Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

i think we're ready it is now 5 30 and i will call the august 3rd planning commission meeting to order could we have the roll call please my role did i say that right yep okay uh shownak here tainquist here siegel here casper here mcdougall here krabenhoff here

Is there a motion to approve the August 3rd agenda?

So moved.

Second?

Second.

All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. It is approved. Is there a motion to amend or approve the minutes for the July 14th meeting? Second? Second.

I'm sorry, you guys are going fast. Are all the mics on?

I believe.

I think so.

think somebody i didn't catch those first two motions is that you paul i did the minutes minutes and sebastian did the second okay and how about the agenda who who motioned okay gotcha sorry i was i always look for the lights and i wasn't seeing the lights light up those in favor of approving the uh

Minutes for July 14th signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Are there citizens present who wish to be heard for items that are not on the agenda for this afternoon? Anyone present who wish to be heard on items that are not on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to public hearings. There's a request of Agassi Builders LLC for zoning map and comprehensive plan amendments for 1325 Main Avenue Southeast. Is there a motion to open the public hearing?

So moved.

Second?

Second.

Those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Against, same sign. City Planner Houston, would you provide the commission with an overview of this particular item, please?

Chair Siegel, Assistant City Planner Forrest Steinhoff will present this item. The community commercial is usually between 45 and 55 feet. But in this case, there is a residential use just to the north of this development. So any uses would be 45. And we know that he is planning on building additional shop condos so they won't be 45 feet. They'll be 45 feet or less. Another question he had on this development was, I think he was referring to this, the zoning for the pond that's adjacent to the new parcel. And we have a zoning map shows a green area. That's the pond. We rezone those all open space. But I think the question he had was actually about the future land use still shows commercial or community commercial. So that will get updated. So All of all of this like this will be this will be green all of this and then the new parcel would be the light purple Which is industrial so it's still contiguous. There won't be any island islands of single zoning Another question he had was regarding traffic access. This new parcel will have an access easement and retain access from Main Avenue Southeast. The access easement just hasn't been recorded yet. This whole development can only have the one access based on our subdivision requirements for, this is not a primary, a minor arterial. So it is a pretty busy street, so that's why we would only allow one access. Then another question about moving commercial traffic through the industrial. That's very typical in the Moorhead Industrial Park, and we have a lot of parcels that are everything along Main Avenue Southeast's own community commercial, whereas the interior lots are light industrial. So this is nothing out of the ordinary. he was just able to be able, he had the space to be able to split this off and then open up the, he has one existing building here and then he plans on building two more here. It just really opens up the uses. All the same community commercial uses pretty much will be permitted and then it just opens it up to like more light industrial uses. And I think that was the last question for, This project.

And I'm assuming since we've had no public response regarding traffic or. We're no comments, no comments at this point. Any further comments or questions from members of the Commission? Are there comments from the public that is present regarding this particular request? Would you step forward and? Addresses please. May we have your name and address, please?

My name is David Brach. I live at 2902 14th Avenue South, which is just across Main Avenue from it. And I guess my main concern has maybe been addressed, and there won't be a whole lot of buildings and not a gravel pit or anything like that going in there.

can answer that chair it's a shop condo development and it's just going to be more shop condos there's there's nothing nothing further proposed now that said you know this this area is still available but there's not room for a gravel mine or anything like that anything he would propose there we would have to review it but he's doing a whole shop condo and then he's also doing condo plats with those units he just has two more buildings yet to build and the whole reason why he wanted to do this was some of the perspective buyers were limited to what they could do in the 1325 building and then probably future buildings. So he wanted to have it open to more buyers in this development. Because right now, all the buildings that are towards the front, those all have to, you know, they're light commercial uses, essentially. There's not a ton of parking, so it can't be, you know, big retail uses that generate a lot of traffic. Each shop condo, you know, they get like two parking spaces, so it's not heavy uses where, you know, there wouldn't be any additional noise created that you would have to worry about hearing that across the road.

So that won't increase the traffic a whole lot? Is that what you're saying?

It shouldn't. It should still be smaller, you know, because each shop condo, I apologize, I didn't look up the square footage, but they're not huge. So each business in there, a lot of times there's, well, we call them man caves, but they're basically hobbyist sites. Somebody buys a unit and works on their motorcycle in there. Sometimes somebody will put an office, like a insurance office in one. We've had people use them for storage for like a furniture store. So it's really not intense. It's not gonna be heavy industrial uses. It still will be commercial and light industrial uses.

Okay, the reason I'm concerned is I've been there since 1977 in my home across the road. And I saw a gravel pit in there and It was way too much.

Yeah, our codes have been updated. If anything were ever approved like that, we do have a lot more standards in our zoning code, you know, like dust control. A gravel pit would not be allowed in this industrial park. That would be a heavy industrial use. And this is all light industrial.

Because like I say, there was a gravel pit in there at one time.

Right.

But that's not going to happen again.

Not anymore.

