 Good afternoon. I'd like to call the City of Columbia Planning Commission meeting for July 14th, 2022 and to session Welcome to Planning Commission members staff and guests we ask for your patience during this meeting Multiple staff members are here today. That includes Lucinda Statler Planning Administrator Hope Hasty Zoning Administrator Jonathan Chambers Land Development Administrator Andrew Livinggood annexation coordinator If you're watching the meeting via city TV You will see live images or still images of planning commission members and the administrator However images of the applicant and the public will not be visible Today public participation will be heard here in person or via email by those watching on city TV When participating please provide your name for documentation purposes The public may stream meetings through city TV accessed at www.youtube.com slash user slash Columbia SC government the public may submit letters and statements via email to COCPC at Columbia SC gov leading up to and or during the meeting as this account will be monitored during the meetings Emails and letters sent during the meeting will be read into the record Emails and letters received prior to the meeting have been forwarded to the Commission If you are here today to speak about a case you must speak up when the chairperson calls for public pump comment Read the roll Mr. Cone here Davis here mr. Harp here Ms. Hart's Miss Thomas here, mr. Tupper Mr. Frost here we have a quorum I'll give a brief overview of the meeting So 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 the 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 planning Commission or staff regarding requests Members of the general public are given the opportunity to address their concerns and intervals of two minutes Applicants may have five minutes to respond 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 Are there any changes to the agenda? We do have a couple of changes to the agenda You you'll be going into executive session, I believe at the beginning of the meeting and Then case number four under site plan review, which is s-plan dash twenty twenty two dash 0014 for 301 assembly street has been withdrawn And that is the extent of the changes to this agenda Thank you. I think we'll go ahead and okay want to make that motion Yeah, I'd like to request a motion to move into executive session Receive legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to section 30 dash 4 dash 70 a to For case number eight that's the amendment twenty twenty two dash 0005 Get a motion Make the motion that we move into executive session got a motion to move into executive session Can I get a second second got a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying I Any opposed say no The eyes have it we'll move into executive session. Can I get a motion that we exit executive session? Got a motion to exit executive session. Can I get a second? Got a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying I I any opposed say no The eyes have it. We're back in session Planning Commission uses the consent agenda to approve non controversial or routine matters by a single motion and both 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 regular meeting agenda The planning Commission then approves the remaining Consent agenda items so on the consent agenda. We have approval of the June 9th 2022 minutes Next we have under future land use map amendment and zoning map amendment for pending annexations Case number one is annex dash 2022 dash 0 0 1 7 2 18 Carolina Street This is a request to annex the property and assign a land use classification of urban core mixed residential type 3 and Assigned zoning of residential to family mill village district RDMV a portion of which is in the floodplain overlay at the time of annexation The property is currently classified as mixed residential high density and zoned RM HD by Richland County Case number two annex dash 2022 dash 0 0 1 8 157 Saskatoon drive request to annex the property and assign a land use classification of urban edge residential small lot And assign a zoning of residential single family small lot district at the time of annexation The property is currently classified as neighborhood medium density and zoned RS MD by Richland County Under minor amendment to a plan development case number 3 ZMA dash 2022 dash 0 0 1 0 3 18 Bunker Lane This is a request to make a minor amendment to a plan development As I mentioned case number 4 under site plan was withdrawn. So moving on to case number 5 This is a street name SN dash 2022 dash 0 0 0 3 Name streets within the pecan orchard subdivision formerly known as pecan Grove Riding Grove Road pecan drop road pecan orchard road and winding orchard road The properties are zoned PD in the Wood Creek farms land development Under future land use map amendment confirmation case number 6 Luma dash 2022 dash 0 0 0 3 12.59 acres on the shop road extension Request to confirm the future land use classification of industrial the property is currently assigned an interim future land use classification of industrial And a zoning map amendment confirmation case number 7 ZMA dash 2022 dash 0 0 1 1 12.59 acres on the shop road extension Request to confirm the zoning of light industrial district. The property currently has interim zoning of light industrial district And that concludes the consent agenda Thank you. Is there anyone present that would like to have a consent agenda item removed and placed on to the regular agenda Hearing none I need to recuse myself. Okay Let it known that mr. Harris Cohn is recusing himself from the consent agenda We've heard the consent agenda any questions from planning commission Hearing none, I'll accept a motion Mr. Chair making motion to approve the consent agenda got a motion to approve the consent agenda Can I get a second second got a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying I Any opposed say no The eyes have it the motion is approved the consent agenda is approved We will use the following outline for regular agenda items the administrator will introduce the case again The applicant will have 10 minutes to make a presentation Planning Commission may ask questions The public will be allowed to participate via email or in person Planning Commission may ask additional questions of the applicant and then action by Planning Commission First item on the regular agenda this evening is a request to amend section 17 5.2 of the Columbia code of ordinances The request is to remove minimum parking requirements for the NAC CAC or AC MU 1 and MU 2 zoning districts Remove parking requirements for non-residential uses occupying your existing structures of 7500 square feet or less and less than the requirements for certain uses So on the screen you can see here This is our parking table in the unified development ordinance and these are the proposed changes So just kind of going through that again. You can see that NAC CAC and RAC are proposed to Be removed from the center column and put into the no minimum column of column as well as MU 1 and MU 2 At the bottom of the table You can see under the note section there Number three about the non resident residential uses occupying newer existing structures of 7500 square feet or less Being exempt from a minimum parking requirement And then the third part of the request was to reduce requirements for certain uses Some of those are manufacturing uses We do have one Change to that request So after further review of the amendment if Planning Commission is inclined to recommend approval of the amendment amendment staff recommends that the Commission do so with the following change and That's to amend this table 17 5.2 d1 So that private dorms and public dorms each require 0.5 spaces per bedroom in all zoning districts And I'll go back in the table to show you where that is Having some trouble with the clicker today Okay, so on that column or that the table on the right there We had crossed out the point five per bedroom and put no minimum The request to this is being requested to change to have point five Spaces per bedroom for both public and private dorms Point five So just some background to the Request here is that when staff looked at this We we saw that many urban areas across the country are taking steps to reduce their off-street parking requirements as alternatives to Individual auto use grow and many desire and more pedestrian oriented environment and Reducing required parking provides several benefits to communities reducing the amount of impervious surface reduces stormwater runoff and lessens the impact of urban heat islands and As less individual parking is created other forms of transportation are encouraged and a more walkable pedestrian friendly urban core and corridors develop Benefits businesses benefit from increased pedestrian activity while still being able to provide parking if needed And I do want to just underline that or make note of that is that This amendment would not prohibit the provision of parking and that's all unless there are any questions Just so I understand correctly this is for all existing buildings not new So it would be for new as well. No as well. Okay. Yes States and new are existing so Differences on that while back with Is is does the applicant care to speak? I think Ms. Hasty summarized it very well with regard to the benefits that we see In including though that what we're doing is removing harm that can be done from excess parking requirements as well They add to housing costs to business costs a whole host of other induced travel congestion And Reiterating that this does not eliminate on-street parking. It just eliminates our requirement for it. So I'm here to answer any questions Thank you Any questions from planning commission or the applicant or staff at this time I just have a question if I were to hypothetically go build a seven thousand square foot building I don't have retail building. I don't have any requirements for parking brand new. That's great Okay, doesn't matter the tenant No parking requirements Let me just follow up to to give you a bit of context The districts that were named are our mixed-use districts and the intent in each of those districts as enumerated in the ordinance are to Encourage pedestrian oriented walkable development. It also those came out of our comprehensive plan as well Where one of the guiding principles was to intensify? Development at appropriate locations and to encourage infill and redevelopment and so this proposal meets those goals and so new development on Existing lots and redevelopment as well This this would largely be infill development because these corridors are in need of infill This is not greenfield development necessarily. These are our mixed-use corridors Thank you Was there something that prompted? The amended recommendation to add point five spaces for