MARQUETTE — Marquette city officials are seeking the public’s input on a proposed Community Master Plan amendment and Land Development Code project, which addresses incorporating contemporary zoning, sign and fence ordinances, and allows property owners to legally have chickens, hens, rabbits and bees in city limits.

City Planner and Zoning Administrator Dave Stensaas said the LDC project will reflect a “healthier pattern of development” for the city since the zoning ordinance currently in effect was adopted in 1978.

“Those standards that are in there now have never holistically been addressed,” he said. “They were created on a much different idea of how the city should develop. It was based on a kind of suburban standard and basically it was trying to encourage people to combine smaller lots and build bigger houses and that just didn’t work.”

Since zoning ordinances in regards to lot sizes, widths, setbacks and so forth, are outdated and the LDC project will make a lot of “non-conforming” lots, conforming, Stensaas said.

“I think for most people this is going to be really positive,” he said. “The Land Development Code is going to make it a lot easier for people to, in the residential districts, to develop their property with accessory structures.”

The LDC project will reduce lots in the general residential district to 37 and-a-half feet.

“There’s going to be a lot more space for people to locate an accessory structure in their yard,” Stensaas said. “There was a way the yard was divided up in the back of the house to how you could develop in that back area and that’s been changed to make that available space back there. You can only cover 25 percent of it with accessory structures, basically it’s an open space kind of rule.”

The code, he said, allows for more flexibility without necessarily degrading the property.

“Housing density is one of the things the planning commission is honing in on,” he said. “This will allow accessory dwelling units. That’s another structure that could be constructed for a family member on the property. It could be attached to the main structure or be separate as long as it conforms to the setback and height requirements.

“A lot of people have been wanting to see that happen and that’s where this code has been incorporating more contemporary ideas and things that work for Marquette. There’s been a lot of work to make sure we’re not just copying a code from somewhere else. Every line in the code has been read by the planning commission, debated, and there’s been a lot of work to make sure the code is right for the city of Marquette.”

The LDC also addresses sign standards so commercial businesses have more flexibility. For example, there won’t be permit fines for signs that don’t take up more than 50 percent of window space or for sidewalk boards and signs outside of commercial buildings like there is currently.

The code is going to make it legal to have chickens, hens, rabbits and bees in city limits as well. According to Stensaas, the planning commission heard from various beekeepers and representatives from the health department before incorporating it into the project.

The code also minimizes parking requirements for retail and commercial businesses and creates a riparian buffer zoning district that applies to areas where there are bodies of water, wetlands, and so on.

The city adopted its most recent CMP in August 2015 and $50,000 in funding was approved for the preparation of new land-use codes in the city’s 2015-2016 fiscal year budget.

Shortly after the CMP process was initiated in December 2016, staff applied for and received a grant of up to $35,000, in part, by the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program, Office of the Great Lakes, Department of Environmental Quality, under the National Coastal Zone Management Program, through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant helped initiate the LDC project, which kicked off June 2017 after consultant McKenna Associates was hired and concluded a diagnostic review of the city’s existing land-use codes, CMP, and other codes and relevant planning documents, according to city documents.

The city’s planning commission has conducted 29 work sessions on the project and is charged with recommending a final draft to the city commission. An Ad-hoc Advisory Committee was formed to oversee the process of developing the LDC, with the committee completing its designated period in August.

There will be an open house presentation at Lakeview Arena’s Citizen Forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday where a presentation of the LDC draft will be held. After the presentation, attendees can ask any questions and address concerns.

Stensaas initiated a 42-day public comment period for the CMP amendment on Monday until Nov. 25.

To view the CMP amendment and LDC project, visit www.marquettemi.gov, or the city’s community development department Facebook page.