ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager and the Community Development Director with Recommendation to Adopt the Following:
A. An ORDINANCE Amending Appendix B, the Zoning Ordinance, of the CODE of the City of Peoria Relating to OPEN AIR CAF?S.
B. An ORDINANCE Amending Appendix C, the Land Development Code, of the CODE of the City of Peoria Relating to OPEN AIR CAF?S.
Body
BACKGROUND:
Staff is continually working to simplify zoning regulations and recommends the following changes relating to beer gardens and open air cafes:
1) Consistent terminology
Review of current regulations found discrepancies between the terms used for beer garden and open air caf?. Using the narrow term of beer garden does not describe all types of outdoor seating areas and automatically implies alcoholic beverages will be served, which requires site approval by the Liquor Commissioner after a hearing before the Liquor Commission. Staff proposes to delete the term "Beer Garden" and replace with "Open Air Caf?" to describe all outdoor seating areas. Whether the outdoor seating area serves alcohol is determined through the separate liquor license review process, which also has requirements for fencing the area and how the alcohol is served to the customer. This proposed change also eliminates overlapping review processes of the Planning & Zoning Commission and Liquor Commission.
2) Consistent regulation
Staff also found differences between the Zoning Ordinance and Land Development Code regulation of beer gardens. The following tables show that the Land Development Code allows beer gardens as a permitted use in CN Neighborhood Commercial, while the Zoning Ordinance requires a Special Use in the C1 General Commercial.
District
Zoning Ordinance
Beer Garden
C1 General Commercial
Special Use
C2 Large Scale Commercial
Permitted
District
Land Development Code Beer Garden
CN Neighborhood Commercial
Permitted
CG General Commercial
Permitted
...
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