private or Not non-private dorms Let me see I'm gonna speak to that. Yeah So some of our policy makers has had heard concerns about that particular use with regard to parking so made that change That in it's missing a little bit on the top and bottom But you know a map this isn't a zoning map amendment, but that shows you our mixed-use corridors that are the RAC that the NAC and the CAC and the MU one and the MU two and also what I need to point out as well as is that we already have a large part of our downtown Including where we are and into the Vista which currently do not have zoning parking requirements Within the central business district. We have not had them since the 1970s So and then we extended that further into the central business district with the unified development ordinance So this is just an extension of those changes So these areas in red and purple on this map would be What we're talking about specific for this Yes, sir. Those are the areas that are currently under those zoning districts that would have the exemption The areas that we're talking about are there in areas that are walkable Pardon say again. Are they in areas that are walkable where it's easy for them to get to those areas? A large part of them are I won't say that all of them are walkable We're hopeful that it will encourage walkability. So Additionally, what happens is if you have large swaths of surface parking that actually decreases your walkability from a number of perspectives One it it moves development out. It spreads it out. It increases suburban sprawl Which then decreases your walkability? So this policy change while it won't happen overnight I'm not going to tell you it's even going to be in five years Encourages the type of development that we've heard we wanted to see for years Any other questions for the applicant? Yes, sir. Just for clarification. So there's no current projects underway that would be affected by this change. Did you request him for me? I'm sorry Are there any current projects underway or are in the planning stage of that would be affected by this change? So anything current would be falling under our current zoning ordinance if they are providing parking Then they would have the possibility of redeveloping that into some other more productive use if necessary But this would apply prospectively to new developments after the adoption Or any of those known at this time any new developments Anything that you would it would have actually been anything that would be coming to see you So we do have developments coming to you actually tonight that currently have no parking requirements that are providing a parking structure They will more than likely continue to provide that because they don't have that requirement currently So so it's really whatever would happen after and of course City Council would have to approve this It would go before them in September so it would only apply to developments after that adoption Thank you Any additional questions for the applicant? All right, we encourage those who would like to comment via email or via the public to begin sending in emails to COCPC at Columbia SC gov I'll just go ahead and Acknowledge the the correspondence that has come in up until now We have a couple of exhibits related to this request Exhibit a was Comments that had come in via email up until about 4 p.m. Yesterday. Those were forwarded along to all of you You don't have a hard copy of those exhibit a is just the stuff that was forwarded to you via email But I'll read the the list of folks who sent those emails There was an email from Bill Bunch One from Jack Cobb one from John Gregory from Tony Hanna Marshall Offer Rhett Kelly Michael Lucas Ryan McHugh George McCutcheon Jeff Pyrrashi Frank Thorn Craig weights and Peter Ward law These were primarily just brief emails of support for this text amendment After 4 p.m. Yesterday, we've had some some more emails come through This was provided to you in a hard copy. This is exhibit B Public comments received in writing after 4 p.m. Yesterday There is a letter from Carl Blackstone of the Columbia Chamber An email from Bill Owen an email from Danielle McSwain Shealy An opposition an email from Elizabeth Marks with Coalition of downtown neighborhoods an opposition and then an email from Jeremy Wilson of support Also had a couple of emails come through After that was printed and sent to you guys There and those have also been provided hard copies to you today There is a letter from Emily burn the president of the Earlwood neighborhood Association as well as a letter from Denise Wellman the president of the cotton town Bellevue historic district neighborhood So those two last ones that you just mentioned were just provided to us today I'd offer you a little bit of time to read over those just briefly So you have that information All right, I think we have all had a chance to read over the emails We send it will we now go into public comment Within yeah, I don't have any emails that have come through about this case since Okay We'll now open it up to folks here in the chamber to speak for or against If there's anybody here to speak for or against case number eight Chairman I'm Jim Daniel. I'm president of the wheel hill neighborhood Association and I sent The sender last night a letter about 10 11 o'clock basically with my comments as you didn't reference it Very briefly let's summarize. Well, how we got here two years the Columbia campus was Discussed amongst business community individuals that ended up in a document that was approved in 19 2019 it went in effect in August 2021 it's been in effect less than 11 months now we're coming back and they have asked basically gut The parking requirements in that and basically throw the bath basically start completely over again First of all Number of people that are supporting what I'm trying to say would like to see this matter deferred Quite frankly, this came out of the blue last Friday. We didn't know the details of it Nobody's really had a chance to get into it And we would like to at least have Presentation by miss Hampton as to the effects of it. So the neighborhoods can Understand and try to help them support this item So that's the first question and maybe that's what we all were talking about in executive session We'd like to get this deferred to August so we have a better understanding what we're dealing with if that's not the case Let's go through some stuff Think our main concern is the NAC the neighborhood activity corridors Which basically front of the main streets divine? blossom main Sumter Etc. On which the neighborhoods are backing up to these districts If we have for example a restaurant that right now would require 32 parking places and say they only wanted I'm going to continue Think I'm speaking for everybody else only 20 Then where are the 12 people going to go that want to go to this restaurant? Cotton town does not have parking on Main Street. It does have parking on side streets So what do we do about when the neighborhoods start seeing the infusion of these cars coming in from the restaurants or other places? They can't park at their particular facilities same for a doctor's office. This is another heavy user same for Salon That's the concern that the NAC does not look at the issues That this will create for the neighborhoods the neighborhoods have to go for parking by permit What happens if this guy owns a restaurant next door to the new restaurant and thank you, sir Just want to remind you that you do have two minutes and okay I'm I think I'm speaking for everybody that's presenting my position Why don't we see if anybody else has needs enough and I do one ass item on the on the parking for student complexes But y'all familiar with happened to the nine on UG Street last year Hundred more cars showed up than was a county for they had to rent spaces next door The compress has an extra lot at the corner of UG and blossom, which is full You don't need to be reducing the number of cars at these facilities. You need to be increasing Contact the money at the university said at least 70% of the students at the US USC have access to cars. Thank you. Thank you appreciate it Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to speak for against yes, ma'am Thank you for your time and the opportunity to chat with you this afternoon. My name is Denise Wellman I'm president of cotton town. I appreciate you taking the time to read the letter that I sent to you I agree with Much of what mr. Daniel said the idea may have merit But there's been very little opportunity For those of us that live in historic districts in downtown, Columbia many of which have been here for more than a hundred years To know about this proposal and to be able to have some opportunity to interact with this proposal These mixed-use districts back up to our residential areas and again the idea may have merit But they are going to add Congestion they are going to make our streets less Pedestrian friendly than they are now and no one's taking the time to think about that So we too are asking on behalf of cotton town that we defer this until we can sit down together and have an Opportunity to find solutions that might really work because we too are in favor of balanced commercial development Close to our neighborhoods. Thank you. Yes, ma'am Thank you Anyone else in the audience that would like to speak for against case number eight hearing none Are there any follow-up questions? From council or from planning commission to the applicant or staff Got a question for the applicant. It was mentioned there were two apartment complexes that Were short on parking were those ones that potentially were in areas that did not have parking requirements On them. Do you know the nine the nine has parking requirements? Okay, and then they made provisions for additional parking And the Pomata compress also had some I think they asked for a variance for the permanent compress Of course, that was a redevelopment of a historic structure. Sure in in in and around some other historic structures Any other questions? If there's no further questions, I'll accept the motion Mr.. Chairman Like to make a motion to approve ta dash two zero two two dash zero zero five Got a motion to approve can I get a second make a motion to amend? Got a motion to amend to also include point five spaces per bed and all Uses for private private and public dorms and 17.5 point two D1 Got a motion to approve with the amendment as suggested by staff and mr. Harris Cone Get a second second got a motion in a second all in favor signify by saying hi Any opposed say no No, yes The motion with the amendment is approved All right, the next case is annex dash 2021 dash zero zero two four Which is twenty point five four acres on the east side of Elmgren Street? tax map number zero seven three one two Zero four dash zero three it is a request