Notice of Zoning Negative Declaration

Many folks in Moke Hill have received a letter from the Planning Department: “Notice of Intent to Adopt a Negative Declaration.” In essence, this new zoning ordinance will replace the heavy-handed Planned Development (PD) overlay zone in our town with Design Review (DR). In our 1984 Community Plan, PD was used to control development in the Town’s center. It is a cumbersome and expensive process, however, and in our new Community Plan we asked for it to be replaced with the much simpler Design Review Guidelines. Instead of waiting for this to happen with approval of the County General Plan, the Planning Department is making the change earlier through this Negative Declaration. This is a change that we instigated during our Community Plan meetings and will benefit everyone.
Terry Weatherby, Fawn McLaughlin, Julia Costello
Thanks for letting us know. I was wondering if the “Negative Declaration” was a positive or negative action.