Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this planning commission meeting to order, 10/2125 special meeting.

Oh, sorry. Hold on. Do that again, please.

I'd like to call the ten twenty one twenty five planning commission special meeting to order. Roll call, please. Falcone. Yes. Del Reigno and Jones are present. Yep. We do have a quorum. Thank you. We only have one item on the agenda tonight. Or do you do you don't need the recording do you no it's ordinance twenty twenty five one zero five conditional use permit for nursery garden center Kahun nursery

yes and 27630 Detroit Road so it's conditional use permit for a retail garden center horticultural services This is actually zoned office building. It's legally nonconforming so it predates modern zoning. I didn't it's kinda hard to check. This may have been general business zoning at one point in history. Maybe that's why it's there or maybe just predates zoning completely. We do have, thanks to Brian we've got a little history here I didn't know about before but it is a permitted conditional use. It's grandfathered the way it is right now. The only problem is it's locked into the configuration that it is today. And so Mr. Cahoon Brian Corrigan is here.

He has some big plans for the property. And so in discussing it with them we said, hey why don't we just go ahead and pursue pursue a conditional use permit for the entire for all of it because he actually owns both sides of Cahoon now. So anyways provided you with a little bit of a history going all the way back from to its founding back in 1948. And he has been one of the owners since 2011 and the sole owner now for a few years. Since 2014, well time flies.

So he'll continue to provide high quality horticultural plants, products, services to the Western Suburbs of Cleveland and beyond. Wishes to address the aesthetically displeasing and outdated buildings as well as the insufficient parking lot. I think we can all agree that that parking lot is insufficient. And it'll have a redesigned sales and storage buildings, doubles the size of the parking, hopes to provide a positive impact to the neighbors and the entire community. It's as I mentioned it's legally nonconforming so you can't make it any better without having a conditional use permit.

And so the conditional use permit allows changes. Will of course these changes of course will have to comply with the code requirements for the office building zone. And a development plan is required as well. So what they're looking at with this would be a phased development and something that he's hoping to get underway during the downtime which is happening soon, as soon as the weather changes anyways. He'd like to construct a new 2,680 square foot maintenance and storage building.

It's in a location where the existing one is right now. It's a much smaller structure than what is actually functional. Access would be from Cahoon Road. And due to the slope and the proximity to Cahoon Road, only a 15 foot setback is feasible to have it at this location. And he's got a lot of property there but because of the creek and because of the grading and the highway the interstate and everything There's some real limitations with the site as well.

So this is really the best location to have a building. What I did there as you see in green is I kind of dotted in and where a building could fit without needing any setback modifications. And it really shrinks it down to a building that is actually smaller than the existing one. It would only be about twelve fifty four square feet. The existing one is about 1,800 square feet.

So now this isn't something that you're approving right now. But this is good information for you to have because obviously if this is approved this will be quickly followed up with a development plan. When you can take a little bit better look at it. So future phases then would be to expand the parking to 22 spaces. 20 is what's required by code.

Replace the existing new retail space with a new two story building incorporating office functions. And there's actually a wing that you'll see where it says existing store to remain closest to Detroit Road. He'd like to have that removed, actually, and was under the impression that that needed to remain in order to do these improvements. But nothing could be farther from the truth that we would all be happy to see that go away and have a nice building there. And then that really gives an opportunity for better circulation in front of the building, potentially around the building, potentially a second driveway on the Detroit Road maybe for better circulation.

But it really opens up a lot of possibilities not having that there. So you see it on the obviously this is just a concept plan. It's not what you're going to see with the development plan. But that's why I wanted to point that out to you. Concept plan, it's illustrative only. There's nothing binding to the city. So you're not agreeing to this any part of this development that you're seeing there. But it does show the what his intent is for the property going forward. Our guideline does identify this as office and then also still shows it as being part of St. Paul Lutheran Church.

So that's a mapping inconsistency. We're going to update the guide plan next year anyways, at least the future land use plan next year. It's time to look at it again. So that's just kind of a housekeeping thing to make sure that matches what the actual use is. And then the next one is the standards for evaluating conditional use permits.

There's really the three standards that you see on the screen there. I won't read them all. I'll just kind of summarize them. Number three, it's really, is this going to be is this use in the improvements that could be provided will be objectionable to nearby dwellings by reason of noise, smoke, dust, odors, fumes, vibration or glare? Certainly it's not really providing anything new.

