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Commission discusses zoning changes to ease medical offices, curb self-storage on main corridors
Summary
The planning director proposed allowing outpatient medical offices as permitted uses in commercial/arieral zones and suggested design standards or removal of self-storage from key corridors; commissioners raised a possible moratorium and concerns about tax base and industrial land preservation.
At the Aug. 26 workshop, Planning Director Waleed read the zoning definition for "medical office" and presented a proposal to streamline approvals by making outpatient medical offices a permitted use in certain commercial and arterial commercial districts, rather than requiring a special exception.
Waleed said medical-office uses in the regulation currently include doctors, dentists, physical-therapy and outpatient counseling and argued the special-exception process makes expansions and relocations cumbersome. "What I'm looking at is a project to actually... make them permitted uses in general commercial, at least on arterial commercial," he said, adding that he had consulted local physicians who prefer simpler permitting for outpatient practices.
Commissioners responded positively to the idea; one asked whether walk-in clinics would be included and Waleed said uses under 5,000 square feet could be treated as permitted outpatient uses, and that inpatient hospital facilities would remain a separate category.
Later the conversation turned to a proliferation of self-storage facilities on main corridors. Waleed said self-storage is typically an industrial use and can appear as blank walls along commercial streets, which reduces street vitality. He proposed two options: adopt stricter design standards so new facilities present active facades, or remove surface self-storage as a permitted use on Main corridors such as CA-80.
"Ideally, it should be... not permitted to have new self storage along the vantage of CAH," Waleed said, noting that existing facilities would become nonconforming if rules change. Commissioners raised the possibility of a moratorium while staff researches land-use impacts and recommended studying industrial IL-40 lands to protect contractor space.
No formal vote or amendment was adopted at the meeting; Waleed said staff would draft text for future consideration and return to the commission with options and potential implications for nonconforming properties.
The commission continued with other agenda items and adjourned at 8:57 p.m.
