Sean C. Morgan
The city is throwing out the old and starting from scratch – sort of – as it works through the home stretch of a review and update for the city’s land use ordinances.
The Community and Economic Development Department and the Planning Commission are specifically working on chapters 16, Land Divisions and Line Adjustments, and 17, Zoning. The page includes draft language, memos to the Planning Commission and previous consultant reports.
The changes are needed to ensure compliance with state requirements and to make the code more efficient to administer and apply to developments in Sweet Home.
The effort emphasizes even application of the code, so people receive consistent answers from the city, said Community and Economic Development Director Jerry Sorte.
The current code has been updated and patched since the inception of land use planning statewide in 1973, Sorte said. It no longer meets the needs of the community.
The current process will give the city a clean break from the older language, he said. The existing code will be completely repealed and a new code adopted.
Sorte said he hopes the new ordinances will be in front of the City Council during the summer.
The department and commission are working with a model ordinance for small cities, he said. The Planning Commission spent part of its meeting Jan. 22 looking at another round of proposed code updates and will regularly spend time at meetings throughout the first part of the year on the update.
Anyone interested in the codes and the update can follow along at the city’s website, http://www.sweet-home.or.us/ced/page/current-projects. Reach it by visiting the city’s main page at http://www.sweet-home.or.us. Hover over “departments” and click “Community and Economic Development.” On the right side, click on “planning” and then “current projects.”
“People can see the model code we’re working from, adapting it to our town’s needs,” Sorte said. The city has a lot of information from consultant John Morgan, who completed a code audit last year.
“We’re working for a new code, but what we produce has to be consistent with our Comprehensive Plan,” he said. “We’re not completely overturning what we allow in zones.”
The update changes how land use actions are reviewed, streamlining the process, allowing for more “over-the-counter” decisions and reducing the number of actions that need to go before the Planning Commission, he said, something that can stretch out the planning process.
If a land use action meets specific standards, checks all the boxes, it can be approved at a staff level, Sorte said. The Planning Commission will continue to handle actions where the answers to various questions are discretionary.
“We can start to break out some of the more frequent applications we see,” he said. In general he is recommending reducing the number of permits required by the city.
Home occupations are an example where he would like to make changes, he said.
In the past, residents could seek home occupation permits if they wanted to operate small businesses in their homes. After revisions several years ago, home occupations were allowed as a conditional use permit.
These days, it’s common for cities not to require a home occupation permit at all, Sorte said. The city wants to anticipate impacts from traffic, odor and noise, but that could be handled at the staff level.
In another model, home occupations could be allowed outright as long as they are within parameters set by ordinance, Sorte said. Violations could be handled through code enforcement instead of planning.
In another example, property owners may want to make a small adjustment to property lines, he said, but right now they have 20-day notification periods and 21-day appeal periods.
It may be a small adjustment made at the staff level, Sorte said, but right now, ” I have to tell you it’s probably going to take you at least 60 days to get there.”
Going forward, the code will need to be adjusted to match what’s already in place around the community, he said. The Planning Commission has room to review and change standards.
For example, the commission might consider the minimum size requirement for low-density residential lots – currently 8,000 square feet. Many lots are smaller.
“In my opinion, there are gaps (in the current code) where the rubber meets the road at a technical level,” Sorte said. It leaves open a number of questions. For example, Sorte wondered whether, under current code, he could build a porch inside the setback area, how high a deck may be or whether a little free library is allowed inside the setback area.
He wondered whether a deck built at grade violates the setback, he said. It is a structure, and code requires structures to be a specific distance from property lines.
The code doesn’t have exceptions in place for things city officials see on property around Sweet Home now, Sorte said.
The state model code meets state requirements and “tries to plug all those gaps,” he said. “We’re using it as a starting (point).”
Sweet Home can combine it with the local desires and the Comprehensive Plan, he said.
“My hope is we get through all of our work sessions with the Planning Commission in the next five months.”
Every Planning Commission work session creates new draft ordinance language, which appears on the city’s website, where “I’m kind of showing people, more or less, my notes.”
Following the series of work sessions, it goes to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and a recommendation to the City Council and then to the City Council for a public hearing and adoption.
Members of the public do not need to wait for the formal public hearings to comment, Sorte said. Comments are welcome now as the Planning Commission is working on draft language. They may mail 1140 12th Ave., Sweet Home, OR 97386; e-mail comments to [email protected]; or attend commission meetings, 7 p.m. the first Monday of the month and third Monday as needed.
“I want to hear feedback from people about how we can do better,” Sorte said. “Have you run into difficulties with your project. If so, convey those to us so we can convey them to the Planning Commission and City Council.”
While the city may not be able to accommodate everyone who has had an issue, it can identify trends the staff needs to address, he said.
For more information, call the Community and Economic Development Department at (541) 367-8113 or drop by at 1140 12th Ave.