Planning Commission

MINUTES TOWN OF FORT MILL PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING December 17, 2019 112 Confederate Street 6:30 PM Present: James Traynor, Tom Petty, Hynek Lettang, Matthew Lucarelli, Chris Wolfe, Ben Hudgins, Planning Director Penelope Karagounis, Planner II Nick Cauthen Absent: Andy Agrawal Guests: B. Bayles Mack, Wendy Chrisley, Toby Chrisley, and Rachel Pierce Chairman Traynor called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. After as discussed and with no further questions or comments the Chairman asked for a motion. Mr. Wolfe made a motion to approve the minutes from the November 19, 2019 Planning Commission meeting. Mr. Hudgins seconded the motion. The minutes were approved by a vote of 6-0. NEW BUSINESS ITEMS 1. Rezoning Request: B. Bayles Mack: Ms. Karagounis provided an overview for the request from B. Bayles Mack, to rezone two properties, containing approximately 3.267 +/- acres from GI, General Industrial to HC, Highway Commercial. The applicant’s rezoning request is based on the desire to down zone for commercial use rather than industrial. The town’s Comprehensive Plan recommends “employment” as the preferred land use in this location allowing for uses that can be more feasibly situated as the parcels are bordered by U.S. Foods and Banks Trail Middle School. Mr. Wolfe asked a question of where is the pseudo line for commercial districts near Bradley Park which will be for commercial on the Long-Range Plan? Based on the Future Land Use Map, this area is considered as Employment. There was also discussion about access to the Fort Mill Parkway. The applicant confirmed that the potential access would be from Banks Road and Wolfpack Trail. It would not be viable to have access to the Fort Mill Parkway due to the close proximity to the bridge. Planning Director Karagounis stated that access management would be also reviewed by the SCDOT, the County, and the Town of Fort Mill for the site. After no further questions or comments Chairman Traynor asked for a motion. Mr. Wolfe made the motion to recommend in favor of approval of the rezoning request. Mr. Lettang seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a vote of 6-0. 1 2. Commercial Appearance Review: Rev. Jacob Collins (Eternal Church) Mr. Cauthen provided a brief overview of the request, the purpose of which was to review and consider granting commercial appearance review approval for a proposed church located at the end of O’Henry Road. Mr. Cauthen provided a site plan and elevations to the Commissioners as part of the staff report. The proposal included a 25,000 sq. ft. building along with 226 parking spaces. The Planning Department recommended approval of the request with the condition for staff to be able to approve minor adjustments. Mr. Hudgins asked if there were any material samples available to view? The applicant said no. Mr. Lettang said as a general rule the Planning Commission does not approve metal sided buildings. Mr. Wolfe agreed and said a metal roof is fine but the concern with metal siding is upkeep. Mr. Traynor noted that metal siding had unfortunately come up with a couple of other churches and the Commission has been consistent in their requirements. He is aware there may be at least one other church in Town that does have metal siding, but it was built years ago. Chairman Traynor asked the applicant if they were aware of any alternative options pertaining to siding material. The applicant stated they were open to other materials, but cost was the biggest factor. Mr. Petty asked about the framing material of the building. The applicant stated it was a pre-engineered metal building. Mr. Wolfe said he was an advocate of new churches, but the metal is a big concern. The location and layout seem good. Mr. Traynor noted that in the future it would be very helpful to have material samples of the roofing and walls. Mr. Wolfe asked if staff found anything else of note that may need to be changed prior to another submittal. Staff said no. Mr. Traynor asked about the dumpster location. Mr. Wolfe said there was a note saying they would have roll-out trash. He followed by saying the Commission always tries to be sensitive to the appearance of new projects from nearby properties. Mr. Hudgins noted a concern about the potential traffic resulting from the church. Staff said Central Ave will be paved and the roads leading to the church will be striped and resurfaced if needed after construction. Mr. Wolfe told the applicant that staff could give recommendations regarding materials 2  that would be acceptable to the Commission going forward. The applicant asked if the sanctuary (back half of the building) could be metal. Mr. Traynor said the use of metal siding on the rear portions had been requested in the past and the Commission has consistently said no. Mr. Wolfe followed by saying the intent is to work with you as much as possible but churches and schools cannot be treated any differently appearance wise than other uses. The applicant asked if a metal roof would work and Chairman Traynor said the Commission has no issues with a metal roof considering they generally have a significantly longer lifespan than asphalt shingles. After Commission members had no further questions or comments Chairman Traynor asked for a motion. Mr. Hudgins made a motion to defer commercial appearance review approval until an alternative siding material could be presented. Mr. Lettang seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a vote of 6-0. 