 A big one this weekend. Yeah, Florida State. Yeah. Did y'all play last weekend? No. Okay. Applying to half Florida State or? Rachel, are you ready to get started? What time of the day is that? Good morning everyone and welcome to the October 8th City of Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. My name is Chuck Salley and I serve as Chair of the Board and will be serving today along with my fellow members to my far left, John Gregory and next to John, Gene Deakins, to my immediate right is George Shaffer and next to George is Josh Speed. I'd also like to introduce the staff that will be helping us today, Rachel Bailey at the table along with Hope Hastie, Deputy Zoning Administrator, Zoning Administrator and Deputy Zoning Administrator. Along with that we've got Andrea Wolfe also helping today and Erica Hyen. The Board is charged with hearing applications for special exceptions, variances and administrative appeals. All testimony is recorded for the record and anyone wishing to speak will need to be sworn in and come to the podium to speak. No testimony may be taken from the floor. When you come to the podium, state your name and please speak clearly into the microphone because this meeting is being recorded. With cases before the Board are allotted a presentation time of ten minutes. This time also includes all persons presenting information on behalf of the applicant. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the Board or staff regarding the case. Any member of the public may address the Board in intervals of three minutes or five minutes if a spokesperson for an established body of three or more people. The applicant then has five minutes for rebuttal and the Board reserves the right to amend these limits on a case-by-case basis. For those of you who plan to speak, you must be sworn. If you are here as an applicant or here to speak in any case, please stand at this time and raise your right hand. Do you affirm or attest that the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth? Thank you. This time I'll turn the meeting over to Ms. Bailey. Good morning. First, we did have a few deferrals. Item number seven for 401 Hayward Street Utility A. Item eight for 722 Hayward Street Utility A. Item nine, 1606 Hayward Utility A. Item number 10, 1623 Rice Street Utility A. And item number 11, 1932 Pindle Street Utility A. This is the second time the applicant has deferred, so this is the last time they can defer without leaving the Board. First, we review the consent agenda. The Board uses the consent agenda to approve non-controversial or routine matters by a single motion and vote. If a member of the Board or the general public wants to discuss an item that's on consent, that item is removed and considered during the meeting. The Board then approves the remaining consent agenda items. The first item on the consent agenda is the approval of the September 10th, 2019 minutes. Item number two, case 2019-0063 for 3404 West Beltline Boulevard. This is a variance to the accessory structure setbacks for water purification building. Item number three, case 2019-0065 for 420 Howard Street, a special exception to expand an elementary school and daycare facility. Item number four, case 2019-0066 for 420 Howard Street, a variance to the buffer transition yard requirement for an elementary school and daycare facility. Item number five, case 2019-0067 for 420 Howard Street, a variance to the off-street parking requirement for an elementary school and daycare facility. Thank you very much. Does anyone in the audience or on the Board wish to have any of these items removed from the consent agenda? Please raise your hand right now, or the Board will vote on these all together as one vote. I see no one objecting, so we'll move forward. I will take a motion on the consent agenda. Like to make a motion, we approve the consent agenda subject to staff comments. Second. I second. I have a motion and a second on in favor of say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. The first item on the regular agenda is under old business. This is for 7015 Marylake Road, a special exception to permit a residential in-home daycare. This one was put on hold previously due to some questions over covenants and whether they applied to the property. Under my review, the plat and covenants reference did not reference the applicant's specific parcel. I do believe there are some new people in the audience who did not get a chance to speak previously. So just for clarity, Rachel, the parcel that's part of the application, it's not subject to the covenants that were brought up at the last meeting. Correct. So they're not referenced on the, the parcel is not referenced on the plat either. Perfect. At that time. Okay. Is the applicant here? Would you like to come forward and restate your case, please, ma'am? Everland Stint. I live at 7015 Marylake Drive Road, which I will tell you. I have my paperwork as far as when I went to look at my house before I bought it. There was no homeowner's association agreement on nothing in my paperwork, no CCRR, nothing of that nature. When I was looking for a home to purchase, I was looking for a spaced large enough for daycare into my living arrangements. And I didn't get this little covenants letter until the last meeting was I think the 8th of September or the 9th. I got it that Monday on my doorstep and I also got a newsletter on my doorstep the day before. The last hearing. I got phone calls telling me if I did get zoned they still was going to sue me for opening up a daycare, but yet still on one hand they're telling me there's nothing wrong. We want you to have your business, but don't want the zoning changed. I don't understand the zoning. I'm only trying to make a living. I work now. I'm about to retire. And I want to retire during my daycare. These people that was here last time, I've never met them. I've never paid any home association fees. I never had anything. I never knew anything about one and it wasn't in my paperwork and I got copies of that. I'm not a lawbreaker. I do know the rules and if there was a home association attached to my property when I went to look at it, I'd have passed it on. I was looking for mine, you know, looking for something to do my business in. And all this other stuff that was brought up, it just was brought up right before the last meeting. Right. And I know with the county, with the state, with the county, there's no way I can have a daycare without having a fenced in backyard and my kids being supervised at all times. Right. We have, this board has the eight items to basically decide on whether this is appropriate or not that we're in your application. So I believe that we have pretty well covered those in your first application regarding vehicular traffic and fumes, noises, etc. If you are good with that, then we can move on to the next or if you would like to go through those again just to restate those, I'm happy for you to do that as well. No, because I think my application was, everything was good on my application. Right. Was anybody on the board not at that meeting today? Everybody was here. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to hear that. I have a copy of my contract and everything that I sign in purchasing my home. Okay. Do you have anything further that you'd like to add to any of this criteria? As far as me seeing a daycare, a business, bringing down the neighborhood, I don't see that. I mean, because I'm in my area, my kids in my backyard in the summertime or whatever, but I'm a responsible hard-working woman. I don't see why my business would interfere with anybody. It's not like the children are going to be out running across the street to a lake by themselves or walking down the street. They may sound like I'm an alien from the drop of alien nets down the street in the community. I mean, I've never had this problem before the daycare. Very well. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Is there anyone here to speak for or against this application? Please vote the podium. I'll be very brief. I'm Ron Childress, resident of Strat Haven Forest. I've spoken to you before. I just withdraw the board's attention to my second submission, which included pictures of the area showing exactly how close this property is to 7-11, 7-0-11 Mirror Lake, which I happen to own. It's a snake pit. It can't be developed because it's the spring that feeds the pond. There's nothing that can be done to control that piece of property. The thing I want to bring to the board's attention once again is the liability that as the owner of that parcel and of the pond would be affected if this special exception is granted. I raise other issues, but the Council for the Homeowners Association is here today, and I don't want to take up his time. In fact, I'd like to surrender my time to him because I'm sure he has a great deal to say. You heard from Virginia Sanders last time she's not here today. She's a member of our community and quite a fighter for communities. She's fought many battles, I think, before this board itself. And she made a very good point that granting a frivolous special exception like this very often is the first step to destroy a neighborhood because one follows another and the whole neighborhood can be taken apart. We stand on that position. And if I were going to attack and destroy a neighborhood, one thing I would suggest, don't take one that's full of retired colonels and senior insheels. They know something about fighting back. And chances are they will. Thank you. Thank you. Chairman, Toby Ward. I'm an attorney and I'm here on behalf of the Strat Haven Forest Neighborhood Association. It is a duly incorporated South Carolina corporation. A few things to touch on. First of all, I did examine the title and the applicant is correct. There are no applicable subdivision restrictions. There are some on that property, but they don't offer any guidance on this situation nor serve as the statutory bar. So I want to be clear about that. However, as this board knows, the right to operate a business on a piece of property to use that piece of property for a business is subject to regulation by the authority granted to you by city council. And that's what we're here for today is the special exception. What I want to, before I give you my prepared remarks, which I gave you a copy, so I hope I'm not too redundant, but I do want you to remember that city council said that you may grant a special exception. They didn't say you shall if they touch all eight points. You still, it is made. So I want you to bear that in mind as you deliberate on this important issue to Miss Stitt and to the residents of Strat Haven Forest. So first of all, and I think most important is the authority granted to you by city council is in 17-265. And the very first point of 17-265 says that the Board of Zoning Appeals, quote, shall receive a determination before granting a special exception and that's the DSS determination. I submit that if you don't