Planning Commission

October 27, 2014 The Russellville Planning Commission will hold its Regular Meeting on Monday, October 27, 2014 at 5:30 p.m., in the City Hall Council Chambers. PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA Welcome Visitors 1. A request to review and approve the minutes of the September 22, 2014 Regular Meeting. 2. A Public Hearing requesting to review and recommend approval to the City Council for a Special Use Permit to allow an auto repair shop for property located at 114 North El Mira, submitted by Stephanie Gray. (SP.14.09.125) 3. A Public Hearing requesting to review and a recommendation of approval to the City Council to rezone property presently R-4 (Mobile Home Park & Subdivision) to C-2 (Highway Commercial) for property located at 3223 North Arkansas, submitted by Perry & Karen Brogdon d/b/a Twisted Grip, Inc. (ZO.14.10.179) 4. A request to vacate a 50-foot right-a-way lying between 2425 West 4th Street and 2355 West 4th Street. Also described as lying between Block 2 Lot 10 of Brookside Estates and Lot 24 of Brookside Addition, submitted by Denielle & Jason Frederick and Frank & JoAnne Straight. (ST.14.10.75) 1  Russellville Planning Commission Minutes October 27, 2014, @ 5:30 p.m. The Russellville Planning Commission held its regular meeting on Monday, October 27, 2014, at 5:30 p.m. in the Russellville City Hall Council Chambers. Members Present Chairman Dennis Boyd Jimmy Sims Vice-Chair Eric Westcott Mike Wilkins Secretary Aldona Standridge Herschell Hargus Jimmy Davenport Todd Meimerstorf Doug Skelton Members Absent Council Liaison Richard Harris Also present: City Planner David Harris, City Attorney Trey Smith, Jim Lynch/City Corporation, Director of Public Work/City Engineer Kurt Jones, Stephanie Gray, Karen Brogdon, and Denielle Fredrick. Welcome The First Order of Business was a request to review and approve the minutes of the September 22, 2014 Regular Meeting. Commissioner Skelton made the motion to approve the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Wilkins and passed unanimously. The Second Order of Business was a request to review and recommend approval to the City Council for a Special Use Permit to allow an auto repair shop for property located at 114 North Elmira, submitted by Stephanie Gray. (SP.14.09.125) City Planner Harris said this building is in a mixed use area. An auto sales lot is next door to the north, a shoe store to the south, manufacturing across Hwy-64, a bank on the west side of Elmira, and a proposed Chili's Restaurant across the street. The property was developed quite a few years ago to the standards then prevalent. It is a metal building on site that is paved over essentially 100% of its area. Auto repair is a Special Permit use in a C-2 zone, and there have been quite a few approved over the past five years in various C-2 areas around town. In most cases, conditions were placed on the approvals, including a prohibition on any outside work or outside storage of parts or visibly damaged cars. If you do approve this, you should consider placing those same conditions on this one. Additionally, consideration should be given to applying those same conditions to the rear of the property where it adjoins the K-Mart parking lot. If applicants plan to leave disabled cars outside at the rear of their property, then perhaps there should be a requirement to provide an opaque fence to screen such activity from K-Mart customers. Commissioner Hargus said his concerns would be the cars parked outside waiting for parts. Stephanie Gray said they had two bay doors on the end. Inside the building they have a place to store cars and there will not be any outside storage. Commissioner Westcott stated his concern that the sign on the car lot next door is 'Roadrunner' and the sign on the applicant's building is 'Ridgerunner.' Mr. Westcott asked if the two businesses were connected in any way. Mrs. Gray said no. Commissioner Westcott was concerned about the Special Use Permit that was approved several months ago for the adjacent car lot with the stipulation that no repairs be performed there. This request is for a repair shop and that was the reason for my question. Commissioner Davenport said he would like to see the back of the building kept as clean and orderly as the front since the property backs up to K-Mart. Commissioner Wilkins said he believed this would be spot zoning, like a duplex in the middle of a residential subdivision. I can understand why an auto repair shop is asking to be located there because the building certainly needs a facelift, but a block down the road you have a dental clinic that has recently invested millions of dollars in their facility. You also have Arvest Bank across the street. There has been discussion of a nice restaurant being located across the street. Mr. Wilkins said this is an inappropriate use of that location given the fact that it is zoned C-2. At some point, the City has to create an expectation of what constitutes an appropriate use given the existing uses and properties in the neighborhood. Commissioner Skelton said he thinks this use would be a detriment to the adjacent landowners City Planner Harris said C-2 is the primary zone for auto uses, and that virtually all current auto sales and auto repair uses are in C-2 zones. Those uses are classified by the Zoning Code as Special Permit uses to add a layer of scrutiny so that they are not allowed in locations where they would have negative impacts on adjoining dissimilar properties because of additional traffic, or noise, or fumes. Considering the existing uses around this property, those concerns might seem misplaced. It is true that there is a bank, a new dental clinic, and a proposed restaurant, but those uses were all established after the subject building was constructed. The applicants propose to use that existing building without any significant changes to the exterior. Additionally, there are other auto-related uses in the area, as well as heavy industry. Commissioner Meimerstorf said that building looks like a strip center. It looks like a retail strip mall that has had bay doors installed on it, and now we are going to try and fill it up with other uses than were originally intended. This doesn’t look like it is in the right place for auto repair because the building appears to be a three-bay strip retail center. That is why auto repair does not fit the location, and why I would not vote for this. It is not because they would have issues with keeping vehicles inside. It just doesn’t look like the intended use for that building. There are other developments in the area that might be negatively affected by an auto repair shop. Stephanie Gray said the building had been used before as a tire shop. 2 Commissioner Sims asked how many vehicles the building would hold. Stephanie Gray said five or six cars. Commissioner Davenport made the motion to approve the request. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Sims and failed on a 5 - 3 roll call vote, with Westcott, Hargus, Wilkins, Meimerstorf and Skelton voting against, and Standridge, Sims and Davenport voting in favor. The Third Order of Business was a Public Hearing requesting to review and recommend approval to the Council to rezone property presently R-4 (Mobile Home Park & Subdivision) to C-2 (Highway Commercial) for property at 3223 North Arkansas. Submitted by Perry & Karen Brogdon d/b/a Twisted Grip, Inc. (ZO.14.10.179) City Planner Harris said this property fronts on AR7, a State Highway with very high traffic, and is just a few hundred yards from the I-40 interchange. C-2 Highway Commercial seems to be a more suitable designation for this property than R-4. City Planner Harris said there were issues with the property that would need to be addressed during the development phase, but that today we are only considering what the most appropriate zoning would be for the property. Commissioner Wilkins made the motion to approve the request as submitted. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Skelton and passed unanimously. The Fourth Order of Business was a request to vacate a 50-foot right-a-way lying between 2425 West 4th Street and 2355 West 4th Street, also described as lying between Block 2 Lot 10 of Brookside Estates and Lot 24 of Brookside Addition. Submitted by Denielle & Jason Frederick and Frank & JoAnne Straight. (ST.14.10.75) City Planner Harris said petitioners are requesting to abandon a segment of right-of-way (ROW) that literally runs the depth of one residential yard. It doesn’t even go through to the other side of the block. Any extension of Arlington would require purchasing property back from homeowners just to go one block. As you go further south, that same pattern continues. To the north of the subject section of ROW, Arlington only goes as far as Honeysuckle. Mr. Harris said he recommends the vacation of the ROW to the adjoining property owners. Commissioner Meimerstorf made the motion to recommend approval. Commissioner Wilkins seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Meeting Adjourned. ___________________________________________________ Chairman Dennis Boyd 3