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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/10/2018 - Planning Commission - Minutes - RegularPlanni ng Commi ssi on Meeti ng M INUTES Wednesday, October 10, 2018, 7:00 P M Council Chambers, City Hall. 114 North Broad Street, Salem 1.C all to Order A regular meeting of the Planning C ommission of the C ity of Salem, Virginia, was called to order at 7:00 p.m., there being present the following members to wit: Vicki G. Daulton, Chair; Denise P. King, Vice C hair; Reid A. Garst II, N. J ackson Beamer, and Neil L. Conner; with Vicki G. Daulton, Chair, presiding; together with J ames E. Taliaferro, Assistant C ity Manager and Executive Secretary; C harles E. VanAllman, J r., Director of C ommunity Development Department; Benjamin W. Tripp, C ity Planner; and William C. Maxwell, Assistant C ity Attorney. 2.C onsent Agenda A.Minutes Consider approval of minutes from the September 12, 2018, work session and regular meeting. Approved as presented 3.New Business A.Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Hold public hearing to consider the request of J ames H. Stewart and Kenton N. Bohn, lessees, and Mechanical Services & Installation LLC, property owner, for rezoning the property located at 748 W. Fourth Street (Tax Map #142-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District. T he Executive Secretary reported that notice of such hearing had been published in the September 27, and October 4, 2018, issues of the Salem Times Register and adjacent property owners were notified by letter mailed September 25, 2018. Staff noted the following regarding the rezoning request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of approximately 0.3 acres, located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Fourth Street and Spring Street, to the south of the intersection of Fourth and Main Street. T he property is currently occupied by a single story office space on the 4th Street side and two connected storage/warehouse spaces which front on Spring Street. T his request is to rezone the property to allow it to be used as a retail store. T he proposed business buys used items such as ChairChairChair electronics and then resells them, often online. T his will be their first location in Salem, in addition to locations in Roanoke City. T he new business will have 2-3 employees, and the applicant has indicated they would like to improve the property by adding landscaping. C hair Daulton opened the public hearing and asked if there was anyone to speak. J ames Stewart, Lake Bluff, Illinois, lessee, appeared before the C ommission explaining the rezoning request. He noted that he and his business partner are interested in operating a retail business at this location, and after meeting with Mr. Tripp and Mrs. Wines, they were informed that the property was not zoned correctly for retail. So, they are requesting to rezone the property to HBD Highway Business District. C hair Daulton asked what type of retail business would this be. Mr. Stewart explained the business concept and noted it is basically a resale business that is mostly done on the Internet. With this concept, people can bring their goods to trade or sell. C ommissioner Garst noted if he understood correctly, they have a retail location to get people to bring their goods in and then they typically sell it online. He asked Mr. Stewart is this was correct. Mr. Stewart noted that this is correct to a degree. T here is a little bit of an overlap. In other words, they may have customers who come to buy something, and they have something to trade in. T heir largest retail turnover is in game systems so there are a lot of people bringing games to upgrade and get different games. However, there is a large portion who come to just sell. C ommissioner Conner noted if he heard him correctly this particular location will be geared more towards online sales and try to drive the foot traffic to the store in Roanoke. Mr. Stewart noted not to necessarily drive the foot traffic but any larger items that is not conducive to selling online then they have an outlet to sell them. Vice C hair King noted they have a letter from the property owner. She asked him if he understood that the Commission is being asked to rezone the property and is not a personal permit for the lessees. T his would change the zoning of the property no matter who owns or leases the property. Mr. Stewart noted he understands this. Further, they were given permission by the owner to file for the rezoning. C hair Daulton noted that he mentioned they had changed the location in Roanoke to a pawn shop. She asked if they have intentions for this location to be a pawn shop in the future. Mr. Stewart noted that he did not think so because it is not large enough from a storage perspective. Also, the security aspect would be greater if they went to an advocated pawn shop in this area. At this point in time, it is certainly not on their radar. Vice C hair King asked him if most of the locations they have across the country generally do not change to pawn shops. He noted that most of the stores they have owned have been strictly retail stores. T he one in Roanoke is the only store they have turned into a pawn shop, and it was primarily due to their customers asking them to do this. C hair Daulton asked him what was the advantage of having a location in Salem when they already have a store in Roanoke. He mentioned that it is typically demographics and a density of demographics. Further, they have a lot of customers who drive from this area to the Williamson Road location. Also, he