Planning subcommittee moves to craft CDD3 rewrite to allow housing and require affordability

Chairman Quish opened a special meeting of the planning subcommittee to continue work on updating CDD3 regulations, saying the district’s rules are “antiquated” and underused and that the group’s goal is to encourage additional housing, including affordable units, to support economic growth.

The subcommittee discussed two primary approaches: extending or adapting the municipality’s MCDD mixed-use downtown district to the CDD3 corridor, or creating a floating/master-plan overlay that would let applicants propose a concept plan and return for final approvals. David, a city planning staff member, described the two-step overlay approach as one where “an applicant would come to you and basically pitch a master plan for the property” and then return for final approvals after the concept is accepted.

Members stressed simplifying the regulations to attract redevelopment. “If we could simplify, I think we can attract more development that we want — more redevelopment,” said a committee member, who added that making residential uses explicitly allowable in CDD3 is an “easy thing” the subcommittee can do. Several members argued that any incentive or overlay should include an affordability component; one member summarized that developments under an incentive overlay should “must have residential, must have affordability.”

The group debated whether to set minimum parcel-size thresholds for the overlay. Some members warned against arbitrary acreage cutoffs, saying developers will identify viable project sizes and that minimums can be exclusionary; others raised a countervailing concern about spot zoning and urged care in how new districts are drawn.

Staff agreed to compile minutes and the draft materials from previous meetings (including an August draft and discussions noted in September minutes), produce a consolidated narrative of prior ideas, and circulate those materials to members in advance of a special meeting. The subcommittee set a tentative special meeting for March 12 at 7:00 p.m. (Zoom) to review proposed regulatory language and, if ready, forward a version for full-board consideration and eventual circulation to regional reviewers and the public.

The meeting ended with the committee asking staff to prepare a short list of “must-haves” — the elements members consider nonnegotiable for any draft — and to flag statutory or procedural changes the subcommittee should consider before finalizing text.

Next steps: staff will assemble minutes and a narrative of prior work, members will review MCDD and CDD2 language, and the subcommittee will reconvene to try to produce language suitable for the full board and subsequent public circulation.