CAPTION: Hutchinson City Hall, located at 125 East Ave B. CREDIT MICHAEL GLENN/THE HUTCHINSON TRIBUNE
By Emmie Amezola
The Hutchinson City Council approved a zone change from a R-3 Moderate Density Residential District to a R-5 High Density Residential District for a 14-acre site located at the northeast corner of 36th Avenue and Monroe Street Tuesday night at its regular meeting.
This rezoning case number ZA25-04 was tabled at the May 6 council meeting. Director of Community Development Matthew Williams presented two updates to the council since the May 6 meeting.
The first update was in regard to the revised ordinance, which includes a protective overlay that limits the permitted uses to single-family residential only. The second update was a tentative layout that proposes lots that range from 6,500 square feet to 20,000 square feet. It also proposes two access points to the neighborhood that would exit to the west on Monroe.
Williams told council what the platting process looks like for the property moving forward. A platting process is the dividing of land into smaller parcels for the development or sale of the land.
“What we are looking at here is really just kind of a concept of a lot layout,” Williams said. “With tentative utilities, the actual plat that the applicant would need to go through. There is a preliminary plat and a final plat that would be a drawing similar to this but have much more detail. Grading contours, existing trees, buildings, proposed utilities, lot sizes. You know information about the proposed streets and all the infrastructure. That would come to planning commission. The planning commission would review that. Our subdivision regulations have very strict requirements for all of those things. It would go to planning commission where the public could speak on it. The final plat would then come. Sometimes it’s that night. Sometimes the final plat comes later and then the planning commission would make a recommendation to city council. This would come back for your vote.”
Councilmember Jon Richardson asked Williams what the drainage off of the property will look like.
“If the zoning were to be approved then the applicant’s engineer would likely move forward with the plating process,” Williams said. “They would reach out to our engineers. We need to see a drainage plan that indicates where the drainage would go. Our engineers would look at that and approve that. I believe last time they indicated the drainage would be just south of that first street and drain to the east where the neighborhood to the east has an existing drainage ditch.”
Mayor Stacy Goss asked how a Home Owners Association (HOA) would factor into the platting process.
“If there is an HOA, during the planning process we would indicate that on the plat,” Williams said. “That would be pursued by the developer. If there were a covenant that went along with that some of that language would go on the plat.”
Goss also said that one of her concerns regarding the future development of the site is the driveways that are coming off of Monroe. She said the driveways are narrow.
“I think the goal would be to avoid cars stacking onto Monroe as they are entering on into the property,” Goss said.
The applicant of the underdeveloped site is Gilbert Properties LLC. The applicant’s engineer is Garver LLC. Kenneth Lee, agent for Garver LLC, clarified to council that there is one more step after the final plat is approved before pulling permits.
Lee said the infrastructure design will take place after the final plat.
”So what we’ll do with that is we’ll typically work with the City of Hutch,” Lee said.” They are going to be requesting special assessments on this so we would do the engineering design. The city would actually be the owner of that project and we would do the design plan. So it would be constructed and then the owners of the lot would agree to pay those specials over time. That’s another opportunity for the city to make sure that are design does meet the requirements for the city.”
The next Hutchinson City Council meeting is on Tuesday, June 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Hutchinson City Hall, located at 125 East Ave B.
