Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

is we park at the uh at a gas station across the street and there's like no controls at all. So it's 45 I just walk into Zoom there's a you know I don't step in but you get to the middle you get to the suicide lane and then you wait like for today's meeting I'll mention no one's turning left from there so it's pretty but it is uncomfortable to be in and then I would say I thought so how many guests are in here and then how many guests join on Zoom just in case anybody should ask me about that situation not stream

I think obviously we didn't used to have PSL be guest present you just put a number um they're talking about it they uh well yeah and they're moving to the they're moving out racetrack aren't they right now we have a ton of notes oh yeah they go to deal with all that Um, yeah, exactly. you know, I jot down things early. Mostly I'm just trying to get all emotions in the notes and then I just to the YouTube if I admit it and I'm going back over it because I I just kind of keep it like I have very strong feelings about that and I'm feeling like my day is besides having as a fan of that franchise or numbering

this last meeting we had got up and spoke number 15's career usually don't say exactly be a good you get a quote wrong. These are the signed minutes and so um formalizing I don't usually get too crazy with details in case I mess up. If it's like a motion that has a lot of specific information, I try to make sure that I listen to that

is on the back end. But yeah, driving back and forth. New chair. So before we were just kind of floating through the different chair people. So like Megan was our chair and so we always would I had to make a couple to my script that I provide inter. Yeah, June 2nd. People don't keep hearing it's insanity.

That picture of that catcher, was that you? What? No. No, I'm not in this. It's just as far, you know, like heard a couple motion or say, "Does anybody have a motion or something?" And then I just write down who it is. They think they put like a It's like a spot they circle. I think I've only seen those notes a couple times. Brent, we do have uh Carson on Zoom, so we do have a Yes.

And it is 5:45. I'm going to call the meeting to order of the Norwok uh planning and zoning uh board. Um Hillary, can I get a roll call of all the members present and by Zoom? Thompson. Stiger here. Samuelson here. Forest here. Eaton Henders here. Next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. Uh we have um

let's see. I believe everybody's gotten a copy of this virtually. We have one in front of us as well. Um if you'd review that and if if there are any changes, Elliot, any any uh any changes to our schedule for tonight? No, I just I apologize. I forgot to plug this thing into broadcast up there. So, that's all right. Hopefully popped up in a moment. I hear a second. If you can get a vote on the agenda. Stiger. Hi, Samuelson. Hi, Forest. Hi, Henders.

Hi. Uh, welcome everyone. Uh, guests, members of the public. Thank you for coming to our board meeting. Uh we uh let's see right now um if if uh you would like to comment at all, you have three minutes to do so. I just ask that you address the board and not any uh cross talk, but thanks for coming out if you're just a member of the focus. All right. Oh, I mean we haven't done we have none of that. Next up, uh it looks like we have a uh request from Winterwalk Properties LLC for approval of a site plan amendment from Titan Storage. Uh Elliot, would you like to

Did we Sorry. Did we approve that? No, we did not. Okay. I'll have to reverse that. Okay. We have minutes in front of us from the 413 2026 uh meeting. Uh please review those and uh let me know if you have any changes to those. If not and entertain a motion to approve those minutes on a motion second vote. One second Samuelson. Hi for Eaton has now joined us. Hi Henders. Hi Stiger. Hi. Senate in reverse order. Sorry.

All right. Now we'll the uh request from Winterwalk Properties LLC for approval of a site plan amendment of Titan Storage. Elliot.

Yep. So the original site plan for Titan Storage went before you guys in uh 2023. Believe that approval was in September. They have completed phase one. Originally they had three phases to their site plan. I did attach the original site plan uh to the staff report tonight. So, the building layout um originally was very symmetrical. They were going with the skinnier buildings about uh 20 to 30 feet in width and they've built a handful of these so far about the third of about a third of the way into the property. um they have gone and proposed a revision to that layout. So you can see this kind of black line almost in the center of that property. Um this again coming off Madison Street in the southwest portion of town. So they built everything to the west of that line up until now. Um, I think they've evaluated some of their potential customers and found a market for a little bit deeper space in order to store different things. I know they've had some customers looking at larger vehicles, RVs, campers, etc. Um, so I think these amendments are meant to accommodate those folks. Um, this fits in with the general expectation of the M1 zoning district, which is where this is located. Uh, it's just a different building shape than what was there before. There's not really any change to the utility or hardscape arrangement or percentages on the site plan. So, this is still zoning compliant. So, we're recommending approval from the staff. Happy to answer any questions or staff. I believe do we have we have we have

Doug with CDA who's the project engineer on the proposal. Any questions for Elliot on the proposal? So Ellie, you mentioned that there's no there's no difference between a smaller storage unit really designed for I'm going to say household items uh that really probably isn't going to fit clothing more than maybe a car. I mean, if you look at normal storage units, and these are definitely intended for much larger items all the way up to RVs. So, there's no difference in zoning regulations between large items versus small items. That is correct.

Just one more comment. So, I know the original plan meaning they're essentially single story. So now we're going to get into it, I assume, if we're going to be storing RVs potentially. Is there any difference in zoning regulations to go between a probably a 10 foot tall maxed building height to possibly twotory to fit an RV in there? So these are 16 um it looks like to peak roof height. Um that's well below the max height for the zoning district. So um in terms of real number there is a difference but in scale permiss visibility and stuff this fits right in with that one.

Anything else? Thank you. Uh Doug, I believe you're you're up next as applicant. Come on up and state your name for the record.

Doug Mandre next. Civil Design Advantage, 4121 Northwest Urbandale Drive in Urbandale. And as LA said, yeah, this is just a a modification to what uh the demand is out there. The demand is for larger units, for bigger items. That's kind of where we're modifying to that. And um there was a question on the amount of uh storm server that and grading that was going to be completed with this phase. Um they were concerned about as during the review, they were concerned about the storm sewer not being completed. So all of the storm sewer and the detention basement will be part of phase two. Phase three is just the last three buildings and the associated pavement around that. Any questions you might have?

Any questions for the applicant? Would there need to be any additional consideration for the driveways and parking if you're going to put larger potentially RVs driving in and out of the Yes, there is the the the lanes between the buildings are wider to accommodate that. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So, in the original site plan, um most of those lane widths were about 25 ft. As you can see, between the uh first four buildings, they've expanded that to 50 in in one spot, 35 in a couple of others. So, um 50 would be like the typical semi trailer loading area depth that zoning would require. That's not mandatory for this, but if they want to be able to accommodate RVs, it would be up to design it that way. Excellent. Good question. Any questions for the

Thanks, Doug. Thank you. Any comments or deliberation from the board? pretty clean cut here. Yeah. Uh entertain a motion on the uh request from Winterwalk Properties LLC for approval of the site plan amendment of Titan storage. I'll second a second. Moved and seconded. Hillary, can we please get a roll call for Boris? Hi Eaton. Hi Stiger. Hi Samson. Hi Henders.

