Bryan Pack stated if you make a motion to approve, it should be contingent upon the Conditional Use Permit approval by City Council. Chair Pam Gardiol stated that she needs clarification why there are 95 units and also 160 units. Lance Anderson stated this is a brand new application that has 160 units. Commissioner Dave Robinson stated that first application was for 95 pads, structures which could have been 285 units. It was considerably more dense than this application. Commissioner Brandon Weight stated that with this density and open space, you could add benches and do more of what the Chair was describing without sacrificing the number of lots. The Commission can't require it, but we invite you to do that.
MOTION: Commissioner Perry Brown moved to approve Mojave Village Preliminary Plan, located at approximately Fitness Way and Guy Lane. AnA Enterprises, LLC-Owner. Lance Anderson-Applicant, subject to City Council approval of the Conditional Use Permit. Roll Call Unanimous.
SECOND: Commissioner Dave Robinson
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Chair Pam Gardiol |
AYE |
| Commissioner Dave Robinson |
AYE |
| Commissioner Doug Clifford |
AYE |
| Commissioner Perry Brown |
AYE |
| Commissioner Brandon Weight |
AYE |
Chair Pam Gardiol stated that the Commission is to determine if this development conforms to the General Plan and if there are any adverse impacts to the City. This is a second review. Lance Anderson stated that this report states 33 parking lots, but there are 68. We combined the Conditional Use Permit with the Development Agreement. Item F states that this project will adopt all city development standards and ordinances. We have more control over the colors in this type of development. It will meet all master planning and transportation corridors, secondary water, storm drains, parks and public safety and standard construction procedures. All those issues are in this document saying we will meet them. There will be no on-street parking and there will be signage. Because it is an overnight rental the building code added that it has to meet fire standard, with either sprinkler or thicker fire-rated walls. The exterior colors are reinforced, being in a Resort Commercial area. We have taken the funky island out of there and made longer stalls for recreation vehicles. We did a study on the garbage and now there are five dumpsters, so the street is not lined up with trash cans. He would like to put a no parking sign on the west side of Guy Lane. We also have driveways and the garages on these units. Most of you went out and saw Long Valley as an example. There is about 69 feet from one building to the other. There is a curb and then street. We will have driveway and then sidewalk. There is a profile showing the driveway, then a four foot sidewalk and then travel lanes and the inverse waterway down the middle. Sage Villas are about 49 feet apart to compare. There is a temporary drainage swell to mitigate off-site drainage. That will help with any flooding or drainage. This property is actually absorbing a lot of water. Guy Lane has a french drain we pump water out of every day. Guy Lane and Fitness Way had a retention basin in the other plan when there were no units there. Our agreement with Chinle Cliffs he is doing improvements to Fitness Way, move the retention basin down to the regional detention basin to the east and is part of the Park. It actually relieves all those properties in Mojave from having to maintain that. That is a positive. HOAs don’t maintain drainage because they are a layperson. One issue to solve is the park-in-lieu. There are no impact fees listed in the Resort Commercial. When we wrote this up, we agreed the park impact fee goes towards that Park. If you don’t want that Park, we are okay with that, and we can talk more. He has included the phasing plan. We will start on Fitness Way to get the drainage in and move to Guy Lane then move over to Chinle Park. The other item is to we suggest having the manager be to the development within 20 minutes. Even an on-site manager could possibly be 20 minutes. Fire response is between 4-6 minutes. Water line breaks tend to be between 15-45 minutes. 20 minutes is a good response time. If the HOA fails on enforcing parking on inside streets, the Conditional Use Permit has the authority to enforce. Commissioner Perry Brown stated if you add open space it takes some units out. You could add some modest open space without taking a lot of units out. Plots 77 and 84 if you removed those, you could open up the interior of the development more. Lance Anderson stated this is a very common design. When he did Indigo Trails they staggered the setbacks all the way up to the Resort Commercial. That happened long before any of the houses came in that are built around this. We have the sewer pump station, antennas and high density over here. If we want to put amenities on this property, we will take out some lots. He does have ideas for that. Commissioner Brandon Weight stated if the money doesn’t go to the Park, the amenities only go to this privatized development. No one else can access them. If we repurpose this money to the Park and it gets developed for all residents