it's the Brainard Planning Commission uh meeting is 6: PM Brainard council chambers and we'll start with roll call Higgins here Powell here Norwood Peterson here
Goram grula here Erikson here all right moving on we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of America to the republ for it stands Nation God indivisible jice for
all all right moving on through the agenda here um be onto the election of officers and we're in a little bit of a unique situation um we currently don't have a a chairperson our vice chair is not present and with that um I'm the
council liaison from City Council to the Planning Commission and so we just be looking for a motion for um uh appointing I guess myself uh I'll make ation Mr chor chair to make a chair for the evening second all right a motion and a second
any discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos same sign and motion carries all right and in addition to that uh we would be uh looking to to uh
take nominations for um an actual chair aside from tonight and um Vice chair Gorman has indicated his uh desire to be vice vice chair um he said he would be uh would be chair if if needed and
commissioner Norwood has indicated uh that he would uh serve as as chair as well so would be uh entertaining a motion uh to appoint a chairperson um I'll make that motion to to do as you
said uh and for for which one again Mr Mr Norwood for the chair and Mr Gorman for the vice chair all right very good second all right a motion and a second uh any other nominations third and final time any
other nominations hearing none uh been a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I those um those opposed same sign and hearing none motion
carries all right well thank you very much um next item on the agenda approval or amendment of agenda be looking for a motion to approve or amend the agenda Mr chair um I would have to recuse myself for um new business 8 item D if it is I
am part of that very good thank you um with that uh can I have a motion to approve the agenda move to approve I'll second motion and a second all in favor I I those opposed same
sign and motion carries uh next up approval of our minutes of our previous uh meeting January 15 2025 a motion to approve the minutes move to approve second motion and a second any discussion
those in favor say I I those opposed same sign motion carries all right that brings us to um item eight on our revised agenda uh new business and uh first on that is
consideration of preliminary plat request for St Francis Church 411 North 10th Street and I think um Mr cranic is going to be yes thank you Mr chair uh so the purpose of this preliminary plat request is to consolidate 14 Parcels
into three lots one each for the church school and rectory the preliminary plat also proposes a street vacation of North 9th Street between Ivy Street and Juniper Street and the demolition of three single family homes to construct one large directory Church uh major reason for the request is to create one
cohesive campus for children to walk between the school and church uh at this time the preliminary plat indicates that St Francis would like to rezone to Public semi-public District by rezoning to PSP District St Francis would not be required to obtain a conditional use
permit to demolish the three homes they would not be required to obtain a cup in the future for the rectory or future expansion of the church or School a cup is required in the current tn1 district for those uses so I want to reference
section of dwelling unit in the traditional neighborhood one District which this is located in um or the tn2 cn1 cn2 districts uh unless a building permit is also issued at the same time to authorize construction replacement of dwelling unit or the City Grants a
conditional use permit uh so the directory will as proposed um these are some preliminary drawings they're not final drawings um but uh will contain large Suites but because of lack of the kitchen in these Suites uh they do not meet the definition of a dwelling unit
so essentially three homes would be going to one unit uh staff from multiple departments did meet regarding the proposed Street vacation uh engineering Public Utilities did not have any issues from a utility storm water or traffic perspective uh if vacated uh the fire
department would require Street access to North 9th until the two internal homes are demolished that is something that would be put into a development agreement uh as discussed in the findings uh the city could potentially add a side walk requirement for pestering traffic from north to south as
part of a development agreement uh if it were to be uh conditioned into the development agreement staff would need to have final discussions with the city attorney to figure out exactly how this could potentially work there would be a permanent utility easement in there uh but this is private property so something that would have to be worked
out um uh in the future um the other option would be to encourage St Francis to add a sidewalk to allow pedestrian passage still in that area but not have anything uh officially conditioned uh staff uh did review this um whether it is consistent with Comprehensive plan uh
Economic Development Goal One support infill and Redevelopment throughout Brainard as a strategic component to growth policy two invest in community improvements that will spur and support revitalization or Redevelopment uh investment in neighborhood schools and churches is important for creating Community
