Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Lee Summit has lots of local destinations, but where do you start? Green Street, a vibrant community space in the heart of downtown, is where Lee Summit comes together. Its three dynamic areas have something for everyone. Green Street Market is a modern event venue and home to the downtown Lee's Summit Farmers Market. Green Street Lawn is a covered performance space hosting live music, family activities, and more. Green Street Grove is a mixture of gathering spaces, an immersive playground, and bold architectural features. And all three areas host community events year round. So the next time you set out to enjoy the city you love, remember, meet at Green Street.

Hello Lee Summit, I'm Jordan. Here's your flash briefing for the week of May 26th. Are you trained in hands-only CPR? The Lee Summit Fire Department has launched PulsePoint Respond, a free 911-connected mobile app that alerts citizens trained in hands-only CPR when CPR is needed nearby in a public location. CPR can be started in the critical minutes before emergency services arrive. Learn more at cityofls.net backslash PulsePoint. The 2026 Rock the Amp season at Legacy Park Amphitheater kicks off this Saturday with Red, a Taylor Swift tribute. For all you Swifties out there, this is one you don't want to miss. Show starts at 8 p.m. and purchase tickets at lsparks.net. Warm weather is in the forecast for Lee Summit this week. Let the Explore LS website be your guide to summer fun with upcoming events, itineraries, and over 180 restaurants to choose from. Embrace your inner tourist. Visit explorels.net. And mark your calendars for June 5th through 7th for Downtown Days. Festivities include free live entertainment, carnival rides, festival food, handcrafted goods, craft beer tents, and more. Visit downtownls.org for more information. Thanks for listening, and have a great week.

The City of Lee Summit has hundreds of traffic lights across its more than 1,000 lane miles, all managed by the City's Public Works Traffic Technicians. The work happens inside those metal boxes on the side of each intersection. Inside, technicians program a device called the controller. The controller communicates directly with each signal head via underground wires, telling each light when to turn on and off based on a programmed cycle. City traffic engineers design this cycle to allow traffic to flow as efficiently as possible for that particular intersection. In order to best match current traffic patterns, they install something called a detection system. Detection systems have taken many forms over the years, from sensors in the pavement to radar boxes. But in Lee's Summit, they primarily consist of cameras, which workers mount above the traffic signals. These cameras don't record video or your speed. Instead, they monitor the spaces at the front of the intersection and identify when a vehicle is present in a specific spot. Once a vehicle is identified, the detection system sends a message to the controller, which then adapts its standard cycle to best serve the cars that are present. The pedestrian button works in a similar way. When the button is pressed, the controller receives a signal requesting that it allow that section of the pedestrian walkway to go, which it then inserts into the signal pattern. Technicians also install something called a conflict monitor. The conflict monitor is a device in which they program all the potential patterns of lights that would lead to a collision. If the other systems mistakenly trigger those patterns, the conflict monitor sends the intersection into flash. causing all lights to flash red and directing drivers to treat it like an all-way stop. City traffic technicians implement and maintain these systems so effectively, we rarely consider them. But every time we safely pass through a signal-controlled intersection, it's all thanks to their work. So the next time you're waiting at a red light, remember the delicate coordination of super smart systems that move you through that space safely and efficiently every day. Keeping 500 miles of public sewer lines flowing keeps utility costs low and our environment healthy. The Lee's Summit Water Utilities Operations Team does this every day. Sewer lines can be blocked with everything from roots to flushable wipes to food grease. When a potential blockage is identified, teams use detailed mapping to locate access points. My camera's at 18038. A camera truck parks at one end of the sewer line and a jet truck at the other. The camera truck carries a rover-type camera, which the team lowers into the manhole. The operator then drives the camera into the pipe, where it views and records from its adjustable lens. Here, it can identify the cause and precise location of the blockage. The jet truck will then use high-pressure water to remove the blockage. Starting at the opposite end of the line, the operator inserts the jet head into the manhole. Pressurized water shoots out of the head, clearing out debris and propelling it forward. The camera observes this process, and the two operators communicate via walkie-talkie to coordinate movement.

Hold it right there. Go ahead and fire it up, half pressure. I'm in front of you.

