Pensacola may rewrite zoning rules to enhance affordable housing, historic preservation

A rewrite of Pensacola's land development code, the document that governs what city residents can do with their property and what can be built in the city, could begin now that an assessment of the LDC has finished.

Inspire Placemaking Collective Inc. has turned in its assessment of the city's land development code and recommends a reorganization that could include boosting affordable housing, historic preservation efforts, and coastal resiliency.

Inspire Placemaking Collective was hired in 2023 to conduct a $100,000 assessment of the city's LDC. The company's contract includes an option for the city to engage the company to conduct a full rewrite of the LDC based off of its assessment. The company's report said a full rewrite would cost $397,370 and would include multiple meetings to get public input on any proposed changes.

City staff are expected to give a presentation on the assessment report on Tuesday to the Pensacola Planning Board.

Last month, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said it was his intention to move forward with a rewrite of the LDC and that he was expecting a tough political battle related to affordable housing.

Reeves expanded on those comments at a press conference last week saying that Inspire Placemaking Collective assessment was phase one.

"(We're in) the audit phase that we're coming to the end of, and then phase two is where I expect there to be a political fight," Reeves said. "I don't know yet over what, but I expect a political fight will be when it comes to implementation."

Reeves said there's always a tension between allowing for growth and development while also protecting the character and quality of neighborhoods.

"When we get to that phase two, we're going to have some complex and difficult conversations probably over some of these things," Reeves said.

The release of the assessment is the first preview of some of the proposals that may be up for consideration.

Patricia Tyjeski, project manager for Inspire Placemaking, wrote a memo detailing the assessment's recommendations and said the main focus of the rewrite should be to create a document that is easy to understand and read. Tyjeski recommended rearranging and combining many chapters of the LDC to make it easier to understand.

As far as any specific policy proposal, Tyjeski said if any proposal is expected to be controversial or becomes controversial, it should be pulled out and considered under a separate ordinance to focus on the primary goal of restructuring the LDC.

With that caveat, the report said the city should consider changes such as creating a "parking waiver" for urban-area developments to be exempt from parking space requirements and pay into a public parking fund that would focus on providing public parking in the city's urban areas.

For affordable housing, the report noted that the city LDC allows for density bonuses and transfers for affordable housing developments and other uses. A density bonus allows homes or buildings to be built with higher residential densities than otherwise allowed by zoning.

"The primary objectives of the bonus program are currently unclear," Tyjeski wrote. "For example, it is clear that the city wants to increase the supply of affordable housing. However, it does not specify which income level it is targeting."

The report pointed out several policy options, such as allowing 10% to 15% of a development to be affordable housing and breaking the share down by income levels to allow for different types of affordable housing.

Related: How can Pensacola build more affordable housing? Experts will review zoning laws for solutions

The report also suggested looking into "mandatory inclusionary zoning," where all market-rate developments in certain areas are required to include a share of affordable housing units.

The assessment also suggested eliminating parking requirements for affordable housing developments served by public transit and creating parking exemptions for accessory residential dwelling units.

The report also pointed out that most city residential areas are zoned exclusively for single-family use. Those zones put restrictions on attached dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes or quadplexes, and requires lot setbacks for building, all of which increase the cost of building a home.

However, the report implied that changing single-family zoning is probably too controversial to be considered in this rewrite of the LDC.

"Addressing this issue, however, would be challenging and require more substantial public input than the LDC rewrite includes," Tyjeski wrote.

The city could also boost its historic preservation by being designated as a Certified Local Government by the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service. Getting the designation requires changes to the LDC and setting up a historic preservation board, but it would also open up the city for grant funding for preservation efforts, such as getting properties onto the National Register of Historic Places, according to the report.

Other changes include boosting environmental protections such as requiring the use of native plants, encouraging shared and reduced parking, the use of permeable paving, requiring tree shading in parking lots and requiring low-impact design in coastal areas.

"We've shown that we're willing to try to do difficult things here that are easier to just not do at all to not make anybody upset," Reeves said last week. "But this is about the city, and it's about all of us."

The planning board meets Tuesday at 2 p.m. at City Hall.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Land Development Code Inspire Placemaking audit done