Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The PLA Planning Commission meeting for September 9th, 2026 is now called to order.

Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Next item is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve?

Any opposed? Next item, item number three is approval of the minutes. Again, do I have a motion? So move. Do I have a second?

Any opposed? Moving on, citizen comments. Seeing no one present today, and I understand we have nothing online or entered the clerk's office, we'll be moving on to item number five, work sessions. 5A is phase two zoning map amendments, package six of DPS work plan and associate planner, Rachel Brown.

My question is these alterations of land use map The comp plan, do those have to go to the city council for approval?

I'd like to ask if you could give us a complete definition or description of what is allowed in the MEBP zone. Yes, exactly what businesses are allowed, what kinds of businesses are allowed in that zone.

Some of these things have not yet made it into the city's definitions page.

Yeah, I remember. So a couple of meetings ago, we had discussions about what would be, excuse me, in that mixed employment part of it. And apparently we gave some opinions about what we liked or didn't like in that. And one of those things that had come up a few times is warehouses. And warehouses seem, although they're in the definition, seems not very appropriate for that particular area. And so I'd like to see if we can go back as a commission and review some of these uses. Yeah.

I concur. I feel like there's been a pretty broad brush on what's allowed in some of these zones. And I'd like to get that a little bit more pinpointed if possible.

I mean, I also feel like part of, especially with warehousing and distribution, since you bring that up, you know, trucks take up a lot of room. Not just being there, but backing in, driving around. That's a lot of paved surfaces. It just seems prohibitive in some ways to what the feel should be in a business park, I think. So, just a thought. But yes, I think it bears revisiting.

We're talking amongst ourselves for a minute about strategy, potentially, but thank you for the reminder. So what we're discussing is whether or not this can be a motion that we remove some of the language, or if we should actually have another presentation and talk through it again.

I also have a thought about the usage. I mean, I concur with the warehouses. I also think that we should perhaps set a limit to the usage of data centers on that property to match what's already there as the limit. So I wouldn't want to exclude that or make it a non-allowed, what's the term for that? But yeah, a non-conforming use. But I think if we could limit the usage to that square footage, perhaps, so that this whole park's not taken over with the server farms.

It's not part of the packet, but it's not going to be ignored. Right. It's not omitted so it'll slide through. I know that's not the intent, but I just want to make sure that data centers are addressed at some point.

PB Harmon Zuckerman, Yeah, I have a question about that collection of homes being rezoned RS six Um, there isn't some more flexible zoning that we could apply there. It seems like it's it is in the middle or close to our, you know, downtown core and would be to me, it looks a little out of place to have that low density strip through that whole area. And so I'm just kind of wondering what what was the process behind this switch from what we had before and what we had reviewed at previous meetings?

So what's the downside in just keeping it LMX then?

OK, yeah, that explanation makes more sense.

Sorry. Do we have the language on the previous slide where you say that there will be modified language and supportive recognition of the area as a regionally important audit? I've got to say, I'm still just not happy about that at all. And the fact that none of us, I think, or the majority of the commissioners really felt like River Road was It's a disservice to have it look so crappy when it's the entry to our city. Now to highlight that it's dealerships when none of us love that it's dealerships is just a kick in the face. I mean, so I would like to hear the language if possible.

I'm afraid I have to disagree because I remember growing up and hearing cars cost less than Puyallup like for decades. That's kind of like what we're known for. So it seems like that would be a good place to put car dealers for people coming off the freeway.

Yeah, I think there's enough car dealership space. And what came up to me as I'm looking at the comp plan and the countywide center, and that designation or the goal of making a designation for a countywide center and looking for some funding through that and what that could mean if these properties are turned into dealerships instead of the original vision for this River Road network, if there's any implications to that. But yeah, I'm against it. I think there's enough space for cars empty pavement. I think we got enough of that.

My suggestion originally, and I think I would go back to it, is that is to differentiate car dealerships on River, actually on River Road, from the mostly empty lots that occupy Meridian. So going up Meridian for a couple blocks are, you know, apart from the Ford dealership on the corner, all these other smaller lots basically just sit empty. And to our chair's comments about this is the major entry point to our city. And it is not trying to get rid of the car dealerships. Obviously, as Commissioner Landon pointed out, the whole River Road is being used and is available for use, and that's gre

So that would not include partial redraw boundaries.

