Text Amendment – Project ReCode – Proposed Draft Sections 27-400, 27-500, 27-600, 27-800 & 27-1000: New Commercial, Public, Industrial and Planned Neighborhood Developments – Site Standards and General Uses. This is the second in a series of Public Hearings on the Public Review Draft of the County Zoning Regulations. This second hearing will focus on new Commercial (27-400), Public (27-500), Industrial (27-600), Planned Neighborhood Developments (Section 27-800) and Uses for those 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.

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The current zoning regulations for the County were adopted on November 6, 1973, and unified with the City zoning regulations in December 1997. Since 1973, the County has amended the text of the regulations and added several zoning districts. The County has amended the 1973 zoning code 40 times in the past 47 years since its adoption. Of those 40 amendments, only few were major changes, including the addition of the entryway and interchange zone districts in 1992. The County sign code was not part of the unification of the city and county codes in 1997 and was a separate code section until 2017. 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.

NORTH:	Zoning: Land Use:
SOUTH:	Zoning: Land Use:
EAST:	Zoning: Land Use:
WEST:	Zoning: Land Use:

In 2016, after Billings adopted a new growth policy, and the County Commissioners adopted the Lockwood Growth Policy, the City/County Planning Board realized the existing zoning regulations, intended to implement the new Billings Growth Policy, the new Lockwood Growth Policy and the existing 2008 Yellowstone County Growth Policy, were no longer effective tools for advancing community growth goals. The existing code was primarily based on a set 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.

This second in a series of public hearings on the Public Review Draft will focus on the new Commercial districts (27-400), Industrial districts (27-500), Public districts (27-600), Planned Neighborhood Developments (27-800) and the Use Table and Use Standards for those districts (27-1000). The current code for commercial, industrial and public zone districts has a Use Table at 27-306, site requirements at 27-309, and many use standards scattered throughout the existing code including 27-600 (Supplemental Provisions), and 27-1000 (Entryway/Interchange). The Entryway districts will not continue as distinct zone districts.

• RP - Residential Professional
• NC - Neighborhood Commercial
• CC - Community Commercial
• HC - Highway Commercial
• CI - Controlled Industrial
• HI - Heavy Industrial
• ELC - Entryway Light Commercial
• EGC - Entryway General Commercial
• EMU - Entryway Mixed Use
• ELI - Entryway Light Industrial

The two industrial zone districts are included in this list since these two districts allow all of the same commercial uses as our highest intensity commercial district - Highway Commercial (HC). The proposed code will dissolve the Entryway Districts, and create two commercial zone districts as base districts in the County - C3 and CX. The proposed code has standardized site development requirements for each use type and zone district so there is no longer the disparity between zone districts for landscaping, signage and parking. The new Mixed Use districts will be available only where County water and sewer is available similar to the urban residential districts.

Older zoning codes tend to take the pyramid approach to uses. A low intensity district such as RP has a limited number of uses. The next level allows the same uses as the lower district and then adds a new set of uses and so on until you reach the highest intensity use district. The proposed code still includes allowed uses, uses allowed with location restrictions, uses allowed by special review approval and prohibited uses. The C3 and CX zone districts will replace the eight commercial zones and consolidate uses to allow offices, retail, services and commercial uses in most areas with some more intense commercial uses reserved for the CX zone district. The proposed I1 and I2 will replace the CI and HI zones and keep most of the same uses except for general retail as a primary use.

The proposed district line up for Commercial and Industrial zones is:

27-400 Commercial districts

Symbol	District Name
C3	General Commercial
CX	Heavy Commercial
27-600	Industrial Districts
I1	Light Industrial
I2	Heavy Industrial

The following table of zone districts will only be allowed where County Water and Sewer is available or where the development patterns more closely follow one of these districts. For the County areas this will primarily be in Lockwood or within the limits of annexation. These districts will also be available for Planned Neighborhood Developments (Sec. 27-800)

CMU1	Corridor Mixed-Use 1
CMU2	Corridor Mixed-Use 2
NMU	Neighborhood Mixed-Use
NO	Neighborhood Office-Residential

C3 - General Commercial
The proposed General Commercial zone district is derived by consolidating three of the entryway districts (ELC, EMU & EGC), and the RP, NC and CC zone district. There is limited universe of uses allowed within areas that do not have public water or sewer. In the County districts this includes warehousing, smaller scale retail, equipment and supply service businesses, auto repair and sales. A more diverse group of commercial uses in the County is found primarily in Lockwood or areas where city water has been supplied through the County or the Heights Water District. Here is a description of the new C3 zone district:
The C3 and CX zone districts will have the same site requirements for building height, setbacks and lot coverage (Sec. 27-404)

CX - Heavy Commercial
The proposed district is intended for many of the existing HC zone districts as well as the CC and ELI zones that have more intense uses such as contractor yards, lumber yards, cabinet makers, printers, warehousing and industrial business services. This zone along with the C3 zone will not allow residential uses. The HC and CC zone districts currently allow residential uses. The mix of proposed intense commercial uses is not conducive to residential use. Campgrounds and RV parks will be allowed and these uses are allowed in the current HC and CC zone districts.
Mixed Use Zones - Lockwood and Planned Neighborhood Developments
Lockwood has its own water and sewer district so the proposed urban level commercial zone districts that allow mixing residential uses with retail, offices and services can be allowed in the water and sewer district. This is a preferred and efficient use of land along transportation corridors and at neighborhood nodes. The zone districts will be mapped in Lockwood where these uses and development pattern already exist and then available for new districts in Lockwood through the Planned Neighborhood Development tool kit in Section 27-800.

Here is a short description of each of the Mixed Use Zones:
The proposed Neighborhood Mixed-Use (NMU) and Neighborhood Office (NO) are mirror districts of the Neighborhood Commercial (NC) and Residential Professional (RP). The uses have been refined to take some of the more intense uses out of the districts and reduce the types of uses allowed by special review approval. Churches and other civic assembly uses are now allowed uses in the RP zone district although they may have a significant impact on the area around an RP zone. In the new NO district, these uses will require special review approval. General retail will still not be an allowed use in the NO zone. The NMU zone is intended to be a scaled-back NC zone intended to allow neighborhood services to be back in residential neighborhoods without the unpredictability of the current allowed uses in the NC zone. A carwash will not be a use allowed by special review in the NMU zone. Churches and civic assembly uses would be allowed in the NMU districts along with health care services except for surgery centers. Bed and breakfast inns would be allowed but a hotel or motel would require special review. All drive through services would require special review approval.
R = Required. Refer to specific development type regulations in section 27-802.
P = Allowed or permitted. Refer to specific development type regulations in section 27-802.
L = Allowed but limited per Table 27-800-1 or specific development type regulations in section 27-802.
- = Not allowed or permitted per specific development type regulations in section 27-802.
Table Notes:
All numeric values are percentages of the actual gross parcel area.

The Lockwood community has already started to formulate a town center plan with multiple owners based on the proposed draft code. The PND regulations will allow the City to make zoning decisions for new neighborhoods to be annexed in a phased approach that will not burden owners with carrying costs, but adds predictability and good urban design. The use of PND's will be required in the limits of annexation area for developments of more than three acres, however, the PND is optional in the Lockwood Water and Sewer District.

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 Board of County Commissioners.