Skip to main content

Smaller homes approved for infill development in Morgan

Sep 25, 2023 01:18PM ● By Linda Petersen

The Morgan City Council has approved a new zoning tool, the Mixed Residential Overlay Zone, which they say will help provide a variety of housing types and development within the city. (An overlay zone is a zoning district that is applied over one or more previously established zoning districts).

Essentially the new overlay will allow for smaller pocket neighborhoods in existing developments and provide the city with a stock of small and medium single-family homes, townhomes, and two-family homes, that Mayor Steve Gale called “more attainable housing” that evening. 

“The purpose of this zone is to provide a variety of housing types: smaller homes, smaller lots, attached houses in the form of townhomes,” City Planner Jake Young said in the work session prior to the Sept. 12 city council meeting. “While it does come with additional units, it also comes with additional design requirements.” 

In this overlay zone, the residential buildings must have a traditional street orientation or be oriented to a connecting common green. At least 15 percent of the entire project must be dedicated to usable open space which must be accessible to all development residents; landscaping between buildings does not count. Of the usable space, 75 percent of it must be less than a 10 percent slope.

“If part of it does have a slope that's greater than 10 percent, then they would have to come in with a grading plan that would have to be approved at the same time,” Young said in the council meeting.

“We end up with a little bit more substantial project because a mixed residential overlay will require an HOA [Home Owners Association], he said of the new overlay in the work session. “It’s good to have a little bit of numbers with it so that they can survive, and also there's an open space requirement with that that'll be a little bit more substantial.” 

This overlay is only applicable to developments of four to 10 acres. If a property exceeds that, only 25 percent of it can have the overlay applied to it, Young said. In an existing development, the overlay can be implemented across separate parcels with none being less than 2.5 acres. It will not be allowed in these zones: Manufacturing and Distribution  R 1-20,  R-R,  Highway Commercial, Agriculture, or  Central Commercial. It is also not allowed on key commercial corridors such as State Street and Commercial Street. 

“This residential overlay zone is intended for infill development; it is not intended for larger developments or as a standalone master-planned community,” city documentation says. The city council and planning commission have been discussing the implementation of this overlay for more than a year. 

“There's been many, many hours and days and we'll even go into weeks and months, “ City Council member Dave Alexander said. “ … and so anybody that would have any interest in it, there's meetings between the planning commission and the council that need to be reviewed to understand, and you need to really be educated to understand what it is, and I think that's critical that's important in considering the decision tonight.” 

In the end, the city council voted 3 to 1 in favor of the new overlay; Council member Eric Turner voted against it. λ

Subscribe to the Morgan County News