PARIS MUNICIPAL REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION CITY HALL COURTROOM

REGULAR MEETING

June 11, 2015 6:00 P.M.

I. Call To Order

II. Roll Call III. Approval of Minutes of Previous Regular Meeting – February 12, 2015 IV. OLD BUSINESS

1. Additional Sign Ordinance Amendment

V. NEW BUSINESS

1. Minor Site Plan – UPS Distribution Center – Hwy 641 South 2. Certified Local Government Application 3. Downtown Historical Overlay 4. Revisions to the Entrance of the CVS Development

Adjournment

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

Old Business Agenda Item No. 1: Additional Sign Ordinance Amendment

The proposed ordinance amending the sign regulations was presented to the Board of Commissioners and was adopted on first reading. The minimum size of billboards was discussed during the work sessions, however, nothing made it into the proposed revisions. Below is the section on billboards as it was presented. Staff feels that a minimum should be established. Please be prepared to discuss this request at the meeting. 1306.5 Bill Boards. Bill Boards are only allowed on State Routes in the City of Paris. Bill Boards are allowed a permanent sign area of all advertising faces not to exceed four hundred (400) square feet as provided herein below. For the purposes of this Section, if a bill board has a single face, it may have a sign area of four hundred (400) square feet. If a bill board has two or more faces, the total sign area of all said faces added together shall not exceed four hundred (400) square feet, maximum two (2) sides allowed. Such bill boards will be allowed provided the following conditions are met:

1. No part of any bill board is located less than ten (10) feet from any public right-of-way.

2. The ground support of any bill board is located no less than ten (10) feet from any property line.

3. Sign must be engineered as provided in the International Building Code. 4. The bill board is located no less than one thousand (1,000) feet from any other

bill board, whether such bill board is on the same side of the street or on the opposite side of the street.

5. Said bill board shall be lighted by indirect - lighting oriented so as to prevent any glare to residential properties.

The provisions of 11-1302.2 shall apply to bill boards.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

New Business Agenda Item No. 1: Minor Site Plan for UPS Center – Hwy 641S Background: A minor site plan has been submitted by Temphis Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia for the UPS Distribution Center property located at 1555 Hwy 641 South in Paris. The proposed addition is a 376 sq. ft. modular structure to be located at the rear of the existing building. Currently there is a loading dock and this structure will replace the existing. The total area is 3.55 acres and it is zoned M-1 (light industrial). The setbacks are provided on the site plan and are adequate. Up to four parking spaces could be impacted by this addition, however, parking will remain adequate. Recommendation: It is recommended the 376 sq. ft. addition be approved.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

New Business Agenda Item No. 2: Certified Local Government Application Downtown Long Range Plan

You will receive a report from the Building Inspector at the meeting. One of the topics he

will cover is the state of our downtown buildings. As everyone is acutely aware, more than

one building has disappeared from the landscape of Downtown Murray, Kentucky, our

neighbor to the north as well as other cities in our area and across the country. In an effort

to avoid such a tragedy in our City we are recommending the beginning stages of a long

range plan for our downtown area by considering, but not limited to, the following:

Efforts to work with our State Historical Commission Application for the CLG Designation Working with, training and informing our local boards; our downtown property

and business owners; and our community as a whole Obtaining assistance and support from the Downtown Paris Association Applying for grants Inventory of Downtown Buildings and their condition Guidelines for any future development downtown The Back Alley Paris project Review and evaluation of the downtown Infrastructure, i.e. storm drainage, etc.

Certified Local Government

One of the first steps mentioned above is the Certified Local Government designation.

Attached you will find a brief overview from the Tennessee Historical Commission

explaining the Certified Local Government (CLG) program. Included are the requirements

to become a CLG. We have been approached in the past and presently by the State

Historical Preservation Office (SHPO) to consider applying for the CLG designation.

Also attached you will find a list of the requirements for the CLG designation. The black

print is the information received from the State and the gray print is our response to where

we are in the process. If you review this information you will find that for our two existing

Historical Districts (Poplar Street and Lee Street area) we have already taken the steps

necessary to make application. However, an important piece of our City, the downtown

court square district, is not currently zoned with the Historical District Overlay.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

So that there won’t be any confusion we need to make a differentiation between the

National Historical Register and the Historical District Overlay. The downtown has been

designated on the National Historical Register for some time now, that designation does

not provide for any type of design guidelines. With the Historical District overlay, certain

criteria should be followed with any development in that district.

