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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-10-21 Planning Commission Minutesi -*4 PULASKI MINUTES Town of Pulaski Planning Commission May 10, 2021 Commissioners Present: Kevin Meyer, Chair; Janet Jonas, Vice Chair; Terry Hale; Luke Seigfried Commissioners Absent: Tracy Belcher; Chris Conner Town Staff: Brady Deal, Panner/Economic Developer/Zoning Administrator 1. Call to Order Chairman Meyer called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. F#t71[*M]n-& •x,11 •t A quorum was determined since four of the six Commissioners were present. 3. Review and Approval of Minutes a. April 12, 2021 minutes were unanimously approved as amended noting two grammatical changes on a motion by Janet Jonas and a second by Terry Hale. 4. Public Hearing 5. Old Business a. Comprehensive Plan Update Process i. Review Survey Questions ii. Discuss Future Land Use iii. Map Exercise Mr. Deal provided a staff update on the Comprehensive Plan. He noted that a notice had been sent out in the Water Bill to town residents. He stated there are 4,600 water users so the notice definitely reached a significant number of people. Mr. Deal also stated that the number of individuals using the engagement site tripled but still is significantly lower than hoped for. Ms. Jonas asked if the local news media has covered the Comprehensive Plan update process. Mr. Deal stated that WDBJ7 had interviewed in in April regarding the Comprehensive Plan update process and the engagement site created by the N RVRC. Mr. Deal stated that the Working Group would meet before the next Planning Commission, preferable in the end of May. Aphi stated that the first Working Group meeting would include an overview, introduction, and processing of demographic data. She stated that we hope to meet with that group over the next two or three months. Mr. Deal stated that the Town has had a substantial amount of interest in the Town, specifically in the Downtown. He stated that the RFP for 37 West Main received 10 proposals for the project and that he felt that was an indicator for the interest in the Downtown. Aphi then discussed her updates to the survey and asked if the Commissioners had any comments. Ms. Jonas stated that two of the areas of importance for the town were childcare and food security and that she did not see those items included in the survey. Aphi responded that she had considered that and was thinking there could be quick polls in the online survey which she felt would be the appropriate place. She stated that this would allow the Commission to push content through the engagement site every few weeks or so for residents to respond to. Chairman Meyer stated that he assumed the site could remain available after the Comp. Plan process completed and could be used to host special surveys and/or questionnaires for residents. He said that it should not be limited to a one-time use but used continually by the individuals who sign-up and register. Aphi stated that there are many different special surveys, quick polls, or brief questionnaires that could be presented to residents for their feedback. Mr. Deal stated that he appreciated the focus of Ms. Jonas on childcare because of the desperate need for childcare providers in the Town. He felt that childcare facilities and influence could directly impact positive economic development. Page 2 of 8 f May 10, 2021 Ms. Jonas stated that data is very important in the process of applying for grants and that the surveys/quick polls could help in the data mining process and will provide proof that there is a desperate need. She stated specifically there is not alternative hour day-care for individuals working second shift for example. She felt that little pop-up polls would be great but we need to know what questions to ask. Chairman Meyer suggested working with Social Services regarding the feedback loops they already are accessing so that we do not have recreate the wheel and can feed off their data. Ms. Jonas stated that Beans and Rice has put together a mobile food market and they consulted the YMCA, Social Services, and the School System to determine the areas of need. She stated that is a good example of using key stakeholders to develop a strong approach. Aphi stated that she could reach out to other individuals in her organization for some data that may be helpful. She also stated that based on the County survey, it was apparent child care was a major issue. Chairman Meyer stated that question 14 of the survey needed to be revised. Aphi then posed a few alternatives for how the question be worded. A brief discussion ensued about the structure of the question. Mr. Deal stated that question 14 is connected to the issue the Town is facing with an imbalance in the number of residents that work in the Town but do not live in the Town. He stated that the imbalance presents an opportunity to disperse the tax burden on non-residents. Mr. Seigfried asked if an alternative could be asking how far one travels to work. Aphi stated that she was thinking on asking what zip code people live in. Mr. Seigfried stated he is not aware of the exact zip code he works in because he is new to the area so it may be helpful to just ask commute time. He also asked if these questions could be branching questions which can eliminate unnecessary questions for individuals and achieve more insightful data. Aphi stated that branching questions