Update: I'd left off a few residential uses, notably the home occupations, so added them in.
I'll be taking a closer look at the Allowable Use Groups Chart, §501 of the draft Dryden zoning. Before I got too deep, though, I thought it might be interesting to get a broad (and not necessarily accurate) sense of how acceptable uses might be.
I turned the table into a spreadsheet, and removed headings and the Elder Hostel use, which is sort of not really governed by the table. Then, to establish a rough scale of how acceptable a use might be, I turned categories into numbers as follows:
| Category | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Permitted | 5 | Maximum value, of course! |
| Permitted on State and County Roads, Special Use Permit on Town Roads | 4 | Permitted many places! |
| Permitted on State and County Roads | 3 | Permitted many places, but not town roads |
| Permitted | 5 | Maximum value, of course! |
| Special Use Permit | 2 | Possible, but permit process discourages |
| Special Use Permit (LIO-A) | 1 | Possible, extra limited |
| X | 0 | Forbidden |
There's plenty of room to quibble with these, but I wanted the Special Use Permit to be a little less than half of "sure, go ahead!", the limited permit (adult uses) to be about half of that, and Forbidden to be zero. (Yes, use variances are possible, just not very likely.)
There are six basic zones - Rural Residential, Rural Agricultural, Conservation, Hamlet, Commercial, and Light Industrial Office, including LIO-A. (LIO-A is the area by 84 Lumber where Adult Uses are possible.) I counted them all the same for this rough calculation. That means the "most acceptable" score is 30, for uses permitted in all zone, and the lowest is 1, for a use only allowed in part of a zone.
The results, listed from most acceptable to least acceptable, and alphabetical when scores are the same, look like:
| USES | Total approval |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Use | 30 |
| Cemetery | 30 |
| Municipal use | 30 |
| Passive Recreation | 30 |
| Day care homes, Family | 25 |
| Day care, Family Group | 25 |
| Dwelling, accessory unit | 25 |
| Dwelling, single-family | 25 |
| Dwelling, two-family | 25 |
| Home Occupation, Level 1 | 25 |
| Workshop/Garage - Non-Commercial | 25 |
| Home Occupation, Level 2 | 19 |
| Artist Studio/ Craft Workshop | 18 |
| Manufactured Home | 17 |
| Agriculture-Related Enterprise | 13 |
| Day care center | 13 |
| Inn | 13 |
| Nursery/Greenhouse | 13 |
| Active Recreation | 12 |
| General Office Building | 12 |
| Industry, Light | 12 |
| Professional office | 12 |
| Public Safety | 12 |
| Public Utility | 12 |
| Religious institution | 12 |
| Retail business | 12 |
| Service business | 12 |
| Theater | 12 |
| Lodge or club | 11 |
| Bed-and Breakfast establishment | 10 |
| Bed-and-Breakfast home | 10 |
| Educational use | 10 |
| Recreational Facility, Athletic | 10 |
| Car Wash | 9 |
| Hotel / Motel | 9 |
| Restaurant | 9 |
| Automotive Repair Garage | 8 |
| Automotive Salvage | 8 |
| Automotive Towing Service | 8 |
| Maunfactured Home Park | 8 |
| Retreat or Conference Center | 8 |
| Senior Housing | 8 |
| Campground | 6 |
| Commercial Riding Facility | 6 |
| Contractor's yard | 6 |
| Gasoline station | 6 |
| Kennel | 6 |
| Warehouse | 5 |
| Automotive Sales | 4 |
| Boarding House | 4 |
| Congregate Care Facility | 4 |
| Drive-through facility | 4 |
| Dwelling, multi-family | 4 |
| Dwelling, upper-floor apartments | 4 |
| Library | 4 |
| Mining | 4 |
| Recreation Facility, Amusement | 4 |
| Recreational Facility, Motorized | 4 |
| Retail shopping centers / plazas | 4 |
| Self-storage | 4 |
| Industry/Manufacturing | 2 |
| Adult Use | 1 |
"Library" was the biggest surprise to me, at 4, but I'm sure other things will surprise other people. You're also welcome to download the spreadsheet and play with it yourself.
Posted by simon at July 23, 2010 4:54 PM in planning and zoning