Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

will come to order. Um, we will first call the role. Lisa, you there? Mr. Holman, here. Miss Lazarus here. Mr. Grady here. Mr. Waters here. Miss Silva here. Dr. Mason here. and Miss Heim Street previously informed staff she would not be able to attend tonight's meeting. Okay. Thank you. Um I would like to um first take some time to acknowledge our two newest members of the planning commission. Um Greg Waters and Kristen Silva. Greg Waters brings to the commission a business perspective after a distinguished career in sales and management. He comes as a member of the city council since 2021 and a participant of numerous nonprofits and civic boards throughout the community. And Miss Silva is the community development manager for Waka County. Um she's been a member of numerous civic and nonprofit boards as well, notably the city of Lake Mills Economic Development Commission. So both bring tremendous strength, skills and experience that are going to continue to make um this commission strong and talented. So thank you for joining. Thank you. Um so next um is the election of a vice chair for the planning commission. So as you all know our our wonderful leader Pam Lazeras decided to make this year her last on the planning commission and step aside as chair. and that left the need for a new vice chair for the commission. Um, with that, the floor is now open for nominations

um for the office of vice chair from this commission. hearing hearing silence. I would nominate um Dr. Mason. Okay. I will respectfully decline and I'll nominate Steve Hman. And u I respectfully decline also. Um and I would like to nominate Greg Waters. I don't think that's a city council member. Yeah. Oh, never stop me. But thanks for the thought. Yeah, you can nominate me. I guess does anyone want to reconsider their declination? Is that a word? I don't know. Yeah. I'll nominate Miss Silva. And I'd like to second that. All right. Is that okay? Sure. Rookie. Um Kristen Silva has been nominated um for the vice chair position um by Mr. Waters and seconded by Mr. Homeman. Are there any further nominations? Is there a motion to close nomination? So move. Second. All right. It's been motioned um by Mr. Mason, seconded by Miss Lazerus to close the nominations. Um so we can now proceed for the vote for the vice chair of Chris and

Silva. Um I think we can do a voice call, right? So all in favor? I I All opposed. Kristen Silver Worky, you're our new vice chair. Great. I probably should have asked what the responsibilities were. I'll try to not be absent. How about that? You're going to have to do this if I am absent. The pay is really good, too. Okay. Next is the approval of meeting minutes for April 22nd, 2025. There any objections? I move approval of these minutes. Second. Um I I'll second that. Can I second it? Mhm. Yeah. Okay. It's been moved by Miss Lazar, seconded by myself um to approve the meeting minutes. Miss Vincent, Miss Lazeras, I Mr. Grady, hi. Mr. Waters, I Miss Silva, can I vote on this? You can abstain if you want. Okay, you can vote. Dr. Mason, I'll abstain. Mr. Hman abstain three zero. Okay. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda is questions of public comments. Uh, the public is encouraged to address the plan commission at this time regarding items on the agenda. Unless the item is subject of a public hearing. So, if your comments pertain to a public hearing, you're asked to hold your comments until that hearing. Public

comment may also be made at this time on items that are not on the agenda. If you have registered with the city clerk before the meeting has been called to order, please remember that the state's open meeting law discourages action by the planning commission on items not listed on the agenda. So, please keep your comments limited to 3 minutes and state your name and address when starting your comments and fill out the sign sheet provided at the podium. Um, for people online, please type your name and address in the chat feature. Is there any comments and anything not on the agenda today? Okay, seeing none, we will move to next. Um, so next on the agenda is opening the public hearing on the zoning amendment for Lake Mills feed and grain. Um the purpose uh being amending an existing planned development district overlay on planned industrial property on 1219 South Main Street. Um the existing PDD overlay allowed the structure on the site to not exceed 125 ft in height and the requested amendment is to allow the structure to not exceed 150 ft in height. And let's start um this off with a presentation from our zoning administrator Troy Evansson. Hey, good evening. Uh, I'll start you off first one that my the my 150 foot mark on my memo is off. Um, I I I meant to correct it before I sent it on, but the the narrative that they sent through, if you guys read through their narrative, it is 162 feet is the peak for that uh ask there. But, um, you guys maybe couple you guys maybe remember this one was here not too long ago. was before my time here. But this property had some uh property, they acquired some property, had some reszone and have a a PDD on there back in 2022. Uh what they're asking for now is

