Planning Commission

City of Petersburg Planning Commission Meeting June 1, 2023 Minutes The City of Petersburg Planning Commission meeting held on Thursday, June 1, 2023, was called to order by the Chair, Mrs. Tammy Alexander, at 6:30 p.m. A roll call was completed by Ms. Michelle Murrills. Members Present: Ms. Tammy Alexander, Chair Mr. Fenton Bland, Vice Chair Ms. Marie Vargo Dr. James Norman Mr. Thomas Hairston Mrs. Candace Taylor Mr. Michael Edwards Members Absent: Dr. Chioma Adaku Dr. William Irving A Quorum was established by the Chair. Others Present: Mr. Reginald Tabor, Ms. Sandra Robinson, Mr. Russell Johnson, Mr. DaVante Thomas, Mr. Woodrow Arakawa, Mrs. Tae Arakawa, Ms. Sada Allen, Ms. Kim Lacy, Mr. Hugh Smith, Mr. Michael O’Neal, Mr. Ray Ferguson, Mrs. Debbie Ferguson, and Mr. Richard Burgess. Adoption of the Agenda: Chair Alexander called for any changes to the agenda. Since there were none, Commissioner Norman moved for the approval of the agenda; Vice Chair Bland seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 1 Minutes: Chair Alexander asked if there were any changes to be made to the minutes from May 4, 2023. As there was none, it was moved by Commissioner Norman and was seconded by Vice Chair Bland. The motion was passed unanimously. Public Information Period: Chair Alexander opened the Public Information Period to anyone who wished to speak on an item, not on the agenda. No one chose to speak, and so the Chair closed the public information period. 6. Public Hearings: Chair Alexander read the notice of a public hearing as follows: 6A. 2023-SUP-02: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for used Auto Sales and Car Rental at 1242 W Washington Street. The property is located in a B-2 General Commercial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson made the presentation. This is a request by Mr. Russell Johnson, property owner, to establish and operate a standalone used auto sales business not associated with the new vehicle dealership or not located upon the same parcel as such new vehicle dash dealership. If located upon a parcel of less than one acre in area, such use can be permitted within the B-2, and the M-1 zoning districts. The property owner is aware of the rules of the Special Use Permit he is applying for and has signed off on that with the Planning Department. Mr. Johnson does own the property and he also owns the building on the west side of the structure. Most of the surrounding area is the B-2 zoning. The building has been vacant for quite some time. Chair Alexander then asked Mr. Johnson if he wanted to say anything. Mr. Johnson said that no he did not and that Ms. Robinson covered everything for him. She then asked the commissioners if they had any questions. Commissioner Hairston then asked for clarification about one of the conditions that say to “enhance the area”. Ms. Robinson said that he was going to clean up the parking lot and do things like put in delineated parking spots to make it look nice even with it being a used car lot. Commissioner Edwards asked Mr. Johnson how many vehicles he was planning on having on the property at one time. He said that he was planning on having 15, but he has space for up to 30. Chair Alexander also asked him if he was planning on doing much repair on site and again 2 he said no. Commissioner Bland then asked about how nice it was going to look, as there are other problem properties right now on Washington that are in need of some control. Mr. Johnson then said that Ms. Robinson explained that he would have to keep his property looking nice and that there would be inspections and such as well. Commissioner Vargo mentioned the shop on South and Washington and that a lot of those cars don’t have any tags on them. She reiterated that Mr. Johnson was not going to do that right? He said that he was not going to do that. Mr. Johnson did say that he was going to install cameras and will also have sufficient lighting to help to keep any problems at bay. He was also asked how many employees he would have and he said that he would have an office manager and himself. Mr. Hairston said that he was most worried about the trash and how the place would look. He said that it would take a lot of time and effort to make it look nice. Chair Alexander then opened it up to the public and wanted to know if anyone wanted to speak for or against it. When nobody did, she then closed the public comment portion and asked if anyone wanted to make a motion. Commissioner Hairston then asked if there was a recommendation. Ms. Robinson replied that there were both conditions and a recommendation. Conditions of Special Use Permit 1. This Special Use Permit shall be issued to Russell Johnson, owner operator of an automobile sales business, to establish and operate a stand-alone used vehicle sales business not associated with a new vehicle dealership or not located upon the same parcel of such new dealership, located upon the subject 0.206 acre parcel of land, as depicted on the survey plat dated January 4th, 2023, by Baseline Land Surveying 526 Grove Ave. Petersburg, VA 23803 which is a by right use within the B-2 and M-1, zoning districts only, the parcel of land is less than one acre therefore requiring the issuance of an SUP. The applicant will be responsible for compliance with the Special Use Permit and attached conditions. 2. Vehicles for servicing shall not be parked, stored, or displayed on the right of way of any adjacent street or along W Washington or Chappell streets. Vehicle servicing shall only be permitted for vehicles to be sold rented or traded by the business owner. No outside servicing of any vehicle(s). 