Panama City holds first reading for Gateway Overlay changes after residents warn of neighborhood impacts

The Panama City Commission opened the first of two readings Dec. 16 on ordinance 32‑94, a proposed amendment that would permit a set of conditional uses inside the city’s Gateway Overlay with specific compatibility and distance standards.

Staff described the Gateway Overlay as an additional set of standards applied along major thoroughfares (including U.S. 98/Business 98, MLK Boulevard, Harrison Avenue and portions of 11th Street) intended to guide the appearance and allowable uses along commercial corridors. The proposed ordinance would make 15 currently prohibited uses — including payday loan businesses, pawn shops, bail bond agencies, bottle clubs, stand‑alone car washes, vape shops, drive‑thrus and some pharmacies/dispensaries — eligible by conditional use permit subject to spacing, signage and design standards.

Public commenters said the proposal, if enacted without safeguards, risked excluding or displacing neighborhood businesses and African American entrepreneurship along MLK Boulevard and other corridors. Several residents requested clearer maps showing exactly which parcels would be included and repeated that overlay rules work in addition to underlying zoning, which would still need to change for many proposed uses.

Planning staff and legal counsel said the ordinance includes distance and compatibility tests (for example, conditional uses cannot be located within 300 feet of a similar use and must be compatible with adjacent land uses) and that rezonings would still be necessary where residential zoning conflicts exist.

The ordinance will return for a second reading at a later meeting; commissioners asked staff to provide clearer mapping and outreach materials in advance of the second hearing.

What’s next: Staff will prepare maps and clarify whether specific residential blocks fall within the overlay ahead of the ordinance’s second reading.