00:00:14,930	Good evening everyone. It’s March 25th and I’d like to welcome everyone to this meeting of the Bismarck Planning and Zoning Commission. And with that, I’ll call the meeting to order and ask Sarah to please call a roll. Commissioner Bittner. Here. Johnson. Schell here. Schmitz, here. Kovac, here. Swanson, here. Taylor, here. Wangler. Here. Schwartz.

00:00:42,700	Here. Thank you. With that, we’ll move on to our first item of business this evening. And that is consideration for approval of minutes. And we’ve got two, two sets. One from January 28th and one from February 25th.

00:01:03,530	And so I would entertain a I’d like a separate motion for each of those if um, if you would. I’d make a motion to accept the January minutes as they are presented. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Wangler, a second from Commissioner Johnson. Any discussion, not seeing or hearing any. Sarah, please call the roll. Commissioner Sevak. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Swanson. Yes. Wangler. Yes. Schell. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Bitner. Yes. Taylor. Schwartz.

00:01:39,300	Yes. Motion’s approved. Now, I request one for the February 25th meeting. Minutes. Motion to approve the February 25th meeting minutes. We have a motion from Commissioner Johnson. Second. Second from Commissioner Schmidt. Any discussion? Not seeing or hearing any. Sarah, would you please call the roll? Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Wangler. Yes. Schell. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Kovac. Yes. Bitner. Yes.

00:02:08,100	Swanson. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Schwartz. Yes. A motion is approved. With that, we move on to the public comment portion of our meeting. And in this particular for public comment, what we do is anyone that would care to make comments about an item that appeared on last month’s agenda or is not receiving a public

00:02:30,370	hearing on tonight’s agenda, you may step to the podium and address that is. And with that, I’ll open up the public comment period. Is anyone here care to step up and comment? I’m not seeing any second call. And third and final call. With that, I’ll close the public comment period. Um. Thank you.

00:02:55,700	With that, we’ll move on to our consent agenda this evening. And there really is a there’s two items in in the consent agenda, and they’re both, uh, both related. Uh, without if you if you don’t have any objections, I would like to pull, um, both items for comment.

00:03:15,970	And with that, um, there will be we’ll hold off approving of the consent agenda. And the reason I’m pulling it is because, most of I expect most of the commissioners here, other than myself and, and Mayor Schmitz, have not seen a lot of, um, the, the, the proposed land development code.

00:03:36,270	And so Daniel is going to step up and provide us with a brief and I say heavy on the brief, but uh, uh, some direction on, uh, how to go through things, look at things in the land development code. Thank you. Chair Schwartz. Uh, planning commissioners heard that loud and clear. I’ll be brief.

00:03:58,600	The whole dog and pony show will not be this month, but we’ll have to go through that as it gets into the public hearing. Uh, but as you know, the draft is released. It’s in your possession. It’s on the agenda center. Uh, it is also on Bismarck LDC, uh, available for the public with a commenting platform.

00:04:15,730	So anyone from the public can leave comments on various sections of the draft as well, if they so choose. For for your consideration next month. Uh, we are, um, toward the end of a fairly lengthy process. Uh, so the full draft is out. Um, is going through the the formal process at this stage.

00:04:32,430	Uh, I wouldn’t expect you to have digested this yet. You just got it last week. And that’s why there will be a whole nother month, um, for you to have a chance to look this over. Uh, we are certainly available as staff. If you have any questions or you want to learn more.

00:04:45,130	Digging into this little further, you’re more than welcome to. I did get the question from Commissioner Wangler a little earlier, um, about really understanding what’s changed from the existing title. 14. That’s a very good question.

00:05:00,970	And we really went back and forth on how to communicate that so much has changed, that it really was not feasible to do this traditional strike out in underlying, um, and things have moved. It’s a whole different structure. There are footnotes in the uh, section that show what has changed. Those footnotes will be removed in the final version, but they tell you what’s new and what’s been modified.

