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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 12-12-2007 1 PLANNING & ZONING BOARD MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 12, 2007 I A Regular Meeting of the Planning & Zoning Board was held on December 12, 2007 at the City Hall Annex, 111 Polk Avenue, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Chairperson Bea McNeely called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. The Secretary called the roll. MEMBERS PRESENT Bea McNeely Chairperson Lamar Russell Vice Chairperson John Fredrickson Donald Dunn Harry Pearson John Johanson 1st Alternate MEMBERS ABSENT Ronald Friedman 2nd Alternate OTHERS PRESENT Robert Hoog Mayor Pro Tern Shannon Roberts Council Member Kate Latorre Assistant City Attorney Todd Morley Building Official Todd Peetz City Planner Susan Chapman Board Secretary NEW BUSINESS 1. Approval of Meeting Minutes: November 28, 2007. Motion by Lamar Russell, seconded by Bea McNeely, to approve the meeting minutes of November 28, 2007. Vote on the motion carried unanimously. 2. Presentation & Discussion Re: Sheldon Cove Plaza Project Concept — Arthur Berger, Presenter. At the request of City Council, Bill Mays, General Partner, Sheldon Cove, LLP, gave a power-point presentation of a proposed Sheldon Cove Plaza project that he was very interested in pursuing. He advised that the project would be located at the Northeast corner of the intersection of Astronaut and Central Boulevards, and the project cost would be approximately $30 million. 1 I 1 Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2007 Page 2 1 Mr. Mays advised that the project would encompass a 200,000 sq. ft. building and would be a 21st Century architectural design. It will have 40,000 sq. ft. of upscale retail and professional services space, and 160,000 sq. ft. of executive offices. He explained that the project would provide a place for residents to shop and dine; and provide a place for legal, medical, and business professionals to conduct business, while providing needed services to residents. He noted that the project would create approximately 1,272 new jobs, with an average annual salary of $72,303. Direct financial benefits to the City would include: annual tax revenues, impact fees to support City operations, business licensing fees, and 1 increased property values. The Board members reviewed various schematic drawings of the proposed plaza. Mr. Mays advised that the plaza would require an increase to the current height restriction for commercial buildings. He explained that in order to meet current building codes and needs of the tenants; the proposed structure would be five stories, with a building height of 65 ft. The current restrictions did not allow construction of structures over 45 ft. He asked if the City desired a building with beautiful and creative architecture, as shown in the presentation, or a 45 ft. box shaped building. He voiced his opinion that the location of the plaza would not create any dramatic change of view for residents, nor directly affect any residential neighborhood, because it would be completely surrounded by commercial property. Mr. Mays concluded his presentation. The Board members held discussion. Chairperson, Bea McNeely, questioned what the traffic impact would be? Arthur Berger, Sheldon Cove representative, answered that a traffic study was performed when the 8810 Astronaut Boulevard building was constructed, and the traffic impact was less that a 1% increase. City Planner, Todd Peetz, advised that this new project would create a lot of peak hour trips, because of the types of uses. Mr. Berber responded that another traffic study would need to be done if this new project was approved. Mr. Peetz suggested that a traffic study be performed, as soon as possible. Donald Dunn questioned how the South bound traffic would enter the project? Mr. Berger responded that there was a turn lane on Central Boulevard. Harry Pearson requested that Sheldon Cove create a Citizen Awareness and Participation Plan (CAPP) and have meetings for public input regarding the proposed project. Mr. Mays advised that he would like the citizens to know what they were proposing, and welcomed their input and suggestions. He added that he would definitely be interested in public communications throughout the entire project. Council Member, Shannon Roberts, stated for the record, that a community survey was a City supported survey, and the City had received statistically significant feedback from the survey regarding the residents' wants and needs. C Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2007 Page 3 Vice Chairperson, Lamar Russell, advised that on December 12, 2007, the City Council asked the Planning & Zoning Board to evaluate and make recommendations to the City Council regarding this concept. Mr. Russell commented that traffic was a large concern. Although this project was not going to significantly impact the existing traffic, because the project would be located at the North end of the City's main corridor; therefore, the traffic from this project should not impact the rest of the City. Mr. Russell questioned if the City wanted to continue restricting commercial building height to 45 ft., which looks like a big square