Once the jet head has passed the blockage, the operator reels it back in. The camera can then inspect the pipe to see if the blockage is cleared.

Yeah, go ahead and pull out. We're done.

With the job complete, the camera is removed, cleaned, and returned to the truck, and the crew moves on to the next job. In addition to addressing identified problems, the team will systematically check every line in the city in a five-year period, keeping costs low and our community healthy today and for years to come.

Lee Summit has lots of local destinations, but where do you start? Green Street, a vibrant community space in the heart of downtown, is where Lee Summit comes together. Its three dynamic areas have something for everyone. Green Street Market is a modern event venue and home to the downtown Lee's Summit Farmers Market. Green Street Lawn is a covered performance space hosting live music, family activities, and more. Green Street Grove is a mixture of gathering spaces, an immersive playground, and bold architectural features. And all three areas host community events year round. So the next time you set out to enjoy the city you love, remember, meet at Green Street.

Keeping Our City Beautiful is a collaborative effort for all citizens. The City of Lee Summit supports these efforts with a set of guidelines or ordinances. And the City's Neighborhood Services team helps put those guidelines into practice. These guidelines ensure grass stays trimmed, fences are maintained, home exteriors are kept up, and much more. We can all help out by first making sure our property meets these guidelines. If you notice potential violation on a neighbor's property, first check the guidelines on the city's website. If it is a violation, the next step is to communicate with your neighbor directly. If that is not possible or if the problem persists, it can be reported through LS Connect. LS Connect is an online platform for submitting issues to the city. You can access it on the city website or by downloading the app through your mobile device's app store. Once you submit an issue, it is reviewed by the neighborhood services team. A neighborhood services officer will then visit the site for any violations found. The neighborhood services officer will leave a notice and speak with the property owner if possible. The officer's goal is to help the property owner solve or abate the problem as quickly as possible. After a 10-day period, the officer will inspect the site to see if the issue has been abated. Normally, by this point, the issue has been resolved. If not, depending on the type of issue, an extension could be granted, or the city might fix the problem at the owner's expense. In rare cases, if all other measures have been applied, the issue will be resolved in the municipal court. Neighborhood services officers work hard to resolve problems quickly and positively. They are here to support the community as we work together to keep our city beautiful.

Thank you. you . Thank you.

Good evening. Welcome to the Thursday, May 28th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting for Lease Summit, Missouri. Can I get a roll call attendance, please?

Edward Yarrington.

Present.

Peyton Hatcher. Here. Terry Trafton. Dana Arth. Present. Jessica Grinnell. Present. Tanya Johnna Ford.

Present.

Chip Tuszynski.

All right, can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

Motion to approve.

Can we get a second?

Second.

Can we get a roll call vote on that, please?

Edward Yarrington?

Yes.

Peyton Hatcher? Yes. Dana Arth?

Yes.

Jessica Grinnell? Yes. Tanya Johnna Ford?

Yes.

All right, do we have any public comments tonight related to business of the planning commission? I see none. We will move on to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve that?

Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda.

Can we get a second? Second. All right. Can we get a roll call vote on that?

Edward Yarrington?

Yes.

Peyton Hatcher? Yes. Dana Arth?

Yes.

Jessica Grinnell? Yes. Tanya Johnna Ford? Yes.

All right. We will now move on to our sixth item. That is a presentation. from Sue Piles. It's application 2025-7. It's not an application. It's just 2026-7675.