have, if the applicant hasn't submitted a determination by DSS as called for by the ordinance, then you do not, even with the awesome discretion you have, you don't have the authority to overlook that. And were you to overlook that, then that would be clearly erroneous. Second of all, the fifth item in 17-265 of the ordinance, honestly I don't know what to make of this one because I don't think there is a city Board of Health because I looked on the website and I didn't find one and I've never heard of one, but it says that the daycare shall meet the requirements of the daycare. So there's no evidence to support that the city Board of Health has, its requirements have been met. I suppose the Board could say that there are no requirements because there's no city Board of Health, but it does, it is an issue. The third point I raise and I want you to consider if you would please is that this proposed use is not a daycare in the sense of the word daycare because this applicant intends to operate 24 hours a day and a daycare by definition I submit would be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. So and the ordinance speaks to protecting adjacent uses from potentially incompatible characteristics arising from daycare centers. I don't believe that it is appropriate ever to establish a 24-hour business in a residentially zoned neighborhood. And so I would ask you to either deny the application as presented or granted conditioned on daycare operation. Finally the last two points query whether this is a home occupation by virtue of the fact that it doesn't say that it isn't. The application itself has a little defect in it. So to wrap up here and I appreciate you letting me go over my allotted three minutes. I'm still in the yellow zone. Live there often. You don't have to grant the special exception. I don't believe you currently have the authority because you don't have the DSS determination letter and if you do decide to overlook those two points I would ask that you condition the special exception and make it a daycare not a 24-hour operation. Thank you and I appreciate your attention. Thank you Your Honor. So Rachael I have a question before we go to the next application about the I think this was brought up last time in the DSS ordinance for daycare or is that in our ordinance or where is that? Our ordinance does say that however DSS sends them here first. So approvals are conditioned on DSS signing off before any business license is issued. So it's a staff condition that's built into any approvals. Gotcha. So DSS often looks to our orders as well as to how many children and applicants can have at the daycare as well. Should the ordinance read differently? I believe the new ordinance does. I just think it's hard to grant someone before if DSS the governing body to get her approval is going to send them here first. So something with the processing like the timing of the process. I agree but it is what it is right now they do not they do not accept applications until they have been certified as a legal entity. So for now Rachael we need this decision here needs to happen before they can move forward DSS as ordinance for this case and any case moving forward. I have a related question so is DSS the entity that will determine how many children can be cared for in the house? They do or they look to our orders. So if our orders state a specific number of children DSS goes with that. And so right now in the staff comments the only thing the number of children is the square footage of the play area in the backyard so it is about 25 children if I am reading that correctly but that just really says how many can be outside at one time not how many can be in the property. Is that right? I believe the applicant stated last month how many children she intends to have I had those in last month's note so I am going to come back up to address that. Can we get you to come back up at the very end and then we will make sure that nobody that way we can address everything at once. Perfect. Is anybody else here? I know we heard a lot of testimony last at the last meeting so if anybody else would like to add anything we are glad to hear it but I think the position of the homeowner is pretty well. I think just with the first thing that almost go ahead. Miss Childers you can't talk from the bench. You have to approach the microphone please state your name. My name is Mark McGill I live on Dunvegan Drive the street that dead ends into the proposed day care something came to my mind when we were talking about the traffic and the number of people well besides the lot on the right being a swamp that Mr. Childers owns which is snakes live there in turtles etc the house on the other opposite side has now been purchased by an investor who is renting out rooms to college students so sometimes there's three cars in the park in the yard sometimes there's four sometimes there's five sometimes they spill them to the street when they have their college house parties which is a terrible thing for the house behind me has five bedrooms and there's usually six cars there every morning now where my Colonel Dalton used to live. So now we are going to have a swamp a day care center a college flop house for a road to make it six lanes just tore down two houses there's going to be extra traffic from building the road there's only two entrances to Strathaven one's going to probably be temporarily closed and I've lived there over 50 years it's never had businesses and you know people renting rooms and this that and the other and it brings down your property values I've spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on my house and my yard so I just think it's a bad idea and between the swamp and the college kids and 24 hour day care it's just going to obviously bring our property values down that's all I have to say thank you thank you sir anyone else? Dapkin please come back up to the bench I was thinking about 24 hour day care number two my house is next door to my neighbors, true enough they got their cars over there I have a carport and an extra side in my driveway so I have a two way driveway I can make that a double garage anytime I choose to so as far as traffic no and DSS is only going to allow me to have no more than six or five kids at a time my hours will be I think I have, let's just say I'll say six o'clock till midnight those are my normal hours when I lived in Cleveland and had my day care and second shift now I might have a couple of kids that are coming 7P to 7A because I work at the hospital and so that's one or two kids in the evening for overnight it's not like a day care center as you have a, it's not nothing like that I'm not ready for that but that's my prayer but as far as traffic and kids going across the street playing out a lake and all this stuff no, no, these are babies babies from I even got my great nephew coming he's only three months old babies DSS, this is the first step the zoning is the first step and then the fire marshal I have to make a permit with the fire marshal the paperwork to DSS DSS has to approve everything my backyard my living space they have to approve everything everything goes by them they're not going to approve for me to have my kids in the front yard run across the street to a lake they're not going to approve that they're not going to approve that they're going to approve my backyard because I have a big backyard do I have play equipment yet? No it's a process but that's my goal next summer there are babies now I have six babies waiting for me I can have a helper if I choose to have one but three infants, I need a helper I have one lined up, she's right there I have a letter from my neighbor straight across the street from me right there, a letter from her if you want to read it or you want me to read it but it's all ultimately up to DSS whether I get approved for this or not and I think you do the zoning first and then fire marshal first because with DSS they work with you, it's a process they determine it's like, let's just say if I don't have smoke detectors, which I do I don't have our cumbers knocks out which I do, I don't have a fire extinguisher which I do, they would say well this is what you got to have done this got to be checked off, we're making an appointment to come back again it's a longer process with them I think that's why they send you to the zoning board first you testified earlier that you hadn't met any of the neighborhood association members have you made any attempt to do that? not to well work, I don't even know what he lives I don't know who they are Miss Virginia put her number on my door I don't know where she lives she put her number on my door and she called me twice she gave me a number to an ex-counselman I don't know where he lives I don't know where, I think I've seen the gentlemen go around the corner in a white truck I think, I'm not sure but don't nobody give a name, I don't know where they live I think it's important when you're asking for a special exception and I used this a little bit out of the ordinary for the neighborhood to meet with the surrounding neighbors and the neighborhood association to try to iron out any of these concerns before you come before a board like this I know there was a covenant I know there was an association I know about the newsletter I understood, but again I think when you're asking for something like this in the neighborhood you want to have them on your side or at least a chance to air out your concerns their concerns before you come here in front of us any other questions from the board? thank you very much for your testimony thank you and I do want to clarify as well the definition of day care within the ordinance does not allow 24 hour care anyway so her hours would have to be less than that right I believe that that would be 12 hours right 6 to 12, 6am to 12am it just says for less than a 24 hour period so it turns into a different use that the children are staying overnight I just have an issue with the way the ordinance is written because if DSS is going to require them to come here first as the first step in the process I feel like they're going to be the governing body for her business I think the ordinance should be changed reflect that that might be a different discussion your concern has been heard well it's challenging because I can speak from personal experience the first five years I lived in Colombia I lived adjacent to a day care provider and I can say without a doubt that it had an impact in terms of environmental factors like noise in terms of living adjacent to that type of facility so but it's a very different thing to talk about it's hard to make a determination on whether it's going to have an impact like that without even knowing how many children we're talking about what age we don't get that information except from the applicant so it's hard to make a determination just on criteria number two without having really specific information yeah I feel like DSS would have a role here in playing