Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

My All right. Seven. I'm rolling.

Morning everyone. Welcome to the May 7th, 2026 zoning board of adjustment meeting. If any member of the audience wishes to speak to an item on the agenda today, there are speaker request forms to the left side of the dis, please fill out the request with the agenda number of the item you wish to speak to and hand it to the staff seated on that side of the room. The public hearing on item number one, the approval of the April 23rd, 2026 zoning board of adjustment meeting minutes is hereby opened. Motion to approve. Second.

All right. Vince made the motion to approve those minutes and Mike Quasnney seconded that motion. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number two. This is the 26VA009. Vicki.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, as you know, at your last zoning board of adjustment meeting, we were working with the applicant to see what would be uh the appropriate uses in this um existing uh developed area uh due to the parking constraints. We're continuing to work with him and we're hopeful that we'll find a solution that uh may eliminate the need for the variance. But for today, we would request that this be continued uh to your May 9th zoning board of adjustment meeting. 20 21st, right? May 21st. Sorry. What is today? I'll second it.

All right. Haven made the motion to continue to May 21st and Vince seconded that motion. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. That was our last agenda item on zoning board of adjustment. I'd look for a motion to adjurnn zoning board of adjustment so we can move to planning commission. And I'll second. All right. Eric made the motion to adjurnn. Vent seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I.

All right. We will now commence the RAP city planning commission meeting for May 7th, 2026. coming into at 7:02 a.m. Again, if any member of the audience wants to speak to an item on the planning commission agenda, please just grab a speaker request form at the left side of the room and hand it to the staff seated over there. We'll make sure that you have a chance to speak to the item that you want to speak to. Items one through three have been placed on the consent calendar today and may be approved as a group. Action will be taken on all consent items in accordance with staff's recommendation by a single vote. Any item may be removed from the consent calendar by any planning commissioner, staff member, or audience member for separate consideration at this time. The findings of this planning commissioner recommendations to the city council. The city council will make the final decision with the exception of the following item. Item three, 26 PD005. Rap City Planning Commission action on this item is final unless any party appeals that decision to the Rap City Council. All appeals must be submitted in writing to the Department of Community Development by close of business on the seventh full calendar day following action by the planning commission. Are there any items one through three that staff would like removed today?

No, thank you. Are there any items one through three that any planning commissioner would like removed for separate consideration? And are there any items one through three that any audience member would like removed for separate consideration? Chair would then entertain a motion to approve items one through three in accordance with staff's recommendation. Motion to approve items one through three in accordance with the staff's recommendation. Second. All right. Vince made the motion. Eric seconded that motion.

Any discussion on the motion to approve these items? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number four.

Good morning, chair, planning commission. Item number four before you is a major amendment to a plan development overlay to allow a residential addition. We are at the property located at 4313 Duckhorn Street. Um, this property is currently zoned lowdensity residential district 2 within a plan development overlay. Future land use of this property is urban neighborhood and access to this property is off of Duckhorn Street which is classified as a local street. Um, so what the applicant is proposing to do here is to construct a one-story 14 ftx 15t sunroom addition onto the rear side of their existing dwelling. You can see up there on the screen um highlighted in yellow is an existing concrete patio on their lot. Um it is currently not covered right now. That is the area that they are proposing to construct the sun room over. Um and with this request, they are asking for an exception to reduce the minimum required rear yard setback um from 25 ft to 15 ft for this sunroom addition. Um so here are some elevations of what this sunroom will look like. Um, as you can see, this will extend off of the back um of the residence and extend the roof line as well. Um, and then here is just a floor plan showing that it's just an an open air sun room. Um, so when we're looking at reducing sideyard setbacks, we're looking at whether or not it would um be injurious to separation distances um for fire safety purposes and things along those lines. So currently um as this property sits right now the existing dwelling is about 73 ft from the dwelling on the west of Bunning property. So let me go back to the aerial picture here. So there's about 73 feet between the back of this house and the property to the west. Um once they do this sunroom addition that separation will be reduced to approximately 59 ft.