Hi. Thank you Doug. Um for our next item, uh we have a public hearing on the zoning amendment to the farm pollen planned unit development to add a car wash as an allowed use in land use parcel 3. It's a little different than uh some things that we do that uh this is a matter that was previously tabled. So, we need to have a motion and a second to uh unt item if we wish to have a hearing on it today. Second motion to unt this item. For secondary, can we get a vote on the untabling? Forest. Hi, Eaton. Hi, Stiger. Hi, Samuelson. Hi,

Henders. Hi. And uh since we've unabled this, I'd open a public hearing. Uh it is 5:55. Um Elliot, can you provide us a briefing?

Yes. So this is a property that is located east of the getandgo lot, the southeast corner of Beardsley Street and Sunset Drive. You can see from the vicinity map on the screen, it kind of wraps around that getandgo property. So it's double fronted. Um, back in I think mid to late 2023, some modifications were made to the access point for get and go. There were some some developmentdriven changes to Beardly Street at that intersection. Queuing of traffic was causing issues for access to the getand go site. So this uh access drive that matches up with marketplace drive is u currently serving get and go now and would be expected to help serve the lot in the future. So um regardless of what ends up getting built there, that's an important infrastructural detail to look at. The property is uh immediately adjacent to Elizabeth Holland Park. It's located within the Elizabeth Holland um Excuse me. The Farms of Holland land unit development. Underlying zoning on this property is C2, community commercial. That's one of the base zoning districts that that uh that we have in the city. One of the more common ones that we have. Um a good way to think about it is C O would be commercial office. C1 might be the first level of uh retail above that. And then C2 will be full-on retail service and uh like restaurants and things of that nature. Um so C2 being the underlying zoning, it is written into the PUD document to pair up actually with the land use parcels around City State Bank.

So where the Domino's building is now, city state's new office, uh both of those PUB parcels are written into the same sections of the farms of Holland PUD, both with underlying zoning of C2. One of the things that was written into the staff report um was recounting that in um 2022 a zoning amendment was approved um in order to pave the way metaphorically for a car wash that wanted to locate within the area near City State Bank. Uh that was ultimately approved. That project eventually fell off the table. those folks elected not to develop in town. Um during the course of that amendment process, we deliberately stated that we were going to allow that in par five near city state bank but not in parcel 3. So that history I think is germanine to the public hearing here. Um one of the main reasons for that is just what kind of fit would a car wash be immediately adjacent to Elizabeth Holland Park. Lots of people use it. The city spent a lot of money developing it the way that it is. Um, and a lot of people have a really high opinion of their user experience at the moment. And so we thought that maybe that wasn't the best fit at that parcel. Um, the request before us now uh is to kind of resume that conversation. Um the amendment simply would add car wash as an allowed use within land use parcel 3 similar to how we did it in the area near city state bank. That would be a single addition. So car wash is first appears in our code in the C3 section. Adding that as a use would not permit anything that's allowed in C3. It would just be

car wash. The key distinction between C3 uses and C2 uses which are currently allowed is that C3 tends to deal with um businesses using heavier materials um heavier services like auto body shops, landscaping companies, um businesses that are going to be moving pallets of material, that sort of thing. And so I think the original drafters of the PUD were fairly cognizant of those differences and went with C2 as the underlying zoning there. Um, one other thing that we tried to do when drafting the Holland Point PEU, which is located east of there, satellite image is not up to date, but um, the notion that the residential area to the east of here was going to be downwind of whatever developed to the west of this. And also we had them in the PUD upgrade their architectural standards so that anybody looking across the park or being in the park seeing what developed around them would have a nice view. Um we think that that sort of consideration is equally important on this lot under consideration tonight. So those are kind of the main points from me. Um I'm just going to ask Luke uh who's joining us on Zoom. Um, do you have anything else to add from the from the staff presentation, sir?

Uh, yeah, I think you did a pretty comprehensive job there, Elliot. Um, I guess the two things I'd add, you mentioned, uh, car wash is allowed in C3. Uh, car wash is also allowed in the legacy PUD, which is the highway frontage ground across the way, though it is zone C2. So, um, we do have, uh, some other PVD land that had been amended, um, basically the area north of Greg Young, um, to allow for such. Um, and then just to the the idea about the development around Elizabeth Hound Park. Um, I helped write the the PUD for that, helped work on the project for the ponds. Um, and I know that at that time we paid a lot of attention to the uses and making sure we had uses that were compatible with the park. Um, I know that was a big discussion when we uh even looked at allowing car wash where Demos ultimately me went. Um, so just you know it a lot of times with zoning we just kind of slap it on and we move forward with the the kind of base that's allowed in the area. But, um, I do think we we paid some special attention to this area because of the, uh, city's investment in that park. The applicant did submit a few extra exhibits which uh I'm sure that they're going to be talking about um when granted the floor. So I'll show those on there for everybody who's on the Zoom. Um just kind of to conclude it's written in the staff report. Um staff recommendations for denial based on the concerns that outlined about fit

adjacency to the park etc. Um if the commission um decides to recommend denial, it'll still go to city council with that recommendation. Uh city council would need to have a supermajority vote to overturn. So if you recommend approval, no supermajority needed at city council. If you recommend denial, it still moves forward. Just as that caveat,

I guess just procedurally how that works is we tend to not have like negative motions, right? we tend to not have the P&Z recommend to deny something. So when you when you get to the point where you want to talk about stuff, um if you were to choose to not uh give a recommendation to council, um that would either happen via no one making a motion to advance it or a motion gets made to advance it and that motion would fail. So, um, that's kind of how denials have worked in the past, um, in more of an active term as opposed to like us actually recommending a denial. So,

are you guys open to questions, sir? Yes, I know. I am finished. All right, cool. So, you mentioned uh some of the reasons why uh you didn't think Carish was a good fit was because the view from Hollywood Park and a couple of other what I consider general things. Was there any other specifics as to why we thought this wouldn't be a good fit maybe with water drainage or traffic or anything specific like that that came up? So with a commercial use that is auto oriented in n in nature and uh we hear you know plenty about the shortage of car washes in town.

Um they're you know automobile traffic could be could be a concern. I think that objectively in these uh uh illustrations that are that the applicant submitted there's a lot of room for vehicles. I don't know that. Um I I'd be shocked if this ever backed up on the highway in this. We've got I mean the Quickstar car wash has one lane that doesn't wrap all the way around and it you know it gets busy but it doesn't ever impede traffic around it.

So I don't know that that's necessarily a concern. I could see a world where maybe it does get super busy and maybe to the east typically downwind um you know particulate matter being of concern to folks using the park. Um and then just the idea that again this is a C3 use. This represents a use that's a little bit more higher intensity. There might be storm water considerations that that would be important. runoff might have a impairing effect on on water potentially. Um, we find that most folks that develop in town, detention pond and a detention, sorry guys,

we find that most folks that do work in town, like no one comes in here saying they're going to do a lousy job with ma managing storm and most people by and large do. Um, but that is just something that we thought was worthy of consideration. Um, does that that cover everything more or less, Howard?

