Jayne Kirkpatrick, Director, Public Affairs

 

For more information: Christine Darges, Development Services Manager, 919-996-2634

 

May 6, 2013

 

City Staff Finalizing Unified Development Ordinance

 

To prepare for the Sept. 1 effective date of the City of Raleigh’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), City staff is working to put the finishing touches on the document. The City Council, which approved the UDO on Feb. 18, has directed City staff to revisit some items with stakeholder groups and finalize recommendations. Items to be revisited include residential garages, transparency, building step backs and open space, site access/cross access and tree conservation.

On May 31, City staff will deliver to the City Council the updated UDO draft document accompanied by a memo addressing the revisited items. After delivery to the council, both the draft document and the memo will be available on the web at www.raleighnc.gov, type “unified development ordinance” in the search engine. The Council will then have 30 days to review the material at which time it will hold a workshop to finalize recommendations. Once approved, the finalized document will be available to the public.

City staff will be conducting informational sessions for the general public and training labs for the development community. The UDO Training Labs will be conducted during the months of June, July and August every Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. The sessions will run 2 to 3 hours, beginning at 11 a.m. at local design firms. Specific sites will be announced later.

The UDO Training Labs will include a study of real development projects, selected by the participants and reviewed under the new UDO. These case studies will give project engineers, land planners, surveyors and architects an opportunity to understand the purpose, structure and regulations of the new code. In addition, it will provide information focused around their area of expertise. For additional information, visit the City’s website at www.raleighnc.gov. Type “UDO Training Labs” in the search engine or contact Marianne Sweden at 919-996-2678.

 In addition, staff will be holding an information session on the UDO at a meeting of the Raleigh Citizen Advisory Council on Wednesday, May 15, at 7 p.m. in the City Council chamber on the second floor of the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett St. A UDO hotline has been set up at 919-996-2580 to address specific questions about the UDO.

Simultaneous to the UDO training effort will be the development of two significant regulatory documents known as Raleigh Street Design Manual and Street Typology Map. The Raleigh Street Design Manual is a rewrite of the Street Sidewalk and Driveway Access Handbook that provides information about roadway systems, regulations and design criteria for streets, sidewalks and driveway access. The Street Typology Map will apply the new UDO street types to the City’s existing thoroughfare and collector street map. Both are scheduled for public hearing in July. The date of the public hearing has not been determined and will be announced later.

The new zoning map is being developed and is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year. The draft map then will be released for public comment and review. Staff will revise the draft zoning map and forward to the Planning Commission for review, followed by City Council review. Then a public hearing will be held followed by City Council action on the rezoning map revisions.

The City of Raleigh is now accepting Rezoning Petitions for Unified Development Ordinance Zoning Districts. All rezoning petitions must request a Unified Development Ordinance zoning district. Pre-application meetings are required and can be scheduled by contacting Deshele Sumpter at 919-996-2626. Petitions that request a "legacy" zoning district not contained within the Unified Development Ordinance will not be accepted. The Planning Commission will meet after the effective date of Sept. 1 to discuss rezoning petitions in the order in which they were received.

Additional information about the new rezoning process can be found on the City’s website at www.raleighnc.gov., type “rezoning” in the search engine.

For additional information, contact the City’s Development Services Manager, Christine Darges, at 919-996-2634.