Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

6:45 the meeting session will come to order. We have a presentation. Jeremy, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. the uh this is a uh reszoning application for two parcels at 115 East North Street and 121 East North Street owned by ATM Properties LLC. Um the applicant is proposing to reszone these two parcels shown here on the on the map there behind the old dairy suite. um one is a um former florist who was florist for a very long time and then the other one was most recently a daycare. Um to be reszoned from LC local commercial to CCM corridor commercial. Um the applicant is interested in redeveloping these two parcels for a m one or two mixed use buildings first floor commercial and second floor apartment of some sort similar to a two-story multi-use building um where the Marmy's Dairy Suite is. Um so for the this is governed. So that's the these are the um street view of the two parcels seeking to be reszoned. I'm sure all of you have seen them at one point in time just off of East North Street. Um so what governs whether or not a property can be legally reszoned or not is the the what's called the future land use map of the comprehensive plan. So when we went through the in 2019 and 2020 with the planning commission um we had identified all the parcels that directly front US13 for corridor commercial which is the higher density mixed juice zoning district. Um and the planning commission in particular had a lot of discussions about well what about the properties that are immediately behind the properties along US13 specifically the Smyrna shopping center the former Acme which is now the power and praise I believe that's the power the church where the old acne used to be uh and then essentially this block of

fronting on um uh East Street to US3 and what they opted on was um these are these areas are generally older suburban um lowdensity suburban type commercial uses and a lot of these buildings have been put in in the 50s and 60s and 70s. Um they wanted to give the existing property owners the ability to be able to keep their existing uses, keep their existing zoning, but they wanted to give property owners and developers the ability to be able to apply for reszoning to that higher density corridor commercial district. So they identified these as transitional corridor which essentially allowed them to keep the existing zoning in place or they can opt to up what's called upzoning. Uh and this is the language directly from the comprehensive plan. And I point you to the to the second paragraph. um they're allowed to retain their underlying highway commercial or shopping center zoning, but they have the ability to apply for a reszoning if the property owner or developer would like to redevelop set properties. Okay. So, these properties are both zoned um LC local commercial as is. Um the old Acme um you have a series of properties along the front Glenwood Avenue uh that are in a similar uh transitional zoning identification and are currently zone LC local commercial. So I think that is it. This was um reviewed by the planning commission at their November the 5th special meeting and uh it was given a unanimous recommendation by the planning commission for you to be um to be reszoned to corridor commercial. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions and turn it over to the applicant as well.

Are there any plans for uh like renovating the existing buildings or or I would defer to the applicant, but my understanding is not. It's the tear down and rebuild. guy. Yeah, the the buildings themselves are were built. I think the the barber shop was built in 1970s. It was a doctor's office, a pizzeria, a number of things. Um, it's obsolete and the current and the old daycare is past its time for renovation. It used to be the courthouse I believe in Smyrna and it's I mean it would just cost way it's cheaper for me to build okay

at that point. So yeah then I'm just going to tear them down. Okay. And Mr. Johnson could you identify yourself for the public hearing? I'm sorry. Bob Johnson uh 2018 Town Road Dover Delaware. Well these businesses get notices of what's going to happen. What's that? They get notice of what's going to happen. You mean the business is now? Yeah. Currently are in that. Well, the the daycare I purchased, they it's vacant. Okay. And the barber shop is my tenant and I've talked to him. He's excited. He's ready to go into a new space. Okay.

You see, he's not going anywhere. Uh the barber shop son, the son of um across the street, his name escapes me. Uh Kevin is the son. He's running a barber shop and he's he's decided to move into New Digs. So, it's good to go. So, this is going to be stores on the bottom, apartments on the top.

Um, yeah, that is the plan. That's what the reasonzoning would permit. similar to um the building would likely be a similar configuration to the where the building where Marmary's um uh crearyy is where you have a retail business on the first floor of some sort or potentially services like a barber shop and then the second floor would most likely be apartments but it could be an office like Mr. Johnson has his offices up there. Okay. My question is they're parking so Ernie ain't booting more cars. So the that would be taken care of as part of the site plan process that that would be done after the resoning. So they would be required to conform to the parking requirements in the zoning ordinance. So

and everybody that comes there will be will know that there's a fire siren so they ain't complaining about it. Right. I'm the number one complainer. I know. So any other questions? All right. Well, Jeremy, thank you very much. Thank you. This concludes the 6:45 session. We will uh adjourn and commence at 7:00 for the regular council meeting.