uh as you can read through there, they want to add some some storage, some bins, and their height restriction uh exceeds what our um bulk regulations would allow for this zoning district. Uh however, there is an avenue here that that we think that would allow this. Um our read through our ordinance, the zoning administrator does have the authority to um allow some minor amendments to existing PDDs. I wasn't comfortable with this one being considered minor. So, uh that's why it is brought in front of you guys today to go through the actual PDD process. There is some representatives here from Lake Mills Feed and Grain that could probably give you guys uh all the answers you're looking for. Any we want to take questions now, Troy, for anything for you or should we wait until there any questions out of the gate for Troy? No. We can always ask questions later on. Um is the applicant here to make a presentation? You can come up to the microphone and share your name and address. John Tranburg. I represent Lake Mills Feed and Grain. Oh, would you like a personal address? Whatever you Is that all right? Do we have to take business address is fine? 1508 West Badger Road, Madison. That's Vit Plus Corporation's corporate headquarters. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. Do you have a presentation? So, a couple years back, we sat in front of this um body with a lot of work from people in the room as well as outside to talk about our project. In 2022, we committed to a variety of improvements to the site, more importantly to focus on or most importantly to focus on the improvement of safety. We had a lot of truck traffic. We had trucks uh moving across the road to our lots um on the east side of the road to do kind of U-turns and

come back on site. That project did a very good job both operationally for the site as well as improving what the site looks like and feels like. So we installed new loadout bins, a new truck scale, and most importantly to the west, we um improved the parking for trailers. So we no longer had to park them on the east side of the road, which we are maintaining and have improved quite frankly um when we purchased that that property. So now we have trucks that operate on site. We purchased two additional parcels which we annexed into the site and made the 30 space uh 30% green space requirement a reality. We also installed arborvitees to the north and south of the property as per the agreement that we had committed to. We also asphalted the site to remove the dust contamination. We also installed a storm water runoff um containment system and filter. All of that done because frankly we said we'd do it and we knew that that was part of being of a good corporate citizen. So here we are again asking for further improvements to the site. It is all about our employee safety as you've read as well as the reduction of truck traffic or idle time on site. There's certainly an efficiency component to this. What we're trying to do is decrease the dwell time of tractors and trailers operating on site and make the whole thing more efficient as well. So with that, we've got this laid out. This is part of a of another kind of approach to this location to continue to reinforce our commitment to Lake Mills feed and grain within the community. With that, I any questions, answers? What would you look for? Miss, is this going to increase your capacity? It will long term. Yes, we believe it has the potential to, but those decisions um the decisions to move product around or manufacturing around have not been finalized. But certainly if the location now has additional um

manufacturing capabilities, it certainly could. Do you have an estimate of We do not. Okay. you spoke about being a good corporate uh partner to the community. As far as the noise and traffic goes, how will this project uh impact those two things? It's a that's a great question, sir. Um imagine a truck spending 30 minutes less on site going back and forth across the site and the emissions as well as the noise that's generated from that. We put up these new bins with this project in its entirety. cut truck traffic down substantially on the location, the noise, the emissions, the use of electricity. Um, we've really taken what we believe is a holistic approach to not only how the site physically operates, but the footprint that we're leaving on the community. So, that's a key part of it. Yes. So, operationwise, the noise will remain the same, come down, which the amount of truck traffic or or operating time on site will come down considerably. But what about the facility? itself. The facility shouldn't experience anything appreciable in in reduction of noise that someone would notice other than again the tractor trailer time. Okay. Thank you. I got a few questions. Um how would it impact your business if this amendment were to not pass? We would look at things um take a step back. In fact, myself and the other officers of the company met today to talk about this project. And if it doesn't go this way, what do we do? We're looking at Lake Mills to play an increasing role in our production footprint in the company. It would force some other decisions quite frankly. Not that we would I'm not talking about, oh, we're going to close the site. That's not that. It is a well, if we can't do this here, what else could we do in other locations to continue to grow the business? Thanks. Um what um are your

