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PLANNING COMMISSION CITY MANAGER Demery Bishop, Vice Chair Diane Schleicher
Ron Bossick Marianne Bramble PLANNING & ZONING MANAGER
Julie Livingston Dianne Otto, CFM
John Major Tyler Marion, Chair CITY ATTORNEY
David McNaughton Edward M. Hughes MINUTES Planning Commission Meeting September 16, 2014 – 7:00 p.m.
Chair Tyler Marion called the September 16, 2014, Tybee Island Planning Commission meeting to order. The other
Commissioners present were: Demery Bishop, Ron Bossick, Marianne Bramble, Julie Livingston, John Major, and David McNaughton.
The oath of office was administered by Mayor Jason Buelterman for Ron Bossick. He had been appointed by City Council on June 12, 2014. The Planning Commission term for Bossick will end on January 31, 2016.
Chair Tyler Marion asked for consideration of the Minutes of the August 19, 2014, meeting. John Major made a motion to approve. Demery Bishop seconded the motion. The vote in favor was unanimous.
There were no responses when Chair Tyler Marion asked if there were any disclosures or recusals.
Text Amendment – Article 2, Definitions Planning and Zoning Manager Dianne Otto discussed that the Planning Commissioners had considered Article 2 at their last meeting and the version before them now was based on that input. Included on the list of Definitions to Add was the
word warehouse. The conversation resulted in striking the phrase of personal property from the definition. Shallow was amended to remove the word width and correct use of the word depth. The phrase not to be used for commercial activities was removed from the definition of house. It was discussed that service industry had been added based on the discussion
at the August meeting. Moving to the Definitions to Amend section, the words one or and persons were removed from the definition for family. It was stated the five items under Definitions to Strike would be removed from Article 2 only if the Text Amendment for Article 7, Tree Ordinance, was approved by City Council. Chair Tyler Marion requested public
input. There wasn’t any. He closed the Public Hearing. John Major moved for approval with the changes that had been suggested. Marianne Bramble seconded the motion. The vote in favor of the motion was 6-0. Otto stated the item would
go to City Council on October 9.
Text Amendment – Section 3-070, electrical meters Planning and Zoning Manager Dianne Otto explained the request was for continuity with Chatham County who provides
Tybee Island’s inspection services. The request was a Text Amendment to insert into Section 3-070(A) the sentence, “Single-family residential lots shall be limited to one electrical meter.” Otto said requests are received for second meters
and as a policy such requests are denied. Separate electric meters have been wanted on outbuildings and swimming pools. Otto said without this language staff is challenged to enforce it with the response to customers that this is what Chatham County does. Commissioner John Major said there are some people on Tybee that have solar panels. He said there are
bidirectional meters that measure what comes from and goes to the grid, and there are also unidirectional meters where
there is one meter for purchased power and a separate meter for power sold back to the grid. Major asked if a bidirectional meter was the only choice for solar panels. Otto said that was not the intent and the language needed to be clarified to say
so. Major said it could be said it does not apply to selling power back to the grid. Commissioner Demery Bishop asked what a customary accessory structure was. Otto listed a garage, a shed, a pool house, or the like. She said requests for separate meters have been received for those and for gazebos and swimming pools. Bishop asked if someone has a cabana
behind their primary residence would that qualify for a second meter. Otto’s response was no. She read aloud the
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definition of accessory building from Article 2. Bishop asked if a cabana was used for rental purposes would it fall under
a different zoning environment. Otto responded yes, it would be considered a guest cottage or mother-in-law suite or
something along that line. She offered that when it is a separate dwelling unit a separate meter is required. Chair Tyler Marion asked if it was a commercial entity and there was a cabana, how would this apply. Otto said this was specific to
residential and we do not have these types of concern with commercial properties. Planning Commissioner Ron Bossick
verified there is language for a separate meter for the mother-in-law or caretaker cottage. Otto added duplexes and multi-family to the list of buildings having separate electric meters. Bossick said if he decided to go into woodworking in the
basement and he already has 250 or 300 amp service, if he decided to put in more power he would not be able to get a meter and therefore could not do a woodworking shop. Otto said he could upgrade his service but it would still be on one meter. Bossick said he thinks there is a limit to how much power you can bring in with one service. Major stated that in
practice this proposed Text Amendment was not changing anything the City has been doing. Otto agreed and said because Tybee is under contract and receives services from Chatham County, to be consistent with the regulations the inspector enforces this would put it on our books as Chatham County has it. She said there would not be the claim that our inspector
is enforcing under a Chatham County regulation. Major asked if Chatham County deals with solar. Otto said most likely they do. She said language could be put in that would exempt if it was a solar power exchange situation. Chair Marion asked if they wanted to have that inclusion. Major said Otto could parenthetically add, “This does not apply to solar
systems selling power back to the grid through a separate unidirectional meter.” The Chair asked if there was anybody from the public that wanted to comment. No one stepped forward. The Public Hearing was closed. David McNaughton
moved to approve as amended with the addition of language to exempt solar power generation meters. Major seconded the
motion. There were 5 votes in favor and Bossick voted against the motion. Otto stated the Text Amendment would go forward to Council on October 9.
Text Amendment – Article 6, Sign Regulations Planning and Zoning Manager Dianne Otto said she would appreciate greatly input on Article 6, Sign Regulations. She
said she was not looking for this to be voted on. She said she has not yet received input back from the City Attorney and
she has a couple of her own items to include. Intern John Eric Schleicher had provided the document before them and he too has some notes and questions in the margins.
