zoning Code Manager
- Department:
- Planning & Development Services
Co-Submitter:
TITLE:
Middle Housing Zoning Code Text Amendment (allowing duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes in any zone that permits single-family dwellings) as required by HB 2721.
DESIRED OUTCOME:
Discussion only
Executive Summary:
PZ-25-00027 – Missing Middle
The proposed amendment will be drafted to meet the requirements of HB 2721, which is attached for the Council's review. The bill requires the City to amend the Zoning Code on or before January 1, 2026, to do the following:
The proposed amendment will be drafted to meet the requirements of HB 2721, which is attached for the Council's review. The bill requires the City to amend the Zoning Code on or before January 1, 2026, to do the following:
- Allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes as a permitted use on both of the following:
- All lots zoned for single-family residential use within one mile of the municipality’s central business district, and
- At least twenty percent of any new development of more than ten contiguous acres.
- Zoning districts most impacted by this amendment include Rural Residential (RR), Estate Residential (ER), Single-family Residential (R1), Single-family Residential Neighborhood (R1N), Community Commercial (CC) on lots less than 9,000 square feet, and Manufactured Housing (MF).
Information:
The City may not do any of the following:
- Discourage the development of middle housing through requirements or actions that individually or cumulatively make impractical the permitting, siting, or construction of middle housing.
- Restrict middle housing types to less than two floors.
- Restrict middle housing types to a floor area ratio of less than fifty percent. (The City Zoning Code does not currently apply FAR to these types of development.)
- Set restrictions, permitting, or review processes for middle housing that are more restrictive than those for single-family dwellings within the same zone.
- Require owner occupancy of any structures on the lot.
- Require any structures to comply with a commercial building code or to contain a fire sprinkler.
- Require more than one off-street parking space per unit. (This may conflict with HOH requirements.)
- The City does not currently have a defined Central Business District (CBD). For illustration purposes, staff prepared a location map of a 1-mile buffer from the Central Business Zoning District.
- The City could define multiple Central Business Districts.
- What areas of the City should be considered for the new development provisions?
- If the City decides to apply these provisions based on the location standards in the bill, new overlay zones will need to be adopted for the specific areas where the provisions will apply.
- The Code Analysis Project suggests that the City should apply these provisions citywide. Should the City pursue this amendment citywide?