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PC APPROVED Minutes 01-08-15 Approved Minutes Spokane Valley Planning Commission Council Chambers—City Hall, January 8,2015 Secretary of the Commission Deanna Horton called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Commissioners, staff and audience stood for the pledge of allegiance. Ms. Horton took roll and the following members and staff were present: Kevin Anderson John Hohman, Community Development Director Heather Graham Cary Driskell, City Attorney Tim Kelley Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Mike Phillips Lori Barlow, Senior Planner Susan Scott Christina Janssen, Planner Joe Stoy Karen Kendall, Planner Sam Wood Martin Palaniuk, Planner Micki Harnois, Planner Deanna Horton, Secretary of the Commission Commissioner Stoy moved to approve the January 8, 2014 amended agenda as presented. Motion passed with a seven to zero vote. Commissioner Anderson moved to approve the December 11, 2014 minutes as presented. The vote on the minutes was seven to zero, the motion passed. COMMISSION REPORTS: Commissioners had no report. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: Sr. Planner Lori Barlow welcomed the new Commissioners, and introduced the staff. Ms. Barlow stated the legislative update to the Comprehensive Plan would be an upcoming project for the Commission; staff had begun work to schedule Planning Short Course for end of February or early March. Deputy City Attorney Erik Lamb welcomed the Commission and shared that the legal staff would be bringing forward training for the Commission on the open public meetings act and public records. PUBLIC COMMENT: There was no public comment. COMMISSION BUSINESS: Election of Officers: Ms. Horton conducted the election of officers. Ms. Horton asked for nominations for the office of chair. Mr. Anderson nominated Joe Stoy for Chair. Having no other nominations, Mr. Stoy was declared Chair for the year 2015. Ms. Horton asked for nominations for the office of Vice Chair. Commissioner Phillips nominated Kevin Anderson for the office of Vice Chair. There were no other nominations for Vice Chair and Mr. Anderson was declared the Vice Chair for the year 2015. Public Hearing — STV-2014-0001, vacation of a portion of Old Mission near Mission Parkway and the Old Mission Trailhead. Planner Karen Kendall explained STV-2014-0001 was a request to vacate approximately 3700 square feet of the intersection of Mission Parkway and Old Mission Avenue. The property would be absorbed by the property owner to the north and would be used to enhance the trailhead entrance. Commissioner Anderson asked if the road to the trailhead for the Centennial Trail was a public road. Ms. KendelI confirmed it was. Commissioner Wood asked if the vacation would impact any utility easements,none would be impacted. Commissioner Stoy opened the public hearing at 6:25 p.m. and took a vote to incorporate the staff report into the public hearing which was approved by a vote of seven to zero. Commissioner Wood 01-08-15 Planning Commission Minutes Page 1 of 4 asked to clarify the developer had given up property for the development of the Centennial Trial trailhead at this location. Staff responded the developer had worked closely with staff to develop the area and had contributed to the development. Seeing no one who wished to testify, Chair Stoy closed the public hearing at 6:29 p. m. Commissioner Anderson moved to recommend approval to the City Council of STV-2014-0001. The vote on this motion was seven to zero, motion passes. Public Hearing—CTA-2014-0006,Subdivisions,Time Extensions Commissioner Stoy opened the public hearing at 6:32 p.m. PIanner Micki Harnois gave a staff report regarding the change to chapter 20.30.060 regarding time extensions for final plat approvals. Currently the City's code provides for a one time, one year extension if a plat cannot be completed in the state allowed five year time period. Currently there is a situation where a developer cannot finish his plat because he is waiting for a map change from FEMA. Staff is proposing to clean up some language and to change the time to a request to an initial three year extension with one year extensions afterward. Ms. Harnois noted that with the extensions, the director could apply conditions to the project which would bring it into line with the current codes. Ms. Harnois noted she had contacted several jurisdictions. Other time lines ranged from one one-year extension with no other extensions allowed to an initial three year extension with one year extensions at one year at a time. Commissioner Wood asked if the City of Spokane allowed a one year extension and regardless of the situation,they did not allow another extension, which Ms. Harnois confirmed as correct. Commissioner Anderson asked if the City took any responsibility to notify the developer that the plat was getting close to expiring. Ms. Barlow stated as part of the staff report when preliminary approval is received they are notified of the specific date the plat expires. If