Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It's 6 pm and we are going to begin the planning commission for Tuesday, February the 10th. If you would please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. So, welcome to the planning commission. At this time, I would like to ask anyone in the room if you plan on speaking tonight you think you might speak or you're one of our applicants to please stand. Right. If you would raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear to tell the truth? If so, say, "I will."

Thank you so much. All right. In order for tonight's uh hearings to go as quick as possible, we want to give everybody their time. But if you are going to speak, um make all direct all comments to me, the chairperson. Um please, when you stand up, say your name and your address. And then if several people are speaking and you agree with them, you can just let us know that you agree with the previous speaker. So, thank you for being here. And uh with that, I will call the role. Ask for the role. Commissioner Nesbbit

here. Commissioner Wy here. Commissioner O'Neal here. Commissioner Torres here. Commissioner Young here. Right. Thank you. Chair. Yes. I make a motion we approve the consent agenda. All right. Second. We have a second from Michael Young. And did everybody have a chance to read over the minutes? Any questions? Discussion. Right. I have a first and second. I'll go ahead and call for the vote. Commissioner Nesbbit. Yes. Commissioner O'Neal? Yes. Commissioner Torres? Yes. Commissioner Young, yes.

Chair Wy,

yes. And the motion passes 5 to zero. All right. With that staff, I call for us on our first short-term hearing for the evening. It is not Short Avenue. Um we are going to do case number 25410 on 409 South Main Street. Yes, this is an application for a short-term rental uh located just south of the Independent Square on the east side of Main Street. Here's a notification area map as required by city code. A zoning map of the surrounding area shows a variety of zoning district classification and land uses. The area to the east and south of the proposed short-term rental consists predominantly of single family zoning district and single family homes as well. The area to the north of the proposed short-term rental is characterized by the Independent Square and its variety of commercial uses. In the area to the west of the subject site contains a variety of commercial and industrial uses, including the old examiner building as well as a construction services um uh lo location directly across the street. This property is actually part of the original plat of independence. Um, so recorded in 1827, the parcel is approximately 22,700

square ft in size. County records indicate that the dwelling was constructed in 1908 and encloses approximately 1,300 square feet of living area. What's not shown on the aerial imagery is a new driveway that was uh constructed under a permit off of Lynn Street. So Lynn Street is a a local street uh along the rear of the uh short-term rental site. So that'd be on to the right or to the east uh on the aerial image uh up on the screen. Here's a street level photo of the front facade and street level photos looking northbound toward the square and south toward the residential uh corridor subdivision. There's a floor plan of the proposed short-term rental the applicant provided and a picture of the new driveway as I discussed previously in the rear of the property off of Lind Street. The nearest short-term rental is on Liberty Street. is well outside of the 500 foot buffer required by city code. Staff does recommend approval of the short-term rental application with the standard conditions. In this case, the maximum number of bedrooms shall be three and the maximum number of occupants shall be limited to six. That concludes my presentation. I'm open for any questions.

All right. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions for staff commissioners? All right, seeing none, I'm gonna Yes. So, Gabe, since we don't have the picture of the parking area, is it got enough parking spots in? Absolutely. And I'll I'll actually go back a couple slides here. So, here is I whenever staff did a site visit, put up a a sign, we also went around uh rear and along Lind Street and took a photo of the parking area. As you can see, that's newly constructed. The dimensions of the parking area are 18 by 64. So, uh ample room for um their required parking. Okay.

Thank you very much. All right. At this point, I am going to invite the applicant to come forward and state your name and your address for us. your address. Uh, my name is Damon Caldwell. The address is 409 South Main Street, Independence, Missouri 6450. All

right. What would you like us to know about your short-term rental? Okay. What plans do you have for um preparing it to take care of your clients? Do you live close by?

I do. Yes. So, I don't stay too far uh from the square myself. It'll my address is 6 My main address is 605 North Main Street. Um, what was your question? I'm sorry. No, that that was it. Just you live close by, so you'll take care of your guest. Absolutely.

Right. And there's a list of recommendations. Um, are you okay with all of those? Yes, ma'am. The noise monitor, etc. Okay, commissioners. Does anyone have any questions for our applicant? Chair. Yes, Commissioner Nesbet. Uh, have you been running a short-term rental already or is this your first one or? This, uh, will be my first one in Independence? I have run short-term rentals in Kansas City and currently in Sugar Creek.

Okay. So, you already got two going right now. What platform you plan on using? I plan on using Airbnb um and VBO along with a third-party program by the name of um I forget the name of it, but it's a third party program to be able to um send out messages automatically and things like that. Hospitable. Okay, that's the name of it. Um so noise noise monitoring is no problem. Do you you take control of that? Do you have that your other places or not? Yes, we have that in other places. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Any additional questions? All right. Thank you very much.

All right. Is there anyone in the room who would like to speak for this case? Anyone who would like to speak for All right. Is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition? Anyone who'd like to speak in opposition? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. Madam Chair, yes, Commissioner. I move we approve of case number 25-400-10 short-term rental at 409 South Main Street. Okay. I have a first. Second.

