Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] You know Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Okay, let's call this meeting the Hazel Planning Commission to order. First item of business is a roll call.

Williams here. True here. Coleman here. Aser here. Wallace. Rinky here. Lud here. Uh, next item of business is the presentation approval of minutes of August 28th, 2025. I move we accept the minutes as provided. A second. Have a motion to approve the minutes as presented. All in favor?

I have item four as public forum. Yeah. Under oldness, we have a zone change from single family to multif family. We're going to locate at 6401 South Sunnyside. So, this is our zone change that was presented at our last meeting in August. At that meeting, you all made a motion that failed with a vote of two in favor and three opposed. According to state statute, when a motion fails, the default recommendation would be denial and that can be forwarded to city council. But our city code actually has a 60-day waiting period before that default recommendation can be forwarded. As such, this item is going to remain on our agenda as old business until either that 60-day period is over or you make a new motion that passes. The public hearing has closed for this item, so the public is not invited to speak. Um, I can go through through the staff report again if requested and an answer any questions you may have. Otherwise, your options are to table this item and wait out that 60-day period or make a new motion.

I'll go ahead and move that we deny the motion or or deny the uh the change. It's already been denied. You can either table it or we can or we can table it or we can deny. All right. You can make a new motion. That motion can be a recommendation of approval or recommendation of denial. Okay. So, even though it was recommended for denial before, well, it wasn't. It was recommended for it was the motion was for approval and that failed to pass. Okay. So, now if we make a motion for denial and that passes, that clears the thing off the table and everyone was here except except me. So, where does that put me in voting for this? I stayed on top of it and I was contacted by a community member. You're So you're aware of

I'm aware. And you heard the discussion? Well, I read the minutes. Okay. We're uh happy to have as much discussion as you need to get caught up if you have questions or general concerns in that neighborhood. So, I'm very familiar with every aspect of that neighborhood. Do you don't have any other concerns or questions? You feel like you're informed enough to vote? Okay. I have a motion for denial. Is there a second? I'll second that.

Have a motion and second for denial. Question. Williams. Um, yes. Troop. I I Coleman I Azir I Rinky I blood

abstain under new business. We have a public hearing for conditional use request to allow an accessory dwelling unit for property journey located at 203 West Sunflower Drive. Um, this is a public not a public hearing, right? So, you can just present. This is a public hearing. Do you have your public hearing script? I do.

Protect the rights of all parties involved in order to create an opportunity for everyone to speak their opinion and present information. The Hazel Pling Commission follows a specific procedure reaching a decision. A copy is of this procedure is available by the door. We now formally open the public hearing to consider the proposed conditional use to allow accessory apartment to the SF single family residential district. Do any members have a conflict in this case? No. What's the notification radius? It was 200 ft from um all property lights. So, is that too close for me?

I don't believe that included you. I uh previously included you because county is on that side and that's where the radius of the notification goes to the thousand but that side property was yours. Is that still considered adjacent property? No, it doesn't but up to No. No. You should not have been in the notification radius or adjacent to this property. Okay. You're good. I'm good. Okay. Any members receive any written electronic written or electronic communications in this matter? No. Staff receive any written electronic communications? None.

Uh staff, would you like to present? Yes.

So, this is a conditional use for an accessory apartment at a property generally located at 203 West Sunflower Drive. The property is currently developed with a single family home and the applicant is the occupant of that single family home. The property has access to West Sunflower Drive, a paved two-lane road and is connected to all water and sewer. Um, the applicant is also jointly requesting a variance from the minimum size of the dwelling in the single family district, but there's no other zoning cases associated with the property and all surrounding property is zoned single family with single family homes. And that variance is a separate item on the agenda. So correct, just so you're aware.

So this conditional use is in conformance to our comprehensive plan. It meets the housing goal to provide a variety of housing choices for current and future populations and the housing objective to provide a diversity in housing types and styles. For our findings, we have four that are of concern. First is access, traffic, load, and flow. So, the property does have access to West Sunflower Drive, which is a paved two-lane road, and access to the accessory department will be from an established gravel driveway on the east of the property. The gravel driveway will extend from the driveway all the way to the ADU, and such gravel driveway will run along that east property line. There should not be an increase in traffic load to this accessory department as it should only be one additional vehicle and there should be no issues with traffic flow. Our other concern is screening. According to our section 500 of our appendix, all access pathways must be screened by a minimum of a 6ft tall fence and that requirement should be enforced considering the proximity of the gravel driveway to the ADU to the neighboring property. And currently the property owner has a 4ft fence along that property line. Our third concern is parking. The applicant is required to provide one off- streetet parking space to this ADU. And you'll see on the site plan that there's a carport associated with the ADU and that is of sufficient size to house one parking space. Considering all of these findings, staff is requesting approval of the conditional use subject to the condition that the access pathway will be screened by a sixoot fence at minimum. The applicant is here if you have any questions otherwise I can stand for them as well.

