Allen City Council approved sweeping changes to its downtown district regulations on Aug. 26, removing 92 prohibited uses from the area’s permitted use schedule as part of broader land development code amendments.
The ordinance eliminates references to dozens of industrial and commercial uses never intended for downtown, including acid manufacturing, airports, auto repair shops, concrete batch plants, funeral homes, heavy machinery sales, oil and gas wells, sanitary landfills and warehouses. The change also removes adult bookstores, sexually oriented businesses and massage parlors from the downtown use table.
Several permitted downtown uses were renamed for consistency, including changing “Adult Day Care” to “Adult Day Care Facility,” “Assisted Living” to “Assisted Living Facility,” and “Church, Temple, Rectory, or Other Religious Facility” to “Church or Other Religious Facility.”…