Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

Uh, I'd like to call tonight's city of Cington Planning Commission uh meeting to order. Let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one indivisible.

Thank you. Uh roll call, please. Mr. Boone here. Mr. Davidson absent. Miss Sorts here. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik here. Mr. Bullock here. Mr. Hudson here. Okay. We have three cases before us. Case number one is excuse me. We need to approve the minutes from the last meeting. I missed the minutes. Did we have minutes last time? Just a few. Uh, we'll do the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Read them earlier. I'll take if they have any amendments or changes, please state. If not, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Roll call. Mr. Boone. Yes. Mr. Swords. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duick. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes.

Mr. Hudson. Yes. Okay. The uh first case is case number 25-07-08. Admin sub. It's an administrative subdivision referred to the planning commission by the planning department. an application to subdivide lot 4 square 2908 into lots 4 A and 4B square 2908 a subdivision a division of New Covington city of Cington St. Tammy Parrot property having a municipal address of 101 Joe's Drive Cington Louisiana um this was handled in the previous BOA case and they were granted so uh city would you like to make any comments

so Mr. Burns had applied for a variance because the lot's just a little shorter. It meets the the area requirement and the width. Um the BOA just granted that variance and now it's coming to you. I couldn't do it administratively because it needed a variance. So this division is to you. Any other comments from the city? Mr. Burns, you want to say anything? Please state your name and address for the record. Brian Burns, 127 West Ruell Drive in Mandeville. Um, I don't know that I really have anything to add aside from what's in the uh case information, but happy to try and address any questions you may have.

Commissioners, do you have any questions for at this time? Okay, with that said, no one else is scheduled to speak. I'll entertain a motion. Move. Have a second, Mr. Chair, I recuse myself. You're recused. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Roll call. Mr. Boon. Yes. Mr. Wards. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Approved. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners.

Uh, the second case is case number 25-07-10, administrative sub. It's a request for an administrative subdivision referred to the planning commission by the planning department. The application requests to divide a 20 foot portion of lot 7, all of lot 8 and 20 ft of lot 9 square7 into lots 88 and lot 8b square707. Property was formerly 715 West 18th Avenue. The petitioner is Beverly Hobshet. Owner is the same. M.

So, this property could have been done administratively. The only reason I could not do it administratively is because this non um conforming lot, which is part of old lot 7, it's 20 ft wide by 150 ft deep and it is zoned CO. The rest of the property is zoned neighborhood commercial. So, with that being said, I couldn't do it administratively. It has to come before you guys. The rest of her property is neighborhood commercial. 20 foot strip is commercial office and the property next door is residential. What Miss um Sheay is proposing is to create two lots to build one townhouse on each lot with the center line being the line between the two sides of the townhouse. So it has all the area it needs. It just has this zoning below.

Is that a common wall for the townous? Correct. It's uh what do they call those? garden home type things where they share a common wall. Well, it's the town homes.

Would the petitioner like to speak? Please state your name and address for the record, please.

My name is Beverly Hob Shay. I live at 224 Rantilly in Coington. This lot was uh it's 100 by 150 altogether. It was formerly Margie's Florest. Uh there is a physical therapy office on one side on the corner and a single family residential on the other. So I thought that it would be most in keeping and less intrusive if I were to build uh two fe simple town homes. It would be a nice transition. It would not be anything extreme as the zonings allow. somewhere in its history apparently because this is a lot of record. There were three lots 20 feet on either side and then a 60 foot lot in the middle. So um I've worked closely with Ellen on this making sure that we did everything right and here I am.

Thank you commissioners. Do you have any questions for Miss Sh? Okay. With no further people to speak, I will entertain a motion. Second and a second. Roll call. Mr. Boon. Yes. Mr. WS. Yes. Mr. Philstein. Mr. Duvik. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yeah. Mr. Hudson. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, okay. Uh, the last case, uh, is case number 25-07-04 sale. It's a request to purchase by private sale a portion of West 27th Avenue right ofway measuring 24.4t by 650 running parallel to and along the south side of the developed portion of West 27th Avenue between North Piler Street and North Taylor Street. The petitioner Mey Family Homes LLC. Uh the owner is the city of Covington. Uh Mr. G have anything to so add to that?

For years there's been part of this building in our right of way and this is kind of cleaning up the title and letting them proceed with updates to the property and if you were to deny it, I think they'd have to tear down part of the building advise you on that. And the city has no objections. Correct. And the alley on the other side is the part of 27th across the street's already been revoked. It's part of the parish complex. Okay. Commissioners, you have any comments for the city or questions before the petitioner. Mr. Shane, can you state your name and address for the record, please?

Yes, sir. Good evening. Jeff Shane of the Jones Law Firm at PO Box 1810 in Coington. Uh I represent Mey Family Holdings LLC. Mr. Malry Mey is with me this evening and also Jim Sue Partnership which is the Kerry family uh that owns the adjoining property. So we're in full accord with the staff comments uh the history is fairly simple in that by some means uh the prior ownerships of the abuing properties have utilized these right ofways. In some cases, they've built a building over the right of way, others a hard surface parking area. Um, the nice thing, I guess, is that 27th Avenue, as do all of the East West avenues in New Coington, those rightways are 80 feet wide. So, there is plenty of room for the existing hard surface 27th Avenue without any sacrifice by revoking a portion of the rightway. So, if you look at the survey in the packet, you'll see that what I'll refer to as the southerntherly 24 feet of that 80 foot right away is the subject that we're asking to be revoked. Again, leaving not only plenty of room for the asphalt, 27th Avenue, but I would suggest probably 8 feet, maybe 10 feet off of that asphalt before you would get to the right ofway line. Uh we recognize in the staff report that there's mention of the need to relocate um a catch basin which we understand and will undertake. Uh so uh with those comments having been made, we would respectfully request that you grant this request for replication and we continue through the process. If any of you have any questions, I will be glad to address them.

Commissioners, any questions for Mr. Chain? No. With that, I will entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve as submitted. Second. Second. Roll call, please. Mr. Boon, yes. Mr. Wards, yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik. Yes. Mr. Bullock. Yes. Mr. Hudson. Yes. Um, any other business once again?

Yes. So again, um you guys will have a meeting which we're going to talk about again more later. But also just to remind anybody that might be leaving that you do we do invite you to come to our land development code update community meeting number two at the firehouse event center on August 13th from 5 to 7. Um it will be an open house. It's not the kind of meeting that you sit there and listen and talk. It's the kind of meeting you come and interact and learn and share. So, it's important and um you'll see these flyers around town. So, if anybody's leaving, make sure you grab a flyer and we'll see you on the 13th. Okay. Uh with no other uh business, we will adjourn the planning commission meeting. Now, we will reopen the city of Coington zoning commission meeting. Um roll call, please. Mr. Boon,

yes. Mr. Swords, here. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Dubic, present. Mr. Bulock, here. Mr. Hudson, here. Uh, we have the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Commissioners, do we have any amendments or changes that need to be noted? If not, we'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve as written. Second and a second. Pro. Mr. Boon, yes. Miss Swords, yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duik. Yes. Mr. Bulock. Yes. Mr. Hudson. Yes.

Okay. The uh we have a number of cases. The first case is number 25-07-06Z. It's a request to reszone 57.26 26 ft by 116.99 x 56.59 by 121 part of square 36 Connelly edition located at the corner of West 29th Avenue and Northley Road having municipal dress of 905 Northley Road Cington from neighborhood commercial CN to regional commercial CR. The petitioner is Juan Fika owner is best Nelly's LLC Mr. G.

Yes. So, we received a request from the owner of this property. Um, this is located, as you said, on the corner of North Lee Road and West 29th. It's in the same square if you look at it from the from Lee from Lee Road to the right of it is Norma's. So, it's Pizza Place. It's commercial. Um, the rest of the square is the food bank, which is zone regional commercial. Now, Norma is zone neighborhood commercial. Behind this is zone neighborhood commercial, but I believe it's being used as a residence. That's the only caveat that I can throw in there. Across the street is regional commercial. So, the reason is the owners, and I'm sure they'll address this when they talk, is um they would like to be able to use it and to rent it or sell it as a um auto mechanics shop, which they cannot do in neighborhood commercial. That's not permitted. So, that's why they're trying to change it to something that's more marketable in CR zone. Commissioners,

any questions or comments? Yes, I have a question. Uh, of the other four parcels noted as CR. Yes. Do we know approximately how long those have been zoned that way? No, but the food bank takes it's on that's where the food bank warehouse So that that was changed.