3. Any vehicle not capable of operation or which does not bear a valid registration or a current Virginia inspection sticker shall not be stored on the subject property slash parcel. All vehicles displayed for sale shall have appropriate supporting documentation that such vehicle is legally possessed by the auto sales business as a vehicle available for sale. 4. In no case shall it be deemed permissible for the subject business, or businesses with which the subject business may share location, to operate a scrap or junkyard. No outside storage of vehicle components, plastic materials, glass, used or waste tires is permitted. Tires being sold at the property shall be stored in the building at the close of business each evening. 5. A lighting plan shall be required for submission to and approval by the Department of Planning/Community Development. Such plan should specifically indicate measures to prevent 3 glare on adjoining properties. Signage not to exceed One Hundred Fifty (150) square feet in area. Portable signs are prohibited. 6. The applicant shall submit a site plan designating off-street parking spaces in accordance with the regulations of the Zoning Ordinance, Article 19, with surfacing and ingress and egress driveways. Parking spaces shall be designated with appropriate markings for customer parking. Customer designed spaces shall not be used for the display of vehicles for sale. All cars for sale shall be in a designated parking space. 7. Notwithstanding the issuance of any business license or permits by the City of Petersburg, the operation of any business or activity on the premises shall follow the zoning ordinance of the City. 8. The applicant shall insure that the parking area in addition to adjacent parcels to include sidewalks if applicable, are “policed”, at the end of business each day of operation, to provide for the removal of litter, broken glass, discarded paper, or other waste daily when the business is in operation. 9. Trash and garbage generated from the business shall be stored in an appropriate manner, and containers screened from public view. Trash containers shall not generate objectionable odor levels. 10. Other requirements may be imposed as deemed necessary to provide for the protection of surrounding property, persons, and neighborhood values. 11. The collection and disposition of engine fluid shall be done in accordance with local, state, and federal standards, regulations, or laws. 12. Violation of the conditions attached to the Special Use Permit may be cause for revoking of the Permit. Commissioner Edwards then asked to clarify if the owner would need special permission to put in a fence. Ms. Robinson said that Mr. Johnson would not need special permission to enclose his property with a fence if he ever wanted to. Commissioner Edwards then said that he wanted to make a motion that the Commission accept staff’s recommendation for a Special Use Permit for 1242 W Washington Street with the resolution. It was seconded by Commissioner Hairston. It unanimously passed. 6B. 2023-SUP-03: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition for a Special Use Permit for automotive repair and detailing at 1841 Anchor Ave. The property is located in a M-1 Light Industrial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson gave the presentation. Mr. DaVante Thomas is requesting to get a Special Use Permit (SUP) to operate an auto body shop and vehicle painting business. At 1841 Anchor Ave. This operation is performed indoors 4 so that you do not have anything visible. There are about 6 other businesses in the area that are similar to this one. Chair Alexander then asked if Mr. Thomas wanted to add anything to the presentation and he said no that Ms. Robinson had done just fine. She then asked if any of the commissioners had any questions. When no one said anything, she then asked if anyone would like to make a motion. Commissioner Hairston then made a motion to accept the resolution as presented with the amendment. Commissioner Edwards seconded it. It passed unanimously. 6C. 2023-SUP-04: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for Multi-Family development at 712 High Street. The property is located in a B-2 General Commercial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson made the presentation. 712 High Street. This is an empty lot across from the old Charlotte’s Chicken and Waffles at the corners of High, North South and Canal streets. This has been approved and planned on being a multi-family building for many years first approved back in 2013. However, recently City Council has approved a multi-family overlay for B-2 zoned areas and because of this, the owner is now requesting the SUP in order to be allowed to build a multi-family structure. And that is why they are back so that they can get their permits and such. Ms. Diane Bowser then said that this is a small housing complex with 12 one-bedroom units. They already own 714 High Street and have been good stewards of that property. They are excited to say that they have several groups that are donating money to get this apartment building up and running. Chair Alexander verified that the group already owned 714 and said that they had done a great job with it. She then asked if anyone had any questions. Commissioner Vargo verified that the lot that they were wanting to build on was right next door to 714. Ms. Bowser also said that the new building would be built in brick as well to satisfy the