Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Wait till the light comes on. Oh, here we go. All right. Good evening. We'll call the Wednesday, July 8th, Chaska Planning Commission meeting to order, and I'll look for a roll call.

Here. Here.

Here.

Everybody's got a copy of the agenda. I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Seconded. First by Commissioner Austin, second by Commissioner Michalets. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. Next, we're into our visitor presentation, so it'd be the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak about something that may not be on the agenda tonight. Is there anybody out there? Pretty good full house tonight.

Anything online? No? Okay.

We'll move on to approving the previous meeting minutes from the June 10th, 2026 meeting. Look for a motion to approve those.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

Second. Motion by Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Austin. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

carries brings us to our action items we've got a public hearing tonight 7a to recommend approval of the conditional use permit cup for outdoor storage at 3700 chaska boulevard precision yard services pc number 2026-14 that's the old shram brewery site there that'll turn it over to staff

Thank you We have a conditional use permit request this evening for the address 3700 Chaska Boulevard Specifically for open storage. This is being proposed by the applicant precision yard services The site in question, again, is 3700 Chaska Boulevard. It's kind of on the southern, southwestern sides of the city. It is directly west of Chaska Boulevard, gains access off of there today. There is an existing building kind of in the middle portion of the site here. abutting other industrial users to the north also in the same zoning district and then you have open wooded land directly west which will also come into question with another item we have on the agenda this evening and some residential kind of to the northwest of the property Just to give you a background of this site in particular the building that exists on the property today was built in 1972 At that time it was a part of Chaska townships Jurisdiction, which was ultimately annexed into the city in the early thousands And at that time Carver County Public Works occupied the building and owned the building in sight and They used it as one of their maintenance grounds, particularly for their road maintenance. So they had outdoor storage as well on the site for road maintenance operations. Then in 2017, a new user occupied the building, which was a SRAM house. So in 2017, a conditional use permit was approved to operate a brewery and tap room at this site. They did eventually close their doors at the end of 2025. So now we're looking at a new user to occupy the building in sight. I also want to mention that when SRAM house went in, they also extended city utilities to the building. The pictures that are shown on this slide here show how the site looked during the operations of Carver County Public Works. So the 2005 to 2011 images reflect those operations. And then the bottom right image reflects when the brewery was in operation of that building. So the site in question is a little over four acres in size. The building is a little over 7,000 square feet in size as well. There's an existing access onto the county road just to the south of the site that gains access to the property. It is a standalone property, so it does not connect to the properties to the north. They have their own independent access on a different road. The property is in the restricted industrial zoning district, or I-2 to be exact, so the same zoning district that is present on the sites just to the north of them. In terms of what the long range plan guides this property, it is guided for high density residential, which is kind of in conflict with what the existing zoning is out there. And really what happens with that is if the property does redevelop and have major improvements done to it, it would be done so in connection or compliance with the long range comprehensive plan. The existing property owner is well aware of the long range plans for this site and the sites directly north for high density residential. It is kind of understood at this point that collaboration between all of the properties within that I-2 zoning district would have to coordinate redevelopment at the same time or that would be the ideal setup as there are limitations in terms of access into both of those sites from the county roads to meet their spacing requirements. So because of that collaboration effort that needs to occur, it's kind of at the mercy of the other property owners in that same zoning district to redevelop at the same time. So in the interim, we have a user that fits the zoning out there that doesn't plan to do any major improvements to trigger compliance with the comprehensive plan. um and the proposed use again will allow for the existing building to be utilized and again they're not proposing major improvements to the site So the current request is for a conditional use permit. But getting to the zoning that's set up out here for I-2, this is one of kind of the unique zoning districts that does allow for outdoor storage as a permitted use out there. And then when it goes over a certain threshold, that's when property owners are required to get a conditional use permit if it exceeds a two to one land to building ratio. So this property in particular can have up to 14,400 square feet of outdoor storage as a permitted use out there just based on the size of the building. So if a user proposes anything over that, they do have to apply for a conditional use permit. And that is why this request is in front of us this evening. Specifically, the user is proposing roughly 75,000 square feet of outdoor storage, so it exceeds that two