Background

The Land Development Code’s non-zoning regulations, including drainage and water quality requirements, can limit the feasibility of constructing triplexes, fourplexes, row houses, cottage courts, and similar missing middle housing types. To facilitate construction of these projects, Planning Commission and Council have provided direction for better tailoring the development review process to the scale and intensity of missing middle housing.
Resolution No. 20221201-048 initiated two amendments to help achieve this goal. The first amendment is to make the construction of up to four dwelling units subject to residential building plan review:
1. Add Triplexes and Fourplexes to Residential Review: Establish that the City will review developments of three or four residential units in the manner the City reviews developments of one or two residential units, where no site plan is required which would effectively limit the review process to just zoning regulations.
Staff’s recommendation on this direction is discussed below.
Council’s second directive is to develop a modified site plan process tailored to projects of 5 to 16 units, which will require compliance with a wider range of regulations than residential building plan review, but less than full site plan. The staff recommendation on this proposal remains under development.

Staff Recommendation

LDC Sec. 25-5-2 (Site Plan Exemptions) exempts numerous types of development from the requirement to obtain site plan approval. One of the exemptions, codified in Subsection (B)(1), covers various types of one
Page - 2 and two-family residential development. Staff recommends expanding this exemption to include development of up to four units, provided that no more than four units (existing or proposed) are located on the lot.
This proposal would make development of up to four units subject to the same level of review that currently applies to most one and two-family residential projects—i.e., zoning regulations and technical codes. The proposal carries forward the exclusion for development in the 100-year floodplain and includes additional language that precludes using the exemption to develop multi-family projects in excess of four units.

Review and Adoption Timeline

• Jun. 21, 2023: Codes and Ordinances Joint Committee meeting voided
  • Click to view the staff report
• Jul. 11, 2023: Unanimously recommended by the Planning Commission  
  • Click here to view the staff report, Affordability Impact Statement, and presentation
• Jul. 20, 2023: Approved by City Council on a 9-1 vote