Okay. So the one...

road going in is that right off the off of maine yeah there's one access point off of main avenue and that will remain uh for both parcels they'll have a an access agreement to share the share the one access between the two parcels i guess that doesn't sound too bad to me though that's all any other questions thank you thank you anyone else from the public would like to address this particular request

Seek none. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second?

Second.

Those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those against, same sign. And the hearing is closed. Is there any further discussion or a motion regarding this particular item? I should say that If we're to move to a motion, it should be, we're actually being, considering two motions. The first motion would be to recommend approval to the city council, the comprehensive plan amendment from commercial to industrial at 1325 Main Avenue Southeast. Is there a motion for that particular item?

make a motion to approve both of the amendments um the zoning map amendment from community commercial to light industrial and the comprehensive plan amendment from commercial to industrial all right let's consider the first motion that would be the comprehensive plan amendment uh if any further discussion on that particular motion need a second on those yes we'll need a second on that particular motion second all right

Hearing no further discussion, those in favor of the first motion may signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. That motion is approved. The second motion is to recommend approval to the City Council, the zoning map amendment from Community Commercial to Light Industrial at 1325 Main Avenue Southeast. Is there a motion to that effect?

So moved.

And a second? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, those in favor of the motion may signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. That motion is approved. We have a request from M. Mahmoud on behalf of Boston Auto Sales LLC for conditional use permit for auto sales business at 2520 20th Avenue South. Is there a motion to open that hearing?

So moved.

second second all those in favor may signify by saying aye aye against same sign city planner houston could you provide the commission with an overview of this item please thank you again chair uh assistant city planner brittany cameron will present this item

Thank you, Chair and Commissioners. M. Muhammad is requesting a conditional use permit to operate an auto sales business in Light Industrial Zoning District at 2520 20th Avenue South, Unit B, which is a multi-tenant site. Conditional use permits for auto sales require review and approval. of proposed site modifications, location and number of displayed sale vehicles, customers and employee parking, and in this case, because the applicant is sharing the site with other tenants, review if other tenants have adequate parking. No public comments have been received to date. Staff suggests the Planning Commission recommend approval to the City Council the conditional use permit and the findings for auto sales in light industrial at 2520 20th Avenue South, Unit B, contingent on the conditions outlined in your packet. Let us know if you have any questions.

Are there questions of the members of the Commission?

Mr. Chair, we had a couple questions submitted before the meeting. One question was, how is parking allocation formalized? It can be formalized by a lease agreement between the property owner and the those renting the spaces. Two customer spaces doesn't seem like many for a car sales lot. Typically, these smaller dealerships don't require a lot of customer or employee parking. In this case, it's going to be one employee. The zoning requirement would be two spaces per 1,000 square feet. That's what we use for this. And then if there is need for more, there's on-street parking as well. Is there a formal agreement with other tenants for the number of parking spaces? That, again, the property owner would put in the lease. In this case, the auto dealerships coming in when there's already two units rented, the one unit is essentially like a man cave, like I explained. He just uses it for hobbies. So he is getting allocated two spaces, and then there's an artist studio on the end, and she's getting six spaces. And then the rest will be left toward the car dealership. And the owner, he communicates that with the renters and he could update their leases with that information. If another use came in, say like the artist studio left and it was a user that would require more than six spaces, we'd have to have a discussion with the property owner based on, find out exactly what they're doing to see if... More parking could maybe be added to the you know the gravel area up here right now. It's just kind of open and probably used for outdoor storage. Another, the last question is how is the parking enforced? The property owner obviously can enforce it if his tenants are having issues. He can also mark or sign the designated spaces. If the three uses in there that could create parking issues, this would be addressed through our regular code enforcement. say like they're taking up all the on street parking, which they won't, but if they happen to do, you know, some of the other people out in that industrial park would have issues and we would just deal with it through code enforcement.

Is there any restriction on using these allocated parking spots as display spots for the vehicles?

Yes, so because one of the reasons why we changed the code to require CUPs for auto dealers, we were having a lot of problems with them parking in the right-of-way or parking junk cars where they shouldn't be. So this CUP spells out he gets, I'm trying to remember, he has some internal parking space or display spaces, and then he's getting... Two customer spaces, one employee space, and then four exterior display spaces. We do have a few car dealerships that do operate in our industrial park, but usually they have the whole building. So this is kind of a first for us. allowing the property owner to rent to a tenant where there's already two tenants. So this will be a good experiment to see if this works. The only concern, and we clarified it in the conditions, was if they want to do more than that, they're going to probably need to improve that gravel area. Because if you're selling cars, they have to be displayed on pavement. They can't be displayed on gravel. So if he wants to do more exterior, he can amend the CUP and we can change that. And then also keeping that access aisle, 20-foot access aisle clear to make sure that other tenants can get in and out and also the sanitation trucks can get to the dumpster. So we don't want, you know, display vehicles parallel parking along the property line there. And that's why we spell out all those very specific conditions in the permit so that the applicants are clear what they can and cannot do.

