Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] Good evening and welcome everybody. I would like to call the Monday, September 8th, 2025 Blue Springs Planning Commission meeting to order. Please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you. Uh Tracy, roll call, please. Of course. Commissioner Ingresol, here. Commissioner Pumprey, present. Commissioner Stokenberry, present. Commissioner Smith, here. Commissioner Sanderson, Commissioner Kraov present, Commissioner Graham, Commissioner How here, Chairperson Honey here.

Thank you for that. Thank you and welcome everyone joining in person and online this evening. Tonight's agenda consists of number one, the minutes from the last meeting on August 11th. Items two, three, and four are the reasonzoning plan development concept plan and preliminary plat for West Gate Villas. Item five is the final plat for Haw Estates. Six is the city comprehensive plan discussion. And item seven for adjournment. At this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda for August 11th, 2025 meeting. So move. I have a motion and a second. Second. And a second. Several seconds. All those in favor? I. Any opposed?

All right. That carries. Thank you. I will now open the public hearing for agenda items number two, three, and four. Reszoning RZ0625 9623, plan development concept plan PDC06259624 and preliminary plat PP06259641 for West Gate Villis. This time I will ask for exhibits from our city attorney Josh Newell. The city would like to enter exhibits one through eight.

Thank you, Josh. At this time, I would ask applicants, staff, and anyone from the public that wants to speak about this project, please rise and be sworn in collectively.

I do.

All right. I think Miss Fry is getting ready to tell us about the project. So, Chintel Fry, 903 West Main Street, Blue Springs, on behalf of the city, and I have been sworn in. Uh before you this evening is a request to for an approval to reszone the property located at the northeast corner of Northwest 19th Street in Northwest uh Mock Avenue from RCSO which is the regional commercial service offices to a PDR a plan development residential. The applicant is also requesting approval of a plan development concept plan along with the preliminary plat to allow the development of an independent senior living community of 55 plus and over consisting of an 11 of fourplex buildings. One duplex for a total of 46 units, a community clubhouse, a gazebo gathering area in open space located on 6.28 plus or minus acres. According to the 2014 comprehensive plan, this area is designated as corridor reinvestment area. These are areas currently developed along significant transportation corridors where specific site and building design must balance with the transportation functions. The general land uses are mixeduse employment, mixeduse service and entertainment dominant, highdensity residential and open space. The reasonzoning request is compatible with these designations and promotes reinvestment, supports economic opportunities, and encourages higher density residential development in the proximity to the area of the commercial districts. Approval of the resoning application would establish a presence for

highquality residential development and is con consistent with the intent of the PDR zoning district. Denial of the reszoning application would maintain the in the current zoning and could delay future development and reinvestment in the site in the area. Staff finds this proposal in compliance with all review criteria of resoning and is consistent with other adopted city policies. Based on the review criteria in the support findings, staff recommends approval of this resoning request. The proposed land use is a multifamily housing for 55 plus and over independent senior living community that will consist of the 11 forplex units per building and a duplex for the total of 46 units as mentioned prior. The residential buildings will incorporate a combination of brick, stone, and vinyl siding to its design. And each unit will include an attached singlecar garage with a decorative garage door to enhance the overall architecture and character of the site. There are two access points for this development that will be provided from Northwest South Outer Road and Northwest Mock Avenue. Internal streets to this development are proposed to be private with the developer responsible for maintenance of all the internal streets and sidewalks. A traffic memo prepared by the professional engineers states that the anticipated traffic generated by this development will not warrant a traffic impact study. A preliminary storm water management plan has been submitted that includes multiple detention basins and BMPs to control the runoff and water quality. A final storm

water management plan will be needed to be submitted with the final plan. The applicant has submitted a conceptual landscape plan. All final landscaping including required plant units will be reviewed with the PD final plan and the required 15% open space equates to 0.42 acres which is met by this development. Development is proposed to be complete in a single phase with construction anticipated to begin fall of 2025 and will reach completion of 2026. And here are some of the renderings of the site. Um, it looks like it's going to be an palette of blue and possibly off-white. Um, but this would be the the buildings of one, two, three, four, five, 10, and 11. And then these are the other buildings that will be six, seven, eight, and nine. Here are the rear elevations and side elevations. Staff recommends approval of the resoning application. And staff recommends approval of the plan development concept plan with the four conditions listed in staff report. And staff recommends approval of the preliminary PL application with the six conditions listed in the staff report. And I would be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for staff? Steph, the majority of the surrounding area, is that residential or commercial? There's a little bit of both. Um I'm going to bring back the zoning map here. So to the south we have the SF7 and then you have the regional or uh the estates residential estates here and then you have the general business and the RC to the north and then also two family off to the east here along with single family. So it's kind of a little bit of mix of both and would be compliant in that.