to one land to building ratio. And this is for a landscape contracting company, Precision Yard Services. The details of the operation, so the landscape company is a family owned lawn and landscaping company that's currently in Jordan, Minnesota. So the image you see on this slide here is their setup in Jordan. They specialize in providing maintenance service for residential and commercial properties, mainly in the southwest metro area. They did recently sign a seven-year lease for the property at 3700 Chaska Boulevard to move their operations there. They would be kind of a normal Monday through Friday operation, 7 AM to 7 PM operating hours, and then have limited hours on Saturday from 8 AM to 2 PM. They'll have a total of 20 employees at the site, and they don't plan to have any customer or retail sales associated with the use. So the open storage proposed would be mainly on the north side of the site, so north of the building. And they've kind of highlighted in red on this upper left exhibit kind of the different outdoor storage components that they're proposing. So kind of the total area that's really being encompassed, again, is 75,000 square feet. It won't be fenced in. They propose approximately 15 trucks and trailers. Examples of these at their current site are shown in the bottom right images. They also propose storing small equipment and attachments, roughly 10 shipping and roll-off containers. Inventory storage, loaders and skids, four hoop structures, so these structures here seen in these images, as well as salt storage. The property can accommodate approximately 40 stalls of vehicle parking outside of the outdoor storage component. So based on the size of the building from a code perspective, it would require 21 parking spaces. So the 40 parking stalls, as well as the understanding of 20 employees occupying the site, 40 parking spaces Appears to be well over what they need for their operations With any outdoor storage the biggest component is screening and what can be seen from public view and public right-of-way so the applicant did put together a few site land and site land analyses and to give you an understanding of what you're seeing from Chaska Boulevard, kind of the main public thoroughfare adjacent to the site. So we have a few images on the right-hand side showing views from Chaska Boulevard looking. north and southwest off of that roadway one of the benefits of this site and kind of the site to the north is that there's a pretty significant grade change from the roadway and the properties there's about 30 feet of grade difference between those properties so it does help minimize what's being Seen from the public roadside. I think kind of the the main Visuals you see are kind of that eastern edge of the property A few more kind of looking north again farther down Chaska Boulevard and what can be seen from on top of the site here, too Just to show some of those openings that exist between the trees I think the only area that staff really recognized as an area for screening purposes and based on where outdoor storage is going to be placed is basically on that northeast side of the site. There's an opening there. There was a former accessory building that was with the Carver County Operations it has been torn down but just to give a reference of what can be seen from Chaska Boulevard as you can see some visuals into the site just based on that reference point of where that former accessory building was and where outdoor storage will be placed up to which would be a little bit closer than where that accessory building was so with that in mind they did provide a screening plan to kind of fill in that one gap area that was shown but staff would advise in addition of eight to ten Black Hills spruce to fill in kind of that eastern edge where that outdoor storage would be going up to and that would be or that's a condition of approval as the part of the CUP to grant a CUP or how we analyze them there are six standards that need to be met I'm not going to go through all of them they are fully analyzed in the staff report so I'm just going to highlight a few for presentation purposes which would be standards B and D B relates to the special use will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purpose already permitted, nor substantially diminish and impair property values within the neighborhood. The proposal for open storage exceeding the two-to-one building-to-land ratio will be no different than the uses that are immediately north and the ones that are the most exposed to the site. It will be consistent with those uses and what's seen there. Site lines into the site are minimal from adjacent public view and screening will be provided along the east edge of the property as well as what would need to be included or enhanced on that east side per staff's conditions of approval. And then D, adequate utilities, access roads, drainage, and necessary facilities have been or will be provided. As we mentioned before, utilities do currently service the property, so there's no issue there. No new access, drainage patterns, grading, or impervious surfaces are proposed as a part of this use and operation taking over here. So it will be used as is out there. So with that, we are asking for you to make a motion this evening to recommend approval of the conditional use permit for open storage exceeding a two to one building to land ratio and totaling 75,000 square feet at 3700 Cheska Boulevard. And then subject to the conditions that are listed in the staff report. If this moves on this evening, I would go to the next city council meeting, which would be Monday, July 20th. Happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, we do have the representatives here on behalf of the application if you have some questions for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Liz. Before we open up the public hearing, any questions for Liz or staff?

