Mount Pleasant staff presented a set of proposed corrections and refinements to residential zoning regulations adopted in June 2025 after staff observed unintended consequences in pre-development reviews.

Staff (Speaker 8) said the consolidation of multiple charts into a single table inadvertently removed narrow-lot allowances that had supported twin and townhome products. To address that, staff proposed restoring minimum lot widths (for example, reintroducing 30-foot and 18-foot minimums for specified twin and townhome configurations) and adding measures such as minimum building widths or side-setback rules to avoid turning single-family lots into ‘‘pencil’’ lots.

The commission also reviewed conflicts between density standards (minimum units per net acre) and dimensional limits that produced strange lot configurations on recent CSMs, including an example staff called the Aurora CSM. Staff outlined three possible approaches: give developers a compliance path (choose density or dimensional compliance with additional review if density compliance is chosen), relax dimensional limits to match likely building types while using a primary-structure rule as a backstop, or expand variance/allowance mechanisms with plan-commission oversight.

Several commissioners asked for visualizations showing how the proposed changes would affect real projects; staff agreed to prepare illustrative examples and to test the code against recent submittals before returning with draft ordinance language. Staff also flagged pending state legislation that could require clearer density limits in comprehensive plans and said local changes would help align zoning with anticipated statutory expectations.

No code amendments were adopted at the meeting; staff will return with visuals and draft code for further review.