Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome everyone present and watching online. I would like to call the Monday, March 9th, 2026 planning commission meeting to order. Please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, I see Miss Shantel to my right filling in for Tracy. Could I get a roll call for attendance, please? Commissioner Ingressol, present. Commissioner Pumprey, present. Commissioner Silkenberry, present. Commissioner Richell, present.

Commissioner Sanderson, present. Commissioner Kra, present. Commissioner Graham, present. Vice Chairperson How here. And Chairperson Henny, present. Thank you very much. At this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda for the February 23rd, 2026 meeting minutes. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Same sign for opposed. All right. I'll now open the public hearing for agenda item number four, UDC text amendment, UDCT01269774. And I would ask for uh staff presentation.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Nick Hutchson. I'm the interimm director of city development. Uh before you tonight is a proposed UD UDC text amendment related to short-term rentals. The purpose of this amendment is not to prohibit short-term rentals, but to establish a more clear and enforceable standard that addresses life safety, neighborhood compatibility, and tax compliance. This item comes forward in response to city council's direction and community concerns related to STR operations, particularly around noise, parking occupancy, and the city's ability to ensure hotel motel tax compliance. At a high level, this amendment modifies three sections of the code. First is chapter 605 business licensing. Second is chapter 655 hotel motel. And third is the UDC. There are key operational standards. Uh for occupancy, two persons are allowed per legal bedroom plus two additional occupants, a maximum of 10 occupants unless otherwise approved by the fire marshall. parking. Uh, one off- streetet parking space per bedroom up to four spaces. For properties located in downtown, on street parking within a quarter mile may be used to satisfy this requirement. For noise and events, there are quiet hours of operation from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. And outdoor amplified sound is prohibited during this time, and it does not allow for commercial or ticketed events. Life safety uh requires smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector and fire extinguishers as a self compliant report and a code compliant egress. For local contact, a responsible agent must be available 247 and respond on site within 60 minutes. The development advisory committee has reviewed this

item at their January 20th meeting and recommends approval. Based on the analysis provided in the staff report, staff recommends approval of the UDC text amendment for short-term rentals as presented. Any questions for staff?

Um, all right. Um, I'll repeat one of my concerns during the work session about requiring the local host agents to be uh required to respond on site within 60 minutes. Um, that's still an issue for me, but we were um Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak in favor of this project? Anybody in the audience would like to speak in opposition to this?

Your full name, please.

My name is Laura Wade. I realize that the proposal is addressing only short-term rentals. However, I believe that it is very limited for the commission to only look at short-term rentals. It does not address midterm rentals um which is then not looking at the safety of anyone beyond 30 days. If this is proposed to address the needs of the community as well as the needs of the rental individuals, we're we're not really addressing the needs. If we're only looking at those that are renting for 30 days, we're also then not we're not looking at a comprehensive plan because then our community also is not asking the same for landlords. We only ask for them to voluntarily submit their contact information. We're asking for short-term rental landlords, hosts to be available or have an agent available 24/7, but we're only asking for our landlords in the community to voluntarily give contact information if they were needed to be contacted in case of an emergency. It seems like quite a disparity. It seems to me that it would be a better for our commission to look at a comprehensive plan that would address all of these areas and not just that of short-term rental. And I agree with you, Mr. Henning, that a 247 60 minute uh uh prompt response time. I'm sorry. My husband has decided that we should take

this venture. But there are times when I can't be available within 60 minutes and he is working and I know that he can't. Um it's just not realistic. Um, I want to comply and I will agree that if if the proposal is the same as it was last month, it does it also does not address how we're going to fulfill the safety requirements. Who's going to meet those? Who who's going to police? Excuse me, that's not really the best term, but who's going to police that that the properties are meeting the safety requirements? It's purely voluntary if we are not implementing something that requires and that would have to be funded, but for the the fire department to come out and and and to inspect each property, um I just think it needs to be more complete. I want our guests in our community to be safe, but I just think it needs to be thought out better.

Thank you for your comments. You've been heard. And uh also, as you know, feel free to come back in two weeks and share your thoughts with the city council. Thank you.

This is our body recommends uh what they do and it'll be their final decision. Anybody here that would like to speak in opposition to this? Seeing none and hearing none, I will close the public comment section of this hearing. Um, I will reiterate my concerns about the requirement of the local responsible agent to be available 24 hours a day and respond on site within 60 minutes. When we get to a motion, I would uh encourage an amended motion to reduce to just eliminate on-site and that the local host shall respond within 60 minutes to complaints or emergencies. Um any comments on that or anything else for staff before we get to Yes, Mr. Crow?

