Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

from the public or adjacent property owners regarding the application. That is true all the way up to this meeting. Should the planning commission make an approval recommendation staff recommends that include the following nine commission uh conditions as proered by the applicant owner and I will go through those um a little more in detail. Mr. Horton, I hate to interrupt you um but we have been told uh that this was muted. So would you mind starting for, you know, continuity back over at the start of the presentation so our viewing public can hear it? Absolutely. Can we open the public?

Absolutely. For the audience for visitors. Yes, I'd love to. Thank you. We'll move back to our audience for visitors. I'd like to open the audience for visitors. This is a section of our agenda in which the public is able to speak on anything other than related to the public hearings this evening. Would anybody like to speak? Seeing no one, we're going to close the audience for visitors. And Mr. Horton, you can begin your presentation.

Okay. Good evening again. Uh and we'll we'll start from the top. Uh this is a conditional resigning for Taylor Stewart. uh conditional uh to go from R1 to B2 uh condition and the reason we call it condition is that the applicant has proper conditions that I'll get to in the course of this presentation. Uh this is uh as the chairwoman pointed out before a 510 acre parcel uh conditionally reszoned as I said from R1 residential to B2 business for professional office space landscaping contracting and a story art. Uh tax back parcel is uh excuse me 27-01-32. Uh the application was advertised for public hearing. Uh it appeared in the paper on January 7th and January 14th at the Daily Press. Adjacent property owners were notified of this request by letters mailed on January 12th, 2026. Uh as I said before, the site is 5.10 acres lies at the southeast corner of W Creek Road and Ashlin Lane. the site can support the addition of users as offered by the applicant. Um the uh the applicant has provided a concept layout of the property prepared by uh Anthony Pototts. Okay, these are the pictures and I took the pictures basically from north and panoramic around the back and then uh took a picture of the building at the front at the last. But uh this first picture here is uh going uh north um pretty much uh yeah from your from your

upper left corner. Uh next one over from that is along Ashen Lane. Uh the one after that you can see that and shows the storage building as well as the uh garage area. Um, I took one picture of well an adjoining house. Uh, but the next picture is McPerson's garage which is located across the street slightly south along W Creek Road. The last picture here and I made this one a little bit bigger. Uh, was for the uh is a picture of the actual building to be utilized by the applicant for it. Uh there'll be some professional office space. Uh and of course landscaping and storage art, landscape contracting and storage art. This is the plat prepared by Anthony Pototts, which uh pretty faithfully shows everything that was shown in pictures before. Um, if approved by city council, the new zoning of B2 business would permit the operation of professional office space, landscape contracting, and a storage yard. The applicant has already obtained approval from the architectural review board for the proposal, which of course was a requirement. Um, and and that was to attached uh that approval was attached behind this memo. Uh the comprehensive plan doesn't specifically mention the subject parcel. However, the property is contained within the low density residential area as designated on the comprehensive plan future land use map. Uh immediately following the uh consideration of this conditional zoning, I will be proposing the comprehensive plan amendment which will move it from low density residential to general commercial. Um okay for these reasons the consideration

of a change in the properties designates well and this is talking more about the comp plan we'll get to that in a minute uh the parcel is bordered by R1 zoning on all sides uh including as I said McFersonson's Garage Incorporated located slightly south across West Creek Road approximately 870 ft to the north begins the general commercial area as depicted on the comprehensive plan uh future land use map. Uh the site is accessed and will continue to be accessed uh directly off of W Creek Road. Uh staff has not received any concern from the public or adjacent property owners regarding its application. That is true up to this very moment. Uh, should the planning commission make an approval recommendation, staff recommends that include the following nine conditions as propered by the applicant owner? And I will go through those a little bit. So, just uh beg your patience a little bit. The users request is solely for landscaping contracting and associated storage. I didn't add profession as well as professional offices. Okay. The story chart will be screened in accordance with city code and as approved by the architectural review board as I attached the uh the memo of approval from the architectural review board. Uh no outdoor activity will be from the hour of 900 p.m. to 7 a.m. with the exception exception of what we might have this weekend a significant weather event or government declared emergency. Uh Mr. Stewart and he can talk more about this but uh he does do some plowing during times of snow and ice. Uh parking areas if required shall be surfaced in accord with the city's site plan ordinance. The city's site plan ordinance does call for

