Planning Commission

FAIRMONT PLANNING COMMISSION The meeting of the Fairmont Planning Commission was held August 29th, 2022 @ 7:00 the Public Safety Building 500 Quincy St. Fairmont WV. President Greene called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and asked for a roll call of members. ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS MEMBERS ABSENT / PRESENT Commissioner Bledsoe Present Commissioner Jura Present Commissioner Lambert Absent Commissioner Richards Present Commissioner Straight Present Commissioner Wean Present Commissioner Yann Present President Greene Present Commissioner Majic Present CITY STAFF Director of Planning and Development – Shae Strait Assistant Planner- Carly O’Dell Jones Staff Assistant- Kirstin Poluck A motion was made by President Greene to excuse Commissioner Lambert. Commissioner Richardson seconded the motion. Motion Passed. APPROVAL OF MINUTES from July 20th, 2022 President Greene asked for everyone to read of the previous months minutes and look for corrections or additions. A motion was made by Commissioner Jura to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Majic seconded he motion. All in favor. Motion Passed. NEW BUSINESS / PUBLIC HEARINGS 1. PC 22-08 - City of Fairmont is petitioning to amend Article 3, Table 3.A - Permitted Principal Uses to add additional permitted uses to the Technology District. The City is petitioning to add Child Care Centers, Child Care Facilities, and Office Use (all sizes) as Permitted. Planning Director Strait spoke in regards to this matter. He stated the following: This change was prompted by a number of groups. A local business was trying to open in the technology park to operate a childcare facility and childcare center, which then prompted us to have discussions with the High-Tech Foundation, particularly Jimmy Estep. We went through a number of things to talk about where our current zoning ordinances and how we permit uses and don't permit uses for the technology districts and that is a very unique district for the city. The High-Tech Foundation supported the adjustments to accommodate a new business coming in to the Tech Park. Along with that we’re proposing the additional adjustments for the office uses, as that was an oversight by staff to the changes proposed last year. We used to have a different office definition called professional offices, which was the same as offices, so we eliminated professional offices, but that's the carryover that offices should have been permitted in technology because professional offices were a custom definition just for the technology district. So, we're requesting to adjust that error and to place in the childcare centers and childcare facilities. As discussed with the High-Tech Foundation. President Greene asked if there was anyone present in favor of the request, there was no one. He then asked if there was any present NOT in favor of the request, there was no one. He then closed the public hearing. President Greene then asked if anyone had any questions to which Commissioner Bledsoe asked what sizes of office would not be permitted. Director Strait referred to the permitted use chart which is set up that anything that does not have an indicator inside of the box would be prohibited. So with the offices, basically it's saying no matter what size the company is, they are permitted to operate offices within the technology district which we believe would be beneficial for them in particular, although no other district has quite that permissive nature. We believe that would be beneficial because of the size of the structures that they have there. And the probability of a company being that big to be able to occupy one of those buildings even at half capacity would exceed 30,000 square feet. So then, what wouldn't be allowed is a large array of various uses. Primarily anything residential, anything lodging, anything Civic. Almost all commercial uses nearly all industrial and agricultural uses would also be banned, which is the current context of the district. President Greene asked if there were any more questions or concerns to which there were none. He then asked for a motion regarding the petition. Commissioner Bledsoe made a motion to approve the petition as proposed, Commissioner Majic seconded the motion. A roll call vote was then done. Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Bledsoe- Yes; Commissioner Greene- Yes; Commissioner Jura- Yes; Commissioner Richardson- Yes; Commissioner Straight- Yes; Commissioner Wean- Yes; Commissioner Yann – Yes; Commissioner Majic- Yes Motion to confirm the application was complete was approve. The next item on the agenda is to Determining Completeness of PC 22-09 – Major Subdivision in the High Technology Park which includes a street, Copley Pl, and the merger of parcels north of the street. President Greene stated that we are just determining if the given application is complete. Planning Director Strait went through all the requirements to which would determine the completeness of the application. Once that was completed President Greene asked for a motion on the request. Commissioner Richardson made a request to approve the request. Commissioner Wean seconded the motion. All roll call vote was done. Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Bledsoe- Yes; Commissioner Greene- Yes; Commissioner Jura- Yes; Commissioner Richardson- Yes; Commissioner Straight- Yes; Commissioner Wean- Yes; Commissioner Yann – Yes; Commissioner Majic- Yes Motion to confirm the application was complete was unanimously approved. President Greene asked for a motion to set the public hearing on September 21st,2022 for PC 22-09. Commissioner Straight made a motion to set the public hearing, Commissioner Richardson seconded the motion. Motion passed; a roll call vote was done. Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Bledsoe- Yes; Commissioner Greene- Yes; Commissioner Jura- Yes; Commissioner Richardson- Yes; Commissioner Straight- Yes; Commissioner Wean- Yes; Commissioner Yann – Yes; Commissioner Majic- Yes Motion to confirm the public hearing was approved. President Greene asked for staff comments. Commissioner Yann mentioned an article regarding the House Financial Services Subcommittee on the housing crisis and suggested if the board had time to read it. Planning Director Strait stated that Commissioner Lambert would be stepping down for the board at the end of September in order to have more time with this newly growing family. The next thing Staff presents is coming up with individualized proposed amendments that will adjust rules that have previously had some questions about such as October being a required meeting for the month and Planning Commissioner meeting once every quarter, that was you are not mandated to meet in months where we have nothing on the agenda to discuss. Staff recommends something along the lines of the state rules so it offers some flexibility. President Greene stated that he would be in favor of this. Staff also brought forth a change in the meeting date if that would be more convenient for the board. We also proposed the change of deadline for the submission date to 30 days before the meeting, in order to have the time to get in legal ads, staff reports, etc. We also have potential changes to the order of business on the agenda along with when the agenda will have to be set. Staff did note if there was a change in the meeting day it would create the advantage of being able to get things approved with the Planning Commission onto the Agenda for City Council quicker. President Greene agrees with the possible changes. Commissioner Straight wanted to verify that we had spoken to the City Attorney about any of the proposed changes just mentions and wanted to clarify that if would be ok for them to be done. Commissioner Bledsoe asked that the process was in order to change the rules. Staff stated that they would be individual items on the agenda for the board to vote on. The earliest any of these changes would take into effect would be December, giving the public plenty of notice that these meetings would be changing. ADJOURNMENT President Greene asked for a motion to adjourn meeting. Commissioner Straight motioned to adjourn the meeting; Commissioner Yann seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion approved.