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HomeMy WebLinkAboutP&Z MINUTES OCTOBER 22, 1997~~ ',• Date: (102297) Planning & Zoning 10/22/97 Work Meeting at 6:00 P. M. Regular Meeting at 7:30 P. M. Those Present: Chairman: John Millar Members: Davawn Beattie Doug Smith left at 7:00 P.M. Gary Steiner Mike Thueson Mary Ann Mounts John Watson Roger Muir Jim Long left at 7:00 P. M. Ted Whyte C1erk:Rose Bagley Engineer: Joe Laird Attorney: Stephen Zollinger Council Person: Marsha Bjornn A motion was made by Davawn Beattie and seconded by Ted Whyte to approve the minutes of Getober 8, 1997. All Aye RE: PLATINUM DEVELOPMENT PRESENTED A SITE PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT NORTH OF GREASE MONKEY TOPIC: (500,24,,,SITE PLAN,GREASE MONKEY,WALMART,PLATUNUM DEVE., HASTING*BRETT,STORM DRAINS,LANDSCAPING,PARKING LOT,RIGHT OF WAY) Brett Hastings representing Platinum Development L.L.C was at the meeting to present a site plan for the development north of the city by the Grease Monkey. They were going to try to develope it all together, but what they are going to try to do if weather permits is develope the S.W. Section by the Grease Monkey where they will build the smaller building that will be 6600 square feet, which will be an Auto Parts Retail Building including the parking and drainage. The rest of the development will happen next summer. They are working with the Redevelopment Agency on the project. They have agreed to include all this property in their boundaries because they felt it was excluded in error and that would help to put in the city utilities. That is proceeding and they hope to get it on the tax roll in December. He explained the plans. When they built Sears, the highway department indicated that they would not allow anymore accesses from there to 1000 North so they have rights to some ingress and egress lanes so they won't have to have another access. He discussed the drains dumping into the storm drain and the french drains. The storm drain there is so high in the ground it is virtually impossible to get it to drain there. Benton Engineering has designed it to make sure they have adequate drains to capture the the water. Joe stated that it would be his preference that there be a storm drain up to each drain. (discussion) Brett stated they would be building up the building area ~~ but we will grade the parking area down so everything will flow to the storm drains and you get low enough that it is not feasible to come forward. (discussion) Joe stated that we are trying to get more storm drains. At sometime we will have to have a major storm drainage system. John Millar stated that the storm drainage needs to be looked at more seriously. Joe discussed the street cross section for Lorene Ave stating where he needs to develop the street to. Brett said that is what they are working with the redevelopment agency to come up with the funds to do that and then we will talk about design issues. Joe said the what was designed and constructed for the grease monkey for the half of a street was not what we approved after that for a typical cross section. That street is basically without any landscaping strip. It is just 24 foot from back of curb to center line, then five foot sidewalk, and a foot behind the sidewalk. If we go to the typical sections that the planning commission approved for a business street it shows a landscape. {handing out copies) (discussion on landscaping) The board stated that the landscaping is a percentage of the parking lot not the loading dock, driveways and roads. The board felt that if the half street that is already in by Grease Monkey does not have the typical section with the landscaping then this side should not be required to have landscaping. They should be the same. We are committed to what is existing. John Millar stated that there is a right-a-way constraint there as wail which makes it difficult to abide by the typical plan. Joe had not had a opportunity to have the department head approval yet. The drainage needs to be coordinated through the engineering department not the planning commission. Brett said he would have David Benton contact Joe. Discussion on if residential housing comes in that area and how it could be tied into a drainage system. John Millar stated that sometime in the future we need to look at a master plan for a drainage system. Joe suggested that we might do something like Idaho Falls, when they put in a development they run the drainage to a storm drain holding pond and create a little park there with that pond and it is depressed and the water stores there during the flood event and there is a pump that pumps it out into a canal or pumps it 1/2 mile to an existing storm drain system. It is cheaper than gigantic storm drain pipes but it has more maintenance cost in taking care of all those park storm drain holding areas. They probable have 40 or 50 of those. A motion was made by Davawn Beattie that we accept the plan pending on Department Head approval with some emphasis on the storm system. John Millar suggested that a good job of landscaping sure makes it look nicer down the road. (discussion on landscaping on this project) Motion was made by Ted Whyte. All Aye RE: STORAGE SHEDS NON CONFORMING LAND USE PERMIT FOR LANCE GODFREY TOPIC: (500,25,,,SITE PLAN,IMPACT ZONE,GODFREY*LANCE,STORAGE SHEDS, 1500 W.,ZONING ORDINANCE,FENCE) Proposed Development of Storage Sheds for Lance Godfrey in the Impact Zone. This was added to the agenda. Lance Godfrey the owner of Central Storage, one on West 4th South across from C Rex Motel and this location is 595 South 1500 West. This section backs up to U.S. Highway 20. It is the units north of Petersons Storage. At the present time he has two 10 x 20 units. The proposed buildings that he wants to