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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-02-2004 Planning Commission MinutesThe Planning & Zoning Commission of the City of Fairhope met Monday, August 2, 2004 at 5:00 PM in the City Administration Building, Council Chambers, 161 N. Section Street. Present: Chairman Dick Charles; Tim Kant; Dan McCrory; Bob Clark; Larry Green; Jean Wilson; Lee Turner; Ed Brinson; Councilman Mike Ford; Christopher Baker, Planning Director and Brenda Hoffren, Acting Secretary Absent: Betty Rivenbark The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM. The minutes of the July 6, 2004 meeting were considered and approved with minor changes on motion of Larry Green and a second by Lee Turner. Unanimously carried. ZC 04.05 Public Hearing Ellington Place PUD Amendment request of Gene Tillman for the property located adjacent to the West of Jackson Place near State Hwy 181 on the North side of Windmill Road. Mr Baker stated that Ack Moore is here to represent Mr. Tillman's request for layout changes to the previously approved PUD. The original submittal was 18 lots and the applicant proposed using an injection well for his storm water management. He was required to obtain ADEM approval. ADEM would not approve the use of injection wells. He must now move the pond from the North end of the development to the common area by Windmill Road. Seth Moore indicated they enlarged the individual lots and now have 11 lots .The street names on the plat will be changed where they connect with Jackson Place to maintain continuity. The Public Hearing was opened. Bill Scott of 9979 Windmill Road raised concerns about drainage. Water stands in these low areas for days. If the property next to his is backfilled, it will flood him out. The water will not drain to Windmill Road as water will not flow uphill. Kevin Miller of 111 Hazel Lane spoke indicating that water stands on his property in Jackson Place. There are 32 homes with 1;.i acres of greenspace. They are assessed 100.00 per year per household for maintenance of the greenspace and entrances. 3200.00 per year will not cover the cost of this maintenance. Someone needs to take a serious look at the actual cost of maintaining these areas. The Commission asked Mr. Moore of Moore Engineering for his comments regarding their concerns. Mr. Moore said they planned to place an additional ditch along the East side with a berm to keep the water on Ellington Place property and take it to Windmill Road.. Water stands because it is so flat. The street will be elevated to slope to the South. This and the reduction in the number of homes will help the situation. Angela Moody of 20105-A State Highway 181 asked what kind of ditch he was talking about. How wide and how deep? Will it be fenced? What will be provided to keep children out of it running back and forth? Mr. Moore indicated it would be a swale ditch 6 feet wide and 1 foot deep. The retention pond is about 18 inches deep. There are no plans to fence the ditch or retention area. The public hearing was closed. A motion to approve the changes was made by Larry Green. A second followed by Lee Turner. Passed unanimously. ZC 04.06 Public Hearing Huntington PUD Amendment HMR for Miles Jones, requesting a reduction in the side setbacks on the 57' and 60' wide lots in the development from the required 10' to 8'. Mr. Baker explained that the Commission originally approved the 8' setbacks in June 2003, but the City Council had changed it to 10' when it came before them for final approval. Mr. Baker feels this should go back to the Council as they made the change. Mr. Charles asked why there are different setbacks for some lots in this development. They should all be the same as it causes confusion for the owners. Christopher answered that this is a PUD. It is part of the approval process of a PUD allowing different lot sizes, etc. Jean Wilson said she would like to hear from Dr. Jones about his reasons. Dr. Jones stated the 10' on each side will limit the footprint of the house to 37' in width on the 57' lots. They cut back on the size of the house. These lots have a rear alley for access to the rear. A larger footprint will give them more diversity in the appearance on the street. Lee Turner said he felt it was no problem, but it needs to go back to the City Council. The public hearing was opened. Bubba Cametti, no address given, who owns adjacent property, asked about the drainage. He had asked the Mayor to come out and look at the site. Mr. Kant indicated that he and Mr. Baker had been to the site. Mr. Baker indicated the project has been engineered by Scott Hutchison of HMR. They are installing a catch basin and underground piping. It will alter the pond to a staged release pond. He asked Scott to come forward to answer questions regarding the engineering. Scott indicated the dam" is a weir and it restricts the water down. It is not a flow thru. It is a pond that holds the water. They don't want it to perk out. Making it deeper is not an option if they want it to hold water. They could have cut down trees to make the dam larger, but did not want to sacrifice the trees. The piping will go into a new small pond separate from the dam area. Mr. Kant indicated the water is coming at a faster velocity than before. It is washing their roads out. They can't handle a river and have only one bridge in. He would like to see a 5-10 year storm event solution to slow down the water. Mr. Hutchison said he was