CITY OF SOUTH JORDAN
PLANNING COMISSION MEETING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
May 11, 2010
Present: Chairman David Wood, Commissioner Linda Auger, Commissioner Clark Mabey, Commissioner Paul Pugmire, Community Development Director George Shaw, City Planner Greg Schindler, Deputy City Engineer Jeremy Nielson, Assistant City Attorney Ryan Loose, Deputy City Recorder Cindy Valdez.
Absent: Commissioner Beverly Evans
Others: Ann Garyheart, Brad Garyheart, Holly Fjeldsted , Annette Mabey, Ty Mccuthen, Rulon Dutson
6:30 P.M.
REGULAR MEETING
I. GENERAL BUSINESS
A. Welcome and Roll Call
Chairman David Wood opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present. He noted that Commissioner Beverly Evans is absent.
B. Motion to Approve Agenda
Commissioner Clark Mabey made a motion to approve the May 11, 2010 Amended Planning Commission Agenda. Commissioner Paul Pugmire seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously in favor, with Commissioner Beverly Evans absent.
C. Approval of the Minutes from the Meeting held on April 27, 2010
Commissioner Paul Pugmire made a motion to approve the April 27, 2010 meeting minutes with corrections. Commissioner Linda Auger seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously in favor, with Commissioner Beverly Evans absent.
II. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND OTHER BUSINESS
A. CALENDARING ITEMS
Community Development Director George Shaw gave an update on the General Plan. Planning Commission had their Public Hearing on April 13, 2010, a motion was made that night and forwarded to the City Council. The Public Hearing was noticed and held on May 4, 2010. They did not take any action that night, they just took public comments. Many of the same people that attended the Planning Commission Meeting also attended the City Council Meeting. They gave input on changes, particularly to the General Plan future land use map. There was an additional area presented that you did not see at the Planning Commission stage; it is on 4000 W South of 11400 and West of Bangerter Highway. Property Reserve Inc. owns some of that property and they are proposing some changes to what we did in the steering committee. The City Council postponed any action on the General Plan adoption until June 1, 2010. That will be when they actually discuss all the changes that the Planning Commission has recommended, and they will also be looking at this property west of Bangerter Highway. We also found some additional changes that we need to make on the land use map in regards to open space. I also wanted to say: “thank you for all your hard work in getting the General Plan to this stage”.
Chairman David Wood asked Mr. Shaw, at this point is there any roll for the Planning Commission as you go forward?
Community Development Director George Shaw said not really, but you are welcome to attend the meeting on June 1, 2010 with the City Council. They will be taking each of your 4 motions and deciding which ones they want to precede with. They did close the Public Hearing, although if the public does show up with any other input, they could open it back up again. We are hoping to schedule another General Plan meeting in late June, July or possibly August to talk about how to implement this. It is going to be tough to schedule a date because it is summer time, so you might be thinking about some dates that you would be available so we can get this scheduled.
Chairman David Wood welcomed Scout Troop 1040 to tonight’s meeting and asked them to introduce themselves.
B. COMMENTS FROM PLANNING COMMISSION MEMBERS
None
C. STAFF BUSINESS.
None
D. NEW BUSINESS
None
III. CITIZEN COMMENT
None
IV. PUBLIC HEARINGS AND POTENTIAL **ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION ITEMS
**Administrative Action = Less Discretion, Substantial Evidence (Objective Standard)
A.1. File #AP-2010.04, Appeal of a Denial of a home occupation business license application for a preschool, located at 3259 Chateau View Circle, Holly Fjeldsted (applicant).
City Planner Greg Schindler reviewed background information on this item. He also stated, there was another objection letter that was added with the Amended Agenda, and a copy was given to everyone including the City Recorder.
Commissioner Paul Pugmire said that on condition #1 in the staff report it says: The preschool customers are to have a curbside pick-up and drop-off for the children with backing to be eliminated or kept at a minimum for safety reasons. I would like to know how that would be enforced.
City Planner Greg Schindler said the only backing that would be allowed, is if they have a car parked in front of them, and a car also parked in back of them, and that is the only way they can get out.
Holly Fjeldsted, 3259 Chateau View Circle, South Jordan, Utah – said I would like to do a revision to the time schedule. I would like to change the Monday – Wednesday class to 9:30 to 12:30 and a Tuesday-Thursday class to 9:30 to 11:30. I would also like to say that I am a mom of four daughters, one of which is preschool age. As I searched around for a neighboring preschool, the two in our area were full and had long waiting lists. A couple of my neighbors found that they had the same problem. As a former teacher, I felt that this would be a good solution for our neighborhood. I am aware of the concerns, and as a result of the concerns, I have adjusted my original plan of doing morning and afternoon classes twice a week, and revised it to just morning classes when the likelihood of other children being out would be less. I have also withdrawn my conditional use permit for having 12 kids a day with the two classes per day, to having only morning classes with 6 kids per day. I have plans to have parking procedures stating; the parent’s will need to wait with the children until I greet them and take them into my home. When the children are being picked up, I will stay with the children until each parent has picked up their child. I will inform the parents of the parking procedures, and I will do everything I can to ensure the safety of the neighborhood children as well as the preschool children.
