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HomeMy WebLinkAboutP&Z MINUTES JULY 20, 2006 Planning & Zoning Minutes July 20, 2006 12 North Center Phone: 208.359.3020 Rexburg, ID 83440 Fax: 208.359.3022 www.rexburg.org Commissioners Attending: City Staff and Others: Winston Dyer– Chairman Kurt Hibbert – P&Z Administrator Mike Ricks Mary Haley John Millar – Public Works Director Joe Laird Charles Andersen JaNell Hansen – Secretary Dan Hanna Ted Hill David Stein Thaine Robinson Chairman Dyer opened the meeting at 7:06 pm. Roll Call of Planning and Zoning Commissioners Charles Andersen, Thaine Robinson, Winston Dyer, Mike Ricks, Ted Hill, Mary Haley Randall Porter and Mary Ann Mounts were excused. Minutes: A. Planning and Zoning meeting – June 15, 2006 Charles Andersen motioned to approve the minutes for June 15, 2006. Mary Haley seconded the motion. Thaine Robinson abstained for having not been present. None opposed. Motion carried. Chairman Dyer recognized Planning & Zoning Administrator Kurt Hibbert for his work for the City. This is Kurt’s last official Planning & Zoning meeting with the City of Rexburg. The Community is a much better place because of his efforts. Chairman Dyer thanked Kurt for his service. Joe Laired arrived at 7:10 pm. Public Hearings: nd 7:05 PM – Conditional Use Permit at 179 East 2 South for Greenbrier Dormitory Housing nd Ross Farmer; 154 East 2 South, owner of the property in question, presented the proposal for Greenbrier nd Apartments. He has already received approval to put students in 175 & 179 East 2 South. They have since been nd remodeled. In February 2006, 163 East 2 South caught fire. They have remodeled that building, and now want to 1 turn it into student housing. Parking is an issue. The 4 plex was built sometime in the 60’s. When he bought the nd properties, students were being housed in the basement of 163 East 2 South. This was discontinued after a year. nd Eventually he intends to remodel 149 East 2 South and put single students in that building. Parking will be extended to accommodate that property. Kurt Hibbert said the applicant is increasing the aggregate density by more than 15%. They have decided to look at the whole property at once. The dormitory housing has triggered the conditional use permit. Chairman Dyer asked how many total people would live on the property. There would be 40 or so total people. He asked how that stands in terms of parking. Kurt Hibbert said the unit in the back is grandfathered with the .5 parking ratio. They are applying the 1 to 1 ratio on the balance of it. He is within 2 spots of the parking requirements. He has adequate room to comply; we just need to know where he is going to do it. Staff will follow up to make sure parking spots are striped accordingly. Mary Haley asked about the 150 foot turnaround noted on the staff review. Kurt Hibbert said there are accesses to the property that are not shown on the site plan. He asked the applicant to show this on the site plan. Thaine Robinson asked if there should be two entrances on a parking lot of this size. John Millar said he isn’t aware of a requirement for two entrances. There is adequate room to turn a fire truck around. Chairman Dyer opened the public input portion. In Favor: nd Ross Farmer; 456 East 2 South. He said this will be an overall improvement for that area. The building they are remodeling will be a first rate housing facility. The four plex has been there for a long time. The expanded parking lot has facilitated the ability to allow a fire vehicle in there, as opposed to what it was before. Neutral: None Opposed: None Written Input: None Chairman Dyer closed the public input portion. Mary Haley asked if we are taking all of these as one. Chairman Dyer said the application is for all properties; 149, 163, 163 ½, 175, and 179. Mary Haley mentioned the triplex and the corner house are accessible, but there is no ingress and egress from this street. Between 164 and 158, there is a driveway that goes to a garage. Thaine Robinson said he doesn’t see a problem with this application. One thing would be to figure out where the last two (2) parking spots will be put. David Stein arrived at 7:30 pm. Mary Haley said 149, 175, and 179 were formerly single family dwellings. 163 has greatly improved since Farmer bought it. The parking lot has also greatly improved this area. Charles Andersen motioned to approve the Conditional Use Permit for the noted addresses of Greenbrier Housing to be used as dormitory housing, with the condition that the parking be made compliant with the most current parking requirements. Thaine Robinson seconded the motion. 