WESTON—A proposed zoning change that would let people live on the ground floor of houses in Weston’s commercial zone received its first reading at the September 21 Village Council meeting, according to Councilmember Ashley Patel. The measure comes from a Planning Commission recommendation and was added to the agenda at the meeting.


What the Change Would Do


Councilmember Ashley Patel described the proposal in a public comment in the “Weston Freedom” Facebook group the morning after the meeting. According to Patel, the commission’s recommendation to rezone was added to the council agenda and read for the first time that night.

As Patel explained it, the Village’s current rules allow people living in a house on commercially zoned property to use only the upper level. The change would allow them to live on the lower level as well. It would also cover commercially zoned houses that have been vacant for more than six months, allowing residents to use both floors, she wrote.

Patel pointed to the house at Walnut and Mill streets as an example. The property is zoned commercial, and although people are working on the house, the current restrictions would only let them live upstairs, she said. Patel added that this section of the zoning ordinance was last changed in 1998. Other parts of the ordinance have been adjusted since, she said, but not this section.


What We Don’t Know Yet


The published agenda for September 21 did not list the zoning measure, which is consistent with Patel’s account that it was added at the meeting. Official minutes of the meeting have not yet been posted, and the ordinance number and exact wording are not yet available. Ordinances in Weston normally receive three readings before a final vote unless Council suspends the rules, so two more readings would ordinarily follow.

Patel’s description of a six-month vacancy period differs from earlier Village descriptions of the current rule. Minutes of the Planning Commission’s May 20 meeting, as reported to Council on June 1, said commercial zoning bars first-floor living in a building that has been vacant for 60 days or more. The Weston Common will report the final language once it is available.


Background


The Planning Commission has worked on the issue since at least May. At its May 20 meeting, the commission proposed turning the 2025 downtown district resolution into an ordinance, limiting the first-floor residential restriction to the downtown district, and using a tiered approach based on R1 and R2 residential rules for homes elsewhere in the commercial zone, Mayor Rick Easterwood told Council on June 1. He said the goal was to keep the downtown business district from becoming “nothing but apartments” while letting owners build or renovate homes (June 1 coverage).

After a June 17 meeting, the commission reported that the change would require notice to property owners in the commercial district and neighboring owners, and it scheduled a public hearing for August 13 (July 6 coverage). Council also discussed a separate request to rezone three Evon Lane parcels to R2 in July (July 20 coverage).

Sources: Councilmember Ashley Patel, public comment in the Weston Freedom Facebook group · Sept. 21 council agenda · June 1 council minutes · July 6 council minutes