Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

2025 commission meeting to order. Do a roll call. Sorry, already messing up. Yeah, there we go. I'll leave. Amy Bailey here. James, Logan Suber here. Chris Lamb here. Mike McCarowitz here. Gerald McConnell here. Devin Bolan here. Susan May. Lucas Straw here. Joseph Schultz here. John Good. Suzanne Davis here. All right. We have a quorum. Is there any organizational business?

Nope. Uh we need to approve the minutes from July 8th, 2025. I will entertain a motion. Move to approve July 2025 minutes as presented. Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. Is there any modifications to the agenda? Any old business and then new business. Do I need to open up to public hearing first or is it just new business? All right. I will open it up to public hearing. You got to state the actual PC parking lot 2025

for PC parking lot 2025-00003. Uh Jim Kataret, city planner for Auburn. So this request this evening was filed by the city administration. What they're doing this evening is requesting to eliminate the uh expiration date for the utilization of a temporary parking lot that's located in the 300 block of East 7th. It's between 7th and 8th Street to the east of Union Street. Uh this request we advertised as a public hearing because the previous request on this property have been public hearings that was published in the star on September 23rd and there were six adjacent property owners notified of the request. Uh the property itself highlighted here on the area shows the uh city owned property. There's two parcels that are comprised of the temporary parking lot. you'll see the uh the gravel or the uh uh the surface of the parking lot as it currently exists outlined on the aerial. Uh the property itself is zoned parks and recreation and the surrounding zoning is mainly commercial with residential across uh to the east of Clare Creek. Few photographs of the property just to get your bearings. This is uh looking along Seventh Street. So the the spaces that are along Seventh Street are the ADA spaces and they currently are a a permeable surface. The this is looking from Seventh Street looking south at the parking lot. You can see most of the parking lot area is a a permeable uh gravel surface. This is looking uh west along Seventh Street. Again, you can see the ADA marked spaces. There's a sidewalk

connecting the parking lot to Seventh Street. This is from the southeast corner of the site looking north. Again, you can see the parking lot is not striped currently except for those ADA spaces. And this is just looking at actual Ninth Street orbit alley, but this is the access to the parking lot area off of Union Street. So, with this request this evening, we didn't receive any uh contact from anybody, the adjacent owners or anybody on the specific request. A little history just to get uh get to the request this evening. Initially, back in 2001, uh this property was requested for a a variance of use to allow a parking lot, a temporary parking lot on the property. uh that was granted uh by our board of zoning appeals. Um that was in September. Following that was the actual development plan to construct the parking lot on the property that was approved by the planning commission. The planning commission actually established a expiration date for the parking lot of December 31st of 24. And so the parking lot you see out there today is is what was approved. That was the plan that was approved. Again, it had a gravel a a millings asphalt milling surface and then the ADA spaces were more of a permeable asphalt surface. With that expiration date of 2024, it was required to be uh all that parking area had to be removed or brought back to its natural state that it was before the lot was was put in. The property also had some restrictions on it um from from FEMA regarding the temporary use of the of the property. Again, they would only allow a permeable permeable surface uh for the parking lot area itself. So,

prior to uh the expiration date, a year prior to that, uh the administration came forward in the end of 2023 to extend that deadline date that had been established. Um, and so both the board of zoning appeals and the planning commission did agree to extend the expiration date until December 31st of 27th. The the administration at that time was looking to try to find more permanent parking areas within the downtown core area. They were having trouble finding property and so they wanted to extend the lifespan of this parking lot. After uh after those um approvals were granted in 23, uh the current administration reached out to FEMA to try to secure a more permanent solution to the to the problem uh the parking lot area there and they wanted to see if they could uh construct a permeable surface parking lot um but that would not have a a time limit to it. It it could stay there as long as the city needed to have the parking lot there. But they also wanted if they if we were going to invest money in doing a permeable surface over the entire property, they wanted to ensure that uh it could be left there indefinitely. And FEMA did agree to that. Um there's a copy of the FEMA letter in your packet of materials this evening to see that. But they did agree to allow an indefinite parking lot area there with a permeable pavement surface over the entire lot. Uh so with that the uh the city came up with this parking lot plan. Again it follows the same area that you currently see out there that has the milling surface on it. The ADA spaces remain right where they they always were with the sidewalk connection. Basically the the plan here is to do a permeable pavement surface over the entire uh

