Lakeville, MN Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

City Code section 11-63-3 ties every use allowed in the RH-CBD, High Density Residential-Central Business District zone to Downtown Lakeville's Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Development Guide: a permitted, conditional, interim or administrative-permit use listed in chapter 63 is only allowed if the specific parcel is guided for that use by those two planning documents. The section was added by an ordinance the council passed August 4, 2025, layered onto a district chapter first adopted by Ordinance 1047 on June 7, 2021. Chapter 63's purpose clause, section 11-63-1, explains why: the RH-CBD district exists to provide high-density housing in townhouse and multiple-family structures and directly related complementary uses within Downtown Lakeville, consistent with both the Comprehensive Plan and the Downtown Development Guide.

In practice, a developer proposing a townhome, multiple-family building, senior housing facility or a residential facility for sixteen or fewer persons, all listed as permitted under section 11-63-5, still has to clear the guide's site-specific direction before the Planning and Community Development Department will process the application. The same gate applies to accessory uses under section 11-63-7 and to any conditional, interim or administrative-permit use elsewhere in the chapter. Because the guide operates as an overlay filter rather than a stand-alone use list, city staff check it parcel by parcel against the Comprehensive Plan map rather than against a single citywide standard, so the RH-CBD district functions differently from Lakeville's other residential zones, where permitted uses are not conditioned on a separate downtown planning document.