Planning Commission Minutes 2020 07 16

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes July 16, 2020 Page 6 of 12 Howe says it is confusing though because if you read the first sentence of the proposal, it says that the applicant requests to rezone from the CB zone district to the CC mixed- use zone district to accommodate retail marijuana sales. The proposal is saying that it is not just for rezoning. We are changing from auto body repair use to a retail marijuana use. He thinks they have to consider the retail marijuana or else it would not be in the proposal. Brauneis points out that this commission is not for land use planning though. Rice says that this is a change of use only though. If the applicant was changing the use for a toy store, they would still have to review it. He asks staff to confirm if that is correct. Ritchie says yes, that is correct. Staff was not trying to be misleading but be transparent to the commissioners. While the zone change is up for debate tonight, it is the transparency of what could occur. If the commissioners are not inclined to approve this proposal, she suggests that they would tie the denial back to the criteria. Howe says that that is a good idea to go back to the criteria. He reads criteria two and mentions that he did not see any public comment requesting a change. He asks staff if there was any public comment for this. Ritchie says that staff did not receive any public comment in either support or in opposition for this proposal. It is her understanding that the applicant had no public comment for their licensing hearing as well. Staff is leaning on all the adopted policies that support a change in development characteristics through the 2003 framework plan and chapter 17.14 from the code zone change to the mixed use. She agrees with Vice Chair Rice that this is more of a technicality zone change to comply with the city’s own code. The alternative is that you have a vacant property. This property cannot be used other than for an auto body repair use unless there is a zone change. The community desires change and transition in this area. That was staff’s perspective. Hoefner says that he thinks it is worth having a look at the Highway 42 framework plan to look at what uses would be desirable there versus what uses are there or were there in the early 2000s. He thinks the desirability of the change of use there has existed for a while. Rice says that the key to revitalization for this area is the coal creek station project. If that project were to ever move forward, it would change that area’s whole character. He suspects that the adjacent properties would want to come along with that. Moline says that they need to think about approving a rezoning that will better benefit the town. We need to look at the long term zoning. Howe mentions that it has previously been discussed that this is change is crucial for the revitalization. McCaslin was another area in the city that we have tried to revitalize and had a similar approach as this one. He asks staff if that worked and if staff believes that this change and this retail will revitalize this area?