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Planning staff outline Unified Development Code rewrite and new historic preservation authority
Summary
Planning Services presented the department’s FY26 budget, described a year‑long unified development code update with public outreach and announced a programmatic agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office to streamline Section 106 reviews for federally funded projects.
Wally Wehrmacht, planning services manager, presented the Planning Department’s FY26 budget and a summary of ongoing work on the city’s comprehensive plan, development review, zoning and historic preservation.
Wehrmacht described the city’s role in administering Imagine Dubuque (the comprehensive plan) and noted the planning department supports 28 appointed volunteers across boards and commissions. He outlined development review activity (34 site plans in FY24) and large projects in the pipeline, including mixed‑use and multifamily developments. He said the city maintains a register of roughly 6,000 inventoried properties in historic and downtown neighborhoods and reported about $10.4 million of investment in those neighborhoods in FY24.
Wehrmacht described a multi‑phase Unified Development Code (UDC) rewrite being carried out with consultant Camiros. He said outreach included a public survey (264 responses), a technical survey and stakeholder meetings, and that the process will culminate in a technical report to the Zoning Advisory Commission and city council; the overall contract is scheduled to conclude around March 2026. Councilmembers were told there will be multiple opportunities for public input and at least one future council work session on the UDC.
On historic preservation, Wehrmacht announced the city had obtained a programmatic agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office that allows qualified city staff to conduct Section 106 reviews on behalf of HUD and other federal programs. He said the agreement recognizes city staff qualifications and is intended to reduce review time for federally supported projects (for example housing rehabilitation and infrastructure projects that trigger Section 106 review).
Council members praised the department’s customer service scores and volunteer engagement and thanked staff for managing a wide array of land‑use and preservation tasks with a relatively small staff. Wehrmacht also requested minor fee adjustments and listed a small requested capital item (helmets/locks for the Safe Routes to School program). The council had no public input on the planning budget and no formal action was taken at the hearing.