Uh like to say a couple things. Um, thank you for allowing us to come back to this from our last meeting, get a chance to research and study it. Thank the audience, the citizens who came here today to express themselves about what they what they're concerned about makes sense about discussing what the comprehensive plan talking about short-term, midterm, and what she suggested and having a plan in place for everybody. and we want to make sure that we're taking care of all of our residents and our neighborhoods are safe. Of course, that's the main objective. Um, I would support responsible short-term rentals with clear enforceable standards that protect neighborhood integrity and property values rather than overly restrictive owner and occupancy mandates. I believe requiring a local point of contact, somebody who can respond within 24 hours to have somebody designated is a is maybe a practical way to ensure accountability. Enforcement should be complaint driven and focused on repeat verified violations with registration escalating penalties and potential permit suspension for chronic offenders. responsible pro property owners shouldn't be overburdened but persistent problems should have real consequences and we talked about uh some enforcement mechanisms and I had a chance to look at some I'm sure the rest of you probably glance at something I saw something where it mentioned something about registration and permit requirement u doing that annually reg doing an annual registration with the city uh having a 24-hour contact require environment. They must respond within a set time frame. And maybe a three strike rule repeated verified violations for such things as noise, nuisance, and safety

would result in fines and possible permit suspension. And also permit revocation for chronic violations, but only after due process. And of course, complaintbased enforcement. enforcement should be triggered by documented complaints but with no random inspections and getting to the point where the group brought in they came in there talking about the child care centers I think that's very important that's something that should be addressed we should probably have some kind of stipulation to protect the children and in those type of areas for whatever our zoning requirements are and again to address uh the lady who came in and talked about the mid uh term rentals as well. I think that's something we should consider. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Any other questions for staff or discussions uh amongst ourselves before I close the public hearing? Public hearing is now closed. Before I ask for a motion, I have a question for legal. I typically as a chairman don't make motions myself. Is that something that is allowed by the chairman or if I want to change somebody else's motion, is that how they do it? Um, yes. Uh, typically what I see is that um, normally someone else besides the chair would make the motion.

All right. Uh, the public hearing is closed. At this time, I'll ask for a motion for the UDC text amendment. I'm going to give this a shot. Yes. Um I move to approve UDC 01269774 with the following amendment. Uh to eliminate the on-site verbiage altogether and response time within 24 hours. I have a motion. I would like to see response time of 60 minutes. Well, we have a motion. So that's what we vote on. Um,

do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Could I get a roll call, please? On. Commissioner Graham. Hi. Commissioner Cradle. Hi. Commissioner Sanderson. Hi. Commissioner Richell. Hi. Commissioner Stokenberry. Hi Commissioner Ingresol. Hi. Commissioner Pumprey. No, Vice Chairperson How? I and Chairperson Henny.

I All right, that passed. And that item will be recommended and heard by the city council at their next meeting on Monday, March 16th, uh 6 o'clock in this very room. Moving on. Uh agenda item number five and seven. I will open the public hearing for general development plan GDP 12259749 for Mcatee Village with the preliminary plat being heard concurrently. I will ask for exhibits from our our city attorney.

This is being continued. There probably is no exhibits at this time. I do not have any. Okay. The applicant has requested the continuence of these items to Monday, March 9th, 2026. How about a motion to continue this? Excuse me, chair. Yes, I think that's going to be continued to March 23rd. Yes, March 23rd. The date is wrong. I stand corrected. This will be uh continued and or to be heard by the on the March 23rd meeting. I'll second that. Yes. Uh I have a motion. You motion. I'll second. Okay. Motion in a second. Thanks for helping me through that. Yeah.

Um all those in favor. Any deni? Any no. All right. That motion passes. At this time, I will open the public hearing for agenda item number six, which is conditional use permit CUPC 0126-9786 for Mony's daycare. I will ask for exhibits from our city attorney. Um yes, Mr. Chairman. Um I have as exhibits one exhibit that's the staff report and all of that's attachments. All right. And looks like we got a staff presentation. Mr. D.

Uh good evening, commissioners. Uh before you this evening is a request for approval of a conditional uh use permit for a inhome daycare located at 9305 Southwest Orca Court. Uh the proposed daycare will operate in a manner that does not oper or alter the character of the scale of the existing single family resident or the surrounding neighborhood. Uh inhome daycarees are identified as a conditional use within residential districts and are required to remain subordinate to the primary residents residential use of the property. uh with the proposed conditions listed in the staff report, the request is consistent with the intent of the zoning district and is compatible with the surrounding residential properties. In addition to maintaining and renewing a valid uh business license, the daycare must remain in compliance with all applicable city, county, and state requirements governing general daycare operations. Um I'm happy to answer any questions, and the applicant is here to answer any as well. Thank you for that. Any questions for staff before we hear from the applicant?