Thank you. Is there been no concern about having a a road coming out to South Utter Road? I mean, that's already a d pretty dangerous little stretch of land there. Having an additional road, people stopping, pulling out in front of other people. I feel like we're just asking for more problems. There has not been any mention of it, but we do have our engineer here for the meeting that could probably discuss that. I have a question. The green area on the map that you mentioned, it was zoned residential estate. What is that classification? What is that? Is that for residences or Yeah, this map's actually incorrect. That was reszoned to be part of the

school district. School district church. So, there used to be the Harvest Baptist Church on that property, which has been torn down and is now incorporated into the Blue Springs High School development. So technically what is that zone now plan? Uh I believe it's SF7 with a PD over it. Okay. And our Toby Williams who's our acting city engineer right now can answer the question about the access uh onto South Road.

Hello. Okay. Um yes, we did take a look at that for sight triangles just to make sure that it was compliant. And we'll also have those sight triangle design during the design phase of the project too to ensure that there is adequate distance for stopping and um sight triangles for oncoming traffic both directions and turning out. I don't I don't think it's a smart move to have that on South Road, but that's my own. Any other questions for staff uh from from up here? Could you re reiterate what you mentioned about the parking situation and who again is responsible for the streets in Taiwan?

Yes. So the parking situation each of the residents will have a single car garage along with there's parking in the site. Let me pull that up. So each unit, like I said, will have um parking and then there's parking that's also driveway access to those units. And then the developer will be responsible for the maintenance of the roads because they are going to be private and they'll be responsible for the sidewalks also internally. Is there going to be like a system to keep people from using that as a cut through or anything like that? Like a gate or anything like that? Or is that are we too far am I thinking too far forward for that? Because you say private road, it's just one of those things like does it have to be obviously not have to be policed, but it has to be policed.

Yeah, the the um the road will be private, but it will not be gated. Uh the slight jog as you can see on the access on the south as it then meanders up through the site to the north up to South Batter Road in and of itself will prevent cut through traffic because people won't be able to see a direct line of sight through the development. Um, so a little bit of history on this site is these this lot was merged with the other lots. Um, and um, there was always anticipated to be an access from this property onto South Road.

I Any anybody else? If I remember correctly, and I'm pretty sure it was this project. I remember reading over the weekend as I was looking at this that the requirement is one and a half parking spaces per unit or dwelling. Yes. How explain one and a half to me. So one and a half would be the onecar garage that is provided and then the driveway. Okay. Okay. And then there's also parking along the south side of the units here. There's all the parking there and parking at the clubhouse. So

Okay. All right. Well, if there's no more questions from us, we will move on to hearing from the applicant. And seeing none and hearing none, is the applicant here would like to speak.

Good evening. My name is Brian Ron, 1120 Egridge Boulevard, Green Valley for the developer. Uh, I do want to point out, uh, there is a little bit of, um, well, for clarification, the four units on the south side, all right, those actually have off- streetet parking. The other units are the ones with the driveways and the garages. So, you know, when you saw the two different unit types, uh, those south units, those are the ones that have the off- streetet parking. So, um, this property has been, uh, available for a long time. Uh, George Ward developed, you know, a good portion of that area. Uh, and has had these lots for sale, um, you know, going back, I think, as far as the 80s. Uh, there's been, you know, little interest in additional development in that area. You know, both from the commercial side and also these particular lots don't lend themselves well to the types of buildings that are in the area. So, right across from this would be like Edward Jones and uh First American Title and those types of things. You know, those buildings um you know, with the slope that this site has and everything, it hasn't really worked out to continue that style of development. So, as we looked at this project, you know, we were trying to figure out, you know, what would be appropriate here. And being a commercial and an employment area, you know, there's not been a lot of development that way. Um but we thought that this particular use would be an excellent compatible use for the area because although it doesn't generate employment right there, it generates through the residents, you know, employments for a lot of the existing services and businesses in the area. There are quite a few health care providers right in that area. and then just going to uh either the east or west you have a lot of you know neighborhood services and restaurants and different

