The City of Emporia’s new zoning regulations are looking to change the way zoning has been handled in the past.
That was the synopsis of a presentation during a special public meeting of the Emporia Planning Commission Tuesday night. According to City Planning and Zoning Administrator Justin Givens, one of the biggest changes with the new regulations is that the city will be moving away from simply using either USE or FORM-based zoning to a hybrid model of the two.
Attendance was light at Tuesday’s meeting, especially when compared to the original development sessions back in 2019. This is not a negative development in the opinion of Planning Commission Chairman Kenton Thomas who believes the lighter attendance is due largely to the separation of city and county regulations shortly after the development of the joint comprehensive plan.
Review and revision of the city’s regulating plan have been ongoing for roughly four years and was halted for a short period last year at the request of the Emporia City Commission. The reason for the pause was to allow for an outside source to look over the regulations as commissioners felt the process, overseen by consultant Jim Kaup, was taking far too long.
The review process resumed last October. Planning commissioners are scheduled to hold further conversations on the document during their next regular meeting in June.
An exact date for when the document may be approved and sent off to the Emporia City Commission for final action is pending, however, Thomas anticipates that could occur sooner rather than later.
