ROCHELLE – Rochelle city officials and Teska & Associates held a public zoning code update meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was held on March 5. from 3-4:30 p.m., at Salt 251. As part of a year-long process, the City of Rochelle has been working with its consultant, Teska & Associates, to update city zoning codes. The process is being done to better serve residents, businesses and to encourage economic development in a thoughtful manner throughout the community.

Many of the codes that are in now in affect are outdated, confusing and not user friendly for the city staff or residents. The codes were last updated in 1996, and a lot has changed since then.

“When they were last updated in 1996 there were no cell phones, cell towers or Ubers,” said Pete Iosue, Teska senior associate. “We need to make them more current and bring them up to date.”

Any resident who owns property within the City of Rochelle will be affected by the new codes. They deal with many different topics including fences, recreational vehicle parking, accessory structures such as sheds, commercial vehicles, commercial downtown building guidelines and signage.

The city staff is really excited for the process of updating the codes, since it will make future interactions between staff and residents much more user friendly. Some of the changes being made include categorizing businesses and adding more charts and diagrams.

Making sure the city codes are current and up to date is very important to the city and its population. Having old and out of date codes can affect individual’s decisions of whether to move to town or not.

“A bad code can really prevent people from coming to town, but a good code won’t keep anyone away,” said Iosue.