A recent Dave Bangert article discussed some development items occurring around #greaterlala.  One  section in particular dealt with New Chauncey and the Lafayette Centennial Neighborhood.

According to April’s Area Planning Commission minutes, the New Chauncey neighborhood will be receiving two updates to its exiting land use plan: rezoning and form based codes.

Step 1 of the process will be to take the Land Use Plan and update the zoning for each area to the appropriate designation made in the plan.

Step 2 of the process will be to write the text for each block (they are broken down by number) to contain appropriate form based code.

The APC hopes to vote on this in September.

If done properly, these two changes should help maintain the character of our neighborhood and provide for better new developments around us.

Below are the minutes from the APC’s April meeting pertaining to this discussion:

VII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Sallie Fahey said she has nothing to add to the report that was emailed earlier today. She said the one item of interest in the report is that we are starting work on zoning implementation of the adopted Historical Centennial and New Chauncey Neighborhood Plans.

This is the first time we will be taking a two-step approach and Step 1 for each neighborhood is to apply our existing zoning districts in a neighborhood rezone to create the best fit for each neighborhood’s vision and goals.

For Step 2, we will be using a new tool called form based codes that will be created specifically for each neighborhood to implement each adopted plan more completely and this will be a much longer process.

In Step 2 we will use new tools that get into things like maximum setbacks in order to refit urban neighborhoods. She added that there may be some architectural elements to the form based code that will mirror existing architectural styles in the neighborhoods.  She explained that Historical Centennial will be done first because it was adopted first but she hopes to do Step 1 for each neighborhood somewhat concurrently.

Carl Griffin believes the form base code will be a lot more involved and he asked Sallie Fahey how long she thinks Step 2 will take.

Sallie Fahey said that depends on how well this idea is embraced by the neighborhood and the city councils. The neighborhoods and the councils will need to agree that the forms being created for the neighborhoods will better achieve the goals that the neighborhoods set out for themselves. The process could go smoothly or there could be opposition making us step back to retool and rethink the concept. Everything that would guide the creation of a form based code is already adopted in the plan. She then said we will start with a standard rezone for each neighborhood and she thinks it will be easier for the Ordinance Committee to deal with one neighborhood at a time. She went on to say Ryan has drafted a first cut of the neighborhood zoning map for Historic Centennial. Staff will review the map next week and after that we will be meeting with Lafayette staff about a week after that. We will then take the map to the neighborhood and then follow the process adopted by APC in 1998 requiring notification to every property owner in the neighborhood. This will be followed by Ordinance Committee hearings and finally APC adoption.

Once the Ordinance Committee makes a recommendation for Historic Centennial we will bring New Chauncey to the Ordinance Committee.

Carl Griffin asked if a 10-12 week timeline is reasonable.  Sallie Fahey thinks it is likely that Historic Centennial will go to the Ordinance Committee in July. She hopes to be able to bring New Chauncey to the Ordinance Committee by September.