Liberty County commissioners approve UDO amendments, delay tougher paving standard until July 1

Liberty County commissioners on Thursday held a public hearing and agreed to adopt a package of amendments to the county's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), approving most changes to take effect April 1 while delaying a new, stricter pavement standard until July 1.

The amendments revise allowable land uses, parking and subdivision rules, utility connection distances, landscaping and street standards. County planning staff told commissioners the package adds a new "residential-commercial" use, restores language restricting where recreational vehicles may be parked and revises thresholds and construction standards for subdivisions and streets.

County planning staff said the residential-commercial category "allows a combination of, as the name implies, residential and commercial uses with limitations within either the same building or in separate buildings on the same property." The UDO package also reintroduces language prohibiting RVs from being parked in front yards outside RV parks and says "it also does not allow anybody to live in that, use that RV for, living purposes, if…