Agenda - Planning Commission - 06/27/2024

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Regular Planning Commission Meeting Date: 06/27/2024 Primary Strategic Plan Initiative: Information Title: Public Hearing - Zoning Code Updates 6. 4. Purpose/Background: When the new Zoning Code was adopted last year, it capped off a major re -write of the zoning regulations for the community. As it has been in practice for six months, staff has noted some things that need clarification or correction. Chapter 106 has been found to have some misspelled words, incorrect section references, and some formatting issues. Staff has been working with our legal publisher to fix these issues. The substantive changes, however, require the adoption of an ordinance to fix. Below is an explanation of the proposed changes. Section 106-202 - Required sureties and financial guarantees When a newly -constructed house is completed in the winter months, it is common for the landscaping and driveways not to be installed due to weather. Staff cannot prevent occupancy of the home due to those site items not being in place, but we can collect an escrow guaranteeing they'll be installed when the weather improves. The landscaping escrow was inserted into Code, but the driveway escrow was inadvertently left out. Many times, only one of the two escrows are needed, hence the separate sections. Section 106-236 - Home occupation permits (procedures) and 106-425. -Performance Standards (home occupations In these two sections, it was unclear which HOP needed Planning Commission and City Council review (Type -II) and which did not (Type -I). There were several references to "interim use" from when it was proposed to have HOPS as a subset to interim uses. It was later determined that it made sense to split the home occupations apart from interim uses and not all of the subsections were updated. Section 106-310 - Lighting Three different concepts are proposed to be modified: First, what was adopted noted residential zoned property. The intent was for shorter light poles near residential uses. The adopted text left out PUDs and mixed -use zoning (COR). Second, the height of 20 feet for freestanding poles was used with the Hilton Home2Suites project next to Northart Ramsey Apartments, so that height was used instead of the adopted 15 feet. Third, there was confusion about how a shared parking lot or driveway that has a property line running though should be treated as strict interpretation would require dimmer light levels along that line. Section 106-331 - Wind energy conversion systems (WECS) The adopted ordinance only allows for smaller, household -sized systems to be reviewed administratively, similar to how household -scale solar is reviewed via a building permit. A clause stating that the City Council can deny a project based on architectural integration was carried over from the old Zoning Code and should be updated for the adopted review procedures to include the zoning administrator instead. Section 106-422 -Accessory Uses (Residential Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) are allowed in most of the residential districts. Two of the single-family districts are shown as prohibited (R-1B and R-1C). The performance standards require a minimum lot width of 80 feet for an attached ADU and one acre for a detached ADU. The minimum lot width and area in these two districts are smaller than what is required, but it is possible for larger lots to comply with the standards.