Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

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If the meeting will come to order.

There are agendas on the table outside of the meeting room. This is a public meeting for which public notice has been provided. The proceedings are being broadcast and recorded and can be viewed online at the City of Casper's YouTube channel. First, I would like to read some informational statements about the meeting. Use of cellular telephones is not permitted and such telephones shall be turned off or otherwise silenced during the planning and zoning meeting. When speaking to the Planning and Zoning Commission, please clearly state your name and address. Keep your remarks pertinent to the issues being considered by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Do not repeat the same statements that were made by the previous speaker. Speak to the Planning and Zoning Commission as you would like to be spoken to. Do not address applicants or audiences directly. Make your comments at the podium and directed to the chairperson and Planning and Zoning Commission. I would like to remind Everyone present at the City of Casper Planning and Zoning Commission is a volunteer body composed of members of the Casper community appointed by the City of Casper City Council. The Commission acts as a quasi-judicial panel, making final decisions on some items and recommendations to the City Council on others as dictated by law. The Commission may only consider evidence about any case as it relates to existing law. The commission cannot make or change planning and zoning laws, regulations, policies, or guidelines. This evening, we will only have four commissioners, Chairman Beamer, Commissioner Ellison, and Commissioner Rubel are excused for other activities. The next item on the agenda is consideration of the minutes From the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting held June 11, 2026, are there any additions or corrections?

Can we have a motion to approve? Do we have any other discussion?

Further discussion, we will now vote. Are there any abstentions or nay votes?

Okay. All voting aye. Please record the votes.

With all members voting aye, the motion carries.

Okay, next.

will be the scheduled public hearing before we get started just a reminder to all those applicants this evening that it takes four affirmative votes to pass any item regardless of the number of commissioners present. If any applicant would like to postpone their case in anticipation of the possibility of more commissioners being present next month, then I would ask for you to speak up when your case is announced. The first public hearing tonight will be CUP 1106-2026. We are switching around that case order tonight. CUP 1106-2026 will be tabled after the introduction and staff reads, so. That way people don't have to stick around if that's the one they came for. CUP 1106-2026 is a request for a conditional use permit to allow temporary access from Box Elder Street to an existing parking lot located at 1023 South Box Elder Street during Poplar Street construction. Block four through eight, block 139 Casper addition. and a request to amend, remove a prior restriction on access to the property, which if approved would allow permanent vehicular access to the parking lot from Box Elder Street. The applicant is Wyoming Financial Properties Incorporated

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We as you mentioned this case is going to be postponed to the August 13th 2026 meeting. The reason for that is because we have ordered a traffic study and the traffic study is was not able to be completed in time for this meeting and we want planning commission to have all the information available before they make a decision. So we would ask that you vote to continue it to the August 13th meeting.

Do we have a second to continue? With no further discussion, can we vote? Are there any nay votes or abstentions? All voting aye.

With all members present voting aye, the motion carries.

The next hearing tonight, will be for SP 10602026 site plan review for the construction of a 44,590 square foot addition to the Casper Ice Arena located at 1801 East 4th Street. The applicant is the City of Casper.

Is the applicant ready to proceed this evening?

This case was tabled on June 11th, 2026, Planning and Zoning Commission. The chair now calls for a motion to take the SB 1060-2026 from the table for consideration.

Have a second. Are there any abstentions or nay votes? All voting yes.

With all members voting aye, the motion carries.

Okay. Can we get a report?

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. This request is for the approval of a site plan to construct a 44,000 plus square foot addition to the Casper Ice Arena located at 1801 East 4th Street. Because the addition exceeds 43,560 square feet, the application requires review by both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council. Property is owned PH Park Historic and the proposed use is permitted within the district. Commission previously continued and tabled this application to allow the applicant time to address concerns regarding pedestrian connectivity, traffic circulation, emergency access and engineering coordination. In response, the applicant submitted revised plans and a traffic impact analysis that included additional sidewalks, ADA accessible routes, crosswalks, circulation improvements, updated landscaping and clarification of emergency access provisions. Staff reviewed the revised materials and notes that the previously identified issues have been satisfactorily addressed. The site plan complies with the applicable parking, landscaping, circulation and site design requirements and the traffic impact analysis concluded that the surrounding street network can accommodate the projected traffic without significant adverse impacts. I would also note that no public comments have been received. Staff has provided three recommended conditions of approval. First, final engineering plan approval by the city engineer prior to permit issuance. Second, review and approval of the final traffic control, circulation, and related improvements prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy. And third, final approval of emergency access control measures by the fire department. I'd like to enter five exhibits tonight. A is the site plan application. B, public notice. C, legal notice sent to the Star Tribune. D, photo of the public notice signed on the property. And E, memo to the chairman and members of the Planning and Zoning Commission. With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for the report. And the exhibits are noted. Do any of the commissioners have any questions of the staff? Next, I would ask that the applicant or their authorized representative come forward to the microphone, state your name, address for the record, and explain your application to the Commission.

