Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

for Vice Chairman Munoz on uh March the 18, 2026. Make a motion to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Motion approved. Moving on to the approval of minutes for March 18, 2026. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Motion approved. U. Moving on to the consent public hearing discussion and possible actions item A and B.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh so to read in tonight's uh for the record, Andrew Deus with development services to read in tonight's consent agenda. Starting under plats, item number two, preliminary for Caspian subdivision, uh, which is 99.52 acres in size. Item number three, preliminary plat for Burlet Addition Annex, which consists of 7.19 acres in area. Item number four, a replat for Padra Island number one, which is 5.21 acres in size. Item number six, a replat for Candlewood Annex, lots 23 and 24 of block 4, 4.91 acres. Item number seven, a final plat for Patrick Gardens lot 14C, which is 21 acres in size. Staff has reviewed all of the plat submitted as well as the technical review committee and determined that they do meet the qualifications of both the Texas Local Government Code as well as the Unified Development Code. Staff recommends approval. Under zoning, letter B, we have two items tonight. Item number eight, zoning case ZN9181 American Alpha Group LLC located in district 1, which is located off of Horn Hearn Road, I should say, and is requesting from the RS6 single family 6 district to the RSTF two family district. Staff recommends approval. Then we have item number nine, zoning case ZN 9180, Zeba LLC located in district 2 off of Weber Road. The request is from the O neighborhood office district and the RS6 single family district with a special permit. All of that to be reszoned to the O neighborhood office district with a special permit. Staff 2 recommends approval. That concludes tonight's consent agenda. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to address them. Thank you, Andrew. At this time, commissioners, do we have any questions

for staff on items 2 through nine? Or uh will there be an item that anyone would like to pull for further discussion?

Nope.

No. All right, then. Um, no questions. Then I'll go ahead and open up the consent public hearing and ask anyone if they'd like to come and speak on any of the items on the agenda tonight. Yes, ma'am. Hello, my name is Lisa Oliver and I reside at 3937 Barn Street, which is located right across the street. My backyard would face the property in question on item number nine, your zoning case item uh 9180. So, I was one of I noticed that there was only two in opposition. I was one of the two that submitted my uh opposition and the reason being uh that this property had received a special permit before zoning permit classification and I believe at that time it was for a hotel and it might be the same developer. uh nothing happened with the property and then there has been gambling casinos at the front part the way this building is set up right it was an old hospital PNS hospital so in the front section there's been a gambling and then there was some illegal squatters or there was other illegal activity happening so the property was not maintained by the developer once they received the special permit I've had crackheads go to my door in the past my windshield the rear view of windshield of my car was shot out because of illegal activity because the property wasn't maintained by at that time the developer or whoever received the permit. So my concern is that's the past and now it appears that this might be the same developer that's wanting to propose this new project and there are

no renderings and I understand it's not required to submit a rendering but the concern is it's going to be a storage facility surrounded by houses and then the safety component although I understand there's a buffer is storing vehicles with fuel in the back in the middle of a residential area because it's for boats and RVs. And so that from a safety perspective, that's also my concern. I've tried to think driving around Corpus Christie, lifelong resident, where have there have been a similar area where it's been a storage facility surrounded by houses on three sides. I can't think of one. The closest one that I've seen similar is the one at Everheart and Saratoga, which this they converted that HB. So there's houses on one side, but it's always res commercial. And so I know this is uh a unique piece of property and because of uh just by virtue of where it's located and the history of what the land. Um, but for that reason, I'm opposed to it. And and I'd also like uh I'm curious to know if the they were going to be uh having a demolition of the existing facility as well and to be able to see a rendering like how are we the neighbors going to be protected from people coming and going. I understand that there's a time limit set at 8 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So, those are some of the concerns and questions that I have about the property.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else like to come and speak?

Yes, sir. I'm uh Gabriela. I live at 3938 Pile, which is just right across the street on Weber. Um, I really don't have an issue with this particular project, but I am concerned if this project didn't move forward, it has a special permit involved. Does that special permit expire after a certain amount of time? If not, what else can they use that special permit for? And that's a concern I have cuz um, knowing everything about this property, I think it storage facility does kind of fit for what is going in there. But if that was to expire, I mean, what other options that developer going to have? Um, I don't know if there's anybody can answer those questions for us.

Well, at this time, we don't answer any of the questions. We just hear your comments. Okay. We're able to probably discuss that afterwards. Okay. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any others? If not, then I'll go ahead and close the public consent hearing and um entertain a motion or further discussion. have some discussion. Andrew, for the listening public, can you explain um the at what points special permits expire? Sure. Good question. So, special permits are valid for essentially 6 months. Meaning if let's say I I get the special permit to open a mini storage business and I fail to open that business within 6 months

or start or or start or I open it successfully for a number of years and I discontinue the use. If 6 months passes and either I don't start or I've started and I discontinue and the special permit automatically expires. That means the underlying base zoning of neighborhood office would remain, which allows medical uses, uh, traditional office uses, pretty much what the building was originally designed for. Uh, it would revert back to that base zoning, but now also including, uh, that back area.

