Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Call this Planning Commission meeting to order. I will read the guidelines for the City of Aiken Planning Commission meeting. Meetings are public forums in which opinions, many opinions are expressed and the business of the city must be conducted. As such, disciplined, honorable, and professional decorum is paramount. Courteous and respectful communication is required. During public hearings, all questions and statements from the public shall be directed to the chair. you wish to speak raise your hand and I will recognize you please approach the podium and state your name and address in order to allow an opportunity for everyone who wishes to address Planning Commission speakers should limit their comments to the subject being discussed each speaker will be given five minutes to address an issue and may only address an issue once unless questions from the Planning Commission are posed to the speaker with that being said the first order of business is approval of minutes we have two different sets of minutes to be approved is there a motion from the Commission The motion has been made by Commissioner Lysette and seconded by Commissioner Connor. Is there any discussion from the commission? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? It passes unanimously. There is no old business. We are now moving on to new business. Is there a motion to move any of the agenda item?

Mr. Chairman, there's a motion to move item A to the beginning of the meeting. Do you mean item I? Item I, I'm sorry. Thank you very much. Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion from Commissioner Epps and a second from Commissioner Collins to move to, excuse me, Commissioner Connor, to move item I to the first. First item here. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It has been passed. Our first item is now item I. This is proposed historic designation, application number DES26-01003. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this? Please approach podium.

Chris Eaton, 522 Coker Springs Road.

Thank you. Anything you'd like to say?

No, other than this is an ongoing issue in town, and this certainly is an accessory building to a historic property. And as such, even though it's really not the nicest barn in the world, it suitably should be included.

Thank you very much, ma'am. We appreciate you. Thank you. Anyone to speak against this motion? Any comments? Seeing none, is there a motion from the commission?

Is there a second?

Second.

Motion has been made by Commissioner Lysette, seconded by Commissioner Epps. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your right hand. Like, sign, opposed? It's passed unanimously. Moving on to the next piece of business, item A, application 27-20001, annexation request, current zoning UD and RD, proposed zoning RS-10. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this? Anyone here to speak against it? Any general comments? Seeing none, is there a motion from the commission?

Mr. Chairman, I make the motion that we approve application 272001, annexation request from UD to RS-10. Is there a second? Second.

Motion has been made by Commissioner Epps and seconded by Commissioner Connor. Is there any discussion from the commission? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Likes, not opposed. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number B, application 27-2002, annexation request, current zoning RUD, proposed zoning RS-15. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this? Is anyone else here to speak in favor of this? Anyone to speak against? Seeing none, is there a motion on the floor?

In regards to application 27-20002 annex request, I would concur a request that this be advanced to the council with the current zoning of rural development being changed to the residential single family RS 15 for their approval.

Is there a second? Second. Motion's been made by Commissioner Lysette, seconded by Commissioner Epps. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item C, application 27-2003, annexation request, current zoning RC, proposed zoning RS-15. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this? Is anyone else in here to speak in favor of this? Anyone to speak against? Hearing none, is there a motion from the floor?

Mr. Chairman, in regards to application 27-20003, and a session request from residential single family RC to residential single family RS-15, I make a motion that we pass this. Is there a second? I'll second it.

Motion has been made by Commissioner Epps, seconded by Commissioner Lysette. Is there any discussion from the council? Commission? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Passes unanimously. Moving on now to item number D, application request number 27-2004, annexation request, current zoning RUD, proposed zoning RS-15. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this? Is anyone else here to speak in favor of this? Is anyone here to speak in opposition to this? Hearing none, is there a motion from the commission?

Mr. Chairman, regarding application 27-2004, current zoning RUD proposed zoning RS-15, I make a motion that we move this forward to City Council for approval.

Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made by Commissioner Connor and seconded by Commissioner Epps. Any discussion from the Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand and pass this unanimously. Moving on to the joined items, item E and item F, application number 27-6001, a rezoning request and application 27-23001, a concept plan, current zoning, industrial proposed zoning plan commercial. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this?

I'm not the owner, but I'm Ben Christensen, 244 Boxhelder Drive, and I'm the land surveyor. And Mr. Graham was out of town, and he asked me to step up here and answer whatever questions you might have.

Before we have any questions, if there are any, would you mind just telling us a little bit about this project and what you guys are looking to do?

So this is next to the Highfields eventing. These are going to be cottages that will be rented only to people that are attending the Highfields events. They're not gonna be on Airbnb. These are just for eventing people that want to stay close to their horses.

Are there any questions from the commissioners? Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else here to speak in favor of this? Is there anyone here to speak against this?

Is there any just general comments?

Hearing none, is there a motion from the commission? Just one would be fine.

motion uh mr chairman regards to application two seven six zero zero one and for rezoning and application two seven two three zero zero one for their concept approval plan approval um i recommend that uh the current zoning from industrial be proposed to the zoning of planned commercial and both the rezoning and the concept plan be forwarded to council for further approval and review and approval Is there a second? A second.

Motion has been made by Commissioner Lysette and seconded by Commissioner Epps. And with, mind you, is that with the conditions as listed?