Good evening. Sue Piles, Development Engineering Manager. We wanted to take this opportunity for a very, very short agenda tonight to maybe throw in a little bit of training discussion, question and answer period on stormwater. So I just put together a few slides that can maybe kind of spur us to discussion. If you guys want to ask questions while I'm going, that's fine. Or at the end, that's fine too. Stormwater 101. So kind of the basics. So when a project is under development, the first thing it starts with when you talk about stormwater management is a drainage map. You need to know what drains onto the site, you need to know what happens on the site, and you need to know where does the drainage leave the site. That's kind of the basis of everything. And then we get into the analyze, determine, design stage. So we analyze. I say we. It's really the development's design engineer, design professional doing this. Based on the drainage area, the specific layout of the site, that analysis determines what flow will be leaving the site when the project is done. So then they look at that and they compare it. They determine if it meets our requirements or not, our specification. Most of the time it doesn't, but, you know, that comparison happens first. And then based on what they determine, they go into the design stage. That's done with the preliminary, excuse me, the Storm Runner Report. We have a preliminary report with the PDP and then they finalize it with the FDP. We start kind of big picture and then go down into the weeds on the FDP. So really the big question is detention or no detention, how do we decide? So how fast drainage leaves the site impacts the receiving system. If you let the drainage just flow with no control, it could erode, it could overflow depending on whether it's open channel or enclosed channel. or enclosed system, if you slow down the rate that the drainage leaves the site, the downstream system is more protected. So if you think about it, if you think about water dumped from a bucket versus water draining from a bathtub, you know, the water dumped from a bucket is going to do a lot more damage when it hits the ground than water coming out of a bathtub would. So a lot of times we get into this detention and retention conversation. So I just wanted to kind of touch on those. So when we talk about detention, we're talking about a basin that's designed to drain completely between events. within a certain amount of time. I guess if you had more events back to back, it wouldn't drain between, but within a certain amount of time. The basin is sized to hold a specific amount of water, and that volume is calculated from the bottom elevation of the basin. That's known as a dry detention basin. When you talk about retention, that's a basin that's designed to hold a permanent pool of water, and then it's sized to hold a specific amount of water, and that volume is calculated from the top elevation of that permanent pool. That's known as a wet detention basin. So the top of the permanent water is viewed just the same as the bottom of a dry basin. That water is always going to be there. It doesn't go up and down. It's what's above that that counts. There are alternatives to detention basins, bioretention, rain gardens, permeable pavement, which we have right across the street, infiltration trenches, green roofs. There's a lot of things we can do. Detention basin is kind of the common one that you see. But moving forward, I think we'll start to see some of these others in play a little bit more. And that's my slideshow. I figured this was a good time for questions, and I kept it broad enough that really anything you guys have questions on, I'm happy to see if I can answer. If you have any questions.

Thank you. I do have a question. On the retention basin.

Yes.

So I like the way you explained that, how that's determined as far as... So you obviously have to... The bigger it is, the more surface you'll have for your base, which is the top where the water level is. And so that... Doesn't look like there's a lot when you look at this picture. It doesn't look like there's a lot of a lot of depth to it But it sounds like you don't need it and it makes it look just like a regular pond.

Correct. Yes We have a requirement that a detention base and excuse me retention basin has to be I think it's seven feet deep and But that's not a universal thing. That's our requirement. But yes, the more spread out it is, I mean, it could only be two feet of water that it needs to hold in the 100-year storm event in that basin. So you really wouldn't tell that much just from glancing at it. Now, if this was a smaller diameter pond that was deeper, then you would probably be noticeable that there was more storage above the permanent pool.

Okay. Thank you.

What determines if you need a retention or a detention?

There's nothing that determines it other than what the developer wants to put on his site. Typically, we see retention basins used when they want to have it as an amenity for their development. From an engineering point of view, there's no difference. The calculations are based on that storage available.

I see, okay.

I think sometimes people get confused about that thinking that, you know, we dictate if it needs to be one or the other, but it's purely a decision from the developer.

And is that just for new builds or is it like for renovations? Is there a stipulation like if I'm a developer, I come in, I want to renovate something rather than develop something? Is there a difference if there's a requirement for a detention or retention?

We have specific requirements based on amount of impervious area that's coming in with a redevelopment. Up to a certain threshold, they don't have to do any changes, but then based on going over that threshold, they have to... look at that added impervious area, not the entire site. They don't have to detain based on what was already there, but what they build new that's over that threshold. They have to, whether it's a detention basin retention, some other infiltration trench, something, some feature they have to do. That's why you see infiltration trenches used a lot in some of the Structures in the downtown area that are being converted from houses to build to businesses because the site is very small and so the amount of water that they need to Handle is small.