are a great idea and she agreed with Mr. Seigfried that these questions can bring more understanding. Chairman Meyer stated that he was not a fan of question 10 and that he felt there should be more diverse options to select when responding to what type of housing would you like to live in. Page 3 of 81 May 10, 2021 Aphi stated she could modify the question and include pictures of different types of housing. Chairman Meyer stated that the Town does not have a multitude of housing options like other communities have. He stated that condos, over/unders with garage, high- end apartments, and patio homes are mostly non-existent throughout the Town. Mr. Deal stated that the Town needs to identify a philosophy towards housing as they filter and review development. He stated that there are a plethora of old homes and that to create new housing options the Town needs to consider if they want to seek out a process of demolishing old homes or constructing new development on undeveloped land. He stated that as staff, it would be helpful to know what housing efforts the Town should pursue and where they should pursue them. Chairman Meyer stated that there isn't a significant amount of undeveloped property in the Town and it will be an enormous task to demolish dozens of houses because of the acquisition process. Mr. Deal stated that developers have been purchasing properties here and there and depending on the zoning district they ask what type of housing the Town would suggest building back because often the lot is zoned to accommodate single-family, two-family, and multi -family housing. Ms. Jonas stated that she is interested in knowing how the developer that is renovating Claremont decided on the type of housing options they wanted to construct. She asked how did they make the money work. Mr. Deal stated that he did not know what information they used but he knew they were acting on a hunch that the Town would serve as an overflow for people priced out of other housing markets. Chairman Meyer stated that the Town has taken some pretty poor -quality multi- family situations out of the market overtime. He provided an example of an old house on Jefferson Street that was converted. He further stated that these often become problematic for the community because they get run down and are often ill - maintained. He stated that many families/individuals do not want houses this size due to the amount of renovation work needed to make them inhabitable. Mr. Deal stated the process of pursuing properties that are uninhabitable and attempting to have them demolished is an arduous process. Chairman Meyer stated that he wasn't sure if these properties were uninhabitable but that they would require a substantial amount of investment into rehabilitation. Page 4 of 8 / May 10, 2021 Mr. Deal stated that some developers have converted these large single-family structures into multi -family structures because of the increased profitability but that often these properties become sources of issues. Ms. Jonas stated that affordable housing and high-quality housing do not have to be exclusive. Mr. Seigfried asked if question 10 and question 11 were redundant. Chairman Meyer stated that he thought Aphi could combine the two questions. Mr. Seigfried asked if the childcare and food security items could be added to question 1. He also asked for input about a question for local businesses and job opportunities because he has heard a lot of people interested in starting and opening their own businesses. He clarified by saying that he would like to add those few items as additional answers to question 1. Mr. Deal stated that he felt Aphi chose her answers based on their connection to quality of life. Aphi stated that she felt those would fit in question 4. Mr. Seigfried stated that childcare and food security would be in question 1 and that local businesses would be in question 4. Ms. Jonas asked if the services in question 4 could be threshed out more. Aphi discussed some of her ideas to expand on services in question 4 and stated that she intended to put in examples. Ms. Jonas stated that she had a conversation with an individual about what constitutes a vibrant community and that person stated retail is what creates traffic. As they reviewed the downtown they determined there were a significant amount of services. She stated that maybe the use of the word shopping in the survey could be broken down more to include various forms of shopping. A discussion ensued between the Commissioners regarding potential businesses the Town could benefit from having downtown. Mr. Hale mentioned a hardware store, Ms. Jonas mentioned a shoe store and office supplies store. Ms. Jonas asked when we were hoping to go live with the survey. Aphi stated hopefully before the end of the month but she would like to come back and possibly do a demo at the next meeting. Chairman Meyer asked how the Town's website is doing these days. He stated that he has found the website difficult to rely on and was wondering if anything could be Page 5 of 8 1 May 10, 2021 down to improve the functionality and reliability of the information posted on the website. Mr. Deal stated that the website could be better utilized and that Jordan Whitt, Social Media Manager, has been working diligently to update the website whilst taking on a myriad number of responsibilities aside from media management. At this time, Aphi transitioned the meeting into a discussion