Moorhead planning commission recommends council approve mixed‑use rezones and cuts to housing parking minimums

At its Sept. 9 meeting the Moorhead Planning Commission voted to recommend that the City Council approve amendments to the Moorhead City Code affecting mixed‑use districts, use regulations and off‑street parking, and to rezone 31 parcels near downtown.

City Planner Houston told commissioners the package is a step in implementing the city’s 2022 comprehensive plan update and includes a roughly 50% reduction in minimum parking for housing. “It essentially reduces minimum parking by about 50%,” Houston said, adding that the change moves responsibility to developers to determine parking needs and market units without included parking. Houston gave the example that “a studio no longer has a parking requirement so that, property owner can say, this is a studio. It does not come with parking.”

The text amendments target three parts of the Moorhead City Code: Title 10 Chapter 15 (mixed‑use districts), Chapter 18 (use regulations) and Chapter 20 (off‑street parking). Houston said the off‑street parking changes are largely intended to “dress housing parking” in light of pending housing projects and broader trends away from large parking lots.

Separately, Houston said the package corrects an omission affecting 31 parcels that were intended to be rezoned earlier this year. Those parcels, near downtown along Main and First avenues, include areas near the Hornbacher’s site, a commercial car lot and an old elementary school; they currently are zoned Mixed Use 3 and would be redesignated Mixed Use 1 within the city’s new downtown delineation. Houston said most existing uses will remain until redevelopment occurs.

Houston also noted an adjustment to the Mixed Use 4 district (formerly the Regional Commercial District) to explicitly permit multifamily dwellings and home occupations, and cleanup to provisional and conditional use language in the code.

No members of the public spoke during the public hearing on this item. After discussion, a commissioner moved to recommend approval to the City Council of the amendments to Title 10 Chapter 15, Chapter 18 and Chapter 20 and the MU‑3 to MU‑1 rezones; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.

The Planning Commission’s action was a recommendation to the City Council; Houston said earlier that reducing minimum parking is intended to help attract housing development and that the city will monitor effects and adjust the code later if needed.