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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-03-13 P&Z MinutesCITY OF KENAI PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION **AGENDA** '~~ Council Chambers, 210 Fidalgo March 13, 1996, 7:00 p.m. Chairman Kevin Walker 1. ROLL CALL: 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 28, 1996 4. PERSONS PRESENT SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD: 5. CONSIDERATION OF PLATS: 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: a. PZ96-8-Conditional Use Permit-Lot 17, Block 1, Anglers Acres, Part 2 b. PZ96-14-Adoption of City of Kenai's Updated Comprehensive Plan c. PZ96-15-Encroachment Permit-Lot 4, Block 1, Stock Subdivision 7. NEW BUSINESS: 8. OLD BUSINESS: 9. CODE ENFORCEMENT ITEMS: 10. REPORTS: a. City Council b. Borough Planning c. Administration 11. PERSONS PRESENT NOT SCHEDULED: 12. INFORMATION ITEMS: a. Public Meeting Notice-Airport Master Plan (March 14, 1996 @ 7 p.m.) b. Kenai River Special Management Board Minutes of Feb. 13, 1996 c. Borough Planning Commission Action from Feb. 26, 1996 d. Memo to Cary Graves, City Attorney, regarding proposed single-family zone 13. COMMISSION COMMENTS & QUESTIONS: 14. ADJOURNMENT: CITY OF KENAI PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION **MINUTES** March 13, 1996 Meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Chairman Kevin Walker. 1. ROLL CALL: Members present: Phil Bryson, Ron Goecke, John Booth, Karen Mahurin, Kevin Walker, Carl Glick*, Teresa Werner-Quade* Others present: Councilman Duane Bannock, City Engineer Jack La Shot, Administrative Assistant Marilyn Kebschull *Arrived late. 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: PHIL BRYSON MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF AGENDA AS SUBMITTED AND REQUESTED UNANIMOUS CONSENT. MOTION SECONDED BY RON GOECKE. AGENDA APPROVED. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 28, 1996 KAREN MAHURIN MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 28, 1996. MOTION SECONDED BY PHIL BRYSON. Chairman Walker asked if any amendments to minutes. None noted. Walker asked if there was a request for unanimous consent. MAHURIN REQUESTED UNANIMOUS CONSENT. MINUTES APPROVED. 4. PERSONS PRESENT SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD: 5. CONSIDERATION OF PLATS: 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: a. PZ96-8-Conditional Use Permit-Lot 17, Block 1, Anglers Acres, Part 2 RON GOECKE RECOMMENDED APPROVAL OF PZ96-8, CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR LOT 17, BLOCK 1, ANGLERS ACRES. MOTION SECONDED BY PHIL BRYSON. Chairman Walker asked for any additional staff comments. Jack La Shot noted that this item is coming back to the Commission from two meetings ago when the permit was not granted. At the last meeting it was decided to reconsider the request due to submission of a new asbuilt for the property. One of the major issues in failure of the permit two meetings ago was an encroachment that was believed to exist on the property. The new asbuilt shows the encroachment does not exist. 7:05 P.M. TERESA WERNER-QUADE ARRIVED. Chairman Walker opened the public hearing. No one came forward to testify. Walker brought item back to Commission for discussion. Bryson stated he would urge approval of this item keeping in mind that two meetings ago the Commission approved virtually the same use several lots away for the same petitioner. Bryson stated he felt is was appropriate for the area and appropriate for the activities that presently take place in the area. Booth stated that he noted another public notice was made and that no one has stepped forward to object. Based upon that, he would recommend approval. VOTE: BRYSON YES WERNER-QUADE YES GOECKE YES BOOTH YES MAHURIN YES WALKER YES MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUS. b. PZ96-14-Adoption of City of Kenai's Updated Comprehensive Plan Werner-Quade asked if this was a resolution to adopt the Comprehensive Plan. Walker explained that this was a resolution recommending approval and adoption. Werner- Quade asked if it would then become an ordinance. Walker stated that it would be sent to Council if the Commission passed the resolution recommending approval and adoption. Walker noted that Council would have the last look at it and at that time pass an ordinance. Werner-Quade clarified it would be an ordinance and Walker stated he believed it would be. 7:08 p.m. Carl Glick arrived. RON GOECKE RECOMMENDED APPROVAL OF PZ96-14 ADOPTION OF THE KENAI COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. MOTION SECONDED BY KAREN MAHURIN. Walker asked for additional staff comments. Nothing additional to add by either La Shot or