Rexburg staff outline broad development-code revisions covering daycares, parking and landscaping

Rexburg planning staff presented a package of proposed amendments to the city's development code on May 21, detailing changes they say are intended to simplify language, consolidate rules outside the downtown form-based district and address state statutory requirements for childcare and group homes.

The proposed changes would not affect the city's 12 downtown form-based blocks, the presenter said. Instead, the revisions apply to areas outside that core and were grouped so the council can approve or reject each section individually.

Staff described several headline changes. The draft reorganizes landscaping requirements into a single section, clarifies where 'open-storage' and utility-yard screening must be used, and removes the term 'large scribe' while preserving tree- and buffer-related obligations for commercial and multifamily sites. On child-care regulation, staff proposed clearer definitions that follow state thresholds: family-home daycares of six or fewer children, a 7-to-12 classification that would require a conditional use permit, and a commercial…