Monroe shows off new code standards

Editor’s Note: The storms hit at about the same time as the zoom meeting got underway and with power failures in several areas, not everybody was able to attend the virtual meeting. Click or tap on the links at the end to see the documents that were presented.

The City of Monroe continues to roll out its new proposed code standards for local zoning and planning purposes, demonstrating the latest revisions and proposals Thursday at a virtual Code Monroe meeting. Held via Zoom, with more than 50 people signed in throughout the 45-minute presentation, the meeting gave residents a look at Monroe’s plans for the future via an overhauled set-up of what planners call character-based code.

“The whole idea of character-based code is to be pedestrian friendly,” Bill Wright, director of zoning for Town Planning Urban Design Collaborative LLC, the company helping write the new code language for the city. “If you have blocks too big to walk, people don’t walk.”

Wright said the TPUDC team had toured Monroe and interviewed numerous people in the city to get an idea of what people in Monroe wanted from their town and how they currently saw their city.

“What we heard was housing prices are high,” Wright said. “People love Monroe’s small-town character but they need more housing choices. They want a lifelong community here. And they want to preserve the mill buildings and their history.”

Accordingly, the new code will include various designations for what Wright called “character districts,” in which housing is organized by the look and feel the city wants in various parts of town. Those include CD-3 for neighborhoods, primarily single-family housing; CD-4 for neighborhood centers, a more general urban feel with medium intensity; CD-5 for urban center, the densest layout for housing and living closest to downtown; CD-CV for civic buildings, such as libraries and museums, and open spaces for public gatherings and city events and SD-M, the Mill Special District, which is designed to preserve the existing mill buildings and have a wider range of residential, industrial and manufacturing within its range.

“The mill buildings will be protected,” Wright said.

The code also lays out the usual expectations from city planning, from parking spaces to yard area and more. Wright placed particular focus on private frontage — the amount of space in front of a house or building, including porches, awnings and more.

“If you can get private frontage right, they said, everyone else follows in lockstep to make a great place,” Wright said.

The entire presentation document is currently readable online at monroega.gov with the code plan at this link. The city is accepting comments, criticisms, suggestions and corrections through Sept. 28 at FBC-Comment@monroega.gov. The city hopes to have the final draft ready to approve later this fall.