Planning & Community Design Commission - Regular Meeting

Laura Ragsdale is absent and myself, Petrie Powell, is here. Thank you.

We also have... Carlos Trejo, director of the Department of Planning and Community Design. We have Don Doty, senior planner, and we no longer have Jack Carswell. Is that right? That's correct. And for city council liaison, I see we have filling in for us, Brian Lewis. Is this a one evening only engagement?

Okay.

All right. Well, we're glad to have a veteran here to fill in in her absence. All right, everybody. So for anybody that hasn't been here before, we follow an agenda. The agenda has been posted online and there's copies in the back as well. Typically, we follow the agenda in order, but not necessarily in order. First, we'll do public comments. Those are comments related to any items not otherwise on the agenda. If there are no public comments, then we'll also do announcements. If Carlos has any after that, and then we'd move on to the actual petitions. When we get to the petitions, staff will give a report to the commission. We may ask some questions, have some discussion. Then we'll typically bring up the petitioner if there's anything to discuss or if the petitioners have anything they want to discuss, and then public comments on those particular items at that time. After that, typically we'll have a vote or we'll make a decision to table the item if there's a good reason to do so. We don't have a big crowd today. I don't know, Carlos, do we have anybody online? No, not that I see you right now, sir. Okay, we'll skip the online instructions. But general rule is we like to keep comments two, three minutes or less to be respectful of everybody's time. We give a little bit of leeway for the petitioner if necessary to ask questions and for a smaller group like today. think that's it carlos yes sir anything i missed no sir okay great um all right then we will move on to public comments any public comments perfect carlos any announcements no sir and i see no one online okay great moving right along to number 3a new business 30 the orchards lane

Chairman, you have a packet that contains a proposed addition to be added to the existing house at 30 the Orchards Lane. It is an existing two-story structure. They're looking to add an addition. You can see here back in the blue and then do some major remodeling in the interior and in the upper level. In total, the combined square footage, both on the first and second floor that would be new, would exceed 600 square feet. Thus, it's subject to community design review, and that is why it's here before you. In addition to the calculations for the total site coverage came out to a little less than 5%. It had to do the community design review. We're also just taking a look at the coverage. It's okay so we don't run into a problem administratively through the review process. Right now, I believe they have about 1,200 square feet or a little under 1,200 square feet where the maximum or 5% would be 1,200. They are providing some detention systems here in place. There is some existing already and they're doing, of course, a underground detention for the addition component, and then doing some swell improvements for the proposed patio in the back. I will point out a couple of things before going, if you want to see any of the plan illustrations. This line right here that the cursor is going through is the original front yard setback. It kind of runs like this. It's a 50-foot yard setback, which is pretty extreme. Most lots throughout Olivet are 40 feet or less. Back in the 90s, to my understanding, way before my time, there was an addition that was placed on this house, and a variance was granted by the Board of Zonian Appeals for this extension over the front yard setback. I think it's a reasonable request given the uniqueness of the line and the extent of that setback along here the proposed addition will not exceed the the setback that was granted by the by the board uh so you'll see a little component here that extends over but it should be okay given a variance was granted already or previously there's some information in your packet regarding that They did talk with adjacent neighbors, the subdivision trustees. You have copies of some of the correspondence of support regarding that. They had the representative of the architect here, Lauren Stretman, along with THD design. Is there any specific grading issues? Overall, the addition complements the city's design standards. They maintain the overall character of the building and those within their neighborhood. Pretty nice design concept and integration of what's being done on there. I'd be glad to answer any specific questions from a staff perspective. We didn't have any additional concerns. Looks like everything would be addressed and what's noted in the staff report.

I just have a mechanical question about the variance itself. We have no data or records of that variance anywhere?

There would be some type of finding the facts that would have been kept.

Minutes of the Board of Adjustments?

Correct.

So we don't have that, though?

Not in your packets. Okay.

Do we feel confident that whatever that language was, it would...

Yep. And one of the things, I mean, from a planning perspective, is that they're not extending beyond what was already granted. The addition that they're placing here is well behind this distance here. Okay. So once that variance is granted, that setback is granted, it runs with the property.

would there be anything at the, um, assessor's office or, I mean, I'm just trying to figure out how do we know for certain without the minutes of a board of adjustment or something, you know, um, from the assessor's office or... I understand. You know what I'm talking about. Recorder of deeds.

I'll let the practitioner... Because we did have a short discussion. I think there was some paperwork in there.

Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure that we have that. It's not that we are distrusting. It's just that because this is a fairly... big encroachment into the original setback that was presumably there for a reason.

I'm curious what the proof is. I have the paperwork of all the permits and inspections for that garage in there.

Okay. That's great. any any aesthetic questions anybody has on the back of the house i mean not really okay um all right petitioners anything that uh you'd like to say and if so please come up and please state oh i'm so sorry can you yeah and turn it but one Turn it on. I will turn on. Say your name and your address, please.

