Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

[snorts] [snorts] Good evening. I'd like to call to order the November 19th meeting of the Titusville Planning and Zoning Commission. Please stand for the 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.

Roll call, please. Sorry. Chairman Eton. Yes. Here. Vice Chairman Childs here. Secretary Grant here. Member FA. Member Grod. Member Scully here. Member Gellen here. Alternate member Sidler here. Alternate member Troutman here. Uh we have a quorum and um we've got minutes for November 5th, 2025. Anyone have any changes or comments on those? Seeing none, do have a motion. Make a motion that we accept the minutes as written.

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. Any opposed? No opposition. So minutes pass. Um, city attorney, I'm not sure we have any quasi judicial items, but I'll leave it up to you whether you want to read the procedures or not. Um, whatever the uh board commission would like. If it's not quasi judicial, I don't know we that we need to read. Yeah, I don't think a cup is, but um and uh we're tableabling tranquility. So, um I think [clears throat] we're fine. Uh, sorry.

We do have to do the tableabling, but I'm gonna wait till we get to it. Um, first petitions and requests from the public present. Anyone? Okay. Uh, we don't have any old business. Um, new business. We've had a request to move item 9B up. Uh, we I think we all probably received emails requesting that this item be tabled. Uh, is that correct applicant? Um, with that, anyone up here have any questions? And if not, I take a motion to table it to the 11th of Janu January 7th. January 7th.

Yes, sir. I'll [clears throat] make a motion that we table item 9B, tranquility development agreement, till January 7th, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh, roll call, please. Lori. Member Scully. Yes. Member Sidler, yes. Vice Chairman Childs, yes. Member Gellen, yes. Secretary Grant, yes. Member Troutman, yes. Chairman Eton, yes. All right, with that, uh, it's tabled and we'll see you in January. Um, item 9A.

Thank you, chair. So, beginning on tw page 12 of your packet, this is conditional use permit number 7-2025 for property located at 3838 South Hopkins Avenue and 3900 South Hopkins Avenue. The request is to allow outdoor storage on approximately 2.84 acres within the Indian River City neighborhood commercial zoning district. Both sites are currently developed. 3900 South Hopkins contains an existing mini warehouse with personal ondemand storage that was approved under CUP3- 2003 and the buildings at 3838 South Hopkins include commercial warehouse and flex space units that compromise primarily a building trade service uses. Both of these uses are consistent with the historical light industrial and commercial pattern that characterize this portion of South Hopkins Avenue. Outdoor storage is not a listed use under the in the IRCNC zoning district. However, under section 28-21F of the land development regulations, non-residential uses otherwise not listed or not otherwise listed may be considered through a conditional use permit when appropriate conditions are provided to protect surrounding properties. The Endon River City neighborhood plan identifies the need for adequate buffering and screening where commercial and residential uses interface along Hopkins Avenue, which has been addressed in the proposed conditions. Now, shown on page 22 of your packet and highlighted in green are the proposed outdoor storage areas. These areas will be located alongside the existing mini warehouse and commercial flex uses utilizing the current paved surfaces and driveways along Hopkins with no new buildings, curb cuts, or site modifications proposed. The 3900 property includes an existing 8-oot opaque fence that was required as part of the previous conditional use permit approval. However, some of the screening inserts have deteriorated over time and would need to be replaced. The 3838 property also has perimeter fencing in place,

though it is not opaque. So with that, staff would recommend approval of the C of CUP7-2025 with the following conditions. That the outdoor storage area shall be screened from view of the adjacent rightaway and lots by buildings or an opaque masonry wall or solid fence at least 8 ft in height that's maintained in good condition at all time. Two, a building permit shall be applied for and issued demonstrating the restoration of the existing 8oot fence at 3900 South Hopkins and installation of the opaque fencing at 3838 South Hopkins and the compliance would be verified through the building permit review process. Three, the outdoor storage shall be kept in a neat and orderly arrangement. Material shall not be stacked higher than the screen wall or fence and the additional screening may be required for any stored items exceeding the height of the fence or wall. and that four, all outdoor storage areas shall be located on paved stabilized surfaces designed and constructed to prevent soil or water contamination. Overall, the request is consistent with the mixeduse and commercial character of the Hopkins Avenue corridor and meets the intent of the Indian River City neighborhood plan when properly screened and maintained. And with that, I'm available if you have any questions. And if I may interject, um, commissioners, I would like to read the quasi judicial proceedings just in case it can be, uh, conditional use permit can be considered a quasi judicial process. So, I just wanted to make sure I read that and it's on the record. Great.

