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HomeMy WebLinkAboutP&Z MINUTES JANUARY 14, 1987Planning & Zoning Public Hearing New Zoning Ordinance January 1~+---1987 r ~ ~_ An Informal Public Hearing for the new Zoning Ordinance and Map, held at the Adams School, January 15, 1987 from 7:00 P. M. to 9:00 P. M. Those Present: Planning & Zoning: Mayor: City Council: City Clerk: Chuck Frost Mary Lee Hill Gerald Taylor Bob Purrington John C Porter Nile Boyle Glen Pond Darlene Blackburn Rose Bagley Chuck Frost told the group that this was just an informal hearing on the new zoning ordinance and zoning map. Chuck told them as we began. work on this new zoning ordinance, we felt that the public needed to have a series of informational hearings, which we are holding during the month of January. After the 4 hearings are completed, we will have a final meeting with the Planning & Zoning and discuss all the issues that were raised during the hearings,-make corrections to the map and to the ordinance and then legal hearings will be held probably in March and April. Chuck told them we are anxious public input and that is the reason for the 'rzeari.ngs. We have tried to group together compatible land uses. We have tried to establish how the neighborhoods are being used. In the old ordinance there was 6 zones and in the new one_has_ 10 zones. A short definition of what is allowed in each zone is over on the side of the map. We have a form that we want to fill out on everyone that has a concern about the zoning that may be in their area. We will compile them and study them as part of the plar_r_ing and zoning. In most cases in residential the zoning has stayed the same as it was, but in some cases it has been upgraded. Cristy Keller- Concern about Webster Ave, it looks like you have changed the zone to R3 on one side of the street and left the other side commercial. Julie Wolford 4 North Millhollow- We live directly across from the land that was given by the P.andall Corporation 'to the hospital. There are a couple of concerns that we have. I realize that. the zoning has to be changed, if it is given to the hospital, it is of no use to them if it is not changed to Institutional Zoning. I am concerned, because I don't want a parking lot across from my house. I would like a buffer zone where there is some grass and maybe some trees, in between us . and what ever they decide to put there. I am also concerned about Millhollow itself. We have a small speed dip just up the hill from our house, it is enough to make people watch for the first time, then they go to the side of it very fast. We have a lot of children on Morgan Drive, and my children cross back and forth to go to school. I have noticed that when the city police have a patrol car there they pick up a lot of speeders. There have been a lot of accidents, where things have gotten out of control. We need to have some control speed wise to make it more safe. Chuck Frost - The Madison Memorial Hospital property was originally zoned Rl, and the hospital was built in the middle of an Rl Zone. It was a non-conforming use,. so the new zoning map tries to address that by putting the hospital 4-' property in an Institutional Zone. As far as the donation of the property along riillhollow to the hospital, we are not a party to that transaction. I don't know what the hospital`s plans are or even if it has been completed. The mayor said it '- d been completed. He said that under the new zoning ordinance, where there is off ~.,~eet parking in a residential area, they have to have a buffer zone. It has to o-f set 20 feet back with landscaping in the front. Mrs. Wolford said it had concerned her because there had been some talk about a road cutting onto Millhollow. Millhollow is one of the main arterials onto the dry farms. In the wintertime that is such a dangerous. road. Chuck told her that there has been no plans presented to the Planning & Zoning, so we don't know what they. have planned. They would have to follow the ordinance, if it is adopted, including buffer zones and proper set backs, and landscaping. It doesn't look like the property on Morgan Drive would be effected.. I think that was an issue in that area about a year ago. Those lots on Morgan Drive are continued to be zoned R1. Joe Romney had a concern that he .had. heard that there was an attempt to sell that property for office space, on Morgan Drive, on the property that the hospital-owns. Chuck said that under the proposed it is not a permited use, in a Residential. Zone. The hospital does need expansion. The mayor stated that when we turned down 'the request to use Morgan Drive, to get out of the parking Iot, at that time Mr. Steiner tried to buy the Randall property so they would have a road out of the parking lot. He tried to put a right-a-way through there, because that is where they wanted to put a street out. He said he thought the the plans were the same. to have .that as a parking lot with a street going out on Millhollow .Drive. The only advantage he could see for the people, is there will be one more entrance .onto Millhollow Drive, which will make more traffic. Darwin Walford said we can stand the traffic, if there is really traffic control for speed. The mayor said the only thing about controlling traffic, Tie have ten uniformed officers and we have Lincoln School, Kennedy School, Adams School, all the places and 2nd East with people speeding and we don't have the man power patrol it a11. Glen Pond told him that we have a Safety Commettee to take care of the traffic. He should contact Bruce Sutherland,. the councilman in charge of .that Commettee. Gary Lovell, ask about the definition of Rl Zone, which states there will be no basement apartments in Rl zone. He ask if the ones that at the present time have basement apartments if they will be allowed to continue. Chuck Frost told him they would be allowed to continue. [tiTebster Ave. Hazel Cummings, Alice Parkinson's daughter- Her mother lives on Webster Ave, looking at the map it shows that the North side of the street has the zoning changed from commercial to R2, what about the South side, could it be zoned residential as well. The petition that was given to the Planning .Board indicated that.. the people wanted both sides to be residential with the exception of busines that is there. The Commettee discussed the zoning of the. garage and decided that they could zone it residential up to Lorins Auto boundry, and split the block. Ross Reese- There are major changes. in the ordinance. Harvard Ave has been split down the middle, one side of the street would be conforming and the other. side would be nonconforming. Everyone of the homes on the East side of Harvard Ave already have apartments in them. My suggestion is when dividing zones, it is better to divide the zones at the rear of the lots rather than using streets, because what you look at is much more important than what is behind you. Chuck ask him if he thought