Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Eddie Melton right here in the city of Gary in the fifth district on the grounds of Roosevelt High School historic monument to the great city of Gary, Indiana. Although I went to Horseman High School, you have to love the history, not just in the city of Gary, but throughout the country. I want you guys to see the amount of work and attention that we're putting into this facility. We're here today at Roosevelt and this is one of what I think six or seven right mayor of projects that are called the jewel parks around the entire city that we're working on and fixing parking lots and tennis courts and basketball courts and baseball fields. So, it's it's citywide and this is the first one. We wanted to get this done very quickly for mayor and his team because [music] there's a big celebration here obviously coming up. But again, we absolutely thrive on part of this city. There's nothing that me personally I love more in my life other [music] than my family is this city and the opportunity to be able to be here and give back to the place that I love so much.

And he's from Edna. That's right. Better be known. Edna 13th and Edna Street. Got Edna boy right here.

Investing in the parking lots, in the tennis courts, in the basketball courts. beautifying this entire area right here in the Midtown area in the city of Gary. This is just a start, folks. Today, we're not just breaking ground on a building. We're breaking ground in hope, opportunity, and truly transformation. The Talison Opportunity Campus will be more than a facility. It will be a space for our youth, a wellness hub for our families, and the support system for tomorrow. So, this will be the brand new lobby, uh, reception area, uh, new coffee shop in this corner over here. That area underneath there is all the new Methodist health space.

Right here, we'll have another main stairway coming up so that you can go up to here where we're going to have like the workout area that will then lead into a track that will go around the gym overlooking the gym downwards. Hey, what's up everyone? This is Mayor Eddie Melson right here in the great city of Gary, Indiana. and I am truly excited to be on the site of the new YMCA that is built right here on the Talison campus in the city of Gary. Right now we're coming through detailing all the steel, finishing up all of our welded connections after you jump the next foundation line. Um looking at the three basketball courts are going to be right through here. Want to join in the in the fun. I'm not going to play basketball. Okay.

So today we're going to tour the site. It's an honor and a pleasure to just talk with the leaders that's on this project with Powers and Sun Construction Berlin Construction and the entire team. [music] I am Mayon Powers with Powers and Suns Construction. We're excited to be here at the new YMCA at Paliston and Gary, Indiana. I grew up just blocks away from here. So, it's just amazing to see uh and so proud of the investment that the YMCA Boys and Girls Club and Methodist Hospitals are putting into our community. Uh this is going to be great for the city of Gary uh and great for the the local neighborhood. I am Alex Morowski, project manager for Bergland Construction uh lead project manager.

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the December 18th, 2025 meeting of the Gary uh city of Gary Planning Commission. Uh I would like to call this meeting to order. Uh council roll call please. What do you want me to do? I can handle the roll call. [laughter] I'm actually here. I promise. Uh, Mr. Harold present. Mr. Washington present. Miller here. Mr. Miller here. Mr. Wilson. Wilson right there. You can tell I didn't sleep. Mr. Hall here. Mr. Sarah here. Uh, Jeremiah, Mr. King, and is there anyone else? Alan. Alan.

Oh, Mr. Allen. Okay. We'll show with seven members present. We have a quorum to conduct business. Thank you. Wait, six members. [laughter] All right. The next item is the We all have the uh we're given the minutes. Uh I'd like a motion to approve the uh minutes and the agenda. Uh minutes from our November 20th meeting and agenda for this evening. I move to approve the minutes. Second. Two seconds. Uh any uh discussion, changes, corrections? If not, all in favor? I. Any opposed?

No. Okay. Uh public meeting. Uh next item or only item on the agenda is PC EU, which is the introduction to the unified development ordinance. Uh I believe that's going to go with the planning and zoning department update. Or is that come later? That'll come after. But um well, let's just do number four then. public meeting for the PC UDO. Uh and for my fellow commissioners, uh there will be some uh information on the board behind us. So, we may want to uh reconvene in the chairs over there uh for staff presentation. Okay. So, we'll give it one minute and uh we'll reconvene in our chairs. Okay.

