The Homer City Council introduced an ordinance at their last meeting on Feb. 24 that would amend Homer city code to allow studios in several additional zoning districts.

Ordinance 25-20, if passed, would include studios as a permitted use within the General Commercial 1, General Commercial 2 and Residential Office zoning districts.

The ordinance stems from a recommendation by the Homer Planning Commission to approve the amendment to Title 21, Homer’s zoning and planning code. The commission previously held a public hearing on the proposed amendment on Feb. 5 and passed their recommendation in a 4-1 vote.

The planning commission’s consideration of the code amendment was initiated by a request from local resident and Motivity Dance School owner Breezy Berryman, who was seeking a new location to establish a dance studio and having difficulty finding properties in the zoning districts that currently permit studios.

Council member Caroline Venuti expressed concern for possibly allowing studios in the residential office district, citing the potential for noise disturbances and lack of appropriate parking.

Council member Donna Aderhold said she’d had a similar question for City Planner Ryan Foster during the Committee of the Whole meeting, but that city code provides for such conditions.

“One of the things with these ordinances is that we don’t see all the code,” she said. “So there’s existing code that says, ‘Here are the things that you need to meet to be able to have ‘x’ in this district’ — so I think if we were to add studios, there are all these other things that they would have to meet, and parking would be one of them.”

Previous research by Foster noted that studios were a “good land use fit” for the residential office district and “should not have a negative impact, especially as compared to other use permitted in the district such as, professional offices and general business offices, personal services, mortuaries, or museums, libraries and similar institutions.”

“A studio is not a direct retail activity and would have low traffic generation, and would fit in with a similar size and density as other RO uses. A studio is a reasonable type of business to be expected in a mixed use district,” Foster wrote in a Feb. 5 staff report to the planning commission. “Zoning districts should include permitted uses that fit well with the purpose and character of the district, this will provide an opportunity for businesses to be located in the proper district in Homer.”

Find the ordinance and supplemental materials in full at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-327.

Ordinance 25-20 will come back to the council for review at their next regular meeting on Monday, March 10 at 6 p.m., held in-person in the Homer City Hall Cowles Council Chambers and over Zoom.