Regular Meeting
Chair Karen Schoonover called the meeting to order at
Upon motion by Dianne Wenslow, duly seconded by Karen
Schoonover, the minutes of the
MCDPS Staff Reports (draft
- Wedgewood Villas PUD Site Plan
- Wedgewood Villas PUD Subdivision
New Business
An Application for Site Plan Review and Preliminary Site Plan for Wedgewood Villas P.U.D. Subdivision was received and copies previously distributed to the Board. The MCDPS meeting to review this site plan and subdivision plan is scheduled for Wednesday, December 3, 2008; the MCDPS (draft 12/3/08) Staff Reports relative to this matter were available on-line as well as distributed earlier tonight. The Board will be reviewing the applications tonight.
Review of Site Plan
David Lewis (Lewis Land Professionals) – Typically we would have a preliminary plan/plat (we kind of use these words interchangeably) and that would more or less your typical subdivision plan that shows the street and lot configurations, the zoning requirements for setbacks, drainage and waste water management, sanitary sewer and water to all lots, fire protection, bike paths, walkways, etc. That would be in the preliminary plan and that is pretty much the plan that was submitted. It’s more or less a general preliminary plan or sometimes called a general development plan or preliminary subdivision plat. For a site plan typically the terminology is used if we were going to build a new town hall facility here where we would show the building footprint, building square footage, handicapped parking, number of parking spaces, curbs, lighting, etc. You get into a lot of detail with a site plan and that was one of our concerns when we looked at MCDPS comments – the basic comment was disapproval of the plan because the site plan did not include adequate detail for buildings, the landscaping and some of those elements.
Chair Schoonover – My concern is that
this is relatively newly adopted language and if this was an issue I’m
surprised
Lewis – I could see if we were actually building the golf course clubhouse that we would need an additional sheet that detailed everything about the clubhouse and parking and demonstrate that we have adequate parking, ingress/egress and access for a fire truck but since the clubhouse and everything is already there we didn’t see the need for a detailed site plan for the clubhouse.
Zoning Inspector – If the clubhouse is part of the open space it could be why they are asking.
Lewis – Right, because it’s within the subdivision boundary so everything that is in that is part of the plan.
Staff Comments (p. 2). 1. Section 309.08 C. e. … states that a Preliminary Site Plan and GCPUD Overlay District designation is required before the applicant may proceed with Preliminary Plan (Subdivision) approval. It is not clear whether the applicant intends for the site plan submitted entitled “Preliminary Plan for Wedgewood Villas PUD Subdivision” to function as both a Preliminary Site Plan and a Preliminary Subdivision Plan.
Chair Schoonover – So basically that is what we were talking about.
Jason Brenner (Lewis Land Professionals) – Under 309.08, the application approval process is where we looked at what stuff to get for the approval and it says the application for site plan approval shall be submitted to the zoning inspector (it was submitted to her) and when complete forwarded to the Zoning Commission and the Medina County Planning Commission (MCPC). That’s where we thought we were at this time.
Chair Schoonover – That’s right.
Brenner – Then the Zoning Commission shall review the application and make a recommendation to the Township Trustees within 45 days after the last public meeting. Step 3 says the MCPC may simultaneously review the application as a site plan and/or as a subdivision.
Chair Schoonover – “and/or”.
Brenner – Yes, “and/or” and so we are before you tonight and before them tomorrow – that’s the concurrent as a subdivision. The MCPC shall review the site plan application and make recommendations at its next regularly scheduled meeting (tomorrow). MCPC’s recommendation shall then be forwarded to the township zoning commission and to the township trustees for their consideration. That’s where we thought we were at in this process.
Zoning Inspector – The MCPC is supposed to be looking at it and I think they would be looking at it as a preliminary site plan.
Brenner – Site plan or Subdivision plan?
Zoning Inspector – I’ve always called them preliminary site plans but as it was said earlier the terms are interchangeable – neither one is the same quite frankly but as far as the golf course club is involved, those are existing buildings so just by showing them I think would be sufficient as you are not adding anything to them. I’m not sure where the MCPC comments were coming from.
Chair Schoonover – When I reread the text I could see where there were parts of the text that were somewhat nebulous.
Zoning Inspector – This is strictly a
review by you, Zoning Commission, and it has to go by law to the MCPC and they
do have to approve where the Subdivision stands as well as the township. Theirs can be more restrictive or ours can be
more restrictive, it doesn’t matter.
