I'm David Floor.

I was preserved as providing officer.

The board is comprised of five members.

A quorum is three of the five, and a motion requires three votes to pass.

We'll begin with a roll call of the board from the planning department.

I'm Jim Schultz, board attorney.

My speaker, Rodney Finkey, Eric Scheit, Colonel Pascal.

Melissa Begley, Planning Department.

And we're asking questions.

Okay.

Board members have received a report granted by the planning department staff on each petition to be heard this evening.

For each item, we will provide an opportunity for the public to speak.

When recognized, please begin by stating your name and address for the record.

We ask that you keep your comments ready to this application only and try to avoid repeating points that have already been made by others.

This is a judicial proceeding.

And remarks made by the petitioners and members of the public are considered testimony.

I would like our staff attorney to swear in anyone, petitioner or member of the public who plan to present testimony in any of this evening's petitions.

You raise the right hand.

Whether you're going to test easier if everybody does in case you change your mind.

Okay, we're going to start this evening with BGA 2615.

This is a use variance, PAF excavating and dredging.

Is there somebody here representing the petitioner?

You come up and state your name and address.

Okay.

Melissa.

Okay.

So again, this is a request for a use variance.

And the subject properties located in the yellow outline there, just off of 500 West.

The property is zoned AG Agriculture General in the green.

And then everything in that gray shaded whitish area is agriculture preferred.

So this was the initial proposal that was submitted by the applicant.

Now I will note that the applicant did submit a revised applic or a revised proposal, but it was after our five our revised submittal deadline, so it is not reflected in our staff report.

So this is the site plan that was reflected in our staff report.

However, at this location, they are proposing only outdoor storage.

They are proposing a six-foot-tall.

And again, in this exhibit, it's along that north property line.

They're shaded in green.

So giving some context to the area, again, the subject properties outlined in yellow.

That northern property line is approximately 800 or 588 feet in length, and it does share a border to the neighbor directly to the north that's about 66 feet away.

All of those red dots represent single family residential homes, but I called out one to the north and the one directly across the street, which is about 85 feet from the property line.

So this is looking into the subject property, and this was again taken um last month.

So you can see a lot of the activity is happening on the site.

And then this is looking southeast across 500 west at that other adjacent property.

Sure.

A couple of items of note as she mentioned uh previously, there was uh only a berm planned along the northern property line.

Uh we've revised our proposal and have a berm along the northern property line, and then also along the front edge of 500.

And then in addition, there's a berm behind the entrance to help uh screen the view from the road, kind of a switch back behind the entrance so vehicles would enter and stare directly at a berm and turn left once they get in to try to obscure the view of the yard.

Uh the berms uh were previously proposed to be six feet tall, now they're proposed to be a minimum of eight feet tall.

All of those berms um actually been uh constructed and finished graded in the uh uh prior flight, they're still a bit rough, but uh they have have worked you know over the last uh month to try to clean things up, but in the letter that we received in the and the reason for our request to continue, it noted uh concern about the the poor shape of uh the visuals out there on site, and so uh I think a lot of work went in to try to clean try to clean that up.

Um all those berms have been hydro seated uh currently, and then also the ditch.

The county highway department had a comment about uh concern about the ditch out front being reshaped and graded, that's been done.

The pipe under the the culvert under the drive has been uh cleaned up as well.

Um with those berms, we're proposing that the evergreen plantings as well uh along the front.

And uh we would try to reiterate a bit.

We and we understand the the concerns that were voiced uh in the staff report and also uh by the neighbors in the letters that were received before the last meeting and before this meeting as well.

Um the storage of of earth-moving equipment uh is not necessarily um something that you wouldn't see in a farm setting.

You know, uh farmers can have an excavator to dig a pond or maintain a pond, they can have a bulldozer to construct waterways that that parcel could also, if it was used for a farm, you could store combines and planters and other large equipment there.

You could do maintenance on your trucks for grain deliveries and things like that.

Um it would not be out of the normal to see large pieces of machinery sitting on site, and uh so we don't know that it's a huge departure from uh from a farm setting to have uh equipment stored again behind these berms, and in those instances you wouldn't have to screen anything.

That that could be just sitting out in the open.