Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll call the meeting to order. On behalf of the Planning Commission, I'd like to welcome our residents and viewers to this regular meeting of September 9th, 2026. On tonight's agenda, we just have one public hearing, but it's an important public hearing. Before we open that public hearing, we have one housekeeping item, and this would be the minutes from our August 12th, 2026 regular meeting. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes? If not, is there a motion?

Motion to approve. We have a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second. Motion and second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Minutes are approved. All right. With that, then, we'll open up the public hearing. This is to consider the ordinance amendment, Title 10, chapters 1 through 12 of the Farmington City Code. And it deals with the zoning ordinance and the zoning map. And I know some of you are here with questions. We're going to start with staff and our consultant. Let them explain it. And as I mentioned before, hopefully they'll answer most, if not all, of your questions. But if not, there'll be an opportunity for anybody and everybody that's got a question to ask when they're done. So, Tony, you're going to start this?

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, Commission members. As you all are aware, we have been working on this zoning code amendment for the last two years. with our consultant, HKGI, the Planning Commission, the City Council. We've held numerous joint meetings to discuss it and we're at the point now where we are ready to hold the public hearing regarding the amendment. you all know a lot of this or some of the changes that are being considered as part of the zoning map in particular came out of discussion with the Planning Commission and City Council specifically the downtown expansion area so with that With those proposed zoning changes come some additional reorganization, things like that. With the code, we're trying to make it a little more user-friendly, I guess is the way to put it. But again, a lot of what you will see before you tonight, we've discussed in previous meetings, either here at the Planning Commission or through those joint meetings. But with that, I will now turn it over to Rita Trapp. She's with HKGI, who we've been working with. She will run through a PowerPoint presentation and hopefully

we'll answer some questions up front so and if you can't see a screen just move to a different chair that one suits you better okay

All right, thank you again. I'm Rita trap with we're planning consultant for the city. Uh, the intention this evening is to provide an, an overview of the updates that we have made. Uh, it is a, there are a lot of details and so I won't be able to go through all elements, but I will try and really focus on the things that have substantive changes and that are really. That we think are impactful and folks should should learn about Tony gave a good overview, but just to make sure that everybody's on the same page, the project is an update of title 10, which is zoning specifically. There are targeted updates as well, because we've already done a full update in 2020. so this was a revisiting of the code to make some updates that were identified through conversations with the planning commission and the council. And to address some elements that weren't able to be done in the 2020 update. So, 1 of the update intentions is to make sure that the zoning district supports the community vision in 2023. the council and planning commission with community input did talk about the community's division. And so we had identified through that process, some elements that are anticipated to be changing and ways that the community wants to see downtown evolve into the future. And so a lot of the focus in this conversation was how can we create a structure that will allow flexibility for property owners, but still allow property owners that exist today to continue what they've been doing. And that's really the structure that we were trying to create. We did also analyze the uses and modernize as the opportunities arose to really make that reflect current trends today. And then we had some technical updates that we'll talk about in terms of procedures, making sure we're in compliance with state and federal regulations. The zoning, as I said, the zoning code update was intended to implement changes and we anticipate some of the framework that we've created will support changes that were anticipated in the upcoming 2050 comprehensive plan update. So this doesn't reflect all of the potential changes that could occur. but we at least are creating the framework or the districts that are needed in order to do that. And then some minor edits will happen after the 2050 comprehensive plan, which is normal and customary for every community as they finish their 2050 comprehensive plan. There's no way for us to do all of those changes now because the plan needs to be put into place. And part of the process will be to contemplate what things need to be done after the planning process is complete. So, the focus this evening, 1 of the main focuses, as I reference was related to downtown. There was a lot of discussion in 2023 and 2024 about how downtown right now today is a district whose zoning structure is pretty complicated. There's a lot of different zoning districts that exist in downtown and there isn't a lot of flexibility as. the community evolves and there might be new uses that a property owner would be interested in seeking it's very focused on certain areas being of a particular or one use so there was conversations about whether we could create a zoning code structure that allowed allowed more flexibility and so that's what is being proposed this evening is to try and create something where there's more of an opportunity for a mix of commercial office residential and public uses I think the biggest thing to mention, and 1 of the elements that is particular to the structure that we created is that it allows any existing home residential in areas to continue. It specifically has on the use table. It says existing residents and they're permitted so that. there isn't a change of creating a non-conforming situation and that was very intentional and something that was important is that even if an area is rezoned into the downtown expansion district it isn't forcing a change it is just allowing flexibility in areas where a property owner may be interested in seeing redevelopment of a parcel yes

I don't know if you want Rita to repeat that.

Did I repeat that?

Well, that was the concern or comment I had from several of the residents sitting out here. She just said it, but I wanna make it clear again. Will you just repeat that again, please? Thank you.

