Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

too. See you again, man. Listen, I've got the last time. Better have something good.

Yep. Yeah.

Remember to retire working. [laughter]

Actually, that just does a lot of getting not much. That's the problem. What are you doing? I I do investigations for a law firm. Oh, it's good.

I really don't You're probably silly. Sure. So, I think uh cautious [clears throat] break their face

[clears throat]

Um therapies I figured that's a little strange about my my cousins. I'm not my wife because my cousin best friends. Royce, are we ready?

We are ready, Mr. Chair. And we have a couple folks online for when the public hearings come up. So, just heads up. Sorry, say that again. We are ready, but we also have a couple folks online for when the public hearings come up. So, just Okay, heads up. Sounds good. Yeah. Awesome. All right, we're going to go ahead and um call the meeting to order. This is the Syracuse City Planning Commission meeting for February 3rd, 2026. We will have an invocation or thought by Commissioner Baker and a pledge of allegiance led by Commissioner Miel. [clears throat]

Okay, I'm actually going to mix it up and share a little thought tonight. Uh many of you are probably familiar with the the proverb that says a society grows great when old men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit. I think that is very appropriate as a group of commissioners as citizens of a city. I think it's important that we have a perspective looking forward. It's not about us. It's about what comes behind us. And sometimes those things might be painful for us in the time, but we have to think outside of ourselves and think about what's coming down the line, whether it be zoning, building plans, uh how we treat our neighbors, etc. I think it's just very important that we keep that in mind and it's not just about our own personal opinions, but what would serve the greatest good as a community or will serve the people that come here after we're gone.

Thank you. Thank you. Please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you. Our next item will be the uh minutes. Um, these are the minutes from the meeting on January 6, 2026. Um, if as long as there's no changes or anything that needs to be made, we'll take a motion to adopt the minutes. I saw no changes and after reviewing. So, I move to adopt the minutes as posted. Got a motion. Got a second. Okay. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Okay, they are adopted. We will move on to public comment. Uh this is an opportunity for uh the public to address the planning commission. Um for items that are not slated for tonight's agenda. Um if you have comments for items that are on the agenda that have a public hearing, we would ask that you hold those until that time. Uh for now, this will be an opportunity. And if you have any comments, please limit your comments to 3 minutes or less. Anybody online asking? No, Mr. Chair.

Okay, perfect. All right, we will go ahead and close public comment. All right, item number four. Um, Royce, you want to go ahead and [snorts] Yes, sir.

All right. So, this is for a subdivision plat. Uh, we did the reszone here a couple months back. Um, well, a couple months almost a year ago, I guess now. But, uh, the reason was approved. Uh, so this is going to be an administrative approval. Um, what's been proposed here is just a, uh, a plat showing a culde-sac and uh, single family lots. So the uh the subdivision, this currently is deadend road here. It will be opened up and and continue into this culde-sac. Um there is currently uh some undeveloped ground to the east and then uh just larger lots to the north, but everything around other than that is is uh developed in the same way as as what's proposed here. Uh the zoning matches what's around there. So, um, this also meets all the requirements of the city code and all the staff comments have been addressed. So, we would recommend approval.

Perfect. Thank you. All right. This is open for a public hearing. Uh, any comments, uh, concerns? Again, we'll do the same thing that we did in public comment. Please limit your comments to three minutes or less. Um, we'll open public hearing on this item now. Seeing none, we will go ahead and close public hearing back to the commission. And we have the developer here. This one, um, you want to come forward and state your name and we can address any questions from the commission.

Hi there. I'm Chase Stevenson, the one developing this. Any questions? [laughter] It's pretty simple. I was just want to make sure that we any questions from the commission are addressed. So, it looks fairly straightforward and I I was looking over this and I didn't see any concern. [clears throat] So, just concerned. Yeah. Um, the only thing I knew that in the comments was the flow rate which supposedly was okayed by the engineering. So, that was the only thing I know of. So, access for

Yeah. Oh, the the original plan we had the bubble was a little small, so they had to make the bubble a little bit bigger. Yeah. So, okay.

All right. Thank you. All right. Back to the commission. I think the only comment I know when it was brought up because the the undeveloped land to the east is kind of stubbed out and it's we're not making that connection but do appreciate Commissioner Baker's comments about uh looking to the future and that the impact here doesn't seem like it's not a huge development. So forcing that connection I'm at first I was thinking well it's probably good would be a good thing to connect the two but it's that's really not hugely impactful. So I think the development is is fine for the size and the area. So

all right. Well, if there are no other comments, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion. I move the planning commission approve the request of Chase Stevenson for approval of a minor plot called Marcella Circle at approximately 2800 South, 1400 West in R2 zone. Thank you, Commissioner Baker. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All right, we have a second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Moving on to the next item. We have a minor subdivision for the museum foundation. And you're excusing yourself on this one?