7 o'clock regular meeting for the town council will come to session. Everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of America. and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a brief moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. Roll call, please. Good evening, everyone. Good evening,

Councilman Drew here. Mayor Got, Councilman Johnson here, Councilman Miles, Councilman Olsen here, Councilman Pope here, and Vice Mayor Dr. Upure. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. All righty. Before you you have the published agenda. Are there any additions or deletions to this published agenda? If not, can we have a motion to approve? A second. Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes. Item six, consent agenda. We have the council meeting uh excuse me, meeting minutes from November the 3rd, 2025. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes from November 3rd? So move. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. All right. Item passes.

Brings us to number seven, non-aggenda items. Starting with mayor and council. Um, as you can see, we do have a few of our council members that are not here. Um, they are away. I believe it's in New Orleans if I'm not mistaken. Uh so we hope that they're you know having safe travels. I want to first uh congratulate um the town manager and the staff for a very successful Veterans Day program that we held at the opera house last week. Very well attended. Uh it was a very great uh very good event. Um it was great to see all the veterans and I think there was one uh young man who was 98 years old.

That was it. Uh he was It was fabulous.

Yeah, it it was it was amazing. So, thank you so much to the entire staff, Amanda, everyone. You guys did an awesome job with that. Um, of course, next week, it's hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is coming just next week. Uh, it'll be upon us. So, I hope that everyone uh does have a safe and uh good Thanksgiving coming up. Um, also, you know, don't forget to check in on your neighbors. you know, there's somebody that uh, you know, might be in need of a little something, you know, give them a little hand. I love the Thursday tidbits. A lot of helpful information in there as far as resources, events, and activities that are going on in the town. If you have not signed up for uh the receiving of the Thursday tidbits, I would encourage you to do so. And finally, I just want to say that um thank you to the uh town crews that go out daily to do a lot of great work from leaf collection to yard waste collection. They're doing an amazing job. We've been getting a lot of positive comments and feedback on the work that's being done daily and so we can't thank the staff uh from public works and the electric departments and all throughout the town staff for what you uh with that uh Councilman Drew I'll turn it over to you. You have anything?

Yes. Um the veterans um being honored was very humbling experience. Um just to hear the careers uh of what they've done over um the years was very um very exciting. Um of course I had a chance to have one of um my veterans that I chose um and he actually came up to me and he just said thank you. Um but he's a man of many words. So for him to say thank you meant a lot. So um and I said well do you want to stay because they have food upstairs. said, "No, I want to get out of here." But, um, but no, it was it was very very well put together.

Um, you know, looking forward to the next time we have that event. Um, but yeah, so thank you for all who served. Um, I'm a young man, so when I heard some of the stuff, I said, "Ronald Reagan, I said, what's going on?" So, and also I want to thank the police department for keeping this town safe. Um, this man right here does a lot that that you don't see. So, I want to thank you um for keeping us safe. And um that's all I have. Okay, Councilman Olsen.

Well, it it looks like the next council meeting we're going to be considering the budget. I'd like to urge my fellow council members to not forget the taxpayers of Smyrna who voted to have their tax burdens reduced somewhat at least. Councilman Johnson. Um, just like to thank the town employees for what they do. Um, had a few calls this week. Um, everybody praising the guy driving the leaf back truck, what a great job he does. And it's good to get phone calls of people complimenting the town or something instead of complaining about what the town's doing. Um, two Sundays ago went to the veterans breakfast over to the Maritan Legion. Had a great breakfast. Um, met a lot of vets and, uh, ran into some old friends, so that was a good time. That's all I have.

