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| SPECIAL WORK SESSION AGENDA |
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| COUNCIL CHAMBERS | July 25, 2022 | 7:30 P.M. |
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Cole Deputy Mayor Mike Boyett
PUBLIC COMMENT. This is the time to comment on any matter falling within the scope of the Billings City Council. There will also be time in conjunction with each agenda item for public comment relating to that item. You may only speak once for each item.
Please note, the City Council cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda. Comments are limited to three (3) minutes or as set by the Mayor. Speaker sign-in required. Please sign the roster at the cart located at the back of the Council chambers or at the podium.
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Please note, the City Council cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda. Comments are limited to three (3) minutes or as set by the Mayor. Speaker sign-in required. Please sign the roster at the cart located at the back of the Council chambers or at the podium.
None
1.
Land Use Conversations - Part 2.
Monica Plecker, reviewed land use definitions and the subdivision process. A pre-application meeting is required and that requires multi-departmental meetings between City departments, the developer and applicant. Seeking red flags or unique circumstances during this part of the process. Developer is allowed 6 months to implement or the developer has to start the process over. She reviewed 23-400, BMCC, and explained how Council could make changes during the preliminary phase if they did not agree with something in the proposed development. Deviations require variance approval, they do not go to the Zoning Commission or Board of Adjustments because Council approves subdivisions.
She reviewed Variances per Sec. 23-1101, BMCC, and stated a variance cannot be for Zoning or design requirements, it can only be concerning the subdivision requirements.
Owen: When was Subdivision Regulations last updated.
Plecker: 2018 - more recommended amendments coming to Council within the year.
Neese: What if Council doesn't like the connectivity between subdivisions?
Plecker: Provided suggestions to make those amendments. She moved onto Parkland Sec. 23-1000, BMCC; Sec. 76-601, MCA, provisions for dedications and percentages; trail corridors; stormwater detention and retention; and cash-in-lieu of land donations.
Mark Jarvis: Spoke about intended purpose for parkland dedication to create open spaces within subdivisions. Commercial subdivisions are not required to provide parkland. He reviewed factors for determining whether to accept parkland vs. cash-in-lieu, i.e., barriers, distance from existing parks, development density, proximity to floodplains, land formation, water features and hazards, aggregating parkland with mergers with other subdivision parklands; using CPTED and street frontage. He spoke about Trail Corridors - every park is a trailhead and provides connectivity between parks throughout subdivisions.
Gulick: How is the cash-in-lieu used?
Jarvis: Used for that subdivision for other improvements - held in an account.
Owen: The statute states Council has authority to decide cash-in-lieu or parkland dedication. Can that be addressed through a growth plan? Individually for various areas in town?
Boyett: Shiloh and King Avenue West has large apartment complexes don't have parkland - why not?
Jarvis: Parks advocates for parkland, but there was little land left for it in those cases.
Plecker: Past practice has been to give preference to the developers' preference, which meant developing private parks.
Purinton: Do apartments fall in the 1/2 acre size?
Plecker: No. Reviewed as 1 giant lot. Condos are treated differently - 200 condos are treated as 200 lots.
Purinton: Cash in lieu setting in an account doing nothing or parkland that is never developed isn't optimal.
Neese: Asked about the cash in lieu vs dedications. Why presented both options if it has already been decided?
Plecker: Stated Parks recently developed a comprehensive plan that is helping with determining the viability of the land being dedicated. Gave a timeline on regulatory changes to be heard at future work sessions. She reviewed the preliminary plat application process which includes SIAs with 20-year waivers; environmental assessments and traffic studies; water and sanitation information; CCRs (covenants and restrictions); Articles of Incorporation for HOAs and Master Plans. She then reviewed the SIA processes and spoke about making changes to design requirements.
Debi Meling: Spoke about traffic accessibility studies and analyses, outcomes and mitigations.
Rupsis: Asked about traffic-calming efforts.
Joy: Ward III is fastest growing ward in the City.
Owen: How do you find the Traffic studies?
Meling: Call and ask for them and they will be provided. Not on the website.
Neese: Can Council get traffic numbers earlier in the process?
Meling: Don't have the information during Zoning procedures, but definitely have it during subdivision approvals. She next spoke about preliminary water and sewer as being very straightforward.
Boyett: Older subdivisions don't have stormwater retention.
Meling: Retention is required for a 10-year storm, so depends on the lay of land whether it will need it.
Joy: Could Parks and Public Works work together for wetlands preservation?
Meling: There have been a couple of times that has worked. Just depends on the area.
Neese: Spoke about strip curbing and that curbing can create stormwater runoff problems.
Meling: Spoke to ribbon curbs and swells and they don't always work well. Collecting run-off in front yards is a great use of stormwater.