The inclusion of numerous case law references in Section 6-009(I) was discussed. John Major asked if there was anywhere else in the Land Development Code where case law was included. Otto said not to her knowledge. She stated
Schleicher had consulted the City Attorney and he did support these references being included. Julie Livingston said she found it odd and it may be better suited to be on a separate page to be given to people with an application for signage. Demery Bishop said he has seen this, they are referred to as annotations, and they are used to clarify the intent of the
respective code section so the reader will understand where their case fits in or if they are perhaps attempting to have some type of legal case. He said he found it to be very helpful with one exception, and it certainly gave the precedence set for governing authorities to regulate signage within the municipalities, so it is beneficial. Major asked if annotations
would normally be footnoted at the bottom of each page or at the end of the section, rather than as a section of its own. Bishop said not necessarily; sometimes they were contained following the code section, sometimes they were contained in
technical statutory law books which are now online. He said as a court interprets a code section in 2014 that had passed in
2000, the interpretation would be included in the latest edition of that particular code section within an annotation. Major and Bishop discussed this further. Otto read the title of Section 6-009 which was, “Editor’s Note to Article 6.”
Section 6-040(C), Signs Not Requiring a Permit, subsection (1) was considered. It was agreed it was appropriate to remove the phrase or any other sanctioned and approved flag the by city. It was also agreed additional clarity was needed
in this section for flags with university or sport messages. Two minor corrections to Section 6-040(H) were affirmed. A new Section 6-045 specific to short term vacation rentals was considered. Otto explained there had been a call for
signage at vacation rentals so if there is an issue it is known who to contact if the current renters need assistance or if the Police are in need of contacting the owners. This section would require a sign be posted with the name of the property manager, a twenty-four hour, seven-day a week contact phone number, no advertising, and it would be limited to six
square feet. Major said this was a great idea and something this was sorely needed on Tybee. For condominiums he proposed a single sign with a list of the unit numbers and the specific vacation rental contact information for each unit. Marianne Bramble asked if all short term rentals have business licenses. Otto said every vacation rental is subject to
business licensing, or occupational tax. If it is a management company that has multiple properties, one license covers all
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their properties. If it is a rent by owner and it is their sole vacation rental, the business license is issued specifically to that
owner. Chair Marion asked if the onus would be on the business owner to procure their own sign or would the City
produce an acceptable standardized sign for the unit. Otto said the City would not provide a uniform sign. Otto suggested inserting that these signs are not to be posted out at the property line where it appears like a For Sale sign. These are
intended to be up at the house, on the property, not as an advertisement that this is a vacation rental. Chair Marion said
right now we have a fair amount of businesses that have vacation rentals doing some type of sign. Major said as it was written it would apply to a hotel, a condominium, a private home, a bed and breakfast. He suggested clarifying who this
should apply to. Some places have twenty-four hour desks and they do not need a twenty-four hour sign. Bramble and Otto discussed options for the location of the proposed signage. Otto stated this was intended to assist is situations where the owner needs to be contacted. Major said it is his experience the members of TIARA [Tybee Island Association of
Rental Agents] are extremely responsive if one of their units is causing problems. Bishop said the sign needs to be quickly visible. If a neighbor observes flooding pipes or something of that nature, and it’s a rental and they don’t know who to call, that sign would give a specific person to call immediately, in addition to calling the City to cut the water off. He said
there are a number of instances where knowing who to call would be beneficial. Major suggested if there is another intern it would be a really good project once these signs are all prominently posted to put together a directory by address. Otto confirmed for Ron Bossick that this proposed Text Amendment would be the only ordinance that specifically discusses
short term rentals. Major commented this has come up lots of times and the answer generally has been that these are private dwellings and every regulation that applies to your home in terms of noise, lights, excessive disturbance, applies to
that rental. Otto recalled a specific ordinance with some vacation rental regulations and the will was not to move forward
with that. Major said we have had town meetings on it and he would support it, but it has not happened. Chair Marion requested a large sign, reflective, so local law enforcement, fire department, or even he, can go out in the middle of the
night, shine a light on it and get a number. He said we all have been on properties where all of the sudden you notice it is a
Tow Away Zone and a phone number to call. He said it ought to be that powerful so people that have a need to isolate who that owner is can do so efficiently and quickly. Bishop agreed.
The discussion moved to Section 6-070, Prohibited Signs. Clarity for the roof sign language was supported. Insertion of the word area into Section 6-080(E)(2)(b) was also affirmed. The table of Section 6-080(E)(2)(c) was considered with
discussion focused on the lot frontage and speed limit standards. The roof mounted sign language in Section 6-080(E)(4) was compared to the language of Section 6-070(J). It was decided to insert projecting into (J). It was agreed it was appropriate for the projecting sign size language from (3)(a) to be copied to (4) for roof mounted signs, and it was decided
the word square needed to be inserted in both. Otto shared that an upcoming edit will state the number of projecting and roof mounted signs allowed at a business such as is currently included for wall and freestanding signs.
Section 6-080(F), Signs on Vacant Property in Commercial Zoning Districts, was considered next. Schleicher had identified that the current language would prohibit a For Sale sign. The sentence was restructured to read, “Signs shall not
be permitted on lots with no primary structure in commercial zoning districts except real estate signs.” The potential of
political signs on vacant commercial lots was discussed.
David McNaughton asked about signs located on benches from Section 6-070(N). He asked if there were a lot of
grandfathered benches in the City. Otto said she would locate the language elsewhere in the Code that allowed the inventory of existing benches to continue with no new benches to be added. For Section 6-070(O), Handbills, Major said
there are all kinds of Supreme Court rulings that election materials cannot be prohibited. Adjournment David McNaughton motioned to adjourn. Julie Livingston seconded his motion. The vote was unanimous.
Meeting ended at 8:17 p.m. Minutes prepared by Dianne Otto