things like that that again this one doesn't provide the employment but it provides the doors to get the people you know to support the businesses that are in that area. So as we went through it um you know we looked at a lot of different you know designs for you know what the product would be uh and we felt that the 55 plus was you know the most appropriate. Uh we also felt you know on this particular site that we were going to try to stick to you know a fairly low density instead of going up and stuff like that. So, you know, we have the forplexes uh and single duplex. The clubhouse there is, you know, that's a community gathering space. Uh we would also do leasing out of there. You know, that space also we designed it with a full foundation. So, since these are on slabs, you know, this would give an opportunity, you know, for a full foundation there if necessary. Uh the parking, you know, we looked at that as explained, you know, the cut through, you know, the since the street does not go straight through, you know, we felt that that jog and everything, it would actually be counterproductive for somebody to cut through there versus the, you know, um street to the uh west, you know. So, these are all, you know, very good questions because we've worked through those and those are things that have came up as we were working through the design and I'm more than happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? How did the uh transportation corridor tie into your design purposes? So, when we were looking at this, you know, sometime back you and I had a discussion about, you know, like even mass transit in the area and stuff like that. So, we did look to see what was in the area. right now there's not uh you know any services available to it you know so we weren't able to incorporate any of those things um you know as as those services come online with you know depending on you know the timing of the development and everything and future developments we're definitely looking for those things but so far you know I haven't found anything that I could pull in but like I said from our previous conversation was definitely something that I looked at

that's good you're looking ahead definitely needed to service for our future uh elderly people who are about to retire. We got a lot of baby boomers out here that'll be looking for some homes. So, absolutely. We talked about homes for the elderly elderly for a long time out here in Blue Springs. So, hopefully uh something that's going to work out. Appreciate it. Chair, I have a question.

You talked about the foundation of the clubhouse. Is that something you're going to build a basement in for tornado purposes or you're just saying what are you saying there? So, so yes, we are planning on putting a full foundation, a full basement under the clubhouse. Now, I can't specifically say it is a, you know, FEMA rated storm shelter because, you know, that's a different classification, but it will have a full basement with access to the res for the residents. Yeah, I think that's Thank you.

I have one one question. Just looking at this on the south side, are you proposing a wall or is that a fence? It it is a wall. So, as I mentioned earlier, this site has a lot of challenges to it. So, you know, there is going to be a retaining wall on the south and west sides there, you know, which, you know, will will make for a nice little backyard to those units, but, you know, it is going to be necessary to have a wall. How tall is that wall? Uh, it varies. It ranges, you know, down to zero and up to over six feet. Okay. If there's any no more questions up here, we'll get to the audience.

Thank you. Is there anyone here in the audience that would like to speak in favor of this project? Seeing none, is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition to this project? The microphone is yours, sir. Have you been sworn in? Yes. Just state your name and address, please. Um, I'm Dr. Saraphini. I'm at 1509 Mach, which is uh just to the east of that um Mock Road entrance. Um these are some of my concerns. Um I've owned that building for 5 years. Which building? 1509 M.

Okay. Um, as it stands now, it's it's a quiet office park and it's a go and anybody that's spends any time there would tell you it's a ghost town outside of regular business hours. So, and there's and because it's completely surrounded by businesses, there's no reason for anybody to be there outside of business hours unless they're working late like I do or they're up to no good because there's there's nothing to get to by going through there. Um, and so therefore, my concern is that the more people you have there, the more traffic you're going to have. um more uh parking issues, trespassing, and and possibly crime. Um not necessarily uh people over 55. I hope not. But um all this lowers existing property values. Um and I think it's interesting to note that much of much of this office park was sold in the last five years by Mr. Ward. And I have nothing bad to say about Mr. Ward, but it's interesting that he's not doesn't have as much skin in the game.

And for clarification purposes, you work from the offices on the other side of Mach on that long strip where First American Title is. I'm No, I'm right next door. Oh, you're right next door. Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm buted up against that on the east side. Is what you're saying? Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you very much. You bet. Thank you guys. Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak in opposition to this project?

