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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity/County Planning Board Minutes 03.02.2006DRAFT MINUTES LAUREL-YELLOWSTONE CITY-COUNTY PLANNING BOARD MARCH 2, 2006 7:00 PM COUNCIL CHAMBERS Memhers present: Gerald Shay, Chairman Dan Koch, City Rep. Greg Johnson, County Rep. Bud Johnson, City Rep. David Oberly, County Rep. Todd Liuder, City Rep. Hazel Klein, City Rep. Others present: Cai Cumin, City Planner Cheryll Lund, City Secretary The minutes of the February 2, 2006 meeting were approved as sent out. Public Hearing- Preliminary Ma[or Plat- .Amended l,Anrel Business Park Subdivision~ 1~ Fillno. - Lots 1~ 2 & 3~ Block I & Lots 1 & 2 Block 7~ Blaire Warehime, representing Wal-Mart Corporation, spoke regarding the Major Preliminary Plat for Wai-Mart. The store will be an approximately 143,000 square foot, full service Super Center. The store will not be the typical red, white and blue store but will have a full masonry front. There will be no roottop units seen from pedestrian level Blair said Wal-Mart has met or exceeded the city's requirements in landscaping and circulation. They are prepared to meet all of the conditions that the city is requiring, with a couple of amendments. They are presently working with the adjacent property owner to provide access to the property immediately to the east. The verbal agreement is done but the documents haven't been completed or signed. Wal-Mart will provide an access that will connect at their fl'ont driveway and through their southern-most driveway which will allow all property owners proper circulation. This is still preliminary. They are only grading and seeding Parcels A& B as sellable/leasable lots for future tenants. A fuel pad is planned but not immediately. They have both on-site and underground water detention~ Eight feet below the site there is a gravel layer that percolates at 18 inches an hour. During high water season excess drainage will be collected in a drainage pond. No surface drainage is allowed off-site over that which historically occurs. Wal-Mart understands that they are within the 300-foot entryway corridor and their landscaping and signs must conform to what is required. Wal-Mart feels that once the traffic light goes in on SE 4t~ Street most of the traffic will come in off of SE 4th and not East Railroad Street. They are prepared to extend and pave SE 4th Street to Bernhardt and then Bermhardt to E. Railroad. There is a ditch on the west side of the property located in the 60-foot right of way. Wal- Mart is requesting that they not he required to put sidewalk on that side. They have plans to put a sidewalk on the east and southside of the business and would like the Board to make that a part of the conditions. Wal-Mart typically separates its semi-track traffic from its customer traffic. Track traffic will come in offofEast Railroad Street and unload on the north side of the store. Their traffic study shows that Wal-Mart will install the signal at SE 4th Street, even though Wal-Mart is not the only business contn~outing to the traffic. Wal-Mart has contact MDT to initiate a traffic signal at SE 4th Street. The study also states that due to the traffic that is predicted to come down East Railroad to Wal-Mart they will also put in a right turn lane that will enable people to turn right onto First Avenue going under the underpass. Wal-Mart is requesting a single pylon 37 foot high sign that will be located in the northwest comer of East Railroad and Bernhardt Road, and a 37 foot multi-tenant sign located in the southeast comer of the property adjacent to 1-90. The multi-tenant sign will have Wal-Mart's name on the top with tenant names below. Blair spoke regarding the request fi:om the City to design the outside of their building to fit in with the log-home look that Laurel Ford and Ace Hardware has. Blair passed out drawings of ideas that the architects will work on. Opponent: No one spoke in opposition. The public hearing was closed at 7:26 pm_ Board Discussion: It was questioned where the Phase II Enviromental Impact Analysis is as it relates to possible underground contamination fi:om the adjacent railroad property and the large petroleum pipeline nmning through the property. 2 All of the tests done so far on the dirt have come back negative. He went on to explain that they are waiting for the test to be done on the pipeline, as the owners of the pipeline won't allow anyone but their own company do the tasting. So it is just a matter of waiting for them to do the testing. Once that tasting is done the report can be finished and sent on to the City for their review. A question was brought up regarding the drainage that will come offofthe parking lot. There is a concern that the drainage will drain into farmland and contaminate it with the oil and fluids that drip offofvehicles. Blair stated that there are large pre-manufactured drainage galleries that will be buried on-site that will collect and filter those contaminates before going into the storm drain. If the gallery fills us it overflows into the pond which filters the water before it goes under the interstate into the farmland. Question regarding if any landscaping will be done on the back of Wal-Mart that faces East Railroad due to the mount of shipping containers that they will have. Blair stated that landscaping will be done on the backside of Wal-Mart to hide the containers. There is a ditch back there that will have to be 'Ye-ditched" to keep the flow of the ditch going. The ditch is Cenex's and Blair is waiting to hear fi:om them as to what the flow is. Blair pointed out that the back of Wal-Mart does face heavy industrial land use. It was also questioned why the traffic study did not include the East Laurel Exit that ties into E. Railroad