Regional Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to the August 12th meeting of the Johnson City Regional Planning Commission meeting. If you're here during the meeting and it's time to for the public to speak either during public comment or a public hearing. If you'll please come forward to the podium in the microphone, give us your name and address and then you'll have three minutes to make your comments. Please limit your comments to items that are on our agenda this evening and address your comments directly to the planning commission. I appreciate you everybody in attendance. I'll now call the meeting to order at 6 o'clock. Commissioner Dutton, would you please lead us in an invocation and pledge of allegiance?

Yes, sir. Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, thank you for the Almighty God, thank you for the opportunity for us to be together this evening. We ask that you help us conduct the business of this meeting in a manner that reflects your kingdom. May your spirit inspire us to make decisions that are just, fair, and beneficial to our community. Lord, give us the inspiration to be shining examples of your goodness and truth. in your name we pray. Amen. Please rise and join me for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh, we have tonight before us the agenda that has been published and printed and before you do do I have any corrections or changes to the agenda or do I hear a motion? Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Second. All right. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as presented and published. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? Thank you very much. We have one administrative item to come up next and ask the election of a secretary. Given the departure of our past secretary, Mr. Bob Cooper. I'll open the floor for nominations for secretary of the planning commission. Mr. Chairman, should he be wanting to accept it, I would like to nominate uh Commissioner Williams to serve as secretary. Second. All right. I have a nomination uh and a second for Rob Williams to serve as the secretary of the planning commission. Mr. Williams, are you willing to accept that position? Uh, I'm honored and willing to serve. Thank you very much. Do I have any other nominations? All right, Heather, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge?

Yes. Commissioner Bombgardner? Yes. Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Mayor Hunter? Yes. Commissioner Williams? Yes. Vice Chairman Dutton? Yes. Chairman Dagenheart? Yes. Thank you very much for serving, Rob. All right. We have also published before us the minutes of the meeting from July 8th. Do I have any corrections or additions to those minutes that have been published? Move accept. Second. All right. I have a motion and a second to accept the minutes as presented. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Thank you very much. Now the time comes the time for public comment. I think we have one person who's registered for public comment. Miss Trisha Kored. Is that's the way I don't know if I pronounced that correctly. Corade. if you could please repeat your name and address. Thank you.

My name is Trisha. I live at 4:15 West Pine Street in the city of Johnson City. Thank you for the opportunity. I stand before you in opposition of the voluntary annexation item number 7.3 on purely financial reasons. The city's financial assessment shows capital investment of $48,73 to connect one residential property to our systems. No payback period over the 10-year analysis. There is no economic stimulation to this and it does nothing to progress the housing shortage we face. in perspective, $48,73. 2023 census data, median household income for the city of Johnson City, $55,429 per capita income of $36,451 and we're considering $48,000 to connect one residential property. Let's look at it a different way. Property tax role June 2nd, 2025. The 28,660 residential properties that pay taxes in the city of Johnson City. Average tax bill $82569. It will take 59 property tax bills, fullyear property tax bills to cover $48,73 investment to connect one residence. I understand that water and sewer is an enterprise fund and therefore self- sustaining. The fact that property taxes don't directly pay for the capital investments do not mean that we should turn away from fiscally irresponsible decisions. The city has limited resources. We all know $27 million hit to the reserve.

We know there's higher priorities than connecting one resident that does not drive economic stimulus or help with the housing shortage. This means tough decisions. And $48,000 may not sound like a big tough decision right now, but $48,000 for one residence. The four properties across the street, one on each side, all of a sudden it's $340,000. all of the contiguous properties that sit in this little cluster in the county. It's millions of dollars. No economic stimulus, no help to the housing shortage. I understand the desire to live within the city. It's why I chose that. The fact that these property owners chose differently five years ago doesn't mean that every city resident should lose the finite resources that are available to all of us. I've read the bylaws for the planning commission. There is nothing that precludes you from taking financial considerations when putting forth a recommendation. I stand before you in opposition and ask you to recommend no to the city commission.

We'll move to new business now. Section seven. The first item is the Wataga Road concept plan. an amendment on Heidi's House of Hope. Miss Putney, I believe you're presenting. Good evening, commissioners. Tonight is a concept plan amendment request for uh Heidi's House of Hope on Wataga Road and Frank Frank Jones Road. Tonight is the recommendation and public hearing for the planning commission and if recommended it would move forward to one reading at the city commission on September 4th. The neighborhood meeting was held yesterday. Um and we will get to the comments um on a later slide just to and this is going to look very similar um to the commission as it was approved for resoning in January. But to reorient the commission, it is the property outlined in red along Frank Jones Road and Wataga Road and it was reszoned for uh to RP3 for residential development. The request is to amend the previously approved plan uh to change the interior road network as there were issues when looking at the grade and actually grading the interior road. The current conditions still remain the same from the resoning. Minor elevation changes on the front of the property and steep elevation changes as you go north. Previously stated, the property was reszoned in January of this year to RP3 to allow for 184 units. The approved, previously approved concept plan had a total of 184 units, 380 parking spaces, and as you see here,

had a loop road that included three public roads and three private roads. The new requested concept plan has a different interior road network. It gets rid of that loop road due to slope um and grade issues along the ridge line where the basically the power lines go. They are decreasing the unit count due to changing um the road from 184 to 138. So a decrease of 46 units and changing four to four public roads and four private roads. A comparison of the previously approved concept plan and what they are now uh requesting. The new plan would be bound to 138 units. The the proposed private roads will not be maintained by the city. They will remain private, but will be built to the standard road standards of a private road with a 19 ft minimum width of pavement. staff does have concerns over where the culde-sacs going up the ridge are accessed um by those private drives and as mentioned in that staff report. We would take into consideration possibly reooking at those at a later date if come time for a redesign of those two specific roads. But all other aspects of the plan of the concept plan remain unchanged including the open space landscape buffering and the deceleration lane on Waga Road. Those are still in effect. The change in the concept plan is supported by Horizon 2045 due to healthy environments as the change in grade is still protecting the ridge line and decreasing the amount of road and dirt that has to be graded for the loop road that was originally proposed. And it is still promoting new development,

