Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Like to call tonight's meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of

The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

To begin our meeting tonight, I'll take a moment to acknowledge that we have a quorum of planning commissioners present with six of nine commissioners in attendance. Commissioner Green and Commissioner Lynn will not be able to be attend tonight. Commissioner Brigitte may show up, but either way, we have a quorum. We're in good shape. I wanna thank everyone in the chamber for attending this evening's meeting.

Planning commission meetings are an important part of the process for interpreting and applying the city's comprehensive plan and the unified development ordinance. It's important that our meetings are conducted with dignity and respect, and that applies to every person in attendance. We strive to protect provide an atmosphere where the ideas and opinions of all participants are held in the highest regard. Finally, the actions on the issues we discuss are ultimately under the responsibility of the city council. As a planning commission, we're here to help the councils, our elected representatives, to be fully informed to make the best choices for our city.

By statute, the Planning Commission strives not to engage in any party on the issues on our agenda prior to this meeting. Should that interaction take place as a result of a business relationship or any other relationship, which we refer to as ex parte communication, commissioners will report that interaction when we reach that item on the agenda. We'll now move to the consent agenda. This evening, have five items on our consent agenda. Items listed are considered routine by the planning commission and may be approved in one motion.

There is no public hearing held for consent agenda items. There'll be no discussion unless the commissioner requested an item be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. I know that a lot of you are here this evening regarding item b, on the Gateway, project. The preliminary site development plan for Gateway has garnered a lot of interest, obviously, and, this property was rezoned to the RP 3 zoning district in 2007, which allows the requested multifamily apartments by right on this property. The only action before the planning commission this evening is a check on the site plan against the UDO requirements, which is the unified development ordinance.

Commissioner, do you wanna pull any items for additional information or questions from staff? Seeing none, I'll call for a motion on the consent agenda.

Mr. Chair, I'll move to approve the consent agenda as written.

Thank you, Commissioner Corcoran. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. I'd like to do a roll call vote on this, please.

Commissioner Chapman pardon me, Commissioner Chapman.

Yes.

Commissioner Seeling. Yes. Commissioner Corcoran. Yes. Commissioner Brown.

Yeah. Yes.

Commissioner Taronis.

Yes. Chair Jammer. I'll take a moment before I place my vote just to address, the people who have taken the time to be here because we highly respect your time and your interest in this. We're not the final say on anything that happens. We are limited to what statutorily we look at, which is this project's commitment to being in line with the UDO.

Our city council has a little bit wider range of what they can look at and what they can, take into consideration. And I, encourage you that all of you that's continue to have an interest that pursue that. You know, talk to your council people. And if there's anything can be done, that's where change can take place. We don't have the power here to make any change at this point on how this proceeds. And I will vote yes.

That motion passes six to zero.

This evening, we do have three scheduled public hearings. The first public hearing is a final plat with a vacation of easements for I-thirty 5 Logistics Park, 8th Platte. The associated preliminary development plan was just considered on our consent agenda, and it is just a vacation. And as as we stated before, we will not do any formal presentation. Although, are there any questions for staff before we proceed to the public hearing on the easement vacation?

Seeing none, I will open the public hearing. However, we have no one signed up for our public hearing. I have no intention of doing a presentation. So now I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing with a voice vote. So moved.

Excuse me. So moved.

Thank you, Commissioner Tornos. Do have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Brown. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. And the public hearing is now closed. Is there any additional discussion needed for this item? Do I call I'd like to have a motion on FP26-seven.

Chair, I move that we approve FP26-seven as stipulated by staff. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Do I have a second?

Second. Thank you, Commissioner Seiling. Ms. Will, you take a roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Corcoran? Yes. Commissioner Brown? Yes. Commissioner Taronis?

Yes.

Commissioner Chapman?

Yes.

Commissioner Seiling?

Yes.

Chair Janner? Yes. That motion passes six to zero.

Second public hearing is a request for approval of a special use permit for Daniel's Health at 15670 South Keeler Street. Miss Carillo is here to present the case this evening.

Hi, Ollie.

