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 August 12th, 2026. On tonight's agenda, we just have one discussion item. We'll get to that after one housekeeping item, which is the minutes from our July 14th, 2026 regular meeting. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes? If not, is there a motion? Motion. We have a motion for approval. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Minutes are approved. We'll start our discussion item. This is a concept plan for the Sunrise North edition. Tony, you're going to take this.

I am. Let me get it pulled up here.

There we go.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, Commission members. We have a concept plan for what is at least right now called Sunrise North. Mr. Tim Giles submitted the concept. The site is 3.48 acres. It's owned by POR MKR Real Estate and it's located directly north of the Sunrise Ponds development on the east side of town. Kind of at the juncture of Cambodia Avenue and 210th Street West. The concept plan shows a total of 32 townhome units. Those would be four pods of eight units. Shows a gross density of 9.19 dwelling units per acre. It does include the extension of 210th Street West through the site. One thing to note is that right-of-way for 210th Street was originally dedicated with the Sunrise Ponds Platte back in 2006, and that right-of-way runs parallel to the southern boundary of this site, so in between the original development and this parcel. The road itself was never constructed, being that it really didn't serve anything at that time but we wanted to at least have the right of way preserved. With this concept plan it shows the realignment of that road through the center part of this parcel. That realignment serves a couple purposes. It allows for some more flexibility and usable space of the site. While also providing a buffer to the single family residents to the south as well so that those houses don't have double frontage on roads. The realignment would require vacation of a portion of the existing 210th Street right of way. And it should also be noted that 210th Street would have to connect into Cambodia Avenue and Cameron Way as well. So a portion of Cambodia Avenue right now is gravel, basically from the entrance of Sunrise Ponds North. That would have to be improved with bituminous if this were to move forward. This just shows the concept plan. It shows 210th Street going through the center with townhome units on either side of the road. With Cambodia again getting extended north and then extending into Cameron Way on the west side as well. Zoning the property is currently zoned R2, which is our low medium density residential. Due to the townhomes, it should be rezoned to an R3, which is our medium density residential. And also due to the density being nine units an acre, the R3 does allow for 12 to six dwelling units per acre. The comprehensive plan currently shows this as a low-medium density residential, so it's in line with the current zoning, has a development timeframe of 2030 to 2040, and a lot of that just had to do with how the site is. It's a very unique site, and it's a challenging site to develop. The property is located in the current MESA, Municipal Urban Service Area, so that does not have to be amended. Um, but if the, if this process, or this project were to move forward, there would need to be amendments to change the land use designation to medium density residential and also to change the development timeframe to 2020. Instead of keeping it in the 2030 2040 time range. The action requested tonight is just to discuss the concept plan. That's all it is, concept, and provide feedback to the property owners. Mr. Giles is not present. Apparently he's sick, but we do have the property owner here as well as their engineer.

All right. Thank you, Tony. Mr. Regan, Mr. Chris, I don't know. I didn't meet your last name.

Chris Ockwig.

Okay. Do you have anything to add to Tony's report or anything you'd like to State to the Commission.

You know, Tony did a pretty good job on it. What we have is, you know, we're just trying to utilize this odd triangular piece and working with staff, this is what we came up with. And we're eager to get going on it, but we definitely want your feedback before we do to make sure that.

If you could stay available for questions. Absolutely. Just a discussion item, so we're not quite as formal, but. Sure. We still have questions. Commissioner Berg. Sure.

Yeah, thank you, Chair Rowdy. Just a few questions, more just for my understanding of anything. Tony, you mentioned Cameron Way. Is that the proposed name of the road that goes in front of the townhomes there? Or which road is that referencing? Oh, it is. Okay.

I think it's Cameron Way. Okay.

Does it switch names?

It switches north-south.

Okay, okay. That makes more sense.

We have 212th as it comes in, and then as it goes north, it switches.

