Planning Commission allows grading for Duck's On outdoor UST storage, defers site plan until safety conditions are met

The Planning Commission voted to allow city staff to issue a grading permit for an 11‑acre outdoor storage area for temporary underground/storage tanks (USTs) at Duck's On on Frank Martin Road, while deferring final site‑plan approval until the applicant addresses a list of engineering and safety conditions.

Staff told the commission the 91.43‑acre parcel is zoned I‑3 and that the applicant resubmitted plans on April 16; reviewers identified inconsistencies between submitted drawings and proposed work and recommended multiple conditions, including revised construction drawings that incorporate electrical and waterline plans, integrated fire‑suppression system plans, corrections to detention‑pond work, and improvements to North Creek Road or an irrevocable letter of credit for required road work.

‘‘Each nozzle has a flow of about 350 gallons per minute,’’ said Mark Platfoot, a fire‑protection engineer with Performance Design Technologies, describing the proposed manually activated monitor nozzles and foam solution that the system would deploy to both suppress and cool tanks until firefighters arrive. Platfoot said the combined flow (about 700 gpm) should cover the southwestern 10‑space area and suppress multiple tanks, but staff and the commission sought clarity on how many tanks would be filled and left in that area at any one time.

The applicant and staff clarified the commission’s intent: the approval is conditioned to allow only five filled tanks in the southwest storage area at any one time, even though the layout shows up to 10 stalls. The applicant said the operation plans call for temporary storage (about 24 hours) and that excess tanks would be held inside the building until export.

The fire chief said he had not yet seen an integrated protection plan for full review but called the proposed system ‘‘an improvement’’ over earlier iterations; commissioners pressed the applicant on whether personnel would be onsite 24/7 to activate the manual system and on periodic inspection authority. Staff indicated the city fire marshal and building‑code officials would retain authority to inspect the number of full tanks from time to time and that the commission could require specific monitoring or enforcement conditions as part of the site's approval.

Commissioners debated whether to approve the entire site plan immediately or to allow a grading permit (to get earthwork started) and require the applicant to return next month with the resolved conditions. The motion to permit grading now while deferring site‑plan approval passed by roll call among the six members present. The commission recorded a roll‑call vote in which Commissioner Taylor, Council member Blevins, Commissioner Bohannon, Commissioner McGee, Chairman Landers and Commissioner Gill voted yes.

Next steps: staff will work with the applicant to incorporate the listed engineering and fire‑safety conditions and bring an updated site plan back to the commission at the next meeting for a final vote.