connections attracting families and spurring revitalization of surrounding homes um certainly the the community has seen a number of our um Elementary School go through revitalization in the last few years here uh housing goal one policy three states rehabilitate and or
uh replace substandard housing with units that are decent safe healthy affordable and appropriate size to meet the city's current and future housing needs um as proposed the directory replaces older homes in needer repairs um with a new dwelling unit that meets the needs of Parish priests and visitors
according to um the applicant uh policy five ensure an adequate supply of quality and affordable housing units for C Uh current and future residents um certainly the removal of three single family homes negatively impacts brainers housing stock at a time when there is a major need uh in the community to
provide housing to Residents uh so taking all things in consideration staff does recommend approval of the preliminary plat with the following conditions approval of the vacation of North 9th Street between Ivy Street and Juniper Street this would be considered by city council approval of rezoning of
all Parcels to Public semi-public District and approval of the development agreement with the city of Brainard and I can answer any questions maybe before we open it up for commissioner questions James I just have a process questions so on the agenda here it talks about uh obviously this item under that it says public hearing
so you're going to have commissioner questions and directed to you and staff and then after that we open up for public hearing and that's correct and then the applicant would typically talk first okay thank you so with that um guess opening up the floor for any
commissioner questions on the The Proposal not not yet not till we hear guys that's fine will we have an opportunity after the public hearing to for Commissioners to also ask questions that's correct okay um yeah so I guess hearing no no further
comment move right into public hearing y all right so at 6:08 um we'll open up the public hearing on considering preliminary plat request for St Francis church thank you Mr chair I'm Chad Connor excuse me L surveyor with WID
Seth I'm uh going to be representing a portion of the team here tonight um er you want to introduce yourself um Erica markusen architect at wsth Father Michael I'm the pastor of St Francis you want to State full name and
address Father Michael Gary uh 416 North 9th Street Brainard uh Erica Markus uh 415 Cedar Street Brainard and I'll go with our WTH corporate address 7804 Industrial Park
Road in Baxter is that all right staff thank you okay thanks for having us here tonight it's uh obviously we're here for a preliminary plat but obviously there's a lot of other moving parts that are going to go with that as this process moves forward so um keeping that in mind
we had some very good meetings appreciate the staff's thorough um staff report and Analysis we've met with them a number of times you know Erica and the rest of the team have met with them for quite a period of time so it's good to finally get in front of this uh
commission um with the plat um obviously is the first step with of a master planning effort that we're going through right now and others can maybe talk about details of that in the future but as as a surveyor you know maybe a few things that I would probably um like to
address during this staff report um is in regards to particular the street vacation um obviously that's a a big component of this moving forward with the plat the the platted Lots contain what's going to be or what was the vacated Street and and we'll incorporate
that into the proposed development in the future we haven't given any details on that just because simply they're not they're not developed yet to this point um but I can assure you with the team with the discussions with City staff um with Community discussions and input that we've gained um you know we're
looking to improve and maintain that um pedestrian connectivity that I think is important to a neighborhood as of as as of this one um other um things that are positives that this is going to um provide is additional safety for um
pedestrians students Crossing back and forth between the facilities um parishioners and and just pedestrians as well um it'll also redu impervious coverage likely which is also a good thing for storm water um control and things like that um and if we look
around the city uh the Harrison school is probably a good example of a situation where we vacated or a street was vacated and it and it brought some really good benefits to the property and the and the neighborhood um the other thing I'd like to just quickly briefly talk about would be the resoning to PSP
and um you know I think if you look through the packet it was clear to me and and when we met with staff that you know the current facilities the school the church the rectory all fall basically within right in the CR
criteria of that PSP District so um one thing that in the staff report it wasn't mentioned also that to the east uh St or the um Franklin Arts Center is a general commercial District too so there is another zoning District not just tn1
surrounding the entire property um and then you know the resoning this to PSP would be consistent with other blocks other uses in this community such as Trinity School um branded High School St Andrews um St
