Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

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Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] My name is Ann Friend. I am with Marramac Regional Planning Commission out of St. James, Missouri. Um we are the regional uh planning commission. We cover eight counties in the in the area. So we c cover Crawford, Dent, Gaskanade, Mary's, Osage, Phelps, Palaski, and Washington counties. So there are 19 RPCs around the state covering the entire state as well as the city's um metropolitan organizations. So um just really quick, this is a workshop. I'm here to try and give you some information, some background, but I am obviously not an end all beall decision maker. I'm just here to provide some information. So, do a quick introduction, go over the purpose of

planning and zoning, uh do a map review. I'm going to go through the zoning code recommendations that I sent to Sally and Jared. Um it's been about a year and then we'll have open discussion. So, the goal is for me to get through my presentation and then we will have questions and go back and and discuss things. So, just to let you know a little bit about me, I do have a bachelor of science from um what is now Missouri State. I'm aging myself. I have a master's of regional and community planning in 2005 from Kansas State. Uh I am an American Institute of Certified Planners since 2008. I was a city planner in previous life in Florida and then um was a planner for over nine years in St. Charles, Missouri since 200. So I've been a planner since 2005 professionally. I've been at MRPC since 2016. I am from St. James. So I finally moved home and I've been the planning department manager since 2019. So, not that this is any specifically important or relevant, but just to let you know, I do have a background in planning and have worked for local government for several years. So, what's the general purpose of the planning zoning commission? It's to promote orderly growth, protect community interests. Um, in planning, you learn about police powers, which is promotes health, safety, and the general welfare of a community. That's something um that you see in lots of literature. Um specifically to Salem, chapter 400 is your code of uh your zoning code of ordinances. And for the planning and zoning commission specifically, it basically says that your duties are to perform all functions of chapter 89 of the revised Missouri state statutes. um you develop and update zoning ordinances, review development proposals and land use changes, and you advise city council on planning matters. Those

are all things that the code relates to as well as chapter 89 of the Missouri uh state statutes, long-term benefits for the P&Z or economic development. You ensure property value stability, uh maintaining that neighborhood character and appeal. You provide the ability for public involvement. So you give residences the chance to speak on matters and it helps build resiliency. Um so why does it matter though? So planning and zoning commissions matter because it helps with smart growth. It helps prevent urban sprawl, encourages sustainable development. And when you say sustainable, that doesn't necessarily have to mean environmentally related, but you're not hop skipping and jumping projects. It allows for infrastructure alignment related to roads, schools, utilities, um environmental protection. It helps to preserve green spaces, ecologically sensitive areas if that's applicable. And the one thing I wanted to touch on specifically and and and I listed as community safety, but it really is it's ensuring proper placement of those specific uses, whether it be residential or commercial or industrial. that a lot of times relates to the zoning map. And so the best example would be something like uh protections from spot zoning. So spot zoning as an example is if you have um the the small text I understand you may not be able to read it is in your PowerPoint but this is specifically from chapter 89 of state statutes and it basically says if you're going to have zoning you should have a comprehensive plan and then you should adopt codes and zoning maps and whatnot in conjunction or based on that comprehensive plan for the city so that if a developer er comes into town, they

know what they're supposed to do. Um and so in the state statute, this one specifically, it relates to zoning ordinance amendments. Um you know, there there's a court case that basically says, you know, there was a gas station that somebody wanted to come in and reszone a commercial amidst a bunch of multif family residential and it went to court and the court said, "No, that's a spot zoning. You you've got, you know, a large area of multif family. you can't just just because I want to put in a gas station doesn't mean that's the right thing to do. So that's just an example that you know the purpose of the P&Z commission is to help prevent some of those things. The purpose of this meeting and the work that we've been doing over the past couple of years with the city has been to help the city get to functional if that makes any sense. So we'll go through that um and I'll try and explain some of it. So, why are we here today? That map I did not print it out. Um, and again on the screen it's hard to see, but that is your 1987 zoning map. So, technically without having any new maps adopted, if somebody came to the city 10 years ago, 20 years ago, that was the only paper map that was available. Um, at the time in ' 87, you only had a residential district, a commercial district, and an industrial district. There was no breakdown in any of those. There was no agricultural designation. Um, and while we have a list of ordinances and annexations and zoning amendments since that time, they've never been put to paper. Um, in the in November of 1994, I went back and checked the code today. Um, the city council, I'm sure the PNZ

commission at that time al made amendments to the code. So didn't change the map, but in the code you adopted section 405, which is residential districts, and that broke down to R1, R2, and R3, as well as identifying commercial districts, which while there's still only one commercial district in the zoning code, it references a C1 neighborhood commercial and a C2 general commercial, but there's no actual design zoning classifications for that. And then it also um probably in name amended it to be manufacturing industrial district and then also established an agricultural district. So you have this map with three designations but technically in your code you have at least one two three four six designations in the written code. So there's discrepancies immediately. Um, so we'll this is where we'll kind of get into the map review. So digitizing that black and white map. This is what you end up with. So the yellow is residential, the red is commercial, and the purple is industrial. And that is what the zoning was established in 1987. I will tell you these colors are standard map colors for for zoning. So I didn't just randomly pick a colors but um but but that is what again based on the 87 map if you took that black and white that's what this would essentially show. So what we did so we knew again we digitized this. This was the first step. Then my um my planners in my department and my intern um a couple years ago a couple summers ago went out and did an existing land use survey. Now this is a

windshield survey. So we weren't going into buildings. We weren't walking into somebody's backyard because we didn't want to have to knock on doors, but this was driving by, walking by on the sidewalk, identifying general uses of what the property is, not zoning, what it's being used for. And I do recognize that some of these designations may be slightly off, but in a general sense, like as commercial, for example, if you have outdoor storage of giant tires and equipment, that's usually light industrial. That's not a commercially considered use. You um from a zoning standpoint usually. Um so if you see something like that, like, well, I think that's commercial technically. I mean, this is just what we saw, but that is how we designated things. Um, anything that's gray on the map is identified as vacant. So, whether something's been torn down or it's just open space, we did this based on parcels. So, a parcel is what's showing up based on your the county's assessor's map. So when you go and look at the assessor's map, it'll show properties. The a lot andor property is not always one and the same as a parcel. So just to clarify, you know, for example, let's see if this works. Um there might be um for example, down here in this industrial area, there might be multiple lots that were subdivided, for example. But if it's all under one ownership and there's no building on it, for example, the assessor is going to show it as all one parcel. So just to clarify that it it might be one parcel, but in reality it's multiple lots. Um so colors on this again, yellow

is single family. Uh pink is agricultural. Uh a the orange color is a duplex or two family unit. Brown is multifamily. Um so anything above two units um commercial is red industrial is purple still institutional is blue so schools park or I'm sorry schools churches um secondary education etc. Um and then green is parks and recreational areas. So that is how and then anything in white is unincorporated. So unincorporated Dent County. Again, this is what we could observe as we drove by or walked by the properties. So what we did after this is we took the old map, we looked at the existing land use map and we thought about potential either ex your existing zoning designations and or potential zoning designations that maybe don't exist yet and came up with a recommendation. This is just that. It is just a recommendation based on what we saw, what we um what existing uses were there. Generally speaking, again to to prohibit things like spot zoning andor um keeping uses consistent near each other. If there was a property that we saw that really, you know, you could tell it's going to be that way forever. So, like as an example, generally spa, you know, this Oh, let's see if it's going to work. Well, my battery's died. There's multif family up here in the the right. You can It's kind of a triangular shaped parcel. That multif family isn't going anywhere anytime soon that we could

tell. So, it made sense. And it's near other residential. It's almost a transition from that red commercial to that yellow single family. So we left it as multif family as an example. Again, this is just our recommendations. This is not something that the city has to adopt. Um what I suggest from a process standpoint is that you all as a group continue to spend time looking at this, but you do from a professional standpoint, you do want to stay away from the hop, skip, and the jump type zoning. I'll get into it when we talk about the code here in a minute, but if you were, let's just say you were to adopt this map as is. And one of those um so what we recommended was actually creating a neighborhood business district, which are usually lower inensive commercial uses. Um so not your car dealerships, not your heavy auto repair, but you know, neighborhood shop, stores, retail, office space. So, let's say there is an auto shop with outdoor storage in the middle of that blue area, just as an example. There's nothing to What you need to do is with any type of code amendment like this, you would adopt what's called a non-conforming regulation or clause in your code. It's um generally referred to as a grandfathered clause. So, if you looked at this map and the city said, "Yes, this is what we want to adopt." and Joe Citizen has that auto shop smack dab in the middle of neighborhood commercial that that that's not saying that he has to go away. It's saying that if that land use changes in the future, it needs to be compliant with the zoning that's on that property, but it's not necessarily not generally speaking, anytime you adopt, if you would adopt a large scale land use amendment like

