Order.

Commissioner Brodsky, may we please have a roll call?

Commissioner Stockton.

Here.

Commissioner Walters.

Here.

I am here.

Commissioner Darr.

Here.

Commissioner Goway Jones.

Here.

Commissioner Gray.

Here.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Here.

And Commissioner Stanton.

Present.

We have a quorum of eight.

Thank you.

Mr.

Zinner, are there any uh changes or adjustments to the agenda this evening?

No, they're not, ma'am.

Is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Gray, seconded by Commissioner Stanton.

Can I get thumbs up approval on the agenda?

Unanimous.

Thank you.

We all received a copy of the April 23rd, 2026 regular meeting minutes.

Are there any changes or adjustments to the minutes?

Seeing none is there a motion to approve.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Stanton, seconded by Commissioner Gray.

Can I get a thumbs-up approval on the minutes?

Unanimous.

Oh, it's fine.

Unanimous with Commissioner Ortiz abstaining.

Thank you.

Our first case for the evening, case number 121-2026, a request by a civil group agent on behalf of PBG properties LLC owner for approval of a seven-lot preliminary plat to be known as Cambridge Place Phase 2.

The 2.34 acre subject site is zoned R1, one family dwelling, and is located west of the current terminus of Scarborough Drive, approximately 1100 feet southeast of Rock Quarry Road.

May we please have a staff report?

Yes, you may.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So real quick, you touched on a lot of this already.

This is a seven lot preliminary plat on 2.34 acres of R1 zone property.

Public notice postcards were sent to 43 uh neighboring property owners and residents.

I did receive one public comment uh late last night that was uh provided to you in a hard copy.

Um we'll get to that in a little bit.

Uh so here's our aerial photo showing the site.

Uh again, um you can kind of see uh Rock Quarry Road uh coming to the south.

If I can follow it with my left hand here.

Uh and then this site is just past the end of the current end of Scarborough Drive, which would be extended uh to serve a private street uh that then goes to the west uh through the site uh serving uh as access to all the resulting lots.

Um so currently it is one lot.

It was on Cambridge Place Plat 4, it was lot 406 on that plat, again zoned R1.

Uh so the propo proposal includes five uh single family residential lots and two common lots.

Um the five single family lots are to be accessed off the south side of the private street, which sits in the one of the common lots.

Um and again extends west from the unbuilt uh uh section of Scarborough Drive, which you can see on the map, but uh we'll have a better one here in a moment.

Uh common lot on the northern boundary uh being the second common lot actually will act as a bit of a buffer and open space.

Uh and it's uh it holds a number of utility and stormwater easements, uh, and so that's one reason why it's been set aside.

So uh so as you can see, Scarborough Drive comes in from the top of the screen to the southeast.

Uh once it reaches the end, it has a turnaround.

Uh and off of that turnaround, the uh common lot will serve as the private or for the private street and as access to each of these lots.

Um lot C1 is the common lot I mentioned uh with the easements that actually run from Scarborough all the way down into uh what is a tree preservation lot, uh which was platted with that previous plat on uh plat four.

Um I think that's about it here.

Uh so again, lot C1 uh will kind of act as a buffer.

It's 70 feet wide.

It does have a 20-foot access easement, uh, and then it also has um kind of redundant uh sewer and uh drainage easements that are 16 and 20 feet uh in width, and so they encumber the same uh space, but they they overlay one another.

Uh again, lot C2, the streets 22 feet in width, uh and it has a fire code compliant uh turnaround at the end, which you saw in the the T turnaround.

Uh and then that existing tree preservation uh area, which is the little R1 uh labeled portion here to the west.

That is to be maintained and is not impacted by this plat.

It's not included in the plat.

Uh so the comp plan does support in fill development in the urban services area, which this uh this is.

Uh it's surrounded by single family development or two-family development, and so the proposal is congruent with that.

Um with that, our recommendation would be to approve the Cambridge Place plat or phase two preliminary plat.

Uh it would be pursuant to minor technical corrections uh because the plat uh was not approved at the time of the agenda.

Uh it was approved as of this afternoon uh due to um just an updated uh significant tree plan.

So that is all I have.

Thank you.

Before we go to questions for staff, if any of my fellow commissioners have had contact with parties to this case outside of a public hearing, please disclose so now.

Seeing none, are there any questions for staff?

Seeing none, we will open the floor to public comment.

If any member of the public is here to speak on this case, please come forward.

State your name and address for the record.

We allow for six minutes for the applicant and a representative of a group and three minutes for individuals.

Thank you.

My name is Jay Gephardt.

I'm a land surveyor and uh engineer on a company called a civil group.

I'm here tonight representing uh Piper and Forest Graves, who are the uh owners of this uh lot plus the lots that are in plat four.

Um I think this is a pretty straightforward.

Um we did meet with the neighbor uh neighborhood um probably almost two months ago now, six six to eight weeks ago.

Um, and there were some um uh comments and concerns.

But I think you know, providing the uh large uh common area lot to the north as a buffer.

Um we're gonna try to save as many trees as we can along that stream that runs along there.

And um it's um like I said, it's pretty straightforward single family um not that uh uh big a change from what's out there now.

So thank you.

Are there any questions for the speaker?

Seeing none.

Thank you, Jay.

Any other member of the public to speak on this case, please come forward.

Seeing oh, please come ahead.

Thank you all.

My name's uh can you pull that down.

Yeah, thanks.

Hey, Sherry, yes.

Couldn't see you from back there.

So um I represent the um Cambridge Place Homeowners Association, the multi development.

Oh, sorry, DK, can you give them your name and address?

Oh DK Herner, H-I-R-N-E-R, 4018 Juniper Place.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Never been to one of these before.

So um anyway, I'm with the uh the president of the Cambridge Place Homeowners Association, and we just have a uh a few questions for clarification.

And um I will tell you, be an older person and sitting in the back.

It's a little hard to see those maps even up on the screens.

So a pointer would have been helpful.

Anyway, um, so the question that we have, the area is zoned um uh R1, one family dwelling, which I understand means that no more than three unrelated people can live there.

Is that correct?

If it is a rental, yes, they are changing that definition.

We're in the process of changing that definition, though.

Okay.

Because that that's the concern that that we don't have a lot of rentals in the area.

Yeah.

Okay.

The second question I have that someone asked me to ask is in regard to the private street that's gonna serve the lots.

Will the street lights, proposed street lights impact adversely the people who are just to the north?

Will those street lights shine into the the backs of their houses?

So I wanted to raise that issue.

That would be something that would be a good question for the engineer, but I know that we have lighting control ordinances and that sort of thing.

Um probably a little bit much to get into detail here.

Okay.

But there are rules.

Okay.

And then um the third one is another question that someone asks is uh regards the description where it says the proposed preliminary plat extends the existing 20-foot access easement serving the tree preservation lot along the northern edge of lot C1, which is also uh denoted for drainage and sanitary sewer.

And the question is is it common to have a tree preservation lot combined with um drainage and sanitary sewer?

That's a question for staff.

Yeah, let me clarify a little bit.

Um the tree preservation lot is that piece that's uh just off-site from this plat.

It's this area over here, if you can see that.

There, yeah.

Yeah, and so we do require uh an easement for access purposes to maintain that.

So uh you can go in and clear undergrowth and and things of that nature.

Um that same easement though, or or a part a portion of that easement also acts as a drainage easement all the way through here.

Um then I do believe, let's see.

There's a 10-foot utility easement and then a 16-foot drainage easement and then a 20-foot access easement.

So it's all kind of stacked up in that location.

It did cross this lot, which is already platted lot uh 407.

Uh and then this plat uh when they come with the final plat will extend that all the way across the length of lot C1, that northern lot.

So, and so when the um Scarborough, the Scarborough extension will not be the same width at Scarborough, it'll be a more narrow street, the private street that serves the houses.

So the private street will come off of the the cul-de-sac uh turnaround, and it will be the 22 feet in width.

Um and Scarborough will be built out at the same width uh as the constructed piece of Scarborough.

Okay, thank you very much.

And um the next question is um that one Scarborough.

Uh and the only thing other thing that we would request is uh that it not be placed on the consent calendar for the city council meeting.

Thank you.

Any questions for Ms.

Herner?

Seeing none, would you make sure that you give Jay your contact information before you leave?

Oh, yeah, Jay and I talk regularly.

In that case, you're all good.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else to speak on this case?

Seeing none, we will close public comment and go to Commissioner Comment.

Are there any commissioner comments on this case?

I will just comment briefly because I don't think we've done it before uh with this entire group of commissioners.

We do have the ability to recommend that this not be placed on the consent calendar.

That is a separate motion that takes place after the vote generally.

It's been a while since we did it.

So it's just that a recommendation.

I mean, this this board doesn't have authority to remove it itself, but any and actually anyone can remove something from consent.

So we can convey that in our recommendation for sure.

And we we have done that before.

Yes.

We just don't do it a lot.

So any other commissioner comment.

Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion?

Anyone at all?

Commissioner Walters.

Yes, I'd like to uh make a motion in regard to case number 121-2026 regarding the Cambridge Place Cambridge Place phase two of plenary plat.

I recommend approval with the in-field development and urban services area and recommend approval recommend approval of the Cambridge Place phase two preliminary plat pursuant to minor technical corrections with the final approval of the required symmetric tree inventory, which was completed earlier today.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Walters, seconded by Commissioner Gray.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Seeing none, Commissioner Brodsky, may we have a roll call.

Commissioner Stockton.

Yes.

Commissioner Walters.

Yes.

My vote is yes.

Commissioner Darr.

Yes.

Commissioner Goway Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Gray?

Yes.

Commissioner Ortiz?

Yes.

And Commissioner Stanton?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Would anyone like to officially make the recommendation for consent based on the neighbor's request?

Okay.

Okay.

I will make a motion that we recommend to City Council they remove this from the consent agenda pursuant to the request of the Cambridge Place Neighborhood Association.

Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Stanton.

Is there any discussion on that motion?

Seeing none.

Commissioner Brodsky, when you are ready, please give us a roll call.

Commissioner Stockton.

Yes.

Commissioner Walters.

Yes.

My vote is yes.

Commissioner Darr?

No.

Commissioner Goway Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Gray?

Yes.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Yes.

And Commissioner Stanton.

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right.

Thank you.

Those recommendations will be forwarded to City Council.

Moving on to case number 122-2026, a request by a civil group agent on behalf of Capital Land Investment LLC owner and O'Reilly Development LLC applicant slash developer for approval of a PD plan amendment to the Copperstone Corner PD plan to develop a continuing care retirement community to be known as Columbia Senior Living Community and a revised statement of intent.

The approximately 12.15 acre subject site is located at the southeast corner of Scott Boulevard and West Water School Road and includes the address 4190 West Water School Road.

May we please have a staff report?

Yes, you may, and thank you for the introduction.

And again, this is an SOI revision.

This is already PD zoned property.

All that needs to be added to the statement of intent to accommodate this development was the use of a continuing care retirement community, which I will be abbreviating as CCRC for the rest of this presentation for the purpose of brevity.

Postcards were distributed on the 6th of June or April, of which there are 37 notification letters were distributed on the 20th, again 37, and in accordance with state statutes, an advertisement was placed in the Columbia Tribune on the 21st of April, notifying uh community members of this public hearing.

Uh so here's some oblique aerial imagery of what exists at the site.

Again, Google imagery is kind of outdated here.

There is more development that exists specifically to the east of this site as well as on the north of West Voder School Road at this point.

Um here is perhaps a better idea of what it may look like right now.

Um presently it is two lots that have already been platted.

Um the uh the easternmost portion of this site was actually platted as phase one of this PD plan uh back in 2023, if I'm not mistaken.

Um and the remainder of the lot was also included with that PD plan, which served as a preliminary plat, uh, but uh final plating was never pursued, and now there is a change of use on the site.

Here is what the site looks like uh when compared with surrounding zoning.

Um it's mostly PD uh to its east as well as PD on the north side of Vader School Road, whereas to the south it is a single family residential subdivision.

So this property was annexed back in 1998 where it was assigned CP zoning.

Uh and then the first PD plan, and it turned to PD after the 2017 adoption of the Unified Development Code.

Uh first plan was approved in 2023, uh, and it did not include specific structures for many sites, but did notice uh or note restrictions for lots in terms of what could be developed, as well as individual setbacks for each lot.

Uh and this also served as a preliminary plat.

Uh the PD plan required a development agreement uh with improvements to West Voder School Road as part of phase one and in phase two.

Um the improvements were necessary for Scott.

Uh in phase one, all of those improvements uh have been made on West Voder School Road at this time.

The majority again of these lots are contained within what was called phase two of that original PD, and then lots 109 and 110 again to the east of the subject site, were all considered phase one.

Uh so just a little bit more information that's going to be pertinent for a design exception that's requested for this PD is that the topography of this site is unique insofar there's around a 60-foot difference from the high point of the site, which is illustrated on around the southern edge.

Um it's around 680 feet in height and elevation, excuse me.

And it gets down to um around 620 feet uh as you approach the intersection of VAR School Road and Scott.

Again, this is important for design exception that is being requested for height for one of the structures within this development.

Um the proposed PD revision would permit the development of a CCRC on the site, um, and it requires an addition of CCRC as a use to the existing statement of intent.

Um 181 dwelling units are being proposed within the CCRC as well as accessory facilities for the C CRC and the dwelling units themselves are categorized as assisted living, independent living, memory care, and also some villa style development that is detached and more independent even than the independent living, um, but all contained on the same lot.

Uh so here are the uses that are uh presently in the proposed SOI.

Uh what I've highlighted in red is the addition of a C C RC.

All of these other uses already existed within the statement of intent that was adopted in 2023.

Uh use specific standards for C CRC stipulate that it must comport with the residential multifamily standards, and this means you can have height that goes up to 45 feet if you increase your side yard setback to 15 feet from every side.

A minimum setback from every uh point of the property line for this PD is proposed at 25 feet, so they can get that increased height uh without that having to be considered a design exception as well.

Um 15% landscaping is being provided.

Um 15% landscaping is being provided, that is what is requisite for new development within the city, and a maximum of 190 units uh proposed, uh, whereas a dimensional maximum, if you consider 2500 square feet per dwelling unit, would yield 211, so they are within the dimensional requirements for the residential multifamily district.

Um background, this is um this is now going to be one lot, and it was previously nine lots on the 2023 PD plan.

Uh the final plat, which is uh also being reviewed by staff at this time uh is to dedicate utility leasements along the street frontage, uh, as well as dedicate right-of-way for Scott and Voder, uh, where it's currently street easement, as well as dedicate right-of-way for future improvement, excuse me, of the roundabout uh for northbound traffic from Scott, that ends up taking a right and heading eastbound on Voder School.

But that improvement is not tied to this development, only the right-of-way dedications.

Um, extension of public utility is not necessary.

It's already accessible from all points of this site.

Um, and again, they will provide the right-of-way dedications for the future roundabout that is not tied to the development agreement for this site.

Um landscaping on the southern border uh from the illustrated landscaping plan for this PD plan is consistent with what was previously approved, uh, as well as street trees and parking landscape are being provided in compliance with chapter 294.4 of the Unified Development Code.

Um and in addition, supplemental landscaping is to be provided on the easternmost edge of the property.

Although it is not required for commercial to commercial borders, this would be considered commercial, and the villas are to be one story in height.

That would mean that there is no screening and buffering requirement for that use.

Um the stormwater detention, um, the stormwater BMPs for the site uh are going to be at the low point of the site along the northern portion of the property, which again is around 620 feet.

So again, around a 60-foot difference from the high point to the low point.

And that gets us into the first design exception, which is related to maximum height of structure.

Um maximum height in the residential multifamily, if you have the increased side yard setback is established at 45 feet.

The applicant is requesting 60 feet maximum, although uh I, if I'm not mistaken, it only is actually going to end up, or at least in the renderings here, is illustrated at being 52 feet.

Although those are not binding, um, they just would not be able to exceed 60 feet of height for that structure uh if this PD plan is approved.

And this is for uh an elevator that is to connect uh buildings C and B on the site.

Uh and this height very or design exception uh is is requisite because there's uh around a 12-foot difference in grade uh in terms of how they intend to grade the site.

So um building C is at a lower grade and wants to connect to building B in order to have that connection between those two structures.

If there's a difference in grade that's around 12 feet, then um if the other structure is already at 45 feet, if you add 12 to that, uh they are beyond their maximum of 45, although the point of it is to connect these buildings and increase connectivity across the development.

Um the elevation of building C also wanted to note is not to exceed the elevation of the southernmost building E at the high point of the development, and the elevation of building C is also not to exceed the elevation of building B.

Um they're going to be around a similar uh elevation.

Again, an approximately 13 foot uh change in height is illustrated in the kind of red rectangle that I uh put here.

Um, and it is uh yeah, again, going to be for the purpose of providing connection between these two structures.

The second design exception that's being sought for this PD is related to parking.

Uh parking for non-retail office or personal service um uses in mixed-use districts, um, is 200% of the required minimum.

Um, and here particularly the minimum parking would be 61 spaces or 60.66.

Um so if you multiply that by two, you get 121 total spaces.

That would be uh your regulatory maximum.

Um the applicant wants to provide 195 spaces, so that's 74 above what the maximum would be with the currently provided number of units.

Um assisted living units are parked consistent to the C CRC standards, but the villas and independent facilities are not.

Uh, and that's believed to be acceptable by staff because the CCRC does intend to have dwellings for clientele with differing abilities, our understanding, some of who would still intend to drive places.

Um parking space per three habitable units may be somewhat restrictive if people still have uh the capacity and desire to drive.

Um, and it would be well underparked what multifamily standards would be for something like this.

Um we think, or not well underparked, but uh it would be not overparked for multifamily standards.

Um so it's believed to be uh a reasonable design exception.

Um understanding that you know increased pervious surface may not necessarily be desirable, but uh to serve the needs of those who may live within this development.

Um it's believed to be appropriate.

Uh development agreement amendment is required due to the change in use, um, and that also resulted in a revised uh traffic impact study.

Uh I want to note that I was incorrect in uh part of the staff memo.

I stated that all of the improvements on Scott would be carried over to this development agreement.

That is not entirely true.

The right-of-way dedications for the slip lane for the roundabout are to be uh dedicated with the final plat, uh, but they do not need to construct that bypass lane anymore because the trip reduction as a result of a change of use.

They're still required to install a stop bar and stop sign at the point of ingress and egress for the site.

Uh and the uh two-way left turn lane um that is to be provided on Scott for this site uh instead of running from the roundabout down uh much farther south than this site presently is now just to be uh 50 feet in length um north-south from the center line.

Excuse me, um, from the points in ingress and egress uh for southbound traffic off of Scott.

So those are what need to be documented within a revised development agreement that staff is currently working on.

Uh for public correspondence for this case, um, I did not receive any written correspondence, uh, nor did I receive any phone calls uh in regards to this request.

Again, 37 letters were sent, two of which went to neighborhood associations and one which went to a council representative.

Um the PD plan, uh staff would conclude that the PD plan serving as a preliminary plat uh comports with the UDC standards for subdivision, um, and the addition of the CCRC use uh to the statement of intent is not believed to be incompatible with surrounding uses or what was previously approved within the SOI and design exceptions uh requested deviate from the form and development control standards are believed to be appropriate when considering uh the site uh and use contexts, uh particularly people of varying levels of ability living on the site as well as the uh topography um uniqueness that was discussed earlier.

