Seward planning commission backs letting 3- to 5-unit housing skip conditional use permits

The Seward Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday to recommend that the City Council let builders put up three- to five-unit buildings without a conditional use permit in the town's residential and commercial zones that allow higher-density housing.

Right now those projects need the commission's approval at a public hearing. The commission held one Tuesday, approving a fourplex on Phoenix Road with conditions for parking, landscaping and bear-resistant trash containers in an enclosure.

Under the proposal, those kinds of conditions would be written into city code instead. Anyone seeking a building permit for a multifamily dwelling, condominium or studio apartment building with three to five units would automatically have to provide landscaping, bear-resistant trash containers inside a three-walled enclosure and parking that meets the Americans with Disabilities Act, City Planner Courtney Bringhurst said. Buildings with more than five units would still need a conditional use permit.

Chair Clare Sullivan said putting the usual conditions into code saves the commission from repeating them, "because it's usually the same thing over and over."

The change would drop the permit requirement for some other uses, too, such as auto repair in the auto commercial district and outdoor recreation in the resource management district, Bringhurst said. The staff report says attached single-family homes and accessory dwelling units would also skip the permit in some zones.

For projects that still need a permit, the commission would get new grounds to weigh. It could consider whether a use would bring noise, glare, odor or other nuisances greater than other permitted uses nearby, and whether the property owner is current on money owed to the city, such as property and sales taxes. Applicants would have to submit site photos and scaled plot plans, and the applicant or a representative would have to attend the hearing in person or by phone. "As seen tonight, it is helpful to have the applicant here," Bringhurst said. The fourplex's builder hadn't attended, and Sullivan said she had questions for him.

Before the final vote, Vice Chair Brenan Hornseth added one more test: whether an applicant has complied with permits the city issued before. The city has no enforcement officer, he said, and a history of ignoring permit conditions would give the commission grounds to deny future permits. The amendment passed 5-0.

"Reinforces bad behavior if you don't enforce it," Sullivan said.

No one from the public testified. Five of the commission's seven members were present. Community Development Director Daniel Meuninck said staff will send the amendment's language to the city attorney and may refine it before the resolution goes to the City Council, which makes the final decision.