Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

full self drive on the Y for the last month because they do that like every year. It's unreal how good that has gotten because we we've had for two years and it's significantly better now. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of technology hopefully continues to get better and better. Carson, can you hear us? Okay, I can. Awesome. Thank you. So you got one first place. Yeah. Megan. Yeah.

December. Okay.

Do you have to go anywhere? No, we only went to my folks for a couple days. Is there only an hour from here? I don't know. That's still a big road like that, right? Yeah. My head to get a game right in my face. I've had some people that went down there and said it's actually not that bad. Yeah,

for some reason we should close Friday afternoon. Oh, that's great. That's what standard we finally we started doing. Maybe else we shouldn't have any deadlines like mid December. They said they might

have sometimes I have people trying to like brunch 1031s in before the end of the year, but usually as long as they're planning those out. I mean, you know, if you have a closing or not in those around the holidays. My first B since October. Oh, really? We only had one in November, one in December. I had my dad having surgery in November and then December covered. So I had a Yep. there for a while. I know. That's why there was no attachment cohesion for this agenda. Got out of the loop.

I know. I feel like all out of practice. How's announcing going? Oh, great. It's just jam-packed. Yeah, I'm busy. Busy busy. Three, four nights a week. This week is great. Just Tuesday, but last week I did five gigs in eight days. Oh my goodness. So that's a lot. Good time for me to start getting a head cold, which did start happening on Friday. So do you have a favorite thing that you announce? Oh, Iowa State women's basketball for sure. Yeah. Now lately it's been sucky, but um last season I mean it's still fun.

Yeah. But it isn't fun to lose or announce a game where you lose. So team's got to figure that out. The es and flows of the season will do that to you. Yeah. It's a good time to hit a a cold patch rather now rather than you don't want to go into March undefeated. Yeah. Because then you don't know what your deficiencies are necessarily. But uh it helps when you have a healthy roster. Yeah. Yeah. What's that about? She she might be out for a month. Okay. Same with Ariana Jackson. So like

Brooks, Jada Williams, and then if one of them's off, defense shuts down the other one, you're in big trouble. We'll see. They don't usually have foul trouble with any of them, though. Yeah, at home they usually outdraw two to one or better. So, see, but cool time to be in that position for you.

Yeah, it was good. Uh, the Iowa game was awesome. And I have on my Turvis that I have here at the office, I have a sticker for Strong Towns on it, and I've been wondering for the longest time if that shows up on TV. I found out that it does. Oh, cool. And so there's like a point in the broadcast when Bill and Jan are shaking hands at the end of the game and you can see it right between them. Oh, cool. So, I've been I've been bugging the AV department to get me a copy of the game so I can screen cap that, print it. I want to see if I can get him to sign it because that would be a hilarious thing to just selfishly have.

Yeah. Do you have any insider info about how long Bill might keep? None. Nothing. I'm technically a contractor. So that all of the inter office chitchat, which I kind of like, but I do get people asking me all the time, hey, what's the scuttlebutt on this that or what? I wish I could tell you. If you find out, tell me. Yeah, I snap out of Elliot my teeth. [laughter] I think they're doing they were doing an official review and so they're like right in on the score when you text. Yeah. Yeah. The thing is I texted it then pretty stoic. I know I'm on TV so I'm just

Hillary. We have Elizabeth on the Zoom too. Okay to Carson.

Andrew, how's it going? Good. How are you? I didn't want you to think we all got dower because you walked into the room. So Oh, I know. I'm sorry. talking about sports and silly broadcast. I haven't seen you in forever. Yeah. And Luke has done an adequate job keeping things. Adequate is the absolutely adequate. [clears throat] I'll take that as a backhanded to him compliment. So, you know, that's actually a good thing. So, when I worked at John Deere um and I would work in the test group, every single test report in John Deere says that the product is adequate for production. There you go. And that was the legal ease that the attorneys wanted us to use and they loved it. That's perfect. Yeah.

