Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The March 24th meeting of the Stillwater Planning Commission will now come to order. It will be the process this evening to call for items on the agenda. The commission will hear briefly from staff first, then the applicant and/or their representative, then open the public hearing and hear from those in favor and/or in opposition to the request. When you come to the podium, please clearly state your name and address for the record. And then before closing the public hearing, both staff, the applicant, and/or their representative will be provided an opportunity to respond to provide additional information and answer questions. After all interested parties have spoken, the public hearing will be closed and we will hear closing remarks and alternatives from staff. First item this evening on the um public hearing portion of the agenda is to receive public comment regarding a map amendment MA26-01. And we shall hear from staff.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening, chair, vice chair, commissioners. My name is Henry Bbleheimer with development services and we're here tonight to talk about a map amendment for 3621 and 3605 North Prosperity Lane where the applicant is proposing to reszone from General Industrial or IG to Commercial Shopping or CS. Here's an aerial view of the property. Um it's um on the southeast corner of Prosperity and Airport. It's about a quarter mile east of Perkins Road. Um, one correction on this is that it does include the property to the south of this as well. So, that pink box as well as this property right here. Um, so yeah, as we can see the uh airport as we can see the um railroad kind of cuts diagonally across that top left corner of that image. Here's one a little more zoomed out where once again I'm going to point out that that pink box is a little further south. It does include both these properties. Um but just to the west of that railroad track, we have this property zone CG which is the hub which is um recently opened. That's on the southeast corner of Airport and Perkins. Now this property is zoned IG or general industrial um as well as the property on all sides of it is zoned IG or general industrial. The future land use map and the comprehensive plan does call for mixed use as this property. This is from Envision Stillwater 2045. Um now when you think of mixed use, I do want to clarify there are kind of two different categories for mixed use. Same thing for all things. We have mixed use the future land use category which is calling for a diverse district. Um generally trying to be um walkable and a dynamic district is how the code describes it. The code being comprehensive plan. You also have mixed use the land use category. So the mixed use the use is think of a downtown building where you have your commercial on the

first floor, your apartments on the second floor, something like that would be a mixeduse building. So you have a mixeduse building, mixeduse structure. You also have mixeduse area. So a mixeduse area doesn't mean each of those structures are going to be mixed use. It just encourages some neighborhood commercial. You have your maybe your residences, your multif family all in a district that's kind of a dynamic area. Again, the goal of a mixeduse districts is to create somewhere where someone can live, work, and um live, work, and play as kind of the category in the plan. So, just to explain kind of those two points. Um in the mixeduse land use category in the comprehensive plan for each of our um land use categories, they have this table that kind of describes and guides uh resonings, which is relevant for what we're looking at today, which is a resoning. So in the development types, it kind of describes different types of development and then it says what would be appropriate there. So when we're looking at resoning, we think which of these resonings, how would we be fitted into one of these development types? It helps us decide how appropriate it is and if there are any um any considerations to take into account here. So when we look at the application tonight, it's to reszone to CS, which is commercial shopping. Um the applicant is proposing to build an education facility there, which is not allowed in general industrial. So when you think of CS or commercial shopping, it's kind of one of our lower intensity residential districts. It has limited allowed uses. Um and we would categorize that more in this neighborhood commercial, which is our smaller scale commercial districts. Um which is appropriate in the mixeduse category to kind of help create that walkable district. I'm open to answer any questions if you have any.

Any questions for staff? Just a quick question regards uh the geographic location. So that's just northeast of the old cruiser plant. Sorry, I'm not sure where the old Mccruiser plant is. Um across the street here there's a south I think it's south. I think it would be southeast just southeast of iter or um I think it's southeast of the Armstrong. It is the Armstrong. The property is right here. Armstrong's on the west side of properties. So, it's on the So, Armstrong, which is the Kingspan building now, is that's this is the southeast corner of their lot.

Okay. So, this is the Kingspan structure. And then it's just in the it's in the mile section south of a recent previous um item that came before us. Yeah. This is the Kingspan property. This is the hub. There's a concrete plants. Two concrete plants here. So the old Mer Cruiser would be So the diagonal is where the rail line goes and the Mer Cruz old Mercer is um I guess where Asco is now, right? And that would be south of this, right? Sorry. Where Asco is. Yeah. Yeah. Southwest. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I don't know all the old names of things. All the old names. Yeah,

we'll get you initiated eventually. [laughter] Any other questions for staff? Okay, we don't see any. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we'd allow the applicant um opportunity to come forward. [cough and clears throat]

If you have anything else you could you could like to add to the presentation. Is there anything you'd like to add or We'll come up. Okay. would you like us to add? Um, well, [laughter] brief brief description of kind of what you're planning on doing with the property. Yes. Name and address for the record. Germans Walker 1312 South Sanger. Alex Ess 5712 West 9th Court.