ARB. Commissioner Edwards then asked if the apartments were going to be market rate. The answer was that they can lease the apartments to 80% of the area's median income. Under the new guidelines if a person makes up to $50,500. Four of the apartments have to be rented out to someone under the 20-40-60% guidelines. So that includes people earning between $18,000 and $37,560 a year. Chair Alexander verified that it would be “affordable housing” and Ms. Bowser said that it is supposed to be. The rates will probably be around $850 a month for a one- bedroom. Commissioner Bland verified that they would all be one-bedroom. Commissioner Hairston asked how many parking spaces there were and the answer was 27. Commissioner Norman asked if these would be available to students and the answer was that while they were open to everyone with the income limits the governor wanted them to promote them to veterans. Chair Alexander then opened up the public hearing and asked if anyone wanted to speak in favor or against the project. When no one spoke she closed it and asked the commissioners if they had any questions. 5 Commissioner Bland then said that wanted to make a motion for the recommendation with the resolution. It was seconded by Commissioner Norman. It passed unanimously. 6D. 2023-SUP-05: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for Car Wash and Automotive Detailing at 1602 W Washington Street. The property is located in a B-2 General Commercial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson then gave the presentation. Ms. Sada Allen is the owner of 1602 W. Washington. Again it is the appropriately zoned area to have the car wash, but because of the overlay, she needs a Special Use Permit to be able to open it. She is just wanting to do a hand carwash/detailing operation. The structure has had some extensive work done on it to make it look good. It looks really nice. The whole area is zone B- 2. This used to be Jerry’s Electric. Chair Alexander then asked if Ms. Allen had anything she wanted to add. When she said no, she then asked the commissioners if they had any questions. Commissioner Bland said that the area has really come up and he is very happy to see how things are coming along there. Chair Alexander then asked if anyone in the room would like to speak for or against the project. When no one spoke, she then closed the public hearing portion of the proceedings. Commissioner Edwards then moved to approve the Special Use Permit application for address 1602 W. Washington with the attached resolution. It was seconded by Commissioner Norman. It then passed unanimously. 6E. 2023-REZ-04: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition to rezone the property located at 3287 County Drive from B-2 General Commercial Zoning District M-1 Light Industrial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson gave the presentation This property is located near the Mcdonald's out on Courthouse Road. It is property that runs along County Drive (460) out to I-295. But the City only owns that portion closest to the roadway. So what the intent is, is to put a distribution center out there. A small portion of the building will be in Petersburg, but Prince George will take over the oversite of the building as a whole. The PG Board of Supervisors have already approved their portion of the complex and so they just need approval from Petersburg. The owner is represented by Andrew M. Condlin of Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin, PC. Ms. Kim Lacy then got up, said she was Mr. Conlin for the evening, and explained that they just needed to have this land rezoned from B-2, General Commercial District to M-1, Light Industrial District. The development will only be on a small portion of Petersburg and the rest will be in the county of Prince George. It is consistent with the area. 6 After she spoke, Chair Alexander then asked if the commissioners had any questions. Commissioner Bland asked when the project would be done. The answer was at least 24 months as long as all goes well as expected. Commissioner Norman then asked if they knew what industry would be going into the site, the answer was that they were not sure, but that there would be quite a bit of interest because of where we are located. Commissioner Bland then questioned if Petersburg was only going to have the parking lot, but was told that there is also a small corner of the building that would also be in Petersburg, beyond the parking lot. Because of such a small portion, the company would not be looking for any utilities from the city. Commissioner Edwards asked if there was any opposition from anyone and Ms. Robinson said no. With that Chair Alexander opened it up to the public and asked if anyone wanted to speak for or against the project. An unnamed gentleman said that he wanted to know exactly what the company was going to use this distribution warehouse for…who was going to be using it and for what? The gentleman was told that for the purposes of this hearing, it was about the zoning and it was not up to the Planning Commission to say exactly what was going in there as long as it followed the zoning laws. Especially as they do not have a user in mind. Commissioner Bland then asked to have it explained what the company was planning on doing so that everyone could understand what was going to be built. The building that they are planning on building is a 540 thousand square foot building. It would have a 40-foot clearance inside of the building. Also, this project involves a seller selling 5 acres in the city of Petersburg and another 44 acres in Prince George County. It is not taking any land from either side. Commissioner Norman asked if there would be more permits or anything that would be needed once they had someone interested in the property. Ms. Lacy said that yes there would be a complete site plan review. Commissioner Bland wanted to know if there were ingress and egress onto County Dr. The answer was not onto Country Drive but yes on Courthouse Drive. Commissioner Edwards is worried that there is a lot of traffic going through that area and he wanted them to know that. Commissioner Edwards then said that he wanted to make a motion to accept the application for rezoning with the attached resolution. Commissioner Norman seconded it. It passed unanimously. 