Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Oh, there she is. I think you're over here. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our second joint work session between the governing body and the planning commission. Um, I'll call this meeting to order and we'll take a quick roll call. Is that you, Ashley? All right, go for it. Mr. Delgado, Mr. Savage, Mr. Thrawn here. Miss Febach, Mr. Grant, Miss Kier, Mr. Nace,

Mr. Aravalo, Mr. Airheart, Miss Jones, Miss Squire, Mr. Sly, Mr. Morris. Thank you.

All right, we do have a quorum. Um, our first item up is discussion of the comprehensive plan completion process, next steps, and schedule. Uh, Mr. Mike Malon is going to go through that with us and um he's got a full presentation. I'm going to go ahead and turn around as he talks and anybody I guess since we don't have microphones just kind of raise your hand or something that we have. We will not have any public comment during this section but afterwards at the planning commission. It's the one of the first things on the agenda where you can do citizen participation. So please give your feedback at that time of anything that we talk about tonight andor anything in general with the planning commission. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Um, appreciate everybody coming here this evening to talk about our comprehensive plan. Um, and the next steps in the process for for finalizing the comp plan that started 2023 I 2022 23 24 ballpark timeline. So, uh, we're excited to kick this off. Um, here's the agenda that was uh on the website for this evening. discussion of the comprehensive plan and then some potential unified uh zoning ordinance changes uh to help better respond to changing development patterns. So, this is a slide of the current city boundary uh with the uh city of Spring Hill highlighted in the uh colored aerial as you see down there. Uh this was recently most most recently uh extended to add the 315 acres over near 91st and Rener Road. Uh the city of Altha surrounds uh in the light pink to the north. The city of Overland Park is to um the right of the screen or the east in the uh light orange color and then Gardener and Edertton are shown

over to the right. Um, I think what this map really does is it shows how much land is in unincorporated uh Johnson County and in unincorporated Miami County still. Um, which uh leaves a lot of room for f future growth area for not only Spring Hill but some of our neighboring cities as well. This is a map that shows the current city boundaries um most recently updated with our current infrastructure shown um with the existing sewer lines and existing water lines. The sewer lines are in green and the water lines are in blue. Um we have a number of construction pro or capital improvement projects and studies now that could look at expanding our sewer system in particular. Uh water services would now fall to uh water one to the north and water district 2 uh to our south and southeast. Um so uh I read an article the other day and I shared this with the u chamber of commerce when I did a presentation. Um 10 years ago, 15 years ago, uh developers and builders were most worried when they're looking at development projects about whether they could even get their pro whether they could get their projects approved, whether it would meet zoning, meet the comprehensive plan, would be a good fit for the community going forward. Developers are looking for infrastructure and the cities that can provide that infrastructure will be the ones that actually attract new development. Um because the best development plans in the world won't be able to happen if the city or the county uh that they're looking to locate in can't provide the necessary infrastructure to serve that development. Water, sewer, roads, transportation, electricity, things like that.

Mike, could we point out on here? I know we've got two different sewer projects going, or actually three, I guess. One 223rd, the Northeast and the Northwest. just kind of point on the map where those are at for everybody to see. I would probably need some more assistance on that one from Elaine or Allison. I don't mean to catch Alison with a bite in her mouth, though. On these ones, maybe it might be easier over here. Can you reach those? Are you too short? Okay. So, people at home just listen.

So, we have several sewer projects that are going on. Um, up in the northwest portion of the city, we've got a sewer project that's currently under design right now.

That is at approximately 75th to 183rd Street um to the south um on the west side of 169. So, that's currently under design. We hope to have that under construction here later this year. We have um a project that is currently under construction right now. That is the northeast sewer and that is on the other side of 169 uh 183rd to 191stish area. Uh we've got gravity force main and a lift stations being constructed with that. That's going on right now. Uh we have another project that is currently under design. It's North Webster sewer project and that's going to be just north of the glass plants uh to incorporate some of the areas on the east and west side of Webster Street. And of course we have our wastewater treatment facility that we are uh under design right now to help us get to a 2.5 to a five million gallon per day um plant so that we can help um serve the the larger development in the future. our current facility. Um we've got about somewhere between five and 10 years based on our study growth um that we will be out of capacity at the current plant. So we need to do something today that does include Biryus that is also currently under construction. Um we are going to be taking on some of the BIURS customers um and as well as some of the Johnson County wastewater customers as part of the Northwest um sewer. We're taking on they they're actually the residents that are being served by Johnson County Wastewater. We're helping Johnson County out with a um we're helping Johnson County out with the um extension of our Northwest sewer. We're going to uh decommission one of their lift stations to help serve those residents better. And we'll be taking

them on. And that's all part of part of that Northwest Sewer project. And some of that's within our current um city limits. Now, kind of where it says Bonita, that's where that northeast one is kind of going down the railroad tracks. And again, that west one is kind of where we see the cluster of green um in the top left corner of the of the utility map. That's not currently within limits, but that's kind of our area where we have a growth pattern kind of uh opportunities there um because of this wastewater. So, just wanted to make sure everybody kind of knew where all of the new devel are or the new utilities are kind of running through as we go through some of these other items.

Okay. So, here's a draft schedule and outline of a process that we think will get us to the final points where this uh comprehensive plan can be completed, brought forward uh to the planning commission uh for a recommendation to the governing body to adopt the comprehensive plan. Uh our current draft uh is incomplete. uh work has generally stopped on that for the past uh six to nine months, maybe even a little bit longer. Um there's some steps that need to we need to do to get it across the finish line. Um what I will go through here in a minute is a new schedule and a new process for completion. Um the desired outcomes of of a comprehensive plan that we we think would be best for the city is a holistic comprehens complete comprehensive plan that looks at not only land use but also quality of life, transportation, infrastructure, u parks, um the whole city as a you know as we look to do capital improvement projects, expanding our infrastructure and really what do we want the development patterns in Spring Hill to look going forward. Um as such, the future land use map um in particular over the last few months has gotten a lot of attention. Um the future land use map is just one component of the overall comprehensive plan. Um it is not the plan itself. It is just one component and even with that future land use map it is a best guess an educated guess uh projection of what could happen different development scenarios as they could happen based upon the information we have today. Um we can't predict everything that will happen in 30 years and so a good comprehensive plan is a plan that can adjust and have some flexibility to respond to market trends

as they happen. Um 15 years ago the housing uh crunch that we're all seeing was not a thing. Um 15 you know 20 years ago we were almost coming to the great recession and the big housing bubble. So 20 years ago no comprehensive plan kind of in the country anticipated the massive decline in the housing industry in 2008. Um, I don't think anybody planned for COVID and nobody was planning for a second housing crunch at this time in their comprehensive plans. A good comprehensive plan seeks to be resilient to be able to respond to those changing dynamics and then that's why we build in that flexibility to be able to respond to that. Uh but not only that, we want to be able to adjust accordingly because we don't know what the next thing may be, whether it's a new type of development pattern, a new industry, disruptive industries such as AI, like how are these all going to impact the built environment and quality of life of the city. So, uh we want the plan to be responsive to an unpredictable future. Um we're proposing uh to do additional listening sessions and public input sessions. Uh again uh over the last few months the comprehensive plan has been a popular topic of conversation and a good comp comprehensive plan gets input from all parts of the city all parts all residents both in the county and in city limits. We want to hear from everybody. U those that have opinions that may not necessarily share them. Um, we want to create uh unique and innovative ways for people to share their input. Um, we want to make it as easy as possible to get all of the opinions so that the comprehensive plan can be a real um scope that everybody uh can provide input on. Um, as such, uh, not everybody in the city or within the county or future growth area is

going to have the same opinion as to what future growth could look like. Um that's the beauty of having a diverse community with a lot of different ideas. Uh and so the idea of a comprehensive plan is to build that con uh consensus and to come to some sort of an agreement so that we can put a plan in place and move forward and then have a guide for which uh to base city decisions uh other plans that may fall under this umbrella such as a transportation plan or a parks and open space master plan things of that nature. Um and again back to that flexibility, a comprehensive plan can be reviewed every year, every five years to make sure that we're responding to the needs um of the community. Um, as part of those listening sessions, um, I've seen some real success in having land use 101 discussions to really talk about how land uses impact each other and how market dynamics dictate or u lead developers and lead to propose development where they do. Um, and also to how cities respond to those uh development inquiries. And so a land use 101 and also a how development happens. Um I think there's a sometimes a mis misconception that the city is the one that actually goes out and builds neighborhoods and that we uh at the city are the ones that build shopping centers. Um the city does not build private development. We set the ground world uh ground rules in that in the zoning based upon the framework of a comprehensive plan and then the private development private investment comes in. Then they actually fund uh the private development that we see. The city takes care oftent times the infrastructure, sewer, uh roads, parks, public amenities, but it's private development. And for everybody to be educated and have a good understanding of how these things play into land use decisions involves us understanding why developers

pick certain properties, what they're looking for, what markets are they trying to serve. Uh and so I think that would be a very beneficial thing that we could do. Um, also having some development tours um, with the planning commission, with um, potential governing body members to get out and go tour developments in and around the Kansas City region. There's a lot of variety and to almost do a visual preference survey so that people can say, "Yes, I like this." Um, and then really deep dive into that is what do you like about it? What do we like about it? Is it the size of the buildings in relation to the sidewalk? Is it the proximity of a higher density residential product to a commercial shopping center or is it the space in between homes? And so getting out and touring other successful developments in the Casey region uh can help us hone in that vision for what Spring Hill can be in the future. Again, we want a variety of input from the community, businesses, residents, stakeholders, uh members of the planning commission, members of the governing body, city staff, the school district, chamber of commerce. Um really trying to get a sense of what the the the different visions are for what Spring Hill could be in the future and then putting those together to come up with a a plan to try to get us moving in that direction. Um the process that I um have worked with in the past and that is most successful is where you know the city staff and works with the consultants based and takes that information from that input from the community, the businesses, governing body, the planning commissioners and puts that together into a draft plan with has different scenarios uh different alternatives uh for growth patterns um for how corridors could develop. Um, I often joke that if I could predict what was going to happen on any piece of ground over the next 30 years and what was the absolute best use

on that property, I probably wouldn't be working in city government because that's what real estate developers do every day and they make a lot more money than any of us do in city government. But I can also make an argument for any given pro uh parcel or property in the city that there isn't just one perfect land use for that parcel. Um, it could be a commercial shopping center, it could be highquality apartments, it could be uh an office park. There's a lot of different things that could happen on a property. Um, and then how those and then the the domino effect of if one of these parcels turns into this type of development, what does that mean for the surrounding properties? And so really trying to look at how all of that can come together through that alternative and scenario planning and then bringing that forward as a draft with those options to to the planning commission uh to have the planning commission review those provide input and then ultimately vote on a preferred alternative um and then bring that forward to the city council. Um, we again we have a variety of opinions and we're not not everybody's going to agree, but we want to come to as best consensus we as we can moving forward. And again, that built-in flexibility allows us to modify that plan as we go. um you know, not being too hung up on the idea that this is what we adopted 15 years ago and now we have to stick to that because if we if in my opinion if we keep those blinders on of this is what we have to do then we don't look up to see what else we can do. Uh and so we really wanted to be flexible. Uh and then that way we can respond to what changes. Um and overall the goal is to build consensus of how to move forward. um and you know have a plan that that we can implement.

