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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20060710_agenda_mtg 1 MINUTES Planning Commission Agenda Meeting July 10, 2006 – 7:00 PM Chair Lawanna Tsoulos called the July 10, 2006 Planning Commission Agenda Meeting to order. Other Commissioners present were: Barry Brown, Sandy Chandler, Bill Garbett, Honor Hutton, and Chuck Powell. Absent were Susan Hill and Gene Kindrick. City Staff present were Dee Anderson and Dianne Otto. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos reminded the Commissioners to study the Minutes from the June 12th Agenda Meeting and the June 20th Meeting so they could be approved at the July 17, 2006 Meeting. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos announced that the Major Subdivision of Land and Zoning Variances for 707 Strand, PIN 4-0005-20-006, Zone R-2, had been withdrawn by the petitioner, Robert Chu. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said the next item, Dark Sky Initiative Subcommittee – Update, would be discussed later in the meeting so that the petitioners could be heard first. David Woodrum represented a Zoning Variance request for 15 Thirteenth Street, PIN 4-0007-05-002, Zone R- 2. The petition requested a reduction in the lot size requirement from 6,750 square feet to 6,400 square feet for the construction of a new duplex. The Variance would be from Section 3-030, Reduction in Lot Area, of the Land Development Code. David Woodrum said the family has owned the lot since 1956. He said they have no intentions of violating any setbacks. He said they would like to be able to put a duplex to offset some of the taxes and be able to afford to live there. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos confirmed with Woodrum they would meet all the setbacks. Tsoulos confirmed that the minimum lot size for a duplex in Zone R-2 is 6,750 square feet. Tsoulos explained that this was not a Public Hearing. Chuck Powell asked Woodrum to come to Monday’s Meeting prepared to explain why he was asking for the lot reduction and what he plans to do about a very large oak tree on the western boundary of the property. Bill Garbett said a Variance is based on a hardship which is imposed by the lot. Garbett asked Woodrum to tell them at the next meeting what it was about the lot that is unique that would be a justification. Woodrum said okay. Tsoulos told Woodrum they would see him Monday, July 17th. Erin Sheldon represented a Site Plan Approval and Zoning Variances at 13 Fourteenth Street, PIN 4-0007-06- 001, Zone R-T. The first Variance request from the Land Development Code was from Section 3-080 (B), Off- Street Parking Requirements, related to driveways. The second Variance request was from Section 3-090 (B), Schedule of Development Regulations, of the Land Development Code, related to setbacks. Petitioners were Erin and Chris Sheldon; Shiloh, Amber and Kathleen Hutton. Sheldon said they currently have about a 6,000 square foot house on the property. She said the property has been in her family for about fifty years. She said they have done almost everything they can to try to put up with the noise and stuff that is on their corner. She said it is a very busy intersection. Sheldon said for two years they have tried to run the property as an inn. She said they were going to expand it but realized that because of the noise it makes it a little uncomfortable for the guests. Sheldon said what they have decided to do, for themselves as well as the residents behind them, is create a project that creates a buffer zone. She said the ten units will back Fourteenth Street and open into a large greenspace area that is currently there. Sheldon said they were asking for a Variance on the northeast side in order to make the units 16-1/2 feet wide. She said if they do not get the 5-feet then the units are going to be too skinny. She said they need to do ten in order to make the numbers work out. She said the other Variance was for the driveways. She said there are cedar trees that line Fourteenth Street and they are going to do everything they can to preserve that line of trees. Sheldon said they have 58 trees on the property and they plan to have 58 trees when the property is done. She said there are two very old live oaks that will be preserved and three younger ones that will be saved as well. Referring to a submitted drawing, Sandy Chandler said Sheldon said they were going to preserve all the trees but a 21-inch and 26-inch magnolia tree were not going to be preserved. Sheldon said they will replace the trees. She said they will not be the same age. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos asked if they planned to mitigate. Sheldon said that was right; they have enough space to add more trees. Chuck Powell said the property is listed as 13 Fourteenth Street but the plans present the Fourteenth Street side as not being the front of the property. He said that changes the setbacks in an R-T zone. He said they are showing that Butler Avenue is going to be the front. Powell commented that they are being asked to approve a Site Plan, but this is going to have to have a Special Review. Zoning Administrator Dee Anderson said it is a Special Review, not a Site Plan. He said the Agenda would be corrected. Barry Brown said some of the units are entering from Butler 2 Avenue and the rest are entering from Fourteenth Street. Sheldon said there are seven units that enter from Fourteenth Street and three units from Butler Avenue. She said they were under the impression that with a corner lot they could choose the front and the back so they could choose where the setbacks were. Anderson said a corner lot can choose. Brown asked if the units were condominiums. Sheldon said they were residential units; they were townhouses, individually owned but connected by a firewall. Bill Garbett asked about the Zoning Variance for off-street parking requirements. Anderson said they are allowed two driveway openings of 25-feet and the petition asks for more than that. Brown asked if that was on one lot. Anderson said the lot is 180 feet long so they are allowed two. Brown said if they are townhouses why wouldn’t they have to be set up on individual lots of 6,000 square feet. He asked what the square footage for duplex lots was in zone R-T. Garbett asked what that had to do with off-street parking. Brown said nothing, but if these are townhouses or duplexes each one should have its own individual lot, not one large tract. Sheldon said it may be that they are residential units in a condominium development. Brown asked if they were going to be called condominiums. Tsoulos said yes. Anderson said the only things allowed in R-T are apartment houses and condominiums. Powell asked if they had to approve the Site Plan before they could have the Special Review. Anderson said it does not need a Site Plan; it needs a Special Review. He said they filled out the wrong application. Anderson said there are no Site Plan requirements for R-T. Tsoulos said the Special Review part is related to the use of the land. Brown said they would still have to determine if Fourteenth Street or Butler Avenue is the front; they can not have two front yards on the same property. Tsoulos said correct, but on a corner lot they can choose. Garbett asked about the other Variance. Anderson said they are 5-feet into the setback. Tsoulos told Sheldon the petition was on the Agenda for Monday night. