Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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Thank you all. We're going to begin with our strategic planning meeting. We have our city planner, Mr. Chris Shonik, who's going to make a presentation to us whenever you're ready. Madame Chair. Yes. You can call it to order, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I'm going to call strategic planning to order. That good? Okay, Mr. Sonic, whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Through you. Uh this evening, I'm going to go through a brief presentation highlighting some of the work that we have done over the past few years regarding this proposed zoning code. Uh it's pretty much its beginnings to where we are now. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a few minutes of your time just to go through pretty much the highlights. So, overall, our introduction purpose of this zoning code update, uh it aligns with a comprehensive plan. Our comprehensive plan was adopted in 2024. Uh that began under uh the previous administration in 2022. Uh throughout the uh document, it highlights objectives and goals of the community based on public feedback and engagement that took place uh back in 2023 and 2024. Uh overall, the goal uh and purpose of this zoning code update is to modernize our zoning trends. Last update occurred back in 1998 and since then a lot of things have changed in the world. Um we need to update a lot of our language to permit or to prohibit some of the uses that we see currently. Some of those uses include uh ranging from uh individuals that wish to uh have chickens on their property to having uh breweries within the city uh ranging all the way to uh vape stores and smoke shops that are uh continuously opening up across the city. Uh overall improved clarity and support for vibrant neighborhoods are two of the other goals of this. Uh moving on here, proposed zoning map. Uh the goal is to modernize and simplify. We currently have multiple zoning districts within the city. Uh our goal here based on consensus from our consultants, public feedback and trends across the country nationally is to simplify zoning codes. Uh very complex zoning codes have been proven to deter development and growth within communities. Uh so our goal of course is

to curtail that issue here. Introduction of new districts. Uh like I said, this uh simplifies some of the existing districts into one. Uh some of those do include the corridor district as well as the downtown residential. Uh boundary adjustments have been made to highlight areas of the city uh that greater density uh would be utilized such as Cleveland Street, East Broad Street, and so forth. uh forward-thinking approach. Uh as discussed earlier, economic vitality is a focus preserving community character through the zoning as well as adding flexibility to the code. Overall, uh we currently have 17 zoning districts in the city. We're going down to nine in this proposal. Uh elimination of outdated districts. Some of them are quite redundant in nature. We have about seven zoning districts that are pertaining only to residential. Uh so simplifying them has been deemed to be best practice based on information that we have obtained through uh various means such as our consultant and of course uh public feedback. Uh consolidation into broader categories as well as focus on strategic development goals are also key. Uh key differences that you'll see um mostly this project involved simplifying what we have getting right down to the you know right to the point. uh some of our language right now can be uh quite uh difficult to navigate. So overall just simplified uh tables and graphics were utilized throughout the project. Uh not only does it include zoning for the uses but uh we also dug into our sign regulations. Uh recent uh litigation that has occurred even at the national level up to the Supreme Court. our current zoning um does not meet the criteria that uh has been uh through legislation. So there was a need to update signed regulations.

Our parking requirements could be some cumbersome as well as our fence regulations as well were updated during this process. Overall as we indicated uh visual representation was provided improves user friendliness and can make this down to uh the vernacular if you will. So, uh, your basic layman can understand what we're what the purpose of zoning is at the end of the day. Overall benefits alignment of course with our comprehensive plan as indicated, we do have goals and objectives that are listed in it and we want to abide by that due to uh not only of it being approved by city council but also uh due to uh the positive factors that can be attributed to your comprehensive plan. uh overall mixed use and walkability is a uh attractive feature for many young people uh grow moving to uh community and modernized regulations and transparency as we discussed previously. So during this process we did engage the public like I said this really began back in 2022. The zoning code has been over the last couple years. But overall, who was engaged? Pretty much anyone that you can think of within the city of Ayria, residents, businesses, neighborhoods, civic groups, visitors, employees, local officials, and the steering committee that represented the comprehensive plan. Uh how were people engaged over the last year? We worked closely uh with the Chronicle Telegram to have uh advertisements in the paper. We issued uh social media posts, community calendar on the city website, flyers were distributed at local businesses within the downtown area and through the water bell, everyone should have received a notification that this uh was coming up and all town hall meetings were noticed. So this gives you all a brief overview of what we have done in terms of public

