Planning Commission recommends zoning text amendments to ease egress-window, front-yard parking and street-facing solar rules

The Grand Rapids City Planning Commission recommended approval Feb. 13 of several zoning ordinance text amendments intended to reduce recurring permitting barriers for homeowners and small businesses.

The package, presented by city planning staff, includes an administrative-departure process to allow egress window wells to be located as close as 1 foot from a side lot line (down from the effective 3-foot requirement that often forces applicants to seek variances), rules allowing replacement of nonconforming front-yard parking through an administrative departure, reinstatement of a Grand River overlay code section that had been omitted in an earlier amendment, and a revision to make it easier to site rooftop solar on street-facing sides of structures.

Staff said the egress-window-well change responds to repeated variance approvals by the Board of Zoning Appeals: window wells are…