You can switch it on this wall on that wall. We probably could. Well, the camera. No, we can't. The camera. You can you can also stay there if you're comfortable. Yeah. Looking for you back towards

Well, I might sit then, huh? [clears throat] Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm Corey Sharp, not Mr. Adam Hall. Um, our team has been working very hard on this updated unified development ordinance. The reason why we're calling it a unified development ordinance is because we are combining multiple ordinances into one. For instance, we have a separate subdivision ordinance. We have a separate flood plane ordinance. We have a separate airport ordinance and we have a separate zoning ordinance among other things. We are now combining them into one book, a unified code book, so it'll be an easy reference point for a lot of individuals. Our draft of this unified code has been up on the website for about two months now. And over the period of that time, we have been having conversations with our peer departments, with council members, with our attorneys, and uh with citizen uh interested citizen members of the public. And so over the past two months, we have been slowly editing the this document. Uh we have a final draft that I wanted to highlight for you today. We my pages are all numbered. So, Mr. Gaines is going to just bring the numbers up on the the screen as I flag them for you. Um, I'm going to hit the high the the heavy hitters, the big changes that we made. And uh the rest the clerical issues, I'm skipping over that. [clears throat] So, do not worry. I will not be mundane in that way. So, Mr. gains if you would please um hit to page 28. Our first addition uh to the document is a definition. Our

definitions are [clears throat] I at least 30 pages long. In fact, that it's 39 pages long for definitions and uh we tried to be comprehensive in how we're approaching them and actually Mr. Gains had an instance yesterday where somebody was asking about a shelter and we didn't know where that would be classified in our document. So we've added emergency shelter as a definition. And then in correspondence with that we have built a a uh land use matrix where it shows all of these different uses and then what zones are they permitted in. So we've added a couple categories including emergency shelter to our land use category land use map. Uh among the other ones that we've added is package liquor store. Uh and then we've added a crematorium, dispensary, cannabis, CBD, something like that. Uh and then from our category standpoints, previously we had not filled out in the draft that's online the PUD, what's allowable as a PUD, and what's allowable in the railroad district. So we've added those. This new code uh will be up online by the end of the week h and uh it will be available for you all to see. Our next edit is on page 45. Um that one right there. Yep. So, previously we did not have all of these districts filled out in definition. So, just for a quick highlight, R1 is our smallest lot is a residential lot. R2 is a larger lot. R3 is uh attached single family dwellings. So think town homes, t

duplex, uh row houses, whatever you want to call them, they would fall under R3. R4 is a higher density town homes, apartments, 4 to 19 units. And then R5 is our high density units. Then on the next page, uh we made some edits to the actual categories based on conversations with our redevelopment team and the planning team. The first highlight is uh our maximum height structures for R4 and R5 has been increased from uh to 50 to 75 respectively. And then we added in after some dialogue, we added in some criteria around the accessory structure, the maximum quantity. So this this uh line item right here, you'll see that in each uh residential district, there's a maximum of two accessory structures. So that might be you're allowed a swimming pool and you're allowed a shed, but you can't put five sheds in your back backyard. So that's a restriction that that we have added. Then um when we get down to the business district right there, uh we have um again just added the definitions of these districts. I wanted to highlight of of interest would be this new district B4 which is strictly automotive. Automotive uh is uh for

what's that? Say yes.

There you go. So it accommodates commercial activities uh that are autooriented. So they serve um it would serve gas stations, car washes, auto mechanic shops, car sales lots, anything associated with automobiles would fall in this R4 or B4 category. And then similarly on the next page we have added this um quantity of accessory structures allowed. So in B1 and B2, zero extra structures, but in um B3, which has the is the larger properties, the wholesale and distribution, we're permitting two. Uh this would be uh like a security guard shed um or an extra garage on their site. But everybody else, they've got to keep all of their product and and property in their primary structure. So that is a change. Um then in this in this one we have also changed the minimum minimum minimum building square footage. So B1 is meant for our small businesses. We want a minimum square footage of 1,000 ft. B2 the larger think Applebees and and above 15,000 square ft. the warehouse and distribution 25,000 square feet and automotive minimum of 2,000 square feet. This means that um uh so if you're going to have a gas station, your minimum building footprint is 2,000 square feet. You can't have um a a little uh