Plecker: Spoke to reviews of sufficiency documents timeline, findings and proposed conditions. She reviewed the planning board's involvement in the process. Reviewed the applicant's requirements to complete conditions and improvements.
Purinton: Agriculture water usage a concern. Can City control ditches and water usage? Are these worked out in these agreements?
Plecker: Planning has a process for contacting ditch companies that may be affected by development. There are problems with residents around ditches, grass clippings thrown in and people siphoning water that is not theirs. Preserve the ag-users by easement on plats.
Neese: Asked about mailing certified notifications to nearby property owners and protests.
Plecker: Protests are not mentioned in subdivision law, only for zoning.
Joy: How would cost of services study have an impact on subdivision planning?
Plecker: Very important to this process. Could help influence decisions.
Rupsis: Spoke about widening Rimrock Road and that the City had not collected monies along the way to help pay for this - lacked future development vision.
Plecker: Now defining traffic infrastructure costs and proportionate shares.
Meling: Billings does not have road impact fees, but have looked into, haven't adopted it yet.
Owen: Asked about traffic impact modeling catching multiple developments along a roadway.
Meling: Senior staff is catching those because they are familiar with the roadways, but not process in place for when those staff members leave.
Plecker: Final Plats - 23-307, BMCC, review process. Council does not get a second bite of the apple - when it comes to that point. Builders can begin building once building permits are reviewed and approved. There are many opportunities to review land use and it is a time-consuming process.
Owen: Multi-departmental review - who does it and what is their experience and how are they trained?
Plecker: there is consistency with certain employees - they are experts. Alot of on the job training - League trainings are attended, along with their education.
Purinton: Spoke about valid exceptions by the Council and the timeline. Spoke about inflation and its impact.
Plecker: sometimes things are missed and made suggestions that items be addressed in emails rather than trying to address during a meeting on the fly. Has not had many conversions with developers about needing extra time to build - need to write a letter to Council asking for an extension.
Rupsis: Asked about PMDs, parkland dedications and plat approval processes and detailed reviews.
Plecker: Preapplication meetings in zoning. Engineers are doing their best to anticipate. But is the 2% enough? Apartments don't have to subdivide.
Neese: agrees with increasing 2% when there is increased density. Can adjustments be made if a developer asks for an extension?
Plecker: No, extensions are only for extensions not to re-review the subdivision.
Public Comment:
Monica Plecker, reviewed land use definitions and the subdivision process. A pre-application meeting is required and that requires multi-departmental meetings between City departments, the developer and applicant. Seeking red flags or unique circumstances during this part of the process. Developer is allowed 6 months to implement or the developer has to start the process over. She reviewed 23-400, BMCC, and explained how Council could make changes during the preliminary phase if they did not agree with something in the proposed development. Deviations require variance approval, they do not go to the Zoning Commission or Board of Adjustments because Council approves subdivisions.
She reviewed Variances per Sec. 23-1101, BMCC, and stated a variance cannot be for Zoning or design requirements, it can only be concerning the subdivision requirements.
Owen: When was Subdivision Regulations last updated.
Plecker: 2018 - more recommended amendments coming to Council within the year.
Neese: What if Council doesn't like the connectivity between subdivisions?
Plecker: Provided suggestions to make those amendments. She moved onto Parkland Sec. 23-1000, BMCC; Sec. 76-601, MCA, provisions for dedications and percentages; trail corridors; stormwater detention and retention; and cash-in-lieu of land donations.
Mark Jarvis: Spoke about intended purpose for parkland dedication to create open spaces within subdivisions. Commercial subdivisions are not required to provide parkland. He reviewed factors for determining whether to accept parkland vs. cash-in-lieu, i.e., barriers, distance from existing parks, development density, proximity to floodplains, land formation, water features and hazards, aggregating parkland with mergers with other subdivision parklands; using CPTED and street frontage. He spoke about Trail Corridors - every park is a trailhead and provides connectivity between parks throughout subdivisions.
Gulick: How is the cash-in-lieu used?
Jarvis: Used for that subdivision for other improvements - held in an account.
Owen: The statute states Council has authority to decide cash-in-lieu or parkland dedication. Can that be addressed through a growth plan? Individually for various areas in town?
Boyett: Shiloh and King Avenue West has large apartment complexes don't have parkland - why not?
Jarvis: Parks advocates for parkland, but there was little land left for it in those cases.
Plecker: Past practice has been to give preference to the developers' preference, which meant developing private parks.
Purinton: Do apartments fall in the 1/2 acre size?
Plecker: No. Reviewed as 1 giant lot. Condos are treated differently - 200 condos are treated as 200 lots.
Purinton: Cash in lieu setting in an account doing nothing or parkland that is never developed isn't optimal.
Neese: Asked about the cash in lieu vs dedications. Why presented both options if it has already been decided?