So something like that makes a lot more sense than something like a really small puddle for a detention Mason Thank you What are the most expensive Solutions not counting size necessarily, but just in general and

I think, like, when you look at some of these other options, it really depends on a lot of factors. Permeable pavement does cost the blocks themselves. You know, you have that cost. But on some of these others, it's what space does the development want to give up and dedicate in what area of their project. site. So sometimes a detention basin, they want to give up area in the upstream portion of their site. Well, that wouldn't really work for a detention basin. So perhaps in that situation, they'd look at one of these alternatives or more than one of the alternatives. It really, there's so many factors that I don't have any experience with green roofs, but I know a lot of people have them. It's just, we don't really do them around here, but who knows what in the future we might.

It does sound like there's opportunity cost if they did if they put the the bigger water Retention or detention in a space where they could develop that and make more money off of that They're giving up that opportunity.

Yeah, it just it just depends and part of the reason why we require basin to be preliminarily sized during the PDP is we don't want the whole development laid out and then when they come back in with the final design find out that the detention basin needs to be twice as big and part of that development as designed can't happen. That's why we they tweak it in the final but they know the basic area required up front.

Okay.

So in terms of like all these different stormwater treatments, has there been any kind of like considerations for how to reuse some of those captured runoff water, like to re-landscape or re-water?

We don't have anything that specifies anything about that. But if you read the MARC information and APWA and just some of the trade There's a lot of recommendations and ideas out there for ways that, landscaping especially, that that water can be reused. But we don't have anything that directs anything like that.

Is it possible that we could start having those conversations?

You know, I'm not sure. It's certainly something that we can discuss internally.

I think it'd be a great opportunity. I mean, we live in a world where it's so easy to just kind of throw and walk away. Sure. And when you're creating like this bioretention or things of that nature, it's using what's already existing. And why not kind of make it have more longevity? Sure. I think so. Sure.

I will add one caveat to that. So the M-150 corridor overlay does have sustainability requirements that are associated with that, and some of that storm monitor capture is in that. Basically, those requirements have a list that they can choose from, and that's one of those that they can choose from. So there are some portions of the city that potentially could. We have not seen it utilized to date.

There's a lot of options out there. You know, we kind of see the same two or three or four things. But, you know, there's a lot. And I think compared to even just two or three or four years ago, we are seeing a lot more discussion about things. So it's going that direction, slowly, but moving that direction.

What would trigger, or I guess when, would assessing the, I guess, broader stormwater sewer capacity of city occur like if a development was large enough or as we look at you know we we looked at the land off 291 in the last meeting what when when is that reassessed essentially of the broader sewer capacity well whenever

they do the report, the storm study, they have to show that what they're tying into or where their water is going has the capacity to handle that water. So that's why when you look at what's draining onto a site, they use what the planned use is, the zoning. for that area. They don't, even if it's all field upstream, you know, upstream of their site, if it's supposed to be industrial, they're going to plan that that drainage is off of that kind of ground cover, a lot of concrete, you know, asphalt, something like that. So as we go, we try to build the system capacity to handle what's still going to be coming to it. Thank you.

So when it comes to the detention basins and when they need to be implemented, who ends up having responsibility for maintaining, ensuring that they're working properly? Is that a shared ownership? Is that always defined before they're implemented?

Yes. They have to define the ownership, or excuse me, the maintenance responsibility up front on the plat. Typically, it's a... It's not if it's a single site with a single owner. It's that that owner it's the owner of that property if it's Other than that it's a homeowners association if it's a residential area typically it's the business owner Group if it's a shopping center say it just you know the the developer has to set that up and assign that at the beginning and when After the basin has been in place for three years, they have to start, well, during the three-year maintenance, they have to start having, you know, the BMP inspection program that we instituted here a year ago. They have to submit yearly inspections on that detention basin, and it'll have to show either it's functioning correctly or it's not, and here's the things that need fixed on it. And if there's things that do need fixed, then that gets run through our neighborhood services group so that there's times monitoring instituted with that. Did that answer your question? OK.

This is probably getting in the weeds, but now my brain is spinning. So you talked about when you plan for infrastructure for storm drainage, it's anticipation of future development. Now, future development on a side of land could differ, i.e. the FAR could be either a single story at 10,000 or two plates at 5,000. So then the stormwater changes. Is the assumption that you always plan for the worst case?

