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Planning Commission backs development agreement for 10,000 sq. ft. daycare with traffic study and design conditions
Summary
The Highland Planning Commission recommended approval of a legislative development agreement allowing a single-story, 10,000-square-foot daycare in the PO zone, subject to conditions including a traffic management plan, bollard protection at the playground, landscaping and materials choices.
The Highland Planning Commission on July 1 recommended approval of a legislative development agreement allowing a 10,000-square-foot, single-story daycare to be built on a site in the city's PO (professional office) zone.
The commission's recommendation includes conditions covering a traffic management plan for drop-off/pick-up, specifications for playground protection (bollards), a requirement that median island landscaping be completed before certificates of occupancy, and selection of a neutral fence color and roof-shingle detail to better match nearby homes.
Rob (city staff) told commissioners the applicant seeks a development agreement because the master plan and existing PO-zone exhibits would not permit the building footprint and configuration proposed. The agreement would make the daycare a permitted use on the site rather than a conditional use and would supersede conflicting PO exhibits for that parcel while leaving other city ordinances in effect.
Staff presented a concept showing one widened single-story building of roughly 10,000 square feet (instead of two smaller, three-story buildings shown in the older PO exhibits), 40 parking spaces and conforming landscape plans. Rob said the proposed building would reduce height from an earlier 35-foot design to about 21 feet to the roof peak and would retain a residential-style façade.
Logan Johnson, representing Wright Development, said the applicant expects to finalize operational details such as circulation, queuing and exact drop-off procedures at the site-plan stage, working with the city engineer. Johnson said the applicant prefers to resolve the development-agreement (policy) items first and then address objective engineering and traffic details administratively during the site-plan review.
Neighbors and residents spoke during public comment. David Barnes, who said he lives directly across the street from the site, encouraged approval for the lower 21-foot height but asked the commission to clarify whether height was measured from street grade or finished-site grade and asked that medians and landscaping be installed in a way that does not create a retaining-wall effect.
Commissioners pressed for details on traffic circulation for drop-off and pick-up, whether a dedicated ride-out exit would be required, and how queuing would be handled at the nearby signalized intersection. Staff and the applicant agreed to provide a traffic-management plan (sometimes described in the meeting as a schematic circulation plan) coordinated with the city engineer as a condition of council review. The commission explicitly asked for a contingency analysis showing how queued vehicles would be handled if drop-off lines back onto Sunset Drive.
The applicant described safety measures for the playground area: rather than a full perimeter fence the tenant preferred bollard protection (steel-and-concrete bollards extending about 3'.5 to 3.5 feet above ground and set into concrete) combined with landscaping screening. The commission requested the applicant commit to a neutral fence color (examples discussed included beige or white) and to provide some roof-shingle variation at the front elevation so the building better matches nearby houses.
The development agreement also ties completion of nearby median islands to certificate-of-occupancy timing for adjacent buildings: the agreement requires the medians to be installed and landscaped as part of the coordinated build-out so medians will be completed when the building receives occupancy.
On a motion to recommend approval of the development agreement with the listed conditions (traffic-management plan for council review, bollard protection for playground, landscaping/median completion, neutral fence color, and roof-shingle variation), the Planning Commission voted in favor. The motion passed on a roll call of the commissioners present.
The commission's recommendation will go to the City Council, which is the final decision-making body for development agreements. The applicant will return with a site-plan application showing final circulation, parking, stormwater and construction details for administrative approval consistent with the development agreement.
