Planning Board - Regular Meeting

So I never got We are good to go. Bring the planning board meeting to order. Uh if you could please silence your phones please. Uh I'll do invocation and uh Ted can leave lead us in the pledge. Lord, we are meeting today to connect matters of business. Guide our hearts and minds in the spirit of fairness, right thought and speech. Impart your supreme wisdom upon our activities so that our affairs may reach a successful conclusion. Thank you for being our source of guidance today in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. 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.

Director Fry, roll call. Sorry. Roll call. Board member Bohack here. Board member Lson. Lari here. Board member Hennings here. Board member Carneahan here. Board member Ki here. Vice Chair Overway here. Chairman Dooall here. Uh, has anybody has everybody had a chance to look at the minutes, review the minutes? Yes. Any questions, comments? Motion to approve minutes as written. Second. Uh motion approved. Uh

all in favor? Pardon? Oh, sorry. All those in favor?

I was opposed. Motion passes. Uh Mr. Fry. Uh thank you for coming out this evening as always. We just have one item for you tonight to have a look at. It's a variance or exemption request for 817 South Timber Parkway, which is the GreasePro. Our applicant is Mr. James Loveit. In our LDR, specifically the overlay district. Um, one of the prohibited uh uses is vehicle sales. Not only recreational vehicle sales, but vehicle sales in itself right here. Mr. Love asked me if he could sell vehicles in the parking lot. I said, "No, sir. I'm not out able to authorize that." He said, "Any way around that?" I said, "Yes, sir. You can apply for a variance. That's why we're here tonight. Variances typically don't come before the planning board, but because this is in the overlay, it is required to come to the planning board for recommendation to be sent to the commission. Mr. Love is here tonight. If you have any questions here, I will do our best to answer them for you.

Does he uh I know there's a pad out there now. Is he going to use that pad? is going to add on to it or what? The development was done quite a while back. I want to say somewhere between 2005 and 8. Um, from what I understand, they're going to use the ex existing area. This is an aerial photo of the project or of the site.

Okay. Um, as I understand it, the grease pro is currently an unauthorized land use as it is. Is that correct? So, the overlay district also would prohibit uh vehicle maintenance for a shop of some kind. Uh but this was developed prior to the overlay being adopted. So it was technically grandfathered in. It is a non-conforming use.

It is a nonconforming use and and so granting the variance would be a continuation of that nonconforming use. I would consider them two different things. In what way? So, they were doing something where the the code changed and said you can't do that there anymore. Okay. So, now they're asking to do something that the code says they're not allowed to do. Not after the fact. Not after the fact.

Okay. If we approve a variance, is it to the LLC or to the property? So, does that variance carry on in perpetuity? It could be contingent, but I would say to the property. No, good question. That is a good question. That is an excellent question. So we're we're changing we're at being asked to give a variance to a piece of property changing the overlay district basically. Yeah. No matter what happens in the future.

Is the car wash staying? Can I speak to that or is that Yeah, you can speak. Okay, please. Thank you.

My name is Aaron Le. I'm the owner of the of the real estate and owner of Grease Pope. Thank the planning board for meeting and giving us an opportunity to do this. Um I'm glad he said the dates of 06 or 08 because I thought it's been almost 20 years since we've been there. And um we have really there's been this perception about oil changes and car places that sell stuff that's bad. And we have really in all of our locations made it an effort to look first class. And we really once the we did that with this location here on Tund Parkway and after the storm we totally rebuild it again and really tried to give it a professional. It was one of the first ones we rebuilt after the storm. Every one of my stores got damaged. Every one of them not every every garage door we had got blown out including that one. All six doors. And but that was one of the first ones we got up and running to get it back up and looking well. That car wash building does not it's not a car wash. We use it as a one base service center to work on. That's not working for us. We tried it right there. We want we're going to take that building down regardless. This gets coming down. Um we want to be able to put some cars across there and display them. I think my reputation in Callaway has been good. I don't I've not had any issues. Everybody try to be first class, look first class. And when I put cars and trucks out there, it's going to look first class. It's not going to be on a gravel parking lot or a grass lot. It's going to be P just like it is on a concrete. It's going to look good, but it will help us utilize that space. That's a big lot. I didn't realize how big that lot was until we rebuild it after the storm and all the space we've got. So, I need to utilize that for something else. And the car and truck sales fits great with what we're doing. It's working. We're doing it in L Haven. It's working. We're doing it in Chipley

and it's working. Both of them are first class lots. They look professional and that's what we would do here. Did I answer your question or I get carried away on something else? You did. You said the building. But yeah, the intention would be to take the car wash building down. Yes, it would. It's not that people won't come in, get their oil changed, and they want their tires rotated, but they see we're going to take it to that other building. They got to walk over there. It's just the way people ought to do. It's not working. And so we can't It's not not very effect efficient like it is. Whereas we our other ones are working well. We're going to We would clean that up and take it down. Are you going to bring vehicles in already to go and sell or are you going to fix them up?

No, sir. They will not be fixed. They'll display them to sell them there. That's all. We don't we don't have a place to do that kind of stuff there. We would do it um probably at our 77 location where we have a large auto center there, a nine-day facility. We would we would do them there uh with ones that need to be touched up, cleaned up, stuff like that. Yeah, Mr. Levit, I agree with you. Your location, you do keep pristine. The problem I have again, if we allow you this variance, if you sell the property, right, Bob, the next owner could leave it trashed. We we can't we don't have a a way to change it back as far as I know.

