Council extends Highlands interim zoning; planning staff outlines overlay approach amid neighborhood safety concerns

Longview City Council voted on Jan. 23 to extend interim zoning rules for the Highlands neighborhood for six months while the city’s planning commission and staff develop a proposed overlay zone intended to address development density, parking and safety concerns.

The extension matters because residents and council members described rapid neighborhood change—including clustering of multiunit properties and persistent calls for stronger code tools—while planning staff said an overlay can preserve the single-family character of most blocks while allowing limited, regulated housing types.

Jason Little, city planning director, summarized six planning commission workshops held since September and presented a draft policy approach called a “multi-unit overlay zone” that would keep underlying R-1 single-family zoning in place while making duplexes an outright allowed use, permitting triplexes and fourplexes only after a special land-use review and preserving stricter prohibitions on larger multifamily apartments and boarding houses.

Little said the overlay package would also revise parking rules—reverting some standards to pre-2018 ratios that differentiate duplexes and fourplexes—add crime-prevention site-design standards (crime prevention through environmental design, or CPTED) to small multiunit projects, and explore alley and streetscape improvements where additional units increase activity. He advised council that changes must be tailored so improvements do not unintentionally prevent modest infill development.

Residents who spoke during the public hearing urged caution, citing repeated neighborhood problems near clusters of fourplexes. Multiple speakers described nighttime disturbances, graffiti and drug-related calls and said they fear for personal safety and property values. One resident said, “You put too many rats in a cage and they kill each other and eat each other,” and several urged the council not to allow more high-density development in the Highlands.

Representatives from planning staff acknowledged the difficult balance between expanding housing choices and responding to existing neighborhood stressors. Little said overlay zones are commonly used elsewhere to tailor standards for a specific area and to require design elements—such as lighting, door orientation and sightlines—to discourage crime in small multiunit developments.

After hearing public comment and staff recommendations, the council voted to approve ordinance 3552 to extend the existing interim zoning regulation for the Highlands for another six months while staff completes draft overlay language for public hearings and planning commission review.

Council members and staff said work will continue to refine parking, impervious-surface and alley-improvement provisions and to coordinate code changes with the public-safety and public-works departments. Planning staff expects to present draft language to the planning commission for workshops and to return to council when a proposed permanent ordinance is ready.