Pocatello commission recommends Title 17 zoning changes, including 25-year grandfathering and parking reforms

The Pocatello Planning and Zoning Commission voted on Jan. 8 to recommend City Council adopt proposed amendments to Title 17 of the Pocatello zoning regulations, approving changes that staff said aim to clarify legal nonconforming status, update allowed uses and provide more flexible parking and lot-size rules in targeted areas.

Jim Anglesey, the city’s long-range planner, told commissioners the package includes a 25-year sliding scale to determine when a use or structure can be considered legally nonconforming or "grandfathered." "We found that a lot of our records don't start until the nineties, and so it's really difficult to determine a property ... it's hard to determine if it's considered legal nonconforming because it predates any of our records. So a 25‑year sliding scale is what we're proposing," Anglesey said.

Angelesy (sic) explained staff also proposes changing how several uses are allowed in specific zones: car washes would be permitted outright only in industrial zones and would be restricted or require conditional review in commercial and RCP zones; self‑service storage (storage units) would be disallowed in the Commercial General and Office Park zones but remain allowed in light industrial and industrial zones. Staff is also proposing to reduce minimum lot sizes in the Residential Medium Density Multifamily (RMM) zone to align with the original townsite lot size (30 by 140 feet, or about 4,200 square feet) and to allow targeted parking reductions within the original townsite (up to a 30 percent reduction and expanded credit for on‑street parking). The amendments would also allow multifamily development in downtown zones subject to standards that require a minimum of three stories, flat or parapet roofs and no exterior stairways or breezeways.

Commissioners asked for clarification on likely practical effects. Anglesey said the 25‑year approach is intended to provide clearer documentation for property owners and mortgage companies seeking determinations about whether a building is a legitimate residential use despite being in a commercial zone. "A lot of times, when somebody wants to purchase a home, a mortgage company will ask if it's valid to do a mortgage on. That's a lot of times we get our questions from mortgage companies on those," he said.

Commissioners expressed concerns about one change — removing self‑service storage as a permitted use in the Commercial General zone — and how the change would affect developers who hold existing conditional use permits or who have staged expansions. Staff said existing uses that were previously approved and remain in use would continue under nonconforming‑use rules, but future expansions on parcels without an approved conditional use permit could be restricted. The commission discussed whether to add a targeted grandfathering condition for existing operations; staff cautioned that creating ad hoc carve‑outs would be difficult to track administratively.

After discussion, the commission voted to recommend the package to City Council. The roll call recorded a 5–1 vote, with Commissioner Phillips voting no. The record shows staff will draft an implementing ordinance and forward the amendments to City Council for final action.