Council member Reynolds introduced UZO amendment 122, which responds to a question earlier this year asking how many gas stations Lafayette needs and where they should be sited. The amendment tightens where new gas stations can locate, adds separation and residential-buffer requirements, updates design standards, and requires decommissioning plans for single‑use auto-related sites.

The ordinance prohibits new gas stations in Central Business (CB) and Neighborhood Business Urban (NBU) zones where pedestrian activity and neighborhood character are priorities, while allowing them in General Business (GB) and Highway Business (HB) zones. The draft sets a roughly one-mile separation between gas stations and a 500-foot buffer from residential properties to limit clustering and protect corridors for grocery, retail and services.

Staff clarified the ordinance was not intended to apply separation rules to gas stations that are accessory uses built concurrently with larger commercial developments (for example, a gas station built as part of a Costco or Meijer project). Councilors directed a clarification amendment to make that exclusion explicit; the council voted to adopt that amendment before voting on the ordinance.

The ordinance also adds decommissioning standards for gas stations, oil-change shops and car washes to require a plan for removing canopies, kiosks and other exterior elements if the business closes, making redevelopment easier and reducing long-term blight. Staff noted the state already requires environmental decommissioning (underground-storage-tank remediation); the local standards focus on visible exterior elements.

Councilors and members of the public raised lighting and neighborhood impacts; staff said lighting standards were not revised in this amendment but could be considered in a future action. The ordinance will not apply retroactively to existing stations; three existing stations in affected districts will become legal nonconforming uses and may continue operating unless they change the use or are destroyed beyond thresholds in local code.

The council voted to approve the clarified and amended ordinance on first reading; the amendment requires ratification by the Area Plan Commission (APC) before full effect, delaying the effective date until APC action. The clerk recorded an 8-0 vote on the amended ordinance.