And is that res that residential property that's in between or behind the applicants property is that part of the applicant property as well. At one point it all had the same owner. I do not believe it still has the same owner. Um and I have not been able to confirm that it's residential. It appears to be residential. It is zone neighborhood commercial. Okay. With with that said, we don't have an objection or an approval from that homeowner.

I do not. Signs have been up unless they're here. Nobody filled out cards. Is the parking sufficient for a mechanic operation? So, if they change the use, if they change the use, they would have to to update parking and landscaping and that would I don't know. It would have to be whatever they may not turn it into. That's their goal right now is to turn it into a automotive place. If it runs for something else, whatever they apply for, they'll have to meet parking and landscaping standards.

Thank you. I guess I guess my concern because they're not they're not coming as a particular particular use is that whatever subject to the to the zoning allowances that could be that it's it's an intense zoning C both both are

and but they would be they would be restricted with this structure. uh with regards like I said to landscaping and parking for their use. Any other questions?

If not, I'll entertain a motion. Wait for the applicant. Do the Do I even Where is that? I've lost a card. I have 14 of them. Uh, let's see. We have one for Susan. Susan presenting. Uh, Susan is please state your name and address for the record, please. I'm Susan Brady with ReMax Alliance and my address is 625 North Causeway Boulevard in Mandeville. Go ahead.

So I represent Mr. Fana on a lot of his properties and this specific property he had purchased uh going on seven years now and originally this is the old discount building materials place. Um he bought it from the succession of Mr. George Thomas who had owned it for 40 years. Um the building itself is designed so specifically with warehouse doors, rollup doors. Uh they even have like auto mechanic lifts in it. But throughout this last seven years, we've tried to lease it off and on. And even though it's been off the market for two years, he he hasn't been able to make any income on the property because of the usage. Um I've had several people just call me out of the blue because they want to either do a tire shop or a small mechanic shop. And um and actually the zoning currently that it's in allows a small convenience store gas station with gasoline. So we've been questioning, you know, can we get a zoning change just for something that doesn't even, you know, um involve something that extensive? Um it just seems the only inquiries he gets in the chance for any type of rental income is something along those lines. We've also been approached by people that wanted to have um a a showroom and kitchen cabinetry place where they can, you know, buy in and sell or sell kitchen and bath cabinets. And that potential tenant was declined two years ago because it fell under woodworking or wood wood craftsmanship. And so even though it would have just been shipped and assembling cabinets, they were denied. So we lost the tenant that way. So, we've been wanting to see if we could please um change the zoning and he does know that the parking would have to be addressed and landscaping would have to be addressed. Um but for a small

mechanic shop or something like that, we feel there would be plenty of room because they would only be working on a few cars at a time and then if they had to have hold over in the back, there would be there would be room through the roll doors in the back of the building. And um that's it. And I mean there's already a take five oil right down the street like a block away. So So that's why we're we are requesting because it has greatly affected any income rental income at all in the last seven years since he's purchased it.

Commissioners, any comments or questions? I guess my my res reservation would be um because it has a wide shoulder across the street from Lero is that there would be a tendency to use that wide shoulder for safety of parts and repair and oh I see what you're saying. Yeah. That would be my only reservation for this. I would I would be concerned and you're using reference as quickly just a couple blocks up but they don't stay vehicle that's they're in and out right they're in and out right

and the restaurant that's a limited stay for any vehicle right the parking lot definitely needs to be addressed and it needs to be striped and defined like what is their parking what is their area because it just bleeds over and blends with everything In question back to administration, we have a parking ordinance for the city.

We have a parking ordinance and we also have it specifically addresses um mechanics, shops and the way autom automobiles can be stored that are worked on and the bays and the number of bays and that kind of be specific. It would become a code enforcement issue if there were cars back up. Okay. Thank So, you had something to say. There's two parking places. Excuse me, Miss Swords. Can you speak into your microphone?

I'm sorry. Um, there there's a loading zone which um I can't tell, but I don't recall that that's part of the structure. It only looks like there's a limited number of parking places. So, I mean, if it holds two bays, it's been ages since my husband and I bought stuff from there, but we did. And um, like I say, the big issue was meeting the parking, and you're right, is not not doing the work on the Lee Road shoulder. I think I was just talking out loud to myself.

You can continue, whatever you like. Um, any other questions? Commissioner and Mr. G, you said that's all addressed as far as parking. So, so yes, when you apply, you know, for an occupational license, we review parking, landscaping, change of use. Change of use would go through Mr. Brown's office for building permits, and everything's addressed. Okay, no other questions, commissioners. I'll entertain a motion.

I move we approve the change so that they could at least get revenue from a building that has been sitting empty. Okay, we have a motion. Second. Second. Second. Roll call. Mr. Boon? Yes. M. Swords? Yes. Mr. Chlesine? Mr. Duvik? Yes. Mr. Bullock? Mr. Hudson?

Yes. Okay. Uh we now move on to the second case. Uh because all these descriptions are quite lengthy, I'm going to strictly read the case number uh and or description, not get into the rest of it. Um the second case is case number 25-07-02 conditional use. Uh, it's an application in accordance with section 3.704 of the municipal code to amend and restate current condition use permit as required in appendix B comprehensive zoning code part three use districts section 3.7 conditional uses as required under section 3.20 IH medical services section 3.20003 20003 parenthesis 2 conditional use uses parking garages to permit construction of an L-shaped five-story parking garage with medical office space and a helistop in square 1110. The helisa stop on the roof and an elevated pedestrian crosswalk skybridge across West 11th Avenue connecting to the main hospital building. Um, for tonight's meeting, uh, after I let the city make any opening comments, we're going to limit the initial, uh, discussion from the petitioner to approximately, and I say approximately because we're not we're not the other way, 12 minutes. And we would allow the any other opposition after that time and commissioner's question the same amount of time. After that, I'm okay letting most everyone speak if we have the time. I'd like to limit your conversation to five minutes within reason. Uh without rehashing the same things over and over.

Um so with that in mind, let's start off with any comments from the city. Rod,

so this sounds a little familiar to you guys probably because you granted a conditional use in February. It was appealed and it went to the city council. The city council approved and agreed with your decisions and added a caveat about traffic. There was also an appeal brought to the board of adjustments. And then the hospital um in the original conditional use permit, their skybridge was located in a position where it required footings and that was going to require a um a variance. So they've moved the sky bridge and that's that triggers the need for an amending for amending their conditional use application permit. So they have already gotten a permit. It's already granted. It's approved. This is to amend it to move the skybridge. That also triggers amending their site plan, right? Because the sky bridge is moved. So when they're doing that, they've also addressed in their site plan approvals, which is your next case, some issues that have been brought up during this process. So the first case is the conditional use for the relocation of the sky bridge.

Okay. Commissioner, if you have any comments directly with the city to appoint before we proceed. Okay. Um, will the petitioner please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Good evening. Jeff Shane again of the Jones Facel Law Firm at PO Box 1810 in Covington, uh, representing St. Tammy Health System. Before we get started, could I ask Mr. Chair, would we want to maybe combine the second and third cases for discussion, realizing you'll need to take separate votes, but it might create efficiency for all because I think the issues in the two cases are the same. If anyone takes objection to that, I'm not trying to get an advantage, but I think that's what we did last time in February.

