 Welcome Planning Commission members, staff and guests, multiple staff members are here today to ensure that the meeting runs smoothly and all applicants and members of the public are able to participate in the meeting at the appropriate times. If you're here today and would like to speak about a case, please provide your name clearly into the microphone and please be sure to sign in either at the back of the room or at the podium for documentation purposes. If you're here to speak about a case, you must speak up when the chairperson calls for a public comment. I'll go ahead and call the roll. Mr. Causey. Mr. Cohn. Here. Mr. Cook. Here. Ms. Davis. Here. Mr. Hart. Present. Ms. Thomas. Here. Mr. Tupper. Here. And Mr. Frost. Here. We have a quorum. I'll give a brief meeting overview. Applicants with requests before the Planning Commission are allotted a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time should include but is not limited to an overview of the project, case history, and any pertinent meetings held regarding the request. This time also includes all persons presenting information on behalf of the applicant such as attorneys, engineers, and architects. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the Planning Commission or staff regarding requests. During the public comment period, members of the general public are given the opportunity to address their concerns in intervals of two minutes. After the public comment period, applicants have five minutes to respond. Once Planning Commission begins to liberation, no additional comments will be permitted by the applicant or the public. The administrator has a timer and will make presenters aware of when their time has expired. The Planning Commission reserves the right to amend these procedures on a case-by-case basis. And there are there any changes to the agenda? We do have a few changes since publication. The first one is case number is now number five on the agenda, which is S plan dash twenty twenty two dash zero zero one one was added to the revised agenda since publication. This is an amendment to a site plan. Case number six annex dash twenty twenty two dash zero zero three seven has been deferred and case twelve which is a text amendment dash twenty twenty two dash zero zero zero eight has also been deferred. And then there's one correction that I'd like to note. And that is on case number on case number four under on the consent agenda. This is the confirmation of the zoning for time view drive. It was misprinted on the agenda that it said light industrial and it should have said commercial both for the interim and the recommended zoning and zoning classification. It was advertised correctly and it was posted. This was just for the agenda. So I just want to make that note in that correction. Great. Thank you. The Planning Commission uses the consent agenda to approve non-controversial or routine matters by single motion and vote. Examples of such items include approval of site plans, annexations and street names. If a member of the Planning Commission or the general public wants to discuss an item on the consent agenda you must speak up after the consent agenda is read. Then that item is removed from the consent agenda and considered during the meeting. The Planning Commission then approves the remaining consent agenda items. And I'll read through the consent agenda at this time. The first item is to approve the December 8th, 2022 minutes. The second item is under future land use map amendment and zoning map amendment for appending annexation. It's case 2, annex dash 2022 dash 0036 1109 Kenley Road. Request recommendation on the assignment of the land use classification of community activity corridor AC2 and the assignment of zoning of community activity center corridor district CAC for appending annexation. The property is currently classified as neighborhood medium density in a priority investment area and zoned RU by Richland County. Case number three is under future land use map amendment confirmation. Is LUMA dash 2022 dash 0007 1921 Pineview Drive. Request to confirm the future land use classification of urban edge community activity center UEAC1. The property is currently assigned an interim future land use classification of UEAC1. Case number four is under zoning map amendment confirmation is ZMA dash 2022 dash 0020 1921 Pineview Drive. The request is to confirm the zoning of general commercial. The property currently has an interim zoning of general commercial. And then number five is actually the site plan. This is S plan dash 2022 dash 0011 38.2 acres on Ranger Point Court. This is a request major site plan to amend a previously approved site plan to construct a 217,000 square foot warehouse building within the shop Grove Industrial Park. The property is zoned LI light industrial. And that concludes the consent agenda. Great. Thank you. Is there anyone on the commission that would like to see a portion of the consent agenda pulled off for any reason? No, here are none. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on behalf of a planning of a consent agenda item? If so, we would have that one removed. Here are none. I will ask for a motion on the consent agenda. Got a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. The ayes have it. The motion is approved. We will use the following outline for the regular agenda items. The administrator will introduce the case. The applicant will have 10 minutes to make a presentation. Planning commission may ask questions. The public comment period will be open to those present. The public comment period will be closed. The applicant will have five minutes to respond to the public comments. Planning commission may ask additional questions of the applicant. Deliberation of the action by planning commission will then take place. Once the planning commission begins deliberation, no additional comments will be permitted by the applicant or the public. So the first case on the regular agenda is under the future land use map amendment confirmation. This