00:05:19,000	Uh, of course you’re welcome to check the existing title 14 on the website, but I know that’s maybe not too easy. Or you can just ask a question if you really wondering about that. Um, I do want to just walk through a little bit of the structure of, of the document as well, just so, uh, you can just see how how it is built, basically.

00:05:39,000	So this is the table of contents. Uh, this is all hyperlinked. I would recommend looking at this on the computer. We have printed copies for you as well, but it’s really designed to be moved around and navigated quickly on the computer.

00:05:54,130	Um, so if you look through the various sections, uh, I think the places I’d like to highlight are each in the residential zoning districts, there’s a summary table, really, almost all of the pertinent information in these sections is in that table.

00:06:09,600	Um, that’s where all the setbacks, a lot lines, the, um, the widths, the, uh, all of the sizes are all in that table as well as the table for chapter 1404 for mixed and nonresidential zoning districts. All of the zoning districts are new. They’re all changed. So we’ll all kind of have to get used to these new terms and these new, um, meanings and definitions for them.

00:06:26,830	Uh, the downtown is a different animal in this section. This is what we call form based code. There is a lot more detail in here that it’s intended to give some objective metrics for, for evaluating designs. Um, I hope that hope this isn’t too intimidating.

00:06:44,800	Um, some of the, some of the words are maybe more versed for architects. However, we’ve tried to make it as as user friendly as possible. There are ways to adjust things too, so if you see it as standard, um, there are also throughout sprinkled throughout the entire document, uh, sections called adjustments.

00:07:01,300	So if a case by case scenario, things don’t fit exactly the way they would be written, uh, there are criteria that we can use to make those adjustments. So just want to point that out. If it looks like it’s maybe very tight the way it’s written. Uh, there are overlay districts. Uh, a lot of these exist.

00:07:15,800	Airport overlay districts, height limits, so forth. Um, floodplain hasn’t changed at all. So the overlays haven’t really changed so much. Uh, plan overlay district is a new term that we would use for puds. Uh, those would eventually be phased out. So there are no new plan overlay districts. But it’s a concept that will be applied going forward.

00:07:34,530	And then a table of allowed land uses if you want to start anywhere in the document, I might recommend starting here. Um, what this is, is it’s all of the districts in columns and all. And along with rows, all of the different land uses, the P means it’s allowed within that district.

00:07:50,400	Blank means it’s not allowed. S means it’s allowed with a special use permit. And a little asterisks means there’s some specific standard that might be applied. Um, if you look on the very right column for each district, you’ll see a way to get to a definition of that term.

00:08:06,330	And also if there’s any specific standards, um, you can you can find those, those there. So I think it’s a lot easier to go through it that way than to, to kind of navigate the whole document word for word. Um, and then I do just want to point out a couple of different chapters. Uh, some have changed, some are brand new.

00:08:22,400	Um, improvements is really how we do our infrastructure development after plat has been developed or approved by by you and the city commission, uh, site and structure design for specific types of uses, parking and loading, um, has changed to some degree. We’ve moved to more flexibility.

00:08:45,330	Uh, so instead of really strict standards of numbers of spaces per square footage and so forth, there’s a range. And then if you’re within that range, it’s by right. If you’re outside of that range, you just have to explain how it’ll work. Um, new section on mobility and connectivity. Um, and we’ll talk more about that next month.

00:09:00,330	Landscaping has changed to a little to, to some degree, although that is an existing chapter of our ordinance. Uh, parks and open space, uh, how we handle neighbor new neighborhood parks, steep slopes and those types of issues. Outdoor lighting is brand new.

00:09:18,700	Um, we do include some standards in our conditional districts or PUDs related to outdoor lighting, but we have nothing in our ordinance today. We have gotten comments over the years. Um, so if I had to summarize this whole chapter, it’s keep lighting groups downward focused, not outward upward focused. But that’s what the that’s what that whole section is.

00:09:32,570	So you might want to pay attention to that. It’s a brand new chapter. Uh, science has barely changed at all. Um, just some formatting changes in the science chapter. Subdivision of land. A lot of this is just capturing what we already do. Not too many changes there.

