Marshall to explore accommodating more multifamily housing downtown
MARSHALL - It's no secret downtown Marshall has experienced a significant revitalization in both commercial and residential growth.
As a result of this influx of residents, the town planning team is aiming to provide more multifamily housing options in the downtown area.
The Marshall Town Board will hold a public hearing in its Feb. 19 meeting on proposed amendments to its Unified Development Ordinance.
Land of Sky Regional Planner Kaitland Finkle serves as the town's zoning administrator.
According to Finkle, the Marshall Planning Board met in January and voted to recommend the town board adopted changes to its Unified Development Ordinance.
One of the proposed amendments is to 4.2.9 of the Unified Development Ordinance, Multi-Family Dwellings.
The amendment proposes four changes to the section:
No building shall exceed a length of 150 feet.
A distance of at least 20 feet shall be maintained between all buildings within the development.
All sanitary containers shall be completely screened from view of the street and adjacent properties with fencing and/or landscaping.
Single and two-family family dwellings shall not occupy the first floor or ground level in the Central Business (CB) district.
"This did take a couple of times to go through the planning board, and they did recommend a number of changes, to where we are right now with the text amendment," Finkle said.
"It is to encourage housing downtown in the Central Business district. There are some allowances for parking. Right now, parking is not a requirement anywhere. However, if we're going to be incentivizing housing by allowing this increase in density, for new construction we would be asking that they provide parking. For renovations, we would not."
Finkle told The News-Record the proposed change would double the density for multifamily dwellings in the Central Business District.
Finkle said one of the proposed changes includes an allowance for satellite parking.
In January, the Marshall Town Board voted to deny a proposed amendment that would have rezoned a property in the Rollins community to a mixed use space that would include multifamily dwellings, professional and craftsmen/artisan office spaces and a retail space.
The other four proposed amendments relate to parking.
An amendment to Section 9.1 of the Unified Development Ordinance would lay out the purpose and applicability.
"The purpose of this section is to ensure that adequate and well-designed parking is provided for development in the Town of Marshall," the proposed amendment to Section 9.1 reads.
"Unless otherwise specified, the requirements of this Chapter apply to all developments except single-family detached residential and two-family attached residential (duplexes). The expansion of existing development shall follow these requirements to the greatest extent possible."
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,The town boards have been active the past few months in deliberating on a number of proposals.
The Marshall Town Board will meet Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. at 180 S. Main St.
Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel for nearly three years. He earned a first-place award in beat news reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@newsrecordandsentinal.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Marshall to explore accommodating more multifamily housing
