North DSM News

The Polk City Council voted to approve the first reading of an amendment to zoning restrictions for residential areas about the size of structures permitted on residential properties within city limits.

The council met April 10 and heard from Travis Thornburgh, a Polk City engineer, who shared the amendment that was part of the planning and zoning commissions’ discussions over the past several months with the hope of clearing up inconsistencies with city codes, according to a video of the meeting posted to the council’s YouTube page.

Thornburgh also said he wanted to create clear regulations for the residential zoning districts and explained that the amendment restricts residential properties in the R1, R1a, and R2a districts, which are the single-family detached residential district; single-family residential district; one and two-family residential district; and townhome residential district.

The amendment would prohibit accessory buildings or structures above 30 feet, according to comments in the video. It would also require the total square footage of accessory buildings on a property to be no more than 4,000 square feet for all structures combined. That is about the size of nine standard two-car garages.

“It clarifies the maximum peak height as it is already being enforced,” Thornburgh said.

Thornburgh said this is in addition to the 30% restriction that already exists, meaning that any accessory building that is not part of an existing building cannot exceed a square footage of more than 30% of the required rear yard size and shall not exceed 60 feet of the average height.

This means, in a typical R1 lot of 10,000 square feet, the lot is still limited to 840 square feet of the accessory structure, Thornburgh said.

Some council members expressed concerns over the proposal. One asked if the city could differentiate between a pool barn and a garage, while another member asked for clarity regarding the height of multiple structures within city limits that people may live in.  

“We did survey the other communities in the metro that we compare ourselves to all the time from property taxes and all the other things,” said City Clerk, Jenny Coffin. “And there's no other community that I could find that prohibits the size of the building based on the size of the house type-wise. The only thing it does is base the size of the building on the size of the lot.”

The council approved the amendment; however, it will have to vote on the proposal at two more meetings, according to the video.