Agenda - Planning Commission - 08/04/2016

Home

Zoning for Small Business By Arista Strungys, A!CP Zoning often treats commercial districts as a singular land -use category, with little or no distinction in scale or intensity. A restaurant on the ground floor of a former warehouse. In these instances, commercial districts gen- erally seem the same on paper, with small differences in setbacks and use permissions. One of the problems with this approach is that it can create unintentional barriers for small businesses, businesses that have positive impacts on a community that go beyond direct economic benefits. For example, successful small businesses enhance community character and create an identity that is unique to the municipality. Some municipalities become known for their local business environment. One community may attract visitors to its local craft brewery and restaurant scene. Another may have a successful downtown with small shops that sell the wares of local artists, which attract residents as well as visitors from neighboring communities. These communities become known for being hubs of these types of small businesses. Small businesses also facilitate the adap- tive reuse of existing structures. Small busi- nesses are more flexible in location and space needs than larger scale businesses and chain stores, which is something that can work to the community's advantage. Smaller businesses can locate in established smaller storefronts, and they can also take advantage of new devel- opment spaces. For example, if a community has large industrial buildings no longer able to support manufacturing, these can be reno- vated into smaller spaces and leased to small local businesses. By acknowledging the place and role of small businesses in the community within development regulations, these potential benefits can come to fruition. Small busi- nesses have specific regulatory needs, so it is important that zoning ordinances do not create unintentional barriers instead of opening up opportunities for entrepreneurship. This article discusses two key areas of zoning regulation that affect small businesses: 1) use classifica- tion and permissions and 2) development standards. CAN YOUR ZONING ORDINANCE BE `USED' FOR SMALL BUSINESSES? An out-of-date approach to classifying and permitting uses is one of the biggest barriers to small businesses and, quite frankly, can negatively impact commercial development throughout a community regardless of scale. Use classification and permission schemes that are too specific, too narrowly drawn, and contain obsolete uses pose significant barriers. Meanwhile, a modern approach to use clas- sification and permission builds in flexibilities that can address emerging uses over time with- out discretionary approvals. Principal Uses Older ordinances often build inflexibility into commercial use permissions in two ways: 1) by taking a specific use approach and 2) by orga- nizing permissions in a cumulative or pyramid system of uses. Combined, these approaches can frustrate potential new small businesses by requiring lengthy and expensive special ap- provals, complicating interpretations of permis- sions, and discouraging emerging uses. The specific use approach has become disfavored in modern practice because of its length and inability to respond to new and emerging uses. Inherent in a specific use - based approach is the requirement that every possible use desired by the municipality must be included in the use list or, by virtue of exclu- sion, it is prohibited. One approach that better addresses the control and administration of uses within an ordinance is to adopt a categorical use ap- proach, where specific uses are grouped into larger "generic" categories. Modern practice has moved toward this approach because of two main benefits. First, it eliminates the need for exhaustive lists; hence, the sections of the ordinance detailing use permissions become shorter and easier to understand. Second, the categorical use approach provides the munici- pality with flexibility to review and permit those uses that may be desirable for the community within the broad context of the use definitions, without worrying about whether or not the use is specifically listed. ZONINGPRACTICE 7.16 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION I page 2