multiple housing options, and a livable, walkable community. As previously mentioned, the neighborhood meeting was held last night. There were six attendees and their main concerns were in line with the original reasonzoning of traffic on Waga Road coming into the development and the road width of the deceleration lane and fire access. Staff recommends approval for the proposed amendment with further consideration of the private roads accessing off of the culdesac. The plan does decrease the units of 46 to 40, excuse me, decrease by 46 units. There's still a mix of single family multif family dwellings providing a array of options and it it is in line with the horizon 2045 policies. Again, staff would just like to reiterate that the culax may be further evaluated for feasibility for those private access roads. And if it's deemed not a major redesign, we would recommend that staff have the discretion to approve that plan.

Questions for staff? I've got a couple of questions. Yes, sir.

I guess first, why so many private roads? Is it the cost of building to the city stand road standard? Is that the reason behind the number of private roads? The private roads that are depicted on the concept plan act more as driveways and private roads to parking lots. So, it's not something that we typically see as public roads. The main access roads coming into the to the development to the culdesacs are the the public roads. But as depicted, your private roads are coming into kind of the the parking lots here and then the access roads off of off of the public.

And then secondly, you said the staff does not recommend the access location of the private roads. What would your recommendations be? staff just would like further consideration um by the engineer and developer to for the feasibility of the access of these private roads off the culde-sac due to potential congestion and confusion. There's nothing in the subdivision regulations that would prohibit them to be built to this standard and in this location. Um but it is we would like to see further consideration if there's a potential redesign um due to again congestion and confusion.

I have a question.

Excuse me. I'll get in the habit of that. Uh if there were objections to the traffic volume on the original one and it was accepted, did you see any reduction in the objections with the reduction in the number of units? It's going to reduce the traffic volume to that much that to that degree and it seems like in the community uh concerns that that would uh reduce some of the objections there. So, the traffic impact analysis was completed um rather I believe a few weeks ago. Um and that just reiterated the need for a deceleration lane. So, the traffic um concerns are going in and out of the development kind of since there's not been any development in that area. So, with a decrease of 46 units, I I would assume that there would be uh some decrease in traffic as well. Further questions for staff? I had one question. Uh, can you uh point out where the surplus parking is on the revised plan?

There is no surplus parking. The parking aotment is um meets the parking requirement for the units proposed. So the there's a multitude of different types of units. So, which requires a different amount of parking. So, they're meeting the parking requirements um with multiple parking lots, individual garages, and parking spaces for the for res the single family residential homes. So, there's a mix of parking lots, uh self-park garages, and driveways for the single family res.

For example, let me point out the uh private drive on the upper right hand portion of the map. if you can point to that there. How is parking available to those units on that private drive which I believe will be not capable of taking path being able to park along the private drive or pass another vehicle. So as depicted on that plan there are uh indivi driveways parking pads for those units and they would be required to have a space and a half for each unit. So there's on-site parking

a space and a half per unit. Okay. Further questions for staff? Thank you, Miss Budney. And it is a public hearing as well. Okay.

Seeing no other questions for staff, I'll open the public hearing. Is anyone here to speak to the question? Is uh there representatives from Heidi's House of Hope present? Does anyone you want to come forward if in case there's some questions or do you have anything you'd like to share with us? Miss Robert,

hi, I'm Lauren Shyber from Heidi's House of Hope. Um, the only thing I would say is that those buildings up on the right hand side, they were going to be used um most likely for like people's families. If they were visiting, they could stay in those. Um, based on the steepness of it, they're probably not likely unless we're able to get um an easement around. And so, we kind of just have them there just in case we can do it. And so, that if we do end up adding them later, we don't have to come back through this process. So, it's most likely not going to happen. So, okay. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Shriber? Thank you very much.

Anyone else here to speak to the question? Seeing none, I'll close the floor. All right. What do you think, Mr. Chairman? Um, and I think I share staff's concerns and I think some of the concerns that have been expressed from the commission with respect to the uh the private um the private driveways um I I I I worry that those then are really not practicable whatever the intended use of the buildings that are off of those um private driveways given that we're parked basically for the units that are for the units that are here. I I just I don't I I I I don't think the design um I don't I don't think the design's there in that respect. Um I can um with with respect to the the concept plan in order to keep um to keep things moving on. I can um I can get on board with St's recommendation that we uh um that we approve the um that we that we approve the concept plan. But again, I think with the um with the qualification and um the recorded notion that those driveways need to be relooked at don't don't fly.

So that did you put that in form of a motion? I did not. I was Okay. Yeah. So that was comment. I can if you like. Well, let's hold off. Let's see what other other folks have to say. I'm just curious if those cabins that are not going to be used full-time, if they're going to be on the rental market, if they're going to be on Airbnb, and what the impact of the overall project might be for those specific cabins on that private use road, if they're going to be available to general public, or if they're just going to be only for the use of the people that live in Heidi's Hope Village.