And I have a second from Commissioner I'm just looking at you. So, Commissioner Young. All right. Any final questions? Yeah, Chair, one more question here. Yes, Commissioner. Um, I see that the property owner is Jack Murphy. Is that correct then? So, it's not So, the Gabe was just up here, right? I mean, now who that was him was up here. Jack, that was you. Okay. And then we also got Property Solutions. So, is that name of his company or

That's correct. Yes. So, Damon Caldwell represents the property owner Jack Murphy with Dale's Property Solutions. So, Dale's Property Solutions is the um company or or corporation that uh Jack Jack Murphy has incorporated under at the state level. That's that's what they do business under and and Damon Caldwell represents the property owner. That's my understanding and you may have to defer to the applicant for further questions on that. I have closed the public hearing so um do you have any other concerns? All right. I did have a first and a second, so I will call for the vote. Commissioner Nesbbit, yes. Commissioner O'Neal, yes. Commissioner Torres, yes. Commissioner Young, yes.

Chair Wy, yes. And the motion passes 520 for case number 25410 for the short-term rental at 409 South Main Street. Good luck and thank you very much for choosing Independence. All right. The next case is case number 2540003. Uh short-term rental at 16401 East Kogan Drive.

Yes. This application for short-term rental approval is uh located off of Lee Summit Road and and Kogan Drive on uh south side of Kogan. Above is a notification area map as required by city code. A zoning district map of the surrounding neighborhood shows that the neighborhood Glendale Gardens is composed of single family residential uh properties and the entirety of the land use surrounding the proposed short-term rental is also uh single family aerial imagery of the subject site. The site is described as lot 139 of the Glendale Gardens subdivision. The parcel is approximately 8,000 square feet in size. County records indicate the dwelling was constructed in 1977 and encloses approximately 1,376 ft of living area. The structure can be defined as a raised ranch style house with a northeasterly aspect. Uh the property contains three legal bedrooms and is provided with a double wide driveway. Here's a street level photo of the front facade composed of brick and lap siding and street level photos looking generally south and generally north up Kogan Drive. Floor plan of the main level shows three bedrooms. A floor plan of the basement level shows a fourth bedroom. Um, this bedroom is not up to building code standards for uh residential occupancy. So, if

residential occupancy were proposed, it would need modifications. This is a map of the nearest short-term rental units showing that there are no short-term rentals within 500 feet uh in accordance with city code. Staff does recommend approval of the short-term rental with the standard conditions. In this case, you'll see in your packets tonight that the parking at this site is a limitation. Uh the reason being is if you look at the aerial imagery just back a couple slides that the south side of Kogan Drive has a sidewalk. So to prevent any encroachment onto the sidewalk, uh not enough driveway area is provided for four vehicles. So the limitation for the short-term rental tonight is um the the parking. That concludes staff's presentation and I'm available for any questions.

All right. Thank you very much staff. Any questions for Gabe? Commissioners chair. Yes. Commissioner Nesbet. Okay. Gabe. So they're only plan on four people max. That's the limitation.

Okay. Because of the parking or is that just of the because it's got four bedrooms. I'm trying. You got three upstairs. So I didn't know. So the limitation is because of the parking and in this case the uh house does have a garage. However, the property owner has elected to uh uh prevent any guests from using the the garage. So uh if if they were to open the garage to guests, then this the city could permit uh additional bedrooms uh to be occupied, but no parking along Kogan Drive and no encroaching into the the sidewalk. So the capacity for the driveway is is two vehicles.

So Kogan drives and no parking on sides. It is a collector classification street. Uh so if it were located along a local street then street parking would be permitted. Uh in this case uh it's a collector street. I'm trying I drive that road every day and I'm trying to remember I see cars parked on it. That's why I'm trying to figure out is it a no parking area or not. So, I did not see any no parking signs. That's I don't remember seeing any no parking signs. Due to its co classification as a collector street, uh the city is not permitting street parking in for this short-term. That's fine with me on that. I just curious what the what what that meant there. Okay. Yeah,

that's it. Thank you. All right. So, Gabe, to clarify, there's four bedrooms. One is not usable. So, that leaves three bedrooms, but we're only going to use two because only two cars can park at the home. That's correct. Okay. Thank you very much. And um I should have mentioned this early, but none of our short-term rental applicants tonight have been operating. That's correct. Okay, good. Thank you very much. Any additional questions for staff? All right. At this point, I will invite the applicant to come forward. Once again, please state your name and your home address.

All right. Tell us about your short-term rental. I see how business goes. All right. And you are um you've gone through the recommendations and are good to follow through with all of those.

Absolutely. And are you going to be the someone that um takes care of the guest in the home. Yes. Yes. Okay. And your relatives that you'll stay with are close by.

Yes. Yes. In Independence. Yeah. All right. Anything else we should know? Um No. Hope you guys consider me. All right. Commissioners, any additional questions for our applicant?

Now, I'm I'm a little confused here. Why would you not go ahead and open it up for the third bedroom and open up the garage? I mean, um, because if you come back to do it, Gabe, will he have to come back this way or can you guys just formally go through with it? So, we would take the case back to the planning commission for review uh if if the applicant wanted to increase the bedrooms.

Okay, that's what that's what I would think, but I just want to make sure. So, do you understand? So, you'd have to go back through the application fee and everything again if you want to do that. So, that that's that's what I'm saying. I mean, if you're going to do this, I don't know why you wouldn't open up the garages. Yeah. Um, I think I've taken baby steps um into this business right now since it's my first time. Uh, so um I figured I'd start with the two in the driveway first. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. I mean that that's that's up to you what you do, but I just seems like to me it seemed more reasonable to go ahead and open it up to all three bedrooms because

I know it's probably going to end up being rented for all three bedrooms. I mean, that's just why they're going to bring people in. They only have two cars. They're probably still going to have six people. But I'm just saying it's limited to four adults, correct? With two children. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Yeah. So the limitation is on the adults and then there there is a limitation on the number of children. Um it's it's up to 10 occupants and under city code um but the the children don't factor into the maximum occupancy per bedroom of two adults. Okay. So do you understand that? I don't know if you knew that or not. So Yep. Okay. That's all I had. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.

