Kingston Tract takes next step
Planning Commission approves project’s conditional use permit.
For all the hoopla surrounding Bob Kingston’s proposed 15-home subdivision on the Bishop Nursery site on Home Street, the matter appears largely settled after Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting, in part because of concessions made by Kingston to address concerns at the Bishop City Council meeting on the January 12. The coup de grâce was an agreement made just hours before the Planning Commission meeting between project opponent Terrance Tye and Kingston.
Tye read the agreement to the Planning Board members, which included agreements on many of the issues decided by the City Council two weeks ago during its review of the project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and its approval of the Revised Initial Study Mitigated Negative Declaration.
The two major areas of disagreement were settled. Added to the City’s Conditions of Approval was that homes along Bishop Creek from Rome Drive would be single-level and an eight-foot wall will shield Rome Street residents from the subdivision. The need for the wall was questioned. City Attorney Ryan Jones said it would likely have to be added as a variance and be decided later as it could not be added at this meeting.
The Planning Commission approved the conditional use permit 6-0 and approved the Tract Map 4-2. The subdivision map will now go before the City Council.
The Commission approved all over proposed variances, including a 42-foot right-of-way, removing the planter strip and sidewalk on the first 250-feet on the south side of subdivision road; a 28-foot radius hammer head turn-around (“T-shape”), less than the minimum 7,500 square foot lot size for 11 of the homes and less than 50-foot frontage for two of the homes on the turn-around.
Kingston’s project engineer Andy Holmes of Triad/Holmes Associates, Inc. gave the commissioners an explanation on the request for variances, which essentially proposed to maintain the R-1 residential development using 2.75 acre lots.
With the subdivision’s approval by the commissioners, the matter now goes back to the City Council. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for February 8 but the City has yet to release the agenda.
