The Planning Commission Tuesday heard requests on projects ranging from a new parking deck to the renaming of a confusing street intersection.
The first item brought to the Planning Commission’s attention, SP-61-14, dealt with a property on Wake Forest Road, north of St. Albans drive. Stewart Engineering, Inc., on behalf of Local Federal Credit Union, had worked with City staff to allow for the possibility of building a four-story parking deck on that property.
The site plan for the new parking deck.
Due to a new right of way on Wake Forest Road, an existing office building on that property is 27 feet from the front boundary of the property, which is 3 feet shy of the 30 feet stipulated by the zoning code for the property.
The commission voted to recommend approval of the exemption, however, using Code Section 10-2075(d)(4) of the Comprehensive Plan. It states, “The body which allows the reduced setback shall find that the new proposed right-of-way lines deprive the property owner abutting the thoroughfare reasonable use of their property, and may impose conditions to assure that the purposes of the yard setback are otherwise achieved.”
The second item presented referenced changing the name of Ponderosa Road to Battleford Drive on the stretch north of W. Millbrook Road.
Because a street intersecting with Ponderosa Road on that stretch is also called Ponderosa Road, the applicant claimed this design was confusing to emergency service personnel and wanted the name changed for consistency and continuity.
A resident of Ponderosa Road who would be affected by the name change spoke to the Planning Commission and spoke predominantly about the traffic concerns in the neighborhood.
The Planning Commission elected to defer the item until the next meeting, when staff would provide them more information about the neighborhood, which would help the Commission make a more informed decision.
The commission also heard two rezoning cases.
The first, Z31-14, focused on a property on Hillsborough Street between the Pullen Road roundabout and the Oberlin Road roundabout. The applicant wanted the property rezoned to allow for personal service, restaurant, and retail sales.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend this item for approval.
The second item, Z-32-14, focused on rezoning a property along Six Forks Road from O&I-1-CUD with PBOD to RX-5-UL-CU. With this rezoning consistent with the Future Land Use Map and Comprehensive Plan policies, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the rezoning.
Although a third rezoning case was presented to the commissioners, Z-1-14, the only requested action was a 60-day extension, which was granted to allow time for additional research about the characteristics surrounding the property.