You turn off you don't want me to talk. Um I'm going to pause here and have a little bit of discussion. Yeah, with you.

All right. So, you know, my thought when they first when Mike first brought this up that hey, we're kind of incomplete. we don't really have everything we need. With the tight timeline I kind of gave of June is when I would like it done. With the massive amount of public input that we're getting now, I wanted to make sure we got we can capture that. In 23, we literally had hardly any input from anybody. Um it was actually pretty bad. We just we got more input from people up in THA than we did within city or county area of close to the city. So, with everybody being um more engaged right now, I'd like to try to, you know, give us 6 months. You know, I think we'll go through the timeline next, but I want to make sure everybody we have buyin from everybody on planning and and governing body that this sounds like a plan that we take what what we have already, get some more community input, get a a company that is a little bit more tried and true than the last one we had, and try to finish this thing up the right way, and then have a plan going forward to update it regularly rather than every 20 years or so. So, anybody have any feedback on that as far as that idea? Are you okay with it? What's everybody's thought there?

Yeah, it was I don't know. That'd be a Spencer question. I don't think so. You kind of sometimes buy it and you get what you get. Um I know it was pretty bad. Yeah.

Well, I think as an for people who are here that that weren't really around for that, I think we went through five different directors from the company because people kept leaving as the process was going on. So, we never really had a con, you know, continuous person. Ralpho had been around the whole time. Chuck, Cindy, you've been on there the whole time. You guys were dealing with it more than even us because they were going back and forth. But you would kind of give them information and nothing would really come back. So the plan here would be is that we'd put the onus on Mike and Ian to be very much on top of them and and every month really have a plan of what we're trying to make decisions on and move forward with and get information back quickly and concisely. So, um, if we have a consensus from everybody that, hey, we want to be very very diligent with this, um, I I hate to push it, but I at the same time I don't want to force it and take what we have and use something incomplete and then everybody's unhappy with it rather than do it the right way.

I know I wasn't started once a meeting or anything like that all you put out like it's because you were too busy with fall festival I mean a lot of it was at fall festival really like what what ideas do you have because yeah we pretty much did like the community events we had like the QR codes all over the ground but again if you have no idea what it is when you see it you don't know to oh scan it to do that so Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. Look, there are a lot of different this is the the all the consultants that are out there doing this for a living right now are always trying to come up with new and better ways to get the input from from the far corners or the of the city for people who don't normally participate or the people that have lives when they get home at 5:00 and they don't have time to come to a meeting and sit and provide brainstorming ideas to a governing body or or to consultants. Um so you know some of them You know, uh there was a trend where they all went electronic. Do everything via social media, do it through websites, but that doesn't reach everybody because some people just like a face-to-face conversation. Conversely, the old school days, we used to just go set up at an event and hand out and just talk to people. I think the best uh sol solution and to get all of the input we can is to combine the two and do a website, do the the Facebook surveys, do um you know a lot of different aspects of that side with also you know feet on the ground meeting people um really getting out and and working with the chamber to to get this in the business's hands. uh we like you know we want to create um champions of this effort and so that involves all of us that involves the planning commissioners talking to people about it or if there's questions send them to the right resources and things like that and that doesn't even include you know without asking the different consultants out there what they've done say in a different metro area completely in Denver or in Oklahoma Omaha what what have they done where they've seen success um the planning conferences are filled with everybody doing show and tell about all the cool things they do. And so I don't want to pretend that I know them all at this point, but I think having that variety rather than relying on one or two only really gives us that best chance to do it

well. And I also think right now we have the most engagement we've ever had. So right now is probably better than ever, you know, at this point. Look how many people showed up tonight. This is usually we have two people in the crowd and it's the same two people all the time. So now that we have people here, people engaged, now's the time to do it. Um, and then just keeping everybody engaged by listening and trying to do the right thing. So, if we're good with that, I think I I think that's a good plan. Um, any other feedback that you think we should look at instead of this or

I'm sorry. activities. I don't know. Yeah. And that's kind of my thought is maybe we even attack it a little bit by part of town and get with we now have you know full neighborhoods with we can go through the HOAs and you know this part of town we can do things here that hopefully we can get folks here. Um like I said the the best we can do is just try. I mean last time I felt like we kind of did a lot of the same thing. I think it was like online surveys and the community events. I think we have to kind of create the event, really get the word out. But like I said, as of the last 12 months, I feel like everything we've done has had way more attendance than anything we've had in the last five years. So, if that trend continues, it's going to be better no matter what. But at this point, just taking what we've got and kind of running with it. I just don't want to take what we have and kind of put an incomplete product out there. Exactly.

I don't want to rush it, but at the same time, I don't want to delay it too long. So, that's why I think if we give a a pretty tight timeline, which I think we'll go through next, um to me, it seems like a a good bet. Anybody else have anything? PJ, I Oh, you want this?

Yeah. Out of the out of the list of things here, the thing that's got me the most excited is putting out information and having these listening sessions. Um, we had great turnout when we were talking about the roundabouts and we did the public meeting for that. Lots of people came in and were engaged. Um, I think it was the SS4A. Um, we had a lot of engagement through the uh through the different ways they they uh put out information and surveys. So, if we can kind of tap into all of those things and and really get out to as many people as possible, I love that idea. And it's probably for me it's the best justification for holding off. Um you rarely rarely get the city as a whole engaged in anything and we've got we've got people engaged right now. So take it let's take advantage of it. Um I really really want to take advantage of this as far as um letting people know the resources that are already available. The city does have a place where we post everything all the time. Everybody's like I never know what's going on. And the reality is we have state obligations that we meet and we post all of our public hearings um through what is the Polola newspaper I believe is our is our Yeah, that's our required publication. So if you're concerned about anything that's going on in the city or you feel like you're not being advised as far as what's uh what's coming up, what meetings are being t um held, that's what you follow. You need to subscribe to that newspaper. It's every city in Kansas has a publication that they're required to post all of their things in. Spring Hill doesn't have a newspaper, so you have to um use the next closest periodical and for us that's payola. So stay stay um

right. And then you can also sign up online for notifications. Is that through our website? Notify me. Yep. Notify me through the website. It's another great a great thing to look through. Just really if you don't know where the information is accessible, encouraging people just call. We have people standing by phones all day ready to answer any questions. And that's That's I think that disconnect right now is something that we need to address. So, putting out as much information as we have about all the resources that are already available. It's going to help move this along and get as much input as we can.

We've only got about 20 more minutes, so let's move on. But tell everybody you know, too. If you're here, just tell five people and it'll get it'll get further out than you know.

All right. So, here's the um so what we would like is a comprehensive plan that has also multiple avenues to get the information once it's finally adopted. Um some cities just do a PDF document that lives on a buried in a website somewhere under the community development heading and it's hard to navigate to find that for the average person who just wants to jump on there and find it. So, a good comprehensive plan has multiple avenues to get the information. A PDF document so somebody could read it. Um, sometimes we we still print them because people like to be able to reference in a hard copy, but also to have an interactive website where you can click on the different chapters of the plan and go right to that chapter if you want to know about potential transportation improvements or what does the future land use map say generally for this area near my home or where is the city looking at putting, you know, commercial uh shopping centers, things like that. So, we would want to have it be um as easy to find the information as possible. So, our draft schedule would be to uh put out a request for proposals to engage a uh planning uh or engineering or landscape architecture firm to help us complete this uh comprehensive plan, put it out for a 30-day uh timeline so that people can u respond to that in a meaningful way. Uh we want something that is going to be unique to Spring Hill, not just changing the name on the plan uh and doing a word search and taking out whatever city they just did and putting in Spring Hill. We want this to be a plan for Spring Hill. In order to do that, the consultants need time to put together their best uh presentation to be able to try to try to get that project from the city. So um with that time frame, we'd be looking at a May 15th deadline. uh April 15th would give us enough time to to close to April 15th to to draft that and get it out. Um May 15th, we'd have a deadline or somewhere near there. Two weeks to review the proposal and have an

interview with the different consultants and then essentially uh we would choose one uh bring that forward with a contract uh sometime before June uh to have that uh you know approved by the city council. And this is all conservative. Um, some of the cost estimates I've heard are between 50 and $75,000. Um, it's not a complete redo of the plan because we have a lot of that background information and research that was done. Uh, we would just need to update it in terms of population numbers, uh, housing numbers, permit numbers, things of that nature. Uh and then ideally targeting a July 1 kickoff uh with the consultant and then um a six-month project and wrapping that up by the end of the year and then bringing that forward to planning commission and the governing body um sometime in January if not sooner be our proposed timeline. So this is essentially a little over six months uh just to be conservative but we also uh we're not the consultant's only client and so part of our schedule would be dependent upon their existing workload and what they could fit in there. Um but you know consultant may look at this and say this isn't six months worth of work. we can do this rather quickly, but we also don't want to rush it and have four neighborhood meetings in one month um because we want to be able to have time to develop scenarios and then have people react to it. So, we want to take our time, do it the right way, and not um try to just rush it to get it done. But I think this schedule would allow us enough time to do it the right way.

Yeah, I think we initially talked about December, but you know, November, December is so tough between planning in city council meetings to get everything in. We have a lot of people out and I would hate to make decisions with barely a you know um quorum for each group. So um I think this gives us the right like I said if it comes in and we end up doing it a lot quicker that's great fine but I think if we do it right it probably takes this amount of time. I think we do it any longer it could become stale dated again and we kind of get what we got into last time where we hit a year and things just really didn't go the way we wanted. So um to me this is kind of ideal. Obviously the RFP process is always takes a while. So they have to bring best their you know bring forward their best foot. So any questions comments on this? No. Okay. Well I think I think in my opinion we've got a consensus to go ahead and move forward with this. I'd like to get that going so we can make sure we meet this timeline. And I'm going to hold you to January.

Okay.

