Commissioners to discuss citywide zoning code

This afternoon, the City Commission will discuss a strategic plan to rewrite the city’s zoning and development code.

The new code would be a form-based based code, meant to give developers and residents more predictability when it comes to new developments. If commissioners decide to move forward with the form-based code, one of the next steps will be a plan to set aside up to $700,000 in funding for the planning process.

Plans call for an Urban Design Studio at City Hall where two full-time, contract planners will get input from residents about the new development code. Reworking the zoning and development code would take more than two years, according to a June 10 memo from city planning staff to city commissioners.

According to formbasedcodes.org: “Form-based codes foster predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code. They are regulations, not mere guidelines, adopted into city or county law. Form-based codes offer a powerful alternative to conventional zoning.”

The discussion on a form-based code will take place during the afternoon session of the City Commission meeting that begins at 2:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1565 First St., Sarasota.

In other business, commissioners will:
• Appoint a new planning board member. Commissioner Susan Chapman, elected to the City Commission in May, vacated her seat last month.
• Discuss a proposed ordinance amending the zoning code to allow cluster housing development structure type as a permitted use in certain residential zones.
• Discuss a proposed ordinance amending sections to implement 2013 legislation relating to procedures regarding red light cameras, amending obsolete provisions and implementing a procedure for local hearings.
• Hear an update on a St. Armands Special Business Neighborhood Improvement District extension.