Any questions for staff? No.

Does the applicant wish to speak? If you don't mind. Yeah. I think you have to state your name and address for the record.

Okay. Um, so good evening. First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for taking time out of your evenings to hear me out. Uh, my name is Paige Rounds and I live at 203 West Sunflower Drive and I'm here today requesting approval for an accessory dwelling unit of 400 square feet in uh, my backyard. Uh, the purpose of this project is to provide safe and affordable housing for my mother who is recently disabled, allowing her to live close by while maintaining her independence. The design is modest in size, consistent with the residential character of the neighborhood, and will meet all required setbacks in building codes. Uh we work closely with Kayn here, um as well as Everg to ensure that the structure will have the necessary clearance from utility lines and will not create safety and infrastructure concerns. The ADU will connect to existing utilities uh that are already there and uh will not place undue burden on services. Uh, I believe that this project benefits both my family and the community by s supporting multigenerational living while preserving the look and feel of our neighborhood and I respectfully ask for your support and approval of this request. Thank you again for your time. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

I do have one. Sure. Do you have any concerns with the requirement for the sixoot fans that staff is recommending? No, I've already we've I've been in uh discussions with both of my neighbors on both sides for years about replacing those fences anyway. Um, they are four foot fences, but I use the term fence very loosely. They're in pretty much Russian. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant before I Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Now's the time for any member of the public to speak. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? I won't read the requirements. Then

public comment is now closed for plan to commission action. The floor is open to commissioners comments. No comments. Pretty straightforward. Any general discussion or questions or anything? I thought I read u couldn't find it now on my phone, but something about the the gas line that's run through the backyard was uh in conflict. Yeah, I I I think if I remember correctly with what I read, any of your existing services that are going to go under, above, or around that structure will have to be relocated, and that'll have to be at your cost. You're aware of that?

Yeah. Yeah. Because the gas line, I had my yard flagged a few years ago. It's far enough away where it's fine. And we're not actually not going to run gas to it. We'll have it fully electric just to it. It Well, it may be that I know you said it doesn't run under there, but if if it run under the building, they'd want to relocate it so they can access it if something happened. So, it doesn't run under it. Either way, you're aware of that requirement and it's a cost on you that if I have to move it. Yeah. The only issue is that the uh current power the drop line for the house runs right over where we're going to put it. But we re reached out to Energy and I'll we'll move that at our expense. There's a work around for it. Okay. As long as you're aware. Any other questions? No. No sir.

Uh I would entertain a motion then. I'll go ahead and move to approve conditional use um request to allow the accessory department um subject to the conditions outlined in the standard. I'll second that. I have a motion and second to approve. Question Williams. I Troub I Coleman I Asia I rinky I I need a motion to recess. Yes. I need a motion to recess the planning commission and convene the board of zoning appeals. So move. Is there a second?

I'll second. Have a motion and second to recess the planning commission and convene the board of zoning repeals. All in favor question. Williams. I. True. Hi. Coleman. Hi. Asia. Hi. Rinky. Hi. Blood. Hi.

Welcome to the board of zoning appeals. Uh we have next a public hearing for a variance request to reduce the minimum area of a dwelling from 600 foot to 400 foot in the SF single family residential district for a property located at 203 West Sunflower, which you are probably familiar with. I'm not going to read that paragraph again. We now formally open the public hearing to consider the proposed variance request for the minimum size of a dwelling in the SF single family residential district. Any members of the zoning appeals have a conflict of interest in this case? No.

No. Have any members received any written or electronic communication in this matter? No. Has staff received any written or electronic communication? No. Would you please present? Can you please read the first paragraph? I would be happy to. Thank you. To protect the rights of all parties involved in an order create an opportunity for everyone to speak their opinion and present information that board of zoning appeals follows a specific procedure reaching a decision. A copy is available by the door. Now can you present?

