Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] well yeah the traffic 19th there so you're which is probably two of our families at least really easy yeah that was my only thought process to she some I yeah because it already my girlfriend was on 19 I mean on that stream um okay so we gonna continue I feel better now don't leave me leave me don't do it it's fine it's okay I like I can I could sweat a little bit it'll be fine fine I know but I know like e

that's winter saing the day yeah it's warmish in here they put the heat on for us so we wouldn't be cold that nice that's a fan storage up my hair man you miss I make a joke go ahead I'd be the first to admit it woke up on the wrong side of the bed that's right you're not muted

M because this is on hello Club yeah memo I'm glad yeah missed did not sorry no problem unless you want to be um Maria what's that oh no worries dude thank you together because you'll match yeah over there yeah I think there's a spot back there e he you guys ready ready okay all right

it's 5:30 I'll call this meeting into order Planning Commission March 6 2025 PA me please have the roll call Addie case present Cody cornette here John Grant Maria Pac is absent Carrie pipinich absent mark Pap off here Nick portella here thank you uh the Pledge of Allegiance please 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 all right thank you next is the approval of the agenda if everyone has approved or read the agenda may I please have a motion to approve with a second I move to approve the agenda second excellent all in favor of approving today's agenda raise your right hand say I I I thank you next is the approval of the minutes from the February 6th 2025 meeting I please have a motion to approve those minutes with a second I motion to approve those minutes I'll second that motion all in favor of approving the minutes from the February 6th 2025 meeting raise your right hand say I hi thank you next is uh public comment during this portion of the meeting anyone may speak on any subject that does not later appear on the agenda 5 minutes per person will be allowed I see we have a lot of guests in the audience um this would be for things that are not related to the subdivision that so anyone's here to speak on anything except for that now be the time okay okay then in that case we will

continue on to item seven a quasi judicial public hearing bear with me while I read through the script now is the time specified for the commission to conduct a quasi judicial public hearing to consider the following matter variance application number 13125 and application for approval to reduce the block width internal to a proposed to a proposed 29 lot single family residential subdivision at the Terminus of East 21st Street this hearing requires the commission to make its decision based on exclusively the applicable criteria the evidence and the record and specific findings the substantive criteria on which the commission will base its decision in this matter are found in the report excuse me are found in the staff report anyone who wishes to testify must be recognized by me the chair before testifying when I recognize you please proceed to the microphone and state your name and mailing address for the record the hearing is also required to be recorded generally the public hearing procedure will go as follows we will begin the staff report and any questions the commission may have for the staff after the staff report we will hear from the applicant if they choose to offer testimony next I will ask for testimony from the proponents of the application those in favor of granting the variance then I will ask for testimony for any opponents of the application those who are those who are against granting the variance finally I will ask for testimony from anyone else who wishes to offer relevant testimony or ask relevant questions after all other testimony the applicant will have an opportunity for final rebuttal to expedite the hearing Commissioners may ask questions of persons as they testify when this process has been concluded I will close the public testimony and the commission will deliberate towards the decision during the hearing some important standards apply first if you testify please address your testimony to the applicable sub substantive criteria or other criteria which the person believes

applies to the decision the comprehensive plan or the Dows Municipal Code title 10 second failure to raise an issue with enough detail to allow the Commissioners and the parties an opportunity to respond to that issue prohibits an appeal to land use board of appeals on that issue third failure to participate in this public hearing either orally or or or excuse me or or in writing precludes appeal to the land use board of appeals fourth prior to concluding the hearing any one may ask the record be held open for additional evidence or arguments if such a request is made the commission will either a continue the hearing to a time a date at least 7 Days in the future or B hold the record open for at least 7 Days finally the commission's final decision must include findings of fact demonstrating the applicable standards are met these are the rules are there any questions okay do any of the commission need to declare any Exar contacts conflicts of interest or bias no no I do not Nick nor you there Nick says no uh in that case the public hearing is now open may we please have the staff report thank you good evening chair members of the commission for the record Sandy fre uh senior planner with the Department of Community Development city of the Dallas um let me no there it goes sorry let me share on my screen for the presentation okay okay thank you so uh the applicant Jason Alfred requests a variance uh to vary a development standard to the minimum block width for proposed 29 lot residential subdivision uh this is an overview of the subject site for the conceptual 29