I need to rec recuse myself if I can pronounce that word properly on this on this agenda item.

Perfect. All right, Royce. All right. So, this is just a two lot. It's technically a commercial plat. It's not necessarily a commercial use that's proposed. Um, but uh we run it through the process as if it's a a commercial uh use per the subdivision code. Um so, the the buildings are all existing in this plat. So, we've got a large steel building in the back and there's a an older home that's been converted into an office space in the front. So there's a cross access easement that will provide uh general access to lot 2 and then are also installing a gate that you can see here these these uh drawing that will provide access into the uh well emergency access I should specify into the the parking lot is as needed um per fire requirements. So uh but yeah, what's been shown here meets all the requirements of the code. Um all the staff comments have also been addressed. So, um, we would recommend approval. Um, and just as as an explanation, the museum, uh, is just looking to expand. So, they're they're looking at using this building to expand, uh, their campus a bit, so they'll have more museum space in that existing building.

Awesome. Thank you. This uh, item is up for public hearing. Same rules as before. Please also, if you have comments on this particular item, limit them to three minutes or less. Anybody online? Uh, nope. Okay, we'll go ahead and close public hearing. Uh, bring it back to the commission. Yeah, I think this is about eager to see the museum edition.

All right, barring any comments, take a motion. motion to request museum foundation for approval of commercial members south of the G. Thank you, Commissioner. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Moving on to item number six, subdivision amendment for Fred P. Uh hopefully I'm pronouncing this right. Bonucci. Very good. [laughter]

All right. So, [clears throat] this is going to be uh probably the simplest one of the night. Uh so, the property owner, they own two parcels technically that the uh parcel is currently being used as essentially like a backyard sideyard kind of thing um next to the house. So the proposal here is just to combine those two parcels together. And uh usually this kind of thing if it's a what we call a meets and bounds parcel, which means it just has a long description of what the property is supposed to look like um and is not a part of a subdivision plat just go down to the county and do this on their own. But because this is part of a platted subdivision, they do have to go through the subdivision amendment process. So uh nothing is physically changing. It's just getting rid of the existing property line uh between these two. So, um again, same as the others, uh all requirements of the city code are met and all staff comments are addressed. We would recommend approval.

Perfect. Public hearing for this one as well. Uh please limit comments to three minutes or less. [snorts] Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close public hearing on this commission. Do we have any questions for the property owner? Any questions? You could just state your name and and your address for the record. Fred Kenucci and 11:04 West 2175 South Syracuse. Perfect.

I have a question. There's the property line that's being abandoned. There's also utility easements associated with that property line. And of those, I'm assuming there are no utilities or they're they're known if there are utilities. Yeah, there's no utilities there. Uh you can see the new utility lines. The setback lines are these smaller dashes utility. Uh you can see pee there. So that will essentially just uh eliminate the one along the property line there and then retain uh the existing pees that were there before along the exterior. Thank you. [clears throat]

Okay. Appreciate it. All right. We'll take a motion. I'll make a motion. I move that we approve that the planning commission approve the request for approval of a subdivision plan amendment at approximately 1104 west 217 south in the arch. Thank you, Commissioner Garner. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, moving on to item number seven. It's a reszone request for by Chris Leig. Apologize [clears throat] if I mispronounced that. [cough] I've got this one. Maybe Noah. So um we've we've received this request to to reszone. Uh you can see here highlighted in blue is the location. Uh the general plan is commercial which would support a professional office would be consistent. Uh and then the current zoning is R1 and the proposed zoning is professional office. Like I said, um it does share a a a property line with some existing residential. Um and it also has a stub road in there. Uh but being a a reszone, we don't know exactly how it's going to develop th those things will would get sorted out with a site plan. Uh, but it also has frontage on the new frontage road, which is the rerouted Bluff Road, Quill Bluff Drive. Um, I've included the professional office language in here. You can see the the purpose of the zone um is really designed to be pretty low impact. it. If you look at the list of permitted uses, it doesn't include some of the maybe more impactful type things, um there is a list of conditional uses. Uh that's also pretty pretty minimal. But probably the biggest thing is this medical facilities. And like I said, I don't think we have any of the details as far as how it'll be developed exactly, what the buildings or what will go in there, but um my guess is most likely some sort of medical office. The

