Board of Zoning Appeals

Regular Meeting Minutes of the Murfreesboro Board of Zoning Appeals January 22, 2020 – 1:00 P.M. Council Chambers MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS ABSENT Ken Halliburton, Vice-Chair Davis Young, Chair Tim Tipps Julie King Misty Foy STAFF PRESENT Jafar Ware, Planner David Ives, Assistant City Attorney Matthew Blomeley, Acting Planning Director Brenda Davis, Recording Assistant Chairman Vice-Chair Halliburton called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. The minutes from the December 19, 2019 regular meeting were approved as submitted. New Business Special Use Permit Request Application Z-20-001 by Mr. Clyde Rountree of Huddleston-Steele Engineering, Inc., representing Enterprise Holdings, Inc., requesting a special use permit in order to establish a motor vehicle sales and rental facility on property in the Commercial Highway (CH) district located along the south side of Franklin Road east of Franklin Heights Drive (the subject property is also identified as Tax Map 0920, Group B, Parcel 00200). Mr. Ware reviewed the application and staff comments. If the Board approved this request, Staff recommends the following conditions of approval: 1) The design of the gates will be subject to the final review and approval of the Planning Department to ensure that there are adequate turnaround areas for vehicles and to ensure that vehicles will not be forced to back out into the public right-of-way. 2) A privacy fence shall be required along the south and west property lines. The privacy fence shall not be a substitute for any of the standard Type E buffer yard BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 plantings; rather, it shall be in addition to the standard Type E buffer yard plantings. 3) The landscaping screening plan for the overhead doors that are proposed to face the new public street shall be subject to final review and approval of the Planning Department prior to the issuance of building permits. Mr. Blomeley received a revised site plan at 11:00 A.M. this morning which did not give Staff adequate time to review the revised site plan. Staff recommended the Board, after conducting a public hearing, defer action until the February BZA meeting. Mr. Blomeley said no public hearing would be required at that meeting if we conduct the public hearing today, as advertised. He said the changes weren’t substantial enough to warrant another public hearing however there hasn’t been adequate time for Staff to review the revised plans therefore Staff feels unprepared to offer the Board guidance on the revised plan. Mr. Blomeley said the revised plan is what is before the members. He asked, if it pleases the Board for you to conduct the public hearing and then vote to defer action until our February regular meeting. Mr. Tipps asked for the definition of a Type E buffer. Mr. Blomeley said a Type E buffer is a 20-foot wide buffer and typically is required between single-family residential uses and industrial uses. He said it is the most densely planted and widest buffer. Mr. Blomeley said the Type A buffer is the smallest buffer and requires a 10-foot wide buffer and a Type E is twice that and requires a 20-foot wide buffer and would have the greatest volume of evergreen trees and shrubs. Mr. Tipps verified this location would also have a privacy fence on the south and west side. Mr. Blomeley said yes. Vice-Chair Halliburton asked if the applicant had anyone present to speak. Mr. Clyde Rountree with Huddleston-Steele Engineering, representing the applicant came to the podium. Mr. Rountree said the architect is present as well. He said the primary goal with this process is to make sure they are respecting the adjacent neighbors. He said as has been mentioned on both the western side and the southern side the Type E buffer is provided. He said from a detail standpoint there are typically two rows of evergreen trees and then two rows of evergreen shrubs, so it is very dense and then they added a 6-foot fence to provide a physical barrier. Mr. Rountree said the distance is important too. He said the original drawings showed a “wash-bay station” directly behind the main building but it was oriented in such a way that wash / operational doors faced the public right-of-way, adding that wasn’t the best scenario. They were first under the impression they could buffer or screen them, but Enterprise 2 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 wanted to make sure everyone was happy with the plans. Mr. Rountree said they took the wash-bay station and moved it to the lower southern portion on the left-hand side to get it behind the building. He said there is still a chance you would still be able to see the doors from Franklin Road. Mr. Rountree has been working with Mr. Blomeley to move the wash-bay station to the right-hand side and that put it as far away from the adjacent neighbor as possible. Mr. Rountree said that was one of the major adjustments that modified the site plan substantially. He said the second change is they have the dumpster on the very rear portion of the property and after review he moved it up a few bays, so it is no longer against the property lines. Mr. Rountree said there are a lot of moving parts trying to solidify the plan. He said they have met the criteria they feel is necessary for a car lot to be on this particular piece of property. He was available to answer any questions the Board might have specifically about the design. Mr. Bill