And would you like to re-second? I'll re-second.

Very good. The motion has been made by Commissioner Lysette and seconded by Commissioner Epps. Is there any discussion from the commission? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. And that passes unanimously. Moving on to item G, application number 26-50004, city services request. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this?

My name is Peter Patel. I live at 518 Seminole Place, Augusta, Georgia. We are working on doing a project on exit 22 US 1, operate Dunkin' Donuts. So it'll be a 210 and Dunkin' Donuts building, and we'll have the remaining plots available for future development.

Very good. Are there any questions from the commission?

Yes. I don't think he was in for the work session. In the work session, we discussed a second means of egress. Perhaps, Mari, if you could count on that.

I know there was some discussion about potentially having a second means of ingress, ingress, egress from the shawl industries drive. I don't know where you are on that discussion.

I think we had that discussion with shawl industries, and shawl industries wanted, I guess, rangers can probably, you know, answer that a little bit better. Bo, you want to answer that?

And if you wouldn't mind giving your name for the record, sir.

Bo Slaughter, James G. Swifton Associates, 1428 White Rock Road. We contacted Shaw, and they went through their processes. And at this moment, the only way they wanted to have us access it is to take over their driveway. Excuse me, the city or county to take over their driveway. I got you. So they said they didn't close the book, but they would maybe look at it a little later to see if maybe we could access their drive, if they could come up with a way to hold everybody responsible as far as impact on their trucks. I got you. They didn't want to just flat out say it. They kind of wanted to see how everything panned out. And when this first phase got approved, see how everything worked. And then during the second or third phase, maybe look at a connection.

I have a quick question as well. I see obviously you have Dunkin' Donuts in the shared building space, fast food, and then sandwich shop. Since you specified sandwich shop, do you know what sandwich shop that might be or what fast food might be going there as well in addition to the Dunkin'?

No, we haven't decided that yet. We'll be leasing that space.

Gotcha. Understood. Any other questions from the commission?

I've just got a little concern about the flow of this in terms of traffic trying to exit, especially with so many establishments backing up and then blocking your access?

That has been reworked. With the traffic engineer working with South Carolina DOT, we have rearranged that to where we have, I think, 14 car stacking without any interference allows more for the continued flood. Is it revised from this drawing? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

So can you paint a picture for us of what it might look like now a little bit?

It builds back a little bit more in that one of the aisleways has been abandoned for a longer pickup window period. way so everything's kind of pushed back tightened up in the back and giving it more room for a car to come over they have to come around and come in they can't come in you know cut over trying to cut the flow out and that gives them all that stacking all the way around just kind of

I would ask you, have you submitted that to the city staff, that updated proposal?

We just updated it and trying to get it through, you know, with South Carolina DOT, but they will get a copy as soon as.

Yes. If you could give that to city staff so that way they could have it for city council, and I believe two weeks this would be sent to them, if you could have that to them so that way city council can see the final plan.

I think the traffic engineer just made one more request yesterday and we changed it on our plans for him. So when we print it out, we'll send it over.

Very good. Any other questions from the commission?

Yes. I just want to add this to record. Are you in agreement for the annexation agreement? I mean, regardless or not, I mean, you're going to order a sewer, but you're understood of it, don't you? They do not have a choice. Okay. We just wanted that on record that you understood.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And there was a question from the owner that these, like the landscaping and things like that, they would take place with the annexation? Or is that going to be a requirement with the plan now?

That's a requirement with the plan now. That's part of the, the city of Aiken has purview over certain aspects just because of the utilities. And so that signage access management and landscaping is what we look at.

Yeah, so in addition to the landscaping, it would also be signage as well.

And so whenever we have a utility request like this, we look at it, and then obviously the county looks at it. I mean, we work together when we have these utility requests.

So we'll have a mixed landscaping, or do you all rule?

Well, it's really kind of, well, as long as theirs is not so different from ours, typically, you know, as long as we're happy, they tend to be happy. So, yeah.

So make y'all happy, we'll do it.

Make us both happy. Since we are the city, we would say yes.

Yes, that's right.

Anything else from the commission?

Before we make the motion, I just wanted to ask, are we adding to the condition for them to give the new plan to planning?

I mean, we can put that as a condition, but we will request that Yeah, we will have to have that anyway.

For the civil plans.

Yeah, we can we can have that as a formal condition.

No, no, no.

Thank you, gentlemen. Is there anyone else here to speak in favor of this motion? Is there anyone here to speak against it? Are there any questions or comments from the audience? Hearing none, is there a motion from the commission?

I'll move. Mr. Chairman, regarding application 26-50004, request for city services, I would move that we accept this application as stated with the conclusions of law and the conditions set forth therein, but subject to the submission of the revised plan that we've just heard about that accounts for some of the stacking. issues that I was concerned about. Assuming that revision is provided, then I would move that we send this to city council for approval with the conclusions of law as stated.

Very good. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made by Commissioner Connor and seconded by Commissioner Epps. Is there any discussion from the commission? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand.

And it passes unanimously.