Yeah, I do have a question too because I live in this area and I've used this this new kind of entry into that um convenience store. Was there any traffic studies done and when that was built about about how much traffic it could really support? Because I find it hard when I'm going and there's two or three cars coming and going that it's very you have to really pay attention getting in and out of there, right? And then if you're coming out to try and cross to go in either direction, I mean one or two cars I've got to pay really close attention for cars coming off the main highway there or coming out of Beersley.

Yeah. So, was there any information available about what a good amount of traffic that type of driver support? I don't remember that off the top of my head. Luke, do you remember if Snyder did an evaluation of count uh projections at that intersection at from being generated by Git and Go specifically?

Yeah, just usage of that. I don't that I mean we pro when we did the the Beardsley intersection there would have been some traffic study done. I don't know that they would have gotten to the granular detail of how much was coming straight from get and go. Um you know that's such an old gas station. It was built at a time when we didn't require traffic studies. And if you remember how it used to be where its driveway was at, uh you can kind of understand that we didn't do that. Um,

well, I guess the broader question is that lots there, someone's going to want to use it, right? So, if that's the only entry or is there a possibility that there could be another entry off of the

Well, that you've got some good thoughts, Howard. Uh, we've not we've not had a full-on preapp discussion with the applicant on this. Um, just going through the resoning stages. Um, one of the things that we had talked about a previous owner about on this lot was, uh, we do have a DOT ride in ride out, uh, kind of on the south side of this lot. It'd be on the right side of this image. Um, Elliot can kind of show you, uh, where that would be planned at. Um, and so we had wanted the previous owner of this to make a a drive connection to the south side of the getand go lot so that that getand go use would have a little bit more fluid motion. Um, you know, somebody coming from the south could get in on that right in right out, go up to get and go and then they'd have to leave through Beardsley. Um, so, uh, you know, I imagine, uh, we whoever whatever would happen with this lot, that's going to be a discussion we end up having with those folks, um, about lot layout and lot uh, connectivity to that get piece.

Howard, I think you said something about um, this use versus something else that maybe we thought could be more suitable. Um, I think that between Luke and I, we've thought for a long time this would be a fantastic place for any restaurant with a patio. Um, this lot is bigger than the lot that has 1908 draft house, which has outdoor seating.

And so I feel like that's right next to it. That seems like a good one for one. Um, I think the city is willing to work with any applicant wanting to do that type of thing on um using some of the kind of peripheral green space to accommodate additional traffic if need be. Um, that's a decision that city council will have to make if they wanted to partner in that way. Um, but as far as a use goes, we think that makes a lot of sense right next to a park. Do we have that? We got here in here. You can ask for the applicant to to talk.

You don't have any more questions for Elliot. I have a whole bunch more, but I'll wait till after that. Okay. Then we can discuss. All right. So, do we have an applicant either online or or present?

Is the applicant. Hello. Uh, Rance Wildman Platform Real Estate. Could you could you say say your uh address for the record, please?

Sure. 13 Bridgewater Loop, Dripping Springs, Texas. So, I am uh the preferred developer. Dripping Springs is probably not uh a name you're familiar with. It's uh immediately adjacent to just west of Austin, Texas, which you all may be more familiar with. So then the next logical question is what is someone from Texas doing developing here? I'm the preferred developer for Quick Quack Car Wash and you can see um the um in the images provided you'll see the elevation with our logo and um quick just a little background on my client. They are the second largest tunnel car wash operator in the United States. They're they're based out of Southern California. This will be our um entrance into Iowa, the greater De Moines area. Right now, we're tracking um to be either the number one or number two car wash as we enter the market. And so, as some of you may be familiar with the membership um model, a membership at one allows you membership to all. And so, if in 28 and 29, we're looking to open somewhere between 10 and as many as 14 units. We've got uh 10 approved through real estate committee right now, and we're still working on a few others. So, um, that's a little bit of background on on Quick Quack, the brand, and then I I can talk a little bit about, and I don't I don't want to take up all the time with the monologue here. Um, so what I was going to try to do was speak a little bit about um, who we are.

And I appreciate you guys tableabling and untabling this conversation because as I was coming into two weeks ago, what became very evident was the hesitancy around the use as it related to the proximity to the park behind and completely understand that we want to be a great neighbor. We want to be a a strong community member here. And so I I wanted to take the two weeks and put our best foot forward because I'm a very visual person. I find that most people are. So even if I'm just sitting here uh trying to articulate it with words, I can't paint the picture that images can. So we've taken a 3D image and we've kind of transposed the the uh typical car wash there. And what I've tried to show is on the eastern side a green screen that would effectively, you know, because our because we what I call are sort of a flag lot behind getandgo, we can actually screen the getandgo all the way down the eastern border and then wrap it. And my thought there is really this is just a representation of what is possible. We could go further. Uh we could do BMS, we could do low brush in addition to but the the idea is really just to capture our commitment to not only screening but I think what we can actually accomplish here is enhancing the park experience so that if you're on a bike or walking no matter what speed you're going on that trail even if you're sitting still and just enjoying the pun that all that you see are is is train or nature. And so I think with that we can try to help enhance the park and be you know a good neighbor.

And right now I believe get and go is pretty wide open exposed and so we would also try to come in there uh and and screen that area too. So I I know there were questions about access traffic. I heard um the use. Are there better uses? I've been in the the retail business for almost 25 years. I'm happy to field some of those questions if it's appropriate or if we want to stick to the concerns that staff has. Uh I'm happy to to field those questions.

Is this a 247 kind of car wash operation or are there limited hours?

Limited hours. Okay. Yeah, it's it's hard to tell, but I think one of the questions I also heard was kind of like, you know, volumes and that sort of thing. You guys I think you all have access to Placer. So that'd be a great indication of pulling some of our I can't share sales volumes but I if you guys uh want or I could share I could even provide it but we could look at some place counts to understand you know the viability of the brand and then um you know it's a it's a significant um investment that we make as it relates to the building and the landscape. It's a it's a very expensive endeavor building these things. So, we're making a a big investment there in Norwalk.

Rance, we were looking at page seven of the of your graphics. Um, yes, sir, I can see. I don't know if you can see me. I try to turn the video on. Yeah, we can see you. So, that one shows what looks like you're actually digging a retention pond to the east of your green uh space. Is that correct? Let's see. I see right there. I just see the flag lot around the air. Okay, let's see. Are you able to put the cursor on what you're referring to? That right there. It looks It looks like The only reason I ask is because if you look at an elevation map of this, you are building on a really steep hill.