Huddleston is present and Mr. Preston, the architect is present to answer questions as well. Vice-Chair Halliburton asked Mr. Rountree about car haulers coming in and out of this location. He sees on the site plan where the car hauler is supposed to park and asked if there is enough space for it to be able to unload. Mr. Rountree said it is 150 X 25 and said they meet the criteria for the unloading zone. He said when Enterprise Corporate did the revisions, they put the unloading zone in a traffic lane. Mr. Rountree understands any unloading should not impede on any of the normal traffic on-site. By taking it down and putting it at the proposed location is appropriate as it meets the required dimensions. Mr. Rountree said Enterprise does not run any car haulers as that is not part of their business model. He said they don’t ship their product and they addressed the requirement for an unloading zone. Mr. Halliburton asked Mr. Blomeley if the Board were to approve this special use permit would it be only for this applicant. He verified it can’t be used for someone else that might purchase this property. Mr. Blomeley said the special use permit runs with the property. Mr. Rountree said it meets all the requirements for a car lot even though the car haulers are not a part of Enterprises’ business model. He said that is a requirement based on the City Zoning Ordinance. Mr. Blomeley said he can’t say, at this time, what he does or does not feel comfortable with. He said there are moving parts to this and we received a revised plan two hours ago. He consulted a little bit with Mr. Rountree at the front counter yesterday, received a plan from him at 5:15 yesterday afternoon which he responded to after business hours yesterday by e-mail. Today, he received a revised plan addressing some comments at 11:00 a.m. this morning. Mr. Blomeley said it is not reasonable to expect Staff to be 3 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 able to fully vet a plan with that little amount of time considering other things we have on our plates as well. Ms. King said procedurally it would be appropriate for the Board to take a public hearing for those who have taken the time to be here today and then defer. She said the Board would not need to have a discussion on the matter unless they feel so moved. She said they could defer the discussion and approval of this until the next month when Staff can review it with the Board again. Mr. Blomeley felt it would be appropriate if the Board had feedback based upon what the neighbors might have to say, or you observe things on the plan or about their application that you would them to address before the next meeting. Ms. King said if after the review a public hearing would be necessitated according to Staff, if there was something that Mr. Blomeley felt would be appropriate for public to be notified of or if you would send out notification again and another public hearing. Mr. Blomeley said if Staff felt the application changed substantially and another public hearing was warranted, we would certainly do that. Based upon the plans that have been submitted, he does not think that would be the case. He said it is just a matter of having adequate time to review a plan before we come to a televised meeting where we are making decisions. Ms. King verified that anyone present today would be welcome to come back to hear any further discussion but there would not be another invitation or any further comments from the public. Mr. Blomeley agreed adding it would be a public meeting but not a public hearing so people could attend and listen. He said the meeting will be televised again so they can listen on TV but there would not be another public hearing. Mr. Tipps asked Mr. Rountree what revisions were done within the past day that he didn’t have prior to this meeting. Mr. Rountree said the primary change was the wash-bay building orientation. After working with City Staff, it was determined that the wash-bay couldn’t stay in its current location and would need to provide an extended island of landscaping along the eastern side. After Corporate saw that concern, they saw the opportunity to go ahead and move that wash-bay building back which allowed them to put parking adjacent to the building on the rear. Where the wash-bay was originally located, there was no parking on the rear of the building. He said that is the biggest change. Mr. Rountree said the dumpster is the second change adding it has moved three times within the last week. The final location where the dumpster is now is what Mr. Blomeley has not reviewed. He feels 4 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 like the dumpster is away from the property line enough where it is not in the way of any sort of circulation around the building. He said those are the primary things and then Corporate sent Mr. Rountree a plan which is really interesting as they had it very detailed pertaining to the parking being color coded. He sent that plan to Mr. Blomeley and said it was like looking at a matrix cube. Mr. Blomeley asked Mr. Rountree to simplify the plan and changed parking allocations all around the site. He said Corporate asked Mr. Rountree to do queuing lanes on this plan and Mr. Blomeley was not comfortable with that. Mr. Rountree needed to make sure all these pieces are as far away from the property lines as possible. He said most of the front stayed the same and most of the changes took place on the rear portion of the development. Vice-Chair