So the way a zoning district is structured, just to make sure we're all clear, is that a zoning district has a set of uses. Usually we create a table that says, here are the uses that are allowed in the table. Here's what is allowed in that property. So as a property owner, you can look at this table and say, for my property, can I have a single family home? Can I have a commercial business? one element that we did one thing we focused on is making sure that there is a line that says existing single family residential can continue so it does not create a situation where you're not allowed or you feel like you have to have a change and that Was really critical to the conversation we had with the council and 1 of the reasons that the zoning was set up the way it was historically was because that didn't happen and we didn't want to create that situation. So we created a district where resident. All single family residents in the district we're creating can continue into the future. Um, that's the new downtown expansion district. So, and I know that's rightfully a very, um, a concern for everybody. And if you have a single family home, you don't want to see that you can't be there. Um, but it's what we're doing is creating a district where you can have a single family home and other uses. if a property owner would be interested, but it's limited. And that's what I'll walk through right now of how we've tried to make it more incremental, not a drastic change. So we don't want to see three blocks from downtown, a commercial use getting created in the middle of a bunch of single-family homes. That's not the intention. It's more the intention that the downtown may get bigger over time on those major corridors.

um i can talk more about that does that share is that i just want to make sure they're comfortable you know i've talked to several of them i said don't worry about it you're safe nothing's going to happen um you're going to be in your home as long as you want to be in your home the zoning is not going to change on your home so go ahead rita i'm sorry no that's i'm i'm glad we want to focus in on the information that's important