Lauren Strutman, 16676 Old Chesterfield Road, Chesterfield 63017. And I'm here with Katie Wibbenmeyer, the project architect. And we have Mark Kilgore from THD, who did the stormwater, if you have any questions. And the homeowner, Tro Meyer, is with us also. So we're basically here to answer any questions you have on the project. I do think this is a very nice improvement to a what's already a nice house, but it had some things done to it over the years that weren't so great, and we're correcting those, and it's going to be a very nice improvement to the neighborhood. I think Carlos has already explained the project as well as I could have.

I just want to clarify one thing. The additions on the back of the house, not the front, is that right?

Okay.

Okay.

Can you please come up to the microphone?

Thank you.

Well, where you see, see the family room. Okay. So there's a family room there now that's coming out and there's some real low kind of garage above the, above that an office. And we're taking that the walls and everything out and rebuilding that to make it look number one, look better and also be better space and extending them out the back with that eight foot addition off the back.

Okay.

To extend the kitchen and the family room and the master so we can get the primary suite. Okay.

That existing area wasn't very well.

No. Like she can feel the heat from the lights downstairs, upstairs in the office through the floor.

Okay. I just wanted to clarify, and this may just be a perspective thing, but on the photographic streetscape that I'm looking at, it's got a front and a front on the front there that looks different.

And it has a front with the dormer, a big kind of oversized dormer, and now we have it more proportionate.

Okay. Okay.

All right. Anybody have any questions? I don't think so. Thank you. Any further discussion or would anybody like to make a motion?

I'll make the motion. Motion to authorize the approval of the petition for the site. plan, community design, and concept stormwater management review for the residential addition and site improvements at 30 The Orchards Lane as presented in the memorandum from the Department of Planning and Community Development dated May 21, 2026, subject to any staff conditions noted therein.

Motion's been made. Second? Second. Second by Tim Spiegelglass. Carlos, will you please call the vote?

Commissioner Spiegelglass. Approve. Commissioner Ford.

Approve.

Commissioner Powell. Approve. Commissioner Wallach. Approved. The motion passes unanimously four to zero. Chairman, the next step in the process would be the application for the building permits. Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Get it in writing.

All right, moving on to item 3B at 9408 Grandview Drive. Carlos.

Chairman, we actually received a building application for the construction of a deck on a single family house in the Indian Meadows subdivision. It would have been an administrative process. However, as we looked at the information a little bit more closely, a portion of the deck would extend higher than four feet from the grade elevation. So I informed the petitioner, the application came in last week, that I have to run this through the commission to get the approval. I think when the commission takes a look at it and understands it's part of the process, anything over four feet, has to be approved by the commission. And here's the existing house. You can see the streetscape here on your upper right corner. The deck is in the rear, but you can see here the property kind of drops in grade. It's a good size property, pretty deep. You have a property map in your packet. The deck is going to be right here. And it's at this back corner point given that the grade drops, where you see the stairway coming down here, that it's higher than four feet. And again, by code, I have to bring this to the commission. There's some pretty good illustrations that the petitioner provided. For reference, I asked them if they can just get some pictures for me. I'd run it to the commission. This is kind of a silhouette of the deck, and it's this corner here that would be higher than four feet. Here's that window. It's now a door, and you can see the height level here that they would have. They have a pretty deep backyard. There's a lot of pictures for you that were provided by the petitioner. I don't perceive they will have any... impact to any of the adjacent neighbors or the surroundings. But they understood that as part of the process, I had to bring it to the commission. I asked them that I would just present that and hopefully the commission would be comfortable with authorizing the height.

Okay.

Anybody have any concerns at all? My only question was, I assume there's other properties that have a deck over four feet in the subdivision? Oh, yes. I'm pretty sure I see one in the back of one of these pictures right here. Yeah, right there. I mean, I don't see a problem with this.

And this is kind of a regulation we put in place where we had a deck that was installed. It was over four feet in height. But it was in a narrow property. And after it was constructed, the neighbor was kind of upset about that process. And I understand that aspect. But in this case, I have more than sufficient setback. They have this retaining wall here and then an easement. And then the next house doesn't start till even further down in there. So it's not like they're going to be overlooking their neighbor. Is that an existing door that's already... That has been installed, yes. You can see it's a window here. And then, of course, in the plan diagrams, it's been converted to a door already. Steve dropped right there.

Okay. Petrie, Felicia, any concerns? Okay. Well, since nobody's here, anybody want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion. Make a motion to authorize the approval of the petition for the Site Plan Community Design Concept Stormwater Management Review for a deck floor to extend 4 feet above grade at 9408 Grandview Drive as presented in the memorandum from the Department of Planning and Community Development dated May 21st, 2026, subject to any staff conditions noted therein.