that both sides of Harvard Ave would want to have the option to build apartments in their basements? mss- I don't think it would make a lot of difference, because Harvard is built up and are already there, unless it affects resale, if what you say when they sell they c no longer have an apartment, you seriously damage their investment and their values. Chuck Frost said we would like it to be zoned as close to the existing use as possible. might need to change the zone so both sides of the street are the same. Ross said he saw no reason why the school shops and on North lst East should be Institutional, you could be hurting yourself on that or requiring a future zone change in event that the school ever decided to use them for something else or dispose of that property. It is commercial use and it just as well address what it is and not, put it into something that. it isn't, because it really is not institutional, it is just owned by an instution. ~-Jhat you are going to do is wind up with a zoning change if the school district ever decides to sell that property. Chuck said the old zoning on that property was manufacturing. Ross said that institutional for that piece of property seems an inoperative zone. Ross- Regarding the map, you have now divided Ricks Wade on those front houses and there are protective covenants on the entire sub-division and that is an oversight, Glen Pond said that was an error. Ross- Between 3rd and 4th West on the South side of that street on Main Street, the entire side of the street is now used for institutional and commercial except for only 2 homes that is not used for commercial. You have it zoned R3, and it is unlikely that anyone would build homes or apartments on that street, a lot of the land is vacant.If you zone it commercial then. you open it up for most commercial, however, in going over the ordinance I don't see much problem with calling it commercial. That is it's trend and that is its current use. People behind it and people across the street may object. Ross- Does your new ordinance make every student housing complex, and most of the student using in Rexburg non-conforming? .Does it make every service station in town and every automobile dealership non-conforming? What about-car washes, what about stores that have photography, gasoline distributors and the entire downtown non-conforming because of set backs and depth and width. What do you do the value of those properties tha t are non comfo~mi_ng. He referred to the section 422D Paragraph 2. Beer licenses would also require a public hearing and a conditional use. Item 69 on page 51 he also questioned, item 84, item 85. Mayor Porter .said his interpretation they may have to go to the planning board or the city council. With the .photography, is the problem we have is the sewage treatment. Anyone that has any photography and developes colored prints, we have to go in .and test the discharge into the sewage system about every 6 months, to make sure the amount of that chemical is not over a certain-amount. There isn't anyone in Rexburg that goes over the amount allowed. This will give us the opportunity to know where those places. are, so the sewer .department can go in and make the tests. Ross wondered if it should be a zoning problem or a business license problem. Chuck said he did not think it would be a problem, when they are grandfathered and the conditional use is there. Ross said the problem is that everything in town is non-conforming. If I have a building for sale and the guy has a different use for it than is there today, and he said does it conform to zoning and I say no you have got to go get a special variance to change the use of that building. Chuck said he thought.. we needed to have the city attorney go through the ordinance and make sure we are not going to treat ourselves a bad problem. The mayor said the main thing on a lot of those things is we have got to know that. the sewer has the capacity. All. of the things that require a hearing is because we have ~ check the sewage use according to EPA. Ross- Ross- He requested that we take a serious look at the new. ordinance. As far as downtown won-conforming, your are now requiring in a commercial zone a 5 foot set back. We have r,,ys allowed commercial property to be built on the property line. So you have made town non-conforming. If a fire destroys 50% of the value of that property and it is non-conforming, it cannot be re-built as it was; it has to now conform. If the back half of a building downtown burns out and it is over 54% destroyed, the owner. has to tear the rest of the building down and set it back 5-feet, or move the front 5 feet off. Ross- What I mean about the student housing non-conforming, the highest density you allow in the new ordinance under R3 is 18 units per acre. That totally and makes every apartment complex in town in student housing non-conforming. It makes it not, available for sale, but not available for financing. You have moved allowed .units from 60 down to 18. If I had an acre of ground and wanted to build an apartment complex on it, I wouldn't want to go for 60 units which is in your old ordinance, but 18 is two few. I don't care where you get these. things from you have a responsibility to study them. If you want to accommodate. Ricks College you are going. to have to expect a lot of growth and you are going. to have to accommodate it. The mayor said he did not know how we could make the old commercial area conform. Ross - I do no think that the same commercial standards and specifications, compliances should apply. downtown as apply along the highways and your other commercial areas, I think you need a third or another commercial zone, that deals with downtown. Rather than making the whole town non-compliance make some new zones to the fit the need. Mayor Porter- The property that Art Porter gave to the Development Workshop, they are concerned that just having it commercial, they wonder if that will be alright. What they will do is they have some saws and make survey pegs, and plastic things. The mayor had suggested that it be zoned instutional, They were wondering about manufacturing, ~t industrial. Ross- That might be a situation where a special use permit might be sable, because if they were to sell it to someone else it might need to be used far something besides manufacturing. Ross- One thing that bothers some of us is the definition of family. When you have so much Rl Zoning and single family, you have made a pretty good definition of what constitutes a family in .this ordinance. If two single school teachers want to buy a home, they can't live together. I can live with my sister-in-law but I can't live with my friend. In -today society, we have a lot of people stay single longer. There are a lot of single people that do buddy up. The definition in the old ordinance was different and sounds more like what we want. It would create a problem if you tried to enforce it. •