Longmont Planning & Zoning – Regular Session – April 20, 2022

Video Description:
Longmont Planning & Zoning – Regular Session – April 20, 2022

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

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Unknown Speaker 0:01
call to order the long term Planning and Zoning Commission April 2020 22 meeting. Next item is Roll Call.

Unknown Speaker 0:10
Chairman POLIN Here. Commissioner flag here. Vice Chairman Goldberg. You’re missing her height. Commissioner cuts here. Commissioner Boone, your chairman, you have a quorum.

Unknown Speaker 0:25
Thank you very much. Anyone wishing to speak during public invited to be heard which are IVs, four and seven are during any public hearing item which is Item six A will need to watch the live stream of the meeting for instructions about how to call in to provide public comment at the appropriate times. Instructions will be given during the meeting and displayed on the screen when it is time to call in to provide comments. Comments are limited to five minutes per person, and each speaker will be asked to state their name and address for the record prior to proceeding with their comments. Please remember to mute the live stream when you are called upon to speak. Thank you. Next item is Item three communications from planning director Glen van Wiggin

Unknown Speaker 1:16
Good evening Planning Commission. I don’t have anything at this time.

Unknown Speaker 1:20
Thank you very much, Glen. Sure next item is item number four which is public comment. Information is being displayed on the screen for those viewing from home please dial 1-888-788-0099. When prompted, enter the meeting ID 89758238624. When we are ready to hear public comment we’ll call on you speak based on the last three digits of your phone number. Each speaker must take their name and address for the record and will be allowed five minutes to speak. Please remember to mute the live stream when you’re called upon to speak. And remember this is for any items that are not before the commission today, which is Item six A We will now take a five minute break to allow people to dial in. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 6:27
Chairman we’re about 15 seconds out from the five minute mark. Currently there are no callers.

Unknown Speaker 6:34
Thank you. Sure thing.

Unknown Speaker 6:41
We’ve hit the five minute mark. So I’m going to drop the slide. And we still have no callers.

Unknown Speaker 6:48
Okay, thank you. So we have to go on then. It sounds like it. Yep. Okay, thank you. I will go ahead and close the public invited to be heard. Next item is item number five approval of the minutes for the March 16 2022. Planning and Zoning Commission. Any questions comments or motions? Commissioner height?

Unknown Speaker 7:09
mute myself this time. Sorry, I was president and move to approve that March 16 20k.

Unknown Speaker 7:16
Thank you. We have a motion to approve.

Unknown Speaker 7:21
Commissioner Pacha.

Unknown Speaker 7:23
I second the motion.

Unknown Speaker 7:26
We have a

Unknown Speaker 7:27
motion to approve in a second. Any other discussion? Are we ready for a bow?

