The City Council may by ordinance on its own motion or on application amend, supplement, change, modify or repeal the boundaries or zoning designation of districts herein established under the procedures herein provided.

Applications for district changes shall be filed in writing with the City Clerk who shall place the application before the City Council after determining that it is the proper form as provided herein. All applications, except those proposed by the City Council or the City Planning and Zoning Commission, shall be accompanied by a publication fee in the amount of the cost of the publication, which will be returned only if such publication is not made. A copy of the application shall remain on file with the City Clerk for public inspection until final action thereon.

The City Council or the City Planning and Zoning Commission may provide forms for applications and may require applicants to provide plats and other documents or other information it may determine to be of value in acting upon the application. The Council and Planning and Zoning Commission may request the opinions and recommendations of other City Boards and officers upon applications.

Upon receipt of an application in proper form, the City Council, within forty-five (45) days, shall refer it to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The City Council may by resolution delegate the duty of such receipt and referral to the City Administrator. The Planning and Zoning Commission shall return the application to the City Council with its recommendations relating thereto and showing the number of votes for and against its action and may include a summary of the reasons expressed for and in opposition thereto. The City Council may set a date by which the recommendation shall be returned, no less than twenty (20) days from the date of such setting and the City Council may proceed without receipt of such recommendations in the absence of receipt by such date.

The City Council may reject an application without referring it to the Planning and Zoning Commission and without publishing a notice of hearing if the application is made within six (6) months of the Council's rejection of a previous application seeking an amendment for the same or a larger or smaller included tract.

If the Planning and Zoning Commission recommends approval of an application in whole or in part, the City Council shall set a public hearing as provided in this Article. If the Planning and Zoning Commission recommends rejection of an application in full, the City Council may set a public hearing as provided in this Article, upon its own motion or the City Council may by motion file such recommendation of rejection and the application shall thereupon be deemed rejected unless, within ten (10) days from such filing, the applicant files a written request with the City Clerk for a public hearing under this Article or makes an oral request therefore at a regular or special meeting of the City Council, whereupon the City Council shall set such a public hearing. If the City Council fails to approve an application in whole or in part within thirty-five (35) days after the public hearing, such application shall be deemed to have been rejected in full, unless the City Council shall have expressly extended such time period prior to the expiration thereof.

The City Council may by ordinance on its own motion or on application amend, supplement, change, modify or repeal the regulations or restrictions of districts herein established, following referral thereof to the Planning and Zoning Commission as provided in this Article.

No amendment, supplement or change of the regulations or restrictions or boundaries of districts shall become effective until after the City Council has held a public hearing in relation thereto, at which parties in interest and citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard. At least fifteen (15) days' notice of the time and place of such hearing shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the City. The City Council may provide for the posting of notices of the hearing on the tract and for other means of notifying the public or interested persons of the proceedings.

In case of an adverse report by the City Planning and Zoning Commission or if a protest against such proposed amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal shall be presented in writing to the City Clerk, duly signed and acknowledged by the owners of thirty percent (30%) or more, either of the area of the land (exclusive of streets, places and alleys) included within such proposed amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal or within an area determined by lines drawn parallel to and one hundred eighty-five (185) feet distant from the boundaries of the district proposed to be changed, such amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal shall not become effective except by the favorable vote of two-thirds (⅔) of the members of the City Council.

In its action upon an application for change in district boundaries, the City Council may grant a special use permit under Article VI "Special Use Regulations" of this Chapter rather than the requested change in district boundaries or may grant the change to a district which is intermediate in restrictiveness between the existing district and the requested district.