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Columbia City Council Plans to Talk Zoning Reform

City of Columbia

The Columbia City Council met Monday to discuss setting the dates to finalize a unified development code later this month.

City council set February 20 as the first in a series of four potential public hearings regarding changes to the city’s development code. The council will vote to approve the code after any amendments are made.

The council will allow each resident to speak once for 6 minutes on the issue. An individual can only speak again once everyone who wishes to speak has done so.

Ward 3 Council Member Karl Skala says that one of the original intents of the current zoning downtown, called C-2 Zoning, was to have a few residences above a retail establishment. However, he says developers exploited a loophole paving the way for many high-density student complexes above retailers. Skala said these complexes are posing challenges to the city’s current infrastructure.

“Although we wanted to encourage residential development downtown, this monolithic development of downtown residential student developments put quite a strain on the city’s ability to deliver resources,” Skala said. “Other folks had to pay for it. These other folks, of course, are the community and the taxpayers.”

Planning and Zoning Commission member Anthony Stanton said it is good to put a fresh set of eyes on the issue.

“I believe that it was time to revisit this document and make sure that it reflects new technologies, new approaches to building, new approaches to urban planning,” Stanton said.

Skala said the reform is long overdue.

“Not reviewing a zoning code for 50 years can amount to a malpractice if you will. We should’ve done this much sooner,” Skala said. “But I’m glad we’ve done it now, and I’m glad that I could play a role in it.”