So ultimately staff's recommendation would be to approve the planned development plan with the revised statement of intent and the serving as a preliminary plat to be known as Columbia Senior Living Community.

This is subject to technical corrections still, um, believe with the landscaping portion of this plan.

Um and it also uh requires a agreed upon revised development agreement prior to council introduction.

Um if the commission has any questions, I would be happy to answer them now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before we go to questions for staff, if any of my fellow commissioners have had contact with member with parties to this case outside of the public hearing, please disclose some now.

Seeing none, um I just want to clarify we've got a letter in front of us that I believe was sent to the developer from a neighboring homeowner.

That's correct.

Sorry, we received a letter uh today.

Um it was not published with the agenda, but there is a physical copy of a letter that was printed out and provided to the commissioners writing in support of this PD plan.

So the letter for Dr.

Nichols is on this case.

Correct.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for staff?

Seeing none, we will go to public comment.

If any members of the public are here to speak on this case tonight, please come forward.

We allow for six minutes for the applicant and/or representatives of groups, three minutes for everyone else.

Please start with your name and address for the record.

My name is uh Eric Wallish, E R I C last name, Wallish, W A L E S H 9100 West 158th Street, Overland Park, Kansas.

I was told my presentation is loaded on here.

They will load it up for you if you'll give us just a minute.

Sure.

For some reason, all of the gremlins are here tonight.

I can just start out.

Um I'm with O'Reilly Development.

We're out of Springfield, Missouri.

Uh we have about uh 18 development, uh senior housing, uh multifamily and affordable housing.

Um we were founded in 2014.

It's it's over on the side, Pat.

Never goes as planned.

No.

Oh, sorry.

No wonderful.

So that pretty much covers it right there.

Um so I'll keep this short.

It seems like he has some excitement uh later on.

Um so this is the site uh at the southeast corner of Vaughn School and Scott.

Okay.

All right.

As previously mentioned, this is a C CRC, a continuing care retirement community.

So it's about a hundred and uh eighty units consisting of independent living, assisted living, and memory care.

The independent living is three story, the assisted living is two story, and then uh the memory care is one story, and then we have uh slab on grade villas uh surrounding what I like to call the mothership.

Uh it's about 12 acres, and we in the state of Missouri you're required to have a certificate of need, uh C O N or some people say a con.

Uh we have that, and there is you know we well exceed the the need required for this project for the assisted living and memory care uh units.

Sir, if you could speak into the microphone in this directional, and that is what we were recording from.

Sure.

Um some of the logical benefits of a project like this is this is a very low traffic generator for any residential uh use.

Average age of our resident is about 80 years old, and we also have a bus and shuttle service.

Um definitely in the current housing environment.

Uh we free up housing for younger generations, people are able to move out of their homes but stay in the community, uh, essentially age in place.

Um we do create a number of construction jobs.

Obviously, those are not permanent, uh, 450 to 500, but we do create uh full-time equivalents of about 65 to 75 and an annual payroll of about three million dollars.

Uh as I said earlier, it allows the residents to age in place, remain in the community, and there is certainly no negative impact on schools, although many of our residents uh volunteer in the school systems.

Uh with that, I'm gonna turn it over to uh Scott Auman, our architect that'll walk you through the site plan.

Scott Thanks, Eric.

Scott Aman, SWD Architects 315 Nichols Road, Kansas City, Missouri.

Um appreciate the opportunity today, and we're excited to be part of this community.

Uh Eric uh thank you for speaking on behalf of O'Reilly Development.

Uh they they currently have a a facility already here, a community already here in the city of the Westbury, and Arrow Senior Living is with us tonight as well, and they're going to speak a little bit as well about the product and and resident um satisfaction there as well.

Um so on our building, our mem our two licensed care areas are the memory care and our assisted living.

We've structured those to place those on the north, I'm sorry, the south side of the the property.

Those are our one store, the memory care is one story, and that uh story will actually go into the second story of our AL.

The site had a lot of topography to it, and so in doing that, we've we stair stepped the building down, and we actually wanted to keep our one-story and two-story portion up near the the existing subdivision that's neighboring us.

It gives a greater respect to that development rather than placing a three-story structure right in their backyards.

So as we step down the site, our center area, building A, that's our main entry, and that contains our independent um offices, independent community um uh their offices, and a lot of the amenities, the the pool, uh, the the formal dining, our commercial kitchen, and so forth.

Um then our our resident wings for the independent living, our buildings B and C.

Both of those structures are three stories.

Our our building A, the our main our main level actually goes into the second level of building B, and building B actually goes into the third level of building C.

And so that little link that's between buildings B and C, that is the portion that's going to exceed the the building height.

And that's why we're asking for the exception, is to make sure that we have an elevator that serves all three floors of each one of those buildings.

Within the independent living, we have studio units, one bedroom units, and two bedroom units.

The assisted living also has studios and two bedroom and one bedroom units.

Memory carrier are all studio units.

Some of the outdoor amenities that we have.

We have an outdoor shelter, um, covered covered shade structure.

Um we do a uh uh shuffle board, we have an outdoor cooking area, we have a dog park uh within the community.

We have theaters in both the independent living and the assisted living, a full dining experience for the residents.

Let's see, we have got game rooms.

We have library and media rooms for the residents.

Every independent living unit has a has its own balcony or or patio as well.

And I think we uh our landscaping plan uh within the it's gonna be enhanced even even more so than what you see here.

We we take pride in our communities and with with the landscaping, but um you've got about 30 seconds left.

And this is uh just an image of our typical one-story studio, our villa unit as well.

All right, I'm gonna leave it to uh Arrow Senior Living.

Please come forward, name and address.

Can we ask a question of the last speaker?

I thought we sure we can do that.

No, it's okay.

I was just they clearly have a whole group thing, so I was gonna let them all go and then ask questions, but uh we can do individual ones if you prefer.

They might answer my question, so it's okay if we wait.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Uh one at a time, please.

I'm next.

Hi, I am Amy Birgo.

I'm the executive director at the existing Arrow Senior Living Property here in town, Westbury Senior Living.

Um I know Scott kind of ran through a lot of our amenities that we offer.

Um do I advance slides?

I'm sorry.

Just use the mouse to click.

Um as you can see by the by the photographs provided, it is a a gorgeous community, is very well um received.

We've got um eighty-five people on our waiting list, and we tend to run about uh 98% occupied at all times, um, which is um extraordinary.

Um is a St.

Charles-based community.

Um we've we've got um technology, innovative technology that um is really above and beyond in the senior living communities um that you see here.

Um you can tell uh by the numbers, 276 unmet uh licensed uh need for licensed beds here in in the Columbia area, and that relates back to that certificate of need uh that was mentioned earlier.

Um we do um have a partnership with Empower Me.

It is a therapy uh provider, and you can see at the bottom here our CMS.

Um that's your three minutes.

Could you wrap up quickly?

Absolutely I can.

I apologize.

Let me move quickly through this active um engaged vibrant senior living community.

I'll end with that.

Thank you.

Next.

I don't believe we got an address for the list.

Oh, I'm sorry, could you give your address real quickly?

Five five zero Stone Valley Parkway, and that's 65203.

Thank you.

Next name and address, please.

Hello.

My name is Barbara Fox, and uh I live at 550 Stone Valley Parkway.

I'm in the independent part of Westbury, and I absolutely love it.

On June 27th, 2021, um, my life turned on a dime when my husband passed away very suddenly.

We were living in Michigan.

I had no family in the area.

So my son, who is a veterinary orthopedic surgeon here at the Columbia Vet School, uh said, Mom, you gotta get down to Columbia because I cannot be running up there.

I'm too busy.

And uh it was uh hard, but in four months' time I sold my house and had an estate sale, sold both cars, did the whole nine yards, and I was down here in four months, and I moved into Westbury on November 3rd, 2021.

So I'm coming up on my fifth year.

And uh I knew I could not depend on my son to create a life for me.

I had to do that myself.

And Westbury has done it for me.

I absolutely love it there.

I have no bad things to say about it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I believe there's one more for the applicant, and then we'll do some questions.

Very good.

And name an address for the record, please, sir.

I am David Wickman.

I live at 550 South.

At the Westbury.

Uh I've been there for about two and a half years.

I moved in to it uh from St.

Louis all my life in St.

Louis.

Decided I needed more help than I uh I was getting in the apartments where I will where it was.

My daughter, I asked my daughter who and my three grandsons, I asked my daughter to pick out a place here in Columbia.

She picked out two places.

I came up into this town to check them out.

I I drove around the corner and and cast my eyes upon the the Westbury.

And that's enough.

I I I felt I was coming into a par excellence, and I loved it.

Uh the main reason I came to Westbury, however, was because they have a 24-7 bistro that serves ice cream 24 hours a day.

And I can come down in the middle of the night and get ice cream.

I love the Westbury.

Uh I've been around building most of my life.

Uh my first view of the Westbury was was just spectacular.

It was unbelievably nice as compared to what I might get for the same uh expenditure in St.

Louis.

Much better.

I found the the engineering or architecture, whatever you might call it, within the Westbury, to be spectacular.

Their their use of space and shape and design and so forth, I found to be perfect.

Every square inch of the space that I have in my two-bedroom apartment is is used very, very nicely.

I find the management of Amy, don't listen.

Uh I I find the I find the management of our Westbury to be outstanding.

The people in our community are happy.

We are we have become a community instead of 115 or so separate uh individuals.

We we have lots of activities that we use more than we can handle.

We can pick and choose on our activities.

Uh I expect that as I get older, I'm 94 now.

I expect as I get even older that I'll move on into perhaps the assisted living.

And if I have to, I'll move into the the memory care uh unit.

But I intend to spend the rest of my life happily at the Westbury Senior Living.

Uh I think that's about it.

Any questions?

I'd be happy to answer any questions from from a different point of view.

Thank you.

We'll let you go sit down if you'd like.

But are there any questions for any of the applicants?

Commissioner Ortiz, did you have something?

Yes.

Um I do for who well, whoever's best to speak to it, but um can you explain a little bit about the the thought behind the parking number?

And when you come forward to answer a question, if you could state your name again.

Scott Auman.

SWD architects.

The the parking count by the time we get the residents to have the parking that we we desire.

We we generally own every one of these communities, we like 165 parking spaces that allows ample parking for staff, the residents, and any visitors.

Um we've got other outside groups that come in, the empowered group, you know, on top of the employees that are regularly staged there.

There's other entities that come into the community.

We may have RNs that come in to look at residents both in the assisted living, the memory care and in the independent living as well.

So that's why we we like that parking count.

And we we've got a shortage at the Westbury right now.

You know, we did a we had minimal parking there, and they struggle with where to park over at the Westbury.

And that's part of it.

Very good.

That was your question.

Yes, thank you.

Any other questions, Commissioner Brodsky?

Uh similar topic with the parking.

Um I know we've got a lot on our plate, so I don't think we'll get to this anytime soon.

But uh with our um uh C CRC zoning, uh, would it be your recommendation as someone that deals with these developments on the regular that that we maybe look at revising our parking uh restrictions on those?

I I would definitely say so, yes, I would.

Yeah.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, thank you very much.

And thank you for a very well orchestrated presentation.

Any other members of the public to speak on this case, please come forward.

Just as a reminder, state your name and address for the record.

And please do try to speak directly into the mic.

Perfect.

Here we go.

My name is John Conway.

I live at 4902 Thornbrook Ridge, 65203.

Uh two considerations for this development on uh when you look at uh Scott Boulevard, uh that grade is very steep.

It's on a very steep hill, and uh the question would come about as to the site distances or sufficient site distance if you're leaving that development with traffic coming over the top of that hill uh to be able to safely enter the roadway.

Uh my second concern is that uh the Black and Beach, the city recently in 2024 had a Black and Beach study completed for the water distribution system for the entire city, and uh it was very well documented by Black and Beach at that time that uh the higher elevations in Thornbrook and Saddle Ridge subdivisions was uh very acute to the point where that uh uh there needs to be uh an elevated storage tank in uh southwest uh Columbia in order to accommodate a sufficient normal uh domestic water pressure as well as provide uh sufficient fire flow.

And that uh given the approval of this development, what you would find is that uh given the the magnitude of the development that you're gonna further reduce the available pressure in the Thornbrook Saddle Ridge area, and that uh we need the elevated tank before we need the development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other members of the public to or I'm sorry, any questions for that speaker.

Seeing none.

Any other members of the public to speak, please come forward.

Hello, my name is Julie Ryan, 5301 Regal Way.

I am also the co-founder of Como Safe Water Coalition.

So I have been tracking the water situation here in Columbia for 10, just about 10 years now.

Um and I was one of the first ones to notice our water pressure issue back in 2016.

And I'm concerned, this is a lovely community, about 181 units.

I don't think when this was redefined back in 2023 that this was the expectation.

Um we already have the city considering an or irrigation ordinance right now to require people to only water their lawns on certain days of the week.

And that honestly is not a problem for me.

Um but we're doing that specifically because of infrastructure concerns.

So to tell people to do that on one hand and then to come and approve a project of this size is really, really bad and irresponsible.

We can't develop when we don't have the infrastructure.

We have needed this water tower for 10 years.

It was planned for in the water bond.

The city tried to, you know, pull some stunts and put this in at Beulah Ralph Elementary.

That was never a good idea.

You can't put barbed wire fence around a water tower in the backyard of an elementary school.

So the city has not done their due diligence to provide the infrastructure, yet we have kept providing development.

I spoke when we about the trail stop brewery at the council.

I spoke when Diventures got approved.

Um and now I'm I'm glad that I found out this was happening before um it went to council.

But you're talking about a pool, you're talking about a full dining and commercial kitchen.

I'm sure there's laundry, they're gonna have irrigation.

We can't put this in until we have the proper infrastructure for our water supply.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for this speaker?

Seeing uh none.

And uh hang on.

I are you gonna ask what you just asked me?

Rebuttal from the engineer concerned the water issues.

Yeah, uh that's yeah.

Any other member of the public who wishes to speak on this case?

Now would be a good time.

Please come forward.

Good evening.

My name is Jay Gephardt with the civil group here in Columbia.

And uh Anthony, I I heard what you were saying.

So the way I look at it is probably different than um the way the previous speaker looked at it.

But this development has in 2022 is approved with a plethora of uh um commercial uh uses that could have easily exceed the amount of water that's being used um by by what is being proposed.

In fact, I think what's being proposed is probably on the lighter side of what if it had been fully developed as originally planned as a commercial uh development.

So that's my opinion um of this.

So I understand there's a need for the water tower that needs been around for a while.

I think uh the city is um doing their due diligence and working through um and trying to uh make a correct decision on that.

But I don't believe it should uh withhold approval of uh a uh change of an SOI to add uh CRC to this when we already have approval of uh so many other uh uses.

And I think David provided the list of that in the uh staff report of all the uh existing allowed uses for that.

So answer your question.

Questions for this speaker?

Commissioner Stanton?

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um I do want to know like the the flow issues.

You don't think those will be a problem on this topography and and all of that?

Not for us, no.

And uh the problems in in Thornbrook, uh depending on who you talk to.

I think I think with the uh changes in the proposed irrigation, um, because what I understand is irrigation is causing a lot of the issues um with this.

So by alternating on even and odd days um for for the residents in Thornbrook, I think that will uh ease their um problems.

Um solve them, but it will ease that problem.

That's why it's being proposed.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Nope.

Sorry, you can sit down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other member of the public to speak on this case, please come forward, name and address for the record.

All right, let's get this right for Pat.

Is that good?

Is this what I'm talking into?

Okay, good.

Uh my name's John Hall.

I actually live in Copperstone, so 4307 Granite Springs.

Uh so my house is there, it's one of the first houses there.

I am the closest commercial development to this, so for 4013 front gate drive, 4409 front gate drive.

I have a villa that is the closest residential villa to this development, which is 4019 um front gate, and 417 is where my grandparents live or my parents live.

So um very, very vested in this development.

Um I've been around in development for 20 years, and uh I don't know if you guys have been around.

I haven't had a city council vote against any one of my projects ever.

And that's because I truly care about the neighborhood.

I care about uh the community, I care about how you deal with neighbors and how you treat people here.

Uh I'm missing my son's first baseball game that I've missed for him to come and tell you kind of my experience in this in this process.

Uh and I am going to, before I scare the O'Reilly group, I'm going to support them here.

Um but I did want to warn you guys about the current owners, uh, capital land uh investments.

Uh when they did this development and they came to the neighborhood several years ago, they assured us that they would set a perimeter boundary and not take down mature trees on the east and south side.

They we have it in writing.

We have a nice picture here that says uh protected tree line on both the south and east side that is huge.

Well, uh they assured us it was in writing.

Um we stood down the neighbors and we actually said we're not going to fight this at all.

We won't show up because we we see this in the plan.

Then what ended up happening is their construction uh their construction comes over, takes a bunch of the mature trees on the east side.

Like I'm talking hundred-year-old trees.

And it's like a bad like Hallmark movie, honestly, that we were watching.

It was sad.

We had to jump in front of the these machines.

We had to try and stop it.

We couldn't even get it to stop until we called Pat, we called the mayor, we got people and they stuck they finally did stop.

It was horrible to deal with them.

And still, to this day, they still have not done anything to fix it.

They did nothing to address it.

Um it was one of the saddest things that I, and and I'm a developer, guys.

It's like there's gotta be responsibility.

So I came here to miss my son's baseball game because I wanted to just tell you the facts of that.

And it is extremely sad when we have outs out of town developers that come in and they do stuff like this.

I've never in 20 years seen a PD plan switch in my life.

My dad's never seen it in 50 years of development.

So I want you guys to remember that name.

And I still have yet to hear from them.

So now on the kind side here, um O'Reilly group came in and um they have communicated with us.

Uh we have talked.

Uh we have, and I appreciate Hunter and I a few of the guys uh people in here, they have communicated to us um, and we are working things out where it did they that's what you saw, the added greenery, and honestly, as frustrated as I was with you guys, I appreciate you guys with being flexible and working with me.

Um and all I would ask you guys is that please look at this perimeter, this south and east barrier.

If you look at, I have notes and and I did uh email staff on November 11th about this, and uh and I it looks like it wasn't included.

Um but Pat was very responsive, and I sincerely honestly appreciate Pat and other people around here that that help.

But these are some of the things that Mr.

Holt, that that's actually your time.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um but any questions from Mr.

Hall?

Commissioner Darrell.

Yeah, you can finish.

I I just want to hear what the rest of your sentence is.

Oh, okay.

All yeah, all I was gonna say is that I've got multiple letters here that say the biggest concern is this barrier, the south and east barrier that needs to be protected.

So that's the only thing.

So I would just say love the O'Reilly group, great place.

Can't wait to have you guys as neighbors and just protect that perimeter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from Mr.

Hall?

Seeing none?

Thank you.

Any other members of the public to speak, please come forward.

We don't usually don't let people come up more than once, I'm sorry.

It's all right.

Okay.

In that case, we will close public comment and go to Commissioner comment.

Are there any commissioner comments on this case?