Commissioner Paul Pugmire asked Ms. Fjeldsted if she intends to or already has a written drop off pick up plan.
Mr. Fjeldsted said I intend to have one, and I am working on it.
Chairman David Wood opened the Public Hearing to comments.
Melissa Stout, 3248 Chateau View Circle, South Jordan, Utah - said I am also a mother of four young children age 8, 5, 4 and 1. When we decided to move to South Jordan, we found this house that has maybe 15ft in the backyard. But it was in a private cul-de-sac, it would be a fun place for our boys to play, and a safe place for our boys to play, and there is not a lot of traffic in our cul-de-sac. When I learned of Holly wanting to do a preschool, she asked if there were any concerns of the neighbors. I told her that our concern would be traffic issues, of course with four young boys that were outside with their bikes and scooters. There are now 20 children under the age of 9 in our cul-de-sac. One lady has grandchildren that come over on a regular basis, and still children to be born. I have a concern because Holly already runs a business out of her home. She is a demonstrator for Stamp it up and does home parties, so traffic is already an issue. It was brought to my attention from one of the other neighbors, that for one child, they will come in the cul-de-sac to be dropped off and back out and that will be the same case when they are picked up. If she has 6 children in her preschool that will be 24 times cars will be going in and out of our cul-de-sac. Had I known there would be a business in our cul-de-sac, I would have picked a home with a bigger back yard, so my children would not have to play in the front of the house. All of these children go to a year round school, so there will always be children in the cul-de-sac year round.
Chairman David Wood closed the Public Hearing.
Chairman David Wood asked Ms. Fjeldsted if she would come to the podium and address the concerns that were raised by Ms. Stout regarding a business already being run out of your home, and the issue regarding the safety of the children.
Ms. Fjeldsted said I am a demonstrator for “Stamp em up” which means that I could go into someone’s home and sell stamp products. This is a hobby for me, by being a demonstrator I get a discount by purchasing stuff for myself. I did hold two classes the latter part of last year in November and December. I did not get a good response, so I figured there was no interest. I have not pursued it anymore, except to buy stuff for my personal use. Regarding the issue of the safety of the children, I cannot be two places at one time, but I would also hope that the parents in the circle with their children are watching the cars that are coming in to prevent something from happening.
Commissioner Clark Mabey said on the next street over in my neighborhood there is a preschool. I never perceived that there were any traffic issues, as a matter a fact when my children were younger they attended that preschool. But yesterday I happened to be walking by the preschool as it let out. I watched six cars juggle for position, they got in a row and blocked two driveways, a child ran from a house between two cars and into a street, while a parent had to grab them. I could not believe what I saw. I have enjoyed having a preschool in our neighborhood, and I don’t think there have been any issues, and even though I encourage and like local preschools. If I lived here I would be concerned as well. I think we need to have some discussion on this before we approve it.
Commissioner Linda Auger said I happened to know because of my daytime job, that South Jordan has a great need for preschools and daycares. When people cannot take their children to a local preschool or daycare, they will take their business elsewhere. Therefore, when they are picking their children up in another city, they are spending their sales tax dollars in surrounding cities such as West Jordan, Riverton, Herriman, Sandy and Draper. I know this for a fact because I license those areas as well. One of my concerns about the City is if we do not approve this appeal, are we sending business and potential additional business at the grocery stores, restaurants, and car repair shops to other Cities. Some of these parents that are coming at 9:30 in the morning to drop their children could have two children from the same family in the car, or maybe two of the children may live next door or down the street and can walk to the preschool. I live in a planned urban development and our speed limit is 12 mph. We have bigger problems with the Pie Pizzeria and some the other restaurants delivering food and speeding up and down our streets. I can understand the neighbors concerns; my concern and focus is for children, their well being and safety. But kids are going to run in the streets. The responsibility of the supervision of the children is not only by the preschool teacher, but also by the parents. Correct me if I am wrong, but if there are complaints, do we send code enforcement out to investigate, and if they are in violation can they pull their business license?
City Planner Greg Schindler said yes, you can do that. A few years ago we had a dance studio over in Jones Meadows that was having a similar problem with traffic because of the drop off and pick up situation. The Planning Commission approved it for one year with a review to be done at the end of that year. There were also notices sent out again to see if any complaints came in. At that time the applicant followed all the procedures and there were no complaints, so they were approved to continue on with the business. You could do something like that, or wait and see if there are any complaints and let code enforcement deal with it.
Assistant Attorney Ryan Loose said I had some concerns when I saw this come through the first time and I did express that to Damir. This is not a conditional use permit. It is not like you are identifying detrimental effects and putting mitigating factors. The traffic suggestion should come from something supportable by the City Engineer. If that is his opinion and it is reflected through Damir, I think we could defend it legally, and revoke the license later on.
