Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

vice chair for 2026. Um, and do you want to give it back to you for staff? It says staff report on that. Oh, yeah. It's just we wanted to make sure you guys know it was part of your bylaws and at the annual meeting, which is usually the first meeting of the year, is where you make a new selection. Um, so turn it over to you guys for nominations and your vote. Well, I did talk to Connie this morning. I told you guys that she's fine with being vice chair again. Um or if any of you guys are interested in being a vice chair um or chair, you know, it's it's open for discussion. I'm you know, Dave's not doing anything anymore, so he could definitely be a chair if you wanted to. Make a motion that the chair and the vice chair remain the same. Does everybody feel the same? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, that's fine. I have a motion. And do I have a second? I had second. Okay. All in favor? I motion carries. So, looks like it's me. Sorry. And uh Connie. And then second item, we have the Augusta Middle School easement. Um we're looking for a vacation of the easement there and we are going to look over the staff report on that. Yes. And I have one quick addition to this item. There will be a public hearing and that needs to be opened and closed after the staff report. Okay. So, sorry we didn't get that on the agenda. Was an oversight.

So, I will turn it over to Samur, city planner, who handled this case. Good morning everyone. Morning for popping in right at after the start. Um let me get my notes up here. Right. Uh during the review of building plans for the addition to Augusta Middle School, uh staff identified that a utility easement existed under both the school and the proposed building addition. Uh this was discovered in a document from 1970 that vacated the alleyways but retained an easement for the city to maintain utility lines and for the gas service company to maintain gas lines in the north south alleyway. The city notified the district of the easement on October 22nd and began the process for vacating the easement. The district submitted their application for the easement vacation on November 20th. On November 24th, staff issued a conditional authorization letter to allow for work to begin on the site. Um so essentially what we are looking at here um with with an easement existing on the property currently um both underneath the existing school and um the proposed building location. Um we took a look at where those utilities that are in that easement would be serving. um we identified that it's really only the school that's going to be quote unquote affected by the vacation of the easement. Um with that being the case, whether it is a public easement or you know private lines there really doesn't make a functional difference in terms of um anybody being negatively affected. Uh

so we decided that it made the most sense to go ahead and vacate everything um kind of clean up all the the legal language um in the situation there. Currently, there's nothing that's running in those easements. There there is a public sewer line um that runs in in that easement um ultimately should everything u be vacated. The idea is to have it turned over into a private line that the school will own. Yeah. So, it's just a small portion um there next to the road. Like I think I'm correct. It's kind of over here. There's a man. Is it over here? Uh to the south.

There's a manhole somewhere out here. Do you want to Oh, down here. Sorry, wrong street. Um there's a manhole down here and there's some line that runs in towards the school right here, but it only services the school. So legally right now it's a public line, but functionally it's a private line. So, we're just cleaning that up. In the new addition, they're going to keep that sewer line, the drainage line there, and the new building's going to go over the top of it, basically. Um, more or less. And are they Are you planning to move it? We're not We're not keeping that line. They're going to make a new tap. Yes. Okay.

Yeah, their plan is to make a new tap into the same line, but just but not underneath the building. We're not putting ility underneath the But then if there's something that goes wrong with that line, the school understands that now they'll be responsible to maintain the line. It won't be correct. Like it won't be a city city maintenance line anymore. Correct. Until where they tap in and then Yeah. On the other side of that tap would be the city.

Was there ever any gas lines there? Because it says something about uh gas service company. Truthfully, I don't know if there there was a gas line. I assume that there likely was. Uh when we reached out to uh the Kansas Gas Company, they seem to think that this had already been vacated. Um the language in the uh vacation document is a little bit unclear, a little bit confusing. Um but on closer reading it says that they're just vacating the alleyways but maintaining the easement for um city utilities and for the right for the Kansas gas or gas utility company or whatever the phrasing was um access rights.

