City Council - Regular Meeting

your position there will give us Are we good to go then? Mics will go live in three, two, one. Don't believe it. Thank you, Mr. for for starting us off there. Okay. The Municipal Planning Commission for April the 9th uh 2026 will now come to order. Mr. Chairman, will you call the role please? Todd Hawkins here. Anna Ellsworth here. Gregory Ashnik here. Matthew Star here. Tanner Solers here.

Okay. In the agenda packet were the meeting minutes from March 12th. Were there any additions or corrections? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve as presented? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving, please say I. I

oppose. Same sign. They are approved. Okay. Today we have a couple of uh of u matters to discuss. But before I we get into that, I just want to I want to go over I always do this for for every meeting. And so um as a reminder to everyone here today, the purpose of the municipal planning commission is to balance the public good with private property rights and interests. Also, the commission carries out all other powers and duties conferred upon it by the city of Mount Vernon's zoning ordinance and other city ordinances and the laws of the state of Ohio. This is a public meeting and there are rules of decorum we follow. We are committed to the democratic process, individual rights of expression, robust debate and tolerance for different different viewpoints. The following general rules of civility are expected, including addressing others in a respectful manner, no insulting, personal attacks, intimidating or offensive communications, no harassment, no willful destruction or damage of property, and no disruptive behavior. Uh please also, if you have cell phones, silence them now uh so they don't disrupt the uh disrupt the meeting and in progress. Also, uh refrain from any private conversations during the meeting. Uh if you need to come and go through out the meeting, you can do so. Just please do so in the least disruptive manner possible. Uh if you're offering public comment today, you must first be sworn in. There is a statement that is at the lect turn over there. Uh and keep your comments to four minutes or less unless you are actually presenting on the case and we'll have probably questions for you as well. Um again, purpose of this commission is to oversee that the law is followed and planning occurs within which the spirit of those laws and regulations have been adopted by the city of Mount Vernon and the state of Ohio. So with that, we have a couple of cases that we are going to be uh going over uh today. And so uh Mr. Sherman, would you please uh start with the first case?

Absolutely. 2026 MPC10 uh summary. Applicant on behalf of the owner requests a zoning amendment to reclassify two parcels 667885.0000 and 66-05577.0000 from R1 single family residential district to GB general business district located at 804 Kosakton Avenue. The parcels to the media east and north are zone GB. The parcels to the west and south are zoned R1. Okay. And uh who will be speaking on this particular matter for us?

Yeah, sir, if you want to come on up. We'll have you uh uh read that statement and then uh the floor will be yours. Bless you. My name is Paul Engel. My address is 3213 Southwest bypass Springfield, Missouri. Um I affirm that my testimony is truthful and to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God or under penalty a perger. And here's my Mr. Ringle, the floor is yours.

Yep. U we are the civil engineers for Riley Auto Parts. Um so thank you all for taking time out of your schedule to be here today. I know this is a lot of work to volunteer. So thank you everybody. We are proposing to reszone the two lots to the west of our current store and build a new store. I don't know if you've seen the one we have there. Hopefully you've all come there regularly and you're there weekly. Um it's in a bit disarray. The site is pretty rough and it's needs some refreshing. So, the new store and I don't know if you received any copies of the plans or the site plan that was submitted. I have some copy. Well, there you go. Um, so that substantially cleans up the access, provides safer access for our customers, also fixes the AD area, and gives us a new fresh look in that community, which there's a lot of activity going on out there. So, it'll be nice to kind of lighten that up. Um, we understand there's residential to the west of us, and we're very accommodating with that. We have some landscape plans that try to put some buffers in there. So, I can share those with you today or that'll be part of the review process, whatever you like. But

Sure. Could you just and u that was one of the questions that I was going to ask. You got just explain a little bit about the buffering and the Yeah. how you're going to handle the that stuff. That would be great. And I don't know if we submitted landscape plans electronically. Was I don't think it was for this. Um if it's all right. I I mean I know we're getting ahead of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this obviously we're talking about reszoning, but um the buffering obviously accommodates it. So our store will sit about 30 ft off that property line and then we have shrubberies, trees going in there. We pushed a little bit more into that area.

Um also we won't have any like lights on that side. We won't have any windows that shine anything that direction. It's just going to be the nice material face of the building. Um it'll it's a very quiet business. You know, they operate typically 7 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and there's no service. It's all just come in, buy your parts, and go on your way. So, I think it's been a great fit for the community. I went by the store and asked the team members, you know, they've been letting customers know, hey, you know, we're looking trying to get a new store, and customers are super excited. One, they like the cleanup area. They like the two accesses for getting in safer. Um, they also like the fact that property to the west was kind of

struggling a little bit, the current one that we're buying, and so this will clean up some of that stuff. They're really happy that the squatters are gone. So, okay. All right. Essentially, it's retail store, 7,400 square foot. Great fit for a community and I'm here to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Engel? So, I will go ahead and get out in front of this. Um, you said that there will be no service uh there's no plans to grow the facility for a service uh station, right? Yeah. No, the rally does not do service. Okay, we're the professional just bracing ourselves. We're the professional parts people.

