HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/5 P&Z MinutesMeridian Planning & Zoning
July 5, 2007
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MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Rohm: The motion is completed, but go ahead, we can discuss it.
Marcheschi: Sorry. Thank you, Commissioners. The one issue that we -- one or two
issues was the water line that was in the staff report from Public Works saying that the
developer was responsible for the extension, was, in fact, a misstatement in the staff
report and so that portion would also need to be amended or substituted for Jay
Walker's testimony and I believe comments from Public Works, so --
Steckline: Mr. Chair, Members of the Commission, those statements were put in place ~-
we -- I have talked with Kyle Radek about this and, basically, they were put in in case
that if your project went ahead before the Eagle -- or, excuse me, before the McMillan
and Linder project. So, it's a precautionary measure and I would support those
statements.
Marcheschi: So, maybe we could just word it so that it's just to that effect, so that if we
did go before the widening, then, we would be responsible for the extension, but if we
come after, then, that's not our responsibility.
Steckline: I would support that.
Moe: I think that's the intent already, so I don't know that there is any rewording
necessary, is there?
Steckline: That's pretty much the intent.
Marcheschi: Okay. Thank you.
Moe: For the record, now that we know that.
Marcheschi: Thank you.
Item 13: Public Hearing: CUP 07-013 Request for a Conditional Use Permit per
requirement of the Development Agreement for detailed site plan approval
of the Cherry Lane Christian Church site for Cherry Lane Christian
Church by Steve Pardew - 175 N. Ten Mile Road: (Re-Noticed for July
19, 2007)
Item 14: Public Hearing: MCU 07-002 Request to Modify the existing Conditional
Use Permit (CUP 05-023) to allow for flex space, warehouse /storage and
show room space on specific lots in the proposed Devon Park Subdivision
No. 3 (currently Lot 3, Block 1, Devon Park Subdivision No. 2) for Devon
Park Flex Space by Fairview Lakes, LLC - 1$75 North Lakes Place:
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July 5, 2007
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Rohm: Thank you. Okay. At this time I'd like to open the Public Hearing on MCU 07-002
and begin with the staff report.
Wafters: Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, the application before you is a
request for a Conditional Use Permit modification to allow for flex space, warehouse
storage, and showroom space on certain lots in Devon Park. The property is currently
zoned R-40 and was previously approved through the Devon Park planned
development for office uses. The property is located right here in the R-40 zone at 1875
North Lakes Place on the north side of Fairview Avenue, midway between Meridian and
Locust Grove Roads. Directly north of this site is assisted living and an Alzheimer's
facility, zoned R-15. To the east and south is vacant property, approved for office uses,
zoned R-40. To the west are residential homes in Fairview Terrace Mobile Home Park,
zoned R-8. Access to this site will be provided from Fairview Avenue via North Lakes
Place. No new access points are proposed or approved with this application. The flex
space use is proposed on Lots 26 through 29 of the proposed Devon Park Subdivision
Na. 3 and is proposed to contain an overhead door on the front elevation for loading
purposes. The affected lots are outlined here. There is two here along the north
boundary, like I said before, the assisted living, residential, Alzheimer's facility is here.
These units abut the west property line where the mobile home park is. And these lots
are zoned R-40 and were previously approved through the Devon Park planned
development for office uses. Staff believes that if these lots were zoned to reflect the
approved land use, they would have an L-O zoning designation. This belief is based on
a close proximity of residences to the property and office uses that were allowed
through the PD. Professional services, which include offices, are permitted uses in all
the four commercial zoning districts. Flex space is prohibited in the L-O and C-N zones
and is a permitted use only in the C-C and C-G districts, with specific use standards as
follows: Retail uses shall not exceed 25 percent of leasable area in any tenant space.
As you can see from the floor plan here, this whole area here is designated for
warehouse showroom use. The showroom area is considered retail space, because
items displayed are available for retail sales. This area exceeds the 25 percent space
requirement for retail. The Camp Plan future land use map designates this property for
mixed use community. The uses in this category provide for day-to-day service oriented
businesses that serve the community. Staff does not believe that the proposed use is
compatible with desired uses far the MUC land use category or the adjacent residential
land uses. Building elevations were submitted that show an overhead door on the front
facade, which is not consistent the approved office use of the property or the proposed
flex space use. Per the UDC, flex space is defined as the use of a site for warehousing,
offices, and/or retail showroom. Flexibility and use of interior spaces and low scale
attractive exterior appearance characterize flex buildings. Staff believes that the
proposed overhead doors will not result in a low scale attractive exterior appearance of
the buildings and will not be compatible in appearance with adjacent future office
buildings. In conclusion staff does believe that the proposed flex space use is
compatible with office uses approved for this site or the adjacent residential uses and is
recommending denial of the requested Conditional Use Permit modification, as stated in
the staff report. That's all staff has.