City Engineer Jeremy Nielson said when we looked at this situation regarding the traffic, on the average a house will generate 10 trips a day. In this cul-de-sac once it is built out, there will be 9 homes, so that is 90 trips a day on an average. This business will generate 24 trips, so it is adding on about 30% on to the trips in the cul-de-sac. The times she is proposing are off peak hours, so strictly from a traffic perspective we were not concerned.
Commissioner Clark Mabey asked City Engineer Jeremy Nielson if signage has proven to be effective.
City Engineer Jeremy Nielson said it can be effective, especially the ones that show the speed you are traveling, but they are very expensive.
Commissioner Linda Evans said I think we should bring the applicant back to the podium and see how she feels if we were to add some restrictions such as: The traffic plan, staggering and the drop off and pick up.
Ms. Fjeldsted said as parent’s park on the circle, there isn’t any reason that a child should have to cross into the street if they stay on the sidewalk. I was already making it a requirement on my traffic plan for children to only use the sidewalk. I am also fine with you adding a yearly review of my business license.
A.2. Potential Action Item – (See IV. A.1)
Commissioner Paul Pumgmire motioned to approve File # AP-2010.04, Appeal of a denial of a Home Occupation Business License Application for a Preschool located at 3259 Chateau View Circle with the following requirements: The applicant submit a written traffic plan that meets with the approval of the City Engineer, and in one year at the renewal of the business license, if there are any complaints or objections, the renewal will need to come back before the Planning Commission. Commissioner Clark Mabey seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote was unanimous in favor, with Commissioner Beverly Evans absent.
V. PUBLIC HEARINGS AND POTENTIAL *LEGISLATIVE ACTION ITEMS
*Legislative Action = More Discretion, Reasonably Debatable (Subjective Standard)
B.1. Ordinance No. 2010-07, Assignment of the Board of Adjustment/ Board of Appeals/ Land Use Appeal Authority duties for Title 17, Land Use Ordinance, to the City Council.
Assistant Attorney Ryan Loose reviewed background information on this item.
Commissioner Linda Auger said I may have misunderstood this, so I would like some clarification. At the Board of Adjustments when they call a hearing, the person who requested the variance will be there, and the person, or group that denied it would be there also, is that correct?
Assistant Attorney Ryan Loose said it is not the City Council that denies it. It is usually Community Development Director George Shaw or Planner Greg Schindler that would be denying it. This would be a situation where if someone wants to come in and build a garage, and for some reason or another they cannot build the garage in the area they want to. Let’s say they have an odd shaped lot, or there is a grade change, so then they think they should get a variance from the ordinance. Or say some people just don’t agree with the way George reads the ordinance, and before they go to District Court they appeal the City Council who is the body that passed the ordinance. That is why it makes sense to give the City Council the last choice of agreeing with George’s interpretation, or agreeing with the applicant. That way City Council can make the decision, and then if it goes to District Court, the people who passed the ordinance get to weigh in on it. That is what used to go to the Board of Adjustments.
Chairman David Wood asked if the new text is pretty much the text that we have written, or have we taken text from the State.
Assistant Attorney Ryan Loose said it is a little of both. I imagine the very first draft that we were changing it from was probably a copy of another city at some time. Brian Preece and I are the ones that have drafted this, and the variance language is straight out of State Law. I would rather just adopt theirs than to try and put it in our own words. There is some stuff like the way we changed the hearing language; we put that in there just to clarify because a lot of people felt there was a right to a Public Hearing, so because it was not clear we added that.
Chairman David Wood opened the Public Hearing to comments. There were none. He closed the Public Hearing.
Commissioner Paul Pugmire said I actually have a lot of experience on this issue and I think it is a mess to seat an elected legislative body in a quasi judicial function. I think it raises real troubling constitutional questions with the petition clause of the first amendment. With that being said, this is a mess that was created by the legislature. Within our reach the City Council wishes to take this mess on itself, I think we should support this, and I will vote for the City Council to have this all to their own.
B.2. Potential Action Item – (See V. B.1.)
Commissioner Clark Mabey motioned to propose a favorable recommendation to City Council to adopt ordinance 2010-07. Commissioner Linda Auger seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote was unanimous in favor. Commissioner Beverly Evans was absent from the vote.
VI. OTHER BUSINESS
Daybreak presentation, by Kennecott Land
ADJOURNMENT
Commissioner Linda Auger made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Paul Pugmire seconded the motion. Vote was unanimous in favor, with Commissioner Beverly Evans absent.
The May 11, 2010 Planning Commission meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Meeting minutes were prepared by Deputy City Recorder Cindy Valdez.
This is a true and correct copy of the May 11, 2010 Planning Commission meeting minutes, which were approved on May 25, 2010.
South Jordan City Recorder