is LUMA-2022-0006, 3,800 Overbook Drive and 616 Super Street. This is a request to confirm the future land use classification of urban core residential small lot UCR1. The property is currently assigned an interim future land use classification of UCR1. And just as a little background, this was before the planning commission for annexation or the recommendation back in November. And this is just confirming the land use and we'll see the zoning in the next case. Okay. Is there any need for anybody to speak on behalf or against this particular request? Wade, if you have any response, ma'am, you can come up to the front. You would state your full name. My name is Norma Lisa Thing. I live at 3840 Live Oak Street. It's a couple of blocks from where the property in question. I believe it's too big of a project for our neighborhood. The streets are very small and I don't feel like I think it's gonna be really make it difficult for the residents that already live in the neighborhood. Are you speaking on behalf of case number seven? Ciber and Overbrook. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. All right, thank you. Is there anyone else present I would like to speak for against case number seven? Yes, sir. Thank you. My name is Robert Dudek, D-U-D-E-K. My wife and I live at 3850 Overbrook Drive, which is about less than half a block from this own project. We lived there from 1986. I'm an attorney in town. My wife was a Richland County School District, one teacher at Gibbs Middle School for 43 years. Her name's Valerie James. We're very concerned about this project because it is not in character with the neighborhood. The house at 3800 Overbrook Drive and the things on that property were single family and that's in the character of what people see in the neighborhood. Now they want to replace this with 31, 31 townhouses apartments, call them what you want. This is going to create a dangerous traffic situation and a bottleneck because overbrook runs into Suber, which is a very small place before the stop sign right next to the church and the minister of that church is against the project also. But these 31 projects would be dangerous for the school children along South Kilbourne, Suber Street area going to school in the morning. I go to work about seven every morning. It's already a lot of traffic there and it's dangerous. Again, it's not within, it would change a landmark in this neighborhood is what it would do and it create a bottleneck and a quagmire and it'd be a danger to it. And also we already have problems along Overbrook and South Kilbourne with the water situation, water running down Overbrook Drive. I would ask, we're going to continue to speak out against this and I just beseech you members of the planning commission to really look into this very closely. There are many people in our small community who are totally against this apartment complex, townhouse thing and we have our shared apartments. Many more. Thank you, sir. Your time limit is up. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to speak for or against this particular case number? Yes, sir. My name's Wyman Bowers. I'm the developer on this project or represent the developers and I just want to make everybody aware we're not here talking about the specifics of the project. So I just want to clarify that but I'd be glad to answer any questions on what we are here to discuss if anybody has any questions. Yes, sir. I think most of the planning commission realizes this is just a land use amendment. Land use map amendment. Thank you, appreciate it. Is there anyone else here in the public that would like to speak for or against the project? We've got two coming up. So if one would hold back for a minute. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. My name is Katie Miller. I live at 3840 Overbrook Drive that's in the Concord Oaks apartments. My boyfriend has been living at this property for almost 20 years and I've been there for almost a year come March. I think this is gonna interfere with a lot of planning and stuff because I do go to school at Midlands Technical College and overcrowding is a really bad thing. And I don't wanna have to move to another apartment because it's gonna interfere with this project. And for me, I would want to stay in this neighborhood because I'm close to my school. And I don't know what I would do if this project would be approved. So thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. My name is Whitney Denton and I'm here on behalf of myself as a community member of South Kilbourne but also representative of the South Kilbourne Neighborhood Association. I know today is merely administrative purposes for both seven and eight. I didn't want Mr. Bowers to feel by himself if nobody was here with this today. I know the next meetings when we're here for site plan reviews and such is when the time will really break down to all the nuts and bolts of it. But you have so many of us here with concerns based on what was given to us in October. So that's why you tend to see more and you're probably tired of hearing us. But we'll dig into the meat and potatoes of it. If you guys would like to walk the property, I have said as well to city council, Mr. Bowers. Anybody, if you'd like to walk that corner to understand our concerns, please do. I'll be happy to pull the pebble out of my cup holder in the car that I showed city council of what's come into my house from the crumbling infrastructure. So I mean, we do have some valid concerns but I do understand today as administrative. So thank you for your time. Yes ma'am, thank you. Is there anyone else present that would like to speak for or against this case number seven? Yes ma'am. I am Michelle Higgins. I live at 1111 Super Street. I am the president of the South Kilburn neighborhood association. Back in October, we were presented with a plan for this property. We did go out and notify the neighborhood and as you have seen from previous meetings, we have been in attendance because it is something that a lot of