Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The Still Water Planning Commission meeting of May 5th is now called to order. It will be the process this evening to call for items on the agenda. The commission will hear briefly from staff first, then the applicant and/or their representative. Then we will open the public hearing and hear from those in favor andor in opposition to the request. When you come to the podium, please clearly state your name and address for the record. And then before closing the public hearing, both staff, [snorts] the applicant, and/or their representative will be provided an opportunity to respond and provide additional information and answer questions. After all interested parties have spoken, the public hearing will be closed and then we will hear closing remarks and alternatives from staff. Uh first item on the agenda to this evening is to receive um public comment regarding an application for a short-term rental. And we shall hear from staff.

Yes. Good evening, uh, chair and commissioners. David Bar with development services. Uh, this is again, like you mentioned, a short-term rental application uh, for address property addressed as 723 South McFarland. Uh, the planning commission is the hearing body for short-term rental applications. uh hearings will be held as similar to a specific use permit hearing except there are no staff report or presentations uh included. The criteria by which the planning commission is to review the short-term rental application is in section 23180 um of the city code um the applicant for the short-term rental has the burden for their case. Um, one other thing to point out that we normally point out is that the city cannot enforce private restrictions or restrictive covenants, but the planning commission can give weight to them as part of their deliberative process. Uh, this is an area map showing uh in pink or highlighted in pink uh the subject property. It looks to be almost midblock uh between well actually it kind of lines up with ETH I guess if ETH were to go through and McFarland uh it's on the east side of McFarland there. And with that um I would just open up for any questions for staff. Al I will also mention that the applicant is here this evening. Is that a duplex?

I don't believe so. I would I think I'll let the applicant explain what the property is. I I couldn't quite tell looking at the Stillwater map where 7 23 was. Okay. Yeah. I think I'll have to defer to the applicant on what the property is and particulars on the property. I did have um just a couple questions. Um do we know if there are any other STRs in this area? I do not. Okay.

I can try to look real quick and see. Um but um yeah, that uh I I don't know that. Okay. All right. And then I think the other question I have is um we did get some information regarding there's a a storm water drainage ditch in this general vicinity and there was some question about whose responsibility that is. Um, so when you say in this general vicinity, I'm um, so I'm I'm referring to the information that was in the packet. Okay.

And, um, I guess there's a storm water ditch along the south edge of 5 725 South McFarland. Um and there's been some issue with with um debris getting into that ditch and causing some issue with backup on storm water. Okay.

And then my question would be is that is that the city's responsibility or is that the land owner's responsibility? Typically drainage facilities um are unless they're major drainage facilities are the property owner's responsibility to maintain to keep flee of free of debris um to keep trees from growing in them and and that sort of thing. There are um drainage channels that are maintained by the city. Um I'm not sure if this one is one of those particular ones. Okay, those are my two questions. Okay.

Any other questions for stack? Okay. Okay. So, at this time, we would um give the applicant an opportunity to come forward and um provide us a little bit more information about the short-term rental. Hello, my name's Randall Baker. I'm Sandy Baker. So, um I'll go ahead and address the uh the drainage issue. Um it's really not much of an issue. We've owned the property now for about 6 months. Um we've done some improvement there in the back. Um removed some brush along a fence line and um we've kept the the drainage ditch open all the way to move a little closer to the

all the way to the city um sewer line there or whatever it is where it runs into. So, there's really no concern with the drainage. Um, I've been there during a storm and after a storm. Um, like I say, we've we've done a lot of improvements to the place compared to the previous owner. Um, so and and I have no problem maintaining the the drainage. So, you're you're you're aware of the situation? Yes. All right. Okay.

And to answer your question, it is a duplex. So, we purchased the property because our daughter is attending OSU here. She lives on one side rentree. So, the reason for the short-term rental is to hope to recoup some of the money because we only have one tenant and not two. So, okay. And also, this is not our only rental property. We have more multiple properties in Panka. Okay. So we're we're not slum lords. Slum lords. If we were slum lords, we would have rented it in December. Yeah. And not spent 6 months upgrading the property. Okay.

