Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Uh, welcome everyone. I'd like to call the August 25th, 2025 City of Gardener Planning Commission meeting to order. Um would you all please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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. Begin with commission roll call beginning on my right. Commissioner Lansburg present. Commissioner Vandermid present. Commissioner Sza present. Commissioner Collins present.

Commissioner Berg present. Commissioner Oluchcci present.

All right, we have a quorum. Okay, moving into the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the planning commission for study. These items are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion with no separate discussion. If separate discussion is desired, an item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda at the request of the planning commission or the applicant. Um, and we have the standing approval of the minutes as written for the meeting on July 28th, 2025. Um, is there any member from the commission would like to remove anything from the consent agenda? Okay. Um, hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Make that motion.

Second. Okay. Uh motion by made by Commissioner Combmes with a second by Commissioner Berg. All those in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries. 70. Okay. Moving on to the regular agenda. We have item number one, uh EverGy. This is preliminary plat and final plat located at 17955 CLA Road, item number 2531208. Um, and just due to my uh employment at EverGee and past involved in this project, I'm going to refuse myself again and turn the meeting over to Vice Chair Sosa. Okay. All right. So, do we have the applicant here?

Yes. All right. Just uh state your name and address for the records. Um Jessica Kek and the address is 818 South Kansas Avenue to pick Kansas. And I'm don't have a presentation. Um but I'm here for any questions you guys might have. I think there's a small presentation by planning and then you have any questions I'll answer them. Okay. Does staff have presentation? All right. Yes. Good evening, commissioners. Good evening.

Everg is requesting approval of a preliminary plat and final plat for an 11 acre site. It is located near the Gatada development along South Clair Road. On April 21st, 2025, the property was reszoned to AP Planned Agriculture District with a conditional use permit approved for each of the two substations. Evergy Emerald substation will be on lot one on the eastern portion and would be owned and operated by Evergy. Substation number four on lot two will be owned and operated by Gardener Electric. Tract A will be used as a detention basin for the entire development and tract B will contain the stream and the 60 foot wide stream corridor buffer that will be maintained in its natural state. The final plat is consistent with the preliminary plat. Staff finds the preliminary plat is in general compliance with the land development code, that the final plat is in substantial compliance with the preliminary plat, and that the project is consistent with the various policies in the comprehensive plan to support future growth. Staff recommends approval of both the preliminary plat and final plat with two conditions. The planning commission has decision-making authority for both. Staff recommends approval with the two conditions listed. The first is to ensure the stream corridor is preserved and storm water detention and treatment provided. And the second is to ensure the final plat is recorded before construction begins. Staff is available for any questions.

Thanks, Jess. All right. So, uh, going to open discussions here. Um, commissioners, start on my right, any questions? Questions? No questions.

No questions. Questions? I just have one. as far as security with this being, you know, in a rural area and being offset from the road. Um I know we've had issues at times with, you know, substation three um with the main substation with a raccoon one time, but what type of preventive measures as far as you know with I'm not talking terrorism or anything like that. just talking. You're next to a neighborhood. Children are going to be interested, you know, seeing what's going on there. They want to hear the hum of everything. So, what do we plan? We have cameras or security gates.

Um, we have security gates, we have the the security mesh fencing, and then we have the one foot of barb wire on top. We don't typically do cameras, and I don't know what's on the gardener side. Um, I can't speak for what is or isn't on that one. We would do cameras if we noticed that there was an an issue. Um, but it would be at the point where we noticed there was an issue. Um, for animals and stuff, we the plantings we keep, you know, a minimum distance away from our fence so they can't get into our fence and stuff like that. But the security mesh is honestly what we've used. Um, and it's it's our security measure, our standard security measure for our fence, plus the barb wire on top. Okay. And is it alarmed any part of the facility? So if there is an intrusion?

Yeah, it should be. Um, I can verify that 100%, but I I don't know for sure if it is. It should be. Um, I know I've been into a couple that have had the cameras and they do have an alarm. Our gate should, too. Um, but I'll I'll verify that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. All right. Now that seemed that we don't have any more questions. I'm going to make a motion to approve. I'll make that motion. Second. Oh, sorry.

I thought you I didn't see anything to read, so I didn't read it. Yeah. No, we're good. Uh, so the planning commission recommends approval. I'm going to pause. I'm sorry. We actually approve both of these, right? That's right. Sorry. Uh, the planning commission recommends approval of the preliminary plat and final plat for the Evergy Emerald substation subject to the following conditions identified as item one and two in the staff report. Second.

All right, the motion has passed. Uh, 70 [Applause] have a vote. You got one second, so we just need a vote. Okay, you guys are ready to vote. All right. Um Okay. Sorry. I haven't done this in a while. Um Okay. If you agree, say I I

oppose. I motion pass 70. [Applause] Hopefully this goes fast. Yeah, we're good.

