Title
Requesting a Planning Commission study of the city's current zoning regulations for hotels, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 462.357, Subd. 4.
Body
WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Saint Paul finds that Chapter 66 of the City’s zoning code allows a “hotel” as a principal use permitted in the following zoning districts:
1. Traditional Neighborhood Districts or “T” districts: T2, T3, T4. Leg. Code § 66.321.
2. Business Districts or “B” districts: B3 (general business), B4 (central business), B5 (central business service). Leg. Code § 66.421.
3. Industrial Districts or “I” districts: IT (transitional Industrial), I1(light industrial), I2 (general industrial). Leg. Code § 66.521.
4. Ford Districts or “F” districts: F3 (residential mixed mid), F4 (residential mixed high), F5 business mixed), and F6 zoning districts (gateway). Leg. Code § 66.921, and
WHEREAS, the Council further finds that although a hotel is a permitted use in the zoning districts noted above, Chapter 65 of the zoning code lacks a definition of a hotel and similarly lacks any standards applicable to a hotel for any of the zoning districts in which a hotel is a permitted use; and
WHEREAS, the Council further finds that the while the City’s licensing code defines a “hotel” at Leg. Code § 407.02 this definition is no longer helpful because the City’s authority to license hotels and regulate hotels has been assumed by the State of Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, the Council further finds that the zoning code’s present lack of a definition or any standards for a hotel, given the diverse range of zoning districts in which hotels are allowed as a permitted use, the lack of licensing authority over hotels under the City’s licensing code, and recent amendments to the zoning code which have expanded the types of commercial lodging uses permitted in the City, necessitates a reexamination of the zoning code’s current regulation of hotels; and
WHEREAS, Minn. Stat. § 462.357, Subd.4 authorizes the Council to initiate a zoning code amendment and refer the amendment to the planning commission for a study of the amendment, to obtain from the commission a report on the proposed amendment, and to not act upon the amendment proposal until sixty (60) days have elapsed from the date of the referral without a report from the commission; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Council of the City Saint Paul, based upon the findings set forth above, hereby requests the planning commission, for the benefit of the health, welfare, and safety of the public, to study the zoning code’s present regulation of hotels and to prepare a report and a recommendation based upon the study, whether to amend the City’s zoning code regulations for hotels; and be it finally
RESOLVED, that the Council requests the planning commission, in preparing its report and recommendation, to consider the following hotel definitions:
Hotel: A commercial establishment offering the general public on a daily basis no less than five (5) individual sleeping room accommodations guest rooms available for reservation on a walk-in basis with a resident proprietor or on-site manager, and an identifiable main entrance with lobby, and a staffed desk or office for the registration of guests, and adequate staff to provide daily housekeeping services and exterior signage identifying the location as a hotel.
Hotel: An establishment with resident proprietor or manager, where, for payment, food and lodging are regularly furnished to transients, and which maintains for use of its guests not less than fifty (50) guest rooms, with bedding and other suitable and necessary furnishings in each room, and which has a main entrance with suitable lobby, desk and office for the registration of guests, on the ground floor, and which employs an adequate staff to provide suitable and usual service, and which maintains under the same management and control as the rest of the establishment and has, as an integral part thereof, a dining room with appropriate facilities for seating not less than thirty (30) guests at one (1) time where the general public is, in consideration of payment, served with meals at tables.