Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to the April 14th City of Apakka Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. If you will all please stand with me for a moment of silent prayer and the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First order of business, I'm going to introduce our newest commission member. Mrs. Malikica Harrison is our newest member. Recently joined us, replacing Commissioner Washington. Welcome.

Thank you. All right. Public comment. During each agenda item, there will be a time allotted for the public to speak on that particular agenda item. If there's anyone here that has something that is not on the agenda that is planning and zoning related, please feel free to speak now. Seeing none, we'll move on. Item number one, meeting minutes. It's on. Hello.

You can't hear me. Come on. Meeting minutes of March 10th, 2026. Is there any changes or additions or subtractions? If not, then we need a motion. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the meetings of March 10th, 20 March date, right? 2026. March 10th on the paper. Don't question the paperwork. Okay. March 10th, 2026. Thank you, sir. Motion by Commissioner Doomy. Do I have a second? I'll second it.

Commission. Motion by Commissioner Ryan to second. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number one, public hearing legislative ordinance number 3157, smallcale future land use amendment, 171 West Orange Street and 15 North Washington Avenue. owners JVCV Residential Properties LLC applicant Alen Corde okay gave location all right Mr. Good evening. This is Jun, planner at the community development department. The applicant has a request a small scale future land use amendment for the properties located 171 West Orange Street and 15 North Washington Avenue from residential low to mixed use. The total size of the properties is about.9 acre and they are located at MUD mixed use downtown zoning district and CRA community redevelop redevelopment agency district. The current future land use of the property is a residential low allowing 5.5 dwelling units per acre and request fial land use as mixed use. The properties are located in CRA over O overlay district. According to comprehensive plan future land use element policy 3.1.R areas within the CRA shall be allowed to have a mixed use vial land use. According to the land development code 3.6.3, one of the purpose of mixed use zoning is higher density residential development and it includes town homes. Um the site plan that you sh you are seeing is the concept plan for the townhouse town homes. The purpose of changing the future land use is for the development of two town buildings for

the total eight residential units and it is permitted in mixed use downtown zoning district. The change of future land use to mixed use will increase the density from five from five dual units per acre to 15 dual units per acre. The DRC has recommended approval and recommended motion is recommending approval of change the future land use from residential load to mixed use. Staff and publicly controllable for any questions. Thank you Mr. Sha. Does anyone have questions of staff? No. Very well. Is the applicant here available to answer questions?

Okay. All right. Does anyone have questions of the applicant? Very well. Is anyone from the public here wish to speak on this matter? Yes, ma'am. Please give me your name and address for the record.

My name is Lynette Anderson. My address is 170 West Magnolia Street. I have lived, worked, worshiped, and was married in Apakka for over to a total of 20 years. I purchased a home In August 2013 at the corner of Washington and Magnolia, I walk every day, twice a day, and although every intersection in my neighborhood is worse and due to inattentive drivers who don't care or don't know what a stop sign means, this intersection at West Orange in North Washington is one of the most dangerous. I cannot count the number of times that my dog and I have come close to being hit. The more traffic coming through PAKA on 441 causes drivers to choose an alternate route. This means these side streets including West Orange and West Magnolia. With these eight twostory, four bedroomedroom, 2 and a half bath, twocar garage units, there could be an increase of 16 to 20 plus vehicles accessing this intersection. Granted, not at all, not all at the same time, but any increase is too much. A survey of the residents who do walk, whether alone or with children or their pets, would absolutely prove this out. This is an incredibly dense use of a small piece of property in this neighborhood. Although the notes for this hearing show the track size is 0.9 plus or minus acres. That's the entire property, including the rental at 15 North Washington. The actual size allotted for both the eight town houses and a section for additional parking is only approximately 64 acres. Also noted in the proposed density which would allow 15 dwelling units per acre. Would that mean that eight would fit that criteria? From the first meeting with Miss Condre, there were concerns that were discussed. She was to summarize those concerns and what was proposed and