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Rohm: Thank you very much, Sonya. Any questions of staff? Okay.
Tamura: My name is Doug Tamura. My office is at 1124 Santa Maria in Boise, Idaho,
and I'm the developer of Fairview Lakes. What we did was we submitted a CZC
approval to construct a 3,500 square foot office building in Fairview Lakes, which is for
this building right here. We combined Lots 28 and 29 with an overhead door. We have
just completed constructing all except for this one building in phase one of Devon Park
No. 2 and in that Flaherty Construction purchased this lot and built one building on two
lots, but it contained an overhead door with this little star with that, so assuming that that
went through, it received CZC approval, received a building permit, received an
occupancy permit, the building has been there for a year and so the size and scale of
this building, you will see through those pictures, is real similar to what Flaherty did. So,
just assuming that we had a buyer that wanted to go ahead and have a similar type
building, we went ahead and did the building permit, then, submitted it and, then, was
notified by staff that the overhead door wasn't approved in the original conditional use.
We had apre-con with staff and discussed the options. One of the options would be to
rezone -- rezone the R-40 into commercial. The reason this is R-40 is that if you guys
recall on the original submittal of Fairview Lakes, this whole area up here was originally
designed as a large 200 unit apartment complex. Then, we decided that, you know, the
market was very difficult on apartments. We scaled back the apartments down to a
hundred units, but instead of rezoning it as R-40, they suggested that we just do a
conditional use, leave the R-40 zone in place and, then, just ask for the office complex.
We down zoned the retirement center, because, again, in the City of Meridian zoning
ordinance they don't allow Alzheimer's in an R-40 zone, so we down zoned that to R-15.
The other thing that I want to show in the zoning is currently our C-G zone incorporates
the south half of that office complex. So, if we moved this building and put it right here,
we are an allowed use. So, these five buildings right now are allowed to have flex
space, overhead doors, the things that Sonya talked about. The reason that we are here
tonight is that two of our tenants are owners in our first phase, Flaherty Construction
here and, then, Acu-Graph, which occupies this building here, would like to -- you know,
one is -- Flaherty would like to take his building and build the same building, a mirror
image of it over on this side of the project, so he's got an option on these two lots. Acu-
Graph, which, you know, does business -- what he's planning on doing here, but he's
planning on expanding -- is he wants to relocate from here to here. The reason that we
are asking for this exception is that in our project, again, the overhead door, the reason
that Flaherty put it here is we thought well, gee, one is you don't see it. You know, the
other reason that we thought Acu-Graph would work well here is that, again, it's in the
very back portion of our property. So, again, esthetically, when I review those pictures
with you, it's not something that you see for the North Lakes, because it's stuck in the
far back corner of our project. Staff is recommending denial. The reason that she
recommended denial, in the Comprehensive Plan policies one is it says plan for a
variety of commercial and retail opportunities within the impact area. Staff doesn't
believe that the proposed use property contributes to the mix of commercial use in this
area. Number two is encourage compatible uses to minimize conflicts and maximize
land use. Staff does not believe that the proposed use is compatible with future office
uses approved on adjacent lots for noise related reasons and appearances of the
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July 5, 2007
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building facade. Three is require screening and buffering of commercial and industrial
properties and residential use with transitional zoning. Staff does not believe that an
adequate buffer is provided between existing residential uses on the north and west
property boundaries and the proposed flex space buildings. The Comp Plan for our
piece of property calls this out for an MU -- or mixed use community. Under mixed use
community it allows for 25 acres of nonresidental use, 200,000 square feet of
nonresidential use. Under the goals and objectives of the Comp Plan it calls out for
Objective C, plan for a variety of commercial and retail opportunities within the impact
area. In number one it says consider development applications that apply to
neighborhood center concept. Item action five is locate new community commercial
areas on arterials or collectors. Number seven is identify transitional zones to buffer
commercial and residential uses to allow uses as office and low intensity uses. Then
listed in the neighborhood center mixed use it also states the purpose of these centers
is to create a centralized pedestrian oriented identifiable and day-to-day service-
oriented focal point for neighborhood districts. The center should offer an internal
circulation that connects with adjacent neighborhoods or regional pathways. What I'd
like to do is kind of describe, you know, our project. We think that our project is --
matches identical the use of the Camp Plan. We have got a mixed use project. It's 26
acres. We have got -- we have got a ten acre commercial use that's got 90,000 square
feet of retail approved for it. This zone in here is kind of an office commercial area that's
one and a half acres, 11,000 feet, it's got neighborhood commercial over here on this
side that's gat another 9,000 square feet. We have got 40,000 square feet of office
space right here and, then, five acres of residential that we built a retirement center on.