Can you tell us a little bit about are you going to be using Airbnb, VBO, a platform like that? Yes, Airbnb. Okay, perfect. And then tell us about your policies for the property. And then also, it sounds like you live in Panka City. Mhm. When you're obviously not here, who is going to be kind of responsible for anything that comes up on a as needed basis when people are staying there? Who's taking care of it? Can you go over some of those items with us, please? So, our daughter Riley lives next door on the other side of the duplex. She will be our cleaning lady [snorts] slash uh security guard

and I am because our 20-year-old does live here. I am here three times a week and will be until she graduates. So, and then as far as the policies, is there anything? Honestly, I mean, I haven't I've listed it on Airbnb. didn't list it, but I got on there to see the rules and everything. I until this all goes through, I haven't really we don't intend to put it on there next week. I wanted to make sure that this was even a go before I even did anything major to go forward on an Airbnb. So, I'll tell you some of the things that we typically like to see, okay,

Airbnb owners listing are like no party policies. Um, typically if you have less than one night or greater than one night stay, must have a two night stay kind of prevents locals from coming in and using utilizing it as a party house. Um, maximum number of guests not to exceed kind of what the house can properly accommodate, things like that. So, those are the typical policies that we like to know that the homeowners are going to be abiding by because that will affect everyone in the area and make it a little bit better for them having an Airbnb around.

Those would definitely be things that we would put in place. Yes. Okay. We intend to put cameras up and ring doorbells and like I said, our daughter's next door so and she don't party, she studies all the time, so she would definitely be telling us if there was problems. So, you have other properties, but probably it doesn't sound like you have other short-term rentals, so they're all longer term rentals.

We do have several rentals in Pona that are long-term. We are in the process of making them Airbnbs because we've learned very quickly long-term rentals, you don't you don't know what's happening. You don't know. You're not able to go in and see your property once a month or every two weeks or, you know, however often an Airbnb needs to be cleaned. So, we have one right now that we're actually cleaning in Panka that's pretty disgusting. We're hoping to turn it into an Airbnb.

Gotcha. [snorts] Uh what about parking? Do you have adequate parking on the site or would it be on the street? So, we have we have parking for two um on site and then um I don't see anybody bringing more than two, but then there's street parking. I don't I don't see parking being an issue.

Any other questions for the applicant? Thank you very much. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open the public hearing and ask if there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak in favor of this item to please come forward. Seeing none, I'll ask if there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition to this item to please come forward.

I believe I mailed my uh objections. Could you give us your name and address for the record? I just I believe I mailed my objections. Do y'all have that? Your name, ma'am? I believe I mailed my objections to y'all. Do y'all have that? Yes or no? What What is your name? My name is Do Web? Yes, we have something. And can you verify your address? 721 South McFarland. Thank you.

Just the house just to the north. Um so my object objections fairly um specified [clears throat] some concerns I've had on the drainage ditch that goes to the south edge of of 725 property um and then curves around toward the north and goes to the next two houses and has flooded significant ificantly in the last eight years that I've been there, but I've been the one maintaining it, deputized myself cuz the previous landlord didn't maintain it. Um, they did some um tore down the house to the south of 725 and 723. And in that process, they knocked down concrete blocks and rocks down into the drainage ditch. I cleaned those out. Um, in November, I was talking with the city about cleaning out digging out the drainage ditch so it would it's kind of built filled in over the years since I've been there. And so I've shoveled a little bit of dirt and um tried to make it where it would flow faster and drain faster. that um the grate on the on the drainage ditch um can block up quite a bit easily if it's not maintained at least once a month, once every two months. Check. There is a little bit there. I just went down there and looked at it before I came over here. There is a little bit of limbs and still blocking. It only it only takes about blocking about halfway up before it'll start flooding the whole backyard