tiny gas station

a tiny gas station or more importantly you can't have a shipping container serving as your home base. You need that actual structure on a fixed foundation that is a minimum of 2,000 square ft. These decisions were made uh in order to protect our design integrity but also to protect our assessed value. So though that's the reason around those changes. Then if you could just scroll down to the next page, some other things that we want to do to protect our design integrity is around these minimum off- streetet parking. We've added um some clarifying language under the B4 both in these two categories here. Uh so the first one is um a gas station has to have a parking space of one per 200 square ft. Our change is with the dealer where a a car dealer has to have one employee space and and one customer space per 15 vehicles displayed. Meaning, you know, you can't your employees also have to park on your site. They can't park out on the street. [snorts] And then similarly the section down just below that maximum off- streetet parking meaning the parking on site has to be one space per 320 square ft of asphalt including the cars dis displayed. So that essentially establishes this criteria that you can't have, you can't smash a 100 cars on a site where it really is intended to have, you know, 60 cars. You need to be able to walk. You need to be able to open doors. It needs to be um um presentable to the public. [clears throat] So those are the changes in the business district. Our next change is on page 57

in the entertainment district. The entertainment district is is um well it will be the casino and the convention center and that whole area around there. We previously had a height limitation to that. We are removing the height limitation in this area since it is an isolated area. uh and um it will eliminate that barrier for development. If I were to just half-hazardly put in 75 ft or 100 ft, uh you know, that may not be enough. If we're going to do a a 10-story hotel, for instance, so we've eliminated that criteria there. on the very next page. Um, underneath um, which page are you on there, Michael? Okay. 58. Go to the very top. This whole section right here is building or pedestrian orientation. This is a design standard where we're saying you have to be able to um, build a network for pedestrians, too, not just cars. And we've added a sentence on the next page. D connect to adjacent pedestrian network systems. So, not only do you have to have interior, but if you have a sidewalk, you need to run a pedestrian connection to that sidewalk outside of that. Okay. Our next uh update is under our destination district page 61. This is also an edit to the building heights uh in the civic destination civic and destination institution. We have increased the height limits to 75 and 100 ft. Uh this just again gets to what we have already and what we expect

to have coming down the line. The next edit is underneath mixed use. [clears throat] This is again um one more page down again with the height increasing the height limit to 100 ft in downtown. 100 ft is basically a um an eightstory building with mechanical structures on top of it. So if that that kind of gives you a clue on what that is. And then on the very next page there we have added we previously did not have the same design standards that we had in the entertainment district. So we've copied that into this district as well so that we have uh design standards for the pedestrian orientation materials and finishes and then public art. Should I keep going or should I open us up for questions as we go along? Commissioners, keep going. All right. Next section is one page 130. Mr. names. Page 130 is a is a new section. We did not have written language around a railroad district. We actually railroad property is private property. It is not public right away. So when someone comes in when the railroad comes in and says I want to do this on my property, we don't have a district to say yes or no. Now we will have a district specifically. We will have setbacks. We will have maximum heights for fences and we have um signage that the signage inside the railroad needs to serve as communication for the railroad. It's a it's a traffic management standpoint, but billboards or community signs are not permitted in the railroad property. Again, that's that's for safety and rail clearances. Our

next edition is page 142 underneath accessory use and building standards. Previously on our our land use matrix, the the 11 by17 foldout, we had said yes, you can have accessory dwelling units that is a small home secondary to your primary home on your property. But we did not have design standards around that. And so we have added design standards around accessory dwelling units. Basically saying that they are a secondary home on your primary home property. Um it needs to be owned by the same property owner. You can't condo out your property owner. It needs to be occupied by the owner. It cannot be used as a short-term rental. Uh it's really meant to be a mother-in-law's quarters or a kid come home from college. And that's who it's meant for. It's meant for your family. And it needs to be a an actual family unit. It needs to have an operating kitchen, an operating bathroom. It's not a garage turned into a bedroom. Okay. Uh and then it has a minimum uh and a maximum size. So, it is meant to be a smaller unit. And actually, now that I see this maximum, I don't think that maximum should be there. It the minimum is 250 square ft. So, it can be a tiny sheed uh tiny house. It can be a tiny house, but again, it's secondary to your primary house. Yes, sir. Um, in terms of the uh the um restriction on short-term rentals, the state, you know, has this overarching thing that doesn't let us do anything with this. Does that

