A closer look at the city’s goal for planning, code enforcement
During its final meeting of July, the city board of directors voted in favor of adopting a list of six goals for the city that they hope to fulfill or make progress toward between now and the end of 2020.
The list is comprised of six issues that are prevalent among most cities and municipalities — economic development and growth, infrastructure, planning and code enforcement, finance, parks and recreation and communication. Each of these priorities is accompanied by a goal statement that is subsequently
followed by one or more objectives that specify gradual steps the city will take in order to foster growth in each of these areas.
To help residents better understand each goal and their objectives, over the course of the last month the Herald-Leader has thus far provided a deeper look into the goals of economic growth and development and infrastructure. Today, the focus shifts to that of planning and code enforcement.
Much like economic growth and development and infrastructure, City Administrator Phillip Patterson plays an essential role in the execution and oversight of planning and code enforcement. Other key city officials responsible for assisting Patterson in the task include Community Development Director Don Clark and Senior City Planner Ben Rhoads. The board specified three objectives for the goal of planning and code enforcement, which are detailed below with further information.
Objective one
• Develop a form-based zoning code for the downtown area.
Current zoning regulations for the downtown area are what is formally referred to as Euclidean zoning, Patterson said. This traditional style of zoning is common in many cities across America and in essence, rests upon a fundamental principle that zoning regulations in a city should be determined by how they are used, not by how they are designed.
In contrast, a form-based code places a larger emphasis on the form, or design guidelines of a property and a lesser emphasis on how it is used. The desire to develop a form-based code for the downtown area is in part because currently, regulations for redevelopment in downtown mandate that a given structure be used for commercial purposes and align with the historic architectural style of Siloam Springs, Rhoads said. This includes a wide range of architectural styles common to the area from 1880 to 1940, which Rhoads said is the reason for the dramatic differences in the appearance of many of the buildings in downtown, ranging from the stucco style look seen at 28 Springs to the brick buildings that line Broadway Street.
By utilizing a form-based code, or possibly a mixture of form-based and Euclidean zoning regulations, Rhoads said that it will help to prescribe the end result of redevelopment that takes place. In addition to design consistency, Rhoads also cited a larger reason as to why form-based codes could prove to be beneficial for many cities across America.
“Part of the problem with American cities, particularly in the post-war period, is that the zoning’s prime objective was to protect the single-family house, and so it separated uses so far apart where you just get endless seas of rooftops with no other type of use,” Rhoads said. “That is mainly because of zoning, it just basically says ‘Okay, all of the residential (areas) can go on the edge of town and we will have commercial (areas) go in the center, and everybody has to drive back and forth.’ Well, we are now realizing that is not really working in the long run.
The first time you drive through a town, code enforcement has a huge hand in the way you see that town. You only get that one chance to make that impression as they come through your town and if we just let people do whatever they want and we do not regulate it, we could give a pretty bad impression.
Don Clark Community development director
“It causes traffic (and) it causes boredom, really, for people that live in these suburban developments that do not have anything to do other than see other houses. The form-based code is interesting because it actually does allow a lot more flexibility and a variety of different uses within a short walking distance. So, if you wanted to walk to get a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk rather than having to get in your car and drive through traffic to do that, this code actually allows more of that type of thing, that mix of uses which kind of creates a more vibrant and healthy community.”
Objective two
• Create a new and updated comprehensive city plan.
The city’s comprehensive plan is an extensive document that details the city’s vision for the future as it pertains to virtually every facet of the public sector. This includes things ranging from land use, to education, to parks to the electrical department. Patterson said that while it is not a code, the comprehensive plan should be thought of as a guide that the city board and planning and zoning commission refer to, because part of what informs their vote on an issue is whether it is consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan.
As of now, no areas of the plan have been identified that will be amended, Clark said. The desire to update the plan stems from the fact that it is supposed to be updated once every five years, and the last time a new plan was created was in 2008, Rhoads said. This can create problems because as time passes, priorities can often change, Clark said. For more information on the current city plan, the full document can be found at siloam springs.com.
Objective three
• Review and if needed, update the city’s property maintenance and nuisance code.
The property maintenance and nuisance code is a document comprised of a list of regulations designed to ensure that people are maintaining their property and behaving in a manner that ensures safety, peace among neighbors and the city’s overall aesthetic value. It consists of regulations pertaining to an array of things, such as playing excessively loud music, the handling of debris on one’s property that may have resulted from a fallen tree or leaving stagnant water laying around that could attract mosquitoes.
The reason updating the code became a priority is that its last update — presented to the board a few years ago — came from a nationally adopted code called the International Property Maintenance Code, which the city reviewed and put together a code based on that code’s best elements, Patterson said. Since about three years have passed, Patterson said that it is important to go back and look and see what is working, what is not or what could be added. This is because a common issue that emerges when revising this code is new issues were not previously considered that often arise, thus leaving the city unable to enforce a given issue because it is not included in the code.
Code violations are enforced by the city’s code enforcement officers, who have the authority to issue citations to those out of compliance with the city code. Clark said that while enforcing the code can often be difficult, that choosing not to do so would have undesirable consequences.
“That is the single most challenging thing, because you feel like you are telling someone what to do with something (their property) that is their own,” Clark said. “But, let’s just imagine that we didn’t (enforce the code). People could do whatever they want, whether it be trash in their yard or grass as tall as they wanted. The first time you drive through a town, code enforcement has a huge hand in the way you see that town.
“You only get that one chance to make that impression as they come through your town and if we just let people do whatever they want and we do not regulate it, we could give a pretty bad impression. That also goes to some of the things we often do not want to talk about, like dead animals on the street, when raccoons get hit, (code enforcement officers) go pick those up. It can also have other consequences, if you are a shop owner, not regulating code can affect your business, because people now do not want to come over here and shop, so it really could have domino effect if we did not go out and regulate those things.”