people do not like. Right now with what was presented to us, we have been observing that it does not meet the land use restrictions. So I am looking forward to being able to receive a new updated version and to be able to walk hopefully the property with Mr. Bowers and be able to decide what's best for our neighborhood. There are several concerns. We have trash that is going to be impacting the neighborhood because Super Street is a very small road. A lot of people cannot park on this road and be able to allow the police, fire department and ambulance services, EMS, to be able to traverse through there. We want to be able to work with the city and with Mr. Bowers to find something that will meet with what fits with this neighborhood. We ask that y'all also do that same. Thank you. Yes ma'am, thank you. Anyone else present? I would like to speak for or against case number seven. Seeing none. Are there any questions from the planning commission to the applicant or staff? Hearing none, I will accept the motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve LUMA-2022-0063800 Overbrook Drive in 16 Super Street. Got a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. The ayes have it. The motion is approved. Next case on the agenda is the zoning map amendment confirmation. Case number eight, this is ZMA-2022-0021 3800 Overbrook Drive in 616 Super Street. The request is to confirm the zoning of residential mixed district two. The property currently has an interim zoning of residential mixed district RM2. All right, any questions from planning commission to staff? If the applicant's available, if you wanna speak to that, sure can. Any questions from planning commission for the applicant? Thank you. All right, we'll go through this again. Is there anybody present that would like to speak for or against case number eight? Seeing none. Oh, yes ma'am. And we just wanted to reiterate, we are actually, we want this to be approved for annexation. We want this to be able to be a nice property within the area, but we want it to be meeting what our current housing area looks like and not something that will be looking like something that doesn't need to be in here. We want something to be proud of, just like you would want something to be proud of in your neighborhood. Thank you. Yes ma'am, thank you. Yes sir. The extremely brief since I went over my time. Oh yeah, no problem. Thank you sir. Yes, just wanted to reiterate that again, our objections and the objections you're gonna continue to hear surrounding this project and in this area are this 31 apartments, townhouses, calm what you like, are there's too many, you're gonna hear how they don't confirm with what we were told originally that this project was going to be. It is not in the character of this neighborhood. We have a lot of apartments there already, more than our share of anyone, I would say in providing multi-family. This is not within the character in the landmark of 3,800 Overbrook Drive and Super Street and that's why we continue to show up to urge that you and City Council would take a close look at the project and we just want you to know there's a lot of interest and objection to this project. Thank you. Thank you sir. Yes ma'am. My name is Melissa Crook and I live on Super Street. I've lived on Super Street since 2006 and I'm concerned about the size of this project and how it impacts the value and property of my home and the homeowners in the neighborhood. It's a really family oriented area. We do have a few apartments that are scattered around but it tends to be kids riding bikes down the street and people walking dogs and a more of a family friendly area. Super Street is narrow. People have mentioned that before emergency vehicles go down Super Street and so if there are overflow trash bins or overflow parking from visitors on a project of this size there's a concern about emergency vehicles getting through and I'm also concerned about if this project of this size is proposed to the neighborhood association that it will destroy the tree canopy in this area too. Those are my concerns. Thank you. Is there anyone in addition that would like to speak for against this particular case number? Seeing none. Have any questions arisen from the planning commission? For staff or for the applicant? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. Got a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. The ayes have it. The motion is approved. That's gonna bring us to item number nine which is S plan 2022 dash 0019 and this project entails the construction of a 119,000 square foot two building eight story multifamily development on 7.28 acres bounded by Clifton Street, Drake Street and Norris Street. The proposed development will contain 150 apartments and amenity space, amenity spaces and surface parking. The site plan illustrates that the indoor and outdoor bicycle parking will also be provided. The applicant has provided a traffic impact study that has been reviewed and approved by the traffic engineering division. In addition, the applicant has provided a phase one environmental site assessment, a geotechnical engineering report and a voluntary cleanup contract due to the property being in Brownfield. And staff would ask that if the planning commission grants this approval that they do it with staff comments and I believe the applicant is present and can explain their case. Yeah. Okay, great. Any questions from planning commission before we have the applicant come up? Any questions for staff? None. If the applicant is present and would like to come up and give a brief presentation, that'd be great. I'm David Mattson and I'm representing Tara Alta Ventures. First of all, I just want to make a correction that it is not eight stories, it's only three. So if you want to make that correction. Anyway, we're pleased to present this site plan of 150 apartments on MU1 zoning. It consists of two buildings, three stories each and there are 75 units respectively. We have a mix of micro units, studios, one bed and one bath