HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 7, 2005 P&Z Minutes
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission
July 7, 2005
Page 70 of 110
Item 20:
Public Hearing: RZ 05-009 Request for a Rezone of 4.53 acres from I-L
to C-G zone for Porky Park Subdivision by VJ Joint Venture - south of
Pine Street and east of North Eagle Road:
Item 21:
Public Hearing: PP 05-026 Request for Preliminary Plat approval of 15
commercial building lots on 34.56 acres in proposed C-G zone for Porky
Park Subdivision by VJ Joint Venture - south of Pine Street and east of
North Eagle Road:
Zaremba: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready to reconvene and let the record
show that all Commissioners that were here before the break are again present and I
want to thank you all for hanging in there. We are making progress and we are getting
to you. I will open the Public Hearing now for RZ 05-009 and PP 05-026, both relating
to Porky Park Subdivision, south of Pine Street and east of North Eagle Road. And we
will begin with the staff report.
Guenther: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. This is a request
for a rezone of 4.53 acres, as well as a preliminary plat for an industrial subdivision.
The 4.53 acres is -- okay. A little technical glitch there. The subdivision is located off
Eagle Road and Pine Road. Recently we just approved the Conditional Use Permit for
the Jackson's Food Store, which is on the front of this lot. One of the conditions of
approval for Jackson's was that they be incorporated with the multi-use development --
the mixed use regional comprehensive designation. It's getting a little late for me, too.
They have done that. The mix of uses is primarily the industrial park for the eastern
probably three-quarters of the subdivision and there is approximately six acres of
commercial C-G zone, including the Jackson's lot. The landscape for Jackson's was
already approved through the Conditional Use Permit and so Lots 1 and 2 of this
subdivision, which is one and two here, have already -- have already landscaping
improved, as well as the required accesses. The only major issues with this is there is a
canal that runs along the lower portion. The applicant has indicated that they are not
willing to tile that immediately, because they are currently farming this site. If you go out
there, I was informed that it's barley and they are looking to harvest in the next couple
days. They are going to continue to farm that property. As this -- this application is
before you, because there are the commercial developments closer to Eagle and Pine
that they wish to try and get developed today. With that, our standard condition is that
that irrigation ditch be tiled. That can be bonded for and required improvements as
such. The one condition of approval that I was looking at that -- I believe we can amend
is that -- let me find that quickly. It would be page nine, item three. The item says that
Porky Park business owners association shall maintain all required landscape buffers.
As long as the easements are in there, the staff is comfortable with letting the
individuals maintain their own landscape buffers, as they would be constructed
according to Chapter 13 of our Meridian City Code. So, that last sentence could be
struck out. It has -- it's been done in the past in looking at these industrial properties,
the landscaping can be developed on an individual basis.
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission
July 7, 2005
Page 71 of 110
Zaremba: Would you want to strike it or would we want to propose it as an either/or,
allowing the occupants to make the choice?
Guenther: You can do an either/or, if that's what you choose -- or what you feel most
comfortable with.
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Zaremba: That at last preserves that it's some body's responsibility to maintain it, other
than the city's.
Guenther: Well, the individual ownership of the lots would be the ones required to
maintain it. Typically, with commercial, the previous development, they will have a
business owners association, in order to have a consistent landscaping. Those
industrial parks are quite a bit different and, therefore, I tend to agree with the way the
applicant just presented, that the obvious lots will be individual ownership and there will
not be a large association maintaining all of the lots on this property.
Zaremba: Okay. But is it just automatically -- it's understood, then, that the individuals
take care of it or --
Guenther: Yes. They are going to have to do that through their certificate of zoning
compliance in order to certify that they are complying with our landscaping ordinance.
Zaremba: Okay.
Guenther: There is an ACHD condition. There is a road stub currently -- it's
approximately in the middle of the property. This is the connection to -- I believe it's
Commerce Street that runs off of the industrial park south of this property. They have
almost no chance to get a left turn onto Eagle Road without having a controlled access.