Yeah. And the beauty about, you know, and I I totally understand the beauty about O'Reilly Auto Parts is they're a start off as a family business and essentially they still operate that way. They are self-owned. They own all their properties. And if you have an issue with the site, you can contact them and you're talking to the owner of the land. I mean, this is a corporation that is founded in family values. And I can say that because I've done 4,000 projects with them over the last 27 years and I work with a lot of other clients and this is a client that I consistently am impressed with how they do their business. They want to be a long-term tenant as you can tell from the store that's been there for a hot minute and they want to continue staying there. So

that's great. Um, we repeatedly tell the public that we don't vote on bringing oil change or lube shops here. And then, as luck would have it, here we come to vote on a oil change or lube shop. So, just wanted to clarify, you know, that uh that's not exactly what we're doing here. And even if it even if it was, you know, you have a company that wants to invest in expanding that. So, is what it is. Um, second question I would ask would be, um, with the expansion of the business, would that would we be reasonable to expect that there would be more jobs that would come? Now, I know that you're not speaking directly for O'Reilly, are you? Or

Yeah. I mean, I think the answer is yes. And the reason why is we're going to get a bigger store. We're going to There's a there's a lot of costs going with new cars these days. It still continues, right? So, people are maintaining. We need to be able to stock, which is in the store itself. I don't know if you've been in one. The front area is for customers and the rear area inside is for storage of parts. We just have a huge demand on the mechanic side which most people don't realize about 60% of the business is service to mechanics. And so that helps keep competitive cost down when your car breaks down. So with that, we need more help. And like they run about five to eight full-time employees. This one are probably closer to the eight because of the business in that area. We also have a mechanics just east of us. And so we continue to serve them too. Sure.

So I think the answer would be yes. So right now you're looking right now this this shop would have about an eight full-time. That's our standard model. Now it can increase right based upon the demand in the area for sure. So once it grows we're looking at an increase from eight. And I don't know the exact number of full-time employees there right now, but what I've seen in areas where we put these stores in, the full-time count goes up. Okay. And then we add more part-time, too, as well. What's the size of the current store? It's probably around 5,000 square footish or so and they're going to how much? 7,400. Okay.

And I the 5,000 based upon my estimate looking at it. But yeah, and it's it's really kind of rough with the way it falls back down there and the pavements collapsing and all kinds of not good stuff. If I can I think I know the answer to this. Can we bring up for your parking because you are going to be R1 and I know you're screening, but you're parking. Explain to us where you're east side, I believe. Yes. So, you can Yeah, if you can point to one behind you, the one. So, I'll go I'll step back here. Okay. Obviously, north is

that way. And so, the east side is just for parking. There's only a few parking spots. I'll be honest with you, most customers love to park in this area. So, And all our employee parking is over here. And this is where the parts come in is from the dealer. They call the dealer door, but we don't do dealer sales. It's quite literally where our delivery occurs. And all that activity with the delivery truck. And if you notice the trash pad away, that's all away from the residential, which is up. Okay. That direction. So position. We've positioned the site to be mindful of our neighbors, which our neighbors are customers. So we always want to be aware of that. I think that answer your question. Yes, it does. Awesome.

Any other questions for Mr. Engel at this point in time? Well, let's see if anybody else wants to talk about this. So, we might call you back up if we need to. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Does anybody else wish to speak on this matter? Mr. Chairman, I'll just add the county auditor site list the current store at 6,000 square feet. 6,000. So, we'll put that 6,000 square feet. I play an architect. 74. Okay. Close enough.

Okay. Thank you. Um Okay. If there are is nobody if nobody else is speaking on this matter, then we'll close the public comment portion of this hearing. Move on to the uh um got my other checklist here. Hiding. Okay. Um Mrs. Mrs. Blankard, did we receive any um communications received through either phone calls or in writing with regard to this particular case? I did not. Okay. Mr. Bond, do you have any engineering concerns on the resoning at this particular point in time?

I I do not have any concerns on the on the reszoning. Obviously, as we get into the nuts, if we get into the nuts and bolts, we'll get more involved in Sure. access management. The site has all the utilities available and storm water will be a very important part of that as well. So, okay. So, at this point, shade tree is not involved. Uh, Mr. Borne, do you see any legal concerns with this? No. All right. Uh, and this is a recommendation to council. Is that is correct? So, what we what we rule on here will go be going to city council. Um, okay. Then um at this particular point in time uh the chair will entertain a motion when the energy is right.

