Blythewood planning commission recommends 2025 Land Development Ordinance to town council

The Blythewood Planning Commission voted to recommend the 2025 Land Development Ordinance (LDO) text and map amendments to the Blythewood Town Council at its February meeting, following a presentation by consultant Brian Mabry of Kindred Keese Collaborative and discussion of several map and text refinements.

The recommendation advances a consolidated, user-focused LDO that reduces the town's zoning districts from about 21 to 12, replaces technical planning jargon with clearer language and graphics, and includes new design standards, a sustainability index and a public-art requirement for larger nonresidential developments. "Think of the comprehensive plan as a menu and think of the LDO as a cookbook," Brian Mabry said during his presentation, summarizing the difference between the town's visionary plan and the legally enforceable development rules.

The proposed LDO reorganizes development standards into a single online document with quick-reference tools and links, formalizes three residential development types (conventional, cluster and planned) with associated lot-size and common-open-space tradeoffs, and ties zoning districts to future-land-use categories. Mabry described incentives such as density or height bonuses for sustainable features (solar panels, green roofs, etc.) and said the draft adds illustrations to clarify sign, landscaping and building-design standards. He also described a public-art provision that requires commercial developments of 15,000 square feet or more to install artwork or contribute to an art fund.

Daniel Stine, town staff, told the commission the draft had been posted online for a 30-day public review period and that the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Board of Architectural Review had reviewed relevant chapters and issued unanimous recommendations to the planning commission. During discussion, commissioners pressed a few clarifications: one commissioner asked about a reference to Locklear Road in the façade list and another questioned a section of floodplain language that staff said was not applicable to Blythewood because the town does not participate in the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map program. Stine confirmed staff would remove the Locklear Road reference and could edit or remove the inapplicable floodplain language before the council submission.

Commissioner Marcus Taylor moved to send the draft LDO with the agreed updates to the Town Council for their first reading; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. The commission recorded affirmative "Aye" responses and the chair declared the ayes carried. No roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.