All right. Is the applicant here would like to speak on behalf of the project? Yes.

Hello. My name is Mav Rafi. This is my mom, Monro. She's the owner of Mon State. Would you like to talk at all about your your your project?

Yeah. So my mom has been in the daycare inh home daycare business for a long time now about 15 16 years. We uh we've been Lee Summit residents for over 20 years. She did have an inhome daycare in another part of Lee Summit in Charleston Park area that was also approved and um we are trying to expand into a facility daycare uh within the next couple months. This is just temporary for us to be able to resume business until we can secure our outside facility and will no longer require the inh home daycare. Anything else? That's it. That would be it.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any um any questions up here before we hear from the public? All right. Thank you very much. Seemed like news to you. The temporary. Yes. No. it. Huh? No comment. All right. Um, is there is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak in favor of this project? Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak in opposition to this project? Name and address. I think I did a lot of work for nothing. Hi, good evening.

Address, please. My name is Mike Aerson. I live at 9309 Southwest Orchid Court. I'm just east of where the proposed daycare is wanting to go. So, let me give you a little background. We got lucky. We hit the jackpot in 2021 after living in Independence my entire life. I'm 67 years old. My wife is in her 60s. We spent our entire life there. We hit the jackpot, moved the Blue Springs, moved into a little nicer upscale neighborhood. The perfect scenario was finding a culde-sac that backed up to nothing but woods. And we found that and it's been absolutely wonderful. We have one of the smallest of all of the actual culde-sacs in the neighborhood. There's only five homes. That's it. Five. Clark and Robin live at the main entrance that ties into Orca off of of Conch. And then there's four homes wrapped around the bottom of the circle. Out of those five homes, three of them have retirees. My wife and I are retired. Clark's retired. We have le uh police officer detective that's retired. So you kind of get the feel for what our little culde-sac kind of looks like. We love kids. We all have kids. We've raised kids. We have grandkids. So so on and so forth. One of the things that we got was this ladder. And oh, excuse me. And unfortunately, this didn't go out to our entire neighborhood because it had a boundary limit on it of 185 ft. That's it. So nobody else outside of who's here. one of the neighbors son's having a birthday so he's spending that with his family so didn't have a lot of time to really get prepared and you know with something like this it could either be

in the favor of the neighborhood or maybe not as favorable for the neighborhood so that's why I'm here so what I did in the process of trying to find out we didn't have a lot of time to put things together I couldn't believe how efficient the blue springs government actually is this thing right here I thought I'm going to find out what there is to know about home industry. That's what I wanted to know. I wanted to learn about it. And when I got to gleaning through some of the pages here, one of the most important things here is on this page. It says things to consider. If you live in a neighborhood managed by a homeowners association, it is a good idea to check whether it can restrict your business activities. Well, I'm here to tell you that we have a very robust website. All the information that you need if you live in that neighborhood could be found on that website. ARC request forms. That's the first thing that needed to happen with this case was that they needed to glean through, get an ARC request, send it in, let it go through the approval process.

Hold on just one minute. We didn't I didn't tell you this in the beginning, but we usually have three minute time limits. Okay. So, your three minutes three minutes is up. But since I didn't tell you that and we don't have a huge gallery tonight, I'm I'm gonna let you go a couple more. Okay. But wrap it up. All right. I will

respectfully. I said, so I also with everything that I handed you guys, this is straight out of our uh covenants and bylaws and it kind of directly ties in with what this right here document says. So, I want to make certain that you had all the information that you needed. A couple questions that I had for them, not knowing what I know now, is on their website, which is fabulous. They got a really nice website. I mean, it was not something that you would see on Facebook, somebody wanting to watch children, but it says they care for up to 10. Well, the license that they were applying for is a limited, but in the application they were saying six, which would make it a general instead of a limited condition where it's four or less children. So, that was one thing. Playing outdoors, they have no fenced in area there. And they back up to one of the two entrances, main entrances into our neighborhood, which is uh Timber Meadows. My concerns are we have a swimming pool. We have a a walking trail that goes all the way around. What happens if they take the kids out and somebody falls and gets hurt?

You put one minute, please. Yeah. On the clock. So, I I'll just keep it just where we're at right here. Everything that I have in the document was gleaned out of just one provision that seemed to have uh a lot of different things in it. And I certainly hope that you guys, you know, based on what I just heard, if this is temporary, this could be a m a moot uh situation that we have right now. If that is in case the fact, okay? Because right now, uh the neighbors that are here, we're not in favor of having a daycare in our culde-sac. Thank you, sir. You have been hurt.