No questions. In my opinion, it looks like a great use of the property for now.

Has there been any discussions on security, if it's not going to be fenced in or anything like that, but high-intensity lighting for the lots and things like that?

Yeah, and the applicant can probably expand on kind of what their methods would be, but we did ask the question, since that's always a concern with open storage areas. I do think the site does lend itself to be... little bit more secure because of its topography difference between Chaska Boulevard in the site itself but they do also intend to put up security cameras so that they have visual on the site and kind of those outdoor storage areas this is the the Black Hill spruce trees heights size to those Those, at a minimum, would need to be six feet.

If nothing else, we'll open the public hearing at 7.20 p.m. And if the applicants would like to approach the commission here, happy to listen to what you have to say.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of the commission. My name is Alex Young. I'm going to speak commercially.

Applicant. We have no issues with staff recommendations for approval. We've been working with staff on this for a while. We're fully on board with the long range plan of high density residential. This is kind of an interim step in getting there. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. And certainly don't want to preclude anyone else from speaking at the public hearing, so I'll sit down. But if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Any questions?

No, I think Liz answered. The biggest one is I had is the high-intensity lighting. That's all. If there's not going to be a security fence around to hold it and all that.

It's a very good question. We were concerned about that with SRAM when we bought the building and leased it to SRAM. SRAM did have cameras. The new tenant will have cameras. There were no issues when SRAM was there as a tenant. The only time that we've actually had issues is when the building's been vacant. So the last few months, we have had a few issues. So we're excited tenants moving in here in July, and we'll kind of get back to business as usual. I think the one access point in and out helps that. I don't think people are getting trapped up there. And it was very public use before, so a lot of people in and out. There'll be fewer people now, so... Tenants aware of it.

They're aware that we had that concern with SRAM, but that there was also no issues so perfect Maintenance There's not going to be like a maintenance garage for the trucks things like it like extended maintenance, you know transmission change out stuff like that and

No, they're focused on, I'll call it light landscaping. So they're focused on maintenance of landscaping at areas like in Shask at apartment complexes and that. So they do a lot of mowing, a lot of snow plowing. It's not a heavy maintenance business. Much lighter maintenance than was there when the county was using the building. Okay. Yeah.

Perfect. Any other questions? I'd agree with you. I think it's, you know, when you look at that site up there and that building and the options for different businesses to take it, it was going to be something like that or a general contractor or somebody that needs the outside storage and a good building but not a whole lot of space.

It's always fun to take a tenant from Jordan. You said that.

i can say that yeah yes all right well thank you thank you is there anybody else who would like to approach for uh during the public hearing no anybody online liz no all right we will uh close the public hearing at 7 23 at that point and i'll look for a motion for approval

I'll make the motion to recommend to the city council approval of the conditional use permit for open storage exceeding the two to one building to land ratio totaling 75,000 square feet at 3700 Cheska Boulevard subject to the following eight conditions.

All right. Second.

Motion made by Commissioner Campbell and seconded by Commissioner Sailor. All in favor say awesome. I'm sorry, awesome. My notes are messed up here. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next one. To our second item of business, 7B, recommend approval of the concept plan for Vista Ridge Johnson Ryland Homes, PC number 2026-12.

