I'd like to call the Plan Commission special meeting to order on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

First item on the agenda is roll call.

Commissioner Dino.

Here.

Commissioner Bowerman.

Here.

Commissioner Don Gera.

Commissioner Cass.

Here.

Commissioner Vosgell.

Here.

Commissioner Madare?

Here.

And Commissioner Williams.

Here.

Six present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Which leads us to item number two opening remarks.

And I'm not sure where I direct those.

To you, Dwayne.

I'm not sure.

Sure.

Yeah, I'd I'd be uh glad to provide some comments.

And first want to recognize uh the commission and those in attendance, including the uh consulting firm of Grafe and Civitech for accommodating this special uh Plan Commission meeting to look at um what we have now completed in terms of a full working draft copy of the City of Janesville's uh zoning code, uh zoning ordinance and code rewrite.

Uh this evening uh we're going to expand upon the discussion from uh last month, the meeting of uh April 6th, where we spoke more specifically about some recent changes that were applied to the uh development standards uh primarily of the uh that section of the code uh code update that dealt with uh land use activities and review procedures for certain activities and various zoning classifications and some modifications to the uh dimensional standards that work in conjunction with those districts.

Uh we've also included as part of this agenda and the materials that have been distributed a uh a copy from uh the consultant, which is fairly detailed or includes a detailed summary of the variety of changes that have been incorporated into the code since the various articles and sections and divisions were uh separately brought before you over the course of calendar year 2025, where we uh where we held a I believe a total of eight review sessions with the commission, and then of course one last month, and now we're on number 10, uh hoping and expecting that we can wrap all of the final comments and feedback uh and questions that uh the commission may have, those in attendance, those in the community uh stakeholders interested in in this and and folks from the development community weighing in on the various sections.

With that, I think we I should also mention that the project website web page devoted to the zoning and subdivision ordinance rewrite contains all the materials from all the prior meetings uh that have been conducted, and uh has recently uh been uploaded with this full draft copy of the uh the zoning code rewrite.

This evening we intend to present uh at kind of a higher level overview uh the significant changes, how the code works, what we're intending to accomplish with the update, and um, and then open it up to uh to uh questions and concerns that the commission may have.

And then last but not least, talking about next steps, namely uh providing a public open house opportunity for the community to uh come in and weigh in specifically on any aspect of the code that they would like to learn more about, have questions uh on, and uh receive a better understanding of what this looks like and so with that I I'd either turn it over to uh Craig Gibner from uh uh from Grafe to move forward with the presentation, unless of course you have other questions for us.

Um no, I just have a couple of comments.

Um, one is it's great to see some new faces here uh as Dwayne is talking about this.

We've had nine meetings about this, and we'll continue to have more meetings, so it's exciting as we continue to move the process in draft form still.

I wanted for your uh information and for yours as well to acknowledge that we have two new commission members uh representing from the city council.

We have Commissioner Nino, and we have Commissioner Cass, and then the community member at large now is uh Commissioner Williams.

So I just wanted to make you aware of that as well, too.

So uh the floor is yours.

Great, thank you so much.

Um again, Craig Hebner uh with Grafe.

I serve as Grace Planning and Urban Design Practice Team Leader.

Um I have two uh consultant partners with me here today.

Dominic Marlowe, uh also with Grafe as a planner, and has been really a lot of the uh detailed items uh tonight.

And then Tim Schwecky of Civitech Consulting is also with us and has been a co-author with the majority of the code.

So both of them will be able to respond to questions as I go through here for the presentation today.

And Craig, excuse me, is it's easier for us to hold our questions till the end, I think, just because I know there's a series of slides that the question may actually be answered as we progress through the program.

So that would be my suggestion.

But if it's a burning question, by all means let me know.

Go ahead.

Sounds perfect.

So I'll just jump right into that.

As far as project status, for those who have been following this, we kicked this off in 2024, including some public engagement in 2024, and really the 2025 has been drafting the code and what the proposed draft now code is today that's included in your packet.

We're right before some additional open house and public meetings, and then we'll hopefully move forward into approval and adoption process here in the summer.

At the beginning of this project, just to remind everyone, the city did have very specific objectives as part of the request for proposal that was put out.

And they're summarized here with these five categories.

One, we want to ensure that we're in alignment with your comprehensive plan and state statutes.

Two, we want to try to simplify for readability and understanding the administration of this zoning code.

Three, we want to be responsive not only to the local market, but what are best practices from a regional standpoint and national as well.

Four, we want to facilitate high quality developments in Janesville, and then five, we want to balance that development with uh community growth and community needs as well.

So throughout this presentation, you'll maybe see these icons from what we feel your proposed draft has started to address those uh five different objectives.

All right, so how the code works.