Riley, can you speak to that? So, it's our understanding that those cabins in that location would be used for uh families of the residents that would be part of that community. Um, and if I am misspeaking, um, but that was what was stated last night at the neighborhood meeting was that those rent those cabins would be used if a member had family come and they needed a place to stay. who would be responsible for maintaining those private roads if it's not going to be part of the city infrastructure the de so the developer HOA um it would be the the responsibility of the property owner thank you

so would there be a deed restriction that would enforce that use for that property for the homes for those uh small uh units at the end of the private drive so with it being RP3 they they can operate as rentals multif family Um, so that is to up to the developer and how they want to use those. That was just the statement that was made of their plan of using those. Yeah, I'll have a little concern about the enforcability of that going forward. But if if they decide to keep it in in line with um family members or so forth, that that can be a deed restriction.

Thank you. Any other questions? discussion. Further discussion. So, I hear a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we recommend approval of the prop the I move that we approve the proposed amendment request um with further consideration of the future uh private drives as expressed by um staff. Second.

Okay. We have a motion to approve the request for an amendment to the concept plan at 01 Taga Road, Heidi's House of Hope, and a second discussion of the motion. I'm a bit curious how we'll uh how staff will move that question forward whether we're actually holding that as a as a as a withholding or a just an advisory.

I think there's a notation now the the as I understand it the applicant will have to come back for a preliminary plat as well. So, I mean, I think at that point if the preliminary plat was not compliant, um, or if those private driveways showed up on the were were on the were on the preliminary plat, I don't I would not be in favor of supporting that preliminary. Very good. Thank you very much for that clarification. So, we have a motion and a second. Further discussion? Miss Hadfield, will you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge, yes. Commissioner Bombgardner, yes. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Mayor Hunter, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton, yes. Chairman Dagenheart, yes.

All right, we're ready to move to item 7.2, a final plat on Chestnut Valley subdivision. Miss Putney's presenting again.

This is a final plat approval of phase one of the Chestnut Valley subdivision. Planning Commission saw and approved the preliminary plat uh in April of this year for a 15 lot subdivision. This is for phase one of 10 lots. The request is off of Hairtown Road kind of ab budding against the ridges as depicted here. There we go. Here um in the black star just some aerial views of the property to kind of get a sense of the topography. It is um sloped with it back. This is Hairtown Road of the frontage and from Hairtown Road looking up at the property. Phase one of the final plat has 10 lots with shared driveways off of Hairtown. It is zoned RP5 and a minimum lot size of 4,000 square feet. There's no sidewalk requirement on Hairtown Road due to it being countymaintained. open space requirements are being met with a walking and cart path. And one update from the staff report because they can continue to do work is that the bond amount is being decreased to $198,000. So that will be the bond amount that the commission will be approving tonight for incomplete work. This is just a depiction of how their active space is being met with a cart path that will connect to the existing development and and and a nice walking path. Staff recommends approval of the final platund $198,000 bond to cover incomplete work.

Any questions for staff? I actually have a question. That drainage pool that's at the end of the property near Price Road, is that part of the open space requirement of this type of zoning? It's not included in in for this specific development, but storm water retention ponds can be included in open space, but it was not calculated for this specific one. Okay. And that will be county maintained. I believe um the storm water one, I may have to defer to our public works department on that to see if that is within the county. I don't want to misspeak. No, that's fine. Thank you.

The detention would be maintained privately. I guess a HOA or it wouldn't be the county or the city taking care of it. So, okay, perfect. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for staff? I don't believe this item is appropriate for a public hearing. So discussion amongst us. Mr. Chairman, I think this one's pretty straightforward. So I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve the final plant as presented and acceptance of the bond in the amount of 198,000. Second.

All right. I have a motion and a second to approve the uh final plat on Chestnut Valley subdivision in addition to a $198,000 bond to complete work that's to be done. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, will you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Bumgardner? Yes. Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Mayor Hunter? Yes. Commissioner Williams? Yes. Vice Chairman Dutton? Yes.

Chairman Dagenheart? Yes. All right. Now, we'll move to item 7.3. I believe Mr. McNamer's up to present the proposal for a voluntary annexation on West Wallen Street. So, we'll be discussing a plan of services and a possible zoning assignment.

Good evening, commissioners. I'm Bryce McNamer, planner one with the planning division. The item for your consideration this evening is a voluntary annexation at 3319 West Walnut Street. We will be reviewing the plan of services and zoning assignment. This is the second hearing in the timeline. The request to proceed was approved by the city commission on June 5th. That was a unanimous um vote uh this evening. Like I said, we will be looking at the plan of services and the zoning assignment. There will be a public hearing this evening. Moving forward, the next hearing would be the preliminary resolution and the first reading of the zoning assignment on September 4th. Within the notification timeline, uh two of these have been performed prior to the planning commission hearing, those being signs and letters, um as well as posting the information on the city website. Additional notification processes will con will conspire after uh the first reading of the zoning assignment. The site is located at the corner of West Walnut Street and Matson Road. Uh it's shown in the red highlighted area here. Zooming out a little further, uh you can see this the zoomed out version shown in the red circle there. This is about uh two miles to the west of the Burlington Mills site down West Walnut. Um you can also see that Willow Springs is located to the south along Huffine and Antioch Road. Property owner requests annexation of their one parcel um site area of 62 acres running West Walnut and Matson. This is contiguous to the current city limits via the right of way of West Walnut Street and is within the urban growth boundary and urban service area. The applicant has requested a zoning assignment of R2 low density. There is no development proposed with this annexation at this time. There is an existing single family residence on the property which the property owner

