Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

5:15. I'd like to call the September 25th, 2025 planning commission meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge. [Music] United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible.

Okay, I'm looking for a motion to adopt agenda. I'll also move. I'll second. Motion been made and seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motions carried. Okay. Review and approve the August 25th, 2025 planning commission minutes read in your packet. Looking for a motion. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Okay. Motion's been made. Seconded. All in favor signal by saying I.

I. All opposed. Motion's carried. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, we move on. Review a site plan for cell tower on Hillside Drive.

All right. So at 18, the new address is going to be 1840 Hire Drive. I did run this through our current zoning ordinance. It meets all our zoning requirements. The state kind of regulates a lot of this, so we're kind of limited as to what even a site plan could look like on these because, like I said, they're regulated by the state. So I did talk with utilities. J uh reviewed what they had sent and uh he was comfortable with what they proposed. So from a utility standpoint, so I'm recommending approval of this cell tower at 1840 Hillshshire Drive.

So is that an actual cell cell tower or is that the communication tower? Communication tower. Yeah, it's what? Communication tower. Yeah. Who owns the land that it's going on? Pardon? Who owns the land that it's going on? Or who did they purchase it from? It says on the thing it's uh Robert Miller Jr.

Trustees. Okay. Is there any more questions? Okay, I'm looking for a motion to site plan for the south tower and drive. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Motion's been made. Second, seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

All opposed. Motion's carried. Next item on the agenda is a draft assign code for discussion and comments. Ben Roar will be taking this uh him, Chad, and I have been working on this for on and off for a few weeks now. So, we're ready to bring it to the plan commission for comments and uh get get a draft that that'll work for uh the new zoning departments.

All right. Well, thank you, David, and thank you all. Uh, good to see you all again. Uh, like it was mentioned, uh, we wanted to tackle the, uh, signed code that was provided to you as a draft in the packet. Uh, so, it's been a little bit since we've been back uh, in front of you all. Uh, we have been actively working on part two. Uh, there's a variety of different elements there uh, like uh, mentioned that we've been working with staff on. But uh today we wanted to introduce sort of the remaining portions of part two to you uh in addition to the sign ordinance review and then uh what we're planning uh moving forward uh would be to put everything together. So you would have one full draft of the zoning ordinance and map and and we'd have that discussion at that time uh sort of gearing up for uh potential adoption after that. So as you are all familiar uh we broke the code into part one and part two uh for the ability and ease of review. Uh we've reviewed uh the parking element of part two in addition to building design and landscaping requirements. Uh today we're talking about uh signage. So, there's a couple of different elements that we haven't necessarily brought before you in relationship to a dedicated plan commission meeting. And some of these things are within the performance measures section uh such as uh fences and pools and uh um ongoing standards such as vibration and noise. You will obviously have a chance to review and look at all of those things and we can discuss and and ask questions about them. Uh but a lot of this stuff falls within the staff realm of things andor we're going to make it fall in the staff realm of things with this project and so uh we weren't going to have necessarily a dedicated working session

uh with you all. Additionally, the admin and procedures and definitions uh that outlines all of the various steps within uh the code uh and uh reflects all of uh the various terms within the code. And so we didn't necessarily plan on having a standalone session uh for either of those two articles as well. Uh but like I mentioned, we will have the opportunity uh to view everything in full context. And I I will admit uh the the article 10 and 11 does uh provide a lot of length to the code. Uh but they're important elements. Uh they're things that we may not use on a regular day-to-day basis, but we do need to have them within our code and spelled out. Um, and so, uh, we're not going to necessarily spend a lot of time looking through them, but we're making sure, um, from the city attorney perspective, from a city staff perspective, we're all in alignment on those elements. So, moving to the sign code itself, uh, here's a couple of the goals uh, that are outlined for what we were trying to accomplish with this new sign code. Uh, the first and foremost is bringing it into compliance with federal law. In 2017, there was a US Supreme Court decision that basically said that all governments regulating signs have to now regulate them via content neutrality. Meaning that we can no longer regulate the type of sign or we can no longer regulate the sign by what the content of it says. So, the most uh obvious one that you'll see in a variety of different codes across the country is a for sale sign. Uh that's very common. That's very typical. But we can no longer call it a for sale sign because that's basing it off of the content. Instead, we need to call it an arm and a post sign or a yard sign, for example. We also uh took the time to go through the existing code and try and understand

