Clovis Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting - March 11, 2026
Clovis Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting - March 11, 2026
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 PM with roll call. Commissioners present: London, Garza, Moore, Klein, Gherkey, and Martin (arrived later). Commissioner Sowell was absent. The meeting covered approval of the agenda and minutes, a detailed discussion and vote on short-term rental regulations, and three conditional use requests.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the agenda (motion by Commissioner London, second by Commissioner Moore, passed unanimously).
- Approval of the minutes from February 11, 2026 (motion by Commissioner London, second by Commissioner Moore, passed unanimously).
Discussion Items
- Short-Term Rental Ordinance Options: City staff presented two draft ordinances for regulating short-term rentals (STRs): a permit option and a conditional use option. Both adopt the state definition of STR as a rental of 29 consecutive days or less. The permit option would allow STRs as a permitted use with a one-year permit, subject to rules (occupancy limit of two persons per bedroom excluding children under 15, quiet hours from 10 PM to 9 AM, cleaning requirements, fire extinguishers, 24-hour contact, etc.) and no neighbor input. The conditional use option would require a conditional use application, but if no neighbor objects within 15 days of mailing notice, it proceeds administratively without a hearing. Staff noted that both options include similar regulations and a termination process for violations. Commissioner Sowell (absent) requested that parking restrictions be added and preferred the conditional use option. Discussion included potential parking limits (e.g., one vehicle per bedroom, max three) and the importance of neighbor input. The commission voted to proceed with the permit option (6 yes, 0 no). The ordinance will be introduced at the next City Commission meeting, with final adoption 30 days later.
New Business - Conditional Use Approvals
- 148 Park Drive – Short-Term Rental: Request for conditional use to operate an STR at 148 Park Drive. Approved unanimously.
- 1001 Moore Street – Group Child Care Home: Request to expand from a family child care home (1-6 children) to a group child care home (7-12 children). Staff noted no negative comments from neighbors. Commissioner Martin asked about the definition of child; staff stated it follows state definitions (under 18). Approved unanimously.
- Pheasant Run Subdivision Replat – Blocks 2 and 4: Request to vacate road right-of-way and combine lots into one lot for a future church. No protests from neighbors. Approved unanimously.
Other Business
- Commissioner Martin's Questions: Commissioner Martin raised two issues from a recent training webinar. First, he asked about using a personal email for city business, noting that it could expose his business email to public records requests (IPRA). The city attorney explained that emails about public business are subject to IPRA, but using a separate city-issued email would allow IT to search internally. Commissioner Martin indicated he might set up a dedicated Gmail account. Second, he asked about site visits by commissioners. The attorney advised that while not prohibited, site visits may violate the spirit of the Open Meetings Act by creating an imbalance of information; he recommended refraining. Commissioner Martin acknowledged the value of site visits but accepted the advice.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous approval of all consent items and conditional use requests.
- Motion to adopt the permit option for short-term rentals (6-0).
- Ordinance to be introduced at the next City Commission meeting, with final adoption 30 days later.
- Meeting adjourned at 3:41 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Let's get going. It's uh three o'clock. Miss Foster, please do roll call. Commissioner London. Present. Commissioner Sowell. Sorry. Commissioner Garza. Here. Commissioner Moore. Commissioner Klein. Could you say more? Here. So I've got Commissioner Moore as here. Commissioner Klein. Here. Commissioner Martin. Commissioner Gurke. Here. Okay, first thing approval of the agenda. Do agendas in front of us. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion for approval by Commissioner London. Second by Commissioner Moore. Approval of minutes from February eleventh, two thousand twenty-six. Second. Second by Commissioner Moore. All those in favor. So uh this has been a little bit of a process incoming. I know you've been waiting for it, and I'm hoping you had a chance to read my email and the attachments I sent uh a week or two ago with some sample ordinances and if you needed to to look at some other ordinances as well. But um after some initial feedback and some review, I put together two kind of alternative proposals for you guys. They're both contained in ordinance form and require the or and contain the necessary and required revisions to the code to accomplish what we're trying to do. As you all know, there they're currently short-term rentals are approved through a conditional use application. And so I'll start by talking about the permit option ordinance and how that works and how it differs from what we're currently doing. So to begin, it would uh it would change the definition of short-term rentals. We've adopted the state statute and both the ordinances read the same in a lot of ways that I'll explain in a second. But uh one way is that they both adopt the state statute definition for short-term rental, and it's short, so I'll read it to you. Uh it's the use of a residential dwelling unit or a portion thereof for lodging whenever such dwelling unit is rented for 29 calendar days or less. So with the permit option, what we would do is we would start with the UDO, we'd start with the table of allowed uses. We would replace uh under the short-term rental classification, we would replace conditional use with permitted, and then we would have a permit application. Uh we would also require a business registration for anyone that wants to operate a short-term rental. We're going to do a separate ordinance that I have a copy if you'd like to see that amends our lodgers tax code in chapter three. It's not really within the P and Z's purview because it doesn't deal with the UDO, but uh regardless of which option you choose, we'll be amending the lodgers tax portion of our ordinance to include short-term rentals. So it references that. And you would essentially just pay an application for a permit fee. I'm sorry, you would essentially just make an application for a permit. There would be a permit uh fee associated with that. Uh the permit itself would require certain information you can see on the ordinance, of course, name and address of the property owner, uh 24 hour contact for anyone in charge of the short-term rental, uh, a floor plan so we know how many bedrooms there are, and then of course the fee. Uh the permit duration would be for one year.
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