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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes P&Z 082404PLANNING, ZONING AND APPEALS BOARD REGULAR MEETING August 24, 2004 MINUTES The Regular Meeting of the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was called to order by Chair Craig Kunkle at 6:30 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex, 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. REPORT BY GROWTH MANAGEMENT ADMINISTRATOR Growth Management Administrator Charles Wu reported the City Council had approved by 4 -0 vote on August 19 the following cases: Seacoast Utility at Jog Road within Mirasol PCD, Gardens Mall expansion, code changes to allow increased fence heights for tennis courts and ball parks, elimination of Victoria Falls Boulevard from the city's thoroughfare plan and transmission to DCA, allowing satellite colleges in various zoning districts, and streamlining the development approval process. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Hansen moved approval of the August 10, 2004 minutes with correction of a typographical error "120 10 150" to "120 to 150 ". Mr. Pennell seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous 7 -0 vote. ROLL CALL Betty Laur, Secretary for the meeting called the roll for the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board:, Present Chairman Craig Kunkle Vice Chairman Barry Present Jocl Channing Dennis Solomon Douglas Pennell Randolph Hansen Michael Panczak Public Hearinz and Recommendation to City Council: Petition CP -04 -07 Absent Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board Meeting Minutes August 24, 2004 Page 2 Text Amendment: City - initiated request for the transmittal of anew economic Development Flement to be included as an optional element within the City's Comprehensive Plan. Economic Development/Marketing Administrator Delores Key presented the proposed amendment. Mr. Solomon questioned whether governmental action depended on the cluster concept in objective 13.1.1, and whether the word "cluster" should be deleted in case only one company came into the community. In Policy 13.1.1.2, Mr. Solomon recommended changing "The City shall assist the retention" to The City shall assist in the retention... ". In Policyl3.1.1.4, Mr. Solomon commented rather than the City allocating acreage, in its zoning/land use plan it would set land use limits and requirements, so this language needed a little tweaking. In Policy 13.1.1.6 Mr. Solomon recommended stating "relocation into the City" instead of "expansion and relocation ". Ms. Key gave examples of businesses that were expanding and explained that was why that language had been used; and the relocation aspect was for a company not in the City to come into the City. Mr. Solomon expressed concern that a value -added company might change its rate structure and after coming into the City, lower pay to the point it would no longer be a value -added employer. Ms. Key explained the criteria for value -added companies was based on at least a 5 -year track record of maintaining that level of jobs and the City would be partnering with other agencies that had strict guidelines to receive monies. In Policy 14.1.4.2, Mr. Solomon requested adding "and education ". In Objective 13.1.5, Mr. Solomon recommended replacing "attracting target industries" with "attracting and or maintaining ". In Policy 13.1.5.2 , Mr. Solomon recommended softening the language to something like "the City shall seek to accommodate reasonable balanced growth ", to which Ms. Key responded she would consult the City's legal counsel. Vice Chair Present commented on Policy 13.1.5.2 regarding the ability of attainable housing, and asked if expediting plans for affordable housing builders could be done. Ms. Key indicated a differentiation needed to be made between affordable and attainable housing. Ms. Present wanted to really do something for builders who were attempting to build attainable housing and asked that Mr. Wu look into this. Mr. Present asked what dedication of land space meant, to which Ms. Key responded the City needed to look at their remaining land to see if it would be better to rezone residential as commercial or value- added. Mr. Present suggested expanding that to think about redevelopment, and to start thinking about the City land - banking land to meet the needs of this economic plan. Mr. Pennell commented the objectives were very well done and the two most difficult were education and what could really be done to create attainable housing. Analysis must be done to assess the current situation and come up with a strategy to make public education better and to look at intensity for establishing attainable housing. Mr. Hansen concurred with the other comments, and commented this was looked at before Scripps, but Ms. Key indicated it was the assumption at this time Scripps would Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board Meeting Minutes August 24, 2004 Page 3 go on the Mecca site and a scientific community would be built. Mr. Hansen asked how the expedited permitting would affect smaller projects versus these larger value added business projects. Mr. Wu responded it would put these projects on top. That was the only incentive the City had to offer. Mr. Panczak asked how to police value added businesses, to which Ms. Key responded random audits would be done. Mr. Panczak suggested replacing "cluster" with "cluster /ancillary" in the objective discussed by Mr. Solomon; Mr. Solomon agreed. Chair Kunkle declared the public hearing open. Hearing no comments from the public, Chair Kunkle declared the public hearing closed. Mr. Solomon asked if changes were going to be made to the plan. Ms. Key commented she would make the recommended changes, but felt items such as attainable housing should be separate elements to be considered later. MOTION: Mr. Solomon made a motion to recommend to City Council approval of Petition CP- 04-07 with the changes recommended without enumerating each one. Vice Chair Present seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous 7 -0 vote. Public Hearing and Recommendation to City Council: Petition: LDR -04 -03 