Halliburton opened the public hearing. Mr. Joseph Plummer at 304 Franklin Heights Drive came to the podium. Mr. Plummer said his home is up the road about ½ mile from this project and they have lived there going on 29 years. The City and the State has done an excellent job developing that area of Highway 96 and he believes it is the nicest part of the City. Excellent setbacks, plenty of greenery, parking and many small businesses that are useful. He was excited when the Hardees came in and then the Burger King and the Just Love Coffee and the dental care, etc., etc. He said when he read the public notice in the newspaper, his first private thought was this must be a Ponzi scheme. A car lot there? He said that is some high dollar real estate right there and he always wondered what useful business would go in there just seconds from his home. He thought it might be a land lease deal should the car lot fail then we would be stuck with all the ugly left behind and we have plenty of that around the City. He said next to the proposed car lot, modern Speedway or whatever they are building is near completion. Mr. Plummer asked what the monster, 2- story, ugly structure next to Speedway that is nearing completion. He said, “Here we go again. The City has relaxed setback, not much parking, built a structure that just doesn’t fit in with the surrounding architecture.” He said he didn’t understand why the City cannot stick to its original game plans. Mr. Plummer said he opposed this car lot there that backs up into their neighborhood. He said let’s stick with our game plans and make this city beautiful. He thanked the Board. Ms. Marsha L. Richardson, Executer of the Estate of Lois Jean Richardson at 3088 Old Fort Parkway Franklin Road came to the podium. She moved there when she was five years old and the house is 60 years old now as it was built in 1960. She said it was the country then but now it is residential. She got a notice of this last week in the mail that there was going to be an Enterprise car company there. Ms. Richardson asked the Board to please employ to not to do this without a little bit more notice and at least letting the people that see this that live there and are going to be affected by this every day, let them have some input into it. She said this has come as a surprise to both her sister and her. Ms. Richardson said they haven’t even had a time to have a response. She had to take off work to come here today to address this, one stamp and that is it. She added 5 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 they are the only property from I-24 on down to Paschal Drive that is still zoned Residential on Franklin Road. She is not trying to protect that. She said her Dad used to have a saying, “That’s progress”. She said it is going to come out this way and she knows that and accept that. She said that was a 2-lane little bitty road that didn’t even have a strip down it when her dad bought that property. Ms. Richardson knows things have changed but she would like to be appraised of this because this is going to have, maybe a positive but it could certainly have a devasting impact on our home. Ms. Richardson thanked the Board. Mr. Allen Holfield at 115 Franklin Heights Drive came to the podium. His property is located adjacent, next door to the west side of the property that is in question. He had several questions and concerns. 1) He asked the hours of construction. He said when they built the Racetrac because it is one property over from being in his back yard. He said they were working late into the night. They were hauling hundreds of truckloads of dirt and rock in there working till 11:00 or 12:00 at night. He said that was one of his big concerns. Mr. Holfield said he knows it is coming and is ok with it and is ok with Enterprise being there. He thinks Enterprise will be good neighbors and he too is trying to be a good neighbor. He was concerned about the impact of what it is going to be on his family. Again, he said (1) is the hours of construction; (2) proposed start and finish date; (3) what are their hours of work going to be adding they are old and go to bed early. He knows there is going to be progress and he is ok with it. He referred to the (4) buffer stating he appreciates the privacy fence, the Type E buffer with 2-3 rows. Mr. Holfield asked about a berm because there is an option – option 1, 2, or 3 on the Type E buffers pointing out one option is a 3-foot berm which is a raised bed and then the 6-foot trees or privacy fence. He thinks the berm would be a tremendous help since you are starting off with 9-10 feet. Mr. Holfield said that will block off a lot of the light and (5) he is concerned with the lighting in the parking lot. He was concerned the parking lot will be lit up like day light, but he is ok with that as there is a new high-tech light that shine down. He said if they are shining on a parking lot, that is fine but if they are going to be shining on cars and the reflection off those cars is going to be reflected right back up and will light up the neighborhood. He questioned Mr. Ware about the berm, and he said they weren’t planning to install a berm. Mr. Ware said the reason they may not install a berm is because there might be some issues with the drainage. Mr. Holfield said the drainage would cause a dam which he thinks would be better if the water stays on that side of the property than coming on his side of the property. He said that is another question on his list. He