the hours that she's open certainly screening and fencing off the lot to help keep snakes out as some of the property owners I think those kind of things can be mitigated you know her property is not technically in the neighborhood while it's wise I think to talk to the neighbors you want to be a good neighbor I don't know if that was technically a requirement I think a lot of the concerns can be mitigated as DSS walks in through the process I don't know I really think that's a separate discussion I think our job here as the board is to determine whether business or day care like this in a residential neighborhood is appropriate for this location if they get the applicant is granted the special exception from us then yes DSS will air all those issues and determine that but I think our job is more to decide whether this is an appropriate location for this type of use regardless of what DSS says about it I think that will take care of itself well if that's the case and I think some of the concerns about the rodents and stuff needs to be taken on with DSS not here maybe neighborhood association can submit anything that they would like to discussion whether or not it's appropriate or not it doesn't really matter our job is to determine whether or not a business like this is appropriate on this spot we run through the eight criteria that we use to grant a special exception it's my opinion that this case is probably going to fall short many different many of the criteria hearing you also make sure we're getting first okay good so we've had discussion on this matter I think everybody carefully considered the eight qualifying issues and I believe that we're ready for a vote if somebody would like to make a motion I will I would like to make a motion that we deny the special exception to establish an in-home daycare facility for the property I'll second that all in favor say aye opposed one opposed next item on the agenda is item number 12 case 2019 0061 for 1039 Byron road special exception to permit a residential in-home daycare the applicant is present and is welcome to come in my wife right now is stuffed out she's pregnant so she should be back here in just a second but I'm Chris I'm a co-applicant on this and my wife Rachel who is pregnant right now in December what we're looking to do is when she's when we have our child we're looking to have two to four child daycare in our home so we're trying to keep it small here one thing I did want to go into here in a little bit is some of those other concerns brought up about the DSS process I think I could clarify that just a little bit but right now my wife she's an OT with pediatric care she's an occupational therapist she works with kids with disabilities and things like that so very very good job for her to be able to work with other children that we're looking to have possible disabilities and things like that is kind of what we're looking to provide a little bit specialty to having a couple other kids in our house really when we're talking about the impact of the neighborhood we're really talking about a two to four child family that's really what we're looking at when we're looking at impact we've had a number of different objections in fact I'm blown away by the number of objections that we've had just based on what our proposal is and what is in front of you I want to appreciate your time the best I can and kind of go real quickly over some of those one of them is the decision and making it a precedence for other businesses coming to the neighborhood we've been in contact with Erica Jane the associate planner down here and she actually sent us an email back on that which we forwarded to one of our neighbors and left it with another neighbor that kind of brought up those concerns for us and basically the answer to asking whether or not that's going to create a precedence in the neighborhood is covered here so she said typically residential districts that have patrons in home daycares and daycare facilities so like a commercial establishment in a residential zone such as another house in our street 400 Byron Road are a special exception we would not allow our in-home daycare to run as a commercial facility we would be in accessory use to our main residential so they brought up kind of other occupations that are used like home offices, home daycare things like other things that don't require a special exception for those people that do things like for soda city and stuff like that so that's really where the part on the precedence really goes into everyone has to go through this board process everyone has to get reviewed so to imply that there's a precedence is kind of not from what I read in the documents that were sent to us in section 17258 additionally we had some people sign a petition basically and then that petition one of the lines that is an inaccurate is saying allowing a special exception sets a precedent for other exemptions to the zoning ordinance and as I said everything we got from Erica at the associate planner doesn't follow on that additionally for the actual the DSS portion of this so there's two different things you can be registering or you can be a license a license allows you up to 12 children in your house registered which is what we are currently pursuing is up to six children now obviously that's going to be too much for my wife with a brand new baby to deal with so we're looking to have two to four children in our home and that is the main part the other part of this which I'm not really sure I know it was in probably the files that you guys have some things that people have been objecting to is the fact that we do Airbnb out of two rooms right now that's something that we do currently we've never had any complaints we haven't had any issues we have a lot of families coming in for Fort Jackson graduations USC things like that so we've never had any real complaints besides people don't like the idea of it now we're going to have to follow DSS rules so we won't be doing Airbnb in our house when we have our in-home day care because any adult that it comes into the home has to be fingerprinted and has to be registered so that's something we'll be stopping we're doing that right now just until we we get the day care going and my wife stops working so that's really a non-issue as far as that goes you know I have a lot that I have to worry about you know I worry about my family we're about taking care of them I worry about my wife actually you know having something to do while she's you know staying at home with our child this is one way that we came up with that she thought she could give back and stay busy during that additionally you know I worry about you know me going to the job me getting deployed me doing things like that and making sure my wife you know has a support system has something that she can do while I'm gone really a lot of complaints and stuff I just blows me away that people are so worried about two to four children you know in my home when I can't imagine how that could have any more impact than you know a then a family with two to four kids or something like that so that is all I had the board have any questions for me before uh I think you've covered pretty much all of the explanation on the criteria um thank you so much for your testimony is there anyone else here to speak I'm sorry I actually did have one more thing I just thought of um we did actually contact the unofficial um association on in our road so we don't have an official one but it's like a neighborhood association so we actually uh send an email out to to them and they had a board so we contacted uh Beth Corley the the president I could read this whole thing um but basically uh basically they're saying that they they don't really follow from their scope or mission so they're going to remain neutral neither supporting nor opposing as we go forward with our zonir request so they're kind of staying out of the issue and just uh letting the board uh make the best decision is there anyone else here to speak for against this application um my name is Blanche Holiday I don't even really know where to start after all of that um first thing I would like to find out is where is the zoning sign supposed to be placed in a yard it's the zoning sign where is it supposed to go uh because I called the office and there's no specific requirement for where the sign's supposed to go there's a requirement for length but all it says is it's supposed to be visible so if you can see the yellow sign then it's posted correct okay well my question is are people supposed to trespass into someone's yard to see the sign because the key of the sign is to see the large z in the yellow and then it's supposed to encourage people to call the zoning department well I think that most people don't think they're supposed to call I think that most people think that they are supposed to be able to see what the zoning is without having to encroach on someone's yard and I have um a text here from someone who said just want y'all to know that you've got this thing going on but we can't read it because it's back in way back in the yard so there were a lot of people who came to me as the next door neighbor and asked what's what's going on we don't know and so I didn't really know what was going on other than what I saw on the sign um nobody wanted to trespass into their yard so I think you would have had even more vocal opposition had people had the opportunity to know what was going on based on their sign the other thing is how many children does this cover two to four so when you grant this exemption does that mean that that's all they can ever have or does DSS give them the right to have six or twelve or however many and at that point what if they decide that we really like to do this and Metafield or Hammond is right around the street we want to start doing after care we can one thing that this board can do if they make a if they grant a special exception is to put stipulations on that such as the hours of operation or the number of customers that they would be able to so this board sets that DSS would but we could also we can also make a stipulation if it's a special exception well that's helpful and he talks about the Airbnb and the hours of operation who's gonna police the daycares he said run seven to seven or something like that earlier who's gonna police whether or not they're running Airbnb out of their house during those hours I mean you know you can have a pedophile you can have a sex offender and they're gonna have small children and if they're keeping kids from seven to seven what's the check-in time for their Airbnb on Friday and they did specifically tell me recently that they very possibly will have weekend Airbnb when their child gets to be a couple of months old so they're just gonna let somebody walk into their home at four o'clock on Friday afternoon when their daycare runs to whatever time it is and then they're gonna have kids on Monday morning and the Airbnb doesn't leave