After explosive summer, Cedar Rapids drafts rules to restrict fireworks sales

CEDAR RAPIDS - Officials in Cedar Rapids have hammered out rules that would drastically reduce where fireworks can be sold within city limits.

The move is a counterpunch after outcry that an experiment with legal fireworks in the city ran amok last summer.

The framework of the rules, which could be approved next month, limits sales to two classes of industrial zone districts - I-1 and I-2 - and specifically forbids sales in the urban core and within 450 feet of any residential zone. Sale locations also would be required to provide sufficient parking and meet all applicable building and fire codes.

'My guess is once this hits the paper there will be a lot of people scrambling to get the few good sites,” said Pat Shey, a City Council member who also served on the development committee.

Cedar Rapids was one the most popular locations in the state for fireworks vendors to get permits with more than 40 permitted to operate out of permanent or temporary structures, such as tents.

The development committee last week endorsed the changes that would come in the form of an amendment to the zoning code, but the plan still needs approval from the full City Council.

City Council members voted Tuesday to schedule a public hearing and the first of three votes on Nov. 14. The second and third votes likely will take place on Nov. 28.

Addressing where fireworks can be sold is part of a dual pronged approach to tamping down fireworks that infuriated residents in June and July. Public safety officials reported several fires, a handful of injuries, and hundreds of calls attributed to fireworks.

The measure on the table now would address where fireworks can be sold. The other part of the plan is to forbid consumer fireworks use in city limits. That also is slated to go to the City Council for approval in November.

The restrictions are a 180-degree reversal from a 5-2 City Council vote on May 26. At that time the city approved the most lax rules allowed under a newly adopted state law, which legalized consumer fireworks sales and use around Fourth of July and New Year's, from June 1 through July 8 and between Dec. 10 and Jan. 3.

Des Moines restricted fireworks sales to industrial zones, which has served as a model for the sales restriction proposal in Cedar Rapids.

'For the most part, the recommendation would move this away from busier corridors within the core of the community,” said Seth Gunnerson, a city planner, adding, 'It would require someone that has a large amount of parking lot or maybe a building with parking to accommodate that use.”

Unless Linn County takes action, use would still be allowed in the county, which is where vendors may turn. 'It sounds like it would push a lot of the sales out into the county,” said Scott Overland, a City Council and development committee member.

Les Beck, director of Linn County Planning & Development, said even if vendors look outside city limits, few commercial areas exist in the county for them to set up shop.

'If the effect of the city's new regulations would be to push sales outward, I would say that we have our procedures in place to deal with it, but there are probably not many rural locations where the zoning is in place to allow it,” Beck said in an email.

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