(Credit: Images Camiros via Saratoga Springs; mashup, Steve Thurston, 2022)
Images from the Unified Development Ordinance, approved a second time in March 2022, show some of the ways the ordinance regulates development.
For a second time, the Saratoga Springs Unified Development Ordinance passed the city council and will go into effect July 15, four months from the date of approval. The resolution that passed unanimously voids three chapters of the city's code surrounding how land is used, subdivided and developed, and replaces them with the UDO.
The UDO outlines where the city may grow more dense, how far back a house must be set from the street, and a host of other regulations.
This second vote was required, the city council argued at their March 3 meeting, because the previous city council did not follow proper procedure late last year when the UDO was first approved.
The main contention, Mayor Ron Kim said two weeks ago, was that the UDO was passed without repealing the other laws. This would lead to confusion as to which rules guided development and zoning in the city.
The council also found troubles with the start date of the law and questioned whether a vote on a voice resolution, instead of a written resolution, would hold the force of law. (One legal expert told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com that the voice vote could be problematic, especially if the law was challenged in court.) Those points were clarified in the resolution that passed March 16.
This vote has particular significance for Saratoga Hospital’s proposed expansion on Morgan Avenue. With passage of the UDO, the parcel the hospital hopes to use for the expansion goes back to being zoned residential not zoned for medical office buildings.
In 2019 the city had changed the zoning from residential to medical office building, but an appeals court this February said the city had completed an improper environmental review when they changed the zoning.
Therefore the plan has to be stopped until the city can look at a change of zoning again. For now, the parcel remains residential.
The appeals court only found troubles with the environmental review, not with the idea that the city might want to change the zoning on that parcel.
Matt Jones, a representative for the hospital and an attorney with the Jones Steves law firm, said if the project will move forward, there are two steps: the city has to agree to complete a full environmental review before changing the zoning, and then the city must vote to change the zoning.
“That’s within their sound discretion. They would have to approve the process,” Jones said.
This may still be an uphill battle for the hospital.
Mayor Kim said after the vote: “I don’t know what we will do on this issue.”
If the city does approve the various processes, the project would go back to the city’s Planning Board for oversight and approval.