An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, relating to administrative approvals, amending Section 78 -48, code of Ordinances entitled "Site Plan Review "; amending Section 78 -49, code of Ordinances entitled "Amendments to Approved Development Orders' Planner Autumn Sorrow presented the proposed amendments. Mr. Hansen indicated he did not know if 5% additional setback would work, and suggested up to 10 %. Mr. Present was in favor, but thought this would open the department to criticism and heat, and would snake it harder in the future not to grant variances. Mr. Solomon agreed, and was in favor of the concept of the proposed change but thought it might not always be a good idea. Mr. Solomon asked if the language stricken through in Sec. 78 -48 item (2) meant the Growth Management Director would have authority to make changes. Ms. Sorrow responded no, that anything above 10% would require a waiver, which must be approved by Council. Mr. Solomon stated this dealt with changing use or occupancy, and changing a use might not be minor in nature, and he would not want that included in what could be granted by the Growth Management Director. Mr. Solomon asked what it meant that on page 3, line 5 that paragraph was stricken. Mr. Wu responded it would not be a major amendment that the board would see, which left it to the Growth Management Director's authority. Mr. Wu indicated this was stricken because staff did not consider it to be necessary. This Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board Meeting Minutes August 24, 2004 Page 4 language was in regard to increase in floor space, and that would normally increase traffic, which came before the board automatically, and was covered elsewhere. The increase in density was noted; if it was a decrease in density it would be a minor change. A change in architecture would be out of character and therefore a major change, which the board would see. Mr. Channing commented this was very good, and asked if this was liberal enough. He had had experience with complicated long -term projects. Mr. Channing asked what it meant to relocate 5 %, to which the response was to literally take part of a building and move it somewhere else. Mr. Channing verified this did not provide for an increase in parking, and thought it would be okay to increase parking if it did not decrease open space. Mr. Wu clarified any item talked about here such as increase in parking so long as it does not exceed 10% could be approved by staff, because it had been taken out as a major amendment. Parking spaces could be reduced so long as code was met. Mr. Wu gave an example of the area around Carmine's as an example, if they had more parking than required by code and wanted to build a building, that could be done. Changes in phasing were a major amendment today. Changes to developer agreements were resolutions between the developer and City Council. Mr. Channing stated he was in favor of this. Chair Kunkle declared the public hearing open. Hearing no comments from the public, Chair Kunkle declared the public hearing closed. MOTION: Mr. Channing made a motion to approve LDR -04 -03 with one change in the paragraph starting with line 33 on page 5, that the 5% be changed to 10% regarding structural encroachments. Mr. Panczak seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous 7 -0 vote. OLD BUSINESS Mr. Wu asked if the Commission wished paper packets or to receive the packets by disk only. It was indicated paper packets were preferred. Mr. Wu announced Mr. Benothman would be contacting the members of the board with a telephone survey as a part of the reappointment process. Appointments would be on the City Council agenda on September 21. There would be staggered terms, and orientation was planned for the October 12 meeting. Mr. Solomon commented this board had suggested non - staggered terms. Mr. Wu advised City Council had kept staggered terms on all boards. Mr. Wu verified that November 23 and December 28 meetings would not be held. Mr. Wu commented the criteria for variances was hard to meet and asked if the Board wanted staff to review that criteria to not make it so hard for someone to get a variance. Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board Meeting Minutes August 24, 2004 Page 5 Chair Kunkle indicated he was comfortable with the criteria. Mr. Wu indicated criteria for waivers was being worked on. Mr. Channing asked the status of the impact fee ordinance. Mr. Wu reported City Council had told staff to consider P &Z's concerns and suggestions on second reading. Regarding phasing, City Council had encouraged the Gold Coast Builders representative, who had no issues with the methodology, just specifics, and had put the public on notice they would adopt something September 21— probably phasing would be one or two months or maybe weeks but not 150 days. Mr. Present indicated he had attended the Council Meeting and had been very surprised that after this board went through painstaking efforts on the impact fees, Allan Owens' report was against every item P &Z recommended. Mr. Present stated it bothered him that P &Z and staff were so out of sync and he wanted to have a joint Council, P &Z, and staff meeting to get on the same page. Mr. Channing reported he voted for this last time, but had not realized then that it was going to cost him approximately $130,000 on the last phase of the Commons, and he had committed most of that space already. He thought this was terribly unfair —time should be given for people to make good on commitments they had already made in good faith —which was why he felt it should be phased in. Mr. Kunkle suggested he attend second reading. Mr. Present commented Gold Coast Builders wanted the same thing as P &Z, which was a phasing in, and requested a joint meeting to get everybody's thoughts and get on the same page on several issues, not just on this item, and asked Mr. Wu to figure out an agenda. Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board Meeting Minutes August 24, 2004 Page 6 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.. The next regular meeting will be held September 13, 2004. APPROVED: Craig Kunkle, Jr., Barry Present, Vice