Unknown Speaker 7:32
Jane, let’s go ahead and vote. Chairman pullin. Yes. Commissioner flag? Yes. Vice Chairman Goldberg. to abstain. Commissioner height. All right. Commissioner cutch. Yes. Commissioner Boone abstain. Chairman that narrowly passes with commissioners Goldberg and Boone abstaining. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 7:59
Our next item is item number six, say the profanity Institute conditional use site plan. Senior planner Jennifer Hewitt Epperson presenting. At this time I also do would like to disclose. I was not aware of this at all until it showed up on the screen here. But one of the people presenting here Martin Burke is a former coworker of mine at a company called Webroot from about three years ago, it is a field of business. There is no conflict of interest here. I do not believe there’s any partiality and I can remain objective through this. But I want to go ahead and make note of that. Great, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 8:43
Thank you so much. Chairman call Chairman Polen. And members of the commission. Dallas like to get that presentation up. We can get started with this. So as chairman Polen mentioned, my name is Jennifer Hewitt Apperson. I’m a senior planner here in the planning and development department with the city of Beaumont and I am here tonight to present to you a conditional use site plan for the bacana Institute of massage therapy. Next slide. This property is located at the intersection of Third Avenue and Kauffman Street. It’s at the southwest corner of that intersection. It is a locally designated landmark known as the Allen house. And the site is about 1/5 of an acre. It’s currently zoned mixed use downtown. Next slide. So this particular use is considered a vocational school is class, which is classified as a conditional use was in the mixed use downtown district. As I mentioned, this is a local landmark called the Allen house. The applicant is not proposing any exteriors. changes to the building nor to the site. Nothing that would trigger a certificate of appropriateness at this point. So the school itself is currently in operation at in the prospect area, and the applicant is seeking to move it to the downtown area. Once I’m finished with this presentation regarding the process and staff findings, the applicant job ricotta, as well as Martin Burke will be on hand to describe in more detail what this use will entail and give a little bit of history of their operations as well as the qualifications for running such an operation. So, as I mentioned, there are no changes proposed to the site or to the building exterior. This property is located in the general improvement district so there is no on site parking required. That said there are a few spaces on the site that will be available for use as well as on street parking, nearby public parking lots and garages, etc. Next slide. So in terms of community input, a neighborhood meeting was held on March 22. notices were posted via sign as well as mailed notice for a 1000 foot radius. This was a virtual meeting, there were no colons for any with any questions or concerns. The notice of application was also mailed at the same time as the neighborhood meeting on March 3. Because this was such a fairly minor use, the planning director determined that it would be appropriate to do some consolidation of the processes so that they could do their notice of application and neighborhood meeting concurrently. In terms of response to the notices, we did receive one email from the owner of the tangerine restaurant who expressed support for the proposed use, as it would generate more foot traffic in the downtown area. And with regard to the public hearing, the notice of public hearing was mailed in in a manner consistent with the 14 day requirement, as well as signs posted and again no comments were received. Next slide. So staff is recommending approval of this particular conditional site plan. So that would be pz resolution 2022. Five a within your packet. Staff finds that the proposed use meets the criteria established in the land development code section 15.0 2.055. Specifically, for criteria a with regard to consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, the proposed conditional use will promote the continued mixed use character of the downtown zoning district and continue to promote that downtown character in terms of being pedestrian friendly and including a mixture of uses within within the area. In terms of compliance with applicable city standards. There were no changes proposed and cider structures. This property currently contains a mixture of professional services and served by existing utilities and streets. All members of the development review committee found that the proposed use meets all of their criteria for approval and recommended that we that we bring it to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Unknown Speaker 13:43
In terms of compatibility with surrounding properties. The proposed use is compatible with the surrounding uses, which include offices retail, commercial, multifamily and single family uses consistent with the mixed use downtown district. Additionally, as noted the proposed conditional use will attract daytime users to downtown Longmont, which will continue to map which will contribute to continue downtown revitalization. Additionally, this property is located within the general improvement district as I noted, which means that no on site parking is required. Nonetheless, because there are on site spaces that would mitigate any additional parking issues. With regard to criteria II regarding riparian areas, this criteria is not applicable as we are not within any riparian areas. And then finally, with regard to the appropriate transportation plan, a multimodal transportation plan was not required for this application given the minimal impacts of the proposed conditional use. Additionally, Kaufman Street is a designated multimodal corridor that will have expanded transit service at some point in the future. And next slide Alright, with that, I’m going to transfer the presentation or transfer the floor over to Giovanna. And she will take you through her presentation and then we will be able to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Hello, thank

Unknown Speaker 15:20
you so much for your time this evening. Appreciate you all so much. Taking a look at the school, Dallas, you can go ahead and start my slideshow whenever you’re ready. So I’m just going to get through this really quickly, so we don’t take up too much of your time. The pecan Institute has been operating since 2011. This would be our fourth relocation. And we started in Denver, you can go to the next slide. I’ll give you a brief history. So I’m the founder and the owner and the academic dean of the school. And I’ve been running this school for 11, actually 10 years and before this, I had another school that I was running in Costa Rica for seven years, I came back to the front range because this is my home, I’m from Boulder and started the school in Capitol Hill in a Victorian mansion. From that point, after five years of being there, we moved to lower downtown just east of course field. And because of the homeless situation there, it was difficult to prosper. And so then I relocated to prospect where I’ve been for the last five years. And now that the school has proven to be very sturdy, we’ve decided that it’s time for us to purchase our own building. And we absolutely fell in love with this building. We have already produced 280 Amazing massage the licensed licensed massage therapists, and we have completed 40 of our programs. We have a 100% success rate on the US national board exam, which is impressive given that the US national average is 69%. So we’re we feel that we’re producing some of the best massage therapists in the nation. And we’re actually known for this, we’ve provided over $225,000 in academic scholarships, and we continue to do that we currently are offering three 5000 scholar scholarships to our next class for students from underserved populations. So we can go to the next slide. So I I’ve been a massage therapist since 1990. As I mentioned, I grew up in Boulder, and I’ve been operating massage school since 2005. I am known as a pioneer and leader in the massage therapy profession specifically with a mindfulness based and holistic approach. I’ve served on the US national board exam for therapeutic massage and bodywork as a director, and I was the liaison to the Ethics and Standards Committee at that time. And so because of that, our school is known and expected to be at the highest level of ethics and professionalism. I also serve as an expert witness in cases of misconduct in massage therapy for the state of Colorado.