It just means you checked all the boxes, right? What's the point of an A+, right? Did you do the work? Hey, supposedly they've been doing it for years. So, I mean, there's John Deere tractors around for centuries. So, decades. Decades. So, your adequate work was at ours going on. It's a little bit like, yes, this is zoning compliant, right? Yeah. Yeah. I like that meets the criteria. Megan, we are set techwise. Okay. When we hit I remember how to do this. Elliot, do you know uh I'm forgetting his name. He does the Iowa State men's announcing. Joe, I don't know his last name though.

No, it's an older guy. He lives in my neighborhood. John Walters. Oh, you're talking radio. Or Eric Heft. Eric. Eric. Eric Heft. I know he lives in town. I've never met him though. See him on TV a lot. He's a good guy. He's I like his attitude. I think he travels with the team. Yeah. Yeah. He lives in the old ridge. Are you in Old Bridge or New? I'm new Ridge, but I know. Yeah. pretty maybe one or two between, but yeah, pretty close. [clears throat]

I will now call to order the January 12th, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The time is 5:45 p.m. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Sure. Um, Eaton Henders Thompson here. Stiger here. Samuelson here. Forest here. Reganator. Item number three is the approval of tonight's agenda. Any changes to this evening's agenda? Hearing nothing. I would entertain a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda.

Samson a motion. Second. All in favor say I. I. Item number four is the approval of the December 8th, 2025 minutes. Any changes to those minutes? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion and a second to approve the December 8th, 2025 minutes. Second motion. Sand second. All in favor say I. I. I.

We don't have any guests that have joined us tonight in person. Um, if there are any on the Zoom, uh, welcome. Uh, and if anyone would like to make a comment on an item that is not on tonight's agenda, now would be the time for that. Hearing nothing, we'll move on to the first uh, substantive item, a request from Frank Lester for approval of a site plan amendment to Cedarbrook Place for an accessory garage. Elliot, would you brief us on this item, please?

Yes. This is um a relatively simple uh site plan amendment. They are wanting to build an accessory building on a lot containing R4 style development. Quick refresher. anytime a site change um occurs on anything zoned R3 or R4 in our residential zoning classifications. Technically that constitutes a site plan amendment which is required to be reviewed and approved by PNZ and council. So accessory buildings are a site plan element and I frankly just had him indicate where it was going to go. um much like we would do for a house or a duplex that wanted to build a accessory garage. Um he's indicating it's going to go close to where the previous one or the existing one is on the back side of the property. Um mainly for storing additional property maintenance equipment is my understanding. Um as long as he keeps it 10 feet away from the existing garage for fire separation, he's he's good to go. So, I don't have much further to add from that aside from um I realized immediately before the meeting that none of the attachments saved in the staff report. So, I do apologize for that. Um but hopefully this gives you an idea of where it's located. The way it's going to look is pretty much identical to the one that's already there. Um relatively simple construction. So, happy to answer any additional questions. I don't believe Frank is joining us this evening on Zoom, but he might be. We do have somebody who called in. Also, it appears that Howard has joined the call, Miss Hillary. So, I'm good.

Is the applicant on the Zoom tonight and would like to make a comment? Any questions or deliberation from the commission? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion to approve the site plan amendment to Cedarbrook Place for an accessory garage. Thompson motions. Sam second. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Stiger. Hi. Samuelson. Hi. Forest.

Hi. Eaton. Hi. Thompson. I. Reganator. I. Thanks everyone. Item number seven is a public hearing and recommendation on an amendment to the Orchard Hills land unit development related to highdensity residential and neighborhood commercial uses in PUB land use parcels 1A and 1B. We'll open the public hearing at 5:50 p.m. Elliot, could you brief us on this item, please?

