Council approves broad municipal code amendments covering zoning, vending, floodplain and camping rules

The Lake Forest City Council on Jan. 28 unanimously approved a staff-initiated set of municipal code amendments affecting Title 9 (zoning) and four other code chapters, a package city planners said would clarify regulations, bring certain provisions into alignment with state and federal law and add new permit and enforcement tools.

City staff told the council the zoning changes update 24 sections of Title 9 and are built from a running “wish list” compiled from recurring questions received by planning staff. The amendments reorganize and expand rules for accessory structures, standardize some setback rules, add or revise definitions and convert select text to tables and figures to improve clarity. Staff said the change would increase single-family lot coverage from 35% to 60% and would set a consistent minimum setback for accessory structures at 5 feet across residential zoning districts.

The code package also includes a new Chapter to regulate commercial vending vehicles (food trucks and similar mobile vendors). Staff said the vending chapter creates a permit process to be administered by Public Works that would require vehicle information, employee information, health department permits and a Live Scan. The chapter sets where vending vehicles may park, time limits for residential and commercial streets, and distance buffers from sensitive uses, other vending vehicles, bus stops and intersections. Staff told council the permit fee would be established later by council resolution; a sidewalk-vendor annual fee was cited for context at about $130.

Other titles amended in the package include Title 8 (floodplain) — updated to reflect current federal regulations and new definitions — and Title 12, which exempts permitted commercial vending vehicles from some oversized-vehicle parking restrictions and creates a new prohibition on repairs, sales or storage of bicycles on public property to help address post-theft dismantling. Title 13’s amendment removes an obsolete reference to a lower-court decision after a June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the city’s presenter identified as making part of the existing text obsolete.

Staff said the proposed zoning amendments had been presented to the Planning Commission in November and that the commission held a public hearing and adopted a resolution recommending approval in December. City staff present for council questions included the associate planner who walked through the zoning details and an acting code enforcement supervisor who was available for enforcement questions; the city attorney was present for questions on the non-zoning titles.

Council members asked several operational questions before voting. One council member asked how a vending permit fee would be set; staff said the council must adopt any fee by resolution. Another asked whether the city has a mechanism to collect or audit sales tax from mobile vendors; staff said the proposed ordinance is silent on sales-tax collection and that the city currently does not require an annual business license that would create a routine local audit mechanism.

The council voted to approve the amendments unanimously. Staff said additional implementing actions (fee-setting by resolution and any administrative procedures) would return to council or be handled administratively as required.

Details noted in the staff presentation and council discussion that were not changed by the council vote include: the increase in single-family lot coverage from 35% to 60%; the proposed standardization of accessory-structure setbacks to 5 feet; the removal of an obsolete redevelopment-code section (redevelopment agencies were dissolved in February 2012, as staff noted); and the addition of parking stall designation signs (for curbside/drive-up pickup) and adjusted parking ratios for certain uses such as dance studios and personal care services.

The ordinance is staff-initiated and will proceed under the timeline and implementation steps staff described, including a pending council resolution to set vendor permit fees and any administrative procedures needed to operate the new vending-permit program.