Joe's Medical Center those types of facilities so um really appreciate you everyone's time tonight I don't know Erica if you have anything else to add at this point or I guess um we will just mention at this time and then uh wait for some additional questions um but with the you
know the as Chad mentioned we're in the infancy stages of Master planning we just started that process and um the goal of the uh of that process is to figure out what opportunities lie um on those Parcels of land and um and so
starting this process will guide us or provide us the foresight of what is possible um if the street vacation is granted um then there's a whole um assortment of opt options or a broader
range of options available of what can be done with the uh existing school and the church and then likewise adding the rectory um the current rectory as it sits now um you know is utilized it was
a single family home it's been converted to a rectory over the years um but really doesn't serve the purpose of um what a normal rectory if I can call normal of what a what a Rory would um strive to be I guess is the best um uh
description for that and so you know while while we while they've made do or we've made do and I speak also as a parishioner um while we made do um we just want to provide our priests with something um that they're deserving of and um have the appropriate living
quarters for um their type of and it's not a single family um it's um multiple uh priests that live within that and so to have those um individual kind of living quarters if I can call them that um to provide them with that would be uh
beneficial so in talking about um the the the homes being demolished um the existing homes as they stand now um with bedroom counts and Living Spaces
actually equates out to what the proposed um rectory is providing um I know it was explained that it's not necessarily looked at as individual living quarters um but the actual space as bedrooms Living Spaces equates out um
to be almost identical to what the three um individual single family homes equate out to um the other um amenity that um the new rectory would provide is accessibility um we have obviously um
we all age that's a given and so with that um having the opportunity to have um a a facility or a home um setting of which is more conducive to that and providing that for um potential re
having uh this rectory be an opportunity for the dicese to potentially have even uh retirement for um availability of a priest that may have um um an accessibility need
um and I'll leave it at that for now you want to add anything um maybe I just add that uh yeah so there's three houses there currently I'm living in one with another priest and we do anticipate getting more priests so uh we would need
more room than we have currently in the two bedrooms that we have so we have those three houses so if you want to think of it this way there's three houses and in the future uh it's very likely that the two of two of the three would be taken up by priests anyways uh
so really we'd uh be at a net loss of just the one house and the other uh um possibilities that she was talking about was uh for the school would be starting a high school so that's we're also kind of looking down the road on that which I think would be a a benefit
and a draw to the community as well thank you all right anyone else uh speak for or against and I don't know do we have anybody online okay so if you're on online or joining by phone if you hit star three
that'll let us know that you'd like to speak or anyone else yes go ahead uh state your name and address this is Mike yeah this is Mike dual 468 tyy roll Drive um I just uh I believe I had had
submitted some of my uh notes uh to staff uh uh yesterday I don't know if that got distributed or not but um just wanted to just maybe embellish on some of those regarding this project um you know specifically
for the road vacation uh vacating the uh 9th Street you know my interpretation of the uh of the post development Redevelopment of this um this in this project doesn't seem to
indicate that there will be any structures or infrastructure that's going to be um overlay the uh the vacated Street Corridor which to me implies that it's not really a requirement for the success of the overall project I think the applicant
just well articulated um need um for for trying to redevelop some more functional housing and I and I totally uh appreciate that um but it doesn't seem like the street
needs to be a part of of that going away in order for them to have a successful project um they use the example of the Harrison school um as as one of those maybe as a a comparable to what
they're proposing to do but I I would point out that that the vacated Street which was 16th I believe um 16th Street was um was vacated and and and basically that has infrastructure on of
the storm water management Pond um so it actually has something other than how to uh manage to get U students across the street um Ninth Street is is on the south end controlled by a stop sign on
the Juniper U Juniper and Ninth intersection so traffic has to stop uh at the intersection of juniper before proceeding north um you know and so there are other ways you might be able to ensure the
safety of students um that need to go between the campus maybe using um controls like a a pedestrian signal light or placing a a stop sign on the North block of 9th at June at Ivy so
