A. Approval Of Plats: When required by title 11, chapter 3 of this Code, all plans, plats or replats of subdivisions of land embraced in Mason City or within the City's extraterritorial jurisdiction, laid out in lots or plats with the streets, alleys or other portions of the same intended to be dedicated to the public, shall first be submitted to the City Planning and Zoning Commission, and its recommendation obtained before action by the City Council.
B. Approval Of Street Or Park Improvement: No plan for any street, park, parkway, boulevard, trafficway, river front or other public improvement affecting the City plan shall be finally approved, or the character or location thereof determined, unless such proposal shall first have been submitted to the City Planning and Zoning Commission. Such requirements for recommendations shall not act as a stay upon action where the commission, after thirty (30) days' written notice requesting such recommendations, has failed to file the same.
C. Recommendations To Improvements: No statuary, memorial or work of art in a public place, and no public building, public structure or appurtenance shall be located or erected or a site for such structure obtained until and unless the design and proposed location of such structure be submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission for its recommendation. No permits for such structures shall be issued without the commission having made the above recommendation. However, such requirements for recommendations shall not act as a stay upon action where the commission, after thirty (30) days' written notice requesting such recommendations, has failed to file the same.
D. Comprehensive Plan: The City Planning and Zoning Commission shall have full power and authority to make or cause to be made such surveys, studies, maps, plans or charts of the City limits which, in the opinion of the commission, bears relation to a comprehensive plan. It shall bring its studies and recommendations to the attention of the Council, and the commission may publish said studies and recommendations.
1. For the purpose of making a Comprehensive Plan for the physical development of the City, the commission shall make careful and comprehensive studies of present conditions and future growth of the City with due regard to its relation to neighboring territory. The plan shall be made with the general purposes of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the City and its environs which will, in accordance with present and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience and economy in the process of development.
2. The plan shall be made with consideration of the smart planning principles in section 18B.1, Iowa Code, and may include the information specified in section 18B.2, subsection 2, Iowa Code.
3. Before the adoption of said Comprehensive Plan, or any part of it, or any substantial amendment to it, the commission shall hold at least one (1) public hearing. Legal notice of such hearing will be given by one (1) publication not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty (20) days before the date of the hearing. The adoption of the plan, or part, or amendment, shall require a vote of not less than two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the commission.
4. After adoption of said plan or amendment of the same by the commission, the plan shall be forwarded for approval by the Council. If the commission disapproves the proposed plan or amendment thereof, it may be adopted by the Council with an affirmative vote of three-fourths (3/4) of the total membership of the Council.
5. When said plan, or any modification or amendment, shall receive the approval of the council, the said plan shall constitute the official City plan of the City of Mason City until subsequently modified or amended. (Ord. 1355, 5-3-1976; amd. 2017 Code)