Okay, I've got a few questions. Uh, I'm familiar with this area. I grew up on Hamlin Street which just a few blocks away. Uh so I remember it being a hospital. Uh turning into storage facilities I can understand. Uh and is that going to be climate controlled the majority of it? So inside of the structure could be climate controlled. That those details wouldn't be worked out at the zoning phase. That would come into play at at building. Uh but the outdoor storage would be outside of course and nonclimatec controlled. So you'll have storage of boats, RVs, vehicles.

Has the developer given an indication as far as what they're going to do because there a lot of unused land. Is it totally going to be storage for those type of things or there's a possibility?

Yes, within the presentation on the last uh slide of the packet, it did have a small rendering to show the the building and then the essentially pad lots that would be created for the outdoor storage. If uh it can bring that up, we can have it on the screen, but it's the last slide in the PowerPoint for item nine. Great. Thank you. How long has this property been vacant like this or?

Well, it has gone through since the hospital has ceased. It's been a number of years. It has gone through some preliminary uses and we'll just want to tab over a few slides. It'll be the very last slide. Couple more, please. Well, that's the wrong item.

Oh, next other zoning case, please. But there has been some interim uses to answer your question, Madam Chair, of uh offices. I believe one of the judges had her office located at the facility. There were some state agencies that were located. There were uh some gaming rooms for a time uh in the back area from what I'm aware of and and were did receive their certificates of occupancy. Uh uh and there's the uh example of the rendering to show. The left hand side of the screen is the building itself fronting upon Weber. The right side is to show what would essentially become a parking lot or an open storage area of how vehicles could be oriented for outdoor storage.

Is there anything that you can do to address the issues that concern as far as gasoline issues with either vehicles and or boats having gas in their storage?

Sure. And that's that's a a good question to there's two ways we would address it. One, it would have to meet basic fire protection, meaning every open storage lot we have across the st city must have the appropriate fire lines and hydrants at its spacing to address and and the appropriate pressures. So, when you get to commercial, it has to go to 1500 gpm. It's it's a higher rate than you'll see in a residential neighborhood to be able to put out a fire. Two, it's a loaded question because every neighborhood you could drive down, if every house had a boat, you're having the exact same situ. We all have water heaters. We all have lawnmowers. We all have fuels that we may store. So, there's not really one scenario that's inherently more dangerous than the other. It's just in this case, it's very visible. But if you calculate the number of cars uh in the lot versus the number of vehicles that could be parked up and down every street, it's probably going to balance about the same number of vehicles with the same amount of fuel, if not more fuel, on the single family homes. So, but I would say first and foremost, there are fire protection standards that they have to follow and those require hydrants. So, that burning vehicles are treated just the same as a burning building and you have to be able to run those hose lengths according to the IFC just like any other property. What I can remember as a kid is there was one back area maybe on Barn Street or somewhere around there where there there wasn't there wasn't anything to prevent people to go from the street onto that property. Is I haven't been there lately. Is there now fencing or will that

this will be entirely fenced and it's uh with time controlled gates. So at 8:00 p.m. you cannot open the gates to access the property anymore. And that's both for security and safety. Thank you. Is it intended for the the rear of the property to be paved and with drainage? I mean, you said, you know, with

So, paving is a good question. Anytime that you add more than four parking spaces worth of material, you have to do the hydraologic calculations to ensure you're not weather inadvertently flooding your neighbors. The question that will come about when we have these type of storage facilities is will it have to be paved? Because the way, and this gets into the weeds, but the way the IFC reads is it has to be an all-weather drivable surface. It doesn't say concrete. It doesn't say pavement.

You you could you theoretically could have khichi if it's compacted to a certain level. So that we actually would encourage that because it would address some of the drainage issues that you would have some permeable surface for water to penetrate when someday hopefully it soon it does rain. But uh theoretically that water would be able to penetrate and still hold up the weight of the 75,000lb fire vehicle and what is to be stored. Now this is not going to be a storage area for industrial vehicles. So you're not going to have 18 wheelers. You're not going to have pretty much anything above an F350 potentially stored on the site because now you're crossing into like rider trucks and U-Haul. Those are all considered industrial-grade vehicles or commercial grade vehicles. Those would not be part of this type of development. Andrew, is it also true that if the um owner sells a property, the special permit is negated?

So, a special permit does transfer with the land. The catch is if that future owner does not continue the business for 6 months. So, during CO, we learned this the fun way. Uh if a bar was operating in a non-conforming status or had a special permit, they sold the bar because the person couldn't maintain it anymore because of CO standards. they couldn't reopen within 6 months and the SP expired. So that very much can happen regardless if you transfer it with the land. That new owner has to keep the business running. Okay. Any other questions?