I I'm okay with that, Commissioner. No problem. Okay. Yeah, that's that's not an issue. Okay. ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening, honorable commission. Um, let me start by thanking you for the parking garage project approval that you granted St. Tammy Health System on February 18th, which included our request for conditional use permit, site plan review, and performance standard review. Uh this would allow us to move forward and construct a fivelevel 400 parking space, parking garage for the use of patients, their families, and friends, physicians, and employees uh that would be coming to the hospital. The proposal also includes an 8,400 square foot medical office component in the first floor along Tyler Street. uh a helistop on the northwesterly corner of the deck on the fifth floor, providing easier and safer conditions for both landing and takeoff and also providing close proximity to the emergency department, producing very substantial savings of often life critical minutes to rush patients to the emergency facilities in our hospital. And lastly, a skybridge connection which connects the proposed parking garage to the north tower of the hospital uh but also provide safe pedestrian crossing of 11th Avenue via the sky bridge. Most of the basic details of this project have remained the same, but there are some significant revisions to the plan which I will go over with you this evening. The this project is a result of an approximate 10-year discussion within the hospital which included consults with many experts in diverse disciplines to analyze and determine the best design and the best location for this project. Due diligence focused on a strategic

location for the parking structure with emphasis on safety, proximity to the emergency department, and the least amount of disruption to the campus environment. When the council approved your recommendation on appeal on March 11, it included the imposition of some additional conditions which we are in full accord with. Number one, construction of a westbound right turn lane in 11th Avenue. Number two, the construction of that lane makes the existing westbound lane then serve as a left turn lane for traffic turning turning left and going south on Tyler, but also serving as a through lane for traffic that would cross Tyler and continue on 11th Avenue. We also understood that condition included us making all appropriate traffic light and intersection modifications to facilitate these improvements. And lastly, but I think very importantly, we agreed to pay for construct, of course, with city approval, appropriate directional signage at the intersection of 11th Avenue and Poke Street that would direct vehicles that are ultimately going south on Tyler Street to take a right at Poke and continue in a southerntherly direction, which would then give them the options of either turning left on 10th Avenue to get to Tyler or continuing on Pope and turning left on 8th Avenue which would take them to the traffic light at Tyler as well. These additional conditions imposed by the council are estimated to add an additional $6 to $700,000 to the project. These additional conditions

required our team to rethink certain elements of the project and in particular because of the inclusion of the right turn lane and 11th Avenue as staff noted in their comments this evening. We have to reposition some of the support columns for the pedestrian skybridge. Although that will save us a trip from going uh to the board of adjustment. It also required us to move the sky bridge 10 feet to the east and also now make the connection not from the third floor but the fourth floor of the garage into the hospital. The significance of explaining that to you is that this is considered a major structural alteration and under the code it requires that we come back to you to present this requested amendment and seek your blessing in that regard. So these are the reasons of why this project already approved by you, already approved by the council comes back to you this evening and it's because of the implications of the conditions that have been imposed. I would now like to go through 12 items that are new additions by the hospital to this project that come before you this evening. Number one, the right turn lane that I mentioned in westbound for 11th Avenue, which again allows the existing westbound lane to serve as a left turn and through lane on 11th Avenue. Number two, the installation of the Pope Street 11th Avenue signage that I referred to previously. Number three, the relocation of the Skybridge. The next nine items I give you are significant in that they're new or have been enhanced. The people had suggested that there should have been a community

meeting or a work session before this came before this case came to you. We in fact when we made our filing this time specifically requested such a work session which you hosted in this chamber on June 12th. We also decided to submit a new and full traffic impact study to supplant the traffic impact analysis or technical memorandum that had previously been submitted. And we got the scope for this traffic impact study from the city engineer to make sure that all of the proper elements of traffic consequences were being studied. We also procured and obtained a full drainage impact study which has been submitted to the city engineer and approved by her as well. We have submitted a full sign package which has received the blessing uh of the city planning department as well. We have also submitted a revised site plan uh that not only includes sidewalks but we have also provide dimensional drawings of our project to scale. In fact, behind you, you will see three boards constituting 96 square feet 8 by 12 that depict the entire site plan to the aforescribe scale in your code. We have submitted a revised landscape plan that shows the counts and locations of all class A and class B trees and shrubs. And your staff has reviewed the species, the types, the location, and the counts and approved our landscape plan. We have submitted side elevations for all four sides of the building showing the type of finish, the type of materials, the color schemes, the patterns uh that will be employed. Submitted those to uh your staff as well and they have indicated that our proposal meets code.

Uh last but not least, we have submitted a full and complete lighting plan uh that shows all of the type of lights u that we have uh and the uh element of lighting where they'll be located. And again, staff has reviewed those prototypes and approved those plans as well. And if I didn't mention the signage uh package, we have submitted the signage package as well. Both the signage on the corners as well as on the building. So as a result of this very interestingly we are not aware of one requirement in the code as it relates to conditional use permit site plan review or performance standard review that we have not only met and tendered but we believe that we have specifically gotten an approval from staff for each and every one of these elements. Now, in looking at um the staff reports for each project, um there are many references to some of the approvals that I have just gone over which don't bear uh me to go through that discussion again. But I would like to spend just a few minutes and I don't know how much time I have. I have three left. I would like to spend just a few minutes discussing uh an important set of comments in the record. And Katherine, if you could pass out while I'm speaking u these handouts. There is a drain u a traffic comment and a drainage comment made by the city engineer in the report. Uh the drainage comment as I said was approved by the city engineer. Uh the traffic comment is interesting and I think bears some discussion and I'm providing you with two drawings so that we can have that discussion. Um again, first and foremost, the uh city engineer has pointed out to you that there is no

traffic impact study requirement for this project. Literally no requirement. We insisted on procuring a traffic impact study because we believe that that is the elephant in the room. It's the elephant in the room for us as well. Meaning that we want to make sure that the consequences of our project do not create untold traffic consequences, not just for the people using the garage, but for all people that travel these corridors, particularly at peak times. The results of our study clearly indicate that the council imposed condition of adding a right turn lane in the westbound 11th Avenue produces the benefits as follows. You'll have a continuous right turn lane into northbound Tyler under both a green light and also a red stop red light after stop. Number two, it allows the current westbound lane to serve as a both a left turn into southbound Tyler as well as a straight through lane across Tyler. Neither lane creates any geometric issues and both lanes will operate at acceptable levels of service even after the parking garage is in full operation. The current green and yellow light time is 37 seconds for 11th Avenue. And the study clearly shows that even after the parking garage has been built and is operational at peak hour, all vehicles going in both directions are able to clear the intersection in one light cycle. We think that's

Excuse me. Excuse me. Please don't have any comments while somebody's speaking. I appreciate that. On both sides,

the drawings that I've given you, number one, hopefully depicts the right turn lane that I've shown you. It's referred to as an added lane, and it also shows you the left turn movements through the intersection. Now, the second drawing that I've given you refers to the proposed signage at 11th Avenue in Pope Street. And I think that second drawing labeled number two in the left corner is very important because I think it shows you that with proper signage and perhaps with proper arrows painted in the asphalt of 11th Avenue, we can encourage southbound traffic to take a right on Poke, go south on Pope, and then they'll have the options of either using 10th Avenue or 8th Avenue to return to Talis Street. Why is that important? It takes vehicles out of the 11th Avenue Tyler Street intersection and presumably would promote freer flow and safer conditions.

Okay, we need to wrap it up for your I give you another minute or two, but you're you're over now.

Thank you for the time. Commissioners, you have any immediate questions before we get on to the to the Let me uh back up one step too and and just address this because I failed to do so in the beginning. There were a number of letters that were personally mailed to commissioners houses um which is incorrect and should never be done. I personally did not read all of the letters. The reason for that is none of no discussion is to be had for these uh meetings that are put on by the city and advertised by any of the commissioners with either side either party whether we know you like you dislike you. So everything is to be discussed at the meeting we're in now that's appropriate and on the agenda. So that being said I understand why they were being sent but you have to realize that is not to be done. any any comments you have to about the the issue at hand will be discussed here. Anything else you discuss with your own council people, your mayor, whoever else you'd like to, that's all free and going. We don't do that. I don't call the commissioners and say, "Hey, what do y'all think?" We don't talk to one another about these issues because of this meeting where it's all discussed uh and we don't have separate meetings. When we have work sessions, it invites everybody and no one votes. So, I just wanted to state that for the record. I did get letters, approximately four, maybe five, and I did not read all of the letters. Now, with that being said, um, yes, please.

Who's got a question? I just want to place this into the record, the documents. I don't know in what order the uh other side would like to start with. I have cards. I don't know that they're in natural order. If you all have somebody that wants to make the basic main comments for 15 minutes, you're welcome to do that for the 12 minutes or so. Uh otherwise, I have Candace Watkins name first. I don't know that she wants to speak first, but she's welcome to it. But otherwise, yeah, we're we're not we're not on a on a line, so if you'd like to come up, uh, please state your name and address for the record.

Sure. Hi, I'm Keith Villery. I live at 110 East 7th Avenue. I I submitted something to you. I have a couple of questions primarily for staff. And the first one is what is the minimum lot size for this permit in this this uh excuse me. What's the minimum lot size in a in a medical zone with regard to the permit that we're looking at? What's the minimum lot size? Hey, can you research? I can tell you.

