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Board allows payment‑in‑lieu and partial sidewalk approach for Bank Chevrolet site; conditions attached
Summary
The board approved Bank Chevrolet’s major site plan for a reconstructed employee parking lot and granted a waiver allowing a payment-in‑lieu and partial sidewalk construction, after lengthy public comment about tree removal, lighting and traffic. The board required a conceptual sidewalk design and escrow with a 20% increase to account for inflation, and secured easement provisions for future construction.
The Planning Board approved a major site plan and related waivers for Bank Chevrolet’s reconstruction of an existing gravel employee parking lot at 234 Airport Road, but not before an extended public discussion and board debate about sidewalks, trees and neighborhood impacts.
Wilcox & Barton representative Aaron Lambert presented the project, which formalizes a gravel lot into 158 striped spaces with improved drainage, stormwater controls and landscaping; a small portion of the work touches the aquifer protection district and the project requires a conditional use permit for some work within that area. The applicant confirmed employee parking only; the project will replace failing drywells with an underground infiltration system and add shade trees, lighting and modest fencing near a residential boundary.
The central policy dispute at the hearing was whether the applicant must construct sidewalk on Airport Road now (staff preference, and identified as a higher-priority pedestrian corridor in the city’s 2017 pedestrian plan) or build sidewalk along the project frontage on Old Sunook Road and provide a payment‑in‑lieu (PIL) for the Airport Road segment while preserving mature trees and avoiding complex utility relocations. Several neighbors testified about historic traffic, lighting concerns, and the value of the existing tree buffer; city staff noted Airport Road improvements in the CIP but acknowledged substantial right‑of‑way and utility constraints in the immediate frontage.
After lengthy exchange, the board voted to partially grant the applicant’s request: the applicant will construct sidewalk along the project frontage on Old Sunook Road, provide a payment-in-lieu for the Airport Road frontage (the PIL amount to be calculated using the city's cost estimate with a 20% inflation addition), and the board required the applicant to prepare a conceptual sidewalk design for Airport Road subject to city engineer review and to provide any necessary easements or right‑of‑way now to facilitate future construction. The board attached conditions that the PIL be placed in escrow and that the waiver does not preclude future requirements should additional development occur.
Separately, the board granted conditional use permits, architectural design review and major site plan approval subject to precedent engineering and landscaping conditions. Staff noted the project's lighting plan will comply with the city’s dark‑sky ordinance and trees will be retained where possible.
Next steps: applicant to submit the conceptual sidewalk design and escrow payment; staff to verify precedent engineering conditions and finalize the agreements for easements and the PIL escrow before final endorsement.
