- I'll call to order the meeting of the Ellisville Planning Commission for July 9th, 2026. The first item
- on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Ryan, would you please stand? Pledge of Allegiance to the
- flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
- Okay, roll call please. David Drake. Here. Dan Swapper. Steve Hale. Here. Zach Michael. Here.
- Kamala Samples. Ryan Skaggs. Here. Pat Weselowski. Here. First item on our agenda is approval of the
- minutes for our meeting on June 4th. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those
- in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- Motion carries. Monthly conflict of interest statement. Does anyone have a conflict of interest with
- the items on our agenda for this evening? Seeing none, we have no old business. New business, the first
- item is the voluntary annexation of 5326 and 5328 West Woodyard Road, approximately 47.86 acres. The
- petitioner is Dan Rary. The case number is PC.
- 26-22. Good evening. First on our agenda this evening is petitioner Dan Rary's request to annex two
- parcels totaling approximately 47.86 acres of land. And the parcels are located at 5326 and 5328 West
- Woodyard Road. I will remind the plan commission that this is a public hearing about annexation of the
- parcels only.
- The proposed annexation area is 23% contiguous to the town of Ellsfield, and 100% of the property owners
- are parties to the petition. The parcels are currently zoned AGR, agricultural residential by Monroe
- County, and are recommended to be designated as agricultural upon annexation. The properties will be
- located in Council Ward 5.
- are serviced by water and sewer, the annexation should not require any capital projects to extend services,
- and any costs for extension of utilities is borne by the petitioner. Town will provide police, fire,
- EMS, and other governmental services immediately upon annexation. The Plan Commission action shall be
- in the form of favorable, unfavorable, or no recommendation to town council, which takes final action
- on the annexation petition.
- Staff recommends a favorable recommendation be forwarded to town council with the recommendation of
- zoning of agricultural upon annexation. I would ask that the favorable motion include the condition
- that both Ellsville town council and the Richland Township Board agree with the annexation, that the
- annexation move forward. The condition is requested because Ellsville reorganization
- with Richland Township adopted the reorganization plan. Both the town and township will approve resolutions
- agreeing to the annexations. The annexations will go before the town council on July 27th for their
- approval. Petitioners present if you have any questions. Does anybody from the commission have any questions
- for Denise? Okay, hearing none.
- Dan, do you want to say anything? Okay. Um, I will open it up to public comment. Uh, the maximum is
- three minutes per person, 15 minutes total. I would like to point out again that this is merely annex
- proposed annexation of the property. There is no development plan. There is no anything to talk about
- roads, drainage,
- Anything like that that comes up at this point, that's all in later hearings if a development of some
- type is proposed. I believe we got a letter about this. I would note that I don't see any way that this
- property would connect up to even an opportunity to connect up to Forest Park and I think
- That's all I have to say. So is there any, if anyone would like to comment on this, they can come up
- and sign in at the podium. Okay, seeing none. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the
- PC2622, the voluntary annexation with the addendum that
- With agricultural zoning? With agricultural zoning. And the condition of approval after both the town
- council and the township board pass resolutions for the annexation to proceed. With the agenda that
- the town council and township boards need to also do approval for the annexation as well. Second.
- Okay, we have a motion and a second. Denise. Denise. Renee. David Drake. Yes. Steve Hale. Yes.
- Zach Michael. Yes. Brian Skaggs. Yes. Pat Weslowski. Yes. Thank you. Almost. Welcome to Ellitsville.
- Okay, the next item on our agenda is the development plan approval for the Ferris development plan at
- 5010 North Lakeview Drive. The petitioner is Kevin Ferris. The case number is PC 26-24. Petitioner Kevin
- Ferris is requesting approval of the Ferris development plan for a minor subdivision, not for the site,
- development plan is for a minor subdivision consisting of four lots with single family homes, totaling 2.3
- The minor subdivision is, I'll remind you, is zoned residential two. The residential two zoning district
- allows a petitioner to design a minor subdivision around topographical constraints on the property.
- The primary plat for the subdivision was approved by the Plan Commission on June 4th. The technical
- advisory committee at that time reviewed the plans for the subdivision.
- division and they reviewed the development plan as well and found no changes. Petitioner will be making
- the following improvements to the Ferris storage minor subdivision, construction of a shared driveway
- which will serve all lots, construction of a small pond slash water quality feature in the southeast
- corner of the site which will serve all lots, and grade three lots for new houses. At this time,
- Either lot two will be responsible for the maintenance of the proposed pond or all lots will enter into
- a maintenance agreement. The Ferris development plan meets all minimum requirements of the Ellisville
- town code. The plan commission is tasked with either approving, approving with conditions, denying or
- continuing this development plan based on the following criteria.