to enjoy, it is an enhancement and benefit to the community overall. Lance Anderson stated yes. He would love to put a pool there because Doug Bennett with the Washington County Water Conservancy District recently discussed putting in more public pools rather than HOA pools so more people can enjoy them. This is so close to the park, he thought let’s build a beautiful park. They are okay with it either way. Put houses where houses go and parks where parks belong. This is a Resort Commercial zone and not attainable housing. This will be around $4-425k range. Commissioner Perry Brown stated that he is not asking to substitute, but rather open up a little more internal space and put in some benches and landscaping. Lance Anderson stated every green spot is 20 feet wide. There are a lot of parking stalls, and they don't need them all, but it was available space, so he put them in there. That is probably 30 feet there. Let’s take out some parking to put benches. Those are big spaces and it is 10 acres. If necessary, he can take some lots out. Chair Pam Gardiol inquired if there were any adverse impacts to this Conditional Use Permit? Commissioner Dave Robinson stated that on the park we have talked about the amenities inside a development that no one else can use. Actually this is the way it used to be done. It goes to a park near your house instead of a little tiny swingset in the corner. It costs them more to donate that money than it would be to lose a couple of houses. He really likes that about this project. We have finally been able to do this and now people want to backtrack that desire. He really appreciates them adding the extra parking spots and longer spaces for recreational vehicles. As you are driving that road it is a tunnel that can barely fit in the road. There was no room for visitors. He has doubled that parking. Chair Pam Gardiol stated that in Long Valley she has been impressed with some of the things they put out there. She looked specifically for ways for people to interact with each other and the way the houses were built. She is thinking of our General Plan and sensitivity to the natural environment, which this does not have. Preserving open space is also not a part of what is being built, and clustering and buffering to preserve scenic and natural resources. She realizes it is Resort Commercial and the possibility exists that maybe some of these could be attainable housing, who knows if that will happen. The adverse effect to this is feeling like a sardine can, there is so much filled-in space. He likes that the applicant has driveways and sidewalks for and then the street for an opportunity to connect. This sets a precedence for when SITLA bring their application in and undermines the very thing in what we are trying to create which is community, organic and spontaneous connection. Even though she loves the idea of the Park, what precedence are we creating by not doing open space here? Bryan Pack stated this is Resort Commercial and there is not many other spots in the City that still need to be developed in that zone. This is not zoned Single-Family Residential and from a precedential standpoint there isn’t one. You need to take every piece of land as it comes forward to you. There is no concern on his end of that. Chair Pam Gardiol stated that community means connection and people are concerned on the impact of their neighborhood by design. How does it integrate with adjacent area and integrate with other areas? Whatever we build needs an organic flow through the City. She believes there are adverse effects with its intensity. Commissioner Perry Brown stated that what surrounds this development is townhomes to the north. To the west are single family homes on modest sized lots, and on the south there is no proposal yet, it is undeveloped. To the east is a park. Commissioner Brandon Weight inquired why this doesn’t mean community to Chair Pam Gardiol? Are you equating a park or a picnic area as community? This appears to him to be a community of like-minded individuals. Chair Pam Gardiol stated that she lived in Bellevue Washington in a large development and in the two years she lived there, she met one person that entire time. The only common place she saw was the mailbox bank and behind it was grass. Put a bench and an awning there and pick up our mail and meet others and have an organic connection. Learn about our neighbors rather than continue to perpetuate what we are doing in society, which is isolation. She wants to help create a connection to run into someone we don’t know. Commissioner Dave Robinson stated he respectfully disagrees. You didn't see community in that. It is not about the space rather than what we find like-minded. The dog park, the Park, the church you go to, the people you do meet. If you aren’t meeting people, that is on you. You are able to go to your neighbors and say you just moved in, how are you doing? Community is about people having like-minded things to do together. In his video there was a gentleman prepping his bbq and a lady across the street came and talked to him. Because they were friends. They made a connection. Community is much broader things than closeness of houses and if there