Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. I'm going to go ahead and open the meeting of our planning commission for today. And first off, I'd like to ask if the Kansas Open Meeting Act requirements have been followed.

Yes, I can confirm that the packet was posted and the required notice was provided.

Perfect. Can we get a roll call, please?

Commissioner McFadden?

Here.

Commissioner Rogers? Commissioner Mike Sell?

Here.

Commissioner Ault?

Here.

Commissioner Van Covern?

Here.

Commissioner Pankritz? Here. Vice Chair Farber? Here. And Chair Waters. So with six out of eight members present, we have a quorum and we can proceed with business.

All right. And for those of you just tuning in, I am filling in for Ms. Waters, who I believe is going to be here in just a few minutes. So we'll get it going, and she can catch up when she gets here. Has everybody had a chance to look over the minutes from the last meeting? Any corrections? If not, I would entertain a motion of approval.

I make a motion we approve the minutes. Second.

Moved and seconded for approval of the minutes of the June 16th, 2026 meeting. All in favor, let it be known by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And that passes. From there, we can move on into our new business.

Thank you, Vice Sheriff Harbour and commissioners. The item before the commission today is application SDP 26-002 filed by Henry Clover of Clover Architects on behalf of Panda Express. requesting approval of a site development plan for a new 2,827 square foot fast casual restaurant with a drive-through. The subject property is lot four, block one of the replat of 9th South Edition, a 1.1 acre tract addressed as 2755 Marketplace on the east side of 9th Street on Marketplace, the frontage road to 9th Street. between the Marketplace Apartments and Sam's Club. So this property is owned PC5, a planned service commercial, and is currently vacant. Before I walk through the case, I wanted to note the commissioners that you have at your seats a memo from me, dated today, July 7th, and that includes a couple attachments. So staff received additional information after the agenda packet was distributed last Thursday, and that new information changes staff's recommendation on this item. And so I'm gonna present the case as close as possible to our normal routine, but we may be jumping back and forth a little bit to cover different pieces here. So just wanted to give you the heads up there. I'll try and address the background of everything first, and then I'll bring you up to speed on what changes were made since Thursday. So the subject property was annexed into the city in 1971 and was zoned A1 agricultural and unplatted for decades. So this is the old Dooley pumpkin patch, or Dooley, right? Yep. Yep, okay. In 2017, Nine South Development LLC purchased the property and it was rezoned to C3 shopping center. And then the original four lot final plat of the Nine South edition was approved in December of 2018, and the public infrastructure was installed, including the extension of marketplace, the frontage road, water, sanitary sewer lines, and a regional stormwater detention pond on lot one. And on December 17th of 2024, the Planning Commission approved a replat configuring the subdivision into eight lots with two common access drives, reserves A and B, And the city commission accepted and revised the revised easement dedications on November 24th, 2025. On April 27th, 2026, the city commission approved ordinance number 26-11281 that rezoned the property from C3 to PC5. So that implemented the planned commercial zoning. And that was to accommodate off-premise shared signage while maintaining the C3 use limitations and bulk regulations and all of that. That ordinance also established a deferred site plan approval for each of the lots within Nine South, and that's why this plan is before you tonight, or today. Finally, on May 21st, 2026, the Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance, V26-003, that permitted up to 56 off-street parking spaces on lot four, which is the subject property that we're dealing with tonight, and so that is the site for the Panda Express. Okay, so the applicants request approval of a site development plan to construct the new 2,827 square foot fast casual restaurant, Panda Express, with a drive-through on lot four. The associated site improvements include two driveway approaches connecting to, that eventually connect to marketplace, or a driveway that connects to the internal drive system and then eventually connects to marketplace. 56 off street parking spaces Pedestrian sidewalks and a screen trash enclosure and site landscaping So under Salina code the approval of a site development plan must precede the issuance of a building permit for development within a planned commercial district because deferred lot by lot site plan approval was established by the ordinance approving the rezoning to plan commercial and The Planning Commission is the review and approval body for this plan under section 42-409.18 of the zoning regulations. The plan must meet the required development standards of section 42-409.14, including compatibility with adjacent land uses, safe vehicular and pedestrian movement, and appropriate landscaping and screening, as well as compatible site drainage. So the full analysis is contained actually in the attachments to the staff report. So I'll summarize the key points here. The proposed restaurant isn't allowed use under the C3 use limitations. that are applied to this property by the ordinance. The building height is 22 feet against a 35 foot maximum. All setbacks are compliant. The front yard along Marketplace is 45 feet against the 25 foot requirement. The east and south side yards are approximately 102 feet or, yeah. about 100 feet to the south. I don't actually have the north one, or I'm sorry, the east and the south side of the yards are 102 feet and 139 where none is required. And the lot coverage is 5.88% against a 40% maximum. For off-street parking, the code minimum for this restaurant is 20 spaces. The applicant has an approved variance from the BZA allowing a maximum of 56 spaces, and the plan proposes exactly 56 spaces, along with the dedicated drive-through waiting spaces, which there's two of them on this site plan. We don't count those as parking spaces. They're for