Moving on to item H, application number 27-50001, city services request. Is the applicant here to speak in favor of this?

Yes, I'm I'm David banks with southern partners engineering company. Uh, 1233 Augusta West Parkway in Augusta.

And go ahead, Sarge Patel, uh, 12 0 5 Johnson Fair Road, uh, Meredith Julia.

Yeah.

Um, as this project, uh, this property, we, it was right at two years ago. We, we did get a approval of this process, um, and actually signed an annexation agreement at that time. Sergeant would wanted to make some revisions to the concept plan. We wanted to go with a little bit more dense unit It says four, but we're actually making it up. Yeah, we kind of pulled that back a little bit, but we'll be updating that plan before the commission meeting. And so we're back asking for approval of the concept plan and additional water and sewer service to the property.

there is no the only thing for us is the city services request not the concept plan that would be if i'm not mistaken just for the county would be approving that so okay yeah i thought it was a combination no sir yes sir this is this is yet to be annexed so you're just doing a city services request application

So yes, this is still the same type of project, senior living, which is 55 and older. And we will be having a larger building, which you can see in the picture here. I think it looks really nice. I'm not an architect, but to me it's very nice looking. And we think it would be a benefit to the neighborhood. They did do the redox of Aiken, which is right down the street. So this is just a compliment to that.

Very good. I know during work session there was some comment from staff regarding the median. Would you like to reiterate those for the record? Right.

I know our traffic consultant has had some concerns about the ride-in, ride-out on Whiskey Road, and obviously there was discussions about whether to put some sort of concrete median, and that was not, I think at this point, not going that route. So in lieu of that, we're just requesting that we have an upgraded, say, pork chop that's wider, more enhanced, so that we make sure that people are not trying to take lefts, take inappropriate movements into the entrance.

I believe in correspondence I had with y'all's consultant. I did send her what I was proposing. She never responded, so I thought she was good with it. I guess she wants a little bit more.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Very good.

And, Mario, just for our purposes, condition number four on this discusses medians. Is that good as is, or would we need to revise that?

Well, typically these will have a median, but we'll work with a developer because obviously we've got to write in, write out. And, you know, it's more a plan and median for signage and things of that nature. And so I think it's fine to stay. We will just work with a developer for something that makes sense.

The rear entrance, I think on the front entrance with the porch shop, we could extend some landscaping and create some sort of, I think that's what you're looking for is more of a,

Aesthetic entrance, right, right, and the signage area.

Our entrance on, was it Hunter's Glen? Hunter's Glen. There's a median that we're having to cross and line up with. As you can see over here. Yeah. That one's going to be a little bit hard to get an island. We can try. So we could, you know, widen the road a little bit. I don't know how much of an island. I think y'all's ordinance calls for a 10-foot wide green span with curb and gutter. So that's 20, I mean, that's 16 feet additional width. I don't think it would line up with the median break.

Okay.

I mean, we'll landscape on either side. Okay.

And I think that's acceptable as well. I mean, we've made that, if it looks like there's some constraints, that we can just work on either side.

Yeah, and we've already updated the entrance to the bigger island, but she may want more on the Whiskey Road entrance.

Did you say that the overall development, though, has been reduced to a three-story from a four-story?

Yeah, we're removing.

I think it's what do we have in there? 120?

Yeah, it's coming down to 100 units now. Yeah. And they're opening up some more open space for their residents. So it's outside the city limits, right? Yeah.

We still get a crack at the landscaping and the traffic. That's the only thing we get a crack at. The signage as well. The signage. The signage. Those are the only three. So, architecturally, you fall under the county building regs and all that. They don't have to. That's correct. By the city regulations for building purposes.

And fire protection, y'all have. Yeah. Because this is in the city. Okay. District.

Are there any questions from the commission?

I did want to ask one question about the landscaping, just for clarification. A lot of y'all's ordinance calls out non-disturbed buffers. That's really hard. We're putting, I think, the rear buffer, y'all only require a 10 or maybe 20, but we're actually putting in a 30 foot, but we would like to be able to disturb it and replant it. During the hurricane two years ago, A lot of our trees got waxed. They're just not there. Whether they're there, they're just laying on the ground.

Right.

We would like for that option to do some disturbance in the buffer. I don't know if that's covered here, under this.

That would be primarily something we could talk through internally. That's fine.

Okay.

any other questions from the Commission oh it just like I asked the last applicant you're aware of the annexation agreement correct yes okay I just wanted that for the record yes all right thank you thank you is there anyone else here to speak in favor of this application is there anyone here to speak against this application any general comments from the audience hearing none is there a motion from the Commission

Okay, I'll make that motion. Mr. Chairman, with regards to application 27-5001, request for city water and city sewer services on the property, I would ask that this be forwarded to the city council. To include the conclusions of law and the conditions as written in the application. Is there a second?

Second. Motion has been made by Commissioner Lysette and seconded by Commissioner Adams. Is there any discussion from the commission? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. And that passes unanimously. Is there a motion to adjourn? I made a motion. Second? Second. All those in favor? There you go.