to annex the property and to assign a land use classification of urban-edge mixed residential Uemr and Assign a zoning of residential mixed district RM to at the time of annexation The property is currently classified as mixed residential high density and zoned RU and RS LD by Richland County So as as with all annexations the planning commission is tasked with making a recommendation on the land use and zoning district for appending annexation and in this case The petitioners again are requesting RM to zoning which is mixed residential staff recommendation is for the assignment of the Urban urban-edge mixed residential Uemr Classification at the time of annexation We do however recommend Zoning classification of RM to for most of the property. However We do recommend the consideration of a lower density residential district on the western edge of the property As you can see along Elmgren Street on the western side To serve as a transition to the existing single-family residences on the west side of Elmgren Street We'll actually out on both sides of Elmgren Street. I believe Ms. Statler is handing some materials that have been Delivered by one of the speakers that will be Who has signed up to speak today and again on this case? I'll just read through the correspondence that has been received so that Everybody is aware of what Been provided The some of the stuff I just passed out. There's a little spreadsheet with some correspondence. This is Some of the stuff that was provided to the planning Commission when this was before you guys in April And there's also a letter that was provided after the planning Commission meeting in April From the Broad River Business Alliance. So that's what this packet is And the the binded notebook and the large map were provided by the applicant today and then we've got some Exhibit a which was also emailed to you guys yesterday afternoon Includes correspondence that was received and up until 4 p.m. Yesterday and that includes correspondence from Michael Hagler From the Elma Bode and a memo from the Elma Bode Huffman Heights Neighborhood Association And then another email from Michael Hagler with some exhibits and that included a map or two maps Actually one of the county neighborhood map and then a parcel map that was attached to that email So that was all emailed to the Commissioners yesterday. I did not provide additional hard copies of that today And then we have exhibit B Which is comments that were received in writing after 4 p.m. Yesterday and those include an email from Ashley Barnett an Email from Kathy Dickman an email from Henrietta Duncan and an email from Ina Fort Lightner The Elma Bode Huffman Heights Neighborhood Association President and those have been provided as hard copies for you guys today since it was You know rather close to the meeting time when they were received Just want to make sure everybody on Planet Commission does have appropriate time to flip through anything that was provided to us today So give us a brief couple minutes There is another one that has just come through via email. So when you're ready, I can read that one into the record Sorry for let me make a clarification. I misspoke the map the large map in the this notebook were provided by Elma Bode Terrace neighborhood. I'm sorry. I said the applicant these are This map was in your packet as well, but they provided some hard copies. Those are from the neighborhood Apologies This is an email from Desiree R. Allen Good afternoon I write an opposition to the rezoning of a 20 acre parcel of land off Elmgrid Street near my neighborhood of Huffman Heights Allow me to explain I retired almost two years ago and bought property in this neighborhood Because I was attracted to the older homes and the peaceful quality of the neighborhood. I will readily admit that since that time We have been increasingly subjected to increased noise with the cars speeding up and down Atlantic Drive Problems with homeless people and potholes in the neighborhood that are almost never repaired I think that with the addition of 180 single-family townhomes our issues will grow exponentially I've been advised that the city's water and sewer systems have not been updated in 50 years or more I shudder to think what this development will do to an older about on its last leg water and sewer system Not to mention the damage it will cause to the homes in this older established neighborhood as well as to our property values Most of the residents that I have come to know in this neighborhood are more mature Mostly retired individuals who are more susceptible to illnesses stemming from increased air pollution from the demolition of huge boulders and clearance of large acres of land for this development for at least the next couple of years I would be willing to bet that this massive undertaking of demolition Construction will almost certainly result in the release of carcinogens namely radon or who knows what else The noise that will come from earth-moving equipment is another negative factor We would like to lessen not increase the noise that disturbs our peace Consider how a development like this would affect your community if you can't imagine that what that would be like I'm sure it has a lot to do with why you chose the community neighborhood where your family resides I would like you to consider the scarcity of pristine land areas in the city Green trees are beautifying and fresh air producing elements. Please consider why you and your family live in the areas that you live in I know why there are positive benefits to living there among those benefits are low crime peace low noise low traffic and green spaces These are things that we would like to preserve and or enjoy again in our neighborhood This proposed development reduces the chances of that happening for us Please count me. Desiree R. Allen is one of the many Elm abode Huffman Heights neighborhood residents who totally and absolutely Oppose any further development in or around our neighborhood. It is not beneficial to the current and long-standing residents Thank you for your consideration Sincerely Desiree R. Allen the Della Street. There's one more email from Tim Barnett may my request be heard before this commission Live in this well-established neighborhood. We are a cohesive cohesive group of friends and neighbors We are individual citizens of Columbia and Richland County The property in question has been located at Elmgren Street and Atlantic Avenue since our neighborhood was established The property is zoned as is at its current location for that designated use within this established neighborhood Is the corporate entity DR Horton wishes to change this designation through the associated zoning request? Might I emphasize that the members of this corporation are not the constituents of our locale The individuals that run this large corporation will not be affected by this zoning change in their personal lives And will possibly never enter our neighborhood on a regular basis once their corporate gain is complete They will not feel the difficulties associated with this change in their lives These changes include but are not limited to the following Construction traffic delays construction noise loss of peace and quiet of the neighborhood degradation of ambient conditions Prevention of usage of outdoor areas of our houses disturbance to our pets Instruction dust our cars our houses our backyards our neighborhood vibration from construction Instruction utility cuts water gas and electricity air and water pollution heavy diesel equipment exhaust emissions oil Discharge and leakage environmental impacts to local wild animals owls deer bald eagles turtles coyotes raccoons I personally have seen each of these animals on the subject property Upon completion the population associated with the requested rental development will generally be under the age of 25 and single 44% renters Tabulations of us since this bureau current population survey largely representative of the local population of attending university students Will be temporary located in our neighborhood Following the requested changes and ensuing construction our community will experience increased traffic increased speeding increase in litter increased noise pollution This neighborhood is attracting a multitude of differing groups of individuals of all ages that enjoy the varied aspects of our community a Single-family housing community with an urban area These are young millennials like me Retired public servants retired state officers business owners and working-class individuals all among this diverse community We as I know I can speak for many members of our community that are not able to be present Do respectfully request that this commission deny this request for the zoning change And then he lists the case number best regards Tim Barnett. All right. Is that all the emails that have come in that you're aware of? Is the applicant present My name is Patrick Livingston and I would civil engineering in Columbia represent our client. I Don't have anything really to add to the staff report I just want to clarify that we are asking for the RM to zoning for the entire parcel And I'm here to answer any questions if you Have a couple questions I guess there were conversations about having RS one on the western side Have more of a transitional surety the Plans that have been discussed maybe in time wouldn't evolve into something different. What was To be honest with you my clients just not willing to entertain that at this time This was the whole parcel contingency zone Any any questions from planning commission to the applicant or to staff at this point? Question might be more directed for staff, but it says medium scale multifamily dwellings. How many stories would play a medium scale Multifamily I mean, I guess probably three to five stories would be considered medium scale But do you know what the height restrictions are over there? The the height restriction is 50 feet in the arm to district. Is that the same in our arm one? No arm one is 40 feet. Thank you. Yeah, the questions at this time for the applicant Here and none. Thank you. Any follow-up questions for staff at this point? We'll open it up We encourage any of those that would like to comment via email to begin sending any emails. I think we've Read through those to the extent that we know of at this point So I'll now open it up to anyone in the audience if there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak For or against this please come forward. I remind you To please adhere to our two-minute Limit to the extent possible Thank you It's Michael Haigler and I'm a board member at the Elma boat Huffman Heights neighborhood association I know you have a lot of information in front of you Almost all of it is from our neighborhood association. It's like I put a little bit more context for you, perhaps You may