this, all of those exist uses there that are existing as is can stay there until they vacate. right now you don't have a really good or you don't have a non-conformity clause in your code but you know as a part of an amendment to adopting a map and to adopting a code that's something that you would want to build in. So hopefully one that would um no matter what the the end map ends up looking like that would assuage some fears of you're going to adopt this new code on top of my property and let's say again you have a use that's not you know consistent with the zoning that's going to be adopted. Um you know you have that non-conforming clause so that people can continue to operate their business. That's again this is a recommendation. So that yellow is single family R1. The R2 is um a two family. Now as it is right now you're you can also have single family in the two family zoning. And again bec the way we adopted this was based on you know you have a lot of single family in this area but when you think about planning you generally want to have a transition. So you have commercial uses, you kind of transition out and it you get kind of lesser away. So you don't want to have single family, commercial, single family, industrial, single family, you know, you don't want to have kind of that saw to type zoning. So we looked at it and so like as a core we of the city we thought okay at least having an R2 zoning designation where you could allow for some additional density um and uses down you know in the central part of the city would be possible while still also being able to keep your single family R3 which again you have in your written code right now is that brown color that doesn't change I don't know

that we identified any property properties that weren't already multifamily. Um, but apartments, senior housing facilities, things like that oftentimes fall in that multifamily zoning. Again, we did recommend that you actually adopt a neighborhood business district and then a separate commercial district or you call it call it general commercial, whatever you would choose to do. But like I said before, that neighborhood business district is generally speaking kind of a lower intensive use. um some you know the corner market near my residential areas and that again you know this you could even call it a central business district you know some towns some communities that have zoning call it a CBD a central business district um so there it's really open there as to what that could be um again commercial it's kind of your um any and all commercial uses industrial the same and then and make and then adding in what we call agriculture which um some communities have agriculture zoning, some don't. Um understanding that we're in a in a rural area, so it you know, if you have large um areas of land that remain vacant or maybe have is it the sewer plant that's up north there, you know, that makes sense that that would maybe be in an a zoning um with that open space around it. But again, and I will say it 90 times, one, I'm not a land use attorney. two, this is just a recommendation. Um, it's a recommendation to to consider that moving forward, and I'll get into some of the code recommendations here in a minute, but when you think about adopting zoning maps and adopting regulations, I know a lot of people bristle at that and or they think it's going to restrict their ability to do

business or to what they can do to their home. Um, but creating some of that conformity in development helps the city plan for things. It helps aesthetically. It helps people look at your community and go, "Ah, that makes sense as to why this is that way." they're, you know, it it's really um it provides some some regulation because I will tell you as an outsider from the city of Salem right now, if I was a developer and I came into the community, I would be a little confused as to what I could or couldn't do looking at the code. So, I'm going to go into the word sections. Again, it's going to be a little hard to see because there's a lot of um comments, but I did want to go through my full list. So, um I will say these are general code recommendations for the most part. I didn't try to get too specific like I didn't write up a whole neighborhood business district code. So, I made comments like you maybe need to create a neighborhood business district. I did not tell you what that looks like. So, some general comments and if you want to when we get to open discussion and we want to go back um I do have the code book the online code book pulled up so we can go to that these specific sections but you know the first comment is really does the city want to leave the designations as is in the code book or do you want to create additional districts and that was where um you know my MRPC's recommendation or my recommendations of creating that neighborhood business or um and general commercial um thinking about what those designations would be. So those that's first and foremost you have to decide what zoning districts you want to establish.

Second, um you really with a new code code amendments, you really have to work on the definition section of the code. And the only reason I say that is it's going to help the city employees. It's going to help the planning and zoning commission. It's going to help a citizen that when they want to do something on a property and it says guest house as an example or whatever, they can go to the code and see what the definition of guest house is. Is it a B&B? Is it a short-term rental like Airbnb? You know, like the importance of definitions is going to help you not only operate from the city perspective, it's going to help you legally too. Um, and that's and I guess I should started with this. Cleaning up your code is going to if you had a latigious developer come into the city and you as the planning and zoning commission looked at this development and said, "We don't really like this. We don't think this is appropriate, but nothing in your code really prohibited them from doing what they want to do. You have no ground legal ground." Well, again, I'm not an attorney, so I will clarify that. But you generally don't have legal standing to deny them that approval because if the code allows them to do it, the code allows them to do it. And um that's a weakness in the code, not necessarily in their proposal. Does that make sense? Okay. So, I just want to clarify that's kind of where I mean you um if there was like a health and safety concern, that's one thing, but if it was a setback or a signed design and you were like, I don't like that signed design. if the code allows it, there's nothing really to say they can't do that. Um the consideration a general another comment is landscape and design regulations. So you don't really have landscaping regulations. I know some commercial developers will

again bristle at that. But in larger cities um in I mean I think even in Rala, but you have generally you know you might have one like for parking areas if you have parking along the perimeter for commercial business you have one tree per 50 lineal feet and one shrub per five feet or one shrub per 10 feet or something like that because you're trying to beautify your community. You're trying to beautify property. So that is something to consider. Design regulations. Um most of the time you don't see residential design regulations, you see um uh commercial design regulations. So again, this is up to you all, but you could have anything from in commercial districts or in the C1 district or, you know, your neighborhood business, no metal buildings or uh, you know, 50% of the facade has to be a masonry product or something like that. Now, I will tell you, having worked for the city of St. Charles for over nine years we had 75% of the facade of the entire structure had to be masonry brick stone or brick could not be block I mean that you can be very strict you don't have to be that's an example of how far you can go um so it's just it's a consideration right when you're adopting codes you can baby step this you can just try and get your zoning codes established or your zoning designations established and adopt the map and then move into some of these things like landscape or design regulations. But these are things to consider. Um, you really need a separate sign code. So, right now, as it is in the code, you have some signage regulations. For the most part, they're tied to the zoning district. Generally speaking, when you from the from the

court's perspective, many assign code has been stricken down because zoning or sign codes are trying to regulate content. And from a legal standpoint, you can generally only regulate time, manner, and place. So, you can tell them where they can put it, you can tell them how they put it there, and you can tell them like if it's um how long they can have it up. So if it's a temporary sign like those I call them D flags or this you know the open flags or whatever it might be you can yeah pennant flags you can tell them how long they can have it out there you know it can be no more than a week or you know a month a within a year but you can't tell them what can be on it for the most part um that I will say sign codes in in my professional experience sign codes above anything else are what you oftentimes see people battling and cities tend to lose if they have adopted regulations that really regulate con any type of content. So, um so that's something to consider. I really think you need to pull those sign codes out of your zoning districts and have a standalone sign code. Um, and then this is one thing and I don't know if you all have come across this but you need to clarify and again this ties to definitions and narrow down between the extra uses in the code. So right now you have written in your code reviewed uses, special uses and conditional uses. What I think it's meant to be is like reviewed uses or just like if you meet X, Y, and Z condition, it's a permitted use and a conditional use or a special uses. You're required to meet X, Y, and Z, but you also have to go to the PNZ commission and city council or board of aldermen to get approval for that. But there's too much overlap between the different zoning designations in the

code now where some places it says reviewed, some places it says special. I really Huh. I have again in my experience and I can only speak to my experience. I have never seen some I've never seen three different or even two different designations. I've seen you have permitted uses which are outright permitted and maybe they have a minimum you know it might say I don't know um office space with a minimum of 3,000 square feet. I'm making that up, but that's just a part of the permitted uses. So, generally, you have permitted uses and you have conditional or special use, whatever you want to call them. And that requires you to go before the board uh before this committee and then before the board of aldermen, but there's you don't have three separate special uses and that and again that's a definition importance. Um, so I I I that's another m like kind of an overall comment for the whole zoning code. You need to clarify that because it's a little it is a little confusing. It's not a little confusing. It's a lot confusing. And then also a separate parking code. So it's part of the zoning code, but again, um I would I do think it's important to consider parking based on uses and square footage slash or floor area of a of a space. Um, and again, like the sign code, that's a separate code, so it spells out all the different uses, so people don't have to try and go into each designation to figure out what what's allowed, what's not. Um, there are ways to write a parking code that gives businesses in the downtown that have no parking on their property, you know, the ability some exemptions and waiverss and whatnot. But, and right now, I think the way it's written is if you have if it's

