Planning Commission recommends zoning changes

The Ponca City Planning Commission voted to recommend zoning changes for two properties at its meeting Tuesday night.

The first was a change from C-1 Local Commercial to C-2 General Commercial for a property at 417 East Hartford Ave. The property, which is currently occupied by an insurance company, is part of a parcel a developer wants to use for the location of a convenience store. The parcel includes a second lot next to the insurance company as well as a corner lot at the northwest corner of Fifth Street and Hartford Avenue.

The developer’s plan is to use the properties for a Casey’s General Store.

Dale and Authureta Courtney, who have lived in the house immediately north of the corner property for 51 years, had questions about the use of the parcel.

“This is our second go-round with a commercial building next to our home,” Dale Courtney said.

He asked about the operating hours of the proposed convenience store, lighting on the building and a loading area that would be right next to the couple’s bedroom window.

He asked if the developers could be required to build a concrete block wall instead of a wooden fence on the property line. He said his home’s south side is 7 feet, 5 inches from the property line, and the distance from the property line  to the proposed north side of  the convenience store is 9 feet, 7 inches, for a total of about 17 feet between the store and the home.

He said  they have no problem with the zoning, just the location of the building so close to the home.

Development Services Director Chris Henderson told the Planning Commission that the comments and requests were reasonable, and a Technical Review Committee meeting would be held and the matters discussed during that meeting.

Ironically, during this process the Courtneys learned that their longtime home also is zoned as C-2 General Commercial. Henderson said the area was first zoned in 1974 and revised in 1983.

A representative from Casey’s General Store said he did not think  there would be any problems in accommodating the Courtneys’ requests.

Planning Commission members voted unanimously to approve recommending the zoning change. The matter goes to the City Commission at its meeting on May 8.

The panel then considered a request to change zoning at 3601 North 14th Street from R-1 Single Family Residential to C-2 General Commercial.

The Bob Hurley Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram dealership is negotiating the purchase of the property, with plans to close the deal this week. The property is next to the dealership, on the north side.

The property would be additional space for the display of cars, allowing the dealership to separate new and used cars.

Henderson said the west 400 feet of  the property would be zoned, not the entire property. He said everything from the dealership north to Hubbard is zoned residential, but there is no sanitary sewer north of Hurley’s property.

Approximately two acres  would become a hard surface, and water detention would be discussed during the site planning phase, he said.

Hurley said the dealership is very landlocked.

“We don’t want to flood anybody. We’re planning to asphalt it and put up lights,”  he said.

Work on the lot would take about 60 days, he said.

The panel voted unanimously to approve the request and send it to the City Commission for its May 8 agenda.

The board also unanimousy approved a request to place no-parking signs on Sykes Boulevard, west of Hall Boulevard, to stop trucks from parking on the newly opened road.

A request from a church to shorten shorten the median on the east leg of Hartford and Union to allow left turn entries and exits from a driveway 265 feet east of Union was tabled until the next meeting, at the request of the petitioner.