build is another 10 x 20 like the ones that are there to fill in between the two present buildings. Another one 26 x 120 feet. Next summer he would like to put some fencing in and dress the place up. He showed a plan of the development and told the board he already had power stubbed to locations of future buildings on the plan. He paid for the power to come in off the road and be stubbed in to the future units. He is looking at 9 buildings total. He plans on building a home in the front for him to live in. He explained the fence which had been approved by the I.T.B. At the present time the driveways are gravel. He would like to black top it in the future. He has the buildings raised up two feet so he can have good drainage. John Millar stated when the first two or three units were built they predated the Impact Zone and predated the county zoning. The area now is in Rural Residential. Joe stated that it poses a problem with the zoning. In the zoning ordinance it would need to be either H.B.D. or Industrial for storage units or referring to 8.5 Non Conforming Uses indicates it can only be increased by 15~ or in the Impact Zone will be governed by section 8 of the city Ordinance. He thought it would heed a ZOiie Changc crviiiy bc^ • expanded 15~. Lance bought this property wanting to move back to Rexburg. He is building this unit to enable him to build a home and move back here. In 1987 he~had problems with the facility he has in town, he was unable to expand it and that is why he bought this land. He is not planning on getting more land and expanding beyond what he has proposed on the original plan. Mary Ann questioned that if he had a original plan that was dated if it would be grandfathered? Lance had a plan that was dated and signed by the building official. He had the buildings all stubbed with power when he did the original plan which was done in 1992. John Millar took the plan to look at it. John and Rose looked at the plan which were signed by Joe Laird. Joe thought it was just a building site plan. Lance said he had been saving for 12 years to make this thing go and to be able to build a residence in the front. It was his whole life and everything he has is in this development. John Millar told the residents in that area attending the meeting that this was not a formal hearing but they could all give their comments. Jan Laird- Over a period of time no one has wanted more sheds there and it is zoned Residential and everyone thought it would be alright from now on. The problem that she has is that she is afraid that if one is made an exception to there is no reason that more sheds could be put in. No one wants more sheds in their back yards. She did not know how • an exception could be made for this and not for others that come in. Spence Larson- He had no desire to see a hardship on Lance. He did share Jan's concerns if you make an exception here can you keep from ~~ expanding any farther? For Lance to expand on his existing property a isn't that big of a concern, but to see it expand beyond that is a concern. He did not know how the Planning Board would regulate, that. John Millar suggested that it is very defensible that this could be a grandfathered development or because this area is zoned Rural Residential it could require a zone change. There was another individual that wanted to put a development in like this at the time of the Impact Zone and we talked that one out. Spence stated he did not want to put a financial hardship on him and he did know that he had put his power in and has done some improvements on it. If it is done he would like to see it done without a variance in the zoning. Bill Conway- He lives in the shadow of the motel and he is like the other people. He would like to see the area residential. He did not want to see the storage sheds go in that are already there and he did not want to see the motel go in. He feels that his property has been devalued a lot by the motel. He felt that something like this going into the area is a trend. If there is no trend, he could see that if he were to build a house on the front of the property, it would make it a lot more presentable because it would be behind and off of the street. He asked if we could come up with an agreement that there could be no further expansion on it and it could not ever come up to the street. He would not like to see the storage sheds go all the way up to the street. Marilyn Fife- She did not want to see Mr Godfrey loose his life savings, but on the other hand she would like to see it remain residential without a zone change. We have a nice jogging path that has been paved through there with schools close and the church there. She would like it to stay a nice neighborhood without a lot of stuff on that road. It would look good to have a home built in front. John Millar stated that the Planning Board's intent is to leave it residential. We have some say unless we determine it is grandfathered. We could also do a zone change. It would have to comply with the master plan. He felt a zone change would be very difficult. Jan Laird asked if anyone knew of anything else out there that could possibly be grandfathered? No one knew of anything. Dean Peterson- They have the R.V. Storage south of town. He is concerned about it too. They wanted to continue their growth not knowing they would ever be stopped like this. They started in 1993. They do plan to grow as needed. He has 11 acres and has probably built on 4 acres now. His property is between Spence Larson, Huskinsons and Rammell. He is building on the north side of the property and it goes to the canal and over the canal. Mary Ann stated that it is a little funny because in our ordinance we demanded that R.V. Storage be moved out of town. When people could not store their R.V.'s by