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05-09-89 Planning BoardKALISPELL CITY -COUNTY PLANNING BOARD AND ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES OF MEETING MAY 9, 1989 CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Charles Manning, President, at AND ROLL CALL 7:02 p.m. Those present were Furlong, Robbins, Manning, Carothers, Sloan, and Hash. Hall and Stephens arrived a little later. Fraser was absent due to a sickness in the family. David Greer, Senior Planner, represented the Flathead Regional Development Office. APPROVAL OF MIN- Carothers moved to accept the minutes of the meeting held on April UTES APRIL 11, 11, 1989 as circulated.. Sloan seconded the motion and it passed 1989 unanimously. WALTERS/OLSON Manning introduced the request to evaluate a proposal to amend the ZONE CHANGE PRO- Official Zoning Map of the West Side Zoning District by changing the POSAL IN WEST zoning of a tract of land from Residential R-1 to Neighborhood SIDE ZONING Business B-1. DISTRICT Greer gave the staff report saying that the reason for this request is in response to a request made when the West Side Zoning District was created two years ago. Certain property owners in this area of South Meridian Road, at the time of the Commissioners approving the West Side Zoning District, requested that they would like to have a commercial zoning designation rather than the residential zoning designation that was proposed. At the time of the request, it was too late in the process to make a zoning designation change. The Commissioners agreed to look at a possible commercial zone after the West Side Zoning District was created. Greer pointed out the location of the property stating that the Master Plan calls for that area to be Urban Residential. The only commercial designation that will fit in with the Master Plan is a B-1 Neighborhood Business. Currently the property has been used for storage of christmas trees and bundling and shipping of christmas trees during the fall season and a single family house is also located on the property. Someone has purchased a tract of the land to put 'a duplex on. In staff review of the Neighborhood Business proposal, the majority of the findings turned up negative. Therefore, the conclusion is that it is inappropriate to establish a commercial hub at this location due to the curve, narrow road, and the general residential character of the area. The staff recommends that the area remain Residential R-1. Public Hearing Manning opened the public' hearing calling for proponents of the proposal to speak. There being none, he called for opponents to speak. Henrietta Ekland, Peder Waldum, Grace Waldum, Chuck Cook, Reed Sand, ---- Harold Peterson and Nick Venturini all expressed opposition to the proposed zone change. Peder Waldum read his letter into the record which stated that this zone change would be a problem, the area of South Meridian is primarily residential, homes and yards have recently been upgraded and property values would decrease, and there is not indication of what type of business will be located there. 1 There being no other comments, Manning closed the public hearing. Motion Furlong moved to deny the proposed requested zone change for the West Side Zoning District. Sloan seconded and the motion passed unanimously by the quorum present. Motion Carothers moved to adopt the Flathead Regional Development Office staff report as findings of fact. Robbins seconded and the motion passed unanimously by the quorum present. KALISPELL SITE Manning asked Clete Daily to give a progress report of the Kalispell ACCESS PLAN PRO- Site Access Plan. GRESS REPORT Clete Daily stated that many of his figures are still in their preliminary stages since he is in the middle of trying to finish the access analysis on Flathead Valley Community College so that they can get their access permit. Mr. Daily showed a base map that they are working with which will plot all of the land use in the area and show traffic patterns for the same area. The land use inventory has been completed and his chart showed that there are 552 single family homes and 338 apartments for a total of 880 units of residential use. There is 33,500 square feet of commercial use, 155,200 square feet of offices which includes medical offices, 114 beds in hospitals, 14,000 square feet for recreational purposes, and 14,500 square feet of church use. His chart for accidents in the area under study showed that between 1986-88 there were a total of 53 accidents of which 51% occurred in 1988. He felt that the increase in 1988 was due to the stop light at West Reserve. The accident ratios were Summer 18%, Fall 22%, Winter 42%, Spring 17%, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 89%, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. 11%, weekday 85% and weekend 15%. The types of accidents are angle 25%, turn 40%, rear end 32%, and other 3%. Of all the accidents, 25% had injury and 75% had damage. He said that one of his goals is to look at ways to reduce the accidents at locations along the area of study. He had some traffic projections for Highway 93 North which will be the result of locating the college on Grandview Drive. Since the Highway Department will be letting contracts for the widening of Highway 93 North in 1992 his traffic projections have been done for a 20 year period to the year 2012. When the community college opens in 1989, there should be 3,500 vehicle trips per day. In 2012 the traffic volume should be 6,325 per day. Peak hours will be 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. with 300 cars at the Grandview intersection. He showed by his study that 74% of the traffic will be coming from Kalispell to the college, 11% will be from the east, and 15% will be from the north and west. He expects the traffic to at least double from 1989 to 2012. He feels that probably the answer will be to have a traffic signal at Grandview Drive. There are already three other signals recommended by the study that the highway department did. Those three signals are at Conway Drive, Sunnyview Drive, and Meridian Road. 2 Stephens pointed out that these preliminary figures do stress the need for another access from the east particularly for getting to the Community College. This will increase the need to extend Grandview Drive to West Evergreen Drive. Furlong asked if Clete Daily knew what the traffic loads are at the three intersections that the Highway Department has designated a need for traffic signals? Mr. Daily indicated the individual traffic demands for each intersection based on the previous