Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. I'd like to call this meeting of the Valdez Planning and Zoning Commission for Wednesday, August 19th to order. Let the record show that Commissioners Ratatitch, Wade, and Hayes are in the room and Commissioner Moulton is on the phone. And we have Commissioners Fagerberg, Matroka, and Goodrow excused. First item is public business from the floor. Did anyone come here to address us on a non-agended item? All right. MOVING ON, PUBLIC HEARING NUMBER ONE, PUBLIC HEARING FOR KENNA LICENSE APPLICATION FROM WEGS AND WHISKERS GROOMING. DID ANYONE COME TO ADDRESS US ON THIS? IF SO, PLEASE COME TO THE MIC, PUSH THE BUTTON SO THE RED LIGHT IS ON AND GIVE US YOUR NAME.

Yeah, so just for the commission, we've got both the applicant and the chief animal control officer, Mike Klepper, in the room and ready for any questions that you might have during your discussion the next agenda item.

If you have something to say, you're welcome to now. Otherwise, if you want to come up during our discussion, we can ask questions and get back and forth. This is a time for you to talk to us, and we just listen.

Yeah, this is for the public.

Well, I'm not afraid to come up and talk. So I went over and I did my inspection on the building that she's going to use for the grooming salon. Everything meets the standards that we have established. She had areas to keep the animals in, both a large area for large dogs and a smaller area for smaller dogs. She has a separate area to bathe them in. She has a room where she's going to take the animals back to do the grooming so they're out of the public's eye if the owners are standing by or some other person standing by. She has the proper cleaning supplies. She has a book to keep all of the certifications as far as for vaccination records and licensing. She has met everything that is needed. Furthermore, she has done, she had done all these things basically on her own without me even telling her what she needed. She already had all the things, so she looked into it, reviewed, and researched what she needed. So I think it's a good idea. Plus, the other part of this is we have no licensed groomers in the town. We desperately need them. I get called probably two to three times a week, people asking me for a name of a groomer. I have to tell them we don't have anyone licensed. So it's definitely a business that we do need in town for dogs that do have to be groomed. Do you guys have any questions?

We should probably save them for your discussion, actually. We're still in the public hearing, so let's save that.

All right. Anybody else for or against? We want to hear it all.

Can you press the button so a red light comes on?

Yeah, sorry.

Say your name again. Steve Weeks. Just as a customer of hers in the past, she does an excellent job, and it is, like Mike said, it's a service we need. We spend a lot of time at the dog park, and we're always seeing other people there. They're like, where do you get your dog groomed or whatever? Because everybody really needs it. And she does an awesome job, and she's great with the dog. And in the past, we've actually taken one of our dogs to Anchorage to have it done. Dog completely freaked out. We had to go pick the dog up 15 minutes later. Never an issue with her. She's just amazing with the animals. So that's all I'd like to say. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

Anybody else? All right. With that, we will close the public hearing. And move on to our action item, which is the same topic, approval of a recommendation to the chief of police for issuance of a kennel license for wags and whiskers grooming at 104 Chenega Avenue.

Motion to approve. Second.

It's been moved by Commissioner Wade, seconded by Commissioner Adetich. Thank you. Any discussion on this?

I think the packet had... I HAD ALL THE INFORMATION I NEEDED. I JUST WANTED TO DOUBLE CHECK IF THERE WAS ANY OTHER PUBLIC COMMENT.

NEW SPEAKER NO, WE HAVEN'T RECEIVED ANYTHING SINCE THE PUBLISHING OF THE AGENDA. IN THE CASE OF THIS TYPE OF PROCESS, IT'S THE AGENDA THAT SERVES AS THE PUBLIC NOTICE. AND WE DIDN'T RECEIVE ANYTHING. NEW SPEAKER OKAY. THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER I THINK IT'S GREAT.

NEW SPEAKER HOW ABOUT YOU, COMMISSIONER

No objections here.

All right. This is a quick one, I guess. I am also very happy with this. I am a little concerned with doing it in a hurry that people might say we're trying to sneak something in. But in this case, we didn't have any comments against it. I can't foresee what would be a problem with anyone. So I'm happy to work with people who have deadlines, too. So that was my only concern.

that we will go to the vote um actually actually chairman yes go ahead i guess i do have a question i should bring that up um if i mean there are residences right behind them um if there are conflicts with noises or anything it's just handled like any other routine um noise complaint or anything like that

Can I take that? Sure. Yeah, so I'll actually take this as an opportunity to just to review the process. So tonight you're voting on your recommendation and then that recommendation will be passed to the chief of police who will review both the inspection report from the animal control officer and your recommendation and then make the final decision. So if there are any complaints or issues with a license of this type that is already issued, then that is handled through a process with the animal control officer and the chief of police. And there are provisions in the code for the process that they would handle if the license itself needs to be reevaluated due to any issues like that.

Very good. Thank you. And this is in the commercial business district, correct? Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, as I put in the agenda statement, you know, we really looked at this from a zoning perspective as having a very similar impact to a veterinary office, which is a permitted outright use in the central business district, which is where this is located. And so we didn't see any impacts. You know, this process that's laid out in the code is really designed for a kennel that's housing animals even either on a temporary or a long-term basis which would have additional impacts and you know that would require conditional use permit and more thorough process for many districts but this is much more similar to a veterinary office all right thank you did that bring up any questions for you guys okay then let's go ahead and take the vote okay we'll do a voice vote for for everyone all those in favor please say aye

aye aye those opposed please say nay that we have four yeas motion carries congratulations and i guess we don't have a report from the director yeah we have to short for city council tonight i'll just ask does anyone have commission business from the floor all right um commissioner moulton just to be sure before we adjourn

No, thank you.

Thank you.

With that, we will adjourn.

Thank you for being on.

I'm sure he's really busy.