Chairman, Commission, my name is Aleema Lopez. I'm the Director of Parks and Recreation Public Facilities for the City of Casper, also the applicant. This application is for the construction of an expansion to our Casper Ice Arena to house a second sheet that will be utilized by Casper youth primarily, as well as all ice sport lovers throughout the community and the region. And so we... course came to you with this application I think the first time in May had some deficiencies that you recognize that we were able to rectify and now just request your favorable approval of the application as we have addressed the conditions that were originally concerns so I'll stand for any questions that you have that are specific so you're fine with the conditions that Craig is outlined and

Ready to move forward with four commissioners.

Yes, chairman.

OK.

I guess we have no questions, so I will.

Thank you. Now it's time that we ask that members of the audience come forward to either support or in opposition to the case. Please remember to state your name, address clearly in the microphone for the record.

Anyone wishing to speak in support, come forward now. Thank you.

My name is Peter Wold and I have been involved for youth hockey for a number of years. probably going back 25 or 30 years, this has been a dream to get a second sheet of ice for a long, long time. And there are people here in the audience that are representing some of the youth. This is an important addition to the hockey program and is going to be an outstanding facility for players the city of Casper, and for the entire state of Wyoming. As we are centrally located, there are any number of towns that have one sheet of ice, but not two, and we will be the premier community for holding tournaments. In this case, I think one plus one equals three, and you will be very delighted with what we think will be the financial returns that will come to the city as a result of this development. So I encourage your support. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Wold.

I'm Travis St. John, president of the Casper Amateur Hockey Club. We've been working forward working on getting this project to come to fruition for eight years. We started in fall of 2018. It's been exciting to get as close as we are now and even to get to some of these hurdles and where we're asking the questions and bringing these things to you guys for approval. And so, excited to see it get that close to the finish line. And a lot of what Peter said, I would certainly echo with the significant benefits to the community and really the state and certainly to all of the youth that participate in any of these activities. Excited to see it get to this point and certainly wish for your support tonight.

Thank you. Would anyone else care to come forward and speak in support?

Or do we have anyone in opposition? Seeing nobody else wishes to speak, the chair hereby closes the public comment portion of the hearing and calls for a motion on the site plan review to approve, approve with conditions, deny, table, or postpone.

I'll make a motion to approve with conditions.

Second.

Having a motion and a second, is there any discussion?

With no further discussion, we will now vote. Are there any abstentions or nay votes? All voting aye. Please record the vote.

With all members present voting aye, the motion carries.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to note for people in attendance that this needs to go to council for final approval and we're shooting for the July 21st meeting.

Good news for a lot of people.

Yeah. We're moving on to special issues. We'll be reviewing the urban renewal plan for block one, lot 16 through 22 of the Casper addition, located at the northeast corner of South Ash Street and West Midwest Avenue to determine if said plan is consistent with the land use objectives of the adopted 2017 Generation Casper Comprehensive Land Use Plan Can we get a staff report?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have very brief report for you here. The proposed downtown hotel urban renewal plan would establish an urban renewal area in downtown Casper to facilitate redevelopment of the site as a hotel and associated public improvements located at the Northeast corner of South Ash Street and Midwest Avenue. The Planning and Zoning Commission is being asked tonight to provide a recommendation to the City Council regarding whether the plan conforms to the 2017 Generation Casper Comprehensive Plan. Staff reviewed the Urban Renewal Plan against the Comprehensive Plan and noted it's generally consistent with multiple Comprehensive Plan goals, including infill development, redevelopment and reinvestment, economic development, tourism, and strengthening the vibrant urban center. The property is located within downtown Casper's urban center where the comprehensive plan encourages redevelopment, hospitality uses and private investment. Commission is not reviewing the hotel design, development agreement or the financial terms associated with the project. Rather the commission's review is narrowly limited to determining comprehensive plan conformity. The analysis provided in the staff report outline supporting elements of the Casper comprehensive plan. The urban renewal plan relies on blight findings previously adopted by the city council through resolution number 26-101. And the final statutory findings required by Wyoming statute 15-9-1-10 remain the responsibility of the city council. With that, we'll be happy to answer any questions. And we have several people here to talk, I know, so we can answer any of your questions from multiple angles, thanks.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any preliminary questions? I would ask that the representative come forward to the mic and state your name and address for the record and explain to the commission what we're looking at here.