intends to maintain. A plan of services was developed. All applicable agencies within the city have been provided have provided comments. Um given the low inensity district and nature of this site as well as the uh no development being proposed uh this is pretty straightforward. A lot of these have already been existing. I I have noted that sewer and transit are the only two um areas that are currently unavailable. And we'll look first at the sewer line locations. We can see our subject site with the green star and the red outline located on the corner of Matson and Walnut. Uh the orange/br lines are the current locations of the sewer lines in this area. We can see this is essentially there's sewer to the south, to the west, and to the east. However, not directly on this frontage even though it is a city rightway. Uh there is the closest one on Gardenway is about 3 to 400 ft. West Walnut Street within the ride ofway is about 700 ft and along Mayfield Drive is about 1300 ft. And we can see on the right image there, the one on Garden Way is the closest. Next, looking at the mass transit routes, uh this is actually somewhat close to an existing route. The purple route stops and turns at the corner of Mayfield and West Walana, which is about 600 feet away from the subject site. However, it is not uh immediately available in front of the site. Switching gears from the plan of services into the zoning assignment. Uh within this area of the city, it is primarily residential. The right ofway of West Walnut and the properties closest to this site are zoned R2. There are variations of this. We can see the R2C within the village of Beachwood subdivision. Um these are all single family districts and as noted once again the property owner is requesting a

zoning assignment of R2. Within the county zoning uh we are looking at a lot of R2 which is also another lowdensity residential. It is essentially the equivalent of the R2 within the Washington County zoning resolution. Looking at the horizon 25 future land use map. uh this entire area has been assigned the place type neighborhood residential. Taking a look at some of the appropriate land uses and desired characteristics for this place type, we can see the single family is the most appropriate residential type. Um within the characteristics, you can see all leaning residential and single family, larger lots and moderate setbacks, which is essentially in line with what this property has as existing. Looking at the policies of the horizon 2045, uh since there is a possibility of an extension of sewer service in this case, we would require a formal annexation. However, at this time, the applicant does have an existing septic system and is not requesting a sewer extension at this time. Looking back to the bridge plan, uh urban growth and services element map 8, this is in one of the areas that has been noted as recommended for annexation. There's no specific priority. However, that entire frontage in between Sunny Slopes and Matson was identified as recommended. Until this evening, during public comment, there were a few phone calls of general questions of this annexation. Uh questions about possible development of this site. However, there was no opposition to the actual request itself. Staff recommends a plan staff recommends approval of the plan of services and the zoning assignment as the zoning district is compatible with the future land use map and the current zoning in the area. Uh the requested zoning is adjacent to the property and does accommodate the existing use and the conditions of the site and the plan of services has minimal impact on many of the city services apart from the two that are not readily available.

Thank you Mr. McNamer. Uh questions for staff? I do Mr. Mr. McD. So if if the if if the applicant isn't seeking connection to sanitary sewer at this time, what service are they seeking to prov avail themselves of? They were most concerned with fire protection. Okay. It appears that there might be Thank you.

Keep me straight. It appears there's been a gap there of the sewer and the water section going back for decades. Um now in their w in this according to the to the map that you had up there there was sewer and water on the other side of it was there not correct. Is this a gap or is this uh awaiting extension? So as sewer has been extended in this area and I can call Travis Oinger with water sewer to explain further. Um it appears that the existing subdivisions that were developed within the city had sewer extended at that time. However, this area just has never come into the city. Therefore, sewer was never extended in that portion in between.

I have a question. Um you had mentioned that the applicant indicated that they're currently on a septic tank. Correct. Um what happens down the road, let's say a couple years from now, they they decide they want city sewer. How how does how does that work? I will defer that. Are we obligated then to to make that connection? I will defer that to our water sewer staff. Mr. Olinger, could you come up please?

I think we've got a couple of questions that you might be able to help us with. I believe the question was uh if I could restate it, if if uh in a couple years the owner requested sewer service, would we be obligated Mhm. And uh the plan of services spells out that uh sewer would be extended to the to the property uh within 9 to 12 months of the request and receipt of the tap fee. So So yes. Okay.

What is the staff the city's obligation to provide that service assuming that it is requested sometime in the future? Is there an open-ended nom obligation? Is there a calendar obligation? Is it uh dependent on any other companion projects that might help support the financials? It would be at this point it would be it would just be hinging upon their request. Their request and then we would the city would have an obligation to provide that service within some calendar time. Yeah. 9 to 12 months.

9 to 12 months. And there is a potential that it would serve additional properties. A few, not not a whole lot, but it does have potential to serve additional properties and those would be county or would they have to be annexed in order to tap in onto the sewer? Um, we we we would not have any that would have to be determined at that at that point. We we look at it either as annexation or cost to benefit. If you're outside the city, uh if it will pay for itself, we will and we can make it happen, we will extend sewer.

I I don't know if I made my question clear. So, if we approved this annexation and and they decided to pay the tap fee and we moved sewer to this particular house, would other residents in that vicinity be able to also tap into the sewer? It would see it would potentially and and the route we've that we've scoped out would be to connect here and run down this property line. And the unfortunate thing is and it would be challenging uh we'd have to bifrocate this property here which is outside the city limits and it would make service available to that property if if we were able to come to terms on an easement there. Um,

and so if not that and and and the backup plan would be they have a they have a on-site pump and force main that pumps it over to Gardenway and and we did evaluate both knowing that it would impact this property quite a bit if we did have to get an ement and install a line across it. Mr. help me understand your structure, your department structure for managing a cost of this nature that's not planned for in the budget or has this been planned for the budget or in the future budget? How do you cover this cost?

We budget every year for extensions knowing they're going to happen. We don't know which ones they are or where they're going to be or or when they're going to need it, but we we earmark funds for for extensions every year. So you have money set aside for unforeseen extensions of service. Yes sir. In in theory I mean the the financial break even analysis assumes that in year two they would be looking for this to be connected. Is that right? Yeah. I'm not familiar. I I didn't put that together. I'm sorry.