of those my house and the house uh ahead of me uh to the north of me. Um so but they seem to be taking care hopefully they'll take care of it. There's also the drainage that comes from the east corner southeast corner of the property and it goes along the south. So that hasn't been cleared of the trees. I left that for this landlord here to take care of it since I'd taken care of. I pulled out about eight bags of limbs and leaves after they did the uh demolition on the south property uh since they had pulled out some of the trees there. So I jumped on it while I had the opportunity to maybe um so it's wasn't so um didn't take such heavy maintenance because I was there at least once a month clearing it out make before every rain storm and uh um like I said the previous landowner didn't do anything about it and wouldn't and um anyway um the other thing that I objected to was um the parking. There's no parking on in front of the duplexes. It's on the far side of the street, other side of the street, the west side of the street. Uh routinely have to get people to remind them to say, "Hey, there's four signs on this street between 6th and 9th. They all say no parking at any time. you need to tell your people, you know, the rules because it's a narrow um road and there's no eighth street cross street. So from 6th to 9th, it's a fairly straight shot and people can go

by there pretty fast. Um, so we don't want cars being hit or side mirrors being hit because of double parking or on both sides of the street. the um ma main um objection I have on the the shortterm rental versus long-term is because uh like I mentioned we have two um um motel within three to five blocks with swimming pools and amenities and Uh this is a great neighborhood for the grade school just two blocks away um for kid dads and moms to bring their kid walk their kids to school. Um we really don't need more rental. It's 83% rental properties in that Westwood area and this is just another uh opportunity for higher traffic on that street that we really don't need. Uh the the people that are rentals like college kids may stay two to three four years depends or single moms, parents can stay two to three, four years. Uh gives the homeowners around there the chance to build relationship and wave and say hi and how are you doing and do you have a cake recipe or whatever, you know. And with the traffic in and out every weekend, we're not going to be building relationships with the people that they're there for one or two nights and then they're gone. Uh and with the um I didn't I wasn't aware that the

daughter was going to be managing the property. I was told um Roger told me to contact him directly if I had any concerns. I did mention there they did some cut down some bushes in the front and pulled them out to the yard. I [clears throat] called him and said uh you know this is what the city requires for it to be picked up and then I called him and um let him know what hadn't been picked up and uh so but if his daughter's going to be the daughter's going to be take care of that that's fine. Um like I said I just don't want to be messing with it if I don't have to. Um,

hey, I think we've reached a 5m minute time. Um, so is are the any other topics you haven't already covered that um isn't either in your letter or that you've been able to mention so far in five minutes of time of speaking?

Yeah, one more thing. Um, I was over there. The daughter was there and she was asking me if the couple of the trash cans had been they were on the yard and not down on the street. And I went and crossed over into the yard cuz I couldn't hear what she was saying. And I was saying, "I didn't put those back up on this on the yard. I don't know who did. I just got in. I've been working all day." and she said, 'Well, my mom wanted to tell you that that uh uh there's uh you're trespassing on the property here. And I thought that was very uh toxic for the parent to be telling their daughter when I'm trying to have a conversation and she's asking me questions and now all of a sudden she says, "Well, my mom told me that you're trespassing and you can't be on the property."

So, you you have any concern with how the trash is going to be handled? Is that a question then that you would have for them how that's going to be handled? Uh the daughter asked me about the trash cans. I did not brooach the subject, but when I walked over onto their property. Okay. I I I I understand the transaction that occurred. Okay. So, yep. Thank you. Yep.

All right. I'll ask if there's anyone else in the audience that would like to speak in opposition of this item to please come forward. All right. Seeing none, um we would give the applicant an opportunity. Um if there's anything you would like to address that we can keep on task of the of the items for conversation here. Uh yeah, I don't really know what a drainage ditch has to do with an Airbnb. Um I'm a very capable guy. Um been in construction my entire life. I can keep a drainage ditch clear. Um that's not an issue. Um as far as the parking, like I said, we have room for two in the driveway and there is room on the other side of the street for parking. I don't feel that that's an issue. Okay.

Um and you know I So it seems like you've answered all of the questions. Okay. As far as parking goes, can you have something in your notes for potential residents that says, "Hey, if you're going to park on the street, make sure that you're parking on this side of the street. There are markings on this side of the street that says please don't park here. Just a little bit of extra information. Absolutely. Extra information for them on how to properly park. Already actually I've started a list. She actually already called the police on somebody that had parked in the other side. So I put that on my list already for my little Airbnb.

