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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-15-2017 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes-1- REGULAR MEETING June 15, 2017 PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Chairwoman Bykonen. POSITION MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS ABSENT No. 1 Tanya Bowers No. 2 Joseph Campos No. 3 Paul Mendez No. 4 Alecia Greenaway No. 5 Joe Cruz No. 6 Loren Polk No. 7 Zahra Roach No. 8 Pam Bykonen No. 9 Gabriel Portugal APPEARANCE OF FAIRNESS: Chairwoman Bykonen read a statement about the appearance of fairness for hearings on land use matters. There were no declarations. Chairwoman Bykonen then asked the audience if there were any objections based on a conflict of interest or appearance of fairness question regarding the items to be discussed. There were no objections. ADMINISTERING THE OATH: Chairwoman Bykonen explained that state law re quires testimony in quasi-judicial hearings such as held by the Planning Commission be given under oath or affirmation. Chairwoman Bykonen swore in all those desiring to speak. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Greenaway moved, seconded by Commissioner Bowers that the minutes dated May 18, 2017 be approved. The motion passed unanimously. OLD BUSINESS: A. Preliminary Plat Chiawana Heights, Lot Clarification (Ron Asmus Homes, Inc) (MF# PP 2017-002) Chairwoman Bykonen read the master file number and asked for comments from staff. Dave McDonald, City Planner, discussed the preliminary plat application for Chiawana Heights. This item came before the Planning Commission in April at which time a recommendation was made to City Council to approve the preliminary plat. Since that time the developer has been working on his engineering for water, sewer and streets. As he was proceeding through that process they learned that the sewer line on the eastern -2- edge of the development happened to be located in the highest part of the field, making it difficult for the southwest corner of the subdivision to be able to get into that sewer – it would have to be raised about 8’ which would then elevate the developers property 8’ above the School District property so they would need a retaining wall or a slope onto the School District property which would occupy their driveway for the buses. That won’t work but there is an option that would require the developer to put a sewer line down Road 84 to the irrigation canal which is quite some distance. To be able to do that and to cover the costs of doing that, the developer would like to add 4 more lots to the subdivision. The street layout would remain the same, the connection to the north and Riverhawk Estates would remain or perhaps move to the west to line up with the other north to south street because the same problem is also occurring in the subdivision to the north and they also need to get into the sewer going down to Road 84. The re is an administrative approval process for Staff to approve minor changes to plat as long as it doesn’t affect streets, etc. But prior to that, Staff wanted to run it by the Planning Commission if the additional lots from Road 80 to Road 84 met the original intent that the Planning Commission had decided on. Commissioner Greenaway stated that she didn’t see a problem with the additional lots. Chairwoman Bykonen said she was fine with the addition as it still met the lots per gross acre. A motion was not required on this item. B. Preliminary Plat Chiawana Place, Lot Offset (Derek Alexander) (MF# PP 2017-005) Chairwoman Bykonen read the master file number and asked for comments from staff. Dave McDonald, City Planner, explained the preliminary plat for Chiawana Place was recommended to City Council at the previous Planning Commission Meeting, but has been remand to the Planning Commission with specific instructions to review the location of the street connection from the Plat to Argent Road. The concern was that the proposed access street was too close to Road 72 on the south side of Argent Road. Typically the offset permitted in the code from two different streets is 125’ which works well on local access streets but Argent Road is a major arterial street and will only get busier. Currently there is already school traffic on Argent backed up Road 68 during certain periods of the day. With that concern, City Council asked that this plat be remanded back to the Planning Commission to be reviewed again to see if the access road could be adjusted to the west. Mr. McDonald explained there were limited opportunities on where to move the street due to the gas line easement to the west and the location of the BPA power poles. The gas company will not permit a road going north and south on top of the gas line. Roads are allowed to cross the gas line perpendicular but cannot follow the gas line. Another problem with the gas line easement is that there is a large BPA power pole right where the road would need to go and that pole cannot be moved. If the road were to be moved to the east there is another power pole in the way. The only place to locate the access street is to go back to the original design that was rejected due to concerns over the creation of a flag lot, however, there is no code against flag lots. Staff is recommending due to traffic safety to have the road moved and accept the flag lot in the subdivision. Commissioner Campos discussed the traffic on Argent Road and how big of an impact -3- would the proposed road in the subdivision make on Argent Road. Mr. McDonald responded that overall with the proposed access road being just 152’ from Road 72 (center line to center line) there is a conflict in turning movements because of the short separation it is hard to see an individual turning out of the other street. There may be two people turning at the same time trying to get into the turn lane which could create problems and slow traffic down. If the connecting