Yeah, so could you please give... I noticed that one of the prohibitions was major recreational uses, major commercial recreational uses. Could you tell me what those are?

Okay, thank you. Because, you know, I had to look for some of these things online and major recreational uses are, Online included things like bowling alleys, movie theaters, things that would seem to be perfectly fine. So you're specifying that this is like outdoor activities.

I'm sorry, one more. This has come up in the discussion of UCX and so on. I am, and I apologize if this is just me, but I am not clear when you give examples of either eight dwelling units per acre or 22 dwelling units per acre. And you say, for instance, in the UCX zone, you can have a building up to 75 feet tall, which would be like seven stories. And if I had a seven-story building on a quarter acre lot, I could assume, I think, at least 10 units per floor. And I'm having a lot of trouble understanding If we can have a building that large, what's in it?

but a quarter acre is probably large enough. I mean, that's the question in my mind is how are these things resolved?

I'm going to weigh in for just a sec. So just because something is allowed, it doesn't mean that it's a given, right? It's allowed if you have a site that is large enough, flat enough, doesn't have buffers that you have to pay attention to. So just because something is allowed, like... I might sit on a very tiny lot and technically an ADU is allowed, but I don't have space for it. It doesn't mean I get to do it. Same thing in a much larger scale. Just because it's allowed doesn't mean that it'll work. You still have to have all of your street frontage improvements. You have to pay attention to

But one of these things has to be an absolute, I assume. So is it 22 units per acre? Is that an absolute as will not exceed? Correct.

But there are enough things in play that there is a maximum. It just isn't stated in the code.

Or if you go down. I mean, that is incredibly pricey also and very difficult logistically on a site to figure out how you have the grade and the depth and the angles to do that.

And speaking of which, I noticed that you did eliminate the height bonus for parking. It looks like that's been crossed out.

So, yeah, I'd like to make sure that it's a CMX and not a UCX because I Pretty sure I saw it under UC exit. In other words, what I'm trying to determine is whether that bonus is in play or not in play.

Any comments, questions, discussion points we should do before we move on? Alrighty then. Do we have a staff report?

When this first came up, the idea of converting the non-conforming properties to LMX, there was some discussion about that these might form the core of a, like adjoining properties might end up also becoming part of that. Uh, neighborhood at first they were called nodes. Uh, then they, they were called something else, but anyway, uh, neighborhood commercial and so on and so forth. So I guess my question is, uh, what is the philosophy? behind this, and I've said this months ago, but I'll say it again, in other large cities, well, large cities in which I've lived, these nodal points were usually

Yeah, my thought is just that in many cases next to a business, you're going to find that the residential value of the property declines. Not as many people want to live next to a business where there are customers coming in and out or whatever. And so due to that, I've seen this other places. Then the neighbor says, I'm going to lose money on this, you know, selling it as a house. So I'd like to turn it into apartments or I'd like to turn this into my own hair salon. or something like that. So when you have these scattered sites, it tends to degrade the neighborhood, the street as a residenti

Fantastic. All right. Commissioner comments, commissioner Barney, anything this evening? I have nothing. Thank you. Commissioner Crosby.

I do with, since we only have till December and to change anything on the comp plan. You mentioned something about the transportation kind of explaining our failing infrastructure with all this rezoning changing. So I'm still on the infrastructure part of this whole thing. So I didn't hear if we, I thought possibly we're going to get somebody for today, but is there anything planned in terms of that or.

I would just say that regardless of what happens in the Shaw Pioneer Development District, we, I think, need to hold someone's feet to the fire in terms of doing something meaningful with transportation, which is particularly bad on the east side. There's a difference between the west side of Meridian and the east side of Meridian. in terms of access. And one reason why Shaw Road is the mess it is, is because there are no alternatives, period. I mean, there could be, but there aren't. And I know we're going to get resistance from the person who will give the presentation, as well as some other

Thank you. I have a couple of different items. One, the 19th, which is next Saturday, not this Saturday, the Meeker Mansion has their Cider Squeeze, which is super fun if anybody is interested. And then the Main Street Association is holding Dolly Day on 925 or nine to five. And I believe that it still is in the planning stage, but they're doing a lot of food and library associated items. So that's all I have. And at 730, we are officially adjourned.