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Rexburg, ID 83440 www.rexburg.org Fax: 208.359.3022
Rezone 19-00096
Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment — Public Facilities
1. February 27, 2019, Application was received for a Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment of
all government owned properties to Public Facilities.
2. February 28, 2019, Notice was sent to the paper to publish on Match 5' and March 19'.
3. March 21, 2019, the application was presented to the Planning & Zoning Commission.
IR6:35 P.M. - (#19 00096) amending the Comprehensive Plan Map from various
Government owned properties to Public Facilities (PF) in the City of Rexburg, Madison
County, Idaho as per requirements in the Rexburg Development Code. (action)
Staff Report: A new procedure has been suggested by Attorney Stephen Zollinger, which is
to have the Staff Report first, but when the applicant presents, it will be in the public input
portion of the hearing.
Chairman Rory Kunz opened the public input portion of the hearing at 6:36p.m.
Favor:
Applicant Presenter: Tawnya Grover — City of Rexburg Planning & Zoning
Administrative Assistant - Tonight the proposal is a change in the Comprehensive Plan
for all of the government owned properties in the City limits. If a property is owned by the
City of Rexburg, Madison County, or by the School District, those properties are being
changed. In total there are 150 properties. Initially, the City was starting with a rezone, but
Tawnya identified that many of the properties involved were not identified on the
Comprehensive Plan Map either. The Comprehensive Plan Map shows some of these
properties. The High School, an elementary school, and the airport were identified on the
map. The map was zoomed in to show the downtown. There were no Public Facilities
identified. There are several government-owned properties in the downtown, like the Fire
Department, the City Hall, the County Building, and a school building. Scott Johnson, our
Economic Developer, tells people all the time much of the land in the downtown is off the
tax rolls. But, if you are looking at our Comprehensive Plan Map, you don't see many
properties identified. A mixed message is being conveyed. One of the objectives the former
planner, Craig Rindlisbacher, had before he left was to change these properties to Public
Facilities to enable transparency. In addition, in the Public Facilities section on page 229,
section 9.03.010. in the purposes and objectives section it says,
`This Zone is intended to reduce the affect which the location of these facilities
may have upon Zoning statistics in residential, commercial, or industrial areas.
Typical uses will be allowed in other Zones to initially accommodate public
facilities in appropriate areas without undue difficulty, however, it is intended that
Page 1 of 5
The Public Fawd)ies done mould then be applied to all such faeilitzei for ease of
recognition and accurate statistical indexing. "
What this means is, these properties can start out in other zones, to enable the projects to
get started, and serve the smaller pieces of our community where they are needed, but then
they need to be changed over in time over to Public Facilities. We are using the zone, Public
Facilities, for its intended use. With this, came a few difficulties, some of these properties
owned by these government entities, were not identified or permitted in the Public Facilities'
use table. In the documents provided to the Commission, there was a document that
identified those changes; items were identified such as, the fairgrounds, the golf course,
sports fields, swimming pools, and theatres. Also, many of the city -owned properties have
items like lift stations on them to serve the population. These uses required conditional use
permits and now show a permitted status instead of requiring a conditional use permit.
These are those more minor utility uses. In addition, some of those properties are really,
really small, just enough to handle a lift station. This created problems with the lot width, lot
size, and lot frontage. These government entities do not need a lot of land to have the
facility or service in place. The city does not need to eat up a lot of land. An adjustment
was needed in the Development Code in the "lot area, lot width, and lot frontage" sections
of the Public Facilities zone.
Chairman Rory Kunz asked the Commissioners if they have any clarification questions for
the applicant.
Commissioner Darrik Farmer noticed on the public hearing notice the change identified
was to change the Comprehensive Plan Map and not the Development Code.
Tawnya answered, the Comprehensive Plan includes both the Comprehensive Plan Map
and the Ordinance. She believes this is why the notice was worded this way.
Commissioner Haley asked, as we are amending everything to change to Public Facilities,
how about in the future?
Tawnya answered, the property purchase will start out in the zoning in which it is currently,
then those properties will have to be rezoned to Public Facilities. There are a couple of sales
pending with the city right now.
Commissioner Haley is thinking about the water tank by his house right now. The city
would still have to rezone the property. The property would not automatically change to
Public Facilities upon purchase. Right now, this is a blanket change for every piece of
property these government entities own currently.
Tawnya responded, this is an attempt to catch the city up, show some transparency, and
allow anyone to see the government-owned property in the city. Today is the
Comprehensive Plan Map change being proposed, a rezone of these properties will also
come before the Planning & Zoning Commission as the next step.
Commissioner Kristi Anderson asked, under lot area, there was an "a" and "b", which
discussed an option for a caretaker dwelling on 5,000 square feet. The city does not have
any properties owned by the government that we allow people to live on as a caretaker. This
item has been removed.
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Chairman Rory Kuuz noted with the lot lines having no minimums, is there setback
requirements. Tawnya answered, in this zone, there were no setbacks identified. The only
three items were lot area, lot width, and lot frontage. Some of the properties are behind
others, so they don't have any lot frontage on a road. Keith Davidson, our Public Works
Director, only has certain places he can put lift stations. Depending on the grade and the
number of lift stations on a line already, Keith was determining where a lift station would go,
and he had the option of two possible places and that was it. Those placements depend on
engineering constraints and don't have a lot of options.