Right. Is there anyone who would like to speak in excuse me in favor of this case? Anyone who would like to speak in favor? Anyone who would like to speak in opposition of this case? Anyone to speak in opposition? All right. Seeing none, chair, before we close it. Yes. Uh, can Napton come back up? Yes. Another question. Come on up. Thank you very much.

Okay. Since you know you can't park on Kogan, I don't know if this city's recommending that you put a no parking sign inside so tenants know that they cannot park on the street. I don't know if there's any if that's got to happen or not. So, a no parking street sign,

not not not from the city, but the tenant has to put one on the inside so that he know that the people that rent it know that they can't park on the street. The parking information should be supplied by the business operator as part of their welcome packet or notifications that are, you know, prominently displayed in the dwelling. So, a sign on the exterior uh in the right of way particularly would would not be appropriate for for in this particular case.

I understand that. I just want to make sure the applicant knows that he needs to make that someplace in his procedure that there's no parking on the street. I want make sure you know because I don't think that's in one of our regulations. So, I just wanted to make sure you you voice that out or tell them somehow. Yeah, it'll be in the welcome packet. Okay. Just want to make sure you knew that. So, Yep. That's all I ask. Thank you. All right. Any final comments? Right. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. Any final discussion between us, commissioners? Chair, I make a motion we approve case 26403, short-term rental, 1641 East Kogan Drive.

Second. All right, I have a first and a second and I will call for the vote. Commissioner Nesbbit, yes. Commissioner O'Neal, yes. Commissioner Torres, yes. Commissioner Young, yes. Chair Wy.

Yes. And the motion passes 520 for case number 2640003 short-term rental at 16401 East Kogan Drive. Thank you very much and good luck on your I think you called it baby steps into this. Rick, I did want to um when I called it to order, I gave the wrong case number. Do we need to correct that?

As long as we voted on the right one. Okay, we did. All right. Thank you very much for clarifying. All right. Our next case is case number 26400 and zero. Is that four? short-term rental at 1947 South Belmont Place. Gabe, you again? Yes. Yeah, Brian. I'll be lucky. Yeah, Brian isn't here tonight, unfortunately. So, um but I I'll try my best.

So, this is an application for short-term rental approval of a property located on the east side of of 291, north side of 23rd Street. Um, it's a 1947 South Belmont Place. It's a notification area map required by city code. A zoning map of the proposed short-term rental in the surrounding subdivision shows that it's surrounded entirely by single family uh, in zoning district and land use. This is lot 39 of the Hilia subdivision. The property is approximately 8,700 square feet in size. County records indicate the dwelling was constructed in the 60s and encloses a floor area of approximately 2,000 square ft. The property can be described as a raised ranch uh style house with a twocar garage and driveway. So, the main floor of the house has a living room, kitchen, master bedroom, and two additional bedrooms. The rear level has a utility room and a bedroom. And the second floor of the addition has another family room, den, and bathroom. The property has a twocar wide driveway and another single car wide driveway uh on the east side of the property. The driveways do allow for the required four parking spaces. The applicant has provided a noise management plan that includes the use of a noise monitoring device. The applicant has indicated compliance with all of the city's uh use regulations pertaining to short-term rentals. that includes noise monitoring, trash collection, uh bookings, business

operations, and so forth. Here's a picture of the front facade of the subject site as uh characterized by white lap sighting or facade and a building addition in the rear. A floor plan of the subject site shows the basement level with a bedroom that does conform uh to building code for um residential occupancy. A floor plan at the main level shows the main bedroom and and two additional bedrooms. And lastly, that upper uh floor plan shows a family room. an evacuation plan provided by the applicant in accordance with city code. Uh this should be provided in your packets as well and a parking plan showing that the short-term rental can easily accommodate the required parking. The nearest short-term rental is more than 500 feet away across 291 highway, meeting the city's buffer regulations, excuse me, sorry, density limitations for short-term rentals. Street level view of the surrounding neighborhood shows Belmont Place looking north and down Belmont Place looking south. staff does recommend approval of the application for short-term rental approval with the standard conditions. In this case, the maximum occupancy permitted is eight and the maximum number of bedrooms shall be four. That concludes staff's

presentation and I'm available for any questions. All right, commissioners. Any questions for staff? Hey, Gabe. Sorry. Yes, commissioner. Go ahead. Uh Gabe, that picture you took of the front, was that recently with all the leaves or is that something you got offline? That is recent. Okay. So, it's not very well cleaned up outside is what you're what I'm looking at. Is that correct? I would agree. Okay. Thank you.

Right. Any additional questions? We're going to invite our applicant to come forward. Once again, state your name and your address. Okay. Uh, my name is Nlesh Patel, 1106 Southwest Foxtail Drive, Grain Valley, Missouri. All right. Tell us about your short-term rental.

Yeah. No. Um, you know, we've had this as a rental property. Uh, after we renovated it a couple years ago, um, you know, timing, tenant moved out and World Cup coming up, we thought we'd give it a shot and see if there was demand in independence for short-term rental. Uh, the home is kind of, you know, oversized, I think, for the the neighborhood. It has a lot of neat spaces that could be game rooms for families, you know, pool tables, that kind of stuff. Um, so we thought, you know, it would work out pretty nice as as that type of uh use. Um, so that's the the process on trying this out. We, you know, have done some um short-term rentals in other areas, just not in Independence, and thought we'd give it a shot.

