City Council

COLUMBIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION & WORK SESSION CITY HALL – 1840 SECOND STREET MARCH 21, 2017 - 6:30 P.M. PLANNING COMMISSIONERS: Kelly Niles, Chair* *Denotes Commissioner absent Barbara Gordon, Vice-Chair Coralee Aho Doug Calkins George Fortier Dana Marble* Shelly Sandford STAFF: Stacey Goldstein, City Planner Helen Johnson, Planning Administrative Assistant MEETING TO ORDER: Barbara called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Barbara led the pledge of allegiance. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Shelly Sandford asked for revisions to the June 21, 2016 minutes requesting some additional documentation regarding the maintenance agreement being dropped and a better outline as to why it was dropped. Helen agreed to go back to the tape and listen again for better clarification as to why the maintenance agreement would be dropped from the Columbia Harbour development. IT WAS MOVED (CORALEE) AND SECONDED (DOUG) TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE JULY 19, 2016, AUGUST 31, 2016 AND OCTOBER 18, 2016 MEETINGS. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. CITIZEN INPUT AND REQUESTS: None. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None. COLUMBIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION & WORK SESSION March 21, 2017 Page 2 NEW BUSINESS/WORK SESSION: Stacey presented information to the Planning Commission at the direction of the City Council to consider changes to the Development Code adding equipment and truck rental as a permitted use in the Commercial Zone of the City. Stacey reviewed her memo explaining UHAUL has been locating truck rental services at the Columbia Grocery & Gas. This type of use is not currently permitted in the Commercial Zone, only the Industrial Zone. She explained that one idea would have been for the applicant to applying for a Comp Plan amendment and zone change for the property, because it is currently commercial, but if you make it an industrial use then that would be ok. But when looking at that option closer we found it not be a good solution because then the existing uses would no longer be compliant. Also the process is expensive and time intensive. One of the things discussed In Stacey’s memo to the Commissioners, was to look at what surrounding jurisdictions do in this situation. Do they allow equipment and truck rental in their Commercial Zone? Scappoose, St. Helens and Rainier each allowed equipment and truck rentals or the equivalent in their commercial zones. Stacey then reviewed the zone’s purpose statement and stated the proposed addition of the equipment and truck rental designation to the commercial zone would meet the intent of the purpose statement. Also discussed were the potential negative impacts this use would have and the negative impacts currently allowed use would have. Staff felt the impacts from this use would be less than some of the other permitted uses in the zone. In any of these circumstances a well-designed site can address these potential negative impacts. If this use were to be added to the Commercial Zoning in Columbia City, UHAUL still has a development review process that would need to be complete before the truck rental use could be considered a legal use. Commissioners and staff discussed the matter at length and agreed the addition to the zone would be a complimentary use. IT WAS MOVED (SHELLY) AND SECONDED (DANA) TO RECOMMEND PLANNING STAFF TO MOVE THE MATTER FORWARD THE CITY COUNCIL THE ADDITION OF RETAIL TRUCK AND TRAILER RENTALS BE ADDED TO THE COMMERICAL ZONE OF THE DEVELOPMENT CODE. MOTIONED CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Helen talked about the training in Scappoose that her and Doug had attended on transportation. She shared it was enlightening to see all the different area that are considered when you are looking at your current and future transportation needs. Helen also discussed getting the Housing Workgroup information to the Commissioners for future discussion. Some of the Commissioners recalled having discussed and reviewed this topic previously. COLUMBIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION & WORK SESSION March 21, 2017 Page 3 ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:03 p.m. ________________________________ ____________________________________ Barbara Gordon Attest by: Helen K Johnson Planning Commission Vice-Chair Planning Administrative Assistant