2 David Stein abstained due to his late arrival at the meeting. None opposed. Motion carried. Unfinished/Old Business: New Business: A.Final Plat – Riverwoods Townhomes, Division 2 Brandon Jenks; 3680 West Mountain View Drive. They have made the changes required for their final plat, so they are sending it through for approval. Mary Haley asked what happened with the corner that Bagley owns. Brandon Jenks said it is entirely landscaped, and their landscaping will butt up to his landscaping. Bagley will continue to own that portion. They have taken out the parking in the back, because there is adequate visitor parking across the street. Thaine Robinson asked about sidewalks. Brandon Jenks said they have sidewalks along Trejo Street in the front, and along Tasmun Drive in the back. They wrap around the whole property. Mary Haley motioned to recommend to approve the final plat for Riverwoods Townhomes, Division 2. Ted Hill seconded the motion. None opposed. Motion carried. B.Final Plat – Henderson Addition, Division 3 nd Kurt Rolland; Schiess & Associates; 310 North 2 East, Ste. 125; representing Bill Henderson. He said the preliminary plat has been approved. They want to press straight forward for final approval. Mary Haley asked what was decided about the bridge over the canal. Kurt Rolland said the bridge will be developed this fall as soon as the water is out of the ditch. It will be on the development drawings. John Millar said the bridge would be in the development agreement. The developer will pay for the bridge and will turn it over to the City because it is in the right of way. Chairman Dyer said the City will review it to make sure it is built to appropriate standards, and then will take over the ownership, maintenance, and operation of the bridge after it’s complete. Mary Haley motioned to recommend to approve the final plat for Henderson Addition, Division 3. Mike Ricks seconded the motion. None opposed. Motion carried. C.Final Plat – Harvest Heights, Division 2B Chairman Dyer declared a direct conflict of interest and excused himself from the table. Thaine Robinson would act as chair for this issue. 3 Richard Smith; 957 South Millhollow. He said they are here for final approval of Harvest Heights, Division 2B. They received preliminary approval of Harvest Heights 2A and 2B in December. Because of pending legislation regarding agricultural exemption of real property taxation, they opted to divide the preliminary plat into two parts, 2A and 2B. They came to Planning & Zoning and City Council and received final plat approval of 2A in February or March. They are here to seek final plat approval of 2B, which is the southern portion of the preliminary plat that was presented late last year. Richard Smith said there is one change that has been made pursuant to direction from John Millar. The alignment th of 7 South as it crosses Millhollow Road will be further to the North. This would solve the sight line issues, and allow the road to cross Millhollow at a 90° angle. The common area is smaller than originally shown on the preliminary plat. Lot 16 was originally going to be a city park. The City Council has drawn away from approval of various small pocket parks. When the realignment brought the lot down to below an acre, it didn’t qualify for a park. This will be a common area, constructed and maintained by the subdivision. John Millar pointed out that a portion of this plat is outside the City limits, which is land owned by Kauer. Kurt Hibbert said staff is aware of this and the County has been notified. They County is okay with it. Richard Smith said there is a tiny portion, less than a tenth of an acre in the corner that is outside the City limits. In the Impact Area, the zones are the same. Joe Laird asked if it would have curb, gutter, and sidewalks. Richard Smith said it is zoned Rural Residential 2, which doesn’t require curb and gutter. They have opted to put in four (4) foot wider roads with flat curbs. This looks better and has proved to be more saleable. Joe Laird asked where storm drainage goes. Richard Smith said these are engineered that each lot will net out at about 6/10 of an acre. Each lot is designed and graded to maintain and hold its own storm water drainage. He said it is proving to work once the homes are in. In the first phase, there was some difficulty. All engineers are in agreement that all problems have been resolved. The grading has to be watched closely. David Stein motioned to recommend to approve the final plat for Harvest Heights, Division 2B. Mike Ricks seconded motion. None opposed. Motion Carried. D.Millhollow Village (Sipherd Brothers) – Paige Armstrong Paige Armstrong; 1005 East Jackson Creek Road, Inkom, Idaho. She presented a PowerPoint presentation. She reviewed the previously presented Sipherd Brothers’ plan. She is here to get the feelings of the Commissioners before an official plan is presented. Joe Laird said on the overall Comprehensive Transportation Plan, they had a collector street in the area. He felt the road would