MINUTES
Lecompton Planning and Zoning Commission
Monday, May 9, 2007
7:00pm
Call to Order: 7:05 pm, Jennifer Smith
Roll call:
Present: Jennifer Smith, Kim Richter, Susie Hackathorn, Paul Maline,
Darby Lorhding
Absent: Jeff Robertson
Visitors: Bart Christian, Tony Zemek, Pastor Ken Baker
Approval of Minutes: Darby moved to make several minor corrections to the March minutes, Paul seconded, passed unanimously. Darby moved, and Suzie seconded, to approve the March minutes as corrected, passed unanimously. Suzie moved and Darby seconded to approve the April minutes with minor corrections, passed unanimously.
Presentation of Requests and Petitions: None
Notices and Communications: None
Reports of Standing and Special Committees: None
Old Business: None
New Business:
Bart Christian of Lone Oak LLC came to advise the P&Z and request assistance. The Martin Marietta Quarry, owned by Hunt Martin Materials L.L.C., has been noncompliant with their use permit for over 10 years. In the Spring of 1993 they were supposed to have build trees and placed a berm to protect the roads and the neighbors’ property – before they started quarrying. They never did the landscaping. Many of these infractions are having a bad impact on Bart’s property which is downstream of the quarry. Hunt Martin Materials are now trying to sell the quarry. They are supposed to get into compliance with their CUP by doing the landscaping and, now that they are done quarrying, reclaiming the land. The county voted that the owner has to be in compliance in order to make the sale. They want to get a performance bond to do the landscaping. This acts as insurance – they put up the money that is promise to do the work or forfeit the money to the state. But they want to place the bond at $100,000 which will not cover the expenses needed to do all of the required landscaping. When they were done quarrying they were supposed to reclaim the ground to as good or better condition as before the quarry was built. To reclaim the land, they want to build a 38 acre lake. This may not be a good use of the property, and may be a hazard. Keith Dabney, Director of Zoning and Codes at the County of Douglas, has been very helpful in sorting out these issues with Bart.
Darby moved, Susie seconded to discuss the situation with the city council and to potentially write a letter to the county Planning and Zoning commission and perhaps the Kansas Dept of Agriculture.
Study session: Zoning of several properties in downtown Lecompton. The Methodist Church and the business Wood N Stuff are actually zoned residential. They should be commercial. This may have been a mistake from when the zoning books were compiled. It’s too late to declare it a mistake and change the maps. John Riggs suggests that we leave them R1 unless the owners want to change them. Their current use is grandfathered into the zoning, and they can always apply for a variance to do new things like additions. But it might have an impact on owners if they sell. They can apply for rezoning. Wood N Stuff has not approached the P&Z commission about changing the zoning. There probably wouldn’t be a problem with rezoning the church but there may be some difficulty with rezoning Wood N Stuff because some of their improvements may have caused some runoff problems for neighbors. If we fix the problem by rezoning now then there won’t be cause for multiple variances. The property owners need to apply for rezoning. If they do, the current commission would be favorable for approval.
Jen provided an update on a property on Whitfield street. Whitfield is a collector street, so technically all the houses should be set back 40 feet from the street. One property owner wants to build a porch, but a variance will be required. The Board of Zoning Appeals will consider this variance shortly.
Kim motioned, Susie seconded a motion to adjourn. Passed unanimously. Jen adjourned the meeting at 8:30 pm.
Minutes prepared by Kim Richter.