(1)   Amendments.

(a)   Authority.  The city council may amend this Article by changing the boundaries of districts or by changing any other provision thereof whenever the public necessity and convenience and general welfare require such amendment in accordance with procedure outlined in this Article.

(b)   Application:  Who May Initiate Action.  Amendment may be initiated by the city council, or the Planning Commission. If such proposed amendment is not a general revision of the existing regulations and affects specific property, the amendment may be initiated by application of the owner of property affected. Any such application for amendment, if in accordance with the land use element of the Eudora comprehensive plan, shall be presumed to be reasonable.  The application shall be filed with the city clerk on a form provided therefore.

(2)   Application Fee: Each application by a property owner shall be accompanied by a review fee per building site as set forth in the City’s pass-through fee ordinance (Ordinance #831).

(a)   For each zoning classification change sought, no part of the application fee shall be returnable to the applicant.

(b)   Accompanying Data.  An application for an amendment shall be accompanied by drawings and any data necessary to demonstrate that the proposed amendment is in general conformance with the Eudora comprehensive plan and that public necessity, convenience, and general welfare require the adoption of the proposed amendment. Each application for an amendment to the zoning districts map shall be accompanied by a current certified list of the names and mailing addresses of all property owners within 200 feet of the exterior boundaries of the area proposed to be altered. If the property subject to the proposed zoning amendment is located adjacent to or outside the city's limits, the current certified list shall contain the names and addresses of all property owners within 1,000 feet of the exterior boundaries of the area proposed to be altered.

(3)   Procedure for Public Hearing and Notice. All applications for an amendment to the zoning laws shall first be submitted to the Planning Commission for recommendation and report. Upon the development of tentative recommendations, the Planning Commission shall hold a public hearing thereon and shall cause an accurate general written summary to be made of the proceedings thereof.

(a)   Notice of Public Hearing. The secretary of the Planning Commission shall cause a notice of such public hearing to be published at least once in the official newspaper of the city no less than 20 days prior to the date of the public hearing. Such notice shall fix the time and place for such hearing and shall contain a statement regarding the proposed changes in regulations or restrictions or in the boundary or classification of any zone or district. If any such proposed amendment is not a general revision of the existing regulations and affects specific property, the property shall be described by legal description and general street location. In addition to the public hearing notice, a written notice of such proposed change shall be mailed to all the owners of lands located within 200 feet of the area proposed to be altered as such owners are listed on the current certified list accompanying the application. If the property subject to zoning amendment is located adjacent to or outside the city's limits, the area of notification shall extend to at least 1,000 feet in the unincorporated area. All notices shall include a statement that a complete legal description is available for public inspection and shall indicate where such information is available. When the notice has been properly addressed and deposited in the mail, failure of a party to receive such notice shall not invalidate any subsequent action taken by the Planning Commission or city council. Such notice is sufficient to permit the Planning Commission to recommend amendments to zoning regulations which affect only a portion of the land described in the notice or which give all or any part of the land described a zoning classification of lesser change than that set forth in the notice.

(4)   Table of Lesser Change. The following table is for the use of the Planning Commission in determining when republication of an application for zoning district amendment is required. This Table of Lesser Change lists zoning classifications in ascending order, from the least intense zoning district to the most intense zoning district. The Planning Commissioner may modify, at its discretion, an application for zoning district amendment to a particular district by recommending a zoning district amendment to a district of lesser intensity, as determined by the Table of Lesser change.

(5)   Planning Commission Action. At the public hearing held to consider a proposed zoning district amendment, an opportunity shall be granted to interested parties to be heard. At the conclusion of the public hearing the Planning Commission shall prepare its recommendations and shall, by an affirmative vote of a majority of the full membership of the commission, either recommend adoption or denial of the proposed amendment, supplement, or change. Such adoption may be adopted with conditions attached to the approval. If the Planning Commission fails to make a recommendation on a zoning district amendment request, the Planning Commission shall be deemed to have made a recommendation of disapproval. Such recommendation, along with an accurate written summary of the hearing thereon, shall be submitted.

(6)   Matters to be Considered. In order to recommend approval or disapproval of a proposed zoning district amendment, the Planning Commission shall determine whether the application is found to be generally compatible with surrounding development and suitable for development in the proposed district based upon the following matters to be considered:

(a)   Character of the neighborhood.