Make a motion to recommend uh this to city council. Been moved and seconded for the to recommend this the approval of this plan to the resoning to city council. Any discussion? Please call the RO. Todd Hawkins, yes. Annne Ellsworth, yes. Gregory Yashnik, yes. Matthew Star, yes. Tanner Sers, yes. Okay. Recommendation is approved. Uh, we'll get that to city council. I don't know, Zach, will that go in um Monday's agenda or or you think we'll be able to get it for Monday's agenda or not?

It's going to be close. If it's not this, it's not this Monday because we got to turn it around. We got to get we got to get it out tomorrow. So, but we've got to do meeting for this. If it's not this one, it'll be the next city council. I'll check in with you. Thank you for your help. Your staff's been wonderful to work with, too. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Have a good day. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we've got uh our next case. Our next item is MPC 11. Um Mr. Sherman

applicant on behalf of the adjoining owners submits a petition to vacate an undeveloped cladded alley between two parcels 66-4770.0000 and 66-04771.0000 both under the same ownership. There is an existing easement that contains a sanitary sewer mainline running north to south across the subject alley which will remain. Okay. uh who's going to be speaking on this matter? Jeremy, if you want to go ahead and read that statement there, then the floor will be yours.

Absolutely. Uh my name is Jeremy Abrams. My business address is 112 North Main Street, Mount Vernon, Ohio. And I affirm that my testimony is truthful and to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God, are under the penalty of perjury. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon all. Um so I am here on behalf of Julius Joe Schwarz and Sher Anne Schwarz. They own uh the two afor affforementioned parcels. They've built a house on the property. Uh they actually own the parcels to the north and to the south uh that we are discussing as well. Um the parcels that we are referring to here have an unmaintained alley that is just grass. Um there is an easement on there and their sole intention is to build a fence for their dogs. uh they just want to be able to have a nice big uh fenced area to allow their dogs to run around and play. Right now, they could not do so because they would otherwise cross that uh that alley. Um they have no intention of of uh getting into that easement area because they wouldn't want their fence to have to come down if the city ever needed to get in there to access that pipe. Um, and we also uh submitted with the petition uh the approval of Richard Hansen who is the sole property owner who has an adjacent or contiguous property on the west as well as uh a representative of Willow Branch Properties who is adjacent on the other side of White Airs on the east. Okay. And with that I would uh entertain any questions. That was the only thing I was mo the big thing I was worried about is just being able to get to the utilities. And so that's I mean as long as that's not going to be a problem, I I I would be counting on our our experts in in engineering and code enforcement to to advise. So it sounds like you're going to be away from the the easement so we can get back in there if we need to.

Correct. Okay. That's my that was my question. Any other questions for Mr. favor. Okay. Well, hang tight there and we'll we'll we'll we'll open it up. We'll open up the public comment portion. We may bring you back up. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh having uh heard Mr. Abrams presentation for this case, is there anyone who wishes to speak about this case at all? Then we will close the public comment portion of this case. Um and so we'll move on to um Mrs. Blankenhorn. Did you receive any communications through phone calls or in writing?

I did not. I will note that the notification that was mailed to the Willow uh ownership was returned undeliverable. Okay. I just got that back today. Okay. Mr. Burn, is that a problem for us? No, they've signed the Okay. All right. Yeah, they signed the petition, so there's no issue. Okay, Mr. Ball, do you see any uh engineering issues with this?

No. Um, as I stated, the sewer main runs north to south and then there's a sewer line in the undeveloped part of Union Street. So, if we needed to get to the sewer and there's good access to this doesn't do I see no reason to develop this alley. It's not useful. Okay. Mr. Burn, do you see any legal concerns with this case?

No, I would just note that there is an easement in there for a sewer. We don't currently use it, but that will remain. We have no plans to expand to use it. Okay. All right. Yeah. And this is a ruling or this is a recommendation to this is another recommendation to city council. So, uh, that's what we will be voting on. Uh, any other before I put it out there? Okay. Then at this point in time, we'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Been moved in a second for the approval of this um of this recommendation to vacate this alley. Any discussion?

Please call the role. Todd Hawkins, yes. Annne Ellsworth, yes. Gregory Ashnik, yes. Matthew Stark. Yes. Tanner Sawers. Yes.

Recommendation is approved. That will also go to city council when we're able to get the meeting minutes done. And so don't get your hopes up. That would be a fun day. Anyway, we'll get to it. And uh yeah, look, it's looking nice back there, by the way. I've been down to take a look. I used to live up in that neighborhood and it's looking nice back. So, well done. Um anyway, any other um matters of business before we adjourn? The only thing I will say is this is likely our last meeting. Likely. I always say likely. This is likely our last meeting in 40 Public Square for this starting next month. Hopefully, we will be all down at the new facility at 236 South Main Street. Uh can't wait to to start uh holding conducting more business down there. Anyway, um if there's nothing else, uh is there a motion for adjournment? Second.

Been seconded. All those in favor say I. I. I. We'rejourned. Thank you all very much.

Yeah. I look at the agenda. I'm like, this is Awesome.