Two years ago, the city’s Community Development Department negotiated with the developer of a Dollar General store planned for Sixth Avenue and 58th Street, resulting in an aesthetic upgrade from the typical Dollar General store.

The store’s facade is brick, with rectangular sections of red and other sections in a buff hue.

Better development aesthetics were achieved only by negotiations then, but they’ve been incorporated as a standard requirement in a still-unfinished update of the city’s subdivision and land development ordinance (SALDO), which, along with an update of the zoning ordinance, was the subject of an open house Tuesday.

The current SALDO and zoning ordinances aren’t bad, but good planning practice calls for them to be realigned so they mesh with the city’s new comprehensive plan, said Peter Lombardi, director of revitalization planning for czb, the consultant hired by the city to produce both the comp plan and SALDO/Zoning updates.

The comp plan called for setting higher land development standards than before, and the updates will include regulations that do likewise, in a framework designed to enable developers to understand those standards easily, according to Lombardi and City Councilman Dave Ellis, who attended the open house.

The new setup will stress simplicity and clarity to create a streamlined process based on the “give-get” principle, according to Ellis, Lombardi and Matt Ingalls, czb’s director of urban planning and design.

It will be more “user-friendly,” said Cory Gehret, a member of the Zoning Hearing Board and the Technical Advisory Committee for the SALDO/Zoning update.

The idea is that developers will know what standards they’re expected to meet, and if they meet them on projects smaller than a certain size, those will be handled administratively by staff — and thus quickly — without having to be submitted for more cumbersome approval before the Planning Commission in the case of land development.

Meeting the new, higher standard is what developers “give,” and in return they “get” a “rapid, predictable review process,” Lombardi said.

Developers who want something different than what the standards specify can opt for the Planning Commission route for land development, Lombardi said.

Land development projects above a certain size would need to go through the Planning Commission no matter what.

For land development, the standards aren’t so much about detailed architectural features or the color of buildings, but rather “good basic urban design” — including how the buildings relate to the street and where parking is located, according to Lombardi.

In the case of buildings like the Dollar General at Sixth Avenue and 58th Street, it could mean “a little more variation in material and a little more thoughtfulness about the site,” he said. “Compared with a more bare-bones (approach).”

The emphasis will be on applying those higher standards on high-profile “corridors,” Lombardi said. “To set the tone, and give a good impression,” he said.

In the zone for downtown, that will mean that buildings should generally align with the sidewalk, with parking in back or on the street or accounted for in an unobtrusive way.

In the highway business in Pleasant Valley, it will mean a more “suburban” look than what prevails downtown, in line with what exists in Pleasant Valley already — but with features designed to improve the aesthetics.

The land development standards will include aspects to ensure that buildings will be durable and that they will be easily adaptable, so if there is a change of use, those buildings are less likely to sit vacant for a long time, Lombardi said.

In areas of the country where there is fast growth, changes like the ones proposed in the SALDO portion of the update would lead to fairly quick changes in the look of the community, Lombardi said.

In Altoona, where growth is slow, those changes won’t be rapid, he said.

But because growth here is slow and incremental, it becomes more important “to get every project right,” he said.

The emphasis in zoning will be to more readily allow “middle” ranges of housing to be built in more areas of the city — duplexes and configurations of three, four and five units — as opposed to single-family homes and large apartment buildings, Lombardi said.

There will also be more leniency for creating accessory housing, like apartments above garages, he said.

Zoning is in the spotlight nationwide, and there is a move, especially in coastal cities, for such middle-level housing, to alleviate housing shortages.

Pressure for that sort of change is not nearly as high in Altoona, he said.

Tuesday’s presentation represents czb’s “preliminary thinking” on SALDO/Zoning, Lombardi said.

It’s subject to “tinkering” reflective of comments received from open house attendees, he said.

A full draft is expected in May or June, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.