CATOOSA, Okla. — The Catoosa Planning Commission voted to recommend approval to a Unified Development Code (UDC) that the city council will decide on March 3.
"It creates rules adopted by your elected officials," Catoosa Director of Development Jody King told the audience inside City Hall on Feb. 23. "It regulates building placement, (and it) is enforced through established city code processes and constitutional due process."
- Previous coverage>>> 'More small town feel': Zoning overhaul in the works for Catoosa
King made the case that changing the city's code to a form-based structure prioritizes keeping businesses close to each other and relevant to each other.
WATCH: Catoosa City Council set to decide new code policy
"The UDC actually reduces that subjective decision-making," King said. "If a process meets the standards, it can move forward. No politics, no surprises."
Currently, city ordinance has code language that tends to get a little messy, officials have said.
King said a unified version would allow better freedom for residents, not a massive development like a data center.
"I think what a UDC would do for us in the long run, especially with data centers and all these things coming up, is that it will actually give the people of Catoosa a clearer process of what they have to go through to get an approval, and not just seem like city council is approving it for one reason or another," King said.
- View the final UDC draft here.
After a few questions asked on the UDC's effect on individual properties, lifelong Catoosan and local developer David McAfee said he's waited years for better city regulations.
"It's definitely the right step because we need to update our zoning code, our building code, land outlines, all of that. We've got to get some consistency to the way we do things."
Without much concern from the planning commission either (it passed unanimously), it now passes to the city council to decide.
King told 2 News that if any of the 254-page draft seems confusing, his door is always open at Catoosa City Hall.
Catoosa City Council will vote on the UDC in a 6 p.m. meeting on March 3.
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