OxfordPress.com

The future development of Uptown will be decided in the Oxford voting booths as city council voted Tuesday to put a charter amendment issue on the ballot.

Currently, the charter limits the mile square to three apartments per building at most. If the amendment passes, it would lift this restriction on Uptown, specifically between College and Campus Avenues and between Church and Walnut streets.

At the end of a four-hour meeting, council voted 5-1 to put the initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Council also plans to have at least three information sessions before November where citizens and staff can discuss the charter amendment, said Mayor Jerome Conley.

These sessions will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 2 and Sept. 6 and 20 at the LCNB Community Room.

"These are to help educate the public to the pros and cons of the charter amendment," Conley said. "It will be an opportunity to talk to city staff about concerns and questions."

Council also voted to assign the planning commission with the task of updating the zoning and housing codes if the amendment were to pass.

Councilwoman Alysia Fischer was the only member to vote against putting the measure on the ballot, citing concerns that the area to be exempted was too broad.

Fischer initiated two possible changes to the ballot initiative that would have limited the scope of the amendment to buildings directly on High Street and removing Chestnut Street buildings, but both failed with a 1-5 vote.

Gary Franks of the Oxford Chamber of Commerce told council the chamber supported the amendment, saying it would "improve the commercial space available" and "maximize apartment space."

Councilman Alan Kyger presented the amendment to council Jan. 16.

Kyger said Jan. 16 that the amendment may seem minor but would have a host of ramifications for the commercial and residential situation Uptown.

?In Uptown, we have property owners handcuffed,? Kyger said. ?It?s causing property not to be developed correctly. The apartments are dictating the commercial spaces.?

Property owners who want to build Uptown must have commercial space on the first floor, Kyger said, and would like to put up as many apartments as possible upstairs for income to help pay for the building.

To get around the charter limitation, however, several developers have split large lots into multiple small lots and built three apartments above each of the smaller spaces.

?They have to build three or four buildings in one space that they mask to look like one building,? Kyger said.

In February of 2006, a change to the zoning code prevented lots being split into parts smaller than 3,000 square feet, which has precipitated problems that have stymied potential development on the former Wendy?s and Pedro?s sites Uptown.

The small lots have led to compact commercial areas on the first floor, which limits options for retail stores and increases rent, especially if businesses occupy more than one small lot. The amendment would allow developers to put more apartments above a single, larger commercial space, said Vice Mayor Prue Dana.

?There?s enough constraints in other areas of the code that I am willing to bet developers will be able to get the same amount of apartments,? Dana said. ?It?s just that they won?t have to build firewalls in between everything and splitting up what is downstairs in the commercial space.?

The three-unit limit for the entire Mile Square was added to the charter in 1979 to fill holes in the zoning code because the city had no control over apartments that were being built in alleys and throughout the Mile Square, Dana said.