engagement. Like I said, going back to 2023, 2024, we had the steering committee uh with the comprehensive plan moving forward with our zoning town halls. Uh we had some in November of 2024 in various locations throughout the city. Uh and then February of last year as well as May, we had uh town hall meetings here in council chambers uh all of which are available online of course to discuss as this project moved forward. uh the one from May of course was when we were getting closer towards the end of this project to having more complete document based on what was provided to us by our consultant. Uh we did also meet with local developers in the community. Uh those two meetings of course were held in 2024 and 2025 respectively. So moving forward a couple things for everyone to remember with this um residential properties. If you own a residential property in the city, uh it will most likely retain the character of the residential classification. That is not for all uh you know uh residential properties within the city, but mostly will retain a residential zoning designation. There are some instances in which it's closer to urban core downtown, but those changes are minimal. Uh this one I cannot stress enough to everyone is this is a living document. When this is approved, this is not the end of it. It can be amended. Think of the constitution. It's been amended through the years. No document is perfect. We will amend this as needed based on any concerns from the community, based on hardships or nuisances within the community. So, overall, that is just a brief overview of what we've done over the last few years here. Um, like I said, this is uh it's taken a lot of city staff time, a lot of effort, a lot of listening. Um, what I find this to be, I believe a lot of city staff members would back me up on this. This is a good and fair compromise uh to the

process that we're trying to approve here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shon. We appreciate all your hard work and your comprehensive presentation. So, I will open the floor up for questions from council members if there are any. Mr. Schneider, through you, Madam President, to Director Shig, thank you uh for the work you've put forward in this. I know some um can you just touch base on some of the um proponents of this that potentially were superseded by as as far as like state law or on certain zoning usages or of that sort if that makes sense.

I think I do understand. So um through m you madam president to council member Schneider uh so we've looked at various state laws and requirements from the Ohio Revised Code uh from everything with medical and uh recreational marijuana requirements as well as requirements in terms of uh daycarees um and uh some requirements for what we call residential care housing for some individuals that um you know such as a vet veterans homes and so forth. uh in which these requirements and from the Ohio Ohio revised code are called out and we are ensuring that we abide by those requirements. A lot of what we have currently does not mention the OC. Uh so we want to ensure that we are compliant with that and we are speaking to those requirements.

Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Mr. Dhoni. Thank you. through you, Madame President. Director Shoning, thank you for taking the time to meet me with me on a few different occasions. I appreciate that. I'm still having a hard time with the corridor district. Uh, can you give us a little more information on where this corridor district came from and what are we looking to accomplish there?

Thank you. So uh through you madam president to council member Dhoni what we looked at with the corridor this began with working with our consultants in the the baseline that they provided us essentially what corridor means is any major thoroughare within the city will have a corridor designation that means from an engineering point of view your minor and major arterial roadways some collectors have that designation those are traditionally your major roads your four-lane roads where you want to attract businesses on those major thoroughares. Uh so they do permit a wider range of uses to allow for flexibility, greater opportunity for economic development, but at the same time we did consider residential properties that are existing in those areas. We wanted to ensure that there was buffering distances provided. So for example, drive-throughs or a food truck that is listed as an accessory use. Of course, anyone that knows basic zoning 101, you need to have a principal use on the property. With that though, there is a buffer requirement. So, what we have in there currently is a 50-foot buffer from a accessory use such as a drive-thru or a food truck to a dwelling unit is to ensure that you won't have noise concerns. You have people coming up to the food truck, going through the drive-through window, and there's other requirements such as fencing requirements, even hours of operation. We looked at a lot of this research that we did was based on best practices in other communities, peer communities, similar populations, or communities within the Northeast Ohio area that have updated their code. Um there are other communities that are like us, we're not alone, that have older codes, but based on what we're seeing, we've had through the years issues with trying to relate based on our antiquated code to what people are doing now. As I indicated

earlier, breweries, we don't call that out currently. Chickens, that's not called out. So getting us up to speed and preventing us from being held back and moving forward, that's only going to benefit the community at the end of the day. So to give you a long-winded reply on this, we've taken the best steps that we have thought of at this time. It looks good on paper. Of course, going back to what I said earlier, it's a living document. No code is perfect. No, you know, no living document is perfect. The point is we can amend this moving forward if needed. But what we saw from our research, some communities didn't even have that requirement for buffering. We implemented that in here to protect the residents of the uh you know areas that are zoned corridor.

