05-12-05 Planning Comm. Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 12, 2005 Knudsen agreed that a fence should be high enough so that the average person cannot look over it, but low enough so as not to create structural issues. Knudsen raised the issue of equipment stored behind the fence that is higher than the fence. The City Planner indicated that this is an issue of screening, point out options for landscaping outside the fence that exceeds the height of the fence or construction of the fence on a landscaped berm. Rheaume noted that a business could have tivcks that are 12 feet high. He also noted that driving on 694 and looking down into the site could make it impossible to screen an outdoor storage area. Duray suggested that anything stored behind the fence that exceeds the height of the fence should have additional screening such as landscaping. Wojcik pointed out that the outdoor storage is occurring in an industrial area, and indicated that having this storage behind an 8-foot high screening fence was acceptable to him. Knudsen felt that if the outdoor storage was significantly over the height of an 8-foot fence, then he would prefer to see additional screening. However, he did not feel that the City had to create requirements for an all-time screening fence that covered everything. The Planner reviewed items #4 through #7. The consensus of the Commission was that no changes were necessary to these provisions. The Planner reviewed item #8 which states thaC no outdoor storage area in the I-P Dish~ict shall be closer to any public streeC Chan the required building setback line or the actual constructed line of the building, whichever is farther from the street. The Planner pointed out ChaC this provision was added to the Code after the Orius CUP was issued in response to Che fact thaC the outdoor storage area is fully visible and the first thing that is seen when driving down Spruce Street. Therefore, the Orius outdoor storage area is legally non-conforming as it sits in front of the building. The Planner indicated that if McGough wants to continue outdoor storage in the same location, the City will have to deal with that issue on a variance basis since the current Code would not allow it. The new code says that outdoor sCOrage can be no closer to the street than Che building. Barraclough indicated that one hardship might be the soil conditions of the property. -9-