Commissioner Darr?

I guess I'll start.

Um I really don't have many concerns with this development as a community retirement center.

Um I guess my only thought is thinking about this as a planning and zoning commissioner is a bigger picture of this area.

Um and actually, Commissioner Brodsky brought this up on an unrelated matter in our work session, but the opportunity cost of a retirement center at this high traffic node that this area does not have a lot of commercial uh businesses in this area, and there is a ton of traffic and residential area that drives through this every day that seems like this would be uh, you know, more of a prime area for commercial.

So I, you know, in that sense I'm kind of conflicted, but the development itself seems great.

Um I I guess I'll listen to what everybody else kind of has to say about it too.

Commissioner Stanton.

I would agree with you in most cases, but this particular corner has kind of been on the scene for a while, and it hasn't seen any takers since I've been on the commission.

Um I think this is a good use for it.

I think it kind of uh ties down the residential field of that particular area in copper stone, so I plan to support it.

I hope the architects and developers have heard what the citizens have said.

Um I think they did a great job in kind of integrating the design into the existing neighborhood, architecture, materials, and I think they did their homework with Columbia, which is very helpful.

Um you did your homework, you asked, you asked your questions ahead of time that I, if I were living there, would have had questions about you asked, you answered those, height, architecture, traffic flow, parking, you did your homework, and that's what we expect from developers.

So any other commissioner comment?

Commissioner Walters?

Well, I just had a question maybe for staff is that well, when you prepare a staff report or review an application like this, I assume you get comments from various departments, including the water department.

So at any point did the water department indicate concerns about adequate service for the local issues.

I did not receive any comments from representatives of the the water department uh regarding concerns about providing for the site.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Commissioner Brodsky?

I'll hop in here.

Um Commissioner Darr, I uh I think you bring up a good point and was one that um I certainly thought of uh when I was reviewing this uh case earlier this week.

It's very much in line with um the uses that that could go there today or you know uh before this uh adjustment is approved.

Um so I think for that reason I am going to support it, but but I I think you bring up a great point.

Um, you know, our comprehensive plan for Columbia.

Um every plan that I've ever been involved with uh since I've been on planning and zoning since different two different periods, but since 2006 or 2007, you know, we always talked about spreading out commercial to serve the neighborhoods, and we've had a very difficult time of actually getting that to uh come to reality in Columbia.

Probably a variety of reasons.

But um I do plan to support this.

Um I'm uh okay with the height variants.

I think you guys put a lot of thought into the elevations and that step down and and the existing uh homes.

Um variants as well.

My uh great-grandmother lived in a similar facility uh in St.

Louis, uh so I can personally attest uh that uh parking sometimes can be an issue in these facilities.

And uh, like I said previously, I'm okay with the new use.

Uh I would just urge city staff and uh city council if they uh play a role, but um we we do need to address the the water tower and the water issue out there, but obviously I know that's not uh in your guys' uh purview.

So that's all Commissioner Stockton.

I was gonna echo that a little bit.

Um yeah.

Public works, right?

It's not us.

So I think the water thing is very important, obviously, um especially as we start to grow.

But back to my big thing is affordable housing, getting more of it there.

And so your point about, you know, people that could not have a place to go to.

I see one of my professors in the audience that would propose that everybody age in place.

Um, but that's not always possible.

I've also worked with the O'Reilly group before.

I'm a licensed architect, and I know they do good work.

I came from Springfield before I moved to Columbia several years back.

So I can attest to the quality of their of their contributions to communities.

Um I guess um that's pretty much I I would hope that they listen to the preservation of the surrounding trees.

Um I just went through an incident over the weekend where my neighbors cleared out, and it's just fine.

Some some trees behind our property, and I know it can be a little disruptive, but you know, it's you are adjacent if you don't have acreage upon acid, it does happen with development.

I think this is a a good spot in town.

So I'll be voting in favor of this.

Um remind me what the residential density was in the original SOI.

Was there any residences in the original SOI at all?

Uh I don't believe there was a density defined because it was uh simply a list of uses that could be pursued on each lot without a discussion.

So there wasn't a number of units.

There was not a number of units, just a list of uses.

Thank you.

I thought I was forgetting something.

It turns out it just wasn't there.

Umtiz, did you have a comment?

Okay.

Anybody else comments on this case?

If not, is someone ready to make a motion?

Commissioner Stanton, go ahead.

Case number one two two-2026.

I moved to approve the plan of the plan development plan revised statement of intent and the preliminary plat to be known as Columbia Senior Living Community, subject to technical corrections and agreed upon revised development agreement.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Stanton, seconded by Commissioner Ortiz.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Seeing none, Commissioner Brodsky, may we have a roll call?

Commissioner Stockton.

Yes.

Commissioner Walters.

Yes.

My vote is yes.

Commissioner Darr.

Yes.

Commissioner Gowway Jones.

Yes.

Commissioner Gray.

Yes.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Yes.

And Commissioner Stanton.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

That recommendation will be sent to City Council.

Case number 124-2026, a request by Crockett Engineering Agent on behalf of Grindstone Acres LLC owner for approval to rezone the property from A agriculture to P PD plan development and for approval of an associated statement of intent and plan development known as the Retreat at Columbia, which would permit development of 194 multifamily development or 194 unit.

And for approval of an associated statement of intent and plan development known as the Retreat at Columbia, which would permit development of 194 multifamily development or 194 unit.

Multifamily development on the site.

The approximately 32.7 acre subject site is located around 350 feet north of the terminus of Grey Oak Drive and is presently unaddressed.

May we please have a staff report?

Ms.

Hume, thank you for the introduction.

Again, yeah, this is uh west southwest uh of property that's currently addressed 2909 Rock Quarry, I do believe that's the closest addressed property uh to the subject property, but also 350 feet north of terminus of Grindstone Plaza Drive, um, which is the intersection of Grindstone and Grindstone Plaza Drive.

Um 32.7 acres in size is what uh this tract is going to end up being.

Uh it currently has a track split.

Uh it's being reviewed by city staff in order for the land uh within this PD to be legally transferred.

Um so it can then be preliminarily platted through this PD plan and then final plated in the future, should this be recommended or approved by city council.

And this is a rezoning request because it is currently in the agricultural zoning district, and they are requesting plan development.

And this is inclusive of an associated statement of intent and uh public notice was sent for this case uh on the 6th of April, of which there are 14 postcards, the same number of notification letters were distributed on the 20th of April, and an ad was placed in the Columbia Tribune on the 21st.

So as I noted there, um this this property is currently two uh parcels or two tracks rather.

Um and there is a track split that's currently being reviewed by city staff, which will encompass well tract one is what's going to encompass all of this PD plan.

Um my drawings are not accurate uh entirely, but as close as I could get.

Um there will also be two remaining tracks that will be created from this.

Uh the purpose of this STEM being included within tract one is so grindstone plaster drive may be extended uh to this site should the PD plan be approved.

So then if uh its final platted right-of-way dedications can be provided, which would uh give another point of access to this property.

Uh they will also have uh their own street uh retreat way, uh, which will traverse from Rock Quarry to what will be a future intersection with Grindstone Plaza Drive following that extension.

Here's how it looks like on the parcel viewer map again uh two tracks.

You can see uh a slight streamline there on the eastern portion of the site.

Um and what is uh highlighted in yellow is roughly uh an estimation of of what the track split would end up looking like.

Here is what zoning looks like around this area.

Um the subject property uh I failed to highlight here, but again, is just north of the intersection of Grindstone Plaza Drive and Grey Oak Drive, which is just behind the Walmart there.

Um lot of PD uh exists, well, PD exists to the north, although directly to the north it will still be agriculturally zoned.

Um and then uh most of the lots to the west are actually um either unplatted uh for purpose of conser or for the purpose of conservation.

Um this is uh roughly what the the plan development plan would look like.

You can see uh the southernmost portion of this image.

That's the extension of Grindstone Plaza Drive, again contained within the stem that will be included in the track split.

Uh utility easements will also need to be dedicated off-site prior to approval of the track split in accordance with our procedure standards for track splits.

Um retreat way does access Rock Quarry Road there on the eastern portion of the site.

If you see the red hatched area, that is the vegetative buffer to be preserved that is identified within the scenic roadway overlay that does lie on this site.

The scenic roadway overlay actually spans 220 feet from the center line, but only 83 feet from the center line must be preserved with existing vegetation.

Um there is uh a decent amount of distance that must be traversed uh until you get to uh what is kind of the principal area where most of the dwellings will be contained, and it is on the western side of a type two stream buffer.

A little bit of background here.

The uh the site's currently undeveloped.

It is zoned A.

Again, they're requesting PD zoning.

It's a budding A zone property to the north and south, um, and it's undeveloped PD to the west, uh, although after the track split it'll all be uh technically bordering agriculturally zoned property.

Um the PD plan uh would include 194 dwelling units and uh the SOI notes that 204 units would be constructed at a maximum uh and the uses that are requested are exclusively multifamily residential uses as well as accessory structures for multifamily development uses.

Um landscaping on the plan itself is 15 percent.

The SOI notes a minimum of 10, the plan would be what um is approved and what would be that what the applicant would have to pursue should it be approved.

Um 50 percent of the site is to be maintained in open space and or landscaping.

Approximately two and a half acres of this site is uh for climax forest to be preserved.

And again, there's a relatively substantial type two stream buffer uh encumbrance on the site that is directly to the east again of uh where most of the multifamily structures are to be developed.

Um of the the revisions that needs to be made, and I do believe has been addressed at this point, but at the time of preparing these slides and when the agenda went out, um, is that the detention facility that's currently uh illustrated as being within the inner buffer of the type 2 stream needed to be relocated as the tension facilities cannot be located within an inner buffer for a type 2 stream buffer.

Um the setbacks are all consistent or in excess of the residential multifamily standards.

I believe it's 25 feet uh around the perimeter of the site here, uh, and height for all structures is not to exceed 35 feet.

Uh all or the parking that's being provided is compliant.

It is not in excess of the 200% max, and it is above the typical or the required minimum for what would be typical residential multifamily development.

Uh again, the plan requires a tract split to be approved, and that is an administrative process prior to this uh plan development case being introduced at city council.

Um, and the track splits necessary for legal transfer of land of a portion of a larger plot of land, um, just so you can segment it off and sell it and develop it at different stages rather than uh having to sell comprehensively 90 acres or however many.

Um track split also includes all the land necessary again for the right-of-way dedications for the construction extension of grindstone plaza drive as well as the road that they have labeled as retreat way on their PD plan, uh, and it will provide connections to Grey Oak as well as Rock Quarry Road.

Uh again, this site does lie along uh the scenic roadway overlay, uh, which is an overlay zoning district, and it particularly in the city of Columbia only exists over uh Rockquarry Road at the moment.

Um and the required preservation, or this plan overlay, excuse me, requires preservation of the existing vegetation, 83 feet, uh, both sides of the center line of the SRO at the moment.

It is just grassland, there are not trees.

The applicant is um suggesting per their landscaping plane that trees will be planted uh within this 83-foot um distance from the center line uh for the purpose of um kind of enhancing that scenic roadway overlay, and it also does uh provide some privacy and screening for uh the residential units that are technically within the scenic roadway overlay, but not within the uh preservation area of the scenic roadway overlay.

Other uh requirements that are associated with the scenic roadway overlay, uh again, it spans 220 feet from the center line.

Um it notes that uh you have to have underground utilities, um, only monument signs, maybe signs that are erected.

Um, driveway spacing, there's some restrictions about that.

Um there's some lighting regulations, and you also have to have greater than 300 feet of frontage uh on the scenic roadway overlay in order if you develop off of it.

Um, some of these items are are handled here with the preliminary plat, and others uh need to be evaluated with civil and site plans.

Um again, all the structures are located outside of the 83-foot preservation buffer, which is the red hatch, and then the light green hatch is the uh totality of the scenic roadway overlay 220 feet from the center line.

Um access to utilities, all of which would be provided by the city.

Um sewer can be accessed from the northwest corner of the site.

Um, water has access from both rock quarry and gray oak, uh, and there is access to extend uh electric utility from Grey Oak on the north side of Grey Oak, if I'm not mistaken.

Uh again, standard 10-foot utility easements abutting right-of-way to be dedicated with final plating of the site to facilitate such extensions.

Um a transportation impact study was necessary for this development.

Um, and within the TIS, uh, there was not uh an identified decrease in level of service that was substantial enough to require off-site roadway improvements.

Uh the recommendation ultimately was that there needs to be control at the intersection that is going to be created at Grindstone Plaza Drive as well as Gray Oak.

Um, this doesn't need to be documented in a development agreement.

It will be handled at the time of construction.

Uh so in terms of comprehensive plan alignment of this rezoning, um, this is identified as a neighborhood area within the future land use map.

It's also in a tier one growth priority area, meaning that it is uh entirely within the city's urban service area and does not require extensive uh extension of utility in order to serve the site.

Um it also provides housing in uh in a walking proximity to a commercial node around a quarter mile uh to a half mile, is I believe what I measured from from this site to uh the grindstone commercial development, which is planned development, and then um there's now uh an open MC zoned portion of that on the west side or east side, excuse me, of grindstone plaza drive that is going to continue developing into the future as well.

Um also for the housing study goals, again, this is going to provide uh at least two modern 94 dwelling units uh as provided or as shown on the PD plan.

Uh city's development targets for multifamily units for rent are around providing 163 units per year for the next 25 years in order to reach um what our development targets.

Um so this exceeds what would be required for a year.

Um, but it is is that's uh not perceived to be an issue for overshooting that necessarily.

Um while technically uh it would be greenfield development again, it exists within the urban service area, doesn't require much utility extension, at least that wouldn't result in increased connectivity, uh and also increases connectivity to the existing road network.

Um just briefly want to touch on the Rot Quarry Special Area Plan, which was adopted back in 2002.

It did identify this area as being a low density residential.

Um technically, the density of this site is right around what the uh density for uh a maximum density for R1 uh subdivision would be.

Uh but it is encumbered by uh environmental features that kind of naturally prohibit it from uh maybe being more dense.

Um but it is around what our run density hypothetically could be.

Uh and this increase in density is also believed to be reasonable when you consider the surrounding growth uh around this area, particularly along the grindstone corridor again that occurred uh much after uh 2002, which was when the special special area plan was adopted in the first place.

Um just one thing I wanted to note.

Um I know the commission is not always a fan of zoning things into plan development.

Um this special area plan did encourage the use of of planned unit development zoning, um now PD zoning uh for new residential development.

Um we also think that uh just due to the sensitivity of the scenic roadway overlay here, um we we don't think it's uh necessarily out of line to pursue PD zoning here opposed to multifamily, for example.

Um also as far as um the UDC procedure for evaluating rezonings, uh the proposed PD, we do believe supports or is comports and is supported by the comprehensive plan, uh particularly being in a tier one growth area uh near commercial node support from the future land use map.

Um infrastructure is also believed to have the capacity to support development of this intensity.

Uh concerns were not brought about by utilities when this was distributed.

So as far as uh public correspondence went, um I had one uh uh phone call that uh it wasn't an email, but I I did email them, I believe, after um asking just to be provided a TIS, uh which they were provided with.

Also received two phone calls where a position was not necessarily stated, it seemed like generally inquiries for information about the development.

Uh and again, 14 letters were sent, four of those went to neighborhood and homeowners associations, and one went to the council representative.

Um so staff would conclude that the PD plan, which serves as a preliminary plat, comports with the UDC standards for subdivision and is aligned with the comprehensive plan in the housing study uh and the rezoning to plan development rather than residential multifamily uh would be encouraged by the Rot Quarry Special Area Plan and ensures and illustrates conformance with the scenic roadway overlay regulations uh by requiring an approved and binding site plan.

So ultimately staff's recommendation is to approve the proposed rezoning from A to P D and also to approve the proposed PD plan and associated statement of intent serving as a preliminary plat known as the retreat at Columbia.

Um this is uh subject to technical corrections and also is subject to an approved track split um administratively prior to introduction of this case at City Council.

Um if the commission has any questions, I would be happy to answer them now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before we go to questions for staff, if any of my fellow commissioners have had contact with parties outside of a public hearing, please disclose so now.

Commissioner Ortiz.

I received an email about this case, but it was not clear their position.

Um they expressed that they wanted to chat about it, but I did not take them up on that offer.

Just thank you for disclosing.

Anyone else?

Seeing none other questions for staff.

Commissioner Ortiz.

I noticed that it says, or you said that um one letter was provided at Council Ward representative.

Is that new?

I just don't remember seeing that before.

Uh no, count the council representative is always included in our mailing list.

Um whichever ward the tract lies in, they are they are notified.

Okay.

Is that normally just not like written out or uh maybe not, but it is the case that they are always included in our mailing list.

Okay.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Commissioner Gray.

Hi, thank you.

Um you noted that there were no uh significant impacts in the traffic impact study.

Uh and I just wanted to clarify because I went back in and now I'm a fan of reading these.

Um the difference in some of them is uh between uh like the designation of D going to E or F to F.

But in the actual like nuance of it, it is a delay of potentially like three seconds.

Yeah.

So my uh question is like what constitutes like a significant impact to you in terms of your report.

Uh I would not be evaluating what would be a significant impact, it would be evaluated by our traffic engineer.

Um, but uh he did not uh note, nor did the the recommendations from CBB and the TIS note that there would be off-site improvements necessary for the impacts created by this because the drop in level of service, although it may have dropped a letter was not substantial enough in actual um delay times and capacity uh to create uh obligations for off-site improvements.

And I believe uh Commissioner Gray, you'll have an opportunity to ask the actual design professional who uh work with the actual engineer, uh traffic engineer for additional details as to how they are generally approached by our traffic engineer as to what constitutes that major impact requiring an off-site improvement.

Thank you.

Commissioner Brodsky, do I see a hand?

Um I I don't think I've uh raised any concerns about a PUD plan, uh, but this one I'm I'm struggling with a little bit, the need for the PUD.

And I appreciate your last slide.

You mentioned that um, you know, there would be binding requirements that would be in place.

Would those requirements not be binding upon the applicant and the and the uh developer as our city ordinance regardless?

Um, if it were if it were open zoned, if it were not PD, there wouldn't be a chance for anyone to review a site plan.

Um uh what would be approved by the city would only be uh internally reviewed.

Um our thought process is that there's concern about um the preservation nature of a scenic roadway overlay, and this gives people an opportunity to see what is intended to be developed uh where otherwise that opportunity would not exist if it were open zoned.

Okay.

Thank you.

Let me just provide a little bit of clarification so there's not a misunderstanding.

We do review the site plans, and we review them for minimum code compliance.

Planned district development plans are often used in the process of ensuring that particular improvements that are believed to be in excess of what our regular regulatory standard would be, are able to be adhered to and and mandated.

And in this particular instance, improvements to the rock quarry overlay, which is really just a green field, uh would not be made possible.

Uh the understanding and depiction of the arrangement of the dwelling units on this site would not be generally locked in subject to a minor or a major amendment if it were not within a plan district.

And so there are certain things uh such as David pointed out that the Rockware Special Area Plan does uh support the use of a planned district approach to give greater certainty.

And in certain instances, that works both ways.

We can um assess that particular locations where we may have similar special studies uh that have been developing over time but have not necessarily been developing in a PD.