Thank you. M Mr. Dona, you have a follow-up question. I guess my big concern is uh as a as a resident, if I buy in a certain area that's primary residents, uh single family residents. Now, when we do the corridor district, uh we can put mixed uses through the whole thing. and those areas were I know there's a lot of complaints for the middle avenue that's still in the corridor district but when you look at the zoning map it's it's pretty substantial uh you know Abbeby Road from Cleveland Street all the way to Lorraine Community College you know that's all primarily single family homes now sure there might be some buffering I don't think it is

no from you're saying Abby Road to the college there's a lot of uh development and churches and stuff on that road. Okay. Well, there's a few for sure. I just Not a few, there's a lot, I think. Okay. Um, I guess what my concern would be that the corridor district allows brew pubs, food trucks, liquor stores, hotels, micro breweries, and I know when I buy a house and I buy it in that single family. I'm just concerned about it. That's all. I I think it's a legitimate concern. Absolutely, Mr. Sha.

Madam Chair, through you to council member Dhoni. So yeah, we have looked at that as it is a valid concern. Um, but a lot of these areas that have this zoning designation that we're looking at proposing is there is a mix of uses in there already. You look at Middle Avenue, I did the count earlier, just an estimate is approximately 26 businesses are operating from 4th Street down to 16th Street, I believe it was. Uh, 26 businesses interspersed along that corridor area. So you do have a mix of uses. It's how this city was developed to begin with. You have a mix of users and what we did to the best of our ability was prohibit the ones that we would consider or deem incompatible. What we talked about earlier, smoker vape stores, that has become an issue in this community. We have prohibited those in corridor district. We have prohibited them in the downtown district. We permit them in commercial conditionally. So it would have to go through planning commission and through you guys to seek approval. They're only permitted by right in industrial. So, a lot of these uses that may dee may be deemed nuisances or incompatible with the area, we've tried our best to vet them. Um, but based on the existing character of those areas and due to the traffic counts and some of the existing buildings that are there, we've deemed it to be a mixeduse corridor. And of course, you have to consider as well, not only is it permitted, it may be permitted by right from a zoning perspective, but if you dig into the building code and somebody has a residential property and they want to change this over to commercial, you know how long of a process that would be to change over everything. And of course, our building official could speak further to that. Um, so hopefully that answers your question regarding that. Thank you,

Mr. Os Madam Chair. So, in respect to Oh, first off, thanks a lot. This was a lot of work and everybody that did this, thank you because that was a lot of undertaking. But in respect to developments through planning commission, I've sat through a lot of meetings and it seems like when these uh projects come to planning commission, try to get approval and they go to the building departments, what are the are you tweak any of them? I know we have always issues with parking and streets and setbacks and lighting and sidewalks. You know, what kind of changes were they major changes on, you know, what we're doing with our developments?

Madam Chair, through you to council member Oswald. So, we've uh looked at, like you said, parking. Parking has been a contentious item. In fact, going back to our comprehensive plan, that was a recommendation from that plan that we adjust our parking standards. What we did essentially was we increased the square footage requirements. That in turn reduces what's required for parking. So therefore, it's less of a hardship for some people. We've seen many businesses try to open open in the city and they've had to go through our board of zoning appeals. It stalls the project because they don't meet the parking requirements. And in many cases, not all of course, they have been approved through the board of zoning appeals. other communities. We looked at sort of similar to what I was mentioning earlier. We looked at peer communities and we adjusted it based on what other places were doing. We didn't remove the parking requirements. There was recommendation that we do that. It didn't seem just to do that here in the city. The city is very broad. It does have an urban core, but it also has a suburban component to it. So, we kept and retained those parking requirements, but we also looked at neighboring communities and best practices at the end of the day. We came, like I said, back to sort of spinning my wheels here, but it was it's a fair and logical compromise at the end of the day. So, we increase from, let's say, 150 square feet to, let's say, 250 square ft for one parking space. That lowers it and maybe halves the parking requirement.