Uh, so the proposed changes that are being made is to rename some of the existing districts and for everybody's benefit. 1 of the reasons we specifically renamed districts is to make sure that when someone would come in and have a conversation, and they mentioned the old name, then we understand that they actually don't know the new zoning code. So 1 reason to change the name of the districts when there is a change. is to make sure we're really clear that we're all talking in the same language. And so B2, if you're familiar with the term B2 or RD, we're changing the name so they all relate and we all know what we're talking about. So B2 is going to be the downtown core, so it'll be called DC. RD, which is residential downtown, we're just flipping it and do downtown residential. Then we know that all the downtown districts start with D. So anything starts with a D is a downtown district. because they all relate to each other. A new district will be created called the Downtown Expansion District, so DE. And that area is the area in pink. And that applies to areas that are adjacent to the downtown core, which is the red. And that's where new commercial expansion could be supported. And there are some rules and regulations, so it's not any commercial. There are some rules that we need to talk about. Most importantly is that new commercial could only occur when it's located adjacent to commercial, Or on the corners of intersection where commercials exists. So, as I said, the intention is that 3 blocks from the downtown, we're not thinking that commercial will occur in the middle of a single family home. It's that it will be the next parcel over or it'll be across the street from where commercial already is. and also the property owner has to want to do it it is not about the city coming in and saying you have to do it it's about the property owner deciding that they want to initiate the change either they do it themselves or they sell it to somebody who's interested in doing it the city is not coming in and telling anybody that they have to be commercial so i always that's always important to mention as well it is important you have control over your own property okay So in terms of the uses that are allowed, actually, I'm gonna go back one more time before I go to this. So orange is downtown residential. So orange on the map, pink is downtown expansion, and red is the downtown core. For the most part, downtown core is the same as it has been. I don't think that that we're rezoning. I'm looking at staff to confirm. I don't recall any rezoning that's adding a piece to the downtown core. um mostly what we're doing is taking some of the properties that were orange before downtown residential and moving them into downtown expansion so i wanted to flag that so when you look at this uses if you're in the downtown residential district the uses that are allowed are single-family homes duplexes townhouses apartments institutional uses it should be the same as today The downtown core, commercial uses, mixed use, so a building where you have commercial and residential together, apartments, institutional uses, same as it is today. Downtown expansion is a new district, so it can't be the same as it is today, because it didn't exist. This is where we see the mixture, where we have single family, duplexes, townhouses, apartments, mixed use building, commercial uses, and institutional uses. But again, this is up to the property owner to decide what is the appropriate use of their property and you cannot have commercial uses unless you're next to an existing commercial use or across the street on a corner. So we're trying to limit it and have it be incremental in nature. So those are the uses. In terms of dimensional standards, so what I mean by dimensional standards is what are the setbacks? What is the building height? Those types of things, those are the same. So downtown residential, so again, that orange area, same exact standards as we had before. Downtown core, that's the red area, same as it was before. So nothing's changed in terms of building height, setbacks, Those have all stayed exactly the same. For downtown expansion, which again was the pink area, the newer area, that is where what we tried to do is say if you are a residential use, you follow the requirements of the downtown residential district. If you're a non-residential use, so that means commercial or institutional, you would follow the downtown core. So the idea is you're following the district that already exists that's the same as the kind of character that's expected of that type of use. So again, we are looking for non-residential infill in appropriate areas, incrementally. We also added some additional standards for the downtown expansion district. This would only happen if it's a new development on a vacant piece of property that exists today, or a redevelopment. So if you already have a house in the DE, the downtown expansion district, these aren't standards for you. You are where you are, you are how you exist today. This is for new development that would occur. What does that look like? It says that a minimum of 60% of the lot at the front of the lot must have a building. So that's trying to create that downtown character that we love with buildings close to the street, parking lots behind. That's what it's trying to mimic. A minimum of two parking spaces is required for all uses, and there are some more that we've tried to address with parking. So if we have a non-residential use, we have a method to try and figure out how many parking spaces are appropriate. Where possible, if you have an alley, then the access, the driveway has to be off the alley or the street with the lowest functional class. What that means is if you're on third and another residential street, you're going to be off the residential street. It's trying to keep the traffic off the busier roads. That's what it means by lower functional class is the street that's quieter is the one where you want to have driveways coming in and out so there's less conflict. And then screening is required when you have non-residential uses or an apartment building that's next to a residential property. So we tried to add screening. The screening is different. I think there's actually a graphic in here. Oh, no, we didn't put it in this time. The screening is different. So if it's a parking lot, the screening is slightly different than a building. If it's a multi-story building, landscaping is more helpful. If it's a parking lot, fencing is more helpful. So you can adjust, try and prevent the lights from the cars. That's why a fence is more helpful. But if you have a multi-story building, an eight-foot fence doesn't really do you a lot of good or a six-foot fence. And so there we were looking at landscaping to help with the screening. So those are the thoughts that went in. I'm going to pause that is downtown so I'm going to move on from downtown to other areas just to make sure because we didn't do a transition side. So that's the downtown overview. And then I'm going to move into overlay districts. Overly districts are districts that are created to provide additional standards. for areas of the community that are similar, but maybe have different uses. So an overlay district may be over or across a bunch of other zoning districts. The easiest one to maybe understand is Highway 3. Highway 3 goes north-south through the community. You have different types of commercial. You have residential. You have a variety of different uses. And so there are additional standards in the overlay district to try and make sure that the character evolves the way that the city wants. Um, and they established design standards for the, for the city. Overlay districts make things more complicated. It also means that you have to look in different areas for the same information. And so through this process, we discussed other ways to accomplish what the overlay districts were doing. And so have actually recommended, um, that we adjust other overlay districts. We are adding or. continuing it's probably better the downtown commercial overlay we've looked at it a little bit different but that is going to continue these are areas that apply to the downtown core and downtown expansion again similar to what i just said about other like setbacks and building height if you exist today if your structure exists today this isn't for you this is about new development redevelopment And making sure that our particularly our non residential, or have a certain aesthetic that matches what we're looking for in downtown. Um, and so this really focuses on building material and design awnings and canopy and parking areas. So it's really about design. It doesn't regulate use. It doesn't regulate setbacks. That's all done by the zoning district itself. And this was created based on what you already have today. So it's an evolution of simplification because we did move some design standards into the actual code. Again, one of the struggles that we discussed with staff is that when a property owner comes in, staff and the property owner need to remember that there are standards in multiple places so you may have a standard in the zoning district in the overlay district and in the development standards area and so we were trying to make it be logical by moving things that apply to the entire city to one location and then just having extras in these overlay districts and that's a very typical approach to how to evolve and make a zoning code simpler and so this downtown commercial overlay will exist Again, though, it only applies to new development, redevelopment. If your building already exists, then it isn't something that's of particular concern today. The Highway 3 and the Spruce Street overlays, those two are going to be eliminated, which is why I spent time explaining that they're complicated because they make things a little bit more difficult. We incorporated those standards into the general building design standards chapter. As it says, it applies to all new multi-unit residential, mixed-use, and non-residential development. And it covers building materials, facade design, transparency, awnings, loading docks, and utilities. So, again, though, these things existed already in the city. We're about moving it to a different location, simplifying. We're not adding a lot of standards to this. We're trying to make things easier in terms of their location. And I know that we took out some standards to make it easier. Zoning map updates. These are two maps that are side by side. The left side shows you what the current zoning is for the properties that are being proposed to be rezoned. The right side shows you the proposed zoning for the properties to be rezoned. As you can see from this map, As part of this process, we're not talking about rezoning a lot of parcels. We tried to be very conscientious about how we created the zoning districts. There was a major overhaul already done. So, as part of the simplification outside of the downtown area, we are eliminating. The Spruce Street mixed use district is getting eliminated because it just added another district. Those properties will be rezoned to the mixed use commercial residential and you see those they are pink on the left map. um kind of located just west of downtown um and then there's uh an area in the um kind of in the northwest where we are proposing rezoning and then most of the focus is on the downtown and that map is better shown by the one i already showed about where is the downtown expansion area going to be so that's really the focus of the rezonings that are being proposed and then we have the map if we need to zoom in or refer to it i do want to touch on the technical updates so the updates that i just went through from staff's perspective feel like the major content related kind of updates the things that are changing how things operate in the city technical updates in our mind are things where we moved items around we tried to make things easier but the general operational aspect of the zoning code remained generally the same Topic areas included the land use procedures, trying to make sure that they were consistent, that we remove language that was confusing or that didn't actually reflect how the city actually processes land use applications. We did add standards or clarify standards around accessory uses, electric vehicles, community solar garden. And then we specifically looked a little bit more about landscape diversity. Um, I do want to mention, since we did make those adjustments to the overlay districts related to building material, awnings and canopies as I said, but I want to reiterate, they're not on this list of technical updates. We did go through and really conscientiously think through. Do these standards make sense? Do they apply city wide? Are there ways we can make it simpler? Um. Do we even remember that they're there sometimes that happens where so complicated and we tried to adjust. Um, so those are elements. Uh, there was a code reorganization that happened. Uh. On the left is the existing structure, which is, you know, fairly short 6 chapters. 1 of the elements that. We recommend is making it a little bit more a little bit broader just to try and help folks find Elements a lot of it remain the same One element you can see chapter four five six and seven instead of putting all the districts in one big chapter. That's very long We separate it out. So your residential zoning districts are all in chapter four your mixed-use zoning districts Which would include downtown are all in chapter five Yeah That was a nice second guess myself. Chapter six is the non-residential and then the overlay districts. Chapter eight, use specific standards. That's an area where if the table, the use table says we need some additional standards because we're concerned that use would have impacts on the surrounding properties. All of those are in the same area and you can read. So read what those are. So oftentimes accessory structures, home-based business regulations, those kind of things fall within use specific standards. And then signage is pulled out as chapter 10 so you can easily see signage. Signage is always kind of interesting because usually you get all the development happening and then later we talk about signage. Usually months later is when people come back for signage. So that's one reason we like to pull signage out so that when you're finally ready to put up the sign, you can easily find the regulations for it. So, this evening, the request for you is to hold a public hearing on the draft code and the map and then we do have 2 separate actions. 1 is related to recommending approval of the updated code to the city council. The 2nd would be recommending approval of the map to the city council. WITH THAT, I CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS. I KNOW WE DIDN'T DO AN IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF THE CODE. THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF CHANGES, BUT WE CAN CERTAINLY GO INTO CERTAIN PAGES OF YOUR PACKET AND WE CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS, OR IF YOU FOUND ADJUSTMENTS THAT NEED TO BE MADE, WE CAN CERTAINLY HAVE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THOSE AS WELL.