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said they would elect a Vice Chair at next Monday’s meeting. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said the next item was a proposal that commercial Site Plans include bicycle racks. She said they discussed it at the last Agenda Meeting. Tsoulos said Diane Schleicher, City Manager, recommended that commercial Site Plans have spaces for bicycle racks. Zoning Administrator Dee Anderson said City Attorney Bubba Hughes is working on a proposed ordinance. Tsoulos said the issue would not go on the Agenda until Hughes has prepared the wording. The next item was not on the list for the Agenda Meeting. It was a Site Plan Approval request for the Burns Tract, Old Highway 80, PIN 4-0024-01-005, Zone M-D. The request was for a conceptual Site Plan Approval for twelve studios and shops with residential space above them, and also a restaurant and ship store. Steve Watson and Gary Sanders represented it. Zoning Administrator Dee Anderson said the Text Amendment to allow such use would be before City Council on Thursday, July 13th, and the petitioner understands that if the Text Amendment is turned down they will not go to the Public Hearing for Site Plan Approval. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said the Planning Commission recommended denial of the Text Amendment change. Anderson said the drawing the Planning Commissioners were given was what the petitioner wanted to do if the Text Amendment is approved. Tsoulos said if the Text Amendment is approved Thursday night then the Planning Commission would hear the Site Plan Approval Monday night. Tsoulos said the Text Amendment would change the allowed use. Chuck Powell asked for confirmation that the Site Plan Approval would not be on the Planning Commission Agenda unless Council approves the Text Amendment Thursday night. Tsoulos said that was right. Powell said the Commissioners have not had a chance to study the drawing and visit the site with the drawing in mind. Sandy Chandler said the Text Amendment has not been approved; under what auspices were they looking at this. Tsoulos said Anderson spoke with City Attorney Bubba Hughes. Anderson said he originally would not accept the Site Plan Approval application because the Text Amendment was not approved, but Hughes advised him this morning to take it with the understanding that if the Text Amendment is turned down then the Site Plan Approval does not go to a Public Hearing. Anderson said the petitioner is asking to put on the Agenda. Chandler said it has already been determined that it is going to be on the Agenda. Anderson said no, the Planning Commission controls the Agenda. Powell said this is not their normal procedure. He said it is rushing them and not giving them the proper time to consider it and do their duty. He said the litigation is being held over their heads. He said the Site Plan petition should come next month if City Council approves the Text Amendment Thursday night. Bill Garbett said with the current status of the use of that property this was basically out of order. Barry Brown asked if the buildings were quadriplexes or duplexes. Sanders said each was a single unit over its own retail. Brown asked why the drawing showed them tied together. Sanders said they were attached by stairways. He said each unit was self-contained. Brown asked if that made it a quadriplex. Sanders said by the building code it is a multi-family building. Brown and Sanders discussed the structure of the building. Sanders said the reason the Commissioners had 3 the Site Plan Approval application now was because they had no information at to what was going to be proposed when they considered the Text Amendment. Sanders said they are proposing twelve units over retail units. He said the owner of each unit above would own the studio space or retail space below it. He said it will create kind of a retail center. He said it is a multi-use complex with residential being only a small part of the project. Chandler said the central issue was private residences in the Maritime District. He said he thought the Planning Commission made it clear that that was the sticking point, not what it would look like. Sanders said he is working on a drawing for City Council on Thursday that will show the character of what they are proposing. He said it is very much a commercial character. Sanders said the concept needed to get out. Following continued discussion of adding residential use to the Maritime District, Tsoulos called for a decision as to whether the Site Plan Approval petition should go on the July 17th Planning Commission Agenda. Chandler moved to postpone until after City Council makes a decision on the Text Amendment. Powell seconded. The vote was unanimous. Tsoulos told Watson and Sanders that it would not go on the Agenda. Powell said because of the controversial public nature of this project they should allow it all the time they can give it so they get good input. Brown asked if it would be advertised. Anderson said petitions only get advertised when they go to City Council. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said the other things on the July 17th Agenda will be the election of a Vice Chair and an update from the Dark Sky Subcommittee. She encouraged all of the Commissioners to attend the Dark Sky Subcommittee meeting on July 20th when a representative from General Electric will talk about lighting. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos said Planning Commissioner Susan Hill is on the Ethics Advisory Board and the Board met last week. Tsoulos said they are still under the existing ethics code. She said the Board is in the process of rewriting it. Tsoulos said if there are questions regarding ethics they should come to the Chair and at that point they would go to the City Attorney. Chuck Powell asked the status of former Planning Commissioner Rachel Perkins’ replacement. Zoning Administrator Dee Anderson said City Council will consider the candidates Thursday night and the replacement should be at the Planning Commission meeting on Monday. Barry Brown asked who the candidates were. Anderson said Charlie Brewer and Ron Gladdin. Chair Lawanna Tsoulos reminded the Commissioners that they would be meeting Monday night rather than Tuesday due to the Primary Election. She adjourned the meeting.