Street. Blair stated that the Montana Department of Transportation has reviewed the traffic study for Wal-Mart and evidently does not feel that the East Laurel Exit should be part of the traffic study. Wal-Mart does plan to put a right turn lane at East Railroad Street going right under the underpass. The traffic study does show that there will be a long wait to get offofEast Railroad Street turning south onto 1 ~ Avenue. Question on if there is a sidewalk planned along East Railroad all the way to Wal-Mart, as there are a lot of people that may walk to Wal-Mart. Blair stated that there are no plans for Wal-Mart to put in a sidewalk the entire length of East Railroad to Bernhardt Road. It was brought up by a Board member tbat the city staff and Wal-Mart need to be talking about traffic issues that this will bring to the City of Laurel in general. Bhir stated that Wal-Mart has put forth the effort of putting a signal in at SE 4th and putting the mad through to Bernhardt mad. But there are also other retail businesses that will be coming into Entertainment Park Subdivision and Blair suggested that the city develop some type of a future traffic plan. Question on if there are plans to resurface SE 4* Street? Cai stated that many of the businesses located on SE 4i Street have signed waivers of protest for street improvements and lighting and the City needs to look into storm drain and street improvements in the area through the creation of an SID. Question whether or not Wal-Mart was going to encase the ditch on the northwest part of the property? It was stated that Wal-Mart is not the owner of the ditch and that it would be very expensive for the owners of the ditch to cover the ditch. It was stated you can't put a price on human life. Blair stated that Wal-Mart believes that they have restructured the ditch so it provides capacity for the user. He goes on to say that if Wal-Mart was in a residential area and they wore surrounded by homes then the suggestion to cover the ditch would be a valid one. But, this is an industrial part of town. He also believes that Wal-Mart or anyone can put a price on human life but he feels that they have done there best to improve a public right-of-way. They've pulled the sidewalk back to the right of way line so that the kids don't walk out next to the traffic. He feels they have done a lot to provide maximum safety to the visiting public. It was stated that the price of a pipe for the ditch would be between $10,000 and $12,000 and that is not too expensive for Wal-Mart. Cai stated that the ditch company would probably not allow the ditch to be covered. The city has had experience with the ditch company over the years and they are not receptive to eovering the ditch. The new middle school has a ditch running by it and there are things that can be done besides covering the ditch. Several board members stated it would be beneficial to have a traffic study done on East Laurel exit as there could be a lot of traffic and problems. It is felt that people fi.om West Billings will use East Railroad Street to access Wal-Mart. There was a discussion regarding putting either a sidewalk or walking path along East Railroad Street for the pedestrians walking to Wal-Mart. Cai recommended approval, subject to: 4 1. Subject to the owners of the proposed Laurel Business Park Subdivision, 2nd Filing, adjacent to the Wal-Mart property on its east side having access acceptable to them. 2. Subject to approval by the State Department of Transportation (MDT) of proposed site storm drainage. 3. Subject to MDT approval of the recommendations in the Traffic Access~'oility Study or of compliance with MDT recommendations. 4. Subject to installment by Wal-Mart of traffic light at 4th Street South and First Avenue. 5. Subject to Wal-Mart be respons~'ole for and construct to City standard the extension of 4t~ Street South from Washington Avenue to Bernhardt Road with boulevard sidewalk, paving, curb, and gutter. 6. Subject to Wal-Mart funding the right tum lane from Railroad Street at the intersection of Railroad and South First Avenue. 7. Subject to Wal-Mart paving Bernhardt Road (from 4th Street South to Railroad) to City standard with curb and gutter and with separate right and left turn lanes at the intersection with Railroad. 8. Subject to no ~s to Outparcel "B" from Bemhardt Road. 9. Provision of Landscape Plan Sheet PLS 8. 10. Provision of a detail sheet for the landscape improvements and picnic tables at the northwest comer of the proposed detention pond (Clarence Foos Park). 11. That Wal-Mart apply for a Conditional Use Permit to allow advertising for the future land uses on Outparcels "A" and "B" on the single pylon billboard for the Wal-Mart Store to be located at the southeast comer of the project site (in exchange for not allowing billboards on the Outparcels. 12. That Wal-Mart incerporate in its building and Outparcel construction design the bare pine log design similar to Laurel Ford and Ace Hardware. 13. Allow RV parking on the parking lot but without any improvements for such parking. 14. Subject to a clean Phase II Environmental Report. 5 15. A waiver of protest must be submitted. 16. Provide for a pedestrian path along the south side of Railroad Street fi.om First Avenue South to Bernhardt Road. It was stated that the Bike Path does encourage pedestrian and bike fi.iendly sidewalks or paths. Motion by Bud Johnson, second by Dan Koch to recommend approval of the preliminary plat for Wal-Mart subject to the 16 conditions that Cal recommended. Motion carried by a vote of 6-0. Update on Subdivision Re .oulationa Cal passed out copies of Senate Bill No. 116 and 290 and went over it with the Planning Board. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm. Respectfully submitted, Cheryll Lurid, Secretary 6