6F. 2023-REZ-05: A Public Hearing and consideration of a resolution recommending approval of a Petition to rezone the property located at 2255 Jamestown Road. From an Agriculture Zoning District to M-1, Light Industrial Zoning District, and 2262 County Drive from B-2, General Commercial Zoning District to M-1, Light Industrial Zoning District. Ms. Robinson gave the presentation. This is a request to rezone two parcels, 2255 Jamestown Road and 2262 County Drive. This rezoning is being requested in order to allow for warehouse footage to be added to the previous distribution center. It is proposed to have three buildings on the properties. Building #1 will have 391,000 Sq ft and 96 truck bays, Building #2 will have 308,800 sq ft and 85 truck bays, and Building #3 will have 250,000 sq ft and 55 truck bays. The structures will be close to both the I- 7 95 and the I-295 corridors. If the property were to be rezoned to the M-1 zone then it would allow for a lot of manufacturing uses. Ms. Robinson says that if they maintain the decent tree line that they have on their property there should not be a negative impact to the adjacent properties. The whole entire property is wooded at the moment and it would not be a problem to have the tree line there. Commissioner Edwards then asked what is in place to protect the residents who live on Poe Lane so that they do not have to look at these warehouses right out their front or back doors? Chair Alexander then said that Ms. Lacy would probably be the best to explain and invited her to speak. Ms. Lacy said there will be a site plan will be submitted at some point. That site plan will follow the zoning regulations and they will follow anything that the city then tells them to do. The building heights, setbacks, lighting and where said lighting is allowed to shine, landscaping, etc will all be highly regulated. Site plans are very detailed and it will follow what the city says. Commissioner Edwards said that he might have more follow-up once the citizens are allowed to speak. Commissioner Hairston said that he had a question first. He said that according to the maps, there are some streams back there and wanted to know if that was true. The answer was…yes. The wetlands have all been accounted for and with the plans, have taken them into consideration. The impact on the wetlands is minimal and the engineers are aware that they exist. Commissioner Hairston also asked what the limit of the height of the buildings could be. Ms. Robinson, per the zoning it could be as much as 75 feet or six stories. Ms. Robinson said that as far as she knew that the plans were that the buildings were only going to be 50 feet or 5 stories. Commissioner Bland then asked if the city could get that in writing and was told yes. Again, Ms. Robinson said that the site review is very in-depth and complicated and that all of this would have to be approved by the city. Chair Alexander then said that she had a question. She wanted to know if these three buildings were also speculative or did they have an actual need to have these exact buildings. The answer was that no it is speculative because some buildings may or may not be built in this configuration before a tenant is supplied, but there is not someone in mind yet. But basically, anyone coming in is going to use the buildings in the same way. Chair Alexander asked if this development hurt the water and sewer situation out there. The answer was that distribution warehouses are extremely light on water usage. Basically, the only water usage is for bathrooms for the people who work there. Commissioner Vargo said that she had a question…With all these truck bays is County Drive going to be sufficient enough? She is worried about so many trucks going in and out of the parking lot along with the residential drivers around in the area as well. The answer was that yes this would be handled. The trucks would be coming off of either I-95 or 295 and they would be on County Drive for less than a mile and then turning right on the property…which would be there would be little to no backup. If they are leaving and needing to turn left, the backup would then be on the property and not on the roadway. Commissioner Norman then asked again if there was anyone that they had in mind for building these structures. The answer was that basically, it takes about 24 months to get the facility built, and typically the type of tenants that would want to be in these buildings want to occupy them within six months. 