At the June 12 Anderson City Common Council meeting, councilors discussed the "Complete Streets" concept and directed staff to deliver a draft ordinance for council review next month.

Paul, a city staff member involved in drafting, said the Complete Streets approach treats every street project as an opportunity to consider sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes by default and requires that omissions be justified. He told the council, "The Complete Streets takes the approach of approach every project thinking you're going to put these things in or include these things, and then, if you're not going to include those, that there'd be a reason for that." Paul said some earlier language presented to the council used repeated mandatory terms such as "shall" and created hurdles and cost implications that the drafters are revising.

Councilors, including those who attended a special meeting, asked staff to compare the proposed ordinance with the county's resolution and to return a draft with enough time for review before a council vote. Paul said he would have a draft ready for the next month’s meeting and that he and Matt (the city engineer) were coordinating on the language. The council emphasized they wanted time to compare the county model and to consider whether the ordinance needs stronger enforcement language or should remain a looser framework.

No formal vote was taken; councilors instructed staff to complete the draft and circulate it to key reviewers, including MCOG and council members, before reintroducing it.