BEMIDJI-It was another year full of commercial and residential developments for the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board, according to Planning Director Casey Mai.
"We're continuing to see a lot of developments take place, whether it's commercial or multi-family. That's definitely a good thing to see happen," Mai said at a Bemidji City Council work session Monday. "We had a lot of bigger projects take place recently, too, like some of the apartment complexes, for example."
Mai also noted the increased success with site plans for developments during the work session.
"We're seeing more project site plans followed through to the end," Mai said. "Whereas before, once a project was approved, it wasn't always watched all the way through to the end to make sure it was 100 percent completed."
Moving forward, a point of focus for the JPB should be updating the zoning ordinance, which was put in place in 2007.
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"The main issue with it is that a lot of the language just isn't clear. Much of it is very broad and it has to be narrowed down," Mai said. "For example, we had a project where the ordinance required pavement, whether it's bituminous, concrete or an equally durable surface. The intent of that equally durable surface was never meant to be crushed concrete, though, so stuff like that has to be cleaned up."