Hello. Sorry. Took the long way to get get Dan organized here. Okay. Okay.

As I'm Emily Carillo, senior planner. As introduced, this is a request for a special use permit to allow a medical waste treatment facility for Daniels Health Olathe located at 15670 South Keeler Street in Olathe. The subject property includes an existing single story 22,000 square foot metal industrial building constructed in 1981 located within the larger Southwest Properties Industrial Park. Daniels Health proposes operating a medical waste processing and treatment facility to serve regional healthcare providers. The national company specializes in the collection, containment and processing of regulated medical waste using reusable container systems designed to promote safe handling and sustainability.

The site was zoned to the MP2, which is a planned general industrial district in 2008 and supports the proposed use and is consistent, with the Elevate Olathe Future Land Use Map, which designates this area as industrial. The proposed special use request also aligns with the goals and strategies of Elevate Olathe Comprehensive Plan. Operations will occur entirely within the existing enclosed building envelope and no site changes are proposed at this time. The site does take access from South Keeler Street and is serviced by Olathe Sanitary Sewer and Water One. On-site parking is proposed that meets UDO requirements for the proposed use.

All existing landscaping is proposed to remain in existing landscaping beds will be refreshed to enhance the overall site appearance, and additional plantings and privacy fencing will be added along Keeler to provide that screening per UDO requirements. The proposed use is classified by the UDO as a hazardous waste or treatment facility and therefore requires approval of a special use permit within the existing district. This application was reviewed by staff, including the city's environmental compliance manager and our solid waste manager and is subject to regulatory compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. The applicant didn't meet public notice requirements. A neighborhood meeting was not required with this application.

However, neighborhood notice was sent to property owners within 500 feet. Since the time of the packet publication, we did receive one correspondence from an individual regarding regulatory compliance. The application does meet the UDO's, criteria for considering special uses as outlined in the staff report, and staff is recommending approval of SU26Dash0001 with an approval period of five years, and the applicant is amenable to these stipulations as listed. This application does continue on to city council for consideration on June 2. That concludes my presentation this evening.

The applicant is present, does not have a presentation, but available for any questions you may have.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Commissioners, do you have any questions for staff on this? Commissioner Chapman. Thank you,

Chair. Ms. Crowley, a few questions. The comment is that this will be hazardous waste will be involved. How is it handled specifically? And and I guess the question here is, obviously, there's a lot of concern today about infectious items, and we comment about the fact that this steam sterilization will render it noninfectious prior to transport. How do we determine that whatever was hazardous is now no longer infectious?

Sure. I'm probably going to let the applicant handle this and answer some of those more specific questions.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah. Go ahead. Just make your way to the podium and state your name and address for the record.

Hi, my name is Christina Prysmonis. I am representing Daniels Health today and more than happy to answer your questions. So I'll start off with hazardous waste. So when we deal with hazardous waste, it's hazardous waste that comes from hospitals, outpatient facilities, that type of hazardous waste. So we are not dealing with bombs or anything crazy like that.

And this hazardous waste, it's in special containers. So all of our waste comes segregated from the hospitals or from the facilities in color coded containers. For hazardous waste, we do not open those containers, we simply store them in a secured area. So we will designate an area of the building strictly for hazardous storage. We don't put any additional infectious waste there or anything like that.

We don't open those containers. And then, once the period of time, I think with Kansas, we are allowed up to ten days. But if it's a shorter period we'll keep it a shorter period. We are in the process of getting the medical waste transfer and treatment permit from the state of Kansas now. We hold the waste and then we'll transfer it off to a third party disposal facility, so typically for incineration.

So for hazardous waste we do not open any of those containers on-site. It is simply transferring them from the hospital, storing them at the facility and then transferring them out. For the infectious waste, we have a specific strain of bacteria that we use to test the autoclave. So, it's not to get super technical, but it's like a log four bacillus strain. So we have to make sure that up to log four it's like zero point zero zero zero one percent survival rate, something like that.