an all- weather surface. Um but there are provisions where perhaps a uh more more impervious surface could be approved. Uh, trees on the wooded portions of the lot will remain unless they're dangerous or diseased. Material kept on site will be shielded from public view in its entirety. Equipment and vehicles will be screened from public view up to 55% to be determined by height at the highest point. Now, as at the planning commission may be aware, some some equipment is rather tall, and you can see a little bit of it over the fence. Vehicles and equipment kept in the storage yard must be kept in good repair and working condition. We're not talking about a junkyard here. Abandoned and/or unlicensed vehicles or equipment will not be permitted. No portion of the storage yard shall be located in the required front yard setback and shall meet all front yard setback requirements. And this application indicates that parking on site shall be adequate for all uses as required by the site plan ordinance and all applicable sections of city code. It's kind of a repeat, but you know, city code is mentioned. So, okay. So, that's really what I have for the conditional uh reasonzoning. I'll be happy to take any questions you might have. Um, and the applicant is here in in case I don't know if he wants to speak or not, but but he is here.

Thank you. Any questions?

Um, I have one. The uh, of course, the profers seem generous and adequate for what's being um, presented here. was curious about the u access to the adjacent southerntherly property and looks like that's going to be set aside for uh access through that piece of property. There's a opening in the fence. I look at the plat correctly or is that a gate? Make sure I understand that relationship between the two propert uh existing owner of the property and him had a agreement that they could access through the side. Um, I'm not sure we'll be able to keep that just due to some of the equipment and things that we have since we will be putting that privacy fence up down the down the street. Um, you know, I'll talk to him if he needs a gate, we can put one in. But at this time, insurance reasons, I need to talk to them to see if they would be okay with that. Um, because there will be some equipment back there as far as, you know, chippers and things like that nature that you really don't want to have just access to. a gentleman owns the property and you'd be renting that from him or do you own the property?

I own the property. You're referring to the the piece of asphalt that runs through there. Yes. Yeah, we own I think we're off his asphalt comes onto our side. So that fence will be continuous with no gate. So yeah, we'll meet up to his. Thank you. Yes, sir. Questions? Are y'all um planning on adding any additional square footage or just using the office space as it is? Just using the office space as it is as of now. We don't anticipate to do anything with the building currently.

Madame Chairwoman, you may want to call him up to speak since he's already speaking. I will. Oh, sorry. See for me for one second. Public hearing shortly. Any other questions? Mr. Jagger, I have a a couple. Um, with the W Creek widening project and uh sidewalk enhancements, will that impact Mr. Stewart's uh land?

Well, the W Creek Road project, as you probably already know, is is getting smaller as we speak. Uh but uh I I'm not aware that uh they were going to be taking any of his property for the with Creek Road expansion. And and my next question would be uh number six. Okay. If you could just kind of for my benefit kind of help me understand the 55% the public view up to 55% determined by the height at the highest point

this right um well I I know the applicant can probably speak to this a little bit myself but what I think of when we're talking about this is that not all of his equipment is going to be you know less than eight or nine feet is going to stick up over the fence. So, you're going to be able to see the top of some of that equipment. And that's why we say, you know, 55% was sort of just chosen as a as a number. I mean, it can certainly be, you know, I mean, if if depends on the equipment. I mean, if you've got a big truck back there, you're going to whatever's sticking over the fence, you're going to be able to see it pretty pretty much. I mean, 55% was, you know, what we happened on in in terms of uh you if you got a 100 foot uh well, I'm I'm going to use an 18 square foot, you know, box. If that's a bad example, uh if you took a double deck of a of a 18-wheel trailer and you had half of it over there, you would probably be at about 55%.

Okay, this is a follow-up question to that. This the 55% based on your description seems like it's by area, not by height. It'd be by height. I mean, what I'm trying to say is is if you've got a fence that's 9 ft tall and you have a trailer that's 18t tall, then you know, some of that's going to be visible, maybe half, maybe a little bit less than half. But that's how that's how we came up with that. I think my comment would just be that that that number seems somewhat vague or what that's describing. So maybe that could be clarified a little bit. Okay.

