TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
PLANNING COMMISSION
MARCH 24, 2020

Members Present:
Micah Capener, Chairman
Arnold Eberhard, Commission Member
Paul Fowler, Commission Member—excused
Ben Greener, Commission Member—excused
Brad Janssen, Commission Member
Layne Sorensen, Commission Member
Tom Stokes, Commission Member
Bret Rohde, City Councilmember
Steve Bench, Zoning Administrator
Cynthia Nelson, Deputy Recorder

Acting Chairman Stokes called the Planning Commission Meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. The meeting was held March 24, 2020 in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Chairman Capener (arrived at 5:56 p.m.), Acting Chairman Stokes, Commission Members Eberhard, Janssen, Sorensen, City Councilmember Rohde, Zoning Administrator Bench, and Deputy Recorder Nelson were in attendance. Commission Members Fowler and Greener were excused.

1. Approval of agenda:

Motion by Commission Member Sorensen to approve the March 24, 2020 agenda. Motion seconded by Commission Member Eberhard. Vote: Acting Chairman Stokes – aye, Commission Member Eberhard – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Sorensen – aye. Motion approved.

2. Approval of minutes—February 11, 2020 & March 10, 2020

Motion by Commission Member Eberhard to approve the February 11, 2020 & March 10, 2020 minutes. Motion seconded by Commission Member Janssen. Vote: Acting Chairman Stokes – aye, Commission Member Eberhard – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Sorensen – aye. Motion approved.

3. New Business:

a. Discussion and consideration of approving a Preliminary Plat Review and review of Site Plan for Liberty Corner Townhomes at 480 W 100 S – Gary Madsen & Matt Hales

Administrator Bench said this is the preliminary approval of the plat that would be recorded for 10 units. The garages are in the rear and the frontage is along a street. Commission Member Stokes asked how much parking is required? Mr. Madsen said 2.25 per dwelling unit. Administrator Bench said they each have one garage, which counts as a parking spot and then there are stalls across here. Commission Member Stokes said they park in front of their garage. Administrator Bench said yes, it is like a driveway. There are about 19 parking spots, which is four above the required. The depth of the stalls is 20 feet, which is City standard. Mr. Madsen also addressed the 25-foot area that creates a road. The lot is divided into four parcels—three for the units with a common area. An HOA would take care of snow removal and lawn care. Commission Member Sorensen said I think it is going to look a lot nicer than it does now.

Motion by Commission Member Eberhard to approve the preliminary as is and send to the DRC. Motion seconded by Commission Member Sorensen. Vote: Acting Chairman Stokes – aye, Commission Member Eberhard – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Sorensen – aye. Motion approved.

b. Discussion of turning old nursing home and surrounding grounds into commercial/living space – Kelly Harris

Mr. Harris said this is the old nursing home care center than has been closed. Commission Member Stokes said are you planning to take the old nursing home rooms and convert them to apartments with kitchenettes? Mr. Harris said yes, studio apartments. The overall size of the property is 4.5 acres. There is a lot of unused property around there now. In the front where there is grass, we would like to mirror the lots on the south side of the street and put in two commercial buildings. There is the newer building that was the physical therapy unit, which is connected to the nursing home. It has its own electrical and gas so we would make it a separate building. It would have its own parking and could be repurposed for a number of things. We would also like to do a subdivision and develop some fourplex lots around the perimeter, but that would be done in the future. The thing I hoped to address today is the main portion of the building and turning those into studio apartments.

Mr. Harris said the dining and kitchen area of the nursing home would be separated to develop a commercial kitchen or restaurant. That would create opportunity for people who need a commercial kitchen to operate a business. This area used for laundry would have coin-operated machines for on-site laundry. The bathing areas would be remodeled into studio apartments as well. There would be a larger managerial apartment for an on-site manager with 33 studio apartments. Most would average 280 square feet. There would also be cameras in hallways to monitor activity. There are eight-foot corridors, each room has opening windows, and the building has fire sprinklers throughout. We are looking for a low cost type unit, providing an apartment for $400 to $500 a month with utilities included. Administrator Bench added that the room where they watched TV could be a clubhouse. Across the hall is another big room for exercise equipment. Mr. Harris said it would be a scenario where a person could live here and not have to leave if they did not want to.

Commission Member Janssen said it supplements the idea of the tiny homes. Administrator Bench said it is along the same lines, but probably a little different. A couple things would have to happen. There would have to be some kind of zoning amendment. If we do a rezone and make it multi-family we still have the 400 square foot minimum in our code, which could be changing to accommodate the tiny homes. It is zoned Commercial District currently and right now that does not allow multi-family. There are some R1-10, which are single-family 10,000 square foot lots, in the area; and across the street is Commercial District too. Commission Member Sorensen said something should be done with that building before it is an eyesore. Councilmember Rohde said how hard would that be to turn those into assisted living homes? Mr. Harris said we looked at that a bit, but it is not very lucrative. Commission Member Janssen said I am open to it. It gives us more opportunities for people who want a different type of place, but we would have to get into those details to really see what people around there think. Could a couple of those be two bedroom apartments? Mr. Harris said that is something we could look at for some of the bigger spaces.

Commission Member Stokes said you want fourplexes in the back? That is high density. Administrator Bench said we could get creative with a zoning amendment on the old building, but I am not sure how creative we could get on the fourplexes. Mr. Harris said what is the general feel? Commission Member Stokes said I am a non-island person. I struggle with zoning islands. Chairman Capener said my opinion is we should have never taken multi-family out of the commercial zone. When they come in we undo those and put multi-family back in because we want multi-family in those commercial areas. We need them there because we do not have any multi-family zones that are in the downtown corridor where we need higher density. The Commission agreed they would like to have City Manager Shawn Warnke attend their meeting to have that discussion.

4. Adjournment

Motion by Commission Member Janssen to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Board. The meeting adjourned at 6:09 p.m.

The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Planning Commission held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.

Dated this 14 day of April, 2020.

______________________________
Linsey Nessen, CITY RECORDER

*Utah Code 52-4-202, (6) allows for a topic to be raised by the public and discussed by the public body even though it was not included in the agenda or advance public notice given; however, no final action will be taken.