Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I will call the March 3rd, 2026 Norfolk Planning Commission meeting to order. Inform the public of the location of the open meetings act posted in the northwest corner of the building and ask for roll. Wait here. Sock here. Simonson here. Pupky. Hard here. Guyer here. Griffith here. Kee here. Ronfelt here. Ask for approval of the full agenda. Move to approve. Second. Please vote. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

Consideration of approval of the minutes of the February 18th, 2026 planning commission meeting. Move to approve. Second. Please vote. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. And now election of the chairperson and vice chairperson for the upcoming year. So someone has a nomination for election of the chair person.

Dirk's got it. I like Derk White as chair. I'd be okay with that unless there's someone else that would like to take over. I'll second DK. Seven.

Yeah. Yeah. Please vote. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries and the election of vice chairperson. Cody is currently I'd be fine doing it again if I nominate Cody. Second. Thank you. Please vote. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

I don't know what we do without you. [laughter] Is there any other takers? Any other reconsiderations? [laughter] I don't make many nominations, but I would nominate Brianna Durst for planning commission secretary. Absolutely. Second. stuck. There we go. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. Thanks, guys. Thank you. [laughter] [clears throat]

Bless you and the crowd. Consideration of resolution 2026 PC-2 approving a conditional use permit for automobile sales on property addressed at 600 West Omaha Avenue. Resolution 2026 PC was tabled at the February 18th, 2026 planning commission meeting. Is that still being taken off the table at this point? Yeah, I see we've got eight here. So, I would assume so. The first we'll need a motion and a second to remove it from the table. I'll move to the table. A second.

Motion in a second. Morning. from the table. There we go. Need one more yet. We're missing missing one. Missing one on the removing from the table. There we go. There we go. All commission members present voting in the affirmative. Resolution 2026 PC-2 is removed from the table.

Hi. Yes, sir. Yes. Are you here here to share anything? Well, I mean, yeah. Well, we we are waiting for, you know, like the commissioner permit a a decision. Yeah, we already have the meeting with the fire department with the contract company who's going to be who's going to do all the the fire department the the fire inspection requirement. Okay.

So the landlord the owner is agreed to do all that uh work that we have to do at the building. So, we're just waiting for for if we're going to get the conditional permit and follow all the the conditions and it's going to be in the Okay. Right there. Thank you.

Yeah. So, we will uh read this in for the record. Uh, be it resolved by the planning commission of the city of Norfol, Nebraska, that four-cylinder auto sales LLC is hereby granted a conditional use permit for automobile sales subject to the following terms and conditions. There shall be no customer parking in the front of the building facing West Omaha Avenue. And if parking occurs in this described area, it shall be for display of maximum three for safe vehicles on four sale vehicles only. There shall be no portion of a vehicle overhanging any portion of the public sidewalk. There shall be designated customer parking in the rear parking lot and signage on the front facing West Omaha Avenue of no customer parking directing customers to the rear parking lot. There shall be on the private property a maintain open pathway in front of the building along West Omaha Avenue for vehicle maneuvering to limit said maneuvers across the public sidewalk and in West Omaha Avenue. There shall be the state of Nebraska dealer license required minimum 10 contiguous parking spaces for vehicle sale display allowed and maintained in the existing northern concrete block building. There shall be compliance with the fire marshall regulations including the following. The sales showroom and the repair garage shall be separated by at least a 1hour fire rated wall assembly to include any openings protected by a 45minut self-closing fire rated door. Each space shall provide two approved and remotely separate unobstructed means of egress to the exterior of the building, the showroom, and the repair garage.

The means of egress from the showroom cannot go through the repair garage. Overhead doors and sliding doors are not approved for the means of egress. The egress doors shall be side swinging. Exit shall be properly marked with internally illuminated battery backup exit signs. Battery backup emergency lighting shall be provided as required throughout all spaces in the showroom and repair garage. Portable fire extinguishers shall be provided in the repair garage and showroom. Liquid fueled vehicles shall not be located indoors in uh parentheses showroom except as follows. Batteries are disconnected except where the fire code official requires that the batteries remain connected to maintain safety features. Fuel in tank does not exceed one quarter tank or 5 gallons, 19 L, whichever is least. Fuel tanks and fuel and and fill openings are closed and sealed to prevent tampering. Vehicles are not fueled or defueled within the building. Pursuant to the Norfolk City Code, the conditional use permit shall be for 5 years and personal privilege granted to the applicant and shall not be subject to transfer. Failure to observe and maintain the conditions and restrictions of the conditional use permit shall be considered a violation of the code of the city of Norfol, [clears throat] Nebraska subject to penalties as provided herein and may be grounds for review, including alteration or termination of the permit. All procedures and standards outlined in section 27-56 of the Norfolk City Code pertaining to the conditional use permits shall be observed and conditional use permits granted [clears throat] herein shall be subject to the provision of the Norfolk City Code that provide for an appeal to be taken within 15 days of the decision of the planning commission and there shall be compliance with the flood plane and any other applicable city, county, state or federal regulation, federal regulations that may apply. All right.