Um, just to clarify, this is a this is opportunity for you to speak. It's not a question and answer session with staff. Just just to be clear,

then I could ask it of the petitioner because you know that excuse me. Um, what is the minimum lot size? I'll ask you what is the minimum lot size? And then the second question I have is um on that plan right there, what would you say is the front lot line because the minimum lot size is five acres and the minimum front is 300 ft and it doesn't meet either one of those criteria. So from a standpoint of permitting and you're you're you're going to rule on a permit for this project. I don't know and you might not staff might not be able to to speak on that right now. The other question I have is height. My understanding is the way the height requirement is it's a 45 foot and if you're over 45 ft you have to set back one foot for each foot over 45 ft. My understanding again is that the um stairways are at 60 ft. So that would put an additional 15 foot of setback on the 10- foot minimum, which would be a 25 foot minimum setback around the property. So that's a beautiful drawing, but it doesn't have the setback numbers on it. And I'd be happy to to talk with the petitioners about that or anybody. The staff doesn't want to answer. I understand. And I can read you each one of the definitions. I I gave it to you um with regard to lot area section 3.20005 20005 performance standards lot area. Hospitals shall have a minimum lot size of five acres. And you think, well, they have a big campus. But then if you look down at um section

um the definition of track or parcel, it says all contiguous land in the same ownership provided that lands located on opposite sides of a public or private road shall be considered each a separate track or parcel. This is across the street. It's a separate track to parcel. The requirement is 300 uh excuse me five acres. Now I don't doubt that the ordinance may be insufficient but this is the project you have. You have to go with the rules that you have and these are the rules. Now again I don't know what the hillport elevation is. I'm not sure what all that is, but I do understand and and there are certain um requirements in with regard to height requirements like uh let's see elevator pen houses. So, we're not looking at the elevator, but we are looking at the stairway and you know, you have a landscape ordinance that's 15 feet all the way around. Now, you can correct that because there's a flexibility in in the landscape ordinance, but um that's all I have. There's a table, table 320.1 and in the table it clearly shows hospitals minimum lot dimensions 5 acres minimum lot width 300 ft. Now, it also says 20 foot front and there's a there's a a requirement that in the event that there's a conflict in the ordinance. If the conflict is between the text of the ordinance and a table, text takes precedence. So, you don't have a 20ft front, you have a 10-ft front, but you do have additional square height and setback requirements. So, I wish you would consider those because that's the ordinance you have that's before you. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. But thank you very much for your time.

Commissioner, if you have any questions, Mr. Mr. Shane, with all due respect to Mayor Vry, I believe he's wrong. In particular, I would suggest that if you look at section 3.205 performance standards, and I assume he's referring to section 2A where it talks about a minimum lot width 300 ft at the building line. I think he's also looking at 1A where it talks about a minimum lot size of 5 acres. The difference is is that the code says a hospital, not a parking garage, not an accessory building part of the campus. So the thinking would be is that if someone wished to build a new hospital in Covington, they'd have to procure a minimum of five acres that would have to have a minimum of 300 ft at the building line. I think they use the word specifically hospitals. They didn't say any structure. If that were the case, you could look, as you know, our campus consists of more than just one square or one parcel of land. In some cases, it's a compilation of properties, but I do not believe that uh this square is deficient as it relates to to lot size. Now, with regard to setback, we meet all of the setbacks. And with regard to height, um I'm sure that staff will support this because they did the calculations four, five, six months ago, but for to the extent that uh every foot you pull the setback, you can get another foot of height, that's how we went from 45 to 50

ft. Also, the um additional accessory structure on the roof does not uh breach the height requirement that the city establishes. Meaning that if you have a stairwell structure or something that is going to protrude the top level, that in and of itself does not mean that you have a violation. So, I think those are the best answers I can give you. Thank you. Commissioner, any questions? If if you just give me just a second, I I I will be happy to let you respond, but let let me run the meeting a little bit. Uh if the commissioners don't have any comment, Mr. Villery, you can certainly comment back.

I'd like to point out that in definitions, it doesn't say hospital or anything. What it says in definitions is lot line front. That line which separates the lot from the street or the road. That's everything in the code. That's not just hospitals. And also, you know, it's all reference the performance standards reference the garage. We're not doing the performance standards for the hospital. We're doing it for the garage. And the garage is is part of the hospital. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. Plus, there's an 8,000 square foot medical office building in there. So, is that not hospital? I mean, this is all hospital. They just use it.

Thank you, Mr. So, excuse the garage. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's garage to service the hospital. It's not to service the residential neighborhood next door. It's to service the hospital. It's a hospital facility. If you look on there, it's all about hospital. And the staff can write that up afterwards. But if you look throughout the definitions, corner lot, front lot, lot width, those are all definitions for the entire code, not just for the hospital. And the performance standards are for the garage. And the garage is part of the hospital. I mean, I I'm not a lawyer,

but isn't the isn't the conditional use application specific to the parking garage? I'm sorry. the conditional use application, which is what we're reviewing, is for the parking garage. It is. That's correct. Okay. And would you agree that your 3.205 205 performance standards in lot area using the conditional use definition would be more applicable to 1 C 2C and number six which have no I don't have that in front of me

which have which have no requirements for non-residential use um lot area no minimum lot required for other nonresident residential use, right? So, go back to the application, which is a conditional use for the parking garage. This is a hospital parking garage. You can you can couch it any way you want. Well, we're not I'm not couching anything. It's a hospital parking garage.

We're we're here because we're in in my opinion, we're here because it met all of the requirements that it's supposed to meet to get us to this point. And so we're here just to look at an amended uh conditional use related to the skyway. Period. Okay. Pretty much. Period.

Well, I don't think that when it gets to the permit office, they can do that because they have to follow the setbacks. Just like if you're building a house, you go in to the permit office, they're going to look at setbacks. And if they looked at the setbacks in and this is a hospital project otherwise we wouldn't have the hospital here. We it's not a it's not a garage it's a hospital garage. Okay. But thank you. So I would like to interject that. Please go ahead. I have looked at the setbacks. I have looked at the height exceptions

and I agree with Mr. Shane that the and my reports reflect that that the height exceptions under section 5.13 if you want to say it's the hospital. height exceptions for hospitals. And as far as the um performance standards, there's no minimum requirement for non-residential um lots. I have it right in front. Um I also have reviewed uh the lot area. Um the front of the building has 10 feet right ofways. We have planning areas. Everything has been reviewed since January and it's been addressed.

You could have made a mistake, but you know the other 41 years. I'm aware. Yeah, it's not a problem. We can disagree, but I I think that it's very specific. If the garage is not is is a nonresidential use, right? The helport is a nonresidential use. Correct. The MO is a nonresidential use, correct? Has nothing to do with the hospital, right? Come on,

M. Kohia, where were we with the the uh timing of this? What? We through the well over the 12 on that one. Um, instead of trying to go in order, Mr. Shane, do you have anybody that you want to have uh have any comments or statements to make for for now until I take somebody else? Any other speakers? Yeah. You mean No, no other speakers.

Okay. No other speaker. Okay. Uh, who else would like to speak? Please come to the podium and state your name and address of the record, please. Matt Hardy. I live at 1027 West 11th Avenue. I've been involved in this since January and I'm frankly a little tired of it. I will tell you that I appreciate the work that the staff has done. I think they have performed well under pressure. They have given for the most part reasoned answers that make sense to everything that I read in the application the code. However, Jeff Shane makes me laugh. I've sat in traffic on West 11th Avenue near Jackson Street, waiting three cycles of the light to get through that intersection in the morning rush hour. Their traffic report is nonsense. It does not utilize the full capacity of the facility. It scales it way back in terms of what they believe is peak hour. Let me ask you this. If you work at the hospital and you're currently parking on the other side of 8th Avenue and having to walk in the rain into the hospital and this building is there, are you going to park in it? You bet you are. It's unrestricted. There's no reason that the building shouldn't be tested based on full capacity. And that would mean 400 cars coming in and 400 cars coming out at least twice a day. Now, let me go a little further than that because I think that there's another problem here that's more fundamental,

and that is that you wouldn't accept a plan from a developer who wants to build on a piece of property and you know that it's a big piece of property and he wants to put up one building and he doesn't want to tell you what the rest of the plan is. It makes a mockery of the planning function in this city that the hospital hasn't provided what we know to exist a 10-year plan for their development. Frankly, after being involved in this thing for 6 months, I've reached the conclusion that this is the wrong location. Now, maybe it's too late for that. The right location for this thing is at the corner of 8th Avenue where you've already got two lanes of traffic built out in each direction. You've got the traffic lights. The hospital owns the land on both sides of 8th Avenue to the east. There's nothing that could interfere with their ability to widen that street or do whatever else they want to it. Uh there are so many good reasons for that location. And yet they don't tell us, they refuse to tell us what their plan is for except that they have something else planned for that corner. How can you make a worthwhile decision if you don't know what they're going to be coming up with a month or two months or a year or two years from now? You can't even begin to anticipate their needs and adjust your thinking to try to accommodate those needs in the way that favors the city of Covington over the institution. Now, I'm I'm sorry. I have just distributed to you. Oh, by the way, Teddy, I'm sorry. I'm the source of five of those three of those letters. I believe the First Amendment gives me the absolute right to send whatever I want to send to you. I'm glad you didn't read it. That's fine. That's your choice if you choose to be uninformed and not understand the underlying issues. But frankly, in 12 minutes here or 5 minutes or whatever it is, we can't get to the

