PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES REGULAR MEETING October 9, 2018

Transcription

1 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES REGULAR MEETING Chair Patel called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. ATTENDANCE: Chair Ankur Patel; Vice Chair Cheryl Schneider; Comms. David Flinchum, MB Hague, Brett Leone, Peter Robbins, Daniel Zuniga, Frank Fore (1 st Alternate); John Sickler, Director of Planning and Zoning; Peter Meyer, Senior Planner; Garret Watson, Senior Planner; Thomas Baird, Attorney; Valerie Hampe, Secretary. MINUTES: Regular Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, September 17, Comm. Robbins moved to approve the minutes, as revised by staff; seconded by Comm. Hague. The motion carried unanimously by consensus. Comm. Flinchum arrived. CITIZEN COMMENTS: None. REGULAR AGENDA: A. OLD BUSINESS: None. B. NEW BUSINESS: 1. FPL Service Center Site plan amendment application to add a private fueling station with an above ground fuel tank, on a 6.5± acre property located at 100 S. Delaware Boulevard. (PZ# 3491) Town Council consideration: November 20, 2018 Comm. Robbins said he is a current employee of Florida Power & Light (FPL). He recused himself and left the dais. Emily O Mahoney of 2GHO gave a Powerpoint presentation on behalf of FPL and noted that FPL representatives were present. She described the requested site plan amendment for a fueling station, said public outreach is underway and concluded by saying the applicant had no issues with the proposed conditions of approval. Peter Meyer, senior planner, said Staff recommended approval. The Town had not received any inquiries from the public regarding the amendment. He noted that the applicant would be present at the neighborhood residents quarterly meeting. Staff recommended a condition of approval for landscaping to screen the fuel tank so the screening could be enforced by Code Compliance. Chair Patel asked for disclosures from the Commission and there were none.

2 PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION - Page 2 FPL Service Center cont d Comm. Leone asked where the new oak would be placed and said he was not in favor of jamming trees into spaces. Ms. O Mahoney explained the phasing plan for the oaks and said they would not be placing it under the existing canopy. Comm. Hague said she would have preferred the application to come to the Planning and Zoning Commission after the neighborhood meeting rather than before. Comm. Fore asked if the application would come back to Planning and Zoning if there were concerns at the neighborhood meeting. Mr. Sickler said that it was possible, but noted that the signs for the application were put up early and Staff has not received any comment from the public. Comm. Fore asked how often the fuel tank would be refilled. Patti Earley, fleet fueling operations specialist for FPL, said probably every three to four weeks. Comm. Flinchum asked if the application was being reviewed by the Commission because the use is an existing nonconformity. Mr. Meyer said that Staff wanted to bring it through the public hearing process because it is an above-ground fuel tank. Mr. Sickler said that Staff did not consider this to be a minor amendment. Comm. Fore asked why FPL isn t using electric trucks. Jon Rosenthal of FPL said that they have some and are adding more every year. Chair Patel opened the floor to public comment and there was no response. Comm. Leone moved to recommend approval with Staff recommendations; seconded by Comm. Flinchum. The Commission was polled and the motion carried unanimously (7-0 vote). Hague Y Leone Y Zuniga Y Flinchum Y Fore Y Schneider Y Patel - Y Comm. Robbins returned to the dais after the vote. 2. Town Hall Police Building and Parking Special exception and site plan amendment applications to add a 2.0± acre parcel along Indiantown Road and construct a new Police building, Veterans Memorial and parking lots, on a 22.5± acre property, located at 210 Military Trail on the southwest corner of Indiantown Road and Military Trail. (PZ# 3507) Town Council consideration: October 16, 2018 Chair Patel asked for disclosures from the Commission and there were none. Thomas Baird, attorney, conducted the swearing in of witnesses. David Brown, the Director of Utilities for the Town, said Town Council has created a strategic priority to provide a hardened police facility and IT data center. He discussed the plan and noted that Council specified a coastal architectural theme and cited features of the Jupiter Hills Country Club as desirable to mimic. He said there is an aggressive schedule and added that there will also be a veterans memorial and site improvements.

3 PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION - Page 3 Police Building and Parking cont d Rob Castrovinci, architect with Song and Associates, said representatives from Kimley Horn, the civil engineering firm, were also present. He discussed the site plan, architecture and phasing of the project. He added that there will be an eight-foot wall around the police building at the request of the police. Mr. Castrovinci explained that there were two issues on which the architects and Staff disagreed: the height of the precast around the bottom of the building and the style of stucco on the upper portion of the building. Song and Associates proposed a seven-foot high precast panel and stucco in a lap siding style. Staff recommended a five-foot high precast and smooth stucco. Garret Watson, senior planner, explained the parking calculations and said there would be more parking than required for peak demand. He said that buildings in the Civic District are to have an institutional look and Staff is interpreting Code to consider lap siding an incompatible material. Staff recommended the five-foot height for the precast panel to keep the building at a pedestrian scale and to be compatible with the Community Center. Comm. Robbins asked if the addition of parking on the south side of the Community Center would reduce the overall greenspace in the municipal complex. Mr. Watson said yes but the amount of greenspace will still meet Code. Comm. Leone said he understood that the height of the precast band on the Community Center should be lower because the public is always walking up to it but said they won t be close to this building as often. Comm. Leone asked if the recommendation for smooth stucco was based Staff s interpretation of the material for the Civic District, which is supposed to look institutional. Mr. Watson said the Code specifies architectural materials which are incompatible with the district. Mr. Sickler said the Code speaks to the style being institutional. The second item in the list of incompatible materials for exteriors and architectural elements is wood siding, painted or weathered. When wood is required, we allow stucco treated like wood and designed like lap siding to serve the purpose of meeting the architectural style components. The intent of the Code is to produce a specific style, so whether you use the material or not, if it looks like the desired style, we ve consistently interpreted that as meeting the intent. Mr. Sickler said that it s not that we don t like the look of lap siding but it is inconsistent with the architectural guidelines for that district. Comm. Leone asked the applicant if lap siding is traditionally used on institutional and non-institutional buildings. Mr. Castrovinci stated that they have used it on both types and that there is no standard. Comm. Leone suggested a sidewalk connection to the Community Center from the 12 parking spaces that bubble up toward the building on the south so that people would not have to walk through the parking lot. He added that perhaps the Community Center entrance could be reoriented to the southeast corner as part of the master plan or future renovations.

