whats the process of zoning a residential property to commerical?

[Mike Carino]

I’ve recently came around a potential rental property in the local area of Sumner Washington. It is a private seller, that picked it up at a decent short sale price and realized the time and effort to get back to par does not fit his energy. My typical approach of investing is buy low with minimal fixing, and holding, in which I hold two in the area. So this is more going off an idea, and seeing what it actually takes to get into a different way of investing.
This residential property has kept my attention because of the land it sits on, and its location, which is on a corner of the main street and the freeway entrance. The 2 acre land itself outweighs the price for the asking price, but I have hardly any knowledge of steps to take if I wanted to commercial zone the property, or what zoning I would want if I wanted put another rental/building property on the land, or s subdividing the property, (fix and sell the house, keep the land in the back). I also don’t know what kind of trouble I could get into with a residents and the city.
Well what are some baby steps I can take before I can really take this into consideration? Who would I want to contact in the city that would help me out? Would a real estate attorney help big time in this case?
Would they want to know my plans with the land if I was to commercialize, or subdivide it?
This stuff may sound pretty elementary knowledge to most, so I apologize in advanced if there is a posting or link that can explains all this.
Thanks