The Medford City Council is one step closer to hiring an outside party to evaluate and help amend the city's zoning laws, which have not been updated since 2001.

The City Council approved a motion at their Oct. 10 meeting requesting that the city administration look into hiring an outside party to update Medford's zoning ordinances, as well as inviting a representative from the Massachusetts Area Planning Council to meet with the council to discuss the issue further.

Councilor Breanna Lungo-Koehn brought forth an initial motion relating to hiring an outside party, emphasizing the urgent need for revisions to the city’s zoning policies given the number of new developments coming to the city in recent years.

“We’re all capable of going street by street and deciding what zoning changes we should make,” Lungo-Koehn said. “But to handle this, which is going to take, from what I understand, multiple years to do, we need some guidance and commitment so we can move forward to get this done.”

Councilor John Falco Jr. had brought forth a similar motion in March 2016, but the council voted at that time to send the motion to the zoning subcommittee, with some councilors citing the potentially high costs of hiring a professional planner or company.

“[The subcommittee] has been looking at it and meeting on it, and it’s important to continue the conversation,” Falco said. “I support the resolution, but I’m not sure what the next step would be since we already have it in subcommittee.”

Councilor George Scarpelli proposed amending Lungo-Koehn’s motion to request that the city council specifically meet with a representative from the MAPC, a state organization, rather than a private company, to save money.

“I would like to call a meeting and bring in the MAPC, at a subcommittee meeting or committee of the whole, to ask them about what they’ve done in communities that have similar issues as we have here in Medford,” Scarpelli said. “It’s free to us to ask for guidance.”

Councilor Adam Knight, the chair of the zoning subcommittee, questioned whether the council had sufficiently determined its goals in reforming the city’s zoning laws.

He noted that the subcommittee has been trying to develop goals or criteria that could shape zoning laws, such as expanding the city’s commercially zoned parcels, raising the threshold for affordable housing stock – which is currently 10 percent of all housing units citywide, the same as the state mandate – and protecting historic assets.

Vice President Michael Marks suggested the city consider incorporating certain initiatives or mandates into zoning laws, such as car shares or solar shares, to “alleviate concerns from residents” who are opposed to new development projects.

“We have two major jobs: set and approve the city budget, and the second is zoning,” Marks said. “They go hand-in-hand.”

The city’s zoning laws have not been fully updated since 2001, according to Building Commissioner Paul Mochi, though some areas have been amended more recently.

Falco told the Transcript he hopes the subcommittee will hopefully produce some recommendations regarding his original, similar motion by the end of the year.

“It’s probably the most progress that’s been made in that area for some time,” he said. “So the resolution [Lungo-Koehn] put out last night, I support it, and it should’ve been done a long time ago.”

Lungo-Koehn stressed the need to stop discussing the issue and amend the laws in a timely manner, saying that the council has already received plenty of feedback from residents.

“Time cannot tick away on such an important issue, and it’s the seven of us who hear from residents on a day to day basis,” she said.