Okay. Um would you like to respond to Commissioner Nesbet's question about the yard?

Yeah. Yeah. Again, this was, you know, tenant just moved out. Um we're waiting to see whether or not we get this approved. We get it approved and obviously we're going to go in and and clean everything up. Um it'll be on a um uh you know, the good thing about having a rental property or short-term rental versus a rental property is the the lawn maintenance is not on a tenant. it's going to be on us and we'll have it with a um regular lawn service. You know, fertilize the yard, mow it every, you know, week to 10 days depending on rain and uh you know, it'll it'll it'll look a lot better than it does when it's a rental property even, you know, a tenant that's not really a homeowner is responsible for for the yards. Okay. Chair. Yes, Commissioner.

I mean, yeah. I mean, I hope you cleaned up better. That's what I'm saying. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it will be. It's just again we haven't got to it because we don't know whether or not right we're going to be doing this or not. So this is not a raised ranch. This is a multi-split then is it correct? I' I'd call it a split entry. Yeah, split because I'm sitting there trying to follow the diagrams. I'm going this is not from the front of it. Doesn't look like that. It's a split entry and then you see that peak over the ridge line. That's an add-on that goes back and that's twotory on that. So it's it's a split entry then with the twotory in the back. Twotory and back. Okay, that makes better sense. Okay. Um I I see you got another driveway. Is there's another driveway off to the side? Is that what it shows? Yeah. Yeah. I guess the previous owner had a driveway put in I guess in the past.

Is it paved or? Yeah, it's asphalt asphalt. Okay. I was trying to So I'm guess I'm seeing it there in that picture that that asphalt is part of that property then. Yep. Okay. Okay. Right. Any additional questions for our applicant? Yes, Commissioner O'Neal. Yes. On the south side of the property toward the rear, there's a large tree that looks like a cottonwood tree possibly that's been recently trimmed. Is that tree alive or dead? Um on the south side. Yeah, toward the back of the house where the stairs are. Oh, back where the stairs are.

Um I know we sent a tree service over because we had some fallen limbs and whatnot. So, if it's dead, we'll get it cleaned up, but uh yeah, I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I I personally don't know. Well, it's fairly close to the house, so I'm just curious. I wouldn't want it to hit our house anyway, so if it's dead, yeah, we'll be dealing with that. Thank you. Any additional questions? All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks.

All right. Is there anyone present who'd like to speak in favor of this case? Anyone who'd like to speak in favor? All right. Anyone who would like to speak in opposition? Okay. Did you I do not believe you swore in? No. Okay. If you plan on speaking, I need you to stand and raise your right hand, please. All right. Um, do you promise to tell the truth? If so, say, "I will." All right. Thank you. All right. Go ahead. And the first one of you can come forward. State your name and your address.

My name is Sarah Diamond. D I M A N. I live at 2000 Belmont Place, which means I live approximately across the street. There's one house down, but I'm across the street. I've lived at this residence for 54 years. This is a oneb block culde-sac area, which means there's one way in, one way out. The street is narrow, so if you've got cars parked on both sides of the street, UPS, FedEx, Amazon does have trouble getting up the street. And I do know that in the past I believe they have called on cars that were parked out there. So this becomes a problem for me because I live at the top of the hill. It makes it difficult for me to get in and out of my driveway if the street is blocked up. Also, because this is basically a residential area, I don't want an Airbnb in my neighborhood. I don't want the coming and going of people who don't respect and don't live there. The rest of us, we've been there for several years. Yes, there is a couple three rental houses and I know some of the neighbors and they are very polite. They respect all of us who live there. They have small children. This culde-sac is known for children playing in it. My sons were raised in this neighborhood. The culde-sac was their playground. They rode their bikes. They rode their skates. Uh the only traffic we get in this area is

those of us who live there except for delivery drivers. So, I just in my own mind I don't want this uh and don't take this the wrong way, but I have a feeling that you people based on the previous cases I've heard tonight have already made up your mind of what you're going to do. And I'm sorry that I have to say that, but that's the way I feel. And I don't think that my voice is going to sway you, which I hope it does because I am not in favor of this rental property going in under a shortterm Airbnb. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Anyone else who would like to speak in opposition? Go ahead, ma'am. and please uh state your name and your address as well.

Good evening. I'm Susie Waro. I live at 1936 South Belmont Place. I've lived there for 58 years, so I have some history there. I've raised four children there. I've seen rental houses come and go. I have two rental houses, one on the north side of me and one on the south side. Um, rental houses don't bother me. The people that have them and along with me, we try to keep them up, keep the neighborhood even. Even the people that this gentleman has rented to, they've kept it pretty reasonable. And children have lived there. They've all played together. Things have gone well. But when someone rents or has people in the neighborhood that don't want to take care of their area, and that goes with short-term rentals, it doesn't mean anything to them. They come, they do their thing, and they leave. They don't care what they do to the people that live there all the time. We had my neighbor here had a time when a man rented a house and the people partied constantly. They they were next door to me. They kept us up at night. They didn't do anything to help us out about getting rid of these people. The police could not do a lot about it. They ignored the people they rented to until we finally had those people leave. They blocked the culde-sac with cars parked in the culdesac where she could not get out of her driveway to go pick her husband up at the airport. It's been a real problem to us at different times. We don't want that kind of situation ever to happen again. With a part-time or short-term rental,

we can see this happening again. I've had young people come up and urinate in my front yard headed for a different house to go to a party. We don't want that type of situation ever happening. We want family people in our neighborhood. We don't want short-term rentals in the neighborhood because they don't care what they do to the facilities they're in. Thank you. Thank you very much, ma'am. All right. Anyone else who would like to speak in opposition? Go ahead and come forward. Were you sworn in, ma'am?