00:09:50,470	Um, there’s some new survey standards that our surveyor has been promoting and are included in the draft administration procedures. It may be kind of dry, but this is actually very important. Um, this is how we ensure we have enough transparency for the public, but also really efficiency for our applicants. Uh, I feel like we’ve struck that balance pretty well in here.

00:10:04,200	We’ve spent a lot of time discussing this at the steering committee level. Um, but we really want to make sure we’re moving things through quickly. But with people able to have the information they need.

00:10:18,330	Uh, nonconformity is we have this already in our ordinance, but there’s a lot more detail, I should say the ordinance is only apply going forward. Nothing applies retroactively, ever, in zoning. Um, so any of the new changes, we’ve really made great efforts to not create as many as to create as few nonconformity as possible. But they’re always our older buildings out there.

00:10:34,070	So this gives us the rules for how they can continue and use, um, and enforcement and measurements and definitions. That’s the overall outline of the, of the entire code. Uh, but we’re always available for questions. So if you choose to call for your hearing next month, uh, we’ll have it.

00:10:50,370	Then there will be a public open house, second open house held on April 15th. We did hold one a couple of weeks ago. Um, got a lot of good comments, and some of those have been incorporated here already, but we’ll have another one as well. There may still be changes between now and the next draft. We’ll we’ll document all of those very carefully.

00:11:05,470	If there’s any changes to the draft that you’ve seen. That’s all I have to say today. Okay. Thank you Daniel. And you will entertain questions. So yes, I guess it would be my hope that everybody would take a look at, uh, what is being proposed. And don’t try and and digest it all at one time.

00:11:22,330	There’s a lot of information there. And so take it in pieces. But, um, Daniel and I suppose any staff will be willing to, uh, feel questions on it, right? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. With that, um, our consent agenda is, uh, land development code and staff.

00:11:49,000	It is a zoning ordinance, text amendment staff recommends a call for public hearing. And then the second part of that is zoning map amendment. And staff recommends a call for public hearing on that. Also, uh, commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to call for both public hearings. Thank you. Commissioner Schmidt. Second. I have a motion. Okay.

00:12:12,500	We have a motion from Commissioner Swanson. Any discussion? Not seeing or hearing any. Sarah, would you please call roll? Commissioner Sevak? Yes. Johnson. Yes. Swanson. Yes. Wangler. Yes. Michelle. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Bitner. Yes. Taylor. Schwartz. Yes. Motion is approved. Thank you. With that, we’ll move on to our regular agenda this evening.

00:12:40,930	And the first item in our general, our regular agenda is approved. The Cruze subdivision. And Lauren is going to provide us with staff report. Uh, good. Evening, Chairman Schwartz and commissioners. Uh, Lido Cruz.

00:13:06,570	Damaris Torres, the Villegas and Verna and Barbara Hoover requesting approval of a major subdivision final plat titled Crew Subdivision, as well as the zoning map amendment from the agricultural zoning district to the RR residential zoning district. Um, for the aforementioned title or plat titled Crus Subdivision uh. The project area contains 9.97 acres and is located southeast of Bismarck, east of 52nd Street, southeast on the south side of 48th Avenue, southeast. Um, I would just like to note a couple things for this project.

00:13:35,270	So, um, prior to March 1st, 2026, this property was within Bismarck’s extraterritorial area. Um, that boundary in this area was adjusted on March 1st. And as part of that update to the agreement between the city of Bismarck and Burleigh County, um, the projects located in areas that were leaving Bismarck’s ETA that

00:13:57,670	were started with the city prior to March 1st, had the option to finish the process with the city. Uh, as such, the at the request of the applicant. This request is being processed as though we’re still within the city’s ETA.

00:14:14,100	Um, Berkeley County staff, however, have been part of the review process. Um, since the initial request was submitted in March of 2025. Um, the, uh, there are currently several buildings located within the area being dedicated for the right of way of this plat.

00:14:38,800	Um, the applicant’s consultant has noted that the owners of lot two intend to rebuild the current residence, which will comply with building code regulations. Uh, and setback requirements. However, the owners of lot one do not have intentions at this time to rebuild any of the structures on the lot at the direction of the city and county engineers.

