Planning commission debates new zoning code and replaces block-length rule with connectivity test

Planning Commission members spent the longest portion of their meeting on a proposed comprehensive rewrite of Title 14, the city zoning code, and on a new connectivity standard that would replace block-length limits used to control street connectivity. The commission did not vote on the text this week and deferred the zoning-code ordinances to next month to allow commissioners and stakeholders more time to review revisions.

Staff said the new approach would score internal site connectivity (counting 4-way, 3-way and dead-end intersections), require pedestrian and bicycle connections at a minimum frequency (a pedestrian/bike connection every 600 feet within a block), and require at least one external connection for every quarter-mile of a site boundary. The change is intended to preserve the goal of better-connected street networks while giving applicants greater design flexibility and reducing routine variance requests under the current block-length rule.

Planning staff argued the new standard separates motor-vehicle connectivity from nonmotorized access. “If we’re not going to be regulating how long roads are, we do need to regulate how long or how frequent we’re going to have pedestrian and bicycle connections,” staff told commissioners. The staff presentation ran through a worked example (the Castle Heights campus) to show how different connection choices—closing a dead end or adding aligned intersections—would meet the proposed connectivity score.

Commissioners and several attendees asked for more time to review the proposal. Commissioner Caleb Thorne said he appreciated staff’s work but asked that staff confirm changes tied to previous comments he raised, particularly for industrial circulation roads over 20 acres. Others raised procedural questions about how staff and applicants would work out connectivity requirements during engineering review. Several commissioners said they preferred the new approach to fixed block-length distances and called it easier to apply and negotiate with applicants, but they also asked for written examples and more time to comment.

Planning staff said the draft connectivity approach could be incorporated into the zoning-code ordinances before the commission’s next meeting if commissioners were comfortable. The commission instead voted to defer the two Title 14 ordinances (items 13 and 14 on the agenda) to next month to allow more public and commissioner review and to collect written feedback. Staff also committed to circulate any changes discussed in the interim to individual commissioners who asked for an opportunity to review and comment.

The zoning revision is a major policy change that will guide future rezoning requests, subdivision reviews and site-plan approvals if the city council ultimately adopts the ordinance. The commission’s recommendation will go to city council for first and second readings if the commission ultimately forwards the revised code.