So that's why we we talked to the gas company and got their approval to go ahead and vacate it just so they could double check if they had any infrastructure or anything in there that either needed to be abandoned or be removed. Um they didn't indicate either way. They just said again they thought it had already been done. They didn't have anything on their end that still showed that as an active easement. So they wrote the approval letter to go ahead and proceed with this. You guys have other questions before I open the public hearing or we can ask questions then too. Okay. At this time I'll open the public hearing and if we have anybody if you guys want to come up and speak on the topic. If you don't, it's it's up to you. Just um come up, state your name, address, and speak to it if you'd like.

You don't have to. Yeah, they're representing the architectural firm, so Okay. Okay. Any other comments from commission while we have the public hearing open? Okay. I will close the public hearing at this time and we'll continue on. So, at this time, we'd recommend a vote of approval. Um, this will go to the city council for final approval on February 2nd. It's

we're trying to find Yeah, I think we Okay, at this time I'll make a motion in case number 2025-23, vacation of utility easement that is located there at the northwest at intersection of North State Street and West Clark Avenue. Have a motion. I think David's got a second on there. All in favor? All right. Motion carries. I thought he was done. Are you done? Are you done? Yeah, I'm good. We're good.

Okay. Uh, next item we got 2026 planning commission calendar. and I'll turn it back to the staff to I know we talked about this last time.

Good morning. Um at the last meeting we did discuss um the 2026 calendar. Um your request was to take it back and schedule pretty much one meeting a month and then we'll call special meetings if needed another time through the month for certain circumstances circumstances, excuse me. So emergency situations or if we're trying to get a certain like developments and stuff pushed through. So um this is a revised calendar, one meeting a month. It's the second Wednesday of the month um at 8:00 a.m. There were some dates um just modified one to know is in November um that date as a holiday. So we've moved it um to November 10th. Um, and we have some publication deadlines that we've just highlighted due to the Christmas holidays um, as well. So, this will be the 2026 calendar if you guys are in agreement.

Yeah. Only thing I'll say is that I know that 2:11 I won't be here for that. I'll be out of town for that meeting. So, just make sure you guys have a quorum if you have Okay. if you have some stuff that comes up for that meeting. Yeah. So, we need to Yes. Yes. So we can get it published on the website or the revised 2026.

Yes. Motion and a second. All in favor? I. All right. We will move forward with that calendar. Um looks like we're on to some matters. Uh comp plan review strategy.

Uh yes. So, this is going to kind of tie into uh conversation that staff thought we might want to have um as kind of a collective body uh to discuss the 2026 work plan uh kind of what you guys would like to accomplish and what we would like to accomplish um as far as the comprehensive plan kind of discussion. um staff had kind of discussed internally uh whether it might make sense to um we'll say take little bites out of the comp plan for review at each meeting. So not necessarily go through and revamp but kind of say okay section for you know whatever section is that we want to review uh that month. um just kind of discuss it, what what that section covers, uh whether what's in there makes sense, whether we want to start having conversations about updating it or how did how does it apply to um Augusta today. Um kind of allow us to keep the comprehensive plan uh front and center.

And I'll add some more to that. It's a statutorial requirement for the planning commission to review the comp plan annually. Um, and we've kind of fell short on that. So, this is a way just for us to kind of bring it back to the forefront. Um, I don't have any intentions on really like totally redoing the comp plan right now, but I think it's important to be reviewed and keep it in the forefront. This will only come before if we have other items for the planning commission. The only item is the comp plan item. we'll go ahead and cancel the meeting and save it for the next meeting. Um, but it's just a way for us to have some little discussions back and forth on how because that comp plan is really what staff uses as a basis for our staff reports. Um, and it should be the basis that the planning commission and the city council are using as well when they're reviewing these cases. So, it's just we're just trying to think of, you know, a casual way, I guess, just to kind of keep that plan into the forefront and how it applies to the work that we do. Um, and then if there is something that, you know, you believe has changed or doesn't apply anymore or whatever that is, we can make some revisions. Um, the planning commission could recommend those again to the city council for final approval. Um, but there is a process also for that if you think something's just so out of date that it needs to come out or be revised. Um, but again, it'll just be a short summary and discussion on the days that we have regular schedule meetings if we have other items as well.