Same thing. It's kind of an odd arbitrary number to come up. Let's um what we'll do is we'll open the public hearing and maybe our applicants can speak to that a little bit better with the equipment. So, right now we're going to go ahead and open the public hearing. And Mr. Stewart.

Um, if I can speak to that. My main concern when we were talking um was with Creek does sit a little bit higher than my property. So even if we were to do the full 9 ft fence, you'll still be able to see over. Um most of my stuff is under the 13T mark. Um we may like we have one dump truck that's I think 10 11. So that would be the the largest thing that we would have back there as of now. Um, but I don't know how we came up with 55 to be honest with you. I think that was just something we said a half of it needs to be covered. Um, but I was my main concern was, you know, with creek sitting a little bit higher than the road or a little bit higher than our property, you'd be able to see over the fence

um of the floor.

Okay. Uh so one of the main the reasons we went forward with buying this property was we knew that this was going to be a possibility. We had to go through this process. We knew it was a current business at the time. Um but I did not want to operate my business out of my home as many do with no issues. Um but I do plan to grow and continue to grow and that was just not a long-term goal for me to run it out of my house. Um so I saw this as a great opportunity to keep it in town. Um, as y'all know, it's it's kind of hard to have a lay down yard with a shop and everything else here in town. We don't have a ton of spaces available to that for contractors and um of like myself. So, this was kind of a let's do it and see if we can make this work. Um, outside of that, my wife is going to be running she has for the the office space we originally had planned to rent it out. Um, instead we were going to be doing a photography studio where she can utilize the space for her photography business as well as rent it out to like other local photographers. They can come in and use the space to take photos on like an hourly rate basis versus not having anywhere the weather's bad to do their photos. So that's the goal. Clarify some of that. For the for the fencing, is there going to be any type of shading around the fencing as traditional? Um, is it vinyl fencing? Is just chain length fencing? What? You have an idea?

Front is going to be white vinyl across the front. And then down the sides is going to be uh wood wood privacy. Okay. Yeah. And I'm going to do it on the inside. Uh, down the left side, we're going to do it on the inside of those trees. Sure. So, you'll have the trees as a buffer to kind of break that up from the house that's right there. Okay. Um, across the front will be white vinyl foot, 8 foot fence with drive-thru, we'll have drive-through gates on both sides just so we can get in and out of the property uh at ease. But other than that, it any other

any other questions of the planning commission? Well, I see that the plat has it calls out a 6ft wood fence and plat part of the um application uh because the propers don't indicate a height. So, I don't know if we were doing we're doing six foot. That was part of the architecture review board. They approved the six foot. So, that's part of the architectural review. Okay. Questions? Thank you. I don't

Would any other uh individuals like to speak regarding this application this evening? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing as for the what the planning how to proceed with the planning commission. Uh Mr. Armen Trout, we'll start with you. Um, well, unless my fellow commissioners have any comment, I like to make a motion that we application as presented. Motion on the table. I can give that a second. Uh,

I have some further discussion if we can. So, if you have further discussion, can you both can you take your second off the off the table and your first and we'll come back to you in just a minute for Robert's rules. Uh the discussion is around the 55% uh that we were talking about. And I would recommend that we just remove it. If we need some sort of perhaps we just put a height limit on the vehicle and we already know the height of the fence and that just takes care of it. is much clearer and cleaner and no objections. But uh seems like that would be a way to specify that condition.

Well, what height what height would be acceptable do you think? What I guess what what are the vehicles height max vehicle height and we already know the fence is 6 feet right? So 12 ft that would be 50% according to that but 50 the 55% might depend upon the vantage point from where you're looking at it like you said with with Creek Road if you just put heights in place it just eliminates all of that ambiguity would I think was 139 the overall height limit going down the road for like an over the road truck is 139 so we could say 14 foot would that be too tall because I think over the road so like semi is I think they're restricted to 13T 9 in.

Sorry to interrupt you. Uh, you know, just for my benefit here, the fencing that surround will will surround the property. The fencing in the front, remind me the height of the fence in the front. And will that be six foot in entirety all the way around? So, if you went over uh if you went over 50%, that'd be 12. The max would be 12 to get to 50%. If I'm not 12 ft. Okay. Um you currently have trucks that are higher than that. Yeah. Yeah.