an existing building, let me back up. If you have a business that has a public parking within 300 feet, I believe is the way it's written, then you don't have to provide parking on site. But there's no definition spelled out in this part of the code where those parking or where those parking lots are, those public parking lots. And it doesn't also I could not find anything really where like a new business like you have an existing property it's not been annexed but like Walmart comes in and there's no calculation to say for large box retail or whatever you have to have this amount of parking spaces. Of course Walmart's going to want a thousand parking spaces but you know there might be somebody that's like I only want to do 10. And then there's also limitations. I did not really come across anything that references and maybe I missed it, ADA accessibility and the standards you have to provide for, you know, it's usually one handicap parking space per 25 or whatever it might be, etc. So again, I'm not telling you how to write it, but I do think you need a separate parking code. So those are the general comments. Um, I am going to go through some of these quickly. Um, so anytime you see the numbers, so 405 is is the zoning code section. Um, this first one, it's just that's that specific code section you'll need to edit based on the zoning districts that you adopt. Um, number two, uh, again, this relates to the new zoning map adoption. So that would need to be updated. Um, I'm going to pull up you guys. Um, gonna pull up the code really quick. So, let's see. [Music] 405.

Um, sorry, a little slow. Um, okay. So, when I say again, we talked about um addressing this. Oh, okay. Okay. So again, this um number uh number three, yeah, when I say it's a little vague and up to interpretation, that's that conditional use permit application review. Again, that's clarifying between conditional reviewed, etc. Um the 070 um Whoops. I think I actually must have that. Oh, that was my fault. It's not 070. Uh60b is what it should be. But this is just a comment. I think you have a relatively low application fee. Um it's just something to consider. You don't have to change it at all. It's just a recommendation. Um, when you get further section Oh, I've got to go to the next [Music] um when you get into 405.120, which these are permitted uses. Um, again, this is I'm getting more specific here. This is your R1 permitted uses. This is um where it starts to get more confusing. you talk about conditional, you talk about reviewed use, um, etc. So, again, just a clarification that, um, you'll want to discuss, you know, how do we want to regulate some of these businesses? Um, the other thing is in the R1 code, the way it's listed is all non-residential permitted uses. So up here you have um child nurseries, you

have a hospital, um temporary real estate offices, those things, you know, are oftentimes things you can see in a in an R1 zoning sometimes. um they tend to be public or nonprofit uses a lot of them that you that if it's a nonresidential use in a residential district they tend like I said they tend to be um public or nonprofit but for whatever reason you also have art gallery listed and that is oftentimes a for-profit use so I wasn't quite sure of why an art gallery was allowed in R1 is just something to consider. Um, if we continue on to conditional uses, again, I'm just touching on the, um, discrepancies between reviewed and conditional. Um, there's also some reference in here to landscaping, but I do think it's a little, um, left too much to interpretation. Um, trying to remember. It's It's been a year since I I wrote all these comments out, but it's just uh trying to figure out um let me go back 405 125 um oh you know like for example here under the lodge halls you have lodge halls as a conditional use but then you have it as a reviewed use and you have oh this is what I'm referencing things like required parking will be landscaped to screen such use from adjoining properties, but there's no definition or code section that says what that is. So, it ends up being left to interpretation of you all or the staff and this committee may say we think that's trees and shrubs and in five years from now a different you know group of individuals are going to say no

that I don't that's not what I think it is. So again clarifying that cleaning that up. Um let's continue. Do you all have your code books too, right? Okay. [Music] Um the let's see in four when you talk about home occupations um it says let me see where I know I came across it. So let me just find this. um home occupations which do not create noise perceptible by by a person of normal sensibilities within a residence. Again, left up too much interpretation because your normal sensibilities certainly may be different from theirs. So again, that's those are these are the types of code amendments that need to be considered cleaning up those definitions. You know, the other consideration is sometimes like right now there's no restriction on how much of a residence can be used for a home occupation. So, you know, some places that allow it say, you know, no more than 25% of the square footage of the home can be used for that purpose. You don't have to do that, but that's a consideration. So you don't end up with somebody that's they're, you know, doing auto, I don't know, auto repair out of their home or something. Um, let's see. Um, so the one thing and when you talk about um this, you have some regulations in R1 for mobile home dwellings. Um, but I, you know, I wanted to ask if there was consideration. So, some places, again, Salem can do what it wants to. Some communities don't allow mobile homes as a standalone unit on a single family

lot. They might they allow um oftentimes they'll allow a manufactured home. So, you know, they they build it elsewhere. They come to the site and they erect it and put it on a permanent foundation. Some places have a mobile home zoning or like in or in the multif family zoning, it allows for mobile home parks. So, if you're going to allow a mobile home, it's um in a mobile home park. But I do see often and again at your purview, but single family zoning designations not allowing for what is what you um traditionally think of as a standalone single mobile home trailer on a single family lot. That's something to consider. Again, you don't have to do anything like that, but you know, creating a mobile home district or creating that use within multif family or whatnot might be a consideration. Um the so under this section, this number seven down here, vacation rentals, you know, the question, and this is just a question, is has the city seen an influx of vacation rentals? And if so, is there consideration um to allow those um you know to have a restriction on the number or um you know right now it provides minimum lot standards for residential dwelling units but it doesn't provide lot size standards for non or I'm sorry I'm jumping ahead. Um sorry is there a concern about it providing a density calculation or a distance requirement for vacation rentals? So, your Airbnbs, your Furbos, I don't know if Salem has a problem with these or not. I'm working on a comprehensive plan right now for the city of Herman. They definitely have a problem with this um and have looked

at, you know, some restrictions. But if you start to see a loss of ownership or even rental home like long-term rental residences in the city and they're being taken over by vacation homes, you may consider that you don't want to adopt a density standard or you know um limitation on where they're allowed. It's just a consideration, not required. But again, in some communities, we have seen where you're, you know, your lower income individuals even, you know, somebody buys a fixer upper, they turn it around, but they're renting it out short term to these short-term rentals, and that's a loss of a good single family home to an individual living in your city. So, it's just again something to consider. Um moving towards lot development. Um you again this is where I started to talk. Do you provide minimum lot standards for residential dwelling units? This also ties to section 160 which is um in the commercial designations. Um but you don't provide lot size standards for non-residential uses. So, is the intent that non-residential uses in the R1 and R2 districts could be less than the minimum lot size of 7200 square feet? Because this is what's up here now is the R1 zoning district as an example. The way you have design regulations is specific to minimum lot area per dwelling unit. So, a residential district or a residential use has a lot size min minimum. But in your commercial district or andor a commercial use in your residential district, there's nothing in here that says what size a lot might have to be

for any of those other uses we talked about. Um, so it's it's a consideration. And again, you usually want to adopt um a square footage, a lot size square footage for the zoning district, not based on the use spec unless it's maybe some specific um use where you know you need a lot of square footage. But um again, it's just it's a almost like a definition standpoint. If you took out the per dwelling unit and you just said the minimum lot area shall be 7,200 square feet in R1 or whatever, that would be easier to apply than not having anything for commercial. [Music] Um, again, it provides for setbacks of structures. So, your codes so in R1 and R2, um, provides for setbacks of structures in both of those districts. says a corner yard setback minimum is 10 feet and an interior setback is seven feet. Then the code references a sideyard total of 14 feet. So is there a reason that you even need to say that the interior um a reason to make that statement? I I think you could just remove that because if you have a minimum of seven feet on a sideyard setback, it's going to be 14 no matter what. Just a again recommendation. Um again let's see in 130B. So oh okay we get into um parking spaces again for R1 and R2 um parking standards are provided relative to dwelling units and refers to I am getting a little um in the weeds on this so you can stop me or just say go on. It refers to one space and another off- streetet parking space behind the front yard behind the front setback

