City and County representatives and residents alike were given their first look at the new City/County joint zoning regulations Wednesday evening.
The new regulations follow the City/County joint comprehensive plan which was approved last November, and Lyon County Zoning and Floodplain Manager Sam Seeley explains the regulations serve as the backbone to the comprehensive plan. There are three essential changes which will be noticed through the updated regulations.
The changes include Consolidating the future land use and zoning map into a simplified regulating plan,
converting many pages of text into simple graphics for building, street, and landscape standards and combining the City of Emporia and Lyon County Zoning regulations and subdivision regulations into one unified document. Seeley says these changes will make the regulations more flexible.
During the meeting, intense conversations developed between attendees and representatives of Urban Collaborative, the firm who has been working to help develop the document, regarding the preservation of ag-land. The new regulations are seeking to eliminate new 5 acre developments. This does not mean existing lots cannot be developed, but rather the regulations are looking to minimize spot zoning. The major contention during Wednesday’s conversations centred around which philosophy, larger or smaller tracks, was more efficient for ag-land preservation.
Mark Gillem of Urban Collaborative says these types of conversations are extremely productive as they work to finalize the regulations.
The next step in the process will be a 30 day comment period. City of Emporia Zoning Director Joe Foster explains the steps which will follow the conclusion of that period.
Current hopes are to have the regulations finalized by the end of 2019.
