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HomeMy Public PortalAbout02-11-2014CITY OF MEDINA PLANNING COMMISSION Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 11, 2014 1. Call to Order: Commissioner Nolan called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Present: Planning Commissioners Charles Nolan, Robin Reid, Randy Foote, Robert Mitchell, Victoria Reid, Janet White, and Kent Williams. Absent: None Also Present: City Councilmember Kathleen Martin, City Planner Dusty Finke, and Planning Assistant Debra Peterson 2. Public Comments on items not on the agenda No public comments. 3. Update from City Council proceedings Martin updated the Commission on recent activities and decisions by the City Council. 4. Planning Department Report Finke provided an update of upcoming Planning projects. 5. Approval of the December 10, 2013 Draft Planning Commission meeting minutes. Motion by R. Reid, seconded by Foote, to approve the December 10, 2013 Planning Commission minutes with changes. Motion carries unanimously. 6. Public Hearing - Dominium Requests Approval of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) Concept Plan for development of 32 affordable rental townhome units to be located at 510 Clydesdale Trail. Finke presented. The property is Guided Mixed Use Business. The land use allows commercial and residential uses. The density being proposed is 8.65 units/acre with 32 rental townhomes. The parcel is four acres in size and is located north of the Medina Entertainment Center. The PUD is a multi -part process to review the proposal. The main purpose of the Concept PUD is for the applicant to receive feedback from the Commission and Council. The Concept Stage allows the applicant to receive necessary information prior to going to the next stage and investing further dollars towards the project. The project has received subsidies to assist in development, subject to restrictions on rents that can be charged. 1 The project is proposed to have a Clubhouse and a playground. The remaining open space would not be useable due to grades on the property beyond the patios and decks for each unit. Seventeen guest parking spaces are required and are being proposed conceptually. Staff does have concern with the use of the guest parking and asks that it be privately policed so that parking is only used by guests and not renters. A City well exists on the southeast corner of the property and the City may consider conveyance of the well to the applicant for their use. The fa9ade facing a public or private street shall have 20% accent material. Finke pointed out that trash and recycling was a concern, since it's required to be stored internally and space would be limited. He said the garage spaces are small and the concern is not enough space for placing the containers inside along with two vehicles. He asked the applicant to consider alternative locations for the containers such as outside, but screened. Finke asked the Commission to review the use of a PUD. He said the use is consistent with the zoning, with the exception of the variations proposed. No formal action is required through the Concept Plan, but the Commission should provide feedback to the applicant. Williams asked why the use of a PUD. He felt what the applicant was asking for could just be granted with Variances. He also asked about the rezoning of the property. Finke explained the MU Business and the ability to average densities across the entire land use. He further said the property is an outlier that is guided similarly with all other properties in Uptown Hamel. In previous meetings it was noted that the zoning densities can be averaged out and the density could be exceeded with this property. Finke said if we were to accept the density, we would have to rezone the property. A Variance would require a hardship to be proven, whereas with the PUD it's not required that a hardship be proven. Mitchell said he had concern with parking in the development. He asked about parking space sizes and if we had varying sizes. Finke said staff was concerned with parking also. Mitchell asked what a reasonable rent would be in Medina. Finke said there are goals for Medina from the Metropolitan Council which he believes is around 500 units with affordable rents, which he thought was around $1100.00. V. Reid asked about the City Engineers comments. Finke explained the grading plan had since been updated, addressing his concerns. Nick Anderson of Dominium thanked the Commission for hearing their application and he felt Finke thoroughly explained their proposal. Anderson said 100% of the units would have rental limit restrictions. They would be very affordable and reasonable. Also other restrictions with the State Housing Agency would be in place 2 in order for them to finance the project. He said he thinks the maximum household income to live there would be $80,000.00 and would increase dependent on family size. V. Reid asked about tax credits. Anderson said they don't affect taxes paid to the City. Nolan said parking stands out to him and asked Anderson to explain how parking would be addressed. Anderson said Dominium has a project in Albertville that is similar in size. He said it is different in that it has 37 units with a similar number of guest parking spaces. The project also has an apartment building next door and he isn't sure about them having a problem with parking, or if parking from the apartment building was being used for the townhomes. Nolan asked if Anderson had experience with guest parking in other communities. Anderson said they tend to go along with the City requirements and wasn't aware of issues. Anderson said they did have some challenges with the proposed project to add additional parking due to hardcover requirements. Nolan asked about the driveways being 22 feet in depth. He said it seemed in a lot of locations there would be opportunities to move the units back, which would increase the depth of the driveways to 25 feet. He asked Anderson if there was a reason why they weren't moved back in some locations. Tom Wasomen of BKV Group said they were trying to stay out of the slice zone of