remember this started three or four months ago when this was presented and it was a little bit confusing then as well and It ended up in a deferral and the deferral was designed to allow the community to have conversations with the developer was also designed to come up with some solutions and also designed to Connect with the county because the county has been dealing with some of these same density and multifamily issues So a little bit of an update on the county side They they voted recently their planning commission to exclude multifamily Development in all of there are one two and three neighborhoods, which includes us So they have decided to exclude multifamily. We are vehemently opposed to multifamily and high density development Particularly given the fact that our neighbor. This is part of our neighborhood. It's been on the county maps as Huffman Heights For 40 years probably So context we went for deferral. We've been away three or four months. We Organized a meeting with the developer. We had about 60 residents show up They got a year full at night But they were very gracious and said we'd like to go back and study this and develop alternative proposals We never saw any alternative proposals although they were they were promised every two three weeks Our team is working it on it our team is working on it Can't believe it. Is that my time up? No, you still get some time. Okay One of the things that we also gave you today was a petition signed by 75 of our neighbors Including a unanimous vote of Elm Elmgren residents Signing the petition to get this we are not opposed to development We're just Preferring development that is single family detached residential. It would be Contiguous with our current neighborhood. We're adamantly opposed high density and you'll hear more about that from other speakers It's been there's been a lot of confusion around this we've been promised things by a developer. We haven't gotten them up until The day that this meeting was confirmed on the agenda. I emailed them. I said you so this is happening They said yes, can you tell me what your density count is? No response Can you tell me what you're proposing to do? No response. We have a sketch. We've never seen it. So We're really frustrated at this, but I'd go back to my point. We think there's a win-win solution at some point that would allow development at single family Detached residential. We're not opposed to annexation because we know annexation is important to have access to services infrastructure Thank you, sir, let's let allow allow some of the other folks My closing statement is well, I'm in the middle of it. There is a win-win path forward. This is an end so we are proposing denial of this application and Go to phase two of another developer if it needs that way. Thank you very much. All right, anyone else here to speak for or against Case number nine Timothy Marshall Barnett. I would like to thank this commission for allowing me to speak today's evening our Historical experience regarding the encroachment into existing neighborhoods is the city of Columbia and Richland County have protected those established neighborhoods from encroachment of non-single-family detached housing into those existing neighborhoods This subject property is an existing part of our Huffman Heights RSLD neighborhood The dividing lines of adjacent multifamily units fall outside our neighborhood along the Bentley and Atlantic drives This subject property is directly touching and is a continuation of our RSLD Neighborhood Huffman Heights It's open space. We're willing to work with the developer to try to get single-family dwellings in there I think My wife had sent an email that from my email that was regarding the wildlife that's there and stuff like that I've been out there with my dogs. I've seen I don't think they're nesting, but I've seen an eagle sore bird owls It would be it would be a travesty to have this development the local nearby Apartments that are there are no higher than three stories I fell in love with the neighborhood when I was in 4501 Bentley which is a three-story apartment. There's three-story apartments and all the other nothing more than three stories They're talking five stories Anyways, this rezoning annexation could be a textbook definition of housing encroachment and we respectfully request a Denial of this rezoning application. Thank you for your attention. Thank you My name is I know like Fort Leitner and I'm currently the president of the joint neighborhood association for Elma Boat and Huffman Heights If I could just ask our neighbors that are here to represent us today to stand very quickly I've served on the board in some capacity for 20-plus years and I've lived in Elma Boat for 40 years I own a Montessori school in Huffman Heights that is in the city limits. We annexed 20 years ago Our school is multi-generational. It'll be 46 years old tomorrow. We've always been active in the community We routinely give full scholarships to children below poverty level Our school is located at the corner of Canal Drive and Balsam Road Balsam dead ends into Atlantic Drive over the years I've watched the traffic increase in both neighborhoods The traffic on Atlantic has become so problematic that very recently Richland County Council recently approved the installation of speed humps There are traffic issues. There is no stoplight on Atlantic There's no stoplight on Canal The only stoplight to get out of the neighborhood is a short light at means which is designed for pedestrian to cross the street Maybe two cars can get out at a time It's the only light between Virginia Winger United Methodist Church at 1500 Broad River Road and Graystone Boulevard Our school is licensed for 213 children It's become increasingly difficult for parents dropping off children for school to get back out of the neighborhood and get to work On time it's even more difficult at the end of the day with Broad River Road rush hour traffic to get out of the neighborhood We have tired parents tired hungry children waiting for long periods of time for an opening onto Atlantic We have staff members and teachers who are exhausted at the end of a long day who are trying to exit the neighborhood Exiting from canal is extremely dangerous if you need to turn left into traffic zipping off of Graystone The situation has forced some families to have to leave the school Virginia Winger Church at 1500 Broad River Road has a similar situation. They have a first steps program again Serving children below poverty level and the only way out is through the church parking lot or at the light at Broad River Road Residents have a hard time getting to work on time and getting home on time Our neighborhood is struggling with high traffic volume Please help us find an alternative to high density multi-family zoning at that location. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am Thank you for being brief sir Good evening ladies gentlemen Thank you for letting us speak tonight about this proposed project My name is Jeremy and I own a home on Elmgren Street right next to the parcel in question When I was house hunting about four years ago I asked my real estate agent about the large wood lot across the street and the last thing because I last thing I wanted to do Was buy this house only to have apartment buildings or multi-family housing other high density buildings pop up Part of the charm of this neighborhood is that it's one house per half acre It's low density housing that is evident throughout the rest of the Elmabode and Huffman Heights neighborhoods as well as other neighborhoods to the north When she came back and said don't worry that parcel is owned as residential low density So any development would still be similar to and fit the rest of the neighborhood So I use that knowledge to form my decision about this house about four years ago You know is DR Horton or any other developer wanted to subdivide that half acre lot and build 40 houses on this 20 acre lot To match the rest of the neighborhoods. I'd be fine with that With the current county designation it would allow a maximum of 72 single-family units to be placed on this parcel While not ideal. I'd still be okay with that too But this developer doesn't want to build low density housing to match the rest of the neighborhood They want you to approve the rezoning of this lot to allow for a maximum of 344 units to be placed on this 20 acre land What they've described to you or what they've proposed in their application is not what you're voting on what you're voting on is changing the zoning code To the RM to designation they can change those plans tomorrow or five years from now or sell this plot to another Developer who could change the plans entirely and they would be allowed to build 344 lots if you allowed that So what does this mean in context? Well? Averaging two and a half people per unit at 344 units. That's 860 people crammed into this 20 acre lot If we average two cars per household that's 688 new cars driving to work in the morning and 688 new cars driving home from work. That's on top of our current density So this map here the large map that we have That just shows you the 193 parcels in the Elmo boat neighborhood and the 70 parcels in the Huffman Heights neighborhood Because we haven't reached the 344 units yet. I had to borrow about 81 units from the north neighborhood And that entire area is about 224 acres. They want to cram 224 acres worth of housing into that 20 acre lot That's 11 times the density of our current neighborhoods 11 times the population density 11 times the traffic density times the utility usage You mind mentioning your last name for us. Did you get his last name? Thanks, we were gonna ask that good you say that from my life's name is Eddie Thank you, thank you appreciate it Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Ford. I have lived in this community for over 40 years I've lived in the greater community for over 75 years I'm the past president of the neighborhood association and I would like to talk to you about the traffic concerns if When I grew up in this neighborhood we rode horses Oh This neighborhood streets have not changed much in the last 75 years There's been a lot of development since then but the streets are still basically the same they were 75 years ago If you were coming from the city of Columbia to the greater dust square area You've got two roads to come out of you're gonna come out either I 26 Which is always jammed up or you're gonna come out broad River Road Which becomes a parking lot in the morning and a parking lot in the afternoon there is no access to our neighborhood between the corner of Bush River Road and broader the road which there's an accident every week because there's too much traffic going There there is only one traffic light for a whole mile between broader road Bush River Road and