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.