when an order is coming through the drive-through and they need them to park to get the next order through the window. And they have three ADA compliant spaces and a The plan conforms to the variance as far as parking goes. For the landscaping, the plan proposes approximately 6,600 square feet of front yard landscaping exceeding the requirement and provides approximately 13 tree units against just over 13 due to shrubs and the requirement is 13 on that one. There's one deficiency in the landscaping, which is that several landscape beds that are required within the parking lot are under the requirement for living plant material, which the requirement is 60% living plant material in those beds. So a revised landscaping plan is required that is addressed within our conditions later on. Staff also recommends adding shade trees to the parking lot islands if possible This is a again. This is addressed in our condition. So we'll get back to those signage is subject to the c3 sign regulations and the plan indicates the building that the building would have wall signs and as well as a few other various signs that are shown in the plans here and As far as site layout, building design and access, the building is centrally located on the lot and oriented to face west towards Marketplace with primary entrances on the east side of the lot that comes off of an internal access drive. The drive-through lane comes in off of those two entrances from the internal drive and it goes up to the north on the north side of the building. And there's a screen trash enclosure that's located kind of in the middle, just on the east side of the building there. The building design features a stone veneer wainscot, Ephus upper panels, and a tower element that's clad in a bamboo material, bamboo colored composite material. The black metal accent bands, it has black metal accent bands and a canopy around over the doors. and a glass storefront along the west and south facades. Access, again, is provided by two driveway openings that access the internal drive. The south approach is 25 feet wide and accommodates standard vehicle traffic. The north approach has been widened to 36 and a half feet to accommodate semi-trailer deliveries. There's a truck turning exhibit here that shows how a semi-trailer needs large portions of the parking lot to maneuver through the site. So to prevent conflicts with customer vehicles and pedestrians, staff is recommending as a condition to require a written confirmation from Panda Express that all semi-trailer deliveries will be scheduled exclusively during non-business hours. So again, this is addressed in the conditions, but to give you an idea here, As you can see, those lines, do you want to zoom in a little bit? So the lines that are kind of swooping through the parking lot there shows the turn radius of a large semi-trailer, and because these are fairly tight lots, and the loading zone needs to be handled on the lot, That presents a problem if deliveries happen during business hours because a semi-trailer would not be able to navigate that parking lot without it being almost completely empty. So that's the reasoning for asking for it in writing that the deliveries would occur outside of business hours just to ensure that there's not a conflict there. When we get to storm water drainage, this was actually the reason that the recommendation was initially to postpone and now is to approve. The site is located in critical drainage area number one. And all storm water runoff is designed to be collected by surface inlets and piped underground to the existing regional detention pond on lot one, which is on the northeast corner of the nine south subdivision. At the time the packet was distributed, this was the outstanding issue on this application. The engineering division's review that was completed on July 2nd found that the additional 5,495 square feet of impervious surface proposed for lot four would generate runoff that would exceed the capacity of the existing pond with the additional detail there that that means if the subdivision were built out at that level of impervious surface. not that the impervious surface only on lot four was going to overwhelm the pond but it did present an issue moving forward to make sure that that pond was going to be sized adequately to handle the full build out of the subdivision and we do have the city engineer here as well so you can he can expand on that later as needed so During a 25-year storm event, the additional runoff would have raised the pond's water depth to 5.8 feet, which would have been above the pond's weir. On that basis, in the staff report, the recommendation was postponement. So as described in the memo at your seats, staff has received additional information since that packet went out. Cobb Valley Engineering, on behalf of the developer, Nine South Development LLC, has submitted some plans for future expansion of that regional detention pond. Those plans have not been approved or anything yet. It's a future project that they have in the works, but they do demonstrate the developer's intent to increase the pond's capacity to accommodate additional impervious surface as the subdivision develops. The engineering division has reviewed that information and has provided an updated memo dated today, which is attached along with the other documents at your seat. The updated minimum confirms that the existing detention pond is adequately sized to accommodate the runoff from the proposed Panda Express development as the first property developed in Nine South. And that future improvements to the pond are planned as other properties build out. So based on that updated review, the drainage deficiency identified in the packet is resolved for this application. And staff's recommendation has changed from postponement to recommending approval. Also today, staff received an email from Lauren Young of 2735 Highland Avenue, which is also, that email is attached there at your seat. Mr. Young describes existing stormwater ponding at the intersection of Neal Avenue and Highland Avenue during heavy rain events and asked whether this development would make drainage conditions at that location worse or whether measures could be taken to improve them. Again, city engineer is here today, so he could probably expand on that or answer those questions in more detail.

