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City continues to work on updating zoning laws

By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
marcie@bradfordera.com

Updating the City of Bradford’s antiquated zoning laws is still a work in progress.

A work session was held Tuesday evening with members of Bradford City Council and the city’s planning and zoning boards, along with McKean County Planning Director Debbie Lunden and consultants for the Master Plan — Roberta Sarraf, planning consultant from Canonsburg, and representatives of MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects.

At the last work session, held in May, City Clerk John Peterson told Sarraf that one problem with the current zoning laws is that they lack definitions.

“John now has 42 pages of definitions,” Sarraf said Tuesday, laughing.

She also drew up a proposal for new zoning districts. The city’s current form is a pyramid, with the top level being the most restrictive and everything being included in the bottom level. In this form, a residence could be built in an industrial sector.

Sarraf is suggesting at least three residential levels, possibly four, with each one allowing — and disallowing — specific things. The first district would be R1 for single-family dwellings.

“It would be pure single family,” Sarraf said. “This is preserving the single-family neighborhood.”

The second, or R2, would be single-family and two-family residential. The third, R3 medium-density residential, would allow garden apartments — which would be no larger than three-stories — and townhouses.

The fourth, an R4 high-density residential, would allow mid-rise and high-rise apartments, garden apartments and townhouses.

“I definitely see the three districts,” Sarraf said. “It’s up to you if you need the fourth.”

The group discussed where in the zoning plan group homes would fall.

“You might as well say group homes are an industry in Bradford,” said Councilman Rick Benton. Evergreen Elm and Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems are two organizations that use these homes within the community for the residents they serve.

Sarraf explained, “If you are protected by the Fair Housing Act, (the residence) is considered a single family.”

Those with a physical or mental disability are protected, she explained, but places that offer services in the community such as counseling for drug and alcohol, battered women or delinquent youth are not protected.

Sara Andrews, executive director of the Office of Economic and Community Development, asked where frat houses for college students would fall. After much discussion, Peterson agreed to research what state codes regulate as far as the number of unrelated people sharing housing.

Sarraf also described “infill housing,” which are homes rebuilt on a lot that a blighted home had been cleared from. She proposed allowing property owners to rebuild on those lots within specific, pre-approved yard requirements. That would eliminate a problem the city currently has that when a building is demolished, requirements in the zoning code make it unlikely that the lot can be built on again.

Albert Filoni, architect, suggested allowing infill housing in each residential district as a special exemption. “You’ll get a bigger tax base that way.”

“The problem is the width,” Peterson said, explaining the lots are generally quite narrow. “We have these 25-foot lots now. With a three-foot sideyard requirement (on each side) that leaves you with 19 feet of building space.”

Sarraf asked the council members, as well as the zoning and planning members, to look over maps she provided with some suggested changes marked on them. And she asked them to consider what sort of restrictions they would prefer in each zoning district, and said a work session would be scheduled again to discuss those in greater detail.

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