00:14:59,370	A note has been included on the plat for those structures stating that no building permits or improvements will be issued to the buildings located within those dedicated right of ways. Uh, the applicant’s consultant is also working with Berkeley County staff on the dedication and acceptance of the rights of way for 48th Avenue Southeast, as well as Pinewood Drive. Uh.

00:15:22,070	Additionally, a paving waiver was submitted for those roadways and was approved by the Bradley County Commission at their regular meeting on May 19th, 2025. The property has been identified as rural residential.

00:15:42,070	In the future land use plan, um land to the south is in an undeveloped agricultural state and large lot single family residences are located to the north and west, uh, additionally to the north and east of the project area. The land is part of the city of Lincoln’s ETA. Uh, most of the nearby land within that ETA contain single family residences. The Planning and Zoning Commission did consider this request on May 28th, 2025, and called for a public hearing.

00:16:00,100	Uh, Apple Creek Township was also notified of the request on May 6th, 2025. Uh, they have not provided a comment as of this meeting. Uh, the public was notified of this request via publications in the Bismarck Tribune on March 13th and 20th, uh 62 postcards were also mailed to owners of nearby properties on March 13th, uh.

00:16:22,400	Additionally, a physical sign providing information on the public hearing was placed in a publicly accessible spot at the project location. On March 9th, 2026. Um staff have not received any public comments regarding this request.

00:16:44,430	Uh, the request was evaluated according to standards contained in the Comprehensive Plan Code of Ordinances and relevant State Law. As a result of all findings contained in staff reports, City of Bismarck staff find that the proposed final subdivision, plat and zoning map amendment would not adversely impact the public health, safety and general welfare and is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan Code of Ordinances and State Law uh.

00:17:06,270	Therefore, staff recommends approval of the Zoning Map amendment from the Agricultural Zoning District to the RR Residential Zoning District and the major final major subdivision final plat titled Cru subdivision. Do you have any questions? Commissioners questions? Lauren. I’m not seeing you’re hearing any. Lauren. Thank you. Thank you.

00:17:29,670	With that, I’ll open the public hearing on this agenda item is either the request or a representative here to speak to this agenda item. I’m here. And if you if you don’t mind, uh, sign your name on the on the log there and introduce yourself. Please. Um. Evening, commissioners. I’m Josh Mueller. I’m representing Lido in the project for the crew subdivision.

00:17:58,200	Um, I work for Mountain Plains LLC. So here, if there’s any questions need to be answered. So. Commissioners, questions for Josh. I’m not seeing or hearing any Josh. Thank you. Thank you. With that the podium is open for others that would care to address this agenda item.

00:18:20,470	And I’m not seeing or hearing anybody. So with that I’m going to close the public hearing. Um Lauren, any additional comments? No additional comments. Thank you. Chair. All right. Thank you. With that, commissioners, this is a request for a major subdivision final plat and zoning map amendment.

00:18:39,830	And staff is recommending approval on both of those agenda items. What are your wishes? Make a motion to approve. We a motion to approve from Commissioner Kovac. Second, a second from Commissioner Johnson. Any additional discussion? I’m not seeing or hearing any. Sarah, would you please call roll. Commissioner Schmitz? Yes. Johnson. Yes. Wangler. Yes. Swanson. Yes. Schell. Yes. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Bitner. Yes. Chair. Schwartz.

00:19:16,300	Yes. The motion is approved. With that, we’ll move on to item B in our regular agenda, which is a floodplain district. And Jenny is going to provide us with staff report on this. Thank you, Chairman Schwartz. Commissioners, the planning department is requesting approval of. A zoning ordinance.

00:19:37,870	Text amendment to section 1404 19 to update references to the North Dakota Century Code chapters relating to Senate Bill 2027. This bill took effect on August 1st, 2025. Clarified and streamlined local Floodplain management authority, and created new chapters in the Century Code, specifically chapters 4005, 11, 11, and 5806.

