Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/14/2018 - Planning Commission - Minutes - RegularPlanni ng Commi ssi on Meeti ng M INUTES Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 7:00 PM 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 (absent), N. J ackson Beamer, and Neil L. C onner; with Vicki G. Daulton, C hair, presiding; together with Charles E. VanAllman, J r., Director of Community Development Department; Benjamin W. Tripp, C ity Planner; Mary Ellen Wines, Zoning Administrator; and William C . Maxwell, Assistant City Attorney. Neil Conner motioned to appoint Mary Ellen Wines as Executive Secretary Pro Tem for this meeting of the Planning C ommission. J ackson Beamer seconded the motion. Ayes: Conner, Beamer, King, Daulton Absent: Garst 2.C onsent Agenda A.Consent Agenda Consider approval of the minutes from the October 10, 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 Dynamic Medical, LLC , property owner, for rezoning the property located at 1201 & 1203 Texas Street (Tax Map # 149-1-1.1) from RB Residential Building with conditions to HBD Highway Business District without conditions. T he Executive Secretary Pro Tem reported that notice of such hearing had been published in the November 1 and 8, 2018, issues of the Salem Times Register and adjacent property owners were notified by letter mailed October 22, 2018. Staff noted the following regarding the rezoning request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of 0.522 acres, located on the north side of Texas Street, to the west of the intersection with Lynchburg Turnpike. T he property contains two one-story brick office buildings. On December 12, 1988, C ity Council approved to rezone the property from Residential District R-1 to Residential-Business R-B with the following conditions:(1) T he project will be constructed in substantial conformance with the Conceptual Plan by T. P. Parker & Son dated October 4, 1988, (2) Building "A" will be constructed within one year of the date of approval of the rezoning. Building "B" will be constructed within four years of the date of approval of the rezoning, and (3) Building "A" will be used for professional real estate appraisal services and related activities. Building "B" will be used as rental space for professional offices, real estate appraisal, and/or other similar occupations. Currently Dynamic Medical, a general office, occupies 1201 Texas Street (Building B) and Chloe White Agency, Inc., an insurance office, occupies 1203 Texas Street (Building A). Dynamic Medical is a medical office-consulting firm that pairs medical practices with laboratories. T he applicant proposes to expand their business and add the processing of samples on site to alleviate the shipment to other laboratories. T his request is to rezone the property to allow it to be used as an office/laboratory. T he applicant has stated that no patients will be seen on site and less than six vehicles will be parked. Building A will remain an insurance office at this time. As part of the request, they are willing to add laboratory to the list of conditions for the proposed uses for the property. C hair Daulton opened the public hearing and asked if there was anyone to speak. J eff Howard of Dynamic Medical, LLC , property owner, appeared before the C ommission explaining the rezoning request. He stated that the company is a three old medical diagnostics distributorship which provides diagnostics services to physician clinics. T he bulk of their business is toxicology lab testing services whereby physicians contract with them to test their patients to make sure they are compliant in taking their medications and to make sure that they are telling the truth about the medications they take. T hey are actually on the front line of the fight against opioid addiction and abuse. T hey have grown significantly since they first started, but they have plateaued because they provide the lab testing service; however, they do not actually process the specimens. T he specimens are sent to a lab out of state and then they are paid a fee to bring that business to them. Within this value chain, they do not have the wherewith all to hire sales people to expand the footprint. So in order to do so, they would like to provide the laboratory testing themselves. He further explained the request and noted that inorder to do the testing service at this location they need to rezone the property. T hey are willing to add laboratory to the list of conditions which are in place today. He noted that this was not part of the original request. Vice C hair King stated when she viewed the property she noted that there is not a lot of parking. She said he had mentioned that there would be two employees and a third which would come in later in the day. She asked if they were concerned about parking for the business, and Mr. Howard noted that parking would not be an issue. He stated this will not be a patient-facing facility. It will just be to process specimens. T hey expect courier deliveries about twice a day. T hey plan to operate the business Monday through Friday, but there maybe a potential to process on Saturdays. It was noted that the lab will be testing mostly urine and some oral fluids. Mr. Howard discussed the changes that would be made to the interior of one building, and he submitted drawings showing the existing and the proposed layouts. Vice C hair King asked