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Planning commission adopts broad revisions to zoning definitions, renaming "boarding house"
Summary
The commission reviewed and approved a package of zoning-definition edits — including replacing "boarding house" with "multitenant rental property" and adding separate short-term and long-term rental definitions — as part of Group 2's update to the code.
The Rio Communities Planning and Zoning Commission continued a months-long effort to modernize local land-use definitions, presenting a set of edits labeled Group 2 that would change or delete several legacy terms.
Chair presented the package and walked commissioners through the key changes: deleting the term "boarding house" and replacing it with "multitenant rental property," adding distinct definitions for "short-term rental property" (a dwelling unit rented or offered for temporary occupancy for less than 30 days) and "long-term rental property," and removing overlapping family-day-care and guest-room definitions. "We're changing it to multi tenant rental property," the chair said while showing the edits on the screen. The packet also changes the word "clinic" to "outpatient medical facility" with language clarifying that such facilities "are not accommodated overnight," and reworks several residential-group-home and nursing-care definitions to align with current usage.
Commissioners confirmed the changes shown in red on the draft and asked staff to ensure references elsewhere in the code are updated to match the new terminology. The commission's edits were presented as a consolidated effort to simplify confusing or outdated labels and to make the code easier for staff, developers and residents to apply.
Next steps: staff will finalize the redlined draft for formal review and public notice as required by the city's codification process.