Hey, thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in opposition to this project?

All right. Seeing none and hearing none, I will close the public comment section of this public hearing. Anything else for staff up here? Chairman. Yes. Over here. Sorry, Chris. Throw you off. Uh, I just wanted to put on record that the resident letter that was sent out, um, the applicant has been found to be in substantial compliance with our posting requirements, um, with a correct public notice and posting on the their site. Um, however, the resident letter that was sent out had the wrong dates. So, we will be uh reissuing a new uh resident letter with the correct city council date before next week. So this will not be heard

a little bit. So a new res a correct resident letter will be sent out with the correct city council date. However, they were found in substantial compliance with our posting requirements for the conditional use. So they are able to move forward. So the council will hear it in two weeks Yeah. And um in regards to 185 foot notification rule, please clarify that. My understanding is that that's like a state rule, a state law. Yes. So it's not the city of Blue Springs that limits that. It's a state statute that municipalities follow.

So if if if that's a concern that can be taken up with the state, but the city of Blue Springs is following the state statute. Yes. Down here. Yeah, I have a question. I was going to ask were there any other letters sent out uh against this? No chair. Yes. Yeah. We we close the public comment section.

So I have a couple questions. One is I guess I'm not I haven't run into this before, but when if there are restrictions in a homeowners association, how does that work on conditional use permits? We don't um carry out HOA bylaws. So that would be between the HOA and the applicant. Okay. And for clarity on the limited versus general, can we

Yeah. So uh limited daycare use um for the city blueprint standards is a one to four children. Um that does not require them to have a business license with the city as well as state licensing. Um or we don't require them to present the state licensing to us. um whether the state requires them to get one um I'm not sure but at least for the general um to obtain a business license which is um kind of where one of the conditions comes in that they have to meet all state requirements which is kind of where the fencing that the the residents brought up would come into play is they'd have to meet all the requirements for the state to obtain state lensure and then they would be given a city business license

and just to clarify If I just to be specific this the application is for limited or is for general? It's for general. So because so what triggered this is because when they submitted the business license and we saw the number of children that's when uh myself reached out to the applicant and we started this process. Okay. Um I think that's my questions. Thank you chair. Yes. Um, so this temporary like you know two months 60 days like can a conditional use permit be given for just a limited period of time? That would be Yeah. Yes. Can can I add something?

I'll defer to you, Mr. Chairman. It really is if if the if the commission would like to hear my testimony, you're welcome to. We will I will open back up the public comment section and I have Let me finish please sir. We will limit any comments to two minutes and you must approach the podium and state your name and address and you will be heard.

Robin Hoff stutter. Um if it's a temporary and they are approved for that and it goes over what happens? uh city staff takes that into consideration and they have to deal with I'll let you ask that question. And how many temporaries can you get in a row?

So it would um after the temporary conditional use permit expires or lapses, then they would fall into code enforcement and we would start the process for issuing citation and resolving the issue um to cease operations. Can you apply for another temporary right after that one expires? There wouldn't be anything that would prohibit them from doing that. They would um So it could be longer than two months. That's what I'm No, they would have to go back through the same process that they're going through now um through a public hearing. Okay.

Thank you, chair. One more question. Uh or I guess anybody else from the public? We open it back up. Hi, Mike Anderson 9309 Southwest Orca Court. So, a couple things that I wanted to I I mean, so the letter that we got that said that it was a limited conditional was incorrect. Correct.

Okay. Because based on the amount of traffic in the mornings and at night, it's not meeting that criteria right now. And just to state for the record, they moved in in December, late December, and about mid January. This thing is opening and functioning every day, every single day. So, are they is are they in compliance if they've opened their daycare without the permit that's required to watch children? I guess that's my question to you guys. Answer would be no. This would bring them into compliance. Excuse me. This would bring them into compliance, but they could. Sorry, I'm I'm a planner.

No, helpful. I'm just filling in. Um, but they had four or less. Yes. So, they need a permit at that point to run the business with that amount of uh kits. So, with them now wanting to go to six or however, um, that's where this is going to bring them into that compliance. Okay. Is there any oversight that happens at this level to make certain that they are complying with those things?