Don't know if this is an opposition, but I do have a question. Name and address, please. 1512 Northwest Mock. And your name? We are just on the south of his unit, just the south of what's your name? Pardon me. Your name? Deborah Totten. Thank you. Okay. And uh my question is that it says it's a 55 and older,

you know, and is that written in the bylaws of that community or is it because that's a big thing to us because I would think that 55 and older would be a peaceful, quiet community, but you let in the younger or the young kids and stuff like he was saying running around at night because it is very very quiet there at night. So, I'm not at liberty to answer that question, but the applicant will have one more opportunity to address that and we'll have him answer that. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you. Any other anybody else that would like to speak in opposition to or favor?

All right. Hearing none and seeing none, I will close the public hearing portion of this public hearing. Anything else from staff? Yeah, the 55 and older uh provisions would actually be part of the zoning of the or the because this is a independent senior living. Yes. Yeah. So, it's independent senior living as a land use which then triggers the parking requirement of one and a half spaces per unit. Uh and as such in our zoning code in order to qualify as 50 or as independent senior living it is 55 and older as part of the land use for that project.

Thank you. So another way to state that or answer the question that was proposed is the city will have rules in place and will have some authority to govern the age group of people going in in case there's a bunch of young people that go in

to a certain extent. Yes. uh the developer may have some additional input as to how they will um handle that from a leasing standpoint and moving forward uh in addition to that land use by staff. But uh should it um should staff receive a complaint that it is not um being used as such then the site would be underparked. So there would not be enough parking for just a standard apartment complex. So then the they would be out of compliance with their zoning with their if this were to get approved they'd be out of compliance with the zoning the approved concept plans the approved final plans as such.

I had one more question about the on street parking for the four forplexes on the south side. If they were public streets, would off- streetet parking be allowed? Off streetet or on street? If it were public streets, would on street parking be allowed? Meaning no driveways? Uh, that may be a misconception. On the south, the buildings along the south side here. Yeah, those four, they all have parking off of the street here to the north of those buildings. Yeah, it's all off site or off. It's all off streetet park.

I'll take that up when with the applicant because I thought I heard heard you say that it was uh off street, but we'll get there in a second. Well, it is off street. Let's go. Oh, I thought I heard him say on street. So, again, we we'll clarify that. Um, anything else from staff? No. Uh, anything else from Yes.

Thank you again. Uh, so yes, the southern units there, they are headin off off streetet parking. So, you know, each one of those units has the spots, those little rectangles that you see there up along the road that are being cut by the sidewalk going across. Those are off- streetet parking. So each one of those units uh would have that available and um you know we have enough there to to meet the parking regulations for those units. Uh we also have overflow parking there at the clubhouse you know when somebody does have visitors that type of thing. Um as far as the requirements is the 55 plus we would meet all requirements of the city. Uh we would meet all requirements of equal housing you know that would that that apply there. The other thing that's nice about this particular community is we actually have on-site leasing, which, you know, we will have staff there that's going to be seeing what's happening in the community. It's not just, you know, you rent a a unit and, you know, nobody comes around. You know, we actually have, you know, staff that's going to be there. So, you know, we'll be maintaining the community. You know, George Ward, uh, he's, I believe, 95 years old, uh, now. And, um, yes, he is. He has sold some of those projects over there. Uh but you know, like this one here, you know, he's he's involved. He's involved in making this happen. It's the last piece of a of a project that he's worked on for 50 years. So, um he is involved, but uh you know, the project moving forward will be handled by by the family, you know, go going forward from here. So, you know, in addition to, you know, when we looked at this project, you know, we didn't have quite the uh the ground to pull off what we were doing here. So, you know, we even bought uh the the additional parcel to the north that's been sitting there

undeveloped for a long period of time. So, this really wraps up that entire area and George is excited to, you know, finally have this project done. Thank you.