a plat expires the developer can they reapply, but the process starts over. Commissioner Graham asked if staff was aware of how many plats have needed an extension. Ms. Harnois stated the case where the developer is waiting for a FEMA map change to finish his plat. She also asked if the extension is granted would the development fall under new code. The plat would be vested in the code at the time of approval however,the director could apply new conditions if it were warranted. Seeing no one who wished to testify, Chair Stoy closed the public hearing at 6:46 p. m. Commissioner Anderson moved to recommend approval to the City Council of CTA-2014-0006. Commissioner Phillips commented that he is very much in favor of the proposal, he has had times when he needed the extra time to finish a plat. He also stated that today most plats are fairly small, but it depends on the size of the preliminary plat how quickly they can be completed. Most developers are not willing to develop large subdivisions, so they do it in phases. This all takes time to get thru all the requirements. Commissioner Phillips stated that he is very much in favor of this and would like to see notices sent out when as things get close to expiring. Commissioner Stoy stated he agrees with the proposal and feels the ending dates get forgotten. He stated that maybe there could be a process to notify whoever is providing the developer and or the civil plans notification stating that there plat is about to expire and that they have 30 days. Mr. Lamb stated from a legal stand point these are the developer's plats and not the City's plats. It is the developer's responsibility to remember the dates. If the City created a system of providing notices, it could create a significant risk for the City and liability should one be missed. It is not something that he can recommend from a legal standpoint. The vote on this motion was seven to zero, motion passes. Ms. Barlow explained to the Planning Commission that they would be deviating from the normal process and they will be bringing back the findings CTA-2014-0006 to the Planning Commission that evening for approval. 01-08-15 Planning Commission Minutes Page 2 of 4 Study Session: CPA-2015-0001, Comprehensive Plan Annual amendment, a privately initiated Comprehensive Plan Amendment located on Nora Ave. between Pines Rd and Mamer Rd. Ms. Barlow reviewed the Growth Management Act and Comprehensive Plan process before the Study Session began. Planner Christina Janssen began her study session regarding the first privately (citizen) initiated Comprehensive Plan(Comp Plan) amendment. CPA-2015-0001 is a request to change from Office to Community Commercial. The request is located on Nora Avenue between Pines Road and Mamer Road. It is three parcels with one single family residence. It is bordered on the east and west by Office, south by High Density Residential and north by Regional Commercial. The site has remained fairly vacant for some years and the owner believes the change will make the property more marketable. Commissioner Anderson stated he did not agree with the staff report's statement that conditions have changed beyond the property owners control because he looked and the property owner has not owned the property long enough to have the conditions change. He also stated he did not know if the property was still sitting vacant because of lack of marketing or failure of marketing. Ms. Janssen commented staff have received many calls on this area because of the high visibility of it however, the current zoning limits what people are able to do, which keeps people from looking at it harder. She stated she felt that in the legislative update of the Comp Plan the area would be reviewed for changes in general. Ms. Janssen continued to explain one of the approval criteria for the change is the property must be adjacent to the same or a higher classification than the request being made, which includes over a right-of-way (ROW). In this case the property is adjacent to Regional Commercial across a ROW. The right-of-way here is Interstate-90 (I-90). The Commissioners questioned the use of 1-90 as a connecting ROW as an approval criterion. Ms. Janssen stated that between the property and the properties with the higher classification there was only ROW. Ms. Barlow also assisted in explaining how the ROW, and I-90, is used to reach the approval criteria. Commissioner Scott commented her concerns over the traffic. She said it is a 25 MPH road, with a right turn only at Pines, and a steep grade at Mamer .Rd. She said she was concerned about the truck traffic on the road. Ms. Janssen said she had spoken to the senior traffic engineer who said most likely at the time of a building permit, he would be requiring mitigation at the Pines Rd. and Mission Ave. intersection as well as the and Pines Rd. and Nora Ave. intersection because they are both performing below standard. Commissioners asked about spot zoning in the middle of an area, with no other similar zoning near it. Ms. Barlow stated she