Covina staff outline two-year zoning code modernization to cut chapters from 54 to 12
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Summary
Staff presented a two‑phase zoning code modernization on Feb. 25 that will consolidate and reorganize code chapters, group use regulations, and create clearer procedures; commissioners received the informational update and no action was required.
On Feb. 25, 2025, the Covina Planning Commission received an informational update from community development consultant Nancy Fong on a two‑year zoning code modernization intended to simplify the city’s zoning code and reorganize development rules.
“The purpose of modernizing the zoning code is to make the document more user friendly, eliminate any duplication and obsolete sections, consolidate chapters, and update the regulations,” Fong told commissioners. She said the project will reduce the code from the current 54 chapters to a proposed 12 chapters when adopted.
Staff described the work as two phases. Phase 1 covers six draft chapters — residential, commercial, industrial, sign, specific plan/planned community development, and general provisions — and includes consolidating 12 residential zones into a single residential chapter (eliminating A1 and A2 while retaining six residential categories) and consolidating seven commercial zones into one chapter while maintaining three commercial categories (commercial office, community commercial and regional commercial). Staff said updates to the M‑1 light manufacturing zone, a revised design chapter and a new planned community development chapter are also part of phase 1. Staff expects an internal review of those six chapters in early March, a Planning Commission study session in late March or early April, and Planning Commission and City Council hearings in April–June 2025.
Phase 2 will group site development standards (parking, landscaping, walls/fences, tree preservation, transportation demand management and public improvements), consolidate land-use entitlements and permit procedures into a single chapter, and reorganize conditional uses into a specific-use chapter. Staff projected a staff review in August 2025 and public hearings between September and November 2025, with the full program complete by the end of the calendar year.
Commissioners asked no substantive questions about policy changes and thanked staff for the outreach materials; no members of the public submitted speaker cards. The item was presented as informational and required no action by the Planning Commission.