their houses is what prompted these people to build storage units. At the time they built these units, they were legally within their rights to build them as were the people that built ~~ ~r ~ their homes there. Where Mr Godfrey's were already stubbed for electricity, that is grandfathered. Obviously if he put the electricity in and drew the plans for these units, it is grandfathered. Someone that just has a future idea would not be grandfathered and it would have to be debated at a separate time. His already exists and he has the drawings. The one thing she questioned was the open storage area. John Millar stated that the drawings just show future development, with buildings and open storage. Mr Godfrey stated that when he brought the power in he had to pay $8000 to bring the power to the development and then he dug a trench into the buildings and building sites and put power to those areas. Mr Godfrey stated he wants to be a good neighbor and make it look nice and is willing to work with the neighbors and also make the open area look nice. He plans on living there. Ted stated that he was thinking along the same lines as Mary Ann. He did not know about Dean Peterson's expansion. Mr Godfrey stated that he had a concern that if the plan is stopped and he couldn't continue, he does not know what he would do with the property. Spence Larson stated that he looks at Mr Peterson's problem and feels that issue needs to be addressed separately. Mike Thueson was COnCeriled Witil tjie SCreeiliT'ig. 2iaty Ann Stated tl"iat this was already there before we had any control and we are not responsible for it being there at all. If we did not have any control, he could do what ever he wanted. Stephen gave his opinion. There are two things you have to consider. (1) Is the non conforming use what goes on inside the building or the existence of the buildings on the land? If it is the existence of the buildings on the land then it falls under the land use not the structural use in which case he is grandfathered or prohibited in his non conforming use of that parcel of land for storage buildings. There is a strong argument that it is a storage building not what goes on inside the building that is a non conforming use. In section 8 "Land Area of a Non Conforming Use", it is the use of this land that is non conforming not what goes on inside the structure. If that is the case we can do this and he is here for site approval. If these were houses would there be a question and the answer is probably not. This would help answer if it is the use of the building that is non conforming. The structure is what is the use of the land not something that goes on inside the building. Under that analysis it is restricted to the restricted existing land use. The land that he owns, he has to come in and obtain site approval. You then apply your ordinance to what he has requested. You look at whether you can require paving of the area that is going to be accessed by vehicles. You look at it as commercial enterprise, as is a development of non conforming use of land. (2) The second way to look at it as like Mary Ann indicated, that • because he had taken physical action to establish the existence of these buildings, that follows defensively within the grandfathering. This addresses Spence's concern that it can't expand beyond what Lance ~~ and Peterson's already have. Their use of their land would be subject to site approval. He recommended that we treat them as land uses not as non conforming structural uses. You then get to look at it every time they want to expand through a site plan. If you look at them as grandfathering you won't get that option. In summary, treat these as land uses as not structural uses. Then you can look at the site plan and put some restrictions on the site. Lance does have a strong argument that he is grandfathered, Mr Peterson does not. Grandfathering is based upon Lance providing a showing that he had taken steps toward developing the land, in a particular fashion. Because he had drawn his plan in 1992 with nine units, it would be a question of fact. Could he establish the fact that he has affirmatively taken steps to develop the land in this fashion prior to the Impact Ordinance being in place. If the board makes a decision in a fashion that Lance is unhappy with, he had the right of administrative appeal. A motion was made by Ted Whyte that we treat this as a Non Conforming Land Use and that they come back with a site approve at a future date. Seconded by Davawn Beattie. A11 Aye We will review the site at the next meeting. Davawn asked if Lance was amendable tO SCreeiliiag^. Lance Stated he would be willing to do anything he could to be a good neighbor. The fence would cost $15,000 and would like that for security. Ted asked if it were appropriate to make a site plan with all the neighbors comments that have been voiced? Lance felt that the frontage needed to be screened but possibly not the highway. (discussion on screening) Bill Conway- He is concerned that it not be extended to the road in front and that there be a house in front and if you are going to put some limits on it that is the place to limit it. He did not want storage sheds coming all the way up to the street. The fence that he is talking about, if it is back off the front then let him put in the fence as he wants to. Mr Conway stated he was not so concerned about that. Spence stated that he was comfortable with it. The board told Dean Peterson that we will have to view his at the time and it will have to stand alone. Jan Laird- She thought it would be approved because of grandfather. She did not feel Peterson's would be grandfathered. It would have to stand alone. (discussion) A motion was made by Davawn Beattie and seconded by Ted Whyte to adjourn. All Aye