Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Well, it's more or less 4.30, so we'll begin our Planning Commission meeting for the month. We have quorum, so we can get right into business. The first item that we'll attend to is approval of minutes. There are two sets. The first is for May 28th. Have we all read them, and are we okay with them?

Yes.

I see shakes yes. Anybody move to approve? Yes.

Motion to approve.

We have a motion approved. Do we have a second?

Second.

And a second. Everybody in favor say aye.

Aye. Anybody opposed?

Okay. We'll take a look at June 25th then. Same thing. Everybody read them?

Yes. Are we good with them? Yes.

And a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Competition. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. And a second from Kate. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Anybody opposed?

Okay, so we can move on to our other business items. We have the first of all, we have a public hearing. We've been working on an ordinance amendment. So, John, is that yours or David's?

That's mine.

All right, John.

Good evening, everybody. This is actually the third time we're talking about this particular item. So we have the entire staff report, but I'm going to summarize it quite a bit if that's all right with the commission.

Please do.

Okay. So this is a public hearing to amend section 4.7, the medium density residential standards found in appendix A, the zoning ordinance of the city code. The applicant is the City of New Ulm. The Planning Commission at their May 28, 2026 meeting and then June 25, 2026 meeting had considered possible changes to the development standard found in Section 4.7, the Medium Density Residential District, also known as MDR. That matter was discussed at the Planning Commission at the May 28, 28th, 2026 meeting. At that time, the commission recommended that we research it further and then bring it back to you. We did that and brought it back to you at June 25th. And then at that meeting, the commission recommended that we draft an ordinance and present it today at the July planning commission meeting. So what is actually going to be happening is Section 4.7 will be amended. In particular, in Section 4.7, Table 411, the development standards would modify the current standard in Column 4 from 3 to 8 units per acre to now read 3 to 9 units per acre. This would also change the minimum lot area per dwelling unit. from 5,500 square feet per unit to 4,840 square feet per unit. What I have up on the screen is a section from the zoning ordinance and actual table 411. And what is crossed out or lined out is what will be removed and what is underlined is what will be added if this were approved. The reasons for this change were as follows. Decreasing the required land area would bring the zoning regulations closer to the comprehensive plan guidelines. New Ulms lot area per dwelling unit in the R3 zoning district is significantly higher than other similar communities researched by staff. The comprehensive plan was adopted after a zoning ordinance was approved and its recommendations may carry greater weight in consideration of this matter. And even if the requested lot area were decreased to 4,840 square feet per acre, it would still have priority over the column. Sorry. Forget that line. What we did at the last meeting was we're now actually matching the column heading with the required land area per dwelling unit. So there isn't any discrepancies. Public hearing notice was published in the New Ulm Journal on July 13th, 2026, and to date staff has not received any comments from the public on this zoning amendment. The amendment is being proposed to better align the zoning ordinance R3 medium density residence district standards with the recommended land area amount found in the 2024 comprehensive plan. We do have four attachments. We do have four attachments with the staff report. The first is the zoning ordinance, draft zoning ordinance, which is up on the screen. Second is the medium density residential standards found in the comp plan. Then we have the community comparison again is attachment three. And then lastly, we have attachment four, which is the staff completed findings of facts. So the planning commission needs to consider if the proposed amendment complies with the review criteria found in appendix A, the city zoning ordinance, and then also, Are there additional or fewer requirements the Planning Commission would like to see incorporated into the amendment? Staff would recommend modifying Table 411 of the Medium Density Residence District of Appendix A. to change the standard from three to eight units per acre to three to nine units per acre, and then also change the minimum lot area from 5,500 square feet per unit to 4,840 square feet per unit. We also have two motions, one to recommend approval and one to recommend denial. And that would conclude the staff report.

Thanks, John. Do we have any questions or comments? I've got a question. I should know this, but what is a single family attached? What does that mean?

Single family attached? Yeah. Twin home?

Okay. So simply that's two and then multiple family is three and above? Yeah.

Got it. Well, an attached could also be three, four, five units in a row.

Yeah.

So essentially single family attached just means it's It's a grouping of single-family homes that are all attached. Right. Oh, it could be a townhome then.

Yeah, they have a shared wall.

Got it. Okay. And multiple-family then is more, we would think, apartments or something?

Yeah, where you have floors. Got it. And the single-family attached is just one level, and it spreads out this way. All right. Whereas apartment, we're going like that.