lot subdivision the project is located at the Terminus of East 21st Street pursuant to the dowas municipal code the minimum block width for local streets are required to be at least 200 feet the applicant cannot meet the minimum width and proposes 132t average uh as represented by the uh purple dash line on this Slide the variance request to the de vment code standards must meet the review criteria listed in the Dallas Municipal Code uh criteria a through F and starting on page three of your staff report are the findings related to the review criteria for the request um findings 9 through 14 explain how each finding has been met and I'm going to go through them I won't read them for btim so uh if we start with uh a the proposed variants will not be contrary to the purposes of this title policies of the comprehensive plan or any other applicable policies and standards adopted by the city the variance uh staff has found the variance to not be contrary to the purposes of the title or the comprehensive plan or any other applicable policies and standards adopted by the city uh the variance request pertains to the configuration of the internal block width minimum width requirements uh with that it remains consistent with the intent of the city's planning goals uh as proposed to shorter block width will not negatively impact pedestrian accessibility or vehicle circulation it will provide for walkability connectivity and efficient use of space without conflicting with the adopted policies and standards and staff has met that criteria for finding b or excuse me criteria B uh exceptional or extraordinary circumstances applicable to the

site the characteristics of the site make it difficult to meet the minimum block width and standards specifically unique to the property is the topography limited site access and adjacent development patterns over onethird of the site is constrained by steep slopes uh 25% or greater and it limits the ability to design the roads with the Lots proposed uh within the building area to meet the city's uh density requirements the site has limited access there's only one accessible Road proposed um there's no uh access to the South and the neighboring property uh to the South is outside of the city's Urban growth boundary to the north of the side is private and undedicated Road constrained by uh steep terrain and it prevents the secondary access and let me just ask you would it be helpful if I had that site plan up while I go through these criteria for you that' be nice okay let's do that that's not the best one um I'll just leave this one up for you so we can see it we have a slide later for that shows the Topography of the site okay okay uh adjacent uh development patterns is part of that uh criteria B the site is Boxed In by surrounding development uh development patterns to the West is established subdivision and the lot sizes range from 7,000 to 21,000 Square ft to the north is the hospital and to the east is undeveloped land within the urban growth boundary but outside the city limits and to the South uh the area is used for agricultural uses and also outside of the urban growth

boundary the constraints uh prevent uh limit access and development options by making it difficult to expand the SES Dimensions to meet the 200 100t minimum block width requirement and I just want to go back one slide to show you what we're talking about with block width because I view it as depth but it's this the purple north to south the vertical line if you take all these lots and average the depth that's what we call block width so there's width vertically and length east to west or west to east review criteria C is the variance is necessary for the preservation of a property right of the applicant which is substantially the same as owners of other property in the same zone of vicinity uh if the site were flat accessible at least by at least two public rights away and not surrounded by less intensive land uses uh a variance would not be necessary um the property owners in the low residential density District uh whose properties do not have these unique constraints would be able to design a subdivision fully that complies with the standards um however if they were met with the same constraints they would also be applying for variance as designed for review criteria D the conditions or circumstances justifying the variants have not been willfully or purposely self-imposed and do not result from a violation of this title since its effective date uh title 10 finding 12 uh reflects that criteria the unique characteristics of the site slopes greater than 25% on over onethird of the site uh are not a result of a violation or self-imposed hardship on the applicant they're pretty constrained on how to develop and Design

This proposed subdivision um because of the slopes criteria e the proposed variance will not substantially reduce the amount of privacy enjoyed by users of neighboring land uses if the variance were not allowed the proposed layout of the variance does not uh substantially reduce the Privacy enjoyed by neighboring properties uh if the variants were granted uh the request is for the reduction in block with internal to the subdivision uh and it will not adversely affect the privacy of neighboring land uses or affect existing Lots immediately abing the subdivision to the west and last criteria F the proposed variance is the minimum variance which would alleviate the difficulty again the requested variance is for Block width reduction from the minimum of 200 ft uh and it's necessary to address the unique site constraints including the steep slopes limited axis and surrounding development patterns so after reviewing during the review criteria staff has been able to meet the criteria each one as required by the code and with that staff recommends the Planning Commission move to adopt the resolution number PC 626 a-25 approving variance number 131-7 as conditioned and staff has provided two Alternatives they listed on the slide and I believe you have them handed out to you at the dis as well with that I conclude my presentation I'm I'm open for questions at this time thank you oh I'm sorry yes we sent out the supplemental agenda because we did not