THANK YOU, RITA. RITA CONDENSED THIS 250-PAGE REPORT INTO ABOUT 25 MINUTES, SO I APPRECIATE THAT. AND I JUST WANT TO MAKE A FEW COMMENTS BEFORE WE OPEN IT UP, BECAUSE THIS IS YOUR MEETING. You know, you got the experts here, the commission's got questions that we'll ask after your questions, but just wanna go through. I spoke with a lot of you before the meeting and a lot of you are here from the downtown expansion and I just wanna reaffirm that where you're at, You're comfortable. You're fine. You're not going to have to move. What it is is this is a long-term plan. So the vision, what if Farmington downtown wants to or is going to grow a little bit? How are we going to do it? So this kind of lays a little bit of the plan out ahead of time on how it's going to be done. It's not going to be random helter-skelter type way. It's going to be continuous. It's going to just grow a little bit. You can see my hair, I'm pretty old. I probably won't see a lot of it. Some of you might though, you're younger. But we want to make sure if the downtown is going to grow, and we do want our downtown to grow at some point, some way, in a reasonable way, that it knows how to do it. So that's one thing. The overlay districts, I can remember three, four decades ago thinking they were pretty good ideas when the Spruce Street came out. We wanted corners to have certain looks and fronts of buildings to look certain ways. We thought it was a great idea to have an overlay district and do new standards. But Really, it's just they're for design architectural standards. And it got written into the code in a different spot. So don't feel like those are an issue for you at all. The technical updates, that's a staff. It's an administrative type of thing. So that's not of real importance. There's one thing, though, the map. And to me, that's something I concentrate on. To me, that's not a finalized map yet. I mean, this is a... Kind of an amendment that we've been working on for a while, but I still think there's going to be more discussion with staff and with our city council and with this commission that we want to work with, you know, and find certain things. And I'll expand on that later when I get an opportunity to speak. But again, this is your meeting. So we like to hear your comments, questions, concerns. Again, if you have any one of those, please come up to the podium. Just state your name and address. We're a pretty easygoing bunch, so anybody want to start out? If not, we're going to start talking, and then you guys are going to really be bored, but we can do that too. If you want to wait a little bit. Sir, do you got a question? On the east side? Yep, yep. Okay, Bernie.

Okay. So are you going to do that without our approval or do we need to make some steps to stop that?

Tony, why don't you or you or Rita answer that about staying the same and all that. Why don't you try to answer Bernie's question?

