Columbia residents heard from the planning group working on an updated development code for the final time Wednesday night. After almost two years of work, Clarion Associates submitted a final draft to Columbia’s Planning and Zoning Commission in October.
Don Elliot, who is the director of Clarion’s Denver team, presented an overview of the potential code, which condenses the current development code into five sections and integrates many existing requirements.
The latest draft already includes changes based on public comment on previous drafts released throughout the process.
Elliot told residents that while the code was created specifically for Columbia, considerations like parking should still be tailored to residents’ preferences.
“It needs to work for you,” he said. “We’ve done our part of recommending the standards that we have found work in other places. Every city’s different. If you need another number, put in another number.”
Elliot spent most of the meeting answering questions and taking suggestions from residents, including issues like downtown parking, and residential setback requirements.
Residents like John Clark questioned how little time was allotted for planning and testing the code, given that it is intended to work for a long time to come. For reference, the current code was established in the 1950s.
“I personally don’t think that this is remotely ready to be adopted,” Clark said. “We’ve waited so long to do this, it’s such a big change. We need a lot more than a couple months and a few tests.”
Elliot agreed, but said that in his experience working with revising city codes, it’s better to adopt earlier than later.
“Keep the momentum going,” Elliot said. “These things can crash under their own weight…My advice is to take it through, assure people you aren’t rushing it but you want to achieve what you set out to achieve, and commit to a process for fixing unintended consequences on a regular schedule. That’s a better way to approach it than saying, ‘We’re not going to adopt it until it’s perfect,’ because you’ll never be perfect.”
City staff also decided to extend the public comment period by one week, to end on December 11th. City council will consider the proposal later, although no exact date has been set.