Okay. But so but I think what I understand is that they they could be annexed into the city for the services that they're requesting and may not ever within that analysis. We assumed that it would happen as soon as possible. However, the cost benefit analysis is not technically part of the plan of services. Um so the cost ultimately falls on the city commission. Plan of services would be the planning commission. Yeah. For $1,550. I don't know why they wouldn't do that very quickly. I think we probably might assume that that could be Yeah. could be chosen could very well happen.

Let me ask you one other question. This uh money that's in set aside in the water and sewer budget that's for unforeseen expenses for extensions. Uh, does that typically last for a whole year or is your crystal ball good enough to allocate an an amount of money that covers these kinds of things? Historically, it's not a blank check, but it is a perpetual fund that that we we know we're going to have to have extensions to to be performed and funded. Thank you. That helps me. Any other questions for staff? Thank you, M. earlier.

And just a reminder, there is a public hearing on this. And as you said, I will open the floor for public hearing. Is anyone here to speak to the question? Seeing none, I'll close the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, it's up to us for discussion. And as this has happened in the past, we've restructured this uh with two recommendation points. One on plan of services and zoning assignment just so we can provide that more specific information when it gets to the city commission. Thank you. Have two.

Mr. Chairman, just speaking for myself, I I know we've seen a similar circumstance in the not too distant past. I I really struggle with the notion of applying significant amount of city funds to um to to a to a small or to a small group or in this case um a limited uh a limited individual. I'm going to butcher her last name, but Miss Miss Kurd I think at the beginning of the meeting spoke quite eloquently about it and I I find myself in um agreeing with her. Um, you know, I I I just I don't I I struggle to understand why, you know, how it is in the city's best interest. In fact, it seems punitive to the existing residents of Johnson City to spend $48,000 to connect one additional lot. That just doesn't seem like a prudent use of our of our resources um to to me, which are finite. If they weren't finite, that would be a different thing. But our resources are finite. further to comment.

I think Miss Kar did a great job explaining things. Uh, you know, I thought I think to Mr. McNamer's point, you know, the planning commission's consideration is about plan of services and and zoning assignment. Um, the financial consideration falls more upon the the city commission and and I always struggle with these smaller ones, too. um and and even probably more with the financial analysis. There's so many considerations. There will be two property reassessments within a 10 this 10-year review that can't be assumed for. So, you know, the property tax revenue could be more. I would assume it wouldn't be less unless the house burned down, but we can't also assume for those considerations. So, in my mind, this is a very conservative um analysis um of a you know a worst case scenario. It could be five years of property tax revenue and water service before they you know pull for sewer service. Um, so I I I with if they're able to find a way for the sewer services to be provided, you know, I I lean more in favor of this this one in particular.

I think um, Commissioner um, Hunter had had a good comment in the fact that our job is planning services. the commission's job is the financial end of it. Is that correct? So, from a from a planning services, in my opinion, this this kind of makes sense. It falls in line with um you know, all of our um Horizon 2045 guidelines. And so I would I would be in favor of approving it knowing that the city commission is going to focus on the financial end of it.

Yeah, I I agree. I think, you know, obviously the zoning assignment is is appropriate and I think the plan of service is appropriate. I always struggle with these from a financial standpoint, but if that's not our charge, albeit um I may not always agree with the uh with the analysis, I I will say that even though the cost was 48,000, um there is some revenue generated. It was really I think the the hit was what 22,000 26,000 is the net cost um to our citizens. So it's not we will generate tax revenue from the beginning um regardless of whether they tap in. All right. Further discussion.

I'm open to a motion. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. If you have a comment, please. Yes. I I was just going to comment on the homeowners want and need to be in a professional firefighting district versus a volunteer one with the county. There's certainly value in that, but I feel as though the cost to the taxpayer for this small of a plot of land, I don't think the juice is quite worth the squeeze. Commissioners,

further comments.

Have we had public hearing on this? I forgot. We have. We did. We did. I closed it. You did. We have somebody. No, you did close it. Yeah. Okay. Ma'am, do you want to speak to the question? Well, I'll open I'll reopen as a courtesy to you personally. I'll reopen the floor. If you would like to come up and make a comment, you have three minutes. I reopen the floor for comment. Please come forward if you can give us your name and address. And if you're welcome to make your comments, the day if you get to the my go ahead

by the day and that's my house 3319 West Walnut. Yes ma'am.

Um I've had the sewer system assassin and checked and there's nothing wrong with it. I see no reason to to change it now or later. Um, the thought that if anything were to happen to my house, I'd have to wait for the firefighters from Embryville to come when this the fire station is two miles down the road doesn't make sense to me. Um, I don't know what else to tell you. You know, when we bought the house, we thought we were living in Johnson City and we were kind of shocked to find out we weren't. But, um, what else do you need to know? Do you have any questions for the Those are helpful comments. Thank you very much. I'll close the floor now.

I'm going to make a motion for it approval. We'll see where it goes. Okay. You have to make two motions and to accept the uh proposed plan of services. Okay. Thank you. Two seconds. Is that two seconds? Let's Let's do one motion at a time. If we could please could you just make one motion motion motion to annex to recommend annex and with the with the zoning. Let's let's just hold the I'll second I'll second that one. Go ahead. Thank you. So any further discussion about the recommendation to annex the property. Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Bumgardner? Yes.

Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Mayor Hunter? Yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Vice Chairman Dotton, no. Chairman Dagenheart, yes. All right. Now, I'll entertain a second motion. I'll make a motion to approve the zoning assignment as presented. Second. Okay. We have a a recommendation, a motion to approve the zoning assignment of R2, I believe, and a second. Further discussion about the zoning assignment. Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge, yes. Commissioner Bombgardner, no. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Mayor Hunter, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton,

yes. Chairman Dagenheart, yes. All right. Thank you very much. All right. The last item is another or the next item 7.4 is another voluntary annexation on Boon Creek Road and Christian Church Road. Miss Mcgru is going to make that presentation.