Plecker: Stated Parks recently developed a comprehensive plan that is helping with determining the viability of the land being dedicated. Gave a timeline on regulatory changes to be heard at future work sessions. She reviewed the preliminary plat application process which includes SIAs with 20-year waivers; environmental assessments and traffic studies; water and sanitation information; CCRs (covenants and restrictions); Articles of Incorporation for HOAs and Master Plans. She then reviewed the SIA processes and spoke about making changes to design requirements.
Debi Meling: Spoke about traffic accessibility studies and analyses, outcomes and mitigations.
Rupsis: Asked about traffic-calming efforts.
Joy: Ward III is fastest growing ward in the City.
Owen: How do you find the Traffic studies?
Meling: Call and ask for them and they will be provided. Not on the website.
Neese: Can Council get traffic numbers earlier in the process?
Meling: Don't have the information during Zoning procedures, but definitely have it during subdivision approvals. She next spoke about preliminary water and sewer as being very straightforward.
Boyett: Older subdivisions don't have stormwater retention.
Meling: Retention is required for a 10-year storm, so depends on the lay of land whether it will need it.
Joy: Could Parks and Public Works work together for wetlands preservation?
Meling: There have been a couple of times that has worked. Just depends on the area.
Neese: Spoke about strip curbing and that curbing can create stormwater runoff problems.
Meling: Spoke to ribbon curbs and swells and they don't always work well. Collecting run-off in front yards is a great use of stormwater.
Plecker: Spoke to reviews of sufficiency documents timeline, findings and proposed conditions. She reviewed the planning board's involvement in the process. Reviewed the applicant's requirements to complete conditions and improvements.
Purinton: Agriculture water usage a concern. Can City control ditches and water usage? Are these worked out in these agreements?
Plecker: Planning has a process for contacting ditch companies that may be affected by development. There are problems with residents around ditches, grass clippings thrown in and people siphoning water that is not theirs. Preserve the ag-users by easement on plats.
Neese: Asked about mailing certified notifications to nearby property owners and protests.
Plecker: Protests are not mentioned in subdivision law, only for zoning.
Joy: How would cost of services study have an impact on subdivision planning?
Plecker: Very important to this process. Could help influence decisions.
Rupsis: Spoke about widening Rimrock Road and that the City had not collected monies along the way to help pay for this - lacked future development vision.
Plecker: Now defining traffic infrastructure costs and proportionate shares.
Meling: Billings does not have road impact fees, but have looked into, haven't adopted it yet.
Owen: Asked about traffic impact modeling catching multiple developments along a roadway.
Meling: Senior staff is catching those because they are familiar with the roadways, but not process in place for when those staff members leave.
Plecker: Final Plats - 23-307, BMCC, review process. Council does not get a second bite of the apple - when it comes to that point. Builders can begin building once building permits are reviewed and approved. There are many opportunities to review land use and it is a time-consuming process.
Owen: Multi-departmental review - who does it and what is their experience and how are they trained?
Plecker: there is consistency with certain employees - they are experts. Alot of on the job training - League trainings are attended, along with their education.
Purinton: Spoke about valid exceptions by the Council and the timeline. Spoke about inflation and its impact.
Plecker: sometimes things are missed and made suggestions that items be addressed in emails rather than trying to address during a meeting on the fly. Has not had many conversions with developers about needing extra time to build - need to write a letter to Council asking for an extension.
Rupsis: Asked about PMDs, parkland dedications and plat approval processes and detailed reviews.
Plecker: Preapplication meetings in zoning. Engineers are doing their best to anticipate. But is the 2% enough? Apartments don't have to subdivide.
Neese: agrees with increasing 2% when there is increased density. Can adjustments be made if a developer asks for an extension?
Plecker: No, extensions are only for extensions not to re-review the subdivision.
Public Comment:
- John Halverson, 239 Avenue F, Billings, Montana, a planner, spoke about traffic calming efforts, curbs and regulations. Thanked Council for the conversation.
COUNCIL DISCUSSION:
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PUBLIC COMMENT on “NON-AGENDA ITEMS”. Speaker Sign-in required. (Restricted to ONLY items not on this printed agenda. Comments are limited to 3 minutes or as set by the Mayor. Please sign the roster at the cart located at the back of the Council chambers or at the podium.)
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ADJOURN: 9:20 P.M.
Note:
- This meeting is an “informal” meeting of the City Council. The content of the Agenda is subject to change at the meeting.
- In the event there is a Closed Executive Session at the end of a Work Session, the sole purpose is to discuss litigation strategy. The other parties to the case(s) discussed are not public bodies or associations as described in Section 2-3-203(1) and (2), MCA. The meeting is closed, as allowed by Section 2-3-203(4)(a), MCA, “to discuss a strategy to be followed with respect to litigation when an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the litigating position” of the City of Billings.