Uh it may not have same the same environmental sensitivities or sensitivities in general, may not necessarily need to support that general objective.

In this particular area, the nature of the Rock Quarry overlay is something that is still quite a significant element within the community.

And following a planned district process, we believe is more appropriate to give assurances to those residents that are affected by development along this corridor and assurance of what will happen, as well as providing us a greater opportunity to extract particular things that just the standard development process does not mandate.

We can ask for anything in a regular straight zoning.

The developer can tell us you're all wet.

In a plan district, we can demand something because the plan requires it, and they have to comply unless they want to come back through the regulatory process and have that eliminated.

And so there's the difference between standard zoning and our planned district zoning.

We have greater controls.

We are like the Commission in many respects.

We prefer to not do plan districts, but in some instances we do see that they still have value, maybe not the full value of what the code requires.

But in this particular instance, when looking at all factors, we did feel this was an appropriate direction.

David did not point this out.

We did have a lengthy discussion about doing straight zoning.

And uh just because of the sensitivities after our discussions with the applicant, they preferred to go this route just to ensure that there was more um concreteness associated with the development proposal.

Thank you.

Any other questions for staff?

Seeing none.

We'll go to public comment.

Members of the public wish to speak on this case, please come forward.

You know the drill, Mr.

Crockett.

Yes, ma'am.

Madam Chair, members of the commission, Tim Crock at Crockett Engineering 1000 West Sniphong.

With me tonight is Caleb Colbert.

He's with Hayden Colvert representing the applicants, which is landmark properties.

Also is Narav Patel.

He is our traffic engineer for the project.

He can speak.

He and Sean White were the traffic engineers.

They can speak, he can speak on behalf of any questions you have with regards to the traffic report that was prepared.

Also with us tonight is Chase Powell and Madison Whitaker with uh with the applicant uh landmark properties.

Uh as uh honestly uh uh Mr.

Coons did a very good job in his staff report here tonight, but so you're gonna see a lot of duplication, but I'll I'll hit on the high points.

Obviously, we're asking for uh PD zoning for 32.7 acres, uh, which would include about 194 uh dwelling units.

Uh we'll have a mix of two, three, and four bedroom units on the property, and the density is going to equate to about 5.9 units per acre.

So when you look at uh standard densities and how that compares, uh 5.9 or less than six units per acre is not, excuse me, is not really considered high density.

Uh so it's uh it's relatively moderate.

Uh again, the development will meet all the city requirements, and again, requesting PD zoning, not due to the request, but rather to protect the area and give assurances.

And I'll go into that in just a little bit.

So we're not, it's a lot of times we ask for PD zoning because we're going to ask for uh expanded building heights or um you know other variances or other uh items that we typically wouldn't get in open zoning, and that's not the case here.

Uh as Mr.

Zinner indicated, we did have a uh a good conversation about do we go open, do we go planned?

And uh they ask us to go uh plan district, and we uh we agreed to it.

You've seen our location map, you've seen our PD plan, and I think this is uh part of the reason why uh PD is appropriate.

If you look on the right hand side, up against Rock Quarry Road, there's a large area there that uh those dashed lines, that's our stream buffer, but on the east side of that stream buffer, there's a substantial amount of area that's developable.

And it's actually it's really good land to be developed.

Um however, uh in an event to try to do what we can along Rock Quarry, we want to preserve that area, we are staying staying away from there.

Uh, if you see the little scallops line, that's a tree line through there.

So we want to preserve all of those trees.

And so while it is developable, uh while it is you know good development ground, uh really we just want the three small duplexes there uh and leave the rest of it alone.

That's kind of a buffer up along Rock Quarry that helps preserve that.

Not just the the the hatched area, the 83 feet, but there's acres there that will be left untouched.

Uh so to your point, Mr.

Brodsky, if we had open zoning, there's no assurances that we would stay out of that.

And so having a planned zoning district uh gives everybody assurances that we can't touch that without permission uh being granted by the by the P and Z and ultimately council.

So uh that's part of the reason we want to uh go planned zoning, is that we can stay out of that area, which is very important.

Uh the green space on the property, you can see we have substantial amount of green space.

Uh the hatch, the hatched area, that's our climax forest that we're preserving, uh two and a half acres, uh, but there's much more than that uh then that's not really showing it in the light green area.

Uh and also uh keep in mind that the climax forest doesn't include all of the mature trees and all the mature forest that's in the dark green.

That's our stream buffer area that we have to preserve.

Um so uh there's a substantial amount of vegetation that's being preserved on this piece of property.

Uh the SR SRO overlay district, we've talked about that just a little bit.

You know, uh David talked about that in the staff report.

Uh here it is here.

So you can kind of see um, you know the piece of property, the the hatched area uh is the preservation area uh that we need to preserve.

Um the dashed line, that's the limit uh of underground utilities, uh signage, lighting, and have other provisions included there.

This is what it looks like.

Um so that's not really the intent, I don't believe, of what the overlay district probably was.

I don't want to speak exactly, but um, you know, if you look at much of Rock Quarry that's mature trees all along the whole roadway there, um, and that's not what we have here.

Right here, we have uh basically just an old uh old pasture.

And so um the intent there is is let's let's try to re-establish that.

Let's go in here with some landscaping.

Uh it'll add some screening that'll also try to get that intent of what uh we believe that the scenic overlay district is protecting.

Uh let's get it kind of started here.

Um is it going to be a full mature force day one?

No, but we have to start somewhere, and so that's what we want to do.

Again, the traffic uh traffic study was done uh for the development, and again, traffic was performed uh at the request of the city, and how that works is that the scope uh is defined by the city and MODAT.

They tell us what we need to look at.

We don't tell them what we're going to look at, they tell us what we have to look at.

And our traffic engineer does the work and performs uh the traffic study and then submits it for review and approval.

And that's exactly what's happened here.

Uh Mr.

Patel can speak on that if there's any questions uh about it.

Um so we think that's important.

Uh utilities, obviously they're all there.

And if you look at the utilities and how they were constructed, substantial amount of investment uh and capital has been put into this area with regards to sewer and water uh and electric to serve this area.

Um it's not the Walmart, it's not the development further over, it's this undeveloped area all along Rock Quarry Road.

Columbia Imagin identifies this as a neighborhood district.

Uh it's located inside the urban service area.

And what does that mean?

It means water, sewer, electric, and roadways are available to serve the site.

And again, as Mr.

Kuhn's indicated, it's a tier one growth priority area.

It's the highest priority area for future development and redevelopment.

Utilities are available, uh, it's considered infill, uh, encourages higher density, and it's preferred uh focus for development for the City of Columbia.

So in conclusion, uh real quick, I think we've touched on the basis.

Uh we're requesting PD over RMF for protection purposes.

We believe that's appropriate in this location.

Um we don't ask for it very often, but we think that it is appropriate at uh this particular uh project.

Uh proposed plan not only can complies with the SRO district, but we believe that it enhances it.

It makes it a better situation than what's out there right now.

Utilities are available, the traffic study was completed.

It's a conformance with Columbia Imagined, it complies with the UDC, and it comes to you with staff's support.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions uh that's uh that uh the Commission may have.

Thank you, Mr.

Crockett.

Any questions for the speaker?

Commissioner Darr.

Um to get nerdy with civil engineering, kind of.

Since it was brought up in the report about the uh BMP in the uh stream buffer.

So this site to me looks like there's uh drainage channel on the east and west kind of of this development, and one has a stream buffer and one doesn't, although the one on the west has a larger drainage area and seems to be a more defined channel that we're gonna be.

Um and then I was looking at the table of what's allowed, and flood control is allowed in the inner zone, but BMPs are not.

Is that why city staff is telling you that you can't have that BMP there?

Um it's my understanding that that flood control is allowed in the outer zone, but not the inner zone, uh, if I'm not mistaken.

Um, the information that was provided to us.

Um so we're evaluating that a little bit more, but at the same time, we've done a preliminary grading plan on this, Mr.

Darr, and the site basically uh grades from east to west, and so we can put it into uh our detention facility that's going to be on the west side of the property.

Okay.

Very nice.

Thank you.

Other questions?

Um is there?

Is there a reason that you connect to Rock Quarry?

Yes.

Um we would need another connection for remoteness for the fire department.

So they're going to require another way, another ingress and egress.

They require uh when you talk about remoteness, uh that's a that's basically uh a dimensional standard.

Uh how far apart, not only how many entrances do you have to the development, but how far-spaced that they are.

I thought that might be the case.

Um is this just uh, and maybe this is better for one of the other folks here with the applicant tonight, but is this a general housing development or this is this is purpose-built student housing.

This is student housing.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Seeing none.

Next speaker on this case, please come forward.

Anyone don't be shy.

Just as a reminder, name and address for the record.

I allow six minutes for group representatives and three minutes for individuals.

My name is uh Marty Reback.

I live at 1711 Reback Road.

Uh my fa this is My family's lived uh long Rock Quarry Road for 80 years.

My family was very uh influential in establishing the scenic overlay, and we are very concerned about maintaining uh the uh character of Rock Hory Road.

Um I feel that uh we should oppose this uh development for three reasons.

One, it's bad for the City of Columbia.

This is an out-of-town owner, an out-of-town developer, and they will bring in all of the labor and all of the materials uh to build this, and the Columbia will not economically benefit at all.

Um the student housing is not residential housing.

It is not it's only good for students that want to rent one bedroom in a suite, which is uh single use.

The other reason is it's bad for Rock Quarry Road, because although the traffic report shows not that much traffic at the peak times, uh the traffic is horrendous.

And I would strongly suggest that you um put in barriers and not only for early morning and late uh rush hour that you not allow any traffic onto Rock Quarry, but they have to use Grindstone Plaza only emergency vehicles.

That would only be for two or two and a half hours a day.

Thirdly, I would oppose it because it's bad for the wildlife.

This is a uh a unique area that can uh connects with um the uh nature conservancy area and grindstone park and my 70 acres.

Um it's is rich in wildlife.

And um by putting putting this in, you are you are cutting off that circuit that uh and when you reduce the amount of habitat, you the animals don't just move closer together, you lose the you lose the wildlife.

Um questions?

Thank you very much.

Any questions for this speaker?

Seeing none.

Thank you.

Next person to speak on this case, please come forward.

Yes.

Very good.

Name an address for the record while he's pulling that up.

Uh Tony Davis, uh 4655, Rock Quarry Road.

Um Supporting what Marty was saying, uh that this is uh a student housing development and not a residential development.

And I want to add some numbers to that for you.

Uh there this plaid, as you will probably see, will have about 720 parking spaces, which means roughly 720 cars, and approximately that many rooms can be leased in that area.

And uh even though the traffic study, which I think is woefully short, uh but what was there that i the study was not done at uh any any any study at all at um stadium and rock quarry, which is where all the traffic ends up, and every morning, there was no traffic study done in the morning at any intersection, but every morning at that intersection, if you travel in about an hour uh uh given eight o'clock one side or the other, it can back up as much as a half mile that goes back around across the bridge and back up the hill.

Adding more traffic to Rock Quarry Road is definitely a problem.

And we need to address that before looking at approving this development, I think.

Uh I think that the neighborhood that this designated as a neighborhood because all of us would like to see more affordable housing.

This could be R1, and I think it's our already been uh addressed by Mr.

Crockett, that it's about the same number of people uh that would be there, but the people would be dispersing different ways if this were given a different zoning by planning and zoning, they could go east, west, north, or south.

Right now, there's a road proposed that comes out onto uh not uh Rock Quarry Road, and that road it will be the primary road because since it's student housing, that leads directly to the campuses in the center of town.

So that you know, the people coming in and out of Reback Lane kind of forget about that in the morning and in the evening whenever this traffic is there.

So that road definitely is something that um just shouldn't exist.

But I understand it would need to exist if there's some type of development or housing development there for fire protection and other reasons.

But the to add any traffic to Rock Quarry, and there will be another presenter, I think that will uh uh where uh give you some information about how deep the drop-off is in various places.

And the picture, one of the other pictures that you saw, uh uh it had all of the fence there, but if you drive down Rock Quarry Road, that you can see where many cars have run off and gone through the fencing area.

That won't change.

I was also a member of the scenic road that was adapted in 98, I believe, even though we worked on it uh many much before that.

I was also on a committee that met for about a year and a half to improve Rock Quarry Road, but that was understandably far too expensive to put bike lanes, curb and guttering to do that.

So I'm thank you, sir.

To some degree, I'm representing an organization, which is the scenic overlay.

So let me just make kind of the final.

No, I think official representatives, I'm sorry.

But let me see if we've got any questions for you.

Give me just a second.

Any questions for the speaker?

Commissioner Gray.

Thank you.

Um I just want to clarify what kind of development would you support in this area?

I think that that a development where you don't, by definition, put all the traffic back out on Rock Quarry Road.

It simply cannot sustain it.

You know, we have many accidents already.

There needs to be I'm not sure what it would be, but there needs to be changes uh in the road structure and infrastructure before you could add something like this planned development.

I think it's a great plan, but it's in the wrong place.

Also, we don't know, as part of an answer to your question what is going to happen in track two and track three.

Look how large those are.

So, as a planning and developing organization or group that really represent us, the community, that needs to be looked at and whole before we accept a planned development that we know what's going to happen.

I could see where the city would approve it because it checked off all the boxes for a planned development, but not to be put in that location.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Gray, did that answer your question?

Uh I'm I'm curious if this were 194 units of non-student housing.

Would you be in support of that?

I would think that if if it were considered and this is called student housing, but that would still if it were apartments, I I would be in opposition to that.

I would not be in opposition to R1.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Any other you know, uh better housing for the community.

Oh, okay.

Any other questions for the speaker?

Commissioner Brodsky.

I just want to clarify uh the reason that you would support R1 and not student housing, is because uh if it's student housing, they're going to be going north on Rock Quarry towards campus, whereas if it was R1, a smaller proportion of that traffic would be going towards campus.

Is that that your logic?

Yeah, that's that's a lot.

So some changes in road structure.

That would even need to be done for R1 uh to help manage traffic.

Uh uh I I would not support any development that puts any more traffic out onto Rock Quarry Road.

Um there needs to be I don't have that answer, but there needs to be improvements, uh, and it's a very difficult road.

That road is over 200 years old, uh, and it's remained the same footprint in all of that period of time, and it's just been improved, improved.

Uh you know, it has quite a drop-off.

Any other questions for the speaker?

Seeing none, thank you for being here.

Anyone else to speak on this case, please come forward.

My name is Barbara.

Can you pull that down?

Thank you.

My name is Barbara Davis, and I reside at 4655.

Excuse me, Rock Quarry Road.

Excuse me.

I've been there for 46 years.

And I'd like to address the safety of Rock Quarry Road.

And if you don't mind, I have printed out an article that I'll be first time.

So anyway, I have borrowed extensively from this article, which I found very helpful, so I'll begin.

Um about four times a year, Ted Stevenson repairs the fence on his property along Rock Quarry Road.

The reason is because drivers often lose control of their vehicles and crash into it.

The Rock Quarry Road, or Rock Quarry Road, is a snake street that extends more than four miles from Stadium Boulevard to Route 163.

But it's the northern portion of the road, about a 1.7 mile stretch between stadium and grindstone that's considered one of Columbia's most scenic and most dangerous roadways.

Although it provides picturesque scenery, the road is notorious to Columbia residents for being dangerous to drive on.

Between 20 and 24, 358 total accidents have occurred on Rock Quarry Road, according to emergency response calls to Boone County Joint Communications.

Stevenson, whose property runs along Rock Quarry just north of Grindstone, estimates that 40 or 50 accidents have occurred near his property alone.

There is a 10-inch drop-off on the side of the road next to Stevenson's property.

There is no shoulder.

So once a driver veers off the road, it's impossible to correct, said Stevenson.

Stevenson said that a city official brushed off his concerns, telling him that there shouldn't be issues along his property because the road is straight.

He, along with other Rock Quarry residents, have brought their concerns about the road to Columbia City Council, asking it to upgrade the road with curbs, gutters, or guardrails to prevent future incidents.

In January of 2022, Caleb R.

Wheeler, age 24, died when his vehicle went off the road and struck a tree.

John Martin, age 26, died in a motorcycle accident on Stevenson's property in October of 2023.

The quote How would you like to be a parent, which I am not, and receive a phone call between 10 and 2 in the morning saying this is Columbia Police?

We'd like to tell you that your child or spouse or relative is in the hospital and has had an accident, Stevenson said.

That basically happens two or three times a year just in front of my property.

Thank you, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any questions for the speaker?

Thank you for bringing that to us in print.

That's helpful.

Any questions for this speaker?

Seeing none.

Thank you for being here very much.

I'm sorry, ma'am.

I know we have got it on the transcript, but will you say your name one more time just so I can write away?

Sorry, my name is Barbara Davis.

Thank you, Ms.

Davis.

Any other member of the public to speak?

And I believe we have got at least one perfect, Mr.

Patel.

Good evening, members of the committee.

My name is David Wilson.

Um I live at 1810 Reback Road.

Uh Reback Road is directly across from the egress onto Rock Quarry Road.

Um I've lived there for 20 something odd years now, but I also grew up in the neighborhood and I spent most of my life on Rock Quarry Road.

Um I'm not here to talk about the road per se.

I'm kind of a risk taker.

I like the thrill of driving on Rock Quarry.

Um I am here to talk about uh the planned development versus residential.

Um I actually spent some time uh working these meetings up in the booth.

Shout out to the folks on camera up there.

Um, back in the PUD happy days of 2000 or so, when we wanted to make a lot of PUDs and we really want to sculpt these things.

And so we have a lot of examples of how this worked out.

And one of them is just up, just north of here on Rock Quarry Road.

It's uh Rolling Rock.

Rolling Rock came to the neighborhood and they basically threatened us.

They said, look, if you don't approve our PUD, we will just go R1 and we'll do whatever we want.

And the fact is they wouldn't have, because what they wanted to do was make single room student housing just like this.

And to answer your question, uh, Commissioner Gray, I would love to see infill development in Columbia.

I would love to live across from a neighborhood here.

If this was R1, that would be fantastic.

If there was a if this was even apartments that addressed families and the need for that kind of development, that would be fantastic.

And I think it is a little disingenuous.

Um, no offense, but when the staff says that this meets a goal, it doesn't.

The goal is very specific in the city's own report that that goal is for residential, not student housing.

The city's report says we want residential housing, not student housing, to meet those increased goals.

So this is failing to meet that as a development.

Um I can quote if you like.

You look skeptical, but um let's see.

Uh, from the housing state says the larger housing gap is for residents, not just students.

While development continues to meet demand for University of Missouri students, there is a growing gap in housing options for full-time residents.

Um that's what we're missing.

That's what this land could be for.

It's great to have walkability to the to the uh commercial just south of there.

Um there are road issues, of course, as other people have said.

Uh, but what we need is not additional student housing that is built for 20 years by out-of-town developers.

I can take any questions.

Thank you.

Mr.

Wilson, would you indulge me with a little bit of back and forth?

Because I don't think the issue is the identity of the students.

I think the issue is the structure of the housing.

So can you tell me why there's a difference for you between apartments and student housing?

Well, sure.