Okay. And state your name and your address. My name is Sarah Toddy and my address is 2001 Belmont South Belmont Place. It's right next door. Okay.

I'm not necessarily in opposition of a VBO or short-term rental. My concern mainly, which was already addressed with um the yard, the trees, they are encroaching. I'm right next door. They're encroaching into ours. So, I'm just concerned with that and the parking. As long as they stay within the driveway that they have, which they have two driveway, two driveways, I feel like that's sufficient. Nobody should be parked on the street. Like Sarah mentioned, we do have a hard time having the um you know, Amazon delivery drivers come through. Even our um mailman who comes through, mail person I should say, they come through and sometimes we don't even get our mail when people are parked in that street on both sides. So just my concerns are I would like to know that those things would be addressed as well as a noise ordinance, how the trash was being handled, which I saw some of those things. Um, and how will neighbors would be able to be in contact with the owner directly if we have concerns as neighbors, you know? So, that's that's all. I'm not necessarily in opposition, but I just have some things I feel like need to be addressed.

Absolutely. All right. Thank you very much. Anyone else present who'd like to speak in opposition or has questions? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and invite the applicant back up to address any of the concerns that you've heard.

Um, yeah. No, I mean, those are all obviously valid concerns. Um, you know, I feel there's a lot of fear sometimes with, uh, short-term rentals, uh, not knowing how they operate and and what can be done to mitigate some of the the the situations that you guys are worried about. Um, as for the parking, uh, on the application, I was just putting down that there's a plenty of parking. If street parking is an issue, we don't need it. And I can have that part of our application that we don't have any street parking. So, I can swatch that issue if that's you know, a situation there. Um, you know, as for um, you know, partying and that kind of thing, um, my managers, the way they do, um, their reservations to avoid partying is they will not let anyone that has an address, you know, within 50 mile radius, I believe, is what they they use. So, they don't get locals to come in. They only give out the actual address of the property uh, a couple of hours prior to check-in. So, they can't go out and advertise on social media, hey, we're going to have a party or let everybody know, hey, we're have a party here this weekend. They do everything they can to limit that from happening. So, we don't have locals, you know, having a New Year's Eve party there or bachelor party or whatever they're going to do. Those things don't happen. We're looking for um out of town guests that come in that they're there for their f with their families, maybe a group of friends, you know, maybe it's a a reunion of some sort, but they're coming in to to to be together in one one property to have dinner together in that property. Maybe maybe a cookout on the back deck, things like that, and then go see the city, go to World Cup, go to see the Royals, the Chiefs, whatever the case may be. Those are the kind of customers we're looking for. and and to be honest, they will take care better care of my property because they're not there all the time. They're there uh a limited amount of time. Uh even a good short-term rental is probably only

occupied 40% of the time. Um so you're not going to have tons of people there most of the time. Just at certain times you will. Um but again, it'll be limited to the occupancy, which is standard for that house. They'll be parked in the driveway. Um, you know, if you're worried about, you know, uh, issues of of trashing a property or doing things like that or making things look bad, uh, again, when when I have less power when I have a tenant that does that, you know, if a tenant decides to have a party, it'll take me 60 days to get them out if I have a valid reason. And just having a party is not a valid reason to kick somebody out of the house. So, I have less control. If if we have house rules that say no partying and they exceed the noise u uh meter that we'll have in place, we can immediately tell them to leave, cancel the reservation and their booking and they they have to get out. Um we also have their credit card on file and there are rules if they damage or create issues, we can find them. So, we have a lot more control with short-term rental that we don't have with a long-term renter. long-term renter. We can we can try to be their parent and yell at them. You know, that's about it. And then we can go through the courts, which, you know, everybody knows takes quite a while. Um, and again, that's, you know, you're you have a little bit more uh pull, you know, for us to take care of issues quickly. And and again, if there is a problem, I'll definitely make sure anybody that wants to have our contact info.

Sure. Make sure that you're addressing us. Oh, sorry. Yeah. uh I'll make sure that they have, you know, contact information, you know, for us. So that way if there is a problem that we're not aware of, uh that wasn't caught by the monitors or something like that, then, you know, we'll we'll address it. All right. I need a clarification. Um noise monitoring.

What is your plan if they exceed that? Um, we'll probably, you know, what we'd like to do is if it's a quick courtesy call and they can just squash the issue, then then that's great. Uh, if they do exceed it again, then I'd say at that point they they you know, they had their one chance. I mean, that's that's what I would imagine is we'd have to have it written in the policy that's in the House and part of their reservation, but that's that's what I anticipate I feel is fair to everybody involved. Okay. And is it in your policy that there are no parties allowed?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's straight up. I don't I'm I'm not having a house get tore up by a party. It costs me nearly 20 grand just to furnish the house. The last thing I want is one party to have to have me spend another 20 grand because they did whatever, you know. And will you add something about no street parking? I know you have plenty of parking. I don't we don't need it. So, I mean, we can put that in um and make that requirement. So, if somebody does, you know, park, you can give us a call and and we'll address it with them if they don't want to move and, you know, we have a little bit more pull to get them out. So, all right. Additional questions for our applicant.

