11/10/1992 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Thomas advised that Cap'n. Taco had strobe lights in the window which is very very distracting and questioned if this were allowed under the code. The Building Department will look into this as it is regulated by the sign code. Mr. Skoulis questioned exactly what latitude the Commission had in respect to signs, specifically those that are going to be installed with a project that is going through the approval process. Building Commissioner Conway stated that these signs are usually on the building plans and the A.R.B. looks at them for concept. Mr. Skoulis stated that it is hard for him to visua.lize what some of these signs are going to look like, pointing out that the pole sign for Sun T.V. did not appear to be so big. He also did not realize that the Butternut Ridge Apartments were going to be 3 stories. Mr. Gorris responded that they found a loop hole in the code, because originally Planning Commission believed that only two and a half story apartments with a half story below grade were allowed. Assistant Law Director Dubelko stated that that was not necessarily a loop hole, but the code could be changed if the Commission was not happy with it. Mr. Conway stated that this idea was proposed with another apartment developer who first proposed a half of story below grade and then changed to this concept. Study of the rough draft of the Master Plan. Mr. Gorris advised that his plan was to formulate a series of questions based an tonight's discussion which could be forwarded County Planning Commissione Prior to doing that, Mr. Thomas suggested that the members give their opinions of the plan. Councilman Lind stated that he read all of it but the last chapter, the Strategic Management Plan, which woul.d require the most study. Mr. Skoulis believed the plan was too big and cumbersome; too much detail in areas where the detail was not needed; some erucial areas were not specific enough; it was not indexed well (tabs would be helpful); and it was too repetitious particularly in the focus areas. Mr. Gorris ha.d concentrated on the Strategic Management Plan and believed it was too general, too theoretical, and needed more practical suggestion. Mr. Thomas agreed, suggesting that perhaps the Commission had not given enough guidance; one primary goal had been the rezoning of the western end of Lorain Road where they merely reeommended some spot zoning of vacant land. Too much time and detail had been spent on bike paths and sidewalks. There were discrepancies in traffic figures: such as, if all rer.iaining retail acreage were developed, 33,000 additional trips would be generated per day, btat earlier they had told the Commission that -if Wal-Mart developed their 13.5 acres it would result in 9,000 to 11,000 trips per day which would be a third of what the remaining retail would incur if developed. He agreed the plan is too detailed with too much emphasis on urban planning. Mrs. 0'Rourke liad not participated in the early discussions, however, she thought that this was a basic plan which had been slotted for cities of various sizes and believed that the same things would be said for any city with 34,000 people with a similar number of retail establishments, retail eorridors; etco As an example of that, Mr. Gorris pointed out that in the discussion of landscaped buffers to screen residential from commercial, they stated, that 2 feet might not be enough, but 50 might be too much, however they never addressed whether the 15 feet that is required by North Olmsted within the 50 foot setback is good, bad or indifferent. Mr. Thomas noted that items in the Strategic Management Plan on page 4 actually should be in a residential property maintenance code, which the Building Department could ac3minister, and he did not rer.iember this -issue as one of the goals. Mr. Gorris stated that the orderly development of Lorain Road west of Stearns was one of the Commission main goals, but was not specifically mentioned, there was only a paragraph dealing with protectin; residential neighborhoods from commercial encroachment and statistics advising that commercial space would be increased by 2