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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 2, 2004 P&Z Minutes Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission September 2, 2004 Page 70181 Zaremba: Second. Borup: Motion and Second to close the hearing. All in favor? Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Moe: Mr. Chairman, I move we forward to City Council recommending approval of CUP 04-030, request for a Conditional Use Permit for a gymnastics center in an I-L zone for Danik Gymnastics, Viktor Danilovitch, 345 South Adkins Way, to include all staff comments and conditions of the staff memo dated for the hearing date of September 2nd, 2004, received August 23rd, 2004, and the letter from Mr. Danilovitch received by the city clerk's office August 31 st, 2004 -- excuse me, not city clerk, but Planning and Zoning. End of motion. Zaremba: Second. Borup: Motion and second. All in favor? Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 6: Public Hearing: CUP 04-031 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for a retail candle and gift shop in an O-T zone for Kathy Hinshaw (Aromatic Sensations) by Kathy Hinshaw-128 East Pine Avenue: Borup: Next item is Public Hearing CUP 04-031. This is a request for a Conditional Use Permit for a retail candle and gift shop in an OT zone for Kathy Hinshaw, 128 East Pine Avenue. We'd like to open this hearing and start with the staff report, Hood: Thank you, Mr. Commissioner -- Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, This is another CUP application for a retail candle and gift shop on Pine Street. The mailing address is 128. It's located on the north side of Pine, just west of 2nd Street, between 2nd and Main. To the north of the subject site is an alley and on the other side of the alley are some single-family residences. To the south are -- is a single-family home directly across street. You can see our city parking lot to the south and west. Directly to the west of this site is a used children's clothing and toys, I believe, also, so used children's items anyway there and that business to the. east is the High Desert Construction office. Everything, including this parcel is zoned OT, in Old Town. The site plan submitted by the applicant -- I apologize that this didn't come through very well, it didn't scan in very well, but you may have a hard copy in front of you, but there is only one on-site parking stall proposed. That is the biggest issue, I think, probably, with this application. There are a lot of existing homes in Old Town that are converting to retail- office type uses. This is another one, but parking is definitely an issue to be discussed. The city does not have any special regulations for Old Town parcels when it comes to parking requirements and there is only one on-site parking stall and it is a handicapped stall located off of the alley. There is currently a concrete slab with a covered carport, in Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission September 2. 2004 Page 8 01 81 fact, it will be utilized. And current city code does require retail uses to provide one parking stall for every 200 gross square feet of the building. This is a 924 square foot building, so rounded; they would need five parking stalls. Also there is on-street parking on Pine Street that is utilized quite a bit. They would be able, according to our standards for dimensions, which are 23 feet long per stall, would be able to fit two parking stalls in front. So, it's on site, but in front of this business there are two and, again, the city parking lot is in the general vicinity. Just one other thing of note regarding parking. Last year there was an application, again, for that used children's clothing and/or toys and they asked for a variance. The subject business has also submitted a variance that will be heard by the City Council with this application after your recommendation. That application -- that applicant was allowed to utilize the on- street parking and one on-site parking stall for that business, with those other considerations, because there are on-street and across the street parking for the business. Being such, this is just kind of a little bit more of staff's analysis, I guess, is in the staff report, but oftentimes these specialty retail shops don't generate some of the traffic that a more general retail store may, something just to take into consideration. I believe one of the other things that back in 1901 when this was platted people weren't thinking about parking requirements. There is only 46 feet of frontage and you have pretty narrow lots. It is .18 acres, so just to keep those things in mind, I guess, anyways. I think that's everything I wanted to touch on. With that, I will stand for any questions -- oh, staff is recommending approval. I did want to point out to you, to make the legal department happy, that there is no conflict of interest; the applicant did put down me as the engineer, planner, surveyor for this. I did help the applicant in pre-app meetings, but I am not working on this site consulting, so I did just want to go on record with that and with that I'll stand for any questions. Borup: Questions from the Commission? I noticed that, too, but I assumed that was the case. Zaremba: I would comment on these smaller projects it sometimes speeds it along to have the department provide a little extra help than they might on somebody who can hire their own engineer, so I personally don't have a problem with that. I would have two questions, though. One of them -- and the fire department doesn't mention it, but other than their first point on page seven with the acceptance of the water supply for fire protection will be by the Meridian Water Department, are you aware of any special requirements that they might put on for the storage and making and display of flammable items, such as candles? Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Zaremba, I do know they have a manufacturing standard condition. I do not know why it was not included here. I'm recalling when the agency meeting was held, Chief Bowers, who used to do this for a long time, was there, but has since turned over the reigns to Joe Silva. He may have just missed it, but there may be some special for a manufacturing -- or a business of this type that may have candles there lit to show their work -- there may be. I do not know that, though. I'm sorry. Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission September 2.2004 Page 9 of 81 Zaremba: But having the adequate water supply for fire protection probably would give them the right to introduce that part if they needed to? It seems appropriate to me. I just wanted to make sure that thought was included. I see a head nodding. The other question I had -- on the staff report, page - I lost the page number, but it's the page before the one that I was just talking about, so it must be page six. Yes, it is. About item number 11, it says the applicant or successor -- maybe I'm wrong, but I was surprised. Does the CUP go with the land, so that it can be sold along with -- there can be a successor owner of the CUP? Hood: That's correct. The Conditional Use Permit runs with the land, not the applicant, so if you don't move your CUP, the approval is for the use, so, yeah, the successor part would be true. Zaremba: Okay. Good. I was thinking differently, but I'm glad to have that clarified. That, then, leads me to a couple other questions, though. Is it limited to this specific use? In other words, it does not automatically turn this into a retail property, as opposed to a residential, it has to remain a candle shop and within that candle shop they cannot on their own set up a booth for Madam Zelda's Taro Card Reading and stuff like that? It's limited to their specific stated uses? Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Zaremba, we go off of the schedule of use control, so this would be a retail business. You could open up another retail business not specializing in candles and gift shop. If there is not another closer classification, you would not have to gain CUP approval. If they wanted to convert this to an office, that's a different use and they would have to come back in for CUP approval based on the OT zone. But this is approved for a retail business in general, more specifically for this applicant, a candle shop. So, it can be converted to Madam Zelda's or whatever you just said. A clothing store, any type of retail business could move in there, potentially, with this CUP approval. Zaremba: And that leads me to the question of whether that -- if your assessment of the parking situation would stay the same if it were some other retail use -- Hood: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Zaremba, the existing home, to convert that to anything other than a somewhat specialized -- I don't see it happening. If they were to tear it down and start anew maybe -- some of these homes that are converted, those tend to be of this variety and staff is kind of put in a little bit of a bind when reviewing these, just because of the history of Old Town and what the city kind of wants to see in these mix of uses, but you don't take into account fully -- you got 40-foot wide lots and where are you going to put parking and a structure on site. So, they are -- that is difficult. I think in the next year or year and a half or so we are going to have some specific guidelines for developing downtown and possibly some sites for parking garages and those type of things that can fully address those issues. But I thought about it, I guess, in the analysis and probably will get a little more detailed in the variance application, but it would be hard to recommend anything other than approval, I think, just based on what else has happened in the Old Town with similar situations. Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission September 2. 2004 Page 100181 So, I know that doesn't fully answer the question, but at least that's my perspective on this. Zaremba: It does answer my question and thank you. Borup: Questions from any of the other Commissioners? Does applicant have anything they'd like to add? Is the applicant here? Okay. Kathy. Hinshaw: Good evening. I'm Kathy Hinshaw, owner of 128 East Pine Avenue and I know there is not a lot of parking there and I like the home and would like to convert it over to retail and I guess that's about it. Borup: Okay. Hinshaw: Do you have any questions for me? Borup: Questions from any of the Commissioners? Zaremba: I guess not. Rohm: Mr. Chairman, I just had one question. From a manufacturing perspective, can you kind of fill us in on what you will be doing with candles? Are you bringing in pre- made candles and its just retail or are you going to manufacture, to a certain degree, or what? Hinshaw: Yes. I have the -- I buy the wax and I buy the scent and I melt them and, then, I just pour them into containers or molds and that's how I sell them. Rohm: How do you melt the -- is it propane? Is it natural gas? Is it on the stove? Hinshaw: No, it's not on the stove, but it's like a crock-pot. That's what you would compare it to. And you just heat it up to probably about 130 degrees and the wax just melts and you just pour it -- pour it into your containers with the wick. Rohm: So, you're not going to have a big bunson burner sitting there -- Hinshaw: No. Things have changed. Rohm: Okay. Well, that's alii had. Hinshaw: Yeah. And one other thing I wanted to let you know about. If there happened to be a fire and the wax -- the way that you put it out is with baking soda and/or a fire extinguisher. Water just kind of makes it worse. So, I have those. Rohm: So an abundance of water wouldn't necessarily help. Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission September 2. 2004 Page11of81 Hinshaw: No. No. It would just make it worse. Zaremba: But I'm hearing you say you have plan to have plenty of baking soda and some fire extinguishers? Hinshaw: Oh, yes. Yes. I have plenty of that. Zaremba: The concern would be that the age of this building and being a wood structure that you would need to act fast, of course. Hinshaw: Well, it's stucco and lath. and plaster, so -- okay. Thank you. Borup: Thank you. Do we have anyone to testify on this application? Seeing none, Commission? Zaremba: Mr. Chairman, I move the hearing be closed. Moe: Second. Borup: Motion and second to close the hearing. All in favor? Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Zaremba: As we all know, the Old Town area is a transition area and we have reviewed applications next door and around us, which we have approved for this kind of transition and I think all the questions have been answered as satisfactorily as they can be answered and I would be in favor of approving. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I move we forward to the City Council recommending approval of CUP 04-031, request for a Conditional Use Permit for a retail candle and gift shop in an O-T zone for Kathy Henshaw, Aromatic Sensations, by Kathy Henshaw, 128 East Pine Avenue, to include all comments of the staff in their memo dated for the hearing date of September 2, 2004, received by the city clerk August 27,2004, with no changes. Moe: Second. Borup: Motion and second. All in favor? Any opposed? MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 7: Public Hearing: AZ 04-022 Request for Annexation and Zoning of 4.91 acres from RUT to R-8 zone for Redfeather Village Subdivision by Packard Estates Development, LLC - east of North Eagle Road and north of East Fairview Avenue: Item 8: Public Hearing: PP 04-029 Request for Preliminary Plat approval for 20 single family residential building lots on 4.91 acres in a proposed R-8 zone