Good evening chair members of the planning commission. My name is Mark Christiansen. I am with AVI PC down in Cheyenne. 3 Old Town Lane acting on behalf of the property owner. So what is before you is an urban renewal plan. Essentially this document outlines the future use of this property. What public improvements would be eligible under this urban renewal plan and then a path forward for the tax increment financing mechanism. that will be considered by City Council in the future. So essentially the Planning Commission's role is just to review this plan and look for conformance with the comprehensive plan. So the proposed use on this site is a 120-unit hotel, approximately a $26 million private investment. However, there is some financial gap to this, and that's why this plan is coming forward to allow for the tax increment financing utilization. So essentially process-wise, this is a step that allows us to get feedback from the Planning Commission on the conformance with the comprehensive plan. Then we take that into consideration and bring it forward to City Council. And should they approve the plan itself, then we would craft a development agreement which would outline those specific public improvements that will be incorporated and eligible for reimbursement under the tax increment financing. somewhat concurrently with this process. You know, as we get more confidence moving forward in the process, we would move forward with the site development plan, which this being in the old Yellowstone district goes to that advisory board. So we're kind of moving that somewhat concurrently. We have the designs complete, just kind of getting that confidence ready for that submittal as well. So some of the public improvements would be some site beautification, demolition of some of the blighted buildings. any utility improvements that might be necessary. And then specifically with this site, there's a lot of drainage improvements that would be required to be upgraded. Namely, the alley doesn't really drain very well, so we'd look at some solutions for that. But essentially, the private development saw this as an opportunity for investment. However, there is some financial gap. So that's essentially the impetus for the tax increment financing and the urban renewal plan to come forward. It was identified in the blight study that was adopted as part of the downtown area, kind of exhibiting some of those unused buildings, dilapidation of some of the site improvements and those sorts of things. So I'm available for any questions.

Then parking. Is that an issue down there?

I don't see it on the report, but I might have missed it. Um, I'm happy to answer that question, but that's more of a design issue, but parking is not a requirement of site plans in the Old Yellowstone District because we want to see the density down there. We don't want to see buildings torn down, for instance, to make parking lots. So just as much of the downtown functions with public parking, that's what we rely on for this project. In particular, they'll be using the Goodstein parking lot kind of across the street. And I think they're also looking at doing some potential valet parking with the city's parking structure.

I noticed that we're falling back on the generation Casper plan.

Are we just not far enough along on the new blight study use that or?

So, Chair, through you to the Commission, we have to go with the most recently adopted comprehensive plan. That's what the state statute calls for. So with Generation Casper being the most recently adopted comprehensive plan, the citywide plan, that's what this plan follows. And so it has those goals in there of infill development, downtown development, and then removing barriers for economic growth.

Another question.

Thank you very much.

Now I'd like to ask members of the audience to come forward and for. They're in opposition or.

Go ahead, Mark. Good evening members of the Planning and Zoning Commission. My name is Martin excellent and I'm here on behalf of the project team in support of the proposed downtown hotel urban renewal project or plan at a high level this project is about reinvestment into downtown. It also represents a meaningful private investment into the downtown core and it's intended to activate an important site in a way that brings more people and activity in the area. We believe this plan is a good fit for downtown and for the direction the city has identified as for this party Casper it supports investment in an existing downtown location. adds activity to the center of the community, and complements the businesses and destinations that are already there. We also believe this plan is consistent with the Generation Casper plan and the city's broader vision for reinvestment into these established areas. This proposed use would help contribute to a more active and vibrant downtown, and for those reasons, we respectfully ask for your recommendation to City Council.

Thank you. Nobody else. Hereby close.

I move that the Planning and Zoning Commission find the proposed downtown hotel urban renewal firms to the Generation Casper Comprehensive Plan and recommend approval of the plan to the City of Casper for Wyoming Statute 159108. Do you want me to read the reasons?

Thank you. Do we have a second? Okay. Okay, with a motion and a second. Are there any abstentions or nay votes?

With all members present voting aye, the motion carries.

The urban renewal plan has been approved. Greg, will you tell us what's next?

As we stated, the plan will move forward to Council for consideration. After that, in general, the project will be presented. That will not come to Planning Commission. It'll go directly to Council. And as they mentioned, we'll be also concurrently looking at the site design through the architectural review committee. So I think the planning commission's role is done at this point with this project.

Okay. Do we have any communications from the commissioners? How about the community? No. Okay. Council liaison. Hi. Forward.

That's been something that's been near to many hearts in this town, so it's good to see you approve that so we can move forward with that one. So thanks for all you do. Thank you.

How about the old Yellowstone district?

I have not had a meeting since our last P&Z meeting, but we have one next week. We'll be meeting at the Lyric for a joint meeting for all the downtown businesses, and we'll be meeting at the Lyric to see some new site plans there.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to come forward and present anything? Okay, final item on the agenda is adjournment. The next meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled for Thursday, August 13th at 6 p.m.

There being no further business to conduct, Chair calls motion to adjourn. Okay, let's vote.

With all members present voting aye, the motion carries.