applicants here and maybe he'll have some more detail. Uh the other thing uh I'll point out here, the building height in the zone, um there are there are some restrictions. It says the height of buildings over 35 ft may be equal to the horizontal distance from the nearest zone boundary line. So that that east boundary uh the building would if it's over 35 ft would need to be uh equal to that. Buildings 35 ft high or less may be located within 10 ft of the zone boundary line. To determine height, exclude use not for human. We know about that. So, uh, otherwise, there's also our buffer ordinance and the site plan review. So, uh, like I said, without getting into the weeds of exactly how this will be developed, cuz I know that's probably one of the top concerns, um, just understand that we'll have another stab at this when we get more details. But right now, it's a very high level. What we're looking for is a recommendation to city council of whether or not you think this is an appropriate use for the area. You can see we we have already reszoned the property to the west to the professional office. I think that happened last year and you can see the uh new highway 177 west ais corridor is right there. So I think there's really good visibility. Um, one thing this property does not have is frontage on analopee, which makes the access just a little bit hard for like a retail use, I think, cuz you have to come in through the light and then loop around and go past those other the backs of those other houses. Um, but it does have really good visibility and, you know, I I think that as far as being consistent with the general plan, being close to a state

highway and and well, two state highways, I always want to call it interstate, but I guess it's not. Uh, but it's a yeah, it's it's a it's a prime site for commercial activity, but um maybe not retail. That's probably the other question is why not retail instead of professional office because of course retail generates a lot of sales tax for the city and we do need that. But professional office could generate a a really attractive building that is that generates a lot of um property tax and jobs depending on employment numbers and what kinds of buildings we get. So, uh, yeah, that's that's the scoop. If you have any questions, uh, let me know. And the applicant, I see him in the audience. And of course, as a public hearing, as a reminder.

Yeah. Um, I do want to ask you a quick question. Is this right next to or does this, [clears throat and cough] excuse me, is this right next to or does this include the property that we discussed um either last month or the month before uh with the storage? Good memory. Uh, no, it it does not include that property. Okay. So, that's it's adjacent.

There's a there's a gap there. And you know, this the city for economic development reasons, we always try to encourage property owners to work together, but also recognize that there are private property rights and each individual property owner may want to do something a little bit different. So, we're just trying to work with that. the as an update on that that middle piece, the applicant actually asked to just remove his application just seeing that it wasn't looking very promising. So, it never made it to city council after you guys's dis conversation discussion. Perfect. All right. Thank you.

All right. We'll go ahead and go to public hearing on this one. Um again, public hearing just like everything else. you have a question or comment about this item, please step forward and or speak up online and limit your comments to three minutes or less. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close public hearing. We're going to open this back up to the commission for questions. Uh you said we have the applicant here. Mind coming down and Sure.

state your name and address for the record? Chris Leig, uh, 353 North, 3425 West in Leighton. Okay, thank you. Um, I'll I'll start off. Do you have an idea of what you're looking to do like longterm on the property? Yeah, just a office complex area. So, lease it out to dentists, physical therapists, just people that need professional office space. Cool. Fairly straightforward.

And that Stub Out Road, do you plan on making that connection or what? Uh, so that 1775 South, I don't know if we want to make that connection or not. It's probably going to depend a lot on what the city wants to do right there. makes our piece a little bit better because it connects a subdivision to a development, but the neighbors may not want that. So, I don't know. Yeah.

I have a question. Do you have envision this as a multi-story situation? Are you waiting to see how the the market shapes out, making the decision at a later point? No. Something ready to go in the near future? Yeah, probably like one story office space. Okay. kind of like that those what that office space that you have up further up the east on Analopee on the south side. It's those white buildings and one of them kind of has that silo thing. Something like that. That's what we've done in the past. And it would be multi-tenant. Did I hear that? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. concerns, comments from the commission. If not, we'll take a motion.

I would just make a quick comment. I feel like that is kind of odd geography that would make it difficult to have a a highly functioning business or commercial where it's not on analopee. It's kind of back away. You'd end up going on that weird quail uh quail bluff and you're almost getting into neighborhoods. Additionally, it's not so it's not great access for the the uh customers, but also I think it it would be tough if it would because then you'd have potential traffic issues right when people are getting off and on the freeway. So, I in my eyes I feel like office space might be the best possible use. Uh if I was getting a house, I would not want a house that's right there by the freeway in that and an analopee in that little area. And like I said, it's kind of an awkward spot. So I I feel like kind of a low impact office kind of situation might be the best situation there.

