HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-08-2011CITY OF MEDINA PLANNING COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
1. Call to Order: Commissioner Robin Reid called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Present: Planning Commissioners, Robin Reid, Kathleen Martin, Kent Williams,
Beth Nielsen, and Victoria Reid
Absent: Charles Nolan, John Anderson
Also Present: City Planner Dusty Finke
2. Public Comments on items not on the agenda
No public comments.
3. Update from City Council proceedings
Council member Weir presented a report of recent activities and decisions by the City
Council.
4. Planning Department Report
Finke provided an update of upcoming Planning projects. The Commission asked
questions related to the Lennar project.
5. Approval of January 1111 and February 81' 2011 Draft Planning Commission
meeting minutes.
Motion by Nielsen, seconded by V. Reid, to approve the January 11th 2011 minutes
as written. Motion carried unanimously. (Absent: Nolan and Anderson)
Motion by Martin, seconded by Williams, to approve the February 8th 2011
minutes as written. Motion carried unanimously. (Absent: Nolan and Anderson)
6. Public Hearing — Ordinance Amendment — Chapter 8 of the Medina City Code
related to dog boarding and other commercial uses related to animals.
Finke presented the request for the ordinance amendment. He explained the existing
zoning code for the commercial general district did not specifically list animal
daycare or boarding facilities within the districts.
Finke explained the Ordinance Amendment was initiated not by the City, but rather
an applicant, Kingstedt. He said the text changes add the specific use of animal
daycare boarding/overnight boarding and it increases the maximum outdoor space to
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15,000 square feet. He explained staff had visited other boarding facilities in the
metro area to get a better understanding of the use and its possible impacts on
neighboring properties. As a result of the visits, staff recommended adequate indoor
space within the principal structure for boarding and exercise of the animals along
with language requiring indoor impervious surfaces along the floors and the base of
walls. Limitations on the outdoor space, including quality of fencing, hours allowed
utilizing the outdoor space, a noise mitigation plan, and improvements to reduce
impacts on neighboring tenants.
Finke asked if the Commission felt this use should be allowed. If so, should animal
daycare and boarding be listed as a separate conditional use, or placed together with
Pet Stores and Vet Clinics. If the conditions for the uses are likely to be similar, staff
recommends using a general term for all animal uses.
Applicant Tom Kingstedt explained the reason they are so interested in starting up a
doggie daycare and grooming business in Medina. They are considering a location on
Tower Drive which has a large outdoor area. He said the site is attractive because it
provides an opportunity to have a larger area for the dogs to play. They would
construct an 8 foot high fence so the dogs would not see what was happening outside
of the play area. The play area would also have an area for the dogs to relieve
themselves. He explained the smaller the outdoor area the greater chance the noise
would be greater. The outside area would not be a permanent boarding area. He said
solid waste would be picked up immediately and stored in containers. Nielsen asked
how many dogs. Kingstedt said approximately 60 dogs. Nielsen said if they had
daytime boarders would 60 dogs be the maximum allowed per day. R. Reid asked if
Kingstedt owned a doggie daycare business currently. He said they did not. He said
they have friends that own a doggie daycare facility and have been going to a lot of
dog daycares to drop their dog off and visit those businesses.
Kingstedt said doggie daycares that are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, are rare. He
explained in most of the doggie daycares the dogs are left alone at night with no
supervision. He said they would also offer cage free boarding which is a new option
that other businesses aren't offering. He said they wouldn't have the typical 3' x 3'
cages as other businesses do, but rather suites would be constructed with dimensions
of 7' x 7'. The suites would allow for more than one dog if a family has more than
one dog and the dogs are used to being together. For the dogs that are used to having
the run of their house, their doggie daycare will provide an environment that allows
the dogs to roam around indoors as they would if they had the run of their house.
Kingstedt said the dogs would have more room to roam without cages, which would
help the dog adapt to the environment more easily and would be more typical to them
being at home.
Nielsen asked about other boarding facilities nearby. Kingstedt said he is only aware
of Camp BowWow being nearby, which is located in Plymouth.
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Kingstedt said the location they are looking at for their doggie daycare in Medina
would allow for easy access onto State Hwy 55. Their business would also offer
grooming and daytime boarding without overnights as another option.
Nielsen asked about how frequent trash would be picked up to get rid of the solid
waste from the dogs. Tom Kingstedt said waste would be picked up individually with
biodegradable bags and then put into small sealed containers.
V. Reid asked the applicant how close the 15,000 square foot fenced in play area
would be to the property lines. Jillene Kingstedt said the play area they are
suggesting would be closer to 13,000 square feet in size, rather than the 15,000 square
feet they were originally planning She said the fence meets the setbacks of the
principal structure.