details. We tried in the work session. We had a good work session. I had a very good meeting with the staff thereafter and I appreciate their efforts. The document that I've passed out to you is a proposed resolution. I would suggest to you that it's very important to reook this entire traffic situation. The staff has examined it. The staff has concluded that for the best interest of the citizens of Covington, not just today, but tomorrow and next week and next month and next year, that other changes are needed beyond what was approved by the city council in the appeal that we filed months ago. The problem you face at that intersection is you have two lines of significant traffic, one eastbound, one westbound on West 11th Avenue, and the majority of them all want to go to the south. If you don't put the turning lane coming from the west on West 11th Avenue, you block the ability of people coming from the east serving five public schools at rush hour. you block their ability to make the left turn to go south and that's because the traffic coming from the other direction has the rightway. I mean the I agree completely with the with with the decision not decision the recommendation that the city engineer has made.

We're at five minutes. I would suggest to you, I would suggest to you that the way to handle this issue is for the city and the appellent applicant to meet jointly with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and sort through the issues here that not just affect us today and tomorrow, but next year here, next week, and next month. Uh it is really a shame that this is being done this way. The peacemealing of this whole application process is something that you should not tolerate as members of the commission. You should want to know what's coming ahead and they are stonewalling you. Now the cost estimate to put in that additional turning lane was about $600,000 according to Mr. Shane back in January. This hospital is spending 20x million dollars on this project. the cost of those additional changes, it's a drop in a bucket. It's not even a rounding error in their accounting system. But for some reason, they are convinced that sending traffic down Pulk Street, and if you ever travel that part of Pulk Street, you've got doctor's offices, you got people parking 90 degrees to the flow of traffic and backing out and going in constantly. It's a hazard. The young man at the Department of Transportation when I asked him over in Hammond, uh, Daryl, I think was his name, basically said, "Look, that will not work unless you make that a one-way street." He says, "We've tried it in other places. It is not acceptable." Now, that's their solution. I'm sorry. That is a nonsolution, and I think that we need to get the LOOTD in there involved to try to make that decision. Um, so I would ask you seriously to consider three things. First, the uh meeting that I suggest

that is embodied in that resolution that I've passed to you that you look at both of the suggestions of the staff and you get a third party who's disinterested the Department of Transportation to weigh in on it. The second thing with respect to the Skybridge, the city has lost tax revenue, both sales tax and property tax by taking two pieces of property out of commerce. The city loses every time that happens. If you remember, it happened at the champagne beverage fiasco a number of years ago. As the city's tax base declines, the city's financial flexibility declines with it. I think that the city should negotiate a lease agreement for the air rights that follows the loss of tax revenue and is indexed with the consumer price index over time so that the city is at least kept whole for having surrendered the right to collect taxes on those properties to a nonprofit organization that pays no taxes whatsoever. Um, I would ask you to seriously consider those provisions and I will sit down because I know you're tired of hearing from me.

Well, thank you very much. I have a question. Sure. Go ahead. For me or for the someone else? For you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Hi. Um, when you said that the traffic study was insufficient, what peak time did you Excuse me. Did you sit at your light? It was at about 7:30 in the morning. All right. Was that during school period? It was during school period. The majority of the traffic. I don't live in Coington proper. I live in Coington Point subdivision because of the school traffic. I avoid Tyler at all costs because of the school traffic.

I think in my opinion, you are basing high school traffic as your main problem. My second question, excuse me, may I respond to that first? May I respond to that first? Let me let her finish her comments first and then you can

My second question to you is what do you see as the main purpose of a sky bridge? And if the hospital were to move that parking garage with the emergency helipad and the sky bridge would become non-existent because you cannot build a sky bridge. It would not be physically well, I'm sure it could be, but it wouldn't be fiscally feasible to the opposite corner on ETH. First, let me respond to that. The corner of 8th Avenue is well screened by some very large old growth trees. So, let's take them out.

If you No, no, not at all. you position the the garage, you could actually build a much larger garage square and put it behind those trees and one corner of it would almost touch the hospital. So you could by simply leaving unobstructed passageway lanes on the ground floor and connecting the two structures at whatever level is appropriate to the operation of a hospital. You could save a whole lot of money. Apparently the $3.2 $2 million cost doesn't amount to anything for the hospital because that's not motivating them at all. Now, back to your question. I'm not talking about high school students, ma'am. I'm talking about the parents who are dropping children off at Covenant Elementary, at St. Peters, at Christ Episcopal over on New Hampshire Street, uh, and the other school, St. Peters, all the other schools around there. And many of the parents are bringing high school students who do not drive their own cars.

And I would invite you to when spring when fall comes, get in that line and see who you see there. Absolutely not. I have more common sense than that. Well, I have more important things to do with my time. And I appreciate that you took the time to do that and to share that information with us, but you didn't answer my question as to what is the purpose of the sky bridge. You know something, the only reason there's a sky bridge there is because they want to put the parking lot across the street. If they would put it on the same property as the hospital itself, they could connect the two buildings and you wouldn't need a sky bridge at all.

Sir, the purpose of a sky bridge, one of the main reasons for the helipad and the skybridge is the transport expediently critically ill patients to the emergency room and to other necessary areas. I am an O nurse. I have transported dying patients across a parking lot at Highland Park Hospital to a helellipad that was across the street. Do you know how much time we lost because we didn't have a helellipad access at the top of the building? Miss Swords, my wife is also a nurse and I understand your your

Yeah. Now it's a hospital. I understand your concern. Please, Keith, please hold it down. You're out of line.

Yeah. Uh, I understand your concern, but I'm going to tell you, we, my wife and I, funded the cost of a legitimate third-party, not involved, consultant to look at the options available. And his conclusion is that if you put a helellipad on top of a building, a parking lot, a parking garage at the other corner at 8th Avenue, it is identical in terms of transit time. In fact, it would be even quicker getting into the hospital because you wouldn't have to traverse the elevator and the skybridge. So, listen, I understand your your your excitement about this. You're your concern. We all have priority passes when you're transporting patients that you override the elevator.

We all, but you still have to go you still have to go x number of feet across the street and and up the elevator. That's fine. I understand. That's the safest method. No. Okay. Let's Let's Let's move it on. Anyone Mr. Shane, do you have some more comments? You

to my knowledge, and unless I'm mistaken, I think the hospital is the only group that's brought a professional stamp sign traffic consultant to the table with a report. And so that everyone understands and is clear, uh, traffic counts were taken while school was in. They were actually taken during three periods of the day, three times of the day from 6:00 to 9 in the morning and it was determined that the peak hour was from 7 to 8 during that period of time. That's just based on the counts they look at the film. We also added an extra peak period of 2:30 to 3:30 as it relates to the schools and the school traffic, not just St. Paul, but schools in general because we wanted to know the impact of that traffic. We likewise looked and determined a third peak from 5:30 to 6:30 in the evening in that area. Our model included full occupancy of the parking garage. It would have been foolish to do a report based only on current conditions. Interesting. Certainly, but the purpose of the traffic impact study impact of the parking garage. We needed a study for that. We got that data. There is no comment in the staff report suggesting that the counts were taken on bad days of the counts were improper or that the peak hour was not analyzed. With regard to the air rights, your staff comments clearly state that that is a matter to be addressed by the council. The council through ordinance and the mayor will determine if they will grant an airright servitude for the

skybridge and they will determine what form that servitude agreement will take. I think that's all that we can simply state. There is no provision in the code as it relates to that issue coming before you this evening. Last but not least, I don't know about the lost economics of Medie Bank, a medical supply store um that my client has purchased and will demol demolish one building already and will eventually demolish the bank. But I think it would take uh just some plain common sense to think about the incredible economic impact of the St. contaminate health system to the city of Cington. I will view that based on employees on people that the patients their families and just the general impact of this wonderful in my view clean industry that benefits all and is the epitome of the quality of life that we want in the city of Covington. I appreciate your time. Commissioners, you have any other comments?

