Olathe Planning Commission Meeting - May 12, 2025
Olathe Planning Commission Meeting - May 12, 2025
The Olathe Planning Commission held its May 12, 2025 meeting with five of nine commissioners present (Chairperson Janner and Commissioners Corcoran, Brown, and Lynn absent). The commission approved two items on the consent agenda and discussed a development proposal for a former fire station property. No public hearings were scheduled.
Consent Calendar
- Items A, C, D, E: Approved unanimously (5-0) as recommended by staff. These items were not individually discussed.
Discussion Items
- PR25-0007 – Char Bar (Preliminary Site Development Plan): Commissioner Creighton pulled this item from the consent agenda for transparency due to the city's involvement in the property. The subject property (approximately 2.93 acres at the northwest corner of W. Santa Fe Street and N. Kansas Avenue) is currently a parking lot with the former Olathe Fire Station 1 building. Staff presented the proposal: Char Bar will build a barbecue restaurant and indoor pickleball facility, including a roughly 22,000-square-foot addition to the old fire truck bay. The project includes a furnished outdoor yard to activate the street frontage along Kansas Avenue. Two small waivers from minimum building material requirements on the south and east facades are requested, offset by high-quality materials elsewhere and increased glass. The neighborhood meeting in April had all attendees supportive. Staff recommended approval with two stipulations for the waivers and standard conditions for signs and screening. Commissioner Creighton asked about pickleball noise (confirmed indoor) and the property’s ownership status (under contract between the city and the applicant). The commission voted 5-0 to approve the plan, subject to all staff recommendations.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Items A, C, D, E: Approved 5-0 (no roll call).
- PR25-0007 (Char Bar): Approved 5-0 (voice vote), subject to staff recommendations including the two material waivers.
- Announcements: Two community open houses for the comprehensive plan update will be held: May 29 (Indian Creek Library, 4:30–7 PM) for the K-7 Corridor, North Ridgeview Road, and 175th Street; and June 5 (Community Center, 4:30–7 PM) for Parker Street, Santa Fe Street, original town, and downtown Olathe. The next Planning Commission meeting is June 9, 2025, at City Hall.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. My pledge of the flag of the United States of America. One nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Good evening and welcome to the City of Olatha Planning Commission's May 12th meeting. If construction continues as planned, this will be our final meeting in our temporary location. Because no meeting on May 26th, and we plan to return to City Hall for the June 9th meeting. Take a moment to acknowledge that we have a quorum of planning commissioners present with five of nine commissioners in attendance. Chairperson Janner, Commissioner Corcoran, Brown, and Lynn are absent this evening. Planning Commission meetings are an important part of the process for interpreting and applying the city's comprehensive plan and the unified development ordinance. It's important that our meetings are conducted with dignity and respect that applies to every person in attendance. We strive to provide an atmosphere where the ideas and opinions of all applicants are held in the highest regard. Finally, the actions on the issues we discuss are ultimately the responsibility of the city council. As a planning commission, we're here to help the council as our elected representatives to be fully informed to make the best choices for our city. By statute, the planning commission strives to not engage with any party on the issues of our agenda prior to our meeting. Should that interaction take place as a result of a business relationship or other interaction, referred to as ex parte communication, commissioners will report that interaction when we reach that item on the agenda. Tonight we'll move to the consent agenda, which we have five items this evening. Commissioners, do we need to pull any items for additional information or questions of staff? Commissioner Creighton. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Creighton. Do I have a motion on items A, C, D, and E? Mr. Chair, I move that we approve items A, C, D, and E on the consent agenda as stipulated by staff. Thank you, Commissioner Chapman. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Bergida. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. That motion passes five to zero. We'll move to item B on the consent agenda, PR two five-triple zero seven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I pulled this just historically anything that is has some relationship to the city in this uh property part of the ownership is the City of Olatha. And so just for transparency reasons, I wanted to have this pulled and a short presentation on a place. Property, um, the subject property highlighted in yellow on your screen is located at this uh the corner of Kansas Avenue and Santa Fe, um just a couple blocks west of our location here tonight. Um the property is about three acres in size and is currently used as a parking lot with just one building that was originally um Alatha Fire Station 1. Uh Char Bar is proposing to build their barbecue restaurant and associated pickleball facility. Um the project does include a roughly 22,000 square foot addition to the old fire truck bay highlighted in orange, that bottom right corner of your screen. Um also included is a very welcoming outdoor dining and yard area that will help activate the street frontage along Kansas Avenue. The building addition will be clad with high quality brick, glass, uh, metal panels, architectural metal masonry units, and on the existing building, several of the existing concrete panels will be removed and replaced with uh storefront glass um floor ceiling. Um the building edition does comply with the city's commercial building standards as well as our downtown building design standards with just two small waivers. Um the to the minimum building uh material requirements on the south uh and east facades along Santa Fe and Kansas Avenue. Uh for the two small waivers, um, in lieu of the minimum percentage of class one and class two materials required, um, Char Bar is constructing a very well-furnished outdoor yard area, um, pretty much an outdoor room. It's so well furnished that the um it will activate the street and help soften that building frontage as well as they are also exceeding uh minimum class of material requirements on the other facades and adding more glass than actually required for uh some of those facades as well. Um so all in all the uh neighborhood meeting was held in April. Um all the attendees were supportive of this project. Um the development uh does meet the UDO requirements with just the two waivers, and staff does recommend approval of this development with the two stipulations for the waivers, as well as uh two just standard steps for signs and screening requirements.
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