Welcome back. All right, good to go. Item item number two, I see. All right, Horizon Point, First Plat, uh, final development plan and final plat. This is generally located at the southeast corner of 175th Street and Four Corners Road. Um, do we have a staff presentation or is the or do the first? Sorry. Okay. All right. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Brian Ham, 7917 West 95th Street. Uh, I just wanted to go ahead take a moment to thank staff. They've worked very well with us throughout this whole process. We're very excited to bring this development. Feel right there at the finish line. There's just a couple things that we just kind of want to share with you before we uh move to a vote. So, just a couple uh discussion items about traffic calming, our amenities park, and then the conditions for approval. Um, so we've gone back and forth with staff on the traffic calming measures along Flu Street. What you're looking here is an example that they've given us of what they want us to base it off of and we are agreeing with this mini roundabout. Uh, but that doesn't mean we don't still have concerns with it. And so we just like to share those concerns with you before we move forward. Uh, so the first is the alternate idea of having a ste speed table right here located just to the north of the aidity area which is track tracked E in the green there. Um just an alternative idea of having a speed table there, maybe moving it a little bit south to connect those those sidewalks there for a little bit more pedestrian walkway. Um the timeline for the amenity areas is uh we've talked with staff previous to this and there's going to be a change in one of their their conditions for approval. Um but basically we move a lot quicker than a lot of other builders because of our production style. When we come in ready for applying for B building permits, we're probably going to apply for around 20 building permits at a time. And they're going to come pretty

quick. We're at a pace of about two starts a week. And so we work with staff as well to try and give them a heads up with the floor plans we intend to build. We have a set 15 or so floor plans to give their team enough time to review these things so they're not getting swamped with building permits right off the front. But originally they'd asked for us to pull no more than uh 75% of the building per permits in phase one and hold the recording of plat 2. We've just asked to push that time frame back a little bit. So we have some runway to go because you know these things take longer than you'd like them to take and we've got to sort through all the details. But we also don't want them to feel like we're doing a a bait and switch or dragging on and never install this thing because we are very excited about it. We feel like it's going to be a really grand amenity area for gardener. So we do definitely want to put it in. We just need a little bit of breathing room before we actually get going so we don't stop the train. Uh I'm going to back up just a little bit. So with these the traffic calming, um we augmented these slides briefly because we've had some conversations with them um in 11th hour. So basically some of our concerns with these mini roundabouts is I actually drive by this roundabout twice a week as I drop my kids off daycare and come into the office and I see people drive over this thing all the time. big trucks, they just go right over the curb or you got those fast little Miatas that they put a supercharger in and they're taking those things a little bit quicker because it's a little fun speed trap for them. The other thing we see with these arrows is people cut that left turn. They're not going to go all the way around this mini roundabout because there's no traffic. They're just going to cut that many roundabout. So, in a residential area, although this is slightly different area, it's just south of 76th Street or on 76th Street in Metaf. Uh it's more of an an urban feel around there where we're a secluded neighborhood. we we feel that that people are going to cut that corner even more or just drive right over this thing. So, those are some of our concerns um along with some some maintenance concerns with um uh snow plows or even with a speed table. We've heard that citizens, residents don't like them. We think they don't like them because they make people slow down, you know, whereas roundabouts, they might just cut that corner. So,

those just a couple of our concerns. Um we're leaving it up to you guys to make the call on that. If staff wants the mini roundabout, then we will install one. Uh, one of the conditions I just talked about here is that we're going to uh, we've actually got an agreement with staff on this prior to this meeting is that we're just going to kick that uh, phase three being the one of the stopping points of platting that and then we will push uh, 53 building permits into phase two is when we need to have that amenity area installed. So staff will talk about that a little bit, but we wanted to make sure that we let you guys know that we've been working with them and they've been fantastic on that. So this is just an overview of the staff recommendations. And so the first one with the yellow, that's the one that we augmented a little bit. And then the two in the bold are additional recommendations that staff's going to have um for us there. So one of them is installing that mini roundabout at Flu in 177th. And that we're going to actually have the the center hardscape of that mini roundabout to be owned and maintained by the HOA. That's it. Unless you guys have any questions for us.

I think we'll we'll save questions after the staff presentation. Thank you. Yep.

Good evening.

The applicant is requesting approval of the final development plan and final plat for the first phase of Horizon Point for a residential development. It is part of a 246 lot development with four phases and is located at the southeast corner of 175th Street and Four Corners Road which consists of two parcels and was annexed this year with ordinance 2836. There is currently a farming homestead in the northeast corner of the property, but most of the land is agricultural. In the southern third of the property, there is a stream corridor that flows to the southwest, and there are currently a total of 23 oil wells spaced out on the property, which will have to be removed and capped in accordance with the regulations set by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. On June 16th, 2025, the property was reszoned from county RUR to RP2 planned to family district with ordinance 2841. At that meeting, the governing body granted a deviation that allowed sidewalks to be built on only one side of the street in exchange for an upgraded amenity area to be included in tract E. The items before you tonight are for a 67 lot subdivision with seven trackcts on 26.19 acres. The building type is for 60 foot wide lot residential neighborhood buildings. Infrastructure will be extended with this phase. Gardener will be servicing the electric and sanitary sewer while water district 7 will provide the water. The open spaces shown in green with tract E in the center having the proposed amenity area. The stream corridor shown in light blue will be preserved as part of future phases. Tract F shown in gray to the north of it and tract D next to the