So, you're you're going to have to pull in a lot of material to get that flat enough, right? So that made sense to me that you would end up with a retention pond in order to get enough material up onto your space, your proposed lot in order to get it flat so you could actually build. So I don't see that retention pond in your other photos, which

Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. So, I guess that makes me wonder uh like this photo here that we're looking at now that that doesn't have that retention pond view. And so, I just try to think you're going to end up with either a huge retaining wall down to that retention pond or a really really steep hill on the other side of your trees to get down to that retention pond. Um, and and I just I'm not I'm not quite sure that you have enough land to do what you're thinking you're going to do um in order to to place this in this spot.

I think what you're seeing on that plan view is a very full pond versus a not full pond. Well, this and that's that's an older version because it doesn't have the trail around it either because that water would be going across the trail at that point. So, this is Yeah. Yeah. Not quite not quite an accurate reflection of what an engineered site look like. That is intended.

Yeah. And to speak to kind of how where we are in our process. So, uh I I've been to the site multiple times. I've I've stood on it and understand the challenges as it relates to um you we're going to have to do obviously import some soil would be my guess. Um, at this point what we have done, um, we've we're fully real estate committee approved and we we do what's called a test fit. So, we take a pretty generic well it's it's it's a design team. We've got an in-house design team. We design it. It hasn't gone to the civil engineer. So any I couldn't really um get into specifics as to until we dig into it with the civil how we're going to treat the storm water whether um you where it's going to drain how it's going to drain whether we um you know drain into a depon a pond or where that is. Um but suffice to say we certainly will handle any of the storm water to the level that the municipality requires.

So uh I can I mean I can answer that a little bit. So uh why we built the park? Those ponds are the detention for um for basically everything that's around the park. So this site wouldn't require on-site detention. uh they would pay a uh storm water district fee um to then be allowed to drain into that that northern pond essentially has been designed to accommodate and has capacity to um handle runoff from the east which

um so you know that's that is uh kind of a solved issue as far as the site goes. Um, I think it circles back to one of our concerns about, you know, uh, car wash runoff, uh, into our pond that folks fish out of and stuff and just some of that sensitivity we had from a a city perspective as to the use of the site.

Yeah, 100%. I mean and you know one of the things the tenants of of Quickqu Quack and I can show share any of the market materials is being um environmentally uh forward with how they treat all the water and keeping all the wash um water retained within the system within the the Quick Quack ecosystem we'll call it. And then to your point, Luke, yes, we'll absolutely have to the storm water uh we'll we'll treat it as such and then, you know, drain it into the appropriate um the appropriate storm water piping and then and get it to where it needs to be. But I mean, you know, with this auto use, there's no oil change, there's no no gas, there's, you know, there's none of the, you know, they call the dirty, you know, uses that that people think of sometimes with other auto uses. Rance, uh, staff raises some issues about increased, uh, trash and litter. What's your response to that?

Yeah, I mean, we will I mean, we we will be cleaning uh daily, multiple times per day. I mean, part of part of our um experience is for our customers to be having, you know, a good and enjoyable experience. And part of that experience is having a, you know, a clean facility. And and so, um, you know, obviously you've got people that are, you know, out there doing their own vacuuming. And so we've got people regularly um you know out there cleaning you know porter if you will and making sure that we're not uh spreading any excess debris you know to the neighbors you know we're always mindful of being a good neighbor questions for rent Open it up to uh the general public. Anyone else want to comment?

Yes, sir. Come on up.

Hello. Thanks for having me. Uh Ryan Jensen, 2935 133rd Way in Urbandale, Iowa. Uh current owner of the sites. And I wanted to just talk to you guys about uh the tenants I've talked to the last two and a half years since I've owned this uh land, the grand plans that I had with it to start. Um and then the challenge of the get and go that's unfortunately never going to go away. Um so uh I've been trying when I bought this ground, my plan was to buy the getand go. Um it's just not possible. Um I got a number from the owner of Get and Go here a couple weeks ago and he wanted 1.6 $6 million and he maybe sell it to me for a half acre. It's about 72 bucks a square foot. So that's before demo cost. That's before cleaning the tank or pulling tanks out, doing any environmentals and any of that kind of stuff. So um getting rid of the get and go unless the city wanted to come in and take it by imminent domain. Uh it's just not going to happen. So uh that said, um you know this PUD was put together prior to Norwok Central being put together. Um, I've talked to and Norwok Central changed it really changed the dynamic of retail uh in in Norwok, right? So, uh, Culver's was a tenant that I tried to put here. They wanted to be in Norwok Central. Um, let's see. I talked to Panera, Taco Bell, uh, all the taco places, BBOPS, which would be a great local tenant, but, you know, hight traffic user, noisy outdoor speakers, all that kind of stuff. um Five Guys, uh Panera, uh my natural grocerers, all these. The site's not big enough for them, but if I get get and go, I could probably make that work, but that's just not going to happen. Uh so all these big national retailers, they want to be close to everything else in Norwok, which is Norwok Central. And if you look at this site, uh one of the reasons I think this is an amazing fit for the

site is it's on an island. So, can you Ella, can you pull up uh just kind of a global aerial here so we can kind of see? Um there really is outside of the trail, there is no foot traffic to the site. It's it's car access only. Um and so if you're going to have a car wash, which I know is a highly desired amenity in this community, or a better place to put it than on an island where it doesn't touch any foot traffic, anything else. So there's no one's ever going to walk up here. It's drive in, drive out. Uh the other piece is that they're not putting an access on Highway 28, which I know is a conversation with maybe some other uh typical users. If you had a uh BBOPS or a Wendy's or any other QSR type service, they're going to want access off Highway 28, have that right in right out. Um which this use eliminates and that I think for me eliminates a lot of maybe potential traffic issues, people turning right onto a highway, people going 45, 50 miles an hour. Um so those are some high level comments there just on the site in general. Um additional things so you mentioned that there's some topography um on the site and there certainly is. So there is um you know from the the south end of the site from the edge of the lot to the bike trail is about 96 feet 96 to 100 feet somewhere in there. So that's a pretty good distance. Um on the north side it's over 170 feet from the bike trail. So, we're talking 100 plus feet along the entire site um from any any pedestrian traffic. Second thing to note is that there is a 36 foot drop off from that site or what we built up to to that bike trail. So, you add berm trees, all the stuff that ranch just showed you, you might get the decimals from a vacuum that are like a, you know, running stream. I mean, it's going to be quiet. It's not going to disrupt neighbors. Um,

and I think it's going to make this whole site look a lot better than if I put a BBOPs here. They're not going to screen their BBOPS. They want everybody to see the BBOPS or McDonald's or whatever that fast food QSR user is. Uh, if you had a big restaurant used to the patio and people out there making noise and have some of the same issues we're talking about uh without without the screening. So all in all, I think given the island location of this, uh, I think this site is perfect use for the car wash. And again, with the development of Norwok Central, with the ground opening up at Legacy across the street, I can't I don't know what that plat's called, but next to McDonald's and Maverick now there, um, those are all walkable um, directly from homes, apartments, and those kind of things. Uh, and here we eliminate, we have traffic, but you eliminate all the walkability and pedestrian stuff. um with this use uh on this site versus anywhere else. Um also note, Ellie, can you remind me what's the uh zoning of the Quickstar lot where they have car wash?

