The city of Warrenton is easing the process by which building owners can get approval for changes to the exterior of their buildings.
City aldermen last week approved a change to have minor …
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The city of Warrenton is easing the process by which building owners can get approval for changes to the exterior of their buildings.
City aldermen last week approved a change to have minor exterior remodeling pass through an expedited site plan approval at city hall. Previously, most changes involving the exterior of a building had to go through multiple rounds of planning and zoning hearings before receiving approval from the board of alderman.
The adjusted site plan process, approved with a 6-0 vote Nov. 17, allows an expedited review of any remodel that doesn’t expand the main building by more than 10 percent. Any site change that falls within that range can be approved with one step of review by the city’s planning and development office.
City Attorney Christopher Graville said the change will especially benefit downtown building owners seeking to update their older properties. He said city staff asked for the change to make the site plan remodeling process less cumbersome.
“This makes more sense for the really minor remodels to the properties, which probably affects downtown more than anything else,” Graville commented.
He added that at least one building in the downtown area has consistently caused a question of how the city could encourage improvements by making the process more approachable.
“We’ve always struggled with that existing building, and how to quantify a small enough change to make them not have to go through that (planning and zoning) process,” Graville commented.
Graville said things as simple as changes to a building’s facade would previously have gone through the lengthier approval process, but can now be expedited.
City Administrator Terri Thorn said the conversation about making a change started because a building owner recently went through a long process for a small change.
“It basically was an existing business who wanted to make some very minor changes, with a new business coming in,” Thorn said. “Because of the way the code was written, that required it to go through the entire process. The reality of the change is it was something that was superficial and very minimal.”