Absolutely. So, this is the roughly L-shaped property that is near the water tower, west of town, um, adjacent to West North Avenue, Porsche Hills Drive, west of St. John's, uh, the church at the same corner on the east side. Um, you guys might remember that we had a PUD amendment come to PND and council that was approved in February of last year. that came from a development applicant who elected to build elsewhere in the metro. So, they walked away from that project. I guess the math just worked out better for them elsewhere. Um, so this is a different applying party and the way that the original PUD language is written in the Orchard Hills PUD is that whatever project proposal is made in parcel one needs to have an amendment establishing development regulations and design guidelines accompanying it. So we are procedurally doing the same thing that we did about a year ago with this project. the site layout that they are proposing and I'm now seeing that that attachment also failed to make it into my staff report. Please give me one second. I'm going to remedy that in real time. Um they are proposing a similar mix of uses as to um the prior applicants who proposed R4 highdensity residential in the southern portion of the development and then retaining some commercial ground. The previous amendment had it a little bit more 50/50 than this one. Um I believe that the acreage total in the current proposal comes out to about 4.4

acres for the residential component and then leaves um a little over an acre like 1.2 acres for the commercial which we are identifying as C5. Now in our future land use plan we show this property as new urbanism. The idea being that you try to front buildings to the street as much as you can and then have the parking in the back and have accesses that work with that arrangement. So, uh, looks like that update to the site plan went in. Okay. Um, at any rate, the applicant with this project was able to accommodate that sort of new urbanist style building versus parking arrangement, fronting for the buildings on the North Avenue side and then one on the Orchard Hills Drive side. Um, most of these buildings are projected to contain 14 units. So, that's a little bit of a different uh unit type than than we've seen in Norwok before. A lot of buildings in in the metro that are high density run between 20 and 40 units in a building. Um, these ones are styled a little bit differently to accommodate a smaller per building unit count. Um, so six of them are 14 units. They have one identified for 10 units. Um, I think that also helps them out with the parking count a lotment. Um, being able to distribute those a little bit better with that unit count. As I mentioned before, they retained um the corner of Orchard Hills Drive and West North Avenue for a commercial proposal. We told them um that we would recommend C5 zoning. C5 zoning is the classification that we devised in order to accommodate

um the type of development you would see on a main street. So like at Maine and North Avenue just up the block from us uh in this building. Um, there isn't currently a proposal on the table for that parcel, but we figured this is a good time to get that zoning in place so we can allow the rest of the residential to develop and keep the C5 zoning the way it is. When that develops, at some point, if this amendment goes through, a site plan will still be needed uh for review by PNZ and council. Um, these are threestory uh buildings with a with a flat roof. So that's the design style and I suppose I can put the um let me go ahead and do the architectural as well. So we have that refresh one more time

and the site plan for 1B will still come back through us. Correct. This is just their concept.

Yep. So this is what would allow that property to develop as uh as R4. Um the PUD just requires that PNZ and council review a site concept. So that's the stage that we are at and hopefully that final page shows up. There we go. So architecturally that's a that's a fictional site. This is the uh proposed style that you guys would see. We still need to go through the exact uh material calculations and coverages with them. Uh but by and large this pretty much meets what our architectural regulations would say we should expect for our form. So happy to answer any questions that the commission has. I know we have one of the representative representatives for the project on Zoom. Um, we did have one person or excuse me, one household, two people visit city hall to ask us about this. Um, that conversation was overheard by Hillary and Luke, I think, and they, uh, mostly were just looking for information and they seemed overall, I would say, supportive, um, but just wanted to find out more. So, that's all I've got.

Great. Would the applicant's representative like to make a comment on uh this item?

Hi, Caleb Velhouse here from Velco Holdings. I think Elliot did a great job outlining what our plans were. Elliot, if you want to maybe scroll down one more sheet. This is what the product looks like in um in one of the developments we did in South Dakota. And then the next one would be um an additional one that we did with the same building type. Both of those projects are slightly different from what is allowed and or required from a building spacing, a parking or a density requirement, but um you can see in both of those they're nestled up against a lot of single family homes actually. But in this regard, we think it sits well um by the water tower, by a main street, by an additional street, and some multifamily housing to the south of it. So, happy to answer any other questions. Um but I thought Elliot did a good job outlining what our proposal is.

