03/16/2015 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Monday,March 16,2015 6:30 o'clock p.m. knowing that area was zoned single-family. Fredrickson noted that Mr. Delaney also purchased the property knowing it was zoned single-family and that they are not asking him to live with something he did not know when he bought the property. Fredrickson stated she does not understand why one property owner gets to trump the rest of them. Fredrickson stated the question to ask is, what is the big community development that will be achieved with this proposal. Fredrickson stated no park is going to be built and no beautification project is going to happen to save something. Fredrickson questioned why they are spending all this time on a project for one person. Fredrickson stated the answer is so Mr. Delaney can get a better return on his investment and that the neighbors are asking the Planning Commission to stop the madness and just say no. Fredrickson stated she has a 17-year-old daughter who is good about asking over and over for the same thing, which is true of the applicant. Fredrickson stated sometimes you just have to say no, enough is enough. Ken Heimbach, 2525 Kelly Avenue, stated what really concerns him is that Tom Wasmoen is glossing over the meeting that was held in January. Heimbach indicated he was here in September and it was the same thing. The Planning Commission told the applicants to have a neighborhood meeting. The neighbors attended that meeting. At that time the applicants had another plan that would face Kelly. The neighbors were opposed to that. Finally John Bessesen said, okay, we understand,we know you do not want twinhomes, we will go with four single-family homes. Heimbach stated the neighbors thought it was all over at that point. In the interim months the applicants have been back discussing this project with City Staff and the first the neighbors knew of any change was a postcard in the mail six days ago. Heimbach stated it was his understanding Andrew Mack was going to be in attendance at the neighborhood meeting and that he then wrote him a letter saying that because there was no one from the City there, he wanted to put in writing what happened. Heimbach stated the neighbors were given the impression that this multi-family project was over. Heimbach stated somebody has used the term that it was disingenuous, but that in his view it was a lie. Heimback stated Bessesen wanted to get the neighbors out of there so they did not need to deal with them anymore. Alex Ware, 2587 Kelly Avenue, stated in September the neighbors raised a number of issues and there were over two dozen neighbors that were in attendance that spoke or wrote in comments. Ware stated in his view many still feel that same way but they are not able to be here tonight. Ware stated he would like their comments that were made earlier to be reviewed and taken into consideration. Ware stated the developer has chosen not to take the neighbors' comments into consideration. The primary issues that need to be addressed are erosion and flooding. This property is very unique, is very steep, and causes significant issues with flooding. The drainage study cited a number of 100-year events. Ware noted this area of Kelly Avenue has flooded dozens of times in the past few decades. Ware indicated there have been steps made to clear out some of the culverts and improve the drainage, but that he would call attention to the final point of the drainage study,which says that this area is very sensitive to any increase in runoff. Any additional development should be required to maintain or reduce existing runoff rates or volumes. Ware noted that comes from the City study. Ware stated while the improvements suggested in the plan will cost several hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money, they will not likely address the concerns. The increase to hardscape in the area started Page 9 of 30