Rehoboth Beach officials are going through the process of updating the city zoning code related to commercial construction. As part of that process, a city consultant recently held a week of meetings to gather information from city officials and community members to find out what kinds of changes they would like to see implemented.

The turnout over the course of the week was great, said Joe Kohl, principal of the city’s contractor Dover Kohl & Partners, during a commissioner meeting July 17. The walking tour drew around 50 people, and each of the focus groups had 40 to 50 people, without a lot of repeats, he said.

It's like taking a drink through a fire hose, said Kohl of the charrette. He and his staff are still processing 11 hours of meeting notes, which means there is still a lot of work to be done, he said.

It wasn’t just the charrette meetings that gathered interest. Almost all the seats in the commissioners' room were occupied the day of Kohl’s presentation.

The town is a very vibrant place, but the buildings are aging, Kohl said to the packed room. At some point, the property owners are going to want to come in and make changes, he said.

Kohl’s team broke the commercial district into a number of different zones – the Boardwalk, the eastern end of Rehoboth Avenue, a civic zone that includes city hall, the library and Grove Park, the western end of Rehoboth Avenue, Lake Avenue, and Baltimore and Wilmington avenues.

Kohl is recommending the city transition from a use-based code into a form-based code. The use of buildings changes over time, so it’s the form of the building that’s more interesting, he said.

Older communities are great because a lot of the buildings, and the associated differences, were constructed before zoning codes existed, which means there’s a lot of variety, said Kohl. The task is figuring out how to regulate things so when construction happens in the future, there’s the same variety, and it looks like it happened naturally, he said.

Zoning codes are a lot like software programs, with a set of rules that come into play when property owners are looking to make a change, said Kohl. Changes can be made, tried out and if they don’t work, more changes can be made, he said.

Kohl had a number of initial suggestions for city officials to consider. For example, frontage styles for construction – no yard, between zero and five feet; a shallow yard, between five and 12 feet; a garden yard, between 12 and 25 feet; or putting a landscaped buffer for a vacant lot or parking lot. The applicant would have to state what kind of yard they’d like to pursue, and then there would be a specific set of architectural features allowed with each, he said.

The presentation touched on the city’s 42-foot height limit for new buildings. Having a fixed height tends to make the buildings a consistent height, which leads to less variety, said Kohl. The city could still regulate height by the allowed number of stories for a building, he said.

In addition to all the meetings, Kohl and his team spent time reviewing the different documents already completed by the city – previous and current comprehensive development plans, the city’s strategic plan and the architectural design manual created well over a decade ago.

The architectural design manual is a good resource, but it’s not being used because it doesn’t require anything, said Kohl. It wouldn’t be hard to go back and change language from “should” to “shall” or “might be” to “must be” in the design manual, he said.

In an effort to encourage more mixed-use redevelopment with possible workforce housing options, Kohl said the city could change the floor-to-area ratio and setback requirements for developers who are willing to take on those types of projects. Most buildings will stay the same, but if options aren’t available, then nothing will change, he said.

Generally, the response from commissioners and members of the public about the week of meetings was positive.

Commissioner Mark Saunders said he was skeptical at the outset, but his mind was changed. 

Commissioner Chris Galanty said his heart soared when he saw some of the possible design options presented by Kohl. Those images capture a sense of place, but the question is how does the city get there, he said.

Commissioner Suzanne Goode was less impressed. She said it was in vogue for municipalities to be talking about workforce housing, but it doesn’t make economic sense in a community like Rehoboth because the property values are too high.

Kohl said that may be true, but he reiterated that it definitely won’t happen if the code doesn’t allow it.

Goode also said she didn’t think the $157,000 spent by the city on Kohl’s work was worth it.

In response, Galanty said that amount represented half of 1% of the overall general fund budget. Doing nothing is a dereliction of duty, and this was a good investment, he said.

Looking forward, Kohl said the plan is to have an ordinance ready for public consumption by November, with the first draft submitted in September and the second in October. There will still be the normal public hearing process, he said.