So, I think -- you know, the other thing that we did was we were very instrumental in
creating a pedestrian path that crosses at Fairview at the light, runs up, you know,
through the center of our project, runs behind these office buildings, runs over here. We
worked out a deal with the -- with Fairview Lakes Terrace and, then, connected that into
the pedestrian pathway that goes in the residential north of us. So, all this, the things
listed as goals of what the city would like to see in the Comp Plan, we have completed
in our project. On those pictures what I have got is -- oh, yeah. Do you have alittle -- oh,
here. Put that -- put the zoning map back up. One of the things that we have is looking
at our neighbor and Sonya was talking about the concern of buffering a transition zone.
The way we look at mobile home parks -- we feel like a mobile home park is potentially
one of those transitional uses. It's not single detached housing, you know, and so --
and, potentially, the other thing with mobile home parks is we are starting to see a lot of
that in our valley now is that because of the transitional situation of the use is that they
are getting bought out and the use is turning into something higher in -- higher and
better use than a mobile home park. But if you look at this in that first row of pictures
that I have given you, that is all the uses along Fairview. So, the neighboring transitional
pieces that abut the whole south side of Fairview Lakes Terrace is Burger King -- there
is actually a Minute Lube right here. That little diner right there. This is all the
convenience store and, then, this is the Guadalajara restaurant. So, right here this line
right here matches up to our project. So, again, you know, the Hastings stare is right
here and, then, this is the first -- or the south half of our neighborhood commercial that
we potentially could put that little flex space in. As far as the buffering is concerned, that
second row of pictures -- well, the other thing is the second row of pictures area the
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office buildings of what we have developed. So, one is it shows the entry coming into
the office buildings, it shows the office buildings that we have built in the neighborhood
commercial and, then, it's got a view that looks back at Flaherty's office building. So,
you can see that the design of his office building and, then, the overhead door, which is
the last picture, is all compatible within what we have developed as far as our first
phase. Our intent is that our building that we are proposing far Acu-Graph and for
Flaherty are almost the same design, heightwise and scalewise, they are all single level
-- you know, it's got a mechanical storage up in the attic, but it's all designed into the
building. The buffering that Sonya talked about in the report is -- the way we look at our
buffering is that -- she made a comment about the setbacks between our retirement
center and our -- and these proposed buildings. The way we look at it is since it's an
internal setback that's a transition that we are providing is, actually, the retirement
center, so that the transition to the single family neighborhood here is this retirement
that's in between. You know, again, we did a single level, you know, no traffic, you
know, dead end street and so -- you know, but even, then, we have got a 25 foot
setback at the -- you know, the end of our Alzheimer's building and we have got a ten
foot setback to the back of the building. These little stars right here show the location of
the overhead doors. Again, the other thing that we have is -- to the mobile home park is
we have got a large drainage swale. So, we have got asubstantial -- I believe that's
about a 50 foot setback from the end of our building to the mobile home park. The other
thing is we worked very close with the Fairview Lakes Terrace people, because, one, is
we wanted your cooperation on the extension of the pedestrian path and so we met with
them about our proposal and they support the use of our two overhead doors on our
buildings. I have got Adrian Larsen here and he is the president of Acu-Graph and the
other thing that I thought would be to have him discuss the type of use and delivery of
how these overhead doors are used and, Adrian, why don't you come up and tell the
Commission a little about your company.
