HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Special Use Permit to allow a yard waste storage and transfer facility on the property located at 400 Freel DriveCITY OF AMES, IOWA
H L E'
JUL 262017
rT CITY CLERK
CITY OF AMES. IOWA
IN THE MATTER OF THE
APPLICATION OF CHAMNESS CASE NO. 17-07
TECHNOLOGY, INC. FOR A SPECIAL
USE PERMIT, § 29.1503, AMES GEOCODE NO. 09-12-251-160
MUNICIPAL CODE, TO OPERATE A
YARD WASTE STORAGE FACILITY ON DECISION & ORDER
THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 400
FREEL DRIVE.
FACTS
Chamness Technology, Inc., has contracted with the City of Ames to collect and dispose of yard
waste. They have been operating the business outside of the City at 26107 530" Avenue (Black's
Farm) and now seek to establish the yard waste operation for one year at 400 Freel Drive while
seeking a permanent location. The site is zoned General Industrial and has no buildings or other
notable improvements on the site. It is within the Floodway Fringe.
The collection site will be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and Saturday
mornings through late fall. Customers can leave their yard waste for a fee for Chamness
employees to reduce the bulk and ship it to their composting facility near Eddyville, Iowa. No
more than a handful of customers are expected to show up during those open times. Community -
wide free yard waste collection days will also be hosted, once in the spring and four times in the
fall. The yard waste will be stored at the east end of the property, about 360 feet east of Freel
Drive, until a sufficient amount has been collected to be ground up and transported to Eddyville.
A grinder/chipper will be brought on site when needed.
Access to the drop-off will be from Freel Drive, looping around the eastern portion of the lot.
Applicant requests that as a temporary use, the drive aisle will not be paved and remain as
grassed area. A stabilized construction entrance of rock, 25 feet by 50 feet, will be placed at the
entrance of the site prior to the first yard waste free day on May 13. There is an existing fence
and a gate will be installed to prevent after-hours dumping.
One employee will be on site on regular collection days and there will be 15 to 20 more
employees and volunteers on site for yard waste free days. Traffic is expected to be increased on
the yard waste free days. The applicant and the city traffic engineer propose a traffic
management pattern to reduce congestion on Lincoln Way to the north and keep the queued
traffic off of arterial sand collector streets. Signage will be posted on those days to direct
eastbound traffic on Lincoln Way to South Dayton Avenue, then south to SE 5th Street where
access to Freel Drive can be made. Northbound traffic on South Dayton will be directed to the
site at SE 5th Street.
DECISION
The Board considers the facts as detailed above, and the relevant standards in Ames Municipal
Code Section 29.1503, and finds that the application meets these standards and that the requested
Special Use Permit shall be granted with the following conditions: That a rock stabilized
construction entrance 25 feet wide by 50 feet long be placed at the entrance to the site prior the
first yard waste free day on May 13, that the approval of the use be allowed through May 1,
2018, by which time all material and equipment shall be removed from the site and the site
restored to its current or better condition. If the site is sought for use again in 2018, the applicant
will need to seek a new Special Use Permit, and that a flood plain development permit must be
approved prior to initiating use of the site.
WHEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the applicant is GRANTED section 29.1503 of the
Ames Municipal Code, a Special Use Permit for the property located at 400 Freel Drive, subject
to the following conditions: That a rock stabilized construction entrance 25 feet wide by 50 feet
long be placed at the entrance to the site prior the first yard waste free day on May 13, that the
approval of the use be allowed through May 1, 2018, by which time all material and equipment
shall be removed from the site and the site restored to its current or better condition. If the site is
sought for use again in 2018, the applicant will need to seek a new Special Use Permit, and that
a flood plain development permit must be approved prior to initiating use of the site.
Any person desiring to appeal this decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after
the filing of this decision.
Done this 26t" day of April, 2017.
Heidi Petersen
Secretary to the Board