Land Use and Development Code Update Project (Downtown Overlay Included)

The City of La Pine received a Transportation and Growth Management (“TGM”) Code Assistance grant in order to: (1) help the city create a vibrant, walkable, multi-modal downtown commercial core and, (2) to improve overall efficiency and user-friendliness of the land use process citywide.

These goals are consistent with the mission, goals, and objectives of the TGM program and “Smart Development” principles. The downtown elements of this Project follow up on a TGM education and outreach workshop titled “Streetscapes, Pedestrian Safety, and Pedestrian-Friendly Design Workshop.” The workshop and report, completed by SERA Architects in 2015, reviewed existing conditions in the downtown, highlighted opportunities and best practices, and made recommendations for downtown improvements, some of which involve the Zoning Ordinance.

In terms of overall effectiveness and functionality of the land use regulations as they apply citywide, this Project compared La Pine’s land use ordinances [i.e., Zoning Ordinance (Ord. No. 2012-05), Procedures Ordinance (Ord. No. 2011-03), and Land Divisions Ordinance (Ord. No. 2011-03) and amending ordinances] with best practices as represented in the TGM Model Development Code and User’s Guide for Small Cities - 3rd Edition (Model Code) as well as other development codes from other cities in Oregon.

Phase 1 of this Project concluded with the City Council’s approval of the Action Plan. The Action Plan identifies potential plan and code amendments “in concept” and in doing so helps direct the Phase 2 “Scope of Work.” The Action Plan builds on earlier project tasks and input including the draft and final Evaluation Memorandum, written comments and meeting discussions with the Project Management Team (PMT), nine stakeholder interviews (6/21 - 6/30/17), Planning Commission Work Sessions (6/21 and 9/20/17), a Joint Planning Commission/City Council Work Session (10/11/17) and City Council meeting (11/15/2017). 

Phase 2 of the project is underway. After initial feedback on a new Downtown Overlay Zone from the project Advisory Committee and Planning Commission in spring of 2018, the project team has developed Draft #1 of the amendments to the La Pine Comprehensive Plan and a new unified La Pine Development Code (LPDC). The amendments to the Comprehensive Plan are intended to update policies related to housing types and the downtown area to ensure consistency with the new LPDC. The new LPDC is organized into 10 articles, will eventually be adopted as Title 15 of the La Pine Municipal Code, and will replace the City’s multiple existing land use ordinances.

CITY OF LA PINE LAND USE DEVELOPMENT CODE OPEN HOUSE INSTRUCTIONS

The City would like your feedback on the new LPDC. A Virtual Open House has been setup to share information about the project, facilitate public review of the LPDC, and collect feedback on key topics. There are five steps in the Virtual Open House, which are presented as tabs on the top the site. You may review the tabs in any order, and it is not required to review or provide input on each tab. The Virtual Open House will be available through August 1st.

• Introduction: This tab provides background on the project and the draft Comprehensive Plan amendments. It also provides guidance for how to review the new LPDC.
• Explore the La Pine Development Code: This tab provides summaries of the articles of the new LPDC alongside a PDF of each article. Each of the PDFs can be downloaded and printed. Click the circled numbers (1 – 10) at the top to go to each of the 10 articles.
• Downtown Overlay Zone: This tab provides key information about the new Downtown Overlay Zone. Also, you can provide input by responding to survey questions and placing a comment on the map of the new overlay zone.
• High-Quality Development: This tab presents information about some of the key changes to development regulations and asks for your input through survey questions.
• Comments and Questions: This tab provides a form to submit any general comment or question about the project to the City.

Follow the link below to participate in the Virtual Open House:

The Virtual Open House Tour is now CLOSED. We are grateful to everyone who participated.

If you would like to review a PDF of the entire Draft #1 of the Comprehensive Plan amendments and the new LPDC, see the link in the list of “Supporting Documents” below.