provide that to the few who attended. I never saw any followup, but here are some of the comments and concerns from that meeting. Miss Condre stated that this proposal had already been approved by this the planning and zoning commission. It appears that it has that's not the case. When asked what would become of it, there is currently no plan for the property at 15 North Washington Avenue, a rental which is in very bad condition. We were also told that there have been efforts to evict the current residents, current tenants for not paying rent. Although I see the address number clearly displayed, there has been an an issue each time an eviction was attempted. If these town houses are built, I hope that the potential owners will be made aware of the above. Also, the tenants regularly play very loud music through the night. Not always pleasant. When the lack of sidewalks along West Orange was mentioned, Miss Condre offered that they could include that in the plan. This would likely run along the front of the property, but where would it go farther? Right now, there is no sidewalk from Park Avenue to Hawthorne. This small section would hardly matter. There would be one a oneway enter exit going beside and behind the units. I'm not sure which way. A major concern is drainage, which does not seem to be included in this proposed plan. I'm not sure where they would put it as there is currently no drainage whatsoever in this neighborhood. What is the plan for that? When the term gentrification was used repeatedly, I thought that meant a tying together of rental of residential and commercial. When I looked it up and found the definition to be the process in which a poor area of a city is improved by an influx of middle class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild

homes bit or businesses resulting in an increase in property values and displacement of usually poor residents. I understood why she repeat repeatedly mentioned the garage homes in my neighborhood. How extremely insulting to me and to my neighbors. She has no idea and apparently focused only on those that need fixing up. Not every owner has the financial ability to do so. I hope that her thought that these units would sell for3 to $400,000 would come to be. I have doubts. Thank you.

Anyone else? We already did get married. So we are um and I Yes. I I think that a lot of developers use the words gentrification all the time and it's usually meant to be to make a better environment instead of a worse one. I know it has some negative and connotations with it. And I explained in the meeting that I understood all of their concerns because nobody everybody wants to see development but they don't want to see it in their backyard. But unfortunately, development happens where a planning organization comes together and decides that that's where they want to see a neighborhood improved. And this area has been earmarked for improvement. So, I do feel like the town houses are going to be um an an ad to the community. And I think that even putting in partial of the sidewalks there, it sets the stage for a more walkable community in the future. And I do thoroughly apologize that I was going to put a report together and I did get it all over to Jun. I sent you I sent him I did send him all of your concerns and everything we talked about, but my father died in the middle of this. So I was going back and forth to Canada and I had a wedding and so timing has not really been on my side on a lot of things. I think we can see. Um so I do apologize for not sending out that email. Um, does anybody do you have any specific questions for me?

Does anyone have questions of the applicant? I got a question. Commissioner Die, do you intend to develop this property or is this just something you guys are speculating on selling?

Um, I am a general contractor and I do design. Um, haven't decided yet whether or not I will be the builder as well. Um, but I would be in control of the design of the property. And I'm very well known for upper end um, developments. I've done a lot of really high-end homes. I've been on zombie house flipping and we've done a lot of different things in over the last 20 years. So, I do think that my reputation does precede being a more of a quality builder. So, I just haven't decided if this project is going to be one that I actually build or one that I just design and then hire a contractor. But I do plan on having some form of supervision. Thank you.

All right. Anyone else? Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Bring it back to the board for discussion and a motion. Mr. Chairman, uh, so I just just a couple thoughts if it's it's okay on this. Commissioner Dei, go ahead.

Uh, can we pull up the map of the area? So whenever we look at this map, we see that really this the idea is to make this more of a mixeduse area which is kind of you know where I'm coming from with this. I certainly understand the concerns of Miss Anderson and uh you know I think at one time it was Mosquito Creek Outdoors correct across from that just to the south southeast of that I'm sorry the southwest of that. So, it's kind of a mixed juice area already and it is in the overlay district. I don't really see a problem from that perspective. And just to address the sidewalk concern, too. I know that we've talked and uh I'll just state I'm not a big proponent of sidewalks, but what I what I'm definitely not a proponent of is like one property having it, then 10 properties not having it, then one property having it because that that creates a mix match and just hopscotch type development. I'm not a big fan of that. I'd like to have it or nothing. So, that's just just my personal, but the uh I'm having a hard time seeing a reason why this is not a good idea.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? All right, I'll open for a motion. I I'll create the motion, Mr. Chairman.

