Livingston planners pitch broad zoning overhaul; consultants propose short-term rental permits and heritage overlay

Mike Banning, the SCJ Alliance consultant leading Livingston's zoning update, told the City Commission on June 17 that the team's draft recommendations respond to more than 1,000 public comments gathered by online surveys, mapping and focus groups.

The package the consultant presented would: create a consolidated Livingston Heritage Overlay to replace several separate design overlays; add a formal short-term-rental (STR) permitting program with an annual fee and a two-type classification (owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied, the latter requiring a local contact within 45 minutes); reduce minimum parking in the Central Business District to 50% of current standards and possibly to 25% in parts of the CBD; and set downtown height guidelines tuned to new state law that the consultant said will require a 60-foot minimum allowance in many commercial zones.

"There is no short term rental regulations right now in Livingston's zoning code," Banning said, adding the proposal would require an STR permit, a basic safety inspection and a fee. The consultants recommended allowing STRs "in all zones, other than light industrial, industrial, capital facilities and PUDs," while noting the commission could create further limits by policy or conditions tied to project approvals.

The presentation prompted immediate questions from commissioners. Commissioner Michelle Lyons urged simpler zoning categories and warned against proliferating narrow districts. "In a city of our size, with the market pressures that we have, having so many different segmentations is not really reflective of an effective regulatory environment," Lyons said. She and others pressed the team for more detail on how the proposed Heritage Overlay would in practice discourage formula retail and how parking recommendations mesh with upcoming Montana House Bill 492, which will remove some local parking mandates for certain project types beginning Oct. 1, 2026.

Planning Director Jennifer Severson told commissioners the Heritage Overlay would consolidate the city's current preservation, design-review and gateway overlays and add standards for façades, roof lines, materials and “gateway” corridors, while providing exemptions for routine renovations. "The purpose of this Livingston Heritage overlay is to protect and enhance Livingston's unique architectural, cultural and environmental character," she said.

On height limits, Jennifer and Banning said the team is proposing a 60-foot cap for many commercial zones because of new state requirements, while lowering residential maxima to around 30 feet and allowing up to 36 feet with certain roof pitches to better match local building practice. "We are actually proposing to increase it to 30 feet, or up to 36 feet," Severson said of the residential limit, describing the change as a modest alignment and simplification of multiple, inconsistent existing numeric limits.

Commissioners focused several rounds of questions on STRs and enforcement. Lyons and others asked for a budget estimate and staffing analysis before the commission adopts an STR program, noting that a registration-and-inspection operation requires staff time and enforcement capacity. City Manager Grant Gager said staff would return with fiscal impacts and options. "It would be a pretty high fee or permit rate to get 100% cost recovery on a program like that," Gager said, adding that without a dedicated sales tax or other revenue the program could require general‑fund support.

Mobile-home communities and manufactured housing drew sustained attention. The draft would eliminate a separate mobile-home zoning district and instead allow mobile-home parks in R2 or R3 via conditional use with performance standards for landscaping, open space and screening. Catherine Daly of HRDC, speaking during the public comment portion, urged caution, noting the city's subdivision rules already treat mobile-home communities as subdivisions and warning that layering another conditional-use requirement could become exclusionary.

Commissioner Lyons argued the city should instead allow community-style mobile-home development as a by‑right use in targeted districts to increase feasibility. "I think doing that by having it as a conditional use ... actually creates a regulatory barrier for developing mobile‑home communities," Lyons said.

The consultant and staff repeatedly stressed the draft is a check‑in and conceptual direction rather than final text. Banning said focus groups — including business owners, housing, transportation, preservation and human-service stakeholders — informed the proposals. The planning team has also flagged follow-up steps such as precise policy language to implement any formula-retail discouragement and a fiscal review for STRs and enforcement.

The Land Use Board previously reviewed related parcels and later recommended mixed‑use zoning for a newly annexed property at 38 Loaves Lane; the commission approved that rezoning under a separate ordinance later in the meeting.

Next steps: staff and SCJ Alliance will refine the text and bring detailed ordinance language and fiscal impacts back to the commission for public hearings and formal amendments. Commissioners asked staff to return with specifics on STR permit fees, staffing needs, any ordinance language to discourage chain formula retail if the commission wants that direction, performance standards for mobile‑home parks, and clearer maps showing where the new districts and transitions would apply.