the golf course and so the decks would be 35 feet from that property line. Anderson said a wetland delineation was done years ago and they can't complete a new delineation until the upcoming growing season, so the plan is conceptual at this time and may have more flexibility once a new delineation is completed as related to setbacks. Nolan brought up the front elevation and the garage doors. He asked if Dominium could make some modifications to improve the appearance and challenged them to modify the design. Anderson said the elevation drawing didn't give a good sense of the actual design going from unit plan to unit plan. He said variation in depth occur dependent on the unit size. He said the Albertville project shown on the projector had varying roof designs dependent on the unit size also. Wasomen said the overhangs of the roof at the front entrances add a shadow line which also plays with some depth. He said the materials are varied with different ways they approach the windows and rooflines. The use of bold colors in Albertville really detracts from the garage doors. He said the garage door companies have come a long way over the years and it's more affordable to make changes possible and be more appealing. Mitchell asked if guest parking could be used for overnight parking and if parking would be allowed overnight in the driveways. He said some developments prohibit parking overnight in driveways. Anderson said he wasn't aware of not allowing parking in individual driveways. Wasomen explained each unit would have two 3 inside stalls and two outside stalls for parking. He said they could have a family of four cars and they would be accommodated. Mitchell said he was concerned with the 22 foot depth with snow plowing. Mitchell asked who would be responsible for plowing and Anderson said Dominium. Mitchell said then they would have to deal with any issues if the driveway depths were too narrow for plowing. Wasomen said during the Development Stage they would add proof -of -parking. Mitchell said he looks at PUD's as contract zoning. He said if the laws for PUD's hadn't changed, he didn't think the City should be afraid of using it as a tool. He asked why townhomes instead of apartments. Anderson said because of previous success in Albertville with townhomes. Mitchell asked why rentals were better than ownership. Anderson said because of the lower rents they offer. V. Reid said she didn't like the percentage of garage doors on the front elevations. She suggested the applicant implement additional green space to break up the huge mass of asphalt in front of the units. Wasomen said they would be incorporating variations along with a tree lined street. V. Reid said the use of shrubs between the two garages would provide some break up/change to the front appearance. V. Reid said she was pleased to see the layout. Foote asked where the Albertville project was located. Finke said 19 North to 37. Anderson said all impervious surfaces would be treated in rain gardens and would utilize the natural ways into the storm system. He said the use was a good transition from a golf course to a townhome development. R. Reid said she saw handicap spaces on the east side of the project and suggested the applicant also place handicap spaces on the north side of the project. She also said she'd like to see screening from the building to the west (industrial). She didn't want tenants to have to look at the industrial use to the west. She said she didn't have an issue with the garage doors as presented. Wasomen said the garages are proposed to face the private drive and it wouldn't be seen along Clydesdale Drive. In terms of overall landscaping, they hadn't worked very much on that since the project was only at Concept Stage. R. Reid said there is a requirement for more landscaping and she suggested more focus be placed along the west. Nolan thought the center units backing up to the playgrounds could use more landscaping or some sort of privacy. He said it would be nice to do something to break up that area with some additional landscaping. R. Reid said some landscaping along the sidewalk would be nice. Finke said that area is the only area for kids. The open space would remain for an open lawn. Public Hearing opened at 8:13 p.m. Public Hearing closed at 8:14 p.m. Nolan asked the applicant if they had any questions for the Commission. Nolan said the unit in the very NW corner was a possible concern with pulling a car out of the 4 driveway and if that could be looked at closer. He said overall the PUD was not an issue with the Commission. The distance between units was also not an issue. He said he was excited to have some variation in our housing product in Medina. Parking was an issue, but he didn't feel we could dictate it as long as they meet City minimum requirements. He thought proof -of -parking would also be a great solution and that the City considers nature an important element with each development and that is why they would like to see more landscaping during the Development Stage. R. Reid asked if the City is working on getting bus service onto State Hwy 55. Council member Martin said the City had to convince the Metropolitan Council that there was a need for bus service in our City. She said a City survey would be going out in the City Newsletter and City website. Finke said the need is in the NE corner of the City, but all residents could complete the survey. 7. Council Meeting Schedule Mitchell agreed to attend and present at the February 18, 2014 Council meeting. 8. Nominations of 2014 PC Chair: Williams nominated Nolan for Chair for 2014 PC. Nolan accepted. There were no further nominations. Charles Nolan was elected as the 2014 Planning Commission Chair by unanimous consent, being the only nominee. 9. Nominations of 2014 PC Vice Chair: V. Reid nominated R. Reid for Vice Chair for 2014 PC. R. Reid accepted. There were no further nominations. Robin Reid was elected as the 2014 Planning Commission Vice Chair by unanimous consent, being the only nominee. 10. Adjourn Motion by Foote, seconded by White, to adjourn at 8:25 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. 5