Uh, the purpose of the building is uh, as staff stated, an educational uh, training facility. So we are currently working with Kingspan, USA where Earth um the data center project um will be we currently offer training 5 days a week in that vicinity and so the whole purpose is to offer that training closer to the clients. Some of those clients have difficulty getting their staff all the way across town to us and so um that's essentially the the purpose of the facility if that makes sense. Okay. So we'll have safety trainings, uh technical industrial trainings, things like that.

So you were looking for um a zoning that would allow the business use for education. Typically education is is a business use and that wouldn't be allowed in the in the um industrial right general. It needs to be the commercial commercial shopping. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Any other questions for the applicant? I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you.

At this point, I'd open the public hearing and ask if there's anyone um present who would like to speak in favor of this item. Seeing none, is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition of this item? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and ask staff to present findings and alternatives. Yes, ma'am. And one other thing I just wanted to point out is the exhibits, how they had the wrong outline. Um, the notices were sent out correctly. All the exhibits and all those were correct. It's just the presentation. Just to clarify, the actual packet, the map, and the packet is what was mailed. Yes. Yes, ma'am.

The the the packet shows both the addresses. Um even though the slides that were presented during the meeting did not this packet is Thank you. And the addresses are both listed. Yes ma'am. Okay. So the finance of the proposed map amendment aligns with envision Stillwater 2045 education facilities are allowed by right in the commercial shopping or CS zoning district. Your alternatives tonight are to recommend the city council approve um deny or table the request. Staff recommends alternative number one, which is to accept findings and recommend that the city council approve the proposed map amendment as presented. Thank you,

commissioners. Any discussion or perhaps a motion? I'd motion to accept the findings and recommend that city council approve the proposed map amendment as presented. Second the motion. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. Motion passes 4-0. Okay. The next item listed on the agenda um is going to be regarding a text amendment and we will take no action on that item. The item after that is to receive public comment regarding an application for a short-term rental and we shall hear from staff.

Yes, ma'am. So, tonight we're looking at a short-term rental addressed at 4212 West 2nd a Avenue. This is for a short-term rental license application. Here's the area map where you can see the property outlined in pink. This is um [clears throat] in the neighborhood that is on the northwest corner of 6th and Country Club. As we can see, Country Club and 6th here on the map. And not to interrupt, it's 5212 West Second Avenue. Correct. Yes, ma'am. I thought you said 42. So, just make sure.

Oh, yes. Yeah. 5212 West Second Avenue. Um yeah. So, this is the property and um as the code states, the planning commission is the deciding body for short-term rental licenses when there is an objection that was submitted. Staff did receive an object an objection, which is why this is before you tonight. I'm open to answer any questions if you have any. Any questions for staff? Thank you. Okay, let me give the applicant an opportunity to come forward. They'd like to offer some additional information. Hello. Hello.

Thanks for having us. I'm I'm Brian Buffington. My wife and I own that property. And could you state your address for the record? I live in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Okay. She she'll need your address for the minute. 1324 Snow Lane, Weatherford 73096. My name is Tanner Buffington. Address is 2230 East Birchwood Court, Derby, Kansas 67037. Thank you.

You're welcome. So, we've owned the house since approximately 201 12 or 13 and uh put two kids through school, excuse [clears throat] me. And that's that's our tailgate house as as well as uh trying to get short-term rental out of it. Um just want to state we're the last thing we want to do is have any problems. We haven't had any problems. Our our next door neighborh I mean Allan and his wife Diane, he's retired HP Oklahoma HPD. He's got my number, I've got his. [clears throat and cough] I know if there's anything happening, we're going to hear about it. Um, anytime you drive by that place, whether we've ever been renting it over the years, it's neat as a pen. There's never any trash. We have have people that take care of the yard, spray, trees, everything landscaped. Um, that's how we intend to keep it. We haven't had any trouble that I know of. questions from commissioners.

So, previously this has been a rental property. It has. It has. I'll be honest with you. We didn't know there was a a permit required. Permit required for a short-term rental. But it's been used as a short-term rental. Yes, [clears throat] sir. For how long? How long you think it's been on there? A year. Yeah, probably a year. But not currently since this process began for the application period. We blocked off calendars. And was was it a rental property prior to be used as STR?