A presentation will be made at the meeting. Most questions should be answered in the

summary. After review if you would like to discuss please contact Jennifer Morris for

additional information or clarification.

Most of this information comes to you to keep you informed, the Historical Zoning Board

will initiate most of the steps for the CLG.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

SUMMARY

Working CLG Process for Cities and/or Counties (all descriptions apply to both “city” or “county” designations)

Designated coordinator for the city- CLG guidelines call for it to be a city employee, and we usually find

that the Planning Director is our strongest and most functional resource for CLG Coordinator, but other

appropriate staff may be designated. In some cities it is other persons in Planning or in some cases, the Codes Official.

This can be easily accomplished

Mayoral support- Prime motivator, critical- CLG application can be an extended process and length of

current mayoral term may be a consideration. Consistent mayoral shepherding from start to finish is crucial.

Would need to meet with Carlton to explain the program to both he and at some point the Commissioners.

Codes Support- While this is not necessary to begin the process, it is essential for the eventual basic

functioning of the Historic Zoning Commission, (HZC). It is best to coordinate this with the Mayor early in the

process and get the Codes Official and direct codes personnel responsible for enforcement, where appropriate, participating on an ongoing basis as the application process develops so they may take ownership with the

guidelines, etc., and be staged for enforcement. We already have a Board in place. However, it could be that we need to review and determine

whether or not it’s makeup is appropriate for our needs.

City Attorney Involvement/Awareness- The City Attorney needs to be involved and aware of the

process- particularly ordinance development and awareness that the HZC is an independent/autonomous

ordinance based organization as outlined under TCA 13-7-401 statute. The City Attorney will be required from time to time weigh-in on HZC processes, decisions, and possibly attend HZC meetings when needed. The city

attorney obviously would be directly involved in legal challenges in Chancery Court. In many cities (almost always in the larger cities) the City Attorney or a representative attends all HZC meetings.

This is not an issue, Fred understands the HZC and the Historic District Overlays.

Council support- All ordinance development, Commissioner appointments, and historic district establishment

must be approved by the City Council. It is essential to have majority support for an HZC and CLG to be established.

Self Explanatory

Planning Commission support- Generally ordinance development and all historic district establishment

must move from the Planning Commission to the Council. Majority support on the Planning Commission is

essential for a CLG to be established although some cities can advance non-approved Planning Commission proposals through the council with supermajority votes. It is obviously best to have support and consensus.

One Planning Commission member must be an HZC Commissioner. Self Explanatory

Business Community support- The Chamber and other local/downtown business group’s involvement,

support, and HZC membership is important for CLG development, effective CLG functioning, and broad

community acceptance and support.

This is something we would need to work on in anticipation of zoning the downtown area under

an historic zoning overlay. The motiviation of grant money to be used in the downtown should be a huge motivating factor. However, we must first appeal to the property owners to insure

they understand the serious outcome of neglecting the downtown structures. Non-profit support- Early involvement and support of neighborhood groups and local non-profits as

stakeholders in the process is essential. Per the TCA 13-7-4 statute, one HZC commissioner must be “…a

member of a local patriotic or historical organization.” David Webb is currently a member of the board (should probably change the name to Historic

Zoning Commission) and he as you know is a member of various groups, i.e. Historical Society,

Heritage Center, etc.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

Public support- Broad public support must be developed through public meetings and later through required

public hearings. Public meetings with formal public notice- The importance of carefully planning and orchestrating public

meetings/hearings cannot be understated. Structured commentary timeframes and having supporters in-place

as meetings are conducted to avoid small factions causing disruptions, excessively influencing media attention, or commandeering commentary time, etc. cannot be understated. Public Notice and Open Meetings

(Sunshine Law) regulations must be followed.

Discussion should take place as to how we first go about gaining support. Do we begin with public hearings, talking about the state of the buildings or do we offer “workshops” to educate

the property owners on what options are available for work on the buildings.

Ordinance development- Our office and the Development Districts can assist with ordinance development.

We have examples from other CLGs and best practices examples from around the nation. We have an ordinance, however, the Development District has a planner on staff that would

assist us at no charge with updating our ordinance.Establish HZC, appoint members- Responsibility

of the council after or concurrent with ordinance development. Again, this is already accomplished

Establish By-Laws- To be developed by HZC, can be at a regular public meeting of the HZC with CLG

provisions included.

This could be accomplished again with the assistance of the Development District.