I have a question for staff. All right. Commissioner O'Neal. Do we have a valid protest petition? No protest petition has been submitted to the city for this application. All right. Good question. Thank you. All right. Anything else you want us to know before we adjourn our hearing? I think I covered it. I mean, if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them. All right. Thank you very much, commissioners. Anything? All right. I'm going to close the public She wants to ask another question.

If you want to ask another question, you have to be at the microphone. So, you're more than welcome to come up to it. Can you restate your name for us, please, so it's on the record? Yes. Sarah Diamond. D I M 2000 Belmont Place.

What else do you want us? One of the questions that we have is this is saying shortterm rental. If it is approved, is this a shortterm rental for the next 10 years? Is this a shortterm rental for six months, one year? What is the definition of a shortterm rental? To me, Airbnb is a, how do I phrase this? It's a motel that is in a resident res residential area because you can rent it for three days, you can rent it for one week, you can rent it for six months, you can rent it for a year, but you've got constant turnover all the time. You have that in motel. So, could you please explain what you mean shortterm rental, please?

Absolutely. We will let the staff address that one um because they have all of the regulations. So, Gabe, do you want to uh kind of give the parameters of why it's called a short-term rental? Yes. So, a short-term rental defined under city code is a single family dwelling with full independent living facilities that is rented out for less than 30 days. So, once you

a short-term rental under the definitions in the city code is defined as a single family residential dwelling unit with full independent living facilities that is rented out for periods of time less than 30 days. Could you also address um when when a short-term rental is approved through the city, how often that needs to come forward for reapproval or anything like that?

Yes. So once a short-term rental is approved by the city, the business operator can operate that business indefinitely as a short-term rental, barring any code violations or or other uh uh violations that would uh require a rev revocation. uh once that property changes ownership, the license is not transferable to the next property owner. So that is a provision of the city code that any property owner is required to obtain uh approval uh to operate the unit as a short-term rental. Uh, in addition to the initial approval of a short-term rental, the city code requires business operators to obtain a license through the regulated industries division. The business license issued by the city of independence is valid for one calendar year from the date of issuance uh upon at which which time the business operator is required to uh re renew their license. uh renewing a business license requires full compliance with city code. So you've got uh insurance certification, uh transient guest tax, uh you've got rental ready inspections. So on an annual basis, city staff are are ensuring that the business is complying with all of the the use standards associated with operating a short-term rental. And can you um I guess just respond to if there are concerns or complaints. So, in accordance with city code, the uh sorry, excuse me, the use regulations provide a provision for the revocation of a short-term rental license uh upon

no uh excuse me, multiple violations uh of of the code. So if there are complaints about the operations, uh those can be submitted to the city and if the business operator has violated this the city code. U and I may have to defer to Rick on on the letter of the law here. Um but

so if they're cited for two or more offenses within a three-month period, that could cause a revocation hearing. Um, as Gabe said, if they are in violation of other parts of the code, if they are in violation of any of the criteria that are spelled out with their approval, um, those could all is create a revocation hearing and then that hearing would be here with planning commission um, to revoke that permit. Otherwise, if they do renew it annually and if they're in good standing, they can do so. um if they choose not to renew it and then they have a six-month period to um renew that per permit. If they don't, then then they lose that permit. They'd have to come back to this commission to to renew that.

Okay. Thank you very much. Did that answer your question, ma'am? Yeah. So then this raises another question for me. If we feel that there is an incident going on at that resident, can I as a private homeowner on the same block call the police or do I have to only contact the owner of the home to tell him we got a problem?

I'm going to speak as a citizen. Um, you can call the police anytime. However, I will say as a uh as a commissioner talking about short-term rentals, um I strongly encourage developing a relationship with those that have licenses in your neighborhood. I'm going to re defer to our attorney in the room um to maybe answer that question.

Well, more specifically, in this case, the city prosecutor. Um, you always have the recourse of calling the police if there's something going on in a neighborhood. I agree with um, Chairperson Wy that that is probably not the best way to harbor and to develop good relationships with your neighbors. I would contact the neighbor first. But something else, and I I I feel like I should have said this months ago when we started having quite a few um short-term rental hearings come up. I have been at this job almost 24 years now. I have never once had a neighbor call about a problem with a short-term rental. Problems with neighbors that have been neighbors for years. Oh, yeah. because it takes a long time to dis to develop those kind of venomous nasty relationships that neighbors seem to to get. I get those weekly. Short-term rentals, I have never once had a phone call from anybody complaining about them. It just simply doesn't happen. Not to say it couldn't, but it just doesn't happen. They do a really good job of weeding out the people. It seems to me they do a really good job of weeding out the people they rent to. But the short answer is yes. You do have the ability to call the police. I would not recommend it. The police are not going to be able to do much. Um it's not as if you know they're going to arrest and clear out a house. That's not what's going to happen. Um if there is a problem at a residence, I would strongly, again, I agree with the chairperson. I would strongly suggest that you cultivate a good relationship with the owner of the residence.

Okay. Well, I know when we had the one rental property that Susie talked about, it got to the point where neighbors would call the police and they flat out told us, "We're not coming out. We can't do anything." The night that she's talking about, believe it or not, there were 42 cars parked on this one block culde-sac with no less than two people per car.

Thank you. Um I'm sure I can give a note to someone at the city regarding your street and parking concerns. So, but thank for our our hearing you you answered our question of what a short term is. Yes. And all and that basically was what we were looking at. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Applicant, I'd like to call you back up.

