Princeton, Illinois

Land Development Code
   

For the city of Princeton, Illinois, Duncan Associates prepared a new Land Development Code that combined zoning and subdivision regulations into one unified, up-to-date document and reflected the goals of its recently-adopted comprehensive plan. The city’s regulations had not been overhauled since the adoption of its first zoning ordinance in 1974.
Princeton has two intact historic Main Street districts that the city wanted to maintain as pedestrian-friendly, storefront commercial

districts. New regulations were included in the land development code to require new buildings in these areas to be built at the sidewalk, with front pedestrian entrances, transparent windows and parking in the rear.
In contrast to its downtown areas, Princeton also has a heavy concentration of commercial and industrial development near the interstate exit. Signage clutter, the lack of parking lot landscaping and excessive curb cuts were concerns in this area. A completely updated set of sign regulations and new landscaping requirements are also included in the new ordinance.
Because most of the residential development in Princeton predates the city’s zoning ordinance, many neighborhoods did not “fit” the setback requirements of the ordinance, resulting in many nonconforming situations and a high number of variance requests. The new ordinance addresses this situation by providing both flexibility through “setback averaging” provisions and updated procedures for addressing nonconformities.
Current subdivision regulations were lacking adequate requirements for sidewalks, street lighting, cul-de-sac streets, street connectivity, private roads and performance guarantees. Improved subdivision regulations, enforcement procedures, use table and user-friendly document features such as tables and illustrations were also intended to make the land development code easy to understand, use and enforce.
Drafting of the new ordinance is complete, and the city anticipates that it will be adopted by April 2006.

Period:     August 2004 - Present                Contact:    Pete Nelson
Team:      Duncan Associates                                        Zoning Administrator
                                                                                815.879.3381