Then assuming you get the MCPC approval on this, you do have to get their
approval on the Subdivision. On a
Subdivision they have to approve so it supposedly meets the
Chair Schoonover – Does it have to come back here to the Zoning Commission with their approval on a Staff Report or does it just have to go to the trustees?
Zoning Inspector – Well, it depends. If you were to approve this tonight with the MCPC tearing this thing apart tomorrow night then that would not be good. If you were to table it and then tomorrow night the applicants have a chance to convince everybody that maybe MCPC should look at it in a different fashion, then it would have to come back to your board for approval because technically you have it tabled.
Wenslow – Question, this is just the Subdivision – this is not any renovation to the existing clubhouse.
Mike Cavey – Correct.
Wenslow – It was my understanding that the clubhouse was going to be renovated and I was wondering if that was going to be included in this plan.
Zoning Inspector – If they do inside renovation, it’s just a remodeling permit. If they add stuff on then it’s still remodeling but it’s a different ballgame.
Brenner – At this time I don’t believe the applicants have any plans to do any renovation outside or inside.
Cavey – No changes at this time.
Staff Comments (p. 2) 2. Section 309.01 … The plan as submitted provides for 47 individual building sites on an 1800’ cul-de-sac. This would not be considered creative or imaginative even under standard regulations.
Ray Hanley – Well, we are all taken back by this comment.
Chair Schoonover – Actually, Mike (Cavey), I believe we had talked at one time before we had seen any plans whether this was going to be somewhat like Westfield on the Green where there could be a group of four homes looking a certain way. You had explained to me that there just isn’t space to do it that way and configure the greens.
Cavey – That’s correct. If you kept going off with spurs like that it just takes up more acreage. Logistically I have to get the golfers out and back and if you spread it out then I’m going to loose a corridor here or there to get the golfers out and back. What this plan does it allow almost every house here to have a golf course view and we discussed at length about putting landscaping in. We are putting in a new practice area in to bring everything up to them. For a resident who wants to live on a golf course, this is just ideal.
Lewis – Patrice (MCPC) didn’t have the benefit of seeing the golf holes or perhaps she didn’t understand them but we went ahead and drew in the greens and the T-boxes and you can see if we put the road going east and west the continuity is going to be severed because the golfers have to be able to go from hole to hole.
Chair Schoonover – Not only that but it would have to bisect the creek that runs through there.
Lewis – Right, we have the big creek that comes down through here so in areas prone to flooding we don’t want homes there. This is on the ridge and from up there on top you can see miles out.
Cavey – That was one of the things in the comprehensive plan revision. They listed our property because of the views that you get and that’s exactly what we are trying to do. These people will have tremendous views.
Lewis – That’s really the whole reasoning of where the street is and the cul-de-sac etc.
Chair Schoonover – I know one of the things in the comprehensive plan revision is that they want to avoid cookie cutter houses. At the same time, this is just one leg into the golf course. Does the board feel this goes with the plan, can you see the validity of it?
Biskup – As far as the cul-de-sac I wouldn’t see that being a problem at all because it’s in a good spot for good visibility and it flows with everything on the golf course. I’d much rather live with a view than look down into a ravine or somebody’s back deck. When I read comments from a lot of things with the MCPC they contradict themselves from what they say and what is actually done out there (in my opinion). As far as cookie cutter houses, you guys are going to have different options for homeowners to purchase as far as types of homes, correct?
Hanley – We submitted the Homeowners Association (HOA) documents and they say that 5% of the front have to be stone fascia, there are certain types of vinyl siding, shake shingles in the front etc. so we are designing all of that into our HOA and the homes are going to be 1800 – 2000 sq. ft. so there will be some control over what is built there.
Cavey – They will be custom built homes – local custom builders.
Zoning Inspector – Custom design builders meeting minimums.
Brenner – Within a range more or less, they have to fall into certain guidelines.
Zoning Inspector – They are putting in minimums and putting in types of materials that can be used on the roof and the face and it’s definitely upgrading from anything that would be considered in my mind as a cookie cutter house.
Chair Schoonover – Even though the comprehensive plan revision hasn’t been adopted yet I just wanted to be sure that we had some dialog on that issue.