That I believe is also C2 similar to the area around uh city state where we went to C2, but car wash is a allowed use. So we did an amendment similar to uh the area near cityst state for quickstar.

Yep. So Quickstar C2 zoning, same zoning car wash. Uh and this was already approved once in this PUB uh on arguably I think a lot that this is a much better lot for the use uh with some of the concerns that staff has. So uh that is all I have. Thank you. Any other public comment? Any questions for the applicant? Luke, where is the storm drain water from Christian Brothers? Does that go towards the pond or do they or how does that work?

Uh, it goes uh east to a detention basin behind uh Pizza Ranch in the town homes. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Another question. Would we want Is this a place to have a conversation about site plan? If we do approve this, is this a place to have the conversation about site plan and potential buffering requirements for a increased? What would be the buffering requirement? Now, if we're having C2 back up to a city park, is there any buffering requirements?

Um, off the top of my head, I I believe it would require at least a level one buffer. Um, I didn't get that far into researching this since we're still talking about allowing the use period. Okay. But it is commercial against public use. So, um, the PUD, I think, talks about buffering a little bit, but more so between similar uses, not so much. That's something I can look into council though. But it would make sense that that would be, I think, somewhat vague because you would have some retail that would want to have easy visibility and not have buffering,

right? That's what I'm wondering. Can we tie a buffering requirement if we were if we were recommending it? Could we tie a buffering requirement to this? Um, you could. So, we're amending the PUD. Okay. That's a reszoning, right? Yep. You could Yes. recommend that council um but recommend that we draft for a council to consider in addition to the PUB that talks about more robust buffering. If that's taking the typical clamp multiplier and making it double that, one and a half that, you know, we can provide a few different drafts that.

Yeah, I think uh I think Elliot's right. I would term it like a a condition of your recommendation on the use aspect of it would be to uh beef up some uh buffer language. My recollection of this is I don't believe there's a buffer requirement right now to the park. Um we had done uh in an effort to try to kind of maximize the usable space on a lot of these parcels, we had pulled back some of the open space requirements. Um and I think that also went to buffering. Um, you know, similar to the uh the apartments to the to the south, you know, I think we understood this is an urban development. We're a park next to an urban development. And so, you know, wanting those urban uses to complement the park. um you know it's kind of where our headsp space was at which is you know again pretty much the the the thesis of our our staff recommendation is you know the fit of that use with the park and uh the kind of surrounding stuff. So, but we can certainly add some buffer language to the code if you desire

right now. I think what we did is I think we reduced the required width of the buffer but maybe added a time and a half on the plant multiplier. I could try to track that down the question. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just step up to Uh the third the third piece of the staff recommendation you can approve this with conditions of extra screening. Uh so that could be just a it's just a formality and we can mutually agreeable between the city uh and the developer um of what that what that looks like.

So the PUD language for parcels three and five uh says no buffers are required. However, a 15 foot wide landscaped area is required along all public street frontage, including Highway 28, Turnberry Drive, and Colonial Parkway. Landscaping requirement will be equivalent to one half of the amount of landscaping required for a 30foot uh landscape buffer. So we did we cut the buffer width and planting requirement and screening adequate treatment of screening or negative aspects of buildings such as loading docks, loading areas, outside storage areas, garbage dumpsters, utility meters, HVAC units from any public street adjoining properties with a combination of decorative walls, fencing and landscaping shall be required. causes that follow. I don't really expound on that any further. So that's the language that's in the PUD. So if you wanted to recommend uh something additional to council, that's a thing we would have to draft after this. Elliot, your aerial view right here just um joged my I guess some curiosity. The retirement village to the south of this property looks like it has a deadend road that was built. What What was the thought behind that right there?

That is that is actually a hammerhead turnaround to for uh for delivery trucks. Okay. So, that is that was never planned to have that continue on to the north. I do not believe so. Ryan mentioned that that there's a big drop right uh in the middle where this drainage way goes. massive a massive it's a similar drop on that side. So that's correct. That's that's just part of their parking uh and loading layout. So uh yeah, we we've got no expectation that that get connected.

Okay. Because I Ryan's comment about this being an island is so true. Unless that was a Perkins there and that was a walkway to a Perkins from the retirement village. All right. Can we Can we involve Holly in this conversation? No, we're still open. Okay.

Public means anybody can sound. So Holly, obviously you have a whole lot of work that you're doing and so with with the work you're doing and I know Ryan is actively trying to find a buyer and a and a a home for this. Um, and hearing what Luke and and Elliot have told, which makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you have a west facing lot that overlooks a green space, what better spot for a outdoor dining area for the sixish months we have available here in Iowa for that. Um, like it it seems like a great opportunity, but also hearing from Ryan that in the last two and a half years, uh, he's he's nearly struck out because of the getand go, which I totally get. like that that that in and of itself provides a lot of challenges um with that but without divulging any confidential information is was that your thought as you look at Ryan's property here is that that would be a a some type of a eating establishment with outdoor seating area

I think as Ryan mentioned you know before Norwok Central the landscape was very different in Norwok in terms of where people wanted to be, where they would build. Um, so I understand where Elliot Luke are coming from that initially we all looked at that corner as this would be a great location for something like that and it does it does make sense in that aspect, but over time things have shifted. People want to be in different areas now and that is a really busy noisy corner. And what I'm seeing, I know um Ryan's seen some similar or maybe additional types of uh feedback from the restaurants. The restaurants that want outdoor as a big part of their experience really don't want a busy traffic corner. Um they need to be off just a little bit because it is pretty loud there. Um and I use like Howard, I use that trail all the time. So even just as a resident or taxpayer using our public amenities, I know that my enjoyment on that whole trail park are the two long stretches that that you're not up against um highways. So that corner where this would be and get and go, you know, you got draft house and all that. It's a busy loud stretch along Beardsley there. And then when you're over on the colonial side, you know, you're going to have traffic and a little bit busier areas. So the the long north south stretches are what's enjoyable about walking there. So I as a user of that, you know, it does dip down pretty far when you're at that section. I would never consider anything that would bother me on that corner. I guess I can't imagine what could bother me because anything would be traffic, extra traffic on that corner. Um, but as far as the prospects, we have had a lot of trouble getting interest in that lot because it's a weird lot to begin with. Um, like Ryan said, a lot of the higherend or um, regional restaurants would want the the ride in off of 28. That's always kind of an issue. Um, the access point is strange. It is high. We do have difficult soils. It's expensive. So, it is it has sat there for a long time. And we're always pounding the

pavement looking for prospects um, for good users. So, we do know that the tunnel car wash is a popular um, request. We hear from the community all the time about getting a couple of them here. So, just for the the look of it and what they're willing to do, I think for the aesthetics and the buffering, I I feel like it'd be a really good location for it, a really good use. Um, understanding all perspectives, but just also knowing one-on-one working with prospects and developers every day for the last several years, it's just it is a hard site and I can't see it getting much better until Go moves along. So, and even then, it's still going to be a noisy corner. So, we just may not get that, you know, dreamy outdoor patio experience on that corner anyway is how I would see it. But,

thanks for your feedback because I think that helps us and at least it helps me in my perspective as I think about how we move forward because if you were to if you were to say nope, don't do it. That I think that's different than you saying, you know what? Yeah, we've tried and and and all of the feedback we've got, it's not there's there's a lot of challenges with this property.