3. Commercial Appearance Review: Robert Johnson Architects Mr. Cauthen provided a brief overview of the request, the purpose of which was to review and consider granting commercial appearance review approval for phase 2 of a commercial shell building located at 1500 Fort Mill Parkway. The initial phase was approved back in January of 2019. Mr. Cauthen provided the previously approved site plan and elevations to the Commissioners as part of the staff report. The proposal included a 8,666 sq. ft. addition to the previously approved 9,913 sq. ft. building plans. The Planning Department recommended approval of the request with the condition for staff to be able to approve minor adjustments. Staff did note the previously approved plan included enough parking to account for the additional square footage. Mr. Wolfe asked for an overall site plan for the entire development. Staff stated they did not have one readily available, but this was simply an addition to the previously approved building plan that was accounted for on the original site plan. Mr. Wolfe stated he just wanted to make sure this would not negatively affect what was previously discussed regarding the master layout. Mr. Lucarelli questioned why the previously approved awnings in the P.C. packet for phase 1 were fabric instead of metal. Staff noted that the renderings in the packet were from the January P.C. meeting, the approved set of construction drawings featured metal awnings as required by P.C. Mr. Lucarelli followed by saying he just wants to make sure everything matches between the 2 phases. The Planning Commissioners discussed the look of the building and felt that it looked very nice as long as the materials matched the existing structure. Staff stated the storage building project would be adjacent to the east side of the subject property and the proposed 7-Eleven would be adjacent to the west side of the subject property. This is scheduled to be the only multi-tenant commercial building on the site. 3  After no further questions or comments Chairman Traynor asked for a motion. Mr. Lucarelli made a motion to grant commercial appearance review approval with the condition giving staff the ability to approve minor modifications to the site plan and elevations if needed and to ensure the appearance of this phase matches all conditions of prior phases of the master plan project. Mr. Wolfe seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a vote of 6-0. 4. Text Amendment: Parking Planning Director Karagounis provided a brief overview of the staff report and draft ordinance, which would amend Article I, Section 7, Subsection I (1) (A) of the Zoning Ordinance for the Town of Fort Mill; so as to add specific parking requirements for hospitals and in-patient medical facilities; to amend the parking requirements for religious centers. We currently do not have Hospital/In-Patient Facility listed as a use in the off-street parking and off-street loading requirements. After researching other nearby jurisdictions for their parking requirements, we are proposing the parking regulation for Hospital/In- Patient Facility to be 2 per patient bed + 1 per every 300 square feet of administrative area. Staff has also proposed to combine the parking requirement for the Public Assembly and Religious Centers together and to have .25 per persons of maximum fire rated capacity for the off-street parking and off-street loading requirements for both uses. This will provide consistency with the parking requirement since religious centers can also be classified as public assembly. There was discussion about how our current regulation for parking requirements for our religious centers were double the requirement, which the City of Rock Hill has and almost triple the requirement, which York County has. Planning Director Karagounis did note an error on the table in the ordinance for the proposed requirement of Hospital/In-Patient Facility the number “300” square feet of Administrative Area needed to be added and she would edit the table to include the numerical value. After no further questions or comments Chairman Traynor asked for a motion. Mr. Hudgins made a motion to recommend approval of the text amendment. Mr. Petty seconded the motion. Mr. Lucarelli stated that we should make a friendly amendment to the motion to state that the numerical value of 300 square feet of Administrative Area would be added to the table. Mr. Hudgins made a motion of the friendly amendment to approve the text amendment. Mr. Wolfe seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a vote of 6-0. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:22 PM. Respectfully submitted, 4 Penelope G. Karagounis, MA Planning Director December 27, 2019 5