I do. Um, I understand that the people that live adjacent to the hospital don't want their lives interrupted. That hospital's been there for 54, 55 years.

Did you actually think you were buying property? This is my personal comment. Did you actually think you were buying property in in any local near a growing community, a growing hospital, and that hospital was going to remain stagnant? for the betterment of this community. For the betterment of this community, for the safety of the community, the facility has enlarged and improved medical care, medical standards that has brought that hospital and this parish to the forefront of the medical community. I have I am sorry that people live adjacent to the hospital and and their lifestyle is threatened, but that hospitals have been there a long time. And I think if you were chose to live in that area, you had blinders on if you didn't think that the hospital was going to grow and improve. There were 132 approximately life flights in the last fiscal year. you um talking about saving lives. You're not talking about an everyday airport with a helicopter coming and going every five minutes. You're talking about saving an individual, a child, an adult, your family member, anybody else's family member, a police officer. You're saving their lives by having an accessible access to an operating room. I have started with a surgeon, him and myself, opening a chest on a stretcher

to save a patient's life before they die. Yeah, I'm passionate about what I do. I'm damn good at what I do. And I am sorry if you see that as a weakness. But it is passion about what is right. Let's move let's move this along. Hold on.

Come right ahead. Come on. State your name and address for the record, please. My name is Carolyn Chasse and I live on 13003 South Monroe Street. There's so much I want to say that is not related what I had planned to say. So I'm going to first of all just say it is important that we see the hospital's strategic plan um because there are other locations that can be considered and all right let me go through what I was going to say and we'll touch on that. So tonight really is a critical opportunity to address concerns regarding the proposed Saint Tamony Health System garage. While the original conditional use permit was approved, I urge you to consider measures at your disposal to minimize the project's long-term impact on Covington and its residents. While reviewing and considering the updated and revised application, many new variables have come to light since we started this journey in February. And it is important to save and to preserve our quality of life. This is my perspective starting since January. We learned about this project just a few weeks before February 19th. Actually, 10 days in advance. I personally assume that every detail to the code was both comp was complied by the hospital and the city that you were reviewing an error-free code. We were more upset about the location and how the citizens hadn't been involved in the process, but we assumed the applicant the application was accurate without error. We appealed because we thought there

were planning and zoning procedural issues that took place. Everything happened so fast. We had to appeal it to learn more about the project. The city council ruled in favor. Then we decided, what do we do next? Oh, the board of visitors. Let's actually read the application now and find out if it was accurate. We found eight significant errors and omissions and we went before the board of adjustments in May and our appeal was dismissed. Was never voted on. There was a resolution but it was dismissed. In the meantime, the hospital comes up with a new application identifying all the areas that we had objected to that we found errors and omissions. So, we're here now today because of the work of a handful of citizens that found problems. I'm glad we got involved. We are moving toward a better solution because we're all working together. the balance sheet. We are very pleased that St. Tam Health System is here. It has grown dramatically in the last 10 years. It has exploded. I'm told by long-term residents, which I am one, that years ago the city begged the hospital to stay within its city limits. I think that at that moment it was a fantastic decision. No one could anticipate Katrina the explosion of St. Tamony Parish. No one could envision the relationship between St. Tam Health

System and Auctioner. St. Tam Health System is not located in Covington. It's located in Mandeville, Madisonville, Folsam, and has even more plans to grow. We bought our house in 2014. We were glad to be there. Now all we hear, I never thought about noise pollution. There's noise pollution now. 132 lifesaving measures, helicopter flights. St. Tamony is a level three trauma center. A really dire patient is going to Lake View level two. Going to North Oaks level two. They're not flying here. There have been no incidents so far. No one's died. No one's lost their life because where the helellipad is located right now. I'm just saying we make emotional decisions and assumptions without looking at what could be actually going on. So now I just want to ask you there's a uh something uh Mr. Hudson that you brought up that you're only looking at the amended and restated portions of the cup. As I read the code, there's no time limit on adding a conditional a qualifying condition to the cup. When we brought this to the city council, the city council added a condition. They added the turning lane. They they spoke it into existence. You can do the same thing. You can do the same thing. There's nothing in the code that prevents you from adding a qualifying condition to location, to size, to what it looks like. You know, part of the argument is just a garage. Well, if it's just a garage, why does it look like St. Tam Parish Hospital? It could actually look like Brasswells. Brasswells is a much better looking

facility. So, there's so many things that are going on right now. And when I first presented, I said, "Let's slow it down. Let's slow the role because this is a forever decision for our community." Five minutes. I'm up in my All right. So, let me finish. You can finish. Let me summarize.

Um, we have provided you samples of qualifying conditions and we want you to consider that because one side will say, "No, you you can only qualify what's been revised." But I want to respectfully request you to use your discretionary authority to ask questions, to engage. We want to engage with you and to use your authority to shape the project in a way that benefits Covington's citizens, not the health system. Let them go back to the drawing board. Jeff Shane said in the last meeting, "This is our first option." That means they had other options that they looked at. I'm curious what they were and what the decision makingaking variables were to choose this site. So, one more quick, your job is to look at the code today. What's there today? We've learned there are errors all over the code. There are inconsistencies in the code. We're looking at improving the code. But your job is also to look at Covington plan 2030. It it is your job to look at that and look at how this project fits in to the vision of Covington 2030. Guess what? It doesn't fit. So from this point on, I would like to suggest there's no growth north of 11th and Tyler. The city of Covington cannot keep pace with the growth of the hospital. They've bought over 10 properties in the last few, you know, 20 years. The Hairburger Joint, Brazwells, a restaurant, you know, five or six offices. We've lost that tax revenue. What's the city of Covington doing to regain to to recoup that

revenue? You'll say, "Oh, well, we, you know, probably 10% of the employees work in Covington." I don't think any of you live in Covington City Limit. One, two, Oh, okay. You Coington City limits. That's great. 10% of you right here with the Covington citizens are underwriting the hospital and that's it. I just want you to consider your options because you have them. Thank you. Thank you, All right, commissioners, city, y'all have any more comments, too? Please.

One one clarifying element and and I and I appreciate everything uh Miss Jesse was speaking to, but I do want to advise y'all from the position of when you're making decisions about land use, land use management, it's important to be consistent and to avoid the appearance of being arbitrary and capricious. Typically when we look at cases, we think about an arbitrary or capricious decision. We compare similar cases and we ask ourselves when you were looking at this case, did you treat it the same way as you treated the similar case? Right? And that's how courts typically decide whether or not you're being fair and treating one applicant the same way as another applicant. In this case, with this conditional use permit, you've already heard the same exact application. And so there is risk in adding conditions that you did not already add that are not related to the changes that are being proposed because they could be viewed as arbitrary and capricious. Right? Because it's the same exact case. You've heard it except for the changes, right? There are changes in this one. And so I just want to make sure from a land use perspective, right? And just thinking about your decision- making, it's important to be consistent. Um, and so all I'm all I'm trying to advise at this point is that it is in your I think the city's interest to to limit its decision- making to those elements of this application that are changed. So in that respect, you you can make conditions, right? Um, but it would it could seem arbitrary and comp and capricious if you made conditions on elements of the application that you have already viewed and approved in a previous meeting. Does that make sense?

Mhm. Okay. Thank you. Commissioners, any questions? Will we have more people speak? Who who else would like to speak? Miss, please come to the front. State your name and address for the record, please.

Watkins, 417 North Florida Street, Cington, Louisiana. So, a whole lot of stuff is bouncing around here and now you're being told that if you make any other changes tonight, you're being arbitrary and capriccious, which I do not agree with. And had we had anyone planned to sue for an arbitrary and capriccious decision, it would have been after the first meeting because that was a disaster. Anyway, um I just want to say, Miss Swords, the the the helipad is moving further away now. Now, your patients have to get off of it, get into a parking garage, go to the elevator, go up or down or wherever, get on another elevator to get to the emergency room. It's not closer. It's not safer. It's a ruse. That is a reason that the health system would like you to think that this is a dire necessity. The the helellipad we have now has been there for 25 years. They have not had a single accident. and whether or not anyone has died between the helicopter and the room. It's not just emergencies. It's people who are being brought from other locations to the hospital. They're not all, you know, bleeding with their chest open.

I'm aware.

