Polk County Charter Amendment on Growth Management

What the Charter Amendment does:

• Applies to residential development ONLY.
• Freezes the number of residential units in Polk County at the total vested by city and county comp plans as of date it is passed by the voters.
• Creates an Urban Service Area which would include all Urban Development and Urban Growth boundaries.
• Requires a Charter Amendment passed by voters to expand the Urban Service Area.
• Authorizes the transfer of residential units into the Urban Service Areas including cities.
• Stops cities ability to arbitrarily up-zone lands annexed outside of the Urban Service Area.
• Allows the County and Cities to bank underlying residential units when non-residential uses are approved.
• Allows local jurisdiction to decide how the banked units are used, i.e. density credits for affordable housing or sold to fund special projects.

What the Charter Amendment does not do:

• Does not downzone.
• Does not allow the transfer of density already vested to land. 
• Does not define land use.
• Does not limit zoning decisions within the Urban Service Area.
• Does not transfer authority for land use decisions to the County; however it does limit greater densities and intensities when annexation occurs outside the Urban Service Area.
• Does not eliminate County or city authority to define how and where residential allocation densities are transferred.
• Does not allow density transfers within the rural areas of the County.
• Does not affect concurrency requirements.