Me, too. All I asked Allison a minute ago because she did have such a good turnout for like the roundabout and the SS4A and she was talking about how she got some of the business owners um down south close to there involved to spread the word. So again, I think that's our best bet. All of us know a lot of people around here, whether they be in the county like Chuck or different parts of the city. Tell your neighbors, tell everybody you know, hey, get involved. Be a part of this process that we can help. Okay. Next up, we're going to talk about um potential unified zoning ordinance changes to better respond to changing development trends. This is kind of a stop gap because we're pushing this out and I know we've had major issues with with having a lack of zoning options. So, we're going to look at um something we can do quickly here in the next month or two to try and make sure we get those updated. So, Mike's going to go over some of those options for us. Okay. Thank you, mayor. The first um option um that I think uh is most pressing right now is currently the city only has two industrial zoning districts. We have the MP, which is the industrial park zoning district, and we have the M1, which is general industrial. Um the MP industrial park is is very is intended to be a little bit more limited in nature. Um have limited commercial services, you know, research, development, administrative facilities, low impact industrial, artisan manufacturing, things of that nature uh in that uh industrial park MP zoning. The next one is our kind of catchall for any type of industrial use is the M1. Um currently that would allow what we have in M1 currently um the the concrete plant uh manufacturing outdoor manufacturing with outside storage uh larger intensity uh industrial and manufacturing land uses Cardinal Glass

uh you know things of that nature. What we would propose is creating a third industrial zoning district uh to differentiate between a M1 and the new M2 with the M1 being modified to be more of a light industrial. Um basic industries which are generally compatible with residential or commercial activity. Um finished products take place all indoors, limited outside storage, um limited impacts land use wise, not a lot of noise. uh lighting, odor, sounds, um not a lot of traffic generated, things of that nature that can fit more in what you see in, you know, kind of the business park environment. Uh modern-day industry takes place almost, you know, it's hard to tell the difference between uh an office building sometimes and an industrial use because a lot of that is happening indoors, it's computer related uh or it's precision manufacturing. um and that has almost no external impacts. Um so we would like to trim back the M1 allowable land uses that we currently have in the city and create a new M2 uh heavy industrial uh which are uses that aren't generally compatible with existing residential and or commercial activity unless there's significant buffering or mitigation of some of those external concerns. Not saying that it can't happen, but it's really not advisable to have it happen. So um that would be our plan uh and to structure it that way. Uh we have a lot of existing business that is in M1 currently uh that would if this were approved become legal non-conforming land uses. So that means they couldn't expand uh the the scope of their use or the footprint of their building and other you know the the area on which they they take up on a property. um

unless they were to come back in and request a resoning to M2 from the city council. So, it creates a situation whereby over time those businesses can't expand as they continue to succeed, but it allows them to maybe find a different property um to relocate to in the city, get a different zoning um if if the the zoning on their property is no longer appropriate for that heavy industrial use. So that's been u you know commercial corridors have done that in in different cities throughout the country where there's houses up on a main street or residential uses that just aren't compatible within a commercial corridor. Uh the properties are reszoned to commercial and then eventually over time those residential uses fade out. So this would be our proposal to create a third industrial zoning district. uh which I believe is is appropriate for a city of Spring Hill size today, not only with our population, but also as we grow um you know, if we had five or six different industrial categories, we really start splitting hair on what different land uses or what, our land use table would have to expand greatly. Um and that's typically seen in a city like Kansas City, Missouri or Kansas City, Kansas that has a wide variety of different industrial types. We likely won't see that wide variety. We want to be able to accommodate it within those three different zoning districts and then have enough differentiation between the three to be able to respond and provide guidance as to where those uses could be located.

How would this impact the current M1 zoning that's not developed? The current M1 zoning that is not developed would have to follow whatever the zoning was in place at the time they applied. Okay? And so if we have a vacant piece of ground now that is zoned M1 and before this code change would be implemented if it were to be approved if they applied to develop it they would be in under the code that exists today. So they would be able to do the uses in the table today. Um

so why is that different from an existing business that's here to one that's not not being used? Because depending upon how the use is allowed in M1 or M2, how that gets written and approved, some of the uses that are allowed in M1 today may not be allowed in M1 under the three different industrial zoning district platform. So they could be restricted on their development. It could be in the future too. Yes. Okay. Because Yeah. My my question was yeah, we have M1. Some of it probably is good for heavy industrial, some of it's probably not.

And how do we kind of restructure that to make sure they meet those? I know we're kind of at a spot with some of them where we're not going to get them to change it voluntarily. So, but also how do we meet the expectation that we reszoned it at the time based off of what they were looking to do and you know, so on and so forth. So, existing ones wouldn't be able to expand after this gets this if this gets adopted and vacant land would be based off of what the zoning is now, not after this. Um, it would be based upon when they apply to for the development plans. So, we have So, if they're if they're applying for the development plans after we pass this,

then they would have to comply with the new with the new zoning. Okay, I like that. Okay. That's what I was worried about. about them like are we still held to the standards of what M1 is now or will they be held to the standards at the time of development?

Um no. Uh some of those properties that currently have M1 zoning u may object to this legislative change that would apply to the whole city. Um, but generally speaking, and Spencer could probably correct me if I'm wrong, but legally speaking, we would not be taking a like do a constitutional taking of the property just by removing some of the allowed land uses on their property because there's still a lot of different uh, you know, land uses they could do on the property to still make uh, you know, develop it and make money. We wouldn't be reszoning them to a park or taking away any allowed land uses on their property. And so I don't believe that would constitute like a constitutional taking or you know devaluing their property

and they would still have the opportunity to apply for M2 zoning. Exactly. Okay, perfect. Good. I like that that we we aren't kind of strangle held there. Yeah, I would assume they would help us identify that.

Yeah. Uh, ideally, like like the mayor said, this is kind of a stop gap to to tide us over until we get the comprehensive plan done. Um, following a good comprehensive plan, then we would probably look to hire a code consultant to come in and update our whole code to be able to implement the policies and the strategies in the comprehensive plan. they may come up with a different zoning category name or a way to change the zoning district names alto together um institute new setbacks for different development times things of that nature but that would be based upon what gets identified in the comprehensive plan.

Yeah, if we identify that hey we actually can have this wide array that these big cities do maybe we need more zonings but as this point this gives us a little bit of a protection from the very very heavy industrial unless we really want to have it there. Go for it.

If we pass this, it would Yeah. It would have to meet whatever it meets here. That that zoning would have to be. Okay.

Yes. Well, like seats just added on. Would that be similar to kind of what their situation was where they added a building on? Yeah. General. Yeah. Because they would be expanding the degree of nonconformity by how much build, you know, how much they're actually using the property for that land use. So, yeah, typically a building addition of x number of square feet or like adding a property next door and expanding into that uh or adding a a different land use that may not be compatible with that zoning anymore.

Yeah. So, sounds like it. That's something we'd have to look at a little bit further and talk to Spencer about how do we legally do that? Do we um take each individual conditional use permit and and look at how do we transfer that over or depending upon which uses in the new zone or in the revised M1 zone still require a conditional use? Um we'd have to see how that plays out kind of on a case-byase basis as kind of a almost a zoning transition plan.

Like Ozark's going to be based off it's already going through the whole process. So even though they haven't started building They went through our old M1 with their conditional use permit to come and pull the rug out from them now would kind of be I would think not right. But if they wanted to expand from whatever we have approved, we'd probably have to look at this and see where they land. All right. Yeah, go forth.

We haven't outlined that yet. Um my guess is it would be similar, but maybe also have additional buffering requirements. Um, yeah,

something we can look at for sure. Uh, let's move real quick. We have one more that we were going to look at. Um, yep. This one, the planned overlay.

Yeah. So what we would propose on this one is currently the way our code is written, we have planned districts which somebody could add to their development, add to their base zoning and the base zoning sets all the development standards and allowed uses and then somebody can request a planned district on top of that to modify some of those development regulations, building height, setbacks, lot coverage, lot size, things of that nature. um development patterns, uh block length, things of that nature. Um but that only deals with our development regulations. It doesn't um allow for any flexibility in the land uses approved in that base zoning district. We have another section of the code that allows for a protected overlay district which goes on top of the base zoning district to um outline what land uses can be done on that property. The way the current protected overlay is written, we can only remove land uses from a base zoning district. We can't add land uses to an existing base zoning district. So, we had an example recently uh over on 223rd in Webster ballpark that in essence they could have just been in a C2 or general commercial zoning district, but they wanted to have limited accessory outside storage and screen it appropriately. But in order to accomplish that, we had to create a planned or a protected overlay that was based off of C2, but we called it M1. And then we took out all the other land uses that we they weren't going to do that are allowed in M1 or MP, sorry. Um, so we would propose to eliminate this dual process to have all these acronyms after the base zoning of a property and combine it into a new planned development zoning district uh, which would allow for flexibility in uh, land uses to permit additional land uses

or restrict land uses but also to modify those development standards I previously mentioned. uh it does have the ability to have flexibility uh in permitted restricted land uses and alternative development regulations. It is not meant to just allow somebody to not have to meet the code. U it is an alternative way to provide a development that is equal to or better than what our base zoning district standards or protected overlay would create. So this is not a means to just give us development that is not quality or at the same level we would normally get. It's really intended to just be a different way to accomplish the same or do it better. Um, I likened it uh to you're baking cookies and our code and our development regulations are what they are and it produces a limited amount or limited type of cookies. Maybe you just get chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin and that's it. You get development that looks and feels the same over time, repeats itself. This PD plan development district allows us to take different kinds of cookies, uh, M&M cookies, you know, white chocolate cookies, all that are the same quality. They're just different ways of going about doing it. uh and it really allows the development community and the city to respond to those changing development patterns but also lock in their development so that they can't change it over time uh without coming back to the planning commission and governing body. So they would have to create plan development standards development so it's in essence creating a unique zoning district and unique code for that based upon our current code. Um, and so those plan development standards would all need to be outlined at the front part of an application, set in stone, and then actually the preliminary development plan that gets approved with it goes along with the zoning ordinance and those plan development standards and lives with that product or project and

it can't be changed unless it comes back to the planning commission or um, city council. So development plans don't necessarily expire over time uh without coming back u so it locks it in for the developer so that they know that hey I got this approved this is what I can develop on the property which is good for the development community because then they get um the asurances they like minim minimizing risk to to make developing in Spring Hill attractive but it also gives the planning commission the governing body city staff and the residents nearby knowing that this is what is going to be built on this property and if anything changes it has to go back through that same process.

Well, one don't use cookie analogies because I I didn't hear anything you said after that. Um but secondly, I in my opinion I like this way better than how we had to do that last development only because in my mind I don't like seeing M1 on the map. I would rather see C2 plus or a plan development district just because I don't want to set a precedent of in certain areas that we have a certain type of zoning even though there's layers and layers of coverage there. I just ideally we we'd have this in place. So, does anybody have any questions or feedback on these two types of zoning updates? What was that?

Yeah, exactly. particular set. I like the idea of having the flexibility out. There's not exist. Yep. I think we can address that. Sorry to interrupt if you want to go.

Well, no. I think at the end of the day it's hard because we can't govern a future governing body and just like they can't govern us. There's been, you know, there's been that happening over the last 5 years, too, where it's like, oh, these things were in place, but they're really restrictive and so we are blocked or we can't stop something because of this or that. So, I think what we're doing is trying to expand it. Do the best we can. Hope that the people that are put in these positions are doing the right thing. Um I like again to me this would have been better for that last one. Uh I don't like having to go super heavy and then pull back because then like I said on paper in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years if nothing else gets developed there and the governing body when we're all dead and gone says, "Oh, well there's M1 there. We could just keep doing M1 Webster."

I don't think that's probably a great use. But not that they'll do that. It's just in my mind that's where my mind goes. Yeah. And I think that's something we can certainly take that feedback and as we craft this new zoning district um whether it's intent statements really hammering home when this is can be used when it's best to be used when is it not to be used and then also hammering home those u those review criteria uh making the developer commit to more upfront. Um it's not a way to just get out of the code. It's also a way to balance that out. So, if they're requesting reduced setbacks or a different land use, what are they doing extra to get us back to that equilibrium that our current code would have done? Um, and also making it harder on them so that if they want to do things quickly and easy, they they develop to our base zoning district and follow our codes and rules in existence. But just having that ability to be flexible um with all the different development types. But I certainly understand that concern. It's something we'll take into account when we when we draft it.