Mr. VanAllman if the first two conditions from the original rezoning are no longer viable because they have been previously met. Mr. VanAllman noted that it is his understanding that those two conditions have been met. It was also noted that Mr. Howard had contacted most of the adjacent property owners, and none of them had any problems with the request. C hair Daulton asked if there was anyone else to speak regarding this request. T here was no response, and the public hearing was closed. C hair Daulton noted that Planning Commission will make a recommendation to C ity C ouncil and then the request will go before Council on November 26. Neil Conner motioned to recommend to the Council of the City of Salem that the request of Dynamic Medical, LLC , property owner, for rezoning the property located at 1201 & 1203 Texas Street (Tax Map # 149-1-1.1) from RB Residential Business District with conditions to HBD Highway Business District with amended conditions be approved with the following condition: Building "A" will be used for professional real estate appraisal services and related activities. Building "B" will be used for professional offices, real estate appraisal or other similar occupations, and laboratory (conditions # 1 and 2 from the original December 1988 rezoning are hereby extinguished). Denise King seconded the motion. Ayes: Beamer, Conner, Daulton, King Absent: Garst B.Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Hold public hearing to consider the request of 540 Properties, LLC , contract purchaser and Mechanical Development Company, Inc., property owner, for rezoning the property located at 229 Apperson Drive (Tax Map # 234-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District. T he Executive Secretary Pro Tem reported that notice of such hearing had been published in the November 1 and 8, 2018, issues of the Salem Times Register and adjacent property owners were notified by letter mailed October 22, 2018. Staff noted the following regarding the rezoning request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of approximately 0.5 acres, located near the intersection of Apperson Drive and South C olorado Street. It is triangularly shaped, and bounded by Apperson Drive on the southwest, by Riverland Drive to the north, and by Brook Avenue on the east. T he property is currently vacant. T his request is to rezone the property to allow it to be used for a car wash. T he applicant has proposed a single story, brick or block building for the site. T here will be no direct access from Apperson Drive, and access will be handled from Riverland Drive and will exit onto Brook Avenue where it can circulate back to the light. A vacuum and parking area is proposed at the front of the property. T his property is partially located within the 100-year and 500-year floodplains. C hair Daulton opened the public hearing and asked if there was anyone to speak. Ben Crew of Balzer and Associates, representing the contract purchaser, appeared before the C ommission explaining the rezoning request. He noted he was there with Darrell Craft of 540 Properties, LLC. He stated the request is to rezone this parcel from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District for the construction of a car wash facility. It is a small 2,000+ square-foot building as shown on the conceptual site plan submitted with the application. It will have two separate wash bays, one will be either a touch free or soft touch type system that is automated. T he facility will have one employee, but they will not be on site at all times as the facility can function by itself. T here will be two adjacent access points, one access in from Riverland Drive and the other out onto Brook Avenue. Also included in the application package is a picture of the style of the building Mr. Craft is interested in building at this location. It might differ some from the drawing, but it will be more of a traditional style of car wash. He further discussed the car wash project and noted they would be happy to answer any questions. Vice C hair King noted that the conceptual plan shows that there will not be an entrance on Apperson Drive. Mr. C rew noted that the project will not have an entrance there. Mr. C onner asked if Mr. C raft operates any other car washes in the area. Darrell C raft, contract purchaser, appeared before the C ommission noting that he currently does not operate any other car washes. T his piece of property has been on the market for a while, and after going by this property many times over the last few years, he thought about trying to do something with it since it is in a good location. After doing some research, he decided to do something with it and explored what would fit on the size of the property. Mr. C onner asked Mr. Craft if he planned to stay pretty close in the realm of architectural design as is shown in the drawing submitted. Mr. Craft stated he attributes the picture which was included as more of a conservative type of look, and this is exactly the type of look he trying to construct. He further discussed the project and noted it would be more of a traditional-looking car wash. Mr. Beamer asked if it would be a 24 hour operation, and Mr. C raft noted that most washes are open 24/7, and he would like for it to be open those hours. It will be an automated car wash, and he will have an employee there at least 40 hours a week; however, the