I got um one more. Andrew sir on for the parking are all of those spaces behind it does that's not all parking is it? that that essentially is maximum density of what could be storage outdoor storage. There can be some parking spaces there for storage, right? Or for vehicles. Correct. It's going to be mini storage in inside the building. And correct. We have the the developer here, but it's going to be mini storage inside of the building and then outdoor storage on that back half like the the rollup ones you get like in a U-Haul. Exactly. Okay. So the middle section there is are those the parking spaces or

so when it comes to mini storage there is not a required parking account. So if for instance I open a restaurant I have to have one space for every 125 square ft. When it comes to mini storage there there is zero occupancy. So I'm not required to provide parking. Now, you're typically going to have every mini storage development does have a loading and unloading area uh for folks to be able to move whatever items they're going to put into storage, but it's not parking per se. It's it's almost like temporary parking while you're on site. Uh there's really not a mad rush of a lot of people hitting a mini storage business at the same time. So, that from from the schematic, it doesn't depict exactly what it's how it's going to lay out. I the way I see it here are those smaller storage facil small smaller storage blocks on either side and the and the parking spots for the store for the vehicles to be are in the middle lanes.

Correct. because you have to provide enough width for a fire truck to drive down and then certain turn radi for they able to create a fire lane that loops around the so they're not so you could they could those spots in the middle would be used like for boats could be used for boats or RVs or regular vehicles that's what I wanted to get clear but it could not be commercial level vehicles

I see I was and it was you know with the with the comments that were made before how was how is this going to be any different from what what it's been before, but I think you pointed it out as far as the fuel and whatnot where from those from the smell also the gating the gates being around. I think from a commercial standpoint, you're not going to attract the the the kind of folks that are going to be coming in there. What's their current are they going to demolish the per current? No, the the the old hospital is remaining to be converted into mini storage. Oh, okay. So the existing structure is going to be retrofitted into the storage.

Correct. But there will be no occupants. So no one will be residing on site. It will be locked down and secured to alleviate the squatter issue. I saw in the SP that there was a um like a can't remember what y'all call it a watchman's quarters.

Correct. So what the UDC does is it limits you to less than a,000 ft for watchman's quarters if you opt to have one. uh that is given by a right whether we put it in the the special permits or not every facility that has mini storage is automatically allowed one watchman's quarter. So if you think of some of the youits or the U-Hauls they have usually one manager that lives on site and they run the office also but that is the most occupancy you'll ever have. And did I understand that the um the vacant land that is um where the where the ground storage will be that it used to be a landfill?

It was a landfill in the late 50s after a couple of hurricanes. Uh it has been remediated. We do have a letter from TCQ that took it off of its landfill inventory. Mhm. I think I think that's important to note because um I know that like the old Paradise Billyards building uh was built on a landfill and it's had tons of structural issues over the years and so it's very difficult on a piece of property that used to be a landfill because of the refues and stuff that was, you know, stacked into the ground. It's very difficult to build on top of that without some very significant structural foundations, deep foundations. Um, so finding ways to develop those properties with lightweight, you know, structures is is going to be, in my opinion, beneficial to the neighborhood based on what is currently there because otherwise that property is going to continue to languish. And so a lot of the issues that some of the neighbors have expressed with vagrants and and things coming in and out of there, I think will actually be reduced by further traffic going in and out and you know visiting and and um depositing and withdrawing from their storage units. Um, so I'm inclined to approve this one. Um, just because I know that there's going to be challenges building anything else there of any kind of um, substance. So otherwise, you know, it would just kind of continue to rot and, um, it's very difficult to develop. So, um, does anybody else have any comments?

Um, this reminds me of the motor crush storage on on airs, I believe it is. Um, I like that it's an existing building that's not in use, um, that's filled of, you know, um, homeless people and we're able to figure out a way to make it useful. Um, just like we did with that buttercross storage and I think that's right in the middle of a neighborhood that seems to be working pretty well there. So, that's what it reminds me of. I'm going to be in favor of this one as well.

Okay. Yeah. I'd like to also make a comment. Um I think in the past we've also had some storage units that were built surrounded by um homes and I think one of them was on Calicoat with the exception of one side and the other one was on Violet Road and um they were approved and they were built. I think the one on Violet Road has yet to be built, but the one on Calico is there and it is in existence with the surroundings of uh residential homes. So, um there are others, I'm sure. I just wanted to mention that to let um one of the persons here know that there are others in the city of Corpus Christi that we do have uh storage units that surround. But again, we tried to base it on the UDC codes to make sure that these are going to be buildings built with storage units that are going to be um in compliance with the safety and um that go that go along with building it correctly for the people, you know, to make it make sure that the surrounding people that live around there are going to be safe. Just wanted to say that. Anything else? If not, then I'll go ahead and um entertain a motion or further discussion.

I move that we approve items A and B as presented by staff. A second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say no.

Motion approved. Moving on to director's report. Uh other than if thank you for those who have passed the word along for our development services technical advisory group. Uh I know we had a few folks on the commission submit their applications. We are appreciative. Uh so we will be kicking those meetings off very soon and wanted to just say if again it's still open. So if you have ideas, suggestions for code amendments, please still continue to submit those. Pass the word along. And if you have any other folks that may be interested in joining the DS tag, we're still taking applications, but thank you for your efforts thus far.

Okay, thank you. Any future agenda items? No. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.