until 10 o'clock on Monday morning that doesn't seem very safe to me okay thank you for your testimony is that it can I speak for the rest of these people sure if you have three more raise your hands yep you got more time then he got a petition when we got a petition too when we've got over 60 signatures on the petition from people in the neighborhood who are adamantly opposed they're not only opposed to the daycare they're opposed to the Airbnb as well for the same reasons they don't think it's appropriate to have any business in our neighborhood and I sent y'all some information it was the original deed to this tract of land back from the early 1960s it clearly states each lot shall be used only for private single family residential purposes period period we actually have some members here today who are original signers of this property my mother is here she's been in the house for a very long time 57 years Ms. Hamilton has been here Mr. Hamilton they are original owners of these homes they had the expectation when they bought this property that businesses would not be allowed you have the right to give the special exception but as the lawyer said you don't have to grant it I don't want a business in my neighborhood period you get one business you're going to get another it puts a chink in the armor I told these young people recently they moved into this neighborhood according to what they told me because it was a nice quiet safe neighborhood and I told them you don't know how hard it is to keep a neighborhood nice quiet and safe over 60 years I don't know how long you've lived in your neighborhoods but it's taken a lot we've had this same issue come up several times in the past not just a day care but other businesses that wanted to open and we've had to come before y'all and fight to keep these things out because we want a nice quiet safe neighborhood we don't want businesses in our neighborhood you give a spot zone spot zoning which is exactly what this is it benefits only them it has no benefit to the rest of the neighborhood at all and that's not right particularly for the people who signed up 60 years ago to live in a neighborhood that isn't going to have any businesses let's see what else did y'all want me to say you know with I don't know who put the sign where it was but that's been a real okay I think we got the sign that's a good point I don't want to cut you off but the time's up and I think you've really made a very clear concise case so I think we're good on that is there anybody else in the audience care to say anything for against this okay anybody with the applicant please return up you can't speak from there sir right you can come up to the podium and speak from the floor Jason Rapp I live at 1034 Byron Road across the street from the Tinsleys we're concerned also with Hammond Academy right behind their backyard that's the lower school right there behind their yard I've been in that neighborhood for I'm 47 I lived on Wordsworth when I was 12 years old came back to that neighborhood because of what it is Blanche has been there for 57 years there's a lot of us that have come back Baxter who lives down the road has grandmother own house who lived so that's why we want to keep the neighborhood the way we have it we fought very hard we worked very hard to keep our houses up we worked very hard to keep our property values up we appreciate y'all's consideration on this thank you I get 10 minutes since we had two different yeah but I would like what's with the B&B that's not part of what we're looking but what is a yellow running an Airbnb so basically we we've done it out of another property too we have done it before in the past so in our house we have two bedrooms that will occasionally have people stay through Airbnb which is like a short term rental it's completely legal we've only had nice people we've never had any direct complaints until we put the sign in our yard and then other things were being brought up unrelated to our in-home day care as I said before can I just go through some of the objections real quick and I'll address them as I go so basically for that sign that yellow sign we didn't place the sign the sign was placed in our yard so we just left it we didn't know what we were supposed to do so we've had a neighbor come up to our door and ask us about the sign and I discussed it with him so he let us know that we were there and discussed it so no trespassing there if UPS comes on and knocks on my door you know what I mean so knocked on our door asked us about it and explained it some of the scenarios that were brought up completely made up things can happen bad anywhere things can happen walking down the street from New York City originally and things happen bad all the time but you take the precautions that you want for Airbnb specifically in our house you know we have a lock on our bedroom door we have a lock on our office door for the people that stay with us you know what I mean we have ring doorbells so we know who's coming and going when they're coming and going on all the doors so we take precautions we're not just having anybody come over we have a government ID verified through Airbnb we have their credit card information verified through Airbnb so we're not just accepting anyone and all the people that we've met have been great honestly like they've been they've been awesome so as I said we're going to stop that when the daycare starts I don't know what scenarios my neighbors we're going to do but follow the law we're not going to have anybody in our home when we have children in our home that includes our parents because they're not going to be fingerprinted we're not because they don't live in the area that includes friends so we're going to follow the laws of the DSS and of the you know the county and right now there's no it's not illegal to do Airbnb in your house so we're going to follow those laws our neighbor also said that we should have just probably done this daycare without getting zoned properly and the regulation state if you have two children in your house and they're from different families you have to get zoned and you have to get registered through the state we could have two kids that were from the same family and that would be fine but to follow the law if we happen to have two kids there at the same time we want to we want to follow the law we want to do things the right way that's why we're here today I'm just some of the objections that were brought up I'm just I'm not too sure what what is too noisy about you know two to four children in our house I can't imagine especially if the board stipulates that we can only have up to four children how that could possibly be too noisy as they stated we can see on the board right there our backyard is right on Hammett's parking lot so you can see there's a field there so we have a playground you can hear kids playing all the time you can hear when they have games and stuff like that they're over the loudspeakers so that's already something that's a part of the neighborhood so that is not even the level that we're going to be on we have a safe we put a brand new fence a six foot fence so you know we are taking all the precautions and it fits right into the neighborhood in fact we had but we have a letter from Stacy Walden who lives in our neighborhood also and she said my name is Stacy Walden and I'm writing to express my support for Rachel and Christopher Tinsley and their desire to run a small daycare business from their home on 1039 Byron Road while my family does not live on the same street we're in the same community and consider them neighbors additionally the Tinsley's are part of our church family where we have had opportunity to get to know them Chris and Rachel are conscientious thoughtful and sensitive to those around them while I can understand their immediate neighbors concerned about being overrun with a small business this does not seem to me to be what's going on here their desire to host and care for two other children in addition to their own child is not unreasonable for our neighborhood or for a neighborhood that is full of families with multiple children we have three and two schools within blocks of the Tinsley's home speaks to the Tinsley's integrity that they have gone through the route of zoning when the path of least resistance would have been to simply care for two babies without a lot of fuss they aren't hanging a daycare sign Rachel just wants to be at home with her baby and give two working moms a quiet like-minded home in which to be nurtured nurtured during the day they've gone this route because they want to be above reproach I'm grateful they're in our community I understand there's a hearing on 8 on October 8th at 10 a.m. I'm a licensed professional council and will be working at that time otherwise I would attend to support the Tinsley's I'm sending this email and Lou have been there to speak on my behalf are there any other questions for me where does Miss Walden live Rachel do you know the route it's it's about it's about six blocks away further into the neighborhood so we're in Hammond if you go I'm sorry I'm pointing to the sign but if you go further in it's it's further into the neighborhood about about six blocks away so they're in they're in the same south of the middle field I have one more letter too if the board would like to hear can we have that letter Richard sounds good we had the first one you have the one from Lindsay we have that one cool to whom this may concern this letter is to provide reasons that Rachel should be allowed to open her daycare business in her home I'm Lindsay a teacher at AC a parent of a six year old daughter at Kaufman and my husband and I expecting our second baby in February 2020 I know Rachel and Chris from our small group at Riverside Community Church to provide a safe and fun nurturing environment for the children she'll be caring for this business will not change the family friendly environment of south middle field neighborhood if anything it will enhance it downtown Columbia has a huge shortage of quality daycares for infants to preschool aged children I had a hard time getting my daughter into daycare when we moved here from Myrtle Beach and when she was an infant in 2013 I saw it in home daycare as well as daycare at a church or school building it took several months to get in in addition I'm currently on several waiting lists for my unborn child I would love to see more people like Rachel opening daycares in their homes thank you Lindsay Purdy any questions from the board questions for staff please earlier we heard testimony regarding a potential covenant in the deed and residential use only can you speak to that a little bit and what sort of role that was they were to be single family residents a lot no duplexes no multifamily was to come into the neighborhood I did not it did not have the language regarding zoning does not have anything currently in the ordinance related to an Airbnb so we do not have any enforcement