Planning staff recommends the Zoning Commission recommend approval of these draft amendments to the zoning code based on the findings of the 10 review criteria.

In February 2021, the City Council adopted a new zoning code and zoning map for the entire city. The Council directed staff to continually monitor the new code to ensure the text of the regulations was working as intended and any corrections or housekeeping changes could be made. The Council also directed staff to monitor the implementation to consider any substantive changes to adjust the code, so it continues to provide support to the development goals of the adopted Growth Policy and general policies of Billings.

Planning staff brought forward a bundle of code corrections and amendments last year (June 2022). Those amendments were approved by the Council. Planning staff has been working on more substantive amendments to the code based on staff experience implementing the new code, information from professionals who use the code, and from the Council in its reviews of zoning applications. These substantive amendments include adjustments to the Neighborhood building and siting standards, the sign code, the Planned Neighborhood Development (PND) process, open space requirements for PNDs and multifamily developments, zoning at annexation as well as the right to rebuild residential structures in mixed-use and commercial zone districts. These adjustments are not indicators of a "broken" set of regulations. Just as a new car or truck has a break-in period, so do new codes and regulations. As a completely new code, the need to monitor for glitches or "pain points" is important. These adjustments are just part of breaking in a new code. Planning staff believes this set of amendments should be the last significant adjustments needed for a few years. Planning staff and the City Council should re-visit the zoning and other land development codes regularly and when a new Growth Policy is adopted.

The City Council took action to initiate these amendments for review, public hearings and adoption at its meeting on April 24. The City Council's action was to begin the process of public review and adoptions. The City Council will act on the specific amendments once the Zoning Commission provides a recommendation and once the Council holds a public hearing. The number of amendments requires these to be brought forward in phases. This first phase will include changes to the Neighborhood Districts building and siting standards, the code section on fence materials and the sign code. Planning staff has worked with several stakeholders over the last several months to craft the draft amendments. This report will describe each amendment and will include just one set of findings for the review criteria for all four ordinances. Each ordinance by city regulation may only address a single comprehensive subject, must have a public hearing and recommendation from the Zoning Commission and then must be voted on by the City Council at two separate meetings. 

Neighborhood Districts - Building and Siting Standards - Section 27-300 and 27-1802
The intent of the new districts for residential areas of the city was to ensure new development was maintaining similar development patterns that were successful in Billings and to allow more housing choices in every new neighborhood. There are seven residential zone districts, and five of those districts have building and siting standards that are "form" oriented requirements such as roof pitch, percent of windows and doors on a front facade, build-to zones (not setbacks) as well as location of parking and attached garages.

As staff, builders and developers have implemented the new code there were several areas identified that were unclear, or were too rigid to accommodate building styles and good development patterns. For example, in the five districts where build-to zones are required, the code is silent on what percentage of the front facade is required to be within the build-to zone. Staff has interpreted the code requirement to mean 100% of the front facade. This allows little facade variation that results in less visual appeal on the street frontage. Staff is proposing to specify what percentage of the facade and what facade elements must be in the build-to zone. The range of the build-to zone is also relatively small - between 8 and 20 feet generally. Setting a certain percentage for the front facade in the build-to zone and expanding the build-to zone will allow more variation in building design without allowing buildings to be set too far back from the street.

Staff has found some of the requirements for build-to zones and roof pitch are not clearly the norm in many neighborhoods. For example, neighborhoods south of Grand Avenue close to downtown have every type of roof style including flat and parapet roofs. Staff is proposing to relax the roof pitch standards to allow more flexibility. Staff has found the code is also too stringent for infill projects by requiring an owner to match the existing setbacks of adjacent homes (build-to zone averaging). Many of these first and second neighborhoods in Billings have large front setbacks, or only a second home at the back of the lot where the "front" house was destroyed. This provision has a good intent but as applied has unintentionally pushed new residences or additions further back from the street frontage than necessary or intended. Developed neighborhoods also have more utility lines - gas, power, water and sewer - that cross through backyards than newer developments. Sometimes the only way to add on to an existing home in these areas is on the front. Staff is proposing to change this from a mandatory requirement to a choice by the owner to expand the maximum build-to zone. The default will be the build-to zone as listed in the district table. 

Staff has also encountered difficulty with the requirement to place any accessory building in a rear yard. Many corner lots are developed with no "rear" yard - the space behind the residence between the property line and the home. Most only have a side adjacent to street yard to place an accessory building. The City Board of Adjustment has already heard two variances requesting an accessory building in the street side yard. Staff is proposing to adjust this requirement to allow a street side yard for accessory structures and a side yard with Administrative Relief approval. 

One of the goals of the new code was also to provide predictability along with the right amount of flexibility to encourage innovation in building style and architecture. Staff has developed amendments that will address these issues within the neighborhood zone districts. Staff has also drafted an amendment to allow some front facing garage doors in mixed residential districts. This part of code only allows rear or side street access to an attached garage in any of the mixed residential districts. There are some examples of homes and multifamily buildings built in the last 30 years that have no "occupied" building space on the ground-floor visible from the street - the facade is all garage doors. In order to counter this development style, the code was written to limit the width of garage entries that face the street in neighborhood zones (by percentage) and prohibits them in mixed residential zones. There are some builders that have always built multifamily dwellings with detached or rear entry garages, but many others are serving a market that demands a front entry garage - or at least a side entry attached garage. There are a couple of examples where this has been done so the garage is not the dominate feature of the front facade. This proposed ordinance is based on these good examples, and would amend the code to allow some front facing garage doors in the NX1 and NX2 zone district with guidelines in place.