and then two bed, two bath. And these units will be market rent. We've included smaller units to encourage less traffic and fill in the need for the community. This is a brown site, so the entire site will be cleaned prior to development. Just as far as the timeline, we started this, looking at this project spring of 2022 and we met with the staff for a DRC meeting virtually and then in June we went under contract on the property. From June until now, we met with the city staff, both virtually and in person several times and we've gone through three revisions. Initially, we were looking at a combination of townhomes and apartments because we were trying to appease both the economic impacts on us and the neighborhood association interests in density and traffic concerns. Unfortunately, once we received feedback from DHEC, they discouraged an ownership type construction and this was also economically restrictive. Then we did apartments around the property, about six or seven buildings and unfortunately, this did not meet the setback regulations and it took out a lot of the trees. Finally, we have our proposed site plan, which is two buildings and this seems to appease DHEC, the neighborhood association, neighbors, city staff and then it is most economically feasible. Our submission for planning commission November, we had the site plan needed some tweaking so we deferred until this month and now you have our final plan. We've met with the neighborhood association president twice in person and then a few times over the phone. We did go door to door twice on this project because of a revision on our plan and in September, we attempted to get as many households as possible and we didn't have enough time to hit all the homes. In our targeted area is Drake Street, Norris Street, Clifton Street and Cedar Terrace because those will be the streets most impacted by traffic. And so in December, we spent two days going door to door and went to every home at least once, not everybody's home, but we did contact 70 households and a copy of our results were included in the package and we handed out a flyer that had the final site plan that we have before you and all of our contact information if anybody had further questions or wanted to contact us. The results were in favor, 33 residents were okay, were in favor of the project which represented 47% of those we contacted. Neutral were indifferent, was 24 out of 70 which was 34% and then against we had 13 out of 70 which represent 19% of the people we spoke to. The items we took into account through this process is number one, the environmental ramifications. This site is a brown site and it has to be cleaned to de-hack standards and we've engaged Chris Stambury who has met us at the site and has drawn up a proposal which we included in our package. If approval is given today, we'll be doing a phase two environmental which will further define the scope of cleanup to be done and then we fill this as a help and a positive move for this site and the neighborhood. Homeless camps, every time we've gone on the site there are either evidence of current camps or evidence that there have been camps on the property and we feel like this will illuminate that concern for the neighborhood. And then just as far as our planning and design, we've worked with city staff for over nine months designing this site and we're pleased with the amount and quality of amenities that we have proposed. We've patterned the style of the buildings after the homes across the street and also the apartments nearby. The layout allows us to keep and maintain as many existing trees as possible so the canopy is there. We've got bike storage as mentioned and stalls to encourage riding of bikes versus cars and we're trying to maintain a safe and secure site for future tenants. And then finally the U1 zoning allows for much higher density than what we're proposing but we've tried to keep the number of apartments to a fair balance between the impact on the neighborhood, traffic utilities, et cetera and an economically feasible project. And we have done a traffic study as mentioned. So thank you for considering this project and I'll be available for any questions. Thank you. Before you head back, are there any questions from planning commission for the applicant? Certainly. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. I got one question for staff. Was the eight story just a miss in the case right up? It was. I mean the elevation showed three stories so I just wanted to make sure everybody understood it was a, it is three stories. Okay, we've heard from the applicant. We will now open it up to the public if there's anyone present that would like to speak for against the project, please step forward. Yes, sir. Hello Chairman Frost, esteemed members of the Planning Commission, fellow members, citizens of Columbia. My name is Ty Grox, I live at 1314 Cedar Terrace and I'm proud to be here. And actually my 20th year as president Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace Neighborhood Association. So let that be to a lesson to you. When you go to a neighborhood meeting, don't go to the restroom. You'll come out and be an elected president. But I wanted to tell you a little bit about my neighborhood and also tell you a little bit more what was not shared from the presenter. Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace Neighborhood has been a background of being a neighborhood that has attracted people new to the city, to people who wanna start new families. And we've also developed a reputation as a place that's been desirable enough to actually attract more public investments like our new park buildings. And while we have a good diverse mix of ranch style housing and duplex, what we do not have in our neighborhood is a large scale apartment center. And the reason why is because our homes are very modest and it gives people that old time feeling where they used to grow up in a regular everyday new environment that we are in today. And most important is that Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace, why people ask me why I love my neighborhood. Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace is where you learn the true meaning of neighborhoods. And Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace, we watch out for our children. We aid those who are in need and tragedy or in times of crisis. And most importantly, Brandon Aker's Cedar Terrace is the kind of place where you learn to spell, where you learn that you can't spell the word community without you and I. So nothing would please me more than to come here and say that the Cedar Cove at Drake Street is welcomed, but that is just simply not the case. While the metrics that were shared with you came from the applicant, I can tell you that 100% of the people who called me that actually talked with the presenters and his partner were opposed to this development. And these are the reasons why they were opposed to this development. This development would exacerbate the density at the place where density is at its highest in its neighborhood. So it would be where everybody's on top of each other, they're on top of each other some more. Not only that, but we're talking about a situation that would make getting out of the intersection of Cedar Terrace Garner's Ferry completely even more impossible than it already is. And that's also been made worse by the new Murphy USA that's been put at the end of right there, that same block. Homeowners across the street and through the neighborhood would are also afraid that their property values would become even more stagnant. I'm sorry, I'm gonna run over. And because historically- Please try to wrap it up, sir. Thank you. I'm sorry. Please try to wrap it up if you can. I will, I've got two more points and that's all. And so we are very sensitive about that subject. The next to last item is the threat to public safety. We are very concerned about the way that a fire truck could get back in there. God forbid something happened. There have been problems in the past with fire vehicles being able to get back there. And this would only make things worse. And lastly, there are still lingering questions about that open piece that where there is no development right now and with the history of that property being adjacent or nearby the old Columbia organic chemical site, those kind of questions are still lingering very much in the minds of residents who have lived there for a long time and who are new to the community. I appreciate the grace in letting me go over by a few seconds, but respectfully, I do ask that you consider voting against this. And I do want to thank the applicant for meeting with us ahead of time. But again, I encourage you to please vote no on this. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak for or against? Yes, sir. Hey, thanks for your time. My name is Ron Walden. I live at 1028 Cedar Terrace. I can't really say it too much better than the gentleman before me, but I share all of his same concerns and I would strongly urge you guys to vote against this property going in. I believe that the site plans that we saw call for something in the neighborhood of 180 parking spaces. That might not be the exact number, but it's a significant number of parking spaces and a significant number of new cars to the neighborhood that would greatly increase traffic in a way that that neighborhood really isn't meant for. I live right across the corner from where this apartment complex would go and the gentleman before me is exactly right. There's a huge bottleneck that happens on Cedar Terrace. There's really only one true entrance and exit out of that neighborhood. And it is right at the corner of Cedar Terrace and Garner's Ferry. Adding this many new cars to the neighborhood would greatly increase the traffic and would really transform the neighborhood in a way that would be, I think, hugely negative, would have a hugely negative impact on the people who already live there. Also, our streets are very narrow. In our entire neighborhood, we don't have any sidewalks. Our neighborhood is one that has a lot of joggers, a lot of children riding their bikes, a lot of dog walkers, adding this many cars to a neighborhood that has such narrow streets and no sidewalks would make those activities dangerous. We do have a park that people like to use and it's kind of the hub of those activities, but adding this many new vehicles to the neighborhood really would make those activities dangerous. I don't know where the numbers came from that made it suggest, like the applicant said, that the majority of residents are in favor of this because that's the exact opposite of what I've heard. I don't know anybody in the neighborhood that approves of this development, that wants this development here. It doesn't meet the character of the neighborhood, but maybe most concerning is the traffic that it would add and the way that it would make our neighborhood a less safe place to jog, to walk our dogs, to ride our bikes, and quite frankly, to live. So I would really encourage everybody to vote against this. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to speak for or against this case? Sir. Hi, I'm Michael Suitz. I'm a home resident at 3927 Hickory Street. I would cause with the, for disapproval of this project, more of mainly the same thing as whatever buddy on the residency has issued, is that the traffic wise, if we place a cause in the event, it's like if we had a accident on that apartment, it would close that main line, road line, where most of the people of Columbia have jobs to that direction. And it would cause us to drive through the cul-de-sac of all other neighborhoods. That which could be a potentially another accident there if God forbid something happens. The other issues is that with the traffic coming in, we have two roads that we would use. It's like either it's Tara Street or we would use the belt line. If one's closed, we have to go to the other one. But again, we will be going through a cul-de-sac. And that