Commission recommends increased size for Uptown businesses — but not bars and restaurants
Oxford's Planning Commission has recommended allowing retail spaces of up to 20,000 square feet Uptown, but the increased space wouldn't apply to bars and restaurants automatically.
Retail spaces in Uptown Oxford could soon get bigger, but a proposed increase in floor space wouldn’t apply to bars and restaurants.
At a Planning Commission meeting March 11, unanimously agreed to recommend a change in the city’s code that allows first floor retail space in Uptown businesses to extend up to 20,000 square feet. That’s double the current limit, but the expanded space won’t apply to bars and restaurants automatically.
Community Development Director Sam Perry said adjusting the code might help to diversify the ground floor spaces along High Street. Bars and restaurants were excluded so that those businesses would have to go through additional review if they exceed 10,000 square feet.
“Everyone can probably agree that there is an unpredictable nature to large-scale entertainment facilities,” Perry said when explaining why the limit was still needed for some types of businesses. “There might be something that we haven’t thought of.”
The commission didn’t make any additional decisions during its March 11 meeting, though they did discuss the city’s current code rewrite. Oxford has contracted with consulting firm McKenna to create a Unified Development Code for the city, as well as a Historic Preservation Plan and historic preservation design guidelines.
Zachary Moore, city planner, said the city held a public meeting in late February, and residents can find more information on the project at the Oxford Today website. One of the major goals of the zoning update, Moore said, is to encourage economic development within the Mile Square through focused deregulation.
“We’re favoring infill development over physical expansion of districts as much as possible,” Moore said, “so kind of curbing urban sprawl as much as we can, keeping development concentrated.”
According to the Oxford Today website, McKenna aims to have full drafts of the unified development code and the historic preservation plan ready in July.
