City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes

Planning and Zoning Commission

Conference Rooms

1A/1B

Thursday, March 24, 2022

5:30 PM

Work Session

Columbia City Hall

701 E. Broadway

I. CALL TO ORDER

8 -

Present:

Tootie Burns, Sara Loe, Joy Rushing, Michael MacMann, Valerie Carroll, Sharon

Geuea Jones, Robbin Kimbell and Peggy Placier

1 - Anthony Stanton

Excused:

II. INTRODUCTIONS

III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Meeting agenda adopted unanimously.

Move to adopt agenda

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

March 10, 2022 Work Session

March 10, 2022 work session minutes adopted as presented.

Move to adopt March 10 work session minutes as presented

V. OLD BUSINESS

A. Short-term Rentals Regulations - Permitted Use Table

Modifications

Chairman Loe introduced the topic and began discussion with where the

Commissioners left off at the February 24 work session. The focus of discussion

was on establishing where a Tier 2 STR would be considered permitted or

conditional. There was general discussion of the factors that would differentiate a

Tier 2 from a Tier 3 STR. The consensus was that a Tier 2 STR would be used as

“primary” residence at some point within a calendar year. Whereas, a Tier 3 STR

was never intended to be used a “primary” residence at any point within the year.

There was significant discussion on how “primary” residence needed to be defined.

Recommendations were offered that a Tier 2 STR be further broken into two

sub-classes to be known as “primary residence” and “secondary residence”.

Commissioner Geuea-Jones offered reference to the FHA standards for these

terms. Commission Kimball offered a recommendation on “secondary residence”

that was referenced on the rmcgp.com website as “secondary occupancy” (see

attached reformatted Blog Post).

The primary concerns expressed by the Commission relating to the appropriate

designations for a Tier 2 STR (conditional or permitted) focused on the number of

days the dwelling could be rented as well as the characteristics of how the dwelling

unit (i.e. owner occupied or investor owned) was used. These issues were

discussed at length. It was concluded that a Tier 2 STR could not be used for more

than 120 days a calendar year for rental - anything more would cause it to become a

Tier 3 STR and result in it no longer being considered being used for “residential”

purposes.

The Commission also clarified that a property owner would still be entitled to only

one STR per entity regardless of what Tier it fell into and whether it was being used

as a “primary” or “secondary” dwelling. It was reiterated that Tier 1 would permit

an STR as an accessory use to the primary residential use of the property for no

more than 30 days per year, Tier 2 would be allowed to be used between 30-120

days per year and that it would be “permitted” if it were the operator’s primary

residence and “conditional” if it was their secondary residence, and that a Tier 3

would not be allowed within any residential zoning districts given its commercial

characteristics; however, would be conditional in M-OF to mirror the allowance of a

Bed & Breakfast and permitted in the M-N, M-C, and M-DT give the underlying

commercial nature of those districts and the potential that existing dwelling units

were located in those zones.

A motion was made by Commissioner Loe and seconded by Commissioner

Geuea-Jones to allow a Tier 2 STR in the R-1, R-2, and R-MF districts as conditional or

permitted (C/P) and be further permitted (P) in the M-OF, M-N, M-C, and M-DT

districts as shown in the Permitted Use Table that was being displayed during the

work session. The motion was passed unanimously. It was further noted that the

definitions to differentiate between “primary” and “secondary” residence would

be discussed further and that the Commission and staff would also discuss

use-specific standards for the Tiers that would further clarify the differences

between them.

During the work session, Mr. Zenner also provided an overview of how the

proposed regulations would be prepared and presented during the required public

hearing. He noted that prior to taking this topic to the public hearing it was staff’s

intent to flush out the details and outline the ordinance content, then secure a

meeting with Council to gain their support and feedback, make revisions based on

Council feedback, and then finally proceed to a public hearing.

Commissioners asked if the ordinance would be shared with other “allied”

departments to ensure that the proposed standards were not unenforceable or

problematic. Mr. Zenner stated that this was the staff’s intent as something more

significant was prepared and the framework for the regulations was better defined.

He noted that the internal feedback loop would occur before meeting with Council

and depending on the internal comments additional Commission work session

discussion may be needed.

Having arrived the end of the work session, Chairman Loe suspended further

discussion on the topic. Mr. Zenner noted that conversation would continue at the

April 7 work session which would be used to continue to flush out use-specific

standards and confirm the Tier 3 district and use (permitted or conditional)