Text Amendment – Project ReCode – Proposed Draft Sections 27-300 & 27-1000 - New Neighborhood and Residential Zone Districts: Site Standards and General Uses  This is the first in a series of Public Hearings on the Public Review Draft of the City Zoning Regulations in Section 27 of the Billings Montana City Code (BMCC). This first hearing will focus on the new residential districts - Section 27-300 - and the uses allowed in the residential districts - Section 27-1000.
 

Planning staff recommends the Zoning Commission conduct the public hearing and receive public comment on the Public Review Draft of the new zoning code. No action is required at this time.

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The current zoning regulations for the City were adopted on May 3, 1972 and unified with the County zoning regulations in December 1997. Since 1972, the City has amended the text of the regulations and added several zoning districts. The city has amended the 1972 zoning code 166 times in the past 48 years since its adoption. Of those 166 amendments, six were major changes. The first occurred in 1977 when the code was updated in its entirety and re-adopted. The second major amendment added the new zoning district for the Medical Corridor in 1986. The next major amendment occurred in 1989 when the entire sign code was replaced with a new code. The combining of the City and County zoning codes took 3 years of editing and drafting and was finally adopted in 1997. In 2004 and 2005, the city adopted the Shiloh Corridor Overlay District to apply higher site design, landscaping and sign standards within this corridor. The sixth major change to the code happened in 2012 with the adoption of the new section for the East Billings Urban Renewal District (EBURD).

In 2017, in anticipation of a comprehensive code update, the City and County agreed to formally separate the zoning codes to aid in the process of the comprehensive update known as Project Re:Code.

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In 2016, the City Council adopted a new Growth Policy that updated a 2008 policy and presented several new community goals. These goals were stated in a set of "guidelines" under the seven major themes of the policy update:

1. Essential Investments (relating public and private expenditures to public values)
2. Place Making (enhance, maintain, preserve, and improve existing public places)
3. Community Fabric (attractive, aesthetically pleasing, uniquely Billings)
4. Strong Neighborhoods (livable, safe, sociable and resilient neighborhoods)
5. Home Base (healthy, safe and diverse housing options)
6. Mobility and Access (transportation choices in places where goods and service are accessible to all)
7. Prosperity (promoting equal opportunity and economic advancement)

The Growth Policy statement adopted by the City Council is:
"In the next 20 years, Billings will manage its growth by encouraging development within and adjacent to the existing City limits, but preference will be given to areas where City infrastructure exists or can be extended within a fiscally constrained budget and with consideration given to increased tax revenue from development. The City will prosper with strong neighborhoods with their own unique character that are clean, safe, and provide a choice of housing and transportation options.

The City/County Planning Board realized the existing zoning regulations, intended to implement the Billings and Yellowstone County adopted Growth Policies, were no longer effective tools for advancing these goals. The existing code was primarily based on a set of of growth goals adopted before 1970 with some new code sections added to try and achieve smaller area goals. The Planning Board initiated this major code update in June 2017 and appointed an ad hoc Steering Committee to help guide the process of the code update. The City Council and Board of County Commissioners were in complete agreement with the need for a major code update.

The Steering Committee set to work and met monthly from August 2017 until December 2017. In December 2017, the Steering Committee finalized a set of Guiding Principles for the code update and appointed four Working Groups to handle the intensive, hands-on work of updating the code. Those groups included some Steering Committee members as well as interested residents. The four groups consisted of the County Issues Working Group, the Urban Issues Working Group, Sign Code Working Group and Landscaping Code Working Group. The groups met monthly from January 2018 until January of 2020 to review, draft, and accept public comment on the draft code sections.

The City and County also agreed to fund the services of a consultant team to help the Steering Committee and Working Groups evaluate the code deficiencies, analyze the character of Billings and County neighborhoods, and help draft a new set of regulations. The consultant team was hired in April 2018 and consists of Elizabeth Garvin, of Community ReCode (CO), Leslie Olberholtzer of Codametrics (IL) and Randy Hafer of High Plains Architects (MT). This team met with each Working Group through the project development and helped the local residents create a code that is uniquely crafted for our local community goals. Best practices were brought to the table from around the Rocky Mountain region as well as similar communities throughout the country. A Code Assessment was presented to the community in October 2018 that helped the Steering Committee and Working Groups create a path forward to building the new code.

