Planning Commission

Russellville Planning Commission Minutes October 26, 2015 @ 5:30 p.m. The Russellville Planning Commission held its regular meeting on Monday, October 26, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. in the Russellville City Hall Council Chambers. Members Present Chairman Dennis Boyd Jimmy Sims Vice-Chair Doug Skelton Mike Wilkins Secretary Eric Westcott Peggy Stratton Todd Meimerstorf Wendell Miller Council Liaison Bill Eaton John Whiteside Members Absent None Also present: Mayor Randy Horton, City Planner David Harris, City Attorney Trey Smith, City Engineer Kurt Jones, Building Official Brian Holstein, Fire Marshal Richard Setian, Planning Assistant Lequitta Jones, Jim Lynch/City Corp, David Garza/Barrett & Associates, Gregg Long/Crafton Tull, and Sean Ingram/The Courier. Welcome Chairman Boyd introduced and welcomed our newest commissioner, Mr. John Whiteside. The First Order of Business was a request to review and approve the September 28, 2015 minutes. Commissioner Stratton made the motion to approve the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Miller and passed unanimously. Tabled from the September 28, 2015 meeting. The Second Order of Business was a request for approval for Bartlett One Minor Subdivision, located on Quarry Road. Submitted by Dave Garza on behalf of Russell and Mary K. Bartlett. (SD.15.09.296) a. Requesting a waiver from Section 9.1.G.8 (Pipe-Stem Lots) of 318.3 feet. City Planner Harris said the use of pipe-stem lots is a safety-valve to be used sparingly in unusual situations. It offers flexibility in cases where family members want to subdivide family property, but the costs of building a city-standard street to serve just one or two houses would be prohibitive. You still prevent the abuses that occur where a land owner scrapes a driveway, sells the lot, scrapes another driveway, sells that lot, and the next thing you know you have a bunch of houses but no streets or other improvements. The use of pipe-stem lots allows a bit of flexibility without opening the door for abuses. Mr. Harris said that he was comfortable with approval of this request. Fire Marshal Setian said that his comments regarding the Bartlett project were not directly related to the present petitioner’s request to build a residence on this property. These comments were if the access easement becomes a public street in the future. I mentioned in my comments, specifically, dead-end access, imposed load minimums and fire hydrant distribution. This was noted for the record and so that the Planning Commission would be aware of the potential challenges to the City regarding infrastructure development. The fire code does not regulate access development to an individual’s residence such as a driveway. Chairman Boyd asked Mr. Harris to address future City liability should this area be further developed. Planner Harris said that is why you have the flag lot provision. Right now there is potential to create just one additional lot without going through the conventional subdivision process. Commissioner Wilkins asked if this street had been dedicated to the City. Planner Harris said “no.” Mr. Wilkins said so the City has no responsibly for it all. City Engineer Jones said that is correct; they are not platting a street. This is private property that is going out to street right-of-way that they are going to build a drive on. The process is that if they want to come in and, at some point, dedicate this as a public street there would have to dedicate the right-of-way and petition the City to accept that as a city street. At that point the City has code and requirements in place that would require them to bring the street up to City specifications, including any emergency vehicle access requirement or provisions. It’s not a situation where they are just going to get this street in there and people are going to be driving up and down and then one day they decide they want to dedicate this to the City and have us take it over. They have to come back thru this process to dedicate that right-of-way. They have to come back to the Planning Commission and on to the City Council. There are enough safeguards in there to ensure that’s not going to happen. Commissioner Wilkins asked about a potential scenario of a fire down there at one of these homes and the fire truck can’t get down there due to the condition of that road. City Engineer Jones said there is only going to be one house at the end of this road. This is a private drive. The other property that Planner Harris was talking about there is a remaining piece of property but it also has right-of-way access off of Quarry Road. They could share a drive, but conceivably they could also make the drive directly off of Quarry Road. And to get more and to actually generate lots or create lots off of this road they would have to come back through the Planning Commission. Commissioner Wilkins said since it is a private drive if they come down and there is a fire and the road is not passable, the City doesn’t have an obligation to tear up a one-half 2 million dollar fire truck going down that road to get to that house because of the condition. Fire Marshal Setian said again we don’t regulate private drives. As a courtesy we do monitor those drives. Commissioner Westcott made the motion to approve the request. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Skelton and passed unanimously. The Third Order of Business was a request to review and approve the large-scale development of Preferred Freezer Services to construct a cold storage and distribution facility located in the East End Industrial Park on Industrial Boulevard. Submitted by Gregg Long on behalf of Victory Unlimited Construction. (DV.15.10.139) City Planner Harris said he did not see any zoning issues. We do have some related issues about the airport operations zone, but strictly on the zoning issue the property is in an industrial zone and it’s hard to see how the proposed use would not fit in this zone. Commissioner Wilkins asked if it was possibly in the glide path. Planner Harris said “yes.” The height of the building is about 95-feet tall and projects about 28 feet into the path. The proposed building is 800 plus feet off the runway centerline. Mr. Keith Frazier has gotten some of his responses from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but not all of them. Planner Harris said from the zoning standpoint my recommendation would be to do whatever you wish to do as far as the zoning questions and just be sure the notations are made that those questions for the FAA and airport operations need to be addressed. Commission Wilkins said that having been on the Airport Commission they can’t build that building without FAA approval if they are within ten miles of the airport and it exceeds certain height-slope rules. So if we approve it, we aren’t overruling anything. They have to have FAA approval before they can build it. Mr. Gregg Long of Crafton Tull said that they received today the official notice of potential hazard from the FAA, which we were aware was going to be coming. We still have some outstanding items that we owe City Engineer Jones as far as the drainage, etc. We have submitted a preliminary drainage report and things, but there are some details to be worked out and we are asking tonight just for conditional approval knowing that we’ve got to get all of those taken care of and the FAA clearance before we can build anything. The developer is well aware of that. We didn’t finish up all the construction drawings because of that. We don’t want to spend a lot of money if there is going to be some items that we can’t work through. Commissioner Wilkins made the motion to approve the request. Commissioner Miller seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. The Fourth Order of Business was a request for a Public Hearing requesting review and a recommendation of approval for a Special Use Permit to operate an auto repair shop in a C-2 (Highway Commercial), located at 120 Midway Drive. Submitted by Claudia Marcela De Paz. (SP.15.10.135) 3 City Planner Harris said Midway Drive is not an actual city street, but development has been allowed along the street in recent years. We have a survey done on this property in 1986. I hope you will consider this as a metes and bounds description and since development has been allowed on this street of a much larger scale than auto repair, you will consider recommending approval of this request. This whole area on this part of South Arkansas is basically all or more industrialized type uses. So it is a perfect location for it. They will have to comply with the Commercial Building Design on the front of their building and the side of their building that faces Midway Circle. When asked, the petitioner, Mrs. De Paz, said she had nothing to add that Mr. Harris had explained it clearly. Commissioner Wilkins made the motion to approve the request. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Westcott and passed unanimously. Added Item: Chairman Boyd recognized City Planner David Harris, who is retiring. Mayor Horton presented Mr. Harris with a plaque in appreciation for his service to the City. Meeting Adjourned. ___________________________________________________ Chairman Dennis Boyd 4