Covington Zoning Ordinance Re-Write

The City of Covington is a charming small town community in the southeast portion of metropolitan Atlanta. Covington is a typical Georgia town complete with an intimate public square surrounding by quaint historic buildings. Over the past decade, Covington has established itself as an innovative and progressive city that has embraced the principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism to ensure that future development in the city reflects the values and qualities of the historic fabric of the community.

Market + Main worked with the City of Covington to translate the Covington LCI Master Plan and the subsequent Covington Supplemental LCI Plan into a brand new zoning ordinance for the entire city. Market + Main performed a Zoning Check for the city and through this process exposed inconsistencies, contradictions, and outdated zoning controls in the current code. Following the Zoning Check, Market + Main proceeded with a process that would eventually overhaul the entire Zoning Ordinance, and in doing so, would rectify the exposed problems of the existing code.

Market + Main worked with a Working Group of stakeholders consistently throughout the project. We also held a series of extensive public meetings and presentations to craft the new ordinance and ensure the successful adoption of the ordinance and city-wide rezoning. Services provided to the City of Covington throughout the process included a Zoning Check, new Place-based Zoning Districts, a Zoning Ordinance with Form-based Civic Design standards for the entire city, new procedures and regulations that are based on up-to-date legal findings, and finally, a Zoning Guide for the City to utilize in the facilitation of administering the new Zoning Ordinance.