Sure. Yes, the proposal is to change it from what it is currently to DE, which is the downtown expansion. Any use that's there is essentially grandfathered in and is allowed to remain. We're not looking to force anybody out of their property of their use So with that being said there really shouldn't impact you from what you're doing from a day-to-day standpoint Taxes are just based on the use of the property not on the zoning Taxes are based on the use of the property not the zoning of the property and Not the zoning, the use.

Bernie, you're going to be fine. Nothing's going to change for you.

Well, we don't deal with taxes, Bernie.

You know, I mean, that's the assessor. You're going to want to talk to them. No, I appreciate it. No, I appreciate the question. And it's the same, I think it's a similar question that I got from the others, whether it be First Street Industrial on the east side or whether it be residential home on Maple or something even a few blocks off on 7th Street. But no, you don't gotta worry about that. Again, this isn't the first time, like you said, that the zoning has changed. And I alerted staff, I alerted council. When this happens, the commission gets to hold the hearing and we, a good thing, we get to meet with all you and try to eliminate your concerns that it's not gonna change taxes, it's not gonna change your use. In the future, if somebody wants to change something, then at least they have the plan to do it, but it's gonna be your decision, not the city's.

My understanding is we own two lots, the building, and then we own the lot behind. So from what I understand, I can't expand onto that lot or rebuild or do anything to that.

Because of the rezone? Tony, you comment on that? What are your thoughts?

I guess I didn't.

You can rebuild. You absolutely can. What's that? That you can rebuild? Because you would be able to rebuild under a natural disaster type situation, absolutely, to what you have.

Tony, he said you could rebuild.

So you'll be fine.

Would you share that with staff? You know, that'd be great. I appreciate it. Anybody else? Gosh, we're going to get home early tonight. Then my wife will be happy. Anybody else? Would you please, sir? And the reason I say that is because it's not tonight, but later on somebody's going to say, you know, I know you had a question, but I couldn't hear what it was. You answered it, but I didn't know what the question was.

So probably a fairly simple one. I'm standing in for my dad, who could not make it. So my name is Rob Lucco. He owns what used to be John's Body and Paint Service over on 350. I know where you're at, yeah. The question would be, it says here it's going from B3 to B2. The Google machine says B2 is currently downtown.

commercial i would assume that this is just a name change could you just clarify what b3 to b2 means yes because we are changing the downtown from b2 to downtown commercial we had the we wanted to keep them together and so the b3s are getting rezoned to b2 so it'll be the same name of the district it'll just be b2 So, yeah, same district. Yeah. And unfortunately, we still have to send out the notice, and it's confusing.

You got the extra number, so.

Google machine. I mean, it was technically right. It is today, but it didn't capture the.

Thanks for your question. We appreciate it. Mr. Richardson.

Bob Richardson, 35 Elm Street. Our properties, our neighborhood is on the northwest corner of 1st and Elm or County 50. Most of that, Dirk was probably on the board back then.

You calling me old again?

Maybe.

All right.

Our neighbor Dave Marsh at 204 1st Street's not here.

Oh, Dave.

But I have an article from 2007. He was... He was wanting to put a big garage addition and a house addition on his house. And then most of that north of the alley, about 60% of those property are in the 100 and 500 year flood plain. And he dealt with the city for two or three years. He's a professional builder, licensed in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He ended up settling to put a addition on the back of his house on piers. You can't tell it is, but it's all blended in because he was going to assume the risk and his insurance of building of basement or slab, but the city and the DNR would not allow him to even go like 10 feet It's it's in the 500 year floodplain. I'm 55 years old. I've seen the water up to that alleyway twice in my life so and our properties align along County Road 50 and And if you say that's not gonna affect it, our properties would be one of the first if we were willing to sell because we have the counseling center and the charter school, so development could jump across there, but to buy eight properties on a fair market value, our neighbor Dave had his land listed many years ago, probably in 2013 or so. He approached the whole neighborhood. He had a developer, and the numbers didn't work back then, and the county will not allow any more driveways or entrances off County 50, So like your consultant said, the entrance would be off First Street. And I don't see many businesses want to create that downtown effect that far out, or even along Third Street. The only new construction in Farmington downtown area in the last 35 years was the city center, Easy Auto Repair, the gymnastics, and Emory Apartments. 35 years. So we have neighbors that are going to put major renovations on their house, new siding shingles. I mean, if this comprehensive plan is not going to affect, for like our corner, you would need at least three or four lots to make it 120. I think 120 foot footage or frontage. So there'll be at least three front lots and two side lots. So, I mean, this is somewhat a good idea. I could see taking the block just south of the library. I mean, if they were willing participants creep that far or maybe, and going down Oak Street, I don't ever see that happening because because the state's never going to allow a true access at Oak and Highway 3. There never has been one. So to get through downtown, you would have to use the current roadways. But I know this is a process, but it just seems like it just affects a few. I mean, there's probably 100 properties and we have 20 residents here. And the last meeting a couple weeks ago, there was eight people here. I mean, do those people even care about the potential?

