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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutesPLAN COMMISSION MINUTES March 17, 2020 PRESENT: Mamadou Coulibaly, Lynnsey Erickson, Thomas Fojtik, Michael Ford, Thomas Perry, Kathleen Propp EXCUSED: Derek Groth, John Hinz, John Kiefer, Justin Mitchell, Lori Palmeri STAFF: Mark Lyons, Planning Services Manager; Allen Davis, Community Development Director; Justin Gierach, Engineering Division Manager / City Engineer; Brian Slusarek, Planner Chairperson Fojtik called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Roll call was taken and a quorum declared present. The minutes of March 3, 2020 were approved as presented. (Ford/Coulibaly) I. RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS VARIANCE TO ALLOW WINDOW CLOSURES ON THE FRONT FACADE AT 603 CEAPE AVENUE Mr. Lyons explained since the initial staff report had been sent out, the Inspections Division was able to contact the applicant and had some discussions with him. He said staff is asking to withdraw the item and will put it back on the agenda at a future date. He said the applicant has been working on other options for potential siding material that could blend in and fix some of the issues that are out there. He asked that Plan Commission withdraw the item instead of postponing it because staff does not know when the item would go back on the agenda. Motion by Propp to withdraw the residential design standards variance to allow window closures on the front facade at 603 Ceape Avenue. Seconded by Erickson. Motion carried 6-0. II. PUBLIC HEARING: CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT REQUEST FOR AN OUTDOOR STORAGE USE AT 3010 BRADLEY STREET Site Inspections Report: No commissioners reported visiting the site. Staff report accepted as part of the record. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 The applicant is requesting a Conditional Use Permit to establish an outdoor storage use on a vacant lot. Mr. Slusarek presented the item and reviewed the site and surrounding area as well as the land use and zoning classifications in this area. The applicant is proposing to use the rear portion of the subject site for storage and recycling/crushing of asphalt and concrete used by Vinton Construction. The proposal also includes a gravel -surface storage area along the front of the lot to be used for storage of construction equipment, job trailers and semi -trailers. According to the applicant, this area will only be used for short term storage. According to the applicant, the storage/recycling area will be utilized during normal business hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and dust will be controlled through the use of water and calcium chloride. Access to the site is proposed to be a Class III entrance from Bradley Street just south of center of the site. The 40' wide paved driveway will allow for stacked parking stalls to meet this requirement. Any signage will need to meet the signage requirements. The applicant meets all landscaping points. Storm water management plan will be required and reviewed during the Site Plan Review process. He said staff recommends approval of the proposed Conditional Use Permit for an outdoor storage area at 3010 Bradley Street as proposed with the findings and conditions listed in the staff report. Mr. Lyons added this is a long-term solution instead of the location in the Sawdust District that was on the agenda a couple months ago. He said the previous request had a time limit to it, therefore, Vinton Construction started looking for a long-term solution. He explained instead of Vinton Construction going to the Sawdust District site for a couple of months, they would just go to the new site permanently if this request was approved. Mr. Fojtik opened up technical questions to staff. Ms. Propp inquired about the two structures to the north. Mr. Lyons replied they are both industrial uses. He said one building is utilized by Oshkosh Corporation and the other is an auto body shop. Mr. Fojtik opened up the public hearing. Mr. Lyons stated the applicant did speak with Mr. Slusarek before the meeting and was relatively happy with the recommendation as stated. There were no other public comments submitted on this item. Mr. Fojtik closed the public hearing. Motion by Propp to adopt the findings and recommendation as stated in the staff report. Conditions: Outdoor storage area must be completely enclosed with minimum 8' tall solid fencing. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 Chain link fencing used for screening inust include pre -woven or interwoven privacy fence slats and be at least 90% opaque. Seconded by Erickson. Mr. Fojtik asked if there was any discussion on the motion. Ms. Propp said she is glad it is moving off the Sawdust District. Mr. Lyons commented this looked to be a better long-term home. Motion carried 6-0. III. PUBLIC HEARING: REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE OF 2020-2024 CONSOLIDATED PLAN, 2020 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN AND CITIZENS PARTICIPATION PLAN IV. PUBLIC HEARING: ANALYSIS OF IMPEDIMENTS TO FAIR HOUSING CHOICE Site Inspections Report: N/A Staff report accepted as part of the record. Staff requests review and acceptance of the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan, 2020 CDBG Annual Action Plan, Citizens Participation Plan and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice for the City's Community Development Block Grant Program. Ms. Brandt presented these items. The City requested proposals and Urban Design Ventures from Pennsylvania was selected to assist in the development of these Plans. Every five years, the City is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to prepare a five- year Consolidated Plan to assess our affordable housing, community development, economic development and strategic planning needs. These needs and priorities are then addressed annually through the submittal of the Annual Action Plan, which presents specific activities the City will accomplish with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Annually, the CDBG Action Plan is prepared to demonstrate how federal funds from HUD will be spent. As part of the development of a Consolidated Plan and Fair Housing Plan, HUD regulations 24 CFR Part 91.105, requires adoption of an updated citizen participation plan. As an entitlement community receiving CDBG funds, Oshkosh must demonstrate it is affirmatively furthering fair housing by conducting a Fair Housing Analysis which identifies any impediments to fair housing choice and what steps the city will take to address those impediments. She said staff recommends acceptance of the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan and 2020 Annual Action Plan, Citizens Participation Plan and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice plan for the Community Development Block Grant Program, together with a finding that listed projects/activities are not in conflict with the City of Oshkosh Comprehensive Plan, official maps or other planned activities of the City. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 Mr. Fojtik opened technical questions to staff. Mr. Ford asked if there was demographic information for the 1,100 survey responses that were received to understand who responded. Ms. Brandt replied she does not. Mr. Ford commented so there is no information to know if the responses came from people utilizing the loans, low-income population or people experiencing homelessness. Ms. Brandt explained information from the surveys were not populated onto a map because they did not require addresses on the survey. Mr. Ford asked if the two surveys were done in waves and also asked why there were two, one Polco and one SurveyMonkey. Ms. Brandt explained the consultant wanted to do SurveyMonkey because that is what they use. She said the City prefers Polco so they decided to do both and give the citizens options. Mr. Ford commented the consultant's presentation at the joint workshop was not impressive. He inquired about how the consultant was chosen and how long they are contracted for. Ms. Brandt replied they did a Request For Proposals (RFP) and the consultant chosen was the only one that responded. She added they did check the consultant's background and references which were acceptable before proceeding. She said they are contracted with them through submittal and approval by HUD of the Plans. Mr. Lyons noted there are other members that are more senior who did not attend the joint workshop. Mr. Ford asked for confirmation that it cost $49,000. Ms. Brandt replied it was less than $50,000 for all of the Plans. Mr. Ford inquired about the interviews and how the list got created. Ms. Brandt explained they created a list of stakeholders based on public service agencies that they currently fund in the Block Grant program. She said they also created a list representing all the local religious organizations, public service and social services department of health and social services, realtors and so on. She stated it was a diverse group of people that were interviewed to come up with public input and what the community's needs are. Mr. Coulibaly asked about the rental units and if they had any influence on the number of bedrooms or not. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 Ms. Brandt said the project they are looking to fund with the 2020 Block Grant Program is the Cabrini Project over on Merritt Avenue. She said the developer is also applying for various Federal funds that will regulate the number and quantity of bedrooms. She said the City will be assisting with ten of the units but does not have a lot of say in the number of bedrooms. She believes a number of them will be 1-2 bedrooms with a couple being 3 bedrooms. She thinks the 3 bedrooms will be at market rate instead of low to moderate income. Mr. Coulibaly stated his concern is there is a shortage of 3 bedrooms. Ms. Brandt commented according to a lot of the Federal guidelines, 1-2 bedrooms are in need as well. She said to accommodate the space, she believes they are going to have more 1-2 bedrooms and just a few 3 bedrooms. Ms. Erickson inquired if there were more specific measurable within the goals listed by the Housing Strategy section. Ms. Brandt replied there were not. She explained it is just a guide for the city to use in working with developers as they are coming forward with development projects. Ms. Erickson asked for confirmation that the goals are just overarching goals. Ms. Brandt answered affirmatively. Ms. Erickson asked if public comments mailed or e-mailed are in lieu of having a public hearing at Plan Commission. Ms. Brandt replied it is a technical question that HUD will have to answer once they submit. She said because of the health advisory they were not afforded the opportunity to let citizens in that may have wanted to. She stated public input can still be submitted by written comment or e-mail and still be accepted and entered into the record. Ms. Erickson questioned how it was promoted. Ms. Brandt answered it was in the initial public ad that was published and she did send out an e- mail to the public service agencies and so forth to let them know that City Hall was closed to the public but for them to get their comments in by April 6t',. Mr. Fojtik opened up the public hearing. There were no public comments submitted on these items. Mr. Fojtik closed the public hearing. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 Motion by Perry to adopt the findings and recommendation as stated in the staff report for the Review and Acceptance of 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan, 2020 Annual Action Plan and Citizens Participation Plan. Seconded by Erickson. Mr. Fojtik asked if there was any discussion on the motion. Mr. Ford said he knows they are constrained by what is required by HUD and there was an RFP with only one respondent which makes it more constraining. He suggested for the next time to get input from the individuals that are experiencing impediments to fair housing in the city. He said any Plan that derives from a place where the affected persons have no input is going to be imperfect. Ms. Propp stated she is sad that there is so little money because there is such a great need. She said the money is only going to touch the surface but it is aimed at the right things. She agrees there should be measurable but with such little money it would not be as imperative to have measurable. Ms. Brandt said every year they do the Action Plan and they can look at those strategies that are identified. She said they can also look at the Performance Report that is done at the end of each year to look at the goals that may have been accomplished that also relate back to the Consolidated Plan. Mr. Lyons reminded Plan Commission this is not the only program they use for affordable