The city of Kingfisher is instituting a new application for conditional use permits that will improve communications between the city commission and the planning and zoning board.

That decision came after a joint workshop involving members of the two bodies at noon Thursday to discuss the city’s 2018 ordinance regulating construction of metal buildings within city limits.

The ordinance requires larger buildings to be constructed of, or covered by, a certain percentage of nonmetal materials – 40% on the front and 25% on the sides – unless property owners obtain a conditional use permit allowing a variance.

Such permits require an application which is first presented to the planning and zoning board, which makes recommendation to the city commission to either grant or deny the variance.

Recommendations by the P&Z are most often followed by commissioners, but after several cases where commissioners voted contrary to P&Z recommendations, three members of the zoning board attended a commission meeting to ask why.

P&Z board members Reggie Redwine, Tim Abercrombie and Neal Brown attended the January city commission meeting expressing frustration with what they saw as conflicting interpretations of the code requirements and unintended consequences of even less attractive materials being used by builders seeking to avoid the conditional use permit process.

Thursday’s joint meeting was an attempt to iron out those issues.

City Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg, who’s become a strong voice in opposition to most variance requests, said the turning point for him was a variance the commission granted for a metal building that he now believes is a blight on the neighborhood where it’s constructed. “This has been my

“This has been my big learning curve on the whole situation,” Mecklenburg said after handing out pictures of the building. “This example allowed me to focus in and take a look at the code and what it means and shaped my opinion that if there’s an exception we need to make, there needs to be a significant reason why.”

“If I remember right, the fence was going to be covering up part of this [building], which is why we voted to recommend the permit,” Redwine said.

“In my opinion, if we do give someone authorization for a conditional use permit, it needs to be spelled out exactly what they need to do,” Mecklenburg said.

City Attorney Jared Harrison, who also attended the joint meeting, suggested that P&Z motions to approve conditional use permits contain language describing any limitations, which would then become part of the official minutes reviewed by the city commission.

“That might be a good thing in your motions if you all say we’ll approve an exception to this one so long as this, and this and this is met,” Harrison said.

The two groups then discussed changes to the application itself to provide more information to aid both bodies in making their decisions.

City Commissioner Geoff Covalt said property owners should be required to include a detailed description of the building to be constructed and materials used, as well as a layout of the plot that shows how the new building lines up with the existing structure.

City Manager Dave Slezickey said the application can be revamped to add those requirements as well as space for the zoning board to write in any limitations to permits they recommend for approval.

“For me, that addresses it all,” P&Z board chairman Austin Evans said. “We need to give a reason for why we’re doing it so if it comes to you all then you’ll know exactly what we recommend.”

Evans also said that occasional disagreements between their two boards were natural outcomes of the process and not necessarily cause for concern.

“We’re going through and making decisions based on what is presented to us,” he said. “We’re going to have disagreements because that’s just going to happen. That’s the process.”

Slezickey said his office would draft a new application form for both boards to review. The boards also agreed to continue holding joint meetings on an annual basis to ensure continued open communications between the groups.

City commissioners present at the meeting included Mayor Roxie Alexander and Vice Mayor Wendell Prim, in addition to Covalt and Mecklenburg.

Commissioner Bill Tucker could not attend due to illness.

All members of the P&Z board were present including Judy Whipple, Jean Crosswhite, Eddie Payne, Brown, Evans, Redwine and Abercrombie.

In addition to Slezickey and Harrison, city staff members present included City Clerk Brittney Hladik and building inspector Jon Friesen.