Lewis – There’s one other thing that pretty much directed where the development had to occur. We can’t provide sanitary sewer service to anything south of a certain point. It would have been nice to have some homes back here but we can’t get sewer or water to them and again we talked about the creek running through here so that kind of severs the question. Then we’ve got the clubhouse, the existing parking lot, the cart building, the pro shop, the cemetery, the commercial septic system and the lake so you are limited as to what you can do there.
Wenslow – When you are talking about the cul-de-sac on this corner here, did we talk about eliminating one of those houses on that corner? (No. 47)
Zoning Inspector – It doesn’t meet the setback on one of them.
Brenner – We’ll speak to that. One thing if we were to try to put pods of houses, nine times out of ten what ends up happening is the back window of the pod here is going to be the same as the pod over here and they would be looking at each other’s back yards. These are all looking out at golf course. As to No. 47, the building envelope does measure 75’ from the right-of-way (not the lot corner) – the building envelope is 75’.
These are going to be single-family lots.
Zoning Inspector – If they are single-family lots then the lot has to be 75’.
Lewis – No, we had this discussion – and as long as the building is 75’ away, we can landscape it because we can just change the configuration of the house a little bit to get it to the 75’.
Biskup – That’s what I remember.
Wenslow/Meinke – I remember that too.
Brenner – That corner lot was a tough one – from your building regulations, minimum setback to existing right-of-way shall be 75’, mounded and landscaped.
Lewis – In all honesty if our plan is deficient anywhere it’s in showing that landscaping and that’s where you want to see some detail. It will be submitted.
Zoning Inspector – Yes, there’s supposed to be landscaping around lot 47.
Hanley – That’s probably going to be the model and we can put a deck on and landscape.
Cavey – Because it is difficult, it’s easier if we do it and we’re planning on putting a model there.
There was a review by the board members and the applicants of the site map, the boulevard, the cul-de-sac, the island, the lot sizes, etc.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 3. Section 309.02 E. … The plan does not identify the sensitive environmental area such as wetlands, forested areas, etc.; therefore it is not possible to establish whether the Plan preserves such areas.
Brenner – The environmental sensitive area is the creek and we are not touching the creek. We’re up on the high lands. There might be wetlands there but we are not touching them.
Meinke – How much of that area is trees right now, where the cul-de-sac would go?
Cavey – There is a tree line that comes down here. There are trees there because we are taking out a whole golf hole.
Meinke – Are these big trees – mature trees?
Cavey – They are mostly made of ash and were a fence line in the Bowers farm many years ago. Any of those that can be saved will be saved. We moved probably about 18-20 trees. I had a big tree spade come out and we moved every single tree that was in the way right now and put them on the golf course. Every single tree is important so we are moving them and putting them where the golf holes are going to be or as protection or for development if we want to seal off an area that might be prone to having golf balls come through. Every tree that we can move, we will move.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 4. Section 309.05 … The Plan does not indicate whether all 80.51 acres will be dedicated for perpetual open space, or whether the open space in excess of that required is a transition use.
Chair Schoonover – The open space was one of the things that they definitely wanted clarified because I think the question is who is going to maintain what open space.
Biskup – We talked about that previously. The area where the homes are going to be and the common areas between the homes was going to be taken into the association to be responsible for and then everything else would be for the golf course to maintain, correct?
Cavey – We are going to own or lease
or however it’s done all the green space like we are doing in
Chair Schoonover – What else does the association do?
Cavey – The center if we get that approved – the turning circle.
Chair Schoonover – And the yards for the houses?
Hanley – That is being mowed but it’s going to be a payment from the persons living there, a monthly fee.
Cavey – The HOA will be responsible for paying the irrigation of all the yards even though they are private and also for the plowing. They are going to be maintaining the signage area and the circle. We maintain everything else.
Hanley – We have a management company that collects that money and then pays the bills.
Chair Schoonover – What would happen to this property is the golf course would go under – what guidelines do these homeowners have?
Brenner – The homeowners only own a fee simple lot. They are only going to be responsible for the particular lot that they own.
Lewis – As far as property taxes, the individuals would just pay for their own home.
Zoning Inspector – This is a Subdivision but if the golf course goes down and this open space goes fallow, the association has a vested right in this open space so this open space is theirs. If it is not a golf course, it’s just open space. It’s in the D&Cs, which I just got but haven’t read yet.
