Planning & Zoning Commission

CITY OF TALLMADGE PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2023 COUNCIL CHAMBERS 7:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Chair Patrick Larson called the meeting to order at 7:01 pm. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL Commission Members present: Patrick Larson Julie Oliver Stephan Ryder Kevin Heilmeier Bob Kostko Administration present: Dave Kline, Mayor Megan Raber, Law Director Helene Hussing, Planning and Zoning Manager ADOPTION OF MINUTES A motion to adopt the October 5, 2023 minutes was made by Mr. Heilmeier and seconded by Mr. Ryder. All members voted in favor. (5-0) AGENDA ADDITIONS None CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS None AGENDA ITEMS FILING - None CASES Case PZ 23-10-01 Amendment to the Zoning Text Applicant: City of Tallmadge Zoning Text: Section 1110.02 Minor Subdivisions Appendix A Glossary of Terms Mrs. Hussing gave a presentation on the case. DISCUSSION Mr. Larson: So if I’ve got a large lot that’s got frontage on the street and I want to split that lot, that’s what you would consider a minor subdivision? Mrs. Hussing: Yes, if you're not creating new streets and it has to meet the development standards.  Planning and Zoning Commission November 2, 2023 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mr. Larson: Right. So if I'm buying a parcel of property and I'm going make 5 building lots on it, but I have to put a cul-de-sac… Mrs. Hussing: Then it becomes a major subdivision and they have to go through the preliminary plat and the final plat. Mr. Ryder: What if there is a zoning change? Mrs. Hussing: The zoning remains. If it's split, the zoning stays the same. Mr. Ryder: So they can request a change but… Mayor Kline: It would come before you. Mr. Larson: Let’s say in that scenario that we’re splitting those lots… you talked about parcel numbers. So, the county also has to assign parcel numbers? Mrs. Hussing: The county does assign a parcel number but the number I was referring to is the lot number. Each lot on a plat is numbered so if you search a parcel on the county website, you get the parcel number, the subdivision, and the lot number. Mr. Larson: If you look at the text for applicability, and you go to 1 subsection 5, where it says, “The property has been surveyed and a survey sheet or record plan, in the form provided for in this code, and a full legal description of the changes resulting from the split…” Shouldn’t that say split or consolidation? Because we’re talking about both scenarios for this legislation, correct? Mrs. Hussing: Yes, we could add that. Discussion about lots behind Dunbar School. Mrs. Hussing: We had 2 instances in phase 2 of Bakers Acres where lots were combined. The first one was prior to the rewrite of the Zoning Code and they had to go through the preliminary plat and final plat to replat that section of the subdivision. That just eliminated a lot number, so there was no change. After the zoning code was rewritten, we had a another one and we handled it just like our new code states, as a regular lot consolidation. There's no change to anything. There's no new lot number. A new parcel was assigned but they kept one of the addresses. So, there is not much change when there is a lot consolidation. Mr. Larson: So there would be no difference in the Bakers Acres where it's a platted subdivision or outside of a platted subdivision? Mrs. Hussing: There is no difference. Mr. Ryder: Does this cover multifamily housing? Mrs. Hussing: It has to meet the development standards. So, if it is in a single-family residential area, they have to be single family residential. If they wanted to put a multiplex there, they would have to request your permission to do that. Mr. Ryder: As far as the Mayor’s decision on minor subdivisions under 5 lots, can residents challenge that? Can they say I want this to go through Planning and Zoning? Mrs. Hussing: It is the right of the property owner to split his lot. Mayor Kline: But it has to meet the underlying zoning code. Mrs. Hussing: If it doesn’t, they can request a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals. Then the neighbors can come out because that is a public hearing. Mrs. Oliver: Prior to the zoning code change, they would have come before us, correct? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Page 2  Planning and Zoning Commission November 2, 2023 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Hussing: Correct, except that the reason we changed it is because we’ve had multiple engineers and surveyors come to us and say that that language could be interpreted differently. Mrs. Oliver: That’s what I was going to bring up. The way our code is written, if you have met all of the criteria, then there is no reason for it to be on our agenda or to have the opportunity for someone in the audience to speak either pro or con because it meets all the criteria, so there would be no sense in that. Mayor Kline: We’ve been able to sign off on minor splits forever. Mrs. Hussing: Correct, when they're not in a subdivision. Mr. Kostko: I guess this is just for clarification… in section B Applicability, under subsection 3 where it states “it shall not have any improvement on any street” but then when you go down to number 2, it just seemed confusing to me. It is also talking about a minor subdivision but then it had at the end of it “and for the dedication of additional land for the widening of existing streets”. Am I missing something? One is saying flat out you can't do it then the next one seemed to say it included the widening of streets. Is there some wording in there I'm not getting? Mayor Kline: I'm not sure that is reflecting what I'm going to say, but some of the street right- of-ways are only 50 foot or 60 foot on a wide street. So, when we were subdividing property, part of the requirement was they give 10 feet of public right away so we get the full 60-foot width. I don't know if that's under the same context, but down on West Ave we did a lot of splits back in the day, but they always had to get 10 foot of frontage so we can get that public right away. Mr. Larson: But that creates an improvement to the infrastructure. Mayor Kline: Future improvement. I can't sign anything… It has to go through Planning & Zoning if they’re doing any road improvements. Any road extensions would be a major subdivision. If somebody wants to split and put a cul-de-sac in, we can't do that. It has to come before the Board and the public has the right to talk about it. Mrs. Hussing: I think you're absolutely right. A minor subdivision includes the recombination of land; So if they're combining land after they were split. Sometimes people split land and then they recombine them again. Consolidation of lots, if there's two lots. The transfer of property from one lot to an adjacent lot. So, if they take part of another lot and then consolidate it to another one. And then for the dedication of additional land for the widening of existing streets. Just like he said, say the city needs to get extra land from people to widen the street, then that would be a minor subdivision. Mayor Kline: Case in point is Robey Rd. You know Robey Rd. was only half the street with one side of it dedicated. The other property owners own all the way to what would be the center line of the future road. So, if we did a lot split there, we would make them go back and add 30 feet which would then be public right away for future expansion. Mrs. Hussing: I think the other one is the end of Martindale. Mrs. Hussing gives more examples to help the Commission understand Mr. Kostko’s inquiry. Mr. Ryder: One more clarification. This will cover commercial, industrial, all types of zoning, correct? Mrs. Hussing: Correct. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3