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Staff previews LUMO rewrite timeline, asks commission to prepare for public draft
Summary
Planning staff told the commission a draft of the LUMO rewrite should be ready for public release by late June or early July, with a council preview June 17 and a likely commission work session June 16; staff outlined office hours, stakeholder user testing, and subsequent fall work sessions and hearings.
Planning Department staff updated the Chapel Hill Planning Commission on May 19 about the schedule and engagement plan for the town’s rewrite of the Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO).
Taz, a planning department staffer, said staff and consultants are finalizing a draft and plan to present a council alignment memo at the June 17 council meeting and meet with the commission the night before if possible. “We’re getting really close to being able to wrap up that kind of major initial phase of drafting,” Taz said, and staff intend to publish a public draft by late June or early July to start summer engagement.
Staff described a two-part summer program: (1) office hours for commissioners and council members to help them navigate the draft and understand its structure, and (2) public-facing outreach including open houses and stakeholder user testing (with groups such as the Affordable Housing Coalition and the Home Builders Association) to stress-test technical provisions. Taz emphasized staff do not intend office hours to be opportunities for substantive ordinance drafting but rather for orientation ahead of the public engagement period.
Commissioners asked whether the June 17 council item will include the draft code (staff said no) and whether there is any mandatory deadline for finishing LUMO (staff said there is not). Commissioners requested an alignment memo before the commission’s June 16 meeting; staff agreed to provide the memo ahead of time. Commissioners also discussed making fall public hearings meaningful and accessible to the broader public.
Staff said the public hearing phase is governed in part by state law once the council begins the formal hearing process, and that how quickly the work proceeds will depend on the degree of changes requested during the work sessions and hearings.
Taz asked commissioners to adopt council’s stated framework for reviewing the draft (community, sustainability and equity; then user friendliness, housing, economic development, built environment, environment/resilience) to keep continuity across bodies and to help focus work sessions in the fall.
