New code to modernize, simplify development approved by Colorado Springs City Council
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- By an 8-1 vote this week, Council members passed the first major update to its unified development code since the 1960s..
The code creates a modern and more user-friendly approach to zoning and subdivision regulations.
City officials said that the code regulates how property owners can use their land -- including requirements such as building height, setbacks from property lines, application procedures, parking and landscaping requirements, and how residents and neighborhoods can take part in the development process.
"Some things -- such as parking, landscaping and mixed-use development -- weren't considered in the old code," said city planning director Peter Wysocki. "The updated code allows us to better meet the needs of a growing city."
Three years of community and stakeholder involvement and public meetings with citizens and experts from across Colorado Springs preceded the vote.
The updated code is a facet of RetoolCOS, the current effort to improve PlanCOS; the latter is the Council-approved comprehensive plan for the city approved in 2019 to manage continued growth.
The code also includes guidelines -- but not requirements -- for reducing greenhouse gases; some builders feared requirements would raise construction costs that likely would be passed along to customers.
Some Council members were unclear about the guidelines and said that there should have been more of a discussion about them before the vote.
Dave Donelson was the only Council member to vote against the new code, partly because it includes a change increasing the distance from a project that citizens can appeal from two miles to three.
"I think we’ve received requests from citizens to do that; I know I have," he said. "I think this is another issue of trust with citizens. Some of them are suspicious that we’re trying to limit the process, shrink the process down, make it harder for them to appeal — which this wouldn't. We haven’t had a problem with lots of appeals in the past.”
The updated code takes effect June 5.
