(hosted by City Planning)
Wednesday, Aug. 4 |5 pm
The City wants to increase density within its 52 neighborhoods. Last week, we met with Councilmember Keating and the assistant City Manager to further discuss this and related development issues. As part of that discussion, we learned that part of the City's goal for these changes is to bring in more tax-paying residents which will help generate more funds to pay for community services and will increase the availability of housing.
To help make this easier, the City is proposing to remove all housing density limitations in certain Multi-family, Office, Commercial, Urban Mix, Manufacturing, and Riverfront zoning districts, including two found in Mt. Lookout: RM-2.0: Multi-family and RM-1.2: Multi-family. This will affect areas located along portions of Delta, Griest, Linwood, Ellison, Nash, Totten, Van Dyke and Mowbray (see map).
This change means that the current space requirements per residential unit in a single building located in these zones would be eliminated, allowing more units to be built within the structure (the overall size of building itself would remain subject to current regulations, unless variances are granted). As such, new buildings could be built with more units; existing buildings could be retrofitted with more units; and existing buildings could be demolished and replaced with new buildings with more units.
While this concept may make sense for some neighborhoods, it may not for others due to unintended negative consequences (increased strain on services and infrastructure, more traffic, etc.). The MLCC Planning & Zoning committee advocates for more study to be done to understand the potential impacts to each community before implementing changes that will affect all neighborhoods.
To listen and/or participate in City's Aug. 4 meeting, send a meeting link request to James Weaver, Senior City Planner, at the email address below. Comments sent by email are also welcome.
James Weaver
(513) 352-4882