Unknown Speaker 18:08
The next slide please.

Unknown Speaker 18:11
So we have a prestigious advisory board who advise us when we need some support. I also have a vice principal who is off site He is the former president of the American Massage Therapy Association. I have two assistant directors who run the school. For me they’re my butson eyes on the ground when I can’t be there. And we have right now we have 11 subject matter experts who teach the original curriculum. So our instructors come and go as they are required and needed we have our program is about a third science a third massage therapy and bodywork and a third complementary studies such as entrepreneurship classes, communication ethics, psychology and classes like this. I have an Executive Administrator and office manager and then we have other vendors who help support the upkeep of our campus. Next slide please. We are approved by the US National Board for therapeutic massage and bodywork. Our students are eligible and prepared to pass the board exam for massage therapists. We are a member in good standing with the American Massage Therapy Association and we are approved and regulated by the Colorado Department of Education regulatory schools. We are also I didn’t put that in this in the slide that we are also approved by the VA. So we do have veterans that come and can attend our program. And we also are approved by the Colorado workforce. We are a founding member of the alliance for massage therapy education. slide please. And this is what we do. We have intensive 600 our holistic massage therapy certification programs for small classes of focus students, our student culture is more mature professionals. mostly between the ages of 25 and 50, who have maybe had a career already and end up deciding that they want a change of career. So that’s the majority of our students are coming from that demographic. We also have a student massage therapy clinic where the students are doing their clinical practicum requirements. And we bring the public in under supervision. And we are able to provide very low cost massage therapy for the people of long lat. And we also give senior citizen discounts so that we can see more of the older folks in our community. We also offer continuing education courses. Next slide, please.

Unknown Speaker 20:44
Maybe that’s it. That’s everything. Great. Thank you, Bill.

Unknown Speaker 20:50
And, Chairman Paul, I’ll turn it over to you and members of the Commission for any questions or comments that you made.

Unknown Speaker 20:57
Yes, thank you. Since this is a public hearing item, I will go ahead and open up the public invited to be heard for this item. The information is being displayed on the screen for those viewing from home. Please Call 1887880099 toll free United States when prompted, enter the meeting ID 89758238624. When we are ready to hear public comment we will call on you to speak based on the last three digits of your phone number. Each speaker must take their name and address for the record and will be allowed five minutes to speak. Remember to utilize dream when you are called upon to speak we will now take a five minute break to allow people to call in Thank you

Unknown Speaker 26:11
Chairman, we’re about 10 seconds again, away from the five minute mark. Currently there are no

Unknown Speaker 26:18
callers. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 26:27
Sure thing, we’re over the five minute mark. So I’m going to drop the slide. And yeah, we still have no colors. You’re welcome

Unknown Speaker 26:35
to thank you very much. We’ll go ahead and close public comment. We will now open up to the Commission for any questions, comments.

Unknown Speaker 26:44
motions. Commissioner, hi.

Unknown Speaker 26:52
I’m sure I started off in.

Unknown Speaker 26:56
I’m

Unknown Speaker 26:57
interested in why this came to us. I like it. I don’t think it’s controversial. It seems to be the in accordance with I think overall, what is happening in downtown, long run? I mean, I guess I understand. Technically, it’s because the use requires a conditional use review, the standard view procedures under 15. Oh, 2055. I think it’d be net. I think, well, I look further for conditioning standards in order to get to those six oh, point C. And I think, really what that does just test us with authority to impose conditions on the use, so that it is more in conformity with the surrounding neighborhood. And I don’t see that there’s any basis upon which there’s a necessity to do so. So I’m gonna let others wrap on, but I’m going to be an approval of I’m going to be in favor of this application. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 28:03
Thank you, Commissioner high.

