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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-22-2001HEARING EXAMINER MINUTES FEBRUARY 22, 2001 The meeting of the Auburn Hearing Examiner was held on February 22, 2001 at 7:00 p.rl~ the Council Chambers of the Auburn City Hall. Those in attendance were as follows: HEARING EXAMINER: Diane L. VanDerbeek STAFF: Lynn Rued and Patti Zook Ms. VanDerbeek called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. explaining the order of procedures and swore in staff and those in the audience intending on testifying. PUBLIC HEARINGS: 1. APPLICATION NO. REZ00-0008 Hearing Examiner opened the public hearing. Assistant Planning Director Rued presented the staff report. Pat Gustaves has requested to rezone property located at 526 "M" Street NE from R-2, Single Family to R-O, Residential Office. The M Street corridor is a transition area. The City has been approving a number of rezones to RO over the past few years. The rezone request is consistent. The property owner has not presented any specific plans for the property. He mentioned standards related to parking, landscaping, and storm drainage. Staff recommends approval of the rezone. The new property owner, Mr. Kang was present, but did not speak. Ron Hankinson, 1213 6th Street NE, is concerned about parking and said that 16 cars now park on both sides of the street. Sometimes he cannot get out of his driveway. He is concerned about additional office space. He believes the parking situation is dangerous. Hearing Examiner wondered if the 16 cars belong to employees of the dental clinic. Hearing Examiner received written comment from Mr. Gename which was marked as Exhibit #2. Mr. Gename is concerned about parking and submitted pictures. The case file is Exhibit #1. Assistant Planning Director Rued is aware of parking on 6th Street by the dental clinic employees. The clinic was built in the mid-1970s when there were less parking requirements. The subject rezone will have to provide parking in accordance with today's standards. If the house is razed and another building constructed, the lot coverage would be the same for a small office and adequate parking would have to be provided. .o Hearing Examiner inquired if anything can to be done about overflow parking from the dental clinic. Assistant Planning Director Rued replied no because it is a public street being used for parking and there is no time limit for parking. The dental clinic leased property from a nearby church, but the church has canceled the arrangement. Hearing Examiner closed the public hearing. She will issue the written decision within 10 days. 2. APPLICATION NO. PLT00-0010 Hearing Examiner opened the public hearing. Assistant Planning Director Rued presented the staff report. Wayne Dawson has requested preliminary plat approval of 9 single family lots. The property is located on the south side of 316~h Place SE between 112th Avenue SE and 114th Avenue SE. Applicant will be required to provide street improvements, right of way dedication, etc., which were described. PAGE 1 HEARING EXAMINER MINUTES FEBRUARY 22, 2001 Dawson's representative was present and acknowle~lged willingness to comply with City requirements. Rick Schied, 3174 112'" Avenue SE, lives in the residence due south of the project and expressed concern with property drainage along the property line that abuts his. He is concerned about trees and the roots being ripped up during construction. He received a letter from staff in response to his letter. Assistant Planning Director Rued said that regarding the trees, the City issued a Mitigated Determination of Non Significant with a condition that speaks to tree removal and placement. The condition could be clearer regarding the adjacent trees. Staff could provide an additional condition to the plat that speaks to protection of adjacent trees. Hearing Examiner said she will leave the record open regarding protection of trees until Monday, February 26th for staff to prepare a proposed condition related to trees. Assistant Planning Director Rued will provide a copy of the condition to Mr. Schied. If Mr. Schied has an objection or proposes anything else, the record will then be left open until March 2"d for additional comments by Mr. Dawson or Mr. Schied. If no comments are received by March 2"~, she will assume the condition is satisfactory and will issue her written decision within 10 days. Mr. Schied then confirmed what Hearing Examiner just said. Hearing Examiner closed the public hearing, but will leave the record open regarding the submission of additional evidence related to tree protection. APPLICATION NO. CUP01-0002 Hearing Examiner opened the public hearing. Assistant Planning Director Rued presented the staff report. Carol Livingston has requested a conditional use permit to allow a day care center in an R-2 zone. The property is located at 832 - 21 st Street SE. An in-home day care is allowed outright and applicant proposes to expand the day care beyond what is allowed outright. There will be additional day care within the existing attached garage and mother in law apartment. An addition is under construction for a family room. The day care will be owned and operated by Ms. Livingston. There will be 60 children at the day care, with six to eight employees, and operated from 5:00 am to 8:30 PM. He explained the parking requirements for the day care and the single family home. Staff is concerned that not enough parking will be provided with the number of children and employees and the home. He described the necessary driveway improvements. Staff recommends approval with three conditions. Hearing Examiner wondered where employees park