Could you point that out on that map since we have it up? Yeah. Perfect, yes. Thank you.

right here okay and there's a appears to be an inlet and that yeah well let's um wait until questions and then we'll we'll get into it because then we can dive into that so with that we have some recommended findings here and go through your alternatives and the rest of the staff recommendation so staff would recommend that the planning commission adopt the following findings in support of approval addressing the required development standards of section 42. So the first finding would be on use compliance. The proposed fast casual restaurant with a drive-through is an allowed use in the C3 district use limitations. The second finding would be that bulk and use limitations, the plan conforms with the bulk regulations and use limitations of the C3 district. as modified by that ordinance for the planned commercial. Finding three would be compatibility. The proposed location and arrangement of the building, trash disposal area, drive-through window, off-street parking, access drives, lighting, signage, and landscaping and screening are compatible with the adjacent land uses. Finding four would be on-site drainage. So based on the engineering division's memo from today, the existing regional detention pond is adequately sized to accommodate the runoff generated by this development as the first property within the nine south addition. And the developers provided preliminary plans demonstrating its intent to expand the pond's capacity as the subdivision develops. So the proposed site drainage is therefore compatible with the adjacent land uses. Finding five is regarding vehicular circulation. So vehicular ingress and egress to Marketplace, including the widened north entrance to accommodate truck turning movements, provide for the safe, efficient, and convenient movement of traffic within the site and on adjacent roadways, subject to the recommended condition restricting semi-trailer deliveries to non-business hours. Finding six, the plan provides for safe movement of pedestrians through sidewalks connecting to Marketplace and internal crossings connecting to the parking area, to the building entrances. Finding seven is landscaping and screening. So subject to the recommended condition requiring a revised landscape plan providing a minimum of 60% living plant material. The landscaping incorporates water conservation principles and a sufficient mixture of grass, trees, and shrubs so that the development will be in harmony with surrounding development. The trash disposal area is completely screened and no outdoor storage areas are proposed. So the Planning Commission has the following alternatives here today. One, approve the proposed site development plan as submitted. Two, approve the site development plan subject to specified, sorry, alternative one that would, as submitted, would mean along with staff's recommended findings and recommended conditions. Option two would be to approve the site development plan subject to any specific revisions that you may have or other conditions. Three would be to postpone consideration to a specific future date if there is a need for additional information. Four would be to deny the site development plan, citing the specific reasons why the plan is not in the public interest. And staff's recommendation here would be that the Planning Commission approve application SDP 26-002, The site development plan for the Panda Express restaurant at 2755 Marketplace, subject to the 10 conditions of approval listed on staff's memo from today that's at your seat. I will summarize those conditions briefly, and I know that the applicants are on Zoom, so if we need to go through those in more detail, since we did just bring this in and place it at your seat, I'm happy to do that. Condition one requires the project to be completed in substantial conformance with the approved site development plan, landscape plan, and building elevations. Condition two requires a revised landscaping plan to provide a minimum of 60% living plant material in all required landscape beds and shade trees in the parking lot of the islands approved prior to a building permit. Condition three requires that all semi-trailers to occur, deliveries to occur exclusively during non-business hours with written confirmation on Panda Express letterhead prior to the building permit that confirms that will be the case. Condition four requires runoff calculations for the runoff directed to the subdivision drainage system and regional detention pond to be reviewed and approved by the city engineer prior to the building permit. And I'll let Rex expand on whether that is actually already satisfied or not. We left it in here just in case. Condition 5 requires a KDHE stormwater permit if required or a notice of intent and a local land disturbance permit prior to any earthwork occurring on the site. Condition 6 makes all signage subject to the C3 sign regulations with separate sign permits required. Condition 7 requires shaded exterior lighting fixtures and submission of a lighting plan and fixture cut sheets prior to installation. Condition 8 requires a building permit within 18 months of approval. Condition nine requires conformance with the International Building Code. And condition 10 requires submission of a final site development plan reflecting all improvements approved by the commission tonight. And that would be filed in the office of the zoning administrator, so in the planning department. And that would be kind of the final piece that puts that on record to show exactly what is to be approved for that development and that's what would be the building permits would be reviewed to at that point so if the commission is inclined to approve staff staff would suggest the motion be to approve application sdp 26-002 with the seven findings and ten conditions of approval as presented in staff's memo dated july 7th 2026. So this concludes our presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions. And again, we do have the applicants on Zoom and we have the city engineer in the room here if you have any additional questions.