responses to the concerns around the fire department not being able to support a worst case scenario on the top of the structure? And uh as we were talking before, I'm not so sure the fire department could support a worst case scenario today with the existing height of the of the leg. Um I I appreciate equipment constraints of a of any fire department. If that is the constraint, again, appreciating that that's going to be a bottleneck moving forward regardless. Yeah. And um and how does your facility mitigate grain dust problems? You mentioned it. That's a great question. Um the part of this project is to automate the movement of grain from the west side of the grain plant over to the main mill. I believe you've you've read that. By automating that, we're no longer loading a truck and driving it over there. Well, anytime you load grain in an outside environment, there is a quantity of dust that's created. We've minimized that substantially with how we do it, but this would further reduce that by placing all the grain transfer in a completely enclosed system and reducing any kind of fire challenges. I correct. Cool. See, I want to go back. Glenn Andler um Glenn leads our Vitab builders um function. That's a construction company within Vitaplus that's is working on the Lake Mills project. Let's go back to the elevator leg for an example. On all of our legs, we have speed sensors, uh, tracking alignments on the legs. They're explosion proof panels. I mean, this is something that we take incredibly seriously. All of our employees go through monthly safety training companywide that's bilingual that talks about how you run grain plants or do lockout tagouts. So, we talk about safety, dust control, that's paramount in the company. It is one of our core values. Thanks. Any more questions? Yeah. So, um, why does this new leg have to be so much higher? It's a great question. Talking about the height of the leg, if we were to lower the height of the leg, the elevator leg. This an is an

ingredient leg to get to the new bin construction, we'd have to put in another conveyor. That's going to take power consumption, that's going to take more maintenance, that's going to increase our carbon footprint. If we can use gravity to our benefit by moving product around, finished feed or raw ingredients, that benefits us in a number of ways. Most importantly, to your comment on on noise, anytime there's a conveyor running, it's noisy. You might not notice it one conveyor at a time, but in aggregate, it's going to reduce the noise profile. That was a that's a discussion we actively have. This is one of a few projects in other locations as well and we actively talk about how do you use gravity more as opposed to energizing a a motor. I I have a question for staff, but you can stay there in case I have to come back to you. Um on the risk of the fire department, can someone address that risk and and how the city perceives that? At this point, I talked to to Chief Russ um and he just made it known that their their new ladder truck, I think it was a 90 foot ladder truck or that you know they obviously couldn't if somebody were to collapse up on top of this tower working on it or you know had some sort of medical condition. They wouldn't be able to get up there with an apparatus and and physically just hoist them onto it and get them down. They would have to go up climb up and and get them out, you know, however that that goes down on those stairs. But as he stated, the the one that's there now, we can't reach either. This just would extend that that recovery a little bit higher. But um it's a matter of degree. We do not have a piece of equipment that can reach the top of it now. It's just a further climb to get to perform a rescue operation. So is there any uh additional risk from a liability standpoint from a

city? The city? No. Okay. Thank you. If I could Glenna just reminded me we have stairs going to the top of this elevator leg. So what we did excuse me um you notice that other structure we did two years ago. Uh we come for come up to the mic so we have to when we came for approval there's stairs to get from the ground to the top of the new structure we did two years ago. Um there is also emergency ladder but there's stairs that this stairs would continue. There'd be stairs all the way to the top. We tend to go that way for a couple things. It's a lot safer and it's easier for all employees. But uh so stairs like I say trying to get service people a lot better. So it's a thought. Insert. Can you state your name real quick? Great. Glenn Amler. Thank you. I I have a question. Wouldn't it be wouldn't it be true to say that this is not a manned position? This is this would there only be somebody up there if it was either a maintenance situation, a a a new service part being added, but it's literally on the top of a grain leg. Yes, sir. That's correct. Yeah. And like I like we stated with our new safety stuff, that makes it a lot more reliable. And so you don't rely on people, oh, let's go check something today where we can look at monitors on the ground. They're very accurate. So it's not it's not like somebody's there very much. Okay. Any more questions? Mr. I have a question for staff. Um, in the memo it looks like I maybe was a little confused with um the answer for um number one. It it seemed to me that staff was um recommending approval or you know a proponent of this, but it didn't seem like the answer to number one um

