FARMINGTON -- Farmington Planning Commission last week approved the third phase for the housing development, The Grove at Engel's Mill, and gave its recommendation to grant two requests to rezone land to multi-family for townhomes.
The Grove is a Planned Unit Development located between Folsom Elementary and the high school and north of Twin Falls subdivision. Riverwood Homes is the owner and builder for the development.
Farmington City Council approved the PUD in March 2020, which included the preliminary plat for about 40 acres in phases 1 and 2. The first two phases will have 128 single-family homes that are called cottages, manors and estates, depending on the lot size and the square footage of the homes.
The preliminary plat for Phase 3 shows 21 acres with 83 lots that range in size from .016 acre to 0.29 acre. Of the total, 55 lots are 0.17 acre and most of the others are 0.21 acre, 0.23 acre or 0.24 acre.
Planning commission member Gerry Harris asked at the meeting if Phase 3 could include a sidewalk that connects with the Farmington Sports Complex and the walking trail around the ballfields. This phase will be located behind Briarhill Drive and come up just to the edge of the ballpark.
Commissioner Chad Ball agreed with Harris, noting a connection to the park would increase the walkability of the area and tie into the walking trail and the high school.
Mark Marquess with Riverwood Homes said he would like to include this connection. The plans already show a stubout at the park boundary.
After the meeting, Marquess said Phase 3 will have cottages that range in size from 1,350-1,700 square feet and manors that range from 1,750-2,300 square feet.
He said a majority of the lots in phases 1 and 2 have already been reserved by buyers. All of the larger lots, called estates, and smaller lots, called cottages, have been reserved, he said. He said he only had about 20 lots left for manors.
Marquess said he hopes to start building houses in Phase 1 by the end of May and in Phase 2 by the end of June.
In other action, the planning commission approved two rezoning requests. Both requests will be forwarded to the city council for final approval as rezoning ordinances.
Brad Smith with Sycamore Investments asked to rezone about four acres at 272 E. Old Farmington Road from R-2 and C-2 to MF-2. Smith said he plans to construct townhomes similar to his townhouse development down the street on Old Farmington Road. These townhomes have three bedrooms, 2 /12 baths and are a "Class A rental property," Smith said.
The second rezoning request came from Keith Marrs with KSDA Inc., to rezone about two acres at 81 S. Hunter St. (Highway 170) from Residential-Office (R-O) to MF-2 to build townhomes.
Melissa McCarville, city business manager, said staff recommended both rezoning requests.
For the property on Old Farmington Road, she said a MF zone would provide a buffer between commercial land to the north and single-family to the south. For the Hunter Street request, she said improvements to Highway 170 and the proximity to U.S. Highway 62 make that property compatible for multi-family use.
If the council approves the rezoning requests, the owners will have to submit large-scale development plans to the commission before any construction.
In other news, the commission approved a request from James Kock on behalf of PBS properties to replat some of the lots for Farmington Creek subdivision off Double Springs Road. Owner Paul Schmidt asked to replat the lots to build a multi-family development on the land.
The commission tabled the preliminary plat for Hillcrest Subdivision on Highway 170. A preliminary plat for Hillcrest was initially approved in September 2020, but drainage plans for the development have since changed.
City engineer Christ Brackett with Olsson Inc., told the planning commission he could not recommend approving the current plan based on deficiencies in the detention calculations.
"The current drainage report still shows that the pond bank will overflow in the 100-year storm," Brackett wrote in a memo to the commission. "This is not acceptable."
Bart Bauer, who is developing Hillcrest, said the development would meet all requests made by Brackett.
Brackett replied that he had not seen any plans with these changes, noting he believes the owner will have to make the detention pond bigger to meet drainage calculations.
"I really need your engineer to show me what they plan to do," Brackett told Bauer.
The commission then decided to table the preliminary plat to give the developer time to provide appropriate documents for Brackett to review.