Thank you, Dustin. That was very thorough. Okay, commissioners, are there any questions of staff?

I have a concern about number three, the delivery of the semi after hours. I think that's very restrictive. I don't know how that could be enforced. And I couldn't see on the icon how big of a truck that was used in the diagram. It's the top right, but I can't blow it up, so.

Okay, we could probably blow that up on screen and we could also maybe have the applicant expand on that. Just to give you a little information on that kind of requirement, we do have that in other developments in the city where you have a lot that you can't feasibly put a loading zone. I'm going to just make an assumption here. The applicant can correct me if I'm wrong, but typically a lot of times you see like a Cisco or US Foods coming in on a 53-foot trailer, so that's My guess is they probably did this. Turning radius is based on that. If you were to do that, a loading zone for that, you're talking 53 feet by eight and a half feet wide just for the trailer plus the rig in the front. So you're at like 70, 80, feet, whatever, 70 feet. It just may not be possible to fit that on the lot. So that is an option. They could put a loading zone. That's what the zoning regulations require. In lieu of that, when it's a really tight lot, this is a solution that works.

I'd agree a 53-foot is impractical, and I'd say the majority of the time they do not use a 53-foot. Cisco uses probably a 45-foot trailer, and I think that needs to be addressed because, you know, they probably have extended hours of working, and I'm not sure how a Cisco truck could schedule that after hours to make it work. Something has to give, like, the design of the parking lot or a letterhead stating it only is going to be a 43-foot truck, a 53 would be a problem based on your calculations, but I don't think that's what's going to happen in real life. So that's my concern.

I agree though about that extra detail that you added that if the commission feels that this solution would work, that is a possibility that you could add that into the condition to say that the truck size and all of that has to be specified. That's reasonable, I think. Yeah, maybe they can answer that for us, that question.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, thank you.

Okay, we'll continue with asking staff questions before we move to the developer. So are there any other questions of staff?

I have a question.

Yes.

So what are the hours of Panda? Because if you look at these drive-through, you have a double drive-through, and there's houses that are pretty close on both the west and the northeast and the north sides. And, you know, a drive-through would be pretty loud if it's open after certain hours.

I don't know the answer to that, but I think the applicant might be able to expand on that or tell you what the hours are.

If you look at that map, it's real close to some of those backyards.

Yeah. So we'll go ahead and have the applicant expand on that when we get to them. Okay.

Go ahead. I drove by there today. The curb cut that is already in place, is that going to be utilized? I know there were two separate. Is that one that's going to be utilized already?

