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PC APPROVED Minutes 12-12-13 Approved Minutes Spokane Valley Planning Commission Council Chambers —City Hall, December 12,2013 Chair Bates called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Commissioners, staff and audience stood for the pledge of allegiance. Ms. Horton took roll as follows: COMMIS STONERS Present Absent CITY STAFF Kevin Anderson p Scott Kuhta,Planning Manager Bill Bates-Chair p r- Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Christina Carlsen r r-- Mike Basinger, Senior Planner Michael Phillips p Gloria Mainz,Engineer Robert McCaslin r r Steven Neill p Joe Stoy—Vice Chair p Deanna Horton,Admin Assistant Commissioner Stoy moved to approve the agenda as presented. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Commissioner Neill moved to approve the November 14, 2013 minutes as presented. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. COMMISSION REPORTS: The commissioners had nothing to report. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: PIanning Manager Scott Kuhta reported he discussed the manufactured home park regulations had been on the advanced agenda to be coming forward soon, however staff felt they needed to do more research on them and they will be coming forward later in 2014. Mr. Kuhta also stated staff has been doing some internal reviews on the regulations for the Shoreline Mater Program. Staff is expecting to begin bringing those forward for Planning Commission review after the first part of the year. PUBLIC COMMENT: There was no public comment COMMISSION BUSINESS Unfinished Business: STV-2013-0002 Findings and Recommendation for Street Vacation of a portion of Alki east of Broadway. Planning Manager Kuhta mentioned it had been brought to the attention of staff the findings sent to the Planning Commissioners had said the vote on the street vacation had been 6-0 when in fact it had been 7-0 and the findings have been corrected to reflect this. Commissioner Stoy moved to send the findings on to the city council. Commissioner Anderson stated he did not feel that the finding B-1 was accurate. Mr.Anderson said the discussion during the public hearing concentrated on allowing one more housing unit. It was stated during the hearing the access would be there with or without the vacation but the developer could get one more unit with the vacation. Planning Commission Minutes Dec. 12,2013 Page 1 of 3 Commissioners Carlson and Phillips concurred with the assessment of the discussion during deliberations. Commissioner Anderson moved to amend the motion to add to the end of the sentence in B-1 after the period "provide a secondary access to Alki Avenue for their development and to allow for one additional unit. The vote on this amendment was seven to zero in favor, the motion passes. The amended motion was to forward the Planning Commission findings and recommendations to the City Council with the changed language in section B-I. The vote on the amended motion was seven to zero in favor, motion passes. New Business: Study Session on the Permitted Use Matrix Senior Planner Mike Basinger informed the Commission that the intent of tonight's presentation was to provide a preview of the proposed amendment so the Planning Commission could start to become familiar with the proposed amendment. There would be a formal study session and public hearings down the road. Mr. Basinger explained the current adopted Matrix is difficult to use, is inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan in some places, some of the uses do not correlate to definitions. Also, some of the supplemental conditions are missing from the Municipal Code, and the NAICS codes are outdated. Other reasons for updating the matrix now are to incorporate some other pending code amendments which staff has been working on and to assist with economic development by helping to streamline our permitting process. Mr. Basinger further explained this is an initial step for the future required major update of the Comprehensive Plan. Staff reviewed other jurisdictions use matrices to see what they were using. The proposed matrix includes new, broad use categories,groups similar uses into the broader use categories, consolidates uses into subcategories, and removes the NAICS references. Definitions were reviewed and modified and/or added as needed. Mr. Basinger and Mr. Kuhta explained why staff is proposing to remove the NAICS codes reference in the matrix. The NAICS code is not widely used in zoning codes, they were designed for statistical and data gathering purposes. The SVMC references the 2002 NAICS Code, but it is updated every 5 years,including updates in 2007 and 2012. Mr. Basinger explained the current matrix has too many uses which are specific,yet they are not all inclusive. The matrix is not considered user friendly for people at the counter trying to assist customers. Currently there are 240 uses on the matrix; staff has worked to narrow this list down to approximately 166 uses. Mr. Kuhta shared early/middle of the last decade the trend was to move to a consolidated matrix. In the beginning of the City we adopted the longer matrix; this will be more in line with what other jurisdictions. Mr. Kuhta also explained how the supplement conditions were applied to a use. Commissioners asked about how the matrix was used at the permit center and staff discussed the way the current matrix was cumbersome, people have a difficult time finding some uses and the proposed matrix would allow for more flexibility and will be easier for the permit center people to make decisions. There would be some time getting familiar with the new matrix and there will be some training involved, some of the new definitions will assist to make the use much easier. The Commissioners requested to have as much time ahead of time to review the proposed matrix before the study session. They would like to be able to look it over and develop their own questions before the study session instead of getting it just a couple of days before. Mr. Kuhta said staff would do the best they could to get the proposed matrix to them as soon as they could so the Commissioners could review it for comments before the study session. The Commissioners asked what it would take to make adjustments to allow for uses such as small aircraft manufacturing. Staff explained the possible ways it could be allowed however, most Planning Commission Minutes Dec. 12,2013 Page 2 of 3 importantly the use would need to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. If a use was not consistent with the Comp Plan, there would be no reason to look at allowing it. The Commissioners applauded staff working to make the matrix more business friendly. GOOD OF THE ORDER Commissioner Bates said thank you to the other commissioners and staff for an important and good year. Mr. Bates stated he felt it had been a good year, there had been good input, good recommendations to the Council, that the Commission had more credibility, he felt the Council appreciated all of the effort of the Commission. Mr. Bates also said although he had not worked with another staff he felt the staff did a wonderful job Commissioner Anderson asked to have the difference between a zoning change done last fall with the Comprehensive Plan changes and a zoning change which was recently done and approved by the Hearing Examiner. Mr. Kuhta stated a Comprehensive Plan change is a legislative action and can only be performed once a year. There are many times a Comp Plan changes also requires a zone change. Not always does a zone change require a Comp Plan change. Many jurisdictions handle these actions separately and require a applicant to come back in and apply for a zoning change after the Comp Plan change has been approved. Our City has chosen to save our applicants time and money when a zoning change is related to a Comp Plan change and we process them together. A sample of a zoning change would be moving from R-2 to R-4 in the Low Density Residential designation or MF-1 to MF-2 in Medium Density Residential designation, these can be applied for at any time. However, it would be Comp Plan amendment to go from Low Density Residential to Medium Density Residential designations and this can only be done once a year. Commissioner Neill noted a hardy thank you to Commissioners Bates and Stoy for their joint leadership of the Commission this past year. He stated they displayed excellent examples of quality as Chair and Co-Chair. Commissioner McCaslin agreed. Commissioner Stoy thanked Commissioner Bates for his service stating this would be his last meeting as a Commissioner,he also stated it was his last meeting for his term, but noted he had reapplied. ADJOURNMENT: There being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 7:06p.m. (2>-----:-1(' ->" -,t7. - Bill Bates, Chairperson S-1) i „.. . 0 �4 y dLs(60 Deartr a Horton, secretary Date signed /- /6 - /"/ Planning Commission Minutes Dec. 12,2013 Page 3 of 3