amenity area or detention basins which will be will be built to handle the storm water. A lift station will be built in tract G which is just to the north of that stream corridor. The sanitary sewer will have gravity flow to it and then will be pumped to the north and east. Phase one will include the entrance drive from West 175th Street and also include a fire access drive to both Four Corners Road and the Lyft Station. During the preliminary plan review, there were concerns about the street's relatively grid-like layout and the potential need for traffic calming. Staff has concluded that the best solution for the traffic calming while not interfering with the snow plowing is to include a mini roundabout at the intersection of Flor and West 177th Street. The handout page that you had at your dis with the revised conditions in red includes one condition about showing the mini roundabout on the final development plan and another one about including a tract for that center island with HOA maintenance responsibilities on the final plat. The landscape plan includes street trees and buffering along West 175th Street and to the south along tracks D and E. The existing foliage that will remain should be shown on the landscape plan or additional evergreen trees should be added along the southern property line of tracks D and E to provide a stronger buffer to the adjacent properties. Ornamental and evergreen trees are shown to be planted to soften the 6-ft wide vinyl fence proposed around the sanitary sewer lift station. The amenity area is proposed to contain a stray shade structure, playground, splash pad, and an open field for passive recreation. After discussing

with the applicant, staff is supportive of the revised condition one as shown on the handout page. It changes the requirement to install the amenity area from part of phase one to part of phase two and adds the requirement that a letter of credit be provided for the amenity area before building permits are issued. This is to ensure that the amenity area is built in the situation that the development does not continue past phase 1. There are a total of 16 proposed elevations that were provided. The building plans range from roughly 1,600 to 2600 square ft of floor area. They consist of singlestory, four-sided brick masonry homes. The front elevations include details such as stone columns, shutters, and small windows above the entryway. Because of the building plans and the neighborhood building type lots, there are six deviations that are being requested with the final development plan. The first is to allow for 50% maximum building coverage, an increase from the standard of the 40% maximum. The second deviation is for a greater garage front facade of 47% to allow for twocar garages. The third is to allow for a front yard setback of 20 ft. With the developer's request to install sidewalks on only one side of the street, the preliminary development plan showed a 25 foot front building setback on the side of the street that would have a sidewalk and a 20ft front building setback on the side without the sidewalk. Typically, a 20 foot front building setback would require a terrace frontage type. But in order to maintain the neighborhood yard frontage type that was previously approved with the preliminary development plan, the developer requested a deviation to reduce the setback on that side of the street that will not have the sidewalk.

The fourth deviation is to allow for a 20 foot wide driveway in the front yard. And the fifth is to allow a smaller front entry feature, but with the added architectural features the building plans include. Finally, the last request is to allow the front entry sidewalk to lead to the driveway instead up to the sidewalk at the street and staff is supportive of all six deviation requests. The final plat is in substantial compliance with the preliminary plat, but will need to be revised to include that mini roundabout center island tract. Staff finds that the final development plan is generally in compliance with the preliminary development plan, that it is in compliance with the land development code with the exception of those six requested deviations, and that it needs to be revised to include the mini roundabout. and staff finds that the prel the final plat is in substantial compliance with the preliminary plat and it also needs to be revised to include the track for the mini roundabout center island. There are two uh recommendations. The first is for the final development plan and staff recommends approval of it and the six deviations with the revised condition one and the added condition five as shown on the screen. The second recommendation is for the final plat and staff also recommends approval with the added condition for and staff is available for any questions.

Thank you. Uh move into commissioner discussion. Uh we'll begin my right. Commissioner Lance, do you have any questions? Yeah. Yeah, the traffic calming. Why? You have two intersections that appear similar. The Essex and 175th is similar to the intersection where you're requesting traffic caling measures. So why was that one year entrance not recommended for traffic caling?

And I'm going to speak a little bit for our public works department because that's where the traffic calming request is coming from. So, um, they have looked at the what each of these roads would be kind of collecting. They're not technically collectors, but if you look at where 177th Street where it's shown going to Four Corners Road, eventually that road will go through there. So, you will have a function that's going east and west across um, all phases of the development. Same with floor. At that point, you're kind of in the middle of floor. So up at 175th Terrace there, you won't have the amount of traffic or the ability to speed up the traffic to get to that intersection the same as you will at this intersection at 176th Street. So from the standpoint of public works, that's what they're looking at is they're looking at that overall traffic flow and where there may be points where the traffic has an opportunity to speed up enough that it it warrants essentially some type of traffic calming measure. In this case, um our post work staff with their traffic engineer uh consultant has determined they would prefer to have those mini roundabouts versus the speed tables. Um either function usually gets complaints from the neighborhood because exactly what the applicant was talking about. It slows traffic, which is not always what somebody wants to do. Even though they all like it when their kids are out there to have the slower traffic when they're trying to get from point A to point B, it's an inconvenience for them. But um from public works standpoint, they feel that the Detail.