Commission opens UDC review: directs staff to draft ADU language for single-family lots, requests joint workshop with council

Commissioners spent a substantial portion of the Aug. 19 meeting reviewing the city’s Unified Development Code and how it changed long-standing zoning patterns in Dickinson.

Travis, a planning staff member, summarized staff concerns and identified recurring procedural and policy issues in the UDC implementation. “This is one of the ones where we're kinda like, this fits in the planning goal, this fits in the staff goal, but does this fit for Dickinson? That's a hard call for staff to make,” he told commissioners. The conversation that followed focused chiefly on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and the Urban Transition zoning district.

Under the UDC as explained by staff, ADUs are prohibited in the Urban Transition district even though the previous municipal code allowed…