Good evening, commissioners. I'm Calli Mcgru with the PL planner with the planning division. This is a voluntary annexation of about 67 acres on Boon Creek Road and Christian Church Road. The city commission approved the request to proceed for this proposal on August 7th and if moved forward final resolution and um public hearing would be on October 2nd. The site is along Boone Creek Road and Christian Church Road. This is Bright Ridge and Boon Creek Christian Church. And this is the site as I said before 67 acres. The proposal is for a B4 commercial dis or a sorry the zoning assignment request is a B4 request for a development of a commercial district or commercial development. Current zoning in the surrounding area is B4, RP5 and R4. In the county, it's zoned PRPD or plan residential business district and agricultural. This area of the property is also in a special tax district overlay, which is the regional retail and tourism overlay. I might be butchering that, but I'm pretty sure that's what I said it was. The future land use map of 2020 and our horizon 2045 future land use map both designate this area as for commercial use. The plan of services has been put together by staff and no comments have been provided that were negative or seemed problematic. Um the expense for this project is 165 $165,52 with a revenue of $384,236

and break even at year three. Staff recommends approval of the plan of services and the um zoning assignment. The property is adjacent to city limits and within the urban growth area. The property aligns with the horizon 2045 growth future land use map and the proposal is supported by the 2045 growth plan. It is also meet several of our 2045 growth objectives. And here are your planning commission decisions. Any questions? Questions for staff.

M I have a question. Um, on January 4th, 2024, uh, Anthony Todd's traffic and engineering manager, of course, he identified exit 17 as one of the more dangerous exits on I26. Has that data been updated or altered at all? I will let Anthony speak to that this evening. Okay, great. And then another question I had for you was um, just in terms of feasibility, do you are you aware of any feasibility studies that have been done prior to the past couple of years? I know there was one done maybe like 2021, 2022, but is there a more recent one that's been shared with the city? I will also let engineering um answer to that as well.

Right. I meant um more of an economic feasibility study, not so much a traffic engineering study. I don't know if is there anyone here to speak to that? That's okay. Mr. Todd. Mr. Todd, could you come up and speak to a question of traffic management?

A fact analysis. In this case, uh they will be working on that and most of the time we will ask for that to be after school starts. So we do not have the traffic analysis yet. Although we do believe that we know what the outcome will be, we just don't know the extent of the outcome. So things like uh a left turn lane on Boon Creek Road, additional lanes on Highland Church Road, we're already planning on those. What we need to know from the traffic study is the length of the lanes and the the length of your turn lanes, uh whether it be the right turn lane or the the del lane or the or the left turn lane. So those are the types of things we will get out of the traffic study. And as you look at the um the table here, it talks about the traffic impact studies depends on how many trips are generated as to what level they have to go to. So the the bigger the development, the farther they have to go, such as going all the way to the interstate. So there have been some studies on the other side of the interstate that do encompass that. This one may not and this is T DOT standards so we're following their standards as well. Did I answer your question?

The agenda packet mentioned egress ingress lane on Christian Church but not so much on Boone Creek but you said that there is some at least thought as to widening Boon Creek in that area to accommodate such a large parcel that's zoned B4. This uh the plan is to have one driveway on Boon Creek Road, but only one driveway and as a result of that, there will be a right turn lane and a left turn lane on Boon Creek Road to accommodate that. Okay, perfect. Thank you, sir. Mr. Todd, this will all be much more thoroughly evaluated when we have some kind of a preliminary concept plan presented to us for approval, which would happen much further into the future.

Yes, sir. So, as soon as we have more concrete uh plans on exactly what is going to go there, we believe we know it's going there because they've told us, but until it's actually put together, that's when we'll know. Mr. Ty, I have one more question for you. Um, in our agenda packet, it mentioned that the developer has a consultant for traffic, but it didn't give us a name, and we don't know if they have a professional engineering background, but I know that you do. So, can you attest to their their ability to to make that that traffic impact study? Uh we always uh when they tell us who it is that they're that's going to do their traffic study, we will always know whether or not they're qualified to do so. I have yet to been be presented with one that was not qualified.

Well, that's good to hear. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Todd. Any other questions for staff? Okay, I'll open the floor for public comment. Is the developer or his representative here? If you would like happy to come forward and you might make comments or our staff, our commission may have questions. If you could please give us your name and address for the record.

My name is John Baker. I'm with Horn Properties, 412 North Cedar Bluff Road in Knoxville, Tennessee. Um we are um planning a national grocery store at this location for phase one along with some co-anchor tenants, very small phase, first phase. We've got a lot of interest from um outlot type users, sea stores, things of uh different restaurant use. We've been working uh very closely with the city staff on our planning efforts and that's all been going very well. This is one stage of the part of the property that we are buying is already B4. So by doing so, a lot of the outlots on the phase one have to be B4 as well to for the intended use. So that's why it triggered the annexation request. So we are moving forward aggressively on all our design. I can tell that for the record that we are use utilizing CDM Smith, their well-known traffic for the TIA that is um going to be underway. They have been waiting for the schools to be underway to get the proper analysis they need to present to the city and the state.

Questions for him? Sir, thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else here to speak to the question in favor or against?

Seeing none, I'll close the floor. So now the question now is for us to discuss. This is another one of those two motion uh items where we will be looking at plan the approving the plan of service and recommending a zoning assignment.

Great location. That's that's going to up to that point. Uh I know there's been a lot of discussion about extending commercial all the way up to the bridge there going on Boon Creek Road. So this is a nice little anchor that would be uh in that particular section in there. Although I will say the traffic on Boon Creek Road is getting horrendous. Uh I don't know what the long-term plans are, but uh u it's at some point it's got to give. You know, there's got to be something done out there. Can you just pull up that map real quick with the green highlighting?

