Flint City Council to revisit upzoning for hundreds of properties

Flint, MI — Proposed amendments to Flint’s zoning ordinance text and maps will be back before Flint City Council on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, determining the fate of hundreds of property values and flexibility of owners’ land use for the year ahead.

Flint Beat first wrote about the proposed amendments this fall when the Flint’s planning and development director Emily Doerr declared she and her staff were looking to ensure that the city was viewed as development-friendly.

At the time, Doerr said that Flint’s updated zoning code, which went into effect in October 2022, had “mistakenly down-zoned commercial properties along neighborhood corridors.” She also said this could ultimately result in “adverse impacts to property owners or valuation.”

Therefore, her team put forward proposed zoning ordinance text and map amendments, which include changes to around 900 parcels across the city for planning commission consideration in mid-September.

After the commission’s review, the proposed amendments were approved on Sept. 26, 2023. 

The changes then came before Flint City Council, where they stalled out before their required second reading and enactment during a contentious Dec. 11 meeting.

Following that meeting, Doerr told Flint Beat that the amendments were “time-sensitive” and would ideally be adopted before the end of December, when the parcels would be assessed under their current zoning designations.

Should that happen, she said business owners may face unnecessary “burdens” to what would otherwise be possible under the proposed upzoning.

“If these changes are not approved, the property owners will be grandfathered in for current commercial usage and signage, but, to have any new signage, use, or site plan adjustments, a rezoning would need to occur first,” Doerr explained in a Dec. 14 email.

The proposed changes also serve a purpose for the city and its residents, as upzoning the parcels can increase their taxable value after assessment — taxes that go toward public services like police and fire, schools, libraries, and parks.

Flint City Council will review the planning department’s proposed zoning text and map amendments again on Dec. 18, the body’s last meeting of the year.