mechanism that is required to go through code enforcement if they fall under their rental permit requirements but zoning but just to be clear the applicant has said that you do not you will not be running an Airbnb at the same time that you would be running a daycare period we just do not address it it is not not in the table of uses also in that petition that was signed there was nothing specifically saying we are against Airbnb but also that has really nothing to do with what we are asking for this time so the deed on 4 and this is a question for Rachel again it says all lots instead track shall hear in and describe as residential lots and no trade business industrial activity commercial activity of any nature whatsoever shall be carried out by any firm person or corporation on any lot or lots in the subdivision here and after described I did not see that on the deed it seems like to me that is the same thing as the deed restriction I think so or are you looking at the Byron Road deed I am looking at the declaration of restrictive covenants or I am in this we won't be a commercial facility it is in the application that I mean it is in this case you are looking at I am not sure what that is what you guys are referring to well I am clearly this is not the mural like one right it is sorry that sounded familiar that was from the previous I mean this one does say private single family residential purposes I mean there is a statement in that is this application in any way and not in alignment with that statement does this not govern in the same way that the covenant from the first I mean how are we supposed to think about this with the covenants the ones that I usually see talk about trades businesses home occupations and commercial for me in my review of it above single family structures on those lots the lots were meant to be single family residential lots they were not meant to be duplexes multifamily more than one dwelling unit per parcel got it thank you so just to clarify I am just so I am understanding so I mean we are coming here for a special exception so like the real question you know to me what it seems like to me isn't the objections to people don't want the new zoning but that doesn't seem to be the real question the question is is this going to have any sort of impact on the neighborhood having two to four children in the neighborhood that is like saying a family of two to six children is going to destroy the neighborhood is just how I am understanding it right now because from what I am hearing from the deed that refers to the type of structure that is built I also just want to clarify that this is a special exception it's not a rezoning so it's it's remaining a single family residential parcel but within the RS zoning districts there are limited government educational and non-commercial and recreational uses that can come into those single family residential districts but they require the special exception so it pulls this out of a home application for example because those don't even have to come before the board but because this falls under one of those non-commercial and or recreational uses or it could be argued in educational use as well it comes in under the special exception and the table of permitted uses so just to just to be clear while the applicants here so you would be agreeable as a stipulation of this of this special exception to limit your hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and no more than 4 children any other questions please approach the podium deed on number 7 it says no use shall be made of any lot nor any part thereof nor of any improvement on the same which shall constitute a nuisance or injure the value of any of the other lots or sign a petition that says they don't want it because they're afraid it's going to injure the value of their lots also what happens if they move does this exception stay with this time can the next person come in and open a business another day care is that something that you have to include if if you approve it that very good question or a variance runs with the land so it's a day care where to come into the same location they would be held to the same stipulations and conditions that these applicants were so once the zoning is changed it is changed in forever and always that's not fair to the people that live there now unless it goes vacant for 12 months or more if it goes vacant or they don't operate a business for 12 months okay well that leads me to one other thing has to come back they're not going to be here all that long they have no vested interest in this neighborhood he's already told me point out he has no vested interest in the neighborhood that he's going to be moving he's going to be relocating either with the military or if he gets out he'll go somewhere else this isn't right he doesn't have to work to keep the neighborhood up like the rest of us do and we have worked very very hard to keep the neighborhood up but I think the deed the original deed that Louis Mosley got with the city it clearly states it's a single family residential use only it may stay single family residential but he's running a business he's not running one he's running two please state your name Mark Welchel 1042 Wordsworth Drive I'm on the adjacent streets the discretion you have is almost absolute by city council and as you just as the attorney was saying you may do this you don't have to do it and if you looked at the original deed it does state in a nuisance or a bother and Mr. Schaefer here already mentioned that he will live next to the daycare center and it does there is an adverse effect of this this neighborhood though Hammond is there that predates my that decision was made decades ago the rest of this neighborhood is Christine if you look at the map there's no businesses it's all single families on homes and sixty something of the neighbors some of them elderly have signed this they don't want it so I ask you to use the same discretion you used previously the cases are almost identical if you look at it except I would say that our neighborhood is even more pristine than the previous one thank you gentlemen thank you I think you should come back up one more time if you would like to address the your intentions about staying or not staying in the neighborhood first off from what I understand you know if somebody else does come in they're going to be stuck to the stipulation of four children seven a.m. to seven p.m. based on the land and what you guys decide today so it's not going to be some sort of crazy rezoning also from the email I got from Erica there's other businesses in the neighborhood so I mean it's not like it's completely pristine but they're operated in home and nobody even knows because there's no impact on the neighborhood so that's how I'm approaching it I don't know when I'm going to leave the military tells me when I'm going to leave I potentially could leave until next December I could potentially leave another year after that regardless I don't see I don't see the issue if it's four children and four kids and it's a stipulations of seven a.m. to seven p.m. we share like I said the backyard with Hammond so it's not like we're not a good fit with the neighborhood there's tons of parents I'm sure would love to have their children at a daycare there and have their other children go to Hammond so it fits in pretty well any other questions for me did I clarify that do we know what the nature of the other in-home businesses are in the neighborhood according to the email from Erica they says in-home daycares and daycare facilities are commercial established in a residential zone such as 400 Byron Road are a special exception so according to this it says there's another in-home daycare in 400 Byron Road I don't know the exact validity or if that was something in the past but I don't think that necessarily is an argument to have our business come in because looking on a case by case basis you have to answer are we crazy here to say that two or four children is going to have an impact on the neighborhood because I can't imagine that I can't imagine a scenario where it would so I'm sure they had to go through the same process thank you sir no problem thank you any discussion on the board this is an interesting one looking at this aerial photo here you know this lot is contiguous to Hammond School I don't know how many children go to Hammond now it's got to be close to a thousand so you know the applicants proposing this very small business of two to four children hours seem to align with Hammond School somewhat 7am to 7pm I like the fact that this particular case does seem to have a well thought out plan you know running through the criteria for special exception our job is to determine whether or not they meet them running through them in my opinion I'm not sure what one they don't meet I hear the neighborhood's opposition and I think you brought up some good points and understand your concerns but two to four children in a normal business type hours on a property adjacent to Hammond School if you look at the criteria for the special exception one through eight I'm asking anyone on the board what ones do they not meet well I have a concern about the criteria number five knowing that there's another daycare facility in the neighborhood already brings up whether or not this application creates a concentration of similar types of special exception uses in the neighborhood just looking at criteria number seven which was the criteria I had concerns about on the first application that we heard from I don't see any difference for me the I think when we're thinking about special exceptions in residential neighborhoods not all lots and properties are created equal I think properties that have adjacencies with edge conditions of the neighborhood properties that are sort of on major thoroughfares getting into the neighborhood may be more appropriate this house is deeply embedded in the neighborhood it does have an adjacency with the school but that's on the backside of the property this house and its presence in the neighborhood is on a residential street and everybody's experience of this house is completely residential deeply embedded in the neighborhood so you know I have a question about how this is any different from the first application just on that variable school big difference another thing I liked about the first one was the fact that it was a small lot directly across the street from an intersection and they were talking about more children and now in more hours and you've got a situation there where you had a much more difficult traffic situation I think the fact that the backyard backs up to a school makes the biggest difference between this and the other come closer to your mic I think that the fact that you know K through 12th grade school was directly behind this house and all the others on the street has more I mean so I hear what George is saying also about the appropriateness of the special exception and whether