Ordinance First Reading:  7/0
Ordinance Second Reading: 7/0

The owner is requesting approval of a Zoning Map Amendment to rezone the South 140' of Lot 4, Block 9, Bivens Addition, and the 20' wide alley adjacent to the north, from R-2, Single and Two Family Residential District, to C-1, General Commercial District. 

The Lot is located at 815 E. 9th Street, on the north side of Ninth Street about 300' east of South Douglas Highway. The Lot is the south one-half of the originally platted Lot 4, less 10' of an alley dedicated at a later date. The Lot is 140' long and 100' wide. To the north is C-1, General Commercial Zoning District, to the east and west is R-2 Zoning, Single and Two Family Residential District, and to the south is C-1, R-2, and M-H, Mobile Home Zoning District Zoning. The site is vacant after the recent demolition of a garage structure.

A commercial use exists to the north. The uses on the east, west, and south sides are residential. If the rezoning is approved, a Commercial Site Plan approval will have to be granted prior to permanent occupancy of the site. This approval will address the required buffers between R-2 and C-1 development. Typically the buffer between R-2 and C-1 development consists of a 6' fence and 10' of landscaping. All other pertinent Zoning Ordinance standards will apply.

The zoning pattern in the area has been influenced by the Douglas Highway commercial corridor. This had led to similar requests and approvals in the past for properties within the first block east of Douglas Highway. The Comprehensive Plan identifies this area as Mixed Use. The site meets the minimum area of a C-1 Zone (4 acres) as it is adjacent to existing C-1 zoned properties to the north.

Although a preferable pattern of C-1 zoning expansion would be for the site to be contiguous to C-1 zoning in an east-west direction, this preferred option is not consistent with the existing pattern in the vicinity, for example, directly across the street, where there is R-2, C-1, and M-H, Mobile Home Zoning District side by side.

 An amendment to the Zoning Map shall not take place unless at least one of the two criteria exists as set forth in Section 12 of the City of Gillette Zoning Ordinance:

a. The Zoning Map may be amended when there is a need to correct an obvious error. In this case there was no obvious error.
 
b. The Zoning Map may be amended to recognize changing conditions within the City. This request does recognize changing conditions in the community because the land that is adjacent east of the Douglas Highway commercial corridor has been expanded to accommodate additional commercial uses.

I move for Approval of Ordinance to Amend the District Zoning Map of the City of Gillette, Wyoming, for Property Generally Located at 815 E. 9th Street and Legally Described as the South 140' of Lot 4, Block 9, Bivens Addition, and the 20' Wide Alley Adjacent to the North, from R-2, Single and Two Family Residential, to C-1, General Commercial, Subject to all Planning Requirements on Third and Final Reading.