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Home My WebLink AboutP&Z MINUTES FEBRUARY 25, 1987r: `~' PLANNING ~ ZONI~~G ~1IPdUTES 2/25/37 Those Present: Chairman: Chuck Frost Board ~Aembers: Chuck Porter Bob Purrington Jim Keller Dan Hess Mayor: John C Porter Councilman: Bruce Casper Bruce Sutherland Sander Larson City Attorney: ~~1ary Smith City Clerk: Rose Bagley The Mayor discussed some of the areas in the city that where there could be changes made withou t protest. One he discussed was up on North 4th East ~:vhere Gordon Smith lives. Gordon wants the north half of that block to remain as it is without. changing the zone. The other half wants it changed to Rl. He said that R 1S should be used only in anew s'ub divisions, because it would be hard to change what is there now, and most of our Rl ~~eas does have apartments, and we would have a problem with everyone. ~~discussed the area where the Rexburg ~'~edical Center is, he had some people came in and talk to him about putting offices in that area. It might be a good idea to call that a Professional Office Zone. That would also take care of where the hospital and new doctor's office is proposed to be. That zone could be used in the area of East Pain next to the Mayor's. home. He said he has a doctor's office next to him, and he would rather have that than a family with a dozen kids. That office presents no problem. He said we need to have a Professional Office Zone. A discussion on the new doctors office by the hospital. Chuck Frost said in the hearings we identified some problems with the new zoning map. He was concerned that we .don't get the city in a postition where anyone whose property zoning has changed wants to sue the city. He said he wondered what we need to do to maintain the zoning as near to the old zoning as possible, and add the new zones where there is an obvious need for new zoning.. The mayor and city attorney felt that was a good idea. Chuck Frost said it is difficult to see what needs to be changed and what people want to be changed. He said some of the major changes would have to have separate hearings. Sander Larson said he thought we should have a finished product when it was done and not have to go back and change the zoning in different spots. He said it would be nice to have it all clean and complete in the end. Chuck Frost said he thought they should divide in groups and have work sessions. Chuck Porter said he wanted to have some work sessions on"the odinance, he felt he had not paid enough attention to it before. He -said he had found somethings in it that he wanted to ~`iect to. The mayor said zoning along ;Main Street, makes it impossible if one of-those rugs would burn down and more than 50% of it was destroyed, to rebuild it without b~ing it back 10 feet. bJe have got to put something in there that will keep them in compliance in this certain area, say on Bain Street, and still let them build right up to sidewalk: Bo'o Pnrrington said on the streets that the buildings have been built right out to the property line, it would be a mistake to change them now. I think we should designate the areas that we will permit it and and then any other new areas go back to the 10 feet. Mary Smith 'id, you not only have main street, but you have college ave, and all the streets leading f of main street are built out to the sidewalk. Bob Purrington said we need to designate those streets which are that way and permit them to remain that way. When they go into a different area then require the set back. '.Mary Smith said it would present a problem if everytime we have to rebuild we would have to have a variance. Chuck Frost said Ross Reese suggested another zone and the consultant did have a central business district which was taken out, we could put that back in. The mayor said we could start on that and get that done right away. - The mayor said it would be hard to use the new setbacks on established neighborhoods. New neighborhoods in new sub-divisions it could be done. People who purchased the Lots under the present zoning, are entitled to some consideration. They are planning on that size of lot on the present ordinance. Micklesens already have the utilities on the lots he has, and if we tell him he has tc have-the houses farther apart, he has lost a lot of money. Mary Smith said he would probably sue the city. .Tim Keller said lets just get the changes made that need to be made and get the ordinance implemented. He said if we get into a controversial issue, we should Leave it the same zone as it was and move on. There are a lot of changes that are good changes. If everyone wants a change, then implement it. Mary told them we would have to have three public hearings to adopt the new ordinance and map. John Lewis was at the meeting to ask about the duplex he has on K Street,. he heard '-he zoning would not allow the duplex. Mayor Porter told him he had checked the zoning i K Street and he was in compliance. Graydon. Burton was at the meeting complainting that the property owned by Verlon Lauder on West Main is a mess of weeds and has only been mowed twice in ten years. He said he did not know why people are complaining about it being zoned commercial, across the street is a Health Food Store. So far there has been no interest in anyone building on those vacant lots. He wanted to know what the objection was to changing it to commercial. Ghuck Frost said if we follow the procedure we are talking about tonight, we would leave the zoning on West Main the way it is and adopt the new ordinance and then if the people there want to change that to commercial they would have to come back through the regular hearing process at a later time. They discussed going forth with the ordinance,. making. the few changes that have been requested and leaving the controversial until the zoning ordinance has been adopted. Chuck Frost suggested that they divide the Planning & Zoning up into three or four groups with a city council advisor, and tackle the problems in work sessions, and then come. back and meet together. We need to go over the wording of the ordinance, Mayor Porter said while we are doing this we need to look at the width of the steets. All the streets in the orginal township that 99` wide, and some of them should be narrowed. The widest street we have in the subdivision ordinance is 70` or 80' wide. That is one of the problems we had on 2nd East, the right-a-way is so wide that when you get back, it is about on everyone's front door. The mayor. said the reason is -f we have a 99 right-a-way and the set back is 35`, you would be in the back lard before you could build. • ! ,'- ~'~~ Smith said she did not see any point in boxing ourselves in to have a continual flow of variance applications. We need to take what we have now and deal with it and try to work it out from there. Jim Keller ask if we could handle it with a Grandfather Clause in the new ordinance or would we have. to back through ordinance and bring everyone in compliance without the grandfather? Mary said we start getting a lot of grandfather clauses it gets out of hand. She said we need to deal with what we have, like the Main Street property, they are all built out to the sidewalk and she would question if it would .not change in our lifetime or even another generation. Perhaps we should recognize it now and leave it as it is. Change the ordinance to recognize what is there in that case. The mayor said when we put in the off street parking we set. up a Business District. It. may be that same district could be used for a different zone. Jim Keller said the other main one is the RIS or the R1C, there are a Iot of homes we have zoned RIS and while in reality they are R1C. The mayor said that would have to be changed, in those areas. Chuck said ther are several things that need to be added to the ordinance, a sign ordinance. and fire code along with others. A commettee was chosen to work on the wording on the ordinance: Mary Smith, City Attorney Jim Keller Chuck Porter Mayor Porter mmettee was chosen to work. on the non-controversial issues that was written up \a~handed in at the hearings. Dan Hess Chuck Frost Bob Purrington Glen Pond At the. end of March at the regular Planning & Zoning meeting we could 'nave a report from the commettees and have the recommendations ready. i~ Frank Bell was at the meeting to ask about building an Insurance Office West of the Medical Center, .and possibly more than one office.. He was told he would have to get a variance or change the zone. jlhen we change the zoning ordinace it might be different. Adjourned L