line. So, does your code mean that one on or off streetet parking space plus a parking space behind the setback line is allowed or is it intended that both be off streetet parking and one could be in the driveway and one behind the setback? Do do you understand what I mean by that? Okay. Because right now again like the way the code's written is left to interpretation of you're telling me I have to have two parking spaces. One of which has to behind be have has to be behind the front yard setback. So if I want to build a new house I have to have two spaces. One of which would maybe be in the be considered in the garage. So that's behind the front setback. But the other space, um, is it intended that that's in the driveway, so on my private property, or can I consider if if parking is allowed on the street in front of my house, can I can that be considered? There's no definition there. It doesn't say off street or on street. Um, again, in these code sections for all residential, um, it references hard surface driveways, but there's no definition of hard surface. So again, just providing that clarity because I don't personally I've worked in cities where gravel is not considered a hard surface. It's asphalt or concrete, but somebody else is going to consider gravel a hard surface. So again having that definition um issues um it also references um this these sections this code R2 and R and I think R3 references appropriate landscaping again but does not provide for design regulations or specifics. So if you're going to oh it's under the like the parking spaces for public church or for churches public buildings etc. This this section here

appropriate landscaping shall screen such parking from adjoining properties doesn't tell me what that means. So you might think it's one single tree you might think it's 30 trees and 10 bush you like I don't know. But again having that definition is it's going to make everybody's life easier. So you you don't have to try and interpret code when somebody comes to you for approval of something. Um, okay. I know I'm trying not to fall asleep. Um so section 405130B 3D and then in subsequently it's in subsequent R2 and R3 could be removed from the section and the subsequent codes since it would be assumed that any additions could be made to existing structures so long as they meet the lot development standards for the district. So the way the code right here says additions may be made laterally from the existing foundation line if set addition conforms to the sideyard limits. Well, technically if you have a front yard setback, you have a sideyard setback and say a rear yard setback, you should be able to build onto any part of your home as long as it still meets the setbacks. So it's just a it's a redundancy in there. Um, okay. Moving along. So, we're gonna go to Sorry. Um, let me find I guess if I don't use it for a minute, it takes. So, in let's see 150. Okay. So when we're in R2 and again I apologize this is um this is just to try and get you all to understand of like how the code needs to be maybe looked at as far as um making

it functional. This um 150A references again special and conditional uses. Um like where here it says any use permitted in the R1 district including special and reviewed. Again, just cleaning that up. So, if it's going to say any conditional or permitted use in the R1 district, period is a permitted use in the R2. You know, that's just those are things to consider. Just cleaning up that language. Um, this code provides for bed and breakfast um and appropriate parking spaces, but is this above and beyond the requirements of the residential parking spaces? So, you know, again, looking at that, the way you define bed and breakfasts, again, I I would have to go back to your definitions, but they are generally I live in the house and then I'm renting out rooms. So, from a parking standard is I have the parking requirement for my house and then how does that apply to um a bed and breakfast? So again just cleaning up that language. Um again the next comment comment 20 was again referencing the issues between conditional and reviewed. Um section 405200. So oh I've got to go back out. Um sorry I'm okay. Okay. So in R3 again the question of specify here it just says all uses in R1 and R2 and doesn't say anything about conditional

uses but does but like in R2 where you allowed all R1 uses and all conditional uses. Does that mean you can also do the conditional uses in R3? Again just cleaning it up if that makes any sense. Um, take notes and then you can hammer me with questions here in a minute. Um, again, when you the multifamilies, it allows for signage, but the way it's written is six square feet is pretty small. That's a 2 by3 sign for multi- for apartment complexes. You know, you traditionally think of a little bit larger sign. It doesn't have to be huge, but six square feet is pretty small. So, again, having that separate sign code may help you clean up some of that to allow for larger signage. Um and again getting into minimum lot size standards. Um the same question I had before has regulations for the residential uses but nothing for commercial. [Music] Um sorry. Yes. Oh yeah, for sure. I'm sorry. This is getting a little nitty-gritty. I could be fine. Okay. Okay. Yeah, sure. All right. And again, I I should clarify this is really just intended to to show you where there's kind of holes in the code. Um, and hopefully we can clean them up.

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[Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Do you guys want to continue? Are you ready? Okay. Sorry. Yeah. So, we're we're two multifamily zoning. Um, again, I'm I'm not I'm going to start I'm going to go through this a little bit quicker because this list and we can and Sally can provide you a copy of my comments, but it it can get kind of into the nitty-gritty. So, I'm going

to try and be a little more general, but in multifamily, the way the parking is written is a little difficult to apply to a multifamily development. So, an apartment complex, somebody knew was to come in, it's a little bit difficult. So, again, looking at that, maybe cleaning that language up. Um the 250. Sorry. Let me see where I'm at. Um uh oh, this doesn't let me just scroll through. Sorry. I mean, I have to go back out to use [Music] um someone. Okay. zoning. So 260. So when we get into So this is the commercial zoning district. When you get into permitted uses here, um little bit of concerns regarding all residential uses are permitted in commercial districts. Um, generally speak from a zoning standpoint, mixed uses are oftentimes encouraged. Like in neighborhood or central business districts, you might see commercial on the first level, residential above or multifamily being allowed in a commercial district, but you generally and and you can see maybe in like a in a neighborhood business, you might have a single family home here there. You don't in a general commercial. So like you're up and down 32. The way the code is now is you could put a sing brand new single family residence right next to McDonald's. And I understand that some houses might exist there, but from a long-term zoning perspective, you don't traditionally see single family or two family intermixed with an auto repair business or outdoor storage or whatever it might be. So,

there are some considerations to think about. Do we want to allow any and all residential uses in the commercial zoning district? Um the next part is sorry um it lists so codes 260 lists auto um automobile parking lots is a permitted use but section [Music] 28A9 which is I believe your industrial district lists parking lots and structures as a conditional use. And since there's no current definition of a parking lot, is there a difference between those two? And why would it be conditional in a more intensive zoning district if you're going to allow an automobile parking lot in commercial outright? So again, just things things I come across. Um again, moving forward, um under special you have special uses, conditional uses kind of confusion there. um like 280 which is your conditional uses section lists a lot of uses that I would maybe consider permitted in a commercial district um if in like a general or a highway business district if you created that separate than a neighborhood or downtown district. So things like a billiard or pool hall, amusement place, a movie theater, you know, generally speaking, that's an indoor use. It might be big square footage and it might have a big parking lot, but there's not necessarily a um in a general commercial business district, I would I don't normally associate why that would be conditional. Um so things again, things like that to think

about. Um, also additional design standards may be considered for specific uses if you're going to deem them conditional. So, we just talked about it in the break. He had, you know, he had mentioned um restaurants and you do have drive-in restaurant or you have drive-in but or drive-thru of any type. Anything with a drive-thru, I've seen in communities where that's a conditional use, but with that you have some additional restrictions. So, it's going to say if you're going to do a drive-thru, it's conditional. So, we want it to come to us and it's going to have to go to city the board of alderman. But, you have some minimum standards that have to be met, you know, because you um the example that I gave, and I I apologize, I missed I forgot your name, but as an example for a drive-through restaurant, um I've seen in codes it's conditional, but it says per drive-thru lane with a sign. So, you know, you maybe have one drive-through window, but per drive-through sign. So, um you have to have a minimum, example, of four stacking spaces. And those stacking spaces have to be a minimum of 10 feet by 20 feet in length. So, that if you have that drive-through restaurant come in and it's a tight piece of property and they can't provide those four stacking spaces, then maybe that's not the best location for that drive-through business. So those are things again to consider. Um moving forward, let's see again section for uh 290 which talks about lot development. There's no minimum lot size requirement. Um, again, as I mentioned, I can see maybe that being the case in a central business district, excuse me, or a neighbor the slashnneighborhood district where you have a lot of historic buildings with zero foot setbacks.