Design Guidelines development- Basic Design Guidelines can be established with our office and DD

involvement, but pursuant to the statute “shall be consistent…with the regulations and standards adopted by

the secretary of the interior.” Design Guidelines CANNOT go through the Planning Commission and/or Council for approval as per the TCA 13-7-4 statute, but Design Guidelines development does require formal

public notice/public hearing with the HZC, but can be at a regular properly advertised public meeting with agenda.

Many communities use their grant to establish these. It is difficult for me to believe that

downtown structures differ that much from one community to the other that it is necessary to “reinvent the wheel each time”. We had short discussion and Dan Brown with the State said that

he would assist and possibly Ed Smith could assist as well in creating these. Also, we have

Design Review Guidelines already in place. Ed Smith had concerns that they were very inadequate.

COA process- COA development and COA process are the purview of the HZC through the CLG Coordinator.

Administrative review with HZC ratification of day-to-day decisions is highly recommended. Currently our ordinance requires that any work performed in the Historic Districts must come

before the Zoning Board. At the present time I am not sure how much work is actually being

done in these districts. With that said it is most of the time the case that if work is done they are

doing it without a permit and without our knowledge. It would be much simpler for both the property owner as well as the City for property owners to obtain a permit without calling a

meeting of the board. If we amend our ordinance this would allow Staff to grant a permit based on the DRGs with the ability to appeal any Staff decisions through the Zoning Commission.

Appeals- It is important to understand the independent and autonomous status and nature of the HZC as an

ordinance based agency/commission within government and that eventual HZC decisions can only be challenged in Chancery Court.

Self-Explanatory

Establish Historic Zoning Districts- Originates with the HZC, and as per 13-7-4 requires public notice,

public meeting, and DOES require planning commission, and council review and approval at public meetings

with public notices at each stage of HZC, planning commission, and council review and approval. Currently we have the Lee School District and the Poplar Street District. Dan Brown yesterday

did not stress rezoning the Central Business District as he has in the past but obviously if the

anticipated work is in the downtown area we would need to designate the downtown district as HZD.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

Begin formal application for CLG- Involves Planning Commission and Council approval, public notice,

mayor's signature, etc.- all based on local legal standards- as well as the eventual need for maintenance of public records, public notices, posted agendas, etc. See checklists in packet.

We can clearly move forward with applying for the CLG based on the two existing districts with

some modifications to our existing model and simultaneously work toward rezoning the downtown.

Ongoing Training- Appropriate staff (Planning, Codes) and all Commissioners should attend the

Commission Assistance Mentoring Program, CAMP as well as the Statewide Preservation Conference. Our office can provide some free ongoing training in your community as well.

This should not create a problem. However, as we move forward, training for property owners

would be very beneficial if we can get them to participate. The whole process moving forward

with the downtown area is going to require some one-on-one coaching. Grants- Grants are one of the major advantages of being a CLG. Federal law requires that minimum

percentages of available grant funds must go to CLGs yearly and CLGs have structured advantages in grant

scoring. Grants may be used for development, consultants, ongoing support, training, brick and mortar projects, and a host of other preservation projects.

Additional Notes:

Obviously we must first officially make the commitment to move forward with this process.

A very important point that should be made is that these regs can only be enforced on the outside of the building, the historic requirements have nothing to do with the interiors.

An additional note, Mike Brown and Ed Smith are in the process of developing an initial inventory on the buildings before we can determine how we would move forward with a full blown engineering study of the structures.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

New Business Agenda Item No. 3 : Downtown Historical Overlay Attached is a map that shows the current B-2 District. At this time we have two considerations:

1 The possible Historical Zoning Overlay. It is recommended by SHPO that the proposed historical overlay originate with a recommendation from the Historical Zoning Board to the Planning Commission and ultimately to the Board of Commissioners.

2 The second consideration is the B-2 District as it currently exists. In the past we have had issues with properties that are not located in the core of the B-2 District. As you are aware, there are no setbacks, parking requirements, etc. in the B-2 District. This makes it difficult if some of these properties are proposing additions or changes to the property that impact parking, etc.

Staff will discuss this at length at the meeting.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

Poplar Street District

Lee School Historical District

B-2 Central

Business District

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015

New Business Agenda Item No. 4 : Revision to the Entrance of the CVS Development Attached is a drawing of a proposed change to the entrance of the CVS development on the Mineral Wells side. This will modify the curb to create more of a flare at this location. This modification has been approved by TDOT and should improve ingress and egress into the property. Since this has been approved by TDOT, it is placed on the agenda for your review and concurrence.

Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission Regular Meeting June 11, 2015