City staff propose cleaner code rewrite; council debates preserving legacy provisions vs. fresh baseline

Cherylyn Egner, who is leading the code update work, told the council staff initially intended a format-only revision but discovered inconsistencies—such as varying minimum home-footprint and lot-width standards and missing definitions for common uses—that made a pure formatting revision impractical.

"As staff worked through the update, we identified several inconsistencies that made a straight formatting-only revision difficult," Egner said, and asked Council whether to preserve existing content or allow staff to address logical conflicts in standards.

Patrick O'Brien, the development services director, said staff proposals include practical changes—like adjusting side-yard setbacks to improve vehicle access and accommodating ADUs—and suggested adding maximum setbacks in some commercial zones to encourage buildings fronting the street rather than large parking fields. He said work on comparison tools showing existing versus proposed language is time intensive, and staff paused to get clearer direction before proceeding.

Council members debated process and public outreach. Council Member Clark Taylor proposed preparing a clean, modernized code as a new baseline, then selectively reintroducing legacy provisions as needed; Council Member Staci Carroll asked for side-by-side comparisons for key sections and urged separating the general plan adoption from the code rewrite to reduce public confusion. Staff agreed to prepare highlighted comparisons of substantive changes and to consider sequencing the general plan and code processes separately.