Even though I don't know if there are any um, public comments coming,

but I'll read it. During the public hearing portion of the meeting, anyone wishing to speak on a quasi judicial item must first sign a public hearing agenda card and sign the oath contained therein. These cards are located on the table in the back of the council chambers. Those speaking in favor of request will be heard first. Those opposed will be heard second, and those who wish to make a public comment on the item will speak third. The applicant may make a brief rebuttal if necessary. Witnesses may be cross-examined by the applicant, council, staff representatives, and such other representatives as authorized by the council. If you have photographs, sketches or documents that you desire for the city council to consider, they must be submitted into evidence and will be retained by the city. Please submit such exhibits now if if there are any to be submitted. Do you have any uh city clerk uh cards?

I have one card. Okay. Are the were the cards identified as being sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Have any council members visited or commission members rather uh visited any of the sites or spoken to any members of the public regarding the item to be reviewed at this time? No. Okay. Thank you. Nothing further. Right. Thank you. Uh, does anyone up here have questions for the staff? Mercedes,

thank you. Okay, I have a question. So, we had we adopted something called the Indian River City Neighborhood Plan is in Yes, that's correct. It's a small area and I'm just trying to understand how this is all working here. Okay. And so before that the Hopkins Avenue they were zone light industrial services and warehousing which was an like an M1 where outdoor storage could be permitted only as an accessory use. Is that am I correct? The outdoor storage. Yes. As a

Okay. So, and with this what we're being asked to do now is um well, with the adoption of the Indian City River neighborhood plan, it was intentionally removed to store outside. So, under the current request and they're asking for approval for outdoor storage as a primary use. That is correct. Okay. So I'm just

there is another item with the Indian River City plan that any I um area of light industrial that was previously existing could still remain. Um so on that technicality they could have the accessory use for the outdoor storage but it is being requested as the primary use. So it's not completely unavailable to that area. Is the applicant here to ask questions? Yes. Okay. Thank you. member Chapman.

Uh yeah. Uh under the property as it is right now, what is the height uh that is allowed? Because uh I think your statement was saying that if they do want to go higher, they just need to build a fence higher. But I'm just curious what those numbers those heights are and what they'll be hold to. The screening would need to stay beyond the the fence for the current 8 foot to stay beyond with the condition as it is. That verbiage came from outdoor storage as the primary use some of that. Hang on, let me pull up the Indian River City for the specific height. And that height would be for buildings, not necessarily outdoor storage.

Right. So, so what would be a height for this property? I guess for an outdoor storage cuz the verbiage was like, "Oh, they could go up, but I just want to see where we're at with the number." What, you know, the building height maximum in Indian River City Commercial is 35 ft, but with the current condition of being screened from view with the existing fencing of 8 feet. They would have to remain at that 8t. Fencing taller than 8 feet are considered high security fences. They have to be approved by the administrator. Um, and those could only go up to 10. Okay. So, that might be something we want to add into the additional like can't go any higher than eight because of the fencing. Yeah, you could always scrub that that caveat into the from the condition. Okay.

Yeah. I just want to make sure that that's tightened up. Thank you. No problem. Member Grant, any objections to the conditions that you uh listed from the applicant? Yeah. I not aware of any objections, but they're here tonight. They can also address that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, member Seedler.

Thank you. Can the screening alone transform an industrial primary use into something compatible with compatible with the adopted neighborhood plan by putting this the screen? Is that the screening was part of the recommendations within the Indian River City plan as that if these areas were to exist that they should have adequate screening? So that's why we included that condition for the fencing as guided by the plan. So this we have a building and and basically what we're being asked to do is if there's a screen place that we can't see that's is the screening is the fencing. So it's

the screening the fencing that is blocking whatever is put on the outside for the outdoor storage areas and the screening alone is that the only thing that we're doing to make this compatible with the neighborhood by covering it. That's the only recommendation that we that staff has provided. So I mean you guys are welcome to tailor the recommendation the conditions. Okay. But that's what staff is recommending is what would be compliant with the Indian River City neighborhood plan and other outdoor storage area types.

Okay. Uh I don't see any other questions. Uh go ahead and open the public hearing and uh hear from the applicant, Mr. Lloyd.

Thank you guys. And I I apologize for my voice. I've got this cold that everybody else has had in the last couple months. So, um I will say the one one thing the staff didn't mention is we do con we currently have a conditional use permit for containers and and containers uh and many warehouses. So, what we're trying to do is store um nice and neatly boats, possibly someone's RV. They may be taller than 8 feet, but but we're not going to stack anything taller than 8 feet. So you can imagine if you had a bus or not maybe not a bus but a a larger RV or a trailer, you would have it stacked nice and neat. Now this this property when I was a kid uh and and the only person I know on the the board here is Danny. Danny's lived here all his life, but that property when I was a kid, I remember going there with my dad as a a lumber yard. So that entire side was a lumber yard and and fit within the community standards at that time. Uh and that was when Scotty's was there. That was when Barnlight used to be a very large lumber yard. So some very fond memories of me going there and sitting in the front seat of my dad's truck while we loaded lumber uh in that area. So yes, we do plan on having the appropriate screening. Uh we're gonna have a a gate that's that's monitored and um security cameras. Um so it'll be a locked up yard. There will not be people in there at any time of the night or day. Um so uh we plan on running like a a legitimate business primarily for our tenants. Our tenants in that building. Um if you if you did go out and see it, there's there's six or eight different lease spaces there. And I would call it almost like an incubator of of um AC contractors,

