The laundromat problem: Yuma tries a small zoning fix for housing on commercial land

A recent request to the City of Yuma proposed 31 apartments on 3rd Avenue. The project included a 460-square-foot laundromat, open to the public.

That laundromat tells you something about Yuma's zoning code.

On General Commercial land, known as B-2, the code allows apartments through a conditional-use permit, as long as they're paired with a business. It never says how big the business has to be. According to the City's Planning staff, that pushes applicants toward small commercial pieces that might not make it on their own, just so the project qualifies.

The 3rd Avenue proposal is one of three examples staff cited from the past three years. Another was the Minkus Apartments on Castle Dome, with 120 units on 5.7 acres and a 1,850-square-foot office in a separate building. The third was the Arizona Avenue Apartments, with 15 units on about 23,000 square feet.

Staff cites these projects as examples of what the existing rules encourage, not as allegations of wrongdoing. The rules just ended up shaping buildings around a technicality rather than around what makes sense for the block.

The fix

A text amendment going to City Council on Wednesday, O2026-028, takes a different approach, at least in the older, built-up parts of town.

Under the proposed ordinance, apartments would become a permitted accessory use on B-2 properties inside Yuma's Infill Overlay District. That would remove this conditional-use permit requirement, while keeping the business as the main use of the property. Other development approvals and code requirements would still apply.

The apartments could be in the same building as the business or a separate one. Their floor area generally couldn't exceed 25 percent of the commercial use's floor area. That's 25 percent of the business's space, not the whole lot. A 10,000-square-foot shop could carry up to 2,500 square feet of apartments.

For mixed-use buildings with retail on the ground floor and homes upstairs, the Zoning Administrator could consider raising the residential share to 70 percent. The Planning Commission report says that would allow "shopkeeper units," or buildings up to three floors mixing businesses and apartments. It's the classic small-town main street arrangement, with the store downstairs and the owner living upstairs.

The ordinance doesn't clearly say what that 70 percent is measured against. If it works like the 25 percent rule, it's 70 percent of the commercial space. If it's 70 percent of the building, that's a very different project. Anyone thinking about building one would want to know.

New apartments would have to meet the City's high-density residential (R-3) standards and its parking rules.

The amendment also deletes the existing conditional-use option for apartments paired with businesses in B-2. The staff materials don't directly say what that means for B-2 properties outside the infill area.

There's a second, quieter piece too. The ordinance spells out how much housing is allowed when a Planned Unit Development overlay sits on certain nonresidential zones, tying it to the General Plan's High Density Residential designation. Staff describes it as filling a gap where the code didn't say. It doesn't give any particular property a set number of units.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval 4-0 on September 14, with one member absent and two seats vacant. Nobody from the public spoke. Wednesday is the introduction; adoption would typically come at the next regular meeting.

How much housing?

The City doesn't say, and to its credit, it doesn't pretend to know.

There's no map or list of eligible properties in the packet, no estimate of how many owners might use the new rule, and no forecast of units. The three apartment projects above were offered to show the problem. They aren't sites lined up to use this ordinance, and the packet doesn't say whether they'd even qualify.

Whether anything built under the new rule would be affordable to people who work in Yuma is a different question entirely, one that depends on land prices, construction costs and what owners decide to charge.

My read is that this is a sensible cleanup, not a housing breakthrough. It's called "adaptive reuse," but don't picture old office buildings turning into lofts all over town. With the 25 percent cap, commerce stays in charge. What the change offers is another route for housing alongside an established business, within those limits. If it works, you'll find out the simple way: someone will file an application under the new rules. That's the thing to look for a year from now.

Sources

• City of Yuma, O2026-028 legislation record and staff report: September 14 Planning and Zoning vote 4-0, one absent, two vacancies, no public comment
• City of Yuma, Proposed Ordinance O2026-028: accessory use, 25 and 70 percent provisions, R-3 standards, parking, deletion of B-2 conditional use, PUD density
• City of Yuma, Planning and Zoning Commission staff report, ZONE-45538-2026: three prior CUP requests; shopkeeper units; up to three floors