Planning commission begins major zoning rewrite: smoke/vape shops, gas stations, clinics, salvage yards and driveway rules under review

The Anderson City Planning Commission spent the bulk of its meeting discussing draft changes to the zoning ordinance (Resolution 1-25 / Ordinance 21-25) that would add or tighten rules for gas stations, smoke and vape shops, convenience stores, junk/salvage facilities, clinics and certain adult‑oriented businesses, and would create new limits on residential driveways and parking surface materials.

Staff and the city attorney presented draft language that would:

- Define a convenience store and limit the proportion of floor area devoted to tobacco and vaping products (draft starting point: 25 percent, taken from a Jeffersonville ordinance). - Require smoke shops and vape shops to obtain special exception approval through the Board of Zoning Appeals, and to be spaced apart (proposed examples: no closer than 1,500 feet along South Scatterfield Road; 1 mile apart elsewhere) and set minimum distances from schools and churches (1,000–1,500 feet discussed). - Limit temporary and window signage for smoke products (30% of windows/door display areas) and restrict feather flags and banners that advertise smoking products. - Continue to require special‑exception review for new gas stations and propose a one‑mile aerial radius restriction so a new station may not be approved if an active filling station already exists within that radius; require removal of canopies, pumps and tanks within one year of station inactivity if the special exception terminates; add minimum canopy setback and minimum sales-area thresholds. - Replace an imprecise “junk/salvage” use description with a salvage‑facility definition that would require licensing and special‑exception review even if disassembly occurs off site. - Clarify definitions and permitting for clinics, medical centers and behavioral‑health facilities; staff proposed narrower rules so smaller outpatient clinics that do not admit patients would be easier to place in appropriate zones while inpatient or medication‑dispensing clinics would remain subject to special‑exception review. - Create a definition of “private driveway” and propose limits on the number of vehicles parked on residential property (one vehicle per licensed driver plus up to two additional vehicles), require operable vehicles with current registration, and tighten driveway setback and parking surface standards (new homes to require paved driveways; gravel allowable for existing drives until replaced).

Micah (municipal development staff) and Tim Lannon (department attorney) said the proposal is intended to reduce recurring disputes and close regulatory gaps that have allowed clustering of certain uses or unclear enforcement around nonconforming sites. Micah noted that staff had identified "no less than probably 12 new gas stations built across the city" in recent months and that the city currently counts 88 tobacco retailers (68 convenience stores and 20 dedicated vape shops), figures cited by a public health coalition speaker.

Public commenters included Kelly Kelly of a newly formed minority health coalition, who urged a lower threshold than 25 percent for tobacco product floor area and recommended dedicated, limited square footage for tobacco sales; she told the commission that petition signatures gathered at a local festival showed community support for limiting new vape and smoke shops. Several commissioners and members of the public argued the 25 percent threshold could be easily evaded (for example by setting floor‑area at 24.99 percent) and suggested alternative metrics such as fixed square footage or location within the store (behind the counter).

Commissioners also discussed enforcement and grandfathering of existing businesses. Staff said signage rules and a clarified permit/license tracking approach could be applied to existing stores going forward, but spacing or distance provisions generally apply only to new approvals; several commissioners discussed licensing as a separate, follow‑on ordinance to provide the city better tracking of active retailers.

No final vote was taken. Commissioners asked staff to redraft the ordinance language (including clearer definitions, alternative thresholds, and more precise licensing and enforcement language) and return a refined proposal at the next planning commission meeting. Micah said that, if the commission finalizes a draft, staff would forward it to the city council in September. The commission set its next meeting for Sept. 23.