During their Dec. 9 special joint meeting, Montgomery City Council, Montgomery Planning and Zoning, and the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation discussed potential changes to the city’s development ordinances and listened to a presentation from Kendig Keast Collaborative.

The context

The four main components KKC is helping the city of Montgomery with are: its future land use and mobility plan; interim ordinance updates; an illustrated master plan; and a unified development ordinance, according to the presentation.

KKC has used discussions with city officials and the public to shape the ordinances, according to the presentation.

The approach

According to the presentation, interim ordinance updates include:

• Establishing a new downtown zoning district
• Creating standards for multifamily and commercial developments
• Requiring a special use permit for R-2 zoning district
• Updating language related to historic preservation
• Adding more parameters for when planned district zoning can be used
• Requiring sidewalks when development happens
• Requiring developers to improve existing streets
• Strengthening the tree preservation standards and penalties

Once the interim ordinances are adopted, they can still change during the creation of the unified development ordinance, which is a comprehensive set of regulations that the city is working on to manage development within the city, KKC Advanced Associate Ashley Woolsey said during the meeting.

The goal of the UDO is to define the city's desired level of regulation and development standards, which can be adjusted over time as the city grows, Woolsey said. Meanwhile, the city is working on interim ordinance updates to address high-priority issues quickly.

The timeline of completion for the UDO is slated for late 2025, according to the presentation.

The breakdown

The interim ordinances hope to regulate the look and feel of the downtown district by setting standards for signage, event venues, landscaping and amenity spaces, Woolsey during the meeting.

“The main idea here is keeping ... a pedestrian-friendly downtown feel, to keep a character of what's already there,” Woolsey said.

What they’re saying

• “This is more of a Band-Aid situation to stop the bleeding. And then when we do the UDO, that's when we can get a little more in-depth and massage and treat things as needed,” Woolsey said.
• “What we're writing here the next few months is probably going to be in place for the next 25 years,” KKC CEO Bret Keast said during the meeting. “So we're anticipating that as more and more large-scale developments come, that we've got standards in place.”

Stay tuned

KKC will come to a Council meeting at a later date to discuss the city’s future land use, thoroughfare and open space plans; the unified development ordinance; and an illustrated master plan, Keast said.