Unknown Speaker 28:11
Commissioner Boone?

Unknown Speaker 28:16
High?

Unknown Speaker 28:18
Before I have a question and a comment, but I actually am very much in favor of this conditional use. But my question is, this is a historic building. And are there any responsibilities of owning a historic building? IE, you have to let the public in or you have to open houses or anything like that, that are required of a historic building that may or may not be compatible with your use? And then? So that’s my question. And then my comment is, because of the nature of the students that are coming, it seems like it might be nice to have bicycle parking somehow on site. And I’m wondering if that’s something that’s even allowed at a historic it’ll be? So that’s my question and my comment, and I will let somebody else.

Unknown Speaker 29:23
Sure. So thank you so much, Commissioner Boone, I can answer the question regarding historic building responsibilities, and I will refer to the applicant on the bicycle parking question. So in terms of historic buildings and the responsibility of owners, the primary responsibility is to make ensure that any external modifications or external work that is done on the building is consistent with its historic nature, and essentially for all locally designated landmarks. Which this building is if the owner were to You are applicant war two wants to do any exterior modification, short of me of freshening up the paint job, they would need to come to planning and development to seek a certificate of appropriateness under our historic preservation ordinance. In terms of the bicycle parking, there’s nothing precluding the applicant from having bicycle parking on site. That’s something I will let us work on to discuss.

Unknown Speaker 30:29
Hello, thanks again. So there is already a bike rack installed in the front of the building, as well as an ADA compliant ramp, and bathroom. And this was, this was very exciting. And one of the reasons that the building was so appealing, we are doing our funding through the SBA. And so if all approvals go through, we have already we’re securing funding to replace the roof, which is in disrepair, as well as the driveway. And that will be something that we’ll have to do right away. And we’ll be putting in signage in accordance with the Historic Society and all of the the limitations and rules for having signage in the downtown area. Thank you. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 31:28
Commissioner Goldberg.

Unknown Speaker 31:31
Thank you, Chairman Polen. Chairman, Pallone What a joy this is project before us. This is really exciting as a resident and as someone who sits on this commission with all these folks, you know, seeing the future of Longmont, you know, Bill right before us. So, man, I think this is a great project. I’m thrilled. It’s before as I applaud the applicant for selecting long one, and in really bringing this kind of experience to to our city, I think to echo Commissioner heights, and Commissioner Boone support. Man, I don’t I don’t have any issues with this application. It’s met the review criteria, no issues from the DRC. No concerns for the neighborhood. You know, obviously a celebrated and highly regarded business that I think would fit lovely into our downtown district. So I’m supportive of this and don’t have any concerns.

Unknown Speaker 32:37
Thank you, Commissioner Goldberg.

Unknown Speaker 32:40
Any other Commissioner look patchy?

Unknown Speaker 32:44
Thank you, Chairman Poland. I also like this project and welcoming this in our downtown. My question is more generic, maybe for the senior planner who would Apperson in these cases, specifically in downtown, let’s say, would LDA be involved in in these transfer or, you know, purchases of a real estate in terms of what happens with the the other businesses that are leaving? Is there a movement to keep those businesses in downtown and you know, generally speaking like in Longmont, you know, to keep the the tax revenue and all that for the city. Sure,

Unknown Speaker 33:34
um, that would actually be something up to the LDA. I’m not aware of any involvement at this point. Obviously, we do want it, we would love to keep these businesses in downtown Brooklyn, I can talk a little bit about kind of how their attrition of these uses will, will work as well. Assuming that this use is approved and their purchases, you know, purchase goes through, et cetera. You know, LD da does have some programs that might be beneficial for such for such, you know, businesses, but it would really be up to the businesses on site to to really work with Ltda you reach out

Unknown Speaker 34:12
yeah. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 34:19
Any other questions, comments, motions?

Unknown Speaker 34:24
Commissioner Goldberg.

Unknown Speaker 34:29
I don’t see any other folks jumping at the opportunity to chat and offer their comments then I’m inclined to just make a motion. You know, given the feedback from the Commission and the presentation brought to us in the city’s packet. I’m inclined to move for approval a PCR 2022 Dash five a

Unknown Speaker 34:54
thank you. We have a motion on the floor. Is there a second Commissioner height

Unknown Speaker 35:03
We’ll second that motion.

