Property owners who have land in the northern part of Maple Valley will now have greater options for development.

At its March 26 meeting, the Maple Valley City Council approved two ordinances that amend Title 18 of the municipal code, creating a new service commercial zone.

According to Community Development Director Ty Peterson, the zoning change was originally brought up by the Hayes family, which owns the gravel pit located off of Witte Road Southeast, in late 2009.

The Hayes submitted an application for the zoning to be changed to community business. The Planning Commission deferred the application for a year before it made a recommendation to the City Council. Ultimately, the commission recommended that community business was not the ideal zoning for the area, but the Hayes had demonstrated that the current zoning would give them enough development options.

A service commercial zone, Peterson said, is more general and is designed for areas that are visually or geographically isolated from the main part of the city. Several examples include rental services, wholesale, warehousing, lumberyards, manufacturing, self-storage, brewery and hotels.

“There are no size limitations,” Peterson said. “You could put in a car lot, storage units. Those are the kinds of things that you could characterize as aesthetically intriguing. Before you were really restricted to light industrial office.”

City Manager David Johnston stated that the new zoning will allow the city to have a new “gateway.”

“It gives them some latitude with more permitted uses,” he said. “You’ll see that businesses that fall under that category kind of support a gateway type function. Even if it’s a nursery it’s an acceptable use. They tend to add to the gateway feel … and even some manufacturing is allowed if they meet certain design standards. This is the first step to help bring that into a reality.”

According to the city code, service commercial zoning is “best suited for areas where commute trips entering the City will not disrupt traffic on City streets for the most part. This area should be capable of being buffered from adjacent residential properties and characterized by features that can accommodate uses without adversely impacting surrounding residential areas.”