And that's what according to EPA, renders the autoclave as effective and renders the material as non infectious. So prior to operating the autoclave, we go through a permitting process that we do with the Kansas Department of Health and then, we also check the autoclaves on a weekly basis. So they are programmed, for a specific amount of time to run at, I think it's like two fifty degrees Fahrenheit, in extremely high heat. They'll run for like thirty minutes or whatever the program states to make sure that they meet that efficacy standard. And again, that is checked weekly.

We keep logs of that. And we use the same type of operation in all of our treatment facilities, so this is a proven methodology that we use. Is that sufficient for your question?

Yeah. And a couple more questions.

Sure, of course.

The hazardous waste materials that you simply store and then transport at some point in time, what sort of security measures do you have at this facility to guard against some type of break in and possible theft of hazardous materials, someone not even knowing that they're dealing with hazardous materials?

Of course. So first of all, on a granular level, all of our containers are strictly labeled and they say that they are hazardous waste. And as I said, they are color coded, they are black containers. So visually they are very different than our other infectious waste containers. So before you open it, you are going to know that this is not one that you should be opening.

As far as facility security, at all of our sites, we use security cameras, we have gates, lock and key, badged entries and exit ways. We make sure that access to areas are on an as needed basis as opposed to blanket everyone has access to the whole building. So we make sure that you know, it's not like you can just walk into the entryway in the middle and, you know, find a hazardous waste container. That's definitely not how we want to operate and that's definitely not what you'll find at our sites.

Well, and then I guess in a different vein than someone who may have intent to do harm and are specifically looking for something that would be hazardous waste that possibly they could do some harm. Is your hazardous waste stored in a separate area? Do you have additional security in the hazardous waste area?

Yeah, it's stored in a separate room.

Is it secured?

I will double check what security is put into those rooms. I don't know. I don't want to speak and say that it's a separate badge or anything like that. I'm not sure, but I will get that information and I can bring it back to you. I have no issues with that. It's yeah, overall the facility is based on specific entry. And all of our personnel are trained in hazardous waste, in infectious waste, And we do background checks on all of our employees as well.

All right. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Are there any additional questions for staff or the applicant? Commissioner Taronis.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here this evening. The facilities has regulatory requirements. And the question that I have, are you audited? And if and by what agency? And how often are you audited?

Oh, great question. We're audited all the time. So, I think on a state level, it's going be a minimum of annually, for the Department of Health and the Environment. DOT, since that's federal, I think we have, like, our DOT scorecards that we look at monthly to assure proper compliance, you know, with making sure that, you know, our drivers are not driving recklessly, that we're complying with all federal transport laws that are manifest, are documenting everything correctly. Additionally, we're totally open for random inspections.

As you know, anyone can call a complaint and we get inspected. The good thing about our facilities, I guess you could say, since we have various treatment facilities located around The United States, if one gets audited and we find something in one facility, we do implement it nationwide. So, you know, it doesn't feel right to say it's just like one audit that's happening in one treatment facility when we look at the collective. I'm part of a compliance team and we handle all inspections, all audits. And we make sure that we have proper guidance documents, usually inspections and any findings correlate to new procedures, guidance documents, new paperwork.

And that's implemented across all of our sites nationwide.

Thank you.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Commissioner Corker? Sure.

Mike? What is your service area range? And how far are you bringing materials in and transporting them out?

That is an excellent question. And I'm sorry, I'm going to have to get back to you with that. I'm not too sure what the intended service area is. I know we typically will get, like a larger client and then try and, put a treatment area near nearby, just so that we're not transporting and hauling waste for such long distances. Because obviously we want to minimize the time that infectious waste is on the road. But I can get that information for you and provide it for you.

So what's your next closest facility?

Oh my gosh. I should have asked. Who we signed a contract with? I'm sorry. I'm going to have to get back with you on that.

Are there try this one. Is there are there other similar not your company, but other similar companies in the Casey Metro?

I believe the Stericycle has a facility. Okay. Not in the area. I'm not sure exactly where, but I think that that's our biggest local competitor, unique a nationwide competitor. Yeah, they're pretty unique.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Brown. Would you restate again what you said about what you do with the infectious waste?