appreciates the privacy fence and the trees and questions the berm. It would be nice with a buffer to be installed before the construction to block off some of the construction. He didn’t know if you have heard a dump truck dump, but it goes KaToon KaToon and he heard that enough at Racetrac. His next point was (6) elevation and the run-off, drainage. He said the Racetrac was built 6 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 approximately 3-4 feet elevation between their property and Enterprise property. He asked if Enterprise would build up their property too. He was afraid the shot rock and dirt would cause a drainage issue on his property. Mr. Holfield’s next concern (7) was about the proposed stormwater management pond and asked where the water goes if the pond fills up. He answered, downhill. He had questions about the wash-bay doors but understands where they have been moved. He wanted to get the hours of operation on record as Mr. Ware told him 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Mr. Holfield thanked the Board. Vice-Chair Halliburton closed the public hearing. Vice-Chair Halliburton asked Mr. Ware and Mr. Blomeley to address the concerns. Mr. Ware referred to the lighting and said the light will shine no more than ½-foot candle across the property line. He couldn’t say if the light would reflect off the cars and disturb residential neighbors. Mr. Ware referred to the hours of operation along with the start and finish times stating he did not know at the time he spoke with Mr. Holfield. Mr. Blomeley referred to the hours of construction stating the hours of construction depend on the season. He said any kind of violation of those hours of construction can be called in to the City. He will pass that information along to the appropriate people that enforce those hours of construction. Vice-Chair Halliburton referred to questions that were asked. He asked if the setbacks have been changed on Highway 96, not specific to the subject property. Mr. Blomeley said the Commercial Highway standard setback is 42-feet. Some developments may choose to have their building further back than the 42-feet but that is up to their site design. He said the new building that is under construction he referenced is where the old Town and Country Apartments used to be. He said both of those buildings will be demolished and he thinks one has already been demolished. This is a three-phase development and the first phase is close to Medical Center Parkway has retail on the bottom and 8-10 apartments on the second story. He said south of that will be an assisted living building and south of that will be a senior living apartment building. Mr. Blomeley said it is a very difficult piece of property to develop because it is so long and narrow but development with that is moving forward. He said the building on that one may be pulled closer to Old Fort Parkway than the other buildings in the area. The buildings where Jersey Mikes is located is in the old Blue Cactus and are pulled all the way back to the rear of the property with all of the parking in the front which is more of a model development that we saw in the early / mid 2000’s. He said the development that is under construction right now is a little bit more modern and a different design than that urban design that we saw in the traditional strip centers. 7 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 Mr. Blomeley referred to a question from Ms. Richardson about notices. He said we followed all of our standard notifications and protocol for this public hearing. He said we send out the notices in the mail two Fridays before the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting so by the time the people get the notice it leaves roughly 9 or 10 days prior to the meeting for them to research the request, call us to learn about the request or come to the public hearing. We also put a notice in the Murfreesboro Post, we put a notice on our web-site and put signs on the property. We followed all of our standard notification with this like we do with any other Board of Zoning Appeals application. Mr. Blomeley referred to the issues that Mr. Holfield brought up that Mr. Ware hasn’t address already. He said the buffer would be at the Board’s discretion to increase any elements of the buffering and screening plan that the Board deems needed to mitigate any negative impact on the adjacent neighborhood. He said if that meant adding a berm to the proposed buffer, that is certainly within the Board’s realm of approval. He referred to the timing of the buffer installation stating the buffer is required to be installed prior to the Certificate of Occupancy being issued. He said that would not be installed prior to construction and the reason for that is because you install plant materials, install a buffer and spent a lot of money putting a landscape package together only to have construction occur directly around the base of it perhaps killing the plants, disturbing them somehow. He said it is most prudent to install those after construction is complete so that their ability to survive and thrive is enhanced. Mr. Blomeley referred to drainage stating there is a stormwater management drainage pond that is proposed and our Engineers on staff must review it to determine if the rate of discharge post construction is no greater than the rate of discharge preconstruction. He referred the specifics of the drainage to Mr. Sam Huddleston. Mr. Blomeley said the hours of operation