As it turns. Okay, thank you for that clarification. So, Tony, I think you covered it. That portion of gravel would be matched with whatever... road on cambodia on cambodia there all the way up and then as it turns east i assume it would turn back gravel correct okay um and then the road that goes north as cambodia continues would it terminate where that land terminates where that development terminates on the north correct and also on the west so same question that road would terminate at that pond correct okay that helps i just wanted to understand what the plan was around the roads there Second is around any sort of thought or discussion around any sort of park. I'm fairly familiar with that area. Is there any plan at this point to put any sort of park or public place for kids?

No, we did discuss this at our internal DRC meeting, Development Review Committee meeting. Kelly, our Park and Rec Director, reviewed it. At this point, no, there wouldn't be any We wouldn't be looking to take park in this area. We take park dedication. The park dedication code got changed a couple years ago to where they're looking to do more larger community-wide parks that are spaced out a little bit further. Just from a maintenance standpoint and things like that, that's why they did that. And in this case, there's just not enough space. Not enough land to do anything.

Okay. The reason I'm specifically asking about park is because there's a really nice one to the north of this development, but it's on the other side of the water.

Right.

Right. So that's why I was like, if you've got kids that are attracted to that park, just making sure there was some thought there around.

Yeah. And there is a small tot lot, and it is a tot lot, and it is very small in the Sunrise Ponds development. Okay.

so they're just off the map here okay south okay but it is very small okay um and then it appears at least from this drawing to the the west and then the south there's some outlot some sort of triangular outlots here do we have a plan for what would be done with those is there any thought around if it's built as sort of mapped out here what what would be done in those right i i

Don't believe, potentially stormwater maybe if necessary. I know there's been talk about expanding the existing ponds to accommodate the stormwater requirements. But really it's just the uniqueness of the parcel itself. Yeah. It really doesn't lay out to, you know, fill the entire piece.

Yeah. And honestly, that's exactly what I was asking, right? You guys referenced it, right? It's a unique piece of land. So I'm trying to understand what the plan was.

Okay. Mr. Chris, is that accurate? The land to the west, there's a parcel, I'll call it. Tony, you can point to them, or maybe he knows what we're talking about.

Tell me if I'm wrong, Tony, but I believe the city owns some parcels right here.

The city owns parcels through here. The city owns all of this. It was done as part of the Prairie Waterway back in the 90s.

I was looking at the stuff to the straight, I'll call it west, southwest.

Yeah, that little piece right there.

Is that accurate? Yeah.

It would likely just be open space.

Non-buildable there? Yeah.

Yeah, it gets to be too small to do anything.

Okay.

Okay.

Nope, that's good for me. Mr. Rutherford.

yeah i got just a couple of questions tony was there ever any you know i assume the the right away for the existing right away is what runs right along those backyards on the north side of the current development yeah that area it's all that and that lines up with 210th street to the east was there ever any plan for that to connect all the way to highway three

That was the intent. We actually have easement through Mr. Regan's old bus garage property that's just to the west of this to eventually make that connection.

Sure. And would this realignment have any negative impact on that future plan?

No.

Okay. So engineering is taking a look at this and they're okay with the proposed realignment?

They've actually looked at designating it as an MSA route, actually.

Okay. And then one final question on the existing right-of-way. If that's vacated... Who takes ownership of that then?

What happens with that property? 50% goes to the north, 50% goes to the south property owners. Okay.

All right. That's all I have for now. Thank you.

Commissioner Lehmire.

I took a stroll over by this property here a little bit this evening, and when I did, the one thing that popped out at me was the electrical lines. Mm-hmm. And so what sort of items would be a hindrance for this conceptual plan in relation to those electrical lines and what goes through there at this point in time?

Actually, that's one of the other reasons why the realignment of 212th went through, because they would have had to either relocate those lines or... bury them or do some other thing with those lines. And that is a very costly thing to do with those lines to the point where, you know, even making this development work as is is tight. But then you throw that on to it. It just adds to that.