broader ever bridge There is a traffic light at Greystone, but it's a dead end So it's not access in and out of the neighborhood if you want to get in and out of our neighborhood You have to go to means Avenue, which is where the old break King was means Avenue Dead ends into our neighborhoods after two blocks. So it's not really a thoroughfare Atlantic is a thoroughfare But there's no way to get out The Department of Transportation's plan is to make Atlantic Drive a right turn only because it is too dangerous to turn left the other Streets Rd reward canal River Hill or the five streets between Bush River Road and the Broad River Bridge They don't have any traffic lights the Department of Transportation has declined to put traffic lights because those streets are too close together Or too dangerous for some reason or another to put traffic lights there There are five or six large developments in the city of Columbia River Walk Vista Boulder Creek Landmark border a township to reserve at Riverwalk Bentley Court that always already have Hundreds if not thousands of people coming in and out of our neighborhood Every day How thank you, sir. Your time is up. Okay. There's also two schools There's no way to get in and out of our neighborhood now. Thank you, and this make it much worse. Thank you That's ma'am. Hello. It's Peggy Fitz. I live on Bentley Drive if you that that long boundary there on the east side of the property if you just go down Bentley Drive a little bit to the end, so I am very well acquainted with the Actually living on Bentley Drive, and I can tell you that is always already way overbuilt There are numerous apartment complexes on both sides of Bentley until you get to Atlantic Drive and then On the left side there. There's a planned urban development that has a lot of residences Different types of units and then right past there We are single family dwelling and at the end of Bentley. There's another large apartment complex Just sort of a little off-the-cuff estimate 1,800 people already live on Bentley Drive, and it is a nightmare to get out of the neighborhood It would be a travesty to add that many more people. It would be a travesty to I mean not only are there no lights the visibility is very When you're coming out of Bentley on the Broad River Most people turn right if they need to turn left and go and do a u-turn into the turning lane and Into a little bit of the parking lot of the automobile dealership and then scoot into traffic Because you just can't get out with the left-hand turn same thing with Atlantic The traffic is often backed up there And you can't get in and out of Atlantic because people do not obey the big X where they're supposed to leave the space Also, when you're coming in Off of Broad River to make a turn onto Atlantic to get in the neighborhood. There are also people coming Going the opposite direction On to Bush River Road, and so we're using the same turn lane And I know that they have been hit on collisions there because the people trying to turn into the neighborhood Are met head-on by the people on Broad River trying to turn on Bush River So that is really poor, but I think that the neighborhood has absorbed enough Both Thank you Thank you and in addition to that On Atlantic Drive, they are across from the property the city of Columbia Housing Authority Also has a big apartment complex. Yes, ma'am. Thank you Good afternoon. How you guys doing? Living on the boat local business owner and I don't want to rehash too much of what my fellow Neighbors have kind of gone over but we're you know, we're opposed to this and we've been discussing what it's going to cost us What it's going to cost the neighborhood was going to cost the county the area at large it's going to stress The traffic infrastructure is going to stress our utility infrastructure. I Don't know if anyone's mentioned, but we've already seen a huge increase in litter as a result of The MDU or the multi-dwelling the influx of multi-dwelling building And I believe that's why the county has put a freeze on it because they've probably found as if you walked in did any kind of research in the local area the Buildings or the apartment setups. They're already there. They're not even at capacity. They have a lot of vacancy There's hotels that have been abandoned for quite some time That'd be an opportunity for redevelopment if someone wanted to come in and and you know actually contribute to the environment But I just don't see how this deal benefits rich in County Doesn't sound like the applicant is a resident of the city of Columbia or rich in County So I don't understand economically how it benefits to see if Columbia It seems like a huge tax on the area for little to no benefit. So that's why we're asking that it be denied Thank you, sir. Thank you anyone else did Anyone else to speak for against? Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir missioners My name is Roddy Burris. I live on Greenville Circle in Huffman Heights and I wanted to oppose this proposed change and Zoning other than money The issue that probably affects all of us more than anything else is our environment and That said we live sort of in a In a place now where You really don't know whether to mention the word environment and in polite society anymore. It's become such a controversial issue still I rise to tell you that Quality of life is an environmental issue and as such If anything that my neighbors have said I live in Huffman Heights If anything my neighbors have said today makes sense to you in the quality of life that they're trying to maintain I Would ask that you give it your best consideration most of us have yards and trees and that contributes to our quality of life and We'd like to hold on to that as much As is possible without of course denying others their chance fair chance to Quality of life Thank you. Thank you Anyone else present to speak for or against? Good afternoon. I'm Kathleen McDaniel. I'm hitting Clean up. I don't know any good sports metaphors, but I'm the attorney for the neighborhood So I'm going to try to summarize and give you a quick closing argument on why you should deny approval of this annexation request First of all, we've got some real serious concerns about who is actually bringing this annexation request before you during the time between when it was previously deferred and now It has been reposted for sale Mr. Hagler has been in touch with the real estate agent He was told that the contract had fallen through and now it's back on so it's not clear to us that the engineers their hit engineer that's here actually is Representing the R Horton With a plan for how they're going to develop this property second of all as Mr. Hagler also mentioned the County has Been taking a very hard look at their proposed rezoning of the whole Unincorporated areas and what they have decided because of neighborhood pressure and concern a lot of it from neighborhoods that I represent Like these very passionate people they have decided to take Multifamily detached it attached out of any of the single family residential Designations so if you approved this high density Zoning for this annexed parcel it would then become inconsistent with the Zoning that's going to be applied by the county to the areas that are within the county And I know that one of the goals of your comprehensive planning process is to have consistency among adjacent jurisdictions Finally, I know my time is up, but I do want to make sure that you understand the Amount of density we're talking about here within the entire neighborhood now there are less than 400 homes as the proposed Development would go through We think we haven't seen a development plan You could be looking up at far more than that 340 units or more Really impacting this neighborhood. Thank you. Please deny this request. Thank you anyone else here to speak for or against Case number nine Hearing none any follow-up questions at this point for staff have a question Given that we have annexation here, and it would be an assigned zoning use if it was RM2 and the developer did not Proceed maybe as planned is it they can come back by right and do anything that complies with that later Yes, that's correct anything that is allowed within the arm to district Would be permitted subject to any development requirements Okay, I have another question. I can't remember if we talked about this previously But have we done a traffic study for this area? we was spoken with our traffic engineering division and If there was a development of scale that the Engineer had suggested They would recommend a traffic impact study as part of the site plan review process and of course They would need to abide by any recommendation Would the applicant care to respond at all to? comments concerns Yes, I'm representing dr. Horton Thank you, all right Yeah, got another question so if we choose to approve this request as it's presented and the traffic study comes back and as Recommendations, how will that be handled for those be recommended that those things be met before any construction occurs So, you know the rezoning stands on its own If if an application comes to you for a subdivision review or a site plan review That traffic impact study would be part of your review of that of that development Thank you. Any other questions from planning commission? Okay Yeah, we'll we'll allow one more comment The answer was that whatever zoning is applied is going to be what is there for the property so regardless of whether a traffic study comes back once that High-density is there the possibility for that development will always be there any additional questions Hearing no further questions. I will accept the motion Mr. Chairman like to That emotion for NX two zero two one dash zero zero two four twenty point five four acres Elm Green Street TMS number zero seven three One two dash zero four dash zero three Sorry, what was your motion? I wasn't a motion to approve a to approve All right, we have a motion to approve Is there a second? second Got a motion to approve got a second all in favor signify by saying I Any opposed say no So the motion fails so we need another motion, right? Yes All right I'll open the floor for another motion I'll make the motion that we deny Got a motion on the table to deny Second got a motion and a second all in favor signify by saying I Any opposed say no The eyes have it motion to annex and rezone is denied All right, that's gonna bring us to item number 10, which is s-plan 2022 dash zero zero one three 400 block of Jervais Street 1100 block of Hogy Street 400 block of Senate Street and the 1100 block of Williams Street various TMS numbers This project entails the construction of a 45,000 square foot hotel and a parking garage on 2.82 acres Bounded by Jervais Street Williams Street and Senate Street the proposed hotel located at the corner of Jervais and