on Land Use and some of her observations as she has reviewed the Future Land Use Map. Her desire was to differentiate the commercial districts and residential districts. She stated that currently there was one residential district code that described every residential district in the Town and one commercial district coded that described every commercial district within the Town. Chairman Meyer agreed that it can be confusing considering the different types of residential districts in the zoning ordinance and on the zoning map. Aphi then proceeded to discuss the issues with not including density types in the Future Land Use Map. She explained the difference between low, medium, and high-density residential land uses. An extensive discussion ensued regarding the necessity or non -necessity of including different densities and intensities on the revised Future Land Use map to distinguish the differences between different residential and commercial uses. Chairman Meyer stated that to determine the differences he would like to see a map blown up to have better detail of what is currently there. Aphi stated her basic premise for bringing up this discussion is to determine if the Planning Commission would like to include density and intensity in the Future Land Use map. Chairman Meyer stated that he did not know where to stop and start some of the differences because of the intermingled uses such as residential and commercial in the downtown. Mr. Deal stated that Aphi is trying to make the Future Land Use map more insightful by including a differentiation in the densities of certain areas. Chairman Meyer provided an overview of the creation of the zoning map and how the zoning map was based on existing use and then they tried to group things together even though there were discrepancies. He stated that the last time they reviewed the Future Land Use map, they had to consider what changes had occurred and how it affected the land use. He further explained how a primary focus was identifying conservation areas. He stated that he was not opposed to breaking it down so that it provided more clarity to an individual reviewing it that did not have the zoning map as well. Page 6 of 81 May 10, 2021 Aphi then explained what her preliminary thoughts were on some of the potential changes that could be made to better differentiate densities for desired Future Land Use. Chairman Meyer asked how we handle this process considering some owners have the intent of preserving their current land use forever. Mr. Deal stated that it is likely one day that some of the undeveloped properties, even agricultural land, will end up being converted to a developed use. Aphi stated that low-density residential means quarter acre lots or approximately 10,000 square feet and medium -density means approximately 7,000 square feet lots. She then reviewed some of the commercial areas in the Town and described how the future land use could label them as low -intensity commercial vs. medium - intensity commercial. Mr. Deal asked if the Commission had a preference of making the Future Land Use map more specific or not. Chairman Meyer stated that it would be beneficial for the property owners to have an idea of what the Town foresees the future land use being for their property or those around them. Ms. Jonas stated the various apartment complexes such as Washington Square, Meadowview, and Carriage Hill are all near each other and all are high-density residential land uses. Chairman Meyer responded that there are several surrounding properties near them that are not high-density. Mr. Deal asked if that area is an area the Town wants to designate as a high-density area. Chairman Meyer stated that many of the property owners would not want that because it would devalue their property. Mr. Deal stated that it would be helpful to the Town when working with developers to provide them more direction in what type of units they should construct which the zoning ordinance only does to an extent because some districts permit a variety of different housing types. Aphi stated that it would be helpful to have a general idea but that we will continue this conversation at future meetings. Aphi transitioned to review some of the goals from the past comprehensive plan to discuss some of the progress made towards these goals. She stated that she would Page 7 of 81 May 10, 2021 like the Commission to review the past goals together and discuss what changes need to be made to the goals and objectives. A discussion ensued regarding the goal for two-way traffic. Ms. Jonas stated that this idea has come up again and again over the years and the studies that have been conducted never seemed to gain support. Chairman Meyer stated that he wishes main street had more space for people to sit, eat, and relax on the sidewalk or a street -side seating area. Mr. Deal stated that the Habitat for Humanity land behind the County Administration building is a possible location for pedestrian/recreational use in the downtown. A brief discussion ensued regarding potential open spaces in town and potential areas for development to create downtown gathering spaces. Aphi then stated that she had nothing further for the Commissioners to review. 6. New Business 7. Staff Report 8. Other Business 9. Adjournment With there being no further business to discuss, Chairman Meyer adjourned the meeting at 7:27 p.m. ar tom,. K in Meyer, Chair Page 8 of 8 1 May 10, 2021