would cause more hazard if there was an accident. We would have more than just one fire department going into there. Thank you. Is there anyone else present? I would like to speak for or against this case. Applicant, do you wanna speak in addition to those comments? The only thing I would mention is that those that were against most of them were vehemently against. So I do definitely hear, in fact, I spoke to at least the gentleman here and his wife and then I don't know the other guy, but I do know that there were definitely people who were opposed. But as you know, what we had put in, it wasn't just us walking around doing a survey. We actually had them put their name, information about them, and then sign. And so we didn't make up any numbers. So I just wanted to make that clear. And then if there were any questions of traffic, I do have a clip from Timmins who did our traffic study to answer any questions if he did have questions about the traffic study. Sure, thank you. Thank you. At this time, we will close the public comment period, but if the planning commission has any questions, now's the time to ask. I had a question regarding the traffic study. Sure. It did say that staff recommends to follow the recommendations of the traffic study. Is there, is it the traffic engineer or the applicant could maybe speak on a couple of the recommendations associated with or as proposed in the traffic study? That is standard. That's normally standard language with regards to the traffic impact study. And I do not believe that there were any recommendations for improvement. Yeah, that's what I mean. I read no recommendations required, but. Hi, my name is Cliff Lawson with the Timmins Group address is 26 Saltree Lane, Elgin, South Carolina. As he said, the TIE didn't make any recommendations prior to the onset of the study. We met with the city traffic engineer as well as having several conversations with Mr. Chambers here to get to determine the scope of the study where we outlined the intersections where we're gonna look at any traffic growth assumptions and things of that nature. So we kind of, we followed all of the city standards and SED applicable SEDOT standards. I mean, from the intersection studied, the majority of the intersections operated acceptably level of service A, which is pretty much the best you can get. As some of the residents noted, the study did show that there could be some potential for southbound delay at the Cedar Terrace intersection, which is to be expected for unsignalized intersections. But based off the counts, it wouldn't meet the warrants for a signalization or anything like that nature. And there are adjacent facilities to where those volumes could transfer to should queuing be experienced at those locations. So I felt that no recommendations were warranted in this situation. Sure. Thank you. All of these streets in the neighborhood are city owned. Are they county owned or do we know? I just didn't know if it needed to go to the DOT for any approval, but no, okay. Give me a second. Site access only city on street. So it did not need to go to SEDOT for approval. Yeah, thank you. Clifton, Clifton and Drake are city, Norris and Cedar Terrace DOT. Okay. Any additional questions from cleaning commission for the applicant or staff? None. Hearing none, I will accept the motion. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve SPLEN-2022-0019 at 1002 Drake Street. Got a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Yeah, let's have it. The motion is approved. That brings us to item number 10, which is SPLEN-2022-0020 and this project entails the construction of two hotels, a multifamily apartment building and a parking structure on 11.9 acres bounded by Gervais Street, Wayne Street, Gadsden Street and Pendleton Street. The two hotels, which will be a Hyatt centric and a Hyatt house will be located near Pendleton Street, will contain 204,000 square feet and 301 guest rooms. The hotel will be 11 stories in height, two floors of underground parking. The five-story apartment building will be located at the corner of Wayne Street and Pendleton Street and will contain 187,000 square feet, 183 apartments and will have a parking garage. Vehicular access to the site will be through two existing curb cuts along Gervais Street and ingress only access along Wayne Street and a parking garage access from Pendleton Street. The applicant has provided a plan that also demonstrates pedestrian and bicycle circulation through the site. Off-street vehicular parking will be provided in existing surface through a combination of an existing parking surface, new surface parking and parking garages. And although there is no minimum parking requirement, the project will contain 749 parking spaces to accommodate the existing and proposed development. The applicant has provided a traffic impact study that has been reviewed and approved by the Traffic Engineering Division. And should the commission be inclined to grant this approval, we would ask that the commission do it with staffs of condition upon staff approval. I'll miss, sure. Understood. Okay, any questions from Planning Commission before we have the applicant before us? If the applicant is present, I would like to give a brief presentation, that'd be great. Good afternoon, I'm Ben Arnold. I'm the owner and developer of the property we're discussing today, 11.9 acres on Jervay, Wayne and Pendleton and Gadsden Street. And this project has been in the works, I guess you could say, since 96, but I won't go through the history. Most recently, we have gone through a number of iterations to arrive at the plan you see before you. There's a 44-page submission, so I won't go through all of that, but the highlights of it are we're developing the back five acres of a 12-acre site that contain a four-star Hyatt Centric, which is on a level that Columbia's not seen yet and will be 11 stories. And then there's a five-story portion that's a Hyatt house, which is an extended stay. So this will complement the Greek Village, the