again you cause traffic to to pause if you would um but generally slowing things down and I think that would be a reasonable approach here for this particular part um we talked uh they were
expressing the need to to clear clear a footprint for the new rectory um um and I I I think staff report indicated that you know and acknowledges that we do have a housing shortage um within the city and within the the county and
within the state and within the country so it's not unique to Brainard um and and the functionality is how they want to use these how this doesn't work I think that's clear I I think um where we where we come up
um with the first the first initiative is is to to to take the houses down to the ground and ship them to the landfill um and I and I think there's an opportunity here to to maybe repurpose
these houses um I'm aware of a couple of projects that have happened in the near near past here in brainer when the hospital expanded parking lots and things I'm aware one house that was moved up to um uh Lake Hubert so a
pretty long Hall um that house was set down and is very functional and and continues on as a home and it was an affordable option um um there was another house that was scheduled for demolition the L school as part of the
expansion of parking and that house was moved eight blocks to the East and sat down and uh and and renovated and is now a a functioning house so you don't necessarily have a full net cost of
housing if we offer these houses um uh particularly at no cost to interested individuals um you know there there are going to be necessary steps to deal with things like as vestus and such before
these houses are demolished and that to me doesn't seem like it would be a pass along cost but it it's an option to be able to put these houses um to continue good use I I I provided a couple of pictures um in my submission and we could look at
some by just going to the County website street view but these are nice houses there's no question about it they're interesting architecturally um they're not um dilapidated or or blighted um so they're they're really nice and and there's an opportunity here
with the especially with the 30% plus increase in the cost of housing that we've experienced over the past three some odd years um this could be an affordable an attractive option for for um would be homeowners that have the opportunity
parcel land they want to set set a house on it's it's it's going to save you some construction cost um and maybe bypass some of the the lining up of contractors to stick build something if you've got um we've got several house movers in the brainer Lakes area here that do this for
a living and they could scope these out and figure out I think I think you would have a very affordable house if you picked it up and moved it to a lot so I guess my recommendation would be that you that you allow um enough time for
interested individuals to contact and and line up Logistics if they would want to pluck one of these off before you actually crush them in and send them to the landfill um and and as a further option if if there are no op interested partings parties the habitat for
humanities does have Salvage Crews that would be able to re repurpose a lot of the the unique architectural features I'm sure in each of these houses I've not been in them um but there's demand for those sorts of things and that would
the proceeds of that go to support um Housing Development affordable housing development so it stays in tune or in theme with what we're lacking or have a need for in the city and um so I think those are a couple of
thoughts on here if I if I could loop back to very good Mr Deval um thank you very much we got a a full room here I'll give you 30 seconds to maybe just the final thought please thank you um so looping back to
the on the vacation of the street um you know um I drove by there on Saturday there was there were uh there was a function going on there at the um um at at the church or at the school I don't know which but it was a full Street on
you know Saturday morning 10:00 there were 20 some OD cars on the street it's so you're losing some on street parking there that then has to go someplace else in the neighborhood and so with that thank you very much for the opportunity to comment you bet thank you Mr chair
can I ask a question of these guys is that tip we want to hold those off until after the public hearing tip let's hold off until everybody's maybe had a chance to speak thank you Carla Coan 1117 Broadway Street I'm the director of advancement and admissions from the
school and just to comment on his um question about the authenticity of vacating this um Street I think Mrs markuson spoke very articulately that this is a preliminary process that we are looking we are outgrowing our space
at the school let alone the project that the rectory is to and so this is giving us the opportunity to look at what our options are this is what can we do with the space that we have to use it to the best that we can as good stewards of the
land that we have been given so I I just want to comment that this isn't something that we're looking at just for vacating a street to inconvenience someone it's also looking at the best plan for this property for both our parish and our school so that's just my
comment to the gentleman who gave his opinion thank you and I support this obviously anyone else for or against state your name and address please Chris Den 4784 go Lake Dam Road and Brainard