But it's still doable with where those lines are at at this point in time and what the development is looking like at this point.

Yeah.

So is there actually going to be a road that can go through 210th then? Like from Highway 3 to 210th? Will 210 go all the way to Highway 3 because of those lines?

Not because of those lines, but just because of need for transportation connectivity through the area.

But those lines won't be a hindrance for that road to be developed later on down the line? Shouldn't be. Okay. Is there a need to expand that two 10th all the way West to highway three, or can it come up Cambodia and have the entrances and exits through the current development and Cambodia?

Well, you don't need the connection to highway three to develop this specific parcel. I think long-term the plan is to have it connect in. But yeah, you, We're not saying that you need to have that connection with this specific development.

Okay, so with the entrance through Cambodia, that would be sufficient enough at this point in time for the development to happen. Okay, that should be it for me.

Yeah, there would be multiple ways in and out. You could have Cambodia, and then you also have Cameron Way to get in and out, so you have your multiple accesses.

Thank you, Nate. I'll ask a few questions and I'll touch a little more on what Nate was getting at and what others did too. This might be a question for Chris or Pat. I would ask Tim this if he were here. Tony laid out several road projects that he's writing your checkbook for you. Is you as a property owner, Pat, or Chris as the engineer, is that going to fly with this project? I mean, there's some significant road to build here.

Yeah, so I assume you're talking about paving Cambodia.

Paving Cambodia, and also the other stuff, yeah. I mean, that's some significant roads. There's more? Two-tenths. Two-tenths, yeah. Among others. I mean, you've got a number of townhouses here, but you've got some road construction to do. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with this question?

Yeah.

And then I'll get into the reason why in a little bit and explain to the commission.

It's a good question. I have the same question. Okay. And I wanted to react, if I could. The road termination points of the new 210th, if you could call it that, this relocated 210th and Cambodia... As I stand here now, I think we're going to want to try to minimize the length of those roads on, I don't know how I point, but on the west end here, I don't envision that we would want to put a road next to the neighbor's side yard. I think we'd want to connect directly to Cambodia. and just make it kind of a, Cameron way, I'm sorry. Yeah, and just connect here. Those power poles are, they're a main line from Great River Energy. We've been involved in this area with wearing multiple hats for 25, 30 years now, and the same question I have is what Mr. Roddy's asking, what would be the final condition on the east end at Cambodia and the new 210th? In my view, we would just connect them and maybe extend long enough to do a turnaround. I don't think we would... be interested in building a cul-de-sac or anything like that because emergency vehicles would be able to connect and make a loop through the new 210th Street. The history here, I bought the property to the east of, to the west of here where the bus terminal is, was, and where it was the Dakota Electric Polyard prior to that. And there was a railroad right away that went through there and then I needed more land and there was a very large multi single-family development that was going to take up a few hundred acres and a few hundred homes to the east of us that was being proposed by one of these big developers during the the boom in the 90s and so the city and I made an agreement to allow for an easement to create that 210th Street connection from Highway 3 all the way to the east end of my property that the bus terminal was involved in and the question about 210th Street was always there for me in the future because this big development that never occurred was the driving force. So in that easement agreement that we have with the city, i traded the easement and the city gave me the lot over in the in the new farmington industrial park that is now uh i developed it i moved a building over there we had buses parked there and i've since sold it to another user um that's on 208th street i think yeah and uh So we were able to expand our operation. The city got the easement. Part of that agreement provides that this property I retained would not be subject to any assessment if a road is ever built. And it's such a long stretch. I think it's, would that be 1,800 feet? I think it's a... from here to here. It's a long, long road and would never be economically feasible for our property because of this triangular shape that was formed by the railroad originally. The same thing applies on this small parcel that we got. We were involved in the Sunrise Ponds development when that was built, and then Mr. Giles, and then it got hit hard in the downturn. We foreclosed on the property. I'm wearing my banker's hat now when I'm talking about that. And those were tough times. And I, along with the bank and Mr. Giles, came in and were able to replat this part of Sunrise, the part of the Sunrise Ponds that's existing, but we couldn't come to an agreement on what to do with this parcel we're looking at today. And because of the 210th Street, condition was just too much to invest on such small lots if they were gonna be single family. So the ability to relocate 210th Street and it's a 50 foot right away makes this at all financially feasible. And the fact that we can get 32 units in here there are a lot of other similar products in the market nearby that we've tried to emulate here that have been built by multiple builders and developers so and we've got the waterfront which we think is going to be an attraction so uh long answer to your short but pertinent question about does this work financially. We think it does under this relocated road design. There was an earlier question if I could respond to the idea of the vacation of the existing 210th Street right of way. I think that's an open question there is you can see a trail there was the base of that road was installed because there are some utilities in that line also so i think it's worthy of further study and consideration the basically the the base for the bike trail if you wanted one is there and who owns it the city could take an easement or take ownership of a