I think Holly raises a good point about the, you know, the the challenges of a site within Norwok. That's weird, right? Like so re really the the things that it comes down to is like at what speed should a piece of property develop, right? Um you know, we did this pond right around 10 years ago. Um that land sold to somebody that was actively looking for development in 2020. Um and Ryan's owned it for two and a half years, right? So, we had a desire of the community what we wanted it to be when the Holland PUD was put together. Uh, the previous owners of it felt like that's what it was. Um, so really the choice today really becomes down to do we hold firm and wait to see if something happens there at some point in the future? Is is 6 years long enough, two and a half years long enough? um you know in in the grand scheme of the development world uh that's maybe on the shorter time frame of things existing out there. Um so I you know I don't know what the right answer to that is other than uh having experience with this development and kind of what the what the goal was for the community was a little bit more of a asset than a car wash would end up being. do want to remind the commission of one more thing. For better part of 45 minutes, we've been talking in a duality between a car wash and a national chain food establishment. CO and C1 and C2 zoning all have pretty long lists of things you can do in those zoning classifications. Some of them occupy the same type of building, like an office building or like a bank office

and that sort of thing. Those are not the only two uses that could go here. Um, Brian is more of an expert in the market than I am, but I think that's still an important thing to think about as we move.

I can add a couple more comments just on other users I've talked to. So, I also have there's uh a need in the community for child care. Uh I've talked to four national child care users because given the density, this location, and the accessibility, they would require the access off Highway 28. Um but the problem we have is it's next to a getand go. Uh and so there's environmental concerns. So, it's not just QSRs and and those types of users I've talked to. I've gone through the gambit of users for the site and and literally the get-go is is the primary primary challenge here. Um, and again, the site's been available for 10 to 15 years as it is. The get-go was built 2005, so the slots's been here since at least then, and you haven't had any other users uh that wanted to come and invest, you know, $5 million in the community. So, we have talked to other users outside of QSR's uh quicks serve restaurant uses national chains and if we did a a retail center here, I mean, we wouldn't there's no standalone restaurant that could fit on this site. It's too big. You would have to do a multi-tenant retail building which creates a whole another set of challenges uh with different users uh parking and and all those kind of things and access off of of 282. So, we've explored a lot of lot of users.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that there's um some restrictions on this site. It's not the city's issue or fault at all, but it runs with the land. And so that also limits further. I think it's maybe lending institutions. I can't remember all the other ones. Maybe insurance. Um city state bank. Yeah. So kind of whittleles down what those, you know, available prospects are. So it is just kind of a wonky site. It's its own thing.

Any other question? To clarify on timing again, uh the plat that created this lot was uh approved in fall of 2015. So we're about 10 and a half years of existence of this piece of property. Um, it's uh sold to an investment group in 2017, sold to a developer in 2022, and then sold again in 2023 to Ryan's group. Any other questions or comments from anyone? Thank it. It is 6:44. We'll close the hearing and deliberation.

Board members, what do you think? I'm not a big fan of approving it, but if we are going to make a motion, I would make sure that we put some pretty uh hefty buffer requirements in it so that if it does pass that we've got those documented, our recommendations for that are there. Agree. I mean, you have you have the natural topography to help you with a buffer because anybody walking on that trail is 30 or 40 feet down in lower elevation. So, like that's that's a natural buffer, but you're right. Some Yeah. As you're as you're like a lot of those homes that are further to the east of there that I'm assuming are going to kind of back up to this, right?

They're going to basically be at eye level, right? Because it's pretty flat besides the valley there. I want to make sure that we're kind of protecting those at least on the I think if we do make that motion we maintain the buffer requirements on the highway 28 side and we because right now basically there's essentially nothing on the south and the east sides right would want to increase the buffer requirements there of I think it's whatever I don't what are the different levels of buffer um they all span there's there's levels one through four. They vary in width and then density

density of planting. Um because this site already has a reduced buffer width, I wouldn't recommend um anything lighter, but maybe just increasing the plant multiplier by a by a certain amount. What would be the buff requirement for width on the south and the east sides? Now, so the the level so the PUD says 15 feet. Okay. In width. um that's half of the standard buffer width. Okay.

Um it also stipulates that the planting is half. So you're literally taking a standard level one buffer, cutting that whole thing in half. So maybe you leave it at 15 feet and say twice the planting required. Which we would amend in the pew. That would be a text amendment that we would bring to council. that because it it it says that right now. Is the plant number is that a density or is it a just a total number of plants in that 50? Oh, it is. Sorry, I'm getting into semantics here.

It's a I'm pretty sure it's a density. It's like a for every 100 feet you need to have. You know, there's a calculation involved um in it. I can't quote it on top. Yeah, Elliot's right. the per 100 ft. There's so many plantings that you need in a standard 30ft buffer. And then depending on how dimensions change, that number increases to one and a half times, two times, three times the number of plantings or half the number depending on what you do for a distance. If we made a vague motion of some sort of requirement, I'm assuming before it gets to council, you guys could massage it into language that would fit the PUD,

right? Okay. Do we know the hours of operation that's planned for this? Uh, he said it was limited. I'm assuming it because it's it's a staffed type of operation. Rants, can you speak to hours and staffing for the for this type of operation? Yes. Um, you guys hear me? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So um a a typical um unit will have about um 8 to 12 staff at any given time just depending on um rotation you know people you know the morning shift versus the afternoon shift. And then um hours of operation are uh typically 7 a.m. to about 7

catching people driving to work and catching people coming home from work mostly. Yeah. Yeah. So can I

That's right. Yeah. So for folks that don't use that intersection daily throughout the day, I do. So in the morning, like typically between like 6:30 and up until about 7:45, the cars are backed all the way up past the intersection to um Drought House waiting on the signals to turn. Right. In the afternoon coming back from work, it's the same thing. Like the cars are lined up all the way back up 28th Street to make that right turn at the stoplight, all turning coming down Brley to go into my neighborhood and all the other neighborhoods over there. And so some of that traffic is because people live there, but also now because

the pizza ranches in there, they're busy in the evenings most of the time like 4:30 up until

like till they close really, right? So it's already becoming congested, right? So, it's already if you were to pay attention to that area, it's already and that's why I was asking about that driveway and how we decided to do that knowing that there was a property there looking to kind of build a business. I think that restricts access and it's going to create even a diff a more difficult problem to an already congested thorough way right there. Right. So, so I'm I'm reluctant because I think that that's going to become a bigger problem as Pizza Ranch grows. Drought House has additional traffic and and they're building more of those town homes coming up here in the next 6 months or so. You know, they're going to be adding additional town homes to that property. So, that intersection is going to become a problem.