I concur with you. Um I remember when we um recommended approval for the professional office on the corner just a little bit down the road there and we had the same comment about that with the without it having any major access to a arterial road. Uh retail just doesn't make sense. As much as many of us would want more that kind of business in our city, which we do, I agree. It just doesn't make sense for in that area. So, and to be honest, don't we want more doctors, dentists, physical therapists,

physical therapists, highly educated professionals that are, you know, bringing those tax dollars and, you know, make making our community a a better, more convenient place to live. So, that sounds like a good option to me. All right. I think maybe just to uh reiterate what uh Noah said uh with that one sliver piece is that the applicant did remove their uh request and if they're no longer pursuing that, it might be worth reaching out again to see if you could uh expand your uh development to include that lot as well. Say that again. Sorry. So, the the lot to the west,

the lot to the west is no longer uh they had an applicant and they're no longer pursuing that and they may be open to some uh partnering. So, but they may in the future maybe. All right, we'll take a motion.

You want to scroll? Let me get the language up there, please. Yeah, I didn't see [laughter and clears throat] this. Oh, also recommend make sure in the uh motion that this is a recommendation. Sorry, I Royce is really nice. He spoils you guys and he types out the language for you. But I I actually didn't type any language, but let me uh if whoever is going to make the motion, if you want to use the main page, the opening page, you can actually base it off of that. That's what I have historically [clears throat] done. The main page. You want to do that?

Yeah, I can do that. So, sorry, say that again. To make a recommendation decision to approve or deny, whatever you're going to suggest a zoning change. Okay. I move that uh the commission recommends to the city council approval of a reszone application from Chris, [clears throat] excuse me, from Chris Leig of Rake LLC for pro approximately 2.205 acres located approximately 260 West Hail Bluff Drive. The request includes one parcel. What's is that just the just the zone? Right. Reszone to professional office space. Thank you, Commissioner Baker. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Motion passes. We'll take a motion to adjurnn to work session. So moved. Any opposed? We have a second. Second. All in favor? I I opposed. All right, we are in work session. Thank you everyone. Um, yeah, we'll do that in just a moment. We'll start with the city council leaison report. Sad, sad day. This is Paul's last one. Thank you, Paul.

Thank you. So, I don't have anything specific to report on as far as things the city council has voted on that might be pertinent to the planning commission, but wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to be the uh liaison for the I think it's been four years that I've been the liaison. So, I appreciate all of your service. Appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you. Um, I'm going to be turning over the reigns to Abe here, Abe Pard, a newly elected city council member. And so, um, he's going to be here ever every other Tuesday night with you guys, um, to be our liaison. But, uh, again, thank you for the opportunity. So, thank you, Paul. My pleasure. Thanks.

All right, city attorney. Good to see you again. It's good to be back and now that Paul's leaving, I feel much more comfortable being here. [laughter]

Uh, as many of you know, I used to attend planning commission fairly regularly, but uh, I took a month off in October to go to Italy and when I got back, I was um, convinced by my family doctor to get some testing done on my heart. spent basically November and December getting poked and prodded and injected with glow-in-the-dark stuff and in and out of big donuts that go whirly whirly all around you. And the good news is, yes, I do have a lot of cholesterol in my system, but it's not blocking any arteries near my heart. So, uh, looks like for now, and maybe for the next several months or years, surgical intervention will not be necessary. I do however um own a pharmacy now [laughter] lined up but it's good to be back and so uh from here on out I'd like to get back in track. We need to do the open meetings and ethics training. I do that whenever you'd like Mr. Chair. Um and then as I don't know if you remember we started in September with a little bit of mini trainings that we were going to do and then I completely disappeared for three months. So I'm ready to pick that stuff up and go whenever you're ready to do it.

Perfect. Um, yeah. If are you do you have one ready for us tonight? I do not. Okay, no problem. We'll plan that for next time if that's okay. You want do you want me to do the open meetings when that takes about 30 minutes next time or some other time? Um, let's see how uh long the meeting is going to be in the future. But if if we're dealing with like something that we got like tonight, then that would be fantastic. All right, I'll wait to hear from Noah and Royce and Kayla. Appreciate it. Thank you. And if any of you get the Syracuse newsletter, please take an opportunity to look at the employee of the month. So [laughter] it is it's our own calling. They only did that because I did not die. Yeah.

