Officials have kicked off the process of rewriting the City of Warren’s zoning regulations.

That effort was the primary focus of the Planning Commission’s Wednesday meeting.

“The ordinance is pretty solid,” Denny Puko, a consultant assisting the city with this process, said. “The structure is logical. Most of the regulations are clear and administrable.

“There are some areas in terms of compositions of the zoning districts we want to call some attention to or highlight,” he added.

One suggestion is mixed-use in some areas — commercial and residential in the same area rather than in separate districts — as well as the possibility of some “form-based” zoning regulations where the regulations relate “to the form of a building; how it appears feature-wise ….”

“The community and you all said the character of Warren and the development is what makes the community unique,” he said. Form-based zoning, he outlined, would preserve that character by including regulations such as requiring windows on the street level or a two-story minimum for new construction and other similar regulations that “would enhance the character of the development, specifically downtown.”

He also pointed out inconsistencies in the existing ordinance regarding various recreation conflicts in the ordinance and raised an issue with development in the downtown commercial district that “broadly permits retail uses” without acknowledging that there might be some such uses that “wouldn’t be appropriate” in that area.

“The ordinance has a lengthy list of prohibited uses,” Puko added. “Courts have said zoning cannot exclude what is otherwise a lawful use. The city faces a risk of a legal challenge to these exclusions.”

Commission members identified a couple of specific areas of the city for possible review as part of this process.

The most notable was Market Street. Ray Pring said that is a street “that is residential but is not residential. I’ve run into problems trying to get things approved in that area because it’s still a residential area.”

Mike Suppa equated Market Street to a street in Buffalo where stately homes have largely been turned into offices.

Angie Dart added that she’s “seeking a lot of businesses pop up on Conewango Ave.” and suggested that might be a location for potential mixed-use.

Director of Codes and Planning Randy Rossey said the next step in the zoning revision process will be to establish a steering committee composed of members of the commission, city council and the zoning hearing board to begin to meet monthly to work on the regulations.

He estimated that will take four to six months to complete.