um I am in favor of this proposal I was looking at some stuff and kind of reviewing the packet beforehand um one of the things uh the other gentleman was talking about I had very similar questions on him like why are we just going to demolish these houses why don't you donate him to Habitat so I
emailed some of the guys and their response was that they had already made a few calls to Habitat and that they looked at the houses and said no it's probably just worth coming in to strip out some of the parts strip out some of the copper um they said they had already reached out to some home movers in the area and weren't interested in moving they had one person that was maybe
interested in Hue but that the it was too far to relocate because of power lines and other stuff so I know they were looking into um things to try and reuse those houses um but my understanding is they're not in that great of shape but they we'll try and reuse what they can
um my thoughts uh uh I got my here with me today and just looking at you know future stuff as far as things that make me excited about braer when they're talking about things that are you know you hear about them outgrowing their space and it sounds like they got a lot of good community and support um I'm a parishioner over at All Saints since I
live around that side of the town but uh we bring our kids and family over to St Francis a lot too um they have a lot of good things going there and there's a lot of momentum behind them so I'm excited to see some support for their mission and there stuff going on uh my take on the street I think it would be great to have it vacated just from the
standpoint of looking at where they're trying to develop is he speaking for again um if if they're going to basically have you know Church related stuff for the campuses on both sides of the street um to me it makes a lot of sense to to merge that into one there's
already a lot of you know crisscross hatching throughout the city um you know and growing up here and going to Gregory Park um which is all kind of one solid place they could have put streets right through there but there's not a lot of places that have a street vacated that have a larger parcel feel um I think
that could add a lot of value for another larger facility room for larger Green Space and something that's already a lot of crisscross streets I think vacating the straight would leave room for other possibilities um I haven't been part of the planning process or know a lot about it but um you know I
would speculate that some of the plans of why there's not things to develop is they don't know if it's approved yet as soon as they know they might have a approval for possibilities to vacate the street they might be able to come up with some more interesting designs that could further interest the community so I would be in favor of vacating the street I think it'll give it a good um
kind of Campus feel you go to a lot of other colleges and universities and other locations and again turning into foot traffic there's not a lot of foot traffic only spaces um and I think it'd be a good thing for brard so thank Youk you others for against name and address
please Angie Gage uh 902 First Street which is actually three blocks north of this right on the corner of ninth and fur I would state that I'm in favor of vacating the property uh we are right at the southeast corner of ninth and fur
there is a stop sign there that's the only other regulated stop sign on that street and so we watch out our window all day long and probably 85 to 95% of the people that come by that stop sign do not stop as it is there is excessive
speed in that neighborhood um and so I would like to see if it was vacated then the traffic would reroute to 8th Street where it should be going and because there's a lot of the traffic that heads to Northeast Brainard from that route
and as a secondary in support of this project my son is a seminarian and one of the parts of their formation is to they want them when they come home they want them to spend time with the priest so he has actually slept on the couch in their
rectory now because there's not room where they have it now so I just wanted to add that as well thank you thank you all right any others for or against good evening my name is Kevin joerger I live at 325 Bluff uh and uh
thanks for having me um appreciate what you guys do highly criticized under appreciated work so um since the beginning of ukian design um city planners have understood that neighborhoods are some of our most
valuable assets inside cities and for that reason UK clean design states that neighborhoods are made up primarily if you look at all 99% of uh city planners will will tell you that neighborhoods are made up of churches Parks um homes
uh and and those neighborhood type dwellings I support that I believe in that that is also why almost all um Planning and Zoning design standards are the most restrictive in these neighborhoods I believe 100% fully that
our in our campuses of of churches and schools and Parks inside neighborhoods should expand I believe in high density and I believe that they should increase their worth inside those neighborhoods I'm opposed to them doing that in a
horizontal fashion that gobbles up the very neighborhood in which they survive in which they make their living and which they call home uh in which they share the greater neighborhood with their neighbors so what I'm what I'm ask what I'm what I'm I'm here tonight and what and I want to