supported that. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I didn't want to come across 100% approving it or disproving it. This one was kind of one of those I felt like that's why I brought it to staff like like we were talking earlier, I did have the ability to probably approve this and if I felt like this was a no-brainer and you know it fit fit in with what they're you know already doing wasn't going to disrupt anything else visually um I probably would have considered doing that but I didn't feel comfortable you know with the with the height personally making that decision. I don't I don't live in the city of Lake Mill, so I don't think it's somebody that I should, you know, a decision that I should make. And so that's why I brought it to staff. But I kind of wanted to keep my answers neutral as possible so that plan commission, city council could could make their decision based on on their feelings. And is is height your main reservation? Uh yeah, change that's requested. Okay. Yeah, height is really the only um change that's being asked of you. nothing else would require a relaxation from the from the code. So if they were just adding a new elevator leg, is that what you call it? A new to this and it was below the 125 ft, this wouldn't have to come before the plane commission. Okay. No, I mean unless it's possible it would, but it's hard to say without know seeing a site plan of a different um proposal. But um for this for the one that's in front of you, the reason it's it's in front of you right now is because of the exceeding of the height require limit. Thank you. Just one more thing I wanted to add and it's it's not going to really influence my vote tonight, but I did want to thank Mr. Kramer, Mr. Adler for the the

business in town that you have been a good corporate partner and uh I just wanted to thank you for that's great for being a good partner. So, thank you, sir. I'll pass that along to the facility. That that'll be well received. Yeah, I have something to add to that also. I I'm just guessing, but the the facility has been there probably at least 60 years, if not 80 years. And if they're enhancing the just the the daytime production of the facility, that really has nothing to do with the 24 hours that this facility is open during harvest season. And it's been that it's been that way every year since uh it's been open. And with the zoning areas that we have, that's the that's the actually reason why we have buffer um you know buffer zones um because these people were there first and you know an existing existing business and uh a necessary business for the farming community of the area. Anybody with animals actually anybody farming the grain the grain guys too. Well, um I I think we just have to, you know, remember historically how we set these these areas up and, you know, just because the place produces dust, they were there. They were there before the subdivisions and the other things and all those people knew that going in that that that was an existing business, existing necessary business. Thank you. Cool. Any other questions for our pres presenters? No. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Um we'll now hear public comments. So if there are any, please come to the podium. None online. Okay. Thanks. Um we will start our commission discussion where we ask questions of staff or any other questions for presenters. Mr. Chair, you

have to declare the public uh hearing closed. What's that? You should declare the public hearing closed. Oh, thank you. Yes. Thank you. Public comment closed at 7:23. Appreciate it. So, we'll need a motion on the ordinance. Yeah. If you're ready. Are we ready? Okay. I didn't quite hear him. I think you said motion. We need to make a motion when we're ready. Yeah. If we're ready for that, please go ahead. All right. All right, I'll make a motion to approve the zoning requirement. And um it's partial 246 0713 2311 017. Second. Okay. It's been motioned by Mr. Mason and seconded by Mr. Waters to um approve the amendment um 66044A as written. Am I ask for a roll call vote? Mr. Greedy. I. Mr. Waters. I Miss Silva. I Dr. Mason. Me? I I Mr. Homeman. I Miss Lazeris I. Motion pass 6. Thank you. All right. Um next is um opening of the public hearing on conditional use permit amendment for the Lake Mary Lake Mills area school district with the purpose of an addition to their elementary school on 155 East Pine. Um, the school district has

applied for an amendment to its conditional use permit to allow a building addition of approximately 8,600 square ft. Um, as it was passed by referendum last November. Um, let's start with a staff presentation from Troy. All right, this one should be a little easier. This is kind of a formality. Um, if you saw in my memo in red, our ordinance requires this to come back through a condition use process. they already have a conditional use for this school on this property, but because of the uh addition, the enlargement of the of the building, it requires uh conditional use approval again. So, um theoretically, they're they're the reszone should be be completed at the next city council. So, there's going to be that PIO overlay. They already have their variance request approved for the building addition. So, this is kind of the final piece of the puzzle to bring all that together to bring that site compliant and uh ready to build. Okay. Any questions? No. Is there any presentation you all need? No. Okay. Answer questions. Okay. Sounds good. Um we'll now hear from public comments. So, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Any public comments? No public comments. Done online. I'm seeing no public comments. We're going to close it. It's 7:26. Um we'll start our commission discussion. Any questions from the commission concerns, comments, thoughts? No. Well, if you are ready for a motion, I will take a motion.

