Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

Anybody need? Well, sometimes But thank you for check I'd like to call tonight's city of Coington planning and zoning meetings um to order. Uh let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. Thank you. We have the um uh roll call, please. Mine. Mr. Boon here. Mr. Davidson, absent. Miss Swords, absent. Mr. Celesteine Mr. Duvik here. Mr. Bullock here. Mr. Hudson here. We have the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Commissioners, do you have any comments or amendments to make? If not, I'll entertain a motion. So approach is written. Do I have a second? A second. Roll call. Mr. Boone. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duik. Abstain. Mr. Bullock. Mr. Hudson.

Yes. Uh, okay. this first case. Uh we didn't have a quorum last time so we didn't proceed with it but from my understanding there was something filed in court. The council had previously in the last meeting approved the Fabroville issue the way it was presented to him and now there is some sort of litigation. Due to the litigation I would say that I'll make a motion that we table the issue alto together at this point. And I have a second. Mr. Boon. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duick. Yes. Mr. Bulock. Sodson. Yes. Okay. That issue is tabled. Okay. Now we have the uh zoning meeting with three. Can you call the planning meeting to close? Okay. I I will definitely do that right now. The planning the planning meeting is now closed. The zoning meeting is now open. Um, we have the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Commissioners, call the RO. Call the RO. Mr. Boon here. Mr. Davidson, absent. Miss Swords absent. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik here. Mr. Bullock here. Mr. Hudson we have the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Commissioners comments or amendments for approval. So approve and a second. Mr. Boone. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik. Abstain. Mr. Bullock. Mr. Hudson. Yes. Uh, at this time I'm going to go

off script just for a second to introduce or reintroduce a commission member. Mr. Bert Dubic to my right uh is back on uh the board. Uh we're glad to have you. Glad you can put some time in and uh we look forward to you working with everyone. Okay. Um the first case is 25-06-03 ZC. It's an application to reszone lot 1A square 2904 division of New Covington city of Covington from neighborhood commercial to institutional. Property is described as the corner of West 29th Avenue and North Tyler Street. Covington subject property measures 180 on West 29th Avenue and 150 on North Tyler Street. Petitioner is the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Louisiana. owner is saying and uh do we have any comments from the city to start? So the property is currently zoned neighborhood commercial in the area where it is. It's surrounded by institutional. So they're institutional. It also allows them to build a larger than 500 structure. Okay. Uh Mr. Shane, you here to speak on behalf of the petitioner. If so, please state your name and address for the record. Yes, sir. Good evening. Jeff Shane of the Jones Facel Law Firm at PO Box 1810 in Covington. And I have the pleasure and privilege of representing the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Louisiana. I have Miss Angel Nelson with me this evening who is head of that organization and we're excited about the opportunity to develop a Boys and Girls Club in our community. Um this track uh currently zoned neighborhood commercial uh needs institutional zoning in order

for us to build the approximate 8,500 square foot structure uh that we have in mind. Uh we have submitted a preliminary site plan which is in your packet uh calculated the necessary setbacks, buffers, needed parking areas, etc. and believe that the site will fully accommodate all of our needs. Um, I can go into more details if necessary, but uh, we would respectfully request that you consider recommending the change of zoning in to institutional. Again, to allow the Boys and Girls Club to do their thing in our great city, but also to help many young people that will now have a needed resource and provide them opportunities that here for have gone unanswered. If any of you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them. Thank you, Mr. Commissioners, do you have any questions for Mr. Shane or about the request? I just I just have one question. Maybe staff can answer this one on the list and I'm I'm for the um for this change, but I just wanted one clarification of the of the approved uh uses for that property. What What does this fall under? Jeff little bit of all of the above. I think I asked the same question, Mr. Hudson when I first got involved and if you look at 3.19 ID I would suggest uh the

permitted uses under seven community centers eight schools nine private schools 13 recreational facilities and 18 accessory uses customarily incidental for the above permitted uses. So it looked like this was the best classification for the various things that we do because it is somewhat of a collage of uses. Okay. So it's a collection of the you Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions. I have no one from the audience to speak. So with that, I'll entertain a motion in a case number 25-063 ZC. I recommend adoption. Mr. Salstein, a second. Go ahead, Miss Mr. Boone. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duick. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Oh, abstain. Mr. Hudson. Yes. Okay, it's approved. Yes, sure. Uh, okay. Moving right along. Case number two, it's uh case 25-06-04 ZC. Uh, it's an application to reszone 71495 Chestnut Street, City of Coington from neighborhood commercial to regional commercial. Property described as 5.11 acres, more or less located in section 42 P-7- SR-11-E. town of Claver and City of Coington. The petitioner, I don't want to ruin the name, is uh Galleta Hotel Dorina and Roland Rooney. Owner is SBNV FNBC LLC. Say that three times real. Um

Miss you want to speak for broad city? The property is currently zone CN. the former location former Canada which was a small hotel and wedding venue and I think a small restaurant also um it's lost its non-conforming status because it's been vacant for a little more than a year. So the applicants are interested in restoring it and using it again as a small hotel and wedding venue and in order to do that since it's lost it nonconforming use they need to apply zoning hotel so they've applied for CR because the property next to them is CR and it allows you know that spot issue I don't know if the city would have a problem. That would be a question. Go ahead. I do have a problem.

