City Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone to the regular meeting for the Minneapolis Planning Commission for August 24th, 2026. My name is Chris Meyer, Chair of the Commission. Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Baxley.

Here.

Chowdhury is absent. Conley is absent. Garcia.

Here.

Gordon.

Here.

Jones is absent. Shepty is absent. Shepard.

Here.

Vice President Meyer.

Here.

I'm sorry, Vice President Wagner and then President Meyers.

All right, we have a quorum. We've got a busy agenda, so let's get to it. Is there a motion to approve the minutes for August 10th, 2026?

I motion to approve the minutes for August 10th, 2026.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? The minutes are adopted. We have one item on the agenda for today. Staff are recommending that it be continued to the next Planning Commission meeting. But if you came to speak to it, you may. And you can also do it at the next one. So I will open the public hearing for 3561 44th Street. Was anyone here to speak to that item?

Was that?

All right, so you'll have two chances to testify because this is getting continued. So I'm not sure why it's being continued, but staff are recommending that we bring it up at the next meeting. But the public notice went out that the hearing would be today. So if you came today, you have a chance to testify now, and you can testify again at the next meeting. There won't be any presentation from staff at this one. There will be one at the next one.

And the presentation from the staff?

Can you come up to the mic? Sorry.

Sorry.

And the presentation.

You can introduce yourself.

Sorry. Okay. Susan Nelson. Great. Long-time, all-time Minnesota resident. So the presentation will show what the developers' plans will be at the next meeting. Is that correct? Yes.

That is correct.

I did also notice, and I just, the shared alley access, that was one of my questions, is with the easement, is there been... Sorry, I just grabbed this and saw this, so... That's okay.

So we won't be able to answer the questions now, but you can testify, you can ask your questions on record, and then staff can get back to you about them before the next meeting.

Okay. So I just had questions for what the plan was for the easement, because I do live at 4415 Chowan, which is the condominium association that is noted here, which is the sole parking lot for... The easement is access to the sole parking lot for that condo association. So just curious what the plans were to ensure that there is continued access throughout the development. I'm super excited to have another multifamily housing on the block. We are the only multifamily housing block in the area and love all of my neighbors. I've been living there for 15 years. So I'm not one of the NIMBYs, like, not in my backyard, don't build it. Build it, but just want to ensure that we continue to have access to get to work and get to our doctor's appointments. We have some elderly folks in our building as well. And then my second question was, and again understand you can't answer this uh the parking for the proposed building just because we are one of the sole multi-family housing blocks in the area there's already a lot of street parking that's very limited and so just ensuring that there's going to be ample parking made available through the developer off street for both the residents and their guests as well as their retail it looks like there might be some retail space involved as well so just curious what those plans were

Great. Thank you. Like I said, we can't answer that now, but Andrew Fentz is the staff person for this. If you talk to him, you can get his email, and he can answer your questions and update you on any changes that might be made between now and when the application comes back to us in September. Would anyone else like to speak? Not seeing anyone, so I will close the hearing.

You want to leave it open for the next...

So we'll keep the hearing open to the next meeting. Is there a motion to continue this item for one cycle to the September 14th, 2026 meeting?

So moved.

I'll let you ask, Andrew. So there's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? That is adopted. All right, that concludes our business for today. We do have Committee of the Whole on Thursday, and then our next full Planning Commission meeting would be September 14th. Council Member Chowdhury also wanted to invite all of us to a council policy roundtable on data centers. It's going to be happening this Wednesday the 26th from 1.30 to 3.30 in Council Room 392. That's all in your inboxes. Make sure you check your city emails. And then, Kimberly, can you tell us more about what's on the agenda for Thursday? You said a zoning text amendment?

Yes, it's a zoning code text amendment that it's primarily changing our regulations for one to three unit dwellings, which typically don't come before the planning commission. Any variances to those types of projects typically go to the zoning board of adjustment. But there are some things on there that will impact our work. We're taking a look at some of the permitted encroachments in required yards. We're looking at the process for party wall splits. We see a lot of minor subdivisions coming before us for those and we're proposing to streamline that a little bit. Some other opportunities for streamlining and I think the agenda will be going out soon and we'll have the draft code text in there. So primarily, looking at the one to three unit regulations, it has some proposed changes for FAR in there as well, but things that don't typically come to us, but some of them are kind of policy type decisions to be making, so.

Great, thank you. Are there any other updates from staff or commissioners? All right, not seeing any, so we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.