By Rebekah Ritter
Intern Reporter for the Tribune
At the Planning Commission meeting on June 26, 2018, Fenton Motor’s Doug Farchman requested the early renewal of a 20-year special use permit to fall in line with the recent refinancing of the establishment. The renewal of the permit will include the existing 17,700 sq. ft. building, with 274 parking spaces, used for staff, customer, and display parking. There will be no added construction or changes made to the facility.
The facility is competitive with the existing commercial development along the US Highway 50 corridor. The area of SE Oldham Pkwy between SE Hamblen Rd and SE Ranson Rd houses five auto dealerships, including Fenton Motors. The special permit renewal request is consistent with the previous approval, and with other auto dealerships.
Farchman requested the early renewal of the special use permit, originally approved in 2003, for a period of 20 years. It was asked that the renewal span the same number of years. Planning Commission member Donnie Funk moved to approve the renewal of the special use permit for the period of 20 years. The proposal for approval was unanimously recommended.
Dyman Wood was seeking a recommendation of approval for a preliminary development plan for Lots 18A, 18B, and 18C, located at the southwest corner of NE Main and NW Orchard St. Wood’s proposal consisted of three brand new single-family homes, worth from $275-325k, built by Billy Stoelenberg, a very qualified builder.
The lot is .094 acres in size and is a current vacant property that spans 41,161 sq. ft. There are no plans to build a new sidewalk near the space. Each home proposed will face Main Street, and will not displace any current residents, as there are no structures built in the proposed area. There are no solidified design schemes for the homes, but it was said that Mr. Stoelenberg is very capable of any design.
Funk moved to approve and was seconded.
Dave Olsen, representing Drake Development, LLC, presented a preliminary development plan for SpiraCare facility at 760 NW Blue Pkwy in Lee’s Summit. This will be the First Spira Care to do business in Missouri. Spira care is a Blue Cross Blue Shield program of primary healthcare. The development of the SpiraCare prototype will happen over the next several months. The facility will sit adjacent to a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Construction is set to start in mid-July, with hopes of opening the facility on January 1, 2019.
According to staff member Shannon McGuire, the building will be a 6,200 sq. ft. medical building with 31 parking spaces provided on the lot, for a total of 274 total shared parking between the lot for SpiraCare and the lot for Texas Roadhuse.
The commission was confused regarding the approval of this plan, because it had previously approved 85 percent of the development space, and did not enjoy approving the rest. There was also some dispute over parking. The planning commission was concerned that there are too many parking spaces. The details were ironed out in the meeting.
In reply to Olsen’s comments Jason Norbury requested, “Mr. Olsen, next time you come in front of this commission, or I hope the city council, please do not interrupt the commissioners or the council members. Whether you intended it or not, it smacks of arrogance, and I know Drake Development has another very significant development coming in front of the city council, and if we carry that attitude there, I don’t think your results are going to be particularly swell, so please be careful when you’re jumping on the commissioners or council members.”
Commissioner Funk recommend approval of application, and the application was recommended for approval.
