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Joplin City Council reviews wide-ranging zoning-code amendments; staff to place ordinance for first reading
Summary
City staff presented a package of code amendments covering accessory outbuildings, encroachment hearings, historic-preservation fee waivers, bike-lane design updates, marijuana-use consolidation, animal-care standards and other changes; council members asked clarifying questions and directed staff to bring the ordinance off the table for first reading at the next meeting.
At a Oct. 13 work session, the Joplin City Council heard a staff presentation on proposed amendments to the city’s form-based zoning code, covering about 38 specific changes ranging from accessory structures and landscaping to marijuana-use provisions and historic-preservation rules. Staff told the council it will request the ordinance be taken off the table and placed on first reading at the next council meeting.
Tyler, a city staff member who presented the proposal, told the council the changes respond to issues that have arisen since the city adopted a new form-based code about three years ago. "This code is based on…a form based code. It’s really heavy on design and site planning," he said, and the amendments are intended to clarify implementation and reduce unintended nonconformities.
The package includes a mix of substantive changes and clarifications. Key proposals highlighted by staff included: waiving rezoning fees to encourage applications for historic preservation; explicitly listing encroachment agreements as a public-hearing item and moving fee amounts out of the zoning code to a referenced fee schedule; allowing ground-mounted solar panels as accessory uses by right; updating bike-lane design language to reference NACTO and protected bike lanes rather than shared-lane markings; and allowing apartments by right in the C-3 commercial district to support mixed-use sites such as the Prospect Village project.
Staff also proposed several use-table and standards adjustments intended to reduce the number of existing businesses that became nonconforming under the newer code. For example, the definition of outdoor sales previously included motor-vehicle dealers, which put many existing auto-sales sites into nonconforming status; staff recommended permitting motor-vehicle sales by right in C-3 while relying on design and landscaping standards to limit impacts. Similarly, staff recommended aligning kennel-specific use standards with definitions so that the 20-animal cap in specific-use text is removed and a minimum two-acre threshold applies only when a facility exceeds 50 animals.
Council members pressed staff on the practical effects of several changes. Council member Cobble asked whether the encroachment provisions would interfere with parklets or sidewalk cafés; staff replied the café/parklet uses are governed by separate code sections and the encroachment language is not intended to prevent them. Council member Jackson asked whether the revised marijuana sections would close a local "membership lounge" loophole that some businesses use to avoid sales tax; staff replied the zoning changes address permitted uses and on-site consumption but do not change tax enforcement, and the city attorney said tax matters would remain a separate enforcement issue.
Council discussion also turned to downtown parking and multi-occupancy residential concerns. Council members noted difficulties created by long-term construction parking and by residences that appear to host multiple vehicles. Staff cautioned the council about legal limits on regulating group homes and certain protected residential arrangements and suggested parking-enforcement measures or permit programs rather than zoning prohibitions may be more viable.
No formal ordinance vote occurred during the work session. City staff and the city attorney advised that the council could ask to take the ordinance off the table and schedule it for first reading at the next regular meeting; council members indicated general agreement to do so. "If staff makes sure they understand what we’re doing, we’re going to ask for this to come off the table at the next council meeting and placed on first reading," the mayor said near adjournment.
The council did not adopt any ordinance at the work session; the next procedural step is for staff to place the proposed bill on the next meeting agenda for first reading and any subsequent public hearings and readings required by ordinance.
