The City of Auburn gave residents a chance to ask questions about the zoning initiative for the Downtown Overlay District, at a workshop session on Thursday night. Notifications were sent by mail to owners of 93 parcels affected by the rezoning.

City Planner Larry Lucas gave an explanation about the city's goals for the new district and how the zoning plays a role in its development.

"This is a means of controlling center aspects of the architectural design and property layout in the downtown area," Lucas said.

"So much of the area that is around downtown has this single-family designation, that we cannot develop the type of commercial core and concentration of business and supportive uses, to establish a downtown. So that is the purpose of changing the zoning of the properties underneath this overlay district to a category that is more compatible with the business direction that the administration wants to take downtown ... all to create a more vibrant, a more robust city center," he said.

"A place that embraces business and diversity of uses to establish a downtown residential population, to provide more jobs, more services and amenities to the City of Auburn."

The parcels in question are currently a mix of zonings that could potentially present conflicts with the recently adopted Downtown Overlay Ordinance.

Properties in the overlay area are proposed for a C-2 zoning (General Business District).
C-2 allows retail shops, but the overlay district will allow the integration of residential use and will have a degree of control over architectural structuring.

One resident was concerned about whether the city was currently marketing and courting developers to come into the city.

Lucas said that a few companies have expressed interest in what the city is doing and that Auburn is currently marketing to the Chamber of Commerce and other business development organizations.
"Sewer is coming to downtown and that's one of the reasons why we want to develop a core," Lucas explained. "The city is going to invest in sewer ... we want to get the maximum uses of it. The type of density that we have in the current zoning does not give us the best utilization of sewer," he said.
Current owners of the parcels in question will not need to change the way their property is used with the new zoning.

"It can remain as it currently exists," Lucas said. "But in the communities where we find vacant properties ... those properties now become available for [possible] commercial property."
Lucas said that the estimated time expected before the sewer is incorporated and running is 2010-11.

Some residents were concerned that strict guidelines may hinder their capabilities of branding their businesses.

"You don't want to make your standards so stringent that you'll lose your Fortune 500's, your bigger companies that may want to come in," one business owner pointed out. "Some are so restricted that they actually stifle growth rather than encourage growth and you don't want to go in that direction," he said.
Lucas said that if an area is attractive and viable enough that there is room for compromise.

"So we understand that they want to maintain their corporate branding, but our designs have a specific purpose, a specific intent, so we are more than willing to try and hammer out a middle-of-the road solution, but there has to be and give and take on both sides."

Mayor Linda Blechinger explained that maintaining that sense of compatibility is one of the reasons why the city decided to keep the overlay district somewhat small.

"We really are looking for this to be a destination that you know what to expect when you're coming here, you know what it's going to look like and it will be beautiful and everybody will be very proud of it," Blechinger said.

"All along this corridor and all the way out to Auburn Station will be lots and lots of different types of development, but in this, we're very specifically trying to make sure it stays within a certain standard."
The Downtown Development Authority is set to conduct its first meeting on Nov. 19.