Oklahoma City planning director outlines zoning rewrite to allow duplexes and small‑lot homes

Jeff Butler, Oklahoma City's planning director, presented proposed updates to the city's zoning code in a Planning Department public presentation and asked residents to respond to a live survey to guide revisions.

Butler said the update focuses first on the city's urban core'the "urban medium" area roughly between I-44 and I-35 and Northwest 63rd and Southwest 59th'and is intended to modernize rules that have been in place since the 1980s. He said the Planning Department drafted the proposed code based on years of community engagement, focus groups and polling and that staff want survey responses to refine the draft before it proceeds to public hearings.

The draft aims to protect neighborhood character while increasing housing options. "We need to accommodate gentle density," Butler said, defining it as "small-scale increases in housing such as duplexes or small multi-unit homes" that provide more options without changing the overall feel of a neighborhood. Butler also said a new code "will help ensure quality development that is compatible with its surroundings" through design standards, landscaping and buffers.

Under the draft, the department would allow several housing types in appropriate locations that current R-1 zoning generally prohibits. Butler said R-1 zoning currently permits only single dwellings, preventing many historic mixed housing types from being built today. Specific proposals described in the presentation include permitting duplexes on any lot where a single dwelling is allowed, allowing single dwellings on smaller corner or alley-served lots, permitting quadroplexes (four-unit buildings) on corner or alley lots, and in some cases allowing two duplexes on a single lot. Each proposed form would follow the same basic setback, height and driveway-spacing standards as single dwellings.

Staff presented three parallel approaches to ensuring compatibility: (1) strengthen the draft code's design standards; (2) add a staff-run design review where staff approve minor work and neighbors receive mailed notice; and (3) a more comprehensive design review patterned on historic-preservation processes, where major work would go to a design review commission at a public meeting. Butler acknowledged trade-offs: design review can provide tighter control over building and site design but also increases processing time and cost for applicants and the city.

Throughout the presentation, staff asked viewers to rate proposed approaches and housing types using a 1-to-5 satisfaction scale and to rank neighborhood priorities. Participants were directed to a QR code and an online survey where they could provide demographic and locational information so staff can evaluate the representativeness of responses. Butler also invited viewers to leave contact information to join future focus groups and noted that results will inform smaller focus-group discussions, updated drafts, broader public comment opportunities and eventual public hearings on adoption.

The Planning Department tied the draft to the city's comprehensive plan (PlanOKC), saying updated zoning should guide where homes, shops, parks and businesses go and align building scale and uses with each area's character. Butler asked residents for feedback on whether modifications to the draft or added zoning tools (like design review) would make proposed housing types acceptable to individual neighborhoods.

The presentation closed with staff contact information and a plan to use survey and focus-group input to revise code drafts ahead of public hearings.