um electrical contractors, different trades that have to have that light industrial zoning. And so a lot of them might have uh vans or something they need to park there overnight. They're locked up. They're secure. Um but it's it's required for them to have the that zoning. So, we have no problems with staff's recommendations. Uh, and we plan on being a good neighbor to the neighbors that have been there. I know we've been there for over 20 years now. So, um, I welcome any questions from you guys that you have. Vice Chairman Childs,

um, I we'd heard from another storage place that came before us and they were um, they were kind of against the the permanent fencing or, you know, the solid fencing. They wanted to do those green or black, you know, um things that you hang on a like a chain link fence fence or whatever. Yeah. I can't remember exactly what their argument was, but something like that the other ones were I don't know. I I don't remember. But are are you opposed to the permanent fencing as the as the um condition for the Currently, we have eight foot tall fencing there. Uhuh. Uh and we do have the the screening that's like Yeah. Like a fabric almost, right? and and we've

uh the the the prior owner of the property uh he basically didn't like quite do it right and so you it may not have been maintained. So when the wind blows hard if it's only held up by zip ties it may blow off. So we've we've got some stainless steel zip ties and things like that eventually down the road. Would I love to have a block wall there? Yeah. But I need to have the cash flow to do that. Yeah. So, uh, but no matter what. So, is there a condition to have will will what you want to do meet what they're asking you as do you understand what I'm saying?

The current the current fencing that is one of the requirements of the approval for the pod mini warehouse that he has was that opaque fencing with as described with the chain link with the um carrying over into this to have it remain in consistency with the previous cup and adding on to the thought that your your request was that it would be more of a a solid I guess not a I don't know I thought the wording was like a solid fence. Well the the opaque is but just opaque. Okay. The current building that we have now has no opaque screening. Right. So we are going to have to add some opaque screening

to the current yards that we have that are kind of in between the two buildings. Well you continue the chain link with the Yes. fabric stuff. Okay. Yeah, I don't I don't have a problem with it. Okay. Any more questions? Member Seedler. Yes. Thank you. Are the storage areas um intended to function as an extension of the pods in the mini warehouse operations or is it like a separate thing for them?

It's all under one ownership now. So, I have certain parking spaces that my tenants are using in that yard. Uh, I want to say there's 75 paved parking spaces plus about another 30 that are like concrete paved. So, it's a very large yard and it used to have, like I said, used to have a big lumber yard there. So, what what we're looking to do, uh, we actually have some more containers. We're we're trying to set up a really nice and neat yard with some outdoor storage set up more towards the railroad tracks.

Okay. Um so that you know we're a good neighbor. We're using the property the way it should be used and and also our tenants are being you know if they if you have an AC guy he doesn't need a big office but he might have five vans he needs to park every night. All right. There there also was mentioned in the report that the fence that you had currently was not in the best shape and then have you applied for a permit to re I have no pl have no problem applying for a permit when the huge rainstorm came in. Yeah, the fabric blew off. So, we've already put it back up. Okay.

But, of course, we we intend to maintain the fence and be like I said, be good neighbors. Thank you. Um, see no other questions. Uh, is that the only card, Lori? Yes, sir. All right. By the way, on a side note, this is my business partner, Jody. He owns the business the building with me. The last time he was in this building, we remodeled this office, this whole chamber, and he's the one that cut these beams. Uh cut these big uh wooden beams here in front. So, it's holding up okay, it looks like.

I want to say that [laughter] was like 20 that was probably 20 2002 20. It was just a baby then, huh? Yeah, we can [clears throat] barely hold it up against that. [laughter] All right, with that I'll close the public hearing and bring it back. Uh, anyone have any additional comments or questions or a motion? Vice Chairman Childs, make a motion that we recommend approval of 9A conditional use permit CU number 7-2025. Second approve with conditions

with the conditions u [laughter] but from staff. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any comments before roll call? Seeing none. Uh roll call, please. Lori. Secretary. Secretary Grant. Yes. Member Troutman. Yes. Vice Chairman Childs. Yes. Member Scully. Yes. Member Sidler. Yes. Member Gellen. Yes. Chairman Naton. Yes. Congratulations. Your CUP is approved by us. Does this go to council or we stop it?

Yes, it is going to council on Sorry. Let me scroll back up. Um December 9th. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate your time and your service. Um, this is our second petitions and requests from the public present, which we have no public present. So, uh, we'll skip through that. Uh, city staff, any reports? No, sir. City attorney? No. I have no report. Any of the members have any reports? Seeing none, we will adjourn.