be better served coming over into the collector road. He asked if the road hooks into Hidden Valley Subdivision. Paige Armstrong said it would. David Stein asked how far east the park goes, since it is basically a cliff. Paige Armstrong said she wants to know what changes the Commissioners would like to see made before they do a plat map. David Stein asked if the park goes down into the flat. Paige Armstrong said it does come into the flat a little bit, but she doesn’t know exactly how far. Right now there is a lot of jogging that goes along there. The plan is to keep the path for walking. It is designed to remain a natural habitat. Paige Armstrong gave the statistics of the development on the site. 4 Mary Haley stated her concern about the setbacks and having enough area for snow removal. Paige Armstrong said snow would need to be addressed on the boulevard space between the sidewalk and the road. There wouldn’t be any sidewalks that come to the edge, and there would be a wider boulevard. The backyard would be about 15 feet. She discussed the plan for townhomes in the area. One of the concerns when this was first proposed was there was too much retail. They may replace some of it with assisted living. There are several options for st commercial space. One idea is 1 level of commercial with residential on the top. Chairman Dyer said this is lending itself towards a planned unit development. There are provisions for this in the Development Code. The density overall will still exceed what is allowed, so it will require a zone change first and then an acceptance of a planned unit development. He said in past, as the growth waive started, they were approached with several zone change requests. They would find out after changing the zone, that all the applicant wanted to do was market the property. They came up with a concept to make zone changes conditional upon the condition that what we see is what we get. If the presented plan was not implemented on the property, the zone would revert back to what it was previously. Mary Haley commented on putting commercial in this area. Chairman Dyer said the situation now is that they are so far away from any other commercial area that this would have to have a commercial designation. It’s not natural to drive 3 or 4 minutes in an indirect route to get to a business. Some commercial there could serve their residents, but they would not want anything very large. Paige Armstrong said they are probably thinking more along the lines of a smaller scale business like a small sandwich shop, etc; something that would cater to what the people living there would need. Ted Hill said there are some substantial slopes. They are already facing drainage challenges in Hidden Valley. The grade is too steep for this kind of density with houses so close to the road. With 396 units, that road through the back of the plat has to go right down through Hidden Valley. That is an awful lot of traffic down through this area. He said he is in favor of a planned unit development, but this is the wrong location because of the steep grades. Chairman Dyer asked if it would change Ted Hill’s opinion if the density was lower. Ted Hill said there would still be the drainage problems. This project is 3 times larger than Hidden Valley. David Stein said he saw the drainage last year, and the flooding was on the other side of Hidden Valley. There wouldn’t have been a problem if the City would have plowed and kept the ice and mud out of the sewers. It’s not an issue of drainage but an issue of traffic. The Hidden Valley road is already getting a fair amount of traffic. His concern is if the wider road was going to get the traffic as opposed to some of the narrower ones. He said he likes the concept of a planned unit development. Chairman Dyer said the Development Code includes specific zones for this concept. The problem here is where it should be located. Joe Laird said the storm drainage is a problem. The sub divider will have to put in some kind of storm drainage holding facility in that location. They need to consider how to take care of that. In the winter, the southwest wind comes through there and builds the low area up with snow because of the difference in elevation. They will have to have a very good snow removal system. Chairman Dyer said the space next to Sipherd is planned to be residential, with more space between buildings. The wind and snow can carry through in that situation. The 10 foot wide alleys and 2 ½ story buildings on each side will just fill right up with snow. Where are they going to take all that to? Mary Haley said she thinks it is a great concept, but they are aware of natural conditions that the developer may not be aware of. Paige Armstrong asked what the answer would be. Chairman Dyer asked what kind of density would make the Commission more