Inyo County Unincorporated, CA Zoning Ordinance

The highway services and tourist commercial or C-2 district is established to provide space for highway and tourist related enterprises adjacent to major routes of travel, so regulated as to prevent the impairment of safe and efficient movement of traffic and to encourage attractive development, compatible with adjacent residential land uses.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994)

The following principal uses are permitted in a C-2 district, when conducted entirely within a completely enclosed building:

Store for the sale at retail of books, confectionery, dairy products, drugs, flowers, food, gifts, stationery, toys or variety household goods, excluding secondhand stores;

Barbershop, beauty parlor;

Tailor, dressmaking or shoe repair shop;

Office, bank, rental agency;

Laundry, or dry-cleaning pick-up agency, self-service automatic laundry;

Eating establishment, including liquor;

Commercial recreation facility;

Social, cultural, religious or philanthropic institution;

Liquor stores;

Motel, motor hotel;

Automobile service station, including facilities for general repair or mechanical washing;

Parking lot, as determined by the planning department;

Sale at retail of new or used automotive vehicles, recreational vehicles or boats;

Single room occupancy units;

Transitional, supportive and group homes;

Low barrier navigation centers (in compliance with California Government Code Sections 65660-65668).

Mobile food facilities when operated in compliance with Chapter 18.61 and Title 7 of the Inyo County Code.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994; Ord. 1290 § 36, 2022; Ord. 1308, 8/20/2024)

The following are conditional uses in a C-2 district and shall be permitted only if approved by the planning commission:

Any of the uses permitted when combined with or involving any outdoor display of goods or outdoor business activity;

Plant nursery, greenhouse, garden supply store;

Drive-in or drive-through restaurant;

Establishment where liquor is sold for consumption on the premises;

Clinic, hospital, human or animal;

Mobilehome and trailer park (subject to state law);

Warehouses and storage facilities;

Furniture store;

Truck stop;

Child care facility;

Combination signs, electronic signs, informational kiosks and directory boards, off-site directional signs, off-site advertising signs not exceeding fifty square feet in sign area, tall wall signs, and three-dimensional signs in compliance with the provisions of Chapter 18.75 and subject to the requirements of Sections 18.48.050 and 18.48.060;

Manufactured home sales displays;

Floor area ratio (FAR) increases;

Mixed use;

Multiple dwellings;

Public/quasi-public buildings and uses of recreational, religious, cultural or public service nature;

Commercial cannabis retailer and delivery, pursuant to commercial cannabis license classification 10;

Commercial cannabis distributor pursuant to commercial cannabis license classification 11;

Commercial cannabis microbusiness pursuant to commercial cannabis license classification 12 combining only some or all of those uses otherwise permitted by this section.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994; Ord. 1007 § 19, 1998; Ord. 1108 § 4, 2006; Ord. 1142 § 3, 2009; Ord. 1143 § 5, 2009; Ord. 1187 § 3, 2014; Ord. 1221 § 12, 2018)

In a C-2 district, a dwelling unit within a business building may be qualified as an accessory use if it is for occupancy by the owner or lessee of business premises therein, or by a caretaker or watchman, provided that a minimum fifty percent of the usable floor area is being utilized for the principal permitted use;

Emergency housing, in conformance with the policies stated in the housing element of the Inyo County general plan;

Signs and advertising for permitted, accessory or conditional uses in compliance with the provisions of Chapter 18.75 and subject to the requirements of Sections 18.48.050 and 18.48.060;

Outdoor seating when combined with or involving a permitted use.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994; Ord. 1007 § 20, 1998; Ord. 1281 § 3, 2022)

The minimum requirements for yards in a C-2 district shall be as follows:

Depth of front yard: twenty-five feet;

Depth of rear yard: zero (twenty feet if adjacent to an R district);

Side yards: zero.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994)

No building in a C-2 district shall have a height in excess of forty feet or three stories, or in excess of twenty feet when located within fifty feet of an R district.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994)

The minimum building site area or lot in the C-2 district shall be ten thousand square feet; the minimum width of a lot shall be seventy-five feet.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994)

One parking space shall be provided for each three hundred square feet of usable floor area, or as determined by the planning director.

(Ord. 943 § 4, 1994; Ord. 1143 § 6, 2009)

For properties with a General Plan Designation of Retail Commercial (RC), the allowable floor area ratio is forty percent without a conditional use permit and up to sixty percent with a conditional use permit.

(Ord. 1142 § 5, 2009)

Residential densities shall be 7.6 to twenty-four dwelling units per acre.

(Ord. 1143 § 7, 2009)