Got it. Okay. So as I understand it, this gets us closer to being consistent with a comp plan and it is sort of the smallest step we can make so that we're not exaggerating the change, correct? Correct.

All right.

Do we have any other questions or comments?

Have we had any more written or oral comments from the neighbors or anybody? We have not.

Have we all read the findings of fact? Yes. Do we agree with them?

Yes.

Okay. I think then if we don't have any other questions or comments, we're ready for a motion. I'll move that we recommend approval of the ordinance as we find it in our packet.

Second.

We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? All right, that passes. Where does this go, John, next?

This will go to next Tuesday's city council meeting for their first reading of the ordinance. And then we'll have another reading after that. After the second reading, it would go into effect 30 days following publication of the ordinance.

All right. I think we're ready then for the next item. It is a plat to consider the approval of final plat of Oak Bluffs 11th edition. Whose report is this, David?

Okay. I just want to note that there have not been any changes to the plat since you last considered and sought at your June meeting. So I'll maybe abbreviate things somewhat.

And can I also clarify, we no longer have any variances necessary? All the lots meet all minimum requirements? That's correct. Okay.

So the applicant is M&D Properties, LLC. They also are the owners of lots two and three, or the proposed lots two and three. And Dale Bushard is the owner of the proposed lot one. So we have two owners and we have three lots. Current legal description is lot one and two, block one, Oak Bluff, 10th edition. Street address is 1444 to 1438, 6 North Street. Council approved the preliminary plat at their July 7th meeting. Property abuts North Highland Avenue on the west and 6 North Street on the south. This is a medium density residential area. uh... surrounding uh... this particular say there are comprehensive plan designations uh... uh... we have low density to the north we have medium and high density at the east we have public semi-public uh... south and we have low density residents on commercial the west uh... has indicated the zoning czar three Surrounding zoning is R1 to the north and to the west. We also have R2 to the west. To the south we have institutional, other, and to the east we have medium and low density residential. Current site use says the property is vacant. current area uses. To the north, we have twin homes, single family dwellings. To the west, single family dwellings. To the south, we have the new home diocesan center. And to the east, it's vacant. And then the way of the cross is behind that vacant parcel of property. No notice is required, and we have not received any public comments to date. Utilities are located in both North Highland Avenue and 6 North Street to serve the property. And one set of services has been extended into the future lot three, which means, and this will come up under the conditions, the applicants are going to have to pay the cost to extend utilities into lot two. A comprehensive plan does not recommend a plat for the area. Total area is 1.62 acres. We're converting two lots into three lots. Twin home is planned for lots two and three, single family dwelling for lot one. And current zoning requirements for a twin home and single family lot in an R3 zoning district are provided in the box. So the first is for twin homes. The second is for single family. All three lots meet the required development standard. I'm not going to go through them individually. There is no parkland dedication fee required since it was originally paid in 2000. The attachments include the final plat, the site location map, the zoning map, the existing plat of Oak Bluffs 10th edition and ground level photographs of the property. Staff would recommend approval. We have, it says preliminary plat. It should be final plat with the following conditions. One is pay the platting fee of $290.00. Two is to provide an electronic file of the plat and AutoCAD 2016 or newer format. That notice has been provided to the land surveyor. Three is provide appropriate easement areas in addition to those shown on the plat. It was not necessary to add any additional easement areas. So what is on the plat is considered adequate. Number four is lot two will pay the utility connection charge for a new lot of $3,000 for sanitary sewer and $3,000 for water main, as found in the city's current fee schedule. That payment would be due at the time of applying for the building permit. And then we need to revise the development agreement for the subject property. The last time we had a development agreement, that one was dated June 26, 2023, so it's not that long ago. But we're adding an additional lot, which necessitates the new agreement. I did forward some information to the city attorney for his review and hope that that's sufficient for him to prepare a new development agreement. But we'll have to wait and see how that goes. And then two motions are provided, one to approve and one to deny. That would conclude the statute.

Thank you, David. Commissioners, do we have any comments or questions?

Pretty straightforward. We've been down this road before. We have it on the opposite end of the block as well. If nobody else has anything to say, I offer a motion to recommend approval with conditions, the final plot of Oak Plus 11th edition.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anybody opposed? All right, that passes. And there's nobody here to explain where it goes to next, so I guess we don't need to do that.

