Champaign Zoning Changes

Zoning rule changes were discussed at last night's City of Champaign Council study session. Excerpt from today's News-Gazette:

The five zoning districts span an area roughly from Columbia Street on the north to John Street on the south and Randolph Street on the east to Prospect Avenue on the west, as well as an area extending south along Randolph, State and Prairie streets to Avondale Avenue...

Among the changes is requiring that a building's footprint be a certain size so a small lot isn't being stuffed with a big building or an inconsistently big building being put on a large lot. Kowalski said the footprint accounts for a building's perimeter, including any attached garage.

Also included in the changes is renaming two of the five zoning districts to reduce confusion and requiring that new developments follow certain external design requirements. Those include not allowing motel-style balconies and requiring that building materials be true brick, stone, wood or fiber cement.

Some members of the working group of residents said the changes are generally good but could be tweaked. There was concern that the zoning regulations weren't being changed enough.

More at the full article here. More at the agenda web page and their progress report here. There's a map in that PDF file as well as a picture below (click to enlarge):