ACHD and the developer, as well as the city staff have worked to try and help figure out
some way to get the -- so traffic can't turn left. So, they are going to be able to come
around and use the Pine Street access, which is a controlled intersection, and will have
a controlled left turn, you know, once this street connects through to Commerce. The
ACHD condition just states that that needs to be dedicated. It was not -- it's not shown
on the preliminary plat that it needs to be dedicated and so staff decided just a basic
condition of -- to that effect. I will give him that. Staff has no additional concerns with
this project and I will stand for questions. We are recommending approval as detailed in
the report.
Zaremba: Commissioners, any questions?
Moe: Where are you noting the ACHD requirement?
Guenther: The ACHD condition -- Site Specific Conditions of Approval start on page --
at the bottom of page 13. And it's -- ACHD condition number four says construct a
north-south public road at the end of Commercial Court to intersect Pine Street. And as
far as I know there is -- this road has already been constructed due to the applicant's
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission
July 7, 2005
Page 72 of 110
desire to get that road constructed prior to having water in the canal. So, they have
already done the work and it's -- they just covered the ditch. They did some dirt work,
though. They did some dirt work. That's not actually paved.
Zaremba: Any further questions? Okay. Would the applicant care to come forward
and explain who the heck picked the name Porky Park Subdivision.
Miller: My name is Brad Miller, representing VJ Joint Venture, 3084 East Lanark and I
know that Commissioner Newton-Huckabay wants the long version of all this, but if it's
okay with all of you, I'd like to give you the short version of all this.
Borup: Go for it.
Miller: The name Porky Park -- and I apologize for that. We went to John Priester to
name this and, as you know, he controls all the names. We wanted it to be called VJ
Property -- Properties and he said no, because you can't have initials. So, we said,
okay, we will spell out Veejay, V-e-e-j-a-y. He said no, you can't spell out initials. So,
we said Pine-Eagle Industrial Park and he said, no, there is too many Pines and too
many Eagles. Mr. Van Auker, most of you know, can be a little abrupt on things and he
said, well, just call the darn thing Porky Park and so we did and Priester liked it. So,
don't ask me why, but that's why we -- it's not out of disrespect to the city or anything
like that. The property was zoned -- annexed and zoned in about 1994, maybe 1995,
and I know that Commissioner Zaremba's big on industrial land, as are we, we like big
boxes, but if you will note the Comprehensive Plan calls for this to be a mixed use
regional and so we are proposing that to conform with the property that's to the north,
where you have the Ram and the savings and loan and some other -- we decided to --
so, we decided to -- we sold the current piece of Jackson and, then, we have a hotel
that's interested in this second lot, so we have decided to conform the front few lots to
the commercial that's directly to the north. And it meets what the Comprehensive Plan
wants. But we want to keep the rest of it industrial. If you go on the other side of the
Lewis & Clark Middle School, you can see stuff like we do. We have got distribution
warehouses over there. And, typically, we are a build and hold developer, we don't sell
lots off, typically. Although in the Jackson case we did. What I anticipate that we will do
is we will go one by one and we will build those lots out, lease them -- build buildings
and lease them out to prospective tenants. And so we would like to continue -- and,
quite frankly, the farming issue, we have got a good crop of barley out there, 75 bushels
per acre, and we are going to harvest it tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about that, except
they won't let me drive the combine. Next year I think our agreement will include me
driving the combine. But we will just go lot by lot. We would like to keep agriculture,
because, quite frankly, you can't afford to hold land if you don't keep it in agriculture
anymore, the tax assessments are so steep. And so we contract with a farmer to do all
that for us. All the utilities are in place. We have widened out Pine Street, as you know.
