Discuss the relationship between the Comprehensive Plan's Land Use and the Zoning Code's Zoning Districts and provide direction on Zoning Code districts.

The City's Zoning Code has never had a major overhaul.  As various issues and proposals have come up throughout the years, the Zoning Code has been updated as a response.  This has left the Code inconsistent in many areas, especially with uses, their definitions, and their respective districts.  Additionally, state law requires a community to update its Zoning Code following a Comprehensive Plan cycle to ensure consistency.  

In June, Planning Commission members brainstormed a list of topics that members would like to discuss more in detail.  We will present items as time warrants over the next few months.  Tonight, we will examine the Comprehensive Plan and its various land use categories.  The purpose statement for each of the zoning districts in the Zoning Code should be an extension of those categories as the Zoning Code is the tool that is used to implement the Comprehensive Plan.  Attached to this report is a side-by-side comparison of the Comprehensive Plan Land Use categories and the various Zoning Code zoning districts aligned the best they can be.  Note that the residential districts do not line up perfectly.

None required.  The recent edition of the Ramsey Resident newsletter asked readers to respond to a survey asking for their thoughts on the current regulations and ease of use to help guide this process.  

The Zoning Code currently has one district that was intended to be around while planning for the Highway 10 Ramsey Gateway reconstruction project.  The H-1 Highway 10 Business District was created to help businesses operate until such time that they were to be acquired for construction.  Since this district was established, the highway plans have changed to allow for many of the businesses to remain via a frontage road.  These properties will need to be rezoned to a more applicable district if they remain after construction is complete.  

The Zoning Code has a district that is not on the map--The Neighborhood Business District.  Its intent is to be for uses that would make good neighbors to residential properties.  The challenge is that the list of allowed uses is so limiting that it is not very practical.  

Within the mixed use districts, the purposes have taken on a lot of regulations and performance standards.  These elements should be split up so that it is easier to administer and understand.  We will not be discussing these a great deal tonight as the discussion could be lengthy.  

Lastly, there are various Land Use categories for public uses (ie governmental buildings) though many of the actual sites are zoned differently.  Though governmental uses are allowed uses in those zoning districts, the specialized nature of the governmental uses makes it difficult to apply the same set of standards that a business follows.  


 

This review is being done through staff's normal course of duties.

Staff is recommending streamlining the Zoning Code use categories.  With direction from the Planning Commission, staff will develop these concepts further and bring back a draft at a future meeting.  

1. Business districts--create various districts based on changes in intensity.  The least intense contain those uses that would be good residential neighbors with the most intense having manufacturing and outdoor operations.

2. Adjust the residential districts to align density with the Comprehensive Plan and to eliminate confusion about the four subdistricts of R-1. 

3. Create use tables and performance standard tables to easily see uses across multiple districts and ensure consistency.  

4.  Provide clarity to the public zoning districts acknowledging the specialized nature of government, schools, parks, and the landfill.  

4.  Introduce an Urban Reserve district to use the staging plan to acknowledge that some properties will develop with urban services, but are several years away from getting utility access.  This allows for reasonable use of properties in the short term without precluding development from occurring when it is time.  

Provide direction on the number and nature of the various zoning districts the Commission would like to see.  Staff will go back and start to develop use tables based on the direction of the Commission.  There is likely going to be follow-up discussion on particular uses and where they should go as well as more discussion of Mixed Use zoning districts.