Yes. So this is a variance for the same property for that conditional use. The applicant is requesting a 400 foot ADU which does not meet the single family requirement for dwellings to be 600 square feet. So this is a variance from that requirement. We have five different conditions that variances have to meet in order to be approved. The first is that the variance requested arises from a condition that is unique to the property and which is not ordinarily found in the same zone or district and is not created by the property owner or the applicant. The applicant has outlined the property size and lot layout as what meets this first requirement. Um the subject property is unique in its size and shape. The front and rear lot lines follow the curve of the surrounding streets. So the front property line is straight and parallel with Sunflower and the rear property line is curved to follow Ward Parkway. This is not unique to the property as all of the lots bounded by Sunflower and Ward Parkway follow that curve. The lot is 60 feet in width, which matches the neighborhood average, but is smaller than most neighborhoods in the city. Um, there is a table in the staff report that shows average lot sizes for each neighborhood. Um, the lot also has an average depth of 195.5 ft, which is 50 feet more than the neighborhood average. And while this makes the lot unique, it isn't caused by the applicant. It doesn't support this variance because the applicant has more space than more lots to construct an ADU. The applicant's home is just over 1,000 square feet and a 600 foot ADU would be 57% of the size of the existing home, while the proposed 400 foot ADU would be 38% of the size. Um, the city limits ADUs only by requiring that they be smaller than the principal dwelling unit. But this finding is not met. The second is that the granting of the variance will not adversely affect the properties or the rights of the adjacent property owners or residents. Um staff

does not foresee that the proposed ADU will neg ne negatively affect the adjacent properties as both properties abuing to a3 sunflower have accessory structures in about the same location as the accessory apartment. So this finding is met. The third is that the strict application of the provisions of the zoning regulations for which the variance is requested will constitute an unnecessary hardship upon the property owner. Staff agrees that that finding is met. And the fourth is that the variance desired will not adversely affect the public health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity, or general welfare. And staff does not foresee any negative effects on either of those. So the finding is met. And the fifth is that the granting of the variance will not be opposed to the general spirit and intent of the zoning regulations, which staff agrees the proposed ADU is within the general spirit. It is just smaller than ordinarily allowed. So this finding is met. Um, since that first finding was not met, staff does recommend that this variance request be denied.

So, we have a minimum DU size. We have a minimum dwelling unit size. DU. Yes. We have We don't have a minimum accessory structure size requirement. No. So, we're applying a full dwelling unit on an accessory dwelling structure. Correct. That's the rule that we're breaking. And if if we're okay with that, then every other condition is met.

However, a tiny home is less square footage than the um regular. It's a 599. So, and so we have, forgive me, we have requirement for tiny homes that are in our code currently. Yeah. In our tiny home district, the dwelling units have to be less than 600 ft. So, the maximum is 599. And this qualifies as a tiny home.

It would if the if a zone change was done for this property to make it tiny home. Um the current dwelling unit would be a non-conforming structure. So we would not allow that zone change.

Any more questions for staff at this time? The applicant wish to speak? Sure.

I don't really have anything else uh to add to my initial opening. Uh but the reason we chose the 400 square foot uh you know size was because we didn't my my yard is large but it's narrow and we didn't want it to take up too much space or get too close to the utility pole and it also allowed us to have the carport on the side without you know taking up my entire yard. So that was kind of the the purpose behind that. And sorry, I know it's in here somewhere because I know I saw it. Your structures without the carport is 20 by 20

as opposed to 20 by 30. Yeah. Thank you, Matt. Any questions for the applicant? No. Thank you. Thank you. Uh now the time for any member of the public to speak if there are any. All the Columbus is now closed for board of zoning appeals action and the floor is open to commissioner comments.

I'm inclined to recommend approval. Um, you know, it's 10 foot difference building size and then I get some of these yards get really narrow. Yeah, I and I I think because of what it is, it's it's going to look like a shed in somebody's backyard. And everybody else in the neighborhood has a shed. I don't know why this would be any different. And the the size being smaller, in my opinion, makes it easier to approve than harder. I know that it doesn't meet the requirement that we have, but that seems like a an easy decision. So, any more discussion?

Is there a motion? I'll go ahead and move that we approve the variance request to reduce the minimum dwelling size from 600 to 400 ft. I'll second that. It is my understanding that stage statute is what required us to meet all five conditions. We can confirm with Josh if we need to meet all five, but since it only meets four out of five, we can't approve. But we can recommend approval to the council. You guys are the only body that approves this. So if we can't approve it, why is it in front of us? Yeah.

