Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
The Lone Tree Reporter
Lone Tree, Iowa
April 22, 2004     The Lone Tree Reporter
PAGE 9     (9 of 12 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 9     (9 of 12 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
April 22, 2004
 
Newspaper Archive of The Lone Tree Reporter produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2024. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




Tree Reporter, Thursday, April 22, 2004 PUBLICATIONS Page 9 8 - have other uses other land that they'd have zoned as high- He said that the entire piece would screening the entire boundary of 3/8 of a would be a large Thompson said that believes that the area turning lanes ff the is going to consider Zonings and asked if is planning to add the lanes. Meisner said is not because they the amount of on 540th Street. said that MOth has twice the traffic should have. Meisner does not see how it is responsibility if the not increasing traffic. said that the Board has receiving complaints the refrigerated trucks but with the new there for 4 explained that all currently automati- temperature, but increase. Stutsman those traders con- there trailers that contain the being loaded at the dock. He said that the will be held in until loaded in immedi- Thompson asked if the onto MOth Street will the first stage of is finished. replied that customers t driveway to access the but the 540th Street traffic win decrease trailers per day :and exiting. asked if the will inspect the new Assistant Planning Administrator R.J. replied that the building subject to the County's :codes. Moore said that permit won't be Until the Board has done review, per Chapter Moore said that part of requirements prohibit onto anything but a which they have with Meisner and He said that's why rezoning to take the out to the north or it he prohibited by the site Stutsman asked if meets those require- Moore explained that :they in compliance with i Road Performance and the site plan uirements. He said plan does not accom- Neuzil said that if approves the rezon- then not be eligi- building permit based Site plan review process. eXPlained that there is a in the site plan ordi- states that if the not onto a paved road, work with the to reach for paying for to the non-paved said that they of these require- per his conversa- staff, they were told rezoned the entire area, then the 540th access would no longer be a problem. He said that the property would still continue to abut 540th Street and that would not change. Thompson said that the entrance is needed for cus- tomers and the delivery of the raw product. Moore agreed. Thompson asked if this plan is substantially different that what [he Commission saw. Moore replied that Meisner explained that changes well, adding only the proposed new building and cooler. Meisner said that some dairy employees park in front of the area zoned C2/MI. Roetlin said that they have no use for the land north of the proposed area for this project. He said that the ease- ment allows them to access Highway I, which is a hard sur- faced road. Stutsman asked why Moore would like the entire area rezoned. Moore replied that the Cheese Factory is a valu- able resource for Johnson Coun so any ing the can do to facilitate the improve- ment of the business should be done. However, Moore explained, the County has prob- lems in the area where the cus- tomers, employees, and semis currently and the Board has the opportunity to resolve the issue. Moore explained that anything that can be done in a CH zone, can be done in a M1 zone, it just requires some the store. Roetlin agreed, but added the milk trucks would still continue on the south side of 540th Street. Thompson asked what assurances the Board would have without eliminating the driveway. Roetlin said that the zoning comes right up to the old build- ing because they need to keep the old process going until the new building is running. Stutsman asked what the park- ing area will be used for if semi traffic will no longer enter at that entrance. Roetlin said that although semis would enter from the north, they would be staged in the drive area, Harney asked if Roetlin will be adding to the problem by storing semis in other areas and then becking them across 540th Street when loading. Brown said that in order to comply with the site plan regu- lations and the Road Performance Standards, there cannot be access to that parcel from the soutl He said that Roetlin may be willing to gate off that access if need be. Moore replied that according to the site plan review process, he is correct. Stutsman said that she thought it would be a good idea to park the semis on the new parcel because she hears complaints of having semis parked up and down 540th Street. Brown replied that parking the ~emis there is what the dairy wants to do, but as he concern is alleviating the traf- fic problem and she thinks this proposal would be a step in the right direction. She clarified a previous statement explaining that she would not support any new rezoning that would increase the traffic load, but in her mind this is an adjustment to a current zoning. She said that from what she's heard, it would reduce traffm, which would help alleviate the con- cerns she has regarding the intersection. Stutsman said that she is not sure how they would be able to ensure that the land would be used as suggest- ed. Moore explained that the Board can ensure in the site plan review that the parcel accesses Highway I. Harney said that if there are more semis accessing the prop- erty from Highway I and there will be semis backing in off Highway I, then they will be adding to the problem on Highway 1. He said that what he's said in the past is that he isn't willing to add to the prob- lem, so ff Roetlin is willing get rid of the access and access the entire property from the new drive, he'd consider the zoning. Stutsman asked if that could be addressed in the site plan review. Moore replied that only the parcel in question can be addressed during the site plan review. Lehman said that the semi traffic would be moved to the current driveway of the old expenditure on Roetlin's part. ur)derstands the current regu- implement dealership, which Moore said that currenfly/A tions do not to allow for that. would jusfrelocate the traffic. Roetlin is non-conforming He said that the new plant will He said that he's concerned because if this was bare prop erty, the Board would not approve a site plan for the bust: ness as is because it would vio- late all the County's ordi- nances. Moore said that he spoke with Roetlin about mak- ing it better and he under- stands Roetlin's resistance. He said that Planning and Zoning's priorities are 2 fold: 1) make sure the County's ordinances and policies are followed and 2) seeing the dairy continue to be a great business. Stutsman said that Meisner mentioned that buffering was one of the big issues and the Board has made concessions on buffering in the past. Thompson asked why the new access could not be the driveway without rezo~-~' ing the entire property. Moore replied that