Okay. You guys have any items that you can think of off the top of your head that you want to talk about in the comp plan when we talk about it first? probably more with the regulations. As Sam said, it does kind of fit in. We got them out of order, but number three, the 2026 work plan. We talked about, you know, if there's some changes either to get some direction from the board. Obviously, I have a huge list of changes that we could go through and start doing in the zoning regulations or we could look at doing more of a project. I'd say um I've talked a lot internally about formbbased codes which get away from land use so much as a determining factor and focus more on compatibility um aesthetics if it fits into the neighborhood. And it it kind of functions more as an overlay. Um, if you guys are familiar with those, we have one like on State Street as an overlay that has its own kind of zoning rules that are outside of the broader zoning regulations. So, I was thinking maybe if um you guys had some ideas, we could tackle a different section of town and kind of make it an overlay using the formbbased codes method to see how it goes in one section of town. Um, you know, get your feedback, community feedback. Um, we may hire a consultant, look at hiring a consultant to help us develop those. But just focus on one area, see if it works well, if you like it, and then if you do, we could go like keep building on that. Um, I just kind of wanted to get your feedback on if you wanted us to focus more on the current rags or if you wanted us to do something a little bit more strategic, um, like an overlay or form based codes for a specific section of town.

Uh the one that comes to my mind is walnut. Um I think we have you know there's plans to do some CIP improvements, move some water lines, um kind of beautify that that entrance into town. I feel like having it zoned us C3, we we're kind of pushing against the current almost like what the market is wanting to do. Um, and we're saying what's coming to us is more heavy commercial and industrial. What we envision is lighter commercial um, and for it to be beautified. Um, and those things are kind of conflicting right now. So that would probably be the area that that I would focus on to really tighten up what it is we want that corridor to look like and also you know putting in that consideration what the market is actually doing.

We have seen a lot of stuff on walnut you know I I think we got another discussion right now. Yeah, it's everything that comes on walnut does not fit and it kind of goes against that vision that I think staff and the planning commission and even the city council have for what that corridor should look like. Um, so I think our vision is conflicting which what's actually happening. So I would like to look at kind of bridging

and the city's still working on trying, you know, we had that meeting, that special meeting. They're still trying to work on drainage. I think that's a big thing with Walnut, right? Is that a big thing, you know? Yeah. And we had some conversations with DJ Engineering when they were looking at some things and we were gonna kind of try and tackle that together as hopefully they expanded and we could do some infrastructure improvements. Those conversations have kind of stalled right now. Um, but it is still a concern. Drainage is still a concern and if we start going in and moving other utilities because there's a water line that runs right underneath Walnut, like in the middle. um you know, if we're going to have the street open, that's a good time to go ahead and make some of those other drainage improvements. So, there is like this whole CIP element that they can move forward with without really the planning component, but it'd be ideal if they worked in tandem. I don't know if it's so much us or if it's city or or what the what it is, but I would I would really I don't know what we have to do to and I know it's a big process, but some brownfield remediation and starting that process, which I know was like a 50-year process or something like that, but I know Sam, you guys probably worked on some of that in El Dredo with some brownfield stuff, but eventually if we could get some of that remediation going in that area where mobile and stuff used to be, then you know, 50 years from now or whatever, it could be long after we're off this board. It could it could potentially be something else, but you know,

so the the issue is the ownership, right? Like we've had lots of discussions with them about trying to free up some of that land or if there's some that's not as contaminated, you know, as others that could be used sooner rather than later. We've tried to get access to property that's on like the east side of Oak. Um and I think there might be even some on the corner of Walnut. And it sounds like we maybe had a little bit of movement there. I don't know. We did, but again, those conversations usually end up it's stalling. It's like we have conversations and we're like kind of on the same page, but then when it comes to actually moving forward and getting approvals,

so many labs in the mobile side. Correct. Yeah. Yes. They there's been several studies and different things that they've done. Yeah. And the thing is we don't have a lot of authority to make them move and they don't have enough incentive to move. So, right up the liability if they transferred it. That's the key.

