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Sheridan planners outline future land-use map, sewer capacity concerns and rollout of sewer flow monitors
Summary
City Planner Kelly Schroeder and Utilities Director Dan Roberts reviewed the city and joint city-county future land use plans, identified conflicts between plan goals and zoning, explained the urban service area and MOU with the county, and described deployment of eight permanent flow meters to calibrate sewer capacity models.
City Planner Kelly Schroeder and Utilities Director Dan Roberts presented a joint briefing to the Sheridan City Council on Dec. 8 about the city land use plan, the joint city-county plan and the utility planning that supports development decisions.
Schroeder told the council the city maintains two related documents: a city land use plan and a joint city-county plan that governs a roughly one-mile buffer outside city limits. The documents identify existing land-use mismatches and five areas of conflict between the plan and municipal code, including misapplied industrial zoning, a lack of downtown housing, restrictive R-1–style pyramid zoning, unpredictable business zoning and pressure to push density to city edges. She pointed to prior work such as the downtown overlay and the creation of an M-2 heavy-industrial category as examples of matching code to plan recommendations.
On the joint plan, Schroeder said the urban service area (shown on the plan map in pink) marks where municipal water and sewer are expected to be available; areas outside that boundary are generally intended for agricultural or low-density uses. She clarified the city–county memorandum of understanding applies to subdivision review within the one-mile joint planning area and allows the city to make comments to the board of county commissioners; the MOU’s infrastructure standards apply where public water and sewer can serve a subdivision.
Dan Roberts explained how utility planning uses the urban service area as the planning boundary and described the recently completed wastewater system master plan, which provides roughly 30 years of growth projection. To improve decision-making, the city has procured eight permanent flow meters — “smart covers” built into manholes — to supply continuous, site-level flow data that will calibrate hydraulic models and help isolate infiltration or inflow problems. Roberts said the real-time data will let staff prioritize targeted repairs rather than broad, costly interventions.
Council Member Patson asked how often the urban service boundary is reviewed; Roberts said the boundary has not been substantially modified since the 2009 joint plan and was reaffirmed in 2017. On sewer capacity under 5th Street, Roberts said staff expect to study and design options (including upsizing the segment between Skils and Sheridan Avenue or rerouting flows) and estimated project planning could be completed within a multi-year capital timeframe (staff referenced fiscal 2028 as a project-year target in discussion). Roberts also noted the city previously imposed a limited moratorium on one phase of the Osprey development when model projections lacked current flow data.
Roberts and Schroeder asked the council to use the land-use documents and the MOU to guide comment letters and staff recommendations for future subdivisions and rezones so that policy and infrastructure planning align with the community’s values and budget constraints.
