1.   The City Council may from time to time, on its own motion or on petition, amend, supplement, change, modify or repeal by ordinance the boundaries of districts or regulations, or restrictions herein established. Any proposed amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal shall first be submitted to the City Planning and Zoning Commission for its recommendations and report. If the City Planning and Zoning Commission makes no written report to the City Council within 30 days, it shall be considered to have made a report approving the proposed amendment, supplement, modifications or change. After the written recommendations and report of the City Planning and Zoning Commission have been filed, the City Council shall before enacting any proposed amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal, hold a public hearing in relation thereto, giving at least seven and no more than 20 days’ notice of the time and place of such hearing, which notice shall first be published in a newspaper having a general circulation in the City of Le Mars, Iowa. In addition thereto, the City Clerk shall send a copy of the proposed amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal by certified mail to the owners of the properties included in such proposed change and to those owners of properties immediately adjacent to the properties included in such proposed change extending the depth of one lot or not to exceed 200 feet therefrom and to those owners directly opposite thereto, extending the depth of one lot or not to exceed 200 feet from the street frontage of said property included in such proposed change to said opposite property. The mailings to the above said property owners shall be addressed as shown by the records of the Plymouth County, Iowa, Auditor, and they shall be placed by the City Clerk in a U.S. mail depository in Le Mars, Iowa, not less than seven and no more than 20 days before the above said public hearing. If a property is shown to be in the name more than one owner at the same mailing address, a single notice may be mailed addressed to all owners at that address. Failure to receive a mailed notice is not a defense to the proposed change.

If the City Planning and Zoning Commission recommends against, 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 20 percent or more, either of the area of the lot included in such proposed change, or of those immediately adjacent thereto extending the depth of one lot or not to exceed 200 feet therefrom or of those directly opposite thereto, extending the depth of one lot or not to exceed 200 feet from the street frontage of the property included in the proposed change to such opposite lots such amendment, supplement, change, modification or repeal shall not become effective except by the favorable vote of three-fourths of the members of the City Council.

2.   Before an action shall be taken as provided in this section, any private party or parties proposing a change in the zoning regulations or district boundaries shall deposit with the City Treasurer a sum set by Council resolution to cover the approximate cost of this procedure, and under no condition shall said sum or any part thereof be refunded for failure of said change to be adopted by the City Council.