Commission OKs Rezoning Request

FARMINGTON — The only undeveloped land on Southwinds Drive has come before Farmington Planning Commission several times over the years with rezoning requests, primarily petitions from developers asking to rezone the land from residential-office to multi-family.

These requests have been rejected, either by the planners or by Farmington City Council.

The commission last week voted 4-1 on another request to rezone the two-acre parcel of land, this time from R-O to C-1, which has more permitted commercial uses. The commission’s recommendation will be considered by the City Council at its Jan. 11 meeting.

Commissioner Judy Horne voted

against the C-1 rezoning request. Commissioners Howard Carter, Chad Ball, Gerry Harris and Bobby Wilson gave it their support.

Geoffrey Bates with Bates & Associates engineering firm, presented the request on behalf of applicant Jerry Coyle with Coyle Enterprises. The vacant land, located behind Jim’s Razorback Pizza, is owned by Cedar Mountain Property. Cedar Mountain Property also owns a multi-family development on East Old Farmington Road behind Collier Drug Store in Farmington.

The reasoning for the rezoning request, according to the application, is for mixed commercial use including a daycare and a church.

The commission’s agenda also included a request from Cedar Mountain Property for a conditional use permit on appeal for a church and day care but this was pulled from the agenda after the commission voted on the rezoning request. Coyle, who attended the meeting, said the church and day care are not interested in leasing space in the proposed building at this time.

Melissa McCarville, city business manager, said the building the owner is proposing would be permitted in an R-O zone.

“There’s nothing they are doing that isn’t allowed,” McCarville said. “They have a couple potential tenants that do not fit in R-O, which is why they are asking for the C-1.”

A church and daycare, for example, are not allowed in an R-O zone.

Horne was the only person to speak against the request. No one from the public addressed the commission with any comments.

Horne said she was concerned about rezoning the land to C-1 because of the uses permitted in that zone, compared to more limited uses allowed in R-O.

“Some of these would be fine there, you know. They would be fine,” Horne said, going through the list of permitted uses in front of her.

Others she said she wasn’t so sure about.

“If you rezone it we don’t know for sure what that owner will do. If something happened to him tomorrow and it’s a C-1 zone, then somebody else can come in and buy it and they can put in whatever they want.”

Horne went through some of the permitted uses and the uses allowed with a conditional use permit in a C-1 zone. These included a detective service, a construction office, employment agency, vacuum sales and service, a full-service dry cleaners, health studio, a pawn shop, secondhand store, farm, supply, tractor and feed store, food establishment.

Some of those worried her, Horne said, because of how they could impact people living around the development.

Bates said rezoning the land to C-1 makes sense from a transition perspective and it’s the traditional way a “city stacks.” This would make the transition in the area C-2, C-1, multi-family and single-family houses, Bates said.

He added that the more invasive uses allowed in a C-1 zone, such as a pawn shop, require a conditional use permit and these permits have to be approved separately by the planning commission.

McCarville said the commission also can put in additional requirements when the owner presents a large-scale development plan. She said, for example, the commission can put in place conditions on the large scale plan such as prohibiting outside storage and requiring certain fencing.

“You cannot put conditions on zoning but you can when it comes back as large scale,” McCarville told Horne. “So I think most of the concerns you have could be addressed at that time.”

Wilson and Ball spoke in favor of the rezoning request.

Wilson noted that every time a proposal has come up for the Southwinds property, people have been against it.

“Owners have rights too,” Wilson said. “There has to be some give and take.”

Ball said he supported the request because the city’s 2016 Land Use Plan shows that area as neighborhood commercial.

“This is a low-impact use,” Ball said. “It looks like it’s something the city has been wanting to do there for a number of years.”

After the meeting, Bates said the owner is proposing a two-story, brick facade building with about 24,000 square feet and space for five tenants. The development would have a parking lot in the front along Southwinds and a parking lot to the side.

He thought the large scale plan would be ready for the commission’s February meeting.