Combining (Overlay) Districts in Nevada City

In the Nevada City Code of Ordinances, "combining districts" serve as overlay zones that provide additional development standards and land use regulations. These designations are applied in conjunction with a base zoning district to achieve specific planning goals or to address unique conditions for a property [Section 17.68.010].

Multiple combining districts may be applied to a single base zoning district; for example, a property could be designated as "OP-HD-SC," indicating an Office and Professional base zone with the Historical District and Scenic Corridor overlay regulations [Section 17.68.010].

List of Combining (Overlay) Districts

The city code establishes several specific combining districts, each designed to mitigate land use impacts or protect specific community resources:

• HD - Historical Combining District: Established to protect areas of great historical interest and aesthetic value, particularly those symbolic of the city's mining town history. This district imposes strict controls on the alteration, demolition, and construction of buildings to ensure compatibility with "Mother Lode type of architecture" [Section 17.68.020, 17.68.070].
• SC - Scenic Corridor Combining District: Applied to land areas adjacent to roads and highways designated as scenic corridors in the General Plan. The primary purpose is to protect the essential character of the city—a compact town surrounded by wooded hills—by hiding development from view, preserving tree cover, and assuring visually pleasing corridors through design control [Section 17.68.200].
• PD - Planned Development Combining District: Intended to provide flexibility in the design of integrated developments in contexts where strict interpretation of standard district regulations might be impractical or undesirable. It encourages creative planning for a variety of housing or land uses [Section 17.68.230].
• MH - Mobile Homes Combining District: Provides specific development standards for mobile home parks to protect the health and safety of the community. These regulations supplement the California Health and Safety Code [Section 17.68.280].
• SP - Site Performance Combining District: Used to provide a greater level of mitigation for land use impacts than would be possible under the broad standards of the base zone alone. It allows for the attachment of conditions based on environmental review and is also used for the conditional approval of rezonings and prezonings [Section 17.68.300].
• PA - Development Agreement Combining District: An administrative designation used to indicate that a specific property is governed by a development agreement between the land owner and the city [Section 17.68.330].
• AN - Annexation Combining District: An administrative designation applied to parcels annexed after April 24, 1985. It identifies lands affected by ordinances requiring the payment of development fees or other mitigation measures [Section 17.68.340].
• X - Excluding Subdivision Combining District: Prohibits further land division for parcels where this overlay is applied. It is used as a tool to permanently freeze parcel sizes, for example, to cluster development on one portion of a large site while preserving the remainder as open space [Section 17.68.350].
• Minimum Lot Area Combining District: Allows for the increase of the minimum lot size requirement beyond that of the base zoning district. It provides flexibility in establishing density for future subdivisions without prohibiting existing lots [Section 17.68.370].

Sections Cited

• 17.68.010 - Purpose of combining districts
• 17.68.020 - Purpose (Historical District)
• 17.68.070 - Stylistic conformance of alteration or new construction (Historical District)
• 17.68.200 - Purpose (Scenic Corridor)
• 17.68.230 - Purpose (Planned Development)
• 17.68.280 - Purpose—Applicability of state provisions (Mobile Homes)
• 17.68.300 - Purpose (Site Performance)
• 17.68.330 - Purpose (Development Agreement)
• 17.68.340 - Purpose (Annexation)
• 17.68.350 - Purpose—Fees (Excluding Subdivision)
• 17.68.370 - Purpose (Minimum Lot Area)