I'd just like to know, do you have any problem providing your personal information to your neighbors that have concerns? Yeah, I I I don't I mean I I so I have a lot of rental properties and I do have my own staff, so it'll probably be my staff that's on call. Um but yeah, we have a a phone number that they can call and they'll get a hold of somebody that's always available. All right. Thank you very much. Any additional questions before I close the public hearing? Okay, public hearing is closed. Chair, yes. Commissioner Nesbet.

I make a motion we approve case 26400-04 short-term rental 1947 South Belmont Place. I have a first. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from Commissioner Torres. All right. I will call for the vote. Please. Commissioner Nesbbit. Yes. Commissioner O'Neal? Yes. Commissioner Torres? Yes. Commissioner Young? Yes. Chair Wy? Yes. And the motion passes five to zero for case number 2640003. Excuse me, wrong one. 04.

Um on um for some reason I've lost what the address is. 144. Thank you. Um 1947

1947 South Belmont Place. All right. Um, thank you very much. I appreciate all comments. We really do. We consider them greatly. Um, and thank you for looking at this new opportunity for you and I hope it's successful and that you have a great relationship with your neighbors. All right, I will call up our last case for the evening. It is for case number 2640005 short-term rental at 3509 South Maybrook Avenue. Gabe

Righty. Yeah. This is an application for short-term rental approval of a property located uh west of 291 on the uh a little further north from a commercial corridor along 39th Street. Here's a notification area map as required by city code. Uh zoning district map of the surrounding neighborhood shows that it's all single family and zoning classification and land use. An aerial image of the subject sh site, excuse me. Um the property is described as lot 63 of the Bramblewood subdivision. The property is approximately 7,500 square feet in size. County records indicate the dwelling was constructed in the 80s. Excuse me. The dwelling encloses approximately 1,400 square ft of living area and is supplied with a twocar garage and driveway. The main floor of the house has a living room, kitchen room, excuse me, master bedroom, and two additional bedrooms. So, a total of three bedrooms on the main level. The walkout basement has a family room, office, and another bedroom. As discussed previously, the property has a two-car wide driveway and a twocar garage. The driveway allows parking for up to four vehicles. guests will have access to the garage. The applicant has provided a noise monitoring or noise management system uh that includes the posting of quiet hours and the use of a continuous noise monitoring device. The applicant has indicated compliance with all of the city's use regulations

pertaining to short-term rentals. that includes noise monitoring, trash collection, bookings, uh, and so forth. Here's a street level photo of the front facade.

I do apologize. So, does not appear to be the picture of the front facade. I don't know what I'm saying. Yeah, we can we can pull up the Google imagery if if you'd like here. Yes, please.

And I I do apologize. Were you home shopping and just put up the wrong house? That's right. Yeah, we we get so many sometimes. I I get it. Yes. This is the This is the I say that's what I'm looking at. Right. Yeah. She the homeowner knew right away. Yes.

So hopefully we don't encounter any more uh similar issues, but if we do, please let me know. Um

so this is the floor plan submitted by the applicant. It's my understanding. And the main level um does have three bedrooms as discussed previously. And the lower level also includes a bedroom that does comply with building code requirements. is supplied with a proper egress window for residential occupancy, an evacuation plan as required by city code showing the nearest fire exits and a parking plan uh shows a driveway large enough for four vehicles meeting the city's requirements. Lastly, uh a map showing the nearest short-term rental shows that the subject site is well outside of any required 500 foot uh separation. So that does not appear to be the street level imagery either. So we will use some street level views. uh looking southbound uh in the subdivision and then uh north. Majority of the neighborhood has similar characteristics uh uh for their age, design, and um style of the house. Staff does recommend approval of the short-term rental with the standard conditions. In this case, the maximum number of guests will be eight and the maximum number of bedrooms before. That concludes staff's presentation. I'm available for any questions.

Right. Do we have any questions for Gabe? Chair. Yes. Commissioner Nesbet. Hey, Gabe. on application. Were they trying for more bedrooms or were they only trying for four when I started? So on the original application, the applicant did indicate four bedrooms.

Okay. But I'm I'm just curious of the the downstairs being office and workshop. I mean I mean they're all looking about the same size, but we'll let the applicant answer that question. Any additional questions for staff? All right, I'm going to invite the applicant up and state your name and your home address, please. Stormmy Prior, 3509 South Maybrook Avenue.

All right. tell us about your property. So, I'm actually I stay right across the street. I'm 3510 and so um I'm excited to bring um to invite families here to Kansas City to stay in our space. It's a very spacious, nice home that was recently remodeled. We are new to this, too, so we're taking like baby steps. Um it's it's five it's a dwelling room downstairs, so it has a egress window. So, we figured we couldn't consider that um live in. So, we could, you know, four bedrooms and then the other space we would do entertainment because we're hoping that we get families um that'll come and we're right on 39th Street with lots lots of dining um and shopping. So, we're excited to see um hopefully that with the World Cup and that we can accommodate people as they come.

All right. Thank you very much. Gabe. Um, four bedrooms, eight people, maximum 10. So that would be including all children. Correct. Okay. I just want to make sure you understood that. 10 is the max. Okay. All right. and I'm right next door. So, it's like I have my eyes on top of the noise monitoring um um devices that we're going to use and then also security cameras in case I'm not by, you know, at my house. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Wait a minute, Chair. Oh, go ahead.