and where the drop off area is located. Assistant Planning Director Rued said parking will be on the side for employees, and Ms. Livingston says the kids come at all hours and the number of parking spaces would be adequate. Hearing Examiner inquired if kids come via bus or on foot from school. Al Keimig, architect for the project, gave Hearing Examiner a revised site plan, but did not provide a copy for Assistant Planning Director Rued to review. Mr. Keimig said meeting the requirement of 10 parking spaces is not a problem. He wanted to know why they have to apply for a building permit for conversion of the family room to day care. The change of use is the conditional use process. The State. approves use of the facility and only requires four staff members for 50 kids. State says one staff to 15 kids. Hearing Examiner asked Mr. Keimig if lot circulation will be adequate and Mr. Keimig believes it is adequate. Hearing Examiner inquired if the fire code or building codes are different. Assistant Planning Director Rued then read a note from the City's Building Official. The plan was approved as a single family addition, not as a day care. PAGE 2 HEARING EXAMINER MINUTES FEBRUARY 22,2001 Hearing Examiner asked Ms. Livingston about the ages of the kids and if some of them come from school. Ms. Livingston said the new addition is for school age kids; during the day is preschool kids. They do transport children from elementary school and pick up while the neighborhood kids walk to school. ' Hearing Examiner asked if children in the addition would be in before and after school program. Ms. Livingston replied that State is passing requirement that kids up to age 11 can be in day care. The facility is geared toward older children and school age kids. About 12 children are ages 3, 4 and 5 and some of the children are siblings. There are different programs for different age kids and different staff requirements. She runs about 45 children through the day care per day. There was no public testimony and the public hearing was closed. APPLICATION NO. CUP01-0001 Hearing Examiner opened the public hearing. Assistant Planning Director Rued presented staff report. Chad and Amy Game have requested a conditional use permit to allow a professional office in the R-3 zone. The property is located at 128 - 14t* Street SE. There is an existing single family home on the property which will be remodeled into a professional office. A new accessory building will be constructed in the southwest corner of the lot. Parking for professional office is at one space per 300 square foot of office; therefore, three to four spaces are required. Site plan shows three spaces and uses tandem parking. The Zoning Code allows tandem parking, but only for single family homes, funeral homes and valet parking - otherwise no tandem parking to meet parking requirements. The conversion of the home to business must comply with ADA requirements relating to handicap ramp and handicap parking and this is not shown on the site plan. The property abuts 14t" Street which is not meet City standards. This site is a transition property from commercial to residential. Staff has reviewed several site plans for this project to see how to make the project work, but staff has not resolved certain issues. It is apparent that the site is too small to accommodate the conversion and meet all City standards especially related to parking. Staff recommends denial of the conditional use permit. Alan Keimig, architect for the project, realizes that parking is tight. An alternative is to get an agreement with the church across the street to get additional parking. There will not be a lot of traffic because of the type of the business. He requested that the conditional use permit request be approved and if parking is an issue in this configuration, then keep that part of the hearing open until he contacts the church and arranges for additional parking across the street. Yvonne Ward, 5509 Kennedy Avenue SE, is purchasing the house from the Games,-and explained the nature of her practice. She lives in Auburn and is practicing in Seattle and has been looking for an office in Auburn. Professional space is scarce in Auburn. She does civil litigation work with a small case load and has one paralegal. There is a Iow volume of clients and she meets with clients a maximum of four times. She rarely has meetings with clients more than once a month. Her practice is a paper intensive practice. She looked at this location because it is right off A Street. She described the houses across street and facing her house. Her traffic is less than someone who would live there. She intends to have a wheelchair ramp and make the building ADA accessible and comply with ADA requirements. She acknowledged that there will be the occasional repairman, Office Depot delivery about once a month, but no messenger service. She plans to file on-line with King County courts. Hearing Examiner asked applicant about depositions. Ms. Ward replied that she does not do a lot of depositions, mostly defends. Usually there is defendant depositions and another of an expert, but usually at their office. Usually one or two depositions per month at her office. Hearing PAGE 3 HEARING EXAMINER MINUTES FEBRUARY 22, 2001 Examiner asked Ms. Ward if she has court reporter and opposing counsel and witness for depositions and Mrs. Ware replied yes. Hearing Examiner asked who mediates and Ms. Ward replied that she goes to Seattle for mediations. Lazette Harrison, is the real estate agent and represents the Games, commented that she did show the house to other clients and looked around the neighborhood. Clients did not want to buy as residential because