Sure. So the infectious waste will come in from, the hospitals or the outpatient facilities. We'll weigh them, make sure that all their documentation is correct. And then, we'll take the waste out of their containers. So not, like I said, not all waste is going to go through the autoclave.

Hazardous waste or pathological waste we don't put in the autoclave. It's only specific waste as determined by the, Kansas Department of Health and the Environment. Typically it's going to be like syringes, red bag waste, so like PPE, that sort of stuff. So we will put that into the autoclave. It will run for a set amount of time, usually it's like twenty-thirty minutes depending on the size of the autoclave and the boiler.

Once it goes to that steam sterilization process, it's rendered non infectious. It's repackaged into larger containers and then shipped off to a landfill. So we don't do any landfill operations. We don't incinerate, nothing like that on-site.

Thank you. Are there any additional questions for the applicant or for staff? Thank you for being

here. Happily. Thank you.

I'll

now open the public hearing. However, we have no one signed up to speak at the public hearing, so I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Chair, I make a motion we close public hearing.

Thank you, Commissioner Tronis. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Seiling. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. I now call for a motion on the item on SU26-one.

Mr. Chair, I move to approve

SU26-one as presented.

Thank you, commissioner Sealing. May I have a second?

I'll second.

Thank you, commissioner Brown. Ms. Well, a roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Brown? Yes. Commissioner Torones? Yes. Commissioner Chapman?

Yes.

Commissioner Seeling? Yes. Commissioner Corcoran?

Yes.

Chair Janner? I'm going to vote yes, but I wanna throw one thing out. Getting off the topic of hazardous waste that was part of the presentation, and and we were talking about the need for, refreshing the landscaping or, you know, around this property. Yeah. There's some grace there. I know that this has been vacant for a while, but it seems like frequently, on applications such as this, frequently on our, special use permit type things, we ask them. This is like standard language. You know? Let's refresh, improve the landscaping, etcetera. And, you know, it's concerning me that that this requirement, which is great.

Planning commission is or the planning staff has done a great job of establishing these standards. But if we don't follow-up, if we don't keep it looking that way, we all want our city to look good. We're having to throw this language out every time. They need to fix what's there. And if we're not following up and holding people accountable to that standard, it really lessens the credibility of the standard itself. So I'd just like to pass that message on, to city council. And I know doing that isn't free. I get that. But we want our city to look good, and we shouldn't have to restate that every time we get on an issue that comes forth before us where this is a factor. But that being said, I still vote yes.

That's not a motion, but I'll second that.

Okay. Thank you, commissioner Brown.

The motion does pass six to zero. Alright.

Thank you. So we'll move on to our third and final public hearing tonight, which is a request for the approval of proposed amendments to title 18 of the unified development ordinance. Ms. Schuler will present the case. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. Jessica Schuler, senior planner. This item is an amendment to unified development ordinance eighteen twenty two sixty. It's the North Ridgeview Road overlay district.

And this district has existed in our code since 2002. It serves as an additional layer of development standards for the area of Olathe between K 10 Highway in the North and 119th in the South and roughly a half mile on either side of Ridgeview Road. The purpose of the overlay is to promote high quality development and create a positive first impression as you enter our city. One of the primary things this overlay district does is restrict land uses on certain properties. The overlay specifies that if a property is currently zoned agricultural, then it can only be rezoned to office c 1, c 3, or business park districts.

Since 2002, there is only one remaining property zoned agricultural today, and that's at the Northwest Corner Of College And Ridgeview. The overlay also restricts land uses within those various office and commercial districts, including various auto oriented uses, manufacturing and industrial uses, and uses with outdoor storage components. The overlay district is also attached to a set of design guidelines, and it includes criteria for sites, for landscaping, and architecture, such as facing buildings primarily with brick, masonry, and stone. The intent of the guidelines is to encourage harmonious building designs and themes. Elevate Olathe is our recently adopted comprehensive plan, and it actually includes the northern portion of that existing ridge view overlay in what the plan calls a subarea.

