Saginaw staff present draft zoning ordinance rewrite; add ADUs, simplify mixed‑use zones

City of Saginaw planning staff and a planning consultant presented a draft zoning ordinance update during a meeting, outlining changes to zoning districts, permitted uses, application procedures and design standards.

The draft is intended to align the city’s zoning regulations with the 2022 master plan and to make the code easier to use for residents, developers and staff. Planning staff said the rewrite includes new district designations, expanded mixed‑use allowances, new accessory dwelling unit rules and a simplified structure for the ordinance text and map.

Planning staff described the purpose of the rewrite as organizing land use, separating incompatible uses and promoting orderly growth. “Zoning is the key to organizing land use within a city,” the planning staff member said. The presenter said the ordinance text and interactive map are intended to be more transparent and easier to navigate than the previous code.

Key changes in the draft include allowing accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, in every residential zone with a requirement that the primary dwelling be owner‑occupied. “They are allowed now in every single residential zone,” the planning staff member said, and added that the ADU owner‑occupancy requirement is intended to limit ADUs to homes where the owner also resides.

The draft also replaces several specialized mixed‑use categories with a simplified MU‑1 through MU‑4 structure, scaled by intensity. “We have now simplified it to mixed use 1 through 4 numbering up with the level of intensity,” the planning staff member said. The rewrite expands MU‑1 along major corridors and into neighborhoods targeted for infill to allow more multifamily housing and neighborhood‑oriented businesses such as libraries, laundromats and small coffee shops.

Staff said the update strengthens the planned unit development (PUD) tool by adding flexibility and clearer review standards, and reduces procedural complexity by simplifying approvals and granting staff and the planning commission greater ability to work with developers on redevelopment projects. The consultant provided guidance on how to use the new ordinance, recommending users begin either with the interactive zoning map to locate a property’s district or with the use matrix to find where a specific business type is allowed.

The draft corrects zoning mismatches for areas that have long been developed contrary to their zoning — for example, manufacturing‑zoned areas that are now residential — and seeks to preserve existing businesses and dwellings in those places. The ordinance lowers the minimum floor area for single‑family homes from 864 square feet to 600 square feet, a change staff said is intended to reflect smaller household sizes and allow lower‑cost construction options.

Other updates noted in the presentation include elimination of a standalone office district in favor of mixed‑use designations, updates to mixed‑use form‑based code for building types and dimensional standards, new standards for signs, landscaping, off‑street parking and dumpster enclosures, clarified procedures for nonconforming structures and uses, and a name clarification for the zoning appeals body (previously referred to as the Board of Zoning Appeals).

Staff described an engagement process that informed the draft: a steering committee that met roughly every three weeks for about six months, multiple public workshops targeted to developers, residents and businesses, and a community survey. The city’s website hosts draft versions, meeting videos, survey responses and an interactive zoning map; staff said the final draft and map are available on that site.

No formal votes or final adoption occurred during the presentation. Staff did not specify an adoption timeline in the remarks recorded in the transcript; the presentation focused on the content of the draft and how to use the new ordinance format.

The draft and interactive map remain available on the city website for review, and staff encouraged stakeholders to use the map and use matrix to determine permitted uses and dimensional requirements under the proposed code.