The City of Beulah, North Dakota, asked SRF to provide a detailed analysis of the City’s Planning and Zoning Ordinance. SRF conducted an in-depth review of the ordinance to identify areas where language could be strengthened or was lacking all together. The review proved to be particularly challenging, dealing with numerous code amendments that remained to be incorporated into the original document.
The North Dakota Century Code, task force input, and SRF’s zoning and land use experience were utilized to expose areas that needed to be revised or were lacking. Existing sections of the ordinance that remained useful were singled out for their usefulness. SRF provided suggestions of new provisions that could be utilized to enhance the ordinance and to achieve the goals outlined by the task force. The end result of the project was a document that accomplished the following:
- Provided a list of all of the City’s goals for their future ordinance;
- Identified areas where changes were necessary for consistency with State law;
- Identified provisions that should be kept, revised, or removed to achieve the City’s goals; and
- Identified new language and diagrams that would achieve the City’s goals.
SRF is currently working with the City to update the planning and zoning ordinance. Working intimately with a City planning and zoning task force, the process is driven by City review and input, working through each Article of the ordinance at a time.
The entire ordinance will be re-formated into a comprehensive, user-friendly document. Numerous tables and graphics will be utilized to efficiently present information and simplify the effort it takes to find and understand different regulations.