Cavey – Once the open space is set aside and can’t be developed, you can’t tax it like it could be developed and the taxes will go down.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 5. Homeowner Association (HOA) documents have not been provided…
Chair Schoonover – The draft HOA
documents were submitted
Staff Comments (p. 3) 6. The amount of open space to be maintained by the HOA must be stated and its location shown.
Brenner – The red line on the plan is the open space for the boundary. I think she is asking what is required for the HOA.
Zoning Inspector – And that is spelled out in the D&Cs.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 7. A Landscape Plan has not been provided …
Chair Schoonover – We know that is missing. Obviously the applicants will be submitting that before approval.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 8. A proposed pedestrian circulation system must be indicated …
Cavey – Commonly referred to as sidewalks.
Lewis – For now the green line shown is all of our sidewalks or bike paths.
Cavey – There are sidewalks coming down here that go to the bike path.
Wenslow – How wide are the sidewalks going to be?
Brenner – Inside the right-of-way they are 4’.
Wenslow – There is more walking availability with a 5’ wide versus a 4’ wide. The reason for the question is that the Health Department is trying to get involved also in the building of developments and they are looking from the health standpoint for people to have 5’ wide sidewalks.
Lewis – It would take up more green space and also one would have to shovel 5’ compared with a 4’ sidewalk.
Cavey – As a side issue here, I’ll
share what we learned when we visited with the State Highway (ODOT) in
Chair Schoonover – I think it’s wonderful that you happen to know enough to ask the questions of someone who had the knowledge and then maybe change the way that the Parks Department and Planning Department and everybody might be looking at it. I like having sidewalks in this development and with access to the bike trails it will be good.
Cavey – That’s part of the unique stuff that we were referring to earlier.
Zoning Inspector – Usually they don’t even put sidewalks in because they figure it’s a cul-de-sac and you will walk in the street.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 9. A perimeter setback of 75’ from
existing
Chair Schoonover – That really is not ideal – it’s definitely the language – I think MCPC is interpreting it different.
Zoning Inspector – It’s not the 75’ – it’s the boundary of the sublot itself encroaches so they are just pointing out what they think of it – but it’s a single-family lot.
Hanley – We are doing the landscaping on every one of these lots so that we have uniformity. We will be planting trees on that lot. If we do landscaping on that lot and nobody wants that lot, the trees will still be there.
Brenner – It will still be landscaped even if they don’t build a model home there.
Chair Schoonover – So it’s not going to result in a maintenance concern, which was another comment.
Staff Comments (p. 3) 10. All existing and proposed buildings, driveways, parking areas and setbacks must be shown on the site plan with dimensions.
Brenner – I didn’t show the driveways on the sublots; the parking lot we didn’t dimension. I would have to glean through the zoning code to see where it says “with dimensions” as I don’t know that it did.
Chair Schoonover – Is this a new Subdivision reg?
Zoning Inspector – I’m not sure, they have changed the Subdivision regs recently. I think there is a sign when you go into MCDPS.
Brenner – That sign is for lot splits. If you are doing a minor lot split the building has to be shown with dimensions to its property line so you don’t split a building, which is something different from this. For us to go out and dimension the existing parking lots and buildings we would spend a lot of time.
Chair Schoonover – We don’t need that.
Lewis – If it’s a political area that needs clarification then we could do it.
Zoning Inspector - If there is a shaky lot (with the topo) it would be critical to show where that house was going to be put.
Brenner – You can put a 50’ x 60’ box on every lot there. If someone comes in and says I’ve got a 52’ wide house, there might be one or two lots that does fit.
Lewis – What we are showing is that every lot will fit a 50’ wide x 60’ deep house and meet all the zoning requirements for front yard, side yard and rear yard.
Chair Schoonover – I understand what you are saying. I’ll have to look in the language to see where they are coming from but I thought you just had to show existing buildings, which you have, and I’m not sure about the dimensions.
Brenner – We didn’t understand the dimensions either.
Zoning Inspector – Usually the dimensions are when you bring in the individual site plan or for a permit.
Chair Schoonover – Let’s wait to see what MCPC says tomorrow night.
Zoning Inspector – So there are no ravines, no wetlands or nothing in those 47 units, there’s no quick sand, there’s no oil wells?
Brenner – There are no oil wells. There’s the gas line and valves and appurtenances that we talked about that we are going to relocate.
Chair Schoonover – I thought I read somewhere about wells.
Brenner – The wells were on the north side.
