Sheridan staff to offer city-initiated special exemptions for certain M1 industrial uses

City Planner Kelly Schroeder told the City Council at its March 24 study session that staff will ask the council next week to approve Resolution 13-25, a measure authorizing the governing body to grant city-initiated special exemptions to M1 industrial properties whose existing heavy industrial uses would be made nonconforming by proposed ordinance 2287.

Schroeder said the city is adding an item to the M1 Industrial District use table to require a special exemption for ‘‘heavy industrial uses’’ and that the change could affect a small number of properties. "These updates may make a limited number of existing heavy industrial properties non conforming," Schroeder said, adding she estimates about "3 to 5 properties" would be affected. She described examples that could be affected as salvage or junkyards and asphalt manufacturing facilities, including the city streets building where the city manufactures its own asphalt.

The ordinance language presented in the study session would define heavy industrial uses as those "typically associated with noxious impacts that are not easily contained or mitigated," and Schroeder listed possible impacts as "excessive odor, noise, dust, smoke, vibration, or the potential for fire and explosive hazards." She said examples include heavy manufacturing, storage/processing of hazardous substances, raw material or mineral extraction and processing, animal stockyards and slaughterhouses, incineration facilities, salvage or junkyards, and any use requiring special permitting through the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

Schroeder said the city would offer an opt-in, city-initiated special exemption process for affected property owners so those existing uses would be in full compliance with the new M1 rules and so staff would not have to regulate nonconforming uses. Under the plan presented, eligible property owners would need to apply to the planning office no later than Oct. 6, 2025 — six months after the anticipated adoption of ordinance 2287 — and provide the applicant’s name, property owner name, property address, the use believed to be heavy industrial, and how long that use has been conducted on the property. Schroeder said the special-exemption document would be prepared by staff and presented to council at the next regularly scheduled meeting as applications are received.

Schroeder described the alternative process if a property owner missed the Oct. 6 deadline: special-exemption requests received after that date would go before the Board of Adjustment and the property owner would be responsible for the Board of Adjustment application fee. Schroeder said there is also a $75 recording fee for the document. She answered several council questions clarifying that the city would proactively contact owners it identified as potentially affected and that a formal land survey would not be required to participate in the city-initiated exemption process.

Council members questioned outreach and fairness. One council member urged staff to contact the small number of identified properties directly to make sure owners do not miss the six-month window; Schroeder said she has already contacted some owners and planned to reach others. Another council member said property owners also bear responsibility to follow this recurring public process and that staff need not mail notices to every property in the jurisdiction. No formal vote took place during the study session; Schroeder recommended the governing body approve Resolution 13-25 at a future meeting.

Upcoming steps listed by staff include finalizing ordinance 2287, adopting the M1 industrial district changes, and moving forward with the city-initiated special exemption filings and council review. Schroeder said staff will present special-exemption resolutions to council as they are received rather than batching them.