it would adversely affect the public interest in one situation I understand that they're concerned the neighborhood is concerned about property values I think as much as anything that I heard but on the other hand in the application I mean that there is a large neighborhood and there probably are people with small children that would be able to utilize the services of something like that in their own neighborhood and that's where I'm falling on it well I mean I would agree this property has two faces it faces the school on its backside and the neighborhood on the front side I would argue that the residential neighborhood is the only side that has a stake in this argument I think the school could be potentially impacted one way or the other and so the question is does this property belong more to the residential neighborhood or its edge that fronts the school and I think it belongs to the residential neighborhood more than the school and secondly given its position in the residential neighborhood is it appropriate to be considered for a special exception use and I think it's deeply embedded in the neighborhood and I would say no so I understand what you're saying but I feel like it's saying that the school has more of an influence and a stake in this so we're going to allow it then the properties that are actually sort of connected to this one which are the residential properties I guess just in saying that my two biggest concerns in a residential neighborhood are the traffic number one and number two and I think that it's not contributing really in this case where it would make those two items of an issue from my standpoint there I don't think the nuisance is as big as two to four kids 7am, 7pm when you take a step back from it and if you're not in the neighborhood then it doesn't seem like a big deal but I do agree with George and that this property if you drive through that neighborhood and I think it is more belonging to the residents and I think the common flaw in both this application and the first one is to try to work something out and I just have a hard time granting special exception for this one when we didn't for the second one when there were so many neighbors in opposition of both I think the cases are different but and in opposition or being for against something really isn't part of our criteria as far as what we have to go by this is our criteria these eight items that we have to really look at and that's where I I'm struggling because the easy thing to do would be to say no because everybody in the room wants this too but on the other hand I'm struggling that I can say that based on what the criteria are for the special exception that's kind of where I am with it I've run through them and so I'd like to make a motion and we'll see what happens I'll make a motion that we approve this request for special exception subject to and stipulated upon the applicants time being from 7am to 7pm with no more than four children at one time in the well no more than four children that are not the applicants children in the home at any time during this those hours of operation and subject to any other comments in the application by staff all in favor say aye aye opposed that was that an aye? motion carries here he is the next item on the agenda is item number 13 case 2019 0062 for 4701 North Main Street a special exception to allow a shipping container as an accessory storage structure for a convenience store if the applicant is present they're welcome to come forward my name is Sarviji Roman Dillon I'm here with my father Parkin Dillon we are here for the special exception for the storage food storage next to our seastore which is on 47 01 North Main Street you can push the mic up if you're okay it moves up so you don't have to bend it I've never been here before so sorry okay we have some pictures to show you yes we just like to have a special exception for the storage tank it's a container it's been there for the last 20 years and all of a sudden I guess there's a problem with it so the container has always been there yes sir we have a seastore gas station also have a container that's we just use for our food storage just to make sure I'm clear you said that the container has been there for 20 years we've been in the business for the last 20 years so there was the container before that and then then we I guess after that I think a couple years later we also got another one so now they're saying it shouldn't be there so you had a container you got a new container yes sir and when you got the new container you realized that you were required to have a special exception which is why you're here yes sir it was brought to one of my inspectors gotcha we discussed the violation with them they had to come before the board to rectify but this is the same container that's been there I think that was replaced and it's used for food storage yes for storage food storage products there's very limited situations where someone can have a shipping container without an active instruction site it has to be providing actual storage for a limited amount of uses and a convenience store falls under the food store umbrella and so that is why they were able to come before you today understood well I don't think vehicle traffic is an issue and it doesn't make any noise or lights for glare I mean it's aesthetically probably more pleasing than the one before it and I don't see how it affects the safety or is it a nuisance I don't see it as a deflation issue and character intent of the district which is a convenience store and it's allowed with special exception ok anything further that you would like to say we just like you said it's not going to make any noise it doesn't bother anybody it's safe it's in great condition yes I can see that from the photo ok is there anyone else here that would like to speak in favor or against this application is there any questions from the board any discussion I'd like to make a motion that we approve this special exception based on the testimony and the written application I believe that the applicant has shown that this meets the criteria for a special exception in this case but be subject to all comments and conditions in the application made by staff all in favor say aye aye all opposed passes the last item on the regular agenda is item number 14 it's case 2019 0064 for 3409 Farrell Road a special exception to reestablish a gasoline service station and convenience store the cases can be heard together but it will require two separate motions this one came before the board in 2017 the gasoline service station was approved but because it wasn't established in the 12 month period they're leaving Rachel they just left do they know that they've got one more pardon it's her she's the applicant for this one it's Mrs. Stratton we have an error there's a typo okay we were alarmed hang on yeah it's a typo wrong applicant so Mrs. Stratton's here but again it's just coming back before the board for the gasoline service station and convenience store as it has been vacant for 12 months or more so the applicant is here and is welcome to approach the podium I'm Deborah Stratton from Caldwell Banker I'm representing my clients unfortunately they couldn't be here today her mother had an emergency admission into a hospital in Canada so they're not here this is two different this is two a partnership my one client has been improving commercial properties for over 20 years in Colombia he likes to purchase dilapidated eyesores and then renovate them into something that's attractive and adds to the community in your package I included photos can you put up the photos of 2053 in your package in your package I included like one of his previous properties so you can see the difference it's 2053 two-notch road it was vacant for almost 18 years when I showed it it had a problem because you had to watch Ray's step there were always needles and drug paraphernalia from people who broke in during the night and he renovated that property and I also included a photo from two weeks ago that I just took randomly where you could see people using that gas station convenience store the people next door in the incubator were happy to see it because they were happy to have a safe place that they could get gas after hours when they finish closing the incubator at night if you're familiar with the incubator it's the office complex to start new businesses that's sponsored by the college I wanted to put that in there so you could see some of his other work he has 17 gas stations in Columbia Sumter Charleston and one in Aiken this is probably going to be a branded gas station he's negotiating with Shell and Exxon right now to see which one he wanted to go with as you can see this building was built just to be a gas station convenience store he has others he has never had any grievances against him he hires always locally he likes to have one or two people who can walk to the location so that they can keep an eye on it for him it'll have cameras he's been involved in some sort of a camera program with the sheriff's department at his other locations I enclosed a good neighbor plan for you and the other partner in this proposition she has a rug store that's been a family on business in Columbia for over 40 years I'm sure you've heard of it she is currently finishing the remodel of a dilapidated building it's the old R.H. Lee building on School House and 2 Notch Road it's almost completely done and that'll be the new store showroom for Bistony Rugs she also runs and operates a restaurant that's been in Columbia for well over a decade arabesque on Divine Street they both have been good responsible business owners keeping good clean upfitted properties they both have really good records I've tried to get a hold of the association person for Colonial Heights Bruce Sanders I emailed him and I have called him and I've never received any response but as you can see this has been was built to be a gas station convenience store the footprint will stay the same the driveways will stay the same in this photo if you look behind the two lots that make the gas station convenience store you see like a wooded area between that next lot over that's also part of the sale and that will remain as the wooded buffer that it has always been houses down in there you can't really see anything out there this will be a great gas station for people coming and getting off from the hospital I included some other photos to show you it's right there for the exit for 277 the ramps for 277 and it'll be a nice addition when he did that addition at 2353 next door to it was a vacant lot that had been vacant forever after that was a dilapidated building once he renovated that gas station then Dollar General came in and bought the vacant lot put in a new store and then another gentleman I sold the next dilapidated building to and he renovated it and put his business in there and virtually changed the whole block do you have any questions for me no no ma'am Rachel had this come