property next door is vacant and were unsure what would happen to this property. The property looks out to garages on 13th Street, and it feels like the house is all alone. She thought Ms. Ward's professional office would be good idea and a good transition from commercial to residential. The house is perfect for Ms. Ward's practice. Hearing Examiner marked as Exhibit #2 a letter from Tamara Fruchey, 130 13th Street SE and Mr. and Mrs. Scott Benchley, 125 13th Street SE. The case file is marked as Exhibit #1. Larry Hargan, 1419 B Street SE, is nervous about this business. His house faces B Street and he is concerned about cars facing his bedroom. His property is on the south side of the Ward house. The people who want to put in a law office should know something about their neighborhood. He spoke about his garage size and classic car, that he works on the car and tunes it up and does not want Ms. Ward to complain about race cars being worked on. He cannot afford a lawyer and is concerned about changing his lifestyle because a lawyer lives next door. He is concerned about Ms. Ward making noise complaints and repercussions. The house has been vacant for a while. Craig Thompson, 142 14t" Street SE, lives on the corner and has a problem with hearing that this house is a buffer. He does not like the reference to transition area. He is concerned about sewer lines under his property and said that he has the same view of garages. He does not want this house as a buffer and does not want complaints from Ms. Ward about barking dogs and other noise. Rick Weaver, 217 14th Street SE, expressed concern about the parking arrangements and extra traffic on street. Not much traffic is on 14th Street. Kids play in the alley. If part of the streets are used for parking, this could endanger the kids who play in the streets. He works on loud cars with neighbors. There is about 35 feet from Larry's garage to the Ward house. He does not want the conditional use permit issued. Pat Minevich, 205 14th Street SE, does not like the idea. There are too many kids in the area and there are no crosswalks or stop signs. He believes that parking will be a problem. Rebuttal from City of Auburn: Assistant Planning Director Rued advised that if the conditional use permit is approved, it would be for the professional office. There is the possibility that the tenant could change and therefore the intensity could change. It is a one person office now, but could change in the future and there is no way to limit the number of employees or clients. An option is to secure parking at the church across the street. The City could approve a joint use parking agreement for employees to park at the church. This would need to be secured before the conditional use permit moves forward. He then recommended that the hearing be continued to let the applicant pursue the joint use parking agreement, revisit the permit, and see if the staff recommendation changes. He would also need to see revisions to the site plan related to the handicap ramp and required parking. The applicant needs to provide additional evidence and until then he does not believe the permit can move forward. He asked Ms. Ward about the use of the accessory building. PAGE 4 HEARING EXAMINER MINUTES FEBRUARY 22, 2001 Applicant Rebuttal: Mr. Keimig agrees with Assistant Planning Director Rued to leave the record open to see about their securing an agreement with the church. The applicant is willing to enter into a "no protest agreement" regarding improvements to 14t" Street because it does not make sense to improve small sections in front of small businesses. The accessory building will be used for storage of files. Ms. Ward stressed that she is respectful of neighbors' concerns. The noise from cars would not bother her because she rode a motorcycle for 17 years. She does not want to work in Seattle any more and she understands neighbors' concerns about the practice growing. She does not do high volume work any more. She is willing to work with the neighbors. Hearing Examiner asked Ms. Ward if they are willing to continue the hearing to work out parking issue and Ms. Ward replied yes. Assistant Planning Director Rued advised that he will need to see the revised information from the applicants so it can be reviewed by staff and the neighbors. The March 20th meeting might be too early. Hearing Examiner inquired if applicant gave Assistant Planning Director Rued information by March 7, if this is enough time to amend the staff report and circulate information to the neighbors. Assistant Planning Director Rued replied that March 5 is better date if going to come back on March 20th meeting. If do not receive information by then, it will have to be the April meeting. Mr. Thompson asked who makes decision that Ward property can be zoned commercial and said he wants his property rezoned to commercial also. Mr. Weaver said property near his was rezoned for a door factory last year. There are no stop signs at the corner. He complained again about traffic. Hearing Examiner explained to neighbors what a "no protest agreement" is and that Ms. Ward is willing to do this. She then explained to Mr. Weaver what he can do to get a stop sign installed. Hearing Examiner continued the hearing tentatively to the March 20t~ meeting. If the applicant submits additional information by March 5 for staff to review, may issue an amended staff report. If the neighbors are still concerned, come back to the March 20th meeting and you could testify regarding the additional information. ADJOURNMENT: With no further items to come before the Hearing Examiner, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 m. H E'C,G N D\MIN02-2001 PAGE 5