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County posts draft UDO; staff plans public roadshows and flags moratorium implications
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Summary
Planning staff reported delivery of the draft Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) by consultants, outlined a public outreach schedule and explained how a proposed moratorium for parts of the county would interact with the UDO process and pending applications.
Lancaster County planning staff told the planning commission on Oct. 22 that the consultants have delivered a draft Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and that staff will launch a multi-region public outreach campaign to review the document with residents.
Planning staff said the consultants submitted two tracked-change versions: a marked-up version and a clean copy. Both are available to commissioners in PDF and Word formats. “This document is 770 some pages. The document without it, a clean document without the notes and everything, it ranges in the 590 some range,” staff said, and noted the files are on commissioners’ flash drives for review.
Staff outlined next steps: the UDO will be presented to county council at a Committee of the Whole (CAL) meeting on Oct. 15 for an overview, and the planning department plans a “road show” of public meetings in each region of the county to gather public comment. Commissioners were asked to attend meetings in the areas where they live to help translate local concerns.
Staff also described how a separate moratorium ordinance before county council interacts with the UDO process. The proposed moratorium would restrict new applications for specified residential subdivisions and multi-family developments within a defined area (the transcript lists the northern Panhandle/Indian Land area) while the UDO is finalized. Staff said existing approvals and development agreements would generally be allowed to proceed but new rezoning or subdivision applications in the moratorium area could be held until UDO adoption. The moratorium ordinance’s legal ad has been published; if council invokes the pending-ordinance doctrine, it could act after first reading.
Staff said they aim to complete public outreach and avoid using the full nine-month moratorium window if possible, but confirmed calendar and staffing constraints could extend the schedule. Commissioners and staff discussed outreach logistics, library meeting-room availability, and scheduling conflicts for late-November and December.