Thank you, Chair. I have got this one this evening. Tonight, we have a concept plan by Johnson Ryland for 27 single family dwelling units on roughly 30 acres. The applicant is Johnson and Ryland Homes. This evening we are in the concept plan phase which the Planning Commission May have heard our speech many times, but I'm gonna give it just once more for anyone who may be tuning in Concept plan is the first of Chaska's three-step review process So it generally includes pretty high-level plans that don't include all of the details and so as a result of that I Our review of that gets to more identifying issues that we would like to see resolution as the project moves forward, rather than a concept plan resolving those identified issues. So tonight, that's the step that we're in. We're identifying those issues, and then we will continue to see those issues being resolved as the plan moves forward, should it move forward. The site is outlined here in black. Again, it's roughly 30 acres. It's surrounded by an area that has developed kind of roughly over the last decade. There's just under 350 approved residential lots spanning within five approved developments. And then recently, earlier this year, the Planning Commission reviewed a concept plan for the Holosik property that included, or that would add another 207 units. That plan included a mix of single-family detached dwellings as well as twin homes. Chaska's downtown is just off screen here to the right. And then the planning process is currently underway for the 50 plus acre southwest Chaska Park to the west of the site. Other notable areas, there is some property that's also owned for a future elementary school just further west of the Southwest Chaska Park. And then hopefully later this year, we will begin to see construction of Savannah Way, that collector road west of the park as well. So again, the site, 30 acres, is comprised of four properties, two of which were outlots that were retained by Linda Carlson for future development as part of ensconced woods to the north and Carlson blocks to the west. The largest parcel is unaddressed and also owned by Linda. And then the eastern part of the site is the Schramm Brewery site that Ms. Hansen just presented on just a moment ago. I think it's important to note here at this point that the project, the development this evening, is not proposing any major redevelopment to that site. So if the conditional use permit and the concept plan were both approved, within you know at the next council meeting there would just be some more review for how if there's additional screening that would be needed as part of preliminary but until that both of those items are approved we're just making note of that that that might come forward in the future The site itself is very heavily wooded. It's known to contain a southern mesic maple basswood forest. You can see here from these site photos, kind of looking from the south into the north, you can start to see, again, what you'll see is a theme throughout my presentation this evening. You may have picked up on it in the staff report for this evening. But this site's greatest challenge is going to be topography. The site itself drops about 100 feet in elevation from the highest point on the west side, kind of on that western property line in the northwest corner, to the lowest point in the southeastern corner of the site along Chaska Boulevard. Generally, this site kind of slopes downward from that high point to an area that kind of flattens out here in the middle, and then it's sloping down in all the directions from there. So as a result, the site, like much of the surrounding area, does include a number of steep slopes. It's a little bit hard to see on this image on the screen, but you can see it in your staff report. and you'll see it later in my presentation, kind of all of these areas that have this green overlay are wooded steep slopes under our ordinance. Generally, these steep slope areas are located on the north side of the property and the eastern side of the property, but there are some existing wooded steep slopes that exist just off-site on the south and the west. So before I get too far ahead of myself and into our review, I just want to quickly ground the Planning Commission and those in the audience of what the concept plan is. So there's 27 single-family dwelling lots. Those lots would be accessed via a new connector road. It would be a local street, but... It would run east and west, so it would generally connect at the point where the existing Schramm Brewery driveway is today, and then come up and through the site. It's shown to terminate on the western side of the property, but the plan does also contemplate a future roadway connection that would happen through the Lano property to the south at some point in the future. The remaining 13 lots then would be accessed via newly constructed cul-de-sac, which they are calling Soaring Eagle Court. And the plans then also include all of the supporting infrastructure to construct those new homes. So utilities, sidewalk, stormwater, et cetera. And then you can see what some of those home designs would look like here as well. So moving through the plans and our staff review of those plans, the site is guided by the comp plan primarily for low density residential, which does have a required dwelling unit of two to five units per net acre. But there is also property that's guided for high density residential, so that's SRAM site, thinking ahead for future redevelopment. And then as well as land that's guided for open space preservation. So rough calculation under the current plan does show that it's likely under that two dwelling units per acre. However, as you noted in your report, there is some clarification that's needed on that northern site boundary that's within that outlot. And so clarification of that would allow staff to further evaluate and just make sure that we're meeting that minimum threshold. Roughly two-thirds of the site is currently zoned open. So open, that's, as you know, a holding zone for property until it's redeveloped, at which time it's anticipated, or expected, rather, that it would be rezoned. The remaining third of the property then is planned residential development as part of the ensconced woods development and Carlson Bluffs over to the west. Then there is, as Ms. Hanson mentioned earlier, the Schramberry property is zoned I2. it's likely that you know a bulk of the site would be rezoned to PRD in that next step so in step two of our review process to allow for a consistent planned