4 PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION - Page 4 Police Building and Parking cont d Vice Chair Schneider asked what the plans were for the existing Police station. Mr. Brown stated that the Town Council will be discussing that item on December 4 th. Vice Chair Schneider said the turn from northbound Military Trail into the main entrance is awkward and the site lines are not very good. She asked that Staff check in to improving the median alignment on Military Trail. Comm. Hague asked about the height of the Community Center in relation to the proposed building. Mr. Watson said the new building would be 37 feet high at the midpoint of the main roof and 48 at the peak of the tower element. The Community Center is 43.8 to the top of the flat roof. Comm. Zuniga asked how the lap siding could be approved. Mr. Sickler said the Code could be interpreted that literally the material is the determining factor since what the code says is wood siding. However, Staff has consistently applied the Code to refer to the look, so if something looks like wood siding it is considered wood siding. The Council will ultimately decide, but a different interpretation would set a precedent. Alternatively, the Code could be changed to allow more architectural flexibility in the civic district. Comm. Zuniga asked where additional gym space would be built. Jill Lanigan of Song and Associates replied that the master plan calls for it to be in the current parking area on the south end of the property, adjacent to the high school. Comm. Fore asked for clarification on the greenspace for the Master Plan. Mr. Brown further described the master plan to construct a new Town Hall and remove the current Town Hall building. He said there would be a large greenspace area toward Military Trail. Comm. Fore asked if the parking study took into account the existing Town Hall and police building. Mr. Watson said yes; in addition to the new building so the estimate is very conservative. Comm. Fore referred to Section (m) and requested that be brought up on the screen. He said in his 30 years of construction experience, when a material is prohibited it is the material that cannot be used and not a look that isn t allowed. Comm. Flinchum noted that a lot of the building will not be visible behind the eight-foot wall and asked about the shrubbery planned for the wall. Tricia Richter, landscape architect with Kimley Horn, said the maintained height of the shrubs would be four to five feet; not large enough to hide in. Comm. Patel asked the following: Why are the sidewalks adjacent to the building proposed to be different widths? Mr. Watson said some of the parking areas have wheel stops and some have vehicle overhang. Why isn t lighting proposed on all areas of the sidewalk around the building? Mr. Watson said Staff would review an overall lighting plan at the end of the process. Why won t Neighborhood Enforcement Team and Community Youth Organization have their own areas in the building? Ms. Lanigan said they will be in the Patrol Bureau area since they are in cubicles rather than walled offices.

5 PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION - Page 5 Police Building and Parking cont d Mr. Brown stated that the floor plans were designed in conjunction with police staff and their needs have been incorporated into the building. Mr. Sickler reviewed the Civic District code language in Section (n) and (o) for compatible and incompatible materials and architectural elements on the screen, as requested earlier in the meeting by Comm. Fore. Comm. Patel opened the floor to public comment and there was no response. Comm. Fore said he does not interpret the Code to prohibit stucco in the form of lap siding and he was in favor of it. Institutional appearance is something that is relative to a community and we are a beach community. Comm. Zuniga said he trusted the architect s opinion about lap siding but had reservations about setting a precedent that could cause problems in the future. Comm. Hague was also concerned about setting a precedent but said she preferred lap siding and the higher precast panel height. Vice Chair Schneider said she did not have a strong opinion regarding the lap siding since she doesn t understand what the overall plan is for the complex. She did prefer the lower height precast panel. Comm. Leone said he was concerned about setting a precedent with lap siding but it was unclear how much more development would occur in the Civic District. Either flat stucco or the lap siding would look good. He said he was indifferent about the height of the precast panel since there would be an eight-foot wall around the building. He was also concerned about moving parking away from a heavily used building and mentioned that future renovations to the Community Center should consider moving the entrance to the southeast corner of the building. Comm. Robbins said he was encouraged to hear there would be an increase in greenspace in the new master plan after the initial reduction to provide parking. He said it would be good to have servers backed up off-site in addition to having a hardened data center. Comm. Patel said his opinion on the lap siding and precast height would have to be based on the overall master plan. The buildings should be consistent. He was pleased that the process was being expedited and hoped the police building would be ready before the next major hurricane. Comm. Leone moved to recommend approval with Staff recommendations and communication to the Town Council that the Commission was divided on the issues of lap siding and precast height based on the master plan. Comm. Flinchum seconded the motion. The Commission was polled and the motion carried unanimously (7-0 vote). Hague Y Leone Y Robbins Y Zuniga Y Flinchum Y Schneider Y Patel - Y

6 PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION - Page 6 ADJOURN: Chair Patel adjourned the meeting at 8:20 p.m. Valerie Hampe, Secretary ANKUR PATEL, CHAIR \\jupiter.fl.us\dept\planningzoning\staff\wp51\signature - p&z\oct mins draft.docx 11/14/2018

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