Yeah. I can tell you that anybody that bought this place, the price they' pay for it, I don't think they would trash it. It's I got a huge investment right there. I I don't see myself selling it. My oldest son is here. He would be something happens to me tomorrow, he's going to be the one he and his sister down in Greece. It's a family business. It's been that way since 1985 when I opened up. So it would stay that way. You know, obviously something went bad, you'd have to sell if you had to, but it would not be a cheap piece of real estate to buy. It would be very expensive to buy. Yeah. Could I answer you, Mr.

I like not noted for the uh commissioners if they if there was another way that we could provide this for Mr. Levit, but not uh through variance. I don't know. We had to talk to a lawyer, but um I like going to police pro myself. Um it's one of the few places it'll take a um RV through. And I'm very glad that you have high bay doors there to take an RV tip. Thank you. Um my biggest concern is the variance itself.

Yeah. And um I wish there was some way you could convince me because if we grant it for you, we're going to have to grant it for everybody else, too. And I'm just I mean, it's your property. I understand that. And I just I'm not sure. Did you hear anything on the comments bill from anybody or anything? We have not. Okay.

Any calls or emails or concerns at all on this one? We did the sign out front which was out there way beyond requirement. And we mailed out flyers to everybody within 100 ft, you know, plus. We do 100 feet plus because 100 feet ain't very far at all. haven't heard anything.

I and I'm in agreement. I My issue is the property itself. If you're going to have an overlay district and you're going to establish the requirements for that overlay district, then you really need to abide by the property was grandfathered in as a nonconforming use. that remains in effect as long as the business remains as it was grandfathered in. Now we're talking about a change that to me creates a conflict and we want to provide a variance. That variance in my mind raises significant issues and causes me to step back and say no. Subdist three in that overlay. That's getting that's getting too far away. I can't support it. I mean, I just can't.

Well, I think we're on the edge, aren't we? Aren't we just on the edge there? Boat Race Road or somewhere cuts it off. You are just inside. I think you are between Cherry and Boat Race. And you are right there on the edge. Yep. You were the other side of boat race. I won't give a red. I mean honestly because you would be outside that overlay but you are right there. You are between the government building and and boat race and that area right in there you have a gas station. You have arrow then you have you

and then you have the government building. I think one of the reasons we another reason too is we've had we've had citizens wanting us to do something like that have a car says they've seen what we've done at the other two sites and this I would think they're callway people or timber people that are stopping in there you know you need to get some vehicles over there we look at and buy so that's another motivating factor but I understand what you're struggling with I don't have an answer for the legal part of it I don't know I just know what I want to do business-wise and utilize that piece of real estate you know to potential I'll talk with Ashley tomorrow and get with Kevin um and see if there is just cross our teas, dot our eyes, make sure there's nothing else that can be done.

Bill, what's the uh procedure if we if we recommend it's approval and then the commission recommend recommend anything you want. Then the commission disproves, can they bring it back? Commission will make sure it's legal with our attorney. All right. So, I know y'all weren't involved with this one, but we had a variance that passed recently that was very specific with animals.

Not only was it particular number, but actual the names of the animals and it also had a time limit, etc. And all those were contingencies that can be put on this one. So, if it's your idea to allow, you know, Mr. love it to have vehicle sales there, but in the event he sells the property, the variance does not transfer to the new property owner, then make that recommendation tonight. I'd like to say that the property is pristine. I, you know, I got out and walked around the property. It's pristine and I'm with Ted. Uh, you know, if we grant this variance, it's in perpetuity forever. If there's some way that we could make it where it's just for this gentleman

or the LLC itself, correct? Would transfer to the owner of the property, that's fine. But the owner of the property at this time if we could make it so it's that and not forever. I'd be for it. And like Jay said, maybe what Bill said is is legal. like uh that's the contingencies. If you guys want to say like it would only if he ever sells his property, it would not carry over to the next owner, then that's 100% legal. That's what he was saying. That's what you're doing.

Yes, that would be fine with me. I mean, yes. Yeah. Thank I would encourage you to do that. Let us do that. So recommend approval with certain contingencies that the variance does not pass on to the next owner for variance exception at GreasePro A7 South Tendle Parkway. Is that a motion? That's a motion. Oh, hold on. Um, is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this besides the board here? No. Okay. Um, can I get a motion? I'd like to make a motion. We you better be very specific on what those Well, that's a good point.

You want to set a time frame? Do you want to set a define that? Yeah. And the only reason why I say that is because you are setting a precedent. And that precedent is one you had best be able to defend because you are going to be hit with some of these in the future. And you want to know what you did so that you can replicate. Right. Right. It's kind of it's all going to have to be passed by the main commission anyway.

Yeah. This is just the recommend like recommend that it's approved. We're just giving ideas. We're not We're not passing anything. Yeah. I have a I have a question. If we do it to the LLC and he was to sell the LLC to the new owner, I don't know. That's why I need a lawyer. do that would it still continue? I can answer that one. The LLC would not go to the new owner. That's right. The LLC is what I It dissolves. It's me and my wife and that is

Well, right. But sometimes when people sell businesses, they sell the LLC, FBI, you know what I mean? All that information along with it. Um, and that could pose a problem if they do the very LLC. Take your place. I'll not sell the LLC. Done. All right. So, LLC's are transferable. That is that is a possibility. So I would say recommend that

I'm going to recommend we approve the the request for variance at A17 South Tendle Parkway with the caveat that the lawyer advises the commission that it was only good for a current property owner. I'll second that. Roll call. Board member Langston

because of you saying that that way. I'd say no. Board member Conra. I'm going to say no. Board member Ki. Yes. Board member Bohhat. No. Board member Hennings. Yes. Vice Chair Overway. No. Chairman Dooall. Yes. Motion doesn't pass. Motion does not pass. Commissioners pass. Any other business? Bill, that is it for tonight. That's it for tonight. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. I'll second motion.