Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

I'll give a motion to approve August 4th, 2026 meeting minutes, please. I'll second. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. I'll give a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So moved. I'll second. Second. All in favor? Aye. All right, moving on to special items nine, appointments to boards and commissions, we have nine. Scheduled public comments, we have nine. Just a reminder that all public comments need to be in to the city clerk the Wednesday before the meeting date. Public hearing, we have none. Air introductions, first readings, none. Old business, none. Moving on to new business. Number 2026-36, a resolution accepting the quote and authorizing the purchase of the procurement of installation of a patrol vehicle equipment, sir. Thank you, sir.

So we did in our budget this year were two new patrol cars, which we've been previously approved and purchased. And they're sitting waiting for equipment upfitting. We did a formal bid process, got in three qualifying bids. One was significantly lower in price than the others. So I'm asking for you to approve. us to engage turnkey mobile in Jefferson City to equip our two new patrol vehicles with the necessary equipment and get them on the road. Any questions for staff? We have cages. Yes, what we're doing in all the cars from here right now for the foreseeable future, we're putting in half cages. So the driver's seat has full mobility front and back and there'd be room for one in custody person. And so the issue with the double cage anymore, in addition to restricting the driver's seat movement, is there's so much that you hardly ever hold two people arrested anyway. And quite often, it's just safer, smarter to hold them separately regardless. So there's no point in wasting the space on that. And the cost is basically about the same whether it's a full cage or a half cage.

All right. Any other questions?

getting a motion to approve council bill number 2026-36, a resolution accepting the quote and authorizing the purchase of the equipment and installation of the vehicle tools. Second. Second. Second. Since this is a resolution, it's just all in one, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Council Bill number 2026-37, a resolution regarding the site plan for A&M. Staff report, please.

Okay, this is a request for contingent approval for a commercial site plan for a fast food establishment. The current owners of the properties involved are Simple Development LLC, Stephen Hayne, and Sherman and Joanna Horton. The contingent owners after the replant will be Sherman and Joanna Horton. The submitting engineering firm is Simon and Strump Engineering. Keenan Simon is here tonight if you have any questions. So the subject site, 601 East Broadway, which includes 514 and 600 Redbud Lane, after the replant next month, all parcels combined are approximately 0.89 acres in size. This property sits west of South Highway 63 and north of East Broadway. Current zoning is CG. The applicant has submitted a site plan for a new 2,143 square foot franchise restaurant featuring both dine-in seating and drive-thru service. As a preliminary step for this development, the adjacent properties located at 514 and 600 Redbud Lane were successfully rezoned earlier this year. Replant to combine the three parcels will be presented next month. Site plan approval is needed as part of contingent ownership transfers. at 514 Redwood Lane. While the site plans for permitted uses within commercially zoned districts typically undergo administrative review and are not required to go through a public approval process, city staff has elected to present this project to the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Aldermen for formal approval. This decision was made to ensure transparency and to proactively address concerns previously expressed Given the site's location along a highly traveled corridor, potential traffic impacts have been a primary point of discussion. Formal traffic assessment was required as part of the site plan review process. The assessment concluded that there are no feasible short-term improvements capable of making a significant positive impact on current traffic congestion. recommended long-term resolution involves access management, specifically reducing the number of driveway access points along East Broadway and ensuring that driveways align with adjacent roadways. In support of this long-term planning, the property owner has indicated willingness to submit a payment in lieu of immediate improvements to fund future infrastructure upgrades. However, it should be noted that the City of Ashland does not currently have an established mechanism or regulatory framework place to accept or allocate such a proposal. Pedestrian connectivity and safety were also evaluated. The Missouri Department of Transportation is not supportive of installing the sidewalk along its Broadway frontage. Consistent with MoDOT's stance on the nearby Taco Bell development, this restriction is intended to discourage pedestrian travel across Highway 63 for safety reasons. Furthermore, due to existing site constraints, there is insufficient on-site space to dedicate the additional right-of-way required to install sidewalks along Redmond Lane. According to Article 10 of Chapter 44 in the City Code, a buffer is required between deferring land uses. This will provide screening between Redmond Lane and the drive-thru lane at the north end of the site. Stormwater detention will be provided on the northeast corner of the site. Staff acknowledges the concerns raised by neighboring property owners regarding traffic congestion and access along Redbud Lane and East Broadway Portal. In response to the concerns of the neighboring residents, the site plan was redesigned, removing the access to Redbud Lane. The applicant has satisfied the requirements for traffic assessment and the limitations preventing sidewalk installation are dictated by MOGOP safety directives and existing right-of-way constraints to the north rather than developer oversight. Furthermore, while the city currently lacks the formalized payment in lieu of improvements mechanism, the applicant's willingness to financially participate in future access management projects demonstrates a good faith effort to mitigate long-term traffic impacts. The proposed development will provide an additional dining option for residents and positively and is compliance with Ashland City Code. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the submitted site plan subject to the following conditions. Property transfer and replant, the transfer of property ownership must be successfully finalized to allow for formal approval and recording of the required replant. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended an additional condition, which is variances, that any variation from the Land Use Code, specifically, exemption from sidewalk requirements be pursued through the Board of Adjustment. I will add one other thing that Alderman Fries mentioned at the last meeting about another municipality and that the P&Z Commission