is a bench at the end of the street. Community is where you find it if you want to look for it. He is friends with everyone on his street and communicates with them on a regular basis. That is how community is created. Chair Pam Gardiol stated community is like-minded yes, but cities are systems and systems need to find ways to connect. Commissioner Dave Robinson stated the park next door sounds like a great place for that. Commissioner Doug Clifford stated he disagrees a bit that a few scattered park benches is going to get interaction for people. Historically those small spots under a tree don’t draw people but the larger attractive areas where people can go do. In Long Valley he was impressed with the recreational facility there. It is more about the quality and the size and uniqueness where we are asking them to recreate. The Park will be someplace they will walk to. He did not think that initially. He saw community there more than he has seen in a long time. He did not think the Park on an adjacent property was a good idea and he has changed his mind. Visually he thought it would be more crowded than when he went out and looked. The units themselves, the parking and the sidewalks he thinks will look good. He thinks this could be an attractive area for people who are looking for something for families to go. The idea that this is designed for overnight rentals he thinks is wrong. He thinks that will flip and this may actually be more family ownership. The units are nice compact homes that are attractive to young families. It didn’t seem nearly as crowded or confining as he thought. If the Park looks anything like what they built there, that is a much better idea than a tree or bench here or there. Commissioner Brandon Weight stated that he went out there and he wants to politely challenge an appeal to the Chair, her perspective is correct but the philosophy is off. He came to St George and rented to see where he wanted to live. He rented a townhome in Santa Clara next to Gubler Park and it had a playground and amenities and we never used those facilities. We went to other parks because there were more people. The diversity here may not be conducive to the community you are expecting to develop. We took our kids to adjacent parks finding other young families rather than our amenity on-site. We fell in love with the area because of those parks and the warmth we found there and decided to settle in Ivins. It is unfair to say the only way to get community is by amenities alone. He agrees with the other Commissioners that this feels right to him. The parking is good and the dumpsters are good and he doesn’t think it will be overnight rentals but more long-term residents. Our community needs to invite people here and this makes that possible. Commissioner Perry Brown stated that several months ago we talked about that Park but now the City has that land, this will accelerate development of that. This is a relatively dense but small area to build a community. The townhomes to the north will use this Park as well and pull these communities together. He has been a proponent of the Park because it has advantages. The second comment is that no parking on the streets seems to work. He thinks that can be controlled with rules and signage. This is less than ten acres and dense so he was looking for a little more elbow room but not as a substitute for the Park. There are a couple places for openings with some landscaping for visual space. That is not to be a substitute for the Park. Chair Pam Gardiol stated in Bellevue Washington there were a pergola and benches and wondered why anyone in the rain would sit on these benches on to arterial streets, and she was humbled by how many people gathered there. Build the gathering place and people would come. It is not exclusive that they have the Park but think of the community as a system to create organic opportunities for people to connect who wouldn't normally for all members of the community.
MOTION: Commissioner Perry Brown moved to suspend rules for Items 4A and 4B to reverse the order and look first at the Class V Conditional Use Permit. Unanimous.
B. Discuss and consider recommendation on a proposed Class V Conditional Use Permit Application for Mojave Village. Located at approximately Fitness Way and Guy Lane. AnA Enterprises, LLC-Owner. Lance Anderson-Applicant
SECOND: Commissioner Dave Robinson
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Chair Pam Gardiol |
AYE |
| Commissioner Dave Robinson |
AYE |
| Commissioner Doug Clifford |
AYE |
| Commissioner Perry Brown |
AYE |
| Commissioner Brandon Weight |
AYE |
MOTION: Commissioner Dave Robinson moved to approve recommendation on a proposed Class V Conditional Use Permit Application for Mojave Village. Located at approximately Fitness Way and Guy Lane. AnA Enterprises, LLC-Owner. Lance Anderson-Applicant based upon their discussion, application and findings by the Staff. Roll Call Unanimous.
SECOND: Commissioner Brandon Weight
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Chair Pam Gardiol |
AYE |
| Commissioner Dave Robinson |
AYE |
| Commissioner Doug Clifford |
AYE |
| Commissioner Perry Brown |
AYE |
| Commissioner Brandon Weight |
AYE |