I I could speak clearly about R1, which is what I would love to see there, right, where you can't have more than three unrelated individuals.

R1 is built for families.

I believe that's still right.

Am I wrong to the ordinance change?

That's not exactly true.

Um if you are an owner occupier, there is no real requirement.

But I'm more thinking about for when I hear student housing, I think about the suite style setup where you rent an individual room and there's a common living area versus an apartment complex where there might be four bedrooms, four people might live there, but it's a shared household, and if they moved out, a family could move in.

There are so many functional differences between how a family occupies a unit than how a group of unrelated students occupy units.

I mean, we can again we have plenty of examples to see how those work.

They work in terms of traffic, right?

In terms of where people drive in the morning and the evening, they work in terms of parties and whatnot.

And frankly, they work in Columbia and in other college towns in terms of how out-of-town developers see the short-term economic benefits and not the long-term residual effects.

Most of these units that I've seen are built for 20 years, right?

And after 20 years, they've gotten their money out and they don't care anymore.

So I don't think I'm being clear with my question.

My question is are you concerned about students living there, or are you concerned about the structure of a housing complex that's built for students?

I'm concerned about suite style structures that rent by the room and are marketed to students.

So if it was an R1 development that had a bunch of students living there, of course don't care.

Yes.

Okay.

Happily.

I think sometimes when we hear people talking about the identity of the people that might live in housing, we kind of go, mmm.

But I don't think that's what you're saying.

That's why I want to do that.

Thank you for clarifying that.

We're close to campus.

Of course, this would be a great place for students.

Um I'm a landlord in our neighborhood.

We rent to some students.

Um it's not the tenor of these kinds of developments, and I think this development is wrong for that area.

Any other questions for this speaker?

Um one very, very quick point about the point about the traffic and the traffic study and the impact.

Um, and we are looking at three sites here.

We're only talking about one, but triple any of those numbers, and that's what we're really talking about.

So anyway, thank you very much for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Wilson.

Next speaker on this case, please come forward.

Joseph Ben Boyler.

Oh, wait till you get to the microphone, please.

Come on up.

You couldn't hear me.

Oh well, I can, but the recording can't, and then I get yelled at and told I'm not doing my job well.

I understand.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, please.

My name is Joe Bin Boydle.

Uh I live at the Rock Quarry and Gans Road.

I've lived there for about 47 years on and off off Rock Quarry Road within 300 yards.

Um, just a quick notion.

Um I represent the group, uh, and we are trying to make a cogent presentation here.

We've we were on very short notice on this.

We just got the traffic study here just a couple days ago.

Staff Senate as soon as we asked, but we didn't know to ask.

So I apologize.

Would I could I be indulged with six minutes rather than just the three?

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Um this is a boutique student housing development.

The price of these rooms will not be covered by any families moving into this these type structures.

That is not a knock on these type developments, but don't think that we are addressing um affordable housing.

Don't think we are addressing um fairer housing policy across Columbia when we build this kind of housing.

I think it's clear that this is a massive development.

The infrastructure in this area has been looked at in a number of different ways and commented on.

But safety is my main concern.

This is could be up to 200 units, 730 beds, 720 beds, 731 parking places.

Um the traffic study that is that anchors the whole safety issue calls Broadquarry Road a major collector.

And if you look at the plans that the city has made, it's called a major collector.

That is true.

But if you look at the definition of a major collector, and when you guys do your job as far as what kind of development goes where in terms of what kind of road infrastructure is available, a uh major collector has to be a minimum of 36 feet wide, have 12 foot, two lanes of 12 foot each with a shoulder and sidewalks.

That is not what we're looking at with Rock Quarry Road north of this development to the university where all of these people are gonna are gonna are gonna have to uh transit.

Um it's not even close.

Rock Quarry Road is in shambles.

There are many feet of I'd say two to three feet in some areas where if you go off that pavement, you're you're you're in very, very serious safety trouble.

The trees are very, very close.

That's number one.

The traffic, the traffic study rightfully, frankly, assumes that designation.

But the fact is that the road out there is not that.

If we were building a new subdivision, if we were building a new area, we would have a much, much, much larger road to handle anything like the traffic volume that frankly is out there now.

But let's go back a little bit.

The city established the scenic overlay, 83 feet to preserve the natural scenic quality.

Um in Columbia, it's a very significant designation.

But more importantly, in 2024, the council decided not to improve Rock Quarry Road, not to improve this collector.

It was going to cost $13 million to bring this road up to major collector status.

That was 15% of the entire 10-year capital budget for the City of Columbia.

We support the decision to not improve Rock Quarry Road to that extent.

But that's what should have happened or should have happened if this type of development should go forward.

We think the traffic problem is a very, very serious public safety issue, not just for those students, but all of the students that are gonna, and all of the residents that are going to be moving into all of those uh apartments that are off of Southampton, down by uh Veterans United uh on Grindstone Parkway.

Um there's gonna be a lot more traffic on this road, whether or not this development goes through or not.

So this is a very serious issue.

Well, how did how does how does the developer address that?

The traffic study looked at came to the conclusion that there were two second and 30-second and 50-second delays in some of the lanes going in some of the directions to the south in the commercial area.

What is not in the traffic report is what the delays are at stadium and rock quarry road.

The the the peaks that that were chosen, and I as I understand it, the peaks were blessed by MODOT or by the city in some fashion.

But the the actual peaks that were studied in the in the counting were between 11 and 2 o'clock in the morning and 3 and 6 in the afternoon.

Well, the fact is, and everybody who lives along that this road, myself included, can tell you the peak of this section of road is at about 7.30 to 9 o'clock, 7.30 to 8.30 primarily.

And it's because, not because of the university, but the hospitals, the hospital complex opened at that time.

The traffic now at Stadium and Rock Quarry Road is a quarter of a mile, half a mile backed up.

Now, that's before we put 700 cars.

Um there's there's suggestion that there's gonna be buses that are gonna carry some of the ch some of the students up there, and that's fine.

But those buses are of a pretty wide dimension, they alone are a little bit more of a risk than individual automobiles anyway.

At any rate, the peaks were missed in the study.

We just got the study uh uh a day or two ago, but the peaks were missed.

This commission should require that those counts be done during the period of time where the actual peak takes place.

It does not take place between 11 and 2.

Um, and students that have to hit 740 classes, 840 classes, 940 classes, that was missed in this study too.

They didn't start till 11 o'clock to even start looking and start counting.

Um we are not um the uh 358 accidents in the last five years when the the article that Miss uh Ms.

Davis was referring to, 358 accidents on Rock Quarry Road in the five years before that article, which was in 2024, that's a lot of accidents.

It's not gonna get any better.

And the council has decided that we're not gonna improve Rockquarry Road to major collector standards.

They're not gonna do it, can't afford to do it.

The topography, it would be impossible to do it.

Thank you.

Let's see if we've got some questions.

Any questions for this speaker?

Commissioner Sand.

Final thought.

Oh, near your final thought, if you can make it.

I I would ask that this commission um delay this development or recommend delay of this development until we can take an accurate count of the of the traffic that is going northbound on Rock Quarry Road up to Stadium and analyze that that intersection as carefully as they analyze the commercial uh uh portion of of this uh affected by this development, which is south.

There's grindstone's a four-lane, totally controlled.

It's got bike lanes, it's brand new, relatively new.

It can handle this traffic.

But Rock Cory Road cannot.

And there will be serious safety implications if more vehicles, a lot more vehicles are put on there.

And I and I think on a on a on a peak basis, the traffic study did not catch those numbers whatsoever.

We are not anti-development.

We we think there should be development in this area.

This is not a neighborhood.

Let's not kid ourselves.

All this housing in this area that's going up is is uh is uh is is student housing.

There isn't any single family.

We'd love to see that happen.

Um we think there's a lot of development going on.

I think a lot of these problems could be resolved if we could enhance the access to grindstone and take it off of Rock Quarry.

Once we put this traffic on Rock Quarry, whether it's single family or student or whatever, it's gonna be a serious safety issue because Rock Quarry, as it says today, is narrower than most city streets.

Uh and it's it's getting a tremendous amount of traffic, and it's gonna get a lot more whether or not this development goes in.

But 700 more parking places tells me it's gonna be a lot more.

Thanks, sir.

Any other questions?

Seeing none?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Is it Mr.

Patel right?

Hi.

We might have to pull that down a little bit.

Thank you.

Hi.

My name is Narav Patel, uh 5732 Lindenwood Avenue, St.

Louis, Missouri.

Um I can start off.

I'm a licensed traffic engineer with the state of Missouri, and I've been at CBBU for almost 10 years.

And what I want to start off first is how we do this traffic study and how the process is.

So mainly what we do is we coordinate with city and MODOT representatives.

We ask them intersections they want us to look at, time periods they want us to look at, and so that we're addressing all of the things they want us to address in the traffic study.

And then the process of the traffic study then is to understand or ascertain the existing conditions on the study roadways and the study intersections.

So we do that by taking traffic counts.

So we collect a traffic counts here and February uh 2026, thirty on a Thursday.

So we typically do Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, so that we're not we're looking at typical traffic patterns.

Um on that day we made sure that school academic calendars were still going, as well as the weather that day was not um difficult or kind disencouraging people from being out on the roadways.

What we do after that is we take that, we create traffic models of that, and we create existing conditions to figure out how the operations are at the study intersections.

Then working with the developer, we figure out how many units they're gonna have or beds they have, and we use uh ITE data or international transportation engineers, a publish a trip generation manual, and it's a standard resource in our industry.

What this resource provides is based on the number of beds, how many vehicles will be generated by the development during your AM, midday, or PM peaks.

So that's what we will use, and that has been industry standard.

Uh based on that, we'll take that information, we'll look at the periods that we want to look at specifically for this study.

We're asked by the city of MODAT to look at midday and PM peak hour.

And we'll figure out based on existing travel patterns where that traffic would go, and then ascertain the impact of those trips on the study intersections.

We'll examine that in our models and then look at are is there any mitigation needed?

And in this case, we found that no mitigation was needed at the study intersections to mitigate the impact of the increase in delay.

We did recommend the stop sign at the plaza and oak over there, Gray Oak, mainly to have some sort of traffic control there when right now it's free flow, but when you extend it to have something there.

Um I did want to address some of the kind of questions and things that have been said.

Making a turn onto Rock Curry Road for that.

Uh what we found in our models that it operates level service D with an average delay about 16 seconds.

So you'll wait on average during the peaks, a vehicle would wait there 16 seconds to make a turn out.

Um that's pretty good level service at an unsignalized intersection.

And the other thing that to address the safety questions that have came up, we do recommend in our study that at the intersections that you provide adequate site distance so that when you're in your vehicle, you can look left or right and make sure that the roadway is clear.

To provide adequate site distance, we recommend that the site engineer look at the site triangles as well as refrain from providing you know tall fences, tall vegetation right at the intersection, and to keep that farther away, as well as signs and things like that to not have anything that blocks their view.

Mr.

Patel, could we get to some of our questions and that might go back to the other?

I think we've got a lot for you specifically.

Sorry, sorry.

I just yeah, go ahead.

Commissioner Gray, did you want to start?

Yes.

Thank you.

Um Thank you for uh this uh elaboration and clarification.

Um I'm curious about because we've had other traffic studies and you're talking about the scope of it is developed alongside MODA and the city.

And so the decision to not look at like AM levels.

Um in your experience in your expertise as an engineer, um, is there significant like variation in that or um is that does that make sense?

Like would we expect to see um the AM as an outlier given the consistency with the midday and PM?

So it depends on the use you're examining.

So with this specific it's different as per se commercial development.

More often it's in the PM and midday for restaurants or gas stations.

We found that fast foods, for example, is more in the AM than it is in PM.

For this use with student housing specifically, the AM was not anticipated to be have a significant amount of traffic that would be impacted on the roadways is what our discussions with the city and the and MODA was.

And they recommended they not recommended, but recommended more to look at the midday and PM than the AM.

Just substantially the AM peak is between 7 a.m.

and 9 a.m.

And in that time period, the significant amount of students that would leave would be most likely less than what it would be during the midday and the PM.

Okay.

Interesting.

Um thank you.

Uh the and so again, the scope of the study, it's done alongside Modot in the city.

And so you're looking at roads that are directly impacted by like access.

Yes.

So the stadium cut like would not be considered.

No.

So we generally look at near the vicinity of the site as well as the proposed intersections.

Um stadium being as far to the north as it is from here.

Um that was not examined just due to the fact that it's just farther away from the site.

If if that was requested, we would have, but that was also not requested to be examined either.

Okay.

And I think my last question.

Um role in this is not to determine if there is adequate infrastructure, it's to determine if there needs to be mitigation alongside the development.

Correct, correct.

We will look at what's out there today, and we'll look at the impact that the development has, and then determine if mitigation is needed based on the impact.

We do not make recommendations of what needs to be improved today out there, but just specifically what the development impacts and then based on that impact if improvements are needed.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

We'll go with Commissioner Dar and then Commissioner Bronson.

So uh have you driven Rock Court?

I've not.

Not recently.

No.

Not drive it through the.

Well, then my next question is.

Okay, everybody's relevant.

Well, my questions were going to be the the traffic I'm following along well, and you know, the results of the study to me speak for themselves.

But we also have the point that was brought up to some of the by some of the other um speakers that are.

Although this is considered a major collector from the city's point of view, because that's how it is on the map.

And uh when you're considering if it if if it uh development has adequate infrastructure access to major collector street, you know, it does on paper.

But when you actually drive the street, you have um sorry, they're distracting.

Yes, very distracting.

So um when you drive the physical street itself, the cross section of the street, the width.

I think it's 22, 24 feet.

I mean, is that typical for a major collector in your experience?

I I would say it depends on when the roadway was first developed.

So if the roadway was there and then over time development has happened, it's utilized more, the roadway is what it is before.

As if you're building a new roadway and you want it to be def as the characteristics of a major collector, then you build it to different standards.

But if it's already there, then that's what the roadway is.

Not what the characteristics that's changed over time.

I would say that.

Yeah.

I mean, and that's always a struggle, like you know, when do you prove it improve it before development or after the development?

But you know, the cross section and then also the horizontal co horizontal and vertical geometry of this road, you know, when I drive it, doesn't reflect a major collector to me.

And with not necessarily just this development, any development in general and the existing base conditions is really taxing uh the capacity of this road to me, not by the number of trips a major collector can handle, like you're saying is added and and in the intersection delays and stuff like that.

But like the physical driving the road with the horizontal horizontal and vertical geometry and the width of the street and the narrow lanes.

I I understand.

I would uh I would say at what we looked at examined specifically, we did not examine the safety of Rock Cory Road.

We examined at the vicinity of what the proposed driveway would be as requested.

And yeah, I understand it might have been outside of your scope.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Commissioner Brotsky.

Uh looking at your traffic study just needs some help understanding um so on I think I'm on page the bottom of page 15, it's uh table one there.

Um you have the number of beds, uh midday peak hour trips, uh PM peak hour trips.

Uh the total for both of those is two thirty and two twenty-five.

Yes.

That is trips for that hour?

Correct.

That would be your total trips for that hour during the peak.

Um I would like to mention so we looked at through ITE and looked at 720 beds.

But we also did counts at the nearby central house student development, which is right on Rock Quarry, just to the southeast over there.

And based on those counts, the total trips in and out during that same peak period during the midway was 55 total trips and 64 in the PM.

And their total number of beds is 634.

So a little less than 90 than what this proposed development would be.

So if we using those trip rates of that existing local development that's already out there, this proposed development would be closer based on local data at 62 total trips and 73 during the midday and PM respectively, which would be 73 percent and 68 percent lower than what we found in ITE.

So the traffic analysis itself is a conservative analysis that most likely if this development is you know similar draw, similar traffic utilization as other local development nearby, it would be a lot less lower of an impact overall.

Sorry if I didn't have to.

No, no, no, no, you did very much.

No, I appreciate that context very much.

Um did you do uh did you come up with a number of you know total number of trips that would come out of this development in a in a 24 hour period?

We did not develop that, but that is something that IT can provide, and we can look at that.

But we mainly look at these peak periods specifically because if this is your most number of traffic vehicles on the roadway at a certain time, it is mainly if this is your worst impact during the day.

It's safe to assume that outside of this time period your impact would be less than that.

So that this is your worst case scenario.

Oh, that makes sense.

Um I I went and looked on the um Modot, you know, they have uh pretty handy little uh traffic count maps.

Uh 4,000 trips on Rock Quarry southbound uh in any given day on average and 4200 uh trips uh northbound uh on any given day on Rock Quarry.

Uh this was 2025.

Um So what I'm hearing from you is that maybe we're probably looking at a hundred trips in any given hour?

You could so generally speaking, we've found that your total trips in and out during the peaks represents about 10% of your traffic from throughout the day or more than that.

So this is you know 200.

If you multiply that by 10, that's probably where you're looking at, and then divide it per hour, less than 100.

So I'm just trying I'm trying to get an idea of what's the total additional traffic load that's gonna go on to Rock Cory as you've heard Rock Quarry is is uh substandard uh as a uh collector street.

Um your opinion or experience as a traffic engineer, what would be the difference between these number of units as student housing compared to just a straight R1?

Uh what would be the difference in traffic volumes?

So with this, it's traffic volumes.

What we found is that student housing generally is just lower than regular apartments, partly because of when people are leaving and then the other thing.

Just regular housing, just like R1 housing, yeah.

So would R1 housing be more single family detached kind of homes?

It generally we found though it would be less than that.

So mainly because R1, you have people that are driving every day in and out and more in the morning, going to and from work and then coming back.

Um with these types of student housing development, impacts more spread out through the day based on scheduling, as well as the shuttle that would be provided would be utilizing providence, but that's also alternative use.

Um to the proximity it is from the school, the shuttle would most likely be more of a utilization than driving, actually and walking.

Okay.

Um and I did just want I I pretty sure I know the answer to this, but uh based on your estimates in your traffic study, midday peak hour traffic, you're estimating that forty-five percent of the traffic coming out of this development is going to go north on the Rock Quarry Road and 35 percent in the PM peak hour.

Correct.

Correct.

That's what we looked at today.

Thank you.

Commissioner Walters.

Um, I'm gonna follow up on that.

I'm looking on on uh Google here, the ITE you refer to as the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

And they estimate um between 5.4 to 6.7 daily trips per dwelling unit.

So if there's 720 dwelling units and there's six times that, that's 40 4200 today.

Six times 720.

So it I guess are you looking at so within that same so I guess one question I have is are you looking at land use 225?

I'm just looking here at a page to get kind of giving an overview of traffic trip generation based on the type of units, and they even go so far as talk about low rise apartments, mid-rise apartments and so forth.

Anyway, they're concluding their uh their overview, a total of a hundred unit complex would generate six hundred daily trips.

So this is a seven hundred unit project, seven times that is forty forty two hundred, correct?

That is correct.

But so for this study we looked at low rise, off-campus student apartments, but we also did go in and specify.

So IT provides adjacent to campus and then over half a mile from campus.

So we looked at the half a mile, and that average average trip rate per bedroom for that, uh I just have the printout here, is uh 3.97.

So then looking at that at for the 720 bands.

It would be 2800.

What?

2800 a little on just a little over.

