Work on the Comprehensive Plan continues

(1/12) The Planning Commission met at a special workshop to discuss the implementation of industrial districts in the draft of the Comprehensive Plan in January. The Plan is a 10-year document that reviews the current condition of the City and discusses future goals and aspirations.

Currently, the Town has three industrial districts: Limited Industrial (LI), General Industrial (GI), and Limited Industrial Park (LIP). Staff Liaison Susan Hauver suggested the LIP district be removed from the Plan as it is confusing since the original intent of the LIP zone was to allow businesses like outdoor storage, auto sales, boat sales and repair in the zone. However, currently, some of these purposes are not actually permitted in the zone, thus creating confusion.

With this in mind, Hauver utilized an example from Frederick County on how their code uses categories to organize the uses of zones, allowing a simpler and easier to follow format. She proposed a list of uses for each district and many overlap. One example was breweries and wineries; businesses where products are grown on the property/farm yet also sold at the same location. The double use of the property could create confusion if the code is not organized in a simple manner.

Hauver reviewed the extensive list, which included uses like mobile home sales, boat sales and repairs, farm equipment sales, golf ranges, theatres, stadiums, storage facilities, flammable liquid storage, cannabis growing and processing, hunting, fishing and gun sellers amongst others, and whether they made sense in both or either of the two suggested districts, LI or GI.

Questionable inclusions in the Industrial District included "tourist-type homes" such as bed and breakfasts, hotels and similar dwellings, daycares and nursery schools. "I’m not sure what the thinking is there," she said. "I don’t know why they are included in an industrial district."

This workshop was only for discussion and the Commission will continue work on organizing and simplifying the "Industrial Zoning" section of the Comprehensive Plan to include the suggestions made by Hauver.