system would be able to work around the clock. C hair Daulton asked if there was anyone else to speak regarding this request. T here was no response, and the public hearing was closed. Neil Conner motioned to recommend to the Council of the City of Salem that the request of 540 Properties, LLC , contract purchaser, and Mechanical Development C ompany, Inc., property owner, for rezoning the property located 229 Apperson Drive (Tax Map #234-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District be approved. J ackson Beamer seconded the motion. Ayes: Beamer, Conner, Daulton, King Absent: Garst C .Subdiv ision Consider the request for preliminary approval of a proposed subdivision plat filed by T he Simms Family Limited Partnership, property owner, to be located in the 200 blk. of Diamond Road (Tax Map # 272-2-1). T he Executive Secretary Pro Tem reported the C ommission had received a request for preliminary approval of a proposed subdivision plat filed by T he Simms Family Limited Partnership, property owner, to be located in the 200 block of Diamond Road (Tax Map #272-2-1). Staff noted the following regarding the request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of approximately 62.4 acres, one of the largest parcels of land within the city boundaries. It is bounded on the west side by Franklin Street, on the South by Upland Drive, on the east by Diamond Road, and on the North by a private section of Homeplace Drive. T he property is currently occupied by “T he Simms Farm”, a long-time established agricultural use. Elevation varies from a high point of approximately 1,230 feet on the hilltop flats, to a low point of 1,072 on Franklin Street. T he flatter portions of the property have been cleared over the years, but there are still large wooded areas, particularly on the western side and in the ravines, and large mature trees exist throughout. It can best be described as rolling farmland, and is occupied by a house, several stables, and various associated outbuildings and facilities related to its use as a horse farm. It is currently zoned agricultural. T his request is to subdivide the property into four lots, of various sizes between approximately 10.5 acres, and 30 acres, as shown on the attached plat. T hese lots would have frontages on the following public streets: Franklin Street, Upland Drive, Diamond Road, and Homeplace Drive. Under the City of Salem Subdivision ordinance, the subdivision of five lots or less is possible administratively; however, the ultimate authority for subdivision rests with the Planning C ommission. Given the size and nature of this property, and the potential for significant future development and the associated demands on infrastructure and transportation, staff has referred the subdivision to Planning Commission under the authority provided in Section 78- 403 of the Subdivision Ordinance. T he applicant has not stated any intended use for the property at this time, only that they intend to market the various parcels for sale. Any future proposed development, other than agricultural uses, would require the property to be rezoned through a public process. J im Woltz and David Bush with Woltz and Associates, Roanoke, representing the property owner, appeared before the Commission explaining the request to subdivide this property. Mr. Woltz noted that the Simms Family asked them to assist in the sale of this property as well as some other property located in Botetourt C ounty. T hey are applying for a minor subdivision, and he noted that all the tracts are above ten acres. By right, they could have divided five parcels. Vice C hair King asked what was the current zoning for the property. It was noted that it is Agricultural District. She asked if the owners could subdivide into five acre tracts, and it was noted that the tracts have to be at least ten acre tracts. Mr. Bush noted that all the tracts are ten acres or above. Vice C hair King asked how they reached this particular layout for the subdivision. Why so many acres in one parcel versus another parcel? Mr. Woltz noted this is a good question and stated that they look at it for the potential development down the road taking into consideration access, road frontage, topography, utilities, etc. He noted that they divide a lot of land and one of their strong suits they have is trying to follow topography and make sure it makes sense on the ground not just on paper. Also, there are currently some existing roads on the property. Mr. C onner asked Mr. Woltz what he thought the ultimate use of this property would end up being. Mr. Woltz noted that the agricultural zoning allows for a lot of uses so they are trying to explore every opportunity that this property could afford for the C ity. He further discussed possibilities for the use of the property. T hey are mainly just laying the ground work for future development at this time. T here was further discussion regarding the subdivision request and future development for the 60+ acres. No other person(s) appeared related to said request. Neil Conner motioned to approve the request for preliminary approval of a proposed subdivision plat filed by the Simms Family Limited Partnership, property owner, to be located in the 200 block of Diamond Road (Tax Map #272-2-1). J ackson Beamer seconded the motion. Ayes: Beamer, Conner, Daulton, King Absent: Garst 4.Adjournment T he meeting was adjourned at 7:29 p.m.