supersede this or

Well, our short-term rental it we do our ordinance there, we do follow the state ordinance, but because this is the secondary to the primary unit, and our short-term rentals are for primary units. So, because this is a secondary uh that that's what this is meant for. I'm going to write I'm going to flag this maximum square footage, though, and see if we need to have more dialogue around that. Um, our next section is just a couple pages down, page 144. Uh, this is the non-commercial solar energy system. We have two ordinances in here, two sections that deal with solar. The first section is uh this one which is non-commercial meaning this is for private consumption and it is in the end it is a development standard. It is not a um a land use district. So, if you plan on putting um [clears throat] rooftop units on your on your house, you have some design standards that you need to follow. Just it primarily says that you can't encroach into easements um and that you need to have be structurally sound. The electrical components are are safe. It's just really a safety measure for putting uh solar that's not hooked in. that's not serving as a public utility. Okay? So, it's not a solar farm. That would be out of our commercial solar ordinance. Uh the next addition is underneath one page, page 154. This is underneath the development plan. This is a whole new section that we added and we've previously kind of gone through that. So, I'm not going to go through it in detail, but yeah. Right. Yeah. Stay there. Go to the top of it. So at the very um what we're requiring

now is that all all projects of significance have to go through this development plan review and uh we are requiring certain things for different types of projects of which a traffic study. So a traffic study would be required for large um a large dwelling unit development, a large manufacturing development. I have also added in here this one line that if there is a distribution use that comes through that too will have to have a traffic study uh provided as a part of their development plan approval. The um next uh change is on page 161 underneath prohibited signs. This is the new sign ordinance and underneath this uh we've tackled it in a couple different places in this ordinance um basically there's this new trend to hang uh LED lights around everything and uh even around lit signs and so this is an is a regulation that would say that um you know that if you're going to illuminate a sign, you cannot outline it uh with LED strips and the and um furthermore um your sign can't your lighting can't be flashing or animated. You know, it it it's meant to just clean up our our design integrity. Similarly on page 171 um it highlight I've added this language in under 4F. Um this is specifically for automobile fueling stations. It and I've

added this sentence that says LED running and and standing lights are are prohibited just in case. That's really for us um because somebody might come and ask about signage for automobiles. Well, we're going to go right to the automobile section. We're not going to read the front of the section, and we can't memorize it all. So, I've put it in a couple different places here. The next edition is on page 185. This is underneath our landscape section. I have added a section here that is underneath, it's a subset underneath landscape buffer yard requirements. And I've added a Lake Michigan uh coastal dune buffer. I'm just going to read the purpose of the statement real quick. The purpose of the Lake Michigan coastal dune buffer is to protect, restore, and preserve the unique ecological character of the Gary, Indiana shoreline. This section is to intended to a safeguard the stability of the coastal dune system against erosion and degradation. B restore native dunland habitats through the reintroduction of indigenous vegetation. C provide sustainable low impact public access to the lakefront without compromising ecological integrity. And D establish a transition zone between upland development and the sensitive lakeshore Michigan. So, um the technicalities of this is that um basically all of our our dune, our sand along the shoreline is it will be protected as a buffer. Um and that um if any if we the city or any private entity um seeks to encroach it, walkways uh need to be non-invasment invasive and and that means basically a boardwalk. a boardwalk needs to be there's a designated walkway. It needs to be a boardwalk system.

Um then uh our next addition is under our very new parking section. Uh the page 193. Uh go down just a little bit to convention center. Turns out we have a new Lake County Convention Center coming to town and uh I made sure that we had a parking standard for this. So uh I've added the convention center uh parking standard here by the Chicago Beard Stadium. Right.

There is no requirement for stadium parking. Um but I'm sure that I will refer back to the convention center for a standard if a if a stadium comes through. Didn't we count cross jurisdictions with that bears facility? No, I said yes. We don't know where. I know. I'm just playing. That's Well, we will accommodate.