Yes, that will be Reserve A. So I don't know if we have the plat here, but it's – I don't remember the length of it off the top of my head, but there are two common area tracks that come in off of the current curb cut, and I can't remember if the one to the south is actually already existing or not. Do you know, by any chance? Can you zoom back a little bit, Gage, and see if that other one's there? Of course, we're looking at, yeah, it is already there. So this is a 2023 image, so it's a few years old. but that shows that those two curb cuts are there. Those are the approved accesses into the 9 South Division. That's what the subdivision is designed around, so they would be using those. I'm assuming they are the necessary width, but along with any construction to get the first lot developed, they would need to construct those drives, and so they, I don't know if they need to resize them or not, And maybe I'm confused. I thought there were two entrances on this plat. Yes. So jump back to the aerial photo gauge real quick. And we'll start there. And then we'll kind of walk through the plat and then to the site development planning. So put your curtain. Yeah, there you go. That's the south entrance there. And then the north entrance right up above. Zoom in on that one. There you go. So you can see that it is coming in to the east off of Marketplace. So let's jump to the plat, and we'll point to how those relate to the plat. So, zoom in a little bit more, so we can see the lettering. So that's Reserve A, and you can see the boundary It's what, so it's about 215 feet long, 216 feet long. So that's a common area tract, and there's one to the south as well. The one to the south is slightly narrower, but it's the same length. And then running north and south to connect the ends of those, there's an access easement there, a 24 foot wide access easement. So it provides a U-shaped path to travel throughout the development area. And then let's jump to the site development plan. Yes. Oh, actually, I'm sorry. Go back to the plat. I'm gonna point where lot four is. Cause lot four is immediately south of that reserve A. So this here is lot four. And go to this. Sorry. It's okay. So now we're looking at that lot four and zoom into the north edge of that lot and you'll be able to see that that shows Reserve A is immediately north of that. So along the west line there you can see the existing radiuses for the curb cut and then Reserve A comes in. And this lot does not directly connect to Marketplace, it has to connect through the access drives. So you come into that, let's say you come in through that Reserve A, that north entrance, you're gonna come around on the north side, you're gonna turn and go south, and then you're gonna turn into the Panda Express. And they do have two driveways there to allow circulation in and out of their parking lot. And the north driveway for the Panda site is the one that's slightly wider. Does that help?

Yeah, my mind was backwards for some reason. I completely make sense now.

So then to go back, I think helpful for Commissioner Pankratz's comment that in an aerial, it is roughly in this location. So there will be a lot behind.

Yeah, if you go to the plat real quick, there's a dimension on there for lot five, lot three or lot five. So those are the back lots. Yeah, zoom right in where that table's at in the middle. Actually, just above that.

Go north.

And go north a little bit. So 241 feet, that dimension right there, that is from the east line of lot four, so our subject property, to the east boundary of the nine south addition, which abuts residential properties, the back fences of them. And Commissioner Pankritz, you might not have some of the context because the Planning Commission approved the rezoning to plan commercial a few months ago. One piece of that is that there's going to be a landscape buffer along the east side of the subdivision, all the way along that whole entire property line. there on the inside of it that will provide some screening trees, columnar like juniper or cypress kind of type columnar trees to help break up sound and the visuals from the backyards of those residential properties. So that is one little piece of context there that helps with the buffering. Thank you.

Okay, are there any other questions of staff? Okay, I have one. On the drainage, if Mr. Ritter could come to the stand. Rex, I'm just curious, have you and Mr. Nelson had a chance to look at Mr. Young's email and discuss it? And can you elaborate on that, please?

Absolutely. Rex Ritter, deputy public director and city engineer. Yes, we received Mr. Young's email. And so the detention ponds are designed to hold a 24-hour, 25-year storm event. And then they release at a controlled rate not greater than the existing undeveloped condition. So that site, as of right now, releases some flow. And the detention pond would not increase that. And then the pond is sized to hold back that additional runoff and release at that controlled rate. So no. it would not be worsened than the existing drainage condition. Unfortunately there, that area is all street drainage. It's about 22 acres. I went and looked and kind of measured with some contours. Twenty-two acres of all street drainage, no enclosed storm sewer, so where you see that flume crossing the road, you know, where normally that would be in the ground with just how low it is there. That's just street drainage at 0.3%, which is as flat as can be in Salina, Kansas. But the site development will not worsen that existing condition. It will be as is.

All right. Thank you, Rex. I figured that was a case. Just wanted to confirm that. So thank you. Yep. Thank you. Are there any? Oh, go ahead. While you're up there. Yes.

The detention pond, when this is speaking to the future, can you just go deeper? Or do you have plans to go wider? Does it affect his footprint on, I don't know if you put up the last picture, from the site development perspective? Area to the first plot. There you go so I didn't know if you'd figured worst case scenarios with parking.

Talk about what they haven't, because you looked at those.

Yeah. So great question. They are planning on going wider. Okay. So right now, you know, there's, we have this runoff coefficient that they say impervious area, concrete roofs that has a value. And then grass has a lower value. And so this one site has more impervious area than originally planned, but it still has all this green space around it. So overall that, That detention pond was planned for everything to be developed, but now this one has more impervious area. So as these other ones develop with potentially a higher runoff coefficient, like this one, or maybe they don't, but as this area develops, that detention pond eventually would become undersized if they go with this higher runoff coefficient that Panda Express is using. so their plan the the plans we received today show that pond expanding to the south about i i don't have a number maybe 20 25 feet so it would be outside of that existing drainage easement so the plan is either um to split the lots or um additional easement uh um i got the note from matt here um by a separate document. So they do have plans. And that's, again, if they end up using a higher runoff coefficient. If something develops with a lower coefficient potentially, that existing pond could be fine up to the end of the final lot potentially. But that's the plan. They have something to address that. There's intent.