up before us I think I might be the only one still on the board but I think this came up one time before a request for this property in 2017 a different applicant came before the board with the same request for a gasoline service station and convenience store the gasoline service station was approved the convenience store was denied but because the service station the gasoline part of it has not been initiated in 12 months or more so I'm back with both requests again different applicant okay perfect thank you so much for that thank you so much for your testimony you can come back up in a minute is anyone else here to speak for against this application good morning my name is Alice Holt and the area that she mentioned that you could not see on that photo up there is where I live that's my community because it's my community I fight very hard to keep it a community in which we can live and have a safe environment the previous owner of that or the person who operated that service station convenience liquor store was the next student of mine and what happened there is that we had the influx of guns drugs and everything else that was associated with that convenience service station store I have lived in that community over 50-51 years and we are home owners that want to maintain a very safe environment from where we live since Eric Ocelano left we have had a decrease in uh lottery and decrease in gun violence decrease in a number of negative things that impact our community if you look at where that place is situated it's across the street from a daycare kindergarten it's on a very busy thoroughfare and in our area we are saturated with those types of institutions the we have at least five convenient service stations we have one liquor store hard liquor we have I mean we just saturated with those it's not that we are against businesses coming in but it's the type of businesses that's coming in and creating a lot of problems for us I would like to ask this board to deny this request because of the type of institution it is are there any other questions you would like to ask me just from a standpoint of the convenience store it's the laudering and what's the biggest concern that you have if it were to be open as a gasoline station and convenience store I can give you at least six walking littering and laudering mounds of trash public urination increased automobile traffic loud talking with profane language and loud music these are things that should not be if we are to live in an environment that really is conducive to residential living thank you are there other concerns I think you've addressed them thank you so much yes ma'am I'm Mary Hart I'm the president of this area if you go and stand in front of the place that she's proposing the station and you look down one block you will see another establishment that sells the same thing and there's five that's in our area now she said something about the people that are going to do this gas station here was going to have an eating establishment now we're not against them putting something in there but we are against the same thing coming in again because as Miss Holt said we have lived through this and it's just unfair to us to have to live through it again because we had trouble with the same people that own that property about keeping it clean the people would come by those things out there and we had a time with them we went through the city council both of them to get them to clean it up and you know if two or three bothers down there they don't consider that to be anything it has to be just litter just filthy before they do anything about it and if there was a gas station there when we first moved in about 64 1964 but the Texaco I think was their gas supply and there was a grocery store on the other side so people could get stopped by and get gas food and they had bread and stuff that they sold now she also said that when you come off of 277 you could go in there and get your gas but what she didn't tell you was that you can't get back it's a hard job to get back on that road because it's so close to the light and if they were going to put something there that would benefit the neighborhood we would welcome that but we don't feel like this is going to help us and we feel like our needs are not being met thank you thank you ma'am anybody else here to speak for against this application yes ma'am and I live on Liberty Street that's like three houses down from where she's talking about and what I want to say about all the noise going on I can sit on my porch and if she get the store I know there's going to be so many cars up there and everything and they can be selling bills, they can be selling little blocks or whatever and you're going to have so many people coming and hanging around and I don't want to see that in our neighborhood we got that going all around our neighborhood and so much going on and I've been living there over 30 some years and I know this is going on in our neighborhood we got two minutes sold in every corner of our neighborhood and just like she said if we can have something better in our neighborhood we would love it we don't even have a grocery store in our neighborhood we need a grocery store in our neighborhood we got all these little corners sold we need a grocery store thank you thank you ma'am anybody else like to come speak my name is Leon I live on High Street in that same community my wife and I have been there 53 plus years we raised our family there our children they're doing well outside of Columbia and so much going on in our neighborhood our children were not encouraged to live there around their parent to make a good living now we live on High Street say when you come down is a railroad coming from Bull Street going toward Spirit Communication Park you come down and place that get down by St. John Baptist Church there's where where the Marshall's Academy you can't make a left turn so therefore the state put there's no left turn sign there so then they channel the traffic down to Liberty Street on High Street so we have an influx of traffic coming down High Street or Liberty Street we can't even get a speed bump I made a picture of the black skin marks on High Street where we were trying to get out of our driveway come down the street because we don't have speed bumps they would get a stop sign they'd stop for it once in a while skin marks in the road so I made a picture and I'm going further with that to get some relief of the traffic and Liberty Street already now the 20 nights of September now this is a 29203 area, high crime area in the type of facility that is coming into this area not going to be beneficial to the growth and the viability of maintaining a safe environment that you'd be pleased to live in you could have a peaceful night, peaceful day if you sit on your front porch I don't do that anymore I worked long hours a long time ago and I would cut my grass that night because I had good light in the street and we had a security light but you have so much drive by crime nowadays so I stopped doing that I didn't feel safe in my community now the 29th of September I'm going to dig in the St. John Baptist Church across from where this traffic is going to be we improved in our preparatory school across the street from there and we'll have an outdoor service it's going to be nice in September a few weeks ago on Sunday morning they had gunshot in the area the folks started running and scattering not wanting to get hit by stray bullets the next block up the street from the church we can't have outside service in a safe environment we don't want this type of establishment coming in that are going to add to high crime area already we're trying to clean it up and the business that are around it won't block away with an easy spot they say a gas but it got out for the bill bill coolers and folks coming in that behind it they don't want to make money but then they leave us with the problem and I'm at a point now where I have a lot more time I won't make this situation known further up the ladder we're tired of them putting business like this in our neighborhood I'll read it a little thank you for your testimony is there anyone else that would like to come speak for or against this application the applicant would like to come back I'm sorry that they have crime in the neighborhood been unfortunately criminals have cars no and they get all over and they're in every neighborhood this building was designed to be a convenient store gas station but already that's all it's been except for a short stint when there was no gas and someone made a liquor store out of it these applicants are only going to do beer and wine it's just going to be a traditional gas station they don't have loitering at any of their other gas stations they don't allow loitering right now this is a location for crime I've been there sat in my car afraid to get out of the car either my client came the contractor came the other agent came sat in my car and watched two other cars do drugs transactions and sell little things out of little packets to people watched a hooker come over looking for business and then the guys that were selling drugs out of their car made her leave they didn't want her interfering with what they were doing right now it is the place the crime is occurring once it's a gas station and people are coming and going and they'll have cameras, they do supervising they don't allow loitering it'll be just like that one 2053 that was a crime location people were breaking in and doing drugs almost daily in there and now there isn't any of that along there everything's been renovated there's a new store next door and renovated this may begin a revitalization of some of these other properties that are along there that could use some work but it will also get rid of the criminal element that's there every day you can drive by there and take a look they're working that won't be going on it'll be a nice gas station with good employees now my client if you ever go to any of his gas stations he thinks that they should also have a certain amount of grocery items and he carries a lot of grocery items and household items in his gas station that one on 2053 one of the people who was really excited about it afterwards is a guy that lives around the corner that can only get around in a wheelchair and he couldn't get anywhere to get food and he requested certain items and then they carried him in that convenient store for him so he could get his groceries and items that he wanted but I think what they'll find is that this will eliminate the criminal element that's currently there and if you look even at this aerial photo there's litter it's not being maintained because it's not being operated and because people are coming and hanging out all hours of the day and night this is a good solution this will clean it up it will make it so that it's not the negative property for the residents that it currently is there is no other gas station between Broad River Road and the