By Rudy Hemmann

The Surveyor

The planning commission held a regular business meeting on the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2019, to consider action on four tracts in and around town.

The first of these was a request for annexation of two properties located in north central Berthoud. According to the staff report for this agenda item, Troy Campbell, a family member, is acting as the agent for both properties.

The first property, which is named WWW Properties, consists of 1.87 acres located at 2542 North First Street. It is bounded on the north by the Pro-swing baseball training complex. Property to the south is currently being used as a car/truck storage lot. The 1.87-acre tract has an uninhabited residence and outbuildings on the site.

The other property consists of a vacant lot which measures 15.95 acres. This property, named the Weibel property, is located directly to the southwest of the WWW Property.

The WWW Property can be accessed directly from First Street, while access to the Weibel property is by way of Clayton Place.

The applicant is suggesting light industrial zoning for both tracts. Curt Freese, the town’s director of community development, briefly presented the item to the commission before standing aside and allowing the commissioners to ask questions of the applicant. After only light questioning from the dais the following three motions were made.

Due to statutory requirements which govern annexation, the following ???

and passed unanimously. A similar motion was made for the Weibel Property, and it also was seconded and passed unanimously.

For WWW Properties, a motion to recommend the town board approve the request to place the light industrial zoning (M-1) on the 1.87 acres known as WWW Properties, was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

For the Weibel Property, a motion to recommend the town board approve the request to place the light industrial zoning (M-2) on the 15.95 acres also known as Weibel Annexation, was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

A request of approval for a Final Plat (FP) for The Village at Rose Farm was brought forward by the applicant, Lee Martin of Landmark Engineering, acting as agent for Todd and Leroy Gabriel.

The tract in question consists of 8.67 acres located at the southeast quadrant of the intersection of Berthoud Parkway and Spartan Avenue. The current zoning for the tract is R-3 (Multi-family residential, which allows single-family duplexes, condos, townhouses and apartments.)

If approved the applicant intends to build 66 total dwellings on the tract.

Freese again introduced the item to the commissioners, although there was little to report since most of the complaints from a previous meeting (approximately one month ago) had been resolved to the satisfaction of the commission. The items which had caused concern included insufficient parking within the subdivision, adequate buffer between the subdivision and Berthoud Parkway, and a pedestrian crosswalk over Spartan Avenue.

There was relatively little discussion among the commissioners and questions from the dais were few in number.

A motion was soon made to recommend the town board approve The Village at Rose Farm FP. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

An FP approval request was brought forward by Jim Birdsall and Jon Turner acting as agents for Heron Lakes Investments, LLC. Birdsall and Turner requested approval of the 12th filing for the Heron Lakes subdivision. The tract, which consists of just under 23 acres, is located in the heart of the subdivision near the clubhouse.

The applicants intend placing 84 single-family residential homes on the site. The staff report states, “The FP is exactly the same as the recently (just two weeks ago) approved Preliminary Plat, with no changes of any kind.

A motion recommending the town board approve the Heron Lakes 12th filing FP was soon made, seconded, and passed unanimously.

The commissioners ended the session by reviewing the latest changes to the development code.