That would be with the state. This would this is their uh where they would be bringing into compliance. On top of that, it would be state that would be handling like the operations and health and safety of the children and like operations and making sure they're meeting all the standards that the state has set forth for daycare. Okay. So, let me ask one more question. And so with the amount of children that they are watching today or that they may watch in the future either in our neighborhood or outside of it on her website she says she makes them meals. Does that bring in the Jackson County Health Department to make certain that things are You can speak before or against it but this is not a question. All right then I'm done. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Anything else from staff? Uh just uh to reiterate as one of our conditions is that they would have to meet all city, county, and state requirements set forth for a daycare. Yes.

And also, as a side note, it's not uncommon for somebody to be operating a business and not be in compliance because they simply didn't know. I'm not saying that's the case here. And then when they're brought to attention, as long as they come into compliance, we see that all the time. And that's standard. It's not standard. It's It happens. They happen to this frequency and there's a certain amount of grace and and acceptance that comes with the fact that a lot of the public sometimes just does not know. All right. Um, anything else from staff? Any final words from the applicant? Sorry. Yes.

Mava from 9305. Um, I just want to clarify that we are actively looking for a facility. We are we have an agent. We've actually looked at a couple places in the last couple weeks. We are looking to get out of the inhome daycare business and into a bigger facility because it just makes sense for us. She's been in the business for 20 years. This whole time, she's always been compliant with city state. She's never operated under the table. None of that. I mean, me and my sister take that very seriously. It's other people's children you're watching. You have to be very compliant. That's why we're here. We did not know. And that's why, you know, Logan's helping us, you know, go through this process and be able to be compliant with whatever HOA needs, this, uh, the city needs, the state needs, whatever we need to do.

And just to, uh, answer your question about the 10 children, the website was built like six years ago. We just haven't updated some of the verbiage. And, uh, I'll be sure to update that so it says the right amount of children. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Anything else from any out there. I'm just going to make a broad open. I'm done. All right. Sure. Okay. All right. I will close this public hearing. I will bring it back up here. Unless there's any further discussion amongst us commissioners, I would ask for a motion.

So, I have a question. Is is one of the conditions um limiting the amount of time that the conditional use permit can be in place? That is not current. That is not a current um condition. Okay. Is that something that we need to amend? It's optional if you want to or it can pass as is. Yeah, you could make a motion to Okay. So everybody's doing Can I attempt that? Yes. Yes.

It's open for a motion from anyone up here. Chair, I will make a motion to approve Monise Daycare CUPC0126-9786 at 9305 Southwest Orchest Court with a time period of 90 days um that the conditional use permit is issued. We can we can discuss this amendment, can we? Okay. Yeah. My thoughts on that is it needs to be six months to a year.

Uh I agree in the sense that since the applicant stated they're looking for a place, but there's so many variables that go into finding a new home and in a commercial space. Uh there's financing, there's availability, there's market conditions. I would uh I would make a motion to amend that to one year. And what happens now? We're just ready for a second. We're ready for a second on your amendment. On the on the amended motion, chair. Yes. I second the amendment. All right. I have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Shantel. Commissioner Ingresol. No.

Commissioner Pumprey. No. Commissioner Stokenberry. I Commissioner Richell. No. Commissioner Sanderson. Hi. Commissioner Kra. Hi. Commissioner Graham. Hi. Vice Chairperson How I. And Chairperson Henny. I pass. All right. That motion passes and it will be heard by the city council. They're meeting on Monday, March. March 23rd. No. April 6th. April. April 6th.

Chairs. The motion. The vote was on the motion and so now you need to make a vote on the adoption of the cup. Okay. Right. As amended. Right. Okay. Now I would ask for a motion for the cup portion of this project with the amendment of 12 month expiration on the CU. Ready for a motion? Chair. Yes.

I make a motion to approve conditional use permit for Mony's daycare zupc 01269786 at 9305 Southwest Orca Court with the amended condition for one year. All right. Roll call, please. Sean, I need a second. Second, please. Oh, yeah. Second. I'm all flustered. I have a motion and a second. Now we're ready. How about a roll, please? Commissioner Graham. Hi. Commissioner Kradall. Hi. Commissioner Sanderson. Hi. Commissioner Richell. Hi. Commissioner Stokenberry. Hi. Commissioner Pumprey.

No. Commissioner Angresol. No. Vice P. Vice Chairperson How. Hi. And chairperson Henny. Hi. And that passes. All right. That passes. That passed and it will be heard by the city council at their next meeting. April 6th. Yes. Sorry. For clarification, it's actually it's not the next meeting. It's April 6th. April 6th. April 6th. Yes. That's when we'll be heard. Yes.

All right. Moving on. Any other business up here. We have we've completed our agenda. Does anybody have anything else staff up here? All right. I would ask for a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Have a motion to second. All those in favor. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. This meeting is now journal. That was good.