And then the problem is we just don't have a lot of space for like if we're trying to do industrial, you know, you get that you get people saying, "Hey, we why don't we bring in businesses down? Why aren't we bringing industrial town?" Because there's there's not room. You know, that's potentially a spot that would be room, but like you said, there's a lot of stuff. There's also the airport, which I don't know if you know how that's coming now that we've done the runway expansion, if there's some potential there to help with industrial locations.

Yeah, I mean there there would be. Um, I ideally I would like it on other property that's not currently airport property, right? We have some FAA regulations we have to follow about the types of businesses and access to the um taxiways and stuff that we have to follow. So, if it getting access to other land that would be around the airport where we could build something up would be nice. The other issue again is access off of the highway, getting additional access. Um, rule water 5 is getting ready to run a new larger water line um, in the airport's easement. So, we will have better access to water at least out there for fire suppression and to be able to bring in some bigger businesses. So, there is movement out there at the airport. There's a lot of energy. We got some requests for building some new hangers and expanding some other activities that are already on the airport. So there is energy and movement, not so much like industrial that's not related to aviation yet, but it it is a possibility. It's always something that's on our radar, but another hurdle again is going to be getting off of the highway and accessing something that is surrounding

the airport. Um, yeah, and the other issue, I mean, with the refinery site, you're going to have severe drainage issues as well to overcome anything that wants to go out there. So it's pretty much everything has a hurdle. Yeah. Um but unfortunately the two areas where we have potential space, right? Big hurdles.

I mean there are other areas where there's space. Again, it's just getting in contact and forming those relationships with other surrounding property owners of vacant property that you know and trying to connect them with developers and financing and you know if they're willing to partner with something or release some of that land that's around the city. Yeah. My only comments on it. You guys have any others?

Okay. So, I feel like we got some support for maybe looking at walnut at least and maybe taking more of a form-based code approach to see get a feel for what that is kind of like. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Um do you want to do you want do we need a motion there or we just going to move on to Okay. So, you've got this 529 North Walnut zoning concern towyard.

Yeah, pretty good segue there. Um so towards the end of the year of 2025 um we had a resident reach out to our uh code enforcement officer uh concerning this property. Um it is currently operating as a towyard. Um the resident had concerns about environmental contamination EPA violation concerns. Um, and this is kind of what brought this property onto our radar. Excuse me. Um, so we started looking into the property. Um, as far as environmental concerns, I'll go ahead and get that out of the way. There are none. Um, our code enforcement officer checked state and federal segments and he didn't identify anything. Um but in terms of zoning, this property is not in compliance with the strict interpretation of our regulations. Um a towyard or the excuse me, uh the property is currently zoned C3. Uh towyards are currently only allowed on industrial properties. Um in addition to that the um specific use standards required that towy yards have a minimum of one acre. Uh the property has roughly half an acre. Um there is also another element in the specific use standards that towy yards can't be within 1,000 ft of residentially zoned properties. We have roughly 34 35 properties within that thousand ft radius that are zoned for residential. Um so kind of what we wanted to the reason we wanted to bring this attention to you um is to kind of discuss your thoughts, feelings on that um and kind of get some feedback on how you

would like us to consider approaching this. uh currently available to us is we have um enforcement mechanisms issuing fines um trying to get them into compliance with what current code states. Um we could look at text amendment revisions um to essentially facilitate towy yards within uh property similar to to that existing property. Um or we could potentially look at trying to fit them into um a variance. Um variance can be a little bit more tricky uh because there are variant standards that we'll need to apply. Uh so we would need to consider what that would look like, but kind of wanted to get uh the board's feedback on that.