Mr. Oswald, thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. But in respect to the street limits from going from 24 feet wide when you're getting a development approved to 28 foot wide or sidewalks. Do we have sidewalks or don't we have sidewalks? Have that pretty much stayed the same or

madam chair through you to council member Oswald. the sidewalks. That's outside of the purview of the zoning code and the street requirements are included in our subdivision regulations, but that was remained that was uh kept static that that remained the same with this proposed code. So, what is in there now will move forward. So, you know, that's another part of this zoning code was we looked at areas where it worked still and we kept that. We kept the good parts and we removed the parts that aren't working, that aren't functioning properly, that are slowing down people that are trying to do the right thing on their property or trying to open up a business. We saw where those problems lied and we tried to analyze that to the best of our ability. Uh, and that's what we came out with. Thank you,

Mr. Shonik. I think the thing that this council has grappled with the most are daycarees are the home daycarees. Can you speak to that and what changes that might make it easier for them to open their daycare centers?

Absolutely. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, through you, uh, we've looked at, uh, going back to what I was talking about earlier about Ohio revised code and looking at what the standards are. We spoke to that in this proposed code, type A and type B daycares. Type B are permitted by rights in any zoning district. So, we ensure that that this proposed zoning code was compliant with that. In terms of type A daycarees, you can imagine right now I believe you need 300 square footage of frontage. You need a exorbitant amount of property. It goes down the rabbit hole. So what we did with that is it is still conditionally permitted use. That way members of the community still have an opportunity to speak on these, you know, daycarees. But what we did was implement common sense requirements such as a fence, such as a buffering distance to ensure they aren't open up near smoker vape store, marijuana, recreational marijuana place, liquor store, so on and so forth. You go down the rabbit hole there, of course, but they're common sense requirements, but they have to be weighed still. So there's a checks and balances at the end of the day directed through planning commission to you guys. So we made it less of a hardship at the end of the day.

Thank you Mr. Schneider. Thank you uh Madame President through you. Um Mrs. Mitchell actually took one of the talking points I was going to ask you about which was the last topic which was home daycare. Um some of the other if you could touch base on some of the other items that we hear and see on this council often are obviously vape shops. If you could hit a little more on that. um chickens, you know, city chickens and the I believe there's some changes and you can clarify with corner lots with side setbacks and the I believe there's a 25 foot you can explain it uh sight line or something along those lines. So those are my three talking points I'd like you to just share. Thank you.

Uh madam chair through you to council member Schneider. So in terms of the uh vape stores um city of Cleveland last year they enacted legislation in their own zoning code uh keeping a living document there and they had buffer distances. They had in fact I believe it was about a mile between vape stores. So it was very significant. Um what we uh you know settled on was this thousand foot requirement across the board to avoid confusion, make this as simple as possible. But that a thousand foot requirement is there cannot be a smoke or vape store within 1,000 ft of another. Cannot be within a th00and ft of recreational medical marijuana, liquor store, schools, parks, daycarees, and that's to of course protect the community. That was the goal. Public health and safety was pretty much the original intent of zoning back in 26 with the Amler versus Uklid realy company. Boring planning 101 here, but that's where it began and that actually began in Cleveland metropolitan area. So that was sort of what we looked at with that public health and safety was the most important thing with that. Uh onto the chickens that is a permitted use conditionally though. So it has to go through planning commission. It has to go through city council uh for approval. And what they need to do is meet eight or nine criteria. There needs to be a fenced in yard. They need to be about 10 feet, I believe, or 11 feet from the property line due to not noise or odor concerns. Um, they need to be fenced in. Uh, chicken coupe, so on and so forth. And based on the acreage of the property, it needs to be, you know, that gives you how many chickens you can have. So, I believe at a quarter of an acre to a half, you can have up to four chickens. and it increases based on acreage. That was based on a lot of research that we did on uh best practices for chickens. So that's that's a fun thing to do uh during the workday. Um the third component um I'm sorry I I

apologize. What was the third question? The corner setback rule of sight.