be careful that to mention that I'm not opposed to to churches I'm not even and I'm not certainly not opposed to churches expanding I'm not opposed to the need I support the growth what I want to be heard tonight or what I what I'm hoping that I can impress upon you is is that planners and
designers and Architects they they come up with they they have a client who sits in front of them and says these are our boxes that we need checked we need this and this and this and this and this and by their own nature to their credit they tend to find a path that checks those
boxes in a in a in a with a method that Pro provides the least amount of resistance and I think that is a very dangerous process in some cases so what I'm hoping to impress upon you tonight is that they are here asking for input
and I would like to at least open the conversation that in general when we say we need to expand we think this way the reality is is that almost everything that we want to do with the expansion of campuses and institutions can also be done this way if we just tell them
that's the way we want them to go is it harder absolutely is it more expensive absolutely however the benefit to that type of mindset is is that it preserves those institutions excuse me those dwellings that are around those
institutions that we're asking to expand or oping to expand so I I'm simply asking you guys to just kind of think or or maybe provide some input that says show us some other Alternatives that don't cost us the houses show us some
other Alternatives that don't cost us vacating a street that's been there these houses when they're gone they're gone forever we can see many many examples of that in our neighborhoods the hospital our school district 181
three houses here two two houses there four houses there the cumulative effect of that over time is that the campuses and institutions continue to grow and the houses the houses the people that live in them get smaller and smaller and smaller that is my concern on a
long-term scale of this type of mindset of design thinking so I'm just asking you guys to think about maybe giving them some input or asking them to show other designs that might Embrace both mindsets I I also want to say that Planning Commission
and the City Council made it very clear that we don't want houses torn down in neighborhoods the switching of the zoning is a circumvention of that exact mindset it then gives them the ability if they can rezone it to then legally
through a cup tear down those houses which is basically it's it's a way of just kind of working around the impetus of that original design concept that we said we wanted to have in our neighborhoods so in closing I just want to say I fully support the church I want them to grow I want them to expand I
want them five times they are the size they are now I just want them to do it in a way that protects the neighborhoods and the houses around them in the long term that's all thank you thank you all right any others to speak for or
against name and address please hi excuse me Jenny kudon I'm 12319 Thompson Road Brainard I also am one of the owners of the bordon Stein bow Krueger and Canon office across the street um lifelong resident of Brainard I'm also
um one of the trustees at St Francis Church and the chair of the finance Council I um want to thank a lot of our parishioners we've got probably at least a dozen parishioners here in support want to share with the commission Mr chair that our parishioners have been um
very enthusiastic about the plans that we have moving forward for this and I can assure the Commissioners that we have as a finance council with um father Gary been um studying different ideas and thoughts about uh the campus
especially the rectory for over 3 years um we understand uh the concerns about housing in the city of Brainard um the housing there is going to be Church housing it's not going to be um housing for single families as father um Gary
had pointed out um so um our church is growing we have over 800 families we've got a school that's bursting at the seams uh this seems to be the perfect opportunity for uh the city to look at this whole area to apply that zoning uh
District that is appropriate for these sorts of growing kind of Quasi commercial areas um again as it was pointed out it is adjacent to the Franklin Arts Center um so um on behalf of all of the parishioners at St Francis we asked that the commission um approve
uh this proposal thank you thank you all right any others like to speak for and against seeing no one else maybe I'll call a final time any others to speak for or against hearing none I'll close the
public hearing at 6:37 and um James I know there's been some requests for for question from Commissioners so perhaps we can um open it back up to Commissioners for for questions uh com comments and discussions so I I'd have one actually
for the Architects I think one minute answer I got like four of them I'm going to fire at you what's their ultimate time frame if they got this I'm assuming the church owns these three properties right now and are they rentals do does
someone else own them what is the housing how are they being used as housing right now um and when you're vacating 9th Street I'm assuming you're using this for the future for the school and things like that that's the reasoning behind that and that will be green space I just wanted to understand