Thanks, Caleb. Would any members of the public on Zoom like to make a comment on this item? Any questions from the commission before we close the public hearing? I have a quick question. Yeah, go ahead, Howard.

Um, are there any plans for um a park or walking trails to kind of connect this community? Parkland dedication is not required with this uh with this development. It was accommodated early on in the PUD process with the development of Warrior Park, which is, if you will, two properties to the south. Okay. But uh I would I would defer to Caleb if he is projecting any kind of open space programming within the site once we get the site plan review.

Um no what we are showing in the site plan is what we are proposing for that. We typically do not add any playground space um but just you know meet the green space requirements for whatever the local zoning ordinance is. That's trailing north side of that property, right? Because that's what we're we're doing. Yes. Elliot, I like this design better than the first one because this one actually looks like we're going to extend Walnut down uh south of

North A, which is good. And if you go back to your other um satellite view that you just had up a minute ago, that that development to the south looks like it's designed that Walnut could continue on. Is that the goal that eventually that would tap in to Walnut? Yeah, I think long term um you know that's a developmentdriven decision. The school having some ground there kind of plays into plays into that long term. I could definitely see, you know, the town homes here punching into walnut making some sense. Um, but yeah, right now this stuff down here is kind of just orphaned, right?

And it would be nice, like you said, if if this road could punch down, maybe it zigs a little bit and then, you know, this this tree corridor is really tough because it, you know, it's extremely wet. Um, but yeah, I think long term that's the vision. It's just de driven by development from private entities. [clears throat]

No, I like I said, I feel like this this development is actually a kind of feels like it fits better with what you would envision for this parcel. Um, and then also it leaves a prime real estate for somebody to come in with some type of commercial, which is good. Uh, I know the c the comments we had last February with the previous applicants from the neighbors to the south was around uh traffic and I think what's good about this too is that the parking lot in no way intersects with the property to the south which I thought it did with the last one. It didn't. But um so that should clear that up that now it there's actually green space barrier. So people parking in this or people coming to these units will park in this lot hopefully won't be going to the units in the south which is what the I know the the owners of the south

or the the properties to the south were concerned about last time when we talked about it in February. So, I think overall it it looks good. Yeah. To confirm that, we do not anticipate or desire any connectivity to the property to the south aside from what looks like the the sidewalk.

I think there was a question in the messages that asked that. I don't know if anyone else is seeing that on Zoom. in the chat feature between Hills and the screen.

Okay. So for Kstone, yes. So this is um so they have just for the parcel that is on the screen right now. They're showing a uh full trail width that's going to match um existing trail segments to the east all the way across the northern boundary of the parcel. Um because they don't own the property to the west of there, there will still be a trail gap. Um so they're responsible for placing trail adjacent to their lot. The rest of that to the west remains to be developed. Is that known by the school? Yeah. Yeah. We'd have to do a bond drive around to get a trail,

right? Yeah. Now we would need every little bit helps though, right? Any other questions from the commission before we close the public hearing? Can I can I ask a question or no? Um, is there do we have intended or thoughts on what 1A will be? Like in one of your concept maps, it looked like you showed a gas station next to to what you had. Maybe that's a gas station. I don't know. C5 doesn't actually allow for a gas station. That's why I wondered, right? Because that concept map had that and corner lot, nice and [clears throat] square, like seems good, but makes a lot of sense.