I'll move to approve. Mr. Holman will second. It's been moved to approve the amendment um of the conditional use permit to allow a requested addition to the existing school building located at 155 East Pine Street by Miss Silva and seconded by Mr. Holman. I ask for a roll call vote. Mr. Waters, I Miss Silva, I I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. I Thank you, Dr. Mason. I Mr. Homeman I, Miss Lazerus, I, Mr. Grady. I motion pass 6. Thank Thank you. Um, next uh is a recommendation for future agenda items. Are there any from city staff that we can anticipate in the next month? Any recommendations from our planning commission that we would like to see on the agenda? Start with city. Nothing on the I don't have anything right now. I don't think we have imminent applications. No. Okay, great. Any suggestions? Um, I just have a question on, you know, we, uh, uh, Pam in the past has brought up the fact that I'd like to make a a couple of zoning amendments and, uh, uh, Mr. Grady was was asking me, uh, just what I would how it how I personally like to proceed. And I I think if we just had a a single item that just defined the area first, you know, define the the the area of the city that we're talking about, we could take it in baby steps so we wouldn't have these meetings. You know, if the if the load for staff gets heavy, then we don't have

to load this down. But just start some definitions. And I guess we're just staff I think is pretty aware of this, but we kind of were basing it on when the uh Bartles Beach building burnt down. We we kind of defined an area of the city that um was kind of in what kind of an a holding pattern until we got some things straight. And uh it would just basically be the older part of town without the the subdivisions, you know, to not muddy the water. It's about a fairness thing with the entire city. So maybe we could just start with defining the part of the city um because some of these things would not apply to the likes of a Brookstone. So my question is um are you suggesting we have like a working session where we can do that as a commission? Well, just based on are you hoping that Yeah, ultimately yes. But, you know, we kind of talked a little bit about the the summer load potentially of and maybe I could uh discuss some of this with Troy a little bit too just to get a broad brush and then, you know, it just be easier to to define it cuz I simply am not capable to um put a packet together. I don't I I like a like something to vote on it. We just need to have some guidance. Yeah, absolutely. if you could give me some direction of what you're what you're thinking, I can definitely help gather uh information and probably compare some to some other municipalities in the area and we could kind of say this that's this is the direction you're thinking or like no that's that's not it. But yeah, if you I would definitely need some instead of me just trying to throw a bunch of stuff at you and say, "Hey, this is what I think." It'd be helpful if you give me some direction. And ultimately, it's the the whole thing is based on helping staff, you know, with with zoning

issues. Ju just a quick thought on that. So, when you're talking parts of this city, are you suggesting that some codes might apply to some parts of the city and not to other parts of the city? So we would be writing codes that are dependent upon Okay. No, I'm suggesting that a great part of the city was was um already developed before we put the existing code in place. So it's like we're imposing uh imposing code on the existing part of the city that that needs to be changed so that it's fair for them to seriously I've been I've been lectured about this fairness thing from you know from the day I started on the plan commission. So I understand to be careful about isolating you know making it more fair for it. This is this is to increase fairness across the city, not to impose anything. Does that make sense or not quite? Uh I guess I'd have to see it on paper to to make that judgment. But uh fair enough. Well, I would suggest if it's okay that if there is nothing on the agenda that we consider having a working session if that's okay. Um and uh and we can take a take this on. It sounded all right. So um if so before we would cancel any meeting, please keep that in mind. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Great. Anything else? Nothing else? Nothing. Nothing else. All right. I'll take a motion for a German. So move. All right. Um it's been moved. Is there a second? Do I need a second? Second.

All right. It's been moved um by Mr. Mason, second by Mr. Hman. Um all in favor say I. I. I. Oppose say no. All right. This meeting is adjourned.