Council rezones 2995 South River Road to commercial and PDC to allow yard expansion and temporary on-call trailers

The City Council approved a general-plan and zoning change allowing roughly 4.04 acres at 2995 South River Road to convert from low-density residential and floodplain to commercial and to change zoning from A-1 to PDC, enabling the property owner to expand an existing yard and provide pads for trailers or RVs used by on-call personnel.

Planning staff explained the parcel includes a power substation and constrained topography; the owner seeks to expand yard area and create pad locations where workers on call can park trailers or RVs to meet required response times. Applicant representative Craig Coats said the pads would have stubbed utilities (water, sewer, electric) and that the use is intended primarily for workers who need to be locally staged for on-call duty, though transitional housing for newly hired staff has also occurred in practice.

Council questioned whether the trailers would be privately owned or provided by the utility, typical length of stay, and whether the proposal would create precedent for other employers. Craig Coats said the arrangement could include both company and personal trailers and that length of stay is flexible; staff and council discussed managing the use so pads are used while crews are on-call. Planning commission recommended approval; council adopted both the general-plan amendment (Ordinance 2025-031) and the zoning map change to PDC (Ordinance 2025-032) on unanimous roll-call votes.

Conditions and standard permitting apply; council noted the proposal is similar to existing practices at other city yards and asked staff to ensure safety and management standards for any temporary residential uses.