But again, what you're saying is that will not for layman's terms, drain back into that Highland and Neal? Correct, yeah, it drains to the west.

Yeah, there's a pipe that's kind of an existing pipe. You can kind of see it there in the northwest corner. Yeah, right there, there's an in section. And so that pipe is sized and sloped to not exceed the existing flow that's coming off that full site development. Thank you.

And, I'm sorry. Rex, will you or Wayne get with the Young family and visit them?

I was planning on emailing them and letting them know. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Are there any other questions of staff?

It's a comment. I would suggest making a phone call. That's always a little bit more personal.

Did he give us his phone number? I'm not sure, but we can reach back out and we'll get a conversation.

A phone call is always a little bit more personal. Absolutely. Thank you.

All right. Gage, you said the developer is on. And Dustin, could you repeat? We had two questions. Do you have those noted? And could you repeat those? On...

Justin, I wrote them down.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm prepared. And this is the applicant, actually, not the developer. So developer would be 9 South Development. That's Jeff Mays and Kurt Robertson, I believe, and maybe some other individuals. So this would be the applicant on behalf of Panda Express.

Okay. Thank you for joining us. I'll just let you take the floor.

Thank you very much. My name is Henry Clover, Clover Architects. I am a architect out of Kansas City that has the benefit of working for Panda for several decades so I know them very well so I can answer the questions but they have the only we are agreement with all the stipulations we do want a couple clarifications and one of them was on the delivery and Panda is very used to delivering product at the appropriate times it wouldn't be after time it'd be before because these restaurants tend to open at 10 30 for service and tend to close And obviously this one hasn't been necessarily set, but this is the typical timeframe. But they would close usually about nine and in some locations, depending on the success, you know, between 10 o'clock. So deliveries are always handled before the store opens in the morning, which is very common for a lot of locations. You see this at McDonald's and all that. And the truck that's on there shown as would be the biggest that could be possibly used. so it's kind of as a worst case scenario so i think that there's we don't see any issues with that panda is very happy to send a letter saying that would delivers would be before time so there's no issues there i am also fortunate that i've had to go through very specific sound mitigation and concerns from residents on a project in tennessee that was actually a lot closer than this the the residents are 300 feet away and what you'll find is that sound is not additive If there's road noise, that will be the loudest noise and any sound coming from vehiculars or speakers does not add to it. So at the distance away, but also Panda uses other technology. They use a speaker system that has automated noise compensation and is directed and is designed to make sure people can hear but they don't get carried away. So it's not the traditional what people are used to with squawk boxes. they they very much do care um in the future there will be additional buildings behind us that will block anything as well as there's going to be the buffer behind so we do not necessarily see any issues or concern with that The clarifications, I think we had a misunderstanding because the landscape plan says that we've got 25% enclosed or hard surface or not green, which is 60-40 rule. We will meet that. I think there was just a misunderstanding of they didn't put it in the island, so we'll work with staff and get that taken care of and comply with that rule, putting in some shrubs and plants to make sure that that's taken care of. uh the only caveat we probably have is that the uh we do meet the ordinances on the number of trees we would be happy to add some additional shade trees but we would rather and prefer to add them to the bigger islands on the south side of the parking lot as opposed to center islands because they tend to not survive over time and so we would make that commitment to do that as well Other than that, I stand to answer any questions. Staff has been great to work with and they did a marvelous job of explaining everything to us or explaining it to the commission. Okay.

Thank you very much, Henry. Are there any questions of the applicant? All right. Thank you. Go ahead.

Okay.

I'll bring it back to the commissioners for discussion on any of the items.

This is a question for staff. Sure. Can you work with them on the trees, on the location of those trees?

Absolutely, yeah. The requirement for the 60% living material is kind of the hard requirement there, but as far as placement of the shade trees, we do recommend that. We would like to have some of those include shade trees, but as far as what Henry said makes sense. and some of those smaller islands may not be good to support a tree, especially a shade tree.

Nothing bothers me worse than to see a site that we've required trees on and the trees are dead.