Martin asked if there were industry standards to assist in reviewing and drafting the
CUP standards. Tom Kingstedt said he wasn't aware of any strict standards that
could be utilized in drafting the CUP standards. He said the standards that exist today
are not what he wants to design his business around, since they would allow for a
living environment that would not be acceptable. He is planning on designing a
facility that has much higher standards than the doggie daycares they've visited
within the metro area. Martin requested staff to further research standards as
guidelines.
Tom Kingstedt asked the Commission for a change to the draft ordinance. He said as
part of their doggie daycare they would like to provide the option for clients to drop
off their dogs on their way to work and be able to bring them outside to relieve
themselves earlier in the morning. He suggested 6:30 a.m. He said they didn't have
any reason to have later hours than what was being recommended. He said they are
looking at the health of the dog by allowing the dogs to go outside earlier. Nielsen
asked why staff was recommending those particular hours. Finke explained that the
animals would be under more control, which would mean less noise if inside.
Finke said at 500 feet on a clear morning you would be able to hear dogs if they were
outside. Martin said parameters could be changed. Tom Kingstedt said it would be
difficult to take a lot of dogs out on a leash at the same time in the early morning
hours. He said there wouldn't be more than a couple of dogs at a time out in the early
morning hours. Williams asked about setting conditions on the time period a dog
could go out. Finke said it would be difficult to enforce, but could be included on
land uses separately.
Public Hearing was opened at 7:48 p.m.
Finke asked the Commission if doggie daycare uses should be allowed. R. Reid
asked if there had been a reason why it hadn't been listed within the district. Nielsen
asked if the use had ever been considered at all. Martin said she checked Edina and
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Maple Grove and couldn't find either City addressing animal daycare facilities in
their codes.
Williams asked what the difference was between CG, Commercial General and the
Business districts. Finke said the CG district allows more retail than the Business
districts. R. Reid asked how many Commercial districts we had and Finke replied
four.
The Commission agreed that the CG district should allow an animal daycare use as a
conditional use.
The Commission discussed the difference between an animal daycare and a
Veterinarian Clinic. Williams suggested Pet Stores, Vet Clinics and Animal
Daycares be lumped together, as long as an outdoor space would be looked at
differently. R. Reid asked if an upper square footage limit be set on outdoor spaces or
if a percentage of the lot could be used. The Commission suggested leaving out any
maximum outdoor space limitations since the characteristics could be different in
each location and it would be better to look at them individually through the CUP
process. Finke explained if a maximum square footage was set, the City would know
the maximum. V. Reid asked how the number of animals within a building could be
limited. Finke said there is state statute language that would allow many more
animals than what the City would want. R. Reid suggested more language on the
fence for the outdoor play area. Tom Kingstedt said the type of fence they prefer
avoids splinters in paws, opaque to not distract the dogs, a height that they wouldn't
be able to jump (8 feet) and a design they couldn't climb. The Commission
concluded that a maximum square footage of play area not be established. They
further suggested taking the outdoor areas out of the Uptown Hamel and Mixed Use
District.
The Commission discussed the existing language that only allows a maximum of
2,000 square feet of outdoor area and felt that that could be expanded.
The Commission discussed the distance of how far residential should be from animal
daycare facilities. The Commission concluded animal daycares with outdoor play
areas should be a minimum of 500 feet from residential and 200 feet from residential
if the animal daycare is completely indoors.
The Commission added language to require the indoor and outdoor areas to be kept
well maintained. They suggested modifying the appearance of fencing. The
Commission didn't have an issue with changing the hours per the applicant's request
for use of the outdoor play area. Finke suggested more general language to address
each application individually. The Commission asked that animal waste be picked up
and temporarily contained until properly disposed of. The Commission
recommended staff develop an odor, waste and noise mitigation plan.
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Zoning Districts — Use same language for Business, Commercial Highway, and
Commercial General. The Commission said if the use was all interior, then it would
be fine in other districts.
Public Hearing closed at 8:41 p.m.
Motion by Martin, seconded by V. Reid, to recommend approval of the Ordinance
Amendment with the recommended changes. Motion carried unanimously. (Absent:
Nolan and Anderson)
7. Commission Training: Discussion of "Land Use Basics" online course.
The Commission discussed the training.
8. Commission Training/Open Discussion: Reviewing Site Plans; Questions about
Comprehensive Plan or Zoning Code.
The Commission held an open discussion reviewing site plans.
9. City Council Meeting Schedule
10. Adjourn
Motion by Martin, seconded by Nielsen, to adjourn the meeting at 9:02 p.m.
Motion carried unanimously. (Absent: Nolan and Anderson)
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