Is there discussion on this or do we just approve? Uh I think there's there can be discussion. It's not uh No, you're good. Um, I just wanted to restate my opinion and think this is a safety hazard and always and I mean there's a lot of conditions here and take a lot to follow them all. So, we'll see what happens, but I just I don't see any of this going well. So, that's my opinion though. Would you mind restating your top safety concerns with it?

Uh, I would say the going out onto Omaha Avenue being one of them. Um, you I mean you can try to stop it with a um condition in here, but again, people are going to do what people want to do. Um, I could see cars hanging over the sidewalks uh in the back area. I just that just seems like it would be a mess of parking for the business, the other business that's there, the tenants that are also there, the customers who would be parking there, the workers who would be parking there, and then you also have cars on sale are on display. So, there's just seems like there would be a lot going on. Um, even just inside with the fire marshall regulations, um, there's a lot to lot to follow there and I would hope they all get followed, but you just you never know. Um, there's just a lot of red flags that pop up for me. I would assume that all the fire marshall requirements will be inspected and verified um before this.

Yeah, we we're going to take effect. Sorry. We're going to have a meeting today with the contrion company, with the contractor, and the fire inspection today at 2 p.m. Before I start working, they want to make sure that everything is going to be just how the fire department need.

Do you want to follow up on that? No, I mean Sean the fire marshal does obviously know about this and he's been kind of asking where it is in the process so that he can make sure to keep up on it and and assure that these do get followed if this does get passed. But it it will be a something to manage between myself and and Sean, I would say. Yes, it'll it'll be a job. Yeah,

I do share some of Cody's concerns, but every time I've driven by there recently, we've had several cars out front and cars hanging over the sidewalk. I think at least now we have something on paper that says, "Hey, don't do that." Um because as it sits right now, it's happening as it is. So may I say something? Can can I say? So we do have the parking lot in the back. That parking lot is like for 14 15 spot over there in the back. There's two office. They use like four or five of them. We're going to have three for the customer for our customers. And we're gonna have the the for the the dealer in the back building. So it's going to be so we the front the up west Omaha Avenue. We don't going to we don't have to park customer over there is is is in the document and we also the the car dealer is going to be in the building in the back. So we the customers go through the back. The car is going through the back with a garage door that we have in the back. So we literally have don't have to do anything from the front. The front is going to be just for the our chop that is already there since two three years ago that we open that bit that that business over there. So we're going to just so this is how it's going to looks. I have two copy and see you guys can understand this. [clears throat] This is the back parking lot with the back entry and if you If you see the next page,

that's how it's going to look inside the building. We have plenty spot for like 14, 15 car inside the building. So, I don't see like it's going to be like a really big mess because it's just a garage with car parking over there. I feel he's making use of an eyesore that is there um and trying to make it look better. Um, now I think the improvements that are being required, um, is definitely going to help. I don't know if putting cones out in the front for parking to prevent that would be an additional um option, but I mean people are going to do what they want to do. And and I I do agree that uh I drive by there all the time and there are cars over the sidewalk um which they're going to continue to do. But if we approve this, then we can say you can't do that.

At least, you know, there's the the proper signage that was discussed. Mhm. At least it's enforceable. Yes.

I suppose any would have the chance to look at the documents that he showed. Okay. I think as far as the permit goes, there's there's a lot on there and he's he's shown us that he's willing to work with us and and do a lot of this stuff already. So, um that's that's a lot for anyone to do. And the the condition you conditional use permit will be um subject to review should we be made aware of any violations of the conditions. Any other discussion? If not, I'll take a motion.

I move to approve a conditional use for automobile sales on property addressed at 600 Western. Second. We have a motion, a second. Please vote. Voting in the affirmative. Kee, Sock, Griffith, Guyger, Hoffer, Simson. Voting in opposition, Ronfelt, and Wait. Resolution 2026 PC-2 is adopted. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh, any other open topics or concerns toward current and future from the city? Seeing none, I'd take a motion to adjourn. So move. Thank you, Martin. We reserve that for who said it last time? In honor. He filled in of honor of you. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Can we give Nicolet a heads up? That is [clears throat] Marvin's job. Yeah, we don't step on those toes. He's been doing that for about Nobody gave me a heads up and I screwed up. About seven years now.