40.260.190    Retirement Housing

A.    Purpose.

    The purpose of this section is:

1.    To provide opportunities for development of a variety of housing and residential types, in appropriate locations, to serve retirement age citizens, the fastest growing segment of the county’s population.

2.    To help ensure that retirement age residents have the opportunity to remain socially integrated, maintain mobility, have access to outdoor recreation, and to provide other features that will allow these citizens to continue to interact with the general population.

3.    To protect abutting and surrounding properties and neighborhoods by providing design and development standards that will mitigate potential off-site impacts of retirement housing developments.

B.    Applicability.

    The provisions of this section apply to adult family homes, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, as defined in Section 40.100.070. These provisions do not apply to independent living retirement communities, except to the extent that a retirement community includes adult family homes, assisted living facilities, or nursing homes, required by the state of Washington to be licensed. Furthermore, these provisions are not intended to prevent an assisted living facility from including independent living units.

C.    Adult family homes shall be allowed in all zones where single-family residences are permitted and in new or existing single-family or duplex dwellings, subject to building permit approval and inspection, and subject to the following:

1.    Commercial signs on the site related to the adult family home business are prohibited; and

2.    Off-street parking shall be provided on the site at a minimum of one (1) parking space per three (3) residents (including resident caretakers).

(Amended: Ord. 2011-03-09)

D.    Assisted living facilities shall be allowed in the multifamily residential, office residential, commercial, and mixed use zones, subject to site plan approval in accordance with Section 40.520.040, and subject to the following:

1.    Off-street parking spaces shall be provided on site in accordance with Section 40.340.010.

2.    Maximum building height shall be that of the underlying zone, except that the maximum height may be exceeded if the minimum setback of the higher portion of the building is increased at a one-to-one (1:1) ratio (excess height in feet: extra setback in feet).

3.    Assisted living facilities may exceed the maximum density standard of the underlying zone by up to fifty percent (50%) of the standard; provided, that in cases where the zoning density standard is exceeded, the property owner shall record a covenant in a form to be approved by the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney, that exclusively limits the use of the structure(s) to an assisted living facility.

4.    Assisted living facilities shall provide transportation services for residents unless a public transit stop is located within three hundred (300) feet from the facility’s primary entrance.

5.    Service commercial uses, such as barber shops, beauty salons, spas, pharmacies, and commissaries, sized to serve the assisted living facility, shall be allowed as part of the development; provided, as follows:

a.    The total floor area devoted to all service commercial uses shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the gross floor area of the assisted living development.

b.    The business customers shall be limited to the residents of the assisted living facility, except for incidental purchases by visitors of the facility. The business(es) shall not be open to the general public.

c.    No commercial signs visible from off-site shall be allowed.

d.    An assisted living facility within a mixed use development in the mixed use zone, or in a planned unit development, shall not be subject to the limitations in Section 40.260.190(D)(5)(a) through (c), but shall be subject to the applicable regulations of the mixed use zone or a planned unit development.

E.    Nursing homes, where allowed as a conditional use, shall be subject to the following:

1.    Off-street parking spaces shall be provided on site in accordance with Section 40.340.010.

2.    Maximum building height shall be that of the underlying zone; provided, that the maximum height may be exceeded if the minimum setback of the higher portion of the building is increased at a one-to-one (1:1) ratio (excess height in feet: extra setback in feet).

(Amended: Ord. 2010-08-06)