Kebschull. Walker opened the public hearing. No one wished to speak to the item. Item brought back to the Commission for discussion. Werner-Quade asked if the Commission wanted to make an addendum to the Comp Plan at a later date would it be too difficult to do so? Walker stated he believed that Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 2 March 13, 1996 something like that would be prepared and sent to Council and they would make the choice whether to make an addendum to the Comp Plan. Walker added this is an ongoing process and thus addendum's may wait until the next Comp Plan is prepared. Mahurin stated she felt the Commission had spent a considerable amount of time going over the plan. The Commission had gone over each section. Mahurin stated she felt it looks nice and appreciated all the work that Kebschull and Werner-Quade put into the plan. Mahurin added she felt it was time to pass it and move it on to Council. Walker asked if Councilman Bannock had any comments on the draft Comp Plan. Bannock stated that tonight is the first night he has been able to preview it. Bannock stated he was particularly interested in the transportation plan chapter and speaking for himself is a little disappointed not seeing any stress point to change the Spur Road corridor zoning. And, noted he sees a tremendous amount of goal setting for pedestrian and bike path trails. Bannock noted that these are two items important to him. Walker asked Bannock to view 3F, paragraph A and E of the Land Use Plan, page 26. Bannock reiterated he had just seen the plan for the first time a few minutes ago. Bannock stated that looking at that paragraph, it is not too bad but a lot of debate could go into the words strategic locations as opposed to unstrategic locations. Bannock stated it was unfair for him to comment because he has not spent the hours on the document that the Commission has. Walker stated that if the resolution passes this evening that Bannock's concern could be addressed at Council. Walker stated that the items Bannock was discussing at not in the document. Walker noted that when the Commission addressed the items they did not support them. Bannock clarified what Walker was referring to and Walker stated the commercial use along the Spur Highway corridor. Bannock stated he was sorry to hear that. Walker stated he shares Bannock's concerns. VOTE: WERNER-QUADE YES GOECKE YES BOOTH YES MAHURIN YES BRYSON YES BRYSON YES WALKER YES MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUS. c. PZ96-15-Encroachment Permit-Lot 4, Block 1, Stock Subdivision CARL GLICK MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF PZ96-15 AND ENCROACHMENT PERMIT FOR LOT 4, BLOCK 1, STOCK SUBDIVISION. MOTION SECONDED BY TERESA WERNER-QUADE. Walker asked for additional staff comment. La Shot stated this home is located on James Street and it has a slight encroachment into the front yard setback. The side yards look fine. There have been no negative comments from anyone in the public. La Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 3 March 13, 1996 Shot noted the only comment is the one that is in the packet that is in favor of granting the encroachment. Walker opened the public hearing. Terry Mattison (170 Birch, Soldotna), of Freedom representing Pixie Smith, the seller. Ms. Mattison stated she is here to answer any questions and that the encroachment is six inches in the front. Booth asked the approximate age of the home questioning how long the encroachment had existed. Mattison responded since 1978. Item brought back to the Commission for discussion. Bryson went on record stating he would be abstaining due to the fact that his company has worked on aspects of the sale. VOTE: GOECKE YES MAHURIN YES BRYSON ABSTAIN WALKER YES BOOTH YES GLICK YES WERNER-QUADE YES MOTION PASSED. 7. NEW BUSINESS: 8. OLD BUSINESS: 9. CODE ENFORCEMENT ITEMS: 10. REPORTS: a. City Council Councilman Bannock stated there were a couple items on the agenda of particular interest. Bannock stated Council heard from two ladies, Vesta Leigh and Nancy Silverman, in regards to the City of Kenai's snow removal after the last big snow fall about two and a half weeks ago. Bannock noted there was interesting discussion about the use of gates on the snow plow, when they are usee, how they are used, why they are used, why they don't use them, etc. Bannock stated it was an enlightening discussion but very little came out of the hour that was spent on it other than the fact that depending upon who you talk to or who you listen to, if the gates will work, can work, can't work, won't work, why they will work, who's running them. Bannock stated it was an interesting topic. Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 4 March 13, 1996 Time was also spent talking about the proposed animal shelter. The Council heard from Mr. Godek the Animal Control Officer and Mr. Bill Kluge the architect looking for ways to pare the costs down. Council action taken was to proceed to make it a bid- ) ready document to see exactly what costs the city may be forced to look at. Bannock stated they know what the Public Works Department has estimated it at but there is serious opposition to those figures. The only way the city will know if they will be less than that is to put it out for bid so that is being prepared. Bannock reported it is time for the 96/97 budget sessions to begin taking place. The first one will be on March 27th at 7 p.m. at the Senior Citizen's Center. Bannock encouraged the Commission to attend the meeting. Bannock stated three meetings have been scheduled. Last, Bannock stated that in the next packet the Commission should be receiving a letter from City Attorney Cary Graves in regards to halfway houses within the city limits of Kenai. Bannock stated that several people have spoken with Mr. Graves in regards to making sure that there is no way a halfway house may be able to sneak into Kenai without Planning & Zoning knowing about it. Bannock stated the city has no intentions of ruling them out but the intention is to see that in any scenario, or in any zone, or in any place in Kenai there would have to be public notification. Bannock stated that it has been learned in the last few months that the State of Alaska, when contracting for their halfway houses, considers themselves to have no obligation for any sort of public hearings or anything like that. It is solely dependent upon the local government or municipality to take that upon themselves. Bannock stated that they want to ensure that there is no place within the city limits of Kenai that that could happen without it coming to the Planning & Zoning Commission first. So, information should be in the next packet and hopes that they will review the information. From there, it will go to City Council to change the code. b. Borough Planning Mr. Bryson reported there was a meeting on March 11th. This was a long meeting. The items under Public Hearings F-1 series were all street name changes. In most cases, the change was made to the name indicated. In some cases, that had been protested and the administration has modified those. Bryson stated that if anyone was interested in specific streets, he could look them up. In all cases, the staff recommendations were adopted. On Public Hearings, Item 2, an ordinance establishing areas for regulation of activities for Kenai River habitat protection and enacting land and use restrictions within those areas was a public hearing that took the bulk of the time. There were widely varying opinions addressed at that time. Bryson stated the next stage is the Borough Planning Commission has scheduled a work session which is open to the public in two weeks. Bryson stated that both plats were returned to the surveyors for redesign. Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 5 March 13, 1996 c. Administration La Shot stated that he would like to comment on the first Information Item. La Shot noted that tomorrow night there will be a public hearing at the Airport Commission meeting to introduce the Master Plan update process, the consultants that are involved, and the first working paper that has come out of the process. La Shot noted the Commissioners were invited to come; however, if they chose not to they will be seeing the plan further along in the process through public hearings. La Shot stated public hearings will be held at the Airport Commission, Planning & Zoning Commission, and City Council levels probably twice before it is finished. La Shot stated it will be about a year and a half or so before it is finished. La Shot stated at the next meeting staff hopes to have the Kenai Peninsula Borough land classification information in packets so it can be looked at. Hopefully, it would go from Planning & Zoning to City Council at their next meeting and then back to the Borough for their Planning Commission and then to the Borough Assembly to be adopted. Walker asked if that would be accompanied by a resolution. La Shot stated it would be and that he has asked the Borough to send over all of the legal descriptions for all the parcels. La Shot stated he has reviewed the parcels. A meeting was held with the Borough to discuss their classifications and how they fit in with the city's zoning. 