U.S. 93 Traffic Study. Furlong wondered why the need for traffic signals at both Sunnyview and Conway Drive? Clete Daily said that the reason is for traffic regulation. This would be able to create gaps in the traffic since there are about 10,600 average daily vehicles north of Grandview and 14,000 south of Conway Drive. Manning asked if there was a timeline for the installation of those three traffic signals? Clete Daily could not remember exactly but he thought it was about three years. Carothers asked about adoption of the traffic study. Clete Daily stated that when the TAC adopts the traffic study results, there will be a schedule of improvements for the Highway Department to follow. Stephens added that these preliminary figures also point out the need for the truck by-pass. n Manning thanked Clete Daily for his excellent report. MERIDIAN ADDITION Manning asked Greer for his report on the Meridian Addition zoning. ZONING Greer gave an information report saying that the Meridian Addition was not given a zone when the City redid their zoning ordinance in 1987. Greer stated that Glen Neier, city attorney, feels that the Meridian Addition is zoned. He stated that the Meridian Addition has long been a problem. It was originally created as a residential plat. Back in the years when the Board of Adjustment gave Use Variances, property owners in this area asked for those variances and they were granted. This created the problem of having such a mix of uses. If the Board chooses to address this issue, it will be a board initiated process. He stated that letters were sent to each property owner in Meridian Addition and the immediate adjacent landowners. In 1984, when the Board tried to zone the Meridian Addition, the residents of the Storms Addition were opposed to business and industrial zoning because of their residential neighborhood. Because of this they were included in the mailing this time. Greer gave the results of the responses from the property owners. He stated that one property owner, who owns a number of tracts in Meridian Addition, wanted to be zoned I-1. Two property owners in Meridian Addition requested residential zoning, Charlene O'Neil suggested that the property on the south side be zoned B-5 and the property on the north side be zoned I-1, and four people from the adjacent area wanted a residential zoning for Meridian Addition. Larry Hanchett did not write but he was into the Flathead Regional Development Office and 9 said that he is looking for a new location for Consolidated Electric since the zoning in Meridian Addition is so uncertain. Greer concluded that, no matter what the zoning designation was to be, someone would not be happy. Stephens agreed that the issuance of the Use Variances created a monster and most of the same people still own the property in that area. Manning asked why Glen Neier still felt that the area is zoned? Greer stated that at one time there was a zoning designation placed on it in a much older zoning map and ordinance. Greer stated that Neier feels that since Meridian Addition has failed to be designated in recent maps means that the old designation still stands, which is residential. Greer pointed out though that everybody in the area wants some sort of zone. Sloan stated that her inclination is to zone it residential because it is not fair to those landowners to have this uncertainty and it seems that the majority of the area would wish for residential. Furlong stated that when he first moved here years ago, Forest Products was the only thing there. Then the vacant land between Meridian Road and Forest Products became estate type residential. Finally it was platted as residential and then the use variances were granted. He added that he did not know what the answer is but not there are some changing factors. The BN railroad may abandon the track bed and a truck route by-pass is being discussed for that area. The question then is where is the dumping from the truck by-pass going to be. It has been suggested that this north end of Meridian Road could be the dumping area for the by-pass traffic. At the same time, the conditions which exist now have been existing for years from the preceding years of error. He added that most of the industrial uses there have existing for at least 40 years and Forest Products much longer. Hall felt that it should all be zoned residential since the industrial uses would be grandfathered. He said there are still many vacant lots in the vicinity and those then could be developed as residential. He added there there are generally three property owners who are conducting industrial uses on their properties. The rest is either vacant or residential. Greer stated that there is really a need to address this issue because there have been people calling wanting to know what is allowed there and a realtor has called requesting that something be done because they cannot sell property in that area. Hash agreed that the landowners need to know where they stand. Greer stated that this dilemma in Meridian Addition is the reason why the new zoning ordinance has an expanded non -conforming section which allows for the change in use of non -conforming property as long as it does not impact the area to any greater degree than the previous non- 4 U (J conforming use. Manning elaborated on the rationale for the amendment to the non -conforming section of the ordinance. Furlong stated that if a recommendation is presented to the City Council they will have to act on it in some fashion. Greer pointed out that, if the Meridian Addition is under an older zoning ordinance, the flexibility of the non -conforming use section would not exist as it does under the current zoning ordinance. Motion Sloan moved to review the Meridian Addition for possible zoning and to conduct a public hearing and send a recommendation to the City Council. Hash seconded the motion and it passed unanimously by the quorum present. OLD BUSINESS Greer updated the Board on the status of the annexation and zoning of the wholly surrounded lands. The City Council will be holding a public hearing on the annexation and zoning proposals at their next city council meeting May 15. NEW BUSINESS There was discussion as to having a summer time schedule for the Board. Motion Sloan moved to set the Board meetings at 5:30 p.m. for the months of June, July and August. Stephens seconded the motion and it passed unanimously by the quorum present. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was declared adjourned at 8:21 p.m. Charles Manni Approved : 6/1_7/�7 Ava Walters, Recording Secretary 5