Morrison approves new land use rules, halting moratorium

The Morrison City Council has adopted what its members say is a more concise and transparent set of land-use regulations. The adoption also ends a three-month moratorium on new land-use applications that was established after public hearings on the Red Hotel revealed conflicts among the city’s zoning documents.

“It’s much more concise and internally consistent now,” said Katie Gill, a city trustee. “A lot of it was just tidying up. There were some repetitions and internal inconsistencies.”

These changes shortened Title 10 of the Municipal Code by approximately 200 pages, which was originally created in 1978 and has been amended numerous times over the years.

“We’ve rebuilt it from the ground up,” said city attorney Austin Flanagan. “We’re looking at it from a developer perspective.”

The new regulations divide the city into different zones and define permitted uses within those areas. They also include development standards and outline development review procedures.

Among the highlights: New regulations create a special zoning district for Morrison’s historic downtown, lower the maximum building height by four feet and require developers in the area to be more creative in their building designs. The changes are intended to allow for new development while maintaining some visual consistency with existing buildings.

It also changes the current designation of agricultural land to residential development areas in rural areas, eliminating restrictions on private property in these areas.

“Overall, we had to reassess some things,” Mayor Chris Wolfe said. “This is more clear and concise, and it’s long overdue. Times are changing, and we want to make sure we’re up to date.”

The newly adopted changes are not the final word on Morrison’s land use. Board members agreed that three months does not give them enough time to fully address issues in the outdated documents and said during their June 18 meeting that a second phase of changes will be coming. Those changes will take a closer look at subdivision standards, stormwater management and drainage, and building design in residential districts.

This phase will also consider limiting the number of hotels allowed in downtown Morrison. Board members suggested a maximum of two hotels during their June 18 meetings, but held off on making that part of the new regulations after hearing concerns from local property owners.

Gill said she would like to see no more than two hotels in the city centre, mainly because hotels do not provide a benefit to local residents.

“One thing we see every year in our resident survey is that we want more variety in restaurants,” she said. “I think two hotels are a good balance, so there will be other options for restaurants and shops that will benefit the people who live here.”

Hotel guests also need parking, of which there are few in the Morrison center, as well as plenty of water taps, she added.

Developer Ross Bradley, whose family owns several parcels of Morrison land through the Ross Lewis Trust, opposed the idea. The trust owns a 4.5-acre parcel just outside downtown Morrison, near the city’s post office, land that could accommodate a suitable parking lot for a future hotel.

Krista Nash, owner of the Morrison Mercantile building downtown, also opposed the proposed restriction.

“I would ask that this be considered on a case-by-case basis, rather than making a carte blanche decision that two hotels or 10 hotels would be a better option,” said Nash, who recently said she would likely redevelop her property if the Red Hotel project were approved.

Trustees agreed and said they would hold off on making a decision on hotel restrictions until Phase II of the land-use changes. No timetable has been set for when that will happen, though Gill said it would be a “longer, more detailed process” than Phase I.

“This time we really wanted to address the broader issues that came up with Red Hotel,” she said.

This includes requiring downtown developers to design buildings that are compatible with the development of downtown Morrison.

“You can’t just build a cube,” Gill said. “You have to have setbacks, vertical connections to reduce the mass of the building. This works to protect the historic character of the downtown and prevents new development from being incompatible with the surrounding development in a way that wasn’t possible under the old code.”

The regulations largely eliminate the city’s historic overlay district, which was not enforceable. Instead, they incorporate many of those recommendations into the new standards.

The newly adopted regulations also give the planning commission less power over zoning plans. The commission will now be able to recommend to the city council to approve or reject a zoning plan, but it does not allow the commission to approve or reject it on its own.

Jeff Bradley, patriarch of the Ross Lewis Trust, said he did not believe the new regulations would solve the city’s growth problems.

“The two big things are parking — which they clearly haven’t fixed — and height,” he said. “They changed (the maximum height) from 40 feet to 36 feet. Of those two major issues, they changed one by four feet and they didn’t change the other at all.”

The Red Hotel, approved by the city council in April, underwent 15 months of scrutiny and heated public debate. Although the design complied with city code, residents, the planning commission and the city council criticized the building’s size and its conformity. The developer changed its plans to reduce the building’s size, ultimately winning unanimous approval from the city council.

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