All right. Um, and again, I'm doing this because it is part of the mixeduse development and so I'm going to make a recommendation because it is part of there. I'm sorry that it impacts others, but it is something that the city council has planned for and has already developed the plan for. So, I'm going to make a motion to find the proposed change in future land use designation from residential load to mixed use consistent with the comprehensive plan in the land development code, which it is, and compatible with the character of the surrounding areas. recommending approval of the proposed change of future land use based on the findings and facts presented in the staff report and exhibits. Motion by Commissioner Dumi. Thank you, sir. Do I have a second? I'll second it.

Second by Commissioner Woods. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Right. Site plan item number one, Sheieler Park subdivision major development plan. As this is quasi judicial, I will have to ask if any members of the board had any exparte communication on this matter. No sir.

Very well. Sheer park subdivision major development plan owners Marvin Reid and Susan Reid. Applicant Mark Steel partial uh location is 1920 Sheieler Avenue. Mr. Song for the record this is Jun planner at the community development department. The applicant has request the approval of the major development plan for residential development of 115 single family lots subdivision. The property is located at 1920 Sheller Avenue. The total size of the properties is about 40 acres and the property is currently vacant. The property was annexed in the city in July 2025 and changed its future land use to residential low and res to RTF residential two family in November 2025. The proposed development is a single family residential subdivision with 115 residential lots and open spaces. It includes 104 lots with a minimum width of 60 ft and 11 lots with a minimum 80 ft. Um and the proper pro provided open space is about 10 acre. It is about 26% of the total site and open space include 8 foot wide gravel jogging trail of 0.5 mile loop. The subdivision provides two access point from sheller avenue. Primary access is not gated and secondary emergency access is gated. Um the land use buffer are provided about the parameter of the subdivision per the land development code section 5.2. The open space include two main park area. One is provided with a bench as

you can see on the site plan and the other is centered around the stone water pond and this area is intended to serve as a naturalistic active recreation area for jogging trail. The DRC has recommended approval and recommended motion is recommending approval of Sher Park subdivision major development plan. Staff and applicants are available for any questions. Thank you, sir. Does anyone have questions of staff? Commissioner Wood? Yeah, just one quick question. Are these private or public roads? This would be They're public. Public?

It will be public. What? public roads. Yes, the city will maintain them. Yes. Okay. Anyone else? No.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Sa. Anyone have questions of the applicant? Very well. Does anyone from the public wish to speak on this matter? Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board for a motion and discussion. I'll make a recommendation. Very well. I recommend approval of the Sheila Park subdivision major development plan.

Motion by Commissioner Ryan. Thank you, sir. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Wood. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Right. Do we have any new items for discussion? I got something I'd like to bring up real quick. Commissioner D,

if you don't mind, just kind of thinking back to that one we just did. You know, it break it breaks my heart to see people in here that are upset about decisions and recommendations we've made, but really is a recommendation from the city council who's going to approve it based on the same facts and findings that we just saw be my guess. And u you know it's it's tough. It's it's never easy to see people upset. It's never easy. But the other thing I want to say is I want to encourage everybody on the dis here to look up the new house bill 399 that was just passed which is going to take a lot of our powers away and and push it more to the state level and it's really going to reduce I think a lot of our workload and uh you know whether that's good or bad is you know kind of personal opinion but I just encourage everybody to look at it and see what's in that bill and familiarize yourself with and how it's going to affect our roles.

Uh, no, it takes effect July 1st, but it is signed by the governor. So, it's a it's a done deal. Basically eliminates a lot of what we're going to be able to do as far as uh recommend recommending and stopping projects. So, they've been marching in that direction for a minute. So, instead of 180 on steroids, that was all I had. All right. Anyone else? Any old items? All right, Meeting obj.