Hopefully we've done a job enough to kind of alleviate some concern that it's going to do it. But again, like you said, you always do your homework. This is planning for the future. I mean, you're still young. I've got a couple decades on you.

Hopefully.

It's planning. You were with the county in the parks. You did a lot of planning there too. And if you didn't do it, what's that?

I mean, they have to be willing sellers.

Exactly. And you may not find a buyer right now, but next year, next month, whatever. But if you have a neighbor that... Somebody may knock on your door and say, would you be interested?

But some of these people, say if you've got four neighbors that want to sell, and then you end up... being extra commercial. Maybe or maybe not.

It's up to the property owner. Thank you. Thank you.

I'd like to bring up a point on the phony. This is off Minnesota's website regarding industrial zoning. Nonconforming status. Existing industrial buildings or operations that no longer fit the new zoning may become legal nonconforming. grandfathered in, which can limit expansions, rebuilding after major damage or future changes. So it does make a difference. It does.

It does create you as a grandfathered legal non-conforming use. What I'm saying is we wanted to add on to our building and a lot that we own in addition to the building. Sure.

They're limiting us.

You could be, yes. You could be, yes, on that separate lot.

Bernie, do you own the lot to the east of the tracks?

I own two lots, yes.

Closer to the tracks then? Going to the tracks or what? Railroad tracks or not really?

Well, there's another lot behind me. Yeah? It's owned by the people that own the building next door to me.

Okay.

I own a lot right behind the lot that my building sits on.

Could you do me a favor? Do you have a few minutes tonight? Could you sit down with staff afterwards and you can show them what you got and they can walk you through what properties, you know, you're talking about and all that? I can't even find it on this. That's okay. You got time. I mean, we're not in a rush. And again... You're not going to be held to anything. So if you've got some time, either tonight or maybe another day this week.

I'm at work every day.

Mr. Heppner still live across the street from you? That's fine. I just remember something from Mr. Heppner across the street. Anybody else? All right, how about if we do this? You guys, if you got more questions, we'll come back to you. We'll let the commission go around, ask questions of both staff and the consultant. And if you think of something afterwards, we'll give you an opportunity to ask then. All right, let's start with Commissioner Berg.

You always pick on me, Dirk. You always start with me. No, related to the proposed changes tonight, we've been discussing this for a while. I'm in alignment with it. I do... This is a little bit off the topic for tonight, but Tony, this is maybe more a question for you is around permitted use for some of the different districts and things like that. And given the current climate and some things going on in the community, I just wanted to talk through a little bit. The MUCR that was referenced earlier, as well as MUCI in the packet, it lists data center as permitted use for both of those.

Mm-hmm.

Given we're going through this plan right now, is it... Is it appropriate? Is it maybe a good idea to talk through some definitions around that? Is it a good time to talk?

I can give an update on that. Okay. Commissioner Berg.

Great. I think the commission needs to hear this.

Yep. Um, being this, the current being where we are, um, with the data center project, um, it was very intentional not to, um, Deal with the data centers and or the uses within the district just due to where we are legally with that said later this month on the 29th at the request of the mayor, we will be holding an informational meeting on data centers. to where we can bring people in, have a discussion, open discussion, conversation on data centers as far as everything from use, location, all of that. Any type of discussion on data centers, we will welcome at that meeting. So our thought is we'll have that informational meeting. If we get enough information, comments back we can bring back a separate amendment being that that is such a it's a very uh tony it's a critical topic for this community yes critical is a good way to discuss it further i agree ma'am so just so i understand tony so i love that we're doing that um

So data centers are not addressed in this at all. Understood. Understood. I guess my question is more if we take action tonight and make a recommendation, does that limit our ability to have those discussions later on? No, absolutely. Because I heard you say maybe we do another amendment for that, and that's where I get a little concerned. It's like, well, we're going to push this forward, and then we'll get back to that data center thing. So I don't want that to be the case.

No, the intent is to review that, and as –

necessary or at the discretion of the planning commission and or council to look at that okay great that was my big question i appreciate all the work that that you guys have done on this i know we've had a lot of conversation and some really honestly healthy discussion around how we're doing this so this is great yeah can i comment andy um please you know to answer your question in my opinion and i don't know i don't know we'll

Certainly here from the Council from the 29th, I think it will be discussed. It's just to what extent and how the Council wants to proceed and they'll give us direction and we'll go from there. We've talked about it, but I don't think we've included our or residents to have an opportunity to be as much in the discussion as I think the council wants them to be at this time.

So I, yes, we're gonna get more. Totally understand all that. And just when we brought up the MUCR tonight and then I saw that as one of the permitted uses, I was like, we need to make sure we have that discussion at some point.

I agree with you. Okay, great. Anything else, Andy? Commissioner Ellis. Yes.