(b)   Consistency with the compre¬hensive plan and ordinances of the City.

(c)   Adequacy of public utilities and other needed public services.

(d)   Suitability of the uses to which the property has been restricted under its existing zoning.

(e)   Length of time property has remained vacant as zoned.

(f)    Compatibility of the proposed district classification with nearby properties.

(g)   The extent to which the zoning amendment may detrimentally affect nearby property.

(h)   Whether the proposed amend¬ment provides a dispropor¬tionately great loss to the individual land owners nearby relative to the public gain.

(7)   Action of City Council on Planning Commission Recommendation. When the Planning Commission submits a recommendation for approval or disapproval of such amendment and the reasons therefore, the city council may:

(a)   Adopt such recommendation by ordinance with or without conditions attached to the approval;

(b)   Override the Planning Commission's recommendation by a 2/3 majority vote of the membership of the city council; or

(c)   Return such recommendation to the Planning Commission with a statement specifying the basis for the city council's failure to approve or disapprove. If the city council returns the Planning Commission's recommendation, the Planning Commission, after considering the same, may resubmit its original recommendation giving the reasons therefore or submit new and amended recommendation. Upon the receipt of such recommendation, the city council, by a simple majority thereof, may adopt or may revise or amend and adopt such recommendation by the respective ordinance or resolution, or it need take no further action thereon. If the Planning Commission fails to deliver its recommendation to the city council following the Planning Commission's next regular meeting after receipt of the city council report, the city council shall consider such course of inaction on the part of the Planning Commission as a resubmission of the original recommendation and proceed accordingly. The proposed zoning district amendment shall become effective upon publication of the respective adopting ordinance or resolution.

(8)   If such amendment affects the boundaries of any zone or district, the ordinance shall describe the boundaries as amended, or if provision is made for the fixing of the same upon an official map which has been incorporated by reference, the amending ordinance shall define the change or the boundary as amended, shall order the official map to be changed to reflect such amendment, shall amend the section of the ordinance incorporating the same and shall reincorporate such map as amended.

(9)   City Council Vote Under Protest. Regardless of whether or not the Planning Commission approves or disapproves a zoning amendment, if a protest petition against such amendment is filed in the office of the city clerk within 14 days after the date of the conclusion of the public hearing pursuant to the publication notice, signed and acknowledged by the owners of record of 20 percent or more of any real property proposed to be rezoned or by the owners of record of 20 percent or more of the total area required to be notified by this act of the proposed zoning district amendment of a specific property, excluding streets and public ways, the ordinance or resolution adopting such amendment shall not be passed except by at least a 3/4 vote of all of the members of the Governing Body.

(10) Time of Performance in Rezoning:

(a)   In cases where the Planning Commission and governing body deem that time of development is a critical factor in protecting the public welfare in a zoning district amendment action, a time of performance may be included in the zoning district amendment ordinance. Such time allowed for performance shall be reasonable. Such time shall be not less than five years from the date of publication of the zoning district amendment ordinance for all zoning district amendments in RS districts and not less than two years from the date of publication of the zoning district amendment ordinance for all other zoning districts in the city. Such ordinance shall clearly state what constitutes performance in each case.

(b)   The Planning Commission and governing body may publish notice and conduct a public hearing for purposes of determining whether or not a change in zoning district would, at any time, be in the public interest. The owner of the property in question shall be notified by registered mail of the proposed hearing not less than 20 days prior to the date of the hearing. Other notification and posting as required in this section shall be performed by the city and all proceedings shall be the same as for other zoning district amendment actions.

(c)   It shall be the purpose of this hearing to hear the owner and other interested parties and make a determination as to which of the following actions would be recommended to the governing body:

(I)    Extend the time of performance to a specified date;

(II)   Remove the time of performance section from that zoning district amendment ordinance;

(III) Rezone the land to another specific district. After the hearing the Planning Commission shall forward its recommendations to the governing body. The governing body will then act to approve or disapprove the recommended action, consistent with this Section.

Enforcement Officer. It shall be the duty of the Codes Administrator to enforce this Article through proper administrative channels and to refuse to issue any building or occupancy permit for any building or structure or the use of any premises which would violate any of the provisions hereof. Appeal from the decision of the Codes Administrator, or other designated officer, may be made to the board of zoning appeals as previously provided herein.

