A code regulating and limiting the city’s development will be dissected Thursday night and possibly approved.

The Unified Development Code has been reexamined and discussed further after that by the public and, at this meeting, is set to possibly be approved by the city’s Board of Zoning and Appeals. However, there is not a time limit on how long the BZAP can discuss the code.

Previously, meetings were held for public concern on the code. Once it is approved by the BZAP it must be passed through the city council.

During two past public meetings, no significant changes were made, instead the code was clarified. The public’s biggest concern with the code was its amortization process.

The process outlined in the code says in an area zoned as residential that has an industrial business, that business must move.

However, if the business can prove they were established prior to any zoning regulations in Charleston they are “grandfathered,” or allowed to remain on the property.

If not, the business must move. The public concern lay in the amortization time clock that determines how much time a business has to either relocate or turn the business into a residential property, which is decided by the zoning board and the owner of the business.

Together they evaluate when the business will break even based on investment, maintenance and upkeep among other factors. Whether their time clock is five months, 12 years or more, it does not matter.

The reworking of the code is a first since its creation in 1969 and encompasses a number of zoning issues in Charleston. Some of those issues are pertinent to college students, such as the limit on the number of unrelated people that live together.

For the past 33 years, the maximum number of unrelated people allowed to live in a residence was three. The new code states, however, the maximum number of people allowed to live together is dependent on the number of parking spaces available.

No more than two people per bedroom can live in a house, but within that, the more parking spaces available, the more people can live at a residence.

Another highlight of the code is the regulation of signs. Previously, no rules existed on the limiting the size of a sign, but the reworked code sets specific limits on sign height, area and number.