box; or consider increasing the height? He also questioned how the City could allow what was being requested? Mr. Russell questioned how the Board could study and recommend a 65 ft. height limit? He advised that the existing process would require a zoning amendment. Mr. Russell outlined the following options to increase height: Option #1 Sheldon Cove, LLP could request a zoning amendment. (Which he noted would be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board.) Option #2 The Planning & Zoning Board could recommend a zoning amendment to the City Council to allow 65 ft. height for this one project. Option #3 The Planning & Zoning Board could recommend 65 ft. height for defined lot depths along A1A. Option #4 The Planning & Zoning Board could incorporate 65 ft. height allowance into the Mixed Use Development (MUD) consideration. In which, the City Council could approve specific MUD sites, with recommendation from the Planning & Zoning Board. Mr. Russell commented that the proposed project was worthy of serious consideration, because it was a good project that would support today's market. He asked that Board members to be opened minded in considering this concept. He noted that Sheldon Cove was the first to consider this concept, and their project could be a forerunner for future commercial projects. He recommended that mixed-use developments be considered on a site-by-site basis. Mr. Mays confirmed that residential was not a consideration for this project. e Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2008 Page 4 Discussion was held regarding height limit. Mr. Dunn advised that he saw a problem with South bound traffic, and a problem with increasing the height to 65 ft. He suggested that the City consider increasing the height limitation to 100 ft. Ms. McNeely commented that the voters previously made it clear that changing the rules for one development was not fair; other requests to increase height had been turned-down; the 45 ft. height limit was based on a referendum, and past history. Mr. Johanson advised that the referendum was done in the 1970's (34 years ago). Ms. McNeely rebutted that the City has held the line for so long, and questioned why the City was now considering increasing the 45 ft. height limitation for this one project. Mr. Johanson suggested that the Board members be opened minded. He added that this idea was part of the planning duties of the Board. Mr. Russell agreed with Ms. McNeely, that the City has defended the line, which got the City to where it is today. He commented that Cape Canaveral is a community of choice, and now it was time for change, on a case by case basis, and the City would still be able to control the overall height. Mr. Pearson advised that the CAPP would answer what the citizens want. Chairperson McNeely announced that due to the time and lengthy agenda, the Board would continue this discussion at another meeting. The Board made no recommendation to the City Council. 3. Discussion Re: Creating a Zoning Matrix— Todd Peetz, City Planner. Todd Peetz, City Planner, explained that a zoning matrix had been suggested as part of the Land Development Code review. He advised that the proposed zoning matrix had been updated t90 reflect the comments from the November 28, 2007 Planning & Zoning Board meeting. The Board members reviewed the updated matrix. Todd Morley, Building Official., stated that he supported approval of the matrix; and commented that it should have been created a long time ago. Kate Latorre, Assistant City Attorney, questioned if the matrix was going to be part of the City code. Lamar Russell suggested that the matrix be used as a tool for the Building department staff and the public. Bea McNeely suggested that the matrix be named "Summary Zoning Code Matrix." Discussion followed regarding setbacks. Todd Peetz advised that he would update the matrix, based on the Board's discussion, and bring the matrix back to the Board for recommended approval. Motion by Bea McNeely, seconded by Donald Dunn, to continue this agenda item at the next meeting. Vote on the motion carried unanimously. Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2007 Page 5 Lamar Russell suggested that the order of agenda, items #4 and #5, be switched. Bea McNeely polled the Board members. All the Board members agreed to move the order of the agenda items. 4. Review and Recommendation to City Council Re: Consideration of a Citizen Awareness and Participation Plan (CAPP) Process — Todd Peetz, City Planner. Todd Peetz, City Planner, advised that residents had made comments during some of the recent City Council and Planning & Zoning Board meetings, regarding the developer of Sheldon Cove not discussing the proposed project with them. He explained that there was no requirement to have community meetings with residents or neighboring property owners with developers. He stated that the creation of the CAPP process would have the developer meet with residents to discuss and resolve community issues, before bringing the project to public hearings. He noted that at the November 28, 2007 Planning & Zoning Board meeting, the Board members expressed interest as to how the CAPP would be implemented. He advised that the Board did not want to add time and cost to the City, or an impediment