11. PERSONS PRESENT NOT SCHEDULED: 12. INFORMATION ITEMS: a. Public Meeting Notice-Airport Master Plan (March 14, 1996 @ 7 p.m.) b. Kenai River Special Management Board Minutes of Feb. 13, 1996 c. Borough Planning Commission Action from Feb. 26, 1996 d. Memo to Cary Graves, City Attorney, regarding proposed single-family zone. 13. COMMISSION COMMENTS & QUESTIONS: Ms. Werner-Quade reported on the seminar she attended in Anchorage on Saturday held by the American Planning Association. This was a day long event with guest speakers. Werner-Quade stated she wanted to share some of the information with the Commission. They listened to a woman named Janet Kincaid who was a former commissioner and is currently an assembly member for the Matsu Borough. Matsu recently passed an ordinance fora 75 foot setback on all creeks, lakes, and rivers. Kincaid stated this has helped where there is shifting and erosion. Matsu plans quarterly meetings between Planning & Zoning and their Council and their Council must attend one month per year of Planning & Zoning meetings. The Matsu Borough Planning Director, John Duffy, cited an interesting case that began in 1990, The Lazy Mountain Decision. Essentially, they said that Matsu didn't have a Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 6 March 13, 1996 Comp Plan so they should be able to have a salvage yard. The end result is that everything must be in accordance with the Comp Plan. A salvage land fill operation applied for a conditional use permit and was denied. They appealed and lost. They 'i applied again and were denied again. They appealed on the basis that the ordinance was invalid due to the fact that there was no Comp Plan. Matsu did have a Comp Plan but it was dated from the early 70's. They couldn't remember if it was passed by resolution, ordinance, or what. It hadn't been updated. In 1995, they appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said that a valid Comprehensive Plan had to be in place and adopted by ordinance, not resolution, with a public hearing. Matsu won the case in the end after a five year battle and during this time the salvage yard was in operation. The point of the case scenario was that things need to be in place and to have been done properly. Duffy also touched on the matter of adult entertainment houses, etc. Werner-Quade noted she knows that the city doesn't have anything now but may have something in the future. The city can provide for that by adding an addendum to the Comp Plan. Essentially, a preamble needs to state that the Comp Plan is laid down to protect the public safety and health and welfare of the citizens. Werner-Quade continued stating it could say, "Whereas it has been shown that adult entertainment houses are not healthy, etc." Mr. Duffy has been asked to send a copy from their Comp Plan. Werner- Quade stated she felt it would be worthwhile for the Commission to look at something like that. An attorney spoke on ex-party contacts which is if any Commissioner is approached by a member of the general public and they want to discuss an encroachment, etc. Essentially, they need to be told to attend the public hearing and/or submit a letter to the city stating their position. If it happens anyway and you receive information, this is an ex-party contact. This can go to court. If you have an ex-party contact, you need to state up front before the next, meeting begins that you have had an ex-party contact and tell the rest of the group everything that went on and state that you believe that you can still make a fair decision, if that is the case. If not the case, state you don't think you can make a fair decision. Another ex-party contact occurs if a Commissioner goes out and looks at a site. The attorney also covered conflict of interest. In addition, he covered the open meetings act. Werner-Quade explained that he also talked about serial meetings and explained that would happen if she called another Commissioner and then called another which is a violation of the open meetings act. You can talk to three, but no more than three. That has changed in the last few years. Werner-Quade stated she had copied for the Commissioners information on takings. This is not new but is becoming more popular and involving more and more court cases. This can be very costly to the city. Basically, this is taking someone's properties. Werner-Quade stated she brought back an extra packet if anyone was interested in the information. Booth stated he had no comments except to advise he will be out of state at the next meeting. Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 7 March 13, 1996 Glick apologized for being late but ERA had mechanical problems. ~ Walker apologized for his absence last meeting advising he was ill. 14. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted: .. Maril n Kebschull Administrative Assistant Planning & Zoning Commission Minutes Page 8 March 13, 1996