Williams Street will contain Approximately 249 rooms and will be seven stories The Hicular access to the hotel will be provided through a two-way access along Williams Street and Senate Street The parking garage located at the corner of Williams Street and Senate Street will contain 391 parking spaces Whereas 215 will be reserved for the hotel Vehicular access to the parking garage will also be provided through a two-way access along Williams Street and Senate Street There are no parking requirements for hotels constructed in the MC zoning district The applicant has provided a traffic impact study, which has been reviewed and approved by the city traffic engineering division We'd also like to point out that The site plan this site plan approval does not include the future multi-housing building that's located at the corner of Hogy Street and Senate Street and that we do not have the details regarding rooms and that type of thing for that review and If the Planning Commission is inclined to grant the report approval we would ask that it be done with staff comments Does the applicant present? Even even my name is Gerald lay. I'm with Chow and associates civil engineer working on this project with Norman hotels We are here to request that you approve our site plan that we've been working on for several years now and as you can see by the List of the city's agencies. We've been working closely with all of them and we've basically received their Recommendations for approval on this project. We feel this hotel and parking facility will be a great addition to the downtown area Any questions at this point for staff or the applicant? I have one question. I understand this was deferred from DDRC Yes, this the hotel building was at the DDRC in May of this year. They did defer the project. They wanted to look at the Hotel building and the garage Together as to see how the compatibility of the designs So it will be back at DDRC next Thursday for both the hotel building and the garage building designs That being the case is Is there any concern of DDRC having any comments or changes that would Manipulate the site plan that we're looking at today I mean that remains to be seen I guess next week. I mean, they're the only overlap. I would say has to do with There are a lot of questions having to do with the access to the site because the the innovative design guidelines talk about A streets and B streets and where access should be from so that that will probably become part of the DDRC discussion as well But that's certainly also part of the traffic study and things that the Planning Commission will look at But you know as a site specific comment The applicant has applied for their DOT permits and there's certain site specific restrictions on where they can access the site And so that's what their Understood Anyone on planning Commission have questions regarding the Have a question so the just to be clear the apartments would still come back that site plan Correct. They are not a part of this review. Okay I'm sorry listen. What was the deferral for a DDR? The motion that was made at the DDRC meeting in May was To they wanted to be able to look at the at that time the garage design had not been submitted to staff or to the Commission And since that's associated with the project. They wanted to be able to look at the design of both of those together They also had some questions about just the landscaping That I mean some landscaping is within their purview if it's screening parking and that sort of thing So they had two pieces of their motion that had to do with looking at those items as a follow-up So those will be discussed along with the garage design next week All right Any any other questions for the applicant or staff at this stage? Here none, we'll open it up. Yes, I'll take this opportunity to also Acknowledge the correspondence that's been received on this case similar to the last two there's Exhibit a was emailed to you all Yesterday afternoon that includes all of the correspondence that was received prior to 4 p.m. Yesterday, so I'll read those names into the record There was an email with an attachment from Paul Gaffney There was an email from Bart Walrath the Vista neighborhood Association president There was an email from Laura Tucker the Girl Scouts Representing the Girl Scouts of South Carolina an email from Daryl Kay Williams There was also a number of emails and some other documents submitted Via mr. John Taylor There was a letter with a sketch from mr. Taylor An executive summary document that had some images in it that was provided to you as well a page that was called traffic study comments There was an email from Michael Edwards an email from Ted Fettner an email from Gordon Langston an email from Charlie Lee Decker and an email from Susan Levi Wallach and then Exhibit B Were emails that were received after 4 p.m. Yesterday those have been provided to you as a hard copy today I'm as well as they were forwarded earlier this afternoon There's an email from Amy Brown and an email with an attachment from Elizabeth Marks On behalf of the Robert Mills Historic Neighborhood Association and Today after that exhibit was put together We received an email from Steve Henson which was also distributed to you as a hard copy today May you allow us a little time to take a look at this. Absolutely. We've got some more course mona Go ahead when you're ready. All right this This email is from Jim Caldwell Hello, I've lived in downtown Columbia specifically the Vista for 10 years My wife and I have enjoyed the growth in the area over the time and we spoke support Development in Columbia regarding the proposed hotel on the agenda today. I believe the current plan is sub-optimal and Does not meet the vision or the Vista slash in a Vista which has been carefully planned out in the past and very successful From what I can see from the proposed hotel is simply too tall compared to the surrounding buildings And does not fit within the rhythm and surrounding buildings included adventure Publix and McDonald's while not in the Western Bay historic district This location is on the way to our low-profile warehouse arts and entertainment district It also gives many a first impression of Columbia and this large structure will totally shift the perception and hide many buildings and Views in addition the plan shows a structure void of brick again not Compatible with surrounding buildings. This area can be a very pedestrian friendly Area with vistas and views to the river and to this city skyline This proposed project does not enhance that and I asked that you not approved at this time We had a number of hotels That are either all brick or nearly all brick and fit with the warehouse feel These are not this tall and we're carefully playing. Thank you for your consideration Them call well another question. I guess for staff Materials aren't anything that we should concern ourselves with right when that's a ddrc, correct Instruction materials of the building. Yeah, what about the height? That's something that we should be concerned about in our site plan review The height would be considered by the zoning district and it would meet the height it meets height requirement I do have a question though About regard to height The general size and number of units Relative to the area and what we perceive the impact to be is under our purview. You repeat it So not with specific regard to height, but just a sheer number of units in the overall project size and How that internally and externally impacts the area that it's in is under our purview. Yeah, so so the density would be You know if you're talking about density the density would be within the allowed zoning, okay? Question So that we're stating that the existing Pose request is within the zoning requirements today You're asking what is whether or not the proposed plan meets the zoning requirements as of today? Yes, correct The traffic impact study was on the agenda it was hyperlinked after the case I have a copy of it. I can That'd be great Think I got a quick question that so this correspondence from the McKay firm I believe we just got today. I have not seen this one until now item number four and that Suggestive a post hotel and parking garage does not conform with the inner Vista overlay ordinance or Overlay guidelines which are superior to the base zoning guidelines Can you speak to that the inner Vista? overlay ordinance or the overlay guidelines I'm not sure what this and I apologize. I don't that email somehow. I didn't see it either, but I Don't know what the specific Concern is I mean it will be going to DDRC So any things that are under the DDRC purview, you know, we'll certainly be looked at on is it a Specific issue or I just says the proposed hotel and parking garage does not conform with the inner Vista overlay ordinance or the overlay guidelines I Mean that will be something the DDRC will make a motion on next week Anybody need more time to read through correspondence or traffic study? Mr. Tupper you good. All right, I Think we've heard all the emails and outside correspondence so Seeing no more of those we'll turn it over to the audience Anyone present in the audience that would love like to speak for or against Please Good evening. Good evening. I will remind you please state your name full name And we will try to limit the two minutes to the extent possible. All right I'm Laura Tucker. I'm the CEO for the Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands So thank you for having us here this this evening The Kathy Novinger Girl Scout Leadership Center is at 1107 William Street And it's directly across William Street from the proposed held to the hotel in the parking garage During planning and construction in 2018 and 19 we were asked to address the corner and intersection of Williams and Senate where the proposed massive parking garage is planned It is identified as a major gateway into pedestrian district Our main entrance had to be on the corner and addressed appropriately and it was This current plan literally drives all hotel and garage parking to our front door as an example today We actually had Girl Scout camp at the building and we had girls walking running playing in that area Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands is troubled and concerned by the inevitable Consequences of buildings that do not comply with standards currently in place We spent incredible time research and investment into the decision to place the Kathy Novinger Girl Scout Leadership Center in the Vista The center is projected to bring thousands of visitors to the city who have expectations of safety With no excess from Gervais or Hugie Streets Traffic will be forced to drive within close proximity to the Kathy Novinger Girl Scout Leadership Center The entrance to the parking garage in close proximity will lead to increased traffic Which