SANDPOINT — City staff introduced several changes to the city’s commercial A zoning, focused on the city’s downtown, at Tuesday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The proposal would completely overhaul the downtown region’s zoning, separating it into two zones — the downtown core and downtown outer core — each with its own regulations. City Planner Bill Dean said his focus when working on the code was to concentrate and push economic activity downtown. 

“We're talking about accelerating this place as an activity center, a unique destination,” Dean said. “A couple big ideas tonight are, one, freeing ourselves to have some new thinking about the geography of downtown... and refining some land uses to help concentrate activity, in your core and enabling some additional flexibility in the outer core for residential uses.” 

Dean said the city’s current commercial A zone spans 200 acres. He said he doesn’t think it's necessary that areas like Fifth Avenue and Larch Street have the same zoning requirements as First Avenue and Cedar Street.  

One of the proposed changes would allow for ground floor dwelling units in the downtown outer core and the remaining commercial A zone. Currently any development in the zone must have a “storefront space,” which Community Planning and Development Director Jason Welker said has led to more empty ground floors rather than viable retail space. 

“We've seen some applications come in with what I would describe as tokenistic nonresidential space, in other words, empty space behind a storefront design,” Welker said. “We are over-retailed in this town; we have 200 acres of commercial A.” 

Commissioner William Mitchell said he loved the idea of having residential spaces in the downtown core area, calling it a “great addition” to the region.  

There were several changes in the proposal surrounding what would be allowed in the new zones. Uses like laundromats, manufacturing ancillary, and vehicle sales would not be permitted in the DC zone. 

The overhauled code would no longer allow for real estate offices on the ground floor of the downtown core. Dean said this change was made because of feedback he’s heard from residents, and that real estate agents often don’t occupy the offices, unlike banks or retail stores. 

“The criticism I've heard about real estate offices is that all they are is a bunch of pictures on the window, and that the real estate agents are off doing their business,” Dean said. “And that window space is taken up with, with essentially dead space. There's no activity going on around there.” 

In addition to the zoning code overhaul, Welker said he would bring a new set of “rigorous” design standards for the downtown core and downtown outer core that reflect the historic design of Sandpoint. He said he used standards of other cities similar in size and character to Sandpoint as inspiration. 

The commission also discussed the area of the two new zones, which Dean said he’s thoroughly thought through and walked several times. Commissioner Wayne Benner said he’d like to look over the boundaries at a later meeting, but thought the overhaul was a strong step forward. 

“I think this is a good step in trying to resolve some of our downtown issues and hopefully draw more commercial into it,” Benner said. “That's going to be the key. Is it going to draw more in, or is it going to chase them away?” 

Dean also briefly introduced the historic overlay district from the city’s 2018 Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation Master Plan. He said there will be a new historic preservation code with special processes and permits coming to a future meeting. 

Staff bringing the overhaul to the commission follows frustration expressed by City Council at its Dec. 17 meeting. Councilor Kyle Schreiber was the most outspoken and made a motion at the meeting to delay moving forward with the C-PACE program until these zoning changes are complete. 

“It's concerning that we've had several distracting projects come up for the last two years,” Schreiber said at the Dec. 17 meeting. “Over the last two years, we've seen no progress on that, despite there being several projects coming out of the CPD department. I would like them to focus on what the public has asked them for, rather than on these projects that nobody asked for.”  

Dean said at the Jan. 6 meeting that the council wants the changes in front of them, however it will not influence the thoroughness of his review and overhaul. 

“So, we want to move this thing along to City Council in an expeditious way, but also be very thorough and mindful of the amount of work that it takes to do this, and to make sure that we hear voices that want to participate in this,” Dean said. 

    The two proposed downtown zoning districts presented by City Planner Bill Dean.