have these alternative recommendation uh choices in there for you with two resolutions okay um I was just wondering if there was a traffic study that was done uh okay so I didn't know if there was any find that would be presented on on that no I mean we're not reviewing the subdivision tonight even though it's connected to this if you will when we review the subdivision it's an administrative type review it's a type two L's application it doesn't require quasi judicial hearing with that said um everything that's required for that application has been reviewed accordingly including the ti the traffic impact study and so the subdivision needs this variance or it won't move forward if this moves forward and ultimately the subdivision can move forward with a decision uh a favorable decision with conditions um those are appealable the decisions are always appealable but um it's met all the criteria thus far as far as what's required to be submitted for that application in the review thank you welcome um are all the I don't I didn't do all the math on the plat map but are all the Lots still above the 5,000 ft minimum yeah okay the uh Lots range from the minimum requirement of 5,000 square ft up to 15,928 Ft okay perfect any other questions for staff right now no okay yeah all right thank you uh in that case does the applicant wish to testify hello commission uh Darren Ekman

representing the applicant Jason Alford I'm with AKs engineering and Forestry 3775 crates way the Dallas Oregon and I'm Jamie Crawford I'm also representing the applicant with AKs um at 377 five crat sway thank you uh so first of all we would like to state that we're very appreciative of Staff support for this variance request uh we feel that the CR that the staff report is accurate in its findings and uh we feel that we have met the criteria required to to receive the variance as uh staff has noted the site is extremely challenged not due to the applicant's self-imposed uh dealings Sandy would it be possible to show that PDF that we provided and this might be real illustrative of what's going on uh so the property in question is highlighted or outlined in red and all the orange areas are slopes that exceed 25% to give you an idea of a 25% slope this desk is roughly 6 feet long so it would climb about a foot and a half in the 6 feet of rise okay as you can see I've actually noted that some of the areas are much steeper than 25% uh for example on lot nine it it's it's 30% plus uh on Lot 21 it's 50% which is basically a two to one slope so in the same desk the the ground would Rise 3 feet uh over to the north bedge at 65% and there are some are some areas

that approach 90% a 100% slope is basically a one:1 or a 45 degree angle if you notice our roads that we laid out are where they're the only flat ground that's actually on the property and trying to establish a different Road layout that would meet the internal block width is almost impossible due to the extreme ground slope conditions that that exist on the site um oh oh I did want to add commissioner cornette uh you had asked about the lot sizes even with this variance all the Lots meet the minimum lot width requirement of 50 fet they also all meet the minimum lot depth requirement 65 feet the only thing that the variance allows us to do is basically have what are conceived as through Lots however they won't be that that you know just due to the topography those lots that front on both uh I can't quite read but that the north Ro Loop Road and and 21st Street uh they'll take access off of only one street and it's pretty obvious just based upon the topography which road that they can access onto or off of so the variance doesn't Grant approval of exceptions to other conditions of a subdivision okay and if I could just add to that so obviously we have um zoning criteria and standards to meet a certain purpose or intent one of the intentions of the minimum or minimum lot width standard is to avoid through Lots like the ones that we're proposing um however due to the steep slopes access can only be from

from one way on the slot so they they function essentially with a very very steep backyard that is going to maintain privacy um and essentially not have um not create um an uh complicated I guess building pattern um which could be perceived for through Lots if you're just on a flat plane so um approving this variance also uh won't have any impacts to to traffic um we are still within well actually we're below wait how long how wide is the lot minimum of 50 feet Oh you mean the block or the block yeah okay well um 600 I think or thereabouts so meeting yeah so we're below the maximum for um um the block length and even by reducing the block width if you think about the intention for how pedestrians move around the site we're actually providing less than the typical you know block standard for the city of the DS so moving you know from one point from a block or you know in the in the subdivision to another would be comparable if not less than what is technically like permitted in the code right now um did you have something to add I didn't know if you wanted some actual numbers but for example the minimum BL block width is 200 ft and the minimum or maximum length is 600 ft but anything over 450 must have a pedestrian access to cut through so if you can imagine a rectangle that is 200 ft by 450 ft it would actually take you 650 ft of walking to get from to the diagonal corners on that rectangle okay with the

