Council members also made a few other changes to the zoning ordinance that should allow a homeowner to build on his property on Lyman Court.

The first change added a restricted residential overlay to the area of ​​the property, which would restrict uses in the neighborhood to residential only, but allow higher density construction, such as apartments, duplexes or condominiums, in the neighborhoods. where these are allowed.

“What this superposition allows them to do is gain this density, but it gives neighboring properties, it gives the municipal council, the town planning and zoning commission, it gives them the certainty that it “There will be no commercial uses developed or built around these properties,” said Phillip Lookadoo, director of the city’s development and design department. “In the climate we find ourselves in now, with the housing shortage and so on, it really allows us to have a tool to be able to get higher density housing, especially in and around the city center, without fear of incompatible use adjacent to it. residential, or existing residential, rather.

After passing this zoning ordinance, council voted to change the zoning of approximately two acres on Lyman Court from low / conditional residential use to medium intensity neighborhood with the restricted residential overlay.

Originally the properties were zoned for conditional use, which meant that only one previously approved plan for the properties would be allowed, but the new zoning opens the properties to residential properties authorized in the MID.