housing in the city. He explained there is neighborhood funding through the TIF extensions that the city is allowed to use on some of the neighborhood programs. He stated there are a lot of similar programs to CDBG that the city operates through the Planning department and the Great Neighborhoods program which they spend an additional $400,000 to $500,000 a year on affordable housing. He said these programs use similar requirements as HUD. He stated it is not a lot of money and he wishes there were more. He mentioned there may be a change to the TIF extension statute that would help generate quite a bit of additional money for affordable housing. Mr. Fojtik stated he is on the Board of Oshkosh Healthy Neighborhoods and they discuss this topic all the time. He agrees with Mr. Lyons but also thinks the programs are underutilized and need to be promoted more. Mr. Lyons stated there was supposed to be a Lunch N' Learn but it was delayed due to the current circumstances. He said ideally they would like to do one before the end of the year and have one to two every year after to further market those programs. Mr. Ford asked if the city followed the HUD plan for the other programs. Mr. Lyons replied they are using a similar guide as the HUD and the TIF statute is a little different but all programs are working on affordable housing issues. He explained some of the differences Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 but said all the programs are working towards the same goal in addressing affordable housing within Oshkosh. Ms. Brandt stated the CDBG program is targeted for low to moderate income families whereas the City's housing programs are targeted to those that are above that income eligibility under the Federal guidelines. She said this gives everyone an opportunity to take advantage of the funding. Mr. Lyons explained staff works with potential applicants to see what program would be the best fit. Motion carried 6-0. Motion by Ford to adopt the findings and recommendation as stated in the staff report for the Analysis of bnpediments to Fair Housing Choice. Seconded by Coulibaly. Mr. Fojtik asked if there was any discussion on the motion. Ms. Propp stated she could not attend the workshop but found the document very interesting especially the list of low income housing in the city. She said she agrees there is a need for 3 bedroom units. She said the consultant might have not done the right things but they did identify the right things. She stated she cannot argue about the results and impediments that they listed. She stated the discouraging thing is these are impediments not only to fair housing but to decent, safe affordable housing and it all comes down to money. She reiterated there just isn't enough money. She said developers can't afford to build these types of units because they can't make money. She believes there is not enough sufficient incentives for developers. She said there is no more Federal funding for public housing. She said she does not know if the consultants were the right people to do the Plans but she ended up liking the Plans. Motion carried 6-0. Ms. Brandt commented she has extra copies of the draft Plans in case anyone wanted a copy. V. PUBLIC HEARING: TEXT AMENDMENTS TO THE ZONING ORDINANCE Site Inspections Report: N/A Staff report accepted as part of the record. The City of Oshkosh Department of Community Development requests review and approval of amendments to the Oshkosh Zoning Ordinance. Mr. Lyons presented the item. The City of Oshkosh adopted a new zoning ordinance which went into effect on January 1, 2017. Since the adoption of the ordinance, staff has noticed a number of Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 code sections that should be modified following further examination and discussion with the public and developers. Staff proposes amendments to the following Zoning Ordinance code sections: Section 30-61 (G), Section 30-133 (C), Section 30-160.5 (A), Section 30-164, Section 30-173 (B), Section 30-174 (B), Section 30-175 (F), Section 30-190 (E), Section 30-242 (A), Section 30-253d and Section 30-253e. He said staff feels that the proposed amendments to the Zoning Ordinance will solve some problems that have been identified and ultimately strengthen the Code. Mr. Fojtik opened technical questions to staff. Ms. Propp said she does not remember if they had already voted on Design Standard changes like the windows on the front facade. Mr. Lyons replied they removed the side facade requirements approximately a year ago but they have not proposed any changes to the front facade. He mentioned staff has been working with local builders and developers on new construction house Design Standards and potentially going to a point base system. Ms. Propp asked if staff feels that the current ordinance is sufficiently workable. Mr. Lyons responded at this point in time staff has not identified a better solution but staff is continuously trying to find if there may be a better option than the current system for infill housing, remodels, etc. He said at this time staff feels it is still appropriate to require Design Standards and it also allow the Plan Commission to be able to work through unique situations with applicants. Mr. Slusarek stated the biggest change is the Parking Exemption Overlay and reviewed some of the other minor changes with the text amendments. Mr. Lyons reiterated most of the text amendments were clean ups for issues they've had in the past or the DNR asking them to modify the text to match theirs. He stated this will make the code more workable and help deal with the issues they have been experiencing. Mr. Fojtik opened up the public hearing. There were no public comments submitted on this item. Mr. Fojtik closed the public hearing. Motion by Erickson to adopt the findings and recommendation as stated in the staff report. Seconded by Coulibaly. Mr. Fojtik asked if there was any discussion on the motion. Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020 Mr. Fojtik said he appreciates staff's willingness to understand that this was not a perfect document when it was created and their willingness to make it more workable. Mr. Ford commented the parking is a great change and it makes perfect sense. Motion carried 6-0. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at approximately 4:42 pm. (Perry/Ford) Respectfully submitted, Mark Lyons Planning Services Manager Plan Commission Minutes March 17, 2020