- Number one, compatibility of the development plan with surrounding land uses. Staff findings, single
- family residential is found to the north, south, and west of the minor subdivision. Number two, compatibility
- of the development plan with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan. Staff findings, single family
- residential not fronting West State Road 46 is encouraged in the comprehensive plan.
- Three, adequate provisions for internal management of traffic. Staff finding traffic will enter and
- exit from North Lakeview Drive, and adequate traffic flow has been accommodated in the Ferris Development
- Plan. The Fire Department has approved the common drive shown in the Development Plan. Number four,
- analysis of the capacity of adjacent streets to ensure that adjacent streets can safely and efficiently
- accommodate the additional traffic generated by the development.
- Staff finding, all traffic should come from North Lakeview Drive. There is no reason for concern as
- three additional single family lots will not generate a substantial increase in traffic. Number five,
- adequate provisions for public facilities and infrastructure and provisions for extension of infrastructure
- to adjacent developable properties. Staff finding, a minor subdivision does not require the creation
- of public infrastructure.
- Provisions for the allocation of land for streets, parks, schools, public and semi-public buildings,
- homes, businesses, and industry as appropriate. North Lakeview Drive is maintained by a town at Ellsville.
- And I wanna remind you, it's a four lot minor subdivision. Seven, adequate on-site management of stormwater
- and erosion control. Staff finding, petitioner will be constructing a small pond slash water quality
- feature in the southeast corner
- of the subdivision, it will serve all lots. Number eight, adequate provision for green space and our
- landscaping. Staff finding landscaping in green space is not a requirement of minor subdivisions.
- Number nine, adequate provision for buffering to significantly reduce the visual impact of dissimilar
- developments. Buffering is not a requirement of minor subdivisions. Number 10,
- Adequate protection of existing limestone structures. Staff finding there are no limestone structures
- indicated on the site. Number 11 and lastly, provision of pathways, trails, and our sidewalks were all
- non-industrial developments. Staff finding, sidewalks, pathways, and trails are not a requirement of
- minor subdivisions. Plan, commission, action.
- on the development plan can be in the form of approval, approval with conditions, denial or to continue
- the hearing. The plan commission has the final say in these matters. Staff recommendation, development
- plan approval shall be predicated on the aforementioned criteria. If the plan commission does not find
- that the Ferris development plan is in agreement with those items, the plan commission shall approve it.
- Additionally, the plan commission may include any conditions they feel are necessary and relevant to
- develop the property in an appropriate manner. It is staff opinion that the requirements of the development
- plan pursuant to the town of Ellsville Unified Development Ordinance have been reasonably achieved.
- Staff recommends the plan commission approve the development plan. Petitioner's representative is here
- if you have any questions.
- See if I get this to work, there. So this is the development plan. And there's already an existing house
- here and then there'll be the ability to construct three new homes. Okay, does anybody have any questions
- for Denise? Seeing none.
- Does the petitioner want to say anything? Do we have any comment from the public? Okay, come on up,
- sign in, and you've got three minutes. And what's your name?
- We recently acquired the property north of this development site, 5020 North Lakeview Drive. I just
- had a few questions. You've answered a couple already. Obviously, water flow. It sounds like they're
- going to be something with a retention pond to take care of that. My next would be, will these be homes
- built for sale or for rental? Next question would be single story, two story? And then is there going
- to be any kind of
- protection for privacy for my lot to the north of them. That's it. AJ, can you answer any of those?
- That probably wouldn't hurt. My name is AJ Willis. I'm the engineer for this development representing
- Kevin Ferris.
- We don't know what the house plans are going to be at this time. They're going to be standard single-family
- residential. There's not going to be anything special about them or out of the ordinary. The town will
- review the building plans for building permits, so that will ensure that each building is per the UDO
- and up to standards. For privacy, there's no privacy requirements between single-family residential
- and single family residential. That's going to be completely up to the petitioner or the adjacent property
- owners. We're not required to add any type of privacy buffer. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay,
- I will make a motion that we approve
- Case number PC26-24 for 5010 North Lakeview Drive. Second. Second. Okay, roll call, please. David Dre.
- Yes. Steve Hale. Yes. Zach Michael. Yes. Ryan Skaggs. Pat Weslowski. Yes. Thank you.
