Title
Amending Chapter 65 of the Legislative Code by adding a new section defining a Hotel.
Body
WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Saint Paul, in Council Resolution No. 19-41, previously found that while the City’s zoning code stated that a “hotel” was a principal use permitted in several of the City’s zoning districts, that the zoning code also lacked a definition of a hotel, and lacked standards applicable to a hotel for any of the zoning districts in which a hotel was a permitted use; and
WHEREAS, the Council further found that although the City’s licensing code defined a “hotel” at Leg. Code § 407.02, the Council noted that this license code definition was no longer useful because the City’s licensing authority to regulate hotels has been assumed by the State of Minnesota; and
WHEREAS, in light of the findings noted above, the Council further found that the range of zoning districts in which a hotel was classified as a permitted use, the zoning code’s lack of a definition or any standards applicable to a hotel, the City’s lack of licensing authority over a hotel, and recent amendments to the zoning code which have resulted in the expansion of permitted commercial lodging uses in the City, necessitated a reexamination of the regulation of hotels under the zoning code; 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; and
WHEREAS, Council Resolution No. 19-41 requested the planning commission to study the zoning code’s present regulation of hotels and to prepare a report and a recommendation whether to amend the City’s zoning code regulations for hotels based upon that study; and
WHEREAS, the planning commission was duly informed of the Council’s hotel study request under Council Resolution No. 19-41; and
WHEREAS, in consultation with planning commission staff, it was then determined that the Council’s hotel study request would be added to the commission’s current list of outstanding zoning study requests in order to allow the commission to undertake a thorough study of zoning code standards and regulations for hotels and to complete such a report on the same by a date yet to be determined but certainly after the sixty-day period provided for preparing reports on proposed zoning amendments not initiated by the planning commission under Minn. Stat. § 462.357, Subd.4; and
WHEREAS, pending the completion of such a report by the commission and any recommendation to amend the zoning code as it pertains to the regulation of hotels based upon the commission’s report, it was further determined, in consultation with planning staff, that the zoning code should be amended, in the interests of the health, welfare, and safety of the public, by enacting a zoning code definition for a “hotel” and applying it to present uses pending the completion of a formal zoning study and report on the matter as requested by the Council in Council Resolution No. 19-41; NOW,
THEREFORE, based upon the findings as set forth above and in Council Resolution No. 19-41 which are incorporated herein by reference as a statement of the Council’s rationale and intent for enacting the following ordinance amendment, enacted in the interests of the health, welfare, and safety of the public;
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAINT PAUL DOES ORDAIN
Section 1.
That a new section is hereby added to the Legislative Code to be numbered § 65.648, to be entitled “Hotel,” and to read as follows:
Sec. 65.648. Hotel. A commercial establishment offering to the public daily, five (5) or more individual sleeping room accommodations available for reservation on a walk-in basis, with a resident proprietor or on-site manager, an identifiable main entrance and lobby, a staffed desk or office for the registration of guests, staff to provide daily housekeeping services, and exterior signage identifying the establishment as a hotel.
Section 2.
This amendment shall become effective thirty (30) days after passage, approval, and publication once in the official newspaper of the City.