Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the City of Belton Planning Commission session. This is September I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong date. It's September 16. And uh could we have the roll call, please? Chairman McFersonen. I think I'm here. Mayor Larkkey, Council Member Bryan here. Commissioner Christensen. Commissioner Crate here. Commissioner Mcdana. Commissioner Ruggles here. Commissioner Shut here. Commissioner Walton.

I know what I at my agenda. I was looking at our minutes from the last meeting which we are going to vote on at this time. They have been pre prepared for us and uh ask if there are any corrections, additions or subtractions that need to be made. None. Is there a motion to accept as we make a motion to approve the minutes for the August 5th? Second. All right. All those in favor of approval of the August 5th planning commission minutes say I. I.

I. Any opposed?

Right. Uh first order that we have this evening as far as new business is presentation of POJ25-00002. This is request from Lord of Love Lutheran Church to approve a special use permit for a digital monument sign in a C2 general commercial zoning district at 8306 East 171st Street. Director Yep. Thank you, Chair McFersonson. Um, before you this evening is a digital sign request for an existing monument sign at Lord of Love Lutheran Church, which is located 8306 East 171st Street in the Belray neighborhood. Um the existing monument sign is um at the front um of the property at the near the southwest corner of the property along 58 highway just west of the parking lot and uh does appear to meet all setbacks um that are required for the sign. Um the proposed sign meets all the sign requirements um has a 17 foot proposed setback from the property line. The current sign um limit for monument sign is 32 square feet. However, the existing sign is larger than that. Um and so the overall sign size is 35 square ft and the maximum height is met. Um since it's an existing legal non-conforming sign size um that's just slightly over the max um we believe that it's acceptable um to make that modification with this request. Um the applicant has provided all the necessary information um and also um adheres to the standards that are in the the special use standards for digital signs that are in the sign code. Um and so with that staff recommends approval of the special use permit for the digital sign conversion for the church.

Is there is the applicant here to anything additional that that staff did not cover that you would like to make us aware of? Seems like pretty well.

All right. All right. Then at this time we are going to call to order a public hearing for the special use permit. And uh we will open this up if there's anyone here that would like to speak in favor or in opposition to the sign. If you will come to the to the podium, give your name and uh we'll ask one more time. anyone here to speak in favor or in opposition for a sign for Lord of Love Lutheran Church. I say that because we do have two signs that we're going to be considering this evening. So, just so everyone is clear. U all right, seeing none, we will go ahead and close the public hearing. And is there any question comments from entertain a motion? I make a motion to approve PJ25-002 as presented.

Second. Motion and a second. Final comments. Seeing none, could we have the roll call, please? Council member Pryan. I. Commissioner shut. I. Chairman McFersonson. I. Commissioner Ruggles. Hi. Commissioner crepe.

I thank you. Move on then to the second item that we have this evening which is presentation of POJ25-00003. A request from Crossroads United Methodist Church to approve a special use permit for a digital monument sign in a C2P General Commercial Planned Overlay zoning district at 515 East Marquy Parkway. And again, we'll ask the director.

Yep. Thank you, chair. Um, a similar request um to the previous request. Uh, this is for a new this in this situation, this would be a new monument sign at 515 East Marquy Parkway for the Crossroads United Methodist Church. Um, the proposed sign meets all sign code requirements with the exception of the height. They are requesting a 1 and a half foot modification of additional height and the primary reason for that is the topography on the site. The church does sit lower than the road. So, it's just to get some additional height there um for the visibility from Marquy Parkway. Um the maximum size is at 32 square feet. The setbacks are a little over 10 ft and the overall sign also meets all the special use standards other than that modification requested to the height which staff believes is warranted based on the existing topography of the site. Um so with that, staff recommends approval of the special use permit for United Methodist Churches. um sign

right and again we'll ask is there anyone on uh behalf of the applicant to speak on this in case and well this is I'm sorry we'll open the that give me just one second this is I should have said is the applicant here that wants to add anything to what staff said all right now we will open the public hearing and ask for anyone that would like to speak in favor or in opposition.

Sorry, I'm just so excited. I started working on this project in 2011 and made three trips through working with the sign company and everything and we could not afford it, but we finally paid off the building and the people were willing to take a choice and I just came to thank you for helping us facilitate it, make it possible. Thank you. Yeah, if you state your name for the for the record. My name is Mark Poke. I live at 512 Pine Street here in Belton.

Uh we moved out uh the church moved to its present location just a little over 20 years ago with the anticipation that Marquee Parkway would be finished uh 22 years later. Until now, we've been one of the best kept secrets in Belton. And it's very important to us to to at least put our name in lights. And so, people know where we're at. They hear about us, but they they don't know where we're at, right? U we do appreciate the fact that the city finally stepped up and took that project under its wing and got it done. And it's a good job, too. Thank you. All right.

Something about the timing in that that city got their part done and and then it was time for you to to put that up. So, all right. Very good.

Anyone else like to speak in favor or in opposition? And we will close the public hearing and we'll open it to any commissioners. Anything you would like to say? If anyone else is curious, I put it on map 2.3 miles apart. So there won't be any sign war saying come here. I was just curious that alleviates my fear of a sign. So I I like I saw a sign war the other day on Facebook and it was like that was kind of cute. I wish we could do something like that and get attention. So all right. Um any any additional comments then would entertain a motion.