A friend of ours came by to see us. But that's Yeah. Thank you. So, yes, we'll put that on the Airbnb website and then we'll also put that in the notes um inside the property. Um we'll have a list of things that rules and things that need to be done. So, and I don't know if it matters, but I did ask my daughter to ask her to stay off our property because I didn't Yeah, that that's really not part of our property part of what we're looking at this evening. So, I I appreciate that. Thank you. But Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. I think you've answered the question. Thank you guys. All right.

All right. So, with that, um, we'll close the public hearing and we would ask, um, staff to present our alternatives. Sure. And, um, if it's okay, I might just back up and answer one of the questions that you had asked earlier. Um, fantastic.

We could bring the map back up on the screen. So, um, the subject property is right here. And while all of the other conversations were being had, I asked Cindy upstairs to take a look. We have a new map that hopefully we'll start sharing. Um we already published a list of all the licensed short-term rentals. Um but you know, we're in the process of amending our regulations and so we hope to have that map um available to share. But there is a licensed um short-term rental um on on uh that King Street, which is just to the east. Um, one, two, three, four houses to the south. So, right in this area. Well, you can't see my pointer, but um about three properties up from Ninth on the on Kings. And then there's another one that's right on Ninth down here. Um, just one uh two houses over from Kings. So, those are the only two currently licensed on that block.

Okay. So then I and and the reason I asked is I kind of wanted to get a feel for the density because I know we have a um a change under consideration that would impact the density and I didn't want to get us in a situation where we accepted something that would be grandfathered in that might not meet what we're trying to meet in the future. So this appears that this one would not impact adversely what we're trying to prevent. Um yeah I so the other thing is I don't really know what the zoning in this area is it could be because you know one of the things we're looking at on that density limit is or small lot single family and large lot single this would not be large lot single family zoning but probably

it's probably small lot single family single family is what it appears but there's probably some properties on this block especially up on six that are not they're commercial or office or something so and then also I don't really know where the blocks I I didn't look at it from perspective of the new ordinance just because it's not going to be in, you know, it's not been adopted. True. So, but I understand what you're Yeah. And and and I think the, you know, the thing for me is um looking at at the density and the number because I think that does directly impact the character of the neighborhood and some of the things were mentioned this evening about a long-term versus a short-term rental and having that neighborhood feel. So, I think that is one of the impacts that um happens between a short-term and a long term, right?

I think there are trade-offs both ways, but um that was what I why I was asking. Okay. [cough] [clears throat] I appreciate you looking that up. Thank you. Yeah. So, the alternatives that uh the planning commission has is to approve the application uh defer for additional discussion or deny the application.

Thank you. discussion amongst the commissioners. [snorts] I I find it to be a positive thing that it is a duplex with the daughter that is going to be living there. I think that will provide incentive to make sure that you have good guests there, you're keeping up with the property well, and just overall being a good homeowner of the area. So, I think that that is a positive as far aside from that. I mean, they meet all of the standard criteria that we pretty well go through on most of our conversations as far as what we like to see from short-term rental owners. And I would also say they I don't know the exact block density on that, but are pretty close to meeting, if not are meeting, all of the criteria for what we discussed moving forward in the new code.

I would I would agree. Yeah. Yeah. I'd make a motion that we approve the application. Second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote.

Motion passes 5-0. Next item on the agenda is to receive public comment regarding a map amendment. Um we shall hear from staff. Apparently Josh has reminded me I've slipped into my old ways and I'm not enlarging the presentation. So we'll make sure and do that on this next one. All right. So uh yes, this is a map amendment request for uh property addressed at 214 and two or 220 South Cleveland Street. I'll explain that in a second. uh to reszone from multifamily intermediate residential to multifamily urban residential. Um we listed the two addresses because our GI city's GIS system addresses this property as 214 South Cleveland. Um the county assessor's office shows it as 220. So we showed both numbers in um our notice and on the presentation and in your report. Uh here's an aerial view. This property is is the location of the Capidelta sorority. It's a northn northwest corner of the intersection of Third Avenue and Cleveland Street. Uh this is a zoning map that shows the existing zoning in the area. Um that uh everything that looks like it's in that really awful green color is uh is RMI, which is what this property is currently zoned. Uh you can see RMU is off to the east there a little bit east of Cleveland. If we were to zoom out, you would see that everything along University east of that is all RMU basically down to um

