The Planning Commission met on Tuesday, April 23, for their monthly meeting with several items on the agenda. First, a zoning change request was made for the 809 S. Pine Street property. The current zoning is C-2, which is office-commercial.
Three residents spoke about the traffic situation, which they agreed was already a problem. The homeowner at 820 S. Pine, Donna Holcomb, said drivers often race down Pine Street, and in December, someone drove through her front porch. “There are also cars who try to pass trucks along that road.” A Realtor told Holcomb that 9,600 cars travel on Pine Street daily. “Often, I can’t get out of my driveway.”
Debbie Cox, one of the owners of Benton House Designs, said she is not particularly opposed to rezoning to C-3. She mentioned that the residents who live in the Benton Court Condos could have problems getting out of the driveway onto Pine.
“There are often 50-60 cars in and out of that driveway daily. It could be the same cars, but the proposed Dollar General driveway is very close to our driveway,” Cox said.
Allen Merrill, who lives in the Benton Condos, said with the bus garage and First Baptist Church less than a block away, it is difficult to see to exit safely. School buses also travel down Pine to the bus garage every day. “If you care for children, you will consider not approving this zoning change.”
City of Harrison COO/Engineer Wade Phillips said, “The property in question has C-3 zoned properties to the north. To the east is the soccer complex, which is zoned Conservation District. To the south and west is zoned C-2 Office Commercial.”
Phillips explained the property could be issued a conditional use permit and remain a C-2 zoned property, but that’s not the appropriate zone for that size of proposed retail space.
Phillips reminded the commission and audience that the hearing was to approve the zone change request. Currently, a Dollar General has been proposed for that location. However, if Dollar General changed their mind, any retail business could go there once the zone changes.
Commissioner Jim Harp stated that he would abstain since his son Franklin owns the property. Chairman Pat Brown recognized there wouldn’t be a quorum for a vote if that happened. So, the subject was tabled for the time being. Then, after Cloyd Baltimore arrived and was brought up to speed, the commissioners voted to table the issue. So, the zone change request will be added to the agenda next month.
In other business, 7 Brew Coffee, to be located at 801 Highway 62/65, made a presentation to the commissioners. A representative of the franchise owner, Manshire, LLC, said they were very excited about being in Harrison.
The question was whether they had spoken to ARDOT about the location. “ARDOT had no issues with turning left at the location,” Castleberry said.
Phillips said he had no comments from the public about the proposal. “52 % of the building facing the street is a metal facade. Usually, we ask for no more than 50% to be public-facing. But I can live with this. Many architects are doing more metal these days, and that’s understandable. They are also asking for a parking variance because they only have 13 stalls but no inside dining. For their size, we would normally suggest 17 stalls with ADA parking. Their landscaping plan looks good. They will be reducing the hard service square footage from what it is currently.
ARDOT says the traffic that goes by that location each day is between 25,000-26,000 vehicles.
“Their exterior lighting looks good. We would like to propose relocating the water meters so that they are located in the green space between the street and 7 Brew’s parking lot." The commissioners voted to approve the plans for 7 Brew Coffee.
Baxter Health Ambulatory Surgery Center & Clinic’s representative, Justin Bland, PE with Cromwell requested revisions to their site grading plan. “The original plans called for an 18 ft retaining wall. But it was decided that would leave the grade too steep to mow safely. So we would like to remove the wall on the southwest corner and use rip-rap only.”
Phillips told the commissioners there had been several small changes already made, but he felt like this was a large enough change to bring it before them. The commissioners moved to approve the request.
Under old business was the Rock Springs Development/Harrison Collision Center at 164 Thompson Drive.
Josh Thomason represented Butch May Contracting and the owner/developer Lester Smith. The plans call for a retail front and, in the back, a collision repair center.
Phillips said the elevations were good. Only 17% of metal with a stone look would be exposed to the right of way. “They do ask for a variance on parking because they don’t feel like they will need 46 stalls for this size of structure. They have proposed 15 standard spots on the back side of the building.
The plans omitted some of the needed landscaping details as well as exterior lighting. “But this proposal is much better than last month,” Phillips said. The commissioners approved the plans without a parking waiver as long as they addressed the lighting and restroom left out of the plans for the collision repair building.
The meeting adjourned at 1:53. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 28, at 1 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
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