Thank you. I guess I should have asked this when we were asking staff questions, but here's one more. Uh, my hesitation with this project that I've not been able to overcome is the fact that a new residential development is going to have eress and ingress and egress access to the outer road. It just for me since I saw my packet on Friday, it has seemed like a fish out of water since then. I've driven by a couple different days just to analyze it and look at it. I can't think of any other residential development talking between Woods Chopper Road and Seven Highway on either on this side of the 70 that the residential development comes out. There's so much commercial around it. So that's my question is was that considered and not asking your opinion but how do you evaluate that in in in the staff's procedures and so forth because I'm struggling with it

is it specifically the residential use the fact that there's a subdivision um with commercial pretty much abuing everywhere

right um certainly understand that uh there is this is the only resial along this corridor. Um it is not too dissimilar in staff when we reviewed this from the um assisted living facility and apartments that we have over on the east side of Seven Highway uh along Mock Avenue with the um Encore development. Uh I forget what it's called at the top of my head, but it's near the it's west of the fieldhouse. Uh and so with that project and with this project um property had sat undeveloped for a number of years. This was originally um the four lots to the south of it uh and the one lot that is directly a budding south out of road um we're anticipated to be office or some other type of development. Um the commercial aspect in between or that surrounds this um is office. It's not retail um other than the car dealership just a little bit to the east. Um and so staff looked at this similar to the one over on the east side of 7 highway as adding a multifamily project in an area to help support the surrounding businesses, the office use. Um it is adjacent. it there is residential nearby single family homes um to the south uh and some multifamily that is you know one off of the properties along outer road so we did not have a big concern about introducing residential uh to this property um if it had been single family homes I think we would have um but especially given the independent senior living and the reduction in traffic and car trips uh that are likely to be generated from that hence the reduced parking requirements for that land use. We did not have a concern on that. Um the traffic yields uh and counts that either the developers engineer could

speak to or our city engineer could speak to uh for this land use and the trip generation is likely less than any of the surrounding commercial or office land uses. Um but I would need one of them to confirm that or at least be equal to that or not significantly higher. And so given all of those factors, uh, staff did not have any concerns from a land use perspective on this and which is why we're recommending approval. The property that is directly adjacent, it's about the same size on the parcel map. If you could bring up the zoning map, please zoom in. So, a portion of the property is zoned. Um, oh, that one. And zoom in.

One more. Zoom to the property along which one? Outer road. That one right here. Yeah. So, that property there um was not originally part of the same plat. And so that property if it were to be developed today would have an access onto South Road. You're talking about the portion of the lot that abuts

the portion that directly abs if that were not being reszoned and combined with the for property to the south it would have its own access uh onto South Road. And so uh it would likely be an office or some other type of commercial use and the traffic generation of that could be even higher than uh independent senior living. And so um with that kind of uh perspective on the project staff did not see a concern with that. We did evaluate the project for cutth through traffic. Hence the the the original design did have that and the developer worked with staff to redesign that to prevent that cut through traffic. Um even though it really wouldn't make a lot of sense because uh the 19th Street exit, you know, there's more of a stop condition there. uh and the the light there to tell you when traffic is coming or not coming. So that's actually a safer intersection, but with the site triangles that that Toby mentioned um and the access onto South Road was not deemed to be dangerous or not compatible with the existing accesses that are along South Road.

Thank you, Mike. Mr. Melon, were there any other opposition letters or anything? No, to my knowledge, we did not receive any opposition emails or letters or opposition phone calls. And when you do get those, you do include those in the packet, correct? Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

Yeah. Um, any discussion up here or questions up here before we get to it? I'll just repeat my hesitation is uh the buildings look good, the project looks good, but it the location just I just I'm struggling with it. So, just for the record, uh if there's nothing else up here, I will close the public hearing hearing. Speak now or forever hold your peace. Nothing. Public hearing is closed. With that, would anybody like to make a motion? Chair.

Yes. Move to approve uh reszoning RZ06259623 Westgate Phillips with staff conditions. Second. Motion second. Tracy. Could I get a roll call for this? Commissioner Humphrey. I. Commissioner Stoenberry. Hi. Commissioner Smith. Hi. Commissioner Kle. I Commissioner Ingresol. No. Chairperson Honey. No. And that passive. Mortitude.

At this time, I would ask for a motion on the planned development concept plan. Just recommend. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah. I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. We need to go. We We're going to go back 20 seconds. Vice chair. Hi. Thank you. Bye. Okay. Let the record be known. I sure how was was a yes. Uh now, how about a motion for the planned development concept plan? Chair. Yes. I move to approve the uh PDC concept plan. Uh PDC 06259624 Westgate Phillips. Have another second. And another second with the conditions.