But in a general commercial district, you know, you may want to consider um even if you don't have the setback that maybe you have buffer requirements from residential or you know, if you have a commercial piece of general commercial next to a residential that you provide some type of buffer. Just things to consider. Um the other part to that is um the next part then is it talks about the parking. Um, so you know, that continues to be a question mark. So again, pulling the parking regulations out of each zoning district and having that be one code section. Um, because as an I think you know, this has some restrictions, but then it's not also duplicated in the next code section. So, um, again, just trying to make sure that you've make it as easy as possible to not only interpret, but for say the p general public or a developer to come in and look at your code. They know exactly what they're going to have to do to build in your city. Um, it again, this code references building and fire codes, but lists no parking requirements for commercial businesses within the three blocks. Um, you know, the one thing we when we talked about setback regulations and in historic districts, I know there are provisions in many a building code for historic buildings. Um but I know and I you know depending on the um inter it's international building code so whatever IBC year you're using there's oftent times you might not have a building setback but if you have a building within less than 5t of a property line your fire code kicks in and it says you have to have a firewall. So those are things like maybe you can, you know, in those bigger zoning districts you consider because looking at the code I think, oh, I can

build in my property line and then I find out I have that additional expense of a firewall or sprinklers or whatever. And I don't know how far you guys go with that, but I know those are things that have come up in other communities. Um [Music] um in this section of code as well, the parking space regulations you do provide for um referenced gross square footage and I will or gross floor area. I will say um that sometimes like in a re so retail businesses so in your commercial district right now I'm going to use Walmart as an example um per you have to provide one parking space for each 150 square feet of gross floor area. That is the entire building. That does not take out stairwells. That does not take out bathroom spaces. That does not take out offices for the managers or the you know staff area or storage where there's no reason to generate a parking space requirement for storage areas. Like you when you when you consider making amendments to the code and you consider parking regulations, you may want to consider what's called floor area, not gross floor area. Um, so it's like your net and then you define what does that net floor area mean? It means no stairwell rails, no storage areas, things like that. So you don't end up with, you know, a business that has a thousand more parking spaces than they need. Um, just again just a recommendation. Um 290 A3. Again, this this in commercial does allow for an opaque ornamental fence or wall but or a dense evergreen hedge not less than five feet but not more than six feet in height. Um adj So you do so I back up. You do have a buffer kind of requirement. Um, there's no setback or yard space requirement from commercial to residential, but you

either have to have an ornamental fence or you have to have a hedge. I don't know why you would limit it to six feet tall, but that's just me. Um, also no definition of opaque ornamental fence. So again, I see that and I think a sight proof wood fence or a vinyl fence, but to somebody else that might mean a slatted chain link fence with that netting that and that's not always visually appealing. So and andor the netting gets torn and then it's not sight proof. So definitions matter. Um there's also no definition of what a public drive is. Hold on. [Music] Um, sorry. I So that that code section um so it says when whenever any commercial district parking or public drive adjoins a residential zone. I I don't there's no definition of what a public drive is. So again clearing that up. Um, section 290 A4. This is the first time where it references a C1 neighborhood business district in the commercial district, but you don't have a C1 district anywhere. So, I don't know where that came from. Um, the A41A, [Music] uh, again, minimum lot size comment, and we talked about that already. Um you have lot size standards for and setback standards for residential but not for commercial but you allow residential and commercial. So do the residences in a commercial district as it is now have setbacks that they have to follow andor lot size minimums that they have to follow when a commercial business does not if it was to go on the same piece of property. So again questions

um so again in that same there's the the no minimum so you could have again by allowing those R1 uses you could have a single family home with a 7 foot sideyard setback and a commercial use on the adjacent property line as a little bit of inongruous inconsistencies. Um, continuing on this B4A2B height regulations. Um, hold on, I lost my spot. B4, is that right? A, sorry, I lost my spot for a moment. 290 to the um okay so I apologize it um provides a setback so this is the another thing there's a minimum side street minimum street side setback so if you're on a corner the side of your building um that's facing this one side of the street that doesn't have you know it's not the main entrance has a 7 foot setback but constructed on property henceforth annexed into the city of Salem and zoned commercial doesn't say when it had to have been annexed and if you know so again just you know one when was that annex established why is it just for annexed property etc um sorry I got lost for a moment oh I'm on my next page Um again just noting that you know it would be easier if setbacks applied to the whole district not just um specific properties and again opens you up to interpretation issues that you don't want to deal with.

Um again provides for height regulations and only permits residents is at a height equal to the associated residential district. But again keeping in the design of consistency in commercial areas if a single or two family home was acceptable in an actual commercial district it would make sense that it would be designed consistent with the facades and frontages and heights of their commercial neighbors. So, if you as a group and if the city board of alderman said, "Okay, we still want to allow single family homes in the commercial district, um it would make sense that maybe you could, you know, you see those modern homes, you could have a five a 60 foot tall house, which would be crazy and super expensive, but you know, like if you think about if you only have one zoning district, especially downtown, if somebody's going to renovate that whole structure as a single family residence, you don't have a 25- foot home and then a 60ft commercial building and then a 25 foot home It's just again things to to think about the sca the human scale gets off when you have that kind of change. Um moving forward. So if we get into the sign regulations that are provided um it does not address billboards or any restrictions on such signage. So off-site off-site signage is generally what it's called. you have freestanding off- premise and on-remise signs are regulated all the same. Um, billboards can be a hot button item, but it is something to consider. If you have no regulations that limit it or allow for it um or or I should say restrict it in size, then you can end up with Have Have you ever been to Springfield, Missouri? They have regulations now, but like their sign code is crazy because they have I mean ginormous signs up and down. And you know this, if you think about

the scale of Salem, it's again um again providing for those regulations allows you to make sure they're in their correct location, that you don't have a billboard on five consecutive properties. You know, maybe there's some distance between them if you want to allow them at all. You know, it it's it's just thinking about what kind of signs um you permit. Off-site signage in in general can sometimes be a problem if you don't um if you allow off prem if right now you allow off- premise signage without a clear definition. If I own my car dealership in the middle of the block, but I want to put a a sign on the corner lot, there's not a whole lot of things to prohibit me from doing that. So you can end up with multiple signs. Um the other part to that with sign regulations, um from what the way I read it, it doesn't appear that the sign code allows for monument style signs. So what that generally means again is like the groundbased, you know, has a maybe like the nice um brick or stone base and then it's like a it's a rectangular sign or whatever, but it's it's groundmounted, if you will. the code really refers to like pole signs. Um, and so, you know, thinking about um what the aesthetic intent is of the city, you know, it in a on a road like 32, it makes sense that you would allow for monument andor pole signs because the speed is higher, but up up and down Main Street or 19, um, it doesn't always necessitate a pole sign or large signage because you're not well, you're not supposed to be driving, you know, at high rates of So, it's again things to consider. Um, if you continue on

360, let's see, where am I at? I go I got to go back out. Um, 405 360, which I think gets into the industrial district. So, your permitted uses in the industrial zoning district. um reference any non-residential use permitted in a C2 district, but there's no C2 district established in the code. Um it also notes amusement parks, circuses, etc. are permitted upon approval of the planning commission. Um so does that not make it a conditional use instead or is that a reviewed use? I I don't know. Generally speaking, if it's a permitted use, it's permitted and as long as it abides by setbacks, the other design codes established for that district, it doesn't require special approval. So again, just just asking that question. Um it lists um code 380 under conditional uses of the industrial district lists um generally a conditional use in an industrial district is a pretty intensive industrial use. It's things like acid manufacturers or explosive. So why writing stables? Why would a writing stable be considered? Um I I don't know. To me, that's an an agricultural use, not an industrial use. So, it should maybe be permitted in a and not listed anywhere in industrial. But that's again just a question. Excuse me. Smell and noise. We didn't have an agricultural zone. So, where did where would it go? Or do we did did we? Oh, what? Oh, the A. Yeah, you do have an A.

Um, so let's see. Um, and also this last one, number eight, other similar uses generally speaking, and again, this is general one. That's a pretty big interpretation. two, in zoning codes, generally speaking, if you I am I will say it again. I am not a land use attorney, but generally in zoning codes, if it is not specifically permitted, it is prohibited unless it is allowed for as conditional or something else. So, opening it up to any other similar use, I I mean, I can see where that's applicable. those heavyduty, you know, sewage, bulk storage of dangerous things would be conditional, but that also you have writing stables or a egg use in there, so would a pig farm. I mean, like, I don't know. I mean, I'm I'm trying to pick an annoying use, but there's maybe some things that you don't want in the city limits of the city of Salem that can be left to the county. Just a thought. Or you don't care. It's up to you, but it's it's a question mark. [Music] Um, let me see. Sorry, I got a little lost on my notes. Um, is so under section 390, this gets into lot development. Um, again, it does not provide for minimum lot sizes or screening requirements, especially adjacent to residential areas. This is in your industrial zoning. It's recommended that these be considered. Um, it also does not provide regulations for parking spaces of commercial uses within the industrial district. So, what I said before, the commercial zoning district had some parking space regulations that are not then