Larsen: Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, my name is Adrian Larsen. My
company is Meridia Technology, located at 940 East Carol Street in Meridian. Currently
using one of the buildings in the project. We are proposing building this building with the
warehouse space. My company produces software and hardware used by medical
doctors and healthcare providers. It's a low volume type of a business and it is -- we
have no retail, no showroom, and no customers coming to our building at all. Typically
our products are purchased by health care providers at trade shows or through our
catalogs or through the Internet and so we are not proposing a retail showroom or retail
traffic. We are proposing the use of the warehouse space because it helps us
consolidate our operations, keeping our inventory all at the same place where our
headquarters are, and we are not proposing having a lot of heavy duty deliveries, things
like that. We are not going to be pulling semi trucks in and out, but more our deliveries
are typically handled by UPS on a daily route and we are simply looking to be able to
consolidate all our space in one building. And I will be glade to stand for questions.
Moe: Do you use forklifts and whatnot in the warehouse, then?
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July 5, 2007
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Larsen: Nat currently. No plan to. Our -- the things that we are moving around in the
warehouse are small enough to carry.
Moe: So, then, why the need for a garage door?
Larsen: Simply it's easier to load things in and out when -- particularly with UPS. And if
we are moving, you know, 10, 12, 15 boxes at a time, we don't want to be going in and
out a glass door. It gets to be cumbersome. And occasionally if we do have a large
delivery, it's much easier to load that way. Any others?
O'Brien: Not from me.
Siddoway: Not for you, no.
Larsen: Thank you very much.
Tamura: You know, I guess in closing, the reason that we asked for this modification is
only for the overhead door. Yau know, I think our overall intent is to keep this an office
complex. Even though we have this zoned as commercial, that's not our intent, and we
just felt esthetically, you know, one at Flaherty's building, we haven't had any
complaints in the single family detached residential an this side and he's planning on
moving his office from here to here on Acu-Graph. You know, again, he's operating that
same type of business here without an overhead door here in the front of Fairview
Lakes and haven't had any complaints and so because of the esthetics of the overhead
door we thought, well, we could locate them back here in the back portion where it
wouldn't be seen, that we would have a nice complimentary. So, we have got, like
said, two potential users of those two lots, if we can have this modification approved. I'm
just here for questions.
Siddoway: Mr. Chairman. Doug, what does Flaherty Construction use their overhead
door for? What are they moving in and out that they need that overhead for?
Tamura: Commissioner Siddoway, I've never really actually seen them use that
overhead door and I'm assuming that there may be -- you know, they are a high end
residential contractor. I think he may have an extra pickup or, you know, maybe a
service van or something that's in that overhead door. But as far as their boneyard for
their construction company, that's someplace else. And, like I said, it's been, again, a
low intensive use as far as that door. I've actually never -- you know, I have never
peeked inside it. What his intent -- and even with what Adrian's intent is with this, with
these warehouse spaces, we have got both of them designed so that in the future, if
they sell that building and there is a tenant that comes along that would like to convert
that to office -- in Adrian's space we have got it designed that we could replace the
overhead door with a stare front and, then, that could become additional office space.
The other option would be as Adrian's company grows and if it had a need that they will
need more delivery and mare warehouse space, he'd move his warehousing off site
and, then, that would be expansion space. So, as we are doing our plans we have got it
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July 5, 2007
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designed so that it's got both forced air heating and right now it's got the electrical in
place. But, again, like what Adrian was saying, it's very low intensive use, but it's just for
the convenience of what they do, when they have deliveries picked up.
Siddoway: And you're saying Flaherty wants to build a new one to move their offices
and what will became of the one they are in now?
Tamura: He's assuming that he will sell that to an office user.
Siddoway: I'm trying to think through the ramifications of other potential users and what
they might use those overhead doors for. You have got two low impact tenants wanting
to use them now and the question in my mind is just what's the, you know, potential for
higher impact uses in the future as tenants change.
Tamura: The one thing about the location of why we thought this was desirable -- again,
Flaherty's was because of the access and the non-visibility of the door. The other thing
that's nice about it is because, you know -- one is we are real conservative about the
number of parking spaces that we have and so at least where this is kind of a dead end
cul-de-sac, it leaves an area that there is not a lot of cars parked there. The other thing
is all we provide is just a -- you know, just a sidewalk that goes to that door and, then,
there is -- we will have an access and all that we will stripe out one parking stall. So, it's
not designed that you could ever have very intensive deliveries in and out of those
buildings. You know, the other thing about it is it's -- in Acu-Graph it's 1,500 square feet,
so it's a relatively small space. I think in Flaherty's space it's only the size of one car. It's
just a single car garage that's in the back of his space. So, the rest of his building is all
office space, which is the place that he could a pickup in there.
