09-18-14 Site Review MinutesSITE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW COMMITTEE SUMMARY
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Lower Level Conference Room
201 First Avenue East
ATTENDING:
Dave Dedman, Fire Chief Tom Jentz, Planning & Building Director
Kevin LeClair, Senior Planner Aaron McConkey, Project Manager
Rick Parker, Bldg. Dept. Inspector Wade Rademacher, Police Captain
P.J. Sorensen, Chairman Kathy Nelson, Recording Secretary
GUESTS: James Freyholtz (Montana Department of Transportation); Scott Emmert (Smart
Insurance); and Jim Woodruff (Gateway West Mall).
HEAR THE PUBLIC: None.
PERFORMANCE BOND REMINDERS: None.
OLD BUSINESS:
Dog Day Care — in the old National Llama Registry at I I1/2 South Meridian. Administrative CUP to
change existing structure to dog day care. The notice for public comment has been posted. The
parking lot is presently unpaved, and they have agreed to pave the front area to provide five parking
spaces that include a van accessible space. They will be providing more details on this. There is
existing sidewalk in the front. They will bond for the paving, which will probably take place next July
or August, 2015. This will be on the agenda for next week.
Smart Insurance Building — across from Woodland Park. They are looking at doing an addition
onto an existing building on a 2,000+ sq. ft. site. They plan to keep the access open onto College
Avenue to allow one-way traffic and have angled three parking spaces. They have also added in some
sidewalks. The property corner is out in the asphalt of the street, so the five foot sidewalk will start
entirely on their private property and then gradually goes into the public right-of-way toward the
west. There is a three-foot landscape buffer between the public sidewalk and their parking area.
There may be a need for an easement, as half of the sidewalk is on the property, and half of it is in the
ROW. They have also added some pinned -down curbs. Emmert asked if they could leave the asphalt
along the east side for this year for parking. Long term they will extend the landscaping down that
side. Marquardt moved the boundary line and filed it with the County Plat Room. This will be
discussed at a meeting on Friday for approval. Kevin sent over the City's Subdivision Exemption
Form this morning, so the City has approved it. They meet the minimum lot size, coming in at 7,450.
There are no fire issues. Parks is working with them on their landscaping. They have agreed to 3' x
3'x 3' sized boulders. The fire hydrant at this site needs to be replaced. It will need to be done
before the new sidewalk goes in. This change out is on the City's schedule this fall. McConkey stated
that Crowley and Haskins wanted it noted that the sidewalks do not fully meet the intent of what
Public Works Standards are, but it seems to comply with nexus/proportionality rules that were
discussed. This is conditionally approved with Public Works comments and pending Parks sign -off.
NEW BUSINESS:
Dress Barn — We received plans for the last two mid -sized anchors by Cabela's for the Dress Barn
and another building that for now will be an empty shell that are going in Spring Prairie, Phase III.
They will need to go through Site Review to be sure it plugs in with the previously approved plan.
PLANNING OFFICE ITEMS: Public Hearing on October 14th
Captain's Marine — PUD. They are looking at the whole tract of land. We sent out a
comment letter on Friday and expect to hopefully hear back from them this week. Jentz noted
that we had done a proposal just to give them PUD approval for the front third. That would
have gotten them into construction right away. They wanted approval for the entire tract of
land. We will need more information from their end to really tell us what they are going to
do, because the sketches they provided were not complete enough for us to review.
Flathead High School Residential Parking District — We are going to come up with a
couple of solutions, layout some pros and cons, and submit this to the Planning Board for the
Public Hearing.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Financial Drive — The Gateway West Mall owners want to close Financial Drive. Jentz stated that
this street was discussed at a City Council meeting approximately ten years ago, and it was noted at
that time that we don't have a right-of-way across the parking lot, so we cannot declare this as a
public access. The City no longer has ownership of the mall facility, and does not provide assistance
to maintain this private lot. Fire and Police are okay with this being closed. Discussion was held, and
the consensus of the committee was to allow them to close it. Jentz will check with City Attorney
Charlie Harball regarding this issue.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:35 a.m.