Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the City of Belton Planning Commission session to order. This is Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. And could we have the roll call, please?

Chairman McPherson?

Here.

Mayor Larkey?

Here.

Council Member Priehan?

Here.

Commissioner Christensen? Commissioner Crate? Here. Commissioner McDonough? Commissioner Ruggles? Commissioner Schutt? Here. Commissioner Walton?

All right, thank you. We have received the minutes from our last meeting, had several that have been canceled between then and now, but our last meeting would have been the July 21st meeting, and those minutes have been distributed to everyone. Are there any corrections or additions, anything that needs to be made on those? If not, we'd entertain a motion to accept as printed.

Motion to approve the planning commission meetings of July 21st, 2026 as presented.

Second. All right. Thank you. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Moving on to new business. Um, we have several things this evening that we will, uh, have announcements about as we go through, uh, Our first item that was on the agenda was a presentation of PROJ 26-022, request from Cradles and Crayons Learning Center for approval of a special use permit for a commercial daycare center on .34 plus or minus acres located at 8009 East 171st Street, and that application has been withdrawn at this time, and so we will not be considering that this evening. So that is showing on the agenda, but we will not be taking any action. Moving to the next item, which is presentation of PROJ 26-023, request from community development staff for the vacation of right-of-way and utility easements at the northeast and northwest corners of East 173rd Street and Cunningham Parkway. and our Community Development Director, Mr. Wright, will present that.

Thank you, Chair and Commissioners. Before this evening is a request to vacate right-of-way and easements at the intersection of 173rd and Cunningham. This would be the northwest and the northeast corners. You may remember that we did submit this to the Planning Commission last fall, last October, at which there was a public hearing conducted. There were concerns regarding the access and impacts of the vacation. With some of the changes that we've made to this application working with Public Works, we believe that we've addressed that access with a replat of the property, which is the next item on the agenda. So I'll just focus primarily on the vacation request. The reason for this request is we no longer need the right of way that's shown there highlighted and outlined in orange. That was the previous alignment of Cunningham and then the future extension of 173rd Street which was not installed. The project to realign Cunningham at 173rd Street was completed back in the fall of 2024, and so this just cleans up the property to match what is the existing condition of the site. With that and with the replat of the property, We are proposing to vacate both sides of the right-of-way as well as easements on both properties. On the northeast corner, a new easement will be dedicated along with an access easement that would provide access to Lot 2 of Briar Creek, which is here at the northeast corner. And then on the northwest corner, All the right-of-way and all of the easement will be vacated, and then with a replat, this piece of property would receive that additional right-of-way back to them, and then a 10-foot utility easement dedicated along the front, which is the standard for the front easement for a plat. The only utility that is located in this property, or sorry, in that portion of the right-of-way is AT&T, and we've had conversations that they will be rerouting their lines to better align with the realignment of the road. So they'll be making some changes out there to their lines to be fully within the right-of-way or in that front 10-foot utility easement. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Anyone have any questions for the Director at this point? We will be having a public hearing on this, but I want to give a chance for for anyone on the commission to ask questions of the director. All right, seeing none, we will go ahead and call to order the public hearing for the consideration of this proposal. If there's anyone that would like to speak in favor or in opposition, if you will come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. And then, Proceed to let us know what statements you have.

My name is John Ryan. My wife and I are owners of the adjacent land that some time ago I think caused the city to go ahead and abandon this right away. So I'm in favor. Okay. My address is, by the way, you asked for address, 3000 East 195th Street, Belton, Missouri. All right.

And were you wanting to speak in favor or in opposition of... I thought I said in favor. Okay. You are in favor of... I'm sorry. I missed that. I think probably because that microphone was not lined up, I missed it. So, okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you coming this evening. Anyone else would like to speak in favor or in opposition? Give one more chance. I'm not seeing anyone. We will close the public hearing and give the council or commission one more opportunity if anyone has anything.

Mr. Chair, I'd make a motion to approve the Vacation of the right-of-way and utility easements as presented for project 26-023 as presented. Second.

All right. We'll have a motion and a second. We'll provide one more opportunity for any comments. Seeing none, could we have the roll call, please?

Commissioner Shutt?

Aye.

Council Member Bryan?

Aye.

Commissioner Crate?

Aye.

Mayor Larkey?

Aye.

Chairman McPherson?

Aye. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to the next item which we've had a little bit of a preview of and that is presentation of PROJ 26-023 request from community development staff for approval of a final plat for Cunningham Place, a four lot and one tract subdivision on 21.33 plus or minus acres. located at the intersection of 173rd Street and Cunningham Parkway. And we'll ask our director if he has any more information to share with us on this.

Yeah, so this is the final plot, which is a replot of the part of the Dean Cove Farms property. or the original plat that was first platted in 1986. So with this, the vacated right-of-way at the northwest corner will be applied to lot one for additional developable area there. And again, that 10-foot easement platted along the frontage. Tract A is currently owned by the city. That full tract will be a utility easement with an access easement that provides access to Lot 2. There is an opportunity in the future if Lot 2 is developed that that could potentially be acquired from the city to expand the developability of that property as well. And then lots two, three, and four, they are included in this replat primarily because there was some additional right-of-way or easements dedicated with the 173rd Street extension, and so it's just formalizing that on this document to provide a clean description and a clean layout for when we receive a development application, specifically for lot two. Lots three and four are owned by Rockbrook Church and are already developed. and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, we'll ask commissioners any questions for the director on this. Seeing none.

