Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

e e jimy just watching online but I don't have to do anything different there's nothing different I have to do I don't have to do anything different oh yeah okay good evening I'm calling the Monday

January 27th 2025 Planning Commission meeting to order will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of alance to the flag United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with and justice for all thank you everyone all right get started tonight we have the approval of the agenda this evening does anyone want to change the agenda seeing none entertain a motion to approve the agenda this evening motion to approve the agenda all right do I have a second second second to approve the agenda all those in favor say I I opposed the agenda is approved we have minutes from our last meeting on January 13th any concerns about the minutes or requests for edits to the minutes seeing none entertain a motion to approve the minutes from that meeting so moved all right do I have a second second all right right all those in favor of approving the minutes from January 13th please say I I opposed minutes are approved we have two public hearings this evening the first is a variance for number 2025 -01 bo- 8107 Eden Prairie Road the propos pro proposed variance would allow for the subject property to have 39% impervious service coverage within the shoreline overlay District city code limits impervious surface coverage within the Shoreline overlay District 30% the purpose of this request is to add additional parking spaces for Smith coffee at the historic Smith Douglas moouse property for the proponent of the project please come forward that would be Mr chair um so what we have today is as you kind of described is a request for

additional impervious surface at the Smith coffee property at 8107 prayer Road basically what the applicant is is doing is wanting to expand the amount of parking this property is in the Shoreland zoning District uh Shoreland overlay zoning district and on the screen you can see a little uh portion of the the property is kind of shaded yellow that is the portion of the property that's in the Shoreland and if a property touches the Shoreland which is defined as an area uh a th000 feet from any um identified water body um that property is in the Shoreland overlay Zone district and in those for those properties the um impervious surface area is capped at 30% um this property is already at 36.8% in prvious surface with the parking lot and some of the concrete pads and and other features of the of the property um what they're looking to do is do a modest expansion of the parking lot um and increasing that up to 39% in peria surface uh here on the the screen you'll see the kind of existing overhead uh areal photo showing the parking lot and the building uh the patio area south of the building there the existing kind of configuration showing all the impervious surfaces in is in uh peach I guess uh on the screen in front of you you see a couple existing rain Gardens which we've already as a city tried to um improve the water quality coming off of this property uh in the past the proposal uh as part of The Proposal that's triggering this variance is there's a large uh cedar tree that will be removed um at the lower kind of portion where my cursor is um that will be removed and then that area will be paved for additional parking for two parking

stalls um the an island kind of near the front door that will be paved uh over and two parking stalls will be added there one of those being a compact parking space because of the size of that of that area and then also another parking um space is envisioned for kind of another area just near the the front entryway as shown on my screen here all of these will be done in phases the intention is is to kind of build into them over over the next couple years or so um but we're asking for the the variance to kind of accommodate all of that additional impious surface and uh so it goes from as proposed goes from 36.8% in prvious surface to about 39% um the the six spaces that would be added excuse me or show here on the on the areial photo we have the two um where the tree is kind of where my cursor is we have the two in the open space adjacent to the front entry to the to the coffee shop um and then the additional one here just south of this black car here and then the sixth space is kind of repainting this hatched in area and that will be a parking space um an uh a handicap parking space needs to be adjacent to a of an loading or offloading ramp uh or in area which is still maintained with this uh hatched in area so we're still meeting the requirements of the ad parking there so six uh six spaces would be added we need impervious surface basically uh to accommodate five of those spaces couple things to note about the site plan one there is a kind of a historical um pamphlet is not the word I want to