And subareas received additional planning and design considerations as they are areas of the city, seeing more rapid growth in development currently. The subarea, looks at undeveloped properties and identifies future land use opportunities such as locations suitable for mixed use, commercial nodes, and locations for, where multifamily opportunities could exist as well. Extensive public engagement went into the development of these subareas. The city held open house opportunities specifically for them. There was also an online survey and mapping opportunities as well.

We spoke with many developers and residents, before these recommendations were adopted by the city council. So Elevate Olathe calls for us to review and update our area plans, design guidelines, and overlay districts to align with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan. And as such, staff is recommending that the city amend the boundary of the existing overlay district to remove the land area that is North Of College Boulevard to allow that area to be guided by the sub area recommendations of Elevate Olathe. That action would also remove those land use restrictions on the last remaining ag agriculturally zoned property and allow Elevate Olathe, the future land use map, to direct future development there. Staff recommends that the overlay district stay in place for the land area South Of College Boulevard.

There are a few development opportunities that still exist here and always the opportunity for redevelopment as well. So having that existing overlay and design guidelines would ensure continuity with existing land uses, building form, and landscaping within those, commercial centers. So staff's full red lines with these updates were included in your meeting packets. Following tonight's public hearing, we would take these proposed amendments to city council on June 2 for consideration as well. But we welcome your thoughts and feedback, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks.

Excellent. Thank you, miss Schuler. Sounds like there might be some things going on at College and Refuel. Commissioner, do you have any questions for staff?

I'll address the Bigrella here. How much of this has to do with the Chief's potential facility there?

Well, that facility is, you know, going to take the largest, remaining developable land area North Of College, absolutely. And Elevate directs that that is appropriate for a mix of uses. And so there are some conflicts certainly with the Overlay District standards today and, how Elevate Aletha directs feature development. And so, we're cleaning that up and allowing kind of, you know, North College, you have kind of these larger campus style developments, which really is a different form and character for what from what you have South Of College Boulevard. And so we think it makes sense to apply it as we recommended and allow Elevate Olathe to direct future growth.

Is that basically what's driving this change, to change?

Hey. Kim Hollingsworth, planning development manager. I'd say the bigger picture is that we looked at those sub areas of the comprehensive plan. We honed in on areas that have maybe some large areas of land that are going to be developed. There's K 7, 175th Street are the other ones. And so we looked at those collectively. This one happens to be in the UDO, so it took a few extra steps versus maybe a corridor study that just guides growth and development. So we wanted to get this moving just to make sure that we're keeping our new conference of plan in line with our UDO standards. So that's really the main driving force here.

Yeah. And I think I would add is being on the Elevate Olathe Committee for the last couple of years that we were we were we were talking about this area and a need to get it up to speed with what we were planning for the area before we knew what the chiefs are, but it may have might have put it on a little earlier agenda.

Yeah. And to follow-up on what Kim said, we are looking at the other corridors that were sub areas. So we're looking at, you know, k seven and how those design guidelines interact with Elevate and to in the South along 175th Street, those existing corridors as well. So it all kinda comes together in one package following the comp plan update.

Are there any additional questions for staff? Seeing none, I will now open the public hearing. However, again, on this one, we have no one signed up to speak at the public hearing. So do I have a motion to close the public hearing?

Chairman, make a motion to close the public hearing.

Thank you, Commissioner Trenos. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Is there any additional discussion needed for this item? Well, I will call for a motion then on UDO26-one.

Chair, I move that we approve UDO26-one as stipulated by staff. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Do I

have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Corcoran. Miss Will, a roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Taronis?

Yes.

Commissioner Chapman? Yes. Commissioner Sealing?

Yes.

Commissioner Corcoran? Yes. Commissioner Brown? Yes. Chair Janner?

Yes.

That motion passes six to zero.

That ends that brings us to an end of our formal agenda. Are there any announcements this evening? Just

a quick one. No meeting in two weeks due to the Memorial Day holidays. Our next scheduled meeting is June 8.

Okay. Thank you very much. This meeting is hereby adjourned.