Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

because I don't need that tonight when you're ready are you are we recording is that James in the back set all right we're on TV good evening you are at a plan Commission of the city of Wasau it's Tuesday January 21st it is 5:01 p.m. City Hall council chambers we have a quorum present one absent tonight agenda items for consideration number one is the approve of the meeting minutes from December 21st it would entertain a motion motion from Balan second from bouran any further notes changes comments seeing none All In favor signify by saying I I any opposed that carries item two is discussion and possible action on approving the specific implementation plan for 7804 806 810 814 816 Grand Avenue would entertain a motion motion from Watson yeah second from Balon Andrew did you want to yeah I can give a little uh introductory to this um so last time we met was to approve the GDP or general development plan that went to council and was passed um so we're back here with the specific implementation plan which um true to its name provides more detail on the project um so you'll notice in the packet you have some detailed floor plans of of every floor um you know layouts of the various

apartments that would be in that building um exterior elevations Landscaping plans Etc um so really a pretty detailed uh look at the building proposed for that site so when staff and this body are evaluating this there are criteria that are laid out in our zoning code and uh those are listed in the uh staff memo there's 10 different criteria and um just looking through all those you'll have the uh criteria listed there and the staff comments and italics um and kind of cut the short of it there the staff did find that the there was satisfactory information um for approval on this but we can touch on a couple items that I think came up with the discussion during the GDP um and thankfully we have uh Tyler um from uh from Commonwealth here and and Josh yes Josh uh from m&a Architects um couple of the items on here uh again noting the housing assessment of 2022 which noted that you know housing was a definite need in the area and especially rental at this price point um there was some concerns last time over adequate uh infrastructure uh pertaining to uh questions about traffic and um you know Grand Avenue currently has uh is counted at 23,000 average annual daily trips um and Thomas Street in that spot is at 14,000 average annual daily trips um if you look at the way the uh the two lots are sit way cuz the

underground parking just has right in right out access on Grand and the surface parking has access on Thomas Street um on a you know and you counted two trips so leaving and returning you're looking at very small less than 1% of the daily trips uh on that road both those roads are not yet at their you know volume capacity um so really you know there may be times when those that intersection those roads are busy but it's definitely not in all day conditions so um you know we kind of feel that people will adjust their schedules or their routes depending on where they're going or maybe what time of the day it is to accommodate um access into or out of the site um there was some question about parking as well and they are providing 44 underground uh Lots and 30 on the surface uh this is one of the items they're asking for flexibility on with the Pud that 11 below what is uh the required for the U or the target for the uh zoning code however typically even with the umu uh Planning Commission does have the flexibility to to adjust that um you know really that is the the parking provided you know Commonwealth has the experience of managing multiple properties and they kind of feel this is still adequate for the uh what they're building um and you know that's up to the building management and how they distribute the parking but you know if um we did not see it as something that was so insurmountable as to not allow this to proceed so um and

so we can have um Tyler kind of fill in some more details um on that and he has some good uh I believe he spoke with some of his construction uh folks as far as far as how the site will be managed um but like I said the uh recommendation here from staff is approval of the specific implementation plan thank you call Tyler thank you Tyler would you wish to come up just a couple things first and foremost uh good evening guys obviously these are plans that we've all seen multiple times but just to address a couple of the concerns that were raised um in a prior meeting um as Andrew mentioned we were able to speak with folks from the construction team just to uh further expand upon some of the issues that were raised and hopefully alleviate some of the concerns um one of those was road closures and long-term road closures um just kind of based on the the current developments going on in around the city it seems like that's a concern um in talking with our construction team um in terms of road closures it'll be shortterm exclusively just for uh utility extensions that are required um and then another big one was relating to staging areas and stored materials um and so given the the constraints the development site presents um and the lack of and abundance of area to store materials um they'll be looking at what is referred to a a jit model or just in time delivery model model um so that materials are arriving on site when needed uh but ultimately not storing excessive materials if not needed on site so um you know we hope through the the conveyance of those two pieces it alleviates those two concerns um other than that as andreed mentioned um a lot more detail supplied in this plan set which hopefully you guys uh deem favorable and kind of provided additional details that you have not yet seen and ultimately Garners your support

