Planning commission backs citywide commercial zoning map amendments under Onward Moorhead plan

The Moorhead Planning Commission on April 7 recommended that the City Council approve citywide zoning-map amendments focused on commercial parcels as part of implementation of the Onward Moorhead comprehensive plan.

City planning staff said the rezoning package targets parcels with a commercial future land-use designation and implements recent text amendments from the comprehensive-plan update. Assistant City Planner Ethan Jonk told commissioners staff corrected two data errors in the draft materials: only one nonconforming parcel would be created by the proposed rezones (a single-family house on Eleventh Street near American Crystal Sugar), and a former bus garage on Fifteenth Avenue North already rezoned in 2022 was miscategorized in GIS and has been added to the table of affected parcels.

Jonk described the primary policy change as replacing the old Regional Commercial (RC) district with a new MU4, called Gateway Mixed Use. He said MU4 reduces minimum setbacks (to about 10 feet in many cases), applies gateway design guidelines for landscaping and building appearance, and limits outdoor storage in gateway areas while preserving most of the same permitted uses. Jonk said the change is intended to make those corridors—Highway 10 East, Highway 70 South and other gateway corridors—more flexible for private development by allowing residential and mixed-use buildings as well as commercial-only projects.

Commissioners asked for clarification about differences between the prior Regional Commercial standards and the new MU4 standards. Jonk explained that Regional Commercial had larger setbacks (he cited figures such as 20-foot front and rear setbacks and up to 50 feet adjacent to residential) and was aimed at larger “big-box” development that the city does not expect to attract. MU4 has smaller setbacks, design guidelines and fewer allowances for outdoor storage to protect gateway appearance.

Staff reported no public comments on the proposed changes at the commission hearing. After closing the public hearing, the commission voted to recommend approval to the City Council; the motion passed on a voice vote with commissioners saying “aye.”

Jonk said staff will address additional future land-use map errors when the full set of rezonings is processed and that the city will update the zoning map accordingly. The package leaves community commercial parcels along Main Avenue Southeast and several other commercial corridors unchanged, while converting many former RC parcels to MU4 and adjusting a smaller set of parcels to Mixed Use 2 or community commercial where staff judged that more appropriate.