Rohm: Do you believe it would be possible to meet your objectives by putting in a -- like
a standard residential garage door, as opposed to the larger roll up as depicted here?
Tamura: That's designed as a residential garage door opener.
Rohm: Oh. I --
Tamura: It's aten-by-ten door is what we have got shown.
Rohm: Oh. I guess I -- my assumption was -- with the description being aroll-up door
that it was --
Tamura: Oh. No. We have got a standard just garage -- insulated garage door. So, real
similar to what Flaherty had. But, like I said, I think the only thing he puts in there is his
pickup.
Rohm: Okay.
Tamura: Anymore questions?
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July 5, 2007
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Rohm: Not at this time.
Tamura: Okay. Thank you.
Siddoway: Question for staff. Sonya, the -- I remember reading and you may have said
it -- that the buffers between land uses were reduced in this area as part of a previous
action when it was platted and coming through. Did that reduction also occur in the C-C
area to the south?
Wafters: Chairman Rohm, Commissioners, Commissioner Siddoway, I believe it went
clear along the west boundary. Doug could confirm that. I'm not positive. Adjacent to the
residential uses, I believe.
Siddoway: Yeah. And what is that width today?
Wafters: I believe it's 15 feet on the west boundary and ten feet on the north boundary
as I recall.
Siddoway: You can come up. And, then, is that -- on the north boundary do you have
ten feet plus the additional separation from the Alzheimers -- there is -- are there two --
back to back buffers there or haw is that working?
Tamura: Commissioner Siddoway -- my name is Doug Tamura. What we did was we
maintained alarge -- I think a 20 foot landscape buffer on the commercial next to the
Hastings, but from our experience at doing the first phase of the -- well, one of the
things that we did on the first phase of the office was originally the pedestrian path was
going to go up here, was going to cut across here and it was designed at 20 feet,
because it was going to go through here and, then, loop back over. Well, we got such
an outcry from the neighbors to think that the pedestrian path was going to be in their
backyard that we agreed that we would move it. But part of that 25 foot setback
accommodated a ten foot pedestrian path. So, we -- landscapingwise we only had five
foot setbacks -- or I think we were going to do ten foot setback one side and, then, this
ten foot pedestrian path. Well, one is we know that from the experience of doing phase
one that we had plenty of landscape buffer. You know, the other one is the types of
uses that we have in our complex, if we didn't have any conflicts with the single family
detached residential, so when we submitted for the conditional use of Devon Park
Three, which was this office complex, we went ahead and reduced those setbacks. The
other thing is that when we bought the pedestrian path through here, again, that's a ten
foot pedestrian path with a 25 foot setback to the south end of that building. So, overall
we got a 35 foot buffer between the back of that building and our residential. But, again,
what we are doing is -- it's just an internal setback from one of our own buildings to
another one of our own buildings. So, I think the concerns should be more the setbacks
up here, but, again, we have got a type of use that's an ideal neighborhood transitional
thing for neighborhoods. It's real quiet. The only situation potentially might have been
here, but, again, I included those pictures to kind of show you the quality of what we did.
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One is we put up a nice six foot high vinyl fence for the mobile home park. We have
never had any comments back from the mobile home tenants as far as there -- and
particularly one of the things I asked the manager is, you know, has he had problems
leasing his spaces when it backed up next to all that, you know, heavy commercial. You
know, you're looking at C Stores that are open 24 hours a day, you know, you have got
Minute Lubes, you have got fast food restaurants and he says that no. So, I thought,
well, gee, you know, we have got such a benign type of use in relationship to what the
rest of this was like and that's what I was saying that I look at a mobile home park as
more of a transitional use than I do a -- you know, strictly residential thing where, you
know -- because one of the things that we are always very conscious about is buffering,
you know, and like our application for the apartment complex, you know, we had 60 and
70 foot buffers against those neighborhoods, so --
Siddoway: The existing buffer along the east -- or the west side there is 15?