The Planning Division requested and was awarded VISTA members to assist with the code analysis in particular as it related to creating new attainable housing choices in Billings. The VISTA members created a Billings Pattern Guide - an on line publication and guide to the core neighborhoods of Billings. The VISTA members analyzed Home Mortgage Data to find out if there were neighborhoods in Billings where home loans might be skewed or denied due to race or ethnicity. Some Billings neighborhoods had much lower mortgage origination rates than others but there was no clear distinction based on the applicants race or ethnicity. The VISTA members completed special research to analyze the existing housing choices in Billings and identify gaps in market demand and housing supply. Their findings indicated a mis-match between the household size (1 & 2 person households >60% of Billings) and the housing choices available (3+ bedroom housing >60% of housing stock). We have a deficit of one and two-bedroom housing stock. A detailed research project was completed about the re-emerging housing choice of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in the country. ADUs became very popular throughout the US in the post-WWII building boom and over 900 of these units still exist in Billings, although the 1972 zoning code made most of them non-conforming to code. All of this information and public education helped inform the work of the Urban Issues Working Group while they considered new neighborhood zone districts. 

This is the first in a series of public hearings on the Public Review Draft of the new city zoning regulations will focus on the new Residential zone districts (Section 27-300) and the uses specified for these districts (Section 27-1000). The current code structure is similar - districts are described in Section 27-304, site requirements are set in Section 27-308 and uses are specified in Section 27-305. In this proposed code, each group of zone districts - Residential, Commercial/Mixed Use, Industrial, Public and EBURD - will have a code section where the district is described and the site requirements are specified. The current code section for Uses only contains a matrix table but none of the Use standards. All of the Use standards are in current code Section 27-600 and range from storage requirements, manufactured homes, alcohol service, churches, fences, home occupations to hazardous waste facilities. In the proposed code structure, Uses and Use Standards are all in one code section - Section 27-1000. This makes it easier to find any specific requirements for a particular use. The Use Table has a Use Standard reference in the right-most column of the table.

Current Residential Districts and General Site Requirements - Section 27-300
The current zone districts where residential uses are allowed include the following 22 zones:

• R-96 - Residential 9,600
• R-80 - Residential 8,000
• R-70R - Residential 7,000 Restricted
• R-70 - Residential 7,000
• R-60R - Residential 6,000 Restricted
• R-60 - Residential 6,000
• R-50 - Residential 5,000
• RMF - Residential Multi-Family
• RMF-R - Residential Multi-Family - Restricted
• RMH - Residential Manufactured Home
• RP - Residential Professional (single dwelling units only)
• NC - Neighborhood Commercial
• CC - Community Commercial
• HC - Highway Commercial
• CI - Controlled Industrial (Special Review - single dwelling units only)
• CBD - Central Business District
• EBURD - East Billings Urban Renewal District
• S 27th St Corridor
• Medical Corridor
• ELC - Entryway Light Commercial (Special Review in Mixed Use development)
• EGC - Entryway General Commercial (Special Review in Mixed Use development)
• EMU - Entryway Mixed Use

The proposed zone districts where residential uses will be primary uses will replace the above mentioned with the seven following districts:

N1	First Neighborhood Residential
N2	Mid-Century Neighborhood Residential
N3	Suburban Neighborhood Residential
NX1	Mixed Residential 1
NX2	Mixed Residential 2
NX3	Mixed Residential 3
RMH	Residential Manufactured Home

The proposed commercial, mixed use zones, the CBD and EBURD zone districts will also allow residential uses but they will need to be part of a mixed use building and not stand-alone residential developments. This structure allows more predictability in zone district designations. For example, a CC zone now could have a lumber yard and hardware store  - or it could be an apartment complex - or it could be both just on different parts of the parcel. Reconfiguring the zone districts to better match the intended uses adds to the stability of the neighborhood or commercial center.

N1 - First Neighborhood Residential
The N1 zone district - First Neighborhood Residential - is a zone district intended to create and preserve the development style of Billings' first neighborhoods built around the turn of the last century. Here is the zone district description: The zone district site requirements follow in Section 27-304 in a table and illustration format. The table describes the site requirement and the number in the left-most column of the table is matched to the opposite page illustration. See the attached Code Section 27-300.

The proposed code is different than current code requirements for residential districts. The proposed districts no longer have a minimum lot area requirement. Minimum lot area requirements lead to housing cost escalation (supply of land is limited), increases cost to provide city services (area/length of road greater than required to accommodate lot area minimums), and makes it more difficult to fund and develop necessary neighborhood amenities such as parks, trails, and transportation options. Minimum lot area is also a vestige of out-dated exclusionary zoning policies intended to make certain neighborhoods off limits to minorities and people from lower socio-economic classes. Most code built on a neighborhood type and style exclude lot area minimums and rely on lot width to establish the character of the street and neighborhood.

For example, the N1 zone district proposes a minimum 20 feet of lot width (measured at the street front) per principal building on the parcel. We have kept some lot setbacks (side and rear) but to preserve the character of these areas, we are proposing a "build-to" range along the street front. For the N1 district the front build-to range is 8 feet to 20 feet from the front property line. This means new structures cannot be setback more than 20 feet from the street frontage. This is a defining characteristic of the N1 neighborhoods in Billings. In addition, pulling the buildings forward, helps facilitate sociability of the residents, increases the "eyes on the street" (reducing crime) and frames the street so traffic tends to slow down (perception of safe travel speed). The Urban Issues Working Group found these regulations to be in line with the 2016 Billings Growth Policy Guidelines and the 2018 Guiding Principles adopted by the Steering Committee. 