arena, the university, the business community. It's a great recruiting tool having a four-star hotel. We've met with the planning staff, the city staff planning and development services. We've also met with the CCP City Center Partnership, Vista Gill, Vista Owners Association. There's some representatives of those groups here today. And everybody's in favor of it. We've also met with the university and they think it's complementary to the student housing that they're planning to do behind us. And we have an extensive development team of architects, both in Charlotte and Los Angeles, but we also have local engineers for traffic. Jonathan mentioned we did a traffic study. It came out favorable. We didn't see any issues there. We are providing pedestrian and car connectivity. This will be a connector, really, to help to get from all the way from Blossom to Gervais Street along with the Colonial Center. And so we think the connectivity benefits, the parking for the Vista, the project, another component of the project is a 385-space parking garage, which is subterranean so you don't see it necessarily in the rendering there, but it's the apartment set on top of the parking structure. And this structure will serve office, entertainment, hotel, and multifamily, as well as the Vista. So we think it's very complementary to the neighborhood. And then the third component is 183-unit multifamily project that will be class A plus similar to what we just delivered on Lady and Assembly, except we're gonna take it up a little notch. It will not be student housing. I'm not gonna say there's not gonna be students that will rent this, but we think it will be something greatly needed in that part of town. I did have a couple minor things I wanted to mention, just more of clarification, but under planning development services, there's the combination of two tax parcels that need to be combined for issuance of a building permit. And we certainly understand that. You don't wanna put a building on different parcels, but we will actually need to subdivide this property further so that the parking deck sits on one parcel, the hotel sits on another parcel, and the entertainment complex and office is on another parcel. We will comply with all government regulations in terms of cross easements and parking agreements and make sure it's in compliance, but is there anything that staff would like to say about that? No, we are, as we've discussed, I believe that you're gonna wanna do a horizontal property subdivision, so we can work with you with regards to that. Well, we do front on three public streets and one private street, which is Gadsden, Rick Street. And the only other thing, there's a comment about parking. We did actually do a parking study. We had Kim Lee Horne locally do that, and we're providing 749 spaces on the overall site, and I believe based on our mix of nighttime, daytime, shared parking and our uses, they indicated we need about 646. So there is a little comment, there's some concern for parking. We did not send that parking study to the city, but we're happy to do that. If there's any questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you. Any questions of the applicant? Sounds like a great project. Thank you. Thank you. All right, is there anybody present in the audience that would like to speak for against this particular project? Seeing none, any follow-up questions for staff from the Planning Commission? We'll close to public comment period, and with no further questions, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chair? Yes. We do want to add to the record that there are several letters of support that I believe that you all have received. And we just want to go ahead and make mention of those. Yes, sir. There's a letter of support from Hal Stevenson, the president of the Congolese Vista Commercial Property Owners Association. Yep. There's also a letter of support from Matt Kennell, the president and CEO of the Main Street District. Letter of support from Beth Frost, Congolese Vista Gill Board President, and then also Jason Kasky, CEO of USC Development Foundation. Yes, sir. We got those. Everybody saw those, and yep, thank you. Thanks for reading that in. All right, so we'll get back to a motion. I'll entertain a motion. I've got a motion to approve conditional staff comments. And then a second. Got a motion for approval and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. The ayes have it, the motion is approved. Next case on the regular agenda is the Zoning Map Amendment. This is ZMA-2022-0019. This is 5.5 acres on the west side of Floyd Drive. The request is for a recommendation to rezone the property from residential single family small lot district RSF-3 to mixed use district MU-1. There is a write up in your packet. I believe the applicant is here. One minute, please. Okay, the applicant is present. Is there any questions for staff before the applicant approves or presents? Okay, thank you, sir. My name is Matthew Foxworth and I represent South Carolina Outdoor Recreational Experience. We're a nonprofit located in Columbia, South Carolina. We're looking to purchase this piece of land and develop it into a urban orchard slash recreational space for sports in the area. We partnered with several groups. We're talking to Columbia Rugby, who's been a sports organization in the city for the last 50 years. And we also are looking to partner with other groups. Right now, the piece of property is in residential, but it was under contract before we put a bid on it and it was deemed undevelopable because of the dirt. So we came in and made an offer on it. We'd like to, like I said, we're an orchard in there, develop it for sports, make it a hybrid green space for the community in the area. But parking in sort of a private park owned by our organization. Right now, the area is a higher crime area. What we're gonna be doing is coming in and helping develop and making the neighborhood a better place. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, sir. Any questions of the applicant? Just briefly looking over your documentation. I do have a question about access for the community members. When this is developed, will this be a paid access for use or is that something that will be available to the community for free? We plan on it being available to the community for free in the area, like the walking path we'd like to put in. The recreational fields is going to be used by whatever groups want to use it, but they'll need to schedule through our organization. So it's not a pay-per-view type of place. It's going to be very much like a park. So with that being said, so I'm assuming what I'm hearing is this will be like a Polaroad park or in those kinds of entities, correct? And also then with this being in a community base, I don't know what the traffic pieces look like yet. Have you all done anything on that? No, ma'am, not yet. Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant? Is there anyone else present that would like to speak for against the project? Yes, sir, my name is John Haines Jr. I've been a lifelong resident of Columbia, South Carolina. I also played for Columbia Rugby for 20 years. My partner, Matthew Foxworth, and I created SCORE. Rugby the sport did more for me in my life as turning going from a dumb kid to a young man to an adult. And through the years, we've had hundreds of players that have come through our organization that we've helped, you know, cultivate and become adults themselves. And our mission has always been to be able to grow that sport, be able to grow our influence. And then we wanted to be able to also take the urban agricultural piece as well and try to get back into the neighborhoods as well as for a place for the younger, younger kids that are not ready to play a sport like that as well to come in and be a part of the organization. So one of the big things for us that has been our challenge for the last 25 years is finding a home. And this would be a home for like-minded men women to create an environment for the children and for the young adults in that area to find something positive and be a part of it and something that's stable. So this is a safe space for these young men and women to be able to come and maybe learn a sport, learn a little bit more about agriculture and to be part of something positive. It's just our way of being able to do it. But in order for us to have stability, we have to have a stable home. And this piece of land we think is in a perfect location for us because it's in an area of Columbia that needs that type of influence and it's actually the right size. So my name's John Hinckes, so I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else present that would like to speak far against case number 11? Hearing none, do you have any further questions or comments for staff? I'll make a comment. These type of projects I think are very important, especially as it pertains to youth. So congrats to you and your team for seeing it 20 years ago and still moving forward to get it done. Yeah, great comment. Any other questions or comments? If none, I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve ZMA-2022-0019, 5.51 acres W slash S Floyd Drive. Got a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. No. The ayes have it. The motion is approved. Item 12 has been deferred, so we will move to other business. That's correct. The only thing left this evening is to elect our officers for this year. We did do nominations. Y'all fill out Google Forms, so I'm gonna pass out the, we have a chair and a vice chair. So basically, I guess first we'll just mention that we have four nominations for, or excuse me, three nominations for chair. Mr. Cohn, Ms. Davis, and Mr. Frost. So we will need to get a motion to accept the nominations for the last time in office. Before a motion, can I ask a question? When do I officially roll off? Well, officially, February is your last, I believe last meeting. However, at this time, I mean, generally if planning commission hasn't, I mean, if council hasn't made an appointment to replace your spot, we appreciate if you continue to serve until that happens. Sure. I don't know what the, And with that, if I stay on, that allows me to still stay on as chair. Yeah, I sort of, yeah, try to articulate that in my email. You have been nominated, you could serve as chair, and then if you were replaced at some point during the year, we'd just have to have another election. Okay. So that's how that would work. Understood. So we have three nominations. Do we need to list the names of those nominations? Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Cohn, Ms. Davis, and Mr. Frost for the chair, and then for vice chair, Mr. Cohn, Ms. Davis, Mr. Harp, and Ms. Thomas. So if somebody is elected chair, then we'll take that name off of the vice chair, but we'll gun us off the ballots. All right, so can I get a motion that we accept the nominations for chair? Mr. Chair, I move that we accept the nominations that's presented by the staff. Got a motion that we approve the nominations. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. Yeah, let's have it. I will be happy to serve as chair. Yep, I think that's everybody's. Well, Mr. Frost, it looks like you will continue to be the chair while you're still on the planning commission. So congratulations. Thank you all. That doesn't change our vice chair list, so we'll go ahead and pass that out as well. Okay. So who do we have nominated as vice chair? Do we need a motion for that too? The vice chair nominations are Mr. Cohn, Ms. Davis, Mr. Harp, and Ms. Thomas. I think we did all of that in the first motion for all the nominations. Oh, we took them all, okay. I think I read that. You can do another one if you want. Thank you. Mr. Cohn, you will remain vice chair this year, so. Congratulations. Thank you all. I think that's all we have for this evening. All right, that concludes the other business. I will accept the motion that we adjourn. So moved. So moved. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.