So that's specifically what we looked at just because IT also provides it can separate out into different types of land uses for apartments and things like that.

And we try to be as specific as possible so that we accurately reflect what the proposed development is looking to do.

Okay.

This may have been beyond what you're you're you were charged to do, but um uh well, I'll save that for another question then.

No, no, here's the question.

Great uh gray oak will uh at some point I would expect gray oak would also be extended eastward to attach to Rock Quarry.

Uh it's likely that would occur, but it it would require uh plating, which would first also require preliminary plat, and we do not know if there is any intention for development of the subsequent tracks that will be created from this track split.

And in your study, uh there was you concluded there was no need for an additional right turn lane into this development, correct?

Off of Rock Quarry Road, correct.

We looked at Modot EPG or their um, which is their standards, uh best practice standards and their guidelines, and we looked at that based on the speed of the roadway and the volume there today and the volume that we forecast to use that driveway.

Um it did not reach the thresholds to warrant a left turn or a right turn.

Okay, that's all my questions for speaker.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Stanton.

How much weight did the designation of Rock Quarry Road as a connector weigh in your study?

Because as you can see where the question is going, our our major concern is the traffic increase on Rock Quarry Road.

Have you personally driven that?

Have you driven that road?

I answered that no, I have not.

Okay.

So if I was a traffic engineer and I was like, well, I'm trying to get a result.

The result is what unjustified putting a driveway from Rock Quarry to this development.

And I'm going to use the weight of this designated road because it is designated as a connector.

It has been designated that way for over 100 years because before Columbia was Columbia, that was the commercial corridor from north and south.

And it hasn't changed because it still does that, this not in the capacity it did.

A hundred years ago.

So they can't really change it because that is an important North South corridor.

So if you hear the hear where this is going, um how much did that weigh in where you travel?

Because your numbers to me aren't lining up.

The road really, if you haven't driven it, is really yee.

And how does that fit into your equation?

What it are already is designated as so we look at what we look at when we look at where traffic is going.

So the weight of what Rock Quarry Road is designated is not a factor in how we look at how trips are coming in and out of the development and how they use a roadway.

What we do look at is how is the existing volume using that roadway and the nearby roadways?

And based on that, we also look at the type of use that it is, and based on the users of that, what would be your convenient route in and out?

So specifically, we did weight the connections that Rock Quarry Road provides to the North fairly heavily by looking at in the midday and PM peaks by putting almost most of the traffic during those times at 45 percent of the midday and 35 percent of the PM on to and from the north on Rock Quarry.

So we did look at we did not go into this trying to avoid having traffic on that roadway.

We examined most of our traffic during the period to and from the development on the roadway, because we did find that as a convenient route for the students that would be living in this area.

So does that answer your question of how what weight we put on the roadway or why how we examined it?

It was a good answer from an engineer.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Does the Mr.

Pillett?

Sorry, does the ITE take into account the scenic roadway status at all?

It takes into account um the location of the development or types of these types of developments generically, and looks at the number of trips.

So that designation doesn't hold any weight?

No, it does it's it's data from all across the country.

It doesn't look at adjacent roadway types or uses or volume.

It looks mainly at how much is how many beds the site provides, and then uh and that's and how many trips are coming in and out.

And you didn't measure any AM trips because the parameters guided you towards the midday and PM?

Yeah.

Based on the type of uses and the students and there was an understanding based with discussion.

Your methodological assumptions, yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Zender, did you have something?

If I may, on behalf of the staff, just while we have our traffic engineer present, and based upon what I believe to be some of the uh significantly expressed concerns is we have northbound traffic movements on Rock Quarry, uh either be it in the midday or PM peak?

Um I'd like to ask the question, and I'd like our I'd like the traffic engineer to respond to this for the Commission's benefit.

If the intersection that is proposed to be installed, which is a regulatory requirement to ensure that we have fire access, it is a regulatory, uh it will be a regulatory or a roadway network benefit, uh given that Grey Oak Drive, which may or may not be extended along the southern portion of the track to the south, which is anticipated and planned on all of our mapping to go to the intersection just north of Rock Quarry and Rhinestone, uh if this if if this roadway, if retreat way is put in, uh it will potentially avoid the necessity for that, and it will avoid creating a new intersection even closer to an intersection that may already be challenged.

And it will avoid creating a new intersection even closer to an intersection that may already be challenged.

My question really is if the restriction, if there is a restriction placed at this future intersection of retreat way, such that right left turning movements outbound are restricted, meaning a right in, right out only is assigned to this particular intersection.

What benefit, the benefit at least from a staff perspective, is that forces all the traffic back down to grindstone and it forces it back out on Green Meadows.

Two major roadways that do not further impact potentially Rock Quarry except in a return trip movement.

Mr.

Zinner, did you have a question?

I do have a question.

I'm going to ask the question is what value would that provide as it relates to potential traffic impacts heading northbound.

Will that solve some of the concerns that you have heard here this evening?

Yes.

So what by providing access there, you have another alternative route out.

And as we've shown in the study, that operates fairly well right now or is forecasted too.

I think Mr.

Zinner is saying, would a right in right out only intersection there alleviate any of the northbound traffic concerns?

Would it reduce the number of trips going northbound?

Oh, so I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.

It would not.

So the even if you do write in right out at that driveway, the vehicles will find will have an alternate route to get there.

So you're increasing volume on Grindstone Parkway at Grindstone Plaza intersection and the Rock Quarry Road signal at those two locations.

Thank you.

Sorry for the confusion.

It's okay.

Any other questions?

Seeing none?

Thank you very much, Mr.

Patel.

And thank you very much for giving us very scientific and clear answers.

I appreciate that.

It can't tell you how much we get policy speak sometimes.

So thank you for allowing me to speak.

Next, uh name and address for the record, please.

After hearing all the testimony, I would I would like to get 30 seconds.

I would like the Commission to reject this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Schenker.

Any questions for Mr.

Schenker?

No.

Next member to speak, please come forward.

Are you coming forward, ma'am?

Name and address.

Rachel Breca, 703 Hilltop Drive.

I'm actually here for something else.

But having heard all of this, I am looking at that map there and wondering why is it that the egress that the one exit had to be onto Rock Quarry, what would have prevented it from going to that other north-south over there to the west and keeping the one to the south and you know and a comment with respect to in a travel and trips toward the university.

I know somebody who just moved to town and does live down by Veterans United, and her Google maps, as always, routing her to go up Rock Quarry Road, she refuses.

She is terrified of it and takes Providence instead.

So and the idea that that widening it or broadening it would solve the problem.

No, it will just bring traffic that isn't going there now to it.

Thank you, ma'am.

And the answer is the fire code.

Mr.

Colbert.

Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Commission, Caleb Colbert, attorney at 1203 West Broadway.

Uh here tonight on behalf of the applicant.

Um given some of the questions about the traffic study and the connection to Rock Quarry, the applicant would like to table this request to provide the Commission with an updated traffic study with a supplement that addresses some of the concerns that have been raised this evening and look at the possibility of restricting access to to Rock Quarry Road.

So Thank you, Mr.

Colbert.

You're very welcome.

Any questions about Mr.

Colbert's request?

Commissioner Darr?

I would just maybe I uh I'll just say it in my comments afterwards.

It's not for you in particular.

Thank you.

Any other member of the public to speak on this case, please come forward.

Well, hello, my name is Shane Lowe, uh 1660 Hired Circle over in the fourth ward.

Uh Grey Oak Drive is one of the main routes that I commute via e-bike to work uh in the morning.

And it's got a nice bike ped path on the north side of it.

Uh I do notice that at Grindstone Plaza, we don't really have any sort of crossing there for pedestrians.

Uh and it makes it kind of awkward to navigate.

The only other entrance onto Grey Oak is like 600 more feet to the west.

Uh and so what you kind of have to do is you have to come down that bike ped path and then cut across traffic or uh kind of ignore it because uh you don't have good access across.

Uh so if this does go in, I would like to see um some more improvements on that grindstone plaza gray oak.

Gray Oak is also a very wide open street.

Um right now it doesn't get a lot of traffic, so it's not too much of an issue.

But I'm a bit concerned that you start throwing a bunch of cars on that and they're gonna start ripping down that thing because it's a pretty wide street for what it is.

Um of the things though that I do want to call attention to is I think this is like how do we develop this area?

This is way too valuable of a property to zone for R1.

Uh this is right next to a commercial area.

It's something to where, you know, if I was a student hot dog, I have the chance to walk and get my groceries.

I have the chance to walk to so many places to eat and so forth.

I love this.

The issue is I think we're assuming that every student's gonna take their car and go right north on uh rock quarry.

And so I think part of the question is as we zone this, is there a way we can zone this that we disincentivize uh students to take their to have a car and take it straight north?

Um the dorms are student housing in suite style.

I can tell you that mid very few of the students there, you know, take a trip on a regular basis.

And the reason for that is our parking is a whole way away, and it's a hassle to get to their car.

And so given some of the flexibility we have with a PD, I think that's an option that we can get higher density on this plat.

And we can also dislike no, we don't need to have a parking space for every single student here because we can't afford as a city for every single student to take their car.

Uh and if that's a deal breaker, that's a deal breaker for the development.

But um, you know, there's plenty of these developments that have shuttles to it.

We've got to build up the density if we ever want to be able to put in public transit through this kind of corridor, which is one of the few ways that I think you can really make Rock Quarry safe while also maintaining its scenic and historic character.

Um that's about all that I have for now.

I would really just encourage like we have to consider how do we develop this in a dense fashion that provides um the value to the city that this land really has.

And how do we um do so in a way that you know doesn't default to everyone who lives here just to take a car and go north?

Thank you.

Any questions for the speaker?

Seeing none, thank you for being here.

Anyone else to speak on this case?

Seeing none.

The applicant has made a request for a tabling.

Generally, we honor such requests by voting on a tabling council.

Is that just uh uh maybe want to consult with the applicant about uh date certain when uh Mr.

Colbert Would you please reapproach and give us a date certain?

Absolutely.

Um we were looking at June 4th, if that's enough time to get a supplement in to the city and have a meeting that's canceled.

No.

Our last available meeting until June till July 23rd.

Uh June 4th would be more appropriate given the volume of cases at this point.

Uh I can't speak to our staff's capacity to be able to do a full review of a revised traffic study, however.

We will see what we can end up doing.

We will that would be the probable date certain.

Uh June 4th.

June 4th.

Then I know our June 11th meeting is very full.

Okay.

Fourth would be perfect.

Date certain June 4th.

Thank you.

Very good.

All right.

With out seeing other movement for public comment, we will close public comment and go to commissioner comment.

Any commissioner comments on this case?

Commissioner Darr, then Commissioner Ortiz.

I just uh the volume really in and of itself doesn't bother me.

It's the it's the nature and the characteristic of Rockway Road that just gives me a little bit of pause.

And it just it to me it boils down like as a community.

Do we want this to be a functional collector and have development on the road?

Or do we want to preserve the scenic nature and the characteristic of the road it is now and limit development and limit traffic on the road?

And I don't know.

I mean, that's kind of a decision for council.

Maybe each of us have our own individual opinion on that.

I would like to see development there.

Um I hate to take to lose Roccoy Road as the scenic road, but I I've as I think about more I lean towards is probably just time to improve the road, spend the money is kind of where I'm at.

Commissioner Ortiz?

I was really disappointed by some of the rhetoric tonight, especially around um student housing and apartments and the the thought that R1 would be more appropriate in this area.

I agree with Shane that it would not be an appropriate use.

Um I also want to thank uh Mr.

Um generally, but my opinions are around the inadequate infrastructure, not about the traffic study itself.

Um I just thank you for coming up here and being being uh answering our questions.

Also, I've never driven down Rock Quarry, proudly, because I don't drive a car.

And there are lots of people in our community that cannot drive for various reasons.

So when everyone's laughing, let's think about like there are people that come down from St.

Louis that are consultants and that contribute to our city, and there's people in our community that don't drive.

Those are real people.

Um I think that's all my comments.

Commissioner Stanton.

I'm gonna side with my folk, Commissioner Mr.

Darr.

I think we can do both.

I think it's we have to deal with the reality of the road.

It's a collective historically.

And that's the reason why I asked if you drove it, because it we can still preserve it, but we have to preserve it in a smart way, which means we have to develop in that area smartly.

And we've already um I've had a lot of dealings with the with the Rock Quarry Road Preservation Group.

And I learned a lot from them.

So improving it doesn't seem like it's on the radar immediately.

How many people gotta die before it becomes gets on the list?

It's it's a driver's road.

You know, I mean to be honest, is you really gotta know what you're doing driving on that road.

And we need to we need to develop in that area smartly.

I like I like the I like the plan.

I do.

I just I'm not comfortable with the the traffic off Rock Quarry.

Other commissioner comments?

Commissioner Brodsky.

Um I'll just echo a lot of what Commissioner Darr said.

I I think you hit the nail on the head.

You know, are we going to improve this road and make full use of the land along Rock Quarry, or are we not gonna improve this road and uh limit uh the development uh potential uh of the land along it?

Um so that's that's where I'm at.

Uh you know, there's 4,000 trips uh southbound, 4200 northbound, and um, you know, I know we're estimating traffic numbers here, but uh we're looking at 2800 tri trips out of this development in any given day.

Forty-five percent of them are going north in the midday, and 35 percent of them are going north in the PM.

Uh so we're we're talking about increasing the load on on Rock Quarry going north by a considerable amount.

Um so that that has me concerned.

Uh I I'm not sure I'm in favor of tabling it either.

Uh, because a write in right out, they're just gonna go uh down uh Grey Oak and they're gonna go down Grindstone and they're gonna get on Rot Quarry anyway.

So I I don't know that uh a new study, a traffic study is gonna persuade me uh one way or the other.

Any other commissioner comments?

Commissioner Gray?

Um I am curious if this came uh before us in another kind of zoning.

So if it came as RMF, would we have had the traffic study at all?

Yes, we would have.

I'm seeing nods from staff.

Okay.

Um yeah, this has been interesting.

I really tried to separate the traffic congestion issue from adequate infrastructure.

Really thank you for the uh additional information from the traffic engineer because I think some of those get conflated alongside public safety, and I want to make sure that the criteria by which we're making those decisions is clear.

Um I think that additional information would be useful given that they submitted it as a PD plan to have uh more um input from the the neighbors.

Like that that was the point.

So if the neighbors are saying this, then um I think we can allow them to follow through on that.

Any other commissioner stalting?

We'll dial in here.

Well, since we're going late.

Um I appreciate the traffic study.

I I do agree with the community that I don't think the numbers show everything.

Like it's too high level.

It's it's a road that you would find in Arkansas in the middle of the town with high traffic.

Um the guardrails are a good idea.

I know when I went to college here in the late 90s, early 2000s, I avoided that road.

I mean, it was like drunk driver, like after a certain time of night, you just didn't go on it.

Because it seemed like every other weekend somebody was in a drunk driving accident, sometimes fatal, sometimes not.

When I moved back to town, you know, five years ago, I was happy to see, and you know, 15 years ago, a lot more development downtown.

I was like, good, you know, at least they won't be driving that road.

Like truthfully.

It was something that even in my young 20s, I thought about all the time.

I did have fun.

Yeah, I guess it wasn't like, but I didn't go on that road on purpose.

And um, I don't know if it's radical to ask like the developer to pay a fee or like I understand 13 million dollars is a lot of money.

And I don't know if we can I don't know how this works.

And that's for the city to decide, but the development needs to happen one way or another.

I know people that live down there, you know, um in Central House.

I the buses are there.

I have my opinions on the buses.

Umly, I don't know if you remember, but this winter, like the kids just got up and walked out of my class like 20 minutes in, because they're like the buses are closing because the roads are too bad.

And I guarantee it was that road.

So the buses aren't necessarily able to handle it.

I like your idea of more multimodal, but the truth is there's apartment units downtown that don't offer parking.

And guess what?

They all show up at Mizzou parking and development.

They like leave a like ration because they know that will happen every year because the kids come from wherever and they're just like, I have no place literally to park my car in town.

So stifling it doesn't necessarily cause like create the solution.

I agree.

We should create more options, but constricting doesn't necessarily solve it.

So I think it's a combination of figuring out how we can afford to fix the road.

And I agree with that.

I mean, I think we as a town are moving towards that.

Development, needing the housing, whether we like it or not, we're a university town.

That's the main economy.

And I think we need to support that students, residential R1, all of it.

And um, I guess those are my only thoughts.

Other comments.

Can I come back?

Sorry.

Sorry, go ahead, Commissioner Ortiz.

I definitely support tabling this because I think even hearing other commissioner comments, we're equating inadequate infrastructure with a traffic study.

Like we're doing it in our comments, and I think they're two separate things.

And I think that with more details from a traffic study, we would be able to make a better informed decision.

Very good.

Any other commissioner comments?

Seeing none, would someone like to make the tabling motion?

Commissioner Darr.

Yeah, I'll make a motion.

Um regarding case number one two four-2026, the retreat at Columbia rezoning PD plan and preliminary plat.

I make a motion to table the case to the June 4th planning and zoning meeting.

Second.

Motion was made by Commissioner Darr and seconded by Commissioner Gray to table the case to date certain June 4.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Seeing none, Commissioner Brodsky, may we have a roll call.

Commissioner Stockton.

Yes.

Commissioner Walters.

Yes.

My vote is no.

Commissioner Darr.

Yes.

Commissioner Goway Jones.

Yes.

Commissioner Gray.

Yes.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Yes.

And Commissioner Stanton.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

That case will be tabled to date certain June 4.

Uh given that, is there going to be readvertisement?

Uh yes, there will be required readvertisement in the Columbia Tribune.

I can also ensure to uh send out uh notification letters just like we did last time.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Um I will just take a minute to remind our commissioners that we do have a full dias.

So if you need to take a bio break, please do so at your leisure.

Case number 125-2026, a request by Jody Kuhn's owner on to allow the property addressed at 713 Hilltop Drive to operate a 210-night maximum five guest short-term rental, pursuant to Section 29-3.3 BB and Section 29-6.4M2 of the Unified Development Code.

The .45 acre subject property is located on the west side of Hilltop Drive, approximately 400 feet south of its intersection with Cliff Drive.

May we please have a staff report?

Ms.

Main, thank you for the introduction.

Again, this site's around 0.4 acres in size, and the request is for 210 nights of annual usage as uh short-term rental with a maximum of five transient guests.

Uh notification postcards were distributed on the 6th of April, public hearing letters on the 20th of which there were 15, and an ad was placed in the Tribune in accordance with state statutes regarding public hearings.

Um here is some aerial imagery of the site.

It's a little bit difficult to see exactly where it is because it's a very uh vegetated, tree heavy area, uh, but it is that red box, uh, which is the terminus uh near the terminus, rather, the call sack uh of Hilltop Drive.

Um so the properties currently zoned R1, it is not the applicant's primary resident.

The home contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Um there are five guests that are being requested, therefore three parking spaces are required.

It's two per guest, and we're going to round up in these scenarios.

Um the property has not been previously offered as a short-term rental.

Uh additionally, staff could not identify any any registered short-term rentals within a 300 foot radius of this property.

Um Hilltop Drive as a street, just as a note, um, is privately maintained.

It has not been accepted for maintenance by the city.