With the conditions. Another roll call, please. Tracy. Commissioner Stokenberry. Hi. Commissioner Smith. I. Commissioner Kraov. Hi. Vice Chair Hal. Hi. Commissioner Eager. No. Commissioner Pumprey. Hi. Chairperson Henning. No. 5 to two.

All right. Passes again. 5 to two. Moving on. Uh, that item will be recommended and heard by the city council at their next meeting, which is September 17th right here in this room at 6 PM. All are welcome. Um I think that's all that and the preliminary there is one more I would ask for a motion for the preliminary plat portion of this project. I'll take it again. Yes.

Preliminary plat. I move to approve the PP06259624 Westgate villas with the staff conditions. A second. Second. Thought you were waving at me. Well, I was you seeing if you wanted to continue. Um, let's roll call this, too, please. Sure. All right. Commissioner Stokenberry, I. Commissioner Smith, I. Commissioner Kraov, I. Commissioner How? I. Commissioner Ingresol. No. Commissioner Pumprey, I. Chairperson Henry. No.

All right. As stated, that will be heard at the next city council meeting next week on September 17th. The last item on the agenda is a final plat PF07259643 for Haw Estates. At this time, I would ask for staff's represent staff's presentation. Mr. today.

Good evening, commissioners. Um, before you tonight is a request for approval for final plat for Haw Estates. The subject site is located at 27711 Southeast Wyatt Road and is approximately 17 acres in size. The applicant Tri County Water Authority is requesting approval of a final plat to subdivide the property into three lots with lot one consisting of approximately 7 acres and will to be developed into a major water infrastructure facility operated by Tri County Water Authority. Lots two and three each will be approximately five acres and are intended for single family residential use. Lot one will have a gated access off Southeast Wyatt Road with lots two and three having individual driveways off of Shroud Road. A 5-ft ADA compliant sidewalk will also be installed along Southeast Wyatt Road. Lots two and three will be served by private septic systems in compliance with Missouri DNR. And lot one does not require sanitary sewer. Uh all existing structures on the site will be prom removed by Tri County Water Authority by December 31st, 2026. Um staff has reviewed the final plat for compliance with the UDC and is in substantial compliance with the preliminary plat and requests no deviations. Staff recommends approval for the final plat with five conditions as listed in the staff report. And in conclusion, the final plat for Haw Estates first plat meets the city's requirements and is consistent with the comprehensive plan in UDC. All right. Uh any questions? And this is the same thing that came before us?

Yes. Just a few months ago. Okay. Is the applicant here? John Over Street, 28405 East Blue Valley Road, Independence, Missouri 64058. It is what it is, right? It is what it is. There's no changes from what we talked about previously. Uh, two residential lots and I think we described what our plans are for long term for infrastructure in that area. happy to answer any questions or discussions about that. Any questions?

So, this is kind of needed to support

very much so. Yes, it it's kind of twofold. Immediately, we plan to build about a 40x60 structure that will eventually house a pump station. Uh the the first thing it will do is it will serve as the facility facilities to interconnect Tri County's water system, the city of Blue Springs's water system in district 13. So that in the event of an outage or you're getting ready to take your take out of service on ADP for for painting, that will be an extended process. We'll be able to use our facilities to help subsidize the water demands in Blue Springs. Uh in the future, that will work the up the other direction for Tri counties or or uh District 13's facilities. With the anticipated growth in that area, District 13 is going to need more water and that's what these facilities will eventually provide.

Cool. Any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. Anything else up here? Time for a motion, chair. Yes. I move to approve final flat PF07259643 for Hall Hazates. Got a motion. How about a second? Second. And a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Sounds like unanimous to me. All right. Um, moving on to item number seven, comprehensive plan discussion.