roads are farther apart there is a little extra safety buffer. The access road cannot be eliminated because it would be difficult to get into the property because of the gas line and there needs to be two ways in and out of the subdivision for fire safety, police and ambulance services. Commissioner Alvarado asked for clarification on the differences between the two plats that were shown on the overhead projector. Mr. McDonald stated the first plat shown was the plat that eliminated the flag lot, however it had the road located too close to Road 72. The second plat was the original plat that had a flag lot. Mr. McDonald added that the applicant was present to clarify anything, although the public hearing has been closed so his comments could only be for clarification purposes. Commissioner Alvarado asked if the easement would be a road in the original plan. Mr. McDonald responded that the gas line easement will remain an easement and will always be there because of high pressure underground gas line. Commissioner Mendez asked if the applicant had any issues with the proposal. Derek Alexander, 2090 Kingston Road, Richland, WA spoke on behalf of his plat application. He answered that he does not have an issue with the revised plat. There is only one issue that came up after the last Planning Commissio n Meeting. He said that on the west side of the plat there is a 30’ road easement and according to the staff report to the Planning Commission, that is an arterial street and intended to be a 40’ easement. It was realized late in the game and in the reading of the report. He requested that he could be able to maintain the 30’ easement for the road. His reasoning is that the School District property has some issues on their side if increased to a 40’ easement as there are at least 1-2 BPA power poles in that easement. And from the indication of their surveyor the south side of Road 76 has a 30’ easement so there would be consistency. Chairwoman Bykonen asked if the 30’ easement would meet the street standards and if this would be the appropriate place to ask for a variance to the easement. Mr. McDonald stated that is too late to request a variance at this point because the public hearing has been closed and a recommendation already made to City Council. The applicant would have had to file for an appeal, however, the 10 day period to file an appeal has also passed. The only other option would to appeal it after the City Council has made their recommendation but that appeal would have to go to District Court. The recommendation for the right-of-way was in both reports to the Planning Commission and the applicant had a chance to bring this up during the public hearing. The right of way width was listed in previous DNR packets when DNR surveyed the property. Road 76 is a -4- major street that will hopefully connect all the way north of the freeway. Rick White, Director, added that the City doesn’t like to tell people no, however, sometimes it has to happen. Just north of this site is an 80’ right of way and inconsistency would not be good to promote. Chairwoman Bykonen asked if it would be appropriate for the Planning Commission to just move forward and make a recommendation based on what is before them and not make an amended motion. Mr. White said the choices are very limited and that the remand is only for the offset with the road onto Argent and the proposed road. For now the issue is dead regarding the right of way. Commissioner Bowers moved, seconded by Commission Greenaway, the Planning Commission recommend the City Council approve the preliminary plat layout for Chiawana Place as shown in Exhibit #1. The motion passed unanimously. C. Preliminary Plat Riverhawk Estates, 199-lots (Single Family) (RP Development) (MF# PP 2017-004) Chairwoman Bykonen read the master file number and asked for comments from staff. Dave McDonald, City Planner, explained some of the problems being encountered to provide sewer to northwesterly portion of the plat. A minor adjustment may need to be made in one of the streets between now and final platting. Mr. McDonald also pointed out that Condition #9 was added which requires the developer to enter into an agreement not to protest any LID’s for construction of Chapel Hill Boulevard between Road 84 and Road 68 and also for the construction of Road 76. Commissioner Portugal asked if there was a future school site at the corner of this plat. Mr. McDonald answered the School District bought property at the south end of Road 84 wand have received a special permit for an elementary school. The City and the S chool District will partner to create a park at that location. Commissioner Bowers asked for clarification on a possible discrepancy in the road placement of Riverhawk Estates and Chiawana Heights (directly to the south of Riverhawk Estates). On one of the plans a street is called “F Road” on Riverhawk but on Chiawana Heights it is called “Road E”. Mr. McDonald explained that the road names don’t matter at this time but St aff will coordinate with the developers to ensure the names will be consistent on the final plats. Commissioner Alvarado asked if the City has a methodology or number of acres for parks. Mr. McDonald responded that typically the City likes to have 5 acres of park space when a development contains 160 acres – which could contain 500-600 homes. This whole area is over 160 acres but the City has been working with the School District to utilize some of -5- the school grounds to locate a park in this neighborhood. Each one of the lots in the subdivision pays a park fee when the permits are issued along with various other fees (i.e. traffic impact, school impact fees, etc.). Commissioner Greenaway moved, seconded by Commissioner Mendez, to adopt the findings of fact and conclusions therefrom as contained in the June 15, 2017 staff report. The motion passed unanimously. Commissioner Greenaway moved, seconded by Commissione r