It goes to the city council for a public hearing, which is held the second meeting in August.

Okay. Do they have to have the development agreement in place and signed when they have that hearing, or can that happen later?

That can happen later. That's typically been our approach, that we will not sign the plat until the development agreement is approved and signed.

Okay. We are now to the agenda section that has reports. The first one is City Council decisions that concern Planning Commission matters.

Okay, you may remember at last month's meeting, I left the agendas upstairs, which was not helpful. So I'm going to start with June 2nd. And at that time... They approved with conditions the rezoning of the property that was owned by Adam and Shannon Wells. That was from AOS to R3, so that was where M&D Properties was going to build their apartment complex, which will now consist of 16 units. And then the second item is they had second consideration and adoption of an ordinance approving the annexation of property for the New Ulm Airport. We have six parcels there. They are all very small. But it is a total of 25 acres that will be annexed. At the June 16th meeting, The council declined to accept a grant from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for the shooting range out at where we have our, I think we have two different types of shooting opportunities out there that Yeah, and so they returned it, and it was $100,000, and the reason was that they required Davis-Bacon wage rates with that money, and that may be a new term to you, but what that is is that the federal government sets a minimum hourly rate for each type of work position that takes place with the project. And if you've never dealt with them as a contractor, it's something new and it's something that can be difficult to work with. One of the things that always happens is everybody that works on the project, their salary is elevated from what they normally would get. to this day I've not been able to figure out how they decide what the rates are supposed to be but they're always higher anyway that effect resulted in very high bids that we received and the council denied the bids and decided that the grant just wasn't worth it so they sent it back Second thing, and this is not related to anything the Planning Commission does, but Council's decided that for municipal elections, that if we have to have write-in votes, that an individual that is seeking election has to I guess, come to City Hall and file a written request with the finance director no later than the 19th day before the election. So they put into place some type of structure to handle these types of situations. Hmm. We do have a situation in Larry's Ward 4.

Ward 4, that is correct.

Does not have anybody to run at the present time, so it will be a write-in that would be elected to that position.

That'll be interesting.

So does that mean if someone has not made that step to visit the city hall, And they do get write-in votes, they won't count?

The way this reads, no, they would not.

It's actually the Secretary of State put this rule into place, and it's just if you come in and file with the city as a write-in, you'll be listed as write-in so-and-so versus actually being a true write-in where you're writing down the person's name. So they'll actually be listed on the ballot, but as write-in.

Oh. It's going to help the election judges, because now they're going to have to go through it by hand. Sure. So they could say, we've got Charlie Brown or Mickey Mouse, et cetera. Got it. You know, on those.

Mm-hmm.

Just, you know, I mean, I had a lot of people. I had people that said that they were going to file. Nobody did.

Mm-hmm.

And then I had some people contact me. I said, if they write me in, I'll accept it. you know, they were serious people.

Right, not Mickey Mouse.

That stepped up and asked about it, but then they didn't take the initiative to file on time.

You're stuck with it then.

I'll serve it if someone gives me a vote.

At the July 7th meeting, They approved the preliminary plat vocal plus 11th edition, which we just talked about. They conducted the second consideration and adoption of ordinance 26113, and that was the rezoning for the Wells subdivision property with M&D properties, and they approved Received a petition for the vacation of 11th North Street from North Front Street to the DM&E Railroad. So it's about a half a block. And if you notice, going down Front Street, that the property adjoining this parcel, they've taken out all of the trees, and so we're anticipating some type of development to take place there, or you haven't seen any yet?

Okay.

Is it enough property to do anything besides a building, or is it an...

Yeah, there are three lots there that the individual who petitioned for the street. And so the street vacation, you'll pick up 40 feet, which, you know, would that add up to, again, 13,000 square feet?

Total, yeah.

Yeah.

At the July 21st meeting, they offered a resolution approving the plans and specifications and ordering the advertisement for bids on Junior Pioneer Park water main crossing project. And they set the bid opening date for August 26th. So basically, if I understand this correctly, they are going to connect the water main that is located in Cottonwood Street with water main that is located in the vicinity of Junior Pioneer Park.

And that is to improve the water pressure in those respective areas.

They also agreed to submit the grant application for Paul Nyers. And Mr. Nyers is the owner of the property at the corner of Third North and Broadway. Across.