00:20:01,200	The North Dakota Department of Water Resources has requested that Community communities participating in the National Floodplain Insurance Program, which we do, update their ordinances. Bismarck regulates floodplain management through our zoning ordinance, which applies within the city and the extraterritorial area. No other changes to our floodplain ordinance is being proposed. The proposed amendment will not change how Bismarck administers or manages floodplains.

00:20:22,530	The public has been notified of this request. A notice was published in the Tribune on March 13th and 20th. To my knowledge, we have not received any inquiries or comments regarding the proposed amendment. The amendment was evaluated according to the standards contained within our Comprehensive Plan Code of Ordinances and State Law.

00:20:39,170	As a result of all the findings contained in the staff report staff report staff find that the proposed Zoning Ordinance text amendment would not adversely impact the public health, safety and general welfare and is consistent with our Comprehensive Plan Code of Ordinances and State Law. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the zoning ordinance.

00:20:57,800	Text amendment to section 1404 19 to update to update references to the North Dakota Century Code chapters relating to the Senate Bill 2027. Do you have questions. Commissioners questions for Jennie. I’m not seeing any. Thank you, thank you. This this is a public hearing. So with that, I will open the public hearing. Are there are there it is an opportunity to address this particular agenda item.

00:21:25,030	And I’m not seeing or hearing anybody stepping up to the podium to address this item. So with that I’m going to close the public hearing. Um, commissioners, this is a request for a zoning ordinance text amendment. Staff recommendation is to approve. And I really should ask Jenny if she has any additional comments. No, Mr.. Chairman, thank you.

00:21:45,300	All right. Thank you. Staff’s recommendation is to approve. What are your wishes? Motion to approve. We have a motion to approve from Commissioner Johnson. Second, a second from Commissioner Kovach. Any additional discussion? I’m not seeing or hearing any with that. Sarah, would you please call the. Roll Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Swanson. Yes. Wangler. Yes. Bitner. Yes.

00:22:15,170	Michelle. Yes. Schmitz. Yes. Kovac. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Schwartz. Yes. The motion is approved. With that, we’re on to other business this evening. And, uh, there’s actually just a couple of, um, a couple of items there. Uh, first of all, Daniel, I believe you were going to address the Joint Powers agreement with the Missouri Valley Fairgrounds.

00:22:40,830	Yes. Thank you. Chair. And this is just an informational item for the planning zoning commission. So both, uh, now, as of last night and the week before, both the Burley County Commission and the city commission have adopted joint powers agreement that will dictate, uh, not only the planning and zoning, but also building permits, fire

00:22:58,630	inspections. A lot of the rules and regulations and requirements inside of the Missouri fairgrounds. This is an area that’s owned by Burley County, although it is inside of city limits.

00:23:14,200	And so the really the intent of the JPA is to give them a little more autonomy, the ability to use their own staff to to go through that subdivision process. There’s still some checks and balances with the city Commission that are that is built into the JPA, but by and large, it’ll be a county run process inside of the Missouri fairgrounds.

00:23:28,070	I just want to make sure you’re all all aware of that. Um, there was a preliminary plat for, uh, Missouri Valley Complex second edition that started here. However, that will end here and then continue with the Burley County process. Okay. Thank you. Daniel. Commissioners, any questions for Daniel? Not seeing or hearing any Daniel. Thank you.

00:23:49,200	And then the only other thing that, uh, is on there would be to remind everybody about, uh, training. Yes. Thank you again. So it is scheduled for next next week, March 31st from 2 to 4 p.m.. So it is during the day. It’ll be upstairs. And the David Black said meeting room.

00:24:05,330	There are two planners from the North Dakota Planning Association, board members, who will be coming to give a little bit of an outside perspective on on what a planning commission does typically. And we’ll also give a little bit of local knowledge as well. So yeah, hopefully be here. It’ll be two two hours.

00:24:20,330	We’ll have time as well for questions and answers and discussion. And it is open to the public as well. It is okay. Thank you Daniel. And with that I would encourage everybody to attend if you can.

00:24:35,670	So um, with that I’m going to adjourn this this evening’s meeting. Our next meeting is April 22nd. And I thank you all