- So before we move on to the next one, just so that you were clear, we don't have building plans at this
- point, that comes at a later stage. And that there's no requirement, that we don't typically put barriers
- between single family houses. If you wanna put up your own fence, you're fine to do that. Okay. Okay,
- next item on our agenda is primary plan approval
- 24 lots, 29.64 acres in the Barberry State's phase three subdivision, 7691 West Reeves Road, gas number
- PC26-17. This is a request by petitioner Josh Clark of Barberry Homes for primary plat approval of the
- single family residential subdivision consisting of 24 lots totaling 29.64 acres,
- The lots are zoned residential one, single family residential. Subdivision will be accessed from West
- Reeves Road. Technical Review Committee met on May 19th. All items have been addressed. The lots will
- meet all size and dimensional requirements of the UDO, Unified Development Ordinance. Plan Commission
- action on the primary plaque can be in the form of approval, approval with conditions,
- denial are to continue the hearing. The plan commission has the final say in these matters. It is staff
- recommendation. It is a staff opinion that the proposed primary plat will meet all required zoning and
- minor subdivision regulations. Therefore, staff recommends that the plan commission approve the primary
- plat for Barbaria State's phase three subdivision. And I wanna go through various pages from
- the primary plat. So this is an overall rendering of how it will look once all lots are in. And you'll
- notice the ponds in the center. And I just wanted to go ahead and show you, this is the site and utility
- plan and how the road will come in and it will also connect to this road.
- And this is another site and utility page from site and utility plan. And this shows a little more of
- the lots and the pond. And that connects out to Loudoun? Yes. So Reeves is this way and then it'll go
- out to Loudoun. Wow, okay. And this is first page of the grading plans.
- wanted to show you mostly this is for the pond, and the engineer can explain later erosion control around
- the pond and the changes being made to the pond, which we're very pleased with. But there's some technical
- detail in there, so I'm gonna let him explain it. This is another page from the grading plan.
- This is the last page from the grading plan. So I'll be happy to go back to any of these if you'd like
- to see them. Petitioner's representative is present to further explain the changes made to the pond
- and erosion control, things like that.
- Okay, you're up, again. AJ Willis again, Josh was unable to make it tonight. So just a few things I
- wanna talk about with this plan. It's pretty much the same plan that you guys approved in 2024, except
- we added 10 lots. The only changes from the previous plan set, we increased the tree,
- plot width for the sidewalks to six feet. And then there were some stormwater changes because Ellsville
- came out the new stormwater ordinance. So the stormwater changes are actually more conservative now
- than they were back in 2024. So the existing lake in the middle of the site, it's just basically a farm
- pond where it only had a dam and a spillway. So what we're doing is we're actually
- incorporating a new riser structure. It's a six foot by six foot box that's going to hold the water
- surface elevation. And then we have 4.2 feet of storage to the spillway of that lake. So essentially,
- on a normal day, the water elevation will always be at 758 point whatever. That's where that riser structure
- is set at. It's gonna hold that water surface elevation. And rain events,
- providing 4.2 feet of storage above that normal pool elevation. And that's how we're able to reduce
- the runoff rates from the site. So that lake actually takes in a total of 136 acres of runoff. It's
- about 100 of that is offsite coming from the south and the east. So our lake design actually
- reduces the runoff rates for off-site water as well. Per the storm water design manual, we're not required
- to do that. But since it is just a large amount of water, we've incorporated the tension into our design
- for the off-site runoff. In the 100-year storm event, the pre-development runoff rate is 230 CFS. We're
- reducing it all the way down to 61 CFS out of the existing lake.
- And then just north of the lake, there's a small stormwater and detention pond. That's for our 21 lots
- that are actually draining below the lake. None of this new development actually drains into the existing
- lake except for like one or two lots. And I'm more than happy to answer any questions. Does anybody
- have any questions?
- Don't go far. Okay, we are now open for public comment. If anyone would like to comment, you get three minutes.
- My name is Rose Seguin, and I live in Barberry Estates. My husband and I have a home there. And since
- we were actually the first residents there in that development, and we've not been told much about the
- extension and the development, which we don't have a lot of problem with. We do have some questions
- concerning the pond area.
- We've had some drainage problems on our land and have had to do landscaping more than once, but we've
- kept it up at our own expense. Our question about the pond is health reasons. We've not been told what
- the expenses will be to keep it up, what the safety concerns are for children
- There's so many children around there with the school. And Prominence Point has children. They're in
- and out of the neighborhood riding their bikes. And children will be attracted to a pond, as well as
- insects, bugs, little animals. But mainly the children. We haven't heard anything for safety. They will
- be playing down there, no doubt. And another issue.