The way the, excuse me, stormwater The data that we use to analyze with is set just based on a certain type of usage. And typically those numbers are kind of based on a worst case scenario within this usage. So there's a lot of factors of safety built into each variable that we pick. You know, we have to have a variable for all kinds of what the ground cover is, what type of pipe is being used, you know, all kinds of things. And there's a factor of safety built into each of those things that then goes into the analysis and the models.

And that takes into account potential parking like surface parking as well?

Yeah. If it's a certain type of zoning or use, it gives a factor that then is put into a lot of different equations and is built into the system that way.

So is there ever a situation where anticipated development exceeds the water runoff and like a reevaluation has to happen?

Yes, yes. There's been situations where they've had to upsize pipe downstream because it wasn't large enough to handle. So with anything, if the downstream receiving system can't handle it, it's their responsibility to make sure that where they put their water can handle it. So sometimes they have to do off-site improvements. Sometimes they have to maybe tie into a different location. Because sometimes there's multiple places they could tie to. So they have to analyze all of that when they're laying out their storm sewer system.

So you're essentially creating like a baseline foundation and then anything that exceeds that foundation has to be addressed by the developer?

Yes. Okay. Well, anything. I mean, if for some reason the pipe that they're connecting to, the system, excuse me, that they're connecting to was older. and wasn't built as robust size-wise as we have been doing, then they would be more likely to have to even go down and do some sort of improvement to the downstream system to be able to handle what they have, what they're directing to it.

That is all the questions, I believe. It was starting to rain a little bit when we came in, and I think it would have been appropriate had we had a little thunderstorm while you were giving your presentation.

I thought you were going to say you wanted to have a field trip across the street to look at the permeable pavers because the water just goes away.

Oh, yes. If it started raining, we could. Maybe we get a hose out.

Thank you, guys. Thank you.

She does make her slides the right amount. Seven. And the last one was all graphics. Question marks. So I guess we can move on to... Thank you, Sue. We can move on to roundtable and... Now we're good.

Okay.

Anybody else have anything? Shannon does.

Oh, yeah. I got 530 on the... the clock, so I got eight minutes. So I just wanted to kind of let you guys know, I know Director Tracy Albers had talked about impending implementation of new website for development services. That has gone live, so just kind of running through it real quick, some highlights. For those who don't know how to get to it, just go to the city website, cityofls.net. A couple different ways. You can click here, city government, go to DEPARTMENTS AND DIVISIONS, AND THEN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES HERE. AND THEY'LL TAKE YOU TO KIND OF OUR NEW FORMAT, OUR NEW LAYOUT OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES WEBSITE. SO YOU GOT OUR STRINGERS ACROSS THE TOP HERE THAT KIND OF HITS THE HIGHLIGHT SECTIONS, PLANNING DEVELOPMENT, DOING BUSINESS, CONSTRUCTIONS, COMMUNITY OUTREACH. Community outreach will be kind of important to you guys, because you guys have been asking for more data. If you click on that, it'll take you to a couple different spots. Programs, which kind of talks about our CDBG program, development news, just some news. But one that would be of interest to you guys here is this reports. If you click on the reports, it'll take you to our reports page, our annual report, our development reports, our monthly reports. So we'll click on the 2025 development report here. This kind of gives you a dashboard of all the development that we did last year, right? How many square feet of retail, industrial, or other type commercial development are rezoning, land use, that kind of thing. So you can scroll through. There's quite a bit of information that you can look through on your own leisure there, some demographic housing statistics. That's there. Up towards the top, there's some other useful information you might like, land use. So you click on that. I preloaded it. It'll give you two different land use maps you can take a look at. You can look at our future land use. What do we see potentially in the future? It's all these different color codes here, right? I'm sorry, this is the existing land use. This shows you how we define our existing use now, right? The gray is PRI land or PRLR land, undeveloped. Yellow is that R1. So this is the existing land use as it is today. We'll turn on the future land use, and you can kind of see, this is what we see in the future land use. We had a question earlier about activity centers. We have five activity centers throughout the community, and that's located in our comprehensive plan on page 98 is where it starts. So if you want to read more about that, I'll go ahead and send the link out to you guys. There are five of them throughout the city. One up here, downtown, over here, New Longview, and then down here as well. One other map that's fairly useful, so we'll go back to kind of our landing page. There's a couple. Sorry. And we got our quick resources here. A couple good useful information links here. Development project list, if you want to see what developments are in the pike, go ahead and click on that. That'll just provide a list of all the projects that we're reviewing currently. You can sort those by planning commission date, city council date, status. And if you want to go ahead and click on the application number, that'll take you to the portal and you can see the documents associated to that. This computer's a little bit slow, so I'll let you guys take your time back home. If you're bored, go ahead and play with that. Another one is to cover current development activities. It'll take you to a landing page that will have a link to go to our current development activities map. For whatever reason, it won't load on this computer for me. But what this is is an interactive map that you can go and say, hey, what's on this corner? If you don't know the address, you just want to take a look, you'll be able to zoom into that area and see if there's an active permit. That's building permits, any kind of planning permits, rezoning, anything like that. But that's kind of a high level overview of what we got going on. We kind of tried to relay it out so it's a little bit more easy to navigate, a little more concise. Construction. you know, fees. That kind of shows you through all our permit fees when you're actually doing the work, planning and development. That takes you through all of our applications. So with that, I can answer any questions you have on that.

