The Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission has approved changes to the city’s site plan requirements for construction and renovation projects that officials say disproportionately affect small businesses and property owners.

The Plan and Zoning Commission approved the changes at its meeting on April 3. The amendment will go before the City Council for a public hearing on May 5. City staff will ask the council to waive the second and third readings of the ordinance. If the additional hearings on the amended ordinance aren’t waived, subsequent votes would be scheduled for May 19 and June 9.

Site plans are required for new development and for changes to an existing site through renovation, when a building’s use changes, or if a site remains vacant for more than six months.

Jason Van Essen, planning and urban design administrator for the city’s development services division, said the proposed changes are the result of a combination of the ongoing review of city codes and input from the public.

“We’re always looking at our processes and our codes and making sure they are relevant and trying to find that balance between the goals the city has,” he said. “Sometimes goals don’t line up perfectly. What drove us to look at these changes is how these requirements impact small business and small property owners. The expense associated with [the site plan process] when you’re making improvements with a smaller budget, it’s a higher percentage of your project. These changes are really to address that concern that we’re disproportionately impacting small businesses and property owners with these processes and standards.”

Van Essen said city staff members have been in talks with developers and small business owners but also receiving input council members hear from the public.

“We took that as a staff and looked at how can we make some changes that make sense and achieve what we’re hearing and see imbalance?” he said. “It’s a mixture of community feedback and our own observation.”

The proposed changes include:

1. Eliminating the requirement that a site plan be brought into compliance with current code requirements after being vacant for six months.

2. Establishing classification groups for building use to allow changes within a category without a requirement to bring the site into compliance with city code and without having to make site improvements.

3. Establishing a $500,000 minimum for cumulative improvements before site plan requirements are triggered. There is currently no minimum value and site plans are required when improvements hit 50% of a property’s assessed value. The changes allow more improvements to be made to smaller properties with lower assessed values.

Van Essen said the changes are intended to “make it easier for people to manage their properties while balancing that with the need to foster investment into these properties.”

The changes should make it easier for small business and property owners to navigate the site plan process, he said.

“It might even exclude them.”