Kamas planning commission reviews sweeping zoning-use and parking-table edits; staff to compile final draft

Kamas Planning Commission members moved through pages of proposed amendments to Chapter 15 — the city’s zoning code — focusing on consistency among the allowed-use table, parking standards and definitions. Commissioners and staff agreed on several editorial and policy changes and directed staff to compile a consolidated, cross-referenced draft for final review.

Amanda, city planner, said she had corrected references and chapter citations and proposed merging overlapping definitions. “I went through and corrected all those and anything that was that was missing a reference to a chapter or I corrected the chapters themselves,” she told the commission. Commissioners then debated specific items including the treatment of manufactured/modular/mobile homes, how to define and locate “health care center” vs. assisted-living uses, and parking standards for indoor recreation and athletic facilities.

What the commission changed or agreed to consider

- Manufactured/modular/mobile homes: Commissioners agreed to simplify the allowed-use table by consolidating the listing for manufactured homes under the single-family dwelling definition and to add modular and mobile variants in the single-family definition so parking standards and allowed zones are consistent. Several commissioners noted there are legal and lending distinctions among those housing types and asked staff to make the code language clear and coordinated across chapters.

- Health care / group living definitions: The commission chose to remove the separate “health care center” definition for long-term inpatient care and to treat group facility/assisted living/skilled nursing as related uses with a clarified definition to avoid redundancy. They kept a separate use for hospitals because of different scale and zoning implications.

- Parking table consistency: Commissioners walked page by page to ensure uses listed in the allowed-use table appear on the parking table when a standard is needed. They discussed parking standards for indoor recreation and athletic clubs (options ranged from 3 to 10 spaces per 1,000 square feet) and agreed to harmonize related standards (one suggestion was 3 per 500 square feet).

- Catch-all for missing parking entries: A commissioner proposed, and the group accepted as a drafting idea, a parking-table note that would allow the Planning Commission to determine parking requirements for any use not specifically listed. Commissioners noted that adding such a catch-all relates to an existing appendix rule that prohibits uses not specifically designated, so staff will verify that the two provisions do not conflict.

Process and next steps

- Staff edits: Commissioners asked staff to compile the allowed-use table, parking standards and definitions into a single, reviewable document (with the table headers visible) to make further review and proofreading easier. Amanda said she would place edits into the commission’s shared Dropbox so commissioners can cross-check parking, allowed uses and definitions before the next review.

- Schedule: Commissioners agreed the item will return later for one more review before forwarding to City Council; staff estimated the topic will return after sufficient internal edits and a public posting cycle.

Provenance: The in-depth review of Chapter 15 began when staff introduced the allowed-use table revisions and concluded when commissioners asked staff to consolidate the edits for another run-through and set a target timeline.