will produce a negative impact on pedestrian and vehicle safety The safety of current guests and members both parking and walking to the center for indoor activities is of great Concern this center is a destination spot not just for our girls but for girls across the state and Nationally as now they come here on their way to Savannah where it's where the Girl Scout founders Home was and so this is a great safety concern. So we recommend that you do not approve this plan at this time Thank you. Thank you. My name is Charlie lead actor. I live on William Street directly across from the hotel Before I retired I worked as an archaeologist and supported hundreds of development projects for government and the private sector A lot of my work was in urban areas such as Cleveland Richmond Detroit Chicago St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York and DC So I've learned a bit about how projects succeed or fail in urban areas I just want to go back over how we got where we are today Six days before the DDRC hearing in May We learned about the project and we went to the DDRC meeting and asked for a deferral So we'd have time to discuss with the developer what our concerns were Last month John Taylor and I met with mr. Patel in person We brought specific ideas to make the project more compatible with the neighborhood John who has 50 years experience as an architect developed an alternate site plan that would make things more compatible With what we have now Many of the requests I made were based on the innovative design district guidelines Can you move the parking deck to the interior of the block? Can you move the vehicle entrances to Hoogie and Jervais streets? Can you provide more pedestrian friendly activities at street level restaurants shops display space whatever? Everybody in our neighborhood agrees and I think we have 23 people here in the room We all welcome new development, but we want development that's compatible with the neighborhood our message to mr. Patel was show us a design that respects the Vista Neighborhood and bring us a site plan that conforms with the district guidelines But what you're looking at today is basically what we saw in May We still have problems with the building scale. We're still having problems with vehicle access And there's a few speakers are going to follow me They'll provide a little more detail on this and I hope you'll agree that this site development plan with 250 rooms 400 space parking garage and a high-rise is just not going to work on this site. Thank you. Thank you, sir I'm John Taylor retired architect you mentioned When I have a practice quite 50 years because I don't want to be any older and he portrays me to be so Anyway, I've been here for a long time practicing architecture. I'm retired now I also served on this planning commission for six years. So I know a few of you from that I just want to interact reiterate some of the things that he said Charlie said excuse me We did meet when mr. Patel and reviewed some of our concerns and I you probably see this little sketch You have that? Well, one of the main things that just shows is we think it would be a better Solution to this if the parking garage was actually on a huge E Street just flip this site plan over and it I Looked at the site plan a good bit and I think it'll work. It'll take some some modifications to the configuration, but it's basically what was proposed for the corner Williams and Gervais and I live at 11 27 Williams which is Directly across the street if this is approved from a almost a hundred Foot tall building right at my front door left about a hundred feet away. So so many other things that that we Talked about was possibly lowering the building how you get in out of the site Particularly relocating the building to huge E Street But mr. Patel just gave it just lip service no consideration and that's borne out by the Latest drawings we have seen this building. We asked him that he would actually take a look at the parking garage at the corner of Taylor and Sumter if he could redo the way the parking garage looked because if you look at that building It's hard to tell it's a parking garage. So there are things that we could be done But we have no response or no consideration from this Thanks. Thank you, sir. Hey, sir. How you doing? I'm Wade Kaufman I'm a developer and was the co-developer on the city club project right adjacent to this proposed hotel I'm also a resident of the city club Our original site plans when we developed city club We had entrances on the front of the buildings However, due to Vista guidelines city guidelines in the end of Vista guidelines We were required to make those changes So we had to go back to the drawing board and change to put the entrances on the rear side and Redesign our site plan. Thankfully. It was a great idea from the planning commission because we went back We studied adjoining developments like the public's grocery store What what even went into the McDonald's site plan, which is very unique for McDonald's The Hampton Inn and when we did that we went back and Ended up changing those designs and from that had an award-winning project We received an historical war for our project Which so we have an historical established residential community that meets all the guidelines and scales that the Vista guidelines and the Vista guidelines all required us to do so but This hotel post-hotel and the complete site does not meet those guidelines Couple things the city ordinance 17 point 17-37 limiting new construction that is significantly out of scale and existing structures And are preserving structures that establish the character of the district that is Residentially used in a Vista guidance article 2.0 1 no predetermined architectural style our theme is mandated in In a Vista however the design of the building should be compatible with its function and with its surroundings Providing those surroundings an urban pedestrian oriented developments around one of the things Auto access has been mentioned from parking lots and structures should be on B streets Williams and Senate are not B streets Jervei and Hogy are B streets. So if we want to change Columbia and make a difference in our city We already have an established corridor of hotels, which could be very special. This could be a very special I mean, I'm pro development. I've done everything in discarded Development some of the discarded areas in the city and I love it But we have to make a stand to do something right and not just put a Standard design on a site if you put the interest is per the guidelines on either Jervei or Hogy You cannot get on Jervei. You can't have 2,000 cars turning in there It's better suited on Hogy Street, and it can Accommonate and create some consistency that we already have that we've already established in this great city Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm a vice Admiral Paul Gaffney I'm a 10-year president of a university in New Jersey before retiring here So I've appeared before many planning boards in the most densely populated state in the United States Development is needed in this too long Fallow site that you are considering today on Columbia's most attractive gateway That said the site plan does not conform to six purpose and intent articles in the city development ordinance 17-1.3 Subsections 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 11 words like harmonious Preserved scenic areas Maintains strong neighborhoods, and we are neighborhood in the Vista neighborhood association protects character provision of provision of required streets more about later safe and convenient traffic more in that later these words bind the Development process, but we're ignored in the application more over the ruling overlay Controlling overlay guidance articles are ignored in the proposed plan Violation this is the question you asked earlier Article 1.1.3 a traffic issue an issue for you Restricts street access it is especially in egregious Violation 2.0.1 calls for compatibility with surroundings and a compatible with existing More traditional buildings like the city club and even like McDonald's 3.0 2 we argues that the height and scale should complement existing structures a sense of human scale and proportion We hope that the news a new site plan will be done That's more forthright on traffic and considers compatibility scale and character We recommend disapproval pending a reproposal that considers the intent in the in the law and the ruling Inviscerate guidelines and protects Columbia's most attractive gateway. Thank you, sir Hello, my name is Tracy Barker and I'm a city club owner and a resident there and I'd like to discuss The traffic issues since our last meeting a traffic study has been provided But it appears to be hastily prepared without proper review This is evidenced by dates on the report if you look at the cover. It's dated June 2020 Further if you look at further back June 15th You'll see a capacity analysis and one day later you have a PE stamp and approval So it was hastily prepared the June 2020 date is certainly a typo But a question of an engineer's ability to properly review and stamp a 50 page report in less than 24 hours It's suspect with that being said I'd like to highlight a few points that are overlooked in the report First the study uses Williams and Senate which are a streets for entry and exits this Conflicts with an overlay guidelines Second the study doesn't fully evaluate the dangers of turning left from Williams on to Jervay or Turning left on to off of Senate on to UG For example, the study mentions going down Williams and making a left on Jervay at this point on Jervay It's six lanes wide and you're probably familiar with it's a it's a landscape wooded area that you have to turn around or Drive around to make a left turn So turning at this point is extremely dangerous, and I think it deserves further evaluation a Third point the traffic study should consider impacts of the future Second development on this same property this second development is destined to occupy 45% of the 390 parking spaces in that garage Accordingly a second development on this property will double the traffic load Fourth the study is segmented and does not mention surrounding traffic impacting projects Girlstouts coming and going Dominion coal tar removal nearby hotels that are new and approved the Blossom Street bridge replacement It redirects traffic to Jervay Enclosing the traffic study is suspect it lacks thoroughness, and it's not forward-looking based on these facts I recommend non-approval until an updated traffic study is submitted. Thank you for your time. Thank you My name is Jay McKay, and I I think y'all just recently got the letter that I sent out this morning, but I Live on William Street, which is directly across the street from where this proposed hotel is if you go down Williams