to a developer. The Board members reviewed the City of Winter Springs CAPP Handbook. Discussion followed. The Board members questioned if there would be associated costs to the developer; would there be City expenses; how should the City encourage early and effective citizen participation; notification requirements; project delays; and encouraging, not requiring, a formal report from the developer; if the CAPP was already implemented, would the tank farm issues be resolved; should Sheldon Cove have participation with the entire City; should the citizens be approached; how much time would be involved with the City staff and the Board; and should the CAPP apply to a single family development? Bill Mays, developer, advised that the City was made up of a lot of renters, not just property owners. Dawn Mays advised that they would like the opportunity to come back to the City with ideas of how to communicate with the public and present viable statistics. Discussion followed. Motion by Bea McNeely, seconded by Donald Dunn, to table this agenda item until Mr. Mays comes back with ideas to implement the CAPP. Discussion followed. Mr. Mays advised that he should have some information by the January 9th, 2008 meeting. Vote on the motion carried unanimously. S Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2007 Page 6 5. Discussion Re: Creating an Open Space Provision — Todd Peetz, City Planner. Todd Peetz, City Planner, advised that at recent City workshops and City Council meetings, the topic of open space had come up. He explained that there were concerns regarding not enough open space being required. He further explained that generally, open space for an individual lot was provided through setbacks and necessary drainage areas. He advised that setbacks are used for parking; drainage; and in some cases can be located underground; or in small townhouse projects, the drainage could be located at one end of the property or the other. He advised that the Board packet included information pertaining to how open space is provided for in other communities. He noted that open space is often required in Planned Unit Developments (PUD), just like in the City's Residential Planned Unit Development Code Section 110-438. He noted that at the November 28, 2007 Planning & Zoning Board meeting, it was requested that staff similarly situated cities. He advised that the Board y packet contained those definitions. He highlighted the various cities definitions of open space; and noted that Cape Canaveral would be the first city to have green space defined in their code. Bea McNeely commented that she would like to see more vegetative open space. Mr. Peetz suggested that the City include vegetation with open space. He noted that the current City code did not require any open space. He noted that up to 50% of property could be used for ponding in some of the other cities codes; and that 30% of open space seemed viable for both residential and commercial. He advised that the City may want to establish a minimum lot size before requiring green space. He stated that in his opinion open space was the same as green space. He advised that open space would need to be defined and then the Board would need to figure out how it should be applied. He stated that the way t6o get more open space/green space was for the City to increase minimum lot sizes. Due to the time, Chairperson McNeely polled the Board members to continue discussion at another meeting. All the Board members agreed. 6. Discussion Re: Verification of Minimum 5 Acres for Hotel Sites — Residence Inn and Country Inn & Suites —Todd Peetz, City Planner. I'. 0 Planning & Zoning Board Meeting Minutes December 12, 2007 Page 7 Todd Peetz, City Planner, advised that the existing hotel sites in question met the minimum five acres requirement, with the Residence Inn site having 6.23 acres, which includes the South out-parcel for the proposed Burger King; and Country Inn & Suites having 7.17 acres. John Fredrickson questioned what the City's recourse would be if the hotels did not have the required minimum acreage? Todd Peetz answered that they would be considered non-conforming and would need to be replatted to meet the minimum five acres requirement. Kate Latorre, Assistant City Attorney, added that the parcels could not have been subdivided without prior approval from the City. Lamar Russell commented that the property owners just need to make sure they keep a minimum of five acres for the hotel sites. Kate Latorre advised that staff would look into the matter of the Burger King and Hertz Rent-A-Car out-parcels, and would report her findings back to the Board. OPEN DISCUSSION Todd Morley, Building Official, advised that staff was working on a new procedure for courtesy notices to residents within a 500 ft. radius for the Board's consideration at an upcoming meeting. Todd Peetz, City Planner, advised that the Florida Redevelopment Association could provide an associate to review, comment, and make suggestions to the Board about mixed use developments; however, the City would need to provide per diem and overnight hotel accommodations to send the associate to speak to the Board. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 10:07 p.m. Yte Bea McNe- , hai j=`on Susan L. " an, Sec etary