Do we have thoughts on what that would be as a as a developer? Um, you know, I would let the market dictate that. And this picture that you're looking at, we did not develop that corner lot like we would be there in Norwok. So, the the master developer of the one you're looking at on the screen right now sold that directly to the gas station without our involvement. You know, I would say it's going to be, you know, probably some type of strip center, small one acre piece is going to be able to have 8 to 10,000 square feet of retail there. Um, could be offices, but I wouldn't I wouldn't anticipate a gas station there, and it sounds like I wouldn't be allowed to do that anyway. So we would just kind of let the market bear what it's able to bear in that regard.

So So no no no plans whatsoever really right now is what you're saying, right? Just No, we we do. So our our company is the developer and the general contractor typically in the operator of the multifamily section. And we really liked this parcel quite a bit. And so when we were talking with Elliot and his team there, they just recommended that we do something on the commercial corner. and the broker that we're working with seems confident that he'll be able to figure something out on that corner. So, it wouldn't be us developing the corner as much as just developing the whole site to be able to do what we're looking to do and then sell that off to whoever the end user for that parcel was.

Okay. Thank you. And then maybe a question for Elliot or the So, the the neighbors to the south, it looks like they have a driveway going up that is going to connect with the Those are parking spaces, I think. It just looks weird. Yeah. Yep. Agreed. Yeah, it's their like visitor parking. Okay, sounds good. One other remark that I would make uh relative to that commercial piece is the folks who came in today to talk to me about this um seem to sour on the potential of a gas station going there. Sir, so if that's useful feedback for the commission, I think that um they they say that again. They seem like they wanted one and they they they did not seem enthused about the potential of a gas station being

Oh yeah, totally sounds. I think the C5 recommendation from us um maybe is satisfactory for them. So then I have sorry I have one more question because this got brought up in council like they can't come back and say now we want this to be more residential just extend that parking lot like that is going to be commercial, right? They can propose another amendment like this process we're doing and then it's just up to B and Z to recommend to council and for council to decide. Okay. [clears throat]

We typically build 94 to 100 units, you know, sometimes 108 just kind of how the buildings break up. Seven has been our sweet spot. So we it's highly unlikely we would come and ask for two more buildings there and 28 more units. Any other questions before we close the public hearing? We'll go ahead and close. I have Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Your name and your address, please, for the minute.

I'm Cody Stone. I live on the south side of this property at Orchard Hills. Um 601 Orchard Hills Drive, number 4001. So I'm the middle unit uh in the center 4. Yep. Right there. That's me. Um I just had a quick question about kind of your plans along the construction line. And I don't know if I'm allowed to ask that, but um what are going to be your construction operating hours or the planned sound issues that we might experience?

Yeah, typically it's 7:30 to 5:30. Um in a rare instance, if it was a really warm day and we were paving asphalt, they would maybe go till 9:00 at night. Um, and and you might see some people in the summertime being at 7:00 in the morning, but typically we're opening our sites from about 7:30 to 5:30. Thank you. Any other questions? I have one question, please. Go ahead. We just need your name, address for the minutes, please.

Yeah. Deanna Fox, 900 Orchard Hills, and wondering if you have any sort of idea on timeline on when they might be starting this or doing this. Yeah, we would, you know, depending on how all this goes with the city and how all that kind of goes through the process, we would be looking to purchase the ground in uh mid to late spring and then going through the process of getting all of our building permits, etc. You know, I would say the quickest it would happen would be July. And with a building scope like that of seven, it's typically a 14 to 15 month project total.

Okay. So, good year plus. Plus, and do they have are they thinking of um these units? They're not going to be like a 55 plus senior type thing. That'd be open to all ages or is that something they don't know yet? It would be open to all ages. Okay. All right. Think that was all I was wondering. No gas station. No gas. No gas reason. [laughter] Could you say your address?

Yeah, we're at 900 Orchard Hills. That was my husband's speaking. Yeah, definitely no gas stations. I mean, we already got one. We got two less than a mile. You go the other direction and you got them coming. We've got plenty down the road there. I don't think anybody we've talked to thought it would fit in with the neighborhood. Uhuh. I think that was all we had. Thank you. I like the look of the units. Look pretty upscale. Pretty fancy. Yeah, they look nice. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 6:10 p.m.