So corner lots currently if you have a corner lot within the community we define that as two front yards. uh significant uh cases for board of zoning appeals that are usually approved uh for variances. Uh this has been a problem for many years. So what we looked at there is it will be based on the address street that the property is on. That will be the front yard. What is the sideyard is due to concerns of line of sight. We double the sideyard requirements. So let's say you have a property you need to have 5T of sideyard. It would have to be 10 feet from that property line. The building needs to be set back as to ensure that line of sight is met. Second point of that is we have what we call a vision clearance triangle. What that means is from the point of a lot you have to measure 25 ft in and that creates a triangle. That's essentially a no build zone and that's for two streets for corner lots as well as for a driveway and a street. So it allows for people to see backing out of their driveway or at the corner lot. no signs, no fences, none of that can be constructed there. And of course, a building, too. Um, so like I said, kind of went down the rabbit hole with this, but for good reason. I mean, we spent our time on this, went through it methodically. We made the revisions over the last few months that have been needed, but uh that's what we uh came up with for that, too.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Through you on that no zone, uh does that include landscaping, too? like they can't landscape in that clearance zone because I see a lot of corners where people will landscape and you know be a going forward thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, um I would have to look at it again. I don't recall if landscaping was part of the verbiage there, but I I do know it's fences, signs, buildings, accessories, structures, things of that nature that could really obstruct view. Um, but if you know, landscaping is a concern of course and it's not in there, that's something that we could address at a later time. Maybe a height requirement or something. Thank you

for you, Madam Chair. I want to thank you. I appreciate your transparency, your hard work, your team's work. Um, I think it's going to be great for our city. Uh, as you said, it's a living document. This can be changed. we're going to have to go up down in and around with things. So again, I just want to thank you. This was a a big undertaking

through you, Madam President. Um to second what Mrs. Roth Gary said. Thank you. This is been a journey. I've been there with you. Come and talk to you a lot. But the best thing to remember like Gary said, this is a living document and we can go back and do what we got to do if need be. So the thing I want to I'm going to I'm going to ask the hard question when it comes to the vape shops and all this. I just want you to explain to everybody here because you're going to have the limits by schools and all that. Now explain to everybody about the ones that are already in existence in our city. Madam President, through you to council member Armstrong, um they are grandfathered in at the end of the day. They would be considered non-conforming use, but if they do cease to operate, then it would be a different animal, of course. Um and if it's I believe um I don't have the code in front of me but if it's about a year or so of it's no longer operating then of course if somebody wishes to operate a vape store let's say it's hypothetically corridor designation it would not be able to operate there.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Van Warmer.

Thank you through you madam chair or madam president excuse me. Um just with a little clarification on an inhome daycare in a residence in a residential home that a daycare is provided. Just trying to go through and make heads or tails and just make sure that those folks are being protected as well. Thank you, Madam President. Through uh you to council member Van Warmer. Uh yes. So those would be conditionally permitted those at home daycarees. They would still have to meet the eight or nine criteria that are listed and it would still go through the checks and balances essentially of planning commission city council. But what we did was we alleviated the restrictions that are there currently. Like I said, it's 300 ft of frontage. No one has that in terms of, you know, any residential lot in the city. So common sense stuff that we implemented here.

Mr. Osw Madam Chair. So I know we had conversation on Airbnbs. So what did you end up with? um what we're going to do. Are we going to permit them? Um do they have to be signed up, licensed? Do they have contacts? Can you give me some particulars on that? Thank you,

Madam President. Throw you to Council Member Oswald. Um it is a conditionally permitted use based on the proposed code that we have in front of us. So it it would have to go through that uh cycle here. Um they I believe have to be within they cannot be within a thousand feet of each other. I I need to double check that of course. Um it's a unfortunately it's a 200page document and sometimes I'm I won't remember everything in in there but um you know I I believe it's a thousand foot buffer requirement from each other there um and it is conditionally permitted.

