Palmer looks at zoning codes

PALMER -- As Palmer continues to grow with the rest of the Valley, the question of zoning and planning looms ever larger for the city council.

Now that areas of the city need rezoning, some city council members think the current zoning categories are inadequate to direct and control growth in certain parts of the city.

Out of four zoning ordinances up for a vote at last week's city council meeting, two were postponed until the Oct. 26 meeting and one was unanimously voted down.

The problem some council members had with the ordinances was the C-L, or limited commercial, zoning category.

Limited commercial zones allow an array of activities and uses, including multiple-family dwellings, churches, banks, restaurants, office buildings, child care, laundromats and more. Although the C-L classification is designed to be a buffer zone between residential and commercial areas, many people don't want commercial zones near their homes.

"It's a 'not in my neighborhood' kind of mentality," council member Ken Erbey said. "What seems to scare people is the possibility of having liquor stores, bars, those types of places near their homes. Even though it's highly unlikely, that's the perception and the number-one compliant."

Palmer resident Chuck Dimon went before the council at the Sept. 28 meeting to express the opposition of Mountain Rose Estates to the proposed rezoning of a parcel of land abutting that neighborhood. The ordinance would have rezoned the parcel from R-1, single family residential, to C-L, limited commercial.

The subdivision, located near Matanuska Telephone Association on South Chugach Street and East Commercial Drive, is a 55-and-over retirement community of duplex housing. Dimon and his wife, Dee, moved there two years ago from Fairbanks.

This summer, several residents of Mountain Rose Estates collected nearly 100 signatures of people opposed to the rezoning of two parcels in that area. The signatures were brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission's Aug. 5 meeting to protest the proposed rezoning. Twenty-two residents attended that meeting to register their opposition.

Although the commission did not change its recommendation to the city council to rezone those areas, last week the council rejected an ordinance to change one parcel from R-1 to C-L.

The other parcel, which the commission recommended be rezoned from R-1 single-family housing to R-2 multi-family housing, was tabled until the Oct. 26 city council meeting.

Dimon cited several reasons the residents of Mountain Rose Estates oppose the rezoning, including a lack of road access and lack of a buffer between residential and commercial zones. Dimon said the parcel is not big enough to intermingle residential and commercial zones.

"We want to keep businesses out of here," Dimon said. "Prudent zoning, we feel, shouldn't mix commercial lots with residential lots. It just seems like they're taking a kind of shotgun approach."

That area of Palmer is indeed a hodge-podge of businesses, schools and residences, encompassing almost every zoning category the city has. Efforts to rezone some of those areas have been problematic, in part because of the ambiguity of zoning classifications, particularly C-L.

"The current zone classifications we have are too broad or too limiting," Erbey said. "What we're being asked to rezone doesn't fit with the tools we have to zone."

Erbey says there should be more of a definite separation between commercial and residential areas in order to cut down on creating zones with additional restrictions that complicate the process and could possibly overrestrict an area and render it useless.

In August, graduate students from the University of Washington came to Palmer and worked with the city council and planning and zoning commission to brainstorm and map out the city's options. They are coming back at the end of January to help the council develop a long-term zoning plan.

For now, the council is waiting to hear from the city's attorney, Jack Snodgrass, about what kinds of restrictions or additions can be put on commercial zones.

John Combs, current council member and sole candidate for Palmer mayor, said Palmer needs more zoning classifications that are more specific to pressing needs for both residential and commercial areas.

"Some developments just don't fit with existing zones," Combs said. "All residential zoning should be pulled out of C-L and C-G zones. If people want to build a residence in a commercial zone it should go before the council and the planning and zoning commission and be looked at separately."

If elected mayor, Combs said he will make zoning classifications a top priority.

"We're having to delay and put these things off because we don't have the tools we need," Combs said. "Right now the only way we have of dealing with these areas is to put restrictions on zoning classes. Every property ends up needing a page or two of restrictions and it just encumbers the property too much."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.