residential district across all of those residential lots but it's not anticipated that the Schramm brewery site would be rezoned as part of that request The lots themselves range in size from just over 13,000 square feet upwards to 116,000 square feet. The lot widths range from 70 feet wide to 405 feet wide, which is pretty consistent with lots within the surrounding area. However, the current lots are shown to extend within those wooded steep slope areas. The properties are shown to extend into the wooded steep slopes beyond that 30-foot no-mow, no-grade setback. And so it's always been staff's recommendation to align our property lines to stop at that setback. And really the intent of that is because it allows for the highest level of preservation of those very sensitive areas by taking it out of private property ownership. And some of the commission may recall that we had a similar situation in conversation with Carlson Bluffs to the west at their concept plan review. They were showing similar situation where all of their lots extended into that wooded steep slope. As a condition of approval, they came back at preliminary and they did adjust most of those rear lot lines to that setback. There was just two small areas of encroachment that still went beyond that setback. Those areas were placed in conservation easement and there are conservation signs out along that line to essentially establish where that boundary exists. So staff is recommending a similar condition this evening to adjust those property lines to be consistent with staff's practice or with the city's practice. The plan this evening does include a new main road. So Soaring Eagle Parkway is kind of that east-west connector road. It would intersect with Chaska Boulevard with an upgrade to a full intersection. on the east side and then again it would terminate there on the west side with a turnaround access that says it will accommodate you know fire trucks being able to to back in and navigate uh that the uh and then again those remaining lots access via uh soaring eagle court The alignment of this connection to Percheron Boulevard has been heavily studied and kind of predicted or anticipated by a number of our plans within the city. And so it first was contemplated, three alternatives for that alignment was contemplated in the Southwest Chaska plan. And you can see those here in relation to the development site. Ultimately, the preferred growth and development plan as part of that Southwest Chaska plan did place that connection just to the south of the development site on the Lano property. And so they're showing that that connection would happen roughly where the existing Edge Hill Road and Chaska Boulevard intersection is. Excuse me. And then subsequently, the 2040 comp plan did emulate that alignment when it was adopted. In 2018, the county studied these access points. And this is a little bit confusing. North is to the right of the screen and south is to the left. to the left. And so here's the SRAM brewery site. Here's their access. Here's Edge Hill Road access and the county's access plan for 61 and 41 corridor study did say that both of these access points would be upgraded to full intersections. So the Edge Hill access would be upgraded to essentially allow for this connector roadway that we're speaking about this evening. And then the SRAM brewery site would allow for redevelopment of those two northern properties. But most recently, so that kind of building on that, last year city staff in conjunction with Stantec, the city's engineering consultant took a look at, you know, identifying three potential alignments for this connector road. and looking at them in a little bit more detail and trying to understand what are the challenges that each of these alignments would present. An overarching theme was that any construction of a new road was going to have to overcome the site's topography and impacts of the steep slope. but it also looked at soil concerns and feasibility of constructing a roadway through what is today a gravel mine, gravel pit. So alignment three, it's cut off on my screen. So alignment three essentially cuts through what is the lano pit today, so kind of punching through straight through. This one was quickly eliminated because of soil feasibility concerns in the gravel pit. Going down a significant amount, soil borings were not getting to a point where that was structurally acceptable. Feasible and it also presented concerns with its proximity to the county road 40 intersection The alternative one alignment, again, is looking at connecting into Edge Hill Road and Chaska Boulevard. That option wasn't necessarily eliminated, so it's still up for consideration. However, the study did show that this would likely have the greatest amount of steep slope impact of the three alternatives. So alternative two, this alignment generally is aligning with what's being shown this evening as part of the concept plan. There are some subtle changes, but ultimately landing at that Schramm House Brewery location And this location was generally shown that would have the least amount of soil stability concerns as well as steep slope impacts. And that it would, you know, again, continue to support the redevelopment for high density on those properties to the north. So kind of in summary and conclusion of that, there was a lot of pages in the staff report related to this. But in short, while we acknowledge that there's additional engineering and some design information that is needed to fully evaluate whether alternative two or alternative one is the correct location kind of for where that alignment happens. We are generally supportive of continued exploration of alternative to and what's currently being proposed. This is a very minor detail in the grand scheme of things, but still worthy enough to note. There is a historical marker within the right of way of Chaska Boulevard. That historical marker was built in 1938, and it was reconstructed in 2010. or 2009 rather, but it was put on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2010 following that reconstruction. And so the developers indicated that there's no plans and that there would be no impact to that site. Some of their plans do show some line work. It seems like it's probably just an error in the line work, but we would ultimately want to make sure that there are no impacts because Any impacts would require some lengthy and additional review by outside jurisdictions just due to that historic designation. To construct that east-west roadway, there is a sizable retaining