No, there's one more. It's another map. Few more back. That's one. Commissioners, this map on the right is five years old. How do I know that Boon Creek Elementary has not been on Christian Church Road for five years? So, as to my other commissioner's point, I live in the Boone Creek area as well, and I know that traffic's only going to get worse if we approve this this before resoning. Um, I also have some questions, too, about whether this can be properly kept safe by Johnson City Police. I mean, just this last Saturday downtown, uh, we had to have the Washington County Sheriff's down there because Johnson City Police doesn't have enough of a presence, and I'm concerned that this would become a crime hot spot where it currently doesn't exist, um, in Boone Creek. So, you know, for that that reason as well, I'm also concerned about the what the cost would be for that to have additional Washington County police officers or sheriffs rather um, in the Boon Creek um, tourism zone. And you know, I'm I'm glad to hear that there there's going to be a major grocery store, but that is news to me. And you know, I remember when we were this commission rather was uh seeking a $20 million capital improvement from from the department uh Tennessee Department of Revenue. And Commissioner Geragano basically said there's not enough transparency, so I'm just going to deny you this capital fund. So I I share his concern about transparency. I'm glad to hear there's going to be a grocery store there now. That but that is news. Um, and so, you know, it's really my recommendation that we defer action if we can get more information about what's going to be there, how are we going to handle the flood zone that's in that area. Um, but really my main concern is traffic and then also keeping that area safe. Um, just because Johnson City Police has proven that in a retail corridor that safety is kind of coming second. So, that's that's my two cents on this.

Did Thank you.

Did I Mr. Todd, could you come back up for just a second? I could have sworn you said that you guys were going to put a a a turning lane in. Is that right? Like a middle lane. Um, did I misunderstand you? This is actually Wallace's live slide, but I I'll talk to it. So, uh, Wallace is uh has been working on this. So, a turn. So, there will be a turn lane added on Boones Creek Road as well as Christian Church Road. Doesn't show that on this particular one, but this is what Christian Church Road would be done or how it would be handled. So, there will be a a bridge or culvert widening here or replacement. We're working on that uh to deal with the creek and then uh there will be an additional lane added on Boone Creek Road for a del lane, right turn lane and also for a left turn lane.

What's your timing for for that to be done? Um I can't give you an exact time frame at at this time. We're still under under uh working on that. It is probably in the two to three year range. Two to three years. Yes. Boon Creek Road. Are these both county roads? Boon Creek Road is a state road. Uh, and it is in the city and Christian Church, this part is in the city. So, funding the Boon Creek Road improvement, would that fall on the developer or would that fall on the state or would it be shared between the state and the city? We will generally share on something like this. Okay. Thank you. Sure. And I'm gonna Oh, sorry.

Can I Oh, go ahead. I'll let you go first.

Well, I was just going to say that I I personally feel like that this is a good use um out in Boon Creek. Um you know, we've got so much development out there as far as residential and that sort of thing. So to have a grocery store out there that you know the the residents can go to um you know and and having another restaurant out there. I just don't I just hope you don't take tenants away from the mall at Johnson City. Don't do what Pinnacle and um what in the pavilion did being a former general manager of the mall. That's why I had to say that. But um but seriously I think that that that'll be good a good use out there. it falls within all of our guidelines and so I would be in favor of approving the annexation and the zoning service.

And I think you bring up a good point. You know, a lot of the traffic may actually be relieved for the simple fact that development is here versus having to drive further to go to restaurants or grocery stores. And I I would just like to make a comment about uh policing. What is downtown is totally different than what's being proposed here. Yes. Um and and the police have sufficient capabilities and expertise to handle this as well as um downtown.

Well, the zoning may be a bit different, but it's a retail corridor is a retail corridor. Even if it's B2 versus B4 zoning, it's going to be a group of people gathering in a retail space. And I just worry that we may not have the resources right now to to keep that area safe. And again, um, Commissioner, you mentioned, you know, hollowing out the mall at Johnson City. You know, the median income in Washington County is $60,000 and $55,000 in Johnson City. And I am just not positive that we could support these two large shopping centers, downtown, the mall at Johnson City, and then this new development at Boon Creek. I I worry that we are greenlighting blight with this approval of B4 zoning.

I don't I don't think this development is going to be anything close to the size of the mall of Johnson City. Um you know, by the time you get a restaurant in there, by the time that you get a grocery store, there's probably only going to be enough room for a couple more tenants.

Yeah, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, I um like to echo some of the sentiment that has been expressed here. I think this is exactly the sort of development we were envisioning when we looked at when we went through the exercise with a future um land use map. I don't believe traffic is going to be an issue at all as uh Mayor Hunter suggested. If anything, adding more local amenities may well take some take some pressure away from um take some pressure away from the intersection with uh with with 26 there. With respect to police, I this is I don't think this is going to be a hot bit of crime. I don't think it's going to compete with um with the mall at Johnson City or the other large um strip malls in town. It's just not this is not that kind of development. Um and again, the plan of services um I think addresses any of those concerns as well. Um so, Mr. Chairman, with that being said, I'd make a move I'd like to make a motion um that we um recommend approval of the plan of services as presented.

All right. Second. Second. All right. Have a motion to recommend approval of the plan plan of services as presented and a second. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, would you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge, yes. Commissioner Bombgardner, no. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Mayor Hunter, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton, yes. Chairman Dagenheart, yes. All right. Now, so we've addressed the issue of the plan of services. There's a remaining issue about the zoning assignment. I'll make a motion that we approve the zoning assignment um to B4. Second.