I agree with Andy I think it's a great call out, but just from a just specific about this definitions all those types of things we didn't make a lot of changes when we're just going through the definitions not i'm not talking about the districts. But i'm talking about you know screening and those types of things we defined them, but just general overall the definitions didn't change very much right.

You mean the standards?

Standards, yeah.

No, I just want to clarify.

Yeah, right, right.

Okay. Did we change a lot of the standards?

No.

Not a lot, no.

That's just something that I think when you're thinking about development or you're thinking about what you want to do with your property, you want to be sure that you understand. There haven't been a lot of changes to what we're saying we want because we want that cohesive look for Farmington. We want it, but we're not deviating from what we have now very much. We're doing clarifications.

Correct.

It's mainly clarifying.

So a lot of clarification, some adjustments based on maybe some new standards that may be out in the development world, and also reorganization of the code.

So just to make, like you were saying earlier, just easier to look at when you go into the code. And this all, we're doing this because it's a requirement of the Metropolitan Council, right? Right.

This, no.

No, but the whole comprehensive plan.

The comprehensive plan is a requirement from the Metropolitan Council. And based on that, there will be additional updates that would likely be needed once that is approved in a year to two years.

Right now, this is mainly we're streamlining. We're bringing it into this century sort of.

And this was our opportunity to create the structure to implement the conversation that happened about downtown.

Right.

And do it now. Otherwise, if we would wait, it would be... 2029 before it would happen so since we had the direction established in 2023 we wanted to have the ability to structure it get it going get it in place because we all know it's the intentions is going to be incremental which means the longer you wait the further out it will be incrementally wise so i just appreciate that clarification thank you that's all mr chair mr rutherford

I don't have any questions or concerns. I just have one quick comment. I would like to call out Rita and her team at HKGI and Deanna and Tony and Jared and the community development team for putting together some nice work here. Well done.

Thank you, Gary. Mr. Lehmire.

One thing that came up in the discussions was legal conforming and legal non-conforming. And I just wanted to make sure that I get clarification on the downtown expansion area is that for individuals that are looking to sell, those properties are going to be conforming, correct? Like the property itself. And the reason why I bring that up is I've been lending for quite some period of time and on the mortgage side. And when it comes to like a legal non-conforming property, sometimes the ability to obtain loans on those properties can be a little bit harder than in other places. They're conforming properties right now, and they will continue to be underneath this. So if they sell their home, those buyers that are coming in aren't going to have an issue anymore. as much obtaining with this new structure? I guess that's my question.

No, and it's a great question and one thing that we tried to structure to reduce. The only reason I'm not doing a blanket statement about downtown expansion is that one needs to look at the actual use table and know what your use is to say whether it's conforming or non-conforming. So if you're a non-residential use in particular, I can't say in a blanket statement that all those uses are allowed. That being said, If you look at the use table and it says that it's permitted, which single family homes are permitted, it's considered conforming. It's considered a permitted use. So it's not a legal, you can't be legal non-conforming and allowed in the same district. If you're allowed, you're a conforming use.

Beautiful. Okay.

It's just the only reason I'm being very parse on my words is just one needs to know what the uses of your property. You look it up in the use table. It needs to say P or C or something. And if it's not listed, then, then it's a different conversation.

Gotcha.

I want to be very specific.

I guess I should have clarified. I was on the residential side of it. So I was not doing commercial or any of that sort of lending. It was more. And so I've run into it a couple of times where, That nonconforming has come in and we've had to work different ways around to help out individuals. And so I just want to make sure that those individuals that are in a residential in nature, single family home, if they do decide to sell that, they're not going to be. you know, hitting hurdles later on down the line of buyers coming on in and be like, well, I can't, I can't do anything, you know?

