According to a letter sent to the City Council, the Mayor, with the input of Planning Director, Barney Heath, Council President Marc Laredo, and Zoning and Planning Chair, Susan Albright, has decided to “extend the time of delivery of a final draft zoning ordinance to the City Council to the calendar year 2020.

“My decision was made for two reasons.  First, we recently concluded the 1st draft Zoning Redesign ward-by-ward meetings and listened carefully;we know we have considerable work to do on the second draft to ensure we have the right rules in place to direct the future development of our community. Second, we have a sizeable work load in our Planning Department for the rest of this calendar year. This includes important and time-sensitive planning work reviewing the Northland Special Permit application, a Vision Plan and anticipated special permit application for Riverside,updating our inclusionary zoning provisions, developing and presenting a Climate Action Plan, and completing work on the Vision Plan and associated zoning for Washington Street. I am confident the Planning Department can ably complete these initiatives in 2019 if we extend zoning redesign into 2020.”