They want to be sure it's parked, too. So, uh we'll we'll figure something out because we're going to try our hardest to get them here. Uh section 23, page 200 is our lighting section. Again, adding just a little touch for us administrators. Um, underneath one prohibitions, we are going to add a section here that says nonh holiday accent strip lighting uh for non-residential uses will be prohibited. So, if you want to put holidays or accent lights on your house, that's fine. But for commercial uses, again, we're we're we're limiting that capability. Next section is page 218, our sexually oriented business standards. Our attorney thought this was a little restrictive and so we have made some additions or changes um uh right there conditions um that basically the facility should be closed be the between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Uh and then we have it deleted where we had the language where that we were restricting the sale of alcohol in the facilities and we've deleted that section. Must be our attorney's preference.

Uh the next section is um right right a couple pages below page 220. Um we have made just one edit underneath membership of the commission. I had written in um a lang the state law allows us to have alternates and so we would have you know there's nine nine members. Well you might each have an alternate a secondary uh but we don't we haven't done that in practice and we really want to encourage you all to participate and really value your participation. So we have eliminated um alternates as an alternate as an option for for the plan commission the um chapter 29 section page one or 223. This is the the BZA section and um uh apparently there is a state statute that speaks to this BCA membership and the guidelines that is specific to Lake County and St. Joseph's County. And so our attorney uh Marco Molina basically has uh amended this to align with state statute along along those lines. And then on page 225, we've added a section that basically goes through variances, the different special use variants, the use variance, and the development standard variance. This helps um the BZA make recommendations when they actually have a petition in front of them. They'll go back and look at this definition to say, "Well, what is it?" I'm almost through. Only two more changes left. page 227. Uh this is under the administration

section. This helps us the the three of us um work the document and our all of our applicants. So, we've added a section here that says application notifications right here. And basically adding uh some language here that that says plan commission and BZA applicants have to do the public notification and mailing requirement. This is required by state law. Um but then we state that notification requirements shall be set forth in the application material. Um the state statute has minimum standards. We may choose to go higher than those standards if we want, but um not knowing how we want fluid we wanted that to be, I opted to put that in the application material rather than the actual uh code book. And then the final change is a cons complete swap of the enforcement section page 231. this section. Um, our attorney went through it and just, uh, strengthened it a little bit and made it more concise working with, uh, our city of how our city of Gary functions. So, uh, that concludes all of our changes to the draft that is posted online. We will, um, as you saw, I've got like a couple sentences to add yet. So, um, we'll be making those changes and the the final code book then will be up online for your continued consideration and um eventually city council's final recommendation. So, with that, I'll yield this space back to you. I got a question

and I didn't see it. Um, was there any specific detail instruction about daycarees? So, um, daycarees are underneath, uh, the special use, and let me pull up. They are allowed underneath, uh, specific categories. We don't have a specific daycare section. Um, but we do have language in there that addresses some of our issues with um, home daycarees. For instance, underneath the sign ordinance, uh, we have language in there that says residential home occupations have to follow the residential standard versus the business standard. So, if you have a daycare in a home, you can't put up signs and you can't put up banners saying now enrolling. You can't um uh have flashing lights around your windows saying [snorts] welcome kids. That kind of thing. It needs to be a res residential character.

Our um our special use application actually has strengthened uh our applicant our it not strengthened it's it strengthened what we're reviewing but it also has decreased the number of applicants because we have professionalized our application system. Last year, I believe we had more than a dozen uh applicants come through, meaning 24 and for for a special use exception for daycarees. This year, I think we've had three or four uh total. [snorts] Um we are requiring um floor plans. We are requiring home inspections. Uh and those are all dealt underneath the application criteria rather than in the ordinance. I just want to make sure because there's going to get a lot of questions um especially from the council because there have been an overabundance before you got here of daycare centers and making sure staff is and bringing up the issue about floor plans everything like one of the other concerns and I guess is a state concern is that they're coming to the city for approval for zoning before they even get their license to the state

and that just seems like it's kind backwards. And I know since we were in the session now, was this something that we needed to kind of talk with legislators or talk to that agency that puts that together? Um, and that's just a thought because I know the council is kind of like [clears throat] just

every time we look up, we see all of these centers popping up. And a lot of times the people and attorney Molina know this. They're not being honest about if they're living there, they're not living there and it's putting a strain on your staff and you know we just I want see I know it's not that but something that's clear defined so when attorney Molina comes before the council that you know certain council people are going to be asking a whole lot of questions regarding daycarees.

