13 - Amend General Retail and Commercial Zoning Districts by amending Section 8 Use of Land and Buildings - Specific Use Permits

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Item No. 13 memorandum TO: Mayor & Council FROM: John Godwin, City Manager SUBJECT: ALLOWABLE USES IN COMMERCIAL & GENERAL RETAIL DATE: March 5, 2019 BACKGROUND: As has been discussed on several occasions by the planning and zoning commission and others, many of our land use regulations as described in the current zoning ordinance are old and out of date. One example the commission discussed recently is the significant overlap between the allowable land uses within Commercial (C) zoning and General Retail (GR) zoning. For many of us there are also simply too many uses in each district. The 2018 comprehensive plan, in its recommendations section, item 15.19, instructs: "Review land uses allowed in General Retail and Commercial, providing improved differentiation between the two overlapping zoning districts." STATUS OF ISSUE: I have attached a red -lined land use list for both of these districts, with several land uses eliminated from each (12 from C; 21 from GR). We believe these are better representations of what these uses should be, and specifically help leave retail spaces for purely retail and retail -related purposes. There had been over time a sort of creeping of commercial, which is supposed to be a much more intense usage, into traditional retail. I have deleted residential from both districts, since that is not a proper function for either of these land uses, and I have also deleted all residential from Commercial to better avoid future conflicts. Any existing uses that would be affected by these changes would immediately become legal non -conforming uses, so these changes should have no negative impact on any existing businesses or homes. Although not related to our purposes here, I have inserted Food Trucks and Columbaria simply because these are two uses we need to address, and by adding them now, we can avoid a separate discussion and ordinance adoption later. RECOMMENDATION: On March 4, the planning and zoning commission unanimously voted to recommend to the city council approval of a zoning ordinance amendment modifying allowable uses with Commercial and General Retail zoning districts.