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Cortland board approves C-2 zoning text amendments, keeps 20-foot agricultural buffer
Summary
The Village of Cortland approved text changes to the C-2 Highway Commercial zoning code that ban shipping containers used for storage, keep a 20-foot buffer adjacent to agricultural uses, require six-foot screening between C-2 and residential/agricultural lots, and move stormwater/traffic planning to special-use building permits.
The Village of Cortland board voted unanimously Nov. 13 to adopt revisions to the C-2 Highway Commercial District zoning regulations, keeping a 20-foot buffer next to agricultural land and tightening screening and storage rules.
P&Z Committee Chair Barb Tegley presented a color-coded list of seven items the board had asked the Planning & Zoning Committee to address. The committee recommended prohibiting shipping containers, trailers or vehicles within the C-2 district for storage purposes, while noting that a permitted traveling retail trailer with a peddler’s permit would not be considered storage. The board accepted the prohibition as written.
On setbacks, the board declined a proposed 50-foot setback next to agricultural uses and retained a 20-foot minimum buffer. For screening, the board approved the P&Z Committee’s first option requiring a solid wall, solid fence or compact evergreen hedge six feet in height on property lines abutting residential or agricultural districts, and added a requirement that screening be completed contemporaneously with building construction. The committee also added definitions for “trailer,” “vehicle,” and clarified open versus solid fence types.
The board agreed to remove stormwater-planning and traffic-planning requirements from the zoning text and instead make those requirements part of special-use conditions during the building-permit process, following discussion that traffic planning may be impractical unless property is annexed into the village.
The motion to accept the text amendments carried on a unanimous roll-call vote. The changes were introduced and discussed during the public hearing on the amendments, which opened at 7:13 p.m. and closed at 7:47 p.m.