internal block that we have laid out the maximum distance to go halfway around or basically get from one corner to the other is 554 feet I believe so it's almost 100 feet less than what the city standardized block would be okay and just so there's no uh confusion there is no such thing as a standard block within the city uh and looking through the different plats that both surround this property and throughout the community as as nice as is that would be the Dows itself is topographically challenged with different land forms and other things that must you know drainages and other things that must be protected and you know therefore it's uh it's not just a cookie cut or 200 foot by 450 foot block layout throughout the community sorry real quick will um either you or staff Define what a through lot is just for the record so everyone knows exact what we're talking about when we say the word through lot um so the common way to to think about it is double Frontage so you have double Frontage on or you have Frontage on this Ridge Road and then on the East 2 21st Street um and so you have technically you could take access theoretically from either one of those and I'll add to that a little bit too is that um the code there's mention of you know through lots are not necessarily encouraged at all times but the code does allow them and when a through lot is proposed and we we approve them um when it is proposed we just this one has the topographic constraints but whenever a through lot is proposed we always require that the

on the deed that access on one side is restricted so we are making sure that you cannot have double front AG driveways so that's one thing so we do allow through Lots we just restrict driveways here um we will still have that restriction but um for all purposes they wouldn't be even attempting to put driveways on each side because of the topography on that Northern side of the internal block okay got it um and then if I could just expand upon that as well as a Sand's um staff report we meet all other ceria related to the subdivision of the site um and we can meet that either through the our existing proposal for the subdivision or with conditions of approval that staff has suggested and and um will potentially like could be approved this is the only standard that the subdivision is not meeting currently um with the city's code so perfect with that if you guys have any other questions any other any other questions for the applicant no I'm good all good all good thank you thank you thank you sure okay moving along from that does anyone wish to testify in favor of the application if so please come on up and state your name and address for the record okay no one in favor okay moving on does anyone wish to testify in opposition to the application if so please come on up and state your name and address for the record okay making this easy on me um does anyone wish to testify or ask questions on this matter not in favor opposition but just general questions thoughts things like this uh if so please state your name and address for

the record all right strong audience very very aeny um through that through that does it do the Commissioners feel they have enough information to make a decision sure okay I do as well all right in that case we are ready for deliberations the public testimony of the excuse me the public testimony portion of this hearing is now closed and deliberate we will We Shall do do we have any do we have anything talk about deliberations or do we feel comfortable just making straightforward I'm in the straightforward bus yeah call the question or not call question yeah but um I will make the motion to move to adopt resolution number PC 626 a-25 approving variance number 1 31-25 based on the findings of fact and conclusions of law set forth in the agenda staff Report with specify conditions of approval second excellent a motion has been made to adopt resolution number PC 626 a-25 approving variants number 131-i I I that's unanimous sorry Addie Addie uh thank you that motion has been made and approved so next we will go down here to resolution bear with

me hey chair chair cornette it's Jonathan yes hi so it sounds like the um the motion was was approved and uh adopted just now so I'm not so sure that there needs to be any further action on that it sounds like the the Planning Commission just adopted that resolution oh got it I'm sorry I was gonna adopt the res I was gonna vote to adopt the resolution as well but we have so yeah yeah it's a bit formalized thank you pardon the redundancy okay then in that case that concludes that topic thank you all so much for coming for that um next is Staff comments and project updates yeah I'll be quick try to get out of here maybe at six o'clock um so we are currently working on flood plane um new flood plane requirements um we're working to have those potentially in front of the Planning Commission sometime in May um those are just going to come through not as a discussion but really we're going to move it through to just the adoption process in it there isn't a lot of wiggle room that we have um these are federal and state requirements so there will be some new um flood plane requirements coming hopefully May coming to the Planning Commission and then going on to city council before the springtime is over um next coming up in in one of the meetings next month potentially probably the first meeting in April um we're going to bring forward this discussion item for you this idea of um somewhat restructuring the Planning Commission um this isn't going to have an impact so much on the members of the Planning Commission this is going to really uh have an impact on the operations of the Planning Commission um this idea that we're proposing is something um you know employing something called a hearings officer a hearings officer their um the interest is growing around the state hearings officer is actually um a hired

