Centennial staff ask council for guidance to rewrite land development code approval criteria

Centennial — Planning staff presented an initial plan Tuesday to revise approval criteria across the city’s Land Development Code to reduce redundancy, make standards application-specific and align criteria with Centennial Next and the city’s strategic goals. Staff asked council for guidance; no formal vote or ordinance was taken.

Staff said the effort targets approval criteria for the most commonly used development orders — rezoning, site plans, conditional use permits, plats and variances — after a systematic review of all 37 development orders in the code. Brad McKinnon, planner for the City of Centennial, said the purpose “is to introduce potential land development code amendments” and that staff will return with formal recommendations after additional review and public hearings.

Why it matters: approval criteria are the standards staff and decision makers use to recommend and approve quasi‑judicial land‑use decisions. Staff told council that overlapping, irrelevant or vague criteria can slow reviews, confuse applicants and reduce transparency in decision making.…