10-08-2020 Planning Commission Packet

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3824 Huntington Avenue St. Louis Park, Minnesota 55416 952.920-1749 bill@weberplanning.com Date: 8 September 2020 To: Little Canada City Planning Commission From: William Weber, Zoning Consultant Subject: Existing and Proposed Lists of Land Uses Director of Community Development Corrin Wendell asked me to prepare a list of all the land uses currently allowed by the Little Canada zoning ordinance. The purpose of the list was to help the Planning Commission and City Council better understand the current ordinance and discuss possible improvements. I’ve attached that list as spreadsheet in PDF format and I’ll try to help you make sense of it with this memo. A copy of the current zoning map is also attached. I was also asked to present a very preliminary proposal of how the zoning code could be improved, starting with the list of land uses and the list of zoning districts. So, I prepared three more tables, which are attached, one each for the residential, commercial and industrial zoning districts. I’ll be available to discuss these lists with the Planning Commission whenever your schedule is suitable. Current Land Uses Allowed by the Zoning Ordinance You can see that the table of current allowable land uses has all of the zoning districts across the top row and all of the possible land uses down the left column. The uses are classified as they are in the code -- Permitted (P), Conditional (C) or Accessory (A). If you print the pages, you can arrange them vertically to see the relationships. Here are my observations: • Conditional Uses: The code has many Conditional Uses although the required conditions are not described. A Conditional Use is one that is normally not allowed in a given zoning district but may be allowed if certain conditions are met. Without the conditions being presented in the code, it is left to the applicant and the City officials to negotiate them on the spot. That may lead to inconsistent and unfair treatment. • Accessory Uses: An Accessory Use in one that is secondary in nature to a principal use, such as a garage serving a house. Some of the listed Accessory Uses are a bit outmoded, and some are so essential it does not seem necessary to list them, such as parking. (Please note that a principal use in not the same as a Permitted Use.) • Permitted Uses: A Permitted Use is one that is allowed in a given zoning district “by right” and cannot be denied. Construction must still conform to other requirements such as setbacks or landscaping, but the basic use of the land is granted by the code. This is