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Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Revamped city of Adrian zoning ordinance 'is far from being a ready to publish product'
ADRIAN — The process of revamping and completely overhauling Adrian's zoning ordinance is expected to continue over the next several months and could prolong all the way through the summer and possibly into the fall. Earlier this month, Adrian's planning commission conducted somewhat of a read-through of the city's zoning ordinance, which has been rewritten, stylized and reformatted with the help from consulting firm SmithGroup. The partnership between the city of Adrian and SmithGroup for the purpose of rewriting the zoning ordinance and bringing it into alignment with the city's comprehensive plan, is approaching two years. In the spring of 2023, the city and SmithGroup agreed on the rewriting process and through grant funding from the Redevelopment Ready Communities program, which is part of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Adrian secured financial support to put toward the endeavor to the tune of $25,000 — or at least half of the $50,000 fixed fee for services. At the time, then Adrian City Administrator Greg Elliott, said the decision to update the zoning ordinance was to bring it 'into line with good practice and modern ways of thinking.' '(The ordinance) is quite outdated and internally conflicting in a number of ways,' Elliott told The Daily Telegram in April 2023. 'It makes sense to just kind of scrap what we have and start fresh, and that's what this proposal does.' From April 2023: Adrian City Commission to consider complete overhaul of 'outdated' zoning ordinance Now at such a stage to review and consider the reworked zoning ordinance proposal, Adrian planning commissioners are still finding clerical errors and issues. A discussion of the draft ordinance at the planning commission's Feb. 4 meeting resulted in several members of the commission finding 'a number of issues' relative to the proposed ordinance. Adrian's planning commission meets monthly on the first Tuesday of the month to establish and enforce regulations for the use of public and private land. Planning commission Chairman Mike Jacobitz was among the commissioners critical of the reworked ordinance, saying what was reviewed at the Feb. 4 meeting 'is far from being a ready to publish product.' 'There is a lot of work yet to be done on this for a whole bunch of issues. In fact, I'm kind of disappointed that it's not close to being a finished product,' he said. Other inconsistencies were voiced by commissioners Robert Love and Nancy Weatherby. The updated zoning ordinance proposal seeks to reduce the number of residential districts in the city of Adrian from six to four. The industrial districts are proposed to be reduced from three to two. The proposal also eliminates a chapter known as the 'parking district,' which is now covered under the 'development standards' chapter. In Adrian's current zoning ordinance, which was last modified in January 2024, the ordinance districts were defined by enumerating all individual parcels. In the newly proposed ordinance, they are defined as part of the zoning map. Whether for better or worse, Jacobitz said, many of the changes made to the ordinance are to simplify the previous document. The general approach of updating the zoning ordinance 'has been solid,' he commented. 'It's greatly simplified,' Jacobitz said, adding the number of pages in the ordinance has been reduced from more than 270 to less than 200 pages. More: Adrian City Commission takes initial step in recruitment, finding new city administrator Rezoning was slimmed down, which eliminated multiple pages from the ordinance and opened the potential for more housing options, said Adrian planning and zoning Administrator Jeremiah Klemann. For example, it would become easier for residential-zoned properties in the city to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs), such as apartments above a garage. The intent for updating the zoning ordinance was to make the document rewrite based on the form and function of how everything is today instead of the way the old ordinance was. One of the proposed changes in the ordinance is to enforce less parking near/on business frontages to make business exteriors more attractive for customers. 'It can be confusing to read through this, and I can say that as someone who's going to have to administer this. It is very confusing,' Klemann said. Commissioners were tasked at the Feb. 4 meeting with sending all comments/feedback about necessary fixes to SmithGroup so that continued refinement of the ordinance takes place. Support local news: Subscribe for all the latest local developments, breaking news, and high school and college sports content. 'I think this has many more meetings, and I think we need to curtail that and focus that,' Love said. Jacobitz estimated the planning commission would be approaching the summer or fall at the earliest before the new zoning ordinance could be adopted. Until then, the rules and regulations in Adrian's current zoning ordinance remain in effect. Before the rewritten ordinance is finalized and adopted, a public hearing and presentation would be held prior to the final draft's presentation for consideration by the Adrian City Commission. — Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@ or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LenaweeHeineman. This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian's zoning ordinance needs more attention from planning commission
The Independent
31-01-2025
- Business
- The Independent
FTSE strikes another record high as Wall Street makes gains
The FTSE 100 marked another successive record close on Friday as it ended its strongest week for two years. The index continued its recent rally as it benefited from its high proportion of defensive stocks amid volatility in the tech sector, as retail and finance firms once again performed well. A sharp jump in the value of Smiths Group, after the engineering group bowed to investor pressure by launching a break-up plan, helped boost the FTSE further. London's top index finished 27.08 points, or 0.31%, higher to end the day at 8,673.96. Elsewhere in Europe trading was far more steady, with the German Dax inching back slightly after a string of record performances this week. The Cac 40 ended 0.11% higher for the day and the Dax index was down 0.07%. Across the Atlantic, US tech stocks had a recovery on Friday to help the main indexes higher, as fresh inflation data came in on par with expectations. US stock indices seem to have shrugged off Monday's sell-off and look to be on track to overcome their January peaks, having closed their price gaps with last Friday's lows Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG, said: 'US stock indices seem to have shrugged off Monday's sell-off and look to be on track to overcome their January peaks, having closed their price gaps with last Friday's lows. 'US PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation rising by 0.3% in December as expected relieved markets, with the US 10-year bond yield falling to a six-week low, boosting stocks.' In currency, sterling rebounded against a softer dollar after the inflation data. The pound was up 0.2% at 1.244 US dollars and was also up 0.12% at 1.196 euros when London's markets closed. In company news, Smith Group leapt after the FTSE 100 group said it would start breaking up the company, after heavy pressure from activist investors. The London-listed firm is to sell its Smiths Interconnect business, which makes broadband connection and antenna parts, by the end of 2025. Shares in the company were 10.8% higher at 2,066p at the close of play. Elsewhere, Tortilla Mexican Grill improved in value after it said that long-term backer Quilvest Capital Partners has sold its 20% stake in the fast food business to technology investor Auctor Group. Tortilla said the backing of Auctor will help it drive operational improvements through new technology. Shares in the business moved 1% higher to 49.5p. Education software firm Tribal Group was a strong performer after its revenues grew faster than market guidance last year, helping it to reduce its debts. The Bristol-based group saw shares rise by 20.5% to 47p. The price of oil fell slightly after US President Donald Trump hinted that the commodity may be excluded from plans to launch 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports. A barrel of Brent crude oil was down by 0.05% to 76.83 dollars (£61.74) as markets were closing in London. The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Smiths Group, up 201p to 2,066p, Land Securities, up 15.5p to 585p, Mondi, up 29.5p to 1,262.5p, St James's Place, up 24p to 1,054p, and JD Sports, up 1.94p to 89.12p. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, down 16.5p to 696p, Prudential, down 10.6p to 678.2p, Sainsbury's, down 3.8p to 254.4p, AB Foods, down 28p to 1,902p, and Marks & Spencer, down 4.4p to 335.8p.
