Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity/County Planning Board Minutes 12.18.2025 MINUTES CITY OF LAUREL CITY/COUNTY PLANNING BOARD THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18,2025 A City/County Planning board meeting was held in Council Chambers and called to order by County chair Judy Goldsby at 6:00 pm on December 18, 2025. Board Members Present: X Tom Canape _X_ Richard Herr _X_ Paul Thomae X Ron Benner X Richard Klose X Judy Goldsby X Jonathan Klasna (left at 6:30) Others Present: Amber Hatton —Deputy Clerk Treasurer Kurt Markegard —CAO Kevin Keup—Effective Image Inc Jason Gonzales—Building Official Shawn Baker Charlie Severs Public Input: Citizens may address the committee regarding any item of business that is not on the agenda. The duration for an individual speaking under Public Input is limited to three minutes. While all comments are welcome, the committee will not take action on any item not on the agenda. Disclosure of Ex Parte Communication - None Public Hearing -Love's Annexation and Zoning Chair Goldsby opened the public hearing, and Kurt presented the item provided by JSA CIVIL LLC. Kurt Markegard explained that the land was one parcel at one time. When the highway Department of Transportation went through the property, they acquired easements or a right away through one parcel. At the beginning of this summer, Loves Country Stores annexed a portion of everything east of the interchange and left out this land on the other side. They went through the annexation process, and they've extended water and sewer out the old highway to that property. They wanted to bring in the other portion of the land on the other side of the highway severed when they put in that land. When we annexed last summer we annexed a portion of their lot, not the entire lot. Loves is now requesting the other part that is on the other side of the lot that is towards the interstate to be annexed. Chair Goldsby opened the floor for public comment. Chair Goldsby asked three (3)times if there were any proponents. There were none. Chair Goldsby asked three (3) times if there were any opponents who would like to speak. There were no opponents. Love's Travel Stops&Country Store maximum signage variance request Chair Goldsby opened the public hearing for Loves Travel Stops & Country Store Signage variance request. Kurt Markegard presented for the public hearing the Loves Travel Stop and Country Stores variance request. There was some confusion last summer when they were discussing the height of the sign,they didn't discuss the overall signage of the entire site according to the new zoning code that was adopted by zoning commission in 2024. That zoning code allowed a 300 square foot area for any site within the zoning district within the city. With having that change from the old code to adopting the new code,there were 16 pages of signed code that we eliminated the entryway zoning the overlay district for S 4t" district and realized that most large facilities, large land would never be able to meet the 300 square footage. The city is asking the zoning commission to review the criteria for variance to see if it is in the best interest to essentially give them a variance from the code, the 300 square foot code that was adopted for the entire city and allows them to go and build essentially what has normally been allowed in the past. Kurt presented the Variance Report VAR-25-02 to the board. Staff Recommends that Zoning Commission consider each of the 7 criteria individually adopt findings related to each criterion then based on the findings issue a recommendation to the City council for final action. Chair Goldsby opened the floor for public comment. Chair Goldsby asked two (2) times if there were any proponents who would like to speak to the issue. Kevin Keup with Effective Images was present on behalf of Loves to help answer any questions. Chair Goldsby asked again if there were any proponents who would like to speak, which there were none. Chair Goldsby asked if there were any opponents who would like to speak. Gloria Allwin, 185 Golf Course Rd, asked "What do you mean by 300 square feet." How high are you still talking about this sign. What size are you looking for?" Staff responded 700 square feet. Gloria asked what the height of the sign was. Staff responded that the height of the pole was already established and approved by City Council. Gloria was concerned that there was now a precedence for anybody else to come into the area and decide to raise their signs. Staff explained that there wasn't a precedence they would have to go through the variance process so there would still be potential for a public hearing and council approval. That's a process for anyone that wants to do land development. Chair Goldsby asked if there were any opponents who would like to speak. Bill Tiefenthaler, 2331 Highway 10 W, voiced his concern for signs lower in the sky verses the ones that are on the banner area, they seem quite large. He had concerns for the safety of people who see it and distractions for the drivers. Chair Goldsby asked if there were any other opponents who would like to see. There were none. Chair Goldsby closed the public hearing. General Items 1. Minutes from October 15, 2025— Motion by Richard Klose to approve October 15, 2025, minutes, seconded by Ron Benner. There was no public comment. Motion passed 6-0. New Business 2. Loves Annexation &Zoning Request CAO Markegard is asking the Planning board to evaluate if the highway commercial is appropriate zoning. Right now, it was County highway zoning. Prior to the county adopting zoning, it was highway commercial City of Laurel extraterritorial. The county commissioners extended zoning around us and disallowed the City to do it. They're requesting the same zoning that has been on the books for 20-30 years, so it's the same code we previously had. Loves originally annexed the portion of land that they were going to develop on due to tax implications. At the time that they were annexing, there was no discussion about what they were going to do with the land across from the other side of the highway, so they divided up the lot. There were other discussions with the developer that they wanted to consider if they wanted a pole sign on the other property. CAO Markegard asked if the staff provided enough information for the board to recommend the application of annexation to the City council. If the Council does choose to annex them, they would then come to an annexation agreement, development agreement, and move through the process of how they were going to serve water and sewer. Motion by Ronald Benner to approved to present to the City council Loves Annexation & Highway Commercial Zoning Request, seconded by Richard Klose. There was no public comment. Motion passed 6-0. 3. Love's Sign Package CAO Markegard is asking the Zoning commission to consider looking through the sign package to see if the current zoning code is appropriate for this applicant. Our current zoning code is so restrictive that it doesn't allow what other is for highway coming with the limitations of not to exceed 300 square feet. Building Official Jason Gonzales brought up his evaluation is the current code is the total amount of sign area allowed in the non-residential zoning district shall not exceed 300 square feet, total signage and sign area is calculated by measuring the surface are of one side of the face of the sign. The report also states, per the old zoning code, that highway commercial signs located on the property shall not exceed 2 square feet in sign area for each lineal foot of local street frontage and it doesn't include interstate. It is adjacent to the interstate so we can't count on that frontage but if you count the frontage coming up the side of it, it's 1200 square feet of frontage that would allow if you did two square feet per street frontage 2400 square feet of signage that was the prior code. Loves is only asking for half of that and original code, they were looking at on our website. When they were developing this sign package they could see 2000 feet,they thought they were 100% in compliance. The board mentioned their concerns over the updating of the City's websites when codes are updated. The current code is very vague. CAO Markegard mentioned they will work on correcting the website and found there were multiple issues with the old code and new code and that they had to get the city attorney to get an ordinance change. Motion made by Ronald Benner to approve to present to the City council, Love's Sign package Variance. seconded by Richard Klose. There was no public comment. Motion passed 6-0. Chair asked if there was any other public comment. —there was none. Old Business- none Other Items- none Announcements 4: Next Meeting:January 21, 2026, at 6:00 pm As of December 5, 2025, KU and Forrest Sanderson is no longer representing the City for planning items. Adjournment: Motion by Richard Klose to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Ronald Benner. There was no public comment. Motion passed 6-0. There being no further business to come before the Board at this time,the meeting was adjourned at 7:16 PM. Amber Hatton Deputy Clerk Treasurer