All right, Chief Donner. Uh, everything's going well with the recruits. I was just with them before this meeting. Uh, sizing sizing them up for some gear. Um, steady forward. Everything's going well. Sounds good. All right. Thank you. Town manager.

Uh, this one's a short one. Um, the first thing is is we're going to talk about the electric, right? That that always seems to be the conversation that we see. So, we we had three over the weekend. It was a was a busy weekend for the crew. Um, we were two squirrels less in town. Two of them. Um, and one of them actually was a primary break, so it actually was a legitimate break that happened. Um, the crew did an amazing job. They got it identified and quickly turned back on. So, um, you know, we do apologize for any issues that's caused for anybody, but some of them, again, I keep saying they're they're uncontrolled. So, but we've lost two two squirrels. Um, you're going to see some changes coming through. One of the biggest changes you're seeing is is you'll start seeing code enforcement during the weekends.

So, just kind of making sure that things are followed during the weekends um to make sure because unusually things happen after 4:00 on Fridays. So, um that's a change that you'll see that that they're going to be out and about. Um we did just as Council Nos said, um we completed our final um meeting with the budget committee um and it went well. So, looking forward to that presentation next uh next meeting. Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Item eight, old business including discussion and possible action. Uh we don't have anything listed under that. So we will move down to item nine. New business including discussion and possible action on the following items. Item A, an application from ATM Properties LLC to reszone 115 East North Street, tax map ID 1-17- 01 013- 03- 0400 0-00001 and 121 East North Street. Tax map ID 1-17- 01013- 03- 0300 0 dash0000001 from LC local commercial to CCM corridor commercial in the town of Smyrna. Jeremy, the floor is yours.

Thank you. So, you um already gave my brief uh report as part of the public hearing, but if you have any follow-up questions, again, this this is um permitted uh and was envisioned as part of the 2020 comprehensive plan under the transitional corridor land use designation to be able to allow property owners of older, lower density, suburban style commercial buildings to be able to redevelop their property at a higher um zoning district, a higher land use designation. the corridor commission. So, it is permitted. This would be our first one who's who's requested the reasonzoning. Um, but it is this was something that was envisioned as part of the comprehensive plan process.

Discussion, any questions? None. Do we have a motion to approve uh this application? So, moved. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. What I'd like to do, Bear, do we need to have an individual voice count for this with a statement of the reasoning behind our vote? So, I think right now the vote is four to zero. So, we don't need to have a separate voice vote, but we do need to have everybody state their reasons for their vote. All right, sounds good. So, I'll start with you, Councilman Drew. Could you please state your reason for your vote? Uh, I vote yes. Um, and I think it's comprehensive to the plan.

Thank you, Councilman Olsen. I vote for it for the same reason. It's in line with the comprehensive plan. Thank you, Councilman Johnson. I vote yes for the same reason. Thank you. I vote yes if it's within the scope of the comprehensive plan. Thank you, Jeremy. Appreciate it.

Brings us to item 10, presentation and public comments. If you have any comments, please take the podium, state your name. Uh, you have three minutes to actually make your comment. Is there anyone that would like Yes, sir. Go right ahead. Good evening everyone. My name is Lyra Steski. Uh, I'd just like to thank the council and everyone else involved for the veterans recognition at the opera house. uh as being one of the recipients, I was totally amazed. Um it was beyond the scope that I had ever envisioned it it being and the banner that's going to be flown. My banner is going to be out there. It's it's pretty impressive. So again, thank you for the work and everything else that went into it.

And we want to thank you for your service, Mr. Thank you so much. That's all I have. Ready? Any other comments? Yes, ma'am. The other one gets up.

My just asking. Um, I just want to say about the tidbits.

They are fabulous. You hit on every single thing that you could possibly hit on. Those tidbits let you know everything that is going on in this town as far as opportunities to be involved. It's It was great. And I too want to thank the council and the town and everyone that was involved with that um um the veterans program. It certainly was um something that you should all be proud of. You did a great job. Thank you.

Um I just have a question. Would Erica from the um Duck Creek Regional be here? Hi. I had your paperwork. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else for public comments? Okay, with that make a motion we adjourn. We have a second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Meeting is adjourned.