Campos, based on the findings of fact and conclusions as adopted, the Planning Commission recommend the City Council approve the preliminary plat for Riverhawk Estates, with conditions as listed in the June 15, 2017 staff report. The motion passed unanimously. PUBLIC HEARINGS: A. Block Grant Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Substantial Amendment to Annual Action Plan 2016 and 2017 (MF# BGAP 2017-006) Chairwoman Bykonen read the master file number and asked for comments from staff. Rick White, Community & Economic Development Director, discussed the CDBG Substantial Amendment to the 2016 & 2017 Annual Action Plan. With the amount of money the City receives from HUD, roughly $650,000-$675,000 per year, there are sometimes activities that come in under budget or the project gets cancelled over the course of the year to affect the budget item that the Planning Commission recommended and that City Council approved. In this case, the City has exceeded the 10% of its yearly allocation in terms of “changed funds for projects” which is why it has come back to the Planning Commission and will then go to City Council. Roughly $275,000 has been cancelled in projects and with program income of almost $78,500 there is nearly $354,000 to reallocate. The staff memo includes the breakdown of where the available money is recommended to be funded. Some of the funds will go to the Catholic Families Volunteer Chore Services who help build handicap ramps at the homes of low-moderate elderly families. Other funds will be allocated to help with home rehabilitations, which was previously awarded to Community Action Connections (CAC) who have not used the funds. However, the City has taken this project back as there are projects that the funds could be used for. There is also an item for new community housing programs – Rebuilding Mid-Columbia. This organization applied for CDBG funds for the 2017 program year but at that time they had not received their 501(c)(3). The y now have their 501(c)(3) and will be partnering with the City to complete housing projects. This will give their organization the experience and training while helping the City complete these projects but the money will be funneled through the City while they will be bringing in the projects. It will be much like a mentoring relationship and will assist the City. Staff is also recommending additional funds be allocated to the Pasco Specialty Kitchen, partially by reallocating the Commission recommended to the façade – more money was spent on the flooring project and the façade project will still be facilitated. The Downtown Façade Improvement Program received funding as we are at a point now where some projects can be accomplished. Money is also being spent now on the Peanuts Park project located downtown and staff is recommending more funds to be allocated to that project as well. So public money is being reinvested -6- downtown and hopefully that will spur private investments downtown. The first phase will be the renovation of Peanuts Park and Farmer’s Market. The second phase will be at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Lewis Street, setting up for the third phase, which is a festival street on 4th Avenue west of the Farmer’s Market to be used for festival space. A couple of projects were closed/cancelled. The sidewalk in front of the Senior Center was cancelled, as the money for that came from the funds from the Police Department Building and the Downtown Sidewalks project was closed because those improvements will happen when the Lewis Street Underpass project is under construction in roughly 2019. Commissioner Bowers said when these projects were first brought to the Planning Commission, Angie Pitman, Block Grant Administrator, had recommendations for the allocations. Now since there is an adjustments in funds, what is before the Commission at this time are the recommendations for reallocations. Mr. White stated that was correct. Commissioner Bowers asked about programs, such as the Martin Luther King Center staff funds, and why those projects didn’t receive additional reallocated funds. Mr. White responded that those are annual funds and didn’t need additional monies. Commissioner Greenaway stated that she was happy to see that the City was partnering with Rebuilding Mid-Columbia to repair homes. Mr. White responded that it is a really good thing because there aren’t enough community housing based programs. It also assists with funds with the HOME program. Commissioner Campos added that many federal grant programs requires organizations to have so much experience in order to receive funds so this would allow for Rebuilding Mid - Columbia to gain the experience they need to be able to apply for additional federal funds. Commissioner Alvarado asked what the scope was for Rebuilding Mid-Columbia and what did they intend to grow into. Mr. White stated that they are a community housing based improvement program and they most likely want to become a lot like Habitat for Humanity, which is the only other community housing base administrator in the area. With no further questions or comments the public hearing closed. Commissioner Bowers moved, seconded by Commissioner Greenaway, to close the public hearing and recommend the City Council approve the use of funds for the Community Development Block Grant Program as set forth in the “2016.1 Fund Summary” as recommended by Staff. The motion passed unanimously. OTHER BUSINESS: Rick White, Community & Economic Development Director, stated that at the hearing in July, the Planning Commission will be hearing from applicants for the 2018 Community Development Block Grant funds as well as holding public hearings on some code amendment items that the Planning Commission had discussed during previous workshops. -7- With no further discussion or business, the Planning Commission was adjourned at 7:46 p.m. Respectfully submitted, David McDonald, City Planner