Update rejected: Neighbors object to Eventide’s project changes

The Jamestown Planning Commission unanimously rejected Monday an update to the existing zoning plan for Eventide Jamestown. The vote was 7-0 with Mike Rhinehart absent.
Because the Eventide property is zoned a public, open development and conservation district, it must submit a detailed plan for any construction projects for consideration. A plan had been approved in 2013, but another approval was required because the plan was changed.
Cindy Gray, planner for SRF Consulting, presented the information to the Planning Commission Monday.
The original plan included adding an assisted-living facility on the property and the demolition and reconstruction of the skilled-nursing facility. The plans called for the work to be done in phases. The public, open development and conservation district allows work to take up to seven years to complete the project.
The new plan includes an L-shaped assisted-living facility in the southwest corner of the property with parking lots in the southeast and northwest corners of the property. The original plan placed the assisted-living facility in the northwest corner of the property. The new plan also included no plans for demolishing the existing skilled-nursing facility, although it did show two outlines indicating possible locations for future new skilled nursing buildings.
The vote to reject the update to the current zoning plan came after several residents from the neighborhood around Eventide voiced concerns about the revised plan.
“It really appears to be a bait and switch,” said Joel Traiser, a neighbor to the Eventide property, commenting on the new plan.
Traiser said two lots, where homes had been purchased and demolished to create a greenspace buffer between Eventide and residential homes, were part of a parking lot in the new plan.
Don Thingstad, another neighborhood resident, said litter on the streets around the property was a problem.
“... The garbage and cigarette butts the employees throw out make my life miserable,” he said. “The smoking they do on the curbs in the middle of the night because they have to get off the property is a little unnerving.”
Many of the residents complained that Eventide had not communicated with them about the change in plans.
“This particular proposal flies in the face of communications with the property owners,” Traiser said. “I don’t like their approach.”
Gray said her company had recommended a meeting between Eventide and neighboring property owners. That meeting never occurred and there was no representative from Eventide or its architectural firm at Monday’s meeting.
The motion denying approval of the updated plan, made by Harold Bensch, Planning Commission member, included a recommendation to Eventide that “they have better communications with neighbors and have a representative at the next meeting.”
In other business, the Planning Commission approved a zoning change, preliminary plat and final plat for Dakota Acres First Addition.
Dakota Acres First Addition includes the homes along the west side of N.D. Highway 20 north of the Jamestown city limits. The properties fall within the 1-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city of Jamestown.
The zoning change changed the zoning of all properties to single-family residential. Some of the property had previously been zoned agriculture.
The plat enlarged some properties to 1 acre in size to allow on-site sanitary sewer systems under North Dakota law.
The plat changes the lot sizes of some properties to reflect current property ownership.
Duane Entzminger, owner of property to the west of the Dakota Acres First Addition, said the land between the properties along Highway 20 and the Jamestown Reservoir may be platted and developed in the future.
Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at 701-952-8452 or by email at knorman@jamestownsun.com