Motion's been made. Second? Second. Second by Tim Spiegelblast. Carlos?

Mr. Spiegel glass approved. Commissioner Ford approved. Commissioner Powell approved. Commissioner Wallach approved. Motion passes unanimously four to zero. They are already under the, uh, the permit review process, but we'll contact them about the action. Great.

Um, Carlos, are we going to do anything with the comprehensive plan?

No chairman. I don't have anything, uh, in there where you still are working on our priorities list and trying to get that incorporated within our budget. with the council within the budget document to kind of codify what the commission will be working on the next fiscal year. And this is based on the survey information that was provided by the commission and the workshops we had late December and early January.

Can I ask a question about that, the list? Let me go back, yeah.

Yes.

One of the things that I've heard repeatedly is that we have one residential zoning district and that that has created its own sort of problems and issues in terms of minimum lot size and what can be done. And we're talking about whether or not we can get more housing in smaller lots, but we have this minimum lot size. And I'm just wondering, from start to finish, can we prioritize, and I'm not sure, I guess the new residential districts is it, I'd like to understand what's available to us, like what could we be doing or what is it that is being suggested by staff in terms of alternatives to what we're doing now? And in particular, I'd like to maybe hear some presentations by you all about kind of what's developing in the field itself. I've noticed more and more communities are looking at shared you know shared common spaces much smaller houses much more grouped closely together with maybe very little space between houses and it just there might be some ways for us to be innovative and i'm just wondering if if there's a time in which we could look at after we do our analysis, what might be options out there, rather than just, you know, go to the R1, R2, R3, R4, you know, what, how can we be creative in dealing with the issues as we see them, which is You know, adding housing that's affordable, allowing for seniors to stay in place, etc., etc. So I don't want to just keep pushing this down the road, but I'd like to know what our options are and what the recent literature and what people are doing out there in the creative world.

No, that that'd be great. There's, you know, what we can do or prepare for the next meeting to in the preparation of the 2420 comprehensive plan update. So within the housing component, there's especially attainable housing, the the consultants provided you know, recent trends and things that are being considered in there to address that. And that's not only applicable to that objective or that goal. They did those for all of it. So the format of the plan has, hey, these are all these things in the planning world that are going on regarding addressing, you know, attainable and affordable housing. They did the same with economic development and things in there. So we can bring those forward and then also kind of talk what's going on, like in the PAS reports.

And for... In other communities where they have, I don't even know if it's up zoning, down zoning, like we have the Northeast quarter that we've talked about and how really none of that is in compliance in terms of lot sizes. Is there a way to start the process of getting all those areas where they're not in compliance with our current minimum lot sizes and change the zoning on those areas? you know, as, you know, incrementally, instead of waiting for a whole new gigantic plan to rezone, is there ways to bring that into compliance in such a way that, you know, that, that It's no longer an issue. We no longer have that issue.

So what we've initiated is like we sat down with representatives of the Arrowhead Park subdivision and acquired their indentures and information. We talked to the trustee representatives a couple of weeks ago about housing types and some of the issues that we see in the permitting process and what they're experiencing in terms of getting reinvestment in the neighborhood without tearing down. or without creating new development and what we can kind of coordinate or work to. So we're reviewing their indentures to see what were the original setbacks in there to create, to maintain that character of the neighborhood and what we have in place now, what's in conflict. And then we would like to build some support If we do any zoning changes in there, and this is a really nice area because I have like three different types of three different housing types, you know, the 75,000 square foot lot, the 5000 square foot lot to kind of one acre lot, you know, almost here and then there's some attached homes here. So it's a nice area to kind of work in and see how it meshes. We would do the same thing with like Chevy Chase to see what were the original indentures and those setbacks and the expectations. Because a lot of them have shared driveways. Under our current code, we urge them not to share driveways. And there may be some merits and things that are maintaining things like that in there. as far as the other aspect of it, you know, the goal here, especially in this quadrant is not to, you know, what we would like to see is more investment into the existing housing stock as opposed to trying to redevelop or come up with a higher density configuration in there. Now that might be something down the road that we'd have to take a look at, but right now a lot of them are, The issues that they're confronting is they only got a one-car carport, one bath for the whole house. But I'm too close to the lot line to add or convert in there and trying to see how it got there and then what can we do to try to facilitate some improvements or so to make that housing stock a little bit more viable. But that's also going to increase cost, but it's trying to find that balance too.

Okay, great. Okay. All right, then. We'll move on to other business. I don't think we have any meeting minutes. No meeting minutes today.

And so we'll move on to reports, Carlos. All right. A couple of things you have, Dante, put up some news and events with the city there. I won't go through that. Lot 3 at the Olive Crossing, which has Paris Baguette and the Brass Tap as fully completed, came out really excellent in there, and the cells are amazing right now. I hope everybody's had the opportunity to visit both places.