use a little um bracket here for some historical information near the front door that will be relocated near the front door to again provide some information as to the history of the property but obviously we'll be in the way of a parking space there so we'll have to adjust that location also there is a a tree that's uh in this island that will be relocated um somewhere on site to re likely will be replanted somewhere on site um the tree the cedar tree here um that will not be replaced but we have talked as a city-owned property about adding some additional Landscaping kind of within the property to help maintain the the current level of of landscaping but um as I mentioned before we do have um rain Gardens adjacent the parking lot that have already added some additional Landscaping there um staff is recommending approval of the of the impervious surface variants increasing it to 39% couple things I shouldn't have mentioned earlier um the goal with the Shoreland zoning District um is kind of there several several goals but some of the more common ones are are view into the property from the lake and then water quality of water entering the lake uh in this area or this property is in the uh lake or the Mitchell Lake um Shoreland zoning District or Shoreland area and obviously you can't see this property from Mitchell Lake and then the water that drains that falls on the property and drains from the property actually goes to Red Rock Lake so this water through a series of wetlands and and catch basins and and pipes goes to Red Rock Lake not Mitchell lake so there's no impact to Mitchell Lake in terms of an Shoreland goals there um so staff is recommending approval um and

I'd stand for any questions just uh one that I had off the gate is was there variance from 30 to 36% before or was that like an existing condition I don't we we did not find one from before um this was approved around the time or maybe right before um the shoreline rules came in place in terms of the parking lot obviously the building's been there for a number of years um but we didn't find any history of a previous variance um so this would be a legal non-conforming type of situation but we're expanding that so that's where the variance is required okay thank you other questions for the city jemy um back on a picture you showed in the center of the parking lot was there discussions or there was information about removing light pole and doing some resurfacing of the Center parking area currently uh Mr Taylor yes um this screen I think may show that a little bit clear there's a light pole near the front entry front door to the to the coffee shop one of the potential expansions of parking move adds basically another parking space near where my cursor is just North of where that light pole is the idea is is if we can fit a cost is a factor so if we could fit a parking space in that area and not impact that that light that is more economical a parking space to add um but this proposal really um doesn't necessarily propose removing that light at this stage okay thank you other questions Mr chair Mr F yeah just out of curiosity Jeremy I appreciate all your explanations about the uh the Shoreland buffer and the way you explained it and I agree with everything you said it it seems to beg

for us to change the definition of a Shoreland buffer because on my tenure at the commission we've seen to come across a number of these situations where it's either the waterers draining the other way doesn't make any difference from a water quality standpoint or else there's intervening uses between the body of water and the property such as well County Road 4 for one and maybe topography and maybe there could be a a better definition of that Shoreland buffer that would exempt some pretty obvious properties like this from compliance Mr chair Mr Fart that's an interesting comment um the uh the shoreline rules comes down from DNR uh and so they have a model ordinance and and while we do tweak that occasionally in fact we're going through a a revision of the short Land review for shorel ordinance currently and you'll probably see that in the next month or so um we don't want to depart too far so we're kind of picking our battles in terms of what's most important and this we can handle pretty cleanly with a with the variance when it to purpose but there are certain things that you'll see in probably a couple months in terms of other areas where we're recommending some deviations from the model ordinance the sure thank you commissioner Duncan uh just one question Jeremy regarding the timeline of implementation did you mention this will take a couple years before these parking stalls are added is that what I heard um my understanding is the the the so the city owns the property but we rent it out to um Smith coffee folks um and my understanding is they want to do at least some of the uh parking spaces immediately like when when uh spring lets up which will likely include the cedar um Cedar um tree removal the other ones would would occur as time and in um

budget allow so I said two to three years it could be indefinite but I would imagine it's not going to all happen at the same time okay thank you questions right this is a public hearing if anyone would like to come forward and put something on the record for against this project please come up now good evening if you would State your name for the record and yes my name is Brian Luben l u BBN I live at 16379 glory Lane in in PR so just a block south of where this is um I just wanted to uh we're really happy to be in the neighborhood here we've lived here about two years uh Smith coffee has been a big part of that we love having it in the community here um I don't know the owners or anybody connected with it but they're uh uh they're really produce a great product they employ young people teach them a lot uh this is a historic building that really is a landmark on in Prairie Road it would be hard to imagine in Prairie Road without Smith coffee on it at least from what I conceive um so I just hope that you'll uh consider this and and uh and approve the measure and give them a little more room to get some parking in there which is desperately needed they they're really busy which is great we like to see businesses that are doing well and this is one of them thank you thank you would anyone else like to come forward okay not seeing anyone else that entertain a motion to close the public Hearing in a further discussion motion to close motion to close the public hearing motion to close public hearing do I have a second second all right all those in favor closing public hearing say I I I opposed public hearing is closed would anyone like to have for the discussion about this