There is a toward what 100 feet from it. if they were existing prior to the new regulations. Um

2020 so we can talking about the model building right? Yes. Kelly's location where that was going to be the car lot. Now there actually both of them are killies. Okay. Did anybody from the tow business contact the city or they just go in there? They just le

Yeah, we haven't had anybody contact us. Um and the feedback we've seen online is the community's been extremely welcoming um to the business. they've been reaching out and visiting with public safety and um so the company has the owners have. So they seem to be like a good addition to the city, a welcome addition to the city. Um, we hate to use enforcement mechanisms, but again, it's either going to need to be reszoned to industrial. Um, but then we still have the specific use standards of it requiring an acre. The being close to the residential, they're within what 800 ft. So, I feel like we can work with that. Um, but there is the acre requirement that would need to be addressed in a text amendment or through a variance. Um, we could look at allowing towy yards and C all C3 again walnut walnut and it's kind of again it's like I feel like I'm just fighting the current for every use that that comes in on that street just identified a minute ago you said that we need to look at what the comprehensive plan is what the vision is that vision of what that corridor looks like and I think that's where the answer lies in that What is what is the engineering zone?

Industrial. They are industrial and it's right there on the corner. Like I can't I mean it's surrounded by DJ. It's a So the characteristics of the lot itself is it's surrounded by industrial. It's not ever going to not be surrounded by industrial right there. Um, so looking at other ways like mitigating to mitigate the negative impacts again with the screening and the fencing and which they have installed. Um, looks better now than it did, right?

We could look at making towy yards a conditional use in C3, reszoning it. It's just each one of these actions pretty much requires a public hearing. So like if we don't get it right the first time, we could spend six months going down this this path. Um I kind of agree with David too is that you know maybe this is where we concentrate that overlay like you talked about because we have all these spots that are not conforming with what's over there. You know, we there's tons of industrial along

I I would say most of the things on Walnut are not like they're pretty much non-conforming. They were either there prior to the co the new code being put into place or they've been approved as industrial or for whatever just because of the nature of how the corridor looks and operates right now. Um we can definitely look at the comp plan. Um, I'm I'm kind of leaning more towards reszoning it right now. Um, just because of the unique characteristics of just the location of that lot being on the corner and surrounded by industrial. I think that would probably be the easiest without affecting the whole variance. You're going to have a bunch of things you got to go through on all those golden factors and everything, right?

We'd still need to do a variance for the acre requirement, but then you wouldn't have to do a condition. because 1,000 ft gets kind of large. It catches a lot of houses uh right along School Street. That's where the majority of the residential properties are. Um and then there's about four or five roughly seventh in Walnut that it by technicality would catch. Well, and there's Did you say the house on Oak?

There's the house on Oak in between DJ or there's a couple houses. But if we do it as a conditional use under C3, then you're pulling in like what are all these other properties around town that are zone C3 and now you're pulling in a potential conditional use for a toward there? Then that might not be something you want to see on other C3 places, you know. Yeah. I think it's more of a reszone overlay thing, too. So, okay. Had a question on um are you getting any more requests for storage containers? I've happened to notice that there's one that kind of slipped in there on Main Street here

at a commercial look. Is it a residential? So they though I don't know if we received an official request but temporary they can be to in residential they are supposed to be temporary so we have regulations on how long they can be there so we can send code out there to

take a look and um reach out to them. Yeah. So, we have gotten some requests about commercial shipping con for self storage containers on commercial properties just for storage. Um, we don't have anything in our regulations that regulate storage containers on commercial property. Um, so that will probably be an amendment that we look at sometime this year just because we do get requests every once in a while for that and there are some businesses that do utilize them already. So like Walmart has some I believe more on a temporary basis bringing their inventory in and out. Um and so

well that's a great transition because I have a question for you. So on the old Walmart building I got an email from um the mayor um from the property owner that um didn't really put a real request in here or something but it's zoned C3 now. Is that correct or no? Okay. No, there are a lot of inaccuracies or half truths. Okay. Um I can go through the history of that property if you want. I'm very well verssed in it now. No, I just you know I brought it was brought to me. So I was like

they can come in and request the resoning like any other applicant can. So that is the proper channel to take is to request an official reszoning. The confusion is I think the property owner thinks it is or was zone C3. Um I would say it wasn't, but there is kind of a history to that property. So with the old code, so prior to 2020, it was zoned as like a light commercial and it was Walmart. Mhm.

