COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
At the Planning Commission
In and For Said City
April 5, 2017
Minutes of the Richfield City Planning Commission meeting held on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, at 6:00 p.m., Chairman Brion Terry, presiding.
1. Roll Call.
2. Minutes Approval: Consider approving minutes of March 1, 2017.
3. Conditional Use:
A. Consider recommending approval for Fieldstone Academy to hold school
classes in a commercial building located in the Centennial Park (C-2 use,
CG zone).
4. Zoning Code:
A. Discuss setting a public hearing to consider recommending that the Land Use
Ordinance be amended as it applies to the MD zones. Discuss modifying
requirements for landscaping, sidewalks, parking surface, and finish materials
for exterior of buildings.
B. Discuss Zoning Code section assignments.
5. Other Business:
A. Discuss General Plan and Master Transportation
6. Adjournment.
1. Roll Call. Roll call was answered by Brion Terry, Greg Bean, Jeff Albrecht, David Mower, and Lisa White. Steve Kunzler and Monte Turner were excused.
City Staff Present: Zoning Administrator Gaylen Matheson and Deputy City Recorder Michelle Curtis.
Others present: Marv Forsythe, Tom Torgersen.
2. Minutes Approval. The minutes of March 1, 2017, were reviewed. Lisa White motioned to approve the minutes of March 1, 2017. Greg Bean seconded the motion. The motion carried. Those voting yea: Brion Terry, David Mower, Greg Bean, Jeff Albrecht, and Lisa White. Those voting nay: None.
3. Conditional Use: Marv Forsythe represented Fieldstone Academy which would like permission to hold school classes in a commercial building located at the north side of the Centennial Park (C-2 use, CG zone).
Mr. Forsyth said this is a small school that has been in Richfield on and off for the past 14 years. It is fully accredited and licensed by the State Office of Education. All of their classes have been held here at the college. It has come to the point where they need more class space. This is a school for kids who have fairly serious learning abilities, mostly in the autistic spectrum. That doesn’t mean they are non-functional, it just means they are not very good students. This is a small school. They usually have well less than ten students.
They would like to lease part of the commercial building located at the north side of the Centennial Park. They want to try the building out to see how the building works out for their kids because any kind of change is a huge thing for these kids and can cause serious emotional issues. Their kids spend a lot of time at the gym across the street from this building. They seem quite comfortable there.
Mr. Forsythe does not want the Commission to think this is a school that is on the edge of some extraordinary growth. The school can’t be very large because they have a lot of Asperger’s kids. Getting ten or more is virtually impossible for them to handle. This is not a behavioral school by any definition. Most students come to this school with about a 1.2 GPA. However, last year the ACT said that 37% of kids in public schools in the State of Utah were ready to do college courses, and 100% of Fieldstone’s kids were ready to do college courses. The school fills a small niche, but they are very good at what they do in that small niche.
These students are middle school age up to the beginning of high school. They have a total of three staff members. The school is a year-round endeavor. Classes for core courses start at 10 a.m. and are finished at 4 p.m. Their electives go on into the evening at the gym or the college. As far as outdoor activities, they have a ranch out by Venice with horses, cows, chickens, and pigs. They spend a lot of time there. They might use the park a little, but the change of environment scares their kids. The anxiety issue is their biggest issue.
He does not foresee a problem with parking. The most parking they need is three spaces. Staff will park their cars there; however, they aren’t usually all there at the same time. There are a lot of parking spaces at this building. Parents don’t really spend any time at the school. He does not anticipate anything going on there that would require a lot of parking.
Currently, half of the building is used by another tenant. During their school hours, the students are inside of the building. They will let them walk down to the Chevron at lunch time to buy a drink. Most of them don’t go because of anxiety issues.
Greg Bean expressed appreciation for the good that they do for these young people. Mr. Forsythe said their kids are involved in the community. They have helped sandbag, and they are replacing the flags right now.
Greg Bean motioned to recommend that the Council approve the Conditional Use Permit allowing Fieldstone Academy to hold school classes in a commercial building located at the north side of the Centennial Park. Jeff Albrecht seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Those voting yea: Brion Terry, David Mower, Greg Bean, Jeff Albrecht, and Lisa White. Those voting nay: None.