for the project other than that happy to address any questions you guys have thank you questions um yes uh I I I do have a um you know you kind of answered the question but you you didn't I mean uh I don't have a problem if you need to unload a semi or something do it at midnight when there's no traffic there but I I you know if I would have known what I know now you know when I see you know half of an intersection on a busy City Street is closed because uh you know because they're building a building there had I known that they were going to shut off half that intersection I would have probably been looking at getting something in writing to say you know look um it's it's that's tough to get through that intersection let's just put it that way and and I and my district borders this corner and I have a lot of people that work in my district and a lot of people that use this corner and and I want some sort of guarantee I that the safety of you know I I have safety concerns I understand I believe that the safety of this this project is going to um regardless if it's built or when it's being built is the the safety of this corner is going to be compromised and you know I I won't support it but I I know I I support the affordable housing but I just can't support this project being in this spot I would support it if it was moved across the street or up to were were were any place else in in the city but but I can't support it on this lot but I I just would like some if if this were to go through I would like some kind of written guarantee for the city council and the city residents that that the traffic will not be disrupted there thank

you um I think it's uh so Eric can you as I recall the street permit closures street closure permits run through the engineering office and they're reviewed right so I think uh typically you know permits will come through us if you want to close a lane of of the roadway or need it for temporary reasons so um you know we we have those anywhere from obviously months on end to a day half a day uh we do them for deliveries as well if you think um you know our staff goes out and makees sure signage is adequate um if there's any any detours that are needed like for a short period of time and stuff too so um we would ask um probably on this that you put together a traffic management plan you know if it's going to be uh significant right like if you're going to close it or um but yeah I I think that we have the protocols in place within the city for the and that also takes does that also take into account emergency access we have to maintain a certain amount of emergency access through there right I it doesn't sound like that you know that's going to be an issue within our roadway right so um you know it um but you know it will be disruptive and and just due to the connecting Highway there's going to be some other requirements right because this is um a connecting Highway through the city both on Grand and on Thomas Street so yeah yeah so um you know there is a process in place um with the regular permitting to handle street closures and make sure that's maintained as little as disruption as possible I mean if you need to get into utility work you might have to close a lane down for a few days but we're not talking hopefully not

talking very long term so I imagine yeah I would say some of the probably the service line connections and stuff because they'll be pouring concrete it'll probably be a week you know yeah they got to cut in they got to make the connections they got to report the concrete that has to set you know you know for 3 4 days and then put the black top on top and then open the road back up so typically that's about a week yep and Tyler is it uh for a building like this would you expect maybe an 18mon construction timeline uh we're looking at about 15 right now 15 y great okay thank you further questions I got another one from Fon comment in contrast to Lou I'm really looking forward to this project I think it's it's been needing something for so long anything that's going on there is going to slow up traffic because I see police cars pulled off on there now and traffic's backed up for three blocks because people are rubbernecking at it so that's going to happen um I think it's I think it's a great project I think I think when you guys pull this off this will probably be up for some award someplace because it is very very challenging but I'm really looking forward to it and I wish you all the luck appreciate that thank you anyone else Eric yeah I can just comment uh on the general development plan you know I voted against us too and really it's because of the traffic conflicts going out on Thomas Street right um it's a it's a challenging site for Ingress and egress I think that those will be there um with anything that goes on this site um uh from an engineering perspective and from from our perspective I'll stay I'll still uh vote no on this uh for tonight but um but I do think um whatever was to

be developed on this site if anything was going to have those those conflicts um the the main concerns that we have from an engineering standpoint is when traffic really the only um Ingress and egress really primarily right is out on Thomas Street and so it's making that turn if you want to go West on Thomas Street you're going to be Crossing like three lanes of traffic um uh to get to West you know to Head West and that's uh that's a challenge right there especially when the stop light's backed up and uh we have a lot of traffic coming around that corner um I do hope uh and and I do believe that when the dot comes in there may be some improvements at the light in the intersection um I don't know what those are I don't think we'll know for a couple couple years but we'll have a stake in those so yeah so um but this does get voted on tonight it does not go on to council just so you're aware okay yep thanks all right thank you seeing nothing further we have a motion and a second on the specific implementation plan all those in favor signify by saying I I those opposed no so we have two opposed yep and that passes thank you next meeting date is Tuesday February 18th 2025 5:00 pm same place I would entertain a motion to adjourn motion from Watson second from bulen all in favor see you later 16 minutes thank you yeah um so we are nearly done with that tip a couple questions