So, in this particular case, the helellipad is going further away. So, your patients are coming a further distance to get where they need to go. So, please don't think anyone is is d trying to um reduce the safety factor for the emergency victims. Of course not. We've we've we've exhausted every technical thing. It for the two commissioners who were not here for the past meetings, I am completely opposed to this parking garage in this location. This parking garage in this location is not in harmony. And if we went through all the conditional use permit criteria, it simply is not in harmony. And there are locations on the current campus. This building could easily fit on the 8th Avenue end of the building. And those emergencies could go straight into the building. They wouldn't have to come a block away because that's where they'll be now. So, we're we're exhausting the whole thing. It's not the best location. It's not good for the neighborhood. It doesn't it it's it's offensive. And while we, you know, everyone is happy that the hospital is here in town, I simply don't respect what they're trying to do with this project. It doesn't have to be there. It it and and you can make a condition you based on location. We've been through all this and in the past The comment was made that it passed with overwhelming support. There were four yes votes. Two of those yes votes made comments throughout that first meeting that clearly indicated they thought this was coming back to them again. And another who isn't here tonight had a discussion with a neighbor that

indicated he thought he had voted against it. Now that didn't happen to me. that happened to someone else and so I I don't know what on were there but there was not overwhelming support for this project and other than the res the three residents who work for the hospital I'm curious if there are any other residents city within the city limits behind me who are here to beg for this parking garage to be built at that location is anyone here to support the parking garage at that location that I I'm is telling you there is not overwhelming support for this location with this project in this city. So you can table this, you can take more time because no one has coached you or advised you on how this project could benefit from additional conditions. And now you're being told this is the first parking garage that's been an in an applicant since the courthouse was built in 1998. So we don't have them that frequently. And I would say the first goround was just not the best performance of of the city or or the informing the commissioners that night. So, I do not think that anything different you do tonight would be considered arbitrary and capriccious. And the only reason you'd have to worry about that is if someone was going to sue you. If any of us had the money and the time and the inclination to see you, we would have done that already. I do not think that's a threat. So taking any more time with this to figure out how to make it better. If the hospital just put it on its current footprint on its campus, they would get what they need and we would all be happy. Thank you for your consideration.

Miss, one comment. Um I understand that you're not medical. Um and regardless of the distance whether it's inside or outside. There is priority given to the helicopter and the person being transported either in or out. It is a coordinated effort not by just one team. It is a coordinated effort by security, hospital personnel, house supervisors, multiple people. open I am speaking please

to open the path

of clear straight to where that patient has to go either whether it is the emergency room or straight to the operating room so I am sorry that you don't comprehend that no it it's it's fine already they have that already they have a helicopad they have it in a great location it works it gets the patients where they need to go if the ad was the problem. I don't know that across the street is the best place to put it. That's not what we're here to talk about. They have a helellipad. They get their patients in as quickly as possible. What I'm telling you is that moving the helellipad is going to slow that down. It's further away.

In your experienced medical opinion, I I accept that. Thank you. Mr. Shane, do you have anything you'd like to say?

Should I assume these are final comments? I'm I'm pretty close to it. Yeah, that's what I said. I I just said I'm close to it. Didn't say I was, but it was close. Well, what I'd like to do is reserve some time for rebuttal after spoken. Fine. Who wants to speak next? Please come and state your name and address for the record.

My name is Khaki Han. I live at 519 West 16th Avenue. Um I will say we have a beautiful, diverse, vibrant, amazing neighborhood um both on the hospital side and the other side of Tyler full of thousands of citizens who love Covington and love our neighborhood and are happy to live by the hospital. But that doesn't mean um that you should want us punished for that. Um and we don't mind living by the hospital. If they want to add a floor or do anything on their campus, we support it. No one's ever spoken against something they've wanted, but they have c they want to cross the street and build a fivestory garage that does dump onto residential streets and that does cause a different issue. You know, a garage for them, not just medical offices. We don't mind being by the medical offices. Um I would say that in part of what they've added for tonight has been was missing elevations and some things like um the Japunto urgent care that wasn't there before which should open up more of that discussion because in the last application they were missing some side views. It wasn't all to scale. So I'm not sure why that wouldn't open up a little bit more of the discussion here. Um, if there are options and the garage, this is the best place that everyone thinks. Um, I also agree it's not the best place. Does it have to be five stories? The Justice in a garage is three stories and it's very lovely. Uh, it's brick. It's It's really not as obtrusive. Um, does this one have to be so much taller and so much more out of line with the beautiful residential neighborhood behind it? Um, of course there's going to be traffic issues. We already do contend with the schools. We knew that. But you shouldn't want to add to the traffic burden in that area of town that you already maybe try to avoid. If there's more that could be done to alleviate it, why not make this the best it can be? Something that works for the hospital, but the best it can be for the city and the citizens of Covington because they're planning and

zoning not for the health system, but for the city of Covington. That's the residents, the businesses, the taxpayers, um, who live here and have our lives here and we want to follow the code. We want to be good neighbors to the hospital, but it doesn't mean we have to give them everything they want in the exact form they ask for. It needs to conform to what is best for Covington and Covington's growth and the neighborhoods, the vibrancy, the things that we cherish, the things that they work very hard, especially downtown, to maintain and build a code. Why should that carry over to the other sides of town and the other entrances where people come and are greeted to our city? Um, we just beseech you to look at your options um and to consider conditions, whether that be location or size or more beautifification of this. Just consider all sides, not just the view of driving down Tyler. There's so much more to this project. It can be better. Let's make it better. Please use all the resources available to you and the power that you do have to raise the standard of Covington all over and not just downtown. Um, and to truly consider all the neighbors on both sides. I don't think pushing traffic onto the side streets is a solution. That just shows that there is too much and you're adding to it and that is gaslighting to the neighbors. Um, and it's not just a few neighbors. Like I said, there's there's thousands of people living on both sides, so there's a lot to consider. There's a lot of new things to look at. Um I I know 132 helicopter trips is a lot, but a lot of them are probably transporting people over to New Orleans. They're not all coming in, and seconds do count, but you also do have to be stable enough to travel or they won't put you on a helicopter. So, you know, there are other alternatives and I hope that we can look at them and come up with the

best solution for Covington. Thank you.

Okay. Um, I have two more cards. Does anybody else want to speak? Come state your name and address for the record, please. Randy Walker, 912 West 13th Avenue. Um, my house faces south on that street and my wife and I were sitting outside the other day on the porch. We start started looking at the angle and I really believe that we're going to be able to see look over the top of the pine trees and see that garage. Guess we'll just get used to it. But I mean, it's just I keep not hearing nothing about the actual height of five floors with a helipad on top. So, I mean, does anybody know the height? What's the final height going to be?

Yeah, they have to have a height, but what's the uh this chain?

The height the final height of it proposed I mean, it going to be above the pine trees. I mean, is that something that y'all want to, you know, put your stamp on that the tallest structure in downtown Coington is a parking garage. And then also, I worked 40 years offshore and you can build a helipad anywhere. It's not rocket science. And probably the best place for the hospital's health pad would be right above the emergency room. I mean, it's not you get off the helicopter and you go down an elevator. There's no streets to cross, no pathways. So why that has never been built before, I guess you'd have to ask the experts at the hospital. Sir,

anybody uh next?

State your name and address for the record.

My name is Steve Rome. I live at 1021 Ministry Drive, Covington, Louisiana. I've always loved Covington. I came here to high school. I was a border at St. college from 7th through 12th grade. There's always a beautiful place in my heart and moved here 25 years ago. Every time I come down Tyler, I really respect what St. Tam Parish Hospital did. You come in, it's a beautiful campus. I believe in campus architecture. I believe in the continuity of design. The big question I have is every municipality spends thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for zoning code. It's there for a purpose. It's a design tool. It's not something to be challenged or just to put off to a side that I think that this garage kind of breaches the beauty of the potentiality of the visit coming into one of the major gateways into Covington. It's a large scale. That's the purpose of these setbacks. Once you reach a certain height that it steps back further and further and the parapit on the drawings indicates 65 ft, which if it's 5 50 feet is the allowable amount before you have to step back, that is an additional 15t. Why can't that happen? Now in terms of location of a helport or a helipad two-lane university after Katrina built one right on their building it wasn't on the top floor it was another level near the emergency room it can be done if timing and I believe in getting the patients in on time and as efficient as possible but there are better ways now I don't know if a something was passed out about the scale of this building but it's huge And in the letter, which somebody may