- that I think, and ponds are nice. They're kind of an attractive nuisance, but they aren't an expense
- as well. One of my other questions was we were told initially there would be an HOA, and then because
- we have all kept up the common ground near our lots at our own expenses, they kind of let that go. Josh
- and Lindsay did not collect it this past year.
- How will the HOA be initiated again and how will it affect us that we're not anywhere near the pond
- area where it's going to be, but yet will we have to pay for what maintenance will be done yearly or
- what, and how will that affect our taxes? Will they keep it insured in case children are hurt there?
- There's just things that,
- We've not been told anything actually and we just had these questions and concerns. Thank you. Maybe
- you can try to address some of those that are relevant to our things and then get with them afterwards
- and answer some of the other things. Really the only thing I can really speak on that because I don't
- really know how the HOA is set up.
- is just the safety concerns for the pond. So anytime you have a wet pond, it's standard that anytime
- you have a pond that's deeper than four feet, you kind of create a shelf on the embankment. So all that
- storage that we're providing, that is, so the water surface elevation is gonna be four feet below that
- spillway, then there will be a shelf. So that's if in a rain event, if somebody falls into the pond,
- They're not trying to climb up a steep embankment. They have somewhere they can stand and get their
- foot in to get out of the pond. And then every four feet, you just have that shelf in the bottom of
- the pond. And that's usually about 10 feet wide. That's really the only thing you can do in a situation
- like this, other than fence it. But when it's a pond, it's going to be used as an amenity. There's going
- to be a walking trail around it in the future. That's kind of how you
- account for safety. Okay. So so most of the questions that you had revolve around things that we don't
- have control over that you'll have to talk to the whoever runs the homeowners association or the the
- there isn't there an office for this
- subdivision right there on Reeves Road? And those are, that's where you need to ask some of these other
- questions. We can only control how they divide the property up and make sure that it fits within the
- town's regulations. Those other questions are things that are really outside of our control that you
- need to talk to the developer and the homeowners association about.
- I don't see any way it would raise your taxes. Only the government can raise your taxes. So, I mean,
- if you're paying homeowners or HOA fees, they could increase those to pay for some of those things,
- but we don't have any control over that either. So you'll have to, he can maybe get you in contact or
- tell you who to contact to get some of those other questions answered.
- for the pond, is there like a year, like a lifespan? I'm not really sure. So that's kind of outside
- of my purview as well. The petitioner has actually hired a geotechnical engineer that provided them
- with plans on how to rebuild that
- that dam and that spillway to ensure that it has the structural integrity to withstand all these rain
- events in the future. So those dams usually have a clay core that have really high compaction requirements.
- And it's usually like a trapezoid. It comes down at a 45 degree angle. So that's kind of just
- That's really all we can do lifespan-wise is just to ensure that the dam and the spillway are constructed
- properly. And that's why the petitioner hired a geotechnical engineer to actually give them specifications
- on the design of that dam. So would they have that information
- like more readily available as far as lifespan goes from and see if that's mentioned. I'm not sure if
- it is or not. I will add that when all is said and done that our engineer will be inspecting it as well
- before it's turned over to the future who pays for that.
- I'm not sure who pays for it. That's kind of a difficult question because it depends what is wrong.
- So what we've done with our riser structure, we actually have a 12-inch pipe that extends into the pond.
- So let's say there is a breach in that spillway or a breach in that dam. They can actually drain, I
- think it's like the first three or four feet of that
- the normal pool elevation out of that pond through that 12-inch pipe. And then if that gets them to
- the point where they can do their repairs, they can. If they have to drain it more, they'll have to
- pump it from that point. But that 12-inch pipe, there's a gate valve in that box. So if there is a breach
- or if there is a damn failure, they can start draining that and it will drain slowly. That's why you
- extend a 12-inch pipe into the pond. You don't extend this
- great big pipe so it just rushes out. So we do have some measures in our pond design for situations
- where that pond does need to be drained rapidly. Okay, any more questions for AJ? And can you make sure
- you talk to them after the meeting and tell them who to get hold of?
- Do we have a motion? In that case, I will make a motion that we make approved, primary approval for
- case number PC26-17. Second. Okay, roll call, please. David Drake. Oh, come on, I'm always first.
- Pat Wesolowski. Yes. Ryan Skaggs. Yes. Zach Michael. Yes. Steve Hale. Yes. Thank you. I must be more
- important. Planning Department update. Our next meeting is August 6th, and at this time I have no new
- business. Okay, privilege of the floor. Planning Commission comments.
- Seeing none, we're adjourned.