Fence Materials - Section 27-1209
The city last amended the allowable fence materials in 2004. At the time, the city allowed architectural metal panels only in the industrial zone districts. These are typically used in conjunction with a shop building with the same metal siding and do not appear to be out of place in the industrial area development pattern. The code did not specify any design requirements for the use of the material, but the city believed at the time it was not an acceptable material in any zone district except for industrial zones.

In the last 5 to 10 years, the use of corrugated metal panel material has been used in the Billings area and marketed as the most durable fence type where hail is a common occurrence every spring and summer. Any fence permit presented with this material has been denied by Planning staff. This however has not stopped homeowners and contractors from installing this fence material without a permit. In most cases, the use of the material has been done in good fashion and few complaints have been received about these fences. Staff recently held an administrative hearing with the Board of Adjustment on a corrugated metal fence in a neighborhood district that was installed at least 6 years ago. A complaint was received last fall and the fence was made from material normally used for grain bins or other agricultural buildings (see photo attachments). During research for the hearing, staff found there are quite a few (more than a dozen) locations where similar fences do fit in within neighborhoods and commercial areas. These fences have a wide range of colors and finishes and are generally framed with materials other than metal. This diminishes the "industrial" look of the material.

Staff is proposing to amend the code to add this material to the list of approved materials in residential and commercial zones. The amendment includes some design standards for the use of the material including framing the panels and to use material with a non-reflective coating. In addition, the code amendment would allow owners to propose other fence materials through the Administrative Relief process rather than a special review with the City Council.

Sign Code - Section 27-1400
The new sign code took 7 different sign codes and melded them into one new code that applies across all zone districts. In addition, the new code reduced most attached wall signs to a third of the previous code allowance and placed a maximum area for all wall signs on any length of a street facade. The code is matched to the new building and siting standards for the mixed use and commercial zone districts. When a building is close to the street frontage, overly large attached wall signs are unnecessary and out of place. The new code also made the building owner responsible for dividing the amount of wall signage between tenants. In order to encourage conformity with the new code, alterations to existing nonconforming signs is strictly limited.

Staff has found the literal application of the new sign code requirements especially for existing signs on buildings that are not located close to the street frontage, to be difficult especially since most landowners make tenants responsible for their own signage. The Board of Adjustment has processed three sign variances in the last 6 months related to this issue of wall signs. In the 2 decades preceding the new sign code, only a dozen sign code variances were processed. Some of this may have been due to the previous code's generous amount of sign area. 

A recent application to construct a new digital billboard sign revealed to staff the weakness of the sign code for separating these signs from residential areas. This makes areas in West Billings and some areas of Billings Heights acceptable even though the impact from such locations is clearly not in line with the stated sign code policy or the Growth Policy for the city. Staff is proposing to increase this separation requirement and to include county zones that allow residential uses in the separation requirement.

Staff met with sign companies and landowners on their concerns. Staff is proposing to amend the section on how nonconforming signs might be altered without violating the code, assign wall sign area based on leased tenant space on the street frontage and remove the responsibility for landowners to distribute signage across multiple tenants.

Planning staff worked with several groups of stakeholders over the last two years while implementing the new zoning code including the Home Builders Association, Billings Area Realtors, architects, engineers, planners and property owners. The amendments were produced through this collaborative effort of testing and applying the code requirements. These amendments and future code changes in phases 2 and 3, were created using their input and ideas. Planning staff shared the draft amendments with the stakeholders through direct email, placed a legal and posted the drafts on the Planning division's webpage. After the posting of the legal ad and prior to this Zoning Commission hearing, staff has not received any comments on the draft changes. Individual landowner notifications are not required for these text amendments.

The Zoning Commission may take one of the following actions:

• Recommend approval and adoption of the findings of the ten review criteria for Zone Change 1029; or,
• Recommend approval with specific changes to the draft ordinances for Zone Change 1029; or
• Recommend denial and adopt different findings of the ten review criteria for Zone Change 1029; or,
• Delay action on the zone change for up to 30 days.

In case of a tie vote on the text amendment zone change, the application will be delayed for 30 days until the next Zoning Commission meeting. The Zoning Commission must forward a recommendation with findings to the City Council.

Adoption of code amendments may affect the Planning Division budget. Municode is the official codification company for Billings. Every amendment to the code has a fee that has usually been assessed and paid for by a department or division. However, the City Code is not particular to one Division or Department. It is utilized by many City staff and is designed to benefit and protect all City residents. It is appropriate and accurate for the cost sharing of codification costs for zoning code updates through the general fund.

8) Whether the new zoning considers the character of the district and the peculiar suitability of the property for particular uses;
All of the amendments have been considered in a way that continues to carry out the intent of the zoning code as a whole and considers how garage location, wall signs and fence materials can have greater options yet still integrate in existing built environments. Neither garage location, wall sign signage and the addition of a fence material type should be considered intrusive to new or existing neighborhoods. Garages were previously built in the front of most housing types in Billings, and while the amendments will allow for this location it does provide guidance on how to lessen the dominance of the garage and still focus on the living units. Further, the wall sign allowances consider scale developments in a way the existing code does not currently contemplate. These amendments will better suit existing business needs in existing developments while still lessing overall sign clutter and dominance over time. Finally, the addition of certain types of metal to be used in combination with framing will not create compatibility issues with neighborhoods. There are existing examples where fences built to the intent of this amendment have integrated seamlessly into neighborhoods. Generally, these amendments are consistent with existing fabric of both commercial and residential neighborhoods.

9) Whether the new zoning will conserve the value of buildings;
In general, the code amendments should conserve the value of buildings throughout the City and the amendments do not alter the code in a way that would decrease values. In particular, some adjustments may ease some nonconformity burdens.

10) Whether the new zoning will encourage the most appropriate use of land throughout the City of Billings.
The code amendments when working with the code as a whole encourage appropriate and compatible uses, design and siting of land in Billings.