The Topeka City Planning Commission held a public hearing on a proposed zoning text amendment to allow duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in single-family residential districts and voted to defer further action to its October meeting after extensive public comment and commissioner discussion.

Planning staff told the commission the item is a text amendment to the zoning code — not a rezoning — and said the Planning Commission Housing Committee had revised its recommendation to allow duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes by conditional use permit. “The public engagement on this item has been robust,” planning staff said, noting at least five or six neighborhood meetings and a survey that returned 405 responses concentrated in central Topeka neighborhoods. Staff provided a matrix of options and draft standards and highlighted differences between approving a conditional use permit and rezoning.

More than a half-dozen residents and neighborhood representatives spoke at the public hearing, expressing concerns about notice, neighborhood outreach, impacts on historic districts and the potential pace of change. Susan Duffy, a College Hill resident, presented realtor-supplied sales data and urged greater neighborhood involvement. Jolene Bridal of Collins Park and other speakers said they found the process rushed and insufficiently publicized; Bridal said the effort felt “designed to meet the needs of developers, not to increase housing affordability.” Several speakers said they wanted neighborhood-by-neighborhood engagement rather than a citywide text change.

Commissioners debated the policy’s scope and likely impacts. Some commissioners said new-construction duplex infill could help replace blighted properties and add housing, while conversions of existing homes raised parking and neighborhood compatibility concerns. Commissioners discussed constraints in historic districts, legal limits on notice and protest petition areas under state statute (the 200-foot protest-petition radius was cited), and whether overlay districts or additional standards would be needed.

Several commissioners favored handling duplexes by conditional use permit rather than allowing them by right; others urged caution about unintended consequences and noted that the committee’s recommendation had been changed to require CUPs. Commissioner Cal, reporting for the housing committee, reiterated that the committee’s recommendation is to allow those uses in R-1 and R-2 by conditional use permit and noted the committee is pursuing additional outreach and potential meetings with housing finance organizations.

After discussion, a commissioner moved to defer the item to the October meeting to allow commissioners to digest written comments and supplemental submissions. The motion to defer passed unanimously; the commission will revisit the matter at its next meeting and may choose to vote then or schedule additional outreach.