Wouldn't that be the case no matter what goes in there, though? That's why I was asking about the rideway in and out off 28th Street for that property. That's almost got to happen for that to be a viable piece of land for someone to use. I think yeah I mean some of the other traffic study

yeah some of the desired uses discussed I mean those those folks will generate more traffic than a a tunnel wash and certainly we could consider um you know a ride in ride out possibility off sunset that's something that um council wanted us to look at we're just kind of going with what we know we have. So, we've just said, "Hey, this is what's there today. We can live with it." All retailers, no matter what the use, love direct access off the primary road. So, if that becomes something that we want to explore, we can certainly work that into the plan. Any other discussion?

I I guess I've got a question for Elliot the team. Um, are we planning to start to try to figure out what that traffic is like in that area since now we've added the pizza ranch and all those other since we since we made that change?

I don't think we've had a real and Luke, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think we've had a a line item in our planning process for doing a a bigger traffic study factoring in recent development. Is that correct? Right. I mean, we did uh we did the we an analyzed traffic to determine what the Beardsley intersection should look like as far as its ability to uh handle capacity, not just local to that area, but you know, bigger picture Norwalk. So, in that regard, I would say we have looked at traffic. Um we I'd have to look at the code and look at uh car wash as a use. We may end up needing them to do depending on the traffic generation that they have uh traffic study for their site and then identify if there's any improvements that need to be made it made. Um that's likely where discussions related to the write in write out would end up happening. Um, you know, so if a if a user was like, "Look, we're just going to put that in because we know that it's it's a need for our use," then we might not require a traffic study because what is there to tell us, right? Like, if you're going to put in the infrastructure, there's not really a change that's needed because of that use. But, um, if you have a use that's doesn't think they want to do it or or, um, you know, wasn't willing to, um, that might be something that we would end up having to take a look at, um, just to make sure that it's not needed for the future traffic.

You ready for a motion? Yep. Whenever you are, I will make the motion uh to approve the item with the caveat that we maintain the 15 foot minimum width buffer along the east and south sides with double the plant density that is called that is typical for a plant buffer. Anything else? I think that's enough. Motion is do we have a second?

Motion and a second. Can you call a roll call vote? Eaton. No. Uh Siger. Hi. Samuelson. No. Forest. I Henders. No. Okay. Three. So that'll proceed to city council on the May 7th meeting with a uh no recommendation. So that will take a super majority vote to uh approve. Thanks.

Uh next up we have the public hearing and recommendation on a zoning amendment to chapter 175A.21 regarding exceptions to yard requirements. Uh, I'm going to open the hearing here at 6:55.

Elliot,

what? Yes. So, this item, this one's a little bit uh a little different from some of the amendments that we um typically do. This one's staff initiated in uh staff initiated in response to a redevelopment proposal um just up the street from us. Uh the Main Street School um is looking to expand and uh earlier last year they purchased a single family home next to their existing building. Wanted to make some modifications to it. Um, after speaking with them about new occupancy types and the renovations they wanted to do, we uh we found out that we needed to have them add egress stairs uh to the exterior of the building. Now, when you add um egress stairs on the exterior of a structure, uh setbacks come into play. Another way that setbacks are impacted is when you change the use on a property. This used to be a single family residence. It's now going into a nonresidential use. Our zoning ordinance is pretty um stark when it comes to what your setbacks are if you are a house versus not a house. In the case of the Main Street School, they went from having a seven foot minimum side setback to having a 50 foot sideyard setback. Um, those setbacks generally are for new development, but they apply to redevelopment as well. As such, because the lot is less than 100 feet in width, there is no building envelope on the lot. Um, quite literally none. They cannot under current regs add anything to the structure that would increase its square footage steps included. The zoning amendment uh takes

um one of these sections in our exceptions to yard requirements and simply adds a line in order to deal with this situation which we feel as staff helps address not only their needs but also is limited enough in scope that it isn't going to open a Pandora's box of bizarre requests uh to transform houses into other things. And so, um, this is actually one of the pieces of code that I reference more than anything else in my in my job that doesn't deal with P and Z. Um, and that is when people want to add decks, steps, patios to their house, you are allowed to encroach into the front and rear yard setback a certain amount of feet. Um, our code does not allow those encroachments into side setbacks period at all anywhere. Um, and with this lot undergoing some renovation, um, we thought that the best way to address that was to talk about allowing encroachment into a side setback if you were a nonresidential use in an district. That's going to limit you to a pretty short number of uh, parcels. An example of non-residential uses in our districts typically are schools, churches, government buildings, golf courses, things that kind of fall under that publicish or public adjacent type of use. And then we put a detail in there that for non-residential uses in our districts, you may encroach into the side setback provided you have a 10-foot setback maintained. And the reason we went 10 feet is because in the commercial office and commercial one districts um the base side setback is 10 feet. So

we thought that would be a good match or something that isn't a residential use in our district. So uh based on the building plans we've seen from Main Street School, this would easily accommodate what they are wanting to do. Um, and so that would allow them to expand while maintaining a safe building in case of an emergency. So, um, that's about all I have. I know we have, um, Greg Hayes on the call tonight. He's the project architect behind behind that renovation. Um, I don't know if he has anything to add, but that's all I have. I'm happy to answer any questions from the commission. Any questions for Elliot?

Okay. And is Greg's more of the applicant here? Is that correct? Not really, but you could ask him if he wants to still make any Greg or anyone else. Uh if if you would like to make any remarks on behalf of the applicant, we'd open that up. I think uh Elliot summed it up very well. Okay. Uh, any public comment?

Um, all right. Saying no more questions, uh, no more comments, going to close the public hearing at 7 o'clock and open the floor for deliberation by the commission. Anything straight forward? Yeah. All right. Entertain a motion a second. Samson. A motion. Stiger. Second. Motion a second. Hillary. I call for a roll call vote. Please. Stiger. Hi. Samuelson. I. Forest.

I think that was an I, wasn't it? Barson. Is that an I? Give me a thumbs up or something. Eaton. Hi, Henders. Hi. All right. Let's see. Next up, we have a city council debate. Uh, update. Um, Andy, what do you have for us?