technically carried over to industrial. So, you know, I I'm going to say generally you apply those if somebody puts a commercial use in the industrial zoning, but it's not expressly listed. So, somebody could maybe make the argument, well, I don't have any parking regulations, so you can't make me put in that 10 spaces or whatever. Um, section 405. Okay, this So, now we're going to go to the AG zoning that's in the code. And I'm I promise I'm almost done. So, in the Azoning, it allows for single family dwellings not connected to farms. However, it's if it's the intent to allow large acreage residential homes, then why would it not just be zoned R1? You have a minimum lot size. It doesn't have a maximum lot size. So, if you want to have an R1 used, sorry, if you want to have an R1 use with no farm associated, why does it need to be zoned a excuse me? Um also [Music] um it appears again the code also appears to address only minimum standards for residential uses. Um is there a reason that maybe the A district would not have a larger lot size requirement? So again, it it has lot size requirements. If you have a residential use in agg, but if it's an expressly an egg use, there's no lot size requirement for like I'm going to keep my farm. I want to be in the city limits, but I have a farm. There's no it has to be min an acre minimum or five acres minimum or something like that. I could have a 5,000 square foot lot and have a farm. I I don't know. There's there's no restriction on that. So, it's

just again another question and not that anybody would ever come into the city in an a zoning and want to put a farm on a 5,000 square foot lot, but technically they could right now. Yeah. Yes. Excuse me. Um code, this code, uh the A code does not provide parking signage or other standards like it does in the commercial district. So, again, just a if you had that se those separate codes, you wouldn't have to worry about it. And then my last comment, and again, everything I looked at, I did not read every single use in these zoning districts because that would have been a lot longer list, is noting that a good non-conforming building use and regulation clause in your code builds in flexibility to have what you have in the city, but to allow you to adopt a new zoning map consistent with your regulations and to update the codes because you can see in the codes it tells you you know this was first created in November 94 and it was a you know it was amended in 2011 like the history tells you and when a code section is updated it's going to tell you the date. So again, if you as a citizen have a piece of property and it's got a commercial business on it and the city adopts a zoning map and says long-term we really think this is multif family R3 zoning that's not going to say that you have to immediately go out and change your property. what those non-conforming clauses or grandfather clauses generally will say and every cities is different. But something like if a property sits abandoned or unused for more than one calendar or one year um then anything new in that property is required to be from a use perspective required to meet code. If it's a building that's demolished by an act of

God or whatever it might be, you know, a tree falls on it, as long as you like there the way codes sometimes can be written is as long as you undertake a building permit within six months and the work is completed well within a year of said act of God, you know, a tornado comes through, you can put back what you had before meeting, you know, you're putting that house back on that setback in a in a commercial zone or you're putting that auto repair place back that's in the historic part of town with a zero foot setback but you're you're putting back exactly what you had so that so that as long as you do it and say it got destroyed by a tornado you do it within a a good amount of time you don't let it sit then you can do what you did before it's when it goes to change is that the new codes kick in and that I think is important to note because if you have a strong nonconformity clause adopted before you do any zoning or code changes, you can tell your citizens, look, we're not coming in and telling you you're going to have to change everything about your property immediately. It's if you let it sit abandoned or say you're in a commercial, we change our commercial code for general commercial that single family residences aren't permitted and you have a single family residence in a general commercial district say on 32. It can stay residential until you know uh Sam's Club comes in and says we are buying five properties and we want to build a Sam's Club. can't happen is that then Sam's Club goes I'm gonna leave and you tear that Sam's Club scub down and you put you can't put a house back on that spot but it's again it can stay there as long as it remains as is if that makes sense. So that is important to have. Now I have seen communities come through and say nope we're going to put a sunset on it and everybody has to come into conformity in

15 20 years. I don't think that's the best idea because then in 15 and 20 years you were dealing with a bunch of fights. Um, and it's not to say that you you could have gone through every single legal requirement that you were required to do to adopt that code and adopt that zoning, but you're still going to end up with a fight, you know, when that uh code or that sunset or that code sunsets. So my recommendation is if you think about adopting that it's only upon vacancy of a year or something like that or six months and it's only upon change of use to conform. It is not a hard and fast in 2050 everything in the city is going to come into compliance. That that's not worked well for most communities. Um so I know it's a lot but those are some overarching things. Definitions matter um through and through they matter. How you word it saying and is different than saying or. So I've been involved with court cases where or you it hasn't gone to court yet. They threatened to sue because they said no the code says or. Well, city staff's been interpreting it as and. Well then it push comes to shove no it says or. We can't make you do this and this. it's this or this. And even 50 people before them have done it the way we've asked them to, but that one person comes in and argues. Um, cleaning up the zoning codes to match your map. Cleaning up the reviewed, conditional, special. I really think you have permitted uses and conditional uses or special uses, whatever you want to call them, but you do not have reviewed, conditional, and special. I think that's too confusing for people. having a good non-conformity clause and

then separately within your zoning code having a parking code, a sign code, and um considering some some aesthetic andor setback lot size regulations for some of your districts. Um it's a lot of work and it can take a lot of time. Um, so I don't come to you with these ideas and suggestions and ex think that, you know, it's you're going to do it in six months. You know, it's my my suggestion of a timing consideration is that you deal with the map first. No, I take that back. You deal with your code first and then you adopt the map because your code is already in congruous with your map. So saying R1, R2, R3. If I'm looking at um this map or you know the map you have, there's there's already inconsistencies there. So getting the wording cleaned up, building in that nonconformity clause, getting that in place so that when you come to the public and you say, "We want to zone this neighborhood business or we want to zone this general commercial district," they are going to know what that means. And then they're going to know, is my piece of property going to be permitted asis? Is it considered um non-conforming? whether it's a non-conforming use or it's a non-conforming lot size. You know, again, the last community I worked for, we had our R1 zoning is traditionally your most prevalent zoning in a city, single family. We had several historic districts, and those properties were only 50 feet by 100, maybe 50 by 120, maybe less. and by the zoning district they were

non-conforming because it required I think a 60 or 70 foot wide lot. So nobody, you know, it's forever and always unless somebody comes in and consolidates two properties, it's always going to be a non-conforming lot size, but as long as somebody's not trying to build an addition that's going to violate the setbacks, it's not an issue. So those are things that I think you need to take a look at. So code first, map second. So when people think see they're going to zone my property X, that's what X means. Versus they're going to zone my property X, that doesn't exist in the code right now. Or they're going to zone my property X and it says I can do this now, but then the code changes and I can't do it later. I I think I do think that's from a time frame perspective, that's probably the most important thing process-wise. Um, and it's really to get the city functional so that it's I do think long term it saves a lot of headache. Um, now I will say too, and I talked to Sally about this too, I do think the city needs a comprehensive plan. Traditionally, a comprehensive plan update would come first and and then you you establish a future land use map kind of and then you use that to say, "Okay, this is what we want the city to look like." Sorry, I'm warm. Yeah, it talks about everything from infrastructure to public works to um parks. It talks about everything. Um, traditionally that comes first and like I showed you in in state statute, if you're going to have zoning, you're supposed to have a comprehensive plan. That plan drives all decision-making. So, in that comp plan, if you have a future land use map, it's very general. If it says it's going to be commercial and then your zoning map says it's neighborhood business or it's general commercial and somebody comes in and

goes, "No, I want to zone at R1." and you've already adopt you've gone through the public process, the city or the board of alderman is going to say, well, through this public process, we identified long-term that this property is commercial, that it's not going to be single family, so we're going to deny that request. And then you have standing to deny that request. That's just a rough example. Um, so I mean you can do to get yourself functioning, you can look at the code and then look at the map. You could also try and do a comp plan and the code changes at the same time and then come back and adopt the map based on the comp plan. There's a lot of things to consider. I will say and I don't know if the funding is still available because fun grants have been cut left and right at a federal level, but there is a program. You are a part of the Delta Regional Authority, correct? There are some um we've submitted applications for Cuba and Possi as well to do a comp plan. There potentially are some funding mechanisms to fund a comp plan. That's a whole different animal. Um but it's just something it's something else to consider for the long term. um to to make sure the city I will I will tell you and I don't know if you feel this way but working in eight counties with 32ish cities give or 36 cities Salem makes a list of things to do and they go out and they get things done before I started I've only been there it'll be nine years in September but everything I've seen you know you've done strategic planning and you went back in four years and said hey we met all those those to-do lists. Let's we need to do this again. So, Salem has a lot of people that are ready to make change and get things done. And I will give a lot of kudos to Salem. We've done some other plans with um active

