After more than 20 years, the Village of Oxford is finally getting around to updating its entire zoning ordinance, which many have complained is confusing and disorganized.
‘It’s in about a three-inch binder with pages flying all over the place,? said John Jackson, executive vice president of the Northville-based McKenna Associates, Inc. ‘Supplements (are) stapled in there. I mean, it’s a mess.?
Council last week voted 5-0 to contract with McKenna to update its zoning ordinance for $42,700. ‘We have a confusing ordinance book,? said village President Chris Bishop. ‘This will solve some of these problems.?
‘We’re anxious to get moving on this,? Jackson noted. ‘This is the next step in the hard work that you guys have already done in terms of updating your master plan and updating your downtown (master) plan. Now we need to get the ordinance in place.?
When completed in about 18 months, the new zoning ordinance will be an electronic document available on CD and accessible on the village website.
‘That’s essential these days,? Jackson explained. ‘It’s going to be a whole new, clean document that’s easily searchable. It will have hyper-links. It will have cross references. It will have all that good stuff.?
Having a completely digital zoning ordinance will make it easier to update and amend in the future.
It will also help make the village, in particular its downtown area, become more competitive.
‘You guys are competing with other downtowns, other communities that have state-of-the-art zoning ordinances and procedures,? Jackson explained.
Jackson said updating the zoning ordinance is all about making it ‘more user-friendly, more flexible? and having ‘something that we can apply equitably to all the businesses, all the developers, all the landowners in the community, whether they’re corporate users, small businesses, or individuals.?
The biggest change will be the introduction of ‘form based zoning? to the downtown’s central business district.
Whereas traditional zoning emphasizes a building’s use, what type of business is being conducted inside, form based zoning emphasizes a building’s size, location on the site and relationship to other buildings and public spaces around it.
Form based zoning recognizes ‘the physical form is what’s going to be there for the next 50 years? so it’s important to have buildings that create the kind of community people want to live in and reflect their values, according to Jackson.
By being ‘more flexible? when it comes to a building’s use, form based zoning allows downtowns to respond to ‘changing economic conditions,? thus making it easier for them to adapt and continue to thrive, Jackson explained.
Bishop called the idea of form based zoning ‘intriguing? and was hopeful the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) would be willing to help pay McKenna’s bill.
‘It seems logical that this is the kind of expenditure that the DDA should support because this really is going to benefit everybody,? said downtown property owner and developer Chuck Schneider, who was appointed to the DDA last week.