Out with the old and in with the new.
Nanaimo city council officially abandoned the city's cumbersome and out-of-date zoning bylaw Monday night in favour of a new bylaw that simplifies zoning and better aligns with the city's official community plan.
City staff and council worked on the massive document for three years in an effort to improve regulations in nodes, corridors and residential areas as new and updated developments, such as commercial mixed with high density projects, begin to gain in popularity.
Because of the bylaw's size, however, some tweaks still need to be made.
"As staff have begun to work with the bylaw we've identified a number of corrections that we need to make to the bylaw," said Andrew Tucker, director of planning for the city.
City staff will be working out of both bylaw books for the next few days as the housekeeping issues are addressed and ironed out. The city, however, advises that many of the forms and information relating to the previous bylaw are no longer valid and that correct forms for any development applications are now necessary.
New forms are available in the city's development services office and Bylaw 4500 is available for viewing at www.nanaimo.ca.