parking lot area. this uh it's an asphalt product, but it's a it's a mixture that does allow u water to permeate through the surface of the asphalt rather than a typical asphalt surface where it just you know sheets off the property. There is a proposal to do a uh perforated drain down the middle of the parking lot area where there would be the ability for if there's a heavy rainfall that there's a little bit of a pooling of the water, it could be directed to the uh to the drain uh and then go to the city storm sewer that's along 8 street. Uh the benefits of this, of course, it's a hard surface, so it's a it's a more permanent surface. It's easily walkable and you could actually stripe it to identify where the parking spaces are. That initial plan that we had was uh laid out for about 55 spaces, but once you uh you know, you get the surface down and once you stripe the spaces to meet our ADA as far as width and and length and the aisle width that you're required to do, we actually uh this proposed layout here uh drops down to 42 spaces uh in total. Um and you can see the ones in the middle are not don't not face to face. is just one parking space going down the middle aisle, but it's got a one-way traffic flow through it. Um, and so that's uh the benefits of this, of course, is having the hard surface and the marked parking spaces. Again, I mentioned this 42 total spaces, 388 spaces remain up along Seventh Street. The parking lot area itself, this question came up at the BZA as far as distance. the the permeable pavement surface will not be any closer to Clear Creek than the existing gravel surface. It it goes the the creek because of the

angle of the creek. It's basically um 40 feet from the top of the bank at the north part and 30 feet from the uh top of the bank at the southern end of the parking lot area. the grass area between the pavement and the uh the creek itself will remain. The um parking lot also extends into the legal drain setback of of the creek and uh the the county drainage board initially uh granted their their approval on a temporary basis. So the uh city did go back to the drainage board in October of this year to request that they remove the the time deadline for use of the parking and they agreed to that. So they have an understanding of the improvements we're proposing to do and we're good with that. And then prior to this meeting, the board of zoning appeals back in September did approve 50 uh the removal of the time deadline. And so the request this evening is to have the planning commission approve the uh request to eliminate the expiration date uh for the use of the property uh for a parking lot. So as long as the city wants to have the parking lot there, they would be allowed to do so. The variance of use would be valid indefinitely. So that concludes staff report.

Thank you Jim. Any questions from the plan commission for staff? I just I'm assuming this is going to be a public parking this is going to be a public parking space. It it is I'll let the mayor speak to that um as the as the applicant for the request but yes that's the intent. Any other questions for staff? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh would anybody would the petitioner like to speak to the commission please? Dave Clark, City of Auburn. Um Jim did a great job explaining the purpose of doing some sort of solid surface there. Uh also to make it more of a uniformed lot. And then on the south side, kind of another purpose it will serve is we are looking at doing a concrete walk off the south side there that will attach to the northwest corner of the Veterans Memorial which we have one of the BCA members here. Um so it'll serve that purpose as well. Uh like Jim mentioned, it will overlay the exact footprint that's there now. So, it won't expand. Uh, we're not going to do anything with the north end. And then one of the positive things that that the engineering department worked on was doing that uh perfated, excuse me, perforated tile in the middle that will tie into the sewer so that water will just uh deflect away and not go towards the creek. Um, to answer your question, uh, it will be a public non-restricted parking lot. Any further questions for the petitioner?

Yeah, since the last meeting, one of I it went by there. Um, we talked about life cycle um at the BZA meeting on the surface um with the existing ADA spaces not being updated. Is there a risk of additional degradation of that area because it's older and the surface is considered non-permanent? So, so I'm not a contractor, but we do have Daryl that I mean, if it were to get to a point and need resurfaced up on that north end, I believe that would be possible, but I'll let Daryl speak on that.

Yeah, like I mentioned in the BZA, we've never had much experience with this porous asphalt, permeable asphalt, so we're still monitoring the life of it, but that's only it's a couple years old. Uh, I think it's going to be fine for a while, but we're gonna have to wait and see and keep, you know, monitor it, but we will keep an eye on it. I a good ballpark time frame is 10 to 12 years as mentioned before. Thank you.

I'm not really sure how much lighting is there. Is there going to be anything different with lighting or anything? I mean, if it's a public parking, you know, a lot of people are parking downtown at night. Yeah. So, lighting would be done. Most likely it would be on the south side because there cannot be any permanent what they call permanent structures on that specific parcel. So, that would be something we'd have to put on the south or um I doubt even between there and the building. I don't think there's enough room, but there would be lighting as part of I think they brought that up at PCA as well. As far as snow removal, how is snow removal on that porest material?