The sidewalk to the north would be ridiculous for us to try and enforce that because of the width of that street and the small frontage of each of the properties. It would end up being a sidewalk to nowhere at the end of a dead end street. So we would kind of look foolish trying to force them to put something back there. They're taking the entrance out on the north side as well.

Yes, that's right. That was one of my concerns too. It's a lot of traffic going through there. It's a pretty small street.

Yeah, they will eliminate that.

Any other questions?

All of them? Can I get a motion to approve Council Bill number 2026-37, a resolution regarding the site plan for A&W? So moved. Can I have a second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Moving on to reports, just a few things. I've got a couple things for Kevin, I'll deal with him one on one. We do have some events coming up in the next couple weekends. We have Honky Tonk this Saturday on the 22nd at the Optimist Club. The wrestling team is doing a poker run to raise money for the wrestling team on August 22nd. And then the rodeo is coming up on the 28th and 29th. So if anybody's in town, please attend. That is my report. The city administrator is absent. The city attorney's report.

Two things. One, I'm working on an ordinance, the law on hemp. That was y'all's favorite topic. Change is November 1st, so we need to get a new ordinance in place. Basically all HIP products are banned now, and then Kratom as well. So I've got that ordinance in the works, should have it ready for your next meeting. Or if you want, I can just send it to you and you all can look it over and decide when you want to put it on the agenda.

Question for you. From what I could read, there may be some sort of an exemption worked out that will exempt the beverage portion of that.

There's been discussion about that, but it's not included in the legislation.

So would we need to, whatever we do, should we separate the two just in case something happens at the last minute like things do in Washington or for everybody else.

Yeah, it's not really a question of what they're doing in Washington as much as they passed the state law.

Right.

And so even if Washington made that exemption, it's still going to be a legal under state law.

But I thought the state law would allow for beverages to still exist if the federal. That's what I was reading from the law vote people who are, they created this new, hence, beverage group.

I don't remember that being in the legislation, but then again, it's a long piece, complicated piece of legislation, so I'll take another look at it. Okay. It's a good thing to look at.

Yeah, I don't even know the likelihood of it actually occurring between now and then. I didn't know that it made sense to differentiate between the two and the code.

The other thing is, just based on your last action, do you want to do something about this payment in lieu of future development? Do you want to make a proviso for that? I guess it really wouldn't affect this case. As far as future cases? Well, I mean, if that's something that you guys would want to do, it makes sense in certain instances, you know, when something needs to be done, like for instance, building a sidewalk. There's no point in building a sidewalk until some later time because of different things. We've done it a couple times.

I was gonna say, haven't we already done that with the property on 63 South?

Not that I'm aware of.

Was there a payment of loo made?

And so where is it? We need to find out where that might be sitting after. Not since I've been here, there hasn't been anything like this.

I guess the question I have is, is it, is our code currently, the Board of Adjustment has to approve that variance? And if it does, we might, sometime down the road, in order to make things easier and simpler, like our friends across the street back in June, at that bloody Southern Boone comment, you know, the break time and the upper melee representative and the car wash were all be gone. keeping things simple, have one person go through. Columbia does allow their P&Z to do sidewalk variances with a payment in lieu. So, yeah, that's what we do now. We'll do it next month, some point in the next year or so. We'll keep it on our radar, possibly. Again, the whole idea of making things simpler, one stop shop, they come in. Otherwise, the Board of Adjustments, additional meeting, additional...

I wouldn't ask the Board of Adjustments to do that. I would take the P&Z and...

Right, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I agree, yeah. Have P&Z do it, because we already have the P&Z meeting already.

Right.

So the add-on of variance is a pretty simple process that's simple for the developer, hopefully. So the variance for the sidewalk is something that we're going to have to apply through the Board of Adjustment in order to improve on the sidewalk.