transportation and of all the communities I work with, you guys have a lot of very invested people that want to see positive things for the community. And so, I totally think it's possible for you to get things done, whatever order you choose to do it. I just I do think that zoning map is maybe the last piece even though we think it's the first piece. I think you have to have the stuff on the page clarified before you try to apply a new code to a piece of property so that somebody can come in and look at it and say, "Okay, this is what I can or can't do. These are my setbacks. Am I conforming? Am I not? What does that mean?" Um, and yeah, specifically density those sets that standard because it talks about what does the community is valuable agricultural type are larger lots of and that will help our zoning zoning down the road. So it talks about Salem is no longer the agricultural hub that maybe used to be the area that makes sense. Yeah. I mean generally speaking a comprehensive plan will identify policy. It doesn't set the regulations, but it'll say um you know we we think we need to have it it'll identify future land use map. So um we want this to be low density, we want

this to be higher density residential. We think this is it'll generalize commercial, it will generalize industrial, but um it's it it does provide kind of a a forward movement so that you know if you like she said in a in a is this is Salem becoming more urban, is it becoming less rural, in which case we need to move. Yeah. And it it involves there's a lot of public involvement in that planning process. Um so it's not an you know an insular u you know there's not decisions there's um being made just by a few people. Um and again it covers everything you talk excuse me it talks about you know do you have enough um water capacity to accommodate new development. it. You maybe would identify growth areas. So, you're not looking to go out and annex a bunch of property, but maybe you look at the perimeter of Salem and and what do you think should happen in the next 10, 20, 30 years? Um, if we're going to have growth, where do we think it should happen? Do we have can the streets accommodate development? You know, it's it's a definitely it's a more in-depth process. Um, we have done them. There are lots of planning firms that do them too. You know, they are not cheap to do. They are usually at least um a year to 18 months to do that. Um so it it's a it's a time frame commitment. Like I said, we're doing one for the city of Herman. Theirs is a condensed 10-year comp plan right now. Um we've had a lot of great public involvement and so um you know, that one isn't quite setting so much policy as as it is. It's really a comp plan is more identifying the goals you want to have for infrastructure, for land use, for housing and then coming up with those kind of action items of how can you meet

that and then when then your code then reflects those goals and actions. So it is something else to consider. Again, the comments that I made and sent to the city and just went over, those are for the most part generalized to say I I I think if a Joe citizen came in and wanted to do something, they would not understand how to do it based on X, Y, and Z, you know. Um, so there's a there's a million ways that you could approach it. I I do think especially looking at a citywide zoning map change that maybe that that that's you know the kind of the last step but that's my opinion. Questions please ask got a microphone. Some of you have microphones ask away. Check. Yep. Sounds okay. Yes. Yeah, I can be short, don't worry. Um, all right. Signage and parking. Yeah. Uh, are these going to be new articles that we need or sections under certain places? Um it would generally just from a you would have within your land use chapter you would have maybe so it just be another chapter zoning regulations regulations and park chapter 430 or so whatever however you want to number them but yeah you would have a separate it would all be within zoning it would just be um that's what I was wondering I was just wondering where that would kind of fall. Yeah I I mean I would still keep it in the zoning code. It would just be its own section. So again throughout. Yeah. Yeah. It's not sprinkled throughout. You can go straight to the parking regulations and any park you the only time you might

have a specified parking restriction would be if say like drive if you even wanted to you but it should be in the parking code but in the conditional uses you know like sure but ideally again you have it all in one place so you can go look for it. Same with um signage. It's its own separate code. It talks about all the different types of signage. Um, I will I'm going to look up just just to give you an idea of what that could look like. And huh. Yeah. Um, so just as an example, now I will tell you the they are way more restrictive than Salem probably will ever need to be. But um, whoops, I meant to put zoning code. And in fact, they have updated their code since I've left. So I used to be able to tell you, somebody would be like, "What's the sub?" I'd be like, "It's 400.230 230 AB or or A2. Um but you know just as a reference you know they have tree preservation section they I mean it gets okay all you can get all kinds but like sign regulations it's okay so it's another zone and you have things that are exempt you have definitions height that's one thing too and I didn't mention it but setbacks height measurements sometimes it's good to have graphics so when you're talking about like what um um you know what is sign like that's an example of a monument sign, but how do I measure height? You know, those are things that sometimes including those can be helpful, too. Just as an

example. Other questions? Yes. I'm curious to what you've seen in other communities. Of course, I've preached to Sally for a long time that we are a bedroom community primarily for Rolland and James, which I continue to believe, but like a lot of communities around, we're short on housing and we're short on dollars in in Dent County also. So, I'm curious if you've seen any kind of restrictions or zoning that's been addressed as far as tiny houses or maybe a little step above tiny houses but still small houses. Mhm. So, um I I think there are multiple ways you can address it. If you are looking at something like we talked about more dense housing developments um to where you maybe have multiple tiny houses in close proximity, then you know maybe that's a um section, you know, a list of permitted uses in your multifamilies. I don't know where depending on where you would want to allow them but let's say for the sake of this discussion multifamily you or single family lots um that maybe you know you have restrictions just regulations just for tiny homes or you um yet there is actually there's a whole the the planning American planning association has whole documents written about talking about tiny houses and you know you can set minimum lot size requirements. You can you can completely remove some communities historically have had established a minimum square footage for houses in their single family zoning. You could just get rid of that and to say, you know, if it meets the setbacks,

it meets the lot size requirements or whatever you want it to do, but you have no, you know, it meets the definition of a of a single family residence, um, a dwelling unit, which is traditionally a place to sleep, a place to eat, and a place to use the restroom. um then you know if you removed that square footage requirement there's nothing to stop you from building a 500 foot house. But that is something the city, you know, wants to consider if they want to do it like a conditional use in a single family where it's either, you know, it allows for the board and the community or the board of alderman and the planning zoning commission to consider if they people want to do a tiny house but they want to do several of them, then here are some minimum standards we want that development to meet, but we're going to allow it in single family or we're going to allow it in multifamily. Um, so yeah, there there's a a variety of ways you can do it. I know there is a tiny house community. Now, this is specific to um it's developed almost like a mobile home park with some standards on like um requiring skirting and things like that because they're not on the this specific one isn't on permanent foundation, but it allows for, you know, it has they have like a common building out front and so there's laundry service there and there's a meeting room. of the residents, you know, it's almost like an an apartment complex except instead of buildings with four, five, six units in them, it's single unit buildings and then a community building. So, there's really ways if the community has the will to do that, you can put it into a code. It's not um there there's all kinds of ways you could look at it. If you don't if you want the city officials to just say, "Yeah, if you're going to come in, most of the time in most communities, if

you're just going to build a single family house on a lot and it meets all the setbacks and standards, it doesn't have to come to any special board for approval. So, if you didn't want to bother with that and you wanted to write into the code with enough regulation to say if they meet X, Y, and Z, they can just go and get their building permit, you can do that. or you can make it to where they have to, you know, they have to come before the board so you can look at it. Um, it really is up to the community, but I think if the community has the will to allow for them, there's certainly the ability to do so. If you, again, if you want to just allow it willy-nilly, if you want to put restrictions on it, it's it's up to the community to decide. Other questions? It's a lot. I'm sorry. Uh, yes. Other other communities and how how you've seen things deal with things like uh automobile service jobs. So, I'm going to ask that question. We've had that kind of come up with with us here. Yeah. Uh because things weren't clear. A lot of things got misconstrued. Um how are those typically handled? Because like there's there's a typically we even in our small town I think we have seven service shops you know in in our town. Uh they are producing some sort of hazardous waste. However, they are selling stuff. There's different variations of that. We have an oil change shop that's in a commercial district. We have tire change shops in different districts, commercial and indust industrial zones. Uh they do produce. They do make some noise and things like that, but uh how are those kind of things handled? Uh because there's one that's it's a service shop, but it's attached to a commercial lot where they sell vehicles. Yeah. There's one that's just oil changes and service. There's ones that are tires and not

