Guides | Kai Bjarke

Residential-Office Zone

The Residential-Office (R-O) zone is intended to serve as a transition zone separating more intensive uses from single-family residential districts. This purpose is accomplished by:

1. Avoiding large scale low density sprawl; 2. Allowing a variety of housing types; 3. Providing for nonresidential uses that are compatible in scale and character with residential uses; 4. Reinforcing the character and walkability of streets within the zone; 5. Encouraging historic preservation and adaptive reuse of historic properties; and 6. Use of this zone is appropriate for areas designated as residential neighborhood, urban neighborhood, neighborhood mixed-use, community mixed-use, or neighborhood commercial in the comprehensive plan.

General Mixed-Use Zones Purpose

The general purposes of the mixed-use zones are as follows:

1. Fostering a development pattern offering direct, convenient pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular access between residences and businesses, in order to facilitate pedestrian and bicycle travel and reduce the number and length of automobile trips; 2. Encouraging new development that supports the safe and efficient movement of goods and people; 3. Providing for a compatible mix of multifamily housing and neighborhood commercial businesses and services, with an emphasis on promoting multistory structures with commercial uses on the ground floor and multifamily housing on upper floors; 4. Promoting a compact growth pattern to efficiently use the developable land, and to enable cost-effective extensions of utilities, services, and streets; frequent transit service; and to help sustain neighborhood businesses; 5. Fostering the development of mixed-use areas that are arranged, scaled, and designed to be compatible with surrounding land uses and which provide transitions between significantly different land use; and 6. Ensuring that buildings and other development components are arranged, designed, and oriented to facilitate pedestrian access.

Allowed Uses

RESIDENTIAL, GENERAL:
Dwelling, single-family
Dwelling, cottage
Dwelling, duplex
Dwelling, townhouse
Dwelling, multifamily
Dwelling, live-work ¹
Manufactured home park ²

GROUP RESIDENCES:
Boarding houses, lodging houses ²
Adult family home
Community residential facility ²
Senior citizen assisted housing
Transitional housing
Permanent supportive housing
Indoor emergency shelter ²
Indoor emergency housing ²

RESIDENTIAL ACCESSORY USES:
Accessory dwelling unit
Home occupations

TEMPORARY LODGING:
Bed and breakfast

RETAIL:
Automobile, EV charging station ³
Fruit stands
Restaurants
Coffee house, espresso bar
Retail, small scale (less than 2,000 SF floor area)
Regional retail commercial projects ⁴

PERSONAL AND GENERAL SERVICE:
Day care I facilities
Day care II facilities
Hospitals
Offices, medical
Nursing homes
Cannabis cooperative
Personal service establishments
Laundromats and dry cleaners
Places of assembly
Veterinary clinic ²

BUSINESS SERVICE:
Offices, business or professional, small scale (less than 2,000 SF floor area)

PARK, OPEN SPACE AND RECREATIONAL:
Recreation, indoor (commercial) ²
Recreation, small-scale indoor studios (commercial)
Parks and playgrounds (public or private) ⁵

CULTURAL AND ENTERTAINMENT:
Art, performing arts, and recording studios
Museums
Theaters

EDUCATIONAL:
Schools ²

GOVERNMENTAL:
Public agency or utility yard ⁶
Utility facility

RESOURCE:
Gardening or fruit raising (accessory use or noncommercial)
Small wind energy systems

Note 1: Nonresidential uses may be permitted within live-work dwellings subject to the permitted uses in the underlying zoning district.

Note 2: Subject to Conditional Use review procedures.

Note 3: Vehicle battery charging stations are permissible for the primary use of residents and their guests in all residential zones. Battery charging station clusters are permitted for multifamily uses located in the R-M and R-H zones.

Note 4: Regional retail is administered as an overlay zone pursuant to chapters 15.390 and 15.390A ECC, and only permitted within the designated boundaries identified in figure 15.390.040(A), the south interchange area, and figure 15.390.040(B), the west interchange area. Permitted uses and use restrictions within a regional retail commercial project are described in ECC 15.390.030. Design criteria for regional retail is governed by chapter 15.390A ECC.

Note 5: Lighting for structures and fields shall be directed away from residential areas through the use of exterior full cut-off shields or through optics within the fixture.

Note 6: Utility yards shall only be allowed on sites with utility district offices. Public agency yards are limited to material storage, vehicle maintenance, and equipment storage for road maintenance, facility maintenance, and parks facilities.

previous menu