Third North and Minnesota Street. What? Minnesota Street.

You're right. It's across the street from Wells Fargo, former Wells Fargo Bank and Georgia's. And it's his intention to construct a hotel there.

Do you know if the intention is to tear down that building or?

No, the buildings would remain because a piece of financing for the project, our historic tax credit, so he would restore what is there to its original condition.

So this is south of George's or west?

Okay, all right. Got it. So it's where the former Kaiserhof would be part of this.

Okay, all right.

And then they approved the designation of the pollinator park and natural resource. area as a city park. Before it really had no standing and now it is an official park that the city will be responsible for. That would conclude staff report. Couple other things real quickly. One is that staff continues to work on the additional uses for the B3 zoning district, and that ordinance is in the process of being written. That was for bigger buildings that are having difficulty finding occupants. And then secondly, you may not know it or not, but the Planning Commission serves as an entity that makes decisions about the airport. And specifically, it has to do with zoning and variance types of decisions. And so this was all part of a ordinance that was adopted in July of 2022. And your official title is the Board of Adjustment. And I anticipate a first meeting of this group sometime in the next two months. And the reason that you will be meeting is at the present time, we're constructing a new crosswind runway. And as part of the project, they had to close the existing crosswind runway. Well, the existing crosswind runway had safety zones on either end of it. And so now they want to change those safety zones. They want to eliminate the safety zones and then assign a zoning classification to that property that would fit with our zoning ordinance. And so that is something that comes before this group.

That would complete the report.

Do we know if that will be in August or September? Is it unknown at this point?

I don't know that a specific date has been set. The city attorney was asked to prepare kind of a schedule for how this is going to occur. So this is in his hands at the present time. All right.

But Dave, just to clarify, we're anticipating that... the commencement of that board will be either during the planning commission meeting or immediately following. So it wouldn't likely be a separate day that you all would have to be here.

It probably will be a special, it'll follow the planning commission meeting. It has to be separate because in essence, you are a separate body.

The planning commission will adjourn and then we'll... Yeah. Okay. FYI, in August, I will miss that meeting. I will be in North Dakota with my in-laws. So if we have any latitude, for me, it would be good to go into September. But if we don't, this guy is perfectly capable and happy to do it. All right. Is that it? OK. I see the L would move, so there must be a heritage preservation

Yeah, we had a design review for the chamber building. They put in a new door system leading up to the new apartments that were created above the chamber office, and it went through.

Are they in already, or the design was approved?

The doors are in already. Okay. Yep. All right.

Is there anything else? Anything not on the agenda?

I'm going to just maybe ask staff... of getting a lot of residents asking about our hash trees. You know, are we gonna, come up with something if they don't do it, or if they fall over, or what's our plan?

Well, the next DNR grant literally came out this week, so we can apply for that again, but I think we've kind of made the point that we're not likely to get another DNR grant. Ash Borer is across the state now, and we got, in the first two rounds, we got a grant, so the odds of us getting it again are probably very small, but we'll apply.

Do we have the same thing going on there with wages and if since it's a DNR grant?

No.

No, a different program?

No, we were a different program. This program was really actually quite simple. It was kind of staff-led. So we mark the trees, we get bids for the contractor, and basically whoever has the lowest bid for removing this large sum of trees gets the contract and... And then there's another company typically hired to replant them. And it's real straightforward, real simple.

Those were all for trees on city property, right?

Those were all in the boulevard. Yep. Yeah, we couldn't do them in private yards, no. Not at that time.

Do we... Have a count or an estimate of what's left in our community?

We do. I don't have that number off the top of my head. Jeff Anderson from the engineering office does. I know he has an accurate count on the number in the boulevards in particular. But we're actually getting down there quite a bit on the ones in the boulevard that are left.

And the state's taking care of their boulevards?

They're going to be. They're supposed to be. Typically, they do that in the winter because along, especially along South Broadway, there's a bunch of dead ones.

Okay.

Yeah. And we, you know, for residents, we do provide partial reimbursements for the removal of those trees in the boulevard. Or if it's on their private yard, it's just you can get more when it's in the boulevard than your private yard. And then if it's a boulevard tree, we'll also provide a reimbursement for replanting a new tree.

Sure. Thank you. Yeah.

Do we have anything else? I think then that we are ready to adjourn, so we will do that. We're adjourned.