Hey, thanks. That was welld deserved. All right, upcoming agenda items.

I may be able to address the uh the next meeting length possibly here. Um, we don't have uh a ton. Well, not much at all honestly for the next meeting. Um, currently could be we'll get some stuff that comes in uh sneaks in at the end of the week, but we'll see. Um, currently we we have a couple of things, well, a lot of stuff that's on the docket, but nothing that's quite ready right now. Um, couple of uh sort of bookkeeping general plan amendments around water. Um, we have the Commons at Glenn Eagle uh retail subdivision just west of the golf course clubhouse. Um, still waiting on updates on that one. Uh, Falcon Landing application Perry Homes just uh north of where Bluff meets 3000. Um, so that would be single family. Still waiting on that one. Uh, Rocky Mountain Wellness just west of City Hall. Uh, same there. [snorts] Um, see, we also have a revised site plan from Take Five Oil. We may see that one next time. I know they're they're working quickly on that one. Um, see here, we have an addition to Syracuse Arts Academy on Analopee, uh, that we're also waiting for some updates on. Um, we we have Yeah, we have the Sim City project. Uh, it's a what do you call it? It's by part just east of the uh pickle ball kingdom um that we approved a few weeks ago. Um also still waiting Lakeside Flat, which is the single family subdivision south of that one. Um we are also waiting. We have a kind of a strange site plan application. Uh unique, maybe not strange. It's a Inbridge Gas is putting in a facility at the southeast corner of 3000 West in an or 2700. Uh so it's it's a pump house. They're

going to have a bunch of pipes coming out of the ground and things. Um but they have to go through the site plan process. So uh we'll be seeing that. There's not a a whole lot necessarily to look at, but got to approve it. Uh easement then? Uh I mean there will be easements I would imagine leading out to the road but it's a it's a significant facility that manages the pressure and you know they're able to maintain uh I don't know various aspects of the gas stuff. I guess I'm not super familiar with the specifics but okay there is a building and it's a it's about a quarter acreish area. I have many questions but I'll wait until we see what's when and what's

yeah be happy to I'm sure the applicant will be happy to answer the specific questions there. Um, we also have a revised site plan from the Monterey West project uh on 1550 West and about 300 South. So, they they're just looking at changing their landscape plan. Um, they move some things around. They're not going to be building one of their buildings, so they want to move some amenities and so on. So, we'll be seeing that one. We also have an application for a Dutch Bros coffee shop uh just west of the Waffle Love, like where the Rush is um on 1700. Um so we'll be looking at a site plan for that one. Salt Rock subdivision uh south of the interchange, I guess, east of the interchange with uh the West Davis corridor in 2000 West. Uh we saw phase one a few months back and they they've applied for phase two. Uh, and finally, the Earthworks project, uh, over by, um, the Monterey West project. They're, um, they're looking at changing some aspects of their exterior. So, we'll see if that makes it in. Um, that one's probably going to be at least a month out. So, that's what we have currently, and we'll keep you apprised as to the status of the next meeting.

And that Dutch Rose that you were talking about, that's in that empty lot right behind them.

Yes, that's correct. All right. Thank you, Royce. All right, commissioner reports. Um, I'm going to go ahead and uh start this with something. Uh, we received notification from uh resignation from Commissioner Anderson uh earlier uh about uh obviously he won't be able to be on the commission anymore. Um I just want to uh publicly thank him for his service. um he's offered some really great insights and uh help while while he was serving as a commissioner. So, thank you, Commissioner Anderson. Appreciate it. Open it up to the rest of the commission. Any reports, comments, concerns? All right. Well, I did have one quick question. All right. You you you barely missed it.

Just an observation more than anything. I've noticed that the the secondary water metering is going forward. My whole neighborhood's been painted out. Is there a timeline on that that project? I imagine it's multi-year. It is multi-year and state statute has a deadline to have them all installed by I think 2030. So, you're looking at several more years of that. I guess it's been going around. I just noticed it because all of a sudden they're just all over my neighborhood. So they they must do a lot at a time and just dig them up and then they do they do an area at a time and they've been doing it now I think this is probably like the third year in so they're at least two or three years left.

Okay. The funny thing is is that uh um I'm friends with uh one of the city council members and uh we were when I was visiting one time they actually had a big pile of the boxes and the meters and everything they had left on his property cuz they were doing the area and he's like I need to reach out to somebody and find out what all this [laughter] is. So pretty pretty funny there. So all right barring any other things we'll take a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjurnn. All in favor? I I All right, we are adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thank you.