We have got -- we have got the sidewalks there, everything's there, all the utilities are
stubbed out to all of the lots that are there. We held a homeowners meeting, notified all
the homeowners in the area, and none of them showed up and, hopefully, if there is any
that have issues they are here tonight to be able to address those. I don't think there
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission
July 7, 2005
Page 73 of 110
should be any issues. The new road that Joe discussed is -- is a proposed road from
Commercial Court and Micron or Crucial Technologies and Albertson's and all the other
owners that are really having a tough time getting out on Eagle Road, especially making
a left-hand turn, so this is kind of a group effort and we have come together. We have
agreed to contribute the land, the other owners there, including John Jackson, Coors,
and Albertson's and Crucial and Nelson have some up with the money to build the road.
So, we are dedicating the land for that and they are going to -- they say they are going
to start on that next week. They have covered the ditch already, because that had to be
done before the water went in the ditch. So, we hope that that will be done by the end
of the summer, because it is dangerous out there. In regard to what Joe mentioned
about the homeowners association -- or the owners association, we have never done an
owners association. Typically, I think in this case we will probably own all of those. If
you go on the other side of Lewis & Clark Middle School, we have got about 20 lots
there and there is about five or six lots that are un-built yet. Of all those buildings that
we constructed there, we own all but three of them now. So, that's kind of what our
mode of operation is to continue to hold, but if we do sell them, they will be controlled by
CC&Rs. There will be CC&Rs over the whole project that will dictate how that the
landscaping is to be maintained and, then, there will also be an architectural review
committee, of which Mr. Van Auker, myself, will be a member, along with a third person.
Probably if we sell off it, it will probably be one of the owners we would sell it to. I think
that's everything I have. If there is any questions, I would be more than happy to
address them.
Moe: Mr. Chairman?
Zaremba: Commissioner Moe.
Moe: Brad, just looking at the property and whatnot and realizing we have got industrial
designation and whatnot, we see the Jacksons, you're speaking of a hotel, we are in
mixed use. Are we going to see any office anticipated in any of that as we go east?
Miller: Well, I think that we will probably end up with some office uses. We don't --
typically what we do, Commissioner Moe, is we are spec builders and we build big box
warehouses. We are not spec office builders, but the way that area is changing and the
way land prices are going up, it kind of prices you out of the warehouse market, you
can't afford to build warehouses on land that's that expensive. But the nice thing is is
we bought the land right and so we can afford to do it, since we are in the land right, but
someone new that would purchase land from us, if we were to sell it, would probably
have to go to a higher and better use there. So, there could be some office uses, but
right now we don't anticipate any. Just so you know, east of the middle school we have
just built two new buildings there. One is a General Electric supply and we just moved
in there to a 16,000 square foot building. Then, we have Midwest Flooring that moved
into a 26,000 square foot building. So, we would have -- I anticipate similar type uses
on the industrial side --
Mae: Okay.
Meridian Planning & Zoning Commission
July 7, 2005
Page 74 of 110
Miller: -- of the subdivision.
Zaremba: All right. Thank you. Okay. We have no one signed up on these items to
speak, but this is an opportunity, if anybody cares to add anything. I see no action,
therefore, we don't need rebuttal from Mr. Miller. Commissioners?
Moe: Mr. Chairman, I move we close the Public Hearing on RZ 05-009 and PP 05-026.
Borup: Second.
Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please, signature by saying
aye. Any opposed? That motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Moe: Okay. Mr. Chairman, I move we forward to City Council recommending approval
of RZ 05-009, with all staff comments for the hearing dated of July 7th, 2005, received
by the city clerk's office July 1 st, 2005. End of motion.
Borup: Second.
Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Anyopposed? That
motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Moe: Mr. Chairman, I move we forward to City Council recommending approval of PP
05-026, to include all staff comments for the hearing date July 7th, 2005, received by
the city clerk's office July 1 st, 2005, with one change. Under the preliminary plat --
preliminary/final plat, site specific condition number three, I would like to strike the last
sentence, the Porky Park business owners association shall maintain all required
landscape buffers. End of motion.
Borup: Second.
Zaremba: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? That
motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Newton-Huckabay: That's all folks.
Moe: That's what I waited for him to say.
Zaremba: All right. We will open the Public Hearing AZ 05-024, request --