I have a comment.

Yeah.

This is amazing.

It's a lot easier to navigate. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so more than happy if you guys get in there, plan with us, and he finds something, shoot me an email. Say, hey, I got a suggestion. Maybe if we do this, it would work a little bit better. I'm in there all the time, so it's intuitive to me. I don't know what I don't know. So I know exactly where to find things because that's what I do when I'm in there. I would love to have input from people that are kind of new to that system so we can improve on that.

How good? What's the timing of the reports being updated? So, like, how timely are they?

Yeah, so I have quarterly reports, I have monthly reports, and I have yearly reports. So we try to get those out as quickly as possible on those, you know, the anniversary of the year, you know, within a month or two. Quarterly, we try to get those in, you know, pretty quick. We have to assemble a lot of data, so sometimes, just depending on when it falls, usually within a week or two.

And then when you went over to show us kind of what was in planning review and that list, is there a lag there or is that like super current?

Nope. As soon as I have an application filed and we start that review, you'll be able to see that.

That's awesome. It's really good. This is a lot of what I've been looking for too, so thank you.

Anything else?

One add. Oh, sorry. Just a quick thing. Like, you're on this project list. It would be kind of neat if you could see, like, immediately if it was approved, denied, passed, failed.

Status, plan review, in plan review, city council. Once it makes it past city council, it will drop off the project list because it's no longer an active project. So it does give you the status up until that final approval at city council.

I have another question. So if you were to click on the actual application, does it link back to the agenda items?

It'll link back to our city view portal where you can go in and review all those documents. This computer has high security on it so it's not connected to our network so it has a lag to it so it's not wanting to load for me. I can pull my computer over here and show you.

So like if you wanted to see the discussion with city council on a particular application could you click on it and find it that way or should you go through city council? Or if it's with planning commission or whatever.

Second here, and I'll make this work So you're back to the city website there like I said you go to development services, project list. If you click on an application, what it'll do is take you to the CDV portal here. And these are all the documents. You can look at all the reviews that are associated with it and look at all the documents that are associated with it. This is not a very good one to use.

That's okay. You can at least see the meeting that it was in Planning Commission then and then go and find your information.

Yeah. Let me find you a better one. Here's one that you have seen. So this is the Captain's Wharf, the senior living community up north. You can go through and see all of our reviews and all of our comments in there. And then you can see the fees that are paid and then all the documents associated with it. And then, yeah, you can track down the city council date based on that. Very cool. Let me get back to the map that I wouldn't load for you guys. So current development activities, you click on that. It'll take you to the landing page, like I said. And then you'll go in here, and then the map will load. And like I said, it's an interactive map, so you can zoom in and out. You can filter by application type. You can say, hey, what do we got going on at this intersection here? Right? What's this little green dot? What do we got going on? So you click on it, and it will tell you, hey, that's a change of tenant permit. Right? And if you want to click more information, then it will take you back to that portal link, and then you can go, say, get even deeper into the details and all the documents of that particular application.

Very cool.

Anything else?

It doesn't look like it. So I will adjourn the meeting at 5.31 p.m.

That's really...

So,