Um, it has substandard width in terms of what local residential streets would typically expect to have.

Um, and six of the seven surrounding properties do appear to be owner occupied.

The designated agent for this request does live in Columbia.

They live four miles um away or about 12 minutes from the subject site regarding code violations for this property.

Um there was a long-term rental code that was resolved in August of 2024, so no issues on file.

Um, and public responses that were received uh in regards to this.

There were 17 letters in opposition to the response uh or in response to the request as of the 6th of May.

Um there, I believe is uh potentially additional correspondence that has been physically provided uh to the commissioners for this case with the agenda packet.

Uh one letter was written in support.

Uh planner Halligan, who was managing this case, received 12 calls in opposition to it.

Um and there was a petition that was submitted um by residents, also in opposition, of which there were 80 signatures, 12 by my account appeared to be from Hilltop Drive.

Um staff's conclusion is that the uh conditional use permit criteria and the analysis of such criteria uh would be supported for approval of this property.

Um and the short-term rental regulations do provide additional oversight and means to address impacts.

If there are two violations, your uh short-term rental license is revoked.

Um additionally, the approval of this request would support broad policies, strategies, and actions of the comprehensive plan.

Ultimately, it's staff's recommendation to approve the requested short-term rental conditional use permit, subject to the following criteria.

A maximum occupancy of five total transient guests, and a maximum of two hundred and ten nights of annual rental usage.

And if the commission has any questions about this, be happy to answer them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before we go to questions for staff, if any of my fellow commissioners have had contact with parties to this case outside of a public hearing, please disclose so now.

Commissioner Ortiz.

This is my neighborhood, and I am in a group, like a group uh East Campus group.

Um I've seen people talking about this case, but I have not engaged.

That's all.

Thank you for disclosing.

Anyone else?

Seeing none.

Are there questions for staff?

Seeing none, we will open the floor to public comment.

Would the first person who would like to speak, please come forward?

And again, name and address for the record.

Three minutes for individuals, six minutes for the applicant and groups.

Uh Russell Boyd, 2000 Value Drive here in Columbia.

And I'd like six minutes.

Um speaking on behalf of the owner, Jodie Koontz.

It could not be here tonight.

Thank you.

Yes, of course.

I believe Mr.

Stanton, I'm learning from the last time I presented to you here recently.

You said it was a great presentation, so I kind of moved took it from there.

Um Jodie Koontz uh purchased this home in July of 2024 for 350,000.

It was on the open market, um, and the value has now increased.

She's continued to improve the property.

So relatively speaking, the home does not fall within the boundaries of what would be considered affordable housing.

Um as the homes in the surrounding neighborhood are of equal or higher value.

I understand this is a concern when it comes to PNZ and consideration.

Um just wanted to remove that wild card.

Uh Jody is deeply rooted in the community.

She is a graduate of Columbia High Schools and Mizzou.

Her grandparents owned and lived at a house at 1845 Cliff Drive, just a few doors up.

She did kind of hold that information back.

It was personal to her.

And at the time she thought that was a good idea.

This is where she spent her childhood and young adulthood while attending Mizzou and but before becoming a veterinarian.

It's for this very reason she purchased the home on this street for personal use when she visits back to her hometown to visit her family and check in on her parents.

She's actively engaged at the MU vet school while living in California as a mentor for the internal medicine residents.

She does replant plan to return to Mizzou in the next few years to teach, and this will be her primary home.

This property will have an average rental rate that starts at $400 a day during the week and higher for the weekends.

There will also be a two-night minimum on the weekends.

These rates will have a strong impact on the types of guests that are attracted to stay at the home.

Both short-term and long-term guests will be able to enjoy this long this uh location because it's centrally located, close to university, multiple hospitals, so on.

It's a great location.

It's a very special location for all the residents of the neighborhood, and that's also why she chose to purchase this house and wanted to be able to rent it while she's not enjoying it herself.

This street is very narrow.

It is a single lane.

And understandably, there is a concern for the neighbors.

The driveway does allow for three cars to be parked, and the garage will also be available for use.

Absolutely no leniency will be tolerated for any on-street parking, nor for any excessive noise or anything that would impede the quiet enjoyability of the neighborhood.

These will be strictly monitored, prohibited, and enforced with immediate eviction.

And I think this is a very important note that potentially maybe the neighbors aren't familiar with.

Short-term rentals, specifically in VRBO and Airbnb scenarios, can be evicted without notice for breaking the house rules that are clearly communicated.

So all guests will be required to be a verified guest with a government ID prior to booking.

These will not be strangers.

There will be uh trackability if there are issues, and this will help ensure that the quality of guests are also booking with no prior complaints.

Loud parties and large gatherings are simply not allowed.

Um an additional $500 fine will be included for breaking those rules.

Loud parties, large gatherings, off-street or on-street parking, I should say.

The home will have exterior uh multiple exterior security cameras that will also assist and allow for 24-7 oversight and proactive enforcement of these rules.

Um the anticipated and preferred guests will be families and professionals with higher than average rental rates.

This is expected to have the desired effect and to be respectful with conscientious guests.

Quiet enjoyment is the golden rule for the use of this house.

Large gatherings again cannot and will not be permitted.

So, starting in 2024, specific rules, regulations, and guard rule guardrails were enacted to allow short-term rentals to exist in our community with little or no impact to the surrounding neighborhoods.

There was a letter, and I believe it's attached to the notes, that was sent out in advance to the neighborhood to let them know her contact information, the agent's contact information, and to give the phone numbers for making complaints to both neighborhood services, um, the police, and of course, the agent that would be immediately available.

Um we wanted to communicate that there are teeth to these rules.

It is not just bark.

Through the management, through the police, and through neighborhood services, there are complaints that can be filed and immediately acted upon.

These issues simply cannot and will not be tolerated.

It's not fair to punish a homeowner and proclaim that this property would only be used as a nuisance, a nuisance party house, or the streets would be packed with cars and infringing on anybody else's quiet enjoyability before these things have ever even happened.

If these issues were to arise, they would be punishable with fines, and the guests could be immediately on site evicted for breaking the very strict short-term rental rules.

So this property has no prior complaints, nor does the owner.

And uh the only thing we want to have is a well-managed short-term rental that has zero issues with the neighborhood or with the city to endanger its license.

Thank you.

Any questions for the applicant?

Commissioner Stanton.

Uh I like I like the uh presentation with all the numbers and contacts and all that.

But we still have this same problem.

Oh no, what is that?

I see a petition that's three to four pages long.

Eight pages.

Actually, if you look at the you're gonna have to zoom that map out way out because I was looking at their addresses too, they are blocks and blocks and blocks away.

I I think Mr.

Stanton, you may continue your own.

I saw that huge petition.

I was like, oh no.

My question is.

Mr.

Stanton may continue his question.

So does the owner or his agents have a working relationship with the neighborhood?

And you they don't have to agree with you.

I mean the last time we had this conversation.

It's the communication, is the line of communication, is the line of communication there.

I'm sure to pick my phone up and call one of these numbers and see if they pick up.

That's how close I am to see if to test this system.

Is the system in place to create responsive answers, solutions to the problems if a problem arises on this property immediately?

I've read all the complaints and they all come back to communication.

Sure.

So there was a a conversation, uh it was an email chain that that was communicating with a few of the neighbors, and there was a phone call with Jody.

Um I believe she did speak with the direct neighbor.

I believe that was this last week at some point.

Um so that letter was sent out, I believe I don't have the date in front of me.

I didn't print it out three weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago.

So it was it was well in advance to provide all those contact informations and to communicate.

And again, trying to communicate that there are teeth to the rules, that they cannot be broken and would be immediately acted upon.

And that's the sole purpose of the guardrails of the short-term rental rules we put in place, that the that the agent would be immediately available and is local to Columbia.

And that's exactly what it is.

Are you the agent?

I am not.

I'm represent so I'm standing here uh I'm close, I work with the agent.

She works for me in a way.

Um and I know uh Jody I graduated in 1995 myself.

Um and I'm taking it upon myself.

I have a strong um position and feeling on short-term rentals and private property rights.

So I feel that it's un sometimes it's unfair that it's expected that you have to have full support of your neighbor to do anything and everything to your property.

Nobody said that.

We just need to have communication.

Well, and so uh that letter went out in advance.

There was there were phone calls and conversations, and she explained her history and her background and why she wanted to purchase this system.

Is the current agent here?

She is.

She'll speak later.

Okay.

What kind of time did I want to do the introduction?

Because I think from last time I went at the end and that was a bad idea.

So I jumped up here first.

Thanks, sir.

Commissioner Ortiz.

Have you driven down Hilltop Drive?

I sure have.

Okay.

Um so you're familiar with are you familiar with the the street?

Absolutely.

Okay.

And what is your assessment of the street?

It's a single one-lane road.

Yes.

And so if you were not familiar with that area.

I guess how would you feel if you were unfamiliar with that area at your first time and you're driving to a short-term rental in that area?

Well, um I recently just came from Louisville, like two weeks ago and stayed in the neighborhood, very, very similar.

The home was 160 years old and it had very specific instructions on how to get there, where to park, and how important it was that you only had certain parking spaces.

And that's quite simply that's it.

Those guidelines that there cannot be any on-street parking, that will be of an immediate fine.

And that would be all described in the listings and simply not tolerated.

You can't again, I think the one of the letters um from one of the neighbors said somebody operated a yoga studio in their home at some point and they would park in the grass or off the street.

I can understand that's a nightmare, and yes, you couldn't get traffic in and out.

That makes complete and total sense.

So nope.

We absolutely would not tolerate that and would not allow it.

If they do not fit in the driveway, they would not be allowed to park on the street.

Simply put.

$500 fine and subject to immediate eviction, and they would not get their their reservation back.

So those those rules can be detailed in their agreement and acted upon.

So it's no different than there's a 200, uh it's average 250 to 500 for smoking in a home.

Those those rules and those those repercussions already exist, and we just need to utilize them.

Okay.

And just to clarify, so the agent will be speaking your okay.

Right behind the hand, yes.

Thank you.

Um sorry.

When did Jody buy this property?

Two years ago in July.

July of twenty four.

July of twenty-four.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Stockton, go ahead.

Um just one of the letters from your neighbors says there's a long-term renter there.

Correct.

Right now.

So what is the reason for the switch?

So when that renter went in, it was ascribed, it's actually in their lease that she was going to be applying for short-term rental.

They were notified before they even signed the lease.

And I believe there is an agreement in there that if it was to be accepted that they would get so many months' notice before that would be switched and actually get a, I believe, two to three months free rent before.

But they've known up front, even before they signed the lease, this was the ultimate goal.

Okay.

Any other questions for this speaker?

Seeing none, thank you very much for being here.

Next person to speak on this case, please come forward.

Lucas Buffalo, 717 Hilltop Drive.

I am speaking tonight as a representative of the East Campus Neighborhood Association and respectfully request six minutes.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Commissioners.

I live at 717 Hilltop Drive next door to the property at 713 Hilltop Drive.

I've lived in my home for 15 years.

I want to make two points tonight.

My first point is about the importance of preserving housing for people who live in Columbia.

The house at 713 Hilltop Drive is currently occupied by two renters who have lived in the home for about two years.

They have been a wonderful addition to the street, and I have enjoyed having them as neighbors.

Previously, the home was owned by a family who had lived there for more than five years.

The renters currently in the home had planned to continue to live in the home.

And they were saddened when they were notified in February of this year that the property owner had decided to apply for a short-term rental license.

In a February 18th email, the property owner offered them assurances that, quote, if the neighbors have strong reservations about the house being used as an Airbnb, I would respect that and not move forward with the Airbnb plan.

In that case, the home would remain available for you to rent next year and beyond if you would like to stay.

They retained some hope that they may be able to stay in the home.

If this application is granted, then for the foreseeable future, this home will not be occupied by people who live in Columbia.

The owner of this property has lived in California for the last 10 years.

She has never lived at 713 Hilltop Drive.

According to a phone conversation that we had one week ago, she told me that she has no intention to permanently move to Columbia.

Her plan is to use the house a few times a year and otherwise make it available as a short-term rental.

I understand there is a discrepancy between our testimonies.

Like many cities, Columbia faces a shortage of housing of all kinds.

Granting this short-term rental application would remove a home from Columbia's available housing stock and cause two renters to compete for housing elsewhere.

This runs counter to efforts that the city is making to address this issue.

It is also important to remember that until those regulations were developed, short-term rentals were technically illegal in Columbia.

The intent behind those regulations was to give the many short-term rentals that already existed in Columbia a path to legalization, not to create a convenient path for Columbia homes to be purchased and converted into short-term rental properties.

My second point is the value of courtesy and communication in the short-term rental process.

Communication on the part of the property owner throughout this process has been poor and in some cases misleading.

We first learned of this application one month ago through a postcard from the city.

The property owner made no effort to reach out to those of us living on Hilltop Drive to see if we might object or otherwise have an opinion on this.

While this is not required by the city, that kind of communication would have been seen or appreciated as a sign of courtesy and respect.

It took multiple emails from homeowners and more than two weeks before we heard back from the property owner or her agent.

This is not the kind of proactive communication or responsiveness that I would want to see from someone operating a short-term rental on my street.

In her short-term rental application, when asked whether there is support for the establishment of the proposed STR from neighboring property owners, the property owner acknowledged that she had not spoken directly to homeowners in her neighborhood, but was, quote, open to their input.

We have made it very clear in emails, telephone calls, and through our petition, which by the way is signed by every homeowner on Hilltop Drive that our neighborhood is opposed to this.

Apparently, this is not the kind of input that she is open to, which leads me to question how she would respond to concerns about her guests.

As I mentioned earlier, the property owner assured her current renters that if the neighbors have strong reservations about the house being used as an Airbnb, she would respect that and not move forward with the Airbnb plan.

We do have strong reservations.

And I ask that you hold the property owner accountable to her statement.

Please recommend no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions for the speaker?

Commissioner Ortiz and then Commissioner Stanton.

How is trash collected on your street?

We do get trash collection.

The truck backs down the street, collects the trash, and then drives back up.

How um is snow removal on your street?

It is not.

Okay.

And we have we have people who are going to speak on that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anyone else with questions?

Oh, sorry, Commissioner Stanton, I wrote you down and then forgot.

Go ahead.

What is your position on short-term rentals in general?

Are you opposed to this one or are you opposed to short-term rentals, period?

I have stayed in short-term rentals.

I feel that in the appropriate setting, you know, with with neighborhood support, and I I guess in a maybe a more commercial setting, they can be an appropriate option.

I think in a very dense neighborhood with closely spaced houses on a very narrow street.

Um it is not appropriate, particularly when the neighbors are not in support of it.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Commissioner Walters.

I drove up there the other day.

I've never been there before.

Um are there street lights on the street?

I can't remember.

There is one light at the end of the street where it connects to Rock Hill Road.

Do you have a I'm sure you assume you have an informal association, but do you have a means of collecting funds for maintenance?

Strictly by volunteers.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, it is it is entirely volunteer, as is snow removal.

Um in the past, some people have taken it upon themselves to pay someone to plow the street.

But that's that's it.

There's no yeah, no formal system.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none.

Thank you very much for being here.

Next person to speak on this case, please come forward.

Thank you very much.

Rick Shanker, um Cliff Drive, 6th Ward.

Um last week I had some guests in, and uh it was a family parents and two kids.

They had a rent hotel, it was $300 a night.

So this isn't not cheap.

I mean, this is not expensive to rent a whole house for $400.

Furthermore, as a person that has rental properties, I can tell you an old adage, and that is simply you only know someone twice, and that's when you either marry them or you rent to them.

And all the safeguards that are offered are really no help if you're getting it only for one night.

I mean, what are you gonna do?

Kick them out the next day.

So I appreciate their point of view, but I would be against this.

I urge you to vote against this.

Thank you.

Any questions from Mr.

Schenker?

No questions.

Thank you very much for being here tonight.

Next person to speak on this case, please come forward.

Good evening.

My name is Marie Concannon.

I have lived at 704 Hilltop Drive for the last 26 years.

I'm a bicycle commuter, and because I live in the East Campus, I only have to use my car about once or twice a week.

Hilltop cannot accommodate a five-person short-term rental because it has inadequate infrastructure.

It is a private road and has no public parking on the street.

There are three off-street parking spaces designated with this application.

The owner says that unregistered guests are welcome as long as they leave by 10 p.m.

Where would these unregistered guests park if the registered guests are using the three driveway parking spaces?

More important, where would the property manager park if she needed to come and invest, investigate a disturbance?

The road at seven the road at 713 Hilltop measures eleven feet wide.

In other words, it is just one foot wider than a parking space at Columbia Mall.

There is no arrangement for snow removal.

Hilltop residents are ready to get snowed in.

Airbnb guests may not want to be snowed in.

The street itself is not maintained by the city and it's in bad shape.

The last time it was paved was at least 36 years ago.

Now I am not opposed to all Airbnbs.

Sometimes they can incentivize renovation to a great historic home.

For example, the new short-term rental going in by Stevens Lake on Old 63 is a real success story.

However, a single lane cul-de-sac like ours is very different than old 63.

Such an arrangement could only work if there's excellent communication for starters.

And this is where it falls apart.

The owner in California never initiated contact with us.

We had to get her email address from the city.

When we reached out as a group through our street street spokesperson, she did not respond for two weeks.

And we had the exact same experience with the local agent who she hired.

When they finally did respond, there was no apology or explanation for this long delay.

Now your city planning office has a supplemental short-term rental C UP review criteria listed on page three of its staff report.

Item C tells whether the registrant has previously operated a short-term rental, which resulted in a history of complaints or a denied or revoked certificate of compliance.

You asked these important questions only of the owner and not of the designated agent.

As neighbors, we would like to know whether the agent has a history of complaints or revoked certificates as well.

In summary, for reasons of inadequate infrastructure and poor response time to our communications.

And also given that we have 74 signatures, I know exactly how many we have.

74 signatures on a petition in opposition.

I ask that the commission please decline this short-term rental application.

And I please beg of you to ask me questions because I have a lot more I could tell you.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

Commissioner Ortiz?

Were you the one who um circulated the petition?

Three of us.

Three of us went around.

Yes.

So did may um uh did you just knock like door to door?

We knocked door to door.

We hang, we hung door hangers to uh because not so few of us actually got that 8.5 by 11 sheet that explained the public hearing.

I made double-sided copies of that.

I made 150 double-sided copies of that and hung, I'm pretty sure 150 around her.

We did that first, and then we knocked on doors because I didn't want people to get cold knocks.

And by the way, I know every street we covered, and they are not far away.

And I I do not appreciate the misrepresentation of that by Russell Boyd.

Um, because you can also take that that trail very quickly from from Wilson Street up there, too.

Because I think it empties out up on Hilltop, right?

Or not on Hilltop.

There's no trail that goes on the hilltop.

But there is a um at Cliff Drive, there's an entrance to a trail that goes behind some houses, yes.

And I happen to have, in case anybody's interested, a complete documented timeline of our communications and how slowly they were answered.

So if you as a as a citizen um who live in this neighborhood were able to print off these things and canvas your neighborhood, do you think that maybe the owner or the agent could do something similar?

Like to like to communicate the intention of uh bringing in this short-term rental?