Mr. Osw can get that speaker to go. So the question more was the big problem with these Airbnbs is they're from out of state people and they're investing in a city of Valyria. We don't have good contacts when we're trying to see that there's an issue or something going on. What what's the process when they they know that there's an Airbnb? Do you have a contact that's living in a city that handles questions or problems that's going on? That's where the major problem is, I think. Thank you.

So, to answer your uh question, um what we're requiring in this proposed code is what we're calling a zoning confirmation letter. It's almost what you see with the building code of a certificate of occupancy. And they need that little letter. It's we don't have a a fee to attributed to it as of right now with the proposed code that would involve a update to the general fee schedule. But they would need that confirmation from me for the use to exist. So therefore, you would have a point of contact through that. That is our procedure that we have moving forward. Some other communities have enacted this zoning confirmation or what they'll call a zoning verification letter just to confirm from the zoning administrator or the city planner that this use is permitted. They can do it by right or it received conditional use approval. So that's sort of the process that we're looking at as to how to vet that. And that goes for not just Airbnbs. it goes across the board for any use that that is to filter these things through zoning because we've had historically issues people not getting zoning approval and just operating a business and and that creates an issue for them. So our goal of course with this updated code is to guide people better through the process. That's essentially why I'm here actually uh is to guide people through that process in a better more efficient manner and that of course is done through this code. Mr. Snder

through you, Madam President. Uh, director Shonig, on the u not director, Mr. Shonig. Um, on the uh plan unit developments, I know we had increased the density on some of the the uh components of of that. Now, are the common area percentages still the same or did we reduce the because I know there was a rule, wasn't there a rule with percentage of common area you had to have per housing? I know that we did change the ratio of housing, but is the common area requirement any different? Thank you,

Madam President. Three you to Council Member Schneider. So, we increase density. I believe we're at four or five dwelling units per acre. We increase that up to eight um to mirror some uh peer communities as well. Um there there are communities that go as high as 12 joining units per acre. Now, the key with this is planned unit developments. there's been a in the planning community there's been a direction away from PUDS overall. Now this code does speak to what we call the landmanium which is similar to our cluster development requirement. Um so it is listed in there and I do not have in front of me the requirements for the open space. I believe it was retained but I do know the density requirement was increased.

Thank you. Thank you. So, Mr. Shona, thank you. Thank you for taking all the questions. I think you've been very, very thorough with your answers. Mr. Shonik was available before all of this to answer any questions. I'm sure you will be available after to answer any questions. I think this is a good thing. Where's your hand up? Oh, okay. I think this is a good thing. And as he has said, this is a living document, which means it can be changed as we need it. as the city grows, which we hope it will, we can change this. So, I would like to feel see how you guys want to do. I think we should move forward.

Madame President, just if I may, a bit of housekeeping. So, just for um the members of council, uh if and when this should uh move out of committee, uh this would go uh just like actually any other request for a reszone. Although this is on a much more monumental scale, uh three readings before council and there will be a public hearing. U so and uh council uh would need to wait for that public hearing to to have the vote. So I just wanted to let you all know that. So we're not doing this tonight.

No, it this this would be your committee report. So should you wish to have a committee report, I just wanted to let you know that would be the next step. Once a committee report is prepared, then it would move on. legislation would be drafted and that legislation would have three readings. Okay. I would make a motion then that we move this to full counsel for that's the motion correct to move it to full counsel through you just um matter of housekeeping I would uh I believe that um that madam chair has a committee report if you'd like her to read

if you would read the committee report please. So I will read the committee report. We have considered the matter of the proposed zoning code. The proposed zoning code will result in the reszononing of all parcels within the city of Ayria. And this is an ordinance authorizing the said zoning code changes for all parcels within the city of Ayria. Can I get a motion please? Madam second. It's been moved and properly second. Any other discussion? Mr. through you. Madam President, are we going to give the public a chance to speak? Not tonight. It will go forward. Okay. We'll have three readings. There'll be a public hearing. Okay. They're allowed to speak during that time. Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Call for the question. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Don't leave until you sign the committee report, please. Madam Chair, excuse me. Yes, sir. If you don't mind, I can clarify. Council member Schneider's question regarding open space. It is 20%. Is 20%. Thank you for clarifying.

So again, there will be um legislation at the next full council meeting. There will be a public hearing where the public will