Cavey – There’s wells over on the Bowers property and there’s a line that comes through our property and then goes back across the street.
Brenner – And that’s shown right here and the valve is right here.
Chair Schoonover – What kind of well?
Cavey – Gas well - We are working with them to relocate.
There was discussion about whether any additional parking spaces were planned, the size of the driveways and how many cars could reasonably fit in the driveways and about on- street parking. The road will be a public road. Jason Brenner stated that the Fire Department indicated they want no parking on the side with the fire hydrants, which is in the Subdivision comments.
Review of Subdivision Plan
Agency Comments –
Brad Winter – We recommend a sprinkler in every house. Our concern is getting the occupants out safely. If you build a home after 2010, it’s coming through that you are going to have to do it.
Hanley – That’s almost impossible. Nobody wants to pay for it. With this economy I’m not sure it will work.
Brenner – We’ve built 30 subdivisions
in the last 10 years and I’ve never had one fire department in
Winter – There’s not a sprinkler head in every single room. It’s like in the kitchen and in other high hazard areas. There’s a certain amount of water that is actually stored and it’s not a lot of money to put a residential sprinkler system in. The Fire Department “recommends” it and I would be happy if you guys would consider it. It’s about getting the people out safely. If the house burns down, insurance will replace it.
Cavey – I would like to see information on it. I would be open to having this explained to us and let us at least offer this as an option to people.
Winter – We are not talking about fire department connections out in front of the houses or anything like that. I can’t give you an exact cost because I think it would have to be based on square footage but with the components they are using in the buildings now – the materials are gasoline based. It’s dangerous for the fire fighters; it’s dangerous for the occupants and if we can buy them time to get out of the house safely that’s what we want to do with the residential sprinkler.
Cavey – I would like to know more detail before we say we can’t or won’t do it and let’s have a builder look at this as to what it would cost as an option to people. I would like to see this as an option especially if the country is going that way and if this is something that can be done affordably in a residential area. You need to educate the builders also.
Winter – It would be really cool to have the first development in the county to go this way, but we are not going to mandate it.
Chair Schoonover – The other thing is that the people who purchase this home, if you get a good price from your builder and whatever, this can be an additional feature.
Cavey – I’m very open minded to this idea. I want this to be something and so does my partner that people go “wow” this is a really neat development. It doesn’t have to be $750,000 homes to be a really decent development; it’s little things that you do that nobody else has yet.
Wenslow – Could this be something that people could possibly get a rebate back on?
Winter – I would say their insurance company would definitely give them a break on something like this.
Winter – What they are talking about is a pressure tank similar to that of a well pump. That pressure tank will store a certain amount of water and that way if the sprinkler head goes off only that amount of water will get discharged, which may be about a 10 minute discharge total under a certain gallon per minute. Once that pressure tank goes out then the water stops. It’s not even something that is plumbed in with the house plumbing. That way if something were to actually break in that suppression system you are not going to flood the house when the occupant isn’t home.
Cavey – An insurance man told us that their biggest claims are water pipes breaking when nobody is around.
Winter – I’ll get as much information for you as I can and we can go over it.
Winter – The other comments are all addresses clearly marked on the mailbox and the home; fire hydrants installed every 300’; and signs posted stating no parking on hydrant side of the street. You don’t have to mark fire lanes but just a small sign at the entrance of the development and maybe one down near the cul-de-sac about not parking on the hydrant side of the street, perhaps on a speed limit sign if you are going to post such signs.
Meinke – Question, instead of having a mailbox at the end of the driveway when you first come into some developments they have like one cluster hub with all these mailboxes, how is it going to be here?
Hanley – Most of those developments have private drives and the post office says I can’t drive on your private road. We are going to require uniform mailboxes at every house. However until 50% of the homes are sold, the post office will not deliver so we will end up putting a cluster box down on a nice concrete pad with some landscaping around it until at least 50% of the homes are sold. They will drive all the way up, turn around and come back to park but they will not deliver – it’s a mandatory federal guideline and they will not deviate. In our HOA documents we have mailbox and home address guidelines.
Agency Comments –
- Boulevard and cul-de-sac islands are prohibited – applicants are making application to the township trustees and county commissioners to allow this.
- Analyze the impact on the adjoining property of the proposed fill for the northern retention basin.
- No walkout basements on sublots 1-7 without an appropriate engineering study.
