The joint city and county planning department will host a virtual meeting on Aug. 22 to present newly proposed zoning districts and gather community feedback on the city’s new unified development ordinance, a comprehensive set of rules and regulations regarding development of buildings and land in Durham.
The new ordinance is being written to implement the policies of Durham’s Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in October 2023.
The new development ordinance is separate from SCAD (Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development), a developer-led amendment to the existing development ordinance, parts of which were adopted last year following heated debate.
“In contrast to SCAD, the new [ordinance] is an entirely new development ordinance,” according to the planning department’s website. “There are many components of the existing ordinance that may remain consistent as a part of the new [ordinance]. Many of the components of the SCAD amendment were consistent with the Durham Comprehensive Plan that was adopted in October of 2023, so there may be some carryover from SCAD to the new [ordinance], but this will be evaluated as a part of the new [ordinance] rewrite.”
The process of drafting the new ordinance is expected to take about 18 months from the beginning of the consultants’ work in November 2023, according to the department. As sections of the ordinance are drafted, they will be released to the public for review and feedback.
The meeting, the third in an ongoing series, will take place online from 6 to 7 p.m. A recording of the meeting will be available at a later date. Recordings of past meetings, as well as copies of presentations and drafts relating to the new ordinance, are available online.
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