wall that's proposed kind of on the north side of Soaring Eagle Parkway. There are kind of two areas of grading within this steep slope area. And then there's a third area that is shown to have grading onto the Lano property to the south. And so we would want some additional information just to understand those impacts. And this profile is often in plans that come before you, but not often do we as planners get to talk about street profiles in a planning presentation. So I am gonna walk you through this a little bit to help you kind of orientate yourself and feel free to stop me and interject with any questions should you have them. I also acknowledge that I am not an engineer. There is about 80 feet of grade change that occurs along the 1800 feet of that new proposed roadway. And so in this profile, kind of on the left-hand side, so this section is showing the cut and fill that's needed for that future corridor, that future connection on the Lano property. This line is really designating where the roadway on the property is starting. So this black line then is at that intersection of the cul-de-sac and the new road, and then we're continuing all the way to this point, which is really that intersection of Chaska Boulevard and Soaring Eagle Parkway. And so the red is obviously areas of cut, green areas of fill. So kind of over the course of that 1,800 feet of new roadway, the average grade change is well within our city requirements, our city maximum allowable percentage. grade change however it's on this eastern side where we're getting to a grade change of 14% that's far exceeding what our city maximum would be and so that starts to present a number of concerns especially when it comes to you know maintenance snow clearing and most importantly fire access So again, in short, we generally at a high level support the alignment, but we do need more information, especially when it comes to the engineering part of it, to fully evaluate that proposed alignment. So we expect to bring you more details and maybe some more profiles at the preliminary review. So moving beyond the roadway construction, the plan does include a five-foot sidewalk on the north side of Soaring Eagle Parkway, again terminating on that western side with the plans then that it could be extended beyond. And then a new five-foot walkway down the east side of Soaring Eagle Court. Generally, that's appropriate for single family neighborhoods. However, there have been a number of plans and kind of trail connections and junctions that have been contemplated for this site by previous plans. So the first is the 2040 comprehensive plan, which is showing kind of this trail junction Again, showing the shared use path along this new connection, as well as a shared use path that's connecting Savannah Way on the west up to Big Woods Boulevard on the northeast. And again, we see that kind of general alignment showing up in the recently adopted 2040 Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan. And so there are a few conditions included in your report this evening that do get to ensuring consistency with the surrounding neighborhood, ensuring that we're getting those connections that need to happen, as well as meeting our ordinance standards and looking and exploring opportunities for these paths and trails to connect through the site as they were kind of previously thought through. The site itself, as I noted, is very heavily wooded. You can see here this depiction does a better job. Those green areas are the wooded steep slope areas, kind of both on the site as well as off-site. A tree inventory and a comprehensive grading plan for the entire site has not yet been submitted as part of this concept plan. So this evening I can't share a lot of details about the extent of those areas. Those plans, however, we will see them as part of our next package, and then I can provide more of those details as part of preliminary. The plan also is showing connecting utilities to the site on the eastern side, connecting into existing infrastructure by directionally boring under Chaska Boulevard, bringing up through the site. and then looping through, looping that water main through to existing utilities that are in Percheron to the west. This does require coordination with the property owner to the south, the Llano property, because the city would advocate for that looped water main connection to happen at the time of development to ensure that the development has adequate water pressure just Because of the the topography grade or the site of the site's topography So again that does you know kind of have impacts to these adjacent properties and so we would you know need to see some coordination ahead of preliminary for that The new homes are generally shown to be similar to other Johnson and Ryland projects in Chaska. Submitted floor plans suggest footprints of just over 2,000 square feet and are shown to be a mix of single and two-story homes. Generally, the homes... appear to be consistent but again we just need some more architectural details to confirm that and then all of the homes within the development like any new home would be subject to the city's anti-monotony requirements at the time of building permit The proposed setbacks, generally consistent with what we see, they are identical to what was approved for Carlson Bluffs just to the west. You will see that there is a condition of approval to add an interior, or excuse me, a side corner lot setback just because there wasn't one included. It was not an issue with Carlson Bluffs because there were no corner lots, but there are a few within this development. So we did include a condition and recommended approval A 15-foot setback here just to be consistent with those surrounding developments. So staff is recommending approval of the concept plan. We find that it's an appropriate land use, logical expansion of development that's been thought through this area. The conditions of approval that were included will help get the resolution on the identified issues that we've talked about this evening. An approval tonight does not necessarily approve construction. You'll see it again with more details moving through that process. And then the right-hand side is just identifying, kind of in summary, that running tally that was happening on the left-hand side of my presentation, just carrying that over. And again, the project would come before you only after we can check all of those boxes. So with that, looking for a recommendation to approve, and I will turn it back to you, Chair, for any questions.