Tamura: Fifteen feet. So, we only reduced it five feet. But, again, you know, this was
going to accommodate a ten foot path.
Rohm: There is nobody else in the audience, but, still, if there were, we would open it up
for further testimony, but seeing nobody else, that's the end of public testimony on this
application. Does anybody have any questions of staff or the applicant before we move
to close this Public Hearing?
O'Brien: Nothing.
Rohm: Okay. Could I get a motion to close the Public Hearing, then?
O'Brien: Mr. Chairman, I move to close Public Hearing CUP 05-023.
Rohm: I believe this is MCU --
O'Brien: Oh. MCU. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. MCU 07-002.
Moe: I would second.
Rohm: Okay. It's been moved and seconded to close the Public Hearing on MCU 07-
002. All those in favor say aye. Opposed same sign? Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Rohm: Commissioner Siddoway, do you have any final comments on this application
before we get a motion?
Siddoway: I'm still feeling a little conflict internally on this one. As I read through the staff
report my initial thought was denial. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that there are
intended uses that could produce noise right adjacent to those homes with a reduced
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landscape buffer. I saw as a negative -- potentially negative situation. As I see the built
structure in the photo provided tonight for the existing Flaherty Construction building,
very nice, it's residential in nature. I don't find the overhead door obtrusive. If anything, it
makes it look more residential. The -- so, the look of it -- the look of it does not concern
me. I think they are nice buildings. What's still concerning me is just trying to think
through -- someone could move in there and have larger deliveries and a forklift and
that's the thing I just can't quite get aver. It sounds like the existing users are not doing
that and there is not a problem. I'm just concerned about other potential users in the
future.
Rohm: Commissioner Moe.
Moe: I would pretty much mirror exactly what Commissioner Siddoway said. I'm really
kind of torn bath ways. Quite frankly, I think they have built a very nice product in this
area. I guess I would probably say I wish the garage door was on -- was not right at the
front of the building on this one, but it is. Plus there is enough building in front of it that
you're not going to really note that all that well. But I, too, am very concerned about
what happens, you know, down the road and larger vehicle traffic and forklifts getting in
there and whatever else, so I'm actually very torn on this one. I -- right now I'm going
either way, how does that sound?
Nary: Mr. Chairman?
Moe: I'm struggling with it.
Nary: Mr. Chairman, if it will be of any assistance to the Commission, the City Council
recently had a similar proposal in front of them and they did require that the door --and
believe they limited the height of the door to eight feet and they did require that the door
match the surrounding neighborhood, so that it would be -- it would look similar and not
like a traditional roll-up door like you have in a more heavy industrial user type of
location. Because they weighed the same concerns that you have. You know, certainly
because it's a modification of a CU you have the ability to limit hours of operation, when
deliveries can be made, what type of machinery can be used on the premise and those
types of things that may alleviate some of your concerns as to how it's -- a future user
might use the site. But they did require that the doorway had to blend into the
neighborhood and they'd have to work that out with the staff and that might, again,
alleviate some of the types of uses that you're concerned with.
Siddoway: Mr. Nary. So, did they place specific use restrictions on that or did they just
feel like the restriction on the height addressed that issue?
Nary: Mr. Chair, Members of the Commission, Commissioner Siddoway, I don't recall in
the discussion a limitation on the uses of the vehicle and the like, because Ithink -- it
was not a C-U, it was -- it had been a director's determination on the use of the property
for a storage facility in an office zone and it was an appeal of that decision. So, they did
approve the -- they did approve the appeal, but only limited, essentially, the door and
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how it would blend into the neighborhood. I don't think they had a use application of any
sort in front of them at the time,
Hood: Mr. Chair, if I may just to add onto that. (believe -- correct me if I'm wrong, Mr.
Nary -- but they added a row of glass on that garage door to make it have -- most
residential garage doors do have alittle -- some type of glazing or something, either at
the top of the second tier or something like that and I think that's how they got to that
blend in thing was to have it be required that they put that in.
Nary: And the only thing, Members of the Commission, I -- we had two garage door
discussions. One was on Meridian Road, a tire shop, and the other was this one in
Heritage Commons area. The one on -- the tire shop required the glass panels in it.
can't recall -- I'm not disagreeing with Mr. Hood -- what sticks in my mind is they require
that it would look similar to a house, so they limited it. And mast of the ones in that area
have some type of treatment, some design, panels, glass, some other look to it, so they
didn't look like the traditional roll-up door.