The property was purchased by that property owner in 2019. The code, the city codes were revised in 2020 and during that code revision, the whole entire city was resoned to fit into the new categories. The intent was for Ohio to be C2, Walnut, and 7th Street to be C3. When the code was originally adopted, the wording was transposed in the code and the map showed Ohio as C3 and Walnut and 7th as C2. Shortly after the adoption in 2020, staff realized the mistake and started the process to correct it. And there were lots of workshops with the planning commission and the city even the city council to get it corrected. And in 2021, the code again for like the whole city was corrected for Ohio to be C2 and Walnut and 7th to be C3. Individual property owners were not like personally notified because it was a whole city reszoning. So there was a publication, but it just needed to be published in the paper like a text amendment does, right? It doesn't go to specific property owners. Um, so we treat it as C2 because that's how it is zoned. It is zoned C2. Um, the push is that property owner thinks the property has always been zone C3. It has not. for the one year it was C3 was a technicality and the planning commission and the city council and staff all knew there was this mistake in the code and

we're actively working to correct it and it was corrected in 2021. So, it is C2. Um, it was allowed a C3 use through a CUP. Um, but just that one use, not all of the C3 uses. Um, it's my understanding they're not operating with that C3 use anymore. They're a little um have a less intense commercial operation out of that building. Um, but they are welcome to come in and and apply for a reszoning. I would encourage them to have a plan. I believe the planning commission will want to know what their intent is with the building if they want it reszone C3 because there's not a lot of other lots along Ohio that are C3. We've really tried to keep it C2.

Yeah. Because I remember when when they changed the use, you know, they were going to run like the Hummers and some other things out there. remember it came to us and we had to allow we we allowed some things and we I think of the big thing was like outside storage remember do you guys remember this a little bit we talked about like not having so much outside storage there were some things I mean so outside storage is prohibited yeah it's absolutely prohibited um and that one use was allowed through the cup but not all of the other C3 uses at one time it was going to be indoor storage right that didn't have Yeah,

correct. So, that CUP is not active. So, that was also, I believe, another CUP that came through, but it wasn't ever finalized. Um, so again, that wasn't a reszoning of the property. It was a request for a CUP. Okay. Um, so have you have you responded to all this? Okay. Okay. Perfect. Okay. I just wanted to ask that question since it was brought to my attention. So, yes. Okay. Anything else? I think we kind of talked about the third item, the 2020 uh6 work plan discussion. I think we've kind of hit that with all the other stuff. Is there anything coming up?

Um, we have a couple small plats we're working on. Um, very small just like within the city. Um, I'm I don't think they'll be ready for the next meeting. So, I don't have anything else. I don't think nothing's popping. No. And with the and even the going through the towyard stuff with the publications that we'll need to make. I'm not take some time. Yeah. I'm not sure if that'll hit the next meeting either. They're going to have to do this or have you spoke to

So, we will speak to the owner after this meeting. I wanted to have some answers prior to opening up that conversation with just problems. Um, what's the appropriate process? Does the owner come to us or do we just do it notify the owner? I mean,

the owner will need to come and fill out an application and pay the resoning fee. I mean, they'll have to follow the same process as everyone else. And if they choose not to um then they will be in violation of the zoning regulations and we'll have to follow that path which is what we don't want to do. Um obviously but that would only be our other option if they chose not to move forward now that it's been brought to our attention. Okay. That it wasn't city that found it was correct. Somebody that lived in Yes.

around picking. We did not. No. I make a motion we adjourn. Motion and a second. All in favor? All right. Meet adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. What's going on in real estate business these days?