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Homeowner urges Bay City to loosen infill rules; planning consultant to present zoning review in September
Summary
A resident urged the Bay City Planning Commission to revise Euclidean zoning, parking minimums and restrictions on middle housing. Staff said a planning consultant will present proposed administrative zoning changes at the September meeting.
A Bay City homeowner urged the Planning Commission on Aug. 20 to ease local zoning rules that he said limit infill development, middle housing and small neighborhood businesses, and planning staff said a consultant will brief the commission on initial zoning-code revisions at its September meeting.
Paul Kleinow, a homeowner at 1713 Tenth St., told the commission he reviewed Bay City’s zoning and codes from other cities and concluded that restrictive “Euclidean” zoning and parking minimums prevent reuse of existing buildings and make small-scale housing and corner retail impractical.
“Part of that’s due to the zoning and making more mixed use or even relaxing further and allowing certain types of, say, a corner store in a residential area of a certain type can go a long ways towards bringing that back,” Kleinow said in public comment. He argued that middle housing — duplexes, triplexes and small multifamily buildings — is important as starter homes, rentals and senior housing but is often prohibited under current R-1 rules and setback and lot-coverage requirements.
Kleinow also criticized parking minimums, saying they can force small projects into costly appeals. He cited a recent bed-and-breakfast that sought a variance because its historic site provided eight parking spaces but the code required 10. “A lot of these, parking minimums are not necessarily designed scientifically…They’re archaic,” he said.
Planning staff later told the commission that the consultant reviewing the zoning ordinance will present at the September meeting and that the current review has focused on administrative portions of the code, nonconforming uses and special-use standards. “We will have the planning consultant doing a presentation at the September meeting, regarding, some of the progress that has been made on, reviewing the zoning ordinance,” Anthony Dyer, planning staff, said. Staff said the September presentation will cover “low-hanging fruit” administrative changes first, with more substantive use- and site-related edits to follow.
Commissioners asked staff to ensure Kleinow’s written materials are forwarded to the consultant and placed in the official minutes; staff agreed to do so.
Kleinow provided printed materials to the commission for the record and said he would continue to engage with staff and the consultant as the zoning review progresses.