All right. I have a motion and a second to recommend the zoning assignment of B4 for the voluntary annexation at Boon Creek Road and Christian Church Road of approximately 67 acres if I recall correctly. And I have a second. Any further discussion? Miss Hatfield, will you please call the role? Commissioner Aldridge? Yes. Commissioner Bumgardner? No. Commissioner Goodson, yes. Mayor Hunter, yes. Commissioner Williams, yes. Vice Chairman Dutton, yes. Chairman Dagenheart, yes.

Okay. We have one more item that's a relatively new item that's I've worked with staff to develop and that is going to be some uh reports from staff on different issues that have resided in come before us in the past where action has continued. And it also I might reserve some time at the end of that for comments from the chair and it will be a chance for us to talk amongst the commission about issues that might be on our mind. Miss Whitney.

Good evening uh commissioners. Whitney Hodgees your planning manager. Um what I would like to do is I brought staff up here but I'm just going to go over these slides so if you have some questions about what's up here we can um give you some further input. um before you I believe it was last month. My month's running together just a little bit, but we saw Minga Drive. Um that might have also been it was just July. Um and that was taken to the county commission, but it was withdrawn before it went to county commission. I do not know when they if they want to submit back to county commission and we haven't heard anything, but we just wanted to kind of inform you what happened after um it left you. The next one was the data center text amendment. Um that what at the end of that with um city commission, one of the things that they when they came to you, they also wanted to um we talked about a noise study and so we're in the process of an RFQ with that. Um and the selection is being made. So they will be doing that study in the next few months. Um the village is a Beachwood bond. Um, I'll let Riy that one is being it came to you, but uh this one came to them and it actually is already completed so it it won't need to be released so it will just go away. Um the Horizon 2045 plan that does go for public hearing at the next city commission meeting with a final action um on September 4th. And then um the other thing that I just wanted to bring to your attention is that the downtown parking study is underway. We had a pop-up event um that was really successful at Main Street Day. We uh from the consultant we talked to at least 70 different people uh and got collected a lot of data points for that. That will be at the commission for their workshop in September. I don't know the exact time, but if you did want if that's something that you're interested in, I just wanted to be sure that was on your radar.

So that's all right. questions about staff updates. I had one question, the uh data center text amendment issue around a noise study that's being conducted or a talking to a consultant. Will that pre be presented as a new another code amendment? Is that where you'd see this probably going I think you can do Oh, okay. Just yell. With the topics of the RFQ, we're looking at updates to the noise ordinance itself. So, that's a city ordinance. It wouldn't be a zoning ordinance likely. However, um at this time, we do not expect further zoning changes.

So, you would foresee that this might be a change to the uh ordinance, the uh code. Yeah. Not the zoning. I just was trying to clarify that. Any other questions for staff on any of these reports? On the subject of updating codes and things like that, what about the signage ordinance? That's something that's been discussed. There's a ry grin, Mr. McDon.

Uh yeah, that would be me actually. We we've looked at a lot of different processes and with Whitney coming in, we're looking at all the processes. Uh I know signage there's a lot of different things. The uh code is very dated and we are looking at those. We do have a couple drafts. Uh no specific timeline on when those are coming, but something we are looking into. Excellent. Thank you.

All right. I had another staff question. We are uh we have a backlogged item to look at our bylaws. Is there any activity going on with that? We haven't currently set an agenda for that, but we c at our next um when when you and I meet next for our agenda, we can start looking at when we can plan that out. Would you envision us trying to do that with a subcommittee? We can do that. Yes, we can. It's probably best to kind of um get together in a workshop with those that want to work out those bylaws. Okay. So, we'll talk about scheduling a workshop on that topic and that might produce a subcommittee to go off as a working group. Correct. outside of a workshop.

All right, perfect. Thank you very much. Uh, administratively, I would like to recognize that we have lost Mr. Bob Cooper and welcome Laura Bumgardner to to the planning commission. Uh, this is our first meeting and thank you for very much for your interest in supporting the city and thank you for joining our commission. Well done. Honored to be here.

Thank you. I would also say that Mr. Ben Dutton has been reappointed. He completed his first three-year term and has this just passed been reappointed to the commission for another three-year term. And thank you, Mr. Mayor John Hunter, for agreeing to sit on the planning commission as a representative from the city commission. I really wish to appreciate all your your efforts and your commitment as well as all to the rest of you. Uh any other topics that the commission would like to raise with the with staff or just to talk amongst us? I guess I did have one item of of a point. Um I believe I was appointed to fill out Mr. Dutton's term. Mr. Cooper's term.

Mr. Cooper, I'm Please excuse me. And since I am no longer taking over his term, I do have a letter from Mr. Hunter that I'm to be appointed to a three-year term. Is that correct? No, you I my understanding is you would fill one year that was left in Mr. Cooper's term and then you would be eligible to reapply to be reappointed for another three-year term. I see. Thank you. Is that what you understand? I think there were a couple letters that got sent incorrectly with some confusion. So, apologies on that. Yeah, there's a structure to how commissioners are seated and and and up for reappoint or to be replaced and and Mr. Cooper for personal reasons needed to vacate the position in his third year. So, we had to fill that third year and then you'll be eligible to proceed.

Very good. Thank you for that clarification. I hope this is will be a useful time in future meetings where we can talk amongst ourselves uh about issues that are on your mind or issues that we want to bring up with staff that would then trigger a workshop or follow-up research to be reported back. I think it's a very important point to uh announce that I have my first great granddaughter as of day before yesterday. Congratulations. Very important. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any other business? Just you're just saying I appreciate that. Any other business to come for the commission? See, seeing none, I'll adjourn the meeting at 7 minute 12 minutes after seven.