I make a motion to approve PJ25-00003 as presented. Second. All right. Motion and a second. Any final comments? Seeing none, could we have the roll call, please? Chairman McFersonson. I. Commissioner Rugles. Hi. Commissioner Crate. Hi, Commissioner Shut. Hi, Council Member Bryan. Hi,

I should have stated and congratulations. You you have gotten our blessing on that. Um, I should have stated on the uh one with the Lord of Love Lutheran Church uh in their cover letter uh from the sign company, it it indicated that their current sign they have to go and manually change all the letters and that it's very timeconuming and all. I used to have to do that at a church and we had two signs and two sides to two signs and I know what it's like trying to get all that on there. So I wish I wish we would have had this at that time. So all right, very good. Um that is it as far as new business this evening. Director uh the unified development code update.

Yeah, a couple of things. Um first we have our open house um to visit with our consulting team uh this Thursday here in the council chambers from 5:00 to 6:30. That is a community openhouse for anybody that is interested in coming and learning more about the development code update and providing feedback to us. Um there is a survey as well um that's posted on our website. I also had a handout that I put at all of your seats. Um this is just kind of the project overview. Um the four main themes that they're focusing on are public space, mixeduse development, housing and neighborhoods, and our multimodal network. Um those were the four kind of overarching themes that came out of the comprehensive plan of really where we need to focus our attention on future development um as well as redevelopment efforts elsewhere in the city. Um they are finishing up the um diagnostics phase which is phase two of a overall fivephase um development project. Um they're at the kind of the tail end of that which is the public engagement um piece of that. We were at the fall festival for a couple of hours on Saturday. we probably had 30 40 um residents um stop by and talk to us and participate um and providing us some feedback. Um we also have these again on our website is a link to the survey. We also have these same flyers in the lobby here at the annex. If anybody wants to come and pick one up and take that survey, it'd be greatly appreciated to get some additional feedback here. Um, and then it's not on the agenda, but just wanted to remind the planning commission and I will send out a reminder that we have a work session scheduled next Thursday, September 25th at 6 PM here in the council chambers with the city council. Um, kind of an overview from our consulting team to the planning commission and council of where they're at in the process and some of the feedback that they've obtained so far. Um, we expect to get some additional best practices reporting from

them here in the next week or so of kind of what their upcoming steps are as they start taking each chapter and uh modifying our table of contents um to kind of clean up the overall user friendliness of the code. So, those are the things that we're working on right now. And that meeting on the 25th, is that at 6 PM?

6 PM. All right. Um we will move on to our next item which is the election of planning commission chair and vice chair and uh we will take one at a time starting with the chair. Are there any nominations that you would like to make? Any other nominations? This can be a nomination

and then a roll call. Okay, that's what was I will second the nomination. Okay. All right. Can we uh have the roll call, please? Can Tom vote. Or do I skip over him? I'll abstain. Okay. Um, okay. So, Commissioner Ruggles, hi. Commissioner Shut, I. Council member Brian, hi. And Commissioner Crate, I.

Right. Thank you very much. Um, we would also entertain uh nominees for vice chair. I would state that our vice chair that we've had this last year has asked not to uh to hold that again. And since he's not here tonight, uh I will stick up for him. So, Commissioner Walton has has done that for several years now and he has asked to be relieved of of that. So, we would entertain any nominees for vice chairman for clarification.

Correct. The mayor and any mayor the mayor and any council member is not allowed to serve as the chair vice chair on the planning commission. You three got to draw straws. I nominate I nominate Ruckles. I said both. I I don't I I don't know if I want to be caught between these two.

Fortunately, Tom is is present most of the time. So there should be minimal responsibilities with the vice chair. Um, all right. We have two. Any other nominees that There's a couple other people that aren't here right now that we could. So, all right. So, we do have two names. Um, All [Laughter] right. I would draw my second.

Your second second. Okay. [Laughter] [Laughter]

All right. So, we have a nomination and a second for Commissioner Chute. We have a nomination, but no second for Commissioner Rugles. Is there a second? Okay. I'm like I said, I'm sitting too close.

Yeah. All right. So, at at this point then, uh the only name that we have in consideration would be for Commissioner Shoot. Uh could we have the roll call, please? Commissioner Ruggles. Hi. Council member Bryan, I. Commissioner Crate, I. And Chairman, I. All right. Thank you. relatively painless. Okay. Uh director, anything additional you'd like to report this evening?

We will have our meeting on Tuesday, October 7th. Uh we do have three items that we're going to be bringing forward to the commission for review. Uh the first thing is a joint presentation that comes from community development and our public works team uh for the safe streets for all plan. Uh the draft plan is on our website um and able to be reviewed. Uh that will be a public hearing just because it's a long range plan that's related to the comprehensive plan. Uh we also have a vacation application to vacate street right away and potentially utility easements at the northwest and northeast corners of 173rd and Cunningham. And that's based on the road realignment there. So now we have some excess right away that um we need to vacate and return that to private ownership. And then the other thing that we've been working on for quite some time is a unified development code text amendment for short-term rentals. Uh we do have that draft as well on our website. Um, all of those are on the community development web page and then if you click on upcoming public hearings, uh, the drafts of both the short-term rental regulations and the safe streets for all plan are linked on there. Uh we've worked quite a bit of back and forth on those regulations with our tourism council and the city council to arrive at uh where we think is kind of a happy median in there that provides um some limit or some allowances for short-term rentals um but not necessarily citywide um based on some of the feedback that's been received. But that is a public hearing as well. So um any any thoughts, concerns, questions about that? Um, anybody that has any of those can certainly share those with us in advance of the public hearing and provide feedback or attend the public hearing to provide that feedback.

Right. That is all I have. And that would be on the 21st of October that we have those three items. October 7th. 7th. Okay. I thought you said the second meeting we were having that. All right. Um, anything additional motion? Oh, thank you. My our our adjourer is not here this evening. So, uh, uh, have a motion and a second. All in favor of adjournment say I. I. Any opposed?