did not feel this was spot zoning, since the approval criteria was across ROW and there was nothing but ROW in front of the property, to a higher classification. She also expressed the area was one of concern for staff to review to a change in the upcoming legislative update to the Comp Plan. She said she would not guess a change to what but the office zone in the area was clearly not working for the properties there. Study Session: CPA-2015-0002, Comprehensive Plan Annual amendment, a privately initiated Comprehensive Plan Amendment located at the intersection of Mission Ave. and Flora Rd. Planner Marty Palaniuk began his study session regarding the second privately (citizen) initiated Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) amendment. CPA-2015-0002 is a request to change from Low Density Residential (LDR) to Mixed Use Center (MUC). The request is located on the northwest corner of Mission Avenue and Flora Road. It is two parcels with a greenhouse located on it. It is bordered on the north and east by Low Density Residential and south and west by Mixed Use Center. The site is just east of the street vacation which the Commission just recommended for approval. It is located on two minor arterials. Commissioner Anderson asked if the parcels to the south were vacant. Mr. Palaniuk confirmed they were. Commissioner Anderson also asked how close the transit was, which is located at Mission and Barker, but a distance could not be provided. He did not feel this was "close"as was indicated in the 01-08-15 Planning Commission Minutes Page 3 of 4 staff report. Ms. Barlow commented in the future, exact distances would be used. Commissioner Wood stated he could go either way on this, there seemed to be a natural boundary for the zoning at Flora Rd. He also asked if the change would allow manufactured home parks. Mr. Palaniuk said it would not, Mr. Wood said he knew the property owner and knew they owned other manufactured home parks. Commissioner Graham said she runs in the area and there are no sidewalks in the area. Ms. Barlow commented any commercial development would be required to put in frontage improvements at the time of development, however single family development might trigger the same. Findings of Fact: CTA-2014-0006,Subdivisions,Time Extensions. Ms. Harnois handed out the Planning Commission findings of fact for review. She commented once the Findings are signed they will move on to City Council. Mr. Lamb explained the primary purpose of the findings is to layout the basis for determining the compliance with the City's code in providing the recommendation of approval of the code text amendment. There are two approval criteria for code text amendments, the first is that the amendment is consistent with applicable provisions of the Comp Plan and the second is that it bears a substantial relation to the public health, safety, welfare, and protection of the environment. As staff explained during the staff report in earlier in the evening, there are various goals and polices set out in the Comp Plan which apply to this specific amendment, and in these findings they have outlined the goals and polices which staff feel are applicable, which the Commission would ultimately approve. The second would be the general public health, safety, welfare, which is a vague term for a text amendment, which is at times difficult to determine. The vote on the findings is more on the basis for the recommendation, not the recommendation itself. Commissioner Anderson asked why the conclusions on the findings were not the same as the conclusions on the staff report. Mr. Lamb also pointed out to the Commission they are allowed to change the findings if they do not agree with them. Commissioner Anderson stated they were two different sentences. In the staff report it states the overall conclusion is consistent with the Comp Plan policies and goals and on the findings it states it is consistent with the City's adopted Comp Plan and the approval criteria. Mr. Lamb stated in the future that staff would work to make sure the staff report and findings reflected the same language however, this did say the same thing in a different way. Commissioner Phillips asked to verify that the language underline and strike through language would be attached to the findings as part of the record. Commissioner Anderson moved to recommend approval to the City Council the Findings of Fact for CTA-2014-0006 as presented The vote on this motion was seven to zero, motion passes. GOOD OF THE ORDER: Commissioner Anderson asked how the Commission would go about amending the public hearing script from the Planning Commission's Rules of Procedure. Mr. Lamb and Ms. Horton shared with the Commission in the Rules of Procedure allow for updates in the odd numbered years, and staff would assist in reviewing the script. ADJOURNMENT: There being no other business,the meeting was adjourned at 8:19 p.m. 2 / 15 Joe Stoy, Chairperson Date signed /Ltait,,lea#460 Deanna Horton, Secretary 01-08-15 Planning Commission Minutes Page 4 of 4