Commercial Development Moratorium Lifted

The Ruston council waived the second reading for the trio of ordinances that updated their development codes and removed the moratorium on commercial development at their meeting last night. Despite Councilmember Hardin's concerns about repeating the complaints about rushing the issue through without public input, the council unanimously approved the changes recommended by the planning commission after their public hearing in May.

The changes are primarily focused on rearranging the requirements into an easier-to-understand format. But the changes also included adding the design requirements from the Pearl Street zone to the rest of the commercial zone. When the design elements were first adopted along Pearl Street, higher heights were allowed to offset the additional costs of those requirements. Only the increased design requirements were added to the rest of the commercial zone without allowing the increased heights or the less restrictive parking of the Pearl zone.