My wife and I lived in it going through college. Then it just became a home where we moved up to Kansas. They live in western Oklahoma. It's a great middle ground. We love Still Water. We still come. They see the grandkids. We still do that a lot. We um rent the house some primarily. It's ours for the family on football game weekends, on random weekends in the spring to go enjoy the botanical gardens and the animal safari. Just it's it's the family house and um I've put it on Airbnb just to help him cover some basic essential costs of the home. Sure. Mhm.

So, generally when we do this process, we'll ask just kind of a few kind of what your ground rules are for your renters just so that we can get that on the record. Um, do you have like a minimum number of nights stay for for people staying?

Uh, two night minimum night stay. I also utilize the uh Airbnb setting. No one can book it with below a 4.8 star rating. Again, we really care about the neighborhood. We care about the neighbors. Also, we just care about the house oursel. It's a family home and so if any guest has ever had um prior negative reviews, I don't book to them. I don't allow auto bookings. We've got a maximum guests of six because it's a three-bedroom home. I monitor check-ins through Ring doorbell and exterior cameras. Um make sure they know no noise disturbances. [clears throat] We've got decibel monitors inside the home to make sure no partying's going on. They know trash days, just different things like that. We really care about the house, care about the neighborhood, and just Yeah.

Okay. Um then I guess who would um do you have like a minimum um or I guess Yeah, like a minimum age like so that like no one under a certain age could be renting it. Yeah, Airbnb's minimum is 21. So we just monitor that. Okay. Mhm. And then just through the process of not allowing auto booking, I find out what they're coming to town for. For instance, a whole bunch of college students for a concert in April, we just kind of pushed pause on and said, "No, thank you." Yeah. Okay. We do get some long-term people in there this last year. Um, yeah. Contract employees for the wind farms, things like that.

Wanted to stay two or three months. brought his own trailer with his own bed sheets and everything. He wanted to use his own dishes. Uh but that's all our stuff in there hanging on the walls and all that. We want to This isn't a party house. Okay. It's We don't intend for it to be and I don't think our neighbors have put up with it. Yeah. And you did mention you have a resource um next door just adjacent that you've got someone in town that could handle any emergency.

He has he has two different things in town. Resource Next Door is just old friends and and honestly they're getting he's not doing much anymore. Allan is I can't I don't remember his last name but we've known him since we bought the house. We've got a cleaner that obviously cleans it between every booking. I also pay her $65 a month. She takes the trash out on trash day. She picks it up the next day. She keeps eyes on the property. We have got a relationship with a really good friend who's a general handyman and he does any type of upkeeping things like that and including having the front brick pressure washed this spring [clears throat] cuz it got dusty. Um just trying to keep the appearance well. We get it mowed. We're on contract with Rocky with Divine Landscaping here in which in Still Water. He mows it weekly during the growing season. Weed man keeps it sprayed like the everything um is in tip-top shape.

Other questions? We appreciate very much. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you guys for the opportunity. All right. So, public hearing. Yes.

Okay. Um I would open the public hearing at this time and ask if there's anyone in the audience that would be in favor would like to speak on behalf of this um item. Seeing none, I'll ask if there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak in opposition of this item. There's none. We did receive one letter I'll mention in the packet. Um so with that, I would close the public hearing and ask staff to present our alternatives. Yes, ma'am. Your alternatives tonight are to approve, defer, or deny the application. Thank you.

Well, it seems like the applicant has um addressed all the questions we would typically ask um um and just with with circumstances. So, they've got a little bit of experience and seems like there have been no issues. Um, we did get a letter that was um from another neighbor regarding um a different short-term rental in the neighborhood um with some issues, but it's not this particular um applicant. So

yeah, I think that they met all of our typical criteria. So with that being said, I would motion to approve the STR as presented. I will second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. Motion passes 40. [clears throat] Next item on the agenda is to review the meeting summaries. Um, we've got the meeting summary for February 24th. Are there any corrections or additions?

I will move to approve as presented. Second. Have a motion and approve. Uh, motion and a second to move approval. Uh all in favor or we shall now vote. Thank you. 4 Z. Uh the next uh next item is the meeting summary for March 3rd. Do are there any additions or corrections on the second page at the top? Uh it has Jardo J A R D O with no T. Should be T at the end. I'm assuming that's typo. Jardo. That's the only item I found. Good catch.

Do I hear a motion to approve with the correction as noted? Move to approve with corrections. Second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote. Motion passes 40. The next item on the agenda is miscellaneous items from staff, planning commissioners, or the city attorney for discussion and possible action. Anything? All right. Very good. The one item that we do have listed is that our next regular meeting is April 7th. And with that, um, chair would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. We shall now vote.

Motion passes 40. We now stand adjourned.