Commission asks staff to propose flexible City Center stepback options; retains R4 and C1 zones

Millcreek — Commissioners pressed staff for alternatives to the City Center overlay27s one-size-fits-all 20-foot stepback rule, and asked planning staff to prepare narrower, context-sensitive options for future code language.

Staff member Robert May led the discussion, presenting images of existing local projects and explaining that a uniform 20-foot stepback applied between the second and third floors may reduce buildable area and make small, irregularly shaped city-center lots infeasible for development. Staff proposed a menu of alternatives: stepbacks tied to street types, building type or length, or reductions in exchange for performance standards such as affordable housing, design features, or publicly accessible amenity space.

Commissioners debated tradeoffs. Some said stepbacks are useful to reduce apparent bulk and preserve a comfortable street feel; others said stepbacks can unnecessarily preclude feasible development on small lots in the city center and that design standards or articulation could achieve the same goals. Several commissioners asked staff to build guardrails so flexibility would not result in unmodulated sheer walls.

The commission also considered whether R4 (medium-density residential) and C1 (neighborhood commercial) should remain legacy zones (meaning no new rezonings into those categories) or be retained as active zones with updated design standards. After discussion and a straw poll, the commission agreed to retain C1 and R4 as active zones and directed staff to bring refined design standards to make those zones usable as buffer-scale options between single-family and higher-density areas.

Ending: Staff will prepare stepback alternatives, tied to building type, street type and performance tradeoffs, and return to the commission with proposed code text and redlines.