4. Zoning Code:
A. Discuss setting a public hearing to consider recommending that the Land Use Ordinance be amended as it applies to the MD zones. Discuss modifying requirements for landscaping, sidewalks, parking surface, and finish materials for exterior of buildings.
Chairman Terry explained that the City Council has asked that the Commission review these requirements in the MD zone as it applies to the Business Park. The request is partly because of the business that was reviewed last month and also because of other potential tenants.
City Administrator Matt Creamer sent a memo to the Commission asking that they review the requirements for the exterior finish of the buildings, landscaping requirements, hard surface requirements, and sidewalk.
The following points were discussed:
• There are two areas zoned MD. The Business Park is in the MD zone. The other area is the southeast area of the City and is contiguous to residential areas. While the business park is separated from other residential areas, it might not be advisable to reduce standards for an MD zone which is next to a residential area.
• Different options were discussed concerning the two areas of MD zone: Change the zone of the MD area in the southeast part of Richfield; change the zone of the area of Business Park. Change the business park from the MD zone to the MG zone; however, the MG is really for more industrial, heavier-type businesses; split the zone that is in the southeast part of town to residential zone and keep some of it in the MD zone.
• Changing the zone in the southeast part of town would require quite an involved process of holding a public hearing and mailing notice to each property owner in that zone.
• Greg Bean pointed out that he has been in some large towns and seen some of their industrial developments which have manufacturing entities much larger than anything Richfield has and much more obtrusive. They do have trees and landscaping.
• The Council is desirous that these changes be expedited.
• Based on the conversation that was held at the last meeting, the Commission feels like asphalt is cost-prohibitive and compacted road base is actually a better solution.
• It was pointed out that when there is mud, trucks pulling out of parking lots and onto the asphalt street can create a significant amount of mud on the street. There would need to be something stating that it is well maintained and conditioned upon not tracking mud onto adjacent streets.
• The requirement for a sidewalk could be eliminated.
• As far as finish on the building, there needs to be some limitation where buildings are not 100% metal in order to that it can be as attractive an area as possible.
• The requirement for landscaping is for 5% of a lot. At first thought, the Commission doesn’t feel like that is excessive but then considering if a company were to purchase six or eight lots, that would be almost 1/2 acre of landscaping. Discussed requiring the lesser of 5% or a certain square footage.
• Landscape could be the lesser of 5% or x number of feet x frontage. It could be lowered to 2% of the total property or 2000 square feet, whichever is less. It is felt that whatever amount is required, it is important to have the landscaping at the front of the property along public areas and building entrance.
• Landscaping needs to be along the public access. It does no good to require landscaping if it is behind the building.
• Landscape could be xeriscape.
• As far as siding, page 115 of the Zoning Code requires the front street-facing walls to be finished at fifty percent (50%) and the second street-facing wall at twenty-five (25%) with brick, stone, block, stucco, glass, or a combination thereof. It is felt that the front wall could have 30% finished in a material other than metal with no requirement for the second street-facing wall.
• Change the north MD area to a different zone. The Commission wouldn’t want to relax the standards for MD zones that are contiguous to residential areas.
• Something should be done with the area in the southeast part of Richfield that is zoned MD. A different zone designation would be advisable.
Public comments will be held at a public hearing to be held on April 19, 2017, at 6:00 p.m.
B. Zoning Code Assignments. This will be placed on next month’s agenda for Chairman Terry to make assignments for each member to study.
5. Other Business:
A. Discuss General Plan and Master Transportation. This will be discussed at the special meeting being held on April 19, 2017
Lisa White has created a file for historical homes in the City. She demonstrated how the file works with Google earth. It shows the years when individual homes were built. She still needs to add in the commercial buildings. It would be nice to have a link to the City’s website so people can look at that if they want to.
6. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 7:51 pm.
PASSED AND APPROVED on the 3rd day of May, 2017.
/s/ Michelle Curtis
Deputy City Recorder