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Glendale council approves $100,000 contract to modernize zoning code after consultant outlines key code gaps
Summary
The council approved a professional-services agreement with Vanderwall & Associates to perform a comprehensive zoning-code rewrite (budgeted at $100,000). Consultant Meredith Perch summarized 14 key issues including district updates, bulk standards, design and mixed‑use districts and a public engagement process.
Glendale — The Common Council voted to hire Vanderwall and Associates to undertake a comprehensive rewrite of the city's zoning code, approving a professional-services agreement budgeted at $100,000 and described by staff as sufficient for a full-code rewrite scope.
Meredith Perch, the consultant who prepared an evaluation memo, told the council the code has seen incremental patchwork updates and recommended a wholesale rewrite to align zoning districts and the land-use map with the comprehensive plan, modernize bulk and dimension standards, add design standards, reduce dependence on planned-development overlays and create mixed‑use districts. "The zoning code is a main tool for communities to implement the comprehensive plan," Perch said, and recommended updates to make the code more predictable and user-friendly.
Council members asked how public notice and hearings would be handled for a citywide rewrite; Perch said the process would include informal public meetings, multiple public hearings and broad notice so that affected residents and businesses receive information. Several members also asked whether $100,000 was sufficient; Perch said the scope and cost estimate were developed from comparable municipal projects and that the fee was intended to cover a full rewrite without routine change orders.
City Administrator Carl Warwick and council members discussed milestones, public outreach and involvement of the Planning and Architecture Review Commission as a steering committee. Alderman Gellhart supported proceeding given the city's built-out character; other members said they want regular progress updates. The motion was moved and seconded on the record and the agreement carried.
Next steps: consultant-led steering-committee meetings, public open houses during the rewrite, draft updates back to plan commissions and eventual public hearings and adoption process. The contract calls for a multi-month process with repeated council and commission touchpoints.