freeway if you go more towards the Bull Street and you go down two blocks there'll be one going towards downtown or if you cross over the highway and you go down a block and a half there's one on the corner and then after that there's none so this will be a great addition plus this property if you look at it it's zone convenience store it's what it was built to be it's all it's ever been other than that short stint as a liquor store and I can understand the concern over liquor stores but this will not be a liquor store they've already been granted their beer and wine license it will be a traditional convenience store a little grocery mart gas station anything else? would you like to come back one more time? as I said before it's not that I or we or the community is against businesses coming in the colonial heights which I'm a member of organization we are saturated with these type of institutions and they if what she said actually was real reality about what happens after they get established I would be totally for it but I've lived there and I know what happens and before I sit down this time I want to ask you a question if it were your neighborhood would you permit further saturation of these types of institutions I'd like for you to think about that thank you ma'am would you like to approach one more time I have a question for you so you live on high street and so you pass by this property often right? how long has it been vacant? and on my head also I'll kind of keep it clean for the city back out about this Saturday we had a community fellowship Saturday first time a lot of folks came they enjoyed themselves you ought to do this every year at least we could but we have a foundation that's barely heard of that last Saturday and people enjoyed it so we kind of maintained community I'll bring it back to the way it was 50 something plus years we moved there we had a gas station in a convenient store there's one block easy spot he's been a bomber station a long time ago and down federal roads the other gas station there's another gas station now I'm building out there gas stations all around we're saturated we're gas stations and beer aisles I would call it every foot traffic and the person that visited this site when they leave that particular site we're only going it's hard to get on federal road they're coming down Liberty Street or they're going down High Street that's their thoroughfare we can hardly get out of our driveway now without getting hit I had a point of trying to avoid someone bringing it to you we have been coming home and they're moving in such a hurry we've come home from federal road to our street we're gonna make a left turn they'll pass us on the left side we can't tolerate any more business like this it's upgrading I mean degrading our neighborhood and our safety is at risk we are senior citizens my wife and I can't afford to go anywhere else and buy a home we at your own mercy to help us look out for ourselves businesses are fine that's good in fact, when they first built Spirit Communication Park we were planning to develop that thoroughfare with valuable businesses that you can go get a loaf of bread they can go get whatever you want you could for breakfast or dinner and that's it and if I want to get some beer, some liquor, go somewhere else get it and then run down our street until you can out the window thank you sir I'll tell my wife I pray that when I retire I'm blessed to go down our street that's what I'm doing I don't want someone to add to it thank you sir I just wanted to point out that there are two large driveways on Farah Road there's an ingress and an egress there are huge driveways and then there's also a large driveway on Liberty so it already has plenty of ability for someone to get in or out and people are going in and out more of a hangout but there's plenty once it's a gas station for people to have smooth traffic flow thank you any discussion on the board? okay you can come up one more time and this is the last one I think we have enough information on the decision I live on Liberty Street like I said they have so many accidents that be up in that area and I have seen it I mean on that street that they have so many accidents people trying to get out and come in it's not going to be smooth like she said it's not going to be smooth do you recall how long this property has been vacant? I don't recall how long I called E I really don't want to say because it has been vacant for a while but my problem is with the beer and the blunts that they be selling they draw people and we got that all around our area already and I'm really kind of tired of it you know we don't need that in our neighborhood we got too many every corner that's the biggest concern I have about this whole thing thank you okay well I mean clearly what we've heard I think loud and clear from the neighborhood is number one that there is a proliferation already of these businesses in the area and frankly I don't see anything looking at aerial photographs around the number of gas stations up and down the area inside of the area and everything else it really changes that a lot it makes me think that you know it's there I do feel like I have a lot of empathy for the property owner because it's a convenient store I mean that's what it is it's designed as a convenient store that's what the site is gas station let's just say a gas station gasoline station it's hard to do adaptive reuse of that for other purposes although obviously it can be done we've seen that happen as well so I don't know anybody else got any thoughts? a lot of things about this bother me one thing in particular that occurred to me is the fact and I realize things happen and stuff comes up but the fact that the potential business owners are not here I understand that there was an emergency and they couldn't be here but they could have deferred deferred this a month and given them a chance to come before us themselves and try to give us some comfort to be able to address some of these situations that the neighborhood is concerned about but that really bothers me that they're not here as we're airing out these issues I think that Chuck I agree it is a shame that it's built to be a gas station in a convenient store but there is no doubt this would absolutely create a proliferation of similar type of uses in this area that's already saturated and I think all these issues the neighborhood has brought up this would just exacerbate the situation so I have a lot of issues with this particular request any other comments? as a reminder because it's two uses under one case it's going to need to be two motions one for the gasoline service station and then a separate motion for the convenience store which one goes first? the gasoline service station is listed first so if you want to do it that way that's fine I'd like to make a motion that we deny the request for the gasoline service station based on the fact that there is a proliferation of those businesses in the area and that it would cause an issue with traffic based on the fact that there is a curb cut that goes to a residential street Liberty Street and then testimony that we've heard that the commercial users are using Liberty Street and residential streets as a cut through in order to get around the fact that they can't make a left turn on the Hardin Street so I like I think that and those two issues are the reason I'm making this motion I'll second that I'll in favor say aye I'll opposed motion carries I would like to also make a motion that we deny the request for a convenience store based on the exact same two criteria that I just mentioned I second I'll in favor say aye I'll opposed motion carries item on the agenda is a discussion a request has been made by council for us to change our meeting time to later in the day so that more members of the public can attend I guess some complaints have been coming into them for a while I believe Krista Hampton had sent you all an email about this and we heard back from some of you but the we will have to change the day as well because council has Tuesday evenings pretty much locked up so we're looking at either the first or third Wednesday of the month or first Thursday and they said no later or not to go any earlier than four and no later than six so I was I proposed four o'clock just so we don't cut too far into your all evenings parking might be easier I know DDRC meets at four and they usually don't have as many parking concerns I know I have heard back from one or two that Wednesday would be very difficult we would end up most likely losing one or two members of the board with Wednesday so just keep in mind as we discuss this there might be a day that's inconvenient but if it's feasible with your schedule or if things can be moved around that's different than just completely not being able to do a day and also we have advertised dates through February of next year so this would not take effect until March of 2020 when do I roll off the board I think September of next year of next year 2020 it's either August or September that's not a big fan I was just wondering whether it even affected me or not I wasn't sure it affects you a little bit what I just wanted to hear your all-speed back I know George you would be unable to do Wednesdays and I don't have all of the emails in front of me I can't remember who the second person was I'm pretty open it doesn't really affect me much I don't have kids or soccer practice or anything like that so I don't have no obligation really in the evening so whatever works for me I worked on the other side of the state on Wednesdays so I'm literally not in town on Wednesdays Thursdays would be fine with me I mean is that how would you all feel about Thursdays at four it would have to be the first Thursday because DDRC is the second Thursday is four the earliest possible or acceptable time well what time I proposed four just so I mean it's up to you all if it goes into the evenings it's just they said four starting no later than six other than four no later than six somewhere in that window because I was thinking starting around six we do have the potential of going kind of late depending on if it's a one hour meeting or one of those surprise four hour meetings right I was thinking you don't get many of those but just keeping that in mind you might be able to get home for supper that was the only thing I was thinking about sometimes but that doesn't I could do either one or five I mean I have to be there no matter what so it's up to you as to your else preference I mean you all are volunteering your time so I want it to be something that you all once a month so you know it's not like it's every Thursday you know about it Thursday at four yeah that works for me I gotta run I'd like to make a motion then that the board change its meeting time to the first Thursday of the month at 4pm beginning March of 2020 a second all in favor say aye all opposed make a motion to adjourn aye second all in favor say aye we are adjourned