Uh, Commissioner, you can now deliberate on this item. And if there's no deliberation, I would consider a motion. I agree with Andrew. I think the product looks nice. Um I know we'll get a formal site plan at another date, but um I think the layout makes sense. I think it's a um unique density compared to what we have in some other locations, but still allows for that commercial piece to be a partial off. And um I I like the concept. I

agree. If there's no other deliberation, I would consider a motion to approve the amendment to the Orchard Hills PUB related to partials 1A and 1B. Force a motion. Second. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Samuelson, I Forst. Hi Eaton. Hi Thompson. Hi Stagger. Hi Reganator. Hi. Thanks everyone for your comments and participation.

Just would like to make one more comment. Thank you for consideration but also a a very big thank you for allowing me to do this on Zoom. Um I live about four hours away and so I can go to my kids basketball game tonight. So I'm very much appreciative of that. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for participating, Caleb. Yes. Item number eight is our city council update. I want to formally welcome Andy as our uh new city council liaison for 2026. So, thank you for being here. Um uh we typically just um ask if you have any update for us as a commission. So, um if you have any update for us tonight, um we would love to hear it.

Uh nothing nothing urgent. this first one. I'll I'll get set my ways here so to say. The only thing during like the uh random topics and Luke feel free to jump in here. Um you know it was asked do you anybody have anything we want to deliberate or talk about in future agendas. Um Jason Brown brought up the idea of annexation of the city of Um so I seconded that motion and then we took a vote and it got shut down. Um, but you know, something that is starting to be talked about maybe is more than anything. I don't know if you would add anything. Yeah. No, that's exactly what happens. Sure. Yeah. We'll see where that leads at some point if it does.

Great. Well, yeah. Thanks again for being here, Andy, and for being our liaison. And, um, we're here to work together. So, if there's anything that we can do for you, please let us know. Um, I don't think Holly's joined us on the Zoom tonight. Um Luke, any update for us?

Um nothing real big. Uh happy new year everybody. It's good to be back. Um we've got council coming up this week. So appreciate you guys going through especially that shed uh site plan. Um we've had that one been trying to work through it uh since December. So it's good to get that moving on to council. Um so they'll consider that this week and we'll be doing budget presentations. It's budget uh time. So, um, no real big budget items. Um, departmentwise, we are as part of the CIP, um, asking for some dollars to do some planning study work of the S-curve area. Um, you know, in our comprehensive plan, we show uh that being realigned and stuff. And kind of we're hoping for the development community to maybe take a lead in how that might look and everything. And every time we talk to somebody about that area, they say, "Well, what do you guys want to do there?" So, okay, we'll we'll take a step back and take a closer look at that. Um, so if that's funded, that'll be something we'll look to uh start doing uh after the 1 of uh July.

Thank you, Elliot. Any update for us?

Um, we will have a second meeting this month. Um, so just be ready for that. Um the folks that asked a little bit about the uh amendment here tonight, they live on the corner and I think those are the folks that came in and visited with me today. They were very nice and had good questions and it's it feels good to do a amendment dealing with high density and have welcoming people for a change. That that was a really good experience. Um yeah, like I said, there will be a second meeting. Um, in case my personal life made it into this room for the two meetings I missed. My dad's fine. He had open heart surgery in November, which is why I wasn't here for that meeting. He actually had it the day of P&Z. Um, so he's good. He's back to I'm going to go see him in a half an hour at the bowling alley. So,

back to uh back to the usual routine. So, for what it's worth, that's what was going on for the past couple months. All I have. Great. Thank you. So glad to hear that our next meeting will be January 26th, 2026 at 5:45 p.m. I would now entertain a motion and a second to adjurnn. Second. All in favor say I. We are adjourned at 6:15 p.m. Thanks everyone for joining on Zoom. Thank you.