Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a Unified Development Ordinance?
2. Why Is The City Re-writing its Development Ordinance?
4. Who Is Managing The Project?
5. What Is the Schedule For The Project?
6. Where Can I Get Copies of Project Documents?
1. What Is a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)?
A UDO is a city’s official document that regulates growth and development. It includes zoning, subdivision, and environmental regulations that govern the location, size, and appearance of new development and redevelopment projects in Burlington and its extra-territorial jurisdiction (land outside the city limits but still subject to the city’s development regulations). The UDO includes the zoning district regulations, development review procedures, and development standards such as those covering parking, landscaping, building setbacks, size, and appearance. It also includes the standards to protect environmentally sensitive areas and to ensure development avoids unsafe areas such as flood plains and steep slopes.
2. Why Is The City Preparing a UDO?
The City of Burlington has been piecemeal revising and amending its current zoning code and subdivision regulations since they were first adopted in the 1970s. Throughout the decades, some provisions of these ordinances have become obsolete, are no longer relevant, or do not support contemporary goals of the City. Before commencing the UDO preparation process, the City’s Planning and Community Development Department initiated a Comprehensive Planning process—the first in the City since 1991. Through the Destination Burlington Comprehensive Plan, the City has set out its goals for the next twenty years, and now the UDO project will result in new development regulations that support those goals, including redevelopment of industrial sites, downtown revitalization, beneficial infill development in established neighborhoods, and a focus on economic success through commerce.
4. Who Is Managing The Project?
RATIO and CodeWright Planners are the consulting team retained by the City to assist the Planning and Community Development Department staff with the revisions to the current Development Ordinance. They will be working directly with an Advisory Committee, as well as receiving input from all interested stakeholders within the City.
RATIO is an interdisciplinary design practice offering services in urban design and planning, architecture, historic preservation, interior design, landscape architecture, and graphic design. RATIO has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, Indianapolis, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, and Champaign, Illinois. RATIO has been involved in numerous development ordinance revisions, comprehensive plans, corridor plans, and downtown master plans. More information on the firm can be found at www.ratioarchitects.com.
CodeWright is a planning and zoning consultancy in Durham, North Carolina, that is dedicated solely to the preparation of effective development codes, design standards, and growth management strategies for local governments. CodeWright strives to make complex regulatory concepts understandable to everyone, and is committed to providing deliverables that are clear, precise, and predictable through graphics and modern page layout techniques. More information on CodeWright can be found at www.codewright.info.
5. What Is The Schedule For The Project?
The Design Burlington project is comprised of six distinct steps. The schedule completion date is tentative but expected to take approximately 28 months from the time the project was initiated. The project was officially initiated on October 23, 2014.
Task 1, Project Initiation, was completed in December, 2014.
Task 2 involves the preparation and coordination of an Ideas Forum with City Council, the project’s Advisory Committee, and the public in early January 2015.
Task 3, Code Assessment, will involve a thorough study of Burlington’s existing development regulations and its goals for the future. This step will result in a code assessment report that serves as a “road map” for the new UDO structure and approach. The Code Assessment Draft was made available to the public in March, 2016.
Task 4, Code Drafting, involves writing the first draft of the new UDO in three modules (groups of chapters), which is expected to take about 11 months.
Then, the public hearing portion of the effort is expected to get underway in Task 5, Adoption. This includes preparation of a public hearing draft version of the UDO and a series of public hearings on the document by the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Council.
Task 6, Training, will commence following adoption of the new UDO, and is intended to familiarize city staff, members of the city’s review boards, members of the development community and interested members of the public with the new development regulations in the UDO.
6. Where Can I Get Copies of Project Documents?
The Documents and Materials page of this website will be updated regularly to include links to all documents, presentations, and supporting information relevant to the Design Burlington project.