Of course, if they want to, it's a free country.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Stan.

Or I'm sorry, Commissioner Gray, you had a question.

Uh yeah, two questions.

Um thank you.

Uh one, you mentioned that um there's information about uh guests were welcome, but they needed to leave before 10.

When do you where did you get that information from?

Uh that is on the application that um Jody Kunz wrote up.

Okay.

She was actually saying it as though we would be pleased to know that everybody would have to leave at 10 p.m.

But what she was saying was that unregistered guests would be welcome.

Come on over.

So how many would that be?

If we have five people who are allowed to be registered guests, how many more could come?

Well, we have a clue in the city ordinances that the nuisance party is defined as ten people or more.

So it sounds to me like they could five people at the place could invite four friends.

You got the maximum of three cars from the registered guests, four friends, four more cars, right?

You've got seven cars on one night on a street that says one lane.

We don't have and we have no public parking on the street.

I happen to have some parking in front of my property because I paid to have my yard shrunk back and the road widened in front of my house.

I also paid to have a curb put on.

I'm the only house that has a curb.

So we we all have to do it out of our own money.

And we don't have parking on our street.

It's just plain and simple.

And my second question, thank you.

Um congratulations on your curb.

Um I'm curious about is the the your lack of support or your opposition mostly about the lack of communication and what that indicates, or is it about the the infrastructure and the street not being conducive to it?

Number one infrastructure.

If we had terrific communication, I think almost mean almost any problem can be solved with terrific communication, right?

The infrastructure is a huge hurdle.

You think about it.

Imagine a street that's as wide as a parking space at Columbia Mall.

Okay.

And you got two houses that live beyond this house.

If anything should block that, and by the way, getting back to that yoga, you know, thing that one of the people had written in about, when I first moved into my house in 2000, I do remember that once a week there was it was a meditation thing.

And that lady, she got a lot of people coming, they all parked up at at um Cliff Drive.

But you know where people parked, and I have seen this.

If somebody who's lived on a street for 26 years, you understand what visitors do.

They go down this road, and the spot that they like to park is on the eleven-foot wide stretch, which is right in front of 713.

The yoga meditation people always did that.

And what it does is it blocks half the street.

You try to get some kind of big vehicle down there, it will not be able to get through.

It's dangerous.

How will the fire truck get through?

But we actually have somebody else who's gonna be talking about that.

So the so if we could surmount the infrastructure things, which are a big by itself.

I believe in communication.

If we actually had a really good session, we're gonna sit down and everybody said, well, here's what I think might happen.

It's possible you could come up with solutions from all maybe every single one.

Noise, cars, you know, the unpaved street.

If if she's looking at $400 a night, 21 nights a year, maybe she could pave our whole street.

You know, I mean, we've all been waiting for that.

So you see what I'm saying here?

You can make deals, but she hasn't talked to us.

Um Russell Boyd's testimony seemed to suggest that they were proactive.

They were dragging their feet every time.

And by the way, I just want you to note, Mr.

Stanton, that it is because I watched previous videos of these planning and zoning meetings that I knew how important communication was.

And that's why we got on it two days after we got our postcards.

Two days.

And then she makes us wait two weeks.

And by the way, all those petitions.

I started that after the two weeks.

We patiently gave her two weeks.

Those I could we could have gotten double that number, but I only had we only had a few days to collect them.

So we've I I am I am seriously discouraged and saddened that our own neighbor who owns the house next to ours didn't want to talk to us.

Any other questions?

Thank you very much for being here tonight.

Next per Commissioner Stanton, go ahead, sorry.

I'm gonna play the bad guy.

All right.

I own the house.

I have a right to do what I I have property rights.

And the law has afforded me the ability to expand the use of my home by making it available as a short-term rental.

Why should you deny me that?

Property rights end where zoning starts.

That's why we have zoning.

That's what that's what's about why your commission exists.

Property rights are not infinite.

They stop where another person's rights begin.

We have the right to a decent night's sleep because we have to wake up the next day and go to work.

Someone who's at a short-term rental, they're on their vacation.

They're not in sync with us.

They might come back to their place at 1.30 or 2 a.m.

and slam the car door and wake us up because our window is literally right next to the house.

The houses are that close together.

A group people, a group of people coming back home after a night of you know fun.

If they just even so much as laugh in the street when they get out of their car, that could wake us up.

It's just we have we're living lives not in sync with the lives of vacationers.

Our sleep is important to us.

Some people come for work.

Some people come for visiting people in the hospitals.

Yes.

Some people come on business and they don't want to stay in a hotel.

They're going to be in town for a couple of days.

So are you opposed to those?

The point I'm getting at is how can we make a whim whim where I can still use my property?

Which the law has afforded me the ability to do.

And work with the what is there some way that we could be on the same page and both rights can be respected reasonably at a reasonable compromise, like I say, we're both taked off equally.

Absolutely.

And that's where the communication comes in.

That's where you can't have a relationship with somebody who doesn't want a relationship with you.

If you go forward and you make yourself available and they make themselves unavailable, you don't have a working relationship.

So but if you had one, and I'll tell you, it's like this.

Carly Conklin, Carly Conklin is a law professor, and she's described mediation so perfectly.

She said, imagine the orange, and two different parties want that orange.

And they're like, I want the orange.

Nothing will satisfy me unless I get the orange.

Carly said, if you really talk to them, you discover that one party wants the orange inside, the segments.

The other party wants the zest on the outside.

So once you talk, you realize that you don't really have a disagreement.

You actually have a really easy way to work it out.

Just divide the orange, give the zest to the one who wants the zest, give the insides to the sections to the other person.

Problem solved.

But it requires an interest and a willingness to communicate.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you for being here.

Next person to speak on this case, please come forward.

My name is Vernon Forbes.

I live at 1007 Grand Avenue.

I was uh chairman of the bicycle pedestrian commission for for three years, and I appeared before this actually commission a number of times after I founded the Ridgeway Neighborhood Association.

So please let me first say I really really, really appreciate how hard you guys work and how thankless a job it actually is from my position on the bicycle pedestrian.

Okay.

I will explain how uh illegal parking by uh Airbnb visitors of their guests would have would prevent first responders from attending to emergencies on Hilltop Drive.

The foot the road is ten feet wide, the according to the City Planning Department.

That's uh and a fire truck is eight feet wide, bumper to bumper.

I measured it.

And that doesn't there's a you could take like another, I think a foot on each side from the uh the stuff that's sticking out on on either side of a fire truck.

Um the uh the street is a is a cul-de-sac, which is a very tiny, very tight cul-de-sac.

It's not a conventional cul-de-sac, it's very old-fashioned cul-de-sac.

It's probably not fire truck compliant.

The owner has said that non-registered guests will be welcome as long as they leave by 10 o'clock, by 10 p.m., I should say.

If even one non-registered guest parks illegally.

That's I've seen this happen um before where they park half on the street, half off the street into somebody's yard into their in uh uh even one person parks illegally, it would block access to emergency vehicles.

The emergency vehicles when a 911 call comes, these are people that are many times, you know, many times, not all the time, but many times they're on vacation.

They're coming to Columbia for a football game or something, and the fire truck is first, the ambulance is second, and the police is third.

And they have to stack themselves up.

They can't pull up next to each other.

They have to stack themselves up.

But if one wants out, the other two have to go out first and then let the other one out then go back in.

So I think that the street is too narrow.

I think a 10-foot wide street is too narrow for emergency vehicles.

And in in in in McGlord's having illegal parking, please do not respond to parking violations on private streets.

This is a private street.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

Seeing none.

I appreciate you coming here tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker on this case, please come forward.

Charles Canig, 705 Hilltop Drive.

I live in the house immediately north of 713.

I'd like to begin with a factual concern.

The property manager stated that the owner, Joe DeKuntz, has lived in this neighborhood for 40 years.

If basic background claims are inconsistent with the fact, it raises broader questions about reliability of the representations being made here today.

My core concern is zoning consistency.

A short-term rental functions more like transient lodging than traditional single-family residence.

Approving this use risks undermining the intent of residential zoning and sets a precedent for similar conversions.

And that cumulative impact matters.

One approval can quietly open the door to a gradual shift in the character and function of the entire neighborhood.

What the commission decides today is not just about a single property.

Beyond zoning, there are real quality of life consequences for neighbors like me.

Homes in this part of East Campus are close together.

Frequent turnover brings increased noise, late-night arrivals, parking pressure, and a constant stream of unfamiliar activity.

These are not hypothetical concerns.

They are the predictable byproduct of transient lodging in a residential setting.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask the Commission to consider whether this proposal truly aligns with the long-term vision and residential character of this area.

I would also like to add, I was one of the people who was getting petition signed.

I did knock on every single door in our neighborhood.

So I would consider that pretty darn close.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

I do have one question.

I I understand the beginning communications were bad.

Have they gotten any better as this process has moved forward?

I mean, you're you're literally right next door, basically, right?

I would say yes, but only after a lot of kind of prodding.

From our neighborhood.

Yeah.

So and I'm sure that they knew that this would come up at a commission meeting like this tonight, and they wanted to save face.

Oh.

Sorry.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Ortiz?

Do you do you like so you're on Hilltop Drive?

Do you get like um people that drive down the street like by accident or like any just like any traffic?

Like, or is it mostly no, there is no traffic except for the people who live on that street.

Um sometimes curious, you know, people will walk down just to see what's going on, but other than that, there is absolutely no um car traffic that goes down the street besides those who live there.

Cool.

And your whole family lives in this neighborhood.

Yes.

My father, uh I grew up in the neighborhood, and then my brother lives close as well.

Okay.

I just saw your names on the petition.

There was multiple Okay.

And in different houses, too.

So thank you.

Commissioner Stanton.

Do you oppose short-term rentals in general?

Or this this one in particular?

Um I have enjoyed short-term rentals on occasion.

I believe that they were originally intended to provide extra income to someone who is renting out an extra bedroom, but I do see the value in someone taking a house that was previously, you know, derelict or run down and turning it into a place where you know people can stay.

People are using it again.

Because I don't trust the people running, honestly.

I think that they have shown that they have no intent on communicating with their neighbors.

And I don't want to live next to people like that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please come forward.

Hello, I'm Wayne Breckis at 703 Hilltop Drive.

Um the first thing I'd like to say is I do like renters, and we have some long-term renters living there now, which I would love to see not get displaced.

They're very good.

Um the second thing is that given the unique nature of the place, I think communication is very important.

The the sort of promises.

I I would not expect an immediate response from someone who takes two weeks to respond.

Like when people are staying there one night, if there's a problem, it it's not going to get resolved in time.

So I think the communication really is a big factor.

Then what I'll say about the so the lighting on the road, it's it's quite dark, and there's two kind of problems.

One is that often well-meaning people don't understand when they're invited to places on hilltop that you can't park there.

Even we we even sometimes remind people not to park there, and they still their GPS directs them to Hilltop, not doesn't say park on another street or park, so they so they end up parking on hilltop, trying to find what they're looking for, blocking the street that way.

And the other problem we have, we're at the corner of Hilltop and Rock Hill, and it's a windy street and it's called Esac, and you wouldn't expect that lots of people run into your fences and trees and and things like that, but it's a very dark road.

People are used to straight streets, they miss the turn, they hit our trees, they hit our fence.

Often drinking is involved.

And I know I know there would probably be a variety variety of people you know, staying in a place like this, but uh $400 a night doesn't convince me that there aren't going to be some of the big spenders aren't going to be people going to football games and um and and part of that culture going to the football games.

It's it's a bit far to walk to football game.

It's like 30 minutes, so we expect that people would probably drive and if they don't know the neighborhood well and they they tailgate.

There's a little bit of concern that we'll have an increase of people missing the turn on the dark road.

So that's those are my thoughts.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

Seeing none, thank you for being here tonight.

Next person on this case, please come forward.

Grant Bray, 708 Hilltop.

I live directly across to the east of the property.

Um I'm in opposition, uh, mainly because um the owner is in LA, so they won't be here locally.

Um they also have bought up a property that could also be used by other people in the area, like myself and my fiance who are actually beginning our home search.

Um and it's obviously a home that we would love to buy, and we'd love to be in that neighborhood as well.

Um but we're actually looking at moving out of the Columbia because we're unable to find homes here.

So I think that's kind of um, you know, counterintuitive to what Columbia wants to do with the STRs.

Um, as well as I'm very concerned with how the property will be managed without anyone there who's going to be cleaning it every day, who's going to be looking after it, who's going to be doing all the mowing.

Um I noticed that the owner and their proposal said that they wanted to recoup their initial investment and cost into the property.

Um well, the best way to do that just would be to sell it.

So if they really want to do that, they can sell it.

People here in Columbia want to buy it.

There are plenty of buyers here, so it's real easy.

Any questions?

Let me know.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

Commissioner Stanton.

Oh, I would I think um if you have the money and you're a Colombian resident, then you should have one.

And um I think you should be here and available if you are an owner of a short-term rental.

Thank you.

Next speaker David Mayer 714 Ingleside Drive.

And I'm also chair of the East Campus Neighborhood Association.

But I'm not asking for extra time.

I gave it to um to Luke.

I'm just here to say that there's widespread opposition in our neighborhood to this short-term rental for all the reasons that have been articulated.

But I have not heard from within the neighborhood anyone speaking in favor of this in in our multiple discussions and I would emphasize that the first that I learned of this was in the postcard that I received about it and then I alerted other people in the neighborhood that's all I that's all I have to add.

Thank you.

Any questions for this speaker?

Commissioner Ortiz you you've been here before when there were other short term rentals correct?

Correct.

And you're you haven't always been opposed to them correctly.

I was here in a case where um there were three rentals proposed close together which was not in conformity with regulations and we opposed having three of them approved but we did not oppose having one of them approved.

So you are not against short-term rentals.

I am not against short term rentals.

What makes this one different I think what makes this one different is the nature of the street as well as again I would emphasize the the very poor communication and we we had to look at the application to try to understand who was doing this and and what was involved.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here any other questions?

No thank you for being here next question or next speaker please come forward.

Let's move quickly folks we're coming up on 11 if you're next please come up to the front row and get ready to come up thank you.

Good evening my name is Ruth Toeffle I live at 1805 Cliff Drive I'm also a landlord of the house next door to us so I'm uh I have that dual hat.

My comments and I'm going to be short but my comments are going to talk about the fact that we have to care about pedestrians and this substandard street.

We have lots of walkers in the neighborhood walking dogs and older people like me trying to get some exercise that's my that's how I fit in we have walked down hilltop many many times we are familiar with wonderful cats Jasmine the cat my owners and it is true that the houses are very close together and the neighbors get together we know one another we socialize and we belong to a neighborhood association.

We're active in the neighborhood association we are familiar with Hilltop and what we as well as the city have classified that that street is substandard that's the quote not only is there not street parking as you know there's no continuous curb and gutter and even when one car goes through you have to really be careful as a pedestrian and if you're walking with someone which is you know what people do walk with someone they love you have to really get on the shoulder to be able to get that car to go through so now it's a safety issue a safety issue for pedestrians.

As a result neighbors got together to because they believed that a petition would make a difference and I signed the petition and was ready to sign the petition even before someone knocked on the door because I saw Marie riding her bike and she had all the she had it in her in her bike pack ready for me to sign.

So we don't have to knock on doors we see each other in the streets.

So I am concerned that too often the voices of petitions are not heard.

There is certainly an outpouring of resident involvement on this issue.

And I ask you to please listen to those of us who live there in the neighborhood and walk on the street.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

Commissioner Stanton, go ahead.

Is there a good short-term rental in this neighborhood?

Is there a way to make a good short-term rental?

You know, I think there was one.

I don't I think that it turned into a rental lease arrangement, but there was one.

And in fact, it made a we were enthusiastic about it because they made some really nice improvements.

Any other questions?

Seeing none, thank you for being here tonight.

Next speaker, please come forward.

Thank you.

My name is Marvin Tofel, and I've lived at 1805 Cliff Drive in the East Campus with my wife Ruth since 1998.

I'm speaking in opposition.

We love our neighbors and our neighborhood.

And I'm sure you know people are protective of their homes.

Now, I see Mr.

Zenner here, and I don't know Mr.

Zenner from Adam.

Um I don't really know what his job is, and I don't know what his duties are.

Sir, our staff works very hard to write these reports in a way that works for us.

Please don't denigrate their work if that's what you're about to do, because it sounds like that's where you're going.

Well, maybe this is denigrating.

I don't know.

What I was going to say was that I have only been to one other planning and zoning hearing.

And at that time there were two separate applicants.

And it would take too long to go into what what it was about.

But both of the applicants, while they spoke, were very appreciative of Mr.

Zenner.

They thanked Mr.

Zenner.

They told us they want to tell the Commission that they couldn't have done it without him, that they really he told them exactly what to do and how to do it and what to say.

And you know, they were glowing.

But in the time that I've lived in the East Campus, no one in our neighborhood says, gosh, we really appreciate the city, how the city has helped us and protected us and taken care of us.

I would like to see, I would like to feel that.

I would I want to be a priority.

The people in our neighborhood feel like we should be a priority too.

And you know, not that we're not at the top of the list.

It doesn't feel like we're on the list.

We just want to be a priority.

So I would oppose it, and for all the reasons everyone has said.

And the question has been asked many times, you know, well, do you not believe in Airbnbs?

Shouldn't people have a right to use their land?

And my response would be this that when you have everybody on the street opposing it, when 75 people sign a petition, then I think that tells you that that's not a good idea.

And Hilltop is not the only place in the city to put an Airbnb.

There was a fellow, I think my wife mentioned it.

He had an Airbnb on University Avenue a block from us, a block from where this is proposed to be.

And that guy was there all the time.

And as she mentioned, we walk around the neighborhood.

Well, we do.

And we went up and asked him what he was doing and what was going on, and he told us he was making an Airbnb.

And he told us about all the improvements.

And we saw that he was there working constantly, and he even improved the outside.

Um we know from talking to other neighbors that they went and they talked to him too.

And he was very open, and he told them exactly what he was doing.

No one objected to that guy.

No one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions from Mr.

Tovel?

Thank you very much for being here tonight.

Have uh anyone else, please come forward.

Rachel Breca, 703 Hilltop.

Um, as my husband noted, we are at the corner there of of Rock Hill and Hilltop, and and yes, we we have had people accidentally plowing into our fence, knocking down our trees and the sort of thing.

Um and as to whether you know, whether there's a problem with all Airbnbs are just this one, I would echo what my neighbors have said and say that it is primarily it's it's really about the narrowness of the street.

That doesn't actually affect us the narrowness so much because we're on the corner and we we just kind of turn onto Hilltop long enough to go down our driveway and into our in front of our house.

But but as far as other good Airbnbs, generally to me, the characteristic when I am a renter in an Airbnb.

And you know, I'll have conversations with the owner.

I feel like I am being kind of invited into somebody's house, and I give it that respect.

I think there is a bit of a self-selection, perhaps, especially in a college town, especially in a place that could legitimately advertise itself as being close to campus.

I walk to work.

When I walk to work, it takes 20, 25 minutes because I live in a part of because I work in a part of campus that's close to the intersection of university and college.

Many of us also bike to work on in the hot summer days.

I prefer to bike to work and Marie bikes to work.