Moe: Well, based upon the photo that we are -- that's in front of us, that's exactly what I
would want to see.
Siddoway: And when we started talking together, that's -- it was my -- the same point I
was going to make. When I look at the elevation there, it has no glazing and it's a little
bit starker on there and, yet, when I -- and I look at the photo of the existing building of
Flaherty's, that row of glass really does make an esthetic difference and I think that
would be okay with the door, especially if we limit the height to a standard eight foot
residential height and require the glazing similar to the -- what we see in the existing
Flaherty Construction site. That's where I'm at right now.
Rohm: Works forme. Could we get a motion? Oh. Commissioner O'Brien.
O'Brien: So, I don't mirror everybody's concerns, but -- but most of it right down to the
door part, my suggestion is -- and you guys have a hand on a lot things, is that -- he
said -- I forget his name.
Rohm: Tamura. Doug Tamura.
O'Brien: Doug I think mentioned that it was built so that they could modify the roll-up
door into an office type environment. Well, office type environments have double doors
usually and my suggestion would be do away with aroll-up door and just make a
standard double door, which one side locks and if they have to bring in bigger boxes,
stuff like that, they could open the double doors and achieve the same thing and
eliminate the possibility long term of somebody turning it into a maintenance garage or
something like that. You wouldn't be able to park a truck in it, but this other guy does,
which I don't have a problem with that, but at least he would eliminate the possibility of
using it for anything else. So, that would be my proposal. Everything else I think is -- I
have the same concerns.
Meridian Planning & Zoning
July 5, 2007
Page 58 of 62
Rohm: I think the double doors in some ways would be a good solution, but the glazing
that's available through a standard eight-by-eight garage type door has other benefits,
so --
O'Brien: Well, I'm not talking about a standard steel double door for a commercial, I'm
talking about something that looks more like a residential door with glass -- smoked
glass or whatever you want to put in front of it to make the design look esthetic.
Rohm: Okay. Thank you for your comments.
Moe: Well, if you remember that was one thing that the owner had made comment as
far as for deliveries and that's a little bit cumbersome and whatnot for the doors and
that's why they wanted to go with the overhead door and so I think -- I think with the
glass, you know -- at that point if, in fact, that business was to go away, they would still
have the opportunity to take the door out and put in, you know, basically a store front
section or whatever and take care of it for an office environment at that point, so --
O'Brien: I think we are just looking at the same thing. As long as we meet what Sonya's
concerns were for the denial to begin with, I think if that meets their approval, I think that
would also achieve what they are trying to achieve as far as the zone goes, then, I think
we are okay.
Rohm: Commissioner Siddoway.
Siddoway: One second. Do we have -- are there findings that we can modify to reach a
motion for approval at this point or would we have to direct staff to come back with
conditions of approval?
Wafters: Chairman Rohm, Commissioners, Commissioner Siddoway, there are not
findings for approval at this time. You would have to continue it to the next available
Commission hearing date in order for staff to prepare conditions of approval and
findings.
Siddoway: Okay. In that case I would move to direct staff to prepare findings and --
conditions far approval and corresponding findings for MCU 07-002, with the restrictions
that the roll-up doors be limited to eight feet in height and to include windows, glazing,
similar to what we see on the overhead door for the existing Flaherty Construction site.
Is there anything else?
Mae: That's it.
Siddoway: And to bring it back to our next regularly scheduled meeting on July the 19th.
End of motion.
Moe: Second.
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July 5, 2007
Page 60 of 62
Rohm: Before we vote on this, does this, then, go to City Council after us or is this the
final stop off? Well, would there, then, also be Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law
that would have to be drawn up as a follow-up to a vote?
Wafters: Chairman Rohm, Commissioners, this will just come back to Commission, it
will not go to Council. At the next meeting staff would have findings for approval and
conditions of approval at that time for you to approve if you so wish.