She said her address was 3509. Where do you live at right now? 3510 right? Yeah. Well, but it wasn't said when she came up she said she lived at 3509. Oh, yeah. I thought we were saying the address of the No, we just want to know where you live at. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you just live right across the street, so you'll be taking care of it. It looks like a nice house, so All right. Any additional questions? Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right. Anyone who'd like to speak in favor? Anyone to speak in favor? Seeing none, anyone to speak in opposition. No one to speak in opposition. I'm going to close the public hearing. Chair. Yes. Commissioner Deset. I make a motion we approve case 2640005 short-term rental 3509 South Maybrook Avenue. I have a first. Second and a second from Commissioner Young. All right. I will call for the vote. Commissioner Nesbbit, yes. Commissioner O'Neal, yes. Commissioner Torres,

yes. Commissioner Young, yes. Chair Wy, yes. And the motion passes 5 to zero for case number 26405 short-term rental at 3509 South Maybrook Avenue. Congratulations and uh good luck and I hope you really enjoy it. Thank you. It's a beautiful house. All right. Have a good evening. You too. We do have a couple things to discuss.

We do have a couple of things to discuss to put on your calendars. So, I think the number might be wrong in my head, but I was I think we have about 30 short-term rentals already on the books coming. Is that right between now and May? About 20 20 more.

So, just FYI. Um, and then we have our allimportant CIP meeting, which there's no way to shorten that and there's no way to move it to make for a short meeting. It will be added to an already long meeting. So, can you remind us of the date of that again? Sir, you're saying there's no way we can add more short-term rentals quicker or do we have to wait or No, it's just we have like at each meeting, how many do we have in the next one? They're already on the books, doc already. So, we just know at least 20 are coming.

Well, I mean, could we add a few more to each session before the CIP is what I'm wondering. Uh, that's really dependent on because they're already like in a process. So, um, and then we advertise them and send out the notices. So, they're kind of already set in that particular because we're we're on a deadline for the CIP.

Um, so, you know, my goal is to get the CIP on the March 10th meeting. Um, the 20 24th is kind of our backup because we do have to have it before April. That's what the um that's what we actually have in the charter. So, we do have to have it before April. Um and we have like six, I think, at the next meeting and then one after that is probably five or six and then probably another four already. We'll probably get more short-term rentals after that. So, it's pretty much a short-term rental show all the way through probably May um at least for now. So, yes, we'll have probably this many plus a couple more with the CIP. Um, and then of course we'll have representatives from the department for those as well. Um, unfortunately that's just how the schedule has shake shaken out and so we'll just um deal with it.

That's March 10th. Yes. Okay. March what? 10th. Yeah. So that we're going for March 10th for the CIP. Correct. Now, can I ask for a request that we have the whole CIP mailed to us a week in advance or two weeks in advance? I mean, I don't know when you guys put it out. Uh, that might be challenging. Um, lot easier for me. Still working on it. It's a whole lot easier for me to look at within the paper form. Can you notify us and have it ready at least a week in advance to even come pick it up? Yeah, that's what I'm going to try to do. And so

we're still working on it this week. Um we'll probably have it put together and peer reviewed. I'm hoping by the end of next week. Uh that'll give us hopefully two weeks to get this out and make copies and make sure there's no changes to it. Um and we'll try to get it to you guys as soon as we can. Okay. Because I mean we should have it two weeks before our meeting, right? That that is the goal. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean that's what says we got to have before we it'll it'll be like I said if we can't hit that then the next one will be the the second meeting in March. So okay Michael, have you been through the CIP? Okay. I just want to make sure it wasn't new for any either one though. We're still going to have a very long meeting

five possibly six short-term rental cases on that meeting. So, let's make them sit and wait while we do the CI. Well, they'll learn about the city. It could technically not be a bad thing, but All right. Anything else for the good of the night and the order? All right. Are we moving? Are we staying here? Okay. So, I do have a little bit of an update on that. So, we will be here the first meeting in March. So, March 10th will be our last meeting here. Here. Okay. Um after that there could be two possibilities. Um hopefully we'll be able to meet in the new building. Um on the first floor

the new building's going to have something like this or uh there's so there's going to be two rooms. There's actually going to be a council chambers and then there's already a big conference room I would call it. It's very similar to the IU conference room, the room 112 that you guys might be familiar with. And so it's either going to be at the IU or hopefully if they get all the technology and sounds like that will hopefully be the case. Uh and then we'll be able to meet at the new building. And so um the council chambers is still work in progress. So we won't be meeting there yet, but um so that's the update. But yes, one more in March. So basically two more times we'll meet here.

Okay. And then when you show up here and there's no building, that'll be the clue that we say. That's probably what's going to happen to the court. We'll just show up and Oh, I guess we are going somewhere else. Yeah. So, if there's no building here, it's one of those two places. Well, we'll let you guys know. Obviously, we're going to have to advertise it. So, all right. For the good of the record, I want to thank you, Rick, for stepping in when necessary. prosecuting attorney. Thank you for stepping in when needed. And Gabe, excellent job. I may I may make that little speech four cases. So, the next few weeks. All right. Good. So, because and that's that's the truth.

Long-term rentals and long-term neighbors causing those problems. Short-term rentals never. I I do want to also point out the the code actually prohibits parties. I know. I was kind of ready for somebody to just say it's not the fact that it's going to be in your policy. It's actually not allowed. The code prohibits parties and gatherings and there's some verbiage in there. But basically, yeah, you're not supposed to have parties anyway. What district is that street in? Because for them to have that kind of problem, they should be notified. It's in the fourth fourth district. Yeah.

All right. Well, thank you for all. Happy Valentine's Day. And the meeting is adjourned at 7:16.