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Plain City staff proposes architectural design standards; Council agrees to 40% renovation threshold after moratorium motion is withdrawn
Summary
Village Planner Derek Hutchinson presented draft architectural design standards for commercial and multi-family buildings and recommended a 40% alteration threshold for when existing buildings must comply. A proposed moratorium on commercial development was withdrawn; Council adopted the 40% threshold by unanimous consent.
Village Planner Derek Hutchinson presented a draft zoning code update at the Oct. 1 Plain City work session that would require higher-quality architectural materials and require commercial and multi-family projects to present architectural designs to the Planning & Zoning Commission at site-plan review.
Hutchinson said staff proposes a threshold — typically 40% — to determine when an existing building undergoing renovations must comply with the new standards; that is, if roughly 40% of the building is altered or added onto, the building would be required to meet the updated code. Hutchinson and Council discussed how waiver provisions could address cases where compliance would be impracticable due to insurance or disaster recovery costs.
Council members asked about applicability. Hutchinson confirmed the standard would apply to areas outside the Uptown District and would be required for new PUD commercial projects moving forward. He noted projects already approved under the existing code, including some recent proposals such as Outdoor FX, would be exempt from the new requirement because they have prior approvals.
Council member T. Harriman moved to enact a moratorium on commercial development until the architectural standards were implemented; after Development Director Jason Stanford and Director of Law Paul-Michael La Fayette cautioned that a moratorium must be adopted by ordinance and could send negative signals to the development community, Mr. Harriman withdrew his motion. Council, by unanimous consent, agreed to incorporate a 40% threshold for existing buildings to comply with the proposed standards and directed staff to include that threshold in the draft code for Planning & Zoning review.
Hutchinson said Planning & Zoning will review the draft code at its October meeting and staff will return with recommended language and processes for waivers. No ordinance or final code change was adopted at the work session.
