17 - Zoning Change for Trailers in the Commercial District

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Item No. 17 TO: Mayor& City Council John Godwin, City Manager FROM: Alan Efi-ussy, AICD', City Planning Manager SUBJEcr: ZONING CHANCE FOR TRAILERS IN THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT DATE: December 5, 2017 BACKGROUND: The background staternent for this zoning change request is the sat -fie information that is described in the meniorandurn recommending the zoning change for trailers in the Central Area (CA) Zoning District. At the December 4, 2017 commission meeting, no one spoke either in favor of or in opposition to this request, and the commission voted unanimously to recornmend approval of this amendifient to the Zoning Ordinance. STATUS OF ISSUE: Over the past several months, the staff has received rezoning requests to create Light Industrial Zoning Districts to allow applicants to establish trailer rental or sales; they are permitted in Central Area., Light Industrial, and Heavy Industrial Zoning Districts,However, they are not allowed at all in the Cornmercial District. During the period staff has received requests for trailer sales, many of these requests were to rezone areas within existing commercial zoning districts, This could lead sometimes to spot zoning,, and/or the intrusion into the continuity of an existing commercial zone, and/or the potential of incompatible Light Industrial uses adjacent or near single-family (or other residential uses) if the trailer sales ten-ninates or is never established, To address these issues, this public hearing is to bring forward a change in the Zoning Ordinance that would provide applicants the opportunity for trailer rental or sales by creating the Specific Use Pen -nit process in the Commercial District, and also still permit trailer rental and sales within the Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial Zoning Districts, A further advantage of this zoning amendment would be that if a trailer sales and rental project was approved through the SUP process within a Commercial District, should that use not develop or cease, the Commercial District would still remain on the subject property, because if a SUP is ten-ninated or eliminated, the base underlying zoning would rernain. Hence, the subject surrounding and/or nearby Commercial Zoned areas would still contain a compatible Commercial property, as opposed to perhaps an incompatible Light Industrial District, in light of the existing zoning procedure described above. The commission supports this staff recommendation.