Yes. And that's one of the reasons we structured the district the way it was because historically that hasn't been the case. And that was a problem, which is why some rezoning happened in the future in the past. And we said, no, we've actually created districts where this can happen. Got it. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, and then I'm a big visual person myself, and this isn't a question, but I just like the fact that there seems to be more and more continuity happening with... discussions on how this map is looking. It's not pot marked all over the place, but there's certain areas of this zoning map that makes it make sense. And so thank you all for putting in the time and the effort to try to get this as cohesive as possible, given where we're currently at. So that's all I got. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Nate. A few of my comments I mentioned, I'd get back to one and I've seen a lot of you in here in the past. I've been doing this 45 years, and I've been through a number of full comp plans, quite a few amendments. This one I'd classify a little bit. You guys used the word incremental. Okay. I was going to use fragmented. It's a little bit of a sequence, but we're still getting to it. And I mentioned to staff, I mentioned to our council, I've mentioned to this commission, anytime you do a change of zoning in our core, what I call the core Farmington part, we're gonna get people here. And it's our job to try to explain it, try to alleviate their concerns. Hopefully we've done some of that tonight for you. This isn't the first time it's happened. I've seen some of you here in the past and tried to do the same thing. So if you've got any concerns, talk to staff, talk to me. I'll be here a little while afterwards. But don't be concerned about the downtown expansion and what it's going to do to your home. You're perfectly safe. You're perfectly fine. Don't worry about it. And not all these changes will occur. You know, Mr. Richardson mentioned, you know, some of this might just be planning. And, yep, that's what it is. It's planning. That's why we have a planning group in the city. You know, they're pretty smart people. And, you know, we ask them, you know, what do you think the city is going to look like in 10, 20, 30, 40 years? And, you know, try to prepare for it so that we don't get surprised. And if an opportunity comes, they can respond and react to it and pick up that business or pick up something else that may be coming. So they have the tools in front of them. And somebody did mention this map, I think it was Nate. And we concentrated a little bit or quite a bit of the meeting on the downtown. And I think that's great, good planning. But my focus on a comp plan, especially this comp plan, Part was downtown, but even more so is going to be. I'd like to sit down again with staff and with the council and with this commission and get residents' input also. I want to look at our transportation corridors, and I want to have a conversation on what they should look like and where should they be. Because my thought is, and I've mentioned this, it's not new to this group sitting in this room here. When we did Pilot Knob, And you go down Pilot Knob now from, you know, the police station, I'll say north, you know, 195th north to our thing. You've got one strip mall there, and that's about it. Other than that, you see a lot of fences back up to the road. And to me, you know, our other transportation corridors, you know, maybe we could look at something a little different and that we could have. I always, and I told this group here, look at 160th north, you know, up there where you You've got the Target and you've got the Steakhouse on the other side and you've got other services and you've got businesses there. Align the road. And then beyond that, you've got some higher density residential. A buffer, in essence. And then beyond that, you've got single family residential. On our other transportation corridors, I'd like to at least consider some plan like that. And we've got to go through this map and say, where are those and where do we think they're going to be? It won't be in 2027. Some of it might be, but very little. It's going to be out beyond the time I'm around here and maybe even some of the others here. But I think we need to have that discussion. So that's where my concentration is going to be. And I'm looking at the commission. And you've heard this before from me. You know, downtown, I think we've got that plan now. But this other stuff here, I still want to have that conversation. So to me, this map is, even though it may be sent on to our city council for their review and approval tonight, I'm not done with it yet. And I hope the rest of this commission isn't done with it. I think we need to have that conversation. We need to have it what you talked about with data centers. So that gets off our plate. I mean, it's not going to go away. So we got to deal with it. And I think we got to start dealing it so that we can... When we get the Targets, when we get the Cubs or Walmarts, whatever it might be, and I don't know what the next stores are going to be. Some of them may be out of business. I'm not saying they are, but we've got to be ready. We've got to say, yep, right here is the corner you want to be on, and you're going to get enough traffic. We've got 50 out there, and we've got Flagstaff coming. We've got Highway 3. We've got other ones that we've got to start looking at and considering. I don't know if we really want six-foot fences butting up to all those roads. That's my comment. So I mentioned we'd give you an opportunity if you have any more comments or questions and you listen to my long wind. Anything else? Any comments, questions from anybody else? If not, we're going to close this. Yes, sir. Ernie.

be able to still use that as industrial property for the same purpose I am?

Yes, they could, yes. Yeah, and those with a house. You could sell your house and somebody else could move into a single-family home. Same type of thing. Well, I want to thank everybody for showing up tonight. Again, we're looking for as much input as we can on the comp plan. It's your community. We're just here trying to help plan it for you. So with that, then, we've got some recommendations to our city council. But first, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close. I have a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Motion and second. Call the roll, please. Lehmire.

Yes. Berg. Yes. Roddy. Yes. Ellis. Yes. Rutherford. Yes.

All right. In front of the commission, then, are recommendations to our city council. The first one is Ordinance 2026-007, amending Title 10, forming the city code, referring to the zoning ordinance. Is there a motion? So moved. We have a motion for a favorable recommendation to our city council. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second. Is there any more discussion? If not, call the roll, please. Berg.

Yes. Roddy. Yes. Ellis. Rutherford. Yes. Beamer.

Yes. All right. The second recommendation would be ordinance 2026-008, title 10, adopting the official zoning district map. Is there a motion? Motion. We have a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Motion and second for a favorable recommendation to our city council. Any more discussion? If not, call the roll, please. Roddy. Yes.

Ellis. Yes. Rutherford. Yes. Beemeyer. Yes. Yes.

All right. Was there anything else from staff?

No, just again want to reiterate or re-mention the meeting on September 29th. It will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Rambling River Center. So you'll likely be seeing some information being pushed out on that here soon. So just wanted to mention that once again.

All right. Thank you, Tony. With that then, I'd like to remind our Viewers, our next regular meeting will be October 13th, and with that, I'd like a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Do we have a motion? Is there a second? Second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. We're officially adjourned. Thank you, everyone.