I actually have a question on that. In the brass tap, they're putting an awning out there, I assume, or something on that patio?

They had submitted, yes. Had they submitted that? Yes. And does that come through us? Yes. Okay. And that will probably be in your June or July meeting. Okay.

You have some comments you're preparing for that awning? I just don't want it to look like just... I mean, that's like a feature of our corner right there. If they could do something really nice, it would be... It'd be beneficial if they put, you know, just a canvas awning up there. I don't think it's going to be beneficial. I don't love seeing their umbrellas right now out there, um, of the different beers and stuff like that. I think that's a little tacky too, as well. So.

Is there been, um, I know that we went there on a Sunday, which was insane. Um, that line was around wrapped around and people were parking in the dirt. And I mean, it was, it was pretty crazy. Um, yay. But I'm just wondering the next phase in between the hotel and there is there going to be some more parking besides what? Yes, right there. Okay.

Yes, there will be and trying to urge that to move along. The parking has And again, when we evaluate that development as a whole, there's more than enough parking. As it's segmented, yes, it's pretty difficult, and people want to be right up to the front in there. But I think in the end result, that will be addressed pretty well once everything's balanced out. The Irvington place apartments have also been completed. They're looking to, uh, they have over 40 units already, uh, rented out, uh, which is great. Uh, that is very nice development. It came out really good. The sidewalk improvements. I think are the, uh, are. are really neat because they connect that northeast quadrant to the rest of the city. There was really no connection outside of Olive in there. So the commission's done, you know, with the previous comprehensive plan and this one, you know, reconnected the hilltop arrowhead area both on Alice. We've also provided the crossing on Olive Boulevard. So it's more integrated pedestrian-wise with the community as opposed to just being a vehicle-only access. And I think those are the major developments. Mercy, we've met with their team regarding the old U.S. Bank there at 9321 Olive Boulevard. They have plans already to submit by the summer for permitting and hopefully have administrative activity there by mid-2027. Rick's Ace Hardware has submitted their interior finish plans. We're waiting for some revisions. They're looking to open up in July. This is what they would hope for. They will be coming to the commission because they'll have an outdoor storage area in the parking lot in there. That might be probably more towards July. I know Don's been working with several businesses in the industrial parks that may have to come to the commission for some permits or special permits in there. And I think that kind of covers... most of the activity. If there's any questions or sites, please let me know in there. I do have one thing. Our June 4th meeting, we don't have any pending permits. I do anticipate items for June 18th. So I'm asking to cancel the June 4th meeting in there. And if everybody's okay.

Yep.

Everybody okay with that?

Yep.

All right. Okay.

Great. Brian?

I'm going to be back and save one. A couple of things. Last Friday, we actually did the ribbon cutting for Tropical Smoothie and Cafe in the Olive Crossing. So it's been great meeting all the business owners. I got to go to the ribbon cutting for the Brass Tap and as well as Tropical Smoothie and talking to Mr. Yowitz even about a pair of spaghetti. So business for all three have actually been far exceeding expectations. So that's great. Not just like the grand opening kind of things, but like you know, actually almost problematic for, you know, Paris Baguette keeping up as an example. So that's exciting. The business is coming out. People are excited about it. So that's really great news. So I had the honor today of being at the Chamber of Commerce for Olivet and Creve Coeur Business Awards luncheon at the Drury, along with staff here as well. and where we gave our business awards to Aldi for Business of the Year, Great Heart for Restaurant of the Year, and then Plant Haven for the Commission's Choice Award. So, and representatives were all were there in attendance and, you know, really thanked Olivet as a great community. We heard, you know, I was even talking to the Plant Haven owners, the sellers, and they were talking about how Olivet is a extremely easy, you know, city to work with and flexible and just they're, But they were talking about how they own something in another city close by and just the red tape and the problems they have to go through. So they said it's very welcoming. And that's great to hear that businesses are thinking that about us. One thing to call out on coffee with the mayor on July 8th. New commission, new council. We're changing this up a little bit. We're going to alternate our copies of the mayor and have them in the morning and evening because I always personally found that not everyone can be there at 830 in the morning. So we're going to do it at 5 p.m. And then, uh, you know, it's not perfect. I eventually want to get to drinks with the mayor, but I'm working step at a time. Um, you know, I figured we got a couple of breweries and maybe when the audience up. Um, and so I look forward to that so that hopefully we'll get people at different times that can, that can work and things like that. And then I have an update was an update given on the great river greenway kind of, um, Just the plans approved for that, because it came here first, right? What we approved along the railroad path?

Correct.

Okay. So it's just that that's moving, and they're going to finish that very quickly, which is exciting. So it's good to see that progress.

Fantastic. All right. Anybody have anything else they want to discuss? If not, I will call the meeting to a close at 7.32 p.m. Thank you, Chairman.

I got the same thing my last week.