Or you could just leave it as right-of-way.

We can leave it as right-of-way.

That is an option.

You can see in the photos the neighbors are using part of the 210th Street right-of-way, which is natural. There's nothing else going on back there, and it hasn't bothered us. It's not our right-of-way. But there is enough extra space between the right of way and these little pockets for drainage, or if we wanted to plant a grove of trees and that kind of thing, I think it would fit in well. And I was gonna refer to the little tot lot that was part of that sunrise ponds. It's just off of the map on the corner. Okay. So we'd have to be thoughtful about this, the final road design. And if we start stretching out the road, it could end up being a problem for the development. And the power poles, we did investigate the cost to relocate or bury those there. Are they 150 feet high there? Yeah. They're huge.

They're transmission. It wouldn't be cheap.

Many, many, many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Yeah, it wouldn't be cheap for you. So it wasn't feasible.

Well, thanks, Pat. Any other questions? No, I just want to follow up then to Nate and what's going on. And as we go through our comp plan, we'll do a transportation section. And things like this row and stuff will be shown and discussed further and why. And then what I wanted, you all alluded to it and why I brought it up and wanted to ask cost first is we don't want to leave roads to be built by our taxpayers. If there's a development that's going on, and you guys understand this, you've been in this business. One time in my career, years and years ago, 30 some years ago, we didn't make a developer do it. And then the next one came back and then he or she or they had to, in essence, pay for it or find means to pay for it. And so we do in this community and others too, I'm sure, Chris, you've been working with them, kind of require as a development goes, they pay for the roads. And that's why I thought it was pertinent. I just want to let the other commissioners know why we're doing it rather than letting our taxpayers foot the bill for... you know, the road that's going in front of somebody else's. Yeah, when it comes to maintenance in the future, everybody contributes to road maintenance, but new construction is that of the developer. So I just had a few others. Tony, you know, you listed all the different things, comp plan, rezone, land use, time frame. As we're working through our comp plan, can this be tied into it, or are you thinking this is something that um, is it going to be an exception to, or what are your thoughts on that?

It certainly could be tied into that. Um, you know, obviously the comprehensive plan, um, takes a number of years. Uh, we're looking probably a year and a half out, um, for that to be approved. Um, you know, I know we've had this conversation on a number of different parcels. Um, It could be tied to that, or we certainly could, or they could apply. And at that point, we'd have to make a decision one way or the other at that time.