And so you you also commented that with Creek Road is higher than your property. Yeah. the center of creek road is higher than than your property and I assume that's drainage and things of that nature off the road and to the curb and down so guttering. Okay. Thanks. Yes, sir.

Mr. Horton, do you have any recommendations on proceeding forward or what would what would be your recommendation? Well, keep in mind that in the storage yard, I mean, you you're almost talking about volume two is you may have a truck that's 14 or 15t tall, but you're certainly not going to have that throughout the whole storage yard. So, it kind of depends on how you want to look at this thing. Um, I think that, you know, um, you know, looking back on it now, we we could have had it quantify certain vehicles, but that might be unwieldy because he doesn't know what vehicles he may have on the property all the time. So,

um,

our purpose in 55% is that no vehicle would be over 55% taller than the fence of six feet, which by my m my math is almost 30. So, you know, you you almost have to either increase the percentage to allow for those trucks that might be a little bit taller than 139. I don't know if the applicant meant to say that's the tallest they would ever be. uh if they are then we could very easily do a percentage of that. Now keep in mind these are proper conditions by the applicant. Correct.

So the the applicant has to feel comfortable with this. It's not right. Um but that that that to me seems to be the rub would just suggest we offer the the height limit that he suggested. Does anyone have a problem with that? 14T. Mhm. Um then I think that's much clearer than a percentage in my mind. We say maximum height is of 14 ft for any one vehicle. Correct. That would be how we would so that you're not um pulling a bagco in there on on the back of a dump truck. I mean, it's kind of

well 139 should still under that because that would be permit required and at that point if I get it in there I can take it off the trailer ideally to bring it down. Uh the the main reason that I brought the 139 is at some point there is a there's a business venture that I would like to have that I haven't fully committed to yet, but it's basically a a truck that would not exceed the 139, but I would like to have the ability to have it there should it need maintenance. I don't plan on keeping it there full-time. It would probably have to stay where I am currently um just due to material and things like that. But should I want to work on it or it need maintenance, I'd like to have the ability to take it there overnight, etc.

Sure. No, and I I mean, honestly, I think that, you know, if we're looking at this, then it should be coincide with what's viable on the road anyway. So, I mean, it makes sense to me to go 14 ft or right at with 139 or whatever is permissible as far as I'd like to make one last comment that I I just appreciate the applicant profering these conditions. I think it helps a lot with the whole process. It I think it's well thought out and uh makes your intentions transparent and I just very much appreciate it.

Okay. So, seeing that, can I have a motion to approve the amended application? Are we amending it to? Are we going to limit change the 55%. I think we're going to say um 139 or 14 ft was mentioned. 14 14 ft was how I understood the discussion to go. Okay. How will that wording be changed to equipment and vehicles will be limited to a height of 13t n 14 ft 14 ft.

14 ft. Sorry. And just for information, that's about 54%. Over over the height of six feet. 1%. All that over 1%. I'm just feeling that he's interpreting. So that's why I wanted to I read that as 55% has to be covered, not above. So that's different.

Have to bring too I factored in 14 ft is is a little over 50% over the 6T fence. 54% over. Says that 55% has to be screened though. That's different than what you're saying in my mind. Makes it cleaner. I don't think we need to keep discussing it. This is why I wanted to change. Yes, we're good. Okay.

I will see if I can get this motion out. Um I'd like to make a motion approve the application as amended offers number six to be revised to read. Material kept on site will be shielded from public view intire. Equipment and vehicles will be limited to a height. Second. I'll second. Roll call, please. Hi. Commissioner Peterson. Hi. Commissioner Hirs. Hi. Commissioner. Hi. Vice Chairman Kisinger.

Hi. I passes unanimously. Very good. Congratulations. Wish you nothing but the best. Absolutely. We're going to move on to our second public hearing this evening and this is going to be comprehensive plan amendments. Uh Mr. Horton.