Um, nothing too crazy. Um, one of the things I've been working on lately with Luke and Holly both is my city goal, which is 30% of our taxable base coming from commercial and industrial. Um, and with the data center project, you know, we will get there in the future years pretty easily. And Holly and her team does a great job, I think, doing economic development. So, you know, I she's going to keep killing it, right, from an economic development perspective, I think. So then our our conversation trended towards like as we get an influx of of taxpayer or tax dollars from the data center, what kind of are our operating principles or standards that we want how do we want to use that m that money? Is it lowering the levy? Is it creating, you know, funding for future projects? Is it x y or z? And so we've been we've been trying to work through that. Um so that's pretty interesting. Luke and I are going to sit down with Gan and see what what idea she has. Um, you know, there's possible litigation where maybe TIFF or other things start to to go away or or how how do how do we want to maybe fund special projects or give incentives, right? And so I think we want to be cognizant around how we use those additional dollars from the from from the data center tax base as we go forward. And so I think that's that's super important for our for our community. Um, and then like a little side pet project, and Holly and I were actually texting about this earlier. Um, I'm really kind of enamored lately by I don't know how many people have been to one, but like these indoor markets. Um, like an a good example of one that my family and I love, like there's one in Napa called the Oxbow Market. You know, it's a 10 to 20,000t building and there's um various vendors in these buildings, right? It could be, you know, a florist. It could be veggies. It could be olive oil. It could be whatever, right? It could be coffee drinks. Um, and there's usually like a food court. Some of them are surrounded by food

trucks. Um, you know, and does that bring is that something that would be amazing for our for our uh Norwok Central uh type of en environment, right, with the ball fields, the fieldhouse walkability. Um, so been doing a ton of research on that. I think it's super interesting. The communities that have these talk about how it dynamically changes. It's not a detractor to grocery stores and other things. It's it's an additive benefit. And so I'm trying to do a bunch more research on that. And some of these locations are run by the cities, others are run independently. And so just kind of something that I'm doing as a as a side hobby, trying to think would that fit into our overall plan for Norwok Central in the future.

Thanks so much, Andy. Yeah, that's all I got. comment on that real quick. So, Andy, I got a I've gotten a couple of um inquiries from citizens um asking about, if you will, micro retail opportunities, uh folks that are kind of bemoning the the fact that they don't have a lot of affordable options to um to do like proof of concept work for their small businesses. Um, and so I just want to share that that that is a need that we are being asked about as staff and I'd love to sit and talk to you about what Moskegan, Michigan did uh to accommodate people like that snowier, harsher climate than Deo, by the way. So,

you know, and I think everybody understands the popularity of the downtown market, right? Those farmers market like we that draws a ton of people down there, right? but it's only, you know, five, six months, maybe seven months, right? But having an indoor place, like it's really cool. I'll throw a link to one that I really like the one I was talking about in the chat if you guys want to check it out. It they're just really cool spaces. I think it's great for tourism as we're having people visit and maybe they're in between ball games, too. Right. I I I think this could just be unique. And to Elliot's point, like the the ability to just like cultivate and see if a business can go before maybe it moves somewhere else in our community, like it it's it's really cool. And you come up with these really cool popup, you know, locations in inside of this, right, that are are just different, right? Versus having to buy a whole real uh retail space or rent out a whole real re retail space. So,

thanks Andy. Economic development. Holly, what do you have for us? Yep, that's super exciting. I'm glad that Andy's interested in that. Elliot's interested in it because it is a cool concept. I think we could pull off a Norwok Central and New Market in Cedar Rapids, I believe.

Perfect example of how they pulled that together. I I think that's a public private um effort. So, we'll we'll be all over that, too. But yeah, we continue to see really positive economic growth and new interest across really all different business sectors and development sectors. Um, as you guys have seen just driving around Norwok, Demos, Iowa Hearing Center, the mixeduse building across the street at 620. Um, they're all making good construction progress. Affinity Credit Union's underway. Fanatics and Marv's main street diver open and doing well. Um, an update for the Southwest development corridor. So, we have two new prospects that we're working with for the Dun Industrial Park area. We're in early talks with another new really large tech company, which could be really great uh especially for our infrastructure uh network that we're working on. So, we have started working on all the various infrastructure projects that will serve that larger southwest development area. Data center development group, as you guys know, is paying for the majority of those, which is great. We are applying for a DOT rise grant to help with extending Delaware Street. uh the Sunset commercial development land which is just north of Greg Young. They have available commercial lots, really great options for people that need highway visibility. Um we have a few lots and spaces still available in Norwalk Central. If you guys know of anybody looking for just that kind of um that vibe and that traffic type space on the recruitment side, we continue to work with a larger locally owned retailer to build a new store here. Getting really close on that one. Hopefully it comes through here this year. Uh, still hard after Texas Roadhouse and Aldi. If anybody has good contacts, they're not super responsive, but we're going to keep trying. Um, Poneros, Crafts Cafe, other local breakfast cafes, brew pub, distillery, an indoor kids play and recreation centers, and a shipping store. And then, of course, town car washes are are popular. People keep asking about those. Uh and then a few of

us will be attending the De Moines Washington DC trip from June 3rd through the 5th to meet with our federal legislators about issues and priorities for our area, things affecting us. So if there's any specific subjects you guys are all close to or really want us to add to the agenda, please send those over. Um the US embassy and Kosovo government are hosting a a business forum in Kosovo in a few months and they're inviting Norwok business owners, which is pretty cool, to attend. Um, so it's just a really great opportunity for any business owners that want to expand into the European market. It's probably the the least expensive, the least red tape, amount of red tape to get through to do so because of the our great partnership with that country. Um, so again, if you have anybody interested or you want more information, let me know. And then lastly, just save the tentative date for the official grand opening and ribbon cutting for the true by Hilton um on Tuesday, June 9th at noon. And then with that, just as always, if you guys have any questions or ever want to meet, just talk about whatever is out there, call, text, email anytime.

All right. Community developments. Luke, Elliott, what do you got? Yeah. Uh, just hit on a few things quick. Elliot can fill in what he's got. Um, we are looking at appointing our seventh P&Z member on uh May 7th. So, we've got one more interview to do. Um, and then we'll do that and uh go forward uh with a full commission. Uh we do still have an opening if anyone wants to be part of the economic development work group. Um that traditionally had been the chair, but I think uh Brent has time conflicts with that. So um I just don't know when it is. So

Oh, it's right before every council meeting at 5. When is your council meeting? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. First and third Thursdays of the month. Thursdays. Yeah. Okay. I have too many councils I represent. I can't remember when.

That's fair. So, if that doesn't work for you, Brent, just let us know. Um, anybody else that's interested in attending one of those, um, we could get you hooked up with Holly and get you added to the mailing list. Um, they do frequently have folks on Zoom, so if you, uh, were wanting to attend but couldn't quite get away from work in time, um, we can accommodate that as well. Um, so yeah. Um, I guess just last thing, I just appreciate a lot of thoughtful discussion tonight. Um, I know that uh that spot's a weird spot and it certainly is uh challenging uh to get through. Um, so we'll see where we end up with it uh going forward. Thanks everybody. All right, next meeting May 11, 2026. Bright and late 5:45 p.m. I entertain a motion to adjurnn. I

your motion. Eden second. All in favor say I. I. All right. Thanks folks. Have a great night. Journeying of action.