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Vol. 27, No. 23
YOUR HOMETOWN NEWS SOURCE | WWW.THEPRESS.NET
Oakley planning panel wants to change the rules By Connor Robles Correspondent
Oakley wants to change its rules for zoning and housing. The Planning Commission adopted a resolution recommending that the City Council approve zoning and housing changes to the Oakley Municipal Code at their June 3 meeting. If the City Council adopts a resolution in turn, the changes will allow for more and higher-density affordable housing, allow the municipal code to establish a formal process for requesting reasonable zoning accommodations, and support special needs housing in accordance with state law. The recommended changes are divided between three policy actions. The first, policy action 1.1, will modify
Section 9.1.410 of the Oakley Municipal Code. It will make changes to the city’s affordable housing overlay district, which can be layered over an existing district to provide incentives for developers to build affordable housing in those districts. The modifications will allow affordable housing overlay districts to be layered over commercial zones, allowing housing to be built there, though their use will be limited to less than half of the total affordable units in the city’s regional housing needs allocation. More of these affordable housing units can also be built in one area than before, with a density range of 20-30 dwelling units per acre instead of a fixed density of 24 per acre. The second policy action, num-
June 6, 2025
Liberty PADA unveils new project
Photo by Jeff Weisinger
L
iberty High School’s PADA program cut the ribbon on their latest student-built sculpture, an addition to last year’s project on Sand Creek To view a video and a slideshow of the event, Road in Brentwood. visit www.thepress.net/multimedia
see Planning page 22A
Storage space versus job creation in Brentwood City planners: change municipal code to limit number of facilities
Brentwood may soon change its municipal code in a way that would keep new self-storage facilities from being built in the city.
By Jake Menez Staff Writer
The city of Brentwood is looking to change part of the municipal code to potentially restrict the advent of self-storage facilities as the city continues to grow. The Planning Commission voted 5-0 during their June 3 meeting to recommend that the City Council adopt these changes at a future meeting. “It makes sense to limit these a little bit,” Chairperson Rod Flohr said. Flohr cited self-storage facilities as “not big job producers” while pointing out that 88% of
Brentwood residents commute out of the city for work. “We really want to get some jobs in Brentwood.” The proposed changes to the zoning code would effectively stop any new storage facilities from breaking ground in
Brentwood. There are six of them in the city and more in surrounding cities such as Oakley. “Given the scarcity of remaining vacant commercial parcels, self-storage facilities may not be the highest and best
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use of the land,” according to the agenda packet for the meeting. Staff recommends continuing to restrict self-storage facilities…It is recommended, however, that the zoning code should be updated to clearly define self-storage facilities to create development standards for new or redeveloped facilities within these zones to ensure compatibility with surrounding uses.” The proposed development standards for facilities include, among other expectations, architectural standards, height restrictions, and perimeter fencing requirements. Commissioner Gerald Johnson asked Senior Planner Jennfier Hagen if any of the existing storage facilities would be affected by the code changes. She said they
Schools celebrate Class of 2025
All About Pets
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