(1)   Pursuant to the authority of K.S.A. 12-761:

(a)   Any person, firm, or corporation who shall violate any of the provisions of this Article or fail to comply with any order or regulation, or who shall build in violation of any specifications of plans submitted and approved, or any certificate or permit issued thereunder, shall, for each and every violation and noncompliance respectively, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction therefore shall be fined in a sum not to exceed $500 for each offense or by imprisonment for not more than six months for each offense or by both such fine and imprisonment.  Each and every day a violation is permitted to exist shall be deemed a separate offense.

(b)   The City of Eudora shall have the authority to maintain suits or actions in any court of competent jurisdiction to enforce the adopted zoning regulations and to abate nuisances maintained in violation thereof. Whenever any building or structure is or is proposed to be erected, constructed, altered, converted or maintained or any building, structure or land is or is proposed to be, used in violation of any zoning regulations, the City, in addition to other remedies, may institute injunction, mandamus, or other appropriate action or proceeding to prevent such unlawful erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, conversion, maintenance or use or to correct or abate such violation or to prevent the occupancy of such building, structure or land.

This Article shall be enforced by the Codes Administrator.  It shall be a violation of this Article for any person to change or permit change in the use of land or buildings or structures or to erect, alter, move, or improve any building or structure until a building permit or certificate of occupancy has been obtained under the following conditions:

(1)   Building Permits.  The cost of all building permits issued by the city shall be the costs of building permits as set forth in the city’s building code, current edition.  The Codes Administrator will require every applicant for a building permit to furnished the plan information:

(a)   A plot plan, drawn to scale, showing the exact size, shape, and dimensions of the lot to be built upon, the exact size and location on the lot of all existing buildings and structures, and the exact size and location on the lot of the structure or building proposed to be repaired, altered, erected, or moved, and the size, arrangement, number of parking stalls, movement of vehicles and ingress and egress drives for all off-street parking and loading facilities.

(b)   A declaration of the existing and intended use of each existing and proposed building or structure on the lot and the number of families and housekeeping units which each existing building accommodates and which each existing proposed building is designed to accommodate. 

(2)   Additional information relating to the proposed improvement needed to determine compliance with these regulations. 

(a)   A survey prepared by an engineer or land surveyor registered in the State of Kansas of the boundaries of the lot on which the improvement is proposed to be located with each corner of the lot pinned. 

(3)   Certificate of Occupancy:  No change shall be made in the use of any land or building or structure after the passage of this Article until a certificate of occupancy is obtained from the Codes Administrator certifying that all of the provisions of this Article are complied with.  Whenever a building permit is issued for the erection of a new building or structure, an occupancy permit shall be required.

(1)   No applications for an amendment, supplement, change or zoning district amendment by a landowner shall be accepted by the Planning Commission if any application for substantially the same zoning amendment has been either:

(a)   Denied by the city council within the preceding 12 months; or

(b)   Withdrawn after is has been advertised for public hearing within the preceding 12 months.  The preceding 12 month period shall commence from either the date of final action on the prior application or from the date the application was withdrawn.

(2)   The Planning Commission may waive the limitation in this section for good cause if there is a substantial change in the original application.  All requests for an exemption from this section shall be submitted to the Planning Commission five days prior to a regularly scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission and shall be included on the agenda for that meeting as an agenda item.  If the Planning Commission determines that the application constitutes a substantial change from the original application the item will be advertised and public hearing will be held at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission.

Should any article, section, subsection, paragraph, clause or provisions of this Article be declared by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, the same shall not affect the validity of the article as a whole or any part thereof, other than the part so declared to be invalid or unconstitutional. The city council hereby declares that it would have passed each section, subsection, paragraph, sentence, clause and phrase thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, or phrases be declared invalid.

No change of the land surface, including removing vegetative cover, excavation, filling, grading, and the construction of any structure shall be allowed without receipt of a Land Disturbance or Grading Permit from the Codes Administrator.  Such change shall include removing vegetation cover, excavating, filling, and grading; except that, it shall not include agricultural activities such as planting, growing, cultivating, and harvesting of crops; growing and tending of gardens; harvesting of trees; and landscape modifications.