It's probably in some ways it's making it a better situation because you'll have a modern parking lot and things like that. So that's the first one to consider. The second one, does it form a harmonious part of the business research service I'm sorry, business district, taking into account among other considerations, convenience of access and relationship of one use to another. Well, obviously the access right now is terrible with the way the parking lot is, so that could actually be an improvement. And then hours of operation and concentration of vehicles, that they're not more hazardous or dangerous than the normal traffic of the district.

Again, this is going to improve anything that has to do with traffic right now. So, but those are the things you need to consider. Then if there's any safeguards and conditions you'd like to recommend, 1227.03c allows you to do that. So here are the existing conditions, if we need to refer to them later. The concept plan. And as I mentioned, ignore that little link that says existing store to remain. Parking setback. Thankfully, I've got AutoCAD so I can do these overlays now. And it's 40 feet. It's 30 feet from Cahoon.

There's a little sliver of land next to where the existing building is that does not touch Cahoon Road. So that's why you see the setbacks kind of move around the building right there. That's why. Because it's different if you're actually abutting a roadway. And then the building setback.

So the proposed new building that we're talking about and removing that wing works out perfectly with the way the setbacks actually are. Okay. So draft findings of fact. If you are going to make a positive recommendation tonight, things will probably apply, hopefully. Proposed CUP aligns with the guide plan designation and zoning code.

We'll have to fix that designation. Maybe I need to reword that. Allowing the applicant to eliminate the site's non conforming status and modernize facility in compliance with current standards. The nursery's continued operation and phased improvements, including expanded parking and upgraded buildings, will enhance site aesthetics, circulation, and compatibility with surrounding uses without generating adverse impacts. So with that said, it's just a recommendation to approve at this point. I was not able to think of any conditions. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much Mr. Vidal. Would the applicant like to come forward and state their name and address and add anything? Hello?

Home address or business?

Business address is fine.

Okay. I'm Brian Corrigan, current primary partner of Cahoon Nursery, and it's 27630 Detroit Road and 1480 Cahoon Road. As far as what to add as a mouthful, not really. Know, some of the things that I considered were for that building up top. And this is a little problematic for us, but it's what we do. I don't I don't have a building I can store my trucks in. So I can get two pickups in there back to back, but the new pickups have the mirrors are too wide. And then oh. Hello? Sorry. No.

That's better.

And so but we can't get our dump in there. So I literally have an employee drive it to my house every night and then pick it up in the morning. And so we're hoping to be able to get all three trucks in there. And then we just basically, it was cold storage, but I'm hoping to put utilities in that. And then I can have water to the top portion of the property above the creek.

We currently just have one spigot. We run hoses for that, so it would make it a little bit less laborious. And then, of course, we'd pour concrete and the rest of that up top just where it goes close to the building. We left that open until we knew what we're gonna be able to do with that building. As far as down below, yeah, if you look at the attachment to the store, we were under the impression that that had to stay in order to build the building, but with the CUP, apparently not.

So that little crook on the north or on the south side of the building would would be straightened, and that would go away. And we're contemplating that we might be able to then do a loop drive, not all the way to the other drive, but I gotta leave that up to Bramhall. As far as the outside landscaping, we got that covered.

Great. Thank you very much. Mister Doregno?

I have nothing. No. It looks, an improvement would be great over there. So I'm good.

Thank you. Mister Jones?

Yeah. I have no issues with the step of it. So, obviously, like, the you know, they'd be they would come before us with any any future improvements. Then yeah, this first step, I have no issue with moving forward with.

No, I agree. I don't have any issues either. Anything else to add?

No, I will say that I didn't have a clear understanding of the development plan, but that's why I got Bramhall Engineering involved. So they've already started the topographical surveying. They were there Friday and they were there yesterday. I think they took break today. I don't know. Or or maybe they're done. But so anyway, after that, then they're gonna do a site in engineering. And and I guess that's what they'll propose to you guys through me.

Correct. It'll come back to us. Yep. Great. Okay. Alright. No issues. Can I get a motion, please?

Yes. Based upon the fines of fact, I move to recommend approval of ordinance twenty twenty five dash one zero five. Second.

Roll

call. Del Reigno?

Yes.

Jones?

Yes.

Falcone? Yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much.

This is how they all should be.

Pardon? They should all be this Right. Anything else?

Next regular meeting is scheduled for November 10.

Got it. We'll see everyone November 10. This meeting is adjourned. Yay. I

really appreciate you guys doing this. You're welcome. Yeah. No problem.