that that's the questions okay uh able to come back up and maybe uh speak to those or adjust those questions all right um You rambled them off quick I got three of the four so I'll figure out which one I missed um time frame um that
really isn't U that's an unknown at this time um again as I mentioned we're in the early stages of Master planning and until we know um the outcome of what is possible with the street vacation and the rezoning that guides us and provides
us some guidance as to what possibilities there are um so I can't unfortunately I can't give you a specific time frame obviously um with the school and the growth to include and incorporate High School uh grade levels because right now currently St Francis
school goes to grade eight and so um there's been over the past three four years now um there's been some further discussions and um studies done as far as um how to support and
grow that um higher grade level uh at St Francis so there is um you know we're looking to try to accomplish something or have some improvements made um to the school sooner than possibly the church since
the church just went through an addition renovation um a couple years back here um so I guess again I can't give you a specific time frame but um that's just kind of a little bit of information as far as what we've been looking at um the
church does currently own all three of the parcels the northwest corner the um middle home and then the home that's directly north of the church is currently the rectory um uh home the home that the serves as the rectory
um I think number three was the one that I missed cuz four talks about the vacation um you inquired about um the street vacation and as I tried to allude to earlier again we're in the early stages of the master planning um and and
maybe I can touch on this because I know also I made a note and um answer both Mike Duval's um to Mike Duval's comment and to your question as well so um the the growth to increase the size
of uh the school um we have looked at options um not to just sprawl um and we're just again in the early stages so um but to go from um a K8 to uh a prek
12 and actually I should say a prek 8 to a prek 12 um requires almost double the amount of square footage um that this existing School currently um houses and so while our goal would be to try to
create as tight of a footprint as possible um there are certain code regulations as far as what needs to happen with um the earlier grade levels and where they fall within the building so those are all considerations that we'll need to make um my goal as an
architect is to try to always um better our community to the best of our abilities and so um we would strive to try to tighten that footprint up as much as possible you did that answer your question it did which one did I miss though well they were kind of ran together I was wondering what the usage
of the houses were right now we're literally missing housing stock because of it but it doesn't sound like it to me if they go away right okay thank you any other questions comments I imagine there' be a lot of discussion on
this questions of Staff yeah please gu James do you know approximately how many housing units were short in brainer I do not know that offand it's something that I would have to get at a later date all right any other questions
comments I've got several um for for staff um if I could just maybe kind of tick down my list here um James so concerning the the vacation of North 9th Street um Public Utilities what do we have under there water
Wastewater uh sewer and are there concerns from BPU about you know the the 40 plus Homes North of Ivy Street that are served by that road so I'll I'll add the first part on that one um so with if
if it were to be vacated uh really the only thing it could be would be green space there would be potential for a sidewalk parking but if um there had to be some type of utility project on there it would be at the cost of the property owner to put that back into place so a buildings canot be put over over the U
over the utility easement um I know um in meetings with Trent uh from BPU one of the requirements um if it were to be vacated the uh service lines over to the homes would have to be brought back to the stub line so that was one of their main concerns from that perspective I'll
let Jesse answer the other questions so to your point there are a handful of different utilities there's power uh water and storm sewer that run through um and there are kind of spread through that entire RightWay which is why uh we did request that we would
retain essentially the entire 80 foot as a utility easement through there um so to James's point we would require that there wasn't a structure uh placed upon that easement um but you could put parking lot Green Space upon that
easement uh and maintain it as such um but beyond that uh to remove that easma you'd have to relocate those Utilities in would be on the property owner's expense okay thank you uh similarly um fire thinking about fire did the fire
department have any concerns comments feedback on yeah so they were at that meeting as well um North 9th would have to remain open if it were to be vacated um until the kind of the two homes that are in the interior portion were demolished so that would have to be something that's part of the development
agreement um whether they're being occupied or unoccupied and that was your comment okay thank you um just a couple other and I've been rolling this over in my my mind all week um as I was reviewing the
