Danville Planning Commission (3/7/16)

SouthsideCentral was at Monday’s Danville Planning Commission meeting. We’ll tell you the full story of what happened… and we’ve got photos!

Monday’s meeting started at 3PM, but we were there way before that. Let’s see what’s happening.

Everybody is starting to arrive for the meeting. Hey, it’s Fred Shanks!

It’s another perfect attendance day for the Planning Commission. That’s rare.

We’re ready to go with six items on today’s agenda. The first one is to put a stand-alone restroom on the grounds of the remodeled Abreu-Grogan Park. A restroom is an accessory structure, so you have to get a Special Use Permit to have one without a main building. Shawn Harden is an engineer from Dewberry, and he’s here to answer any questions.

This is a horrible photo of Shawn Harden, but he deserves the publicity for being a great engineer. Heh.

There’s a question on why this restroom won’t connect to the city’s sewer lines. Harden says that the nearest connection would be across Memorial Drive and that would take a lot of work and money. So, the restroom will have a 2000 gallon holding tank and will be pumped by the city. This passes on a 7-0 vote.

Next comes a request to add definitions and permitted uses to the city code. This is for the shooting range, the urban agriculture and the car wash cases coming up on the agenda. This happens when new ideas are presented to the city and the existing code doesn’t cover them. Easily done with a 7-0 vote.

We now move to the big item of the day. Phil Strader wants to build an indoor shooting range just below Riverside Health Care Center on Riverside Drive.

Phil Strader presents his case.

Chairman Michael Scearce has to abstain on this one because he’s the real estate agent representing the sellers, so Bruce Wilson (vice-chair) takes over. Phil Strader starts off by saying that this business isn’t about whether you’re pro-gun or anti-gun, it’s to give people a safe place to learn and shoot firearms. That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the questioning, as he carefully explains how the building will be constructed for complete safety. Ann Evans asks if he’s looked at other properties for this idea and Strader replies that he has, but retrofitting an existing building with that amount of construction would be more expensive than building from scratch.

Here’s how the building will look. Note that the plot of land is so weirdly shaped.

Sadly, some of the Planning Commission members questions again get way out of the things that they have authority to deal with. Commissioner Harold Garrison’s head is turning red and so is mine. Zoning administrator Ken Gillie notices this happening too and catches city attorney Clarke Whitfield’s eye. Whitfield politely reminds the board members that they’re going out of their bounds and they get the message. Questions are raised about some of the opposition letters that were received. The board asks about why the school system was specifically opposed. Nobody has that answer, so I volunteer that information to them. At last Thursday’s school board meeting, there wasn’t any discussion on why they opposed and just a vote to oppose. Nobody is here to speak in opposition to the project so it’s time for the vote. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s a 6-0 vote in favor.

We move along to Von Wellington’s request for a Special Use Permit to run an indoor car wash in the old Dixie Bags location. “Auto-related businesses” are discouraged in the River District guidelines, but this isn’t really something like that. The Planning Commission votes to send this to the River District Design Commission for their thoughts on this and to maybe change those guidelines. Von Wellington is an amazing man who’s doing amazing things. This is a great idea and it’s creating jobs. Who could say anything bad about this?

This guy.

Meet Drew Cousins. He’s the treasurer for the House of Hope Homeless Shelter that’s located across from Von Wellington’s car wash business. Cousins said it’s his opinion that businesses like this could cause problems like loitering and drug use. He said that the homeless shelter’s residents would be out during the day and have to come near here.

My head explodes. Now I’ve yelled and barbecued Bruce Wilson before for acting all haughty & pompous on the board, but I’ve giving him my highest thanks for saying “Isn’t this what people thought about you a few years ago when you started?” Boom. Roasted.

Von Wellington is a bit flustered at this stupid complaint and comes up in rebuttal. He reminds Cousins that he’s hired some of the people who have stayed at the homeless shelter. Boom. Double Roasted.

You tell him, Von Wellington!

Mr. Holier Than Thou sits down and this case is voted back to the River District Design Commission for review.

North Main Baptist Church realized that they needed to get a Special Use Permit for their big church garden and they get the Planning Commission’s recommendation on a 7-0 vote. Last year, the church raised over 2500 pounds of potatoes for the needy.

Finally, Madison Whittle is asking to split up a piece of property that he owns into two parts so that he can sell one of them. Some Pineview Drive residents are here to speak in opposition to this because they think it would cause extra traffic on their street but that’s not the case. No commercial development is currently planned and if any was to be planned, it would have to come back to the commission. It’s another 7-0 vote and we’re done with regular business. The minutes from last month’s meeting are approved and we’re done.

All of today’s decisions are only recommendations and will be voted on by Danville City Council at their first meeting in April to make it official.

Thanks for reading the most comprehensive recap of Monday’s Danville Planning Commission meeting. It’s only here on SouthsideCentral!