With hard work over many years, communities have developed proposals for their new or updated Community Standards District (CSD). But what happens after these proposals are submitted to the County? How can we make sense of the CSD at the end?
Creating or updating a CSD can seem unnecessarily long or complicated, but the process from proposal to final language involves several steps. Each step includes creating a draft document, and sharing it with the public for comments and feedback about the ideas. These drafts are also shared with other County Departments, such as Public Works, for comments and feedback about how to make it happen.
The first, and perhaps more important, draft document is the Concept Draft.
The Concept Draft highlights and summarizes the community’s intent or concerns related to the topics in the new or updated CSD. Examples include not wanting to see tract homes or gated developments, and wanting narrower roads to keep the rural feel. The Concept Draft is written in plain language and has photo examples of what a community wants or doesn’t want to see.
The Concept Draft is important because it will serve as a guiding document for future drafts. After the Concept Draft the information will be written in ordinance language, and the specific language have to meet the County’s legal standards and be consistent with other language in the County’s Zoning Code.
Because this process of refining ordinance language goes through several reviews, the Concept Draft will become the guiding document. We want to make sure we understand what the community wants to see in their CSD as we draft the document, and that at the end of the process the final CSD matches that intent.
Each participating community will have a Concept Draft developed as part of this process. To date, the following are available for public review:
Please check the specific community page or the Documents and Reports page for the full list.
A CSD is an important zoning tool to address a community’s specific needs, and communities have devoted many hours to identifying their needs. We want to make sure, at the end of the day, that we’re getting it right. Please help us by providing your comments and feedback. Learn more on our How To Be Involved website page!
