By Carl Helton, Lakeland Currents staff
The MPC/DRC (Municipal Planning Commission/Design Review Commission) Board met for the first time Thursday (1.17.19) since Mayor Mike Cunningham appointed new members.
Mayor Cunningham appointed Nikki Bufalino, Susan Mitchell, Clint Starnes, Todd Laessig, former Lakeland Mayor Scott Carmichael and himself. Commissioner Wesley Wright is the liaison from the Board of Commissioners.
The former members of the MPC/DRC were removed from their volunteer positions after the Nov. 6th election and the Mayor took office.
Link to agenda: https://tn-lakeland.civicplus.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/813
After new members were sworn in, the Board elected Ms. Mitchell as chair, Mr. Carmichael as vice-chair and Mrs. Bufalino, secretary.
The Board approved minutes from the last meeting.
There was no public discussion and the Board moved to the first item on the agenda: Approval of the final plat for phase one of the Kensington Manor Planned Development (PD).
Phase 1 consists of 24 single-family lots located on the northeast side of the approved PF. The development is on the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 70 and Evergreen Road.
The approval of the Final Plat acknowledges that the constructed roads, sidewalks, public utility infrastructure, storm water facilities and lot configuration are consistent with the approved preliminary plat and construction drawings.
The City Inspector and City Engineer have confirmed that the construction of Kensington Manor P.D., Phase 1 is substantially complete and that the remaining punch list items are considered minor enough to recommend approval of the Final Plat.
City staff recommended approval with three conditions.
- Sidewalk shall be provided around the perimeter of C.O.S. 2 with the development of Phase 2.
- TDOT required improvements for Highway 70 shall be constructed with the development of Phase 2.
- Subdivision entrance signage shall be installed prior to the recording of Phase 1 Final Plat.
As the Board began to review the provided documents, Mr. Carmichael questioned why the City Engineer had not stamped the plans. After discussions back and forth, City Manager Shane Horn and City Planner Forest Owens stated the plans would be stamped and signed when they went for BOC (Board of Commissioner) approval.
The Board put it up to a vote and Mrs. Bufalino voted yes; Mr. Carmichael voted “pass”; Mayor Cunningham voted “pass”. Mr. Laessig and Ms. Mitchell stopped and questioned what the vote “pass” meant. After it was explained, Mrs. Bufalino requested to change her vote.
An explanation was offered that the finalization of the plat to the BOC will have the required engineer stamp and signature before the BOC votes.
An amendment to the agenda item was added requiring that the engineer stamp and signature must be on the plans before voted by the BOC. Addenda approved unanimously with amendment.
The applicant for rezoning property on Highway 70 pulled the application and will resubmit for next month’s meeting.
The last agenda was to take action on the sign permit application for the Lakeland Cleaners located at 3706 Canada Road.
The business is requesting approval of a 44-square-foot wall sign on the south side of the building which does not face a street.
As designed, the wall sign area exceeds the ordinance’s standard permissible sign area but is within the Commission’s approval authority. However, the location of the sign (on the south building façade with no frontage on public right-of-way) is not allowed.
City staff believes the proposed wall sign is not appropriate. If the sign were reduced to 0.50sf/1lf of building frontage (approx. 30sf) and placed on the front of the building facing Canada Road, staff can recommend approval.
As the meeting ended, Mayor Cunningham spoke of the new Board. He said it was his intent to bring in previous MPC members (Mrs. Bufalino and Ms. Mitchell) along with new members to be mentored by previous members to bring diversity to the Board and utilize other citizens to be involved with the board.
… Photos by Jim Willis, Lakeland Currents