8 So after going through site approval and getting things started, as the buildings were built, they would then identify who might want to use them. Commissioner Vargo then asked if tractor- trailers would be parked on site. The answer was that yes, there would be parking back in the back in front of the docks in case someone has to wait to get to a docking space. But in principle, there will be no just trailer parking on site. Chair Alexander then opened up the hearing to the public and asked if anyone wants to speak for this project. Hearing no one she asked who would like to speak in opposition. Mr. Hugh Smith spoke first. He asked if the trucks going in and out will be doing so all hours of the day. He was told that it would entirely be up to the person who rented the buildings. Mr. Michael O'Neal, 2301 County Drive, we are a church and have trucks turning in our driveway already and we don’t need more trucks in the area. We have a huge issue with that and have a huge issue with changing the zoning of the property. Mr. Ray Ferguson, 2476 Poe Lane, we have 10 acres adjacent to this. I totally disagree that the barrier for this would be trees. I can hear animals running around in the area sometimes at night. Sound is going to be a huge issue for anyone who lives around this land. There are hundreds of people who live around this land and the notices were not sent out properly. There are a lot more than 12 people who would be affected by this. There were no notices put up on the property saying that the zoning was changing to industrial. None of that was done. So my issue is that not everyone is aware of what is going on. And right now there is a traffic issue right now on County Drive. I am a proponent of expanding the city and I love what the city is doing, but this is not the place to be putting these warehouses. This is almost a million square feet of warehouse space and the amount of trailers, which is 1700 vehicles on a daily basis coming and going on County Drive, there are also 4-5 bus stops there and there will be 800+ tractor-trailers coming and going each morning and evening. All those vehicles just add to the danger to our children and the people who live in that area. Mr. Richard Burgess and I represent Herman and Anne Burgess that live at 2490 Poe Lane. There are approximately 7 houses on Poe Lane. They have lived there for over 57 years. We have been blessed by living in a very tranquil area with few problems. We just want to make sure that whatever is done with the property, this farmland that we have known for a long long time and we knew that sooner or later would have to be developed. We just want to make sure that it is developed properly and that it truly meets the needs of the actual city of Petersburg and some of the businesses. We are worried about the added traffic between this property and the other one closer to McDonalds. There are already lots of trucks on 460 and this is going to add to that. One thing to remember the asphalt surface of the roads in the area…that pavement has not held up well. That is something that this type of truck traffic will make even worse no matter where they are turning in and how much backup is or is not causing problems on 460. They built Wagner Road over 33 years ago and in the past 33 years, unfortunately, Petersburg has not seen fit to overlay that roadway and take care of it in an appropriate manner. This development is going to send traffic onto Wagner Road, I-95, or 295 and all of those are going to affect those roads. Those of us who live on little ole Poe Road want to see something done with this land that will be appropriate for the land and for Petersburg. If this operation is allowed to happen it 9 will be a 24-hour distribution center that will have noise and lights all night long and there will be no peace. And if this does get approved then it needs to have restrictions on hours of operation. So that we can have our homes and our lives the tranquil way that we have grown accustomed to. There would have to be some sort of sound barriers established as well as some sort of foliage. It would be needed as a sound and a visual buffer. What y’all are talking about is really just an old hedge that has grown up, any greenery buffer will have to be more substantial than that. I do not want to go on the record saying that I do not want this to occur but on the same hand, I want to make sure that this is well thought out and well planned out and making sure the considerations of the people who already live here are being taken into account and that we are not going to have a problem with the property values, and the life that they currently live, and we still have the situation of people trying to pull out onto 460 as well as there are several bus stops along here as well that have to be taken into consideration. I can tell you that back when I was a planning commissioner and worked for the city of Petersburg, I worked for them for 13 years. When I was working for them, we put in the apartments over there. Those apartments—they serve Fort Lee (Gregg-Adams) and we have not had an issue with the traffic. We put it in the setback as a gated community. The whole area of the compound is fenced in. And we put up the foliage that also helps with the buffer as well. But we were not talking about the heavy truck traffic that we have now with this project. And with that being said we think that something meant more for Fort Lee (Gregg-Adams) would be more conducive for the area. And also not be a detriment in regard to the actual infrastructure that we currently have within the area. Mr. Woodrow Arakawa and Mrs. Tae Arakawa, 2262 County Drive, some of you might be familiar with that address as that is one of the addresses in the packet as well as one of the powers of attorneys too. You may be wondering why are you here since you signed the Power of