Yeah. So, just wanted to give you all a heads up that um later this week or early next week, the city will be issuing the request for proposals for consultants to assist the city with our comprehensive plan update. We hope to have that open for about 60 days and then have a decision made on a consultant by the end of the year. uh through that RFP process and what is written in the current RFP is that uh this is going to be a large effort to undertake the entire comprehensive plan for the city. Um per state law, the comprehensive plans are uh the purview and um approved by planning commissions uh throughout the state. Um and so the planning commission will have an active role in this and that is written into our request for proposals is to have um not only engagement with the planning commission but with the city council, with community stakeholders, with residents and businesses um and to do a large community outreach um to help really get the voice of where um the city wants to take the comprehensive plan based upon the strategic plan that was just approved by the city council. And a lot of those goals uh in that strategic plan will be directly carried over uh and then implemented through the comprehensive plan uh looking at future land uses u the integration of housing and uh commercial retail um amenities. Uh all of the things that go into not just a future land use plan but help then drive the future transportation models. our uh need for capital improvement projects um relates to the parks and open space master plan. So um the comprehensive comprehensive plan is

our main guiding document for the future growth of the city uh based upon the goals of the strategic plan from city council. So um just wanted to make you aware of that uh that you that that is coming and that is going to kick off this year. staff will begin doing a lot of research, demographic research, things of that nature in the intim so that we can hit the ground running when we have a a site or a consultant selected and the process will really kick off after the beginning of the of 2026.

You have a consultation group that you've already involved. No, that's the that's the goal of the request for proposals is to um solicit uh proposals from consultant groups to work with the city. So, uh there will be uh opportunities for the entire planning commission to participate. There will uh we haven't had it all ironed out yet because it'll be largely dependent upon the responses we get back from those um consultants uh but we have asked for a robust community engagement, robust stakeholder engagement um and some unique and innovative ways to get that input. So um we're not going to rely on triedand-true practices necessarily as our only means for soliciting that input. Um we're looking to see what other communities throughout the country have been doing uh over the past few years. A lot of cities throughout uh cities, counties, towns throughout the country have been using the um COVID funds. So the ARPA fund or other federal assistance programs that were made available to local jurisdictions have been updating their comprehensive plan since that time. And so, um, there's been a lot of new methods for looking at comprehensive plans, new mindsets, uh, and so we hope to take advantage of those, uh, to implement some strategies, uh, that may not have been used, uh, in Blue Springs before to to really get that input. Um, our last downtown master plan process, we utilized a lot of newer techniques for getting input such as websites and QR codes and lots of stakeholder meetings. Uh we really want uh and I think we had a really good turnout. So we really want as much resident and

business participation as possible um so that we can really hear from every uh corner of the city uh to deter you know to help guide what the city will look like for the next 20 years. So the comprehensive plan is not just kind of a guiding plan but it's a a long range guiding plan. Um, you know, it really looks to see what what Blue Springs can be over the next 20 years and how to get there. So, just the since the co money and the federal money's gone away, is there some type of funding that's earmarked for place like Blue Springs?

Um, not right now or not really anymore. The city has had this um in its budget, its long range budget and in our um capital improvement program um budgets for for the last five years. And so um it was originally going to just be a comprehensive plan update um but it's it's now going to be a full rewrite of the comprehensive plan. So we've we've been anticipating this for a number of years. we have the funding in place to do it. And so, uh, we're kicking that off with the RFP here in the next week and then really kicking off the process um, after the first year.

Exciting times. It's It's needed. So, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Yeah, we're excited as well. Yeah. Um, any questions up here? I'll plan on being involved next year. We need you. Um, any other business?

Um, I've got a question, something I'd like to look into. Um, the small sliders uh that we approved earlier this year. So, I'm having a problem with with parking and with coming and going from there. So my issue is that when I go there just a couple times and when I'm driving down Seven Highway, I see other people do the same thing. So if I'm headed south on Seven Highway, um, and I have to basically if I want to pull into Small Sliders from Seven Highway, I basically have to do 180 degree turn to get around to avoid the drive-thru exiting and people either block traffic slowing down to make the turn because it's such a sharp turn. I think that there was a design perhaps there could be a design flaw in the sense that it wasn't studied or calculated correctly because traffic's being held up sometimes when people are waiting to get in there. In addition, once you do make the 180 degree turn, you've got people leaving that are not hugged to the right that allowed these people in. So, my point about bringing this up is I'd also be curious about maybe another time for staff to look at it and see if something was missed, but even if it is all pursuant to the guidelines, it's continuing to happen all the time. Um, is there and and Councilman Kaylor, I'll call on you on this. I believe that when there's situations like this when we well let me back up from a planning commissioner's perspective you know there's no formal training we're not paid we don't really learn how to do

this we go off of what we know and I believe in learning from our mistakes is there any process in place and if not maybe I could have lunch with Mr. Kaylor and we could talk about it to where things that we missed up here. Is there is there any way that we can learn from those? Can we start a guide or a book so when when we onboard maybe you can sit down with staff for 30 minutes and say this is what we're doing but here here's a couple things that we miss. So look out for these things. My comment is very generalized in the sense of I don't expect an immediate answer but how can we start learning from these things? I'd like to I'd like to see it. Okay.