um Monroe. So all of the fraternities and sororities along that area are um most most of them anyway are in RMU zoning. Just for some context, uh you can see there's some public property. That's the old park um that um there was a water tower there when I was in high school and college. It's been removed. Um there's some RTM up to the north across university as well as RSS, which is the Westwood overlay district. This is the future land use map that is included in our Envision 2045 comprehensive plan that we just recently adopted. And you can see they're showing this area to be moderate density residential. Uh and I can go into what that you know in the next slide it shows moderate density residential for all of this area on both north and south of of university. Um this this kind of goes into you've seen this uh exhibit before. This comes from the comprehensive plan and it talks about the appropriate uses um for moderate density residential. I will tell you that our comprehensive plan barely mentions fraternity and sorority or Greek housing. Um and so in fact I think the word Greek is in the entire comprehensive plan once. I searched for the word fraternity and sorority and found no matches. So um it wasn't really discussed. So most of this most of these existing houses um are in either RMI or RMU which when you think of that it doesn't really sound like moderate density. when we look at to adopt or maybe to amend our comp plan at some point, uh we might need to add something is, you know, some of the especially the Greek neighborhood association is is engaged with us and and discussed um you know, certain maybe an overlay district or something like that in the future. But anyway, just so you know that um when you look at single

family houses, missing middle homes, which um missing middle is is a wide context of different, you know, duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes up to um you know, multifamily, then you've got neighborhood commercial. So, there's a lot of different things that could go into moderate density. Um, with that I would just ask if the planning commission has any questions I do know that the applicant is here this evening or their representative both. So

I have a quick question on um something that you noted. Um we did recently look at and recently a few months back look at a at an amendment to the land use code where we looked at um some different approach towards some of this some of the area where we've got Greek housing. Um, do we need to make some kind of correlation in the future when we're looking at the comp plan to be able to include that to to include the RMU? Because as you noted, it's not really mentioned in the comp plan. Yeah. I mean, the something maybe we need to think about in the future.

So, the the comp plan doesn't really mention our zoning districts that we have like RSS or RSL or um CG or IL or any of those. Um it just talks about areas you know that are um so I think intentionally that's been the approach correct

yeah this doesn't really show um yes that that's been the approach well here you can see future land use so um the the list there on the left that's what the comp plan talks about in terms of those aren't really zoning districts they're uses and so um all of those things fit within certain zoning learning districts that we have. Um so you know like I said this area right now is multifamily intermediate um which goes it has a certain density um that's listed in this comparison table in the in the back of your report. Um for example the density well

is it there? There's there's kind of the the description of the moderate density residential. Yeah. I don't I'm not sure why the density is not there. But anyway, you're talking about units per acre density. Oh, there it is. It's 30 units per acre. Sorry, it's buried down kind of in the bottom. Yes. Um, yeah, that I think it's right before the bottom of that table.

Yeah, there's a table that says zoning comparison chart. And I did want to point this out because um and I'm glad you brought that up um Chair Phillips that the this zoning comparison chart actually shows um the RMU regulations that were in our code before we modified that uh with that text amendment. So, for example, um it says the minimum sideyard boundary with a residential district is still 15 feet, but with a commercial district or an industrial district, it's um it's it's 5T or if it's it's with anything other than a single family house, it's still 5T. So, those are some of the things that we changed um when we did the RMU um when we re I guess we modified the RMU um zoning district bulk standards.

We really changed the you know it was mainly just changes to the the sideyard. Okay. And so, oh, and then we did add a reg, you know, there's a requirement. This says max structure height 50 feet, but we also included that it it's a twotory max height if you're within 30 feet. You you're laugh you're smiling because you remember the deliberation of that. I do.

