Consultant outlines rewrite of City of Casey zoning ordinance, seeks input on overlays, infill and housing options

Stewart Engineering outlined a multi-month plan on March 4 to rewrite the City of Casey's zoning ordinance and land development regulations, presenting goals, a schedule and topics the firm said it will examine with the planning commission and city staff.

Carol Williamson, planning manager with Stewart Engineering and a former planning director for the city, told council the city's two land-use documents were last updated in 2012 and that the firm's work will likely produce a single unified development ordinance. "We're going to take the land development regulations and intermix it with the zoning ordinance," Williamson said, adding the rewrite will also improve graphics and organization to make the code more user-friendly for citizens and small businesses.

The consultant said the planning commission will act as the project steering committee and that the firm will present to city council about three times during the process: an initial briefing (this meeting), interim updates and a final adoption package. Jake Petrovsky was introduced as the community planning practice leader on the Stewart team; other consultants named for portions of the work included Andrea Radford (Stewart), Alan Gough and Cindy Schwarzkopf (McKinley Horn) and Kelly McCormick, a consultant who previously served as a zoning administrator for the city of Greer.

Why it matters: council and staff said the rewrite is intended to align the zoning code with the 2021 comprehensive plan, support housing diversity and ease use by residents and businesses. Key topics the consultant said it will address include evaluating and possibly consolidating zoning districts, rethinking four existing overlay districts, strengthening subdivision and road standards, and revisiting infill design and tree-protection rules.

Williamson noted several specific items Stewart Engineering will examine during drafting: whether small plan development or cluster development districts should be created, whether duplexes and triplexes should be allowed by right in some neighborhoods, potential accessory dwelling unit and short-term rental policies, and standards for newer uses such as co-working spaces, vape shops and CBD-related businesses. The presentation identified the D1 development district as a large, largely undeveloped holding classification that the consultant recommended revisiting, and called out a development agreement district created for the high school/arena area for potential reassignment.

Planning commission members, staff and council asked questions about how the rewrite will address certain places and technical items. Williamson said the firm had toured the city with staff to observe existing conditions and that planning commission would dive deeper into chapter-by-chapter revisions; she also said staff enforcement input will guide whether proposed standards are practical to administer. "Everything we put in the ordinance needs to be enforceable," she said.

The consultant said the team would return to planning commission on April 21 for a deeper-dive topic and will follow up with council in subsequent meetings. Council and staff did not take action at the March 4 meeting; the presentation established the scope and schedule for later ordinance drafts and public review.

Ending: Stewart Engineering's work plan will feed an ordinance draft for public review later in the process; the planning commission will serve as the primary review body, and council will consider adoption after additional briefings and a formal public hearing sequence.