included in their operation would be 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. and as part of their application, that is something we could hold them to. He said if they begin to operate till 8:00 or 9:00 at night, we could enforce that as a part of their special use permit application. Likewise, if they wanted to request to be able to operate longer, they could make a request to the Board of Zoning Appeals to amend their special use permit to increase their hours of operation which would require another public hearing and separate application. He said if they are approved, the maximum hours of operation would be 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Mr. Blomeley said he answered everything he had written down. Vice-Chair Halliburton said there was one question Staff would not be able to answer but the applicant might. He asked the proposed start and finish date. 8 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 Mr. Preston Quirk, Architect for the project came to the counter and said assuming site plan approval moves in a timely manner they would like to start in June 2020 with an 8- month construction period. Ms. King does not recall having limited hours unless the Board includes that as an additional qualifier in our approval. She asked if that something because they have applied to and their use in the application 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. would automatically or would the Board need to specify that in a motion. Mr. Blomeley said, in his opinion, it would not hurt to require that in the form of a condition of approval should the Board wish to approve this today or at next month’s meeting. Ms. Foy referred to the Type E buffer and asked if the berm, rows of evergreen and two rows of trees is the most that can be done for this type of buffer or are there other options to provide even more separation. Mr. Blomeley said there are several different cross sections that can be considered a Type E buffer. He said one is just the standard buffering with the plantings in that 20- feet. Another is to substitute a fence for some of the required plantings and another is to include a berm within lieu of some of the required plantings. Mr. Blomeley specifically asked them to add the privacy fence in addition to a Type E buffer so we are not eliminating any of the plantings but adding the fence to the number of plantings that would be there already. Mr. Blomeley said it is up to the Board to say you could either use the cross-section in the Zoning Ordinance that has the berms substitute for some of the required plantings. Or, the Board could say I want the required number of plantings in addition to a 3-foot berm or whatever height berm. The Board has a lot of latitude with a special use permit to require what you feel is necessary to properly mitigate any negative impact on the adjacent residential uses. Ms. King asked if someone from the City could look at any impact a berm would cause to drainage. Mr. Blomeley said yes. Ms. King asked to have that information in the next month’s report, so the Board knows. She would not want to make that requirement for site and then cause and impact with the drainage easement when it comes to being close to commercial property. Mr. Tipps said the elevation as it affects those residents to both sides. Mr. Blomeley said we can do that. 9 BZA Minutes Regular Meeting January 22, 2020 Mr. Tipps asked about the lighting wanting to know how bright they will be. He asked if they would be similar to the lighting installed at Siegel Park Soccer fields and Adams Tennis Center. He said this type of lighting seems mitigate lighting to adjacent properties. Mr. Quirk came back to the podium and said they have not done a photometric plan yet but will comply with the city requirements which is a ½-foot candle max on the property line. Mr. Blomeley said the city requires the lighting fixtures to be oriented primarily down with a maximum angle oriented out. He said if there are any conditions the Board feels would be necessary regarding lighting, it is certainly in your authority. Mr. Blomeley asked for feedback on the dumpster location. He noticed that the dumpster is still kind of on the side of the property adjacent to the neighborhood to the west. He said it has been pulled off, but the original origination of this plan had the dumpster directly behind and adjacent to the building. Mr. Blomeley thought that was a good location for the dumpster and does not know why it has been pulled away from the building. His preference would be to get as much separation as possible from the adjacent residential lots but also not have it right up on the new public right-of-way. He feels there is still room for improvement in pulling that farther off the western property line. He would like some feedback on that issue. Vice-Chair Halliburton agreed with Mr. Blomeley stating anytime you can get the dumpster away from any adjacent neighbors would be the best thing. Ms. King made a motion to defer the special use permit in order to establish a motor vehicle sales and rental facility on property in the Commercial Highway (CH) district located along the south side of Franklin Road east of Franklin Heights Drive until the February 26, 2020 BZA meeting. The motion was seconded by Ms. Foy and carried unanimously in favor. Staff Reports and Other Business None The meeting adjourned at 1:45 P.M. _____________________________ _______________________________ CHAIRMAN SECRETARY 10