So within 30 ft of the um you know from the property line um of a residential use or um zoning district, then you can only have the max height of a building being 30 feet um sorry two stories within that 30 ft. So, um those things are not reflected in that table. Um but that's what would be um used uh if they if this were reszoned. That's how we would um look at any kind of development on their property. So, we would look at it for the text amendment. Yes, we would look at it for the new text amendment. Great. Um, so I'm I'm not sure I answered your question that you

No, I I I I just wanted to have the discourse on if there was anything we needed to track to update so that we're kind of bringing everything up. We are addressing Greek housing in our chapter 23. You're right. We just don't know quite how we're going to propose to handle that. It is being addressed. Okay. All right. That was really just what I wanted since you mentioned it in your presentation, I wanted to take the opportunity. Okay. Okay, thank you. You bet. So, yeah. Any other questions before we move to the public hearing?

Well, I'm just going to see if I boil it down. So, a sorority house is allowed by right in RMI and RMU. They're asking to move from RMI to RMU. The reason is they want to do an expansion because they can't do the expansion in the RMI because of the 40% limit. Correct. So, they they get a 60% limit with RMU and the expansion is going to be at about 52.5%. So that's basically the core of the issue. That is the core of the issue. Okay. And you're telling us that the majority of the Greek houses are in RMU already. Yeah. It's a little more than%. So and almost everything that's new as well, I would assume is.

Yeah. Most of the ones, you're right, the ones that have rebuilt um if you look at I I I don't have a larger zoning map, but if you look at especially down university, that's all zoned RMU. Any other questions for staff? Thank you. You bet. So, um I think we've got a pretty good understanding, but I would we'd give the floor the applicant an opportunity if you'd like to add anything else. [laughter] You can you can adjust it.

It's okay. story of my life and allergy sufferer as well. So, excuse my voice. Mark really summarized what I was going to say. The reasoning um for the reason. Can you say your name and address out? I'm sorry. Trisha Carpenter address too. Yes.

1123 South Range Road, Still Water. I am the treasurer for the House Corporation Board for Capidela Sority and volunteered to be co-chair of the building project. Um, but just a little bit about the project real quickly is as you all probably know a lot of the Greek houses our membership is out ground our houses. So what we really need is a multi-purpose room where we can hold everybody at one time. Currently we cannot do that. We've moved those meetings up to campus. They have to go up to campus for those types of meetings. So, we looked at every option we had and the only way to achieve that is to do this addition, which will actually go out into part of an existing parking lot. So, it's not going into a green space. Um, we just also happen to have one of the smaller lots um as well. So, you know, to to do any we're already at that 40% maximum um in the RMI. So hoping to basically we're just, you know, we'll be doing nothing different than any of the other Greek houses have done. Just our law and our zoning um didn't help with what we were trying to achieve, but this will um we'll you know meet all the zoning requirements if we can get this moved to the RMU.

Thank you. All right. Thanks. So, at this time, we'd open the public hearing and ask if there's anyone else in the audience that would like to speak in favor of this item to come forward. Seeing none, we'll ask if there's anyone in the audience who would like to speak in opposition of this item to please come forward. Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and ask staff to present findings and alternatives.

Yes. The findings are the proposed map amendment aligns with envisioned Stillwater 2045. The sority a sorority house is allowed by right in the RMI and RMU zoning districts and the proposed reasonzoning would increase the maximum lot coverage uh from 40 to 60%. Alternatives are to accept findings and recommend the city council approve the proposed map amendment as presented. find that alternative two is to find that additional information or discussion is needed prior to making a recommendation and table the request to a future planning commission meeting or three find that the map amendment is not needed and do not recommend that the city council approve the request staff recommends alternative one thank you

anyone entertaining a motion I'd make a motion to accept the findings and recommend the city council approve the proposed map amendment as presented Second.

We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. Motion passes 5-0. Next item on the agenda is the meeting summary for review and possible action. We have the meeting minutes from April 21st. I had a couple of um corrections. One was on page one, the headings for staff present and staff absent. And then the other one was on page three and that was um in the fifth paragraph I think is a typo. It says 23 hours should be 24hour. Any other items Uh, I will move to accept with those corrections.

Second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. [clears throat] Motion passes 5-0. Next item would be miscellaneous items from staff, planning commissioners, or the city attorney for discussion and possible action. The only thing listed is the next meeting is May 19th. All right. Last item on the agenda is adjournment. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. Motion passes 5-0. We now stand adjourned.