comfortable about development at this site. 5 Charles Andersen said if you do it right, you can capture drainage in shared spaces into a slow release area. It has to be designed appropriately. Chairman Dyer said there is one currently being designed for the space next to this development. Dan Hanna arrived at 8:27 pm. Kurt Hibbert said when the area was annexed, it was the most restrictive residential zone. Hidden Valley is zoned Low Density Residential 2 and is immediately adjacent to it. This area may need to be rezoned. This was done to protect residential uses. Mike Ricks said heavy density at all on any hill in this community is dangerous. People don’t know how to drive in adverse conditions. Heavy density should be down in the flats and not on a hill. David Stein asked what else would go there. He said he likes the concept of having the houses closer to the streets. He likes more density and better integration better than a straight line of lots going straight down the hill, which would create a safety hazard. This allows better control and the ability to better address these issues. Dan Hanna said he agrees. This is a workable project, but they need to address some of these issues. Mary Haley said she is not in favor of increasing the density. The Commissioners agreed that a density of eight (8) is allowable. Thaine Robinson is concerned about the big elevation drop. This would really have to be developed well. Paige Armstrong said John Sipherd is an architect and is working with an architect that has been doing many projects. These issues can be addressed. She will take this back and address these issues. Compliance: Thaine Robinson said the house on East Main in the Residential Business District has not complied with the lighting requirements set by the Commission. He said they need to watch this house very carefully, since it is the first house they have done this with. Mary Haley said two (2) doors down, we had discussed that a lot couldn’t be used for parking. Kurt Hibbert said all of us can park in our back yards. The line is when it becomes a commercial business parking lot. Residential can park in the back yard, but not more than 50% can be paved. Mary Haley said the commercial property would obviously like to use the residential parking. Kurt Hibbert said Natalie Powell has visited with the owners, and they are aware of what is allowed. He told the Commission to watch that, and let Natalie know if there is a problem. Thaine Robinson said the zoning issue has been battled. They made it very clear what the conditions were. Mary Haley said they need to act on this, or the Community won’t have faith in our ordinance. Thaine Robinson said they had talked about 2 or 3 people working there at one time, and there have been up to 10 cars parked there on numerous occasions. David Stein said they indicated they would have a meeting once a week or every two weeks. Thaine Robinson said it’s more than that. Chairman Dyer asked Thaine Robinson to contact Natalie Powell and see how they are doing with their conditions. Chairman Dyer will contact the developer if there are issues. 6 Non controversial Items Added to the Agenda: Chairman Dyer invited the Commissioners to give their opinions and recommendations to City Council and the Mayor about how to proceed in the absence of Kurt Hibbert, who has resigned as Planning & Zoning Administrator. Kurt Hibbert thanked the Commission for the opportunity to work with them. It has been a privilege. No Commission in Rexburg has had as heavy a workload as this Commission has had. This has been a successful four (4) years. They have set a really good framework for the future of the City. It was hard to make the decision to go to Teton County. Mike Ricks asked about the Subdivision Ordinance. John Millar said it is 80% complete. When it is complete, it will be brought to the Commission for review. Mike Ricks asked if John Millar will be acting in Kurt Hibbert’s place. John Millar said he would be acting for him in the interim. City Council has not made a decision as to the direction of this position. Mary Haley asked if the Planning & Zoning Commission could suggest that Kurt Hibbert’s job be replaced. Chairman Dyer said the Commission can make any recommendations they want. Thaine Robinson motioned that the Planning & Zoning Commission views the Planning & Zoning Administrator position as a very important part of the City of Rexburg, and should be a full time position. City Council should consider this very heavily from this Commission. Dan Hanna seconded the motion. None opposed. Motion carried. Report on Projects: A.Comprehensive Plan: Kurt Hibbert said this issue is going to be tabled pending some decisions by City Council. Tabled requests: Building Permit Application Report: Heads Up: Chairman Dyer adjourned the meeting at 9:02 pm. 7