MINUTES

VILLAGE OF ST. HELENA

PLANNING BOARD MEETING OF December 6, 2012

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Chairman Jimmy English.

The minutes from the November meeting were read and approved.

Louis Hesse informed the Planning Board that the owners of the property next to Andy Paluck’s property, which is being considered for rezoning, have no desire to have their property rezoned.  The application to rezone the Paluck property is expected to follow regular procedure with a public hearing to be advertised next month.

The application for a conditional use permit for a jail, a law enforcement center, an E-911 dispatch center, and a VIPER communications tower, was presented to the Planning Board.  A Sheriff’s Department is not specifically listed in the permitted uses, but will probably be permitted either as an incidental use or inclusive under other governmental offices.  The jail and law enforcement center is expected to be approximately 103,500 sq. feet in size and will have a total bed capacity of 252 - 276.  The jail portion will have a lobby, visitation area, administration offices, intake, booking, medical, magistrate office, kitchen and laundry.  The law enforcement portion will have a public lobby, sheriff/ administration area, investigations, narcotics, patrol, evidence storage, lab, support and training, as well as 911 and information technology.   The County is in negotiations to purchase approximately 112 acres of land presently located in the Industrial section of St. Helena.  The reason they are acquiring such a large tract of land is to offset wetlands and environmental impacts.  It would also give the County room to erect other needed facilities in the future, such as a new courthouse, but there are no plans to do so at the present time.  There are also no plans for any fuel depot at the proposed site.  There are plans to install a pump station for sewer which will tie into the Burgaw pump station which connects to Wallace for water treatment.  The application was incomplete as it did not include certain aspects required by the UDO such as the layout of parking spaces, a lighting plan which includes the wattage and illumination expected, as well as a proposed provision for storm water drainage.  The Planning Board also set forth certain conditions such as a 200 foot buffer zone on the east, west, and south sides of the proposed facility.  The buffer should be opaque and consistent with the existing vegetation.  Outside perimeters, such as the entrance from Hwy 117, should also be buffered.  There should be two parking areas; one for personnel, which would be a controlled access from Front Street; and one for the public, which would be accessed from Hwy 117.  The access from Hwy 117 proposed by the County is a four-lane divided roadway.  Any signs shall not exceed 32 sq. feet and shall not be over 6 feet in height.  Lighting should be of low wattage and directed in a downwardly direction to reduce any illumination on adjacent properties.   Final recommendation by the Planning Board is contingent upon the acceptance by the County of the conditions set forth and the additional informa-tion as required by the UDO.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.