Commission recommends allowing outdoor RV storage in Rancho Arroyo PCD with performance standards

The Petaluma Planning Commission voted to recommend City Council adopt a zoning text amendment to add outdoor recreational-vehicle storage as a permitted accessory use in the Rancho Arroyo Business Park planned community development (PCD) zoning district.

Staff explained the amendment would apply across the PCD but used the 85 Corona Road Wasatch site as a project example. The amendment would define the use, set development/performance standards (setbacks, screening, tree canopy and landscape minimums, lighting limits, prohibited on-site habitation and vehicle repair, idling and generator restrictions, recordkeeping, and security), and establish objective operational standards including access hours (staff noted a proposed access window of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.). Staff explained the accessory classification ties scale to an existing principal use and provides predictability and a ministerial approval process when standards are met.

Commissioners questioned the proposed 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. access window and whether unsupervised customer access would allow generator use or other disturbances when staff were not on site. Staff and the applicant said gate access would be controlled by keypad codes and that access outside staffed hours would be limited to lessees with codes; the applicant said lease terms and key-code software enable the operator to disable access and terminate leases for violations. Commissioner Noe suggested the Commission might prefer a conditional use approach for sites adjacent to residences so hours could be tailored; others favored the ministerial, performance-standards approach to reduce process and encourage supply for a citywide need.

Council Member Barnickel moved and Commissioner Racozen seconded a motion recommending City Council adopt the ordinance to allow outdoor RV storage as a permitted accessory use with the drafted performance standards. Roll-call vote approved the recommendation (Commissioner Abner absent); the motion carried.

What's next: The Planning Commission's recommendation will be forwarded to City Council for ordinance adoption; any future physical implementation of the use (paving, fencing, site plan changes) would be subject to separate SPAR/site review and CEQA as required by law.