Do you have any questions for the city? Will we have the petition? And that was my concern. is under the under the CR regional commercial. There's a plethora of uses that I mean the current the current proposed use uh for the for the CR would be would be good. But when we go through the 20 20 uses permitted uses that are there. There's some of those that just wouldn't be advisable or enticing. Yeah. crematory. So, can can we drill down a little bit on the CBD? How does that condense? I know there's a parallel there, but it's a condensed version of the CR. Is that correct? You get everything. So you always get all the right and then you add to that you're adding night mot. Any other questions?

M Rooney, you want to come speak to the commissioners or Somebody who's Okay, just just state your name and address for the record. Bradley, it's Bradley Cook, 16675 East Brewster Road with Sterling Properties. Um, we did, just to clear up this conversation on CBD and and CR in our application, we did make sure to state that we are open to either one of those. In our conversation with Ellen, as we put that together, she was not sure if CBD would be acceptable because of spot zoning. She later did clarify, from what I understand, with the city that because it crosses the river, it still connects. So therefore, it would not be an issue to Duke CBD. That's up for you guys in the city to determine. CBD serves our purpose. Uh we do not have to have CR. We understand the complications with that as well. Um our intention is to continue it as an event center and as a hotel. The initial plans on the project is simply to renovate the property as it currently stands. Future plans probably will have additional structures, but that's phase two and three down the road depending on what would be permissible with the city. But again, it would all fall under those same uses of hotel and event center. How many rooms are y'all planning? The current structure is five, six. What's the current? Thank you. And again, that would be a phase two approach where we'd have to go through permitting. The current the current structure is not changing in terms of room in terms of number of rooms. Um there's four rooms upstairs, correct?

And there's an additional outside just renovating the exist. So I think there's six there's six quote unquote residence or rooms in place currently. You listed as a as a twotory. You referring to the existing structure. That's correct. Yes. Do we know about what the height is on that? The the total height of the building. You know that guy? We're probably in the 30 foot range. Will you be adding? We will not be going up. No, sir. Rod, are we allowed to change the request? We can go down. That's That's okay. So, also just Excuse me. I'm sorry. Just to clarify, their application is CM, but their narrative said they were open to see if you read. Yeah, I'm just looking at the technicality of I understand. That's all. as long as we can do that. And we did we did just to clarify further, we did get approval from Councilman Burrell, who is in support. So, moving to the next phase, we're we're already established on that. I mean, my personal opinion, anytime we can we can improve a blighted property, I mean, that's what it's going to become. And I think the use that you you guys are intended is is good for the city. some technical things, but all of that will be picked up as you progress. Yes, sir. And so I I think we would we would make a motion in an amended form. Yeah, I still have some people to speak, but yeah, yes, I understand what you're saying. Any other questions for u Mr. Cook? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Um,

so M. Rooney, you do not want to speak, correct? At the time, at this time, you could reserve it, but Okay. Um, we have one more uh person that wants to speak, Charles Comb. Excuse me for my pronunciation. Please state your name and address for the record, please. Yes, it's Charles Comb 71451 Chestnut Street, Trevington, Louisiana. And uh I uh this thing has been going on for years. We I actually originally fought it in the parish years ago and stopped the parish from having a commercial zoning there and then it was adopted by the city of Covington which there's no contiguous streets. There's no, you know, Covington is not adjacent to it other than the river and I believe the river bottoms are unalienable. I don't believe that you can use that as a as a conduit for reasonzoning. I think it was a spot zoning to start with and spot annexation to start with because it was adjacent to no other city of Coington property other than the river bottom. So, they have to come through our neighborhood to get to it. It's only one entrance in and everybody's got to come. all the delivery trucks, all the every anybody that comes in has got to come there. And uh I know if it was on Jankee Avenue, it wouldn't fly, but it's it's of course it's in our backyard in the front yard. And uh I think that um I'm just totally opposed to it. And of course, it's was my feeling. How long have you been there? Did you have any issues when it was an Oh, yes. They ran into the house. They knocked the gas meter down. They Yeah, you know, we had a lot of issues. Um I've been there. Well, my I guess the day after I was born is the first day I was there. So, uh we've been it's been in our family for close to seven well 72 years actually, which I'm not that old, but yeah. So, anyway, we've had a lot of problems. Uh when they had wedding

