Planning Commission Recommends B‑3 Zoning Amendment to City Council to Allow Indoor Fitness, Medical and Meeting Uses

Clawson — On June 10 the Planning Commission voted to recommend a zoning text amendment that would expand permitted uses in the B‑3 general commercial district to include meeting and banquet spaces, indoor fitness and recreation, and professional and medical offices. The recommendation will be forwarded to the mayor and City Council for public hearings and readings.

Staff explained the amendment is intended to make more of the city’s commercially zoned spaces — for example, long‑vacant storefronts along 14 Mile and Rochester — usable by businesses that operate primarily indoors. "They wanted to do an indoor fitness use over there and it was not permitted," the presenter said, describing an inquiry for a space that has been vacant for roughly 15 years.

The draft shifts purely indoor recreation and fitness from the list of special land uses (which require an extra layer of public review when an activity has external impacts) to permitted uses because the activities would be entirely indoors and have fewer anticipated externalities. Staff noted that special land‑use rules would remain in place for activities with drive‑throughs, outdoor storage or other potential external impacts.

Commissioners asked for clarifications about how new language interacts with existing items such as private service clubs and fraternal organizations; staff said the new permitted category is intended to broaden the commercial side of meeting and banquet uses beyond the existing charitable/club references. The public hearing was opened and, with no public speakers, closed.

A motion to recommend adoption of the amendment as presented passed on a roll call vote in favor; staff will forward the recommended amendment to City Council for its review, public hearings and readings.