Thank you, Ashley. Questions for staff from the committee?

Is there a requirement at all for new neighborhood developments to incorporate a neighborhood play area of unknown size, just general-wise?

Chair and Commissioner, so there is a park dedication requirement. Oftentimes we see when there is proximity to, oh, I'm not going to make you carsick. Let me just do this. Oh, that did not work. The city may take a fee in lieu of parkland dedication if it's within a certain distance of a park. In this case, it's something that we would look at as part of preliminary. It has to be figured out as part of the development agreement, which happens kind of outside. after your guys' review of this project. But given the property's proximity to the southwest Chaska Park, I don't see that staff would advocate for a park specifically in this neighborhood.

All right. Cool. Any other thoughts or comments? I like the staff's review of the 2040 bicycle and pedestrian plans and to incorporate, you know, the eight foot wide path through there instead of a five foot walkway. I mean, just it's, you know, I think that's just a perfect spot, you know, for it because you've got Chaska Boulevard. You don't want anybody on that. But you're going to have a lot of bike traffic going through. So you need the bigger pathway.

Looks like it could be a really nice development. I appreciate the work, actually, and city have put into it, especially all the different studies on the road options. It seems like you've gotten to a logical place there after a lot of study. I guess the one thing I'll share, it's sad to me to see the extent of tree removal that's being proposed. And I know this is concept, didn't go deep here, that'll come back at preliminary, but I just want to share from my perspective, it's disappointing to see that extent of forest removal.

Anyone else? It's a tough site. Yes.

