Concord residents might soon be able to install an accessory dwelling unit or host a daycare at their home by right. Businesses might be able to more easily obtain and change their signage, and typos in the zoning rules might be corrected.

These are all proposed tide-over changes to Concord’s zoning rules, which public officials and business leaders say shouldn’t have to wait for a scheduled overhaul of these rules.

Concord’s planning board will review the first batch of these changes Wednesday night. 

Other short-term changes, like parking requirements, are expected in the coming months. 

The last initiative to rewrite zoning rules, dubbed “Concord Next,” was quietly abandoned in 2023. Since then, city hall leaders have said that comprehensive zoning reforms, including determinations about which parts of the city are set aside for certain types of development, will have to wait until the city completes its new master plan in a few years.

Business leaders have long vented frustrations that Concord’s approval process is longer and thornier than in other places. Along with a push to align the city’s decades-old codes with new state laws, these tide-over changes aim to provide some short-term relief.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.