Edmond officials unveil draft Unified Development Code, propose context-based zoning and staged site-plan reviews

Edmond — City staff and consultants presented a draft Unified Development Code on Oct. 27 that would reorganize the municipal development rules into a single, context-based document and change how many land-use decisions are reviewed.

Becca Patrick, the city’s project manager and senior planner, told the council the work began in June 2022 and is “about 60% of the way through” the drafting process. Dawn Thomas, project manager for Fries & Nichols, said the draft aims to streamline reviews, clarify responsibilities, and align regulations to the goals in the Edmond plan.

The draft would consolidate multiple titles of the Edmond Municipal Code — including subdivisions, zoning and stormwater rules — into five chapters and reorganize zoning by context areas: rural, suburban and urban, with corridor overlays for major routes such as Route 66 and I-35. Thomas said the proposed map reduces the number of zoning districts from the current inventory and narrows the menu to roughly 10 primary districts while maintaining planned-unit developments as a special designation.

A key technical change in the draft is the…