they woul~d need to rezone and replat in order to eliminate the 540th Street access in order to be compliant with the Road Performance Standards and site plan review. Stutsman asked if that's the only way to eliminate the access. Moore replied that they would have to replat. Thompson asked how the cus- tomers would enter the proper- ty if they eliminated that access. Moore replied that they would have the option to leave the Cheese Factory parcel out, then rezone and replat the new piece with the rest. Thompson said that ~the trucks would go in one driveway and out the other. Moore said that it is a problem. Thompson asked where the incoming product would come in. Moore said that they'd have to go in through the north and unload between the 2 buildings. Meisner said that the milk goes to the south side of the road. Stutsman clarified that by adding the addition there would no longer be any semis entering the front entrance by not be accessed from MOth Street. He said that if there is a way to further alleviate the traffic situation by continuing to use a portion of that proper- ty to temporarily park trucks using the facility south of 540th Street, they'd be happy to con- sider those possibilities. Harney said that he's still not clear how Roetlin will store vehicles at the facility south of 540th Street. Stutsman said that complaints she hears are regarding the trucks lined up on 540th Street, waiting to unload milk at that facility. She said that she sees advantages in moving tt~ose semis off the road and into the parking area, but currently they cannot because the trucks picking up the byproducts are in the wa): Stutsman said that since the byproduct trucks would be • reduced, they would then have room to park the tankers unloading milk. She said that they'd still have to cross the Highway, but it would be more advantageous than having a great deal of semis parked along 540th Street. Neuzil said that by reducing the semis pick- ing up the byproduct, it would allow more space, but the County's site plan review process will not allow any vehi- cles access from 540th Street. Harney replied that they're currently proposing to store vehicles in that area, but it is much safer to have semis parked along the side of the road than it is having them backing across the road to unload. Roetlin said that Stutsman is correct in her assessment. Stutsman said she would have to look at the area to really understand, but it could be done in a way so the trucks wouldn't have to back across the road. Stutsman said that her main with the precedence this would set. Lehman asked the Board how they would then address Yutzy when he proposes to move his driveway to Highway I as well. He said that he wants to treat both applicants fairly, even though Yutzy's applica- tion would be a bigger jump from agricultural to industri- al/commercial than it would be for commercial to industrial. Stutsman asked Beasley if Yutzy is still considering mov- ing his business to that loca- tion. Beasley said that he is always considering all his options. Stutsman said that the Cheese Factory area is already zoned MI and could be sold. Beasley replied that he argued zoning classifications last time instead of specific use, but the Board did not agree. He said that by approving this applica- tion, the Board would be saying that industrial use is compati- ble in the area, which is what he argued with Yutzy's applica- tion unsuccessfully. Stutsman said that the Board approved an Economic Development Plan recently tar- geting this corner as an area for economic development and this application is an expansion of an existing business. Stutsman said she cannot walk away from a $10 million expansion that is appropriate at this intersec- tion. She said that she voted to deny Yutzy's application, but that would intensify the traffic situation and this project would start to modify those problems. Motion by Stutsman, to waivethe reqtrirement of three considerations before amend- ing an ordinance and to approve Application 7_,0400,3 on first and second consideration. Motion died for lack of a sec- ond. Stutsman clarified that if the application is denied, Roetlin will not be able to buildhis building. Moore replied that is correct because Planning and Zoning feels the zoning is wrong. Stutsman asked what will happen with the Kraft con- tract. Roetlin replied that they will not get the contract. Meisner asked if there is any. thing they can do to accommo- date the Board's concerns. Harney said that he has 2 issues, 1) backing semis across MOth Street and 2) adding addi- tional problems to traffic on Highway 1. Brown said that he does not believe they're adding any new traffic to Highway 1 because they are reducing total traffic by 6.5 semis per day because they are currently coming in off Highway 1 and turning on MOth Street. He said that if the zoning is approved and the plan is built, instead of 8 trucks per day they will have 1.5 trucks per day accessing from the north off Highway 1 instead of turning onto MOth Street where there is a site distance problem. He said that the net result is a decrease of trucks on Highway 1 as well. Harney said that there would still be multiple problenm created because there will be trucks backing in onto MOth Street and trucks turning off Highway 1 at another access. Meisner asked if the Board would be more willing to consider the application if they could eliminate the problem of trucks backing onto Highway 1. Harney replied that he would be more interested. Roetlin clarified that the Board would prefer to get rid of the loading dock now by building a tempo- rary loading dock. The Board agreed. Roetlin replied that they could do that. Meisner replied that they could revamp the existing loading dock to exit the trucks to the north. Thompson said tl t the Road Performance Standards state that there is too much traffic and Johnson County Council of Governments Executive Director Jeff Davidsonhas said that the intersection needs repairs. Stutsman said that they're just talking about 2 semis. Thompson said that she understands that, but the amount of traffic doesn't mat- ter because changing the land use is the issue. She said that whether the traffic will increase or decrease, the Board has the opportunity to improve the situation. Thompson said that she is not willing to approve the application unless the driveway on 540th Street will be closed or turning lanes are added to the intersection. Lehman agreed and said that it is a fairness issue since they would be .relocating the prob- lem. He said that this applica- tion skirts the issue of address- ing that intersection. Lehman said that even though it is a rezoning, this applicant should contribute to turning lane application in the future. Stutsman said that the Board should be prepared to consider the transfer station across the road again. Lehman said that the Yutzy application could also move the access in order to take the traffic away from the inter- section and move it up the road. Stutsman asked Meisner ff he would be willing to defer the application and bring in anoth- *I~CzAt$ - see ~Be 10