request uh I I concur with with our one person at the public hearing I think it's pretty obvious solution with virtually no downside uh from the water quality standpoint so I I think it's a good move and Smith copy is an asset to the community so let's let them have a few more parking places anyone else comment I've definitely been there when it's hard to find parking so I think it's a good move too no further discussion or concerns i' entertain a motion Mr chair I would entertain a motion to approve the variance as represented in staff report motion from commissioner Duncan do I have a second I'll second that a second from commissioner far all those in favor say I I I opposed and would anyone like to abstain all right congratulations J you can move forward all right moving on this evening our second public hearing there's a Code Amendment chapter 11 zoning code 202 24-3 CA the proposed code Amendment corrects errors found after Rec codifying the zoning coda in 2023 this amendment is not a shift in policy but is a housekeeping Amendment Jeremy you'll be presenting this one I assume yes uh thank you chair commissioners um as you again summarized very clearly or cleanly um you may recall a couple years ago we re kind of reorganized chapter 11 um and in so doing know there was a 30 do 30 page ordinance and we missed a couple things to be honest um so what this ordinance does is kind of correct a couple things that we should have caught initially does not represent a change in in policy or change in philosophy it's just cleaning up some things that we

noted couple paragraphs are dropped here or there that were in the code before we just you know missed them or some labels were misapplied that type of thing um the ordinance that's attached um describes all of those kind of changes and I'd be happy to answer any questions on any of those specific ones but we just were there was other areas maybe a spelling error happened um we took we made a decision on what changes would be incorporated in this change because you know anytime we make a a change through a through a code it's published in the paper and there's some expense to that so we look for the things that that had that needed to be changed that could alter the the intention of the code um without changing the philosophy or the policy of the zoning code so staff is recommending approval of these housekeeping change and I I'm cautious using the word housekeeping because I I don't want to overuse that but this really is a housekeeping measure just cleaning of some things that we noted in the last year and a half or so since we last adopted a re a rewrite of chapter 11 uh thank you Jeremy any questions y commissioner webert uh the definitions that are being added are those being taken from somewhere else or those new definitions they being relocated from within the code um so part of our analysis um the area there in the zoning code or in other sections of the of the city code um we didn't want to to change philosophy or or policy so we just relocated them from elsewhere so when do we vote on taking those out of the other section it's not in this uh proposal here that so you're only see in chapter 11 here right um if there if it's coming out of a different zoning or excuse me a different section um that NE doesn't necessarily need to be reviewed by the

Planning Commission that would just be reviewed by the council the city council okay thanks if there is a section if there's a Code or a definition that you're comfortable with or anything like that I think that's a conversation for another time and we certainly explore those at this time we were just looking at housekeeping changes I was just more Curious on the housekeeping part whether we were eliminating the definitions from a different section and what we needed to do to accomplish that but if the city council doesn't then we don't need to yeah you don't need to the city council does do that gotta okay other questions for the city all right this is a public hearing if anyone would like to come forward and speak about this request please do so now no okay entertain a motion to close the public hearing move to close the public hearing uh do I have a second to close the public hearing I'll second all right all those in favor say I I opposed the public hearing is closed any further discussion on this item it's a softball right housekeeping item yeah right all right entertain any motion Mr chair I move the recommend approval of chapter 11 cold Amendment as represented today in the staff report all right I have a motion from commissioner Taylor to approve do I have a second second and a second for commissioner Weber to approve all those in favor say I I opposed and would anyone like to abstain okay moves forward congratulations again Jeremy um do you have any planners reports just briefly we will have a meeting in February I want to say February 10th um another variance and I think maybe a zone change in that one um

we're in a we had zero variances in 2024 and we're likely going to have three in 2025 but all seem reasonable at this stage great any reports from their members all right entertaining motion to close journ the meeting not close so moved all right second second all those in favor say I opposed all right the meeting's adjourned thanks everybody e e