Chair Schoonover – That’s pretty self-explanatory.
Brenner – Relative to the retention basin with these contours it looks as if that is lower. You have a low flat area, a flood plain area, and with these contours it looks as if we are building it up. But it is actually going down as this is rather flat. It’s something we can overcome in working with them. As to walkout basements we will work with them through engineering as it is no different than the north side area.
Agency Comments –
- Wedgewood Villas Subdivision is now reserved.
- Granite Blvd. Cannot be used.
- The open space block A cannot be in two taxing districts.
Brenner – Wedgewood Villas is what it is called now but there has been some confusion with the north side so we are changing this south side subdivision to Country Club Villas. It’s one more name change but it gets us away from the two Wedgewood names and this name change will be forthcoming.
Cavey – We reserved Country Club Estates but now we want to call this just Country Club Villas.
Brenner – Medina Tax Maps has Country
Club Villas reserved for us as a name and it has
Brenner – Because of the two school districts they need the open space broke out. So we probably call that Block B and the other part will be Block A but this is being resolved.
Agency Comments –
Chair Schoonover – Sanitary sewers and waterlines are available but not beyond the last house, right?
Brenner – Correct.
Zoning Inspector – Question, you have a commercial septic system there now for the country club, are you going to change that when they bring the sewer into the subdivision?
Cavey – Remember what we wrote into
the text – we are asking to keep it; we are recycling. I’m telling you I don’t believe they (Ohio
EPA) is going to allow me to keep it.
Right now we have a totally approved package plan – we put water into
here and we pump it to our big irrigation lake and we put it back on the golf
course and it is chlorinated. We are
using that to recycle. In other states
you can put irrigation water down without ever treating it to the level that we
treat it – they use it in
Chair Schoonover – Why don’t we want
that in
Cavey –
Biskup – As soon as the sewer is running across the front of the property, they are going to want him to tap into it.
Cavey – We want to keep our package plan to recycle the water and that’s why we had you put it in the PUD text plan. The Medina County Health Department comes out on a regular basis and monitors this thing and we haven’t had any trouble with them.
Agency Comments –
Zoning Inspector – I think most of the comments have already been fully discussed. The D&Cs (HOA documents) have just been submitted for review. The landscaping was talked about with the plan to be submitted. I’m not thrilled with the 75’ but, you know.
Brenner – I found out that our attorney had already sent the draft D&Cs to the prosecutor’s office in October.
Hanley – Our attorney was waiting for the prosecutor to review.
Cavey – Normally Patrice (MCDPS) would sent them to the prosecutor but because we had worked so much with York Township with the county prosecutor and it was pretty much a mirror, the attorney said he sent them to the prosecutor as a courtesy (attorney to attorney) early so whenever they had time they could be reviewed. I don’t think our attorney thought he was going to have to formally submit them because we didn’t submit them on the north side.
Zoning Inspector – Well they have to be submitted as part of the plan and most of the time they will approve it conditioned upon the D&Cs being approved by everybody so its not something that has to be done this minute.
Agency Comments – Medina County
Soil & Water Conservation District (p. 4-5)
Chair Schoonover – This area is pretty much out of our hands.
One comment on page 5 states the plan calls for development of a fairway in or near the McCabe Creek on the north side of SR162. This area is currently in trees. It would be best to maintain this riparian zone with mature trees to help stabilize the stream channel.
I think you guys already addressed that you are moving the trees and buffering them etc.
Agency Comments – Ohio Department of Transportation (p. 5)
Brenner – We are talking with ODOT every week on multiple issues. Some of these are their standard comments. We’ve done the traffic input studies. We’ve met with them and they have the plans for the bike path already in there and the north side stuff has already been reviewed so its all in the process.
Staff Comments (p. 5-6-7-8)
No. 5 (p. 6). The property is currently zoned Rural Residential. When the Golf Community PUD Overlay District Site Plan is approved, it will be designated as the Golf Community PUD Overlay District. However, the title of Chapter 309 is Overlay District for Golf Community PUD, and in the Purpose Statement Section 309.01, it is called the Golf Community Planned Unit Development (GCPUD) Overlay District. The title of the Chapter should reflect the name of the district, and a correction should be made by the township to clarify the district title.
Chair Schoonover - If there was a problem it should have been caught by MCDPS when they reviewed the text. Are they saying we need to do another text amendment?