packet and you know I I think it's a a a really neat project um you know you're kind of hitting on the two things that the city is uh kind of sensitive uh issues that as you've heard the housing and um of course the street
vacation um I do see the couple of the comments that were made about um kind of the comprehensive plan zoning ordinance I do see this proposal a little bit differently um as opposed to circumventing um you know when we
rewrote the zoning ordinance 2022 we wrote it in such a way to um create flexibility and so I instead of maybe circumventing I see it more as providing some flexibility for um you know residents
institution business owners to to accomplish things so with that said the street vacation I am very hesitant on um just from that's an in that's an asset of the cities um that's an investment that we make um a long-term investment
that the city has made and so to give up a a portion of a street um I think we need to proceed extremely cautiously and and slowly on that maybe a process question uh James you know to tonight we're considering the preliminary plat
mixed into that plat is the street vacation are we able to kind of separate that street vacation from so from a street vacation perspective certainly there could be concerns um you know Pros or cons from the Planning Commission certainly the applicant could hear should hear it um
and the city council should hear it um so separately the city council would consider um the vacation of the street but uh Planning Commission you know should weigh on considerations on again on street parking uh they should weigh considerations on um access with with uh
vehicle traffic through there access for pedestrians with that um those are things that uh um certainly things that the Planning Commission should consider with this plat I guess um to that point uh do we
have um I guess numbers on that traffic counts on that or pedestrian counts I don't know that you had maybe off the top of your head but is that something we we don't have traffic in pedestrian counts on that block um this is a pretty low volume uh Street in comparison to
some of the adjacent streets like North 8th which we do have counts on uh most of the volume is going to be related to the church and school all right any other questions
comments um you know I'm only one member of council but I think there's going to be um some hesitancy on the street vacation uh at Council level so applicant should of course hear that but as far as Planning Commission um the the request
before us here is to uh staff recommendation is to approve the vacation of North 9th Street between Ivy Street and Juniper uh second James I just a procedural question is this all one motion that you're looking for for this
or would it can we staff's recommendation was for one one motion certainly um could be a a different motion than what staff's recommendation was um other potential other conditions can be added there's only certain conditions that can be um added to Plat
so you certainly could ask those questions if you're asking to to add a condition but uh they could all be one motion and did I understand you correctly that whether Planning Commission approves or denies this that city council would be taking up the vacation or only if we approve so so the
this is only a recommending body so this is a recommendation to city council for the preliminary plat um city council could um certainly agree with what the recommendation was from the Planning Commission or not agree and and and not approve it or approve it sure
okay thanks for all the sorry for the rapid fire questions Mr chair yes can I make a motion again to approve the preliminary plat been a motion has been presented a motion is there a second
second all right a motion and a second all in favor say I oh sorry do does that include the conditions just want to clarify yes it does okay so motion a second any other discussion all right those in favor say
I I those opposed same sign a motion carried thank you uh we will will be moving on with our agenda you're welcome to stay but if that's the the item you're here for um you're welcome to to leave as well thank
you uh next item on the agenda is consider rezoning and Zoning text Amendment for Paradigm Auto 310 West Laurel Street and oh we're going to give a couple minutes here thank
you we'll take a moment to let the room clear all right thank you moving on with our agenda uh 8B consider rezoning and Zoning text Amendment for Paradigm Auto 310 West Laurel Street and uh community
development director cranck thank you Mr chair so Al Schmidt has submitted a request to reone the property at 310 West Laurel Street to Makers and employment zoning district and for a zoning text amendment to allow for the operation of U-Haul vehicle SL rental businesses in the makers and employment
zoning District uh the property is currently in violation as U-Haul trucks are illegally parked and stored on unimproved surfaces in addition there are tooo many U-Haul rental units at the property um the applicant did come to city council to kind of discuss some of those issues and was directed to work with staff in in an appropriate amount
of time he did submit the application um in that appropriate amount of time so I did want to note that as well um U-Haul and vehicle rentals currently fall under Section 5153 -29 which is outdoor