Yep.

Absolutely. Well, and one one thing I'm the one way I'm looking at these two also is they're good changes as a stop gap in my opinion. like he said when we get the comp plan done I would even look at re reviewing these again with an actual code person saying you didn't think about this or that for the future. So even I would like to get these done quicker rather than try to make them perfect right now so that we have protections in the in the interim because as we see there's new stuff coming at us every day. people are applying for resonings and you know everybody here including this the crowd wants to have some sort of reassurance that we have things in place that are going to help protect the area as we're figuring out what we're going to do. So to me this is something imminent to get us by until we kind of get to the end of the year and then next year we can even maybe enhance them even more. But do we have a consensus that these these couple changes would be good in the interim to get us through? And if we do have that, then I would say let's work on it sooner than later. I don't know if you have a timeline on when drafts of these could be ready.

Um I think our drafts of them are are pretty I'd say they're about 75 80% there. Okay. Um I think we just need to refine that. Uh take into account the feedback we got this evening. um have that, you know, we would have to go through the process of a code change um and the required public hearings and bringing it to planning commission and then the governing body. But, you know, depending on that timeline could be as soon as 6 weeks.

Okay. Uh also, I think there's going to be some public comment tonight. Let's take that into account. Also, if there's anything that we didn't think about and they come up and say something, we have a meeting here next week, so we'll be able to kind of respond to those things, too, which is great. And then planning commission, same same with you. If you hear something that you like from the crowd and you want to have it be addressed, let's let's do that, too. Okay. I know we're getting real close. Sorry, 656. So, I'm going to adjourn this meeting, but thank you everybody and uh look forward to hearing what the public has to say.

Okay. Um, we are calling the meeting to order. Um, oh, we're going to start with the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, we can do roll. Amy, Mr. Mr. Nace. Mr. Nace here. Mr. Airheart. Miss Jones here. Mr. Aravalo here. Miss Kier

here. Mr. Sly. Miss Squire here. Mr. Morris here. Uh, we have a quorum. Wonderful. All right. So, we will open up citizen participation. Um, this is an opportunity for those in attendance to address the planning commission regarding items not on the agenda. Um, first up we have Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes, I just skipped over approval of agenda. Um, second. Perfect. It has been moved and seconded. Do we have um all those in favor? I I

I All right, motion carries. One, two, three, four, five, six. 600 zero. All right, six of us. I can count, guys. Okay, now we will open up citizen participation. Um, let's see. First on the list, we have Michael Klutz. How long do we have? Um, five minutes. Five minutes. Five. Okay. Will you please state your name and your address, please? Yes. My name is Michael Klutz. I live at 18512 West 194th Street. Thank you. Nice to see you all.

Um, I'm just speaking tonight. We just talked about the comprehensive plan um update and how this document really needs to protect our community's future as Spring Hill continues to grow. Um, I don't think this should just dictate what gets built. It needs to guide how residents safely navigate our town and how our local infrastructure is protected over time. I'm asking that two key pillars of safe growth be cleared clearly defined in this plan and carried forward into real enforcable policies. Um first pedestrian connectivity and safe routes. Um cities officially aligned with safe streets for all initiative. Uh to honor that commitment, the comprehensive plan needs to establish a clear policy that connected pedestrian infrastructure is a standard expectation for all new development. Right now, we have students crossing major roads like 191st Street near Forring Middle School, and there's no designated or protected crossing infrastructure. Um as we grow, this plan should prioritize safe visible crossings and continuous sidewalks um especially around the schools and hight traffic corridors. Um, some of these specific school situations require urgent attention. Um, their safety is imperative. I mean, I don't think that's anybody can really disagree with that. Um, consistency is key. Um, later on, I know tonight's agenda, you're reviewing the Bride Cliff commercial center. It's a relatively small 15,000 foot project requiring a 5-ft city or a 5- foot sidewalk on Webster Street. Um, shows there's an expectation that sidewalks are mandatory part of development. the the comprehensive plan just needs to reinforce that standard citywide, make sure it's applied to every developer moving forward. Um, another is a second industrial accountability and resource protection. Um, beyond walkability, the comprehensive plan has to provide clear guidance on how we evaluate and zone highintensity industrial uses. We need clear distinctions between light and heavy industrial uses like we talked

about based on their real world impacts like traffic, noise, water demand and energy consumption facil facilities that have massive continuous infrastructure demands like largecale data centers. The plan should explicitly guide those projects toward appropriate heavy M2 industrial zoning districts and require a much higher level of review. This should include policies that require independent impact studies for things like acoustics, environmental impact, and infrastructure capacity before any major resonings or tax incentives are approved. Uh finally, I want to address the economic impact of these standards. Uh these steps are not about stopping growth. They're about setting a standard that attracts the right kind of growth. Um there's a common misconception that to bring in commercial investment, a city has to lower its standards and let developers do whatever they want. I contend the reality is the exact opposite. Enforcing strict consistent development standards actually attracts high-quality businesses. Good businesses want the certainty of knowing their nextdoor neighbor will be held to the same high standards rather than having in conflicting development goals that could hurt their investment. Ultimately, what drives strong business to an area is rooftops. It's families, safe neighborhoods, and a high quality of life. If we protect those things, the good businesses will follow. As the city updates these critical zoning definitions and we must also ensure the process relies on truly objective counsel. It's not a secret that many corporate law firms and consultants specialize in representing hyperscale developers. Um actively working to lower industrial zoning standards in communities across the Midwest. We ask the commission to ensure that the advice shaping this comprehensive plan is completely free from those conflicts of interest, ensuring our rule book is written to protect Spring Hill, not future developers. I respectfully ask that this commission make pedestrian connectivity a strict expectation,

industrial accountability a baseline policy, and independent council a guarantee. I believe Spring Hill has an opportunity to lead by example. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. All right. Um, Kurt Vandipul, sorry if I mispronounced that. You're fine. Please state your name and address. My

name is Kurt Vandle at 20002 South Country Terrace out in the county. Um, I first off want to say thank you to all of you for your service. I appreciate what you do. It takes time, it takes effort, and I do thank you and applaud you for doing that. Um, I never really wanted to get involved um because I work hard, I coach sports, I don't have time, but this recent uh situation that we've had out in my neck of the woods has brought it to to my mind and I have kids now, grandkids that live in town. I want to protect the future for them. So, I want to be involved now. and I appreciate what you all do and the sacrifice that you make. Um, one of the things I think we have the opportunity right now, Spring Hill's taken a bit of a hit this last uh um several months from reputation perspective and it's it it centers around trust, right? I think there's some of us that feel like maybe we were deceived um about what went on out in our neck of the woods with some um land annexation and and then the potential for a data center to be out there. it got really hot and heavy and I want to see trust come back and I think the comprehensive plan is an opportunity for this commission to really help the community build trust and I heard some of that tonight with the opportunities to get um citizens and county involved in that plan. Transparency is key. It's key. And the the um I don't go to websites because I'm I'm sitting at a desk all day long um and my eyes are glued to a monitor. I don't look at websites after that. So, ways to have a town crier, right? Ways to make to get the community involved and to make it um appealing for the community to be involved, to be excited about it, generate excitement about it, build excitement about it. Those are things I'm hoping for. I I'm curious as a

commission, what is your vision for Spring Hill? What do you want Spring Hill to represent this last go around um with uh um Colossus and and data centers and I I felt like we were maybe reacting to what could come and help provide financial benefits to the city and the community. What do we want to do to market ourselves as we develop this comprehensive plan? as we think about our future, how do we then go as a community and go to business leaders and say, "This is where you want to be." So that we're not reacting to somebody that says, "Oh, I've got natural gas, electricity, and water right here within 400 yards of 316 acres. It's a great place for a data center." We shouldn't be reactionary. Let's be proactive. Let's go push. Let's go market ourselves, the great community, the great citizens that we have here. Let's say this is where you want to build. This is where you want to be because we offer smart people. We offer a lot of people with a lot of capabilities that can help your business to grow because let's face it, businesses are are are in business to make money and have that return on investment. Um, that's my uh that's my little propaganda speech. I guess one question I did have um as we were listening earlier about the unified zoning ordinance um and the M1 general industrial and M2 um heavy industrial there there was a comment made and it was that M1 general industrial would be not a lot of noise a lot of light that's very subjective okay I I would like to see how can we make that objective right because we hear that you know a data center um and I don't mean to focusing on that, but it's top of- mind. Um, it it it it's a closed loop system for water, so it's not going

to use a lot of water. Well, it is. Let's really study that out. And light, the the light pollution, if there's lights on 24/7 out in our neck of the woods where it's dark all the time right now, two street lights are going to make it really light. So, where's the real truly objective measurement of what we're calling not a lot of light, not a lot of noise as we're understanding these zonings? Okay. So, that's just a question I'd ask you to please take that in consideration as we're um building and as we're adding definitions to these policies because we need to live with them for the future, right? So, again, I applaud your efforts. I thank you very much for your service and I'm close to time. Thank you. Thank you, Kurt.

All right. Um Tammy Null. Uh, my name is Tammy Null and I live at 1 19440 West 22nd Street. Oh, no, no, 2022nd Street. Um, thank you for um having the community in uh input. Um, I think that y'all are much aware that people want to be involved and we want to protect our community. Um, I too am uh having some concerns with how the M1 and the M2 were presented this evening. Um just as the gentleman said before um the statements were that general industrial has very little impact. Um and he spoke of uh it all being inside and no uh traffic and um then he used um he spoke about computer uh uses and of course that brought up data center. Um we know uh with very little research that uh data centers do not have little impact on the community on the electrical you uh the electricity use the water usage. Um, and it's not just a concern about our uh bills going up, but it's also about what happens when uh the water is pumped back into our um our

water treatment centers and where that water goes and how all the um all the um sediment and all of the um chemicals that are coming off of those computers. s go into our water system and how is all that filtered out because then that water comes back into our drinking water. Um there's also the concerns with the aquaforce and how those are impacted and then how that is eventually going to impact um nature um livestock. We have um we have farmers, we have um cattle um people that have cattle. Those will be affected as well. And so it's not just about um bills going up. It's not just about water usage, but it's about how these will affect um our health. Um there's lots of research about how data centers um affect anxiety, ADHD, um different things um healthwise. And so I respectfully ask that uh y'all institute a moratorum to um to protect at at least for um a certain amount of time to protect and give the community a sense of safety that we're not going to have to be constantly worrying about whether or not um companies are going to come after um people's land and um trying to once again um

have another opportunity to bring a a data center to Spring Hill. So, thank you.

