Staff outlines extensive zoning-code amendments; Heritage District committee, shopping-cart standards and notice radius among topics

Planning staff on Jan. 11 presented a package of proposed zoning-code amendments covering roughly 50 changes and asked the Planning and Zoning Commission for discussion and feedback.

Staff described the draft amendments as clarifications and modernizations to reduce ambiguity, align the code with state law, and add flexible alternative measures to meet the city’s policy intent. Significant elements discussed included revisions to Heritage District outreach, establishment of a new South Maricopa overlay district, elimination of a minimum two-story requirement in the Mixed‑Use Heritage Overlay, shopping‑cart design and retrieval standards for new developments, updated rules for mobile merchants to reflect state law, shipping‑container screening and design controls, expanded public notice radius from 300 to 600 feet, and language addressing natural-area open-space (NAOS) preservation.

On the Heritage District, staff said the draft does not permanently dissolve local input but proposes moving from a formal, council-appointed Heritage District Committee (which staff said has suffered attendance and quorum problems) to a neighborhood-meeting model intended to yield broader public participation. Commissioners and a former council member who spoke at the meeting urged keeping a formal Heritage District committee or making any replacement explicitly authorized so the entity retains recognized status and influence.

Staff presented shopping‑cart standards to address abandoned carts that have been left in subdivisions. Staff said the proposed code language would apply to new and proposed retail sites and that the city manager’s office is drafting a separate policy to address existing stores. Commissioners asked how the standard would affect small retailers in shopping centers and queried whether the draft language should clarify the kinds of carts covered.

On mobile merchants (formerly titled mobile food vendors), staff said the proposed text generalizes the category to "mobile merchants" to reflect state law changes and to include both food and merchandise vendors. Commissioners noted certain sections (insurance wording, numbering) that need rephrasing. Staff also described proposed screening and design standards for shipping containers used as accessory structures, and said decorative rather than industrial-style street lighting will be promoted for new neighborhoods.

Commissioners raised other topics for follow-up: better definitions for day‑care facilities and how state licensing thresholds interact with city zoning; clearer guidance on detached accessory structures and possible conversion to habitable space; how NAOS and BLM-adjacent natural areas are managed in the zoning and platting process; and whether the Technical Advisory Committee list of stakeholders should be trimmed or made more generic. Staff said public comments received on the draft will be vetted and returned to the commission in a later meeting; Planning and Zoning and Council hearings are planned as part of the adoption timeline.