A lot better than gravel because they're they're plowing it. The city plows it currently as well in the winter. And it's it's not easy because you're you're digging it up as you're the blade. And to the lighting question, I'm looking at the street view. There is a street light already on the norththeast corner on that parking lot. So, there is lighting right now. Well, it's a utility pole that has light on it. Anything else?

Yeah, I just a quick question. I'm not a parking lot flow expert by any means. Uh, was there a reason that the flow goes I guess the way it does and not the inverse of that? Like I feel like if you were to come in like to get into the place like you have to cut through the see like running the road running east to west like if I'm coming in wouldn't it make more sense to it like goes a full loop rather than cutting through the outbound. What's that crossing over the outbound? Yeah. But my understanding would be is that flow is clockwise right? Um, I believe if you go to about any directional,

the only comment is eight street. It's technically a street, but it's been narrowed down. It's It's basically a glorified alleyway. It's only trip 12 to 13 foot wide. So, there's only going to be one lane of traffic probably coming in into that parking lot. And we just figured that clockwise flow would be the safest. Okay. Um, it seems to be working currently even though there's not lines directing utilizing that parking lot in the last couple years and seems to be working. Yeah. So that you're saying the street that runs east to west is just one way.

It's it's not very wide. It's not your standard street pavement width because that rideway's been through the years been decreased, but it's still technically eight street. You know what's left of it? So, we did pave that alley way out to uh a union uh several years ago. We were doing all this in business. Do do you guys expect just with the increase in the number of spots there that the that you're going to have like a need for two-way traffic? I guess uh we don't have a lot of room there, you know. Um we'll have to again monitor that, you know,

and and we're not increasing the number of spots. It's actually decreasing 13 to make them to meet the uh code. But to your point, uh, with it becoming public, more public parking, because before it was only public after 5:00. So now traffic in and out could be more flow at the same time both ways versus with CEO, you know, it was when they were coming in when they were leaving. So I guess that would be a concern. But again, you're going to have to monitor.

Yeah, it's it's hard to say because public, they may not be coming in and out at the same time. Creed, I'm sure some of their staff arrives and leaves at the same time for a flow. Um, as Darl mentioned, I think that's something we we do monitor. If we were needing to make that wider, there could be a potential or possibility of widening it to the south if need be, if it ever became an issue. But we have not we've not had any concerns so far. Do you guys have a timeline for when like to start all that? Uh it would be in the spring. It's too late in the year now. Yeah.

Any further questions? Yeah. Where's the handicap accessible parking? Is there still something by Seventh Street? Yes, there's the three up in the top in the top uh the northeast there. Will that have the new surface on it? It It's already permeable asphalt that's only a few years old. Okay. So, it may need some some maintenance prior to the um proposed lot if it goes in if it's approved. But right now, I don't believe there's any issues with it. And currently, there's five of those spaces.

There's there's three handicap and two standard. Okay. Anything further? Thank you, Mayor Clark. Thank you.

Would anybody from the public like to speak on or against the parking lot project? Anybody from the public that would like to speak to it? Okay, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Before I open it to further discussion, I want to apologize for my tardiness, but my flight was supposed to land 30 minutes later. We actually arrived earlier, so I was going to miss the entire meeting, but I figured since I was in town, I'd just try to make what I could. So, I apologize for being late, but um I got here as quick as I could. So, um that being said, is there any further discussion amongst the commission? From my perspective, I think it's a a good use of that area, especially with being adjacent to the Veterans Park and Memorial that's going in there. Um, to allow access, especially during events downtown, um, and the whether it be a car show or whether it be the, uh, farmers market or whatever. I think that offers a unique opportunity for additional access and additional parking within that area. So, any further discussion? Okay, this does not have any findings of facts. Um, so I believe we're just looking for an approval for um PC parking lot 2025-3.

Move to approve PC parking lot 2025-00003. Second. Real quick, you're approving the removal of the timeline condition at this point. Specifically, the approval of the underlying condition. You mean resave that? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Uh move to approve the removal of the underlying condition for PC parking lot 2025-00003. And I still second. Any more discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.

Motion carried. Now, do we need to approve or we good? We're good. Okay. Um, so next on the agenda underneath new business is the 2026 calendar. Just have your consideration uh with filing deadlines quickly approaching for uh next year's meetings. We wanted to establish the calendar of your meeting dates and all the filing deadlines. All the meetings in 26 will be on the second Tuesday uh of the month each month. And we need a motion a so um anybody willing to make the motion to approve the calendar.