Thank you, Tammy. All right. Next, we have Derek Buckidge. Derek Buckage, 20456 West 220th Terrace. I do want to start by echoing what Kurt said. Really appreciate y'all being your service. And to the council members that stuck around, it says a lot. We appreciate that. And then in the trail building world, we earn our dirt. So, you all earned your dirt by showing up tonight. So, we appreciate that. Um, comprehensive plan. I think a lot of stuff got nailed tonight. Um, I I feel a lot better about it. That being said, through the RFP process, I really recommend doing an RFQ. It's a recommendation for qualifications, and you can really drill down on who is the qualified candidate to do this job. Um, I'd encourage you to look at other cities that are similar to ours. You look at Andover, right outside of Witchah, they got really hit with the Witchaw push and they were forced to grow really, really quick. They just got their first apartment complex, but they're a growing city. So looking at some of those cities that are similar to us, we're not similar to Oland Park. We're not similar to Lanexa. Like we need to really reach out, drill down that RFQ, and really make sure we're getting a qualified individual to come here to design this. Um I was going to hit on surveys, but he backed me up. I I deal with a lot of master plan surveys. The sticky tabs still work. We had so much involvement with the sticky tabs this year for parks. It was huge. Um so definitely drill into that. Um, I think when we're talking about these comprehensive plans and everything, we need to make sure we're there's a saying in parks that if you try and design a park for everybody, you're going to design a park for nobody. Um, you're never going to make everybody happy. So, as we dive into this comprehensive plan, let's not set our goals so unattainable like we have all these past years. We're never going to get hundreds of mile of of pave trail through here and all these imaginary

connectors. Like, we we need better pedestrian access. We need to make these connections, but that's where those developers come in. Right now, developers can come in and they can pay out to not have to put in that paved trail, to not have to put in that that playground. That needs to go. Um, and we need to have a standard like this 4 foot wide paved trail that goes through a neighborhood, that's not user friendly. You have people that you can't pass two bikes on something. People are getting pushed off that. Like, let's update our standard on these requirements. Um, the 191st crosswalk keeps coming up. That's a devel that's a bust on us for development. Like if you're if you're putting a a subdivision that close to a school, there should be no questions asked that they're going to be required to put that that in. Um so, and I can go all day on crosswalks and stuff. Um as we talk about our developers, I think a lot of developers are here and they're building because we are still on the 2005 electrical code and we're on the 2006 IBC. Um and we have a great codes that are in in place now. I I used to literally walk doing an electrical inspection and I would sometimes be teaching that inspector about electrical work as we were doing it. There's a great competent group in there right now and I feel really good about the way they're working through our permit process. But to be able to back that up, you need an updated code. We are in 2026. There is no reason we should be on 20-year dated codes. Um other than that, that's about all I got. Again, I appreciate you all. Um it's connectivity. Like obviously I'm a bike guy. Um, there's a lot of opportunities for greenway grants. There's a lot of stuff. We have streamways. We have all kinds of access. Like, let's let's drive and find those grants. County has a $200,000 grant that goes out to a shovel ready project. I've mentioned it to the wreck and I've also mentioned it to the city. Let's get a project ready. There's the county is here to help. I mean, we see it all over the place. We just need their help, right? So, thanks.

Thank you, Derek. All right, that is everyone that signed up. Is there anyone else that would like to address the commission fight to get up?

Bill Peterman, 1943 West 200 Street. I'm glad I'm following him. That was great. Been here over 12 years. Still fighting the same thing. Sidewalks, right? Is that a surprise? Uh I brought up at the uh city council meeting last one that uh we still don't have the sidewalks that we was told we were getting in the sub woodland uh uh woodland crossing and I was told they had permits but the weather's been causing them problems to not be able to get them in. They've been able to pour driveways and sidewalks inside their their complex, but they can't p uh do the one outside. It's kind of funny how they do what they want. Oh, we've got an excuse. Well, it wasn't an excuse for what you did in there. Let's start going back. Let's start putting the hammer on these people. I'm tired of these developers coming in. Oh, we own your town. Thank you.

Thank you, Bill. Uh, good evening. Uh, John Waterman, uh, 2110, uh, West 186 Tate, uh, Terrace, Dayton Creek. Uh, I spoke a couple times here last couple months to, uh, you know, uh, you all and, you know, thank thank you for the opportunity to do that. uh and to the to the governing body uh the uh city council um you know about this this exact you know topic the comprehensive plan. So I mean tonight was awesome. I I love the engagement from from everyone. Uh it sounds like you really have a you know a plan together. I'm a I'm a guy who studies Gant charts for a living. Uh uh just part of the job. Um, so I look at I look at the schedule that's kind of been laid out and presented in its kind of rough form. Not a Gant chart yet, but I can get it there. Um, you know, I see, you know, we're at April 2nd and uh we're looking to have a uh a uh determination for a uh consultant pick by June 1st. So, in my estimate, that's just about two months. Um, what a great opportunity to to do what Kurt said and all of us, not just not just the planning commission, not just the city council. I mean, you know, you have the the responsibility and kind of taken that oath to to bear that responsibility to promote what the citizens want, but it's the citizens as well. We all have to have a vision for

what we want to see, you know, the city look like in in 15, 20, 50 years. So, what a great opportunity for two months while we're waiting for the consultant to be chosen to really understand and develop what each of us wants to see. And maybe in the in the two months we can get some plans in place to actually have some of these uh networking opportunities to to get, you know, these lists generated. and to to you all as council members uh or as as commissioners and and council members to to really have and kind of filter through and come up with a you know 10 20 30 item you know kind of bullet points the highlevel things that all come through and sift up to the top u I mean that's that's a fantastic opportunity so we're ready to we're ready to execute you know once June 1st hits we we tell the or not we don't tell them we provide the data to the to the consultant you know what the marching orders for for you to do. Yes, we want their in input on what the uh what works you know and what the experiences have been in in in their other planning. But here are our desires. How can you how can you filter and weave those into the fabric of the comprehensive plan that we want to adopt? So, I think that intentionality with the schedule helps us really hit this these milestones. Really does. I mean, we can really get creative with our Gant chart to to hit these dates that the mayor kind of set set forth. um you know I I want to I want to be be

involved with this process. I I I want to be you know as accessible as I can to help where I can. So please reach out to me u you know and I will I will try to help you know how I can. So thank you very much.

Thank you Johnny. Hello, my name is Sarah Grady. My address is 15690 West 199th Street. And I had a couple questions I just or I guess more comments, thoughts that while we were talking about the comprehensive plan earlier. And the first thing is that I didn't hear addressed is what's going to be different about using this new firm that we're, you know, looking into from the first time because I assume the first time they didn't think it was going to be as bad of a situation as it was, you know, because they chose them. So, I guess as a taxpayer, I know we spent money on the plan and or the the firm helping us get the comp plan together. I just guess I'm curious or I guess to have in that you guys would have in mind like well what is going to make this firm better that like what did we not ask last time? What did we not think of the first time to get us in the predicament that we were in? So I guess just to be wary and be alert and try to come up with like how are we going to make sure we choose the right firm? And the second thing is is are we able to see a draft of that plan since you know tax dollars were spent. Is there a way that that could be seen? I know it could cause confusion to the public if it's like, hey, we're working on a comp plan and then all of a sudden people see a comp plan, you know, but if it's listed as draft, like just to see where we were in 2010, the one that was posted, the website said during this data center um situation that a comprehensive plan was coming and to be coming in the spring of 25. And then all of that's what the website said, I guess, when we looked it up. But then all of a sudden, you know, it was like, "Oh, pencil's down. We're not going to work on it or we're not

going to, you know, get it published. We're going to take a step back, adjust, and then come forward with a new one." So, I guess I'm just curious if we could see the draft, like see the one that the website was talking about when it said spring of 2025. I don't know if a core request would need to be done for that, but I would be willing to do that if that's possible. And the next thing leads me to my next point is core requests. So, I'm not directing this at you because I know that you guys aren't the ones that fulfill those. But, as a resident, we have not been we do not feel or I do not and others that our core requests are being answered. It feels a little bit like they're like we're playing a game like the these records are not we're we're not allowed to have access to them. It's not just the residents, it's also attorneys and the media. And I just find that odd because it goes back to the trust thing that was mentioned earlier is it's hard once you lose someone's trust to gain it back. It's way better to just be truthful upfront. So I just find that concerning that Kora requests would be denied. Why not provide them? I know some of them cannot by law, but if it just seems like if they can be denied, they're just denied. We were just having a really hard time getting records. and I feel like as a resident they are records we should have we should be privy to. So that's just kind of a thing to put out there. I know others are feeling the same in the community and I'm the voice for that. Um and then the next thing is well the final thing is just of Spring Hill as a whole. I almost feel like the words that we heard earlier to tonight that we opened up with was you know develop develop develop like how do we attract new development but we're Spring Hill Kansas. We're not a major metropolitan area. So, is our is our identity all of this new development or is it a small

rural community where a lot of us have moved to get away from development and big city? So, I guess just from the residents, we live here, we moved here because we love that. No one's saying that we don't need anything new any whatsoever. Keep it small. But I think just as a whole, it's like, well, what is our identity of Spring Hill? What what do we want it to look like? Do we want to take in dollars for something that's offered? Because, well, it is going to offer a lot of money and we can do XYZ with it, but at a cost because everything's at a cost. It's a cost to how our city feels, how the neighborhoods feel, how the I guess just the the city as a whole, how it feels to all the residents and the charm. And there are some developments that you don't get back the charm and the small town feel once it comes in. So, I think that's it. I just had a random assortment of thoughts. Um, but thank you go all for your time tonight and thank you for all of the work that you put in to better our city.

Thank you, Sarah.

Can I get like So, Michael mentioned something and it it blew my back into my mind. So, we're talking about the Brier Cliff Derek Buckards 20456 West 220. Um, so the what's being voted on tonight, um, for the construction site off Webster, that's literally adjacent to Parkland. So I think there needs to be some kind of discussion on what on way how this is sitting, how it's backing up to that property line because you might have a walking trail 10T off that property line and then if that's a whole entire gravel lot, it gets windy out here. It's Spring Hill, right? So, you're going to have all that dust flying through a whole entire community park. So, I think that's something to think about. If we're going to put somebody on a main drag where we're trying to focal point, like let's not put gravel down. I think that's a that's an easy task. I don't know if it if none nobody can address it. But she had also mentioned the master or the the previous comprehension plan that was approved that was paid for. There's not a current draft right now. This is just a talks to start a new comprehensive plan. So that comp com the existing comprehensive plan has been in place since what 2008 or 200 was it 2005? So and it's that's been online this whole time, right? So just just to clarify. Okay. Thanks. You said

well it's it's the the de so the previous the previous meeting um it was the discussion to go C1 C1 or C the C2 plus oh with the overlay with the PO right and so the the conversation of the last meeting was they're going to put up barrier fencing it was going to look really pretty from Webster but it's still the back half that's still going to be butdding up against that Yeah. So, I mean it's just looking at the plot plan. I mean I mean and when you're building something like that big, I mean what's another 100 grand of concrete, right? So, do it right the first time kind of thing. I just I thought I heard so y

Sorry. Thank you, Derek. We got time for one more. Sure.

