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Home My Public Portal AboutPCM 2013-06-26 FRASER PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES DATE: Wednesday June 26, 2013 MEETING: Planning Commission Regular Meeting PLACE: Fraser Town Hall Board Room PRESENT Commission: Commissioners: Chair Jean Wolter, Steve Sumrall, Peggy Smith, Katie Soles, Vesta Shapiro and Tim Hodsdon Staff: Town Planner, Catherine Trotter; Town Clerk, Lu Berger Others: See attached list Chairperson called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. 1. Roll Call: 2. Approval of Agenda: Minutes of May 22, 2013 Commissioner Soles moved, and Commissioner Sumrall seconded the motion to approve the Agenda. Motion carried: 5-0. 3. Open Forum: 4. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding: a. Sign Code Vesta Shapiro arrived. Included in the packet is Article 10 of the Fraser Municipal Code entitled, Signs and Outdoor Advertising Devices. If you remember, we had a request from a Town Board member to revisit the Fraser Sign Code and prohibit off-premise signage. The reason is that it is his belief that such signage is ineffective and uncontrollable. I did send out a planner listsery on the topic and discovered that many Colorado communities do not allow off-premise signs. We are looking for your feedback on this and any other possible revisions to the Fraser Sign Code. This is a discussion item and will be scheduled for a public hearing in the near future. The direction I received at the last meeting was that perhaps if we restricted off-premise signage with certain criteria, the PC would be agreeable to allow such signage. Staff would like to find a way to allow this signage in an effort to assist our businesses; however sign clutter is also a concern. I found some information on off-premise signage permitted in Glenwood Springs. They use the following off-premise sign criteria: Page 2 of 3 1. The off-premises sign permit requested would not harm the public and would not impair the intent or purposes of the Municipal Code, goals and policies of the sign code; 2. The business to which the off-premise sign relates must demonstrate a significant economic hardship without the off-premises sign; 3. The subject business is in an obscure location, removed from minor thoroughfares, such that the off-premise sign is necessary to direct the public to the business; and 4. The off-premise sign is directional in nature. I am proposing that if a business is not directly visible from US40, it would be able to apply for an off-premise sign permit using the criteria referenced above. The off-premise sign would be subject to all business sign requirements, such as size, height, placement and number. The off-premise sign is counted against the sign allowance on the parcel on which it is displayed (not against the parcel/business applying for the sign). I would also suggest a 20 SF maximum. We hope to have some business owners present as well to hear their concerns and suggestions, in addition to your thoughts. See Section 16-10-170 (c), page 16-99 regulates off-premise signs: "Off-premise signs may be permitted if the business street frontage is not on U.S. 40. Property owner's permission is required and off-premises signs must be approved by the Board of Trustees on a case-by-case basis." Vacant land can only have 50 sq. ft. of signage on the lot. b. Zoning Regulations To reiterate: during the Byers Peak Ranch annexation process, it was discussed with the Annexation Committee and the applicant that there appears to be some duplication in the Town's regulations relating to zoning requirements. We have initiated a discussion regarding changes to the Business Zone and Planned Development District regulations to provide for a more streamlined process without duplication. I have attached the links to the Fraser Municipal Code for these zoning regulations. http://www.colocode.co /fraser/fraser 16.pdf Article 4 is the Business District Regulations and Article 5 is the PD District Regulations. Please review these 2 sections of the Code in preparation for our discussion. The regulations are also included in the packet. We discussed some minimal revisions to the Business Zone and PDD regulations to address the duplication of process concerns. The revisions are in the packet. Please let me know if there are any other suggested revisions to these 2 sections of the zoning code. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU): Page 3 of 3 Since we are discussing zoning code revisions, and will have the same public notice requirements for all and any zoning code amendments, we wanted to have a discussion about the size of ADU's. The Fraser Municipal Code currently states the following: (1)The size of the accessory dwelling unit shall be subject to the following limitations: a. The unit shall contain at least two hundred (200) square feet of habitable floor area; b. The unit shall be no larger than fifty percent (50%) of the square footage of the principal dwelling unit or five hundred (500)square feet, whichever is greater. c. The Board of Trustees may approve an increase in the size of an accessory dwelling unit, if the unit is located over a detached garage, and the Board of Trustees makes a finding that the size limitations of Subparagraph b. above constitute an unnecessary hardship. We would like to suggest that an ADU can't exceed 1000 SF and incorporate a sliding Single Family Equivalent(SFE) based upon the size of the ADU. 200-500 SF .35 SFE 500-750 SF .5 750-1000 SF .75 1000 sq ft. Outside, unheated storage area? 5. Adjourn Commissioner Hodsdon moved, and Commissioner Shapiro seconded the motion to adjourn. Motion carried: -0. Meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. tl Lu Berger, Town Cler