willing to do checks to slow down the water. Mr. Hutchison asked the Commission if they would consider recommending a 10' and 6' setback on the small lots. This would give them a 40' wide footprint on each lot. The 10' side could satisfy the Council with regard to access to the rear of the lot. A discussion followed re: architectural style and cookie cutter houses. Mr. Green asked if they are asking to amend the whole PUD or just this phase? The Public Hearing was closed. Jean Wilson said she felt the whole subdivision when it was first presented was monotonous. The work they had done on it when it came back made it more diverse. She is not opposed to changing the setbacks . It makes the subdivision more interesting. It came back from the Council as less than she envisioned. Dick Charles asked Councilman Ford if he could tell them why it was changed. Mr. Ford indicated that as a real estate person, he feels 10' minimum is needed on one side for access to the rear yard. People want to work on their boats, etc. and getting them into the rear yard down a 20' alleyway and fencing would be hard to do. He feels it would be a mistake to leave less than 10' on one side. Larry Green made a motion to approve the requested 10' and 6' side setbacks for small lots (57-60 feet in width) in Phase I only. Any changes to other Phases would require additional approvals. A second to his motion by Jean Wilson. Passed unanimously. SD 04.48 Clearwater Stables request of Raymond & Janet Herndon for approval of a minor 2 lot division. Christopher Baker stated this is one 3 acre and one 6 acre parcel. No greenspace is required due to the size of the lots. Each lot fronts on a publicly maintained paved street. Drainage requirements have been waived in the past due to the size of the lots. The owner is requesting a waiver of this requirement. Larry Green made a motion to approve as requested. A second followed by Dan McCrory. Motion carried unanimously. SD 04-50 Informal Review for Additional Development at Fairfield requested by Moore Engineering for Paul Monroe. Mr. Baker stated this is the undeveloped parcel at the Northeast corner of Boothe Road and Twin Beech Road. It contains approximately 9 acres and 26 lots are proposed. The property is zoned R-3 single family. Concerns regarding this plan include drainage. The area holds some water. Finished floor elevations would be prudent for any home built in this area to reduce the possibility of water damage. Street connection to Boothe Road and to Lake View Drive is good, however there are double frontage lots fronting Boothe Road and Twin Beech Road prohibited by our regulations. The lots and setbacks do not meet R-3 requirements. Rezoning to a PUD would be required for suggested smaller lot sizes and setbacks. The following comments were given to Mr. Moore with regard to the proposal. 1. Double frontage lots show a 10' buffer on Boothe Road and Twin Beech Road. It is not large enough. Mr Moore indicated they could increase the size of the buffer. 2. The South end of the project may be a problem as it creates a T at this end. Garbage trucks and fire trucks will have to do too much maneuvering to get in and out. A street is suggested to Boothe Road. Mr. Moore responded that he felt this was too close to Twin Beech Road to put a curb cut. He had placed one further back to the North. 3. The drainage is a major concern. Problems with flooding in the past in this area. Water flows over Boothe Road during a heavy rain. Mr. Moore said the drainage would be designed to go into the pond. 4. Double frontage lots make the Commission wary. We don't want to create a corridor on Boothe Road with nothing to look at but privacy fences. . 5. The arrangement of the lots at the North end needs to be redone. Mr. Moore said he thought they might be able to insert some pie shaped lots in this area. 6. The initial proposal a few months back had been a townhome development for this parcel. What happened to that? The Commission feels this would be a more appropriate use in this area. Mr. Moore thanked the Commission for their comments. IR 04.05 Comprehensive Plan Reevaluation Resolution. Mr. Baker presented a Resolution to the Commission asking them to approve it and forward a favorable recommendation to the City Council for adoption. Since the plan was adopted in January 2001, we have continued to grow. More than 780 new single family residential permits have been issued since that time. The present plan suggests a reevaluation every two years. It is time to see what aspects of it are working well and what may need to be revised. More than 35% of the work tasks in the plan have been implemented. There are also new ideas and initiatives that should be debated. Economic development and an economic strategy for downtown should be included. These elements could continue to buffer the long-term viability of downtown Fairhope. Mr. Kant said he wanted to see us address existing downtown businesses this time. We need to keep the uniqueness downtown by keeping chain stores out of downtown. Bob Clark felt we needed a full assault on the media to let everyone know. Christopher Baker indicated we plan to do all the things we did before and more to encourage community participation in the process. Larry Green made a motion to approve the Resolution. A second followed by Bob Clark. All approved. The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 PM P) <14'-P9 Brenda Hoffren, Acting Secr a I - t R. N. Charles, Chairman