Unknown Speaker 35:04
We have a motion. We have a second. Are there any other comments or questions? If not, we will move to a vote. Jane.

Unknown Speaker 35:12
Chairman Poland. Yay. Commissioner flag. Yay. Vice Chairman Goldberg? Yes. Commissioner Heights High. Commissioner McCosh. High. Commissioner Boone. I, Chairman That passes unanimously six to zero.

Unknown Speaker 35:31
Thank you very much, Jane. This item now enters a seven day appeal period. During this time any aggrieved party may appeal the Commission’s decision by submitting a written appeal letter, stating why the planning zoning Commission’s decision should be amended or reversed by city council. All appeals must be in writing and must be received in the city clerk’s office and the planning office within the seven day appeal period. The appeal period begins Thursday, April 21 at 8am and ends Wednesday, April 27. At 5pm. Thank you, Miss pericana. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Senior planner Hewitt Epperson for your presentation.

Unknown Speaker 36:10
Thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker 36:13
Thank you so much. We’re thrilled.

Unknown Speaker 36:18
37 minutes

Unknown Speaker 36:23
Okay, that’s it for public hearing items. will now go to the final call. I will open up final call for public invited to be heard. The information is being displayed on the screen for those viewing from home, please dial 1-888-788-0099 toll free United States. When prompted, enter the meeting ID 89758238624. When we are ready to hear public comment we will call on you to speak based on the last three digits of your phone number. Each speaker must state their name and address for the record and they will be allowed five minutes to speak. Please remember remember to mute the live stream when you are called upon to speak. We will now take a five minute break to allow people to

Unknown Speaker 37:10
call in chair, we are about 15 seconds out from the five minute mark. Currently, we have no one calling in.

Unknown Speaker 41:46
Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 41:47
Sure thing. Give it just a few more moments All right, and we are past the five minute mark and still no colors.

Unknown Speaker 42:03
Thank you very much. I’ll go ahead and close the final call public invited to be heard. Next item is items from the Commission. Anybody have any items?

Unknown Speaker 42:17
Commissioner height once

Unknown Speaker 42:20
you are person sometime soon, I don’t know how everybody feels about that. But we should address whether or not and when we might put this lie. was my thought. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 42:38
Can our our planning director Glendon Nijmegen?

Unknown Speaker 42:45
To answer that question, actually, I was going to talk about it under me. But we did. You are surveyed by the clerk’s office I think a couple of months ago. And the results of that show that there was a great majority, six of the commissioners voted in favor of going back in person. One was against and one was for possibly a hybrid situation. So we are moving forward. We’re planning on going back in person probably in June. And Jane can jump in here if she had liked but we have to get caught up on the new equipment. Staff hasn’t really used the new equipment yet. And there’ll be a little bit of a learning curve, I think for you, Mr. Chairman, just in how the mics work. But I think showing up early, I think we can get you up to speed on that. So our intent is we’ll probably have to do a one more meeting in May, virtually but we expect to be back in person in June, barring any unforeseen circumstances, and let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Unknown Speaker 43:57
I think you’re in

Unknown Speaker 44:01
any other comments from the Commission? Seeing none, I will move to the next item. I’m some council representative. Councilman Rodriguez is not here today. Items from planning director Glen bend and Wigan?

Unknown Speaker 44:19
Well, only one other thing we had talked to the planning commission earlier about the council’s wishes to have you to weigh in on future candidates. We thought we were going to be in a really tough timeframe and have to have that done by June. The clerk’s office decided not to post your opening for this round. And I think because it only goes through to next year, and so we’ll have to deal with it in the fall basically. Okay. I think that’ll give us an opportunity to kind of look at what some of the other Commission’s are doing as far as how they’re doing the price. assess. I think the best answer is maybe have a interview committee and that doesn’t have to be a public meeting and then bring recommendations back to the board for your recommendation to the council. But we’ve got some time to think about it. So

Unknown Speaker 45:20
okay, thank you very much. You bet. Seeing there is no other business before us. I’ll go ahead and call this meeting to adjournment. Thank you, everyone.

Unknown Speaker 45:31
Oh, thank you.

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