Rohm: Well, I guess kind of like with Jonathan Seal's deal at the last meeting, we had
bath the -- the hearing and, then, afollow-up --
Hood: Mr. Chair, we may, if you give direction -- I think I understand the direction that
the Commission is going. If you give us some conditions that you'd like to see, maybe
we could prepare that findings document and, then, the applicant wouldn't have to come
back two weeks later for the findings document. Staff will have some general conditions
that we will impose right in the staff report. The couple that Commissioner 5iddoway
mentioned in his motion -- if there are any others that you want to make sure get put in
there, probably need to make that part of the motion and, like I said, staff will probably
have, I don't know, a half a dozen more or so that will just say, you know, comply with
previous Devon Park approvals and yadda yadda yadda and I don't know what all those
will be, landscaping requirements or whatever. And the applicant may have an issue
with one of those, I don't know. But we will -- if we can get a better idea, we can have a
findings document on the same agenda. If there aren't any issues you can approve it
and if there are issues, then, we are going to have to continue it out and do it two weeks
later. But if that's the only concerns you guys have, I think you have given enough to
Sonya to work on a revised staff report.
Rohm: Okay. I guess the only additional discussion that I -- I'm not sure I feel real
comfortable with is that related to the operation of a hyster and as far as the operation
of a hyster specifically, I don't care about it internal to the structure, but I don't want the
hyster coming --
Siddoway: It's so small that --
Rohm: Well -- but coming in and out and having a big semi and unloading pallets after
pallets of --
O'Brien: We could limit that to electric forklifts.
Rohm: Well, in any case that was my comment. How we address it is up to whomever is
making the motion for the continuance. But just -- that was my only other thing that
didn't -- I wasn't real comfortable with for long term. I wouldn't want this to turn into a
transfer yard for the next business that may occupy the space and I just would feel
uncomfortable with making that available to them, so --
Meridian Planning & Zoning
July 5, 2007
Page 61 of 62
Siddoway: I would consider a friendly amendment on the motion that we would add a
condition that hysters, forklifts, and similar equipment could not be used on -- on these
sites.
Rohm: Again, I don't care what they do internal to the structure, I just don't want them
running around outside. If they need to move stuff around inside, I don't have a problem
with that. It's just I don't want forklifts running around outside.
Siddoway: I would include that in my motion.
Moe: I will second that.
Rohm: All right. It's been moved and seconded to direct staff to write conditions far
approval of MC 07-002 with the aforementioned modifications. All those in favor say
aye. Oh. And continue it to the next regularly scheduled meeting of July 19th, 2007. All
those in favor say aye. Opposed same sign? Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Hood: And, Mr. Chair, before the applicant leaves, too, if I may, hours of operation are
probably something else that we would have -- if we were going to condition this for
approval we probably would have limited the hours of operation. We will get with the
applicant and propose something. I think it will probably be something reasonable, but
just so maybe we can all be on the same page, do you have any hours that you're
concerned about or is it 24-7? It looks like Sonya is showing me that it's 8:00 a.m. to
6:00 is what their application says, so we'd probably just condition it that way.
Rohm: If they are agreeable to 8:00 to 6:00, but, quite honestly, I'm a lot more lenient
than that, from -- until 10:00 o'clock at night type deal. And we have almost -- every
application that's come before us we have given them --
Hood: So, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 would be something that --
Rohm: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Hood: -- would be -- okay. Maybe just so we can get the findings on that and get it
approved, so we don't have anything to discuss and we will coordinate that with the
applicant and make sure that if he does have an issue, we won't have a findings
document for it. If you review the staff report and are agreeable, then, we will do the
findings document.
Siddoway: If Commissioner Newton-Huckabay were here I think she would say, as she
said at our last meeting, that we have -- we have a fairly standard time restriction that
when we use a time restriction we have one that we use and I -- the actual hours are
escaping me at the moment, but in the interest of enforcement, it may be good to just
look at what those typical hours of operation are.
Meridian Planning & Zoning
July 5, 2007
Page 62 of 62
Rohm: I think it's actually 6:00 to 10:00.
O'Brien: Yeah. I think you're right.
Hood: And that would be fior a more typical office use and this is really flex space, so it
is a different use, I guess. I mean we are -- I don't want to say we are splitting hairs,
because there is a big different, but that is generally when it's L-O -- office use next to
residential.
Siddoway: Okay. Bring us back a proposal.
Moe: Mr. Chairman?
Rohm: We need one more motion.
Moe: I move to adjourn.
Siddoway: Second.
Rohm: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Motion
carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:40 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS.)
APPROVED
MICHAEL ROHM -CHAIRMAN DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
WILLIAM G. BERG, JR, CITY CLERK