Street One block long street. It has city club residents One side one part of it, and then there's a Girl Scout Center on the other part of it It is it is a short street It has curbs that jut out to the street It is not a straightaway. It's not a four lane street It is tight in there and the girl scouts were allowed to do curbs way out into the lanes To help slow down cars and slow down traffic William Street is an a street People with a lot more expertise in me that have taught these are people that graduate engineering degrees Lots of expertise PhDs So It's it's a terrible site plan Yeah, to put this main entrance hotel on William Street Where trucks will be going in there 24 hours a day delivering supplies Cars in and out on all day all night. I think the site Tracy Said that they call for 2,000 cars a day Well, that's just for the hotel. He's got this next development that y'all that y'all asked about of a High-density apartment complex. I don't know how many units they're talking about on here I heard 250 or 60 hotel units and maybe 300 apartment units, but I may I may be wrong about it. I don't even there are 30 Seven units at the city club. We kind of most of that block that whole block has 37 units that we occupy Not four or 500 units with this half a block This closed proposed development is you've heard a lot about how this development doesn't conform It does it is significantly out of scale Most beautiful entrance in Columbia is across the Gervais street. You could see the city club It's beautiful the Middleton building which is a stark building. It's been beautifully redone is in there other sides of state museum any event Thank you, sir. One more second This is incompatible with the city All of you are the gatekeepers of what goes in the city. This is a major important part Want something beautiful there you want something compatible. I just got back from Italy I stayed in a gorgeous hotel built in the 17th century in Rome turned out. It was a best Western Western They wouldn't allow this in Rome and we shouldn't allow in Columbia. Thank you Mary Langston Recently my husband and I traveled by car to visit with family in Pennsylvania We were surprised by how many true hotels we passed along the way even more surprising not one was over four stories And if memory serves me correctly, none were in residential neighborhoods either Your base street bridge is iconic and a Columbia treasure along with the river and All that it has to offer both residents and visitors to our beautiful capital city Then there's a beautiful view of the city up to a street with the view of the Capitol ahead and a view down Gervais Street towards West Columbia is a pleasure with the buildings all being of similar height and structure blending in nicely City Club was developed on an empty lot starting in 2007 with the vision of a neighborhood welcoming more Residents to the downtown area. We are not opposed to development But as a neighborhood we would like to see something similar Developed with permanent residents that own their homes Maintain their property and again increased the tax base in the city while enhancing the Gervais Street area and our entrance to Columbia At the previous meeting on this monstrosity A comment made by the individuals interested in developing the seven-story eyesore Showed us that they have no interest in working with our community. The only goal They've mentioned was getting the job completed as quickly as possible With absolutely no care for this the quality for our city our citizens and our residents What about safety issues? What about the Girl Scouts that have invested in the welfare of? Columbia and our community and the empty parking with homelessness and crime increasing Please plan the development of this gateway that we can all be proud of and that will enhance the vista and the city Finally, they did not work with any of us the people of Columbia that live and work here Thank you again for the last time deferring it for more comments Good afternoon. I am Rebecca McMillan and I along with my husband Doug live in City Club I am a former president of the City Club HLA I Rise in opposition to the construction of this interstate type Cookie cutter ugly Unimaginative proposed hotel for the lower vista of Columbia You've heard from my neighbors and I totally concur with every statement Safety issues you or the people or your predecessors who granted the Girl Scouts the right to be there Let's protect them. They don't need to sit under a seven-story monolith You've heard of the lack of compatibility with the other Issues of buildings in our area those two Had to make compliance with your guidelines and we've so well done it. We're heterogeneous Community, I was once told that Southerners This was told to me by someone from a different era of area of our country That's Southerners were like marshmallow covered razor blades You heard that one? His meaning was that we rarely say exactly what we think and We cut you by the very fact that you do not know our thoughts. I Do disagree with that, but let there be no ambiguity here. I am removing that marshmallow. I Am not asking you I'm begging you As Respectfully as I know how to deny this cookie cutter Interstate type Monster hotel with its lack of design Befitting the area it wants to join If you do this You will be doing what old Sherman in His efforts with those cannonballs Did in trying to obliterate the state house From the view across that Jervais Street Bridge. It's the only Beautiful entrance into the city. Thank you. Thank you for your time. I have a lot more I could say But we so disapprove of this. We'd like a hotel, but we don't want this one It's unimaginative. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else president? I would like to speak. Yes, ma'am My name is Kathy Radis and I've been a Girl Scalper 33 years And I just wanted to say that I've lived in Columbia for 45 years And the view coming from West Columbia into Columbia and if the seven-story building is proposed It will block the view Thank you Anyone else president I would like to speak for or against this case Hello, my name is Mike Ridgeway and I prepared the traffic study for the project and wanted to Answer any questions that you may have but did want to point out a couple things about this site I've heard some comments about It'd be better to have access directly to Jervais and Hugh G Street Now I would have to disagree with that This is one of the busiest intersections in Columbia Where obviously everyone's aware of Hugh G Street and Jervais Street and So providing Direct access to either one of those streets closer to that major signalized intersection In my opinion as a traffic engineer is not a good idea And I doubt would be approved by the Department of Transportation so I understand the comments of the residents but From a traffic standpoint, we are making use of existing connections that connect to Jervais Street and Hugh G Street Which is Preferred I mean you want them to access The major arterials as far away as they can By having access to Jervais and Hugh G Street It also provides some options for instance If someone Let's say was heading towards the Capitol in the afternoon They're not gonna make a left turn out onto Jervais Street and then I'm sorry on the Hugh G and then a right onto Jervais They can go up and make a right turn on to Jervais and go through the traffic light And that's that's one of the benefits of having access to both roadways at existing locations I will also point out that The study that we've done is likely conservative. We did not take a reduction for pedestrian traffic but in reality the location of this hotel Will allow for people to use Restaurants in the Vista go to Publix without using their vehicles So I think there are some positives from a traffic standpoint. I'm here to talk about traffic But I'd love to answer any questions that you may have When was the traffic it was done in 20? Sorry, it was done in 2020. No the traffic study was done in 2022 Okay, there was a typo on the first page of the report and I apologize for that. Thank you I'll be here if anyone needs to ask me any questions. Thank you. Thank you Is there any other? Discussion from the applicant We just want to say that we we appreciate hearing what everybody says, but you know, we've been working with the city You get this, you know diligently Getting this site plan acceptable to everybody like I said before All the city agencies have reviewed it and have recommended it for approval As far as the appearance we are working with the DDRC about The way this will look and fit in with the rest of the buildings in the area And the Commission have any further questions for the applicant or staff? I have one other question Maybe it's more procedural Just having general concerns about safety traffic and ultimately that I I Would anticipate a lot of comments from DDRC would it Instead of denying it if we deferred it having their approval And this plan it could potentially come back in the same form I guess I'm scared if we didn't if we put a motion to deny it That would create some challenges for them at DDRC. I mean, I guess In a way that the issues are really sort of different, you know, the DDRC is looking at the design guidelines from a you know materials and massing and Finistration and that sort of thing the Planning Commission is based on the specific categories for site plan approval The only real area of overlap is a little bit about circulation, you know access and circulation, so Y'all have a motion to make I don't know that that would change anything about Now recommendations would likely remain the same unless the applicant decided to change their proposal, but I Guess my in my opinion there there are enough concerns and comments that came up today With the end of this overlay district and some other things that I think DDRC really needs to take a look at Before we would act on the site plan whether it changes the site plan or not if it changes it Then we're they're coming right back to us to get Reapproval of a site plan that we may or may not approve today, so That's just my opinion of I Really think DDRC should see it and prove it Before I could recommend approval of the site plan. That's kind of where I'm at as well So are there any questions for staff in that regard any any further comments questions? Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make the motion that we defer Site plan 2022-0013 Got a motion to defer Gonna get a second Second got a motion and a second to defer all in favor signify by saying I Any opposed say no Yes have it the motion is to defer So is there any other business All right, is there is no other business to have a motion to adjourn so moved got a motion to adjourn Can I get a second second got a second all in favor signify saying I and he opposed no The meeting is adjourned