Legislation designed to simplify residential and commercial development — from a homeowner building an addition on their house, to a project covering an entire downtown city block — will soon be before the Waukegan City Council.
Darnstadt made her comments during an extensive presentation to the council’s Community Development Committee on June 3 at City Hall. Committee members had few questions because they have offered their guidance for nearly a year. “I expect this to be attractive to developers when considering whether to respond for proposals for lakefront and downtown redevelopment,” Taylor said last year, when talking about the Unified Development Ordinance.
Starting with the city’s 1987 comprehensive plan, Darnstadt said several ordinances were created like the one for zoning and subdivisions. It became part of the comprehensive land use plan four years ago, and is now incorporated into the proposed legislation. While the existing ordinances impacting building and development contain primarily words, Darnstadt said the Unified Development Ordinance utilizes drawings and their techniques to simplify things for the user, as well as city employees helping them.
Among some of the changes, she said minimum lot sizes will be reduced. The need for arithmetic calculations to determine how large a building can be placed on a lot is no longer required.