Zoning Inspector – I would certainly hope not because this is only going to be used one place, one time. It’s the same thing. I think they are splitting hairs on that. I wouldn’t even worry about it.
Chair Schoonover – That’s what I thought or you choose one or the other – it says Overlay District.
Zoning Inspector – What we actually have and what passed is technically the correct one so if they get upset on the whole thing, just change that.
Brenner – On the zoning data plan, it is referenced as the Golf Community PUD, GCPUD.
Chair Schoonover – Which is what I think it should be anyway.
Lewis – To satisfy
Zoning Inspector – It’s no big issue. We consider them simultaneously the same.
Chair Schoonover – They may just be pointing it out and it may be a non-issue.
No. 15 (p. 7) The end of the temporary street stub cannot be used as frontage or access for the golf course. A 10’ reservation strip must be placed on the end of the stub to prevent future access to the property without review of the Planning Commission.
Brenner - Technically that portion is shown as legal frontage on the right-of-way. It’s
no different than when we do a street stub to a property line. Patrice (MCPC) is recommending that we put a 10’ reservation strip at the end precluding any future development off of that bulb without going back through the process again.
Hanley – She just wants a little dotted line saying reservation strip.
Lewis – It’s so nobody can build a driveway into the open space without technically going back to the county for approval of it.
No. 23 (p. 8) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must be notified regarding the development of this site.
Brenner – We have letters from the Army Corps of Engineers with respect to wetlands. There are no wetlands where we are working – we are staying away from the sensitive areas.
Chair Schoonover – There again she may be reading the north side, which did have some wetlands.
Staff Recommendation (p. 8)
Chair Schoonover - The Board has already pretty much reviewed all of the Staff Recommendations previously.
Hanley – When we talked to our attorney last night what they are wanting to hear from the township, either by letter or by verbal, is that this meets your PUD requirement, not necessarily approval of the plan, but they want something in writing or somebody has to make a statement tomorrow night that the design meets the PUD.
Chair Schoonover – Does anybody else on the Board have any other comments or concerns?
Green – I think they have done a rather good job of presenting this plan and they are here tonight helping us better understand it. Hopefully Patrice and the others at the Planning Commission can be satisfied and they can continue to move forward.
Hanley – So what do we do tomorrow night when they ask, do we meet the township’s requirements for the PUD?
Chair Schoonover – Well, yeah, I would think so. I didn’t hear anybody on the board have any concerns.
Zoning Inspector – Except about that lot 47.
Lewis – What we will do then is prepare a separate plan to be called Site Plan/Landscape Plan. We will do this in a larger scale with more detail on the driveways and the landscaping, which should satisfy your board and the county.
Zoning Inspector – The landscaping plan would include up front, the boulevard and the island, assuming that those are approved.
Chair Schoonover - Allis (zoning inspector) and I will be at the MCPC meeting tomorrow night and can definitely speak to the fact that the intent of the plan meets with the township PUD for this overlay district and also speak to any other issues that we discussed this evening. What I would suggest for the Board is that we go ahead and make a motion to table this until we receive approval from the County Planning Department in writing and then at that point we would go ahead and see what their comments are and go forward.
Zoning Inspector – Yes, because they have to meet the county Subdivision regs so what happens tomorrow night is very critical. If they come up with something that we haven’t already thought about or discussed then that is going to have to be addressed. The reality of it is at this point you can very convincing say that it meets not only the intent but the requirements with the exception of the landscape plan which is going to be forthcoming.
Chair Schoonover – I make a motion that we go ahead and table this waiting on the approval from County Planning.
Mike Biskup seconded the motion. All board members voted in favor of the motion.
Old Business
A complete draft copy of the pending revision to the Lafayette Township Comprehensive Plan had just been received and copies will be available for the Board members to pick up once the office copier is fixed. The draft Comprehensive Plan will be reviewed at the next meeting.
A thank you letter to retiring Fire Chief Jim Sheppard had been prepared and the Board members signed it acknowledging his years of service to the township and to the Zoning Commission.
The next regular meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at 7 p.m. at the town hall.
Upon motion by Karen Schoonover, duly seconded by Sherri Meinke, it was unanimous that the meeting be adjourned. Adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
Marlene L. Oiler, Certified PP, PLS
Lafayette Township Zoning Commission Secretary
(Note: Minutes approved on 2/3/09.)