The six-month moratorium on large-scale projects that Midway enacted last August expires Thursday. During the past six months, no applications for large-scale, multi-unit projects were submitted.
Midway City Councilor Steve Dougherty says during the downtime, the council and planners worked to update the general plan and city development code.
“We’ve made substantial headway in that respect but haven’t gotten it over the finish line yet,” he says.
At its regular meeting Tuesday, the council voted against another moratorium. Instead, it opted for middle ground between its priorities of updating city code and reviewing building applications, which could come in high volume after the six-month pause.
The council voted to move ahead with updating three building ordinances.
When the approval process is complete, the city will be able to prioritize applicants who are city employees. In addition, dark-sky considerations will apply to future developments. And a third ordinance governs planned-unit developments, which are subdivisions with separate density and zoning rules.
The city needs to enact those ordinance changes within six months for the regulations to apply.
As Dougherty explains, the six-month ‘pending ordinance’ process is a way to give the city time to work on those code changes.
“Anybody that files an application that would be affected by those ordinances is going to be subject to whatever changes come about in the end,” he says.
A video recording of Tuesday’s city council meeting is available on the Midway City Facebook page.