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Commission directs staff to amend outdoor sales screening and percentage limits in zoning update
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Summary
The commission directed staff to revise outdoor-sales regulations, including removing a general screening requirement and setting a 25% outdoor-sales limit for Town Center/Main Street while leaving other districts without a percentage cap.
The Planning Commission reviewed proposed changes to regulations for outdoor sales, services and equipment rental connected with a principal use and directed staff to revise the draft ordinance for public hearing with several specific edits.
Staff said the change responds to a City Council request and would remove a general screening requirement for outdoor sales and auto dealerships, while retaining a requirement for a six-foot fence or a landscape screen providing 80% year-round opacity where outdoor sales abut residential districts. Staff also recommended changing a definition in the code (the transcript records the current word as "street" and staff proposed replacing it with "alley" in a definition to avoid unintended front-yard fence implications).
Commission discussion focused on the draft’s quantitative limits: the draft proposed limiting outdoor-sales area to 50% of a property in general and 15% in Town Center and Main Street. Several commissioners said 15% seemed too low for Town Center/Main Street for small pop-up vendors. One commissioner suggested 25% would be reasonable for Town Center/Main Street and no percentage limit in other districts; another commissioner asked staff to remove a redundant clause that a sales display not occupy required parking stalls. The commission voted to direct staff to revise the ordinance with the suggested percentage and parking changes and return it for a public hearing.
Why it matters: outdoor-sales rules affect merchants, pop-up retail, and sidewalk/parking lot uses downtown and in neighborhood commercial areas; the commission seeks a balance between small-business flexibility and neighborhood and streetscape concerns.
Next steps: staff will redraft the ordinance to remove the blanket screening requirement, retain fence/landscape screening where uses abut residential districts, change the code definition as noted, set Town Center/Main Street outdoor-sales limit to 25% and remove percentage limits in other districts per the commission’s direction, and bring the item back for a public hearing.