I'll give you one second. I do believe that having zoning be the first stop before they go to the state is the right step because we want to be able to control we want don't want the state saying well you went ahead and got this so you just allow it here locally. So I appreciate having that opportunity to um have that control over over whether they can be there or not. Um in in addition we are strengthening our general business license uh enforcement of that uh which is requiring home inspections and things like that. So we are um we get we get a couple bites at the apple. So we get the first step then the state comes through they have their own mandate but then every single business in the in the city has to renew their license every year. And we have not been enforcing that. um annual renewal aggressively. So going forward we are doing we have an active campaign going right now uh where we are touching these businesses to address exactly what you are you following through with your commitments that you made during the zoning approval process. So did you as a council may need to implement is the fact of when someone is trying to do a daycare in a residential area they're saying that notices are going out but then when it comes up before the council we get a flu slew of residents saying that they're against it and so I don't know maybe attorney Molen may talk to res Williams on our part because we're trying to figure out on our and um what we can deny and can't because one thing that we don't want to see, we don't want to see 5,000 uh daycare centers in Gary. Um I'm not against but other people who a lot of these individuals that's developing

these daycare centers don't actually live in the city. They're coming from Illinois and other areas. They're saying that they're going to live there, but they really don't. and they're actually in Chicago and they're trying to get through the process so I can go back and do. So, I'm just trying to figure out a way because we were at the point where we were going to just [clears throat] start saying no to everything they came before us. But legitimately, we don't know if that's legal if you can actually do something like that if they do everything that they're supposed to do. So, that's just something to put in the back of your C.

And just as a caveat to tap on, um, we I we I review the uh mailings. Uh, Mr. Gains review the mailings attorney. We're getting a lot better than that, but we have um strict alignments, which is why we got four. So, we have strict adherence, which means you in your zoning um approval page. It tells you exactly what you can cannot do, the hours. It it it's very detail oriented and it follows them to council. So, as you start seeing those four come in, you'll notice that there's like strict adherence to what we would uh what we're looking to see and that taking encompass all of the concerns that we were having, which is why a lot of people have stepped back and no longer are trying to come here because the process um the process is the punishment. It's something that you want to do. You got to put forth the effort um and show your interest. And that puts power into the individuals that make it through that process. that means they're going to put forth that more effort. Um, but I think we we've capturing a lot of that in that regulation process.

I think before I take Let's have you guys move back up so that way you're at least catching your voices on the on the machines here and then I'll wrap around you here. [clears throat] I'll stand right here.

Yes, sir. Um, this may be actually more of a council sort of thing, but the settlement um uh the homeless whatever that was that you that just came up that you had to make a change for. Do we have a process for um changing updating um the plan the zoning regulations going forward? Um in other words, we don't end up 20 years from now with all these backed up things that haven't been changed. we can do it as issues come up.

The process is laid out in the state code and it basically it's what we've done today. Um we're going to have a public hearing. Any actually anytime you see a reason it's somebody asking to change the code or the map and so it's that same process. So if we find something that we want to add, we can just go through that process. Okay. Yeah. We don't have to wait every 10 years to update the code. Okay. Thanks. Y Are there any other questions for staff? I have a question. Yes.

Regarding AI data centers, they're popping up all over the nation. A lot of communities are having huge issues with them. Placement locally. Hbert's pushing back really hard. Do we have anything to foresee and plan for a data center that could potentially one day it's probably going to land in our backyard? We do uh in our land use matrix, we have data centers here um as a as a potential use and then we show where they're permitted at and um they would be permitted under M M2, the land use code M2, which is the larger industrial type lots.

Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Sorry. Uh, Michael, Sylvia, thank you very much. It was very good presentation. Appreciate it. U going to open this up for public comment. Tom, if you want to note that the will, just for the record, the will is up by seven people. Okay, we now have seven people in attendance for this meeting. So, uh, yes. So, uh, we'll open it up for public comment period now. Anybody we wish to speak? You need to come up front or come up here. It's kind of tricky. You can speak to us and the camera at the same time. There you go. That's great spot.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh [snorts] thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Dorian Kerry. I'm with Gary Advocates for Responsible Development or Guard. Uh we were pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Miss Sharp about some of the concerns and issues we had regarding zoning and she did respond to us and I there was a couple of changes that I noticed based on our conversation. But I'd just like you to know uh as our commissioners what the things were that we as the public and people who've spoken to us are concerned about. So, I'm just going to go through these bullet points and if there's anything that Miss Sharp or anybody else wants to say with regard to it's in there, it's taken care of. Uh, that would be great. So, the first thing that we brought up was

Excuse me, Before you start. Is it concise? Well, it's pretty concise. I don't have a a time. It's only like 500 bullet points. Okay. [laughter] We appreciate your concern.

I'll I'll talk fast. So, um, where and how does the draft code limit current and future semi-truck parking storage traffic throughout the city? And we did talk about this. There's a number of small locations where people are parking trucks and it's like they just keep popping up all over the place. So, we wondered how is that going to be controlled and how are you going to deal with the ones that are already there? And I feel like we got some good responses on that, but we certainly don't want to see that continuing because you don't want a whole lot of truck parking lots on potentially other valuable commercial property. And some of these ones probably aren't even properly permitted at this time. We don't know for sure, but you know, how did they get here? Maybe they have a business license, maybe they don't, but that's a concern. Um, and where and how does the draft code limit the amount of truck traffic associated with c commercial and manufacturing developments? Uh, we are we did request and I think that got responded to that we want u a city and state traffic impact study that to be conducted in every type of business with multiple truck deliveries or other associated traffic per day. And consideration must also be given uh to the traffic concerns and and that was what I assume the traffic impact study looks at but also air quality impact of truck truck traffic and I I don't know if that can be handled through our air ordinance or if it would be hand somehow recognized in our zoning and land use. So stop the submission of planned unit development proposals designed to allow non-conforming and uncharacteristic uses. I believe that it was explained to us that that has been handled and people won't be able to apply for planned unit development for that is not consistent

with what the zoning code originally planned for planned unit developments to be i.e. not single locations that uh just get their own zoning code because they wrote it and it comes before the council. So then [clears throat] and I asked how the storm water and the air pollution ordinances are incorporated into this amended code and they are attached or append there's a an appendix in some way that says that these are associated and that they're not that they're consistent with each other because we have other plans and ordinances that are associated with other actions in the city. And [clears throat] we did request and discuss establishing a city ordinance adopting and abiding by state statute limits of the number of liquor stores per population terminating stores that do not meet requirements for safety and distance from schools and residential. According to the state at this time based on our population, we calculated that there should be a maximum of 10 liquor stores in the city. So, we have more than that and uh I know that's being addressed by adding that into the zoning at least to be uh addressed as best we can at this point based on we know that certain things are grandfathered in but uh in order to get back to the point where we're not don't have an overabundance of these kind of stores then I I hope that's the direction we're going. Um, so there's a couple of other things, but I really wanted I just want to mention something about uh the dune protection ordinance, and I'm glad that was put in, but we are also concerned about protecting Lake Michigan along the industrial shoreline. We would like to see ultimately a Lake Michigan protection uh district that recognizes that maybe things have not been addressed in the past that would be most protective of Lake Michigan where the

industries are located right along the shore. How can we have a buffer there? It's not likely to be a sand dune, but there could be a vegetative buffer or some buffer that is protective between the runoff from industry into the lake and the impact of potential groundwater contamination. So we believe that there is a possibility and and really it can be done to be looking at existing industries and new companies that uh you know get located along the lakefront on probably what is old brownfield properties and we should be looking at the future and how to best protect our Lake Michigan shoreline, how to make our industrial district more uh accessible and more uh greener. It doesn't have to be a moonscape out there and we can start now and I believe the city has the opportunity to have some control over that despite the it is private property but we certainly exercise control over other private properties. So we would like to see an enhanced lake protection district uh addressed in the future. And so really that's it. I I actually reduced my bullet points by a few. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. I mean, we answered some. We had some. You did. That's We did. Can you supply a copy of that to the commissioners? Sure. Thank you. Or to staff and to staff. Yeah, they can distribute. Yes. Yeah. I just had a question. I don't know whether it was addressed. Um, just for the record, you know how it goes. Yeah. Okay. Um, so you said that um in terms of sexual Say your name. Oh, I'm sorry. Carolyn McCrady. Carolyn McCrady. I'm a member of guard. And you said something about the hours for sexually in Oh,

so whatever. Yeah. Uh that there would be they would have to be closed between 10 in the morning and I mean 10 at night and 10 in the morning. Right. In the morning have to be closed. Right. Right. So, could we do the same thing for liquor stores? I didn't hear that. Is that possible? Well, we

