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Planning board approves text amendment to allow limited warehousing in GC-1 with edits
Summary
The board voted 5-0 to advance a text amendment to the Unified Land Development Code to allow warehousing and outdoor storage in General Commercial-1 (GC-1) with board-directed edits to limit scale and add safeguards; board discussion emphasized limiting size and buffer from R‑1 neighborhoods.
The Panama City Planning Board voted unanimously to approve a text amendment to the Unified Land Development Code to permit warehousing and outdoor storage in the General Commercial-1 (GC-1) zoning district, subject to board-directed edits limiting scale and adding safeguards to reduce impacts on adjacent residential areas.
Planning staff framed the amendment as a response to a recent request from a property owner who said GC-2 zoning was not appropriate for parcels close to residential areas. Staff showed a map of GC-1 parcels that abut R-1 (single-family) zoning and urged the board to consider both the need for neighborhood-serving storage and protections for nearby homes.
Board members discussed several possible limits during deliberations, including capping warehouse square footage on a parcel, limiting warehousing to a fraction of a parcel or to parcels up to one acre, and increased setbacks or design standards to mitigate aesthetics and traffic. During the discussion, examples of numeric limits were mentioned (participants referenced figures such as 10,000 and 20,000 square feet and parcel-size limits tied to one acre), but the board did not adopt a single numeric figure on the floor beyond directing staff to draft edited language that would set a maximum size and other criteria.
A motion to approve the amendment with the edits carried unanimously. The transcript shows the board asked staff to prepare specific language reflecting the intent to limit the scale of warehousing allowed in GC-1 and to preserve design and setback protections where GC-1 abuts residential zoning. The approved motion will send the amended text forward for further processing consistent with the city’s code-amendment procedures.