The N1 zone district will replace the various zone designations in Billings core neighborhoods except where there are multi-family developments or zoning and where there are neighborhood service businesses (e.g. Harper Madison, Kionona Laundry, Poet Street Market, Green leaf Jewelry etc). There are a range of zone districts N1 will replace that exist now, including R-60, R-70, to R-96. The map update will be presented at a future Zoning Commission hearing but a side-by-side comparison map is available on-line at https://project-recode.com/zoning-map-comparison. 

N2 - Mid-Century Neighborhood Residential
The N2 zone district is intended to preserve and create the character of neighborhoods built around the middle of the last century. These neighborhoods feature wider lots and ranch-style homes with 1 or 2-car attached garages. Also, two family duplex buildings were frequently interspersed in these neighborhoods. The N2 zone requires a different set of site development characteristics but does not rely on minimum lot area requirements. The lot width is greater than the N1 zone district, but building heights are less and the build-to range at the street frontage is a little narrower. Also, the garage doors on the front building facade is an important feature. The district is described as: The proposed zone district requirements closely resemble the existing R-96, R-70-R and R-60-R zone districts. There are some site requirements added to ensure walkability in neighborhoods such as limiting the percentage of a front facade with garage openings to 50% or less of the total building frontage and setting the minimum lot width at 65 feet - except for cul-de-sac lots or flag lots.

The N3 zone also has a the table and illustration page for basic site requirements. The proposed N3 zone will be limited to single-family detached buildings as a primary use.

The Mixed Residential zone districts - NX1, NX2, NX3
These districts are intended to put finer detail in place for our existing and proposed multi-family developments. In Billings, we found through our character analysis of neighborhoods, there are three basic types of multi-family developments - a one to four-family small apartment house style (NX1) throughout many of the neighborhoods, a two to eight-family apartment building or group of buildings (NX2) in some newer neighborhoods, and the larger multi-family buildings (five or more units/building) or groups of apartment buildings (NX3) built as a stand alone neighborhood. Here are the district descriptions:
Each one of these zone districts is similar in the site requirements but the NX3 allows more building stories than the NX1. Each district is allowed 60% lot coverage. The NX2 and NX3 zone districts do require a minimum lot area of 7,000 square feet when a principal building has three or more dwelling units. In order to increase walkability in these multi-family developments, the code is proposing to that all garage parking be accessed from the rear of the building.  

The RMH zone district is remaining a zone district specifically for manufactured homes and manufactured home parks. As part of this update, we surveyed all the existing manufactured home parks and site designs. The quality of a manufactured home park is primarily based on the quality of its local management team but certain amenities and site requirements increase the quality from the start. These include open space for a neighborhood playground, sidewalks, community storage spaces and landscaping. The RMH zone district description is as follows: The proposed site development requirements for the RMH district allow one dwelling unit per 3,000 square feet of lot area, allows up to 50% lot coverage, requires a 20 foot front setback, eight feet from the side and rear lot lines, and re-aligns the definition of a manufactured home with the state law definition in Municipal Zoning (MCA-76-2-304). The site requirements also include setting aside and area for a neighborhood park for manufactured home developments of three or more acres. 

Uses and Use Standards - Section 27-1000
The existing uses allowed in Billings residential zones will continue forward in the proposed Neighborhood zones. The types of dwellings will be tailored to the seven proposed zone districts with single family dwellings allowed in the N1, N2, N3, NX1 and RMH zone districts. Two family dwellings will be allowed in the N1, N2, NX1, and NX2 zones and multi-family (more than 2 attached dwelling units) will be allowed in the NX2 and NX3 zones. The N3 and RMH zone districts will be restricted to single family dwellings only.

Home occupations currently allowed in the residential zones will continue to be allowed in the new zone districts. These occupations are typically office based businesses or on line businesses. There are a few additional stipulations on home occupations in Section 27-1008.M including prohibited businesses such as engine repair or maintenance, businesses that have employees reporting to the residence and similar "non-residential" activities.

Churches and day care centers can be proposed in the neighborhood zone districts but will still require special review approval by the City Council. The Primary Use Table starts on page -9- and the Accessory Use Table starts on page -62- of the attached draft Section 27-1000.

Residential accessory garages will still be regulated in the same manner as the current code at Section 27-310.i. There will be limitations on the floor area, wall height and the siding of the detached garage will need to match the primary residence. The current formula for determining the maximum floor area is being removed and replaced with a maximum area that does not exceed the first floor area of the main residence.

 

Staff recommends the Zoning Commission open the public hearing and receive public comment and testimony. After all the hearings are complete, the Zoning Commission will conduct a final meeting and vote on a recommendation to the City Council.