Maybe some kind of system put into place. Yeah. You good for lunch this week? I'll call you tomorrow. Awesome.

Yeah, absolutely. And staff is more than happy to arrange any trainings for the planning commission. Um we've had a couple of slow meetings in the in the past six months or no meetings because we didn't have an agenda and those make the perfect opportunities for trainings. Um the last time that we brought this up uh with the idea of potential topics for trainings and looking into trainings um it was I believe there was a discussion amongst the planning commissioners that there was no training wanted at that time. Uh but that is obviously something that we can continue to seek feedback on. uh in particular I know of one training that I've watched which was um site plan review for planning commissioners available uh through uh I believe it was planetisen which is a an online resource for the planning community. So, if there are certain topics that the commissioners would like to learn about such as this and how to review site plans and what goes into that process, uh, or if there's other ones concerning, uh, you know, resoning criteria or other, you know, topics related to those types of things, we can find those and we can present those. Um and um any other and kind of you know when we find things that maybe don't work um that could be an impetus for a code change in in the future things that just don't you know they may meet the code today but the practical application doesn't produce the desired result. That's when we start looking at code amendments. Uh and really feedback like that is one of the reasons or one of the the you know things that prompt us to start looking at that. Uh and so that kind of feedback is is very welcome at any point and any discussions that we can have or through a training

or just a conversation here at planning commission. We could, you know, set aside 15, 20 minutes, half hour, hour at the end of a planning commission or make it a regular part of an agenda if you if the commission so chooses. We we're open to all of that. I have few additional thoughts, but I'll just email you tomorrow because they don't really need to be voiced here publicly. Okay. Not that it's it could, but it's just we can go on about. So, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Um, any comments about any of that up here? I think it's a great idea.

Great idea. Bring it up. Okay. Oh, I think there could be a manual from like from the very beginning what things mean and walk right through it.

I agree and that resonated with me and it resonated me because um I agree in the sense that so I've heard Mike you say a couple times throughout being involved here that you know if there's any training that is needed you know then let us know. Um, I I would like to add to that that just because any of us or even councilmen aren't coming to you saying, "What does this mean?" It doesn't mean that they they don't need to know more. So, if nobody's saying they want to learn about this or this, uh, one of my recommendations would be if staff put together six, eight, 10, whatever, just little 15inute training clips, not videos, but just PE bits. Um, just randomly add it to the end of short meetings next year. That doesn't need to be on a long meeting because that we won't be listening as much perhaps. But um any that's just a thought that I had about all this.

Yeah, absolutely. Only other thing that I like to comment and ask for further help is with with the tall grass and stuff. The flex spaces is is 6 to 8t tall. I've seen uh Adam's Dairy and Double E. I have going south. They finally cut it down a little. It's only down to about 8 in now, but it's overtaken the whole area. Um that's Yeah. I think a coach person that actually drives around though, not one that just

um the other one of the other sites again because it's so visible is is the Montre building that was just torn down. Um so one thought that I had while I see these is and I don't know the details behind it but when people come to us for development um I know this is way beyond our pay grade city council would have to do it but why not get a $1,000 bond or deposit from them before the project starts that if they don't cut the grass then they don't get it back or the city can use that to do it. My point is that there is longstanding six foot plus tall grass that has been in place for months and months and months throughout this year and it's disappointing to me and I would love to um help in any way to create systems to to make our city more beautiful. That's my comments.

As a city we don't hold private companies the biggest problem. Repeat that please. As a whole, we don't we don't hold private businesses accountable and and that's why you see all these crazy things. I mean, it's we're not the only I'm not calling for. All right, that's the rest of all I had tonight. You want to hear more? I got more. I'm just kidding. Anybody else? No more. That's okay. All right. Having uh heard nothing else, uh I will entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. So moved. Second. All those in favor?

Any opposed? This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you for attending or watching. What happens if you don't want to find out that you don't want to find out hours?