Commissioner Steve Oakey asked if there was a concern with an ongoing problem he sees
with the lists on all of the zones. Instead of adding to the lists, but work to eliminate the
lists. It is difficult to foresee the numerous possible uses that could be placed in these zones
and so we are confronted with someone coming in to develop, but don't find the project on
the list. He feels adding to the list is moving in the wrong direction. Can we create verbiage
that captures the idea of the structures that the public facilities can be defined by? This
could apply to any of the zones: manufacturing, commercial business, etc. Any of the
zones, we could probably imagine appropriate uses, but by cluttering the code book with
multiple lists. Steve Oakey wanted this item repeated in the public record, not necessarily
eliciting a response.
Tawnya responded, she has wrestled where the balance is. There is some safety in having a
list, enabling people to say, I am sorry, this is not a use in a particular place, so we are not
going to allow it. On the other hand, I have seen staff see an application be presented, and
find a similar use in the list and allow that use. She believes the balance is probably a
description like "Group Housing" on the left-hand side of the table, but she believes those
items on the right-hand side, where those items are listed, serve more as examples. There
are going to be people that look at groups of housing and they won't have the same picture
of what group housing looks like. The lists serve to paint a picture of the kind of use we are
looking for in those different places in our city. The conditional uses give people an idea of
the intensity that may be allowed in those places. With verbiage, I don't think you could get
away entirely from the lists. She has seen in some of the commercial zones, a list of a whole
bunch of different services, "miscellaneous services." It makes her think, why would you list
them all, if you are going to allow any service among them. There is work to be done.
Commissioner Steve Oakey talked about three levels of people that are included as these
types of decisions that are made. One is the staff, the second is the Planning & Zoning
Commission unelected volunteers from the community, and the third are the elected City
Council members. These three layers of people have a common understanding of what uses
are to be used in each of the zones. The collective knowledge among the groups about the
area in which we live may serve to eliminate pages of rules.
Tawnya responded the Development Code is ages old. The code has pieces of many
different codes used by communities and refined to work for our area. She has stated
before, the first effort was to organize the code to show the requirements that are there.
Next, the efforts going forward are to improve the code and take out those things in Scott
Johnson's words, "that are hindering development" What is hurting our community and
the people in it or stopping them from improving the community as a whole. As you look
through the Development Codes that have been provided to the Commission, is to find
those items that need to be fixed.
Commissioner Steve Oakey noted the lists at the very end of the Development Code.
Page 3 of 5
Chairman Rory Kunz thanked'1'awnya.
Neutral: None
Opposed: None
Written Ind None
Rebuttal: None
Chairman Rory Kunz asked if anyone else would like to speak? None.
He closed the public input portion of the hearing at 6:56p.m.
Commissioner Steve Oakey thanked Tawnya for the work she has done on the
Development Code.
Chairman Vince Haley suggested many pages have been removed.
Kristi Anderson stated this action seems very common sense. This application is in line
with the Development Code. Should there be two different motions? The code is being
amended and the Comprehensive Plan Map is a second action. Attorney Zollinger
confirmed two separate motions would be needed.
MOTION: Recommend approval of amending the Comprehensive Plan Map,
because it puts the city in compliance with the Development Code., Action:
Recommend, Moved by Ktisti Anderson, Seconded by Bruce Sutherland.
Commissioner discussion. None
VOTE: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 9).
Yes: Bruce Sutherland, Darrik Farmer, Greg Blacker, Keith Esplin, Kristi Anderson, Rory
Kunz, Steve Oakey, Todd Marx, Vince Haley.
Commissioner Darrik Farmer stated a public hearing has not been noticed for a
Development Code change.
Stephen' Zollinger suggests the Development Code changes be noticed for conjunction
with the rezone.
Page 4 of 5
Proposed Comprehensive Plan Chango
to Purim Facilities
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City Council Meeting April 3, 2019
Resolution 2019 — 06 Comprehensive Plan Map Amendment #19-00096 various public owned
properties to Public Facilities (FS) — Stephen Zollinger
City Attorney Zollinger explained the Planning and Zoning Commission had discussion regarding
the public facilities that are being built around the community. Some of the properties have not been
designated as public lands. They are still zoned in the zone that surrounds them that created some
issues that weren't anticipated.
City Attorney Zollinger said the Planning and Zoning Commission's recommendation is to amend
the Comprehensive Plan Map by resolution to identify the public facilities within the City of
Rexburg as public facilities in the Comprehensive Plan Map.
City Attorney Zollinger mentioned some the public facilities include: School District, City and
County properties such as; the golf course, airport, parks, and hospital properties visible on the map.
Page 5 of 6
Council Member Busby :moved to approve Resolution 2019-06 C,_.Iprehensive Plan Map
Amendment various public owned properties to Public Facilities; Council Member Flora seconded
the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a vote:
Those voting ave Those voting nay
Council Member Flora None
Council Member Mann
Council Member Wolfe'
Council Member Busby
Council Member Walker
Council President Smith
The motion carried
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