not have read, there's an address that um it's superior aesthetics. And I don't know where I've seen a garage nearby other than Europe or whatever where a parking garage is superior aesthetics. And listening to the gentleman before to be able to look out, I won't get goosebumps by looking at it because of the scale. And I think you need to consider its impact on Tyler. I also heard mention this evening about the expansion of Tyler from the width all the way from um West 11th to 21st. You got to think about that. You really need to take a look at where the building is now and the relationship of all of that because it's very tight and I don't even think you 15 foot setback will be able to accommodate that if you abide by the code. So, let's remember it's a design tool and it's there for a purpose and you spend thousands of dollars to do that to protect the integrity of this design integrity as well as the building integrity for the city of Covington. Now, tonight I heard that a traffic impact study is going to be done. Well, I know that there was a traffic analysis done, but I did see in the in the reading the impact analysis on Okay, I'd like to go through that. See, but I thought from what I read, an analysis was done. They're two different things and one is a lot more stringent. And you know what? You do have more cur curve cuts. If you're going to have a turning lane, you're cutting that curve immediately. Let's look at this for for Covington and for the people. It's huge and it's a horrible impact on the scale. And it's not beautiful. It's a parking garage and I'm asked who has seen parking garages that are beautiful

and also to in the study of diverting you know traffic I heard on Poke Street I feel that that's encroaching into a neighborhood is that really the solution. So I ask the commission here to come back and take your design guidelines for the city of cons of Covington more seriously. Thank you. Thank you. I believe that's it. Mr. Shane, if you'd like to

make sure there's nobody else. Is there anybody else on the other side that wanted to speak?

That was it. All right. Go ahead. As I was preparing to come back to the podium, it occurred to me. I think one thing all of us do share in this room tonight in addition to passion. But that is a frustration in that these topics have so many heads and elements to them. It's difficult for any one of us at any one time to really go into all the things you'd like to go into. Um, in summary, what I'm going to try to do is leave some impressions with you, which I think are the more significant things that you should take into consideration. I brought an architect tonight, Keith Bar. His firm is the institutional architect for the hospital. I never did feel like I really had enough time to let him get to the table, but if I had, I he would have talked about the elevations that you have seen uh of this parking garage. This amended and restated application brought to you elevations of all four sides with the architectural materials, patterns, colors, etc. With all due respect to the parking garage that we have at the justice center, uh it's a totally different model and creature as it relates to what we intend to do because we want to create uh aesthetic consistency in the corridor that we believe we've created from an institutional standpoint with regard to the hospital campus. This square has been zoned IH for 10 to 20 years. I'm not exactly sure how long. It occurred to me tonight for the first time. Why did the city fathers which includes you as a commission and I realize in some cases your predecessors in terms of the membership? But there was a distinct reason that

this square was selected and zoned IH and it was to facilitate hospital uses and accessory uses. It didn't envision that there was going to be a new hospital built on this partial square, but it certainly envisioned a need and a history, I might add, of medical care uses in the square. It goes back to my boyhood. It goes back to Mr. Hardy's father practicing medicine on the corner of 11th and Tyler. So the thought that this is just absolutely an inappropriate location simply isn't the case. I respect the fact that people might disagree that it's the right location. But if you're an institution such as the hospital and you are evaluating your needs and typically your customer satisfaction surveys tell you that they're very very happy with the services they receive at St. Tamony Parish Hospital except they wish there were better parking facilities because often you can't find a space and if you do you're so far you're going to be exposed to the elements of heat, cold or rain and I brought a helicopter pilot with me this evening. I didn't feel I had time to get him to the podium either. But I will tell you that I have heard the story more times than I can relate. Right now, the pilots land into a hole at ground level, which means they have to, as they're coming down, combat trees, power lines, winds, cars on the ground, pedestrians on the ground, etc. A very important reason that we would like this project at this location is that we get an opportunity to build our

Helellis stop not in a hole, but on the perch, 50 feet up. It allows that pilot to make the same orbits, but he doesn't have to take on near the risk he does today. And the idea that the hospital shouldn't want to have faster and effective connection from landing to emergency room because we're not a trauma level two or that because no one's died. That's not what this is all about. It's about improving the opportunity to get good health care. It could be someone that severed a leg in an accident and might lose that leg if they don't get to the emergency room soon enough. to chide the hospital for not at least trying to connect the dots to put the hela stop closer to the emergency department I think is just very shallow in thinking I realize your tasks are great it's difficult to sit and listen to all of these impassion please by all of us this evening but I think what it boils down to is that this is an amended and restated application for a project that currently has approval. The amended and restated items are before you. We, I think, have made a convincing case because every required element of the project has received a positive staff comment. There's with no exception. In addition to that, the traffic impact analysis done the first time we came to you was taken a step above as Mr. Rome

mentioned earlier by providing you with a traffic impact study and pursuant to a scope created by the city engineer. Last but not least, if the greatest concern in the room might be what are the impacts of the traffic from this structure to the streets that surround it and the corridors in the area and the residential corridors in the area. Let me remind you that the hospital holds the key in large part to controlling who will park in the garage and what time of the day they will enter the garage and what time of the day they leave the garage. How so? 400 spaces. At any one time during the day, we have approaching a thousand employees on campus. If we decide that we need to pack the garage with employees that must punch start work at 7 a.m., they're going to be getting in the garage at 6:15 to 6:30 in the morning. Likewise, they work, most of those employees work 12-hour shifts. They're going to be leaving at 700 p.m. or later in the evening. What is the significance of that? It's before the greatest peak and it's after the greatest peak. So the point is is that if the hospital sees that despite the studies and despite the business plan that we need to make adjustments, we can and will do so. We understand that this can't be selfserving just to our needs. It's got to work for everyone in the community. And I think that the Saint Tamony Health System has consistently shown that it is in fact a partner to the city of Covington and all of its

residents in many many respects. We continue to do so or plan to continue to do so through this project. Thank you for your time. Commissioners, any comments for anyone and or the city? Come on up, Mr. Hart. But this is it. Thank you for the courtesy, Teddy. Sure. I think there's one other thing that you that you need to know.

Okay. Uh is that the uh hospital, and you may not be aware of this, the hospital has not fully built out, as I understand it, the fourth floor. They have the ability to add to the patient capacity on the fourth floor. The building was also designed so that they could add a fifth floor. And I ask you, if you add 25% to the capacity of the hospital, what happens to this beautiful parking garage? It's obsolete. You are handicapped by not knowing what their plans are, by not being able to make a valid decision because they are keeping you all in the dark. I'll leave it at that. Okay, Commissioner, we've uh we beat this one pretty good. So, um here. Could you, Miss Ellen, you have any comments tonight or

So, my only comments are that throughout this entire process, the um review, the zoning, the the setbacks have been looked at and looked at and you know, I don't I don't find anything. I don't think other offices in in my my we've had meetings and Everything to apply I'm sorry I got I kind of got distracted. I apologize. Everything that meets the code is in this application. So as far as the planning office is concerned and it checks all the boxes and then as far as the amendment that's up before you today, it's zoned properly. They've addressed issues that were above what the code required. not an error presented or or left out but above what the code requires. So that's my only statement and I understand that there's concerns and that's why we have these meetings. So that's important. You know if you move it to the other corner if the hospital chooses to do something like that it's zoned the same. So it's going to have the same requirements. So I don't you know that's my only statement. M

we get clarification on how we're going to we get clarification on how we're going to vote on these make the motion. I think we can we do these broad at the same Okay. And can you help draft? Correct. Correct. And and so and the first one is use on a conditional use case.

It's 2520172. I move that we approve the conditional use.

We have a second. Roll call. Mr. Boon. Yes. Miss Awards. Yes. Mr. Celesteine. Mr. Duvik. No. Mr. Bulock. Mr. Hudson. Yes. Okay, that one's back. Now we go for

site plan. Commissioners, I move that we approve site plan. Second and a second. Roll call. Mr. Boone. Yes. Mr. Wards? Yes. Mr. Celesteine? Mr. Duvik? No. Mr. Bulock. Mr. Hudson? Yes. Okay. Um,

go ahead. I would just like to remind since it was stated last time that there is an appeal process if anyone's interested in appealing your decision that they can appeal to the council for the conditional use. Correct. Okay. Uh we have any other business after that? Yes. I would just also like to remind you you will have a meeting August 18th regular meeting for the Yeah. Okay. And we also have a um August 13th we have an open house. Excuse me. Excuse me. Our our meeting isn't over. So, if you all could please August 13th, we have an open house for the code updates at the Firehouse Event Center. Same thing as last meeting. Okay.

All right. With that, the uh that concludes the uh zoning meeting. with that.