Move to approve planning commission calendar as presented for the calendar year 2026. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. Opposed.

Motion carried. On to reports. Um address report. Jim, we haven't met in a few months. So, we've got a little bit of a backup of some addresses that need to be assigned. There are four different uh addresses or groups of addresses for you to consider this evening. All of these requests have gone through our addressing committee, which includes many different departments and agencies, including, of course, 911, emergency management, fire department, um police department, post office, etc. address. So, they they've all agreed to these addresses, but they do require approval from the planning commission. Uh the first one here uh for your consideration is the Veterans Memorial. Uh we're proposing an address of 308 East 9th Street for that facility. The And we can do these as a group if that's okay. Or

just go ahead address them all and then I'll ask if anybody has a one that we need to pull out separately. Maybe that way.

All right. Thank you, sir. The second one is this is an existing multifamily structure. It's actually at the uh northeast corner of uh Indiana Avenue and 7th Street. Uh this particular structure has five units in it and uh all the units currently utilize the address of 368 West 7th, but there are separate doorways to get to some of the units and uh I believe there was u a request from emergency services when they realized this scenario to have proper addresses assigned to the units. So the way we do it, if there is an exterior door to a unit, it has its own unique address. If there's a exterior doorway that goes to a corridor with units off the corridor, then there's one address for that door with sweet numbers for the units that are off off that door. So what you see here uh are three unique addresses. the 368 West 7th Street will be for the unit that's accessed from the front door along 7th. The first door you get to when you're heading up north on Indiana Avenue um is a door to a corridor. So that will have a 100 North Indiana Avenue address with suites A, B, and C. And then the uh there's a door just a little bit further to the north of that that leads to an individual unit and that's been assigned the address of 104 North Indiana Avenue. The next request um is the subdivision currently being proposed. The planning commission has looked at a primary plat for this subdivision. This is Thomas Estates and they are proposing section one uh currently is being reviewed by by the

city and this would be 22 lots within the first uh section but we do need to assign addresses for those lots. Those addresses typically then get placed on the plat before it's recorded. What we have, if you have a lot that actually is a quarter lot, we've assigned an address for each street frontage and then when a structure is built, the front door determines which address gets assigned to that lot. And that's why you'll see a few lots have more than one address assigned to it. The last um address we're proposing is a that's just the map showing the address layout for Thomas Estates. Then this uh property um there's actually two lots there, but uh one owner of both of those parcels. It's on Douglas Street, but it's a land that's been vacant. U and so we need to assign an address to that property for that structure. And so we've assigned 611. Again, all these addresses follow the uh addressing policy of the city as far as sequential order, etc. That's why we select 611 for this property. So that's those are the four address schemes.

Thank you. Yeah. Does anybody on the commission have any issue with um presenting all four as one motion? No, I don't. Quick question. Go ahead. With Indiana um or with the Indiana address, are the property owners notified or kind of how is that coordination conducted with an existing structure? Yes, they absolutely were notified of it. We've had that discussion with them and told them that that this was a emergency services request. We need to assign individual addresses. If it gets approved, we follow up with the the owner so they properly mark the doorways with the address on them. You had stated for the Indiana for AB and C that there were suites units

in here. It's units. I always say sweet. Sweets is more of a commercial. Yeah. Unit number ABC. Yeah. Yeah. And then for the veteran memorial park, what was the Legion's address when it was there? Don't know that. I I I I just wondered it probably went away, but it did. It wasn't in our address database anymore. So, yep. Any further questions? I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve October edge report as presented. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I.

I. Uh opposed. Motion carried. Uh anything from board members. City county leazison. Uh we didn't have a meeting in in September. In August, we had just a a short meeting that had the Butler planner come over and talk about the interlocal agreement that they weren't actually presenting it for approval. They just wanted to present to us. So, that was it. Oh, it's regarding their ETJ. Yep. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um project advisory committee, anything? Nothing. Uh, city staff,

just want to indicate your agenda talks about the pl next planning commission meeting is actually on Wednesday, November 12th with our regular meeting day being Veterans Day. So, I just wanted to point that out that you will have a meeting on the 12th. We have three uh three larger projects to consider. So, it'll be a full agenda that evening. Yeah, there will be. Um, city attorney nothing. Anything from the public? All right, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn then. Move to adjurnn. Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you all very much.