Thank you very much. Well, now that the planning commission has taken action on the uh conditional resoning, uh one one other thing we need to do is to uh keep the comprehensive plan aligned with our zoning map, which uh is a long range goal of ours and no time to start like the present. Um so this is a request from Taylor Stewart um for a comp plan um amendment that will go from low density residential to general commercial uh still the same tax map number 27010032 uh same property 0.510 acres uh this was also advertised for public hearing in the daily press for uh January 7th and January 14th As like the last uh application, adjoining property owners were notified uh by um by mail on January tw uh 12th, 2026. Uh, I think we've already covered this, but I just want to say the parcel is bordered by lowdensity residential and that does include uh McFersonson's garage and it's 870 ft south of the general commercial area notated in the current comprehensive plan. Uh the site, as I mentioned before, is accessed and will continue to be accessed off of W Creek Road. Um you've already taken action on the conditional reszoning, so we don't need to go by that. We've already said that it got approved from architectural review board. Uh comprehensive plan doesn't uh specifically mention the property as I pointed out uh with the resoning. Um,

but we do want to go ahead and change this designation to be in keeping with to make the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance basically in agreement on this property. Um again we have not received any concern from the public or adjacent property owners and uh the nine conditions is proper by the applicant with the amendment to 14 ft. Uh we've uh you know we recommend that carry through as part of this as well. um the comprehensive plan. I was hoping this would show up a little bit better, but you can see where I say property. And since I don't have a pointer, I'll point it out, but I'll be quiet while I'm doing it. That's essentially the property we're looking at. It's a little more rectangular than that obviously, but uh but that's what will be designated general commercial. Um that's pretty much all I got on that one.

Thank you. Happy to take any questions. Does anybody have any questions of Mr. Horton this evening?

I have one question. Um would whatever change we make to the comprehensive plan try to include the McFerson's property as well or is this isolated to the property in question that we're talking about? This is going to be isolated to the property because this was uh initiated by the applicant. I think when we get to looking at the entire comprehensive plan, which we're going to do one of these days, uh we might want to take a look at that a little bit closer. Thank you. That's not And that's not the only area either. But that's not something that they would have to initiate. That's something that we could

Well, we could, but I I uh McFersonson's not made any noise one way or the other on it. Uh they probably wouldn't mind, but but I don't think our city council would want I just think unilaterally redesating the property is not something that that storage unit similar to that storage unit that's right there beside McFerson's. Is that Oh, um it would be I think it would be a little bit difficult for you tonight to discuss that without the facts in front of you. I'm just curious. Yeah. Yeah. And if we could just uh consider what's in front of this. Yeah, that's all we all do tonight. Yeah, that would be good.

So, any other questions regarding the comprehensive plan amendment? Seeing none, do I have a motion? Uh, I make a motion that we approve as submitted with the amendment for the similar amendment that we made to the uh, conditional zoning change of the 14T vehicle height. I I can offer the second second. I I vice chairman Ginger.

I chairwoman. I passes unanimously. Now we move to section number F in our uh agenda, communications and correspondence.

I don't have a whole lot. Uh, I will say that uh Thomas, who y'all know very well, is uh is around form with his new position as supervisor revenue. Uh, he's he's been very busy, but of course, we've all been a little bit busy because we've got some vacancies. Um, comp plan is under the the board is still digesting, if you will, uh, the recommendations that were pointed out in December 8th and, uh, I will hopefully have some more on that by next month. Thank you. Any of our

ask a question to Wally. I understand U Thomas's position has been advertised for a new planner. Are we any applicants or Yes. Uh we've been out for a chief of planning and our specialist back here, Laura News, is our new chief of planning. Oh, well, congratulations. She's I should have pointed that out before. Yes. Thank you. And y'all know Amy Young is filling in for Crystal St. Pierre.

She's doing a good job. Any other comments? I want to um take a minute tonight to thank those who stepped up to help us with the planning commission this evening. I know it was stressful and I appreciate your time and allowing us to consider things this evening. Um I also want to uh again wish everybody a great week. Be safe in this weather. No other comments. I just want to congratulate Mr. Stewart uh for his business in Picosen. I think it's great. So, uh best of luck to you as you move forward. Great.

All right. Well, that concludes our meeting this evening. I have a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Roll. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. And we are returned. Thank you all.