Midway council weighs Main Street zoning changes: 30% landscaping, building-volume limits and façade breaks

Midway City councilors reviewed draft amendments to Main Street zoning that would require more on-site landscaping, limit building volume and encourage varied building façades.

Staff introduced a proposal for the C2/C3 areas — described as the south side of Main Street, the South Center and toward Hamlet Park — that would cap impervious surface (buildings, pavement, concrete and pavers) at 70 percent of a parcel and require the remaining 30 percent as landscape. "The remaining 30% shall be landscape," an unidentified staff speaker said while explaining the new requirement for commercial areas, which the staff noted would be a first for the city code.

The staff presentation used the Midway Bakery as a local example, noting the site is about 25 percent landscaped and that the 30 percent minimum would push development toward more visible green area. Councilmembers asked staff to run additional examples and to prepare side-by-side visuals at high, medium and low landscaping levels so they could see the practical effects of different percentages.

The draft also introduced a three-dimensional limit on building size tied to floor-area ratio (FAR). Staff cited a 0.3 FAR as an illustrative cap, explaining that "for example, a building of 15,000 square feet, that would limit the building size to 4,500 square feet" when measured across all floors. Council members asked staff to find comparable examples from other towns before settling on a numeric limit.

Another proposed design standard would limit the maximum length of a street-facing wall to 40 feet before requiring a 10-foot or greater staggered setback to visually break large façades. Staff said that staggered walls and roof-line variations help a large building read as multiple smaller masses from the street.

Council members also debated roof form. Staff noted flat roofs are currently permitted and some buildings use a small flat portion at the top while appearing pitched from the street; members discussed whether to ban flat roofs outright or to add provisions that preserve a visually pitched appearance.

The council agreed to continue refining the draft and to send the proposed uses and code changes to the planning commission for review, with the planning-commission discussion tentatively scheduled for a January agenda. Staff was asked to bring visual examples and measured comparisons to guide the council's final decisions.

Next steps: staff will prepare visuals and numeric comparisons, refine draft language on pavers and landscaping definitions, and refer the draft to the planning commission for formal review.