A draft of the City's proposed new Commercial Code Ordinance can now be viewed from the City's Web site on any of the following home pages: Community Development, Strategic Planning, Southeast Strategy, or Neighborhood Code.

For the past several months, City staff has been meeting with representatives of local business, government and neighborhoods to help determine what issues are causing the most concern among those groups in regard to commercial structures. While Neighborhood Code Enforcement handles many concerns about residential properties, they have limited responsibility when the property in question is a commercial, industrial or institutional property.

The ordinance has been increasingly called for by community and business association activists for a number of years. Action crystallized last summer following the City'€™s adoption of the Southeast Area Development Strategy as a first amendment to the Plan It! Allen Comprehensive Plan.  Southeast residents, business owners and neighborhoods very strongly matched earlier calls for action to protect and enhance investment in our non-residential real estate.  

City staff has been taking input from those various groups and incorporated much of the input into the current draft version. Additional comment and input is welcome and can be made on either the Southeast Strategy or Neighborhood Code home pages.

City Planning and Policy and Neighborhood Code staff would like to send a version of the ordinance to the City Council early this summer.