So, the sun room addition does still provide adequate separation um to ensure that there's fire safety um in the area. Also, what we look at is whether or not this maintains neighborhood character. Um within this area, there are several non-encclosed decks and patios. Um I don't know how prevalent sun rooms are in this area um because if they're covered and it's just roof line, we can't tell that from an aerial photo. However, um since this sun room is located on the rear of the house, um it will not be visible from the street view of this property. So, it does still maintain the street view character um of this neighborhood and does not appear to be detrimental um to the neighborhood or impair the purposes and intent of the the regulations here. Um so, let me show you some pictures of what this property looks like from the street. So, this is looking directly at this property from the street. um that sun room will sit directly on the opposite side of this house. So, as you can see, street view um will not be impacted by this addition. Um this is kind of a side view showing this house that sits directly behind it. That sun room edition will be back in here. So, again, um not impacting street view. This is Duckhorn Street looking north and Duckhorn Street looking south. Um, so staff did find um that the exception request does um appear to be um a reasonable request to reduce that rear yard setback for this sunroom addition. So we are recommending that the exception request be approved and ultimately we are recommending approval of the major amendment um with two stipulations. I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you Haven. Uh thank you. I guess I just have a question. So apparently the uh setback would only apply to above ground improvements. It wouldn't apply to a concrete patio, for example. Mr. Chair Vicki, that is correct, Haven. And if you think about it, a driveway that's concrete uh in your front yard, there is no setback requirement for it either. Uh if it if you do a a raised deck, uh those do require that they meet the setback, but your concrete patios are exempt from that.

Didn't seem to be any issues on the um drainage. That's fairly flat lot. Looks like the drainage is between the houses to the side versus the back. Is that correct? That's correct. In addition, what you saw, Cassie did a good job taking pictures. like how she has them labeled for us, too. Um, there's a privacy fence around that backyard. So, in addition to the separation to the uh uh adjacent neighboring structures, they've got the privacy fence as well. All right. Thanks. Any further comments from the commission, questions? Eric Hikus.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This looks pretty straightforward. Cassie, thank you. Um, I'm going to move approval of the reduction of setback requirement citing stipulations. It's a major amendment to plan development. Correct. Second. All right. Eric made the motion to approve this with the stipulations and Alicia seconded that motion. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I.

Are there any opposed?

Motion carries. Item number five. Good morning, chair, planning commission. Um, this is an ordinance amendment to establish a cement plant district that in the future would be applied to the cement plant properties or portion thereof. To give you some history here, uh, the properties that used to be the stateowned cement plant were originally zoned to public district when they first got incorporated into the city. Once the state was planning to sell the cement plant to a private company, they adopted a codified law that basically said it is zoned to conform to the uses at the time which was December 28th, 2000. And then further this the state cement plant commission went on to adopt a resolution that explained what those uses are and mean. So GCC has been in compliance with the zoning since they purchased the property here. This ordinance since we did not establish our own zoning district through the municipal code is more of a cleanup item because without having it in the municipal code it we don't have a path to do building permits and other thing you know permits on the property. We don't have something to look at. So, the cement plant district that's in front of you today takes all of the uses that are already permitted on the property and actually adds some parameters when it comes to area regulation. So, we're gaining something in by doing this. Um, and it just recognizes that these uses were always allowed. They're

continuing to be allowed. They do have some parameters on noise and u we acknowledge that the air quality standards must be met and all of that. So again, this is more of a cleanup item. The uses that are listed are there today and will continue to remain. Um what it really means is they would be able to put additional buildings on the site. So not necessarily expanding the use, but being able to get building permits. GCC's graciously joined us today even though this is coming from the city because we want to establish a zoning district. But if there are questions for them, they are here. But I I will remind you the the topic today is just establishing the district with the uses that are already permitted so that we have something in our zoning code to have a standard for. So with that I will stand for any questions and I put the at least most of the uses up here on the screen. So thank you and we are recommending approval. Thanks.

Thank you Vicki. Mr. Chair. So, this is just such a unique one

uh where the state came in and deemed this the cement plant um district. So, again, as Jessica said, uh it's been challenging for us because once it became privately owned, now they need to get building permits. The state didn't have to. and uh how do we do that when we don't have an underlying zoning uh that gives us those parameters? So, uh GCC's been great to work with. Jessica, I think, has met with them on numerous occasions or had numerous uh discussions with them. I think this meets their needs and it certainly does uh provide additional protection for the city as well.

Thank you, Haven. Thank you. I didn't see a uh map of this area. Um just to kind of identify I I guess my question is would would be whether uh any properties adjacent to it uh would be affected in any way by this.

