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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNovember 20, 2003 P&Z MinutesMeridian Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting November 20, 2003 Page 21 of 32 Item 14. Public Hearing: CUP 03-056 Request for a Conditional Use Permit for an indoor soccer center in an existing business park in an I-L zone for Meridian Soccer Center by Meridian Soccer Property -south of East Franklin Road, west of South Locust Grove Road on East Piper Court: Borup: Item Number 14 is Public Hearing CUP 03-056, a request for a Conditional Use Permit for an indoor soccer center in an existing business park in an I-L zone for the Meridian Soccer Center by Meridian Soccer Properties, south of East Franklin and west of South Locust Grove. Like to open this hearing at this time and start with the staff report. Kirkpatrick: Chairman, Members of the Commission, this is an application for an indoor soccer field. It's located off of Piper Court, which is in the Medimont Business Park, which has, actually, been marketed as Woodbridge -- oh, Stonebridge. Excuse me. Is Woodbridge the residential sub? Okay. Stonebridge. I'll make a note. I wanted to note -- actually, make one correction to my staff report. On the first page under location and surroundings, there was a note that I made to Anna that I should have deleted. It says, Anna, I will run out to the site and check on the names and the uses. To go ahead and -- Zaremba: I thought that was a very personal addition to it. I was going to call her up and ask if -- Kirkpatrick: So, we will get into the use later. I'll go ahead and work that out and, let's see, they are proposing -- I'll go to the site plan. There is an aerial of the site. You can see it's surrounded by -- we have vacant property to the west and that property, actually, is zoned -- it's R-40, but it's still a vacant piece of property, but has a potential for higher density development and it's surrounded by the rest of Stonebridge Business Park. I'll g et to the site plan. They are proposing a 20,000 square foot indoor soccer field. There will also be 3,000 square feet dedicated to an office and pro shop. The heaviest usage periods for this project will be evenings and weekends. The indoor soccer field is geared towards adults and a dult s otter I eagues. Typically, t here w ill b e t wo t earns p laying a t o nce. There will be two 10-member teams. There will be two employees there. It's not -- we had the applicants come in and do apre-application meeting with us. It was explained that it's not -- it's not at all a spectator sport, it mostly adults, where you have a spouse that just sits there and watches -- will sit there and watch a tournament. It's not at all like youth soccer you have the large crowds and parking problems and volumes, it's a completely different type of use and I'm going to get into why we thought that this was an appropriate use for this area. I'll go back to the site map and this is actually -- this is here as a Conditional Use Permit, because we classified this as an indoor -- as an indoor recreation center, which is not in our schedule -- in our schedule of uses. We thought that in a couple key ways it was different from an indoor entertainment center, we saw that as being a more passive recreation use that would be an arcade, a movie theater, bowling alley, it was just more of an active use. That's why it's here as a conditional use application. We thought that the hours of usage for this site Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting November 20, 2003 Page 22 of 32 made i t c ompatible w ith t he a djoining u ses. The mix o f uses s urrounding t he property -- these are, actually, all light industrial uses. There is an office for a construction company, an office far a food company, a Mary Kay training center that would join in this property. It's not heavy industrial development where there is a lot of truck traffic. The fact that there are adults using this facility, rather than small children, I thought made this a more compatible project. While we certainly hope our applicant is successful, if at any point they ever had to reuse this building, I think this type of building is especially suited to reuse in a light industrial area and I will show you the elevations of the building. Basically, it's a shell that I think would be easy to reuse for another light industrial use, if it did ever happen down the line. Staff is recommending approval of this application. We think it's compatible with the surrounding land uses: There has been no opposition from any neighbors that we have received or any phone calls that I have had. Do you have any questions of staff? Borup: Questions by the Commission? Zaremba: I had only one and you touched on it right at the end. If, for some reason, they decided to move their operation somewhere else, let's say they are successful, but still decide to move and this building were repurposed, what would the parking requirement be for some other use in this same zone? Kirkpatrick: It probably would, actually, be -- would be less. We were requiring them to have, I believe, it's -- or they have 35 parking spaces and, in addition to that, we are requiring them to do across-parking agreement with the adjoining property owners. I think a typical industrial use would have -- would not have that parking requirement. Zaremba: Okay. Kirkpatrick: Let's see. It's a 20,000 square foot building. Anna's figuring out how many parking spots they'd have to have. Okay. Actually, if it became a warehouse use, it would be one parking spot per 1,000 square feet, so it would be about 20 spaces. It would exceed the parking requirements if this were to be reused as an industrial building. Zaremba: Great. Thank you. Borup: Okay. Is there anything the applicant would like to add, whoever is here for that? Main: Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. My name is Jim Main, I'm with Design West Architects. You know, we have read the staff report and we are in agreement with all of their comments and have no problem with the shared parking agreement. Mostly, since this is a new concept in this area, I just wanted to make myself available and also we have a representative from the Spokane Soccer Center here also, if the Commission would have any questions about this type of a use. Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting November 20, 2003 Page 23 of 32 Borup: Okay. Any questions from the Commissioners? Zaremba: I would say we welcome a new business in the city and we think it's a -- I personally think it's a tremendous idea. I did appreciate the notes that this is - - even though it's a first time for Meridian, it's not a first time for the applicant, or the developer and their experiences help me see that they have thought things out and parking and everything else is adequate. I appreciated the presentation. Main: Thank you. Borup: Okay. Thank you. Do we have anyone else to testify on this application? Boyd: Good evening. My name is Jim Boyd, I reside at 9194 Beachside Lane in Boise and I'm here to represent the developer of the Stonebridge Business Park and I think we see it as a good mix to the light industrial that's there and as staff had brought up earlier, if there was an issue that turned to another type of change, it will fit into the Stonebridge Business Park as light industrial and I think it -- we also have an architectural committee that reviews some of the requirements and even though it's, I believe, a partially metal building, we have asked that they put other treatments on that building to give it something other than just an industrial building look and as well as providing adequate landscaping around all four sides of that particular property. I was a little confused as to why there would be needed across-parking with other adjacent owners there if it had the required parking to meet their need and an excessive amount of parking for other industrial uses. All in all we support the -- what's going on and I think it's a good use for Meridian and other people I have talked with that have youngsters and are involved in other types of things, they see that the sport of soccer as being a popular thing for adults. Thank you. Borup: Thank you. Zaremba: Just as a personal opinion, I can see the reason for the parking agreements with the neighbors being, far instance, on a weekend, if there were a series tournaments going on, you might have the two teams playing and the 35 parking spaces taken up while two more teams were arriving and that overlap would require some use of neighborhood parking and just -- rather than have cars spill out into others, I think there should be that agreement in place. Was that the thinking of staff? Kirkpatrick: That was Zaremba: Okay. Borup: Okay. Was there anyone else? Thank you. Commissioners? Zaremba: Mr. Chairman, I move the hearing on Item 14 be closed.