City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes

Planning and Zoning Commission

Conference Rooms

1A/B

Thursday, August 24, 2023

5:30 PM

Work Session

Columbia City Hall

701 E. Broadway

I. CALL TO ORDER

6 -

Present:

Anthony Stanton, Michael MacMann, Valerie Carroll, Sharon Geuea Jones, Peggy

Placier and Shannon Wilson

3 - Sara Loe, Zack Dunn and Matt Ford

Excused:

II. INTRODUCTIONS

III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Meeting agenda adopted unanimously.

Approved agenda as proposed

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

August 10, 2023 Work Session

August 10, 2023 work session minutes adopted unamimously.

Approved August 10 minutes as presented

V. OLD BUSINESS

A. Short-term Rental Regulations - Follow up & Amendments

The work session start was delayed until 6:30 pm due to the lack of a quorum.

Upon a quorum being present, Mrs. Thompson provided an overview of the

substantive change to the regulations which was to treat owners and tenants of a

principal residence the same. She went on to explain that changes were required

within the definitions as well to create clarity between the “principal resident” and

“principal residence”. The revised definition and the corresponding changes

throughout the regulations resulted in a “principal resident” now being referred to

as a “long-term resident”.

Mrs. Thompson also explained that a new definition of “registrant” was added to

provided clarity as to who was seeking the STR rental license which could be an

owner or an authorized “long-term resident”. She also noted there were minor

adjustment to the order of the definitions to keep them alphabetical.

There was clarification that a “long-term resident” (owner or tenant) would be

capable of obtaining a STR license by-right for up to 120 days, subject to registration

compliance, and that a “non-long-term resident” within the R-1, R-2, or R-MF

districts would be required to seek a conditional use permit for the same ability.

Mrs. Thompson also explained the exception to the proposed parking standards for

STR licensures greater than 30 days noting that a new provision in the

“Supplemental use-specific standards” section of the regulations was created

whereby parking requirements applicable in the M-DT or an adopted overlay zone

would prevail when a conflict arose between the general requirements.

Mrs. Thompson noted that several additional changes were made to the ordinance

for the purposes of clarity relating to language used and that a new registration

requirements section was created to consolidate several pre-existing requirements

into a single location that shared the same topic. She noted that these registration

standards could have also been shown only in the administrative provisions, but

thought they would be useful in the zoning requirements as well.

Ms. Thompson concluded her overview of the revisions by noting that the

conditional use provisions had been modified to ensure consistency with the

updated terms used elsewhere in the regulations. Additionally, she noted the

provisions contained in CUP criteria # 5 were modified to address the Commission’s

desire to have “adjoining” replaced with “neighboring” as it dealt with any property

owners supporting the establishment of an STR.

Upon completing the presentation of the changes, the Chair sought input from

Commissioners as it related to any issues or additional changes that where

believed necessary. None were offered by the members present; however, a

question of clarity was asked relating to the current structure of the regulations of

not violating the recent court decisions within the 5th and 9th Federal Districts.

Mrs. Thompson noted that the current structure of the ordinance was not violation

of those decisions.

There being no additional comments or recommendation for changes, the Chair

asked for a vote on the regulations as presented. The six Commissioner’s present

voted unanimously to present the modified ordinance to the City Council for

consideration. Follow this motion and vote, the Chair sought clarification on the

next steps forward. Mr. Zenner noted that the staff would prepare a report that

would be presented to the Council on October 2 seeking direction to proceed

forward with formal public comment and scheduling a public hearing. Mr. Zenner

noted that a special public hearing on this matter would likely be most appropriate

after which the Commission could choose to continue the hearing or take a vote on

the regulations.

After a momentary pause in the discussion, Mr. Zenner indicated that the report to

be prepared for Council’s consideration would include several staff observations as

it related to particular aspects of the proposed regulations where it was believed

modifications could be considered that may enhance the overall acceptance and

functionality of the standards. Mr. Zenner noted that staff had an obligation to

point out possible issues with the ordinance and that informing the Commission of

this in advance was seen as essential such that full transparency between the staff

and the Commission existed. Mr. Zenner further noted that this action is not one

that generally occurs given regulatory issues are often drafted collaboratively and

have support from both the staff and the Commission.

Mr. Zenner referenced several areas of the proposed regulations where potential

modifications could be made to easy the administrative burden upon the staff,

Commission, and Council, as well as potentially enhance the effectiveness of

several of the underlying objectives of the ordinance. Following such comments,

several Commissioner’s questioned how staff could write such a report given the

Commission’s unanimous approval and that the topics noted were considered

“addressed” and no longer relevant. Mr. Zenner noted that he was capable of

preparing a report that represented the Commission’s vote to support the

regulations as written while also providing staff’s observations and again reiterated

it is staff obligation to do so.

Commissioner Stanton asked if it would be possible to compromise on any of the

concerns that were expressed. Mr. Zenner indicated that would be his preference.

There was additional limited discussion in which it was noted having advanced

notice of such topics would have been helpful such that Commissioners could have

prepared themselves for this discussion. Having run out of work session time,

given the late start of the meeting, a more thoughtful discussion of the concerns

expressed by Mr. Zenner was not possible. It was further discussed that given Mrs.

Thompson’s absence from the October 7 work session that this matter would not be

discussed again until the October 21 work session.

VI. NEXT MEETING DATE - September 7, 2023 @ 5:30 pm (tentative)

VII. ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 7 pm

Move to adjourn