Yeah, that was the condition.

And part of that variance could be the Board of Adjustment deciding that a payment in lieu of it's an option.

As needed. Wonderful. What's the deadline for that to be next month? Are we going to pass that?

It would just be, we'd set it up 30 days from whatever that.

And did you say they could still work, but I can see it would be the last thing that could be held up? Yes. So it doesn't necessarily slow down? No, it doesn't slow down the process.

That's what I was trying to figure out.

But in this particular case, I don't see why a payment in lieu of for that would be necessary because We have no reason to ever think that sidewalk would go in there. In some of the other cases, it's like, we don't need it at this time, but we will later. In this case, I can't see where they would ever do that. So when you do a payment in lieu of, if it's not done within a certain time, do they get their money back? Or how does that work? I don't want to see them have to. shell out some money and then.

Sidewalks are an issue that every city struggles with. Ideally, every house, every business would have a sidewalk in front of it. You know, that's kind of the 1950s goal. What happened in America is sometime between the 50s and now, we sort of abandoned the whole sidewalk idea. And so you, you know, these buildings were built without sidewalks. I don't know if they were required then or not. They probably were. They just weren't built. And we certainly haven't maintained the sidewalks. So what most cities will do with sidewalks is something along the lines of if you need to have a sidewalk, if the law requires you to have a sidewalk, but there's practical reasons why you can't build a sidewalk, you would make a payment, not so much in lieu, but a payment that would go into a sidewalk fund to be used to build other sidewalks somewhere else. I guess my question is, do you want me to do anything with it or not?

You can draw it up and show us how it would look and let us look at it and see and determine. Okay, I'll draw kind of a basic. Yeah, just something generic. And then the other thing on the hemp, when you get that, just send it to us and we'll factor it down and then we'll see where we can put it on there for you.

And it's something you're looking at to be stronger than state law or just to coincide with state law?

No, it would coincide with state law.

We can't be stronger than state law. And would we even need it if we have a state law?

Yes, because of enforcement. It's always difficult getting the state to come in and enforce those sorts of things. Under the new state statute, enforcement of the hemp rules falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Aging, or whatever the name of that department is. And they are well overstretched, because it is just trying to enforce the marijuana stuff, much less hemp. So I wouldn't really expect vigorous enforcement from them. So it'll allow our police to go in and do stuff.

Appreciate that. Anything else?

No, I think that's enough.

Police Chief Mosley.

We just have the stat reports out to you. I got that sent out, I think, yesterday or the day before. We have job offers out to two officers that we have interviewed recently.

That's great.

One of which is already licensed, should be able to start relatively quickly, and the other one went to the Academy, and that doesn't start until January 4th, so. Assuming both those backgrounds go well, which I'm optimistic they will, we'll get both those on board. It'll be full. First time in a long while, hopefully. So we're looking forward to that. Otherwise, cars upfitted, thank you. And we'll be turning over one of our current vehicles will become a city pool car, as I discussed. We'll strip some graphics and some equipment off of it and have a shared pool car for administrative uses.

Is that one of the chargers?

No, it's going to be the Ford Explorer. And then currently, if things keep going like they are, hopefully, again, with finances work right, next year we'll buy two more cars again and then the chargers. Because they're getting a little bit longer, too. So we'll get those swapped out next year, we hope.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Gene.

As I said, planning and zoning, our report's in the packet. I just wanted to add there's a ice machine now open for business, self-serve on Henry Clay. How long do they have to get it back? Right. Of traffic driving. You're saying east?

Yes. OK. Yes. No excuse to enter the water. I mean, shall we go up and go under? Like a freestanding ice machine? Yeah. I've never seen one of those. And water. I got one. And water. Drop down into the clear. There's apparently one at Old Summit, too, if you want to test the difference.

I'll see how this came to NAS 1, too. All right.

Thanks, sir.

Trade report. She is out. She had a small accident today, so we'll speak to that. We want to report. Elma Dean.

Not much to report. New houses continue to go up, especially in Setters Knoll, a few other neighborhoods, all the trash didn't get picked up yesterday, but it sounds like they rectified that today, so some of that. Oh, in the park recently, so definitely seeing the need for some of those improvements, especially with the drainage and mulch. Obviously we want to upgrade equipment eventually, but I think we get the drainage under control, we control mulch. Definitely in need for some improvement. massive improvement that we're talking about, but I think we're on the right track, so thank you.

All in favor? No report. All in turn? No report. All in the list? No report. All right, any comments from the general public? Can I do a motion to adjourn? I'll move. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye.