Commercial definition tabled

On Monday, the Hill City Planning and Zoning Commission voted to table an update to Title 9, Section 601: Commercial and Commercial/Residential Zones to the Hill City Common Council.

“We’ve been discussing this for several years now,” said Dani Schade, development service coordinator for Hill City.

In short, what this change would do is change the definitions for commercial zones one through four, commercial residential zones and the central business district to state what is and is not permitted in the zone. The commercial zones are rated from smallest to largest, with a C1 zone being the smallest building and C4 being the largest.

Before passing this along to council, the commission tackled several lingering issues.

The first question posed to the council was whether the members wanted to put vacation rentals and nightly rentals into the C3 zone as a right. The C3 zone deals with businesses such as hotels and motels.

The commission decided to add that language to the C3 definition.

The second question the commission tackled was whether to allow residential use as a right in non-commercial residential zones.

 “Right now, it would either be grandfathered in or they would need a conditional use permit,” Schade said. “This would make it a right. I hate bringing it up, but we already have it and it’s something the commission should look at.”

If the commission decides to allow this, then someone could take a building in any commercial zone and live there. People are already allowed to reside in buildings in the central business district so long as it is not on street level (unless there is a conditional use permit granted or it is grandfathered in) and in commercial residential zones.

“Deadwood has encouraged it,” said Ron Walker, chairman of the commission.

Schade said Hill City does that, too.

Keith VanNess, commission member, said he believes a conditional use permit should be granted in these cases and it should not be a right in the code revision.

The rest of the commission agreed with him, and Walker said the commission will handle these matters on a case-by-case basis with a conditional use permit.

The commission then tackled the final two questions at once, with both applying to the central business district. The first question was regarding potential irritants such as noise, smoke, dust, odors, glare, heat and outside storage, to a minimum and then not permit industrial waste, visual blight or noxious gasses at all. The second question was whether to remove a sentence that says the central business district zoning be allowed on Main Street between Elm and McGregor streets.

Walker said they should keep the central business zone areas as is. The commission decided not to change that.

There was more discussion on the issue of irritants. The commission agreed that, since these are not permitted in commercial districts, they should not be permitted in the central business district; however, there was concern on whether or not cooking grease storage, which is considered to be industrial waste, should be allowed.

There was much discussion, but ultimately, the commission decided to move industrial waste to the part where it should be kept to a minimum.

The commission then voted unanimously to table.

After that, the commission discussed the business license versus business registry topic once again.

The Hill City Common Council at its last meeting said it would favor a registry over a license. The commission for the most part agreed with the council and came to a consensus that a registry should be pursued rather than a license. Wolters was the only commission member in favor of business licenses.

The commission, though, realized there needs to be more conversation on this topic.

“I want to hear more from the business community on this topic,” VanNess said.