and decipher it. And we found a lot of ambiguity, a lot of conflicting or or not clear standards. And we really struggled with uh deciphering everything that was in there today. and we want to reduce that ambiguity and make for more clear standards and that's what we've attempted to do with this new code. Uh likewise, we found some redundant sign types uh within the code and we've tried to consolidate those into uh similar groupings that we'll talk about a little bit further. And then honestly the new side code um from the perspective of what will actually be used for the most part is those four tables that includes pretty much all of the regulations and requirements and standards. The rest of it is important, don't get me wrong. Uh but most of the time you're not going to actually be using uh the definitions, for example, or the process steps. They're there to be referenced in the event that you need it. But for the most part um from staff perspective, from your perspective, from the the applicant perspective, it's really boils down to those four tables. And then finally, uh there were things that are working within the existing code and we wanted to retain those moving forward. And that's what we've attempted to do and and we worked uh with staff uh to refine uh the model and the draft to reflect that as well. So in totality we've grouped all signs into three categories on that far left uh column. So we've got permanent business signs. We've got other me mostly in the temporary realm of things and then miscellaneous. Uh from that perspective we have a hierarchy. So we group them all together into those three groupings. Uh then we have categories within each one of those that talk about things that you're probably familiar with like freestanding or on building or window. And then it goes into the individual types of signs that fall

within those various categories. So things like a monument sign that you'll see as an example in that image or a banner sign that again is is shown in that image. And so for the vast majority of what will be coming in relationship to sign permits, uh those really fall in that top column, uh that that permanent or top row, I should say, permanent business signs. And in all reality, that's one single table that consolidates a lot of the sign code into that format. So, we're going to spend a little time orienting you to that. Uh hopefully you've had a chance to look at it, but when you look at this, you're like, "Holy crap, there is a lot here. How would I begin to decipher it?" Uh but in all reality, once it becomes used uh more frequently by both staff and applicants and sign companies in particular, uh there will be a streamline in terms of understanding what's really needed to be pulled out of this table that's applicable to different situations. So what you would do in all reality is you'd start on that left side of the table and you'd look at what type of sign am I proposing or interested in doing and then you see a visual graphic on the right that basically illustrates what version of sign we're talking about in relationship to that name. Uh so we might have changed the name to be contentneutral in reflection of state statutes but we've provided these visualizations and the definitions to help make that clear for individuals using the code. Then after you've decided which sign you would be uh looking to do, uh you would move to the middle columns and this will say uh whether a sign permit is required, the number of signs permitted on that property or that configuration of a building, the sign location, the

sign material, lighting, and then the formula that would you you would use to calculate the size of the sign. And so in all reality, uh, it does look like a lot, but when you boil it down to maybe a monument sign, for example, you just need to look across that row and you will find nearly every regulation requirement and standard built right in there for you to use. And then finally, there's the sign area and height maximums. And we've uh distilled this into uh different zoning districts. So what we did is we grouped zoning districts by type. So, we've got one and two family, multifamily, non-residential, mixeduse, and downtown. Uh, some uh rows you'll see are combined, meaning that the same standards apply for those uh groupings of zoning districts, whereas in others, you'll see not allowed. Uh so, for instance, a monument sign isn't permitted in a single family zoning district, but it is permitted in the non-residential and mixeduse zoning districts. And so that's sort of the orientation of what we've done with this table. And then finally, we can't cover every single thing. Uh there is some nuance when it comes to sign codes and different situations that present themselves. So we have added footnotes. Uh so in reference to particular situations that you're looking at, you may need to reference the the footnote to get the full picture of what you're looking at. So for example, you're proposing a canopy uh with a sign on it. It needs to be a certain height to provide safety uh from pedestrians walking underneath it. That's a footnote that lives within this document so you can reference it whereas it doesn't necessarily fit within the table itself. Now, beyond the tables, like I mentioned, there's other elements within the code. Uh, between the graphic components and the added definitions, we hope that we're creating a situation

with far less interpretation needed and very clear-cut uh situations. Now, we're not going to be able to predict every single situation. Uh, you know, I've even been presented with signs that I was like, I don't exactly know what this is using this sign code. But we're hopefully going to limit that significantly through this process. We also built in unique situation standards. Uh, for example, electronic message signs where those can fit within the code. Fuel price signs, those are regulated by the state. So, we need special standards for that. Sign measurement is often something when uh there's uh staff turnover or different staff people using the sign code. This is a common situation that often presents itself as to how are we uniformally measuring signs to be consistent. And so we've added a graphical element to help explain different situations and how they could be measured. We also obviously have approvals and permits. Uh so we've uh what we've done with the proposed code is we've really tried to streamline the approach and make it staff review and approval for a lot of different sign types uh rather than uh the ambiguity of whether it needs to go to the plan commission or different body for approval. We've also tried to clear up prohibited signs by making it clear that off- premise uh signs or rightaway signs are not permitted um based off of in addition to abandoned or flashing and portable signs which can create safety hazards. And then finally there's a couple of different elements in relationship to maintenance non-conforming and violations uh which are at the latter end of the document. So kind of in summary, what we attempted to do with this sign code was a a couple of key changes. Those were consolidating sign types where we saw opportunities to do so. So for example, instead of ground