I'd make a motion that we approve the final plan for project 26-023 as presented. Second.

All right, I have a motion and a second. One more call for any questions. Comments? Seeing none, could we have the roll call, please?

Mayor Larkey?

Aye.

Commissioner Crate?

Aye.

Chairman McPherson?

Aye.

Commissioner Schutt?

Aye.

Council Member Pratt?

Aye. Thank you. Moving to our next item, which is presentation of PROJ 26-010, request from... DNC LCSR LLC for approval of a preliminary and final development plan and special use permit for a 21,000 square foot contractor sales and service expansion and 68,400 square foot mini warehouse storage facility in an M1 light industrial zoning district on 7.12 plus or minus acres located at 231 County Line Road. And we have, this project is, has been requested that we postpone it until a future date. At this point the date has not been established and once that is determined we will re, notice putting out new public notices and making sure that everyone is aware, both through the newspaper and on the city website. So we will not be looking at that item tonight. And then the Moving to item E, which is presentation of PROJ26-025, request from Belton Parks and Recreation staff for approval of a rezoning from A, agricultural, to PR, parks, recreation, and public use with a preliminary development plan for the Dryden Nature Reserve, a regional park with natural areas and amenities on 119.73 plus or minus acres, located at the northwest corner of South Cleveland Avenue and West Cambridge Road. This item also, we have been requested to postpone until an uncertain date, and once that date has been determined, it will be notified, or the notice will be placed in the paper and on the city website again. So those, that is another item that we will not be looking at this evening. Moving on to our next item of business is the election of the planning commission chair for the coming year. And at this point, we would be open for nominations. We will be voting on a chair and a vice chair or secretary. At this point, we will ask for nominations for chairperson.

Okay, we can't nominate anybody that's not here, right?

Yeah, we can.

We can?

Just checking. I'll make a motion that we continue with Tom McPherson as chairman.

Second.

All right. Any other nominees that you would like to have? All right. It can just be a voice vote. This is a voice vote on this. So all those in favor of continuing? With your current chair, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And one abstention, please, from me. Which we weren't opposing. Then we would also entertain nominees for our vice chair. Mr. Shett has been our vice chair secretary for this year.

Would entertain. As bad as I want to nominate Commissioner Walton, I will not. And I will continue with Mr. Schutt. Second.

All right. Any other nominees for our vice chair or secretary? You got dual role, C.J. All right.

I am going to recuse myself from this vote. I mean abstain.

All right. So all those in favor of C.J. continuing as our vice chair, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

All right. That is what Cindy wanted.

And I just have one.

She wanted me to throw her name and she's like, no.

Congratulations, both of you. Thank you.

Unopposed. All right. Director, I think you have an update for us on the Unified Development Code.

Yes, we are getting closer. We have a completely, we've completed a review of all the draft chapters and we've started receiving revisions to those draft chapters based on the comments provided from Jenna and I and also from our legal department and also some of the other departments such as engineering, public works, and parks that have different sections within those chapters. So with that, the consultant believes that they'll be able to have a fully revised draft of all the chapters by the middle of this month. And with that, we'll do one additional review internally And then we should be able to release the full draft for planning commission and council review hopefully sometime in October. With that, we recognize that not everybody will likely want to read a couple of hundred pages of code. So we will have kind of a cover synopsis that kind of breaks down what are the main highlights, what are the main significant changes to be aware of. because those are probably the things that you'll have more interest in and feedback on. But we will have the whole thing available for not only Planning Commission and Council, but we'll also have that published publicly. So those that are interested will be able to start looking at those major changes, but we hope to have more of that available sometime by the end of October. And with that, there will also be some work sessions between planning commission and council likely in November. It's kind of what we're aiming for, but kind of just depends on if there's a lot of comments, we may hold that off and then there will still be an additional open house for the community to come in and review those changes and share any thoughts or concerns that they have with those. But overall, we've tried to develop a code that we think is user-friendly, makes things hopefully easier in the community, but still maintains some basic standards and improved standards on certain things that we've had a lot of feedback from you all, council, and the public on where they want standards to be improved.

All right. Good, a lot of work's already gone in, and a lot of work still to do. All right, and anything else to report, Director?

We do have the next couple of meetings listed on the agenda there. Tuesday, September 15th, we will have a public hearing for Cozy Pet Hotel. When they first received their special use permit back in 2021, there was a five-year renewal on that. So we'll be bringing that renewal forward and proposing that that's an indefinite approval. Who is that for? The Cozy Pet Hotel on North Scott. I just didn't hear what you said. And then on Tuesday, October 6th, we also have a couple of agenda items with public hearings on those. So we'll have more details once we know for sure that those are going to be on that agenda.

Okay.

And then in terms of the other items that were continued tonight, specifically DNC, LCSR, LLC, and the Dryden property, the main reason for continuing those is that we have revised plans that we need on that. So we're working with the architects and engineers on those to get those submitted. So once we have those, and those are going to bring forward, we should have those. We do know it sounds like Dryden will probably come to you all in November.

Good. A lot of people looking forward to seeing that get started. So I'm glad to hear it. All right. Any other items this evening?

Motion to adjourn.

Have a motion to adjourn. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?