Minot planning commission recommends Land Development Ordinance text amendments on gateway overlay, lighting, fencing and ETJ animal rules

The City of Minot Planning Commission on Feb. 4 recommended that the City Council approve a set of Land Development Ordinance (LDO) text amendments intended to streamline landscaping and zoning standards and create a tool to advance corridor beautification.

Key recommendations forwarded to the council included: establishing a gateway corridor overlay district to allow design standards to be applied across underlying zoning districts; removing an unexplained 1,000‑foot setback for hazardous material storage and replacing it with a case‑by‑case assessment that brings fire and engineering staff into conditional‑use reviews; moving outdoor lighting regulation from the LDO into the municipal code for enforcement by the police and legal departments; allowing limited types of commercial fencing (chain link with privacy slats) for large outdoor storage areas to reduce construction costs; permitting landscaping rock inside the city right‑of‑way at the request of engineering/public works; and easing restrictions on animal husbandry in the extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction consistent with the North Dakota Century Code animal‑unit tables.

City staff framed the gateway corridor overlay as a discretionary “tool in the toolbox” rather than a map change; staff proposed working sessions with the commission to identify which corridors should carry the overlay. Staff also said the LDO’s existing 1,000‑foot setback for hazardous materials could not be traced to a clear source in the ordinance or state or federal code; staff proposed removing the fixed distance so that proposed hazardous storage sites would come forward as conditional uses with fire marshal and engineering review.

On outdoor lighting, the city council had already passed a municipal code provision on first reading; planning staff recommended removing duplicated lighting language from the zoning code and letting municipal code and public safety staff handle enforcement.

The fencing change drew discussion about aesthetic goals versus economic development. Planning commissioners and staff said the high cost of wooden or vinyl screening fences has created pushback from developers; staff recommended allowing chain‑link with privacy slats for large outdoor storage yards while retaining solid screening requirements for light intrusion, dumpsters and loading areas.

Commissioners also discussed boulevard landscaping and a prior effort to discourage “rocks and Roundup” (low‑maintenance rock landscaping treated with herbicide) in favor of trees and living plantings. Staff told commissioners that enforcement is difficult when work is done without permits and when neighboring properties are nonconforming; engineering noted that the city is not responsible for replacing private boulevard landscaping if crews must dig up the right‑of‑way for utility work.

The commission voted to recommend approval of the LDO text amendments; the measure was forwarded to the City Council for ordinance action on the standard schedule.