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94 Issues Summary ENHANCE STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZ4TION There is significant room for improving the organization and structure of the existing regulations. The development review procedures are not consolidated. Another structural problem is the sequence of information in the current ordinance. There are a few sections that do not fit and appear out of sequence. In additon to structural issues with respect to the procedures and definitions, there are also some organizational problems with the development standards themselves. These kinds of problems make compliance with and interpretation of the ordinance difficult Mulfiple sets of definitions are another problem. Modern ordinances establish one single set of definitions to help make the document as user-friendly as possible. Proposed,UDO Structure " o'- Article 1" ~, Gene'ral Promsions. :'~ Article 2 - Administration Article 3 Zoning Districts Article 4 ~ Use Regulations Article:5 Development5tandards . S bd'vision Staridards Article,6 u, 4 To remedy these concerns, and make the new code more customer- - friendly, we recommend the UDO be re-organized to create a ~ Article 7 NonconformiNes comprehensible and logical hierarchy of regulations, based on . procedural and substantive relationships. All procedures should be '_!. Article~8 Enforcement consolidated into one arfide; furthermore, not only should the procedures be consolidated, but provisions common to all procedures should tie included in a common procedures section in , ~ ArticleA Definitions the article. Zoning district use regulations should be modernized ~ - "- and consolidated into a single article. Development standards should be consolidated and their applicability to different types of development clarified.~We also suggest relocating and consolidating the definitions into one article located at the back of the UDO, since it typically serves as a supplementary reference tool rather than as a primary source of regulatory information. otherddevelopment related regulatons sucDhOas stormwateremanagement, fdloodplain, and ebos ant conVOl that aref located in the Town's Code of Ordinances. IMPROVE FORMAT AND ILLUSTRATIONS Dynamic Heeder Prominent Tillaz w Nested Teal ^ Illusuotions ---.._ with Captions Balance aehveen Tezl amt Yfiire Space ~ pogo Numbers ~` Documenr Title, Adoption Dole \ Over the years, experience has taught that the way a development code "looks;' or is formatted, affects its "customer- friendliness." There are a number of formatting and related suggestions that can be applied to the town's new UDO that will also improve its "customer-friendliness." Recommendations are detailed below. Establish a Hierarchy of Sections and Articles To better organize the procedural and substantive issues addressed in the new UDO, we recommend using a hierarchy of articles and sections, as well as a hierarchy of section headings and font types and sizes to illustrate the relationship of the procedural and substantive provisions. As discussed above and outlined in detail below, we recommend that the UDO be divided into 9 articles. In addition, we recommend separate section and subsection headings be used to provide "guideposts" that distinguish provisions by topic and purpose. _. Improve Referencing System The existing ordinance also has room for improvement in its referencing system. Cross references are not widely used in the existng ordinance, and the table of contents, while moderately detailed and clear, could also be enhanced and streamlined. Hillsborough, North Carolina Unified Development Ordinance I Draft hovem6ero, 2009 Page 4