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Commissioners flag public concern over Great Road storage proposal and zoning change near Tom Thumb
Summary
Commissioners said residents complained that a new project at 20492 Great Road appears to be a self-storage facility at a key downtown gateway; commissioners also relayed questions about a nearby rezone that shifted from townhomes to multifamily. Staff said comments may be submitted at any time and promised a future development-activity report.
Several commissioners used the Aug. 4 meeting to relay constituent concerns about local development proposals, including a parcel on Great Road that residents said appears to be another storage facility and a separate property near Tom Thumb where plans shifted from townhomes to a multifamily proposal.
"People have seen the construction. I think that people have, like, the ideas of what they envision that location could be. And then when word started to spread that it is yet another storage facility at a major intersection or artery, that was supposed to be like the gateway into downtown," Commissioner Connor Davis said, referencing activity at 20492 Great Road.
Connor Davis encouraged the city to consider zoning tools used in other cities to regulate where storage facilities are permitted and to think about gateway design. "For the city to really consider how to get is public storage is incredibly lucrative. It also provides very little net benefit to the city," he said.
Commissioner Jennifer Davis raised a separate question about a proposed rezoning near Tom Thumb that changed from townhomes to multifamily, and she asked who the city contact was for public comment after constituents had trouble reaching a staff person during a period when the staff contact was reportedly on vacation. Planning Director Russ Wright said comments can be submitted whether or not an individual staff contact is available and noted that staff are preparing a quarterly development-activity matrix for the commission to share with constituents so the public can more easily track major projects.
Wright urged commissioners to refer constituents to staff directly for technical questions and said that projects that require hearings will have multiple public-comment opportunities. "If you do hear about projects development projects from different folks, really direct them back to staff because we can help them the best when we're helping them directly, not through secondary information," Wright said.
Ending: Staff said it will prepare a development-activity report for commissioners and encouraged residents to submit written comments to the planner listed on a project notice; staff did not take regulatory action at the Aug. 4 meeting.
