Vidalia Proposes Neighborhood Ordinance

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During their meeting on Monday, July 13, the Vidalia City Council officially completed the first reading of a newly proposed ordinance that would allow neighborhoods to create overlay districts to add guidelines on the properties within the neighborhoods.

This new ordinance would add a new section to the City’s current zoning ordinance, allowing neighborhood continued from page

residents to petition to become a neighborhood overlay district to preserve their distinctive patterns of development, lot arrangement, walkability, building scale, civic or cultural character, historic or architectural features, and/or other characteristics through additional guidelines and rules. These neighborhood overlay districts may be used to encourage compatible development, redevelopment, reinvestment, and more of the neighborhood.

Neighborhood overlay districts can dictate several standards on: • Building placement, setbacks, height, massing, and scale • Lot width, lot cov erage, lot configuration, subdivision, and recombination • Parking location, driveway placement, access, and screening • Demolition, reloca tion, or removal of principal structures (reasonable exceptions for unsafe, casualty damaged, or emergency conditions) • Compatibility of new construction, additions, and major exterior alterations, including exterior materials where visible from a public street and where specifically regulated by the applicable overlay district • Front yards, porches, entrances, sidewalks, trees, fencing, and streetscape features • Accessory structures and accessory dwelling continued from page

units, where otherwise permitted • Transitions between residential, commercial, office, institutional, and mixed-use areas • Exterior mainte nance standards for structures or features visible from a public street to the extent authorized by law and consistent with the purpose of the specific overlay district • Conditional uses that may be approved upon application to the Planning and Zoning Commission Other lawful zoning standards consistent with the purpose of the specific overlay district, including restrictions beyond those applicable in the underlying zoning district.

According to the proposed legislation, neighborhood overlay districts would be created through the approval of petitions, which must be signed by property owners owning at least 10% of the parcels within the district. These petitions must include the name of the neighborhood overlay district; a description or map of the district’s proposed boundaries; a general statement explaining the reasons or justification for the district; the names, addresses, and signatures of petitioning property owners; and any other information that may be requested by the City’s Building Department, Planning and Zoning Committee, Mayor, or City Council.

All residents in the proposed neighborhood overlay districts do not have to approve the petition for it to be submitted. The Planning and Zoning Committee, Mayor, and/or City Council may consider, revise, expand, narrow, or modify the proposed overlay district’s boundaries, standards, procedures, exemptions, and effective date without the approval of the petitions, new petition, or additional signatures as long as the City administration follows all legal requirements of notices and hearings, as the neighborhood overlay district would be dictated and voted on as an ordinance.

Ordinances establishing neighborhood overlay districts should detail the name of the district; a statement of purpose; the boundaries of the district; the relationship between the district’s underlying zoning guidelines and the guidelines within the district; any supplemental use limitations or conditions, such as the dimensions, site development, design, demolition, subdivision, recombination, parking, access, landscaping, and other standards that differ from the underlying zoning district; any exemptions or administrative approvals; any procedures that differ from otherwise applicable zoning procedures; and any other provisions that may be necessary for the district.

Laws within each district’s underlying zoning district are still applicable to the properties within the neighborhood overlay district, as the district’s rules are in addition to the current zoning guidelines. When these laws and the regulations of the neighborhood overlay district conflict, properties should abide by the guidelines of the neighborhood overlay district unless otherwise denoted by the neighborhood overlay district ordinance.

The City’s Building Department will oversee the administration and enforcement of neighborhood overlay district standards, and will review permits, applications, plans, and proposed work within neighborhood overlay districts for compliance with the districts’ guidelines. No building permit, development permit, demolition permit, zoning approval, or other city approval subject to an adopted neighborhood overlay district shall be issued unless the Building Department agrees that it complies with the overlay district or has received any required approval, conditional use, variance, or other relief.

Applications for variances, special exceptions, conditional uses, and other relief from the requirements of a neighborhood overlay district may be submitted, reviewed, heard, and decided in accordance with the procedures, standards, notice requirements, time limits, and appeal rights otherwise applicable under the zoning ordinance, unless the ordinance establishing the specific neighborhood overlay district provides a different lawful procedure.

Neighborhood overlay districts may be appealed through the same process as a zoning appeal, and neighborhood overlay district amendments and repeals follow the same procedures as zoning amendments.

The creation of neighborhood overlay districts has not been officially approved by the Council. Community members may share their questions, concerns, or thoughts about the proposed legislation during a public forum at 5:30 p.m. on July 28, by emailing jbeck@vidalia.gov, or by calling (912) 537-7661. The ordinance will continue to be available for review throughout the month until the Council’s August meeting, slated for 6 p.m. on Monday, August 10.