April 2016
The Planning Board workshop meeting for the Village of Forest Hills was held at the Southwest Commission from 2:00 – 6:00pm on April 13, 2016.
The following members of the Planning Board were present:
Clark Corwin
Lee Budahl
Steve Brown
Nilofer Couture
Jayne Buchanan
The following Non-Planning Board members were present:
Kristy Carter, J.M. Teague Engineering & Planning
Jack Brown, Potential Planning Board Member from ETJ area
- Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm by Lee Budahl.
- Approval of Meeting Minutes from February 22, 2016 Planning Board Meeting: Steve made a motion to approve the minutes from the February meeting, unanimously accepted. Some members had not had a chance to review notes from the March meeting so Kristy said they could be reviewed at the next meeting. There was not a quorum at the March meeting so it was not an official meeting.
- Approval of Agenda: Steve made a motion to approve the agenda, unanimously accepted.
- Old Business/Unfinished:
a) Rules of Procedure: Kristy reviewed the rules of procedure and noted that she brought this forward from the last meeting with a slight change in language regarding to subdivision and zoning, she noted that the process laid out does not include public hearings and it is required and has to be included.
Nilofer made a motion to accept the revisions to the rules, unanimously accepted.
b) Revisit Future Land Use Map – Kristy noted that the Future Land Use Map was adopted at the Village Council meeting in April.
c) Planning Board Member/ETJ Representative Report – Kristy noted that Mr. Jack Brown, a Village resident who resides in the ETJ area is willing to serve on the Planning Board, and is waiting to be appointed by the County Commissioners, Clark noted that he was supposed to be appointed last week but he has not heard back from the county but will follow up.
- New Business:
a) Planning Board Script: Kristy prepared a script to incorporate the rules of procedure for the meeting chair to have as a guide, she noted that it is not a formal policy, it is up to the board to accept.
Kristy suggested doing roll call at meetings so that the person recording captures who is attending.
Kristy also recommended having discussion items, she noted that public comment is different from public hearing, the board doesn’t have to act on public comments, they just have to allow for the public to comment if they desire.
Kristy recommended making a notebook to keep all of the Planning Board material, meeting minutes, applications, etc. together.
Jayne Buchanan will chair the next meeting at the workshop on May 25th.
- Public Comment: None
- Workshop Discussion: Lee turned the meeting over to Kristy for further discussion. Kristy noted that the Planning Board will give direction today but will not vote on actions today.
Kristy provided power points for discussion basics, she said the board will look at the reason things are done the way they are and what they are determined by. Kristy said that the Planning Board is an Advisory board to the Village Council, she noted that the General Assembly, court law, and Local Government mandates how things are done. The Council has to agree with Zoning Ordinance recommendations by the Planning Board.
Kristy said that the Local Government has different types of power to create noise ordinances, appearance standards, and to create Zoning Ordinances, etc. She noted that it is a little unclear as to whether the Zoning Ordinances are Zoning Ordinances or Unified Development Ordinances. Kristy noted that there is a question about enforcement in the ETJ area of the Village, she is not clear if Jackson County Ordinances apply Village Ordinances apply in the ETJ area, she recommended asking an Attorney for clarification.
Kristy noted that there is approximately 642 acres in the Village and that 48% is the Village and 52% is ETJ and the ETJ residents do not pay taxes to the Village of Forest Hills. ETJ area is mainly undeveloped.
Kristy shared that Local Governments cannot enforce rules that exceed State rules. She said that there are state regulations regarding state named versus unnamed streams, the only one applicable would be Cox Branch/Creek within the Village. There could be Environmental constraints in some areas of the Village that could affect Land Subdivision decisions.
Kristy said she needs to know the direction the Planning Board wants to proceed, beginning with the minimum lot size currently being 2 acres, does the Board want to reduce this requirement? Gerald Green had previously recommended changing the lot size from a minimum of 2 acres to ½ - 1 acre lots, Kristy said she would agree with that recommendation. Kristy said that currently, many of the lots in the Village are around ¾ acre lots. She said that if the board doesn’t want to change the requirement in all areas, they can do it in certain areas and not include the entire Village.
Lee said that he had previously addressed the new concept of larger homes on smaller lots as is the trend in many cities. Kristy asked Jayne from a Real Estate standpoint how she saw the trend in this area and she said that she felt the major barrier in this area was the lack of affordable housing.
Kristy said as she and Board members were aware, a large section of the Valley property is owned by one person whose has ideas about developing but has not submitted a Development proposal. Clark said that the owner has submitted only a concept map but no proposals or applications for permits.
Kristy said the Village can add conditions they choose to Conditional Use Permits. She noted they chose to get rid of the minimum house size requirement which she agrees was a good decision.
Design standards can be set for commercial development but no longer for residential development. The Planning Board discussed potential design standards that could be used and Kristy said she would work on that and bring ideas to the next meeting.
- Adjourn: Lee made a motion to adjourn at 5:20, Steve seconded, unanimously approved.