Attorney. Partially that is true, but there is another half of the story and I just want to clear the air tonight. Yes, this is going through our property—my wife is completely stressed out at night. I can see her crying over here because she does not want me speaking up about this, but I cannot go to sleep at night unless I bring this up. First of all, the lot purchase agreement was based upon an agreement between the representative of Onward and Upward (Land LLC) that was to be for a permit for apartments. If it did not work for apartments then it was going to be for townhomes. And then if townhomes did not work, then it would be single-family homes. There is nothing more that Tae and I want to do than to give back to Petersburg. To be able to help with the housing crisis and to give Fort Lee (Gregg-Adams) the opportunity to live close by in the area. We felt that a residential area in our backyard would not prohibit the neighbors nor keep them up all night long every day. Secondly, we did not know, because we were trusting and assuming that all along there was a … we were being led along with false pretenses and misrepresentation. Because as we rushed through the purchase agreement, we entered that with the mindset of doing a residential area. There is even a paragraph in there referencing back to a residential area allowing them to have this as a residential area. The second step was the deed signing. One week and a half later and we were forced to sign the deed. I don’t know about you over here, but would you sign a deed a week after without any transfer of monies or anything? And so we had a hard time meeting that timeline deadline. Because we always got that paperwork on a Friday or a Saturday and it was hard to find an attorney at that time. Sometimes we might get it on Thursday night but even then, it was hard to get an attorney. So, therefore, it took a little while before we got the deed signed and we sought the council of a lawyer. He told us that no sir you 10 do not have to sign the deed until you close because that is how most people do that. The salesperson from Onward and Upward (Land LLC) kept abusing us and bullying us sending both myself and my wife texts and emails stating that hey this lawyer doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But, out of coincidence, it turns out that the lawyer that we spoke with was the same one that wrote the title document for the Dominion Company. He, inadvertently, told us that no you do not need to sign this. You don’t need to turn it in before he looked at it to determine that he’s the one that wrote it for us. And in the meantime, the representative from Onward and Upward (Land LLC) kept abusing us and threatening us with lawsuits for purposely and knowingly delaying the process in addition to telling us that there is a fine that we are going to have to pay. A $95,000 fine per week the longer we string this out. So we had already entered into this, my wife crying as she is and shaking, so we did the power of attorney. Again we hired an attorney to help us rewrite the power of attorney to our benefit because we had already signed the agreement to sell. So with that, we got a power of attorney, hence what you have in your packets today. So it was not done under duress and strain. Fifteen days later, we found out from our friends on Poe Lane that they are not in fact building a residential area. I am sorry folks you guys knew long before us and we were the last to find out. And then we were approached Onward and Upward (Land LLC) about why it is that we were not informed about this to begin with. But he has inadvertently slipped up and told one of our Poe Lane neighbors that he did it intentionally because he did not want us to jack up the price for our property. I mean is that the kind of people that you guys want to deal with in Petersburg? You have already heard some of the complaints about children and school buses. Mind you, school buses are on that highway for days. If a truck is behind the bus and is speeding they could easily run into it. Which is dangerous for kids. That’s number one, number two is whatever is being talked about now, we live there, we are taxpayers we run a business there. We would love to be able to get business from a distribution center or a truck stop, don’t misunderstand, however, some of the agreements that were on the initial sales agreement did not include areas such as encroachment on turnoff lanes, because the trucks will not be able to make that 90-degree turn, they will need to have a lane that goes off to the side where they can gradually turn. The second issue will be the center of the highway turning lanes. There is only two lanes going north and two lanes going south. There is no middle lane like you have further up by Hardees or where you have that car shop which allows for the safe turning of an 18-wheel truck. This entrance does not allow for the expansion. It will either (and probably) result into an encroachment into the Rock Church, in addition to an encroachment into the barbershop. Which loops back to the earlier statement that there would be no encroachment into the businesses. I beg to differ, there is an overflow truck parking area that encroaches into the back parking area for Tae and her employees. If there is going to be a widening project of 460 they are going to have to put in concrete curbs. They are going to have to do the curbing as well as encroaching into the current parking area for Tae’s barber. She has been a good loyal taxpayer, has never been late she has lots of customers, she has kept her places, she has helped all the barbershops in the area and our way of giving back to Petersburg was to allow none other than the residential area to come through our property. That would have been the best way for us to retire. Unfortunately, we were duped. If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it’s a duck. Chair Alexander then asked if there were anyone else who would like to speak. When no one did, Ms. Lacy said that she would like to very quickly address Mr. Arakawa’s concerns. 