Yeah, so we definitely don't want that. It needs to be reasonable. So we can work on that.

I have one question, and just clarification on something you mentioned earlier. Is the condition of approval number four still necessary?

It's satisfied already? Yeah. Okay. So we can eliminate number four. Some of these are more standard than that we're always making sure to include them. So it doesn't hurt to include it, it would just already be satisfied. I'm fine with non-deplicative. Sure.

Greg, did you have any further comments on the...

He answered it, so it's taken care of.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yes, Chair.

With that in mind, I would... We would want to... Sorry, Commissioner Farber. Public comment. Yes. We... We do have a number of people on Zoom. I believe most are affiliated with the project team, and we do have a member from the public in the room. So if there is public comment that wishes to be made, we'd want to do that before a motion is made. Okay.

Gage, let's confirm no one online wishes to speak.

I don't believe anybody.

Okay. Does anyone in the room have a comment? Okay, thank you. Seeing none, I will now bring it back to the commission.

Sorry for jumping the gun there.

That's okay, Chair.

With all of this in mind, and I appreciate the explanation from both staff and the applicant as well, I would move for approval of application SDP 26-002 with... The seven recommendations on page two of the staff memo that was handed out today, as well as the conditions of approval on page two and three, but we're going to eliminate condition number four. Is that okay? I would make that motion. And I would second that motion.

Okay. Moved and second to approve this application with the... Conditions listed on both pages of 2 and 3, excluding number 4. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right. Staff, is there any new business?

We do not have any new, any unfinished business. And our next scheduled meeting will be July 21st. And I believe we actually do have one item already on the agenda for that one.

Okay. And one more time, Gage, is there anyone wishing to speak?

Yeah. So if anybody wishes to speak on Zoom, you're more than welcome. But I think everyone's with the project team. And so anybody speaking would be in the room.

OK. Anyone in the room care? OK. Please state your name and address for the commission.

My name is Alex Bischel. I live on Huell Circle in Salina, Kansas. We've had a vacancy, like an available homes problem for a number of years, and we did have a strategic housing plan in 2022 that is where we get the goal of 2,400 units from, but it also made recommendations that we could do more of what's called middle housing, like medium density housing. It had some suggestions of townhouses, row houses, small apartments. In my neighborhood, we have a two-story apartment building near the suburban houses. So what I'm wondering is why the commission hasn't sent something to the commission making some sort of proposal about that i'd like i'd like to see a proposal to modify the single family zoning to allow like within limits certain different types of stuff so we can make it easier for people to find available homes and get stuff built and maybe some companies can crop up with like looser rules to be able to do that. Because in my experience trying to find a place to rent, one experience I had was you pretty much had to like, email them early in the morning and be the first person they see and the first person they see would get the room so it's pretty hard out there um yeah yeah i'd like to see a proposal brought to the city commission or maybe a listening session on what types of uh developments people would like to see that

Okay.

I would like to hear what the commission would, their opinion on that would be.

Okay, thank you.

I'm sorry, I didn't catch. Where is this at? Where is this recommendation stuff at?

I don't know. What location here in town are you at?

I might be able to add a little bit.

Heel Circle.

It's by Schilling. Okay. All right. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for your comments. I'm going to ask Dustin to speak on this, but thank you for your comments.

So we do have a housing plan, and it was— It was amended last year and we have 2022 and 2024 supplements. Before you leave, if I can get your contact info, I will reach out and follow up with you on some of that information and make sure you at least have the reports that are out there because there might be some updated information from more recent than I think you said that 2022 one that you saw. So I can definitely get those to you, at least so you see the most updated stuff. But we do have a housing plan and it gets updated every couple years. It hasn't had an overall goal when it was first implemented and that's been adjusted as we go. One of the big things to reasons updated is we have done a lot of housing, a lot of units in the last few years and there are some in the works. not everything is developed but we do have Salina destination that did is going to be placing 500 units in you know into the city which still doesn't solve the problem one of the recent amendment to that plan did acknowledge that those have gone fast immediately as soon as they're built. So it definitely speaks to still being a need for it. I can't remember the exact number of units that we've got constructed since that housing plan came out. I don't want to take a guess on it, actually, because I don't want to get the number wrong. But we have made progress on that, but it's definitely not – the need is not resolved yet. So there's – those amendments help to expand on what we plan to do, what possibilities there are. And it was Alex, right?

Yeah.