So this is unique. We're creating a district. We we then need to also come back and um do a reszone. You're going to see that in an upcoming meeting. So this is just creating a district called the cement uh plant district. So keep that in mind. Um we will in fact reszone actual real estate in the near future. That that I that confuses me a little bit. So I'm just going to ask the same question over again. So we're not creating We're just creating the description of the district, correct? Correct. We're not c We're not similar to waving this on a particular property at this point.

Not at this time. Okay. Similar to what we did with the urban commercial district when we created it. We had to bring forward the ordinance first, discuss what how we wanted that to be developed out, and then we came back and actually did a reszone of specific properties to urban commercial. We're following the same foot uh gotcha. Plan with this one. Okay, Kelly,

thank you. Just just so I'm clear, so by creating this district, um will that alter or it's probably a dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Uh by creating this district, will that alter or change the the usage, the limitations of noise, pollution, etc. I guess I'm saying, will this creation of a of a new district impact or, you know, jeopardize the surrounding area in any way? the exact same cook cookie cutter usage and regulations and limits that type of thing.

It's uh the limitations in this are very similar to what we would do in a heavy industrial district and in working with GCC and looking at how the state operated the facility as well. We want to protect that use. We want to ensure that can continue that meets a huge need in our community. But at the same time, now that we do have area regulations in place, there are separation requirements, size requirements for building. Yeah, exactly. Gotcha. Okay.

Since David mentioned it, I can't get my head off maps. What does the city zoning map show right now? I mean, in the colors, so to speak, for the cement plan. So right now if you looked on GIS it references the state law. So it's it's its own color essentially as if it were zone own cement plant. Okay. Yes.

Then when I want to say let me wait the years wrong. seven, eight years ago when they went through their major um expansion, this was the building permit was just reviewed as if it was a a building um without regard to what whether it conformed to any zoning, so to speak. Is that a fair way to put it? I I don't know. I I don't have the history on that right here. I'd be speculating.

That's what I do usually. I wouldn't worry about it. Um, all right. Anything else from the commission on this? Eric, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh few months ago, we we reviewed a plan to have tires ground at the landfill and and then the comment was made that there are incinerators at the GCC Dakota at the cement plant where the tires are going to be burned. Is that actively happening now at the Sorry, I'm going to It's one chance to talk about this. I guess that did raise a flag for me. Are we burning tires at the

cement plant? I guess. Good morning uh Ramses Maldonado uh from ECC. So we're uh waiting our uh sister you know company uh Colorado Energy Recyclables it is working you know with the city with the permit. We are not currently doing you know the co-rocessing of the field. So we are waiting you know for everything you know uh it is right in the landfield so we can receive you know those tires in our you know plant. But yeah thank you.

You're welcome. I'm still going to voice my concern for that that decision for us in a community to be burning tires. So, I'm just going to put it out there. No, no, no call to action. Just I'm stating my concern about that. Thank you. Last question for me on this. The usually there's a reason for um attention to things that have kind of just been fallen by the wayside. Is there a reason for this? Is there plans a foot to do something that um the staff thought would this would help that effort?

Yeah, you know, it's something that's been on our to-do list. Um when we became aware that the the owners uh had additional plans for the property, we knew that we had to get this zoning district created so that we can then issue building permits because right now without it being zoned, we're at a standstill on that. Gotcha. Okay. Other questions or comments from the commission. Anybody willing to chance a motion?

All right. Mike Quasnney made the motion to approve uh item number five, adopting a new district. Is there a second to Mike's motion? Uh Jeff Jeff seconded that motion. Discussion on the motion. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. That's our last item on the regular agenda. Any discussion items today? No, sir. We're going to get you out of here early. Anything from the commission?

Uh, Mike. Gotcha.

I'd like to invite you all to a golf tournament for the soldiers combating PTSD June 13th. If you got a team, bring them out. Come help help our guys that are fighting their own little battle. Uh the Dur Foundation has done a wonderful job with it, but um they still need the monies to support those soldiers that are fighting their own battle. So, um, June 13th, Saturday, need golf teams. And if there's some businesses that want to sponsor, need those, too. Thanks. All right. Thanks, Mike. Anything else today? If not, I'd look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn.

All right. Vince made the motion. Eric seconded that. All those in favor, please say I. I. I.