freestanding, commercial center, agricultural product sales, those are just within that freestanding sign category. Now we try to retain requirements that are work. Uh so for example the maximum size, location and number per site and building for the most common frequently used signs seem to be working in the community and so we retained a lot of those provisions. They might live under a name that's different than today but a lot of them are reflective of today. We increased user friendliness. We talked about that. Diagrams, tables, examples. And we really tried to create less interpretation and and less ambiguity by making it metricbased standards using definitions and really clearly outlining that signs within the rightway and/or off- premise are prohibited and attempting to expedite approval times by utilizing that staff administrative level approval process for signs that would require a permit. So with that I will stop. Uh is there any questions, comments, concerns, anything that you saw either within the document or within this presentation that you'd like to discuss?

Is there any authority that you have on what you can have on the sign the verbiage? No. There's nothing like freedom of speech. Correct. Meaning that we cannot regulate it.

Just throwing it out there working through this process. I mean, we really um Dave and I spent a lot of time on part two and especially in the the signage because we deal with a lot of signage stuff and just having those tables and the pictures and it makes it a lot more clear what we're talking about in different situations. So, I really liked how that kind of turned out and um hopefully if someone from the public gets it and kind of looks at what this sign is all about, it's a little bit easier than trying to look at a current code. And trying to figure it out where now you have tables and graphs and pictures that kind of helps a little bit.

Then I'm not seeing any more questions, so I guess you can go to the next steps.

All right. Uh so what we're going to do is uh wrap up the remaining part of part two and bring it all together uh into a full draft zoning ordinance. uh one thing I will prepare is what I'm calling an executive summary and this will outline the various uh meetings discussions uh kind of decisions and determinations we've made along the way so that it's documented for all of us to understand and reference in different areas of the code itself. Uh so we'll be able to view the the entire picture sort of alto together and I know this has been you know over a year-long process so you may not remember exactly what happened you know back last uh spring for example or something like that. So hopefully that context will help. Uh from that after that meeting we had planned to do a public review period of the draft code and map offering the ability for the public to weigh in on it and then we would move into the adoption steps uh which would be a public hearing before the plan commission recommendation and then a city council uh action. Uh so we don't exactly have a time schedule laid out for this uh but they are we are approaching the sort of latter end of this process uh eyeing up for uh when adoption could take place and when it would make the most sense uh that could happen in the next couple of months as we move forward through this. So I I that's all I had for you tonight. Appreciate the time.

Thanks Ben.

Thanks Ben. Um, one thing I'm going to point out, um, just for those watching on social media, I'm just gonna kind of bring up our website. Ben kind of mentioned that, uh, there is an opportunity for public input. I'm going to share my screen here in a second. We do have part one. Part one is already on the city's website, so people can start reviewing things that we have. So, if you go to the city's website, you can go to departments. Uh, it lives under the building inspector site right now. Scrolling down, there's zoning and then when there when the site comes out, it says um 2024 2025 zoning rewrite. So once on that page, we have a bunch of the information on there right now about why we're doing this, what's all going on, some information, the timelines, what we've done, a bunch of the information on um part one that Ben indicated that we've been talking about, plus the proposed zoning map that we have today. So there is information living on the city's website currently and anybody wants to start looking at some of the things that we've already reviewed. So I just want to take opportunity to point that out. Ben, any last words?

No, thank you. Appreciate the time. Any questions? Last questions. All right, looks like we're good. Thanks, Ben. Okay, next item on the agenda is review upcoming agenda items. I have nothing for October at this time. Okay. Review next meeting date tenatively be October 23rd, 2025. I'm going to be trading that entire week out of town. Unless you want me to zoom in, assuming we have something on the agenda.

If there is something um pressing, hypothetically, would either the 16th or the 30th work for everyone just in case we, you know, some things come up that Dave does need to be here in person for. I'm assuming that final plat now that I think about it may be ready for the next meeting. I'll have to reach out to McMahon, but I have a feeling that that's gonna be ready to roll. Okay. So, we might want to pick a tenative date. 30th 30th is that that's not Halloween, is it? 31st is Halloween. 31st is Halloween. Okay. That'll at least leave one month or week next month that we don't have a meeting. That way we don't work faster. Y

that would move it to the same week as the economic develop. Yes, good point. So, hypothetically, everybody's on the same page. We would if we have a meeting, we would consider Thursday, October 30th if that's all right. And I'll check for availability.

Okay. have nothing else on the agenda. I'm looking for a motion to adjourn. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Everybody wants to stay say no.