At the Sept. 3 Planning Commission, commissioners discussed a project direction report for the zoning code update for the city of Hastings. This report was provided by Codametrics, an urban planning and design firm based out of Evanston, Ill., contracted by the city of Hastings. This update represents the first comprehensive update in more than 20 years for the city of Hastings, with the last comprehensive rezoning occurring in 1996.
Updating the zoning code is more than a bureaucratic formality. Zoning underpins city goals and influences construction both in type and location, providing guiderails for local development. Therefore, the updating of zoning can help facilitate growth, helping it align with community objectives.
The report specifically references the goals and objectives of the 2040 comprehensive plan providing “high-level recommendations regarding the scope and direction of the update project” according to a letter from Community Development Director John Hinzman. The three goals laid out in that 2040 comprehensive plan are to preserve small town character, protect neighborhoods and the downtown, and protect and enhance natural environments.
Based on those objectives, the report provides 19 recommendations “intended to serve as the starting point for discussion before beginning work on the update,” according to the report. These recommendations include very tangible changes like the creation of “Context Sensitive Neighborhood Zoning,” in order to better accommodate a wider range of housing options, as well as consolidating and updating landscape regulations to better reflect “goals for walkable streets and mixed use development patterns.”
Other recommended changes focus specifically on the zoning code itself and would streamline the code structure including renaming and adding zones, reorganizing and including tables and illustrations into regulations in order to make them more accessible.

Next steps
The report was reviewed by the Hastings Planning Commission at the Sept. 3 meeting with feedback returned to Codametrics. Based on this feedback a second draft of the zoning code is expected to be reviewed by the commission in November, with a public hearing in January 2025 and a public open house to be held the next month in February. Adoption of the new comprehensive zoning map is expected around March of 2025 based on public feedback.
To view the full report, visit the Planning Commission’s page on the City of Hastings website at https://www.hastingsmn.gov/city-government/commissions-task-forces/planning-commission