If you find a way that it does meet this first condition, that it's unique to the property and not caused by the property owner, then you can't approve it. So the explain to me again what it doesn't mean.

Um, so we've got those five conditions. Those are what's in italics and underlined in the staff report. Those five are outlined in a state statute that says that all five of these must be met in order for a variance to be approved. And I have determined staff has determined that the first condition is not met. If you can find different evidence or you can determine that that is met, then you can approve it. But if you can't determine that that condition is met, then you will have to recommend denial. Though we can confirm with Josh if you have to have all five. We could table it if you want to confirm with Josh. And the narrow um shape of the property doesn't qualify for number one.

That is your guys's determination. I think that would qualify. Yeah. I mean didn't cause the shape of the property to be what it is. So I I would think one would qualify my humble opinion by the narrowness of the lot. Okay, good enough for you. Mhm.

And I have a motion. I had a second, right? Yeah, I second. So, question. Williams. I tr I Coleman. I Asia. I rinky. Hi. Blood. Hi. I guess let us know if that comes back. Uh, no. I need a motion to adjurnn the zoning and so sorry. If you're going to do that, then let me say it all out loud. Adjourn the board of zoning appeals and reconvene the planning commission. So move. Sorry. And second.

I have a motion and a second to adjurnn the board of zording appeals and reconvene the planning commission. Question. Williams. I Tr. I Coleman. I Asia. I Ricky. Hi. Hi. Under new business item C. We have a review of the text amendment zoning.

Sorry. We have a review of the text amendment to the zoning regulations. Changes to article six non-conforming lots and structures. Article 11 flood plane management. If you guys could flip to article 10, nonconformities in your binders. There's a sheet for your notes again. And then we have a staff report this week. There's a summary of our changes in the staff report, but I'll go over every change for the most part. The redlinined version of this article has some comments with details for why we're making these changes. You want to flip to that page as well. Our first change is going to be changing the name of this article to just nonconformities instead of non-conforming lots and structures. That's because this article deals with more than just lots and structures. There's a section for other certain circumstances that deals with landscaping and fences and such. Um, our other change is adding the word non-conforming into this article. um it's implied but never actually stated besides the title. We'll also be removing um 1000C where it has that date of adoption. Um it's implied that anything created after the adoption of these regulations or the um we don't need that actual date in there. In section 101, we've removed the

allowance to expand a non-conforming use. Um there's an article that we staff reviewed in the changes of this non-conforming uses that went over the court cases dealing with non-conforming uses and structures and according to those court cases we're not allowed we're not required to allow non-conforming uses to expand. So we are going to remove that allowance. We've also removed the allowance for a non-conforming use to be changed into another non-conforming use. If a non-conforming use is going to expire, it should only be replaced with something that is conforming. And that is backed up by court cases as well. In section 102, we've modified the requirement for modifications and alterations to non-conforming structures. That is still allowed. In 104, we have modified what qualifies as the removal of other non-conformities. Our landscaping regulations and our offshoot parking regulations both require conformance in different ways than this article had stated. So, we changed it to um how they all match. Section 106 discontinuence. Um, previously we had different periods of inactivity for if a non-conforming use occurred indoors or if non-conforming use occurred outdoors. We've changed the discontinuence to be the same for both of those regardless of where the use is occurring. And section 108 has been removed from non-conforming. um registration is not required by state statute and staff has never adopted procedures for the registration of non-conformities. We just have a um in-house inventory of where they exist.

But that is all the changes to the non-conforming section. Do you guys have any questions?

That require a motion? No. No motion. Our next one is article 12. Can I ask one question? Sure. So back in 106 C, but it went from in the first paragraph, board of zoning appeals to zoning administrator. So that's respect to staff. What section 106

the very first 10006c overcoming? Yeah, that will stay um the zoning administrator will deal with whether a non-conforming use is abandoned or not. Um that's not something that needs consumption to the board of zoning appeals by state statute. Any other questions?

Uh flood plane management is the next one. That's all the way at the end of your binders. Um, we don't have any changes to this section. It's just formatting it to match what the new regulations will look like. And again, this is just a review, so we don't need a motion to any other questions or discussion before we move on. No correspondence off agenda. Our next meeting is October 23rd.

I I move we adjourn. Second. Motion second to adjurnn. Question. Williams. True. Hi Coleman. I Asia. Hi Rinky. Hi Blood. Hi. Thank you everybody.