Council Moves Forward With 2-Mile Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Plan
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa moved forward with an ordinance amending Title 17 or “Zoning” to add zoning code text and a map for a 2-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction.
RDG Planning and Design’s Charlie Cowell added comments to the discussion portion of the ordinance.
Cowell said that this update to the zoning code is an extension of the city’s comprehensive plan adopted back in November of 2022.
The comprehensive plan is an overall plan for the city that helps direct the development of policy.
Cowell said that since the end of last year, work has been underway to update the code, “going section by section with staff and others to review and take a look at existing code.”
Other changes in zoning include public industrial district, which includes things like schools, hospitals, and similar types of public or institutional buildings.
Lot sizes for residential construction and other supplemental regulations related to new uses since the last zoning code update were also explored.
There are now four commercial districts by code when previously there had been seven, having consolidated the code to match today’s needs.
Shawn Christ with the City of Oskaloosa said that the city is moving from a three-step approval process to a two-step approval process for site plans.
That process included staff review of the site plan, and once that was completed, the plan would move on to the Planning and Zoning Commission. If the site plan passed those two processes, it would then move to the city council for their approval.
Christ explained that through the streamlining of the process, the city council would no longer have the final approval of a site plan or project.
This process would also be used for the 2-mile extended jurisdiction around the City of Oskaloosa and not just those within the city limits.
This would apply, for example, if a subdivision were planned and built outside the city limits but within that 2-mile jurisdiction to get approval from the staff and Planning and Zoning Commission.
This streaming of approval could cut off three to four weeks for developers to get approval.
The Council approved the first reading of the proposed zoning ordinance changes.