has seen how Salem has progressed over the years he has been coming to this area, and it is attractive from that perspective. C ommissioner Beamer asked him if they would be open five or six days a week. Mr. Stewart noted that it would be six days a week, and they would be closed on Sundays. T hey are projecting they would be open from 10 am to 6 pm. C ommissioner Garst asked Mr. Stewart is he could tell him the things that differentiate a pawn shop from his retail model. Mr. Stewart noted collateralized loans essentially. In other words, with a resale shop a customer sells them a watch for $100, and then it is theirs to sell. With a pawn shop, a person gives them the watch, and the owner has the right to come back and buy it back at $115 next month. It stays in their possession until the person comes in to pay off the loan or pay the principal and the interest. C ommissioner Beamer asked if they have any other locations in Virginia besides the one in Roanoke. Mr. Stewart noted the original owner of Cash C onverters had six or seven stores in Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads area, etc. He sold out to Easy Pawn about four years ago, and they purchased the store in Roanoke from him because Easy Pawn did not want this one as it was so far from the other stores. C ommissioner Garst asked staff if the HBD zoning would allow for a pawn store, and Mr. Tripp noted that it would allow for this use. T here was further discussion regarding pawn stores in general and the fact that there is one right down the street from this location. Mr. Stewart noted at this point they are not interested in doing a pawn store. If the business model changes, then they might look at this. C hair Daulton asked if there is enough parking for the business, and Mr. Tripp noted that staff had looked at parking, and there is sufficient parking. Mr. Stewart noted he believes there are eight to ten parking spaces. Vice C hair King asked if they would be using the entire building because she noticed that it connects to the two big storage buildings. Mr. Stewart noted the property owner has storage in the two buildings so at this point they will not be using them. Roger Martin, who owns the adjacent building at 736 West Fourth Street, appeared before the C ommission. He noted that his concern is the parking for the proposed building. He stated there are ten parking spaces, and he questions if this is sufficient parking when they will have a couple of workers plus the people coming in to shop. He has three renters in his building, and he is concerned that the overflow of traffic will come over to his building. T here are times when his building uses every space they have. He does not have a problem with the business. Chair Daulton asked staff if Mr. Martin could put signs on his building that the parking is for his building. Mr. Tripp noted that it is his property, and he could put signs up and also tow anyone who may park there from the proposed business. Mr. Martin noted that he was aware he could put up signs, but reality tells him there will be more people coming than the parking they have. T here was further discussion regarding the parking for the proposed building. Mr. Tripp noted that he and Mrs. Wines met with the applicants, and they looked at the parking as part of the review. He further explained the code requirements for the retail space, and they determined there was adequate parking to meet the code. Mr. Taliaferro noted that the request is to rezone the property from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District. During the plan review process, there will be a zoning permit. At that point, C ommunity Development will look at the use and the required number of parking spaces, and the applicant will have to provide the number of spaces or they cannot get the permit to occupy the building. Mr. Stewart noted that their intention is to not have a retail floor. He stated will be partitioning off part of the space and using about 1/3 of the space for the public. He estimated it would be about 800 or 900 square feet. T he intention is not to attract people to come and shop as much as people to come and sell their items. Most of those transactions are completed in less than 10 minutes. He doubts they will have the parking lot full with people wanting to sell things, and he would be grateful to have that problem, but they certainly do not expect to have that amount of traffic. At the current store in Roanoke, they do about 45 to 50 purchase transactions per day. At this location, their goal for the first year is to average about 15 a day. Again, they are not attracting retail customers. Further, they will only have two staff members working. He understands Mr. Martin's concern and appreciates that it is a valid concern. C hair Daulton asked if there was anyone else to speak on this matter. T here was no response, and the public hearing was closed. T here was further discussion regarding the available parking, and it was noted there should be some parking on Spring Street. Mr. VanAllman noted that they base required parking on the use of the building and not the zoning. J ackson Beamer motioned to recommend to the Council of the City of Salem that the request of J ames H. Stewart and Kenton N. Bohn, lessees, and Mechanical Services & Installation LLC , property owner, for rezoning the property located at 748 W. Fourth Street (Tax Map #142-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District be approved. Reid Garst seconded the motion. Ayes: Beamer, Conner, Daulton, Garst, King 4.Adjournment T he meeting was adjourned at 7:27 p.m.