My name is Jason Okaane. I live at 188 4 Sky View Lane in Foxwood Ranch development. Um, everybody's been talking about the data center. I've been in meetings with lots of people behind me about data center things and a lot of people are telling negative side effects. Everybody knows the negative side effects of data centers. I think we've all heard that time and time again. Everybody here's been doing the research constantly on it. I think um a proposal to the planning commission, the council, council members that are still here. That data center part of M1 was added in October. I think that was correct. Somewhere around there. They they added it around that thing. Well, if they added it, can we just remove it? Can we just vote on that and just remove it? Liberty, Independence, other places are having data centers get put in. Why don't we let and see what what's going on there before we decide to put something like that in our community? I I really like what she was saying about who, you know, who are we as Spring Hill? What do we see ourselves as? I think that's a good question when you go around and start asking people about this comprehensive plan on uh like, you know, who are we as a community? I think that's a great question. when you go around um coming to you know to uh talk to people um engage people. You guys were talking about engagement a lot. Um, engage them by face to face. Um, my community would probably welcome a face to face. Um, without see just talk to our HOA. Um, I think half the city has my email and telephone number by now. Um, so you can definitely get a hold of me. Um, I think that would be a real good thing to get. I mean, there's 192 houses in my my

development. Dayton Creek is scheduled to have like 400. Um there's lots of other HOAs around here that you could get and you can directly communicate with somebody. I think that would be the best best way to do it. And you know, we could always invite neighbors that aren't in that community to, you know, to that meeting. So, I think that would be a great way to engage people. Um, I appreciate people talking about the sidewalk or the crosswalk at 191st going to the school. I've brought that up to the council. I've brought that up to many people. Um, I know they're looking at different ways and there's a lot of complications of putting one in there. Um, I I hear there's some new developments to get that done sooner, which would be appreciated before we're questioning why didn't we do it sooner when something bad happens. I mean, I I live there. I have children that go to those schools and they ride the bus because I won't let them cross that that street. It's a 45 mph zone, you know, with no sidewalks, just ditches. So, um, also another thing that I would like to bring up is, uh, I'm not sure how to do this, and I've talked to many people about this. I was just in conversation with Mr. Spears about it. Um, a street light at 191st and Sky View Lane. Um, I've requested plat drawings of the lighting plan of two and three. That's all we get. We don't have the plat drawing of of one that shows 191st and sky view. There's no street light at that entrance and it's dark is safety concern to the residents. Nobody seems to be responsible for the street light. They say that our builder

is not responsible. The city doesn't put in street lights in developments. Everg is waiting for somebody to pay for it. And nobody can tell us a direction to go. I've been to Everg. I've been to the city. I've emailed people. Like we are literally at a standstill on that. And I, you know, we we desperately need a street light at that entrance. Our other entrance on Mojave has one. We just feel like that was left out. And uh I've talked to many people. I just I'm just going to keep talking about it until we get a street light. I have no idea who else to talk to. So, um yeah. So, just back to the first thing. I think you guys should just remove data centers from that M1, M2, whatever you guys want to call it. Just get rid of it and then come back to it and let's talk about it again before you go adding it in there. That way, like you said, these people can have peace of mind. That way, we don't have to worry about it. I think everybody would appreciate that. I think everybody would see that as a trust building process of, you know, whatever. But, uh, beep. Thank you.

Appreciate that. Um, yeah, that's all I had to say. So, appreciate that. Thank you, Jason. I know. I'm like, oh my gosh, are we on fire? Oh, that scared me. Got to keep an eye on it. You're right. Can the speaker give us a warning when the time is almost?

Hi, my name is Mike Ingramman. I My address is 15259 West 193rd Terrace um over on Lackman. So, you know, in the last 45 days, I would say that I've probably become a an expert on data centers and understanding what goes on with them, helping organize a lot of this rowdy crew. And uh, you know, I could give you facts. I could tell you, you know, things like data centers, 70% of data centers that come in actually would come in whether you gave them a tax abatement or not. Uh, I have studies for that. I have studies on water usage and the negative effects of senior water rights that they ask for. Um, which means that they prioritize their data set. The cities are required to prioritize them getting water for their data center over people. Uh, which is scary at the least that at least it is to me. Uh, I could, you know, talk about studies that show uh that are that and these are all done by universities. They're not just made up numbers that I have studies that will show that show that in Texas uh data centers in small towns the average they brought in in the first 12 months up to 450 jobs. However, over the eightmonth pri uh jobs typically go down by 750 because people are moving out of those small towns to get away from data centers. So, uh, you know, I I I could go all night on facts because I have them. They're in stuck in my head. I can't get them out. I read non-stop. Um, but you know what I'm really here to talk about is the people. All of these people. You guys have an opportunity right now to use, utilize this group of people that are

highly engaged. Uh, you know, there's so many smart people in this group. I'm just a lowly contractor with a degree from K State. Uh, you know, I I used to build trails for the state of Kansas. I I've built hundreds of miles of trails. I've organized thousands of groups and people. So, you know, it's not new to me, but I see this these people, and it's like, you know, it's inspiring. I've made new friends, uh, which I will be friends with them forever. And, you know, it's I think it's brought the community together. And you know, as Derek said, he needs there there are things that these people could help him with. They they could write grants. Everybody needs grant writers, things like that. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's all about these people. Um, and you know, that's really what I wanted to say is utilize what you've got while it's here. uh and hopefully keep this momentum going and and build something good out of what people feared was bad. So, thank you.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Hi there.

Hi. Um I'm Katie Harter, 15051 West 191st Street. Um I everything that all these people said is just wonderful and again thank you for your time. But one thing I didn't hear um I have a friend who built data centers. Um and she was like oh that's not that bad. And I'm like oh she goes but not there. She goes the infrastructure is not there. She goes how? She goes, "We cannot people cannot just say this is going to be zoned for this without looking at the infrastructure." She said, "Your corner road would not allow trucks to get the the the material in." Um, as an as she was an engineer, she said, "I don't even see how that would be possible." So, I'm against the data center. against putting industrial places in rural areas. But that was her main concern. She said this would be an engineer nightmare if Spring Hill just starts putting commercial blocks in where these residential areas are that don't have the infrastructure that are built for them. Um, and we like not having the infrastructure built for all these big gigantic things. I mean, you're looking at, you know, broken road. I mean, I have a covert near my house just because the roadway is white. It is falling off. I just had to give Johnson County a huge portion of my land so they can put the proper covert in. I mean, you're going to be looking at projects like that everywhere. So, as you are reszoning these areas, be aware that you're going to have to do so much other work like sidewalks, you know, roundabouts, all this other stuff. Don't put the cart before the horse when

you're looking at this comprehensive plan. And thank you for your time.

Thank you, Katie. Anyone else like to come up? All right, we are going to close. Oh, I lost my sheet here. We're going to close citizen participation and we will let's see move on to the approval of minutes from March 5th meeting. I move that we approve the minutes of March 5th, 2026. I'll second that move. All those in favor?

I I. All those opposed. All right. Motion passes 600. All right. We'll move on to item two, which is the lot split application LS26 or 26-1304 and 306 North Franklin Street. All right, good to go. Yes, sir. Go for it.

Perfect. Yes. Uh, my name is Ian Truff, city planner, representing application PL26-1, the law split application for 304 306 North Franklin Street. This is an existing duplex structure uh that is simply being condo divided down the middle. Um, the property is going to be served by uh City of Spring Hill sewer and Water One Water. Uh the applicant is Daryl Voss of Aruba Homes. Um the proposed split meets all city Springfield subdivision standards and because of that staff supports this recommend or supports this application.

Okay. I know this is this property is over um near my grandma's house, so I drive by there often. This is all the Are the other properties around there the same? Like they've been split and they're all Yeah, the whole block is pretty much like Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, I just drove by there yesterday and I was like, "Oh, okay. I know exactly what this is." So, okay. Thank you. Yeah. Does anyone else have any discussions or questions?

Let's catch back up here. Chuck, do you have any questions or anything about the lot split? No, I looked at, you know, on AS and all of the other properties around it are split similarly. So, it's just it's very consistent.

Yeah, I I didn't have any questions. I think it looks pretty similar to everything that's around the area. If there's No other questions or concerns. Could I entertain a motion? Sure. I'll make a motion. So, I move to recommend approval of application LS-26-1 304 and 306 North Franklin Street lot to the Spring Hill governing body, including any conditions as presented in the staff. All right, it has been moved and seconded. We will start on the left. Um, for all those in favor, I I I

I I All right, it um motion passes 600. All right, moving on to item three, the preliminary plat application PP-25-10 Right Cliff Commercial Center.

Yes. So, this is a 5.5 acre uh commercial subdivision. Um they're looking at two commercial lots with uh two tracks, one at the north and one at the very south. Uh both are for storm water detention. Uh the property is currently zoned a mix of C2 to the south and MK Industrial Park with the PO protective overlay, which we've been talking so much about. Um up at the north, access is available off of Webster Street to the south, and the internal drives are all private. Uh there is a portion of rightway being dedicated to the western side of the property as part of a future extension of 219th Street to the north. Uh that improvement to the road is not happening with this application. Uh it's just setting aside right away for a future improvement to extend that road. Just to kind of clarify, um, a full traffic study will be required in the future as the southernmost lots develop, but with this one, as far as I'm aware, it was not required due to the small kind of scale and footprint of what's being proposed. Um, with that, I can stand for any questions, but staff is supportive. Oh, one more thing. Uh, Spring Hill is providing the sewer and water one is providing water. Thank you.

Thank you. So Ian, when 219th connects through this property, do you kind of have a plan of what direction it'll be going? Because it kind of curves down right now. Yeah. So that's just matching kind of the the existing curve of the road and then kind of tracks back eventually. It it straightens out until it reaches Webster, then kind of tees back in. So it does a little bit of a serpent and then straight down and then kind of curves to the east as it connects up to Webster at the very bottom of the property. So So the only rideway needed then on this lot is just that little curved portion on the western. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah. As the other two uh properties to the south come in for final platting, that's when that'll be dedicated. So just so I understand. So, for the most part, I know you said a little serpentine, but it's going to essentially follow that what looks to be a tree line potentially or that that property break. Yeah, it's a essentially and then meet up with Webster. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I had that. That's correct. In fact, I actually footprint of that. Uh here, hold on. Just ignore all the details on the actual Oh, I'm looking inside. Don't look at that. But this right here, you can kind of see the footprint how it serpentines a little bit. Oh, okay. Comes back down eventually before teing down.

All right, perfect. Thank you very much for clarifying that. And so it looks like the existing water feature on the property will get moved east a little bit to be a detention basin. Yeah, I think uh I can have the uh applicants engineer kind of speak to it a little bit more. Detention basin. Yeah. I was joking about the water feature, but I mean, but I'm curious like it looks like you're gonna have to move it, especially to make way for the road. Yeah. Todd Allenbrand, Renaissance Infrastructure Consulting, 102 Abbey Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas. Yeah. That we're we're using the main where the water is actually at today in the pond. We're kind of keeping that pond the same. Okay.

We're not really moving it is moving it really moving it. We're reshaping it, but we are, you know, making sure that we meet the requirements off the rideway. So it's doesn't interfere with, you know, sidewalks or or any future items that might be adjacent to the rightway. So we're reshaping it and cleaning it up. Cleaning it up so we can use it for detention. And and is that the only I I I thought I heard Ian refer to basins plural, but is that the only Yeah. So, the track that's against Webster will be uh detention basin as well, and it won't be required until the lot closest to Webster is developed.

