Providence City Council makes room for growth, development
September 11th, 2013 Posted in OpinionPROVIDENCE − The City Council meeting ran longer than usual Tuesday night when council and community members met to discuss matters related to planning and zoning. The majority of the three-hour meeting was spent voting on ordinance revisions and adoptions that are needed to accommodate the city’s growing size.
Skarlet Bankhead, city administrator, said that due to possible future development on the southeast and north sides of the city, existing ordinances needed to be revised.
“The ordinances that we’ve had work well given the terrain of the area we have already developed,” Bankhead said. “But as we climb up the slopes, we need clearer clarification for that type of development. That’s why ordinances can be changed.”
Bankhead said no new ordinances have been written, and the council has only voted on changes to existing ordinances proposed by the Planning and Zoning Commission. These revisions included regulations for developing overlay zones, which are areas with groundwater problems or possible wildfire sensitivity, and definition changes of collector streets, cul-de-sacs, feeder streets and sustained streets.
The council also named new members to the planning commission. With two seats available and three candidates, the council voted Larry Raymond and John Drew to serve as alternates. “You need good people to serve on the Planning and Zoning Commission,” said Raymond, who has been a resident of Providence for the last eleven years. “We have a responsibility to the city to keep these kinds of things moving.”
Councilman Dale Astle made it a point to remind the newly appointed of the duties of the commission. “They are the order takers, not the policy makers,” Astle said.
In other business, the council:
- Voted in favor of reducing the distance between residential driveways to 15 feet.
- Voted in favor of allowing welding and machine shops be located in the Commercial General District zone under a conditional license.
- Voted in favor of relocating the public utility easement to the north side of Lot 4 in the Sand Creek Hollow subdivision located at 164 North 300 East St.
- Sent the amendments for street and sidewalk improvements back to the planning commission for further clarification.
- Discussed the possibility of building a senior citizen center.
NW
Tags: city council, Dale Astle, Providence, Skarlet Bankhead, zoning ordinance revisions
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