selling any vehicles or doing any some how are those kind of things handled? So again, it it depends on the will of the community, but like as an example, and I'm just using St. Charles as an example because that's what I know. For an example, in in a general commercial district, not neighborhood commercial, but a general commercial like up and down 32, they allow motor vehicle repair, but wrecked, disabled, inapperable vehicles aren't allowed to be parked outside from um or stored anywhere on the property for more than 30 days. So, they're trying to restrict unappealing looking vehicles. um permitted uses again like as in other parts they don't allow outdoor storage of tires um it has to be indoors again not that everybody or there's screening and buffer requirements conditional uses okay I believe a lot of times I've seen like here motor vehicle sales and rental new and use temporary motor vehicle storage it's a conditional use with additional regulations that apply to it so before you can even go to PNZ or or city council or board of alderman, you have to be able to meet all of those standards and then you take your your proposal forward. So, I mean, a lot of places um I've seen that be conditional. Um really the outdoor storage aspect anything related to outdoor storage um I have traditionally seen is commercial is uh conditional and or it has to be screened from view of the street or you know there's buffer requirements if it's adjacent to residential um across the board no matter you know like no matter the type of storage um with the exception of like if you're in heavy industrial then you know there's maybe not screening requirements permits, but but generally speaking, anything like that, it doesn't

allow you to to park, you know, doesn't allow you to to start a junkyard. So, you have all these inoperable vehicles sitting on your property for 30 plus days. Um, that is a common thing I've seen. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. What's commercial versus neighborhood business? Yeah. some of the things we were talking about with even our last last meeting. Um, size requirements. I Yeah, I I've seen in different communities handle it differently, but I have seen where you have it from a definition perspective, it's like two different definitions. You have like general auto repair and you know that's kind of defined as like oil changes, minor repair, but once you get into like body repair and heavy machinery, heavy equipment, then that tends to be either conditional andor in an industrial district. Um, you know, you always have and I think I'm guessing because I did not get into codes outside

of the zoning district. So, so noise ordinances come into play. So regardless of what the zoning is, you always have a noise ordinance. Um, a lot of communities also have prop uh nuisance codes. So, you know, your grass is you can't be too tall or, you know, you can't have a junk vehicle. Yeah. Trash, whatever. Those are those apply to the maintenance and the aesthetics of a property, but they're not in the zoning code. So, um, you know, I will say some communities also have lighting, um, restrictions or like when you submit a site plan for a new building, um, in some places, not everywhere, you have to submit, um, you have to submit a lighting plan or you, your engineer has to state, you know, it's not going to shine light on more than X candle or wattage on adjacent properties. So the the big pro the big developments that have these really tall lights with super LEDs um you know and I have seen where some of these developments you know they they get lighter and brighter and sometimes you end up with issues of hey so and so's light shining on my property especially in your residential that can be a problem. Um, and you if you can easily say, hey, this shuts code says can't shine directly on an adjacent property. Can you turn that light? And it's just a matter of them, you know, moving. Yeah. I mean, I've seen those prohibited in a lot of places, but So, yeah, but again, it's up to the community. I am here to tell you what my experience is, but I cannot tell you that that's what's good for Salem. Um, but yeah, I mean, those are things like Sally said, you can prohibit search lights, um, or prohibit them in certain zoning

districts. Uh, people, a lot of people sometimes I mean, Missouri is a very prrop state. It is. I mean, it a lot of the Midwest is, but that doesn't mean that you can't put into place some regulations to protect the aesthetic and to enhance what Salem is and has. Um, you know, I I will say the the biggest thing in any project, whether it's infrastructure or zoning or whatever, it's maintenance. So maintaining what you have, you always have to consider and enforcing what you have because if you have inconsistent enforcement um once you adopt those new codes, you've got to be able to enforce them and and have the support of the counsel or the board of alderman and have the support of the planning and zoning commission and you know staff members to say you know I know some communities don't allow off-street parking to be on gravel or on the grass and you You know, if you adopt something like that and you say you allow it now, there's no restriction. and you know I'm going to park my truck in my front yard and I don't care and then you adopt something like that sometime you you have to there's education involved and there's maybe a grace period involved and it's not it's not an easy task and I commend you all for even considering you know making these changes but I do think there's some real clarifications that need to happen regardless like you could at a bare minimum you could clarify a few things in your code and make your life easier Anything else? Can I email you questions? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't want to take up too much time. So, yeah. You know, I don't get to do zoning stuff a lot. I mean, like I'm working on I deal with

transportation planning, economic development. Um, I do some comp plan stuff. We do active trans. I mean, I'm I'm doing a wide variety of things, but this is kind of my bread and butter is what I did before I moved back to St. James and got into regional planning. And sometimes I miss it. So, when I got the chance to do this, I was like, "Oh, I'm excited." So, yeah, ask me any questions. I don't care. Okay. Um, for this group and for the board of alderment, I think you really the first and foremost, you need to decide process. Um, do we want to try to do a comp plan first as while we work on code edit recommendations? Um, you know, the thought process is Yeah. If you took in in probably real form, if you took a minimum of 12 months, maximum of 18 months, so you know, a year to a year and a half, you could do a comprehensive plan in that time frame while somebody while you're also working on what you want your code to say. So you don't have to adopt the code but you could be working on the language and what you want to look like and you could have workshop upon workshop to edit it and make changes and you give you know as conjun in conjunction with the comp plan you're allowing the public to be involved and have you know have that public buy in so that once you adopt things you don't have people going oh wait a second what's this? Um, again, you know, I'll I'll say to even be more generous, a year to twoyear process to maybe start that comp plan and do your zoning, your code edits because you, you know, like the idea would be that the city would come up with a first draft and then you would have a workshop

and the board of alderman and staff and the public has a chance to look at it. You go, I don't like this and this needs to change. I mean, and you could do that till you're blue in the face while you're doing the comp plan stuff and then you adopt the comp plan and then you have the zoning code changes right after and then you look at the map because again I I think as much as you want the map to get fixed, I think it's difficult to try to tell somebody that their zoning's potentially going to change without having exactly what's what it's going to look like in I won't say it was the only saw it and then set aside where you could find it. That was that's the only one I see. I will look in our library. We kind of keep a library at work um of all the communities and see if I find anything. You have definitely done strategic planning, but you have not done a comp plan that I am aware of in a long time. You are not alone. You know, like I said, I think Herman's last was 1999, and even though they have one from 1999, it is not sufficient in any way, shape, or form. So it's starting from what you would essentially be scratch is not the end of the world. It is very common and and again that comp plan does not have to be the most like nitpicky. I mean it can be pretty generalized. It's more of like it's a catalog of what you have, what you can accommodate, where you see growth and some general

provisions for you know like we have water we are you know our wells and our water treatment facility can handle I I don't even know 100,000 I mean I know that's nothing but 100,000 gallons and right now we consistently use 80,000 gallons. So we have a capac you know a surplus of 20,000. Well, that could only, you know, accommodate x number of more businesses and residences. So, if we want to grow or we want new businesses, we've got to expand our water capacity to, you know, x number by 2050 or something. You know, that's the kind of things that the comp plan looks at. An engineer is usually involved. Do you have a planning partner? And then you, you know, an engineer is usually involved to help come up with some of those numbers. But yeah, I mean it's a it's it's a 30,000 foot view of the city um and what you can do and what you have and then it talks about what where you want to go in the next 20 years. I I will preface this. So comp plans are not cheap and I you know nobody wants to rain on anybody's parade. The one we are doing for Herman, they are not in the DRRA. That one is a 10-year outlook and it's 40,000. Um, the ones we have put in proposal for and we we run cheaper. I'm not saying I'm not advocating for us, but we can do that. The proposals we put together with the work of an engineer to do a capital improvement program along with the comp plan for the full kitten kaboodleoodle those have been 120 120 150,000 for some of the communities Rala I think they did their comp plan update was like 300,000 you can take it as far as you want to go but they're not cheap they're

not $10,000 you know, plans. So, that's something you have to plan for, too. Do we have the money to do it? There potentially is or was grant available. I don't know if it still exists because so many things have been cut federally. Um, we still have not heard back from PTOSI or Cuba's applications and those were put in a year, a year and a half ago. So, I don't know. Um, but but that if it if it still if that money still exists, there's potential that it could help offset some of the costs to do comp plans for city of Salem because you are in that dis that development district. Um, I am always available to answer questions. Again, I'm at MRPC. Um, I that's my contact info and I realized there's a typo, but my extension is 105, not 10T. Um, again, I, you know, I will always do my best to answer and if I don't know the answer, I will try to find somebody that can help you. Um, and I really appreciate the opportunity. Like I said, it's been fun for me because that's something I don't get to do a lot. Um, but um, again, you guys, I know you have a lot of people, not just at the city level, but in the community that are really willing to step up and get things done. And so, um, I know you guys will make it through this. Maybe not so easy, but you'll make it through and get it done. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good job, man. That's a lot.