Then, we'll need to construct that. And we're still a little bit in discussion. Right now, we've showed it and designed it as an open detention basin, but there we might revisit that and make it underground potentially. And then that way, it's creates some little different green space and you know, gives us ability to make some adjustments on the parking. We realize that it would take a probably a replat to do some of that. So, we're aware of that stuff

on Sorry if I'm not fully aware of this, but on a on a detention basin, what are the um parameters, I guess, or perimeter that to be put around it? What's going to be around it? Yeah, it's just it's it'll just be grass with I guess I meant like fencing or uh No, there's no fencing. There will be fencing at the time the road comes in is when fencing would probably need to be addressed. A lot of existing landscaping, too. Yeah. Yeah. Landscaping. I mean, we've got landscaping around the trees and Okay. Where we can plant them and not not uh impact the detention basin. Okay. Or the function of the basin, I should say.

Thank you. And then uh one of the members of the public mentioned us being a gravel lot. Is that is that correct?

Only where the storage yard is. The rest of the site is going to be curbon gutter. I think you'll you know that'll come up later on probably in the site plan where you'll see that. Okay. But it's planned to be curbon gutter asphalt or potentially could be concrete. I don't know if uh the developers have decided if they're going to go with concrete or asphalt, but at the minimum it will be asphalt with concrete curb gutters. And then the storage yard or the lay down yard where they'll keep their equipment that's not being used or extra materials will be that'll be a gravel yard. And then inside that gravel yard will be a covered building to protect some of the items that they don't want to get, you know, weathered and protected from the weather and elements and such. Thanks,

Cindy. You're going to ask your usual. Okay. What? Go for it. She says, "I don't have any further questions." I don't think I do either. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. All right. If we have no further questions or discussion, I will entertain a motion.

I'll go ahead. Motion preliminary application to be approved. Move forward. All right, it has been moved and seconded. We will start on the left. I I I I I All right, motion passes. 600.

All right, we are moving on to number four. Final flat application FP-25-7 Bryl Cliff Commercial Center. Okay. um as a final plan application for this project. Um staff finds that there's no differences between the preliminary plan that you just saw. Um that staff does recommend approval for this. Okay. Thank you.

Ian, do you have any estimate? Maybe the applicant obviously would know this, but of what percentage of the lot would be gravel versus hard surface? Um I could get that to you. in the next like five to 10 minutes on that to do the math. Yeah. But but okay, so looking at it um I'm looking at the more detailed. I will say it would probably be best if we save this part of the conversation when we get to the site plan application. Got it. Got it. So just still the final plan now versus preliminary. Yeah. So I think you answered most of our questions the initial discussion that we had last month but or two months ago. When was that?

Are we allowed to ask questions? I don't believe so. Sorry. I guess I have one question with being storage that we looked at for water runoff since we're protecting the pond and the waterway. Do we have to worry about any of the storage supplies with water runoff and rain whatnot affecting our water?

So, I think that'll be another probably good question for the site plan because that's one of the site specifics. Um, yeah, we'll kind of touch on all that. This is just the property division at this point. city- recommendations stated. I'll second it. All right. Uh, it's been moved and seconded. We will start on the left. I I I I All right. Motion passes 6 0. This where we get to have fun talk plan. Now we can talk. Yes.

Uh see application SP25-11. This is the site plan application for BL commercial center. The applicants proposing a 14,800T office building with exterior layown storage uh to the north. Uh within that uh exterior storage area which is going to be grapply paved. There's also going to be a leanto kind of shedlike structure for covered storage of vehicles and materials that they don't want exposed to the elements. Um the application meets all development standards are set forth within the UIO. They're not requesting any modifications to what we have. Uh the building itself is going to be constructed. Not sure. Yeah, perfect. Also, we got this really awesome elevation panel that the was so kind to bring in. Uh but up there, it's going to be mostly uh stucco as well as cobblestone facade on the front and sides. Uh that front is facing southward and the sides are facing east and west. There is a dark bronze aluminum canopy over the entrance at the southern facade as well as a little kind of sitting area on the western facade. Um kind of flipping back over. Well, actually one more thing. There is a uh parapit wall at the very top to provide screening for the roof mounted mechanical equipment which goes beyond our standards. So that's nice. Um, going back to the site itself though, uh, there will be fencing and landscaping to buffer that exterior storage facility. Um, I'll pull up a landscape plan for us to kind of look at together. Um, the applicant is meeting or exceeding all landscaping requirements associated with that. Um, and they're incorporating I think we have a more recent one than that. Maybe

Yeah, here we go. So, this more recent plan, which is part of the submittal, includes additional landscaping on the western side of that exterior layown storage as well as the northern and eastern. Um, so that's kind of a there was some attention paid to that as well as some existing landscaping to be protected out there on the western edge of the property. Um, for the time being, at least until that road comes through, we'll see how that kind of goes with the public improvement, but there will be screening provided on uh the sides that will be either abuing other properties or visible from the right away. Um, there's going to be an opaque fence attached with that. Um, exterior storage is going to be within that fenced and gravel lay down storage area. Um, parking requirements are all met. That's about all that I got. Any questions? I'd be happy to answer. Staff does recommend approval for this.

Just so to to make sure I'm interpreting this this plan correctly, but it looks like the detention basin is to the west of the fenced in gravel lot, right? That's correct. It's outside of the fence. Okay. Yeah. And so that kind of provides some natural buffer in addition to the landscaping, in addition to the existing um foliage there on the west side between this lot and the neighborhood. Yeah, you have some pretty good spatial buffering just in terms of distance between the two. Yeah. And then the existing landscaping and what's being added. I will say that detention basin is going to dip down. So I'm not sure what the elevations are compared to either side. Um at the very least, yeah, there would be like a spatial separation.

Yeah. And and there's, you know, there's a base in there now, so this will be an improvement on that.

How's it? Yeah. Make it all fit. Yeah. Not without making it super unreadable. Gosh. Was there a specific key that you're curious about? I'm just curious what they are and how long they're going to take to grow. Yeah. Yeah. There's a mix of deciduous, evergreen, ornamental.

We do have minimum caliber requirements for when they place them. That was the next change. Yeah. Yeah. I would kind of this application, but it'd be nice to see some changes to how we handle invasive species and things. But yes, there there is a really nice mature tree line though on the north and the west which will be preserved which is great. Yeah, I'll go ahead and revisit my previous question. Uh with not know what's stored on the lot, are we worried about any runoff of water from that material, equipment or whatever is stored? So I will let the applicant speak to that or Alison I can

I can kind of start it off and if I'm missing anything they're welcome to provide that. So in the storm water study the storm water study included calculations for the detention basin itself. Also a requirement with the um storm water regulations that they were under at the time of the storm water study. They also had to look at storm water quality. So they had to put in storm water treatment um uh controls as part of that. Um and as we pointed out that there is a space between um the edge of the gravel lot and the detention basin. There's going to be trees, shrubs, grass, all of that that's going to help filter any runoff that comes from the gravel lot into the detention basin. Uh so all of that was included in that storm water study with the detention volumes, the the storm water treatment and then yes there is a buffer strip that is located between the gravel lot and the detention pond and um some of the sediment will be um if there is any sediment that that moves into the detention pond that will settle out over time. So, um I will let RA um provide any additional information. Todd, if I missed anything,

Todd Alen Brand, Renaissance Consulting. So, Allison hit it right on. Hit it right on. So, between the gravel lot and the basin, it's essentially a filter strip. So, it collects any sediment before it gets into the basin. also gives a chance to clean some of that stuff as the water goes across. And not only that, but the gravel doesn't go all the way to the north property line. So, it's pulled back. So, if there's anything that runs down there, there's another strip of grass that it'll catch another filter strip and then eventually it all migrates to the west because that's naturally the way it wants to go once it gets to the hedge. and and like uh it was brought up, we're not we're trying to preserve any trees that are on that north property line, but then just fill it in with extra planning just to shield some of the neighbors around. I mean, I think it's to me personally, I'm not a landscape architect, but you know, it's I think it's got a lot of plannings. I mean, grant when they first get put in, everybody's aware they don't really look that great until they mature, but I think the plings are going to be beneficial. I mean, we really wanted to make sure we screened around that yard. And I we feel the combination with the trees, the landscaping, and the fencing will handle a lot of that. And plus, we tried to tuck it into a spot and confine it best we could. It's great.

I really like the uh the building facade and the elevation of the building. Seems very attractive. Yes. Pretty excited to see that. Just the mix of materials, the awnings and I was pretty psyched on the parapit wall until you just said it was the applicant who is doing that on their own valition. It's not a requirement. So, I mean, I think that might be something we add in the future because I know other cities require that and it's nice because you don't see the mechanical on the roof. Architectural standards are something that we want to kind of look at here. There's a whole lot of stuff that trying to prioritize it for sure. Yep. Yep. But it it seems like a very thoughtful design, both the building, but also the site. So, I appreciate that.

Yeah, I agree. I think it looks really nice. Any more questions, discussion? Cindy, tornado shelters. You're good. Okay.

Great. I'll entertain a motion. If there's no no more, I recommend approval of the application SP-25-11. I'll second it. All right, there's been a motion and a second. Do we have or I guess I'll start on the left. I I I I I Right. Motion passes. 600 Z. All right, that brings us to discussion. Ian, welcome back. Thought that was me. All right. Um, this up real quick.

Okay. So, at the March 12th, 2026 city council meeting, there were no agenda items. And at the March 26th city council special meeting, two items related to community development were approved. The final plat for Hayden Hills fourth plat as well as the reasonzoning from C2 to MBO of the Bright Cliff commercial project. That's all. Awesome.

Or wait, that was my announcement. Oh, redo it all. All right, that was your announcement. Yeah. Okay. All right. Does anybody else have any discussion? Were those all your announcements, Ian? That's it. Oh, okay. Okay. I wanted to make sure I wasn't cutting you off. Does anyone else have any discussion since we spilled past that?

