Planning Commission Minutes 2019 12 12

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes December 1211, 2019 Page 8 of 13 Rice asked about the staff report's statement that the extension is needed due to a restructuring of the ownership. David replied that he was now in a position to take control of the project and get it completed. He noted that the DELO apartments were performing really well and they were close to 100% occupancy. The demand to add the additional 33 units is strong and they would like to start construction in the next three months. Rice asked if a three-year extension was necessary. David replied that he wanted to think that it was not necessary, but he would love to have it. Rice noted that if the applicant started to develop the property that would help address the compliance issues. Williams asked why there had been a delay, if it had to do with occupancy in the rest of DELO David replied that that had been a part of it. Mark Gasper, 1014 Johnson Lane, stated that the lot was a huge eyesore with or without the dirt. He stated that there had been an expectation when they bought their homes that this lot would develop also. He wanted to set the target on six months instead of three years. He was asking that there should be landscaping in along the road if the Commission was going to approve something for longer than six months. Carol Shucker, 1086 Johnson Lane, stated that next week would be two years since she has closed on her house and they had been looking at the overgrown weeds had been there the whole time. She was also requesting interim landscaping or fencing in the next few months. Michelle Smither, 1045 Johnson Lane, stated that she was representing about four people and that the eyesore was sad. For a long time there were weeds and overgrowth, now it is a dirt pile. She noted that there were a lot of promises in the DELO area that had not been kept. There were weeds as tall as she was and nobody bothered to get rid of them and she sent multiple letters. She asked what would need to happen to stop that from happening again. She noted that there were two applications earlier in the night that had talked about landscaping and looking good and the area looked terrible and there needed to be something in the extension that attended to the issues that the neighbors were facing. Mike Deborski, 601 Pine Street, stated that he had sent a letter to Director Zuccaro and been frustrated and that there had been some dynamic issues with the partnership and it sounds like David was in charge now and sometimes it took a while for things to change. He was satisfied that they would help his concerns and that he thought they would attend to the concerns for the neighbors. He thinks a three-year timeline is appropriate because it takes a long time to get an investor or issues come up with construction. W