MEMBERS: Jonathan Eady, Chair; Jeff Wearing,
Vice-Chair; Vivian Harris, and Ron Manson.
Penny England was out of town and Shawn Gaither was absent.
STAFF:
Bob Schwartz, city manager and zoning administrator.
GUESTS: Robert Pope, Susie Reid, Charlie
Williams, Pastor Josh Roberts, and Kendra Mayfield from Oxford College. Mike Ready, city councilmember, joined the
meeting for the agenda item about the Downtown Development Authority.
OPENING:
Mr. Eady called the meeting to order and welcomed the guests.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Upon motion of Mr. Wearing,
seconded by Mr. Manson, the minutes for the meeting of June 14, 2016 were
approved. (The Planning Commission did
not meet in July.) The vote was 4-0.
SUSIE REID DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION – Ms. Reid submitted a development
application to permit the addition of a dining room on the rear of her home
located at 134 Longstreet Circle. Mr. Eady reviewed the application and noted
that Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Wearing had both made site visits. Mr. Schwartz
reported the distance from the rear of the new dining room to the rear property
line was 37 feet. The setback distance required in the R-15 zone is 25 feet.
The members of the Planning Commission did not have any questions for Ms. Reid
who was in attendance along with Mr. Pope and Mr. Williams on her behalf.
Upon motion of Mr. Wearing, seconded
by Ms. Harris, the Planning Commission voted to approve the development
application as submitted. The vote was 4-0.
NAMETAGS - During the interval between cases,
Ms. Harris suggested that in the future, it might be helpful to the public for
the Planning Commission members to have nametags at their places so that everyone
would know who everyone else was. After some discussion the Planning Commission
agreed this would be a good idea. Mr. Schwartz promised to have nametags at the
next meeting.
ALLEN MEMORIAL SIGNS REQUEST - Mr. Eady suggested we should start
by reviewing what we had done before. The Church came to the Planning
Commission with a sign request in April. The Planning Commission discussed the
request and determined it would not be able to approve it. Before any vote was
taken, the Church withdrew the request.
Since then
the church has had a dialogue with the City. City Council determined the
process in the zoning ordinance would require the request return to the
Planning Commission.
Pastor
Roberts noted the Church has done what they felt they should do. Mr. Eady
suggested if the Church was an historic structure, it might be possible for the
City Council to approve the sign. It would not be possible under the current
ordinance for the Planning Commission to approve an off premises sign. However,
City Council could approve an historic directional sign.
Pastor
Roberts noted that this would be the best outcome for the Church. The goal is to have a sign on the right-of-way
on the east side of Emory pointing toward the Church to give directions to
out-of-town visitors.
Mr. Schwartz
apologized to the Planning Commission for the method in which this was handled.
He noted if he had called the chair perhaps he would have received advice to go
in another direction. However, he and the Mayor had felt that by treating this
request “under the radar” it could be handled better.
Mr. Wearing
noted the Planning Commission is bound by the ordinance and needs to follow it.
Mr. Eady suggested there is an avenue to grant the church an historic sign.
Upon motion of Mr. Wearing, seconded
by Mr. Manson, the Planning Commission rejected the request for the private off
premises sign of Allen Memorial Church. The motion passed 4-0.
OXFORD COLLEGE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
PLAN - Kendra
Mayfield introduced an informal discussion about the requirements in the zoning
ordinance for a Future Development Plan for Oxford College. It is required to
be updated every ten years which would be January, 2017. Ms. Mayfield and the
members of the Planning Commission discussed several of the requirements for
the update. One of the suggestions from Ms. Mayfield was to provide an annual
update with only a yearly projection of future plans. It is difficult to make
accurate ten year projections. Mr. Eady asked that Ms. Mayfield prepare an
outline of what she would like to do and the Planning Commission would give it
serious consideration.
PRIVATE COVENANTS - Mr. Manson brought up the issue of
the private covenants in the Wentworth neighborhood which were difficult to
enforce. Initially, the Planning Commission had asked the developer to supply
it with the covenants when Wentworth was developed. However, Wentworth never
formed a homeowners association. Mr. Eady noted in his experience private
covenants are governed by contract law and are independent of zoning. Often,
the covenants expire after twenty years. It is usually not the purview of the
governing jurisdiction to oversee the covenants. The homeowners could modify
the covenants or create a homeowners association but that may be difficult to
do.
MAYOR’S QUESTIONS – Mayor Roseberry had asked for
advice from the Planning Commission in answering a series of questions about
the current sign ordinance and its possible future replacement. Mr. Eady suggested the City find a model for
revisions to the sign ordinance. He
suggested it be submitted to the Planning Commission after it has been reviewed
by the city attorney.
DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY - Mike Ready, former chair of the Planning
Commission and current city councilmember was present to discuss with the Planning
Commission the possibility of the City forming a Downtown Development Authority.
Mr. Ready used a PowerPoint presentation to frame the discussion. (A copy of
the PowerPoint presentation is attached to these minutes.)
Mr. Ready
noted that a Downtown Development Authority may be one of the mechanisms used
to help get the City to another plateau. On May 16th, Mayor
Roseberry had appointed him to chair a city council study committee. The other
members were councilmembers David Eady and Jim Windham. So far, the committee
has met six times.
Mr. Eady
noted that greater communication between the Council and the Planning
Commission would be helpful. For example the proposed Asbury Park has not yet
been included in the land use plan. The
City Council should let the Planning Commission know about future land use
plans. It should be a formal notification so that the Planning Commission can
respond.
There was
some discussion about the revision to the right-of-way survey of the whole city
being prepared by city engineer Robert Jordan. The Planning Commission asked
that a copy of the survey be sent to them when it is available.
Mr. Eady and
the Planning Commission thanked Mr. Ready for spending the time to brief them
on the discussions concerning a possible Downtown Development Authority.
ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Eady adjourned the meeting at 9:15
PM.
Submitted
by:
Bob
Schwartz, zoning administrator