parties, they were they blocked their driveway. They uh you know, they just it was it was terrible. But, u and of course, as time passed, it was very unsuccessful, so we didn't have as much trouble. Well, when it first started, it was a lot of it there was a lot of there for a number of years. Yeah. And it's been a lot of failures there. So, um I think it uh because I'm sure it's already stained. It won't go away. But I certainly don't want to see the zoning increased and make it even with with heavier traffic and and you know bad for the neighborhood. So, you have any questions for Mr. Has the applicant reached out to you? Have you had a community? I've heard nothing from them. They don't they probably don't know we exist. Well, we we appreciate your existence. Yes. Thank you for speaking tonight. Are are you are you aware of it of the current zoning and what could be there? Uh the current zoning was allowed a bed and breakfast. I don't think it allowed a hotel, but maybe it did, but it was a bed and breakfast and a and a restaurant. I mean, there's a plethora of things that it could be that would be maybe far worse, right? um in your consideration. I mean certainly we appreciate your concerns and historical events probably that have been negative toward you and your property. Um, I I would I would I would hope that as a friendly neighbor certainly going to be an improvement hope static static is one thing and with a lot of activity it's another thing right and I I don't really consider it in its current especially the CBD portion as a as a spot zoning. I think it's an

improvement if we can if we can kind of scale it back a little bit uh versus what's there now. So I would be more concerned with the current zoning than some improved zoning. Now, what would the improved zoning would be less than the Well, it's it's uh the the current zoning is the the commercial the the CM CN, right? And if it if it greatly improves, it just adds to the potential as we originally discussed adds to the potentials of anything. If they if they would fail, god forbid, then worse might come to your to your back door, right? Yeah, the parish originally when it became a restaurant the first time they gave a conditional use permit and the reason they gave that is because if it didn't succeed it would stop there and then after that they they pursued a uh commercial zoning through the parish which I litigated with the parish I parish and that and then they came to Keith Viller who was mayor at the time and u they got it zoned through covington they annexed it into Cington and uh but it was non-ontiguous I believe Diane Winston went to Baton Rouge to get the rules changed. That was Diane Winston I think affected that in Baton Rouge because before that point it wasn't legal to do that. Yeah. So we went to oh we went all the way to uh with the parish we went to court of appeals with it you know from district court to court of appeals and and then they decided to go through covington and uh that's how they got it but it's non-ontiguous other than the river

bottom but uh Yes, commissioners. Any other questions, comments? Mr. Con or the city? So, also currently the property to the east of it is where Chimes is. That's in the city, right? It is in the city now, right? It is. is adjacent to city property. Property just to the south of it is also the property just a lot of commerciality. Yeah, I'm very familiar with the the place itself. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, please go ahead. Sorry to bring you back up. Just just that me a brief resume. What's your what's your resume of these this you have a vision property obviously? Yes sir. Yeah. So yeah, the the the builder and the uh the folks that are putting this together have a long history of events and weddings. This will be their first venue here uh locally. They've managed, they've run them, now they're going to have their own space. They've not done a hotel, but as she said, you know, momentarily, um the focus of the hotel is actually what one of the trends in the event center and this specifically the event the wedding events is changing. And what a lot of these spaces are doing is they're having boutique hotels that service just

the wedding parties as opposed to having a venue where your the people that are staying are finding other accommodations elsewhere. Um so the plan is mainly to be able to have a small boutique hotel that would service those events in off seasons when it's not wedding season. You may see some additional clientele that comes in and through those hotels, but for the most part, if they can help it, they're going to have weddings throughout the year and it's going to be a, you know, close show, if you will, in terms of who's staying in those hotels. I do have some plans. I mean, they've already gone through a lot of their preliminary work. I'm happy to give this to you guys and leave it if you'd like it. Commissioners I'll entertain a motion. No one else has anything to say. Yes, we do. Well, you just have to when you make the motion, you make it with that amendment to it. You're amending you're to approve it, but with a designation of CBD, not C Okay. In the matter of 25-0604 ZC, I am proposing that uh we go ahead and approve a zoning change but amending it from the requested CR to CBD as it will provide less future intense uses. Do I have a second? I have a second. Let's go to Mr. Boon. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duick. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Mr. Hudson. Yes.

With an encouragement that the applicant and the neighbors good. Okay. We'll pass that on. Thank you. Um, we now have the third and final case 25-06-05-Z. It's an application to reszone 111 Maple Lane, City of Covington from institutional ID to single family residential RS2. Property described as 0.542 acres located in section 32 T-6-r11-E. City of Coington. The petitioner is John Camita. Owner is the same. Um, okay. He's not here. Well, I understand it was a residential before, was it not? So absent any further discussion on the fact that it is a down zoning, I'd like to propose that in the case 25605Z because it is a less intense use that it be approved and and reverted back to residential. Second a second. Mr. Boon, yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik, yes. Mr. Bulock, yes. Mr. Hudson, yes. With condolences to the loss of his wife. Uh, other business. Mr. Ye, please finish your ethics and

sexual harassment prevention. And Mr. Duvik gets a star. He's already finished both. I'm telling you, everybody's finished. Did I get credit for mine? Yeah, everybody's finished. Yeah. So, you guys are all good. Did I finish? I'm finished. Can I take it again? Somebody. Okay. With that in mind, uh we will now call the uh zoning meeting uh done. Uh good night. Ajourned.