Are there restrictions regarding vehicle servicing on this site?

Yes. Right now the building was not built for auto repair. If they want to do that in the future, they can come back and amend the CUP, but the building code is going to require ventilation and quite a few modifications to the building. And we've had that for other ones too. It's a building code requirement. It's not a zoning requirement so that they would have to address that then.

Other questions of the commission?

You do say that auto repair is not permitted at this site and no vehicles requiring repair prior to sale are permitted on site. Is that something that's tracked or watched or?

We do, because again, used auto sales is kind of one of our higher, we have a lot of code enforcement issues, and that's why we change the code to try to follow up. Our aerials are now updated every year, so we can tell when there's, this one's a little more hidden, because it's not on a main road, But I can drive by First Avenue and we have a couple dealerships and I see like a salvage vehicle and they're not supposed to have those there because we don't want any junk vehicles presenting in the downtown area. So we do keep track and then we also are very complaint driven like somebody sees too many vehicles or junk vehicles, but we do keep an eye on it as well.

Do you think it might be beneficial to put up to a certain number of cars just in case the owner wants to change the number of parking spots at some point in the future they don't need to reapply if it's less for the auto?

Well, we can, yeah, we can change the language to say up to, but we just have to make sure that they know that they can't go beyond, you know, that four on the outside because they don't have any room. The interior number is very fluid. Like, I think he brought it, he wanted to do seven, but then he's like, well, maybe I'm only going to do six. We don't really care about that. It's really to make sure they're not infringing on other people's parking. But we can definitely say up to four on the exterior.

Other questions? Questions from anyone from the public? Last call for questions. Hearing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved.

Second? Second. All those in favor may signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Is there any more discussion or a motion for the item? That would read as follows. Motion recommends approval to the City Council the conditional use permit and related findings of fact for auto sales and light industrial at 2520 20th Avenue South, Unit B, contingent on the conditions outlined that you have in your packet. Is there a motion to that extent?

So moved. A second? Second.

Any discussion? Hearing no, all those in favor may signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Now before us is a request of Partridge Creek LLC for vacation of a 10-foot utility easement in Partridge Creek addition. Is there a motion to open the public hearing?

So moved.

Second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. And the hearing is now open. City Planner Houston, would you provide us with an overview of this item, please?

Thank you again, Chair Siegel. This one is also going to be Assistant City Planner Forrest-Steinhoff.

Thank you again, Chair and Commissioners. Partridge Creek LLC is requesting to vacate a 10-foot utility easement along the former rear property lines of Lots 1 through 13, Block 4 of Partridge Creek Edition, which were recently replanted as Lots 1 through 13, Block 5 of Partridge Creek Second Edition, in order to increase the lot depth from 100 feet to 120 feet. As you may recall, Partridge Creek Second Edition was recommended for approval by Planning Commission at the July 14th meeting, where new 10-foot utility easements were required to be established along these new rear property lines for lots 1 through 13, Block 5, Partridge Creek Second Edition. The plat was approved by City Council at their July 27th meeting, but has not been recorded yet. No public comments have been received to date. Staff is suggesting the planning commission recommend approval to the city council, the vacation of 10 foot utility easements within Partridge Creek addition and related findings contingent upon the conditions outlined in the packet. And we would be happy to answer any questions.

Are there questions from members of the commission? Does this incur any cost to the city for this vacation of this particular property?

This, so Partridge Creek, the first addition is very new, so nobody did any utilities or installed any utilities. So it's really, it's just a paper change, but because the Partridge Creek addition was recorded at the end of last year, those easements are recorded. So we have to basically unrecord them and then move them for those lots that are getting replatted.

Any other questions from members of the commission? Questions from members of the public in attendance? Hearing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second?

Second.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Against, same sign. And the hearing is closed. Is there any further discussion or is there a motion for the item? And that motion would entail recommendation of approval to the City Council, the vacation of 10-foot utility easements within Partridge Creek addition contingent on the three items listed in your packet. Is there a motion to that effect? I'll make a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

No further discussion. Those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Against, same sign. That motion is approved. I see no other business to come before the commission. I believe we do have some information items that are to be presented at this time.

Yes, chair, we have one informational item and we're presenting the January through June 2026 onward. More head comprehensive plan up implementation update and this is just a report that we put together to inform the planning Commission on things that have been going on that you might not be aware of so. We try not to put on like anything that came before you except there is an ordinance on there. It just kind of points out like the bigger projects that are going on in Moorhead for, as you can see, we have a lot of cannabis businesses getting building permits. So just go through that and it basically goes, we update it every six months and it goes under the different chapters of the comprehensive plan. Mostly you deal with land use, but then it also gives you an idea of what's going on in the world of sustainability and parks and rec and mobility and economic development. Let me know if you have any questions on any of those items listed in that report.

Any questions from members of the commission? Hearing none, seeing as there are no other business to come before us, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second?

Second.

Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.