Any other staff members have any announcements or um I just wanted to comment about how much appreciate seeing the community participate tonight and speak up. Um I'd say a lot of your concerns are things that we probably share, but a lot of those, you know, it's not our purview necessarily because we are the planning commission. We're just an advisory body of volunteers to the, you know, for the city council. So definitely, you know, keep your voices heard and the city council is a great audience for a lot of the things you guys had to share. Um, so I appreciate it and I missed out getting to know you guys because I'm up here and I can't talk to you without having to recuse myself. But um, what else can I say about planning commission? you know, our job is just to make sure that the the developments that are being proposed, you know, are in line with uh the comp plan, of course, which we talked about tonight and is going to be updated, which is a great opportunity for us all to influence what that says. Um I think it was Sarah who was asking to see the draft. I don't know that you want to see that draft. It was really bad from the previous consultant. Um, I don't recall that was ever public, but I know, you know, we saw a draft at one point that was shared with us, but it was really boilerplate from a, you know, other city and it and it really was not very good. So, what I heard tonight in our work session is that, you know, we're kind of we're going to try to leverage some of that, but really going back to the starting line, but also trying to push it through quickly. So, I think that's good and that's a that's a great opportunity. And as you guys know from the work session, we also talked about the city uh staff mentioned the idea of adding new industrial zoning. So that's another opportunity to influence, you know, what is included or excluded in those new categories. Um the it's like I'll just make a general comment and this is kind of a part of my stump speech, but I'm the county representative on the planning

commission. Normally there's two county representatives. The Miami County seat is empty. I'm the Johnson County representative. So, I always express my appreciation to the city for having county representatives because those of us who live in the unincorporated areas, we are in the expansion area of the city and someday we we will probably be a part of the city and what the city does impacts our lives and our investments and our property and so on. And you know, we may not pay city taxes, but we drive on the same roads, we go to the same schools, we shop in the city, and um you know, eventually, you know, we'll probably be a part of the city. And so it's it's really important um to basically show consideration for established residents, especially large lot rural properties, you know, and people who were there first um and so have thoughtful development. Uh the the other side of that though is that um it's I've lived here 16 years um on 20 acres. It's not a question of if development is happening, it's just a question of when and what and so the opportunity is to influence that. Um, I I think that's I'll I'll spare you the story about my high school which was Shauny Mission North and it was called Shauny Mission Rural when it was built in the 1920s and Shauny Mission North is anything but rural today and none of us will live this long but I wouldn't be surprised if you know 80 years from now Spring Hill is similar where this is like the old part of town or something. So it's again it'll it'll happen. It's just a question of influencing it for future generations and and making making it the best legacy we can leave for the future generations.

I'll echo off of Morris that having sat here for a number of years that it's a pleasure to see the audience come. It's also a pleasure that you articulate kindly and with heart and love for the town that you guys have moved into because it's not always been that way when the audience is here and those are really hard times for those of us set up here when it's a matter I rate crowds. So comments that we were very well heard and articulated very kindly and respectfully and I appreciate that as well as I know the rest of the board does. I have to say that I had to giggle and and smile inside and I kind of looked over at Kindra at one point. I don't know if she noticed when somebody said that the town is small and charmed and quaint and and are we going to let it continue to grow and we want to keep it small? Do we want to keep it small? And I kind of giggled because we've been here 40 plus years and Todd Ellen Brand just left. Derek and Kra can speak to how much it has grown in the population and how much it has changed. When we moved here, the population was,200 people. So that growth and keeping it small just makes me giggle. I I love people that move in think that it's still small and quaint and charming little town. So that

makes me it makes me giggle and I have to say that I'm thrilled to see all of you want to get involved. Please don't lose that desire. Please don't lose that desire. It does a mama heart good to see Gary Todd Allen and Kendra who were babies when we were here and watch them graduate and grow their own families and become highly involved in the community. That is amazing. So, thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, I uh I moved to Spring Hill at the ripold age of one back in 1989. Please don't do the math. Um and I it's it's interesting to hear the outside perspective that it does still feel like a small town um because it has grown so much. Um, and so it it's nice to hear that it it has kept its charm. I I definitely appreciate that because

sometimes I drive into town and I'm like, "Oh, look at our little town. It's so big. I just love this." Like just because I mean granted, I would love a drive-thru of anything, guys. Anything, please. But um I just I just love to see that it's growing, but as responsibly as it can. And there has been some irresponsible growth in the past. Um, but we're working really hard as I know our governing body is working really hard, our staff is working really hard. We are working really hard to try and make it as responsible as possible um and respectful to the community and the citizens as possible because we have lived here for a long time and even though some of us didn't grow up here, like Chuck was saying, you've been here for 16 years now, you said. And so that's that's a long time. You've seen a lot of growth too and change. And so we are very mindful of how it's changing and how it's growing and how that affects everyone individually because it does it affects us. Um and so we we hear you. We see you. We are in it with you. So we appreciate you guys very much for speaking up and like they said being involved and being here. Um and thank you for being kind because it is it is intimidating sitting up here. Um, but but I appreciate you guys. So, thank you all very much.

I wasn't going to go through an introduction of myself, but I will kind of went that way. I have not lived in Kansas, but for seven years. I came in from Iowa. I'm a country guy for the most part, which drew me to Spring Hill. Um, I don't have kids, but I moved to this area because the community I heard was good. School district I heard was very good. So, I thought, well, you know, it's a good area for a potential live here, retire, sell my house, move. Now, the I've been here seven years. I'm not going anywhere. Um, I love the community. I want to see it grow as well as we can all make it grow. And Chad asked me why now did I want to get on planning commission. I lived here long enough. I've gotten to see some of the community grow, some good, some not so good. and I wanted to have a part in it. Just other than either complaining or saying good about it at home, I wanted to actually have a part of it. So, I do hope we get some face to face with people. Uh whether it be over coffee, cookies, uh cooking hot dogs, and having chips and just being able to have that interaction because right now this is the best we've seen um just from the time that I've been here. Uh so, I'm very excited as to seeing what this community can do. So, thank you. Thank you for being here. I'll make just one more comment. Um, which is the advantage of being up here because you're not your time isn't limited. Kind of motivated me to come up here, especially if you like to talk. Uh, no, I so I' I've been kind of active in following the city council and the planning commission for about six years now. And I have to say um so outsider turn insider but um I have to say I'm really really encouraged by where the city is right now particularly the city staff in the additional um staff that have been added including Ian and Mike so city planner and a new community development director Allison the city engineer you know those are roles that didn't exist a few years ago so what I'm seeing and already in in uh these

packets in the information you know we're seeing a a level of detail and thoughtfulness and information sharing that we've never had before. And so that to me is very encouraging. Um I know Derek mentioned the alertical code and the building codes. They're aware and that's something we've been mentioning for a couple years now and they are aware they

Yeah. Yeah. And so I I have to say I've been impressed so far and and I'm very encouraged that um you know that the city's going to be more professional and more thoughtful I think about the types of development um that we have going forward. And um someone was commenting about and and I totally agree with this which is you know hey rather than just responding to everything that comes our way why don't we try to put put out there as a city you know what does the city want what do we want to attract and I can tell you that this staff is very focused on that. So yes,

can we do as one of the audience a couple of your timelines that were I don't know my three or four where we were talking about doing some of the education on like the partic participation. Well, there was something on there.

Yeah. Can we do some of that period that we're waiting on some of that come back? Can we start any of that ahead of time? Yeah, I think we can arrange something uh within that time frame for sure. It's open times. Yeah, I think um if we have a lighter agenda on a given evening, I think we can do some of that or if there's uh the desire and we can have enough people there, maybe a a meeting on that, you know, off Thursday. Um I know Monday night or Wednesday night.

Yeah, I think that's something we can definitely look at doing. I I agree. the question and have come in what do you see looking like one question or something around the room of this is what we like or this is what we would want or yeah I think we can do that for sure some of those things we can get out of the way and have a better mindset or understanding

yeah I think we can definitely get something at least scheduled within the next month or six weeks uh to be able to start having some of those just initial listening sessions and uh not necessarily facilitated discussions uh by you know a trained consultant who knows public engagement but just kind of general um discussions about you know how does a comprehensive plan set the the framework for future growth and then what are the tools the city has to implement that such as zoning or subdivision regulations. and kind of the hierarchy of development and discretion that that is, you know, afforded the different body making the decision on a given application and and just kind of run through that kind of process. We can definitely have that done.

It's just the first of April. I know. That makes me excited to hear because

I know I was so excited back in 2023 when they talked about doing the comp plan originally and I was like, "Oh my gosh, they want citizen participation. This is amazing." And then I was disappointed because I personally never saw anything come out. I know I know several people did. I just had to have missed it in some way, but I missed a lot of that. And so I was I was very disappointed. And I do think that having something really soon or as soon as we could will help with one, letting everyone know that we are serious and getting the ball rolling, but two, helping with like Kurt said, building that trust and um just showing the citizens that we are we are doing our best. So that that makes me excited to hear Cindy's suggestion. You say, "Yes, we could do something like that." Like, "Oh, yes, let's let's let's do it." But like I love I love hearing that. So, thank you.

100%. But I appreciate that you guys are so receptive and um willing as a staff to help us out. And I'm excited. I can't wait to see where this goes and finally get something that's decent as a comp plan. Let the mayor lead it. Let the president of the council let Kendra Kendra's got plenty of time. That's fine. Yeah. No, it's fine. Yeah, for sure. I'll do it. I mean, let's just we can just pose a couple questions and get get going or whatever you called it. Land use 101 or something.

Well, I even I just Sorry, I just had an idea too that like you could post a a weekly question and people could make suggestions on Facebook, drop by a suggestion for the question or something just to get the ball rolling, get something going. It doesn't have to be formal. It can be super blloise, but just something. Absolutely. Yeah. I like I'm excited. Yeah. Amen. Medal to the metal. And Derek may have Der on several of those things. He may have a couple great questions. He's mentor. So yeah. Yeah. We've waited long enough. I certainly

we've waited long enough. The Bible that was printed was just a bunch of cut. I think Mike is excited to get the comp plan done so we stop talking about it honestly because we have been incessant. I've been I'm excited for a lot of other reasons but not that one. He's honest. Maybe that one a little bit.

No, I think we you know we're we're ready to go. We love the neighborhood engagement, community engagement. Um I think it it goes well with the momentum that we have in the city, but also We don't we don't get people's attention this often. Um you know most public engagement processes whether it's a downtown plan or a comp plan. It's not at the forefront of everybody's mind and and so people just kind of go oh yeah I want to go to that uh but something came up or I don't want to go out uh tonight it's raining or something. But being able to capture and really um take advantage of this much engagement and this much attention right now is a great thing. And that's one of the reasons why I approached Lane and the mayor and ultimately led to tonight's meeting uh about reopening up the public engagement process because oftentimes we don't hear from people or they just think ah yeah really won't do any good or yeah cool uh that development may come here whether it's a development project or a planning uh long-term plan um and then they wonder what happened to it down the road. And so we we would love to get this amount of public engagement every meeting. And so but yeah, we definitely don't want to squander this uh this moment. One of them that I set in on back when was just doing buildings with Legos or Duplo and that when we were talking about the lighting and the shadow that that it would cast and what that would look like, that made me think of the Legos because that was how we were doing it. And If you had this M2 and it was this tall, that really brought back what we were doing then and how much how much that impacted and the height and the growth and the bigness of it next to a residential area.

And when we were talking about the growth or the height of buildings, that made me reflect back to that in my head. So even for people to be able to have a miniature scale in front of them might help understand what buffering would be and what a zoning next to another zoning would look like. I don't know. It it was helpful for me back then.

Yeah, absolutely. I think um I even struggle with it sometimes when I'm looking at a plan view and see a 30-foot buffer and then trying to envision what does actually 30 feet look like out in the real world. Yes. um you know what is 10 feet, what is 20 feet or you know looking at different um images of what density of housing actually is. What what what does one dwelling unit an acre look like versus five versus 10 and actually visualizing what that looks like. Um, and so there's lots of resources out there that I'm sure we can put uh pull something together. Um, and and just kind of start having these conversations. Um, getting the ideas flowing. Um, you know,

I think those type of meetings and and charts on the wall of what you want Spring Hill to look like would be incredibly engaging and helpful for brainstorming. I agree. I'm excited. Any further discussion? If you all want to get out of here, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Oh, wait. You didn't say what you wanted. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. See you later. Thanks.