And you're going to have a lot of discussions. Pat brought up some great questions that I think still need to be discussed with staff. Um, things that the commission doesn't decide, um, things that they know the staff will bring a recommendation. Most likely a lot of that would be finalized with our city council. But, you know, we certainly will see it in the future if it does come. And the last thing I wanted to mention, and I say this as much for the commission, but as developers certainly know this, but when we have two different zoning districts, we always like a buffer. You know, 50-foot road right away with the road in there, to me, I think would suffice as a buffer. I think that, Tony, you alluded to that in there. Maybe you didn't say it, but I think that's why you said there's a road in between. Right.

single family and the multi and the actual right of way for two tenths that's in between um i believe that's either an 80 i think it's an 80 foot right away okay so it's it's it's a 70 70 okay it's either 70 or 80 all right so it's a substantial right yeah and but i just want to make known then for actually for the newer commissioners that you know we always do look for

some kind of buffer if this was backyard to backyard we'd say hey let's think about this a little more but when you get you know 70 80 feet in there are you guys okay with that as a buffer transit i i call it a buffer some transition might be a better term but uh so that you know you don't because you know i don't know these people that bought these lots you know when they did at their backyard they were backing up to what they assumed would be single family. And I don't know if townhouses are any different, but that's just what their assumption was when they bought the lot with the house. So that's why I mentioned that. I really don't have an issue. I think it's a fine use for the piece of property. I think you can make it work if you can do it financially. That's why I brought that up. But that's not my job. It's your job to crunch the numbers on that and work with staff. Work with Tony. He'll direct you to the right people in the city to talk with and deal with. So actually, I kind of like the concept. It's a useful piece of land. Somebody mentioned the frontage of the water. I think that would, if you cite them right, I think that'd be a great amenity for some of those, you know, the back ones. I really do.

We think so too.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that it would be nice lots there. So I don't have anything else. Tony, how about you?

I'd like to add that it's our intention if we have to go through the CUP amendment, we would make that application as soon as we feel confident we can go ahead and a year and a half wouldn't work.

That's why I asked Tony that same question. I didn't know your timing, but now you've told us your timing.

If we have to put in that application to get that amendment to this land, we do have plans we're working on for the bus terminal property also.

Okay.

That's impacted by the big... By the same road right-of-way, and the staff's been flexible and open to some ideas on the width of that easement and that kind of thing. We're talking about garage condos probably because of the big warehouse to the south of us, and we don't think it's going to work very well for a residential because of that. But it is a nice transition. We've got the holiday to the north, and

You know, Pat, if you were talking 160 acres, and I've been pretty vocal on this, I'd say, you know, then I'd ask you, can you wait? But you're not talking 160 acres. You're talking a smaller concept plan here. I think it's doable. I don't know what other use of land for. I mean, if you came in with a different use, maybe we'd have a different question. But this would work here, I believe. I leave it up to the other commissioners if they don't agree, but... I think our city council would think it's a nice addition to the area. But that's up to them, not to me.

I think it makes good use of the regional pond that was built there since we owned the property that... We can turn it into an amenity. These aren't, these are going to be houses that'll, that'll fit a broad economic market. They'll be available to a lot of people. I don't want to use certain words that means certain things to other people, but they're, these are going to be houses that a lot of people should be able to be interested in and it'd be affordable. And, and but, and again, we did look at other projects in, other communities nearby and tried to model those. They look like they're moving pretty well. And so we want to get it done. We've had it long enough. We've got to make something happen here. So we appreciate it.

We had everybody involved. Did you have anything to add? Nothing. All right. All right. Anything else from staff? Do you guys have enough? Pat, Chris, do you have enough to go on from here, deal with Tony? No.

This has been helpful. Thank you.

All right. Yeah, a lot of good questions, I thought, from the commission. They did a nice job. All right. Tony, anything else in?

Not on this, no.

Do you have anything else?

I was just going to mention our meeting in September will also be on Wednesday as well. Just so you're aware due to the holiday and then the city council meeting being pushed to the Tuesday where we would typically have our meeting. So just wanted to make you aware of that again. So.

And I'll just remind them our next regular meeting is September 9th, and it is a Wednesday. And Tony will do a nice job of emailing us and reminding us so nobody can say night. If you are, you can sit through the council meeting. With that, I'd look for a motion to adjourn.

A motion.

We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. We're officially adjourned. Thank you, everybody.