Milford to review zoning and subdivision codes in 2021

Noah Zucker
Posted 2/8/21

MILFORD — This year, the city’s Planning Commission will take stock of its current zoning and subdivision code and brainstorm ways to improve it. “It’s kind of an opportunity to take an …

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Milford to review zoning and subdivision codes in 2021

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MILFORD — This year, the city’s Planning Commission will take stock of its current zoning and subdivision code and brainstorm ways to improve it.

“It’s kind of an opportunity to take an overall look at what the city’s regulations are related to zoning and subdivisions,” said Rob Pierce, Milford’s planning and economic development director. “It’s not geared to be a major transformation. We’re not doing a complete rewrite.”

He said this review is overdue. The subdivision code, for example, hasn’t been updated in over 15 years, Mr. Pierce said.

“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t stepped back to try to do a holistic review,” he said. “The intent is to kind of go through as a group and discuss these things together. There’s nothing concrete being proposed yet.”

The changes he’ll suggest come from a number of places. Some are recommendations outlined in the city’s 2018 comprehensive plan, but Mr. Pierce also hopes to fix discrepancies he’s found in his six years enforcing the code and possibly minimize the number of applications that come through Board of Adjustment meetings.

But, because the commissioners will help shape these potential changes at upcoming meetings, Mr. Pierce doesn’t yet have a clear idea of what the outcome may be.

“I don’t know what the changes will be, so it’s hard to gauge what the impact will be,” he said.

He did, however, hazard some educated guesses.

“A lot of this stuff will make the code easier to understand” for both residents and developers, Mr. Pierce said, but, ultimately, “what the Planning Commission and council will want to change will kind of depend on how it impacts folks.”

He does hope that the changes the Planning Commission eventually recommends will minimize the number of applications that appear before the Board of Adjustment, which receives a lot of repetitive requests for variances to the code.

At the last Planning Commission meeting in January, Mr. Pierce gave an example. Of 132 requests the Board of Adjustment had reviewed in the past four years, more than a quarter were for variances to lot coverage requirements. On some occasions, developers have had to come before the board and request the same variance on nearly identical lots in the same subdivision over and over again.

Also at the January meeting, Mr. Pierce introduced the committee to the sections of code they would be reviewing. On Feb. 16, he will help the commission facilitate its first workshop on the zoning code scheduled this year.

He said the first meeting will “mainly deal with more administrative sections that me and the solicitor would probably need to review,” which is “more procedural and legal.”

At the end of the meeting, he hopes to get some feedback from the committee.

“We’re going to read through … the off-street parking and loading standards (and) the landscape screening standards,” Mr. Pierce said. The goal will be to “have some general discussion with the group to find out what their ideas are.”

Those interested in tuning in can do so via Zoom at bit.ly/2NaA2vP.

This first monthly workshop is one of four scheduled through May. The first three will handle Section 230, which is the city’s actual zoning code. The last one will pertain to Section 200, which governs the subdivision of land within city limits.

All the workshops — the remainder of which will be March 16, April 20 and May 18 — are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. and will conclude before the regular Planning Commission meetings at 7.

After these workshops conclude in the spring, Mr. Pierce will write up a summary of the Planning Commission’s findings and present it to council.

“I’m hoping to have something for City Council before the end of this year,” he said.

Tentatively, Mr. Pierce hopes to finalize a draft of the Planning Commission’s recommendations at its meetings in June. Then, he plans to hold two public hearings in July and August — first at a Planning Commission meeting, then at a City Council meeting.

Although this is the first wholesale review of the city’s zoning and subdivision codes during Mr. Pierce’s tenure, that does not mean the planning department, the Planning Commission and City Council haven’t been updating the zoning code on a line-by-line basis as needed.

For example, Mr. Pierce said the city has put tighter regulations on yard sales and added new housing categories in the form of town houses and garden apartments. Additionally, he said a 2019 revision added microbreweries to the city’s zoning code.

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