Yeah. When I look at that, I look at it, it's a very challenging site. You've got a lot of grade change there. You've got steep slopes. You've got, you know, the last remnants of our big woods around here. And it all kind of comes together, and then it's next to a gravel pit as well. The one thing that concerns me with this project is because of the steepness of the road coming down the Chaska Boulevard there and not having a second entrance into that development, if there ever is an issue on that slope there and we can't get emergency vehicles on the other side of it, then that can be a big problem. And then I'd say also just from having driven down Big Woods Boulevard many times, at the bottom there, especially in the wintertime, it gets a little slick. So trying to flatten that out at the bottom as much as possible so you've got a little bit of a cushion down there, which is hard with a historical site on one side. You said that the max grade there would be 14%?

Chair, that's what they're proposing. So our maximum city standards for local streets is 8%. 8%.

I think you said the county evaluated that intersection. Are they putting a signalized access in there or just proposing...

Chair and Commissioner, the study ultimately showed that they would be full intersections. I don't believe that it got to the level of detail of whether they would be signaled or not.

So I would say just with the amount of trees that they have to take out, the road, making sure that we have some sort of possibility of a road connection going into the gravel pit at some point in the future the trail plan steepness of the road we've talked about the historical site I like the plan. It's just square box, round hole type thing. But that's my thoughts on it. Anyone have any other thoughts on it?

It fits well within the housing concept all the way down. You walk through that Founders Ridge all the way down. It's beautiful.

This would be a beautiful addition. Sure.

I know it's not a public hearing, but do the applicants want to say anything?

Matt Ryland, Johnson Ryland Builders. I just wanted to say we're really excited to, you know, this is basically kind of the third phase of what we've already done. We see that, you know, it's a continuation of what we've done. It's real consistent with, it'll look real similar to the other neighborhoods we've done. Just let me know if you have any other questions.

Perfect. You guys did a nice job, so. Thank you. You bet. You bet. All right. With that, I'd look for a motion to approve.

One second, Chair. There was a presentation prepared, so I just want to make sure that... Did you want to pull it up? Sure.

I won't lie. Her presentation was way better than mine, so I don't want to bore you all with the redundant details over and over again, but...

We don't grade presentations unless they're really bad.

Good. I'm glad to hear that. Well, I just kind of maybe look at it less granularly and go back to the 1,000-foot view quite literally. I think we can skip to the fourth or fifth slide there. This was not in the presentation. I don't believe that the concept drawing was that in there actually, the previous slide. this one this is more of a cartoon drawing of the neighborhood and what it would look like in context of the neighborhood and if we can go to that next drone shot this I kind of just wanted to point this out this is drone shot from literally a thousand feet and it shows great context of Carlson Bluffs and ensconced woods right there and I think what I'm kind of wanted to show is that this neighborhood isn't an isolated thing this is really connected with the other neighborhoods as you talked about the walking paths and It's a really beautiful area and you know it's marked with our Johnson and Ryland quality and whatnot and we've worked with you guys in the past and I'm sure you know that. So yeah I just kind of wanted to bring these photos here. I'm a visual person so it kind of helps me to share that as well. I hope you see that it's not a we're not trying to take another piece of land this is connected with other things as matt said this is phase three essentially within sconce woods being phase one carlson bluffs being phase two and this would be our third phase and it's a connected project it's been thought through from our engineers all the way to the marketing side and um yeah i think you guys know us well so if you have any questions you're more than welcome to ask them so thank you perfect thank you

I think everybody kind of understands your challenges are the same as our challenges, right? Looking for a motion to approve the concept plan?

I'll make a motion to approve, recommend approval of the concept plan for the 27 single dwelling units on site east of Carlson Bluffs and encompassing outlot A, Carlson Bluffs, outlot H, and Sconced Woods, 3700 Chaska Boulevard, and the adjacent unaddressed parcel east of Carlson Bluffs to the city council, subject to the following 12 conditions.

Okay.

Second.

Motion made by Commissioner Austin, seconded by Commissioner Campbell. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations. Good luck. That's beautiful stuff. That's beautiful. We'll move on to number eight, other business. Anything to share? Staff, anything for other business? All right, then I would look for a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. Motion made by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Saylor. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Recording stopped.