11 Notices were properly sent out by the planning staff, citizens have had the ability to have their voices heard here and at the City Council meeting. Access control is being overseen by the oversite process. There are no plans to have external controls of traffic they are all going to be internal to the property. All of the controls and the setbacks and bumper controls will be thoroughly vetted by the oversite process. In terms of the original owner of the property, the new owner of the property has not been told anything about the owner wanting to break or change the property sale contract. That has not been addressed and no objections have been received until tonight. As we have said the intent all along is that the barber shop is able to stay open and we would like to be good neighbors. With that, in the interest of time (since the library does not allow for anything past 8:00) Chair Alexander closed the public portion of the hearing. But then one more person asked to speak Debbie Ferguson, 2476 Poe Lane, I am thinking that a lot of people, the reason that they did not respond with these objections. We were never notified. So without notification, of course, you are not going to any objections. So, once we found out that calls were being made, no one is answering the phones and there is no way to leave messages because the machine is full. So what were we to do once we found out a couple of days ago no notices were put out for us to know. There was no notification and therefore no objection. Thank you. Everyone that was there said that they did not receive a notification. Chair Alexander then closed the public portion of the hearing and asked Commissioner Hairston what he would like to say. He said he just had one question based on the usage of the land because he was confused about how someone would tell someone that they were going to have apartments and I see nothing about that. Did that just come out of the air tonight? Where did that come from? Ms. Lacy said that there was never a time that they were looking at building apartments on the property ever. Commissioner Edwards spoke and said that listening to all these concerns he is troubled by the fact that one…People were not properly notified. He is troubled by the traffic disaster that this is going to create. He says that he knows 460 and knows the traffic very well and this is going to be quite the traffic disaster. I have a hard time knowing that if I lived on Poe Lane that I would, every morning, have to wake up to 235 truck bays, there is just no sense in that to me. He then said that he wanted to make a motion that we deny the rezoning of 2255 Jamestown Road and 2262 County Drive. Commissioner Bland seconded it. Commissioner Hairston asked if Zoning had a recommendation about the change in zoning. The answer was that they were in favor of it. The vote was then taken on recommending denial. Vice Chair Bland – Yes Commissioner Taylor – No Commissioner Vargo – No Chair Alexander – Yes Commissioner Hairston – Abstain Commissioner Norman – Yes 12 Commissioner Edwards – Yes Just to make sure, the recommendation from the Planning Commission is a denial 7. OLD BUSINESS Comprehensive Plan update. Mr. Tabor went over the calendar of what had happened so far for the comprehensive plan. We had our latest update at the meeting last week and at the meeting, we discussed the housing and neighborhood development chapter. There will be an email that will be provided to the members of the commission that includes both chapters so that the commissioners can add feedback so that if you have comments regarding those particular chapters please use the document that we will provide. The schedule for the next Planning Commission work session on July 25th will be Parks, Recreation, Historic Preservation, Public Safety, Community Facilities, and Infrastructure 8. NEW BUSINESS It has been asked if we could start the Comprehensive Plan meetings at 5:30. After a bit of discussion it was agreed to meet at 5:30 rather than 6:00. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS The City of Petersburg had declared the month of June as Home Ownership Month and that is along with the Federal Government which declares June National Home Ownership Month every year. During the month we will have three events. The first event will be on June 7th and that will be targeted toward realtors and lenders and that event will be co-hosted by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The next one will be on June 21st and that will also be co-hosted by the Department of Housing and Community Development. That will include information and resources that pertain to housing development. Then on June 28th, we will have a Home Ownership fair and that will be geared toward prospective home buyers who are interested in purchasing a home in the city of Petersburg. This is going to become a quarterly event. 10. Adjournment 13  Since Commissioner Irving was not at the meeting Commissioner Norman made a motion for adjournment. The meeting ended at 8:00. 14