land use attorney that hears decisions like variances conditional use permits things like that and it leaves the planning commission's review to you know um codend amendments and visioning exercises and things of that nature so um more to come on that um Wasco County is currently using a hearings officer and what we found what they find is um it's actually it can be quicker in the land use process overall you know there's the coordination of pulling together a Planning Commission meeting and the appeals that can may go along with it there is a structure where hearings officer could actually be the city's last decision so a case like this a variance application although the state allows 120-day review it could be basically the decision could be made as soon as like an evening you know like tonight's evening uh tonight's meeting so um it can expedite the land use process over there overall which is something that we always strive to do but a discussion um that will be in front of you so it would require maybe some shifting to the overall structure of the Planning Commission and then also taking a look at reducing um we do have scheduled two meetings every month for Planning Commission the idea that we're proposing is to potentially just drop that to one meeting a month so that we can actually be consistent and have those meetings and plan to have meetings for the Planning Commission um the hearings officer would be a separate um separate idea um the reasoning around some other reasonings around the the dropping it to one meeting a month is actually we've gone back as you noticed this last year we canceled a lot of meetings um looking back we did historically over the past 11 years we've canceled more meetings in the past 11 years than we've held meetings so I think it's enough justification for us to have just one meeting a month okay um so just some ideas that'll be thrown out total discussion item we'd like to bring it in front of city council sometime in

April as well so um it's not an instantaneous thing it will require some some work on our end changing of the code going through an RFP process of hiring a land use attorney to oversee that so there's still you know um we have the information really compiled that we want to bring in front of you hear your thoughts on it but this is maybe like a little precursor something some idea to think about but it is an idea that is actually kind of growing with you know other municipalities around the state just to just to speed up our land use process because that is that is one thing we hear all the time the Oregon land use system it's very unique um and it's also something that um has its delays built into it and it slows down development period so just out of curiosity is that a paid position that the it would be a contracted position so it would be strictly a contract that we enter into and they would be on an as needed basis okay so basically they would get paid for how often they yep exactly yep um the other just want to note we have um following this decision this evening we have the staff report pretty much ready to go for the subdivision so we are going to be working on hopefully this next week working on getting the decision out for the subdivision um that was the little hangup that we found we we've completed our review almost I don't know probably two months ago on this subdivision maybe three months ago that was the last finding that could not be met and that's why we requested that the applicant pursue the variance um so now that they've they've crossed that barrier of course there is an appeal period that we have to wait out for this variance but then we could move forward on reviewing that sub division sy's also working on another subdivision it's like another 25 unit subdivision on the west side of town um and she's you know we're we're hopefully going to be processing

that by next week so there's some movement um on some subdivisions at least uh We've also approved a subdivision over by the veterans and um that they've actually submitted AKs is also the engineer on that they've submitted their their final plan so that one has already made it through the land use process and now we're getting into actually reviewing the civil engineering work so hopefully that the 13 unit on like the downhill side of Columbia View Drive yep yeah it's like 15 yep yeah um so it was it was a subdivision that was actually approved 20 years ago and in that period of time they actually they did a lot of the ground workor and they already created like a terrorist property so that um it went away I'm guessing it was probably around they were ready to build probably around 2008 with the recession so that that's when we saw a lot of subdivisions just sit still so now they're coming back and it's you know thankfully they don't have to do as much grading work on it because it was it was graded out years ago so um movement on on some subdivisions which is good to see and then also um just in FYI we also received a building permit for the basal Commons project so that was received last week so we are as you know that one has made it through the land use process as well so we will be reviewing the basal Commons um development and hopefully um getting that issued here in the next month month and a half and that is all I have but happy to answer any questions how's uh Staffing for the um it's we are in the man it's been a hiring frenzy um I was telling somebody I have I've I've been suckered into um helping with a lot of interviews over at Public Works um when I checked last we had actually 10 positions overall at the city of the Dallas that we're hiring for um in our office we are

in the process of our Economic Development officer Dan spots will be retiring at the end of the month so we are actively trying to um uh recruit for that position we've had some um initial interviews so we are kind of working through that process um also for our our secretary position it um we have some interviews set up for that so I think I counted I'm in n nine different interviews next week for varying positions so um it it's good to see um we're starting to see a lot more um people applying for these positions which is great I mean it it hit a period of time where some of our positions would go out there and we would have one or two applicants maybe um this position here had 45 the other day so all position yeah so there is you know a lot a lot um a lot of energy around the Ing and it's and it's great you know so thank you for asking though it's hopefully we'll be feeling the position here um this month both those positions this month cool yep and that is it for me okay um any commissioner comments or questions I just have a quick statement I will not if we have a meeting on July 17th I will not be here um just FYI I'll be out of town that week appreciate the four months notice on that one yeah yeah just know it's I know it's coming location I got a I got a plan yeah but other than that that's it all good all right guys meeting adjourned EAS