I'll be honest with you. I don't think you can. And some of the things is going to take a collaborative effort with um the city, the state, and Miss Kerry, especially your last idea, state ID them, and federal. Now, what this commission and the council can do is probably be with the administration and talking to those state entities and look at state laws um regarding that. When it comes to liquor stores, it depends how that operates. depends on how many licenses are available in a in the area

and if those licens are available then they can hold those liquor skills cuz I I have a similar issue because there's one person that owns probably about 12 of them and I'm being nice there probably more that needs to do that but that is going to be a collaborative effort and maybe guard can um spearhead that and I'll be willing to work with you on that but that has to be a collaborative effort with the local, state, and federal. So, what you're saying, Councilman, is that state statute is silent on hours of operation for liquor stores.

When it comes to hours operation, I won't say anything that I don't know, but I don't know where it comes to us restricting certain times, especially if that industry is geared towards the time in which those proclivities are at its highest for purchasing. So, we got to remember there's a certain time that certain venues are going to be open. And some of those venues are not going to be from 8:00 in the morning to 2. They're going to be from 2:00 a.m. to in the morning. So, I think we I think you all are on to something, but I think it's going to take um the the mayor's office and us kind of sitting with our legislators and some state agencies and saying, "Hey, this is a concern for our community because our community is somewhat um is is unique and with Cory, what your staff is doing. We're planning for future. So the the goal would be to say we want to look at these things so when this city as it continues to grow, we don't have to keep coming back. It can already be set in stone.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome. [clears throat] All right. Anybody else like to speak? If not, uh we'll Excuse me, Marco. Should we leave this public comment period open if we elect I'm going to leave it temporarily open at least you you could do I mean you could pick it up on the next meeting and close it but that'll give someone another chance that they showed up with some other concern.

Okay. So um for commissioners uh staff informed me that u we also have to uh review and approve the map that goes along with this. And if we do these separately it's going to end up at two city council meetings. If we were to wait uh to to approve this u then we could approve both at the same time and it would end up at the city council meeting at the same time. Uh is that correct? So um I would recommend uh and I would seek uh a motion to uh delay this until our uh next meeting in January. So move, Mr. Chair. Second. I I don't think we could have approved it today anyway with the public comment still open.

You could have. Well, I think we could have closed it. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm going to we're going to leave the public comment period open. We have a motion and a second uh to extend this to delay it till uh the January meeting. Uh roll call, please. See if I do better this time. Uh Mr. Ellen, yes. Mr. Wilson, yes. Mr. Washington, yes. Mr. Harold, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Mr. Sarah, yes. Mr. Hall, yes. So, we'll show by vote of seven to zero. Uh, the motion is passed. Uh, the public portion will stay until the next meeting and a final decision will be made at the next meeting. That's the plan.

Okay. Uh, Dr. Martin, uh, number five, planning and zoning department update. You kind of took in compensate with the map, so we have no comment. Do you have any?

No. Thank you all for a great year. Um well, yes, I do have comment. Um I'll stand up. I would like to, you know, formally thank the board um for being very much active throughout the year this December. Um we're so thankful for all of you all, you know, and your active participation with this with the comp plan with the uh UDO. Um, and just to let you guys know face to face that we truly appreciate everything that you do and it's very significant and important to us as a department, especially when y'all see those this is mandatory emails. Um, but that is a nice way of saying I want to see your face. So, thank you all for that and you guys have a great uh end of the year and we look forward to seeing you in January.

Thank you. Same to you. You too and to the public that's made your comments. Uh, happy holidays to everyone. Uh motion to adjurnn. So move second. Thank you.