So what Alex said too, that's one of the big focus areas is that middle income housing or that is a big gap, workforce housing. I think there's different terms that we use for it that generally speak to that segment of the market where it's not low income housing and they're not so expensive that you're priced out. And so we usually are dealing with a little bit denser development, town homes, Some apartments, some multifamily satisfies that need, but there is also an effort to get people into something that's not an apartment complex. So it's complicated. It's a long-term plan. We are working towards it, but it definitely can always be be improved. There are potential things that we can go down the road of in the future of considering things like amendments to zoning regulations. I know a couple year or a year ago, year and a half ago, I think we got an amendment to the R2 zoning district that allowed a change from a 35% lot coverage to a 40% lot coverage. So by increasing the maximum lot coverage on any one lot, it allows you to build, it could be a duplex or something like that. Little changes like that over time can help. And then there are broader solutions or amendments that we could make. We could also discuss at some point if the commission feels like you wanna pursue one of those discuss that with staff and just to give a just another thing to keep in mind is that if there is a plan a desire to do it because we're not we can't solve the problem from staff or Planning Commission no no one person's gonna solve that because it is a combination of who's gonna build and develop it so If developers do have an interest in doing certain types of housing, there are ways we could do it through PDDs, through plan districts, or they can propose changes and text amendments as well, and we can work with them on that. So there are options. It's a decision of which road to go down and what will solve our local need.

And for the commission's benefit, just to add on to Dustin, the deputy director, Margie Clem, wanted me to add that development services did do a housing study update in May that was brought to the city commission. So when we get Alex's contact information, we'll make sure Alex has a copy of what went to the city commission so he can see that. So they're updating it, not just the plan itself, but they're updating it with data to reflect what's been done in the last... three years and uh margie is um really our our housing incentives guru um upstairs and so she said that if you ever wish to have like a presentation or a brief talk about you know what housing incentives do and how they can incentivize people to develop in swan i should be happy to do that for you guys so just let dustin know her and we could make that happen yeah we can we can schedule a study session or something like that if if you all are interested in that and

And I don't know that it's been brought since I've been here. And so that's a little over three years now. And so I don't know how long it's been since the commission has had a study session on that. And we'd be happy to put that together.

I remember that presentation from Margie and Ms. Driscoll also, I believe, was part of that. And Alex voices some valid concerns because we're still way behind what that plan was outlining for us. But again, it's not one board or one person that can make that happen. Just very quickly, in unfinished business, I'm still waiting on the report of the saturation of vape centers and stores. It's been over a year now. I've been waiting on this. Anything coming forward?

It's on our radar. We've had a very high amount of cases and workload right now. We've just recently filled our only vacancy. So it is not forgotten. It's We will get something.

So the new guy gets that part, right?

Maybe that's a good project for him. He's been doing great, getting familiar with everything. We're trying not to open the floodgates on him too quick, but that might be a good project. I have one that's unrelated to a planning commission thing necessarily, but a pretty important floodplain project having to do with some FEMA projects regular audits that they do, or not audits, but... with the state where they look at what's been built and stuff. So I have him working on that or getting started on that, but I can actually look into having him work on that. Thank you. I'm a patient guy. Yeah, I understand. I can become a patient. All right.

So, staff, you will get Alex the information so he can get the most latest and greatest reports. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. And then, Alex, I suggest if you have further questions, you know, maybe you can visit with Margie. Okay. Okay? All right. Thank you.

And I just have one question. Ten years ago or so, we talked about permeable hard surfaces. And is that gone by the wayside? Or is that an industry standard that's out the window?

I don't know, though, all the details on it. But I always keep that in mind. My background in school is in architecture stuff and a lot of sustainability type of things. And so it's always on my mind, but I think the reality is you have to have the scale of development to make it probably feasible from a money perspective. Don't know of a lot of places that really require that. Implementing it into the code as a requirement might be difficult. I don't know that it's common around here, having permeable pavers and driveways and stuff. Definitely still exists. I looked into it a few months ago to see if it still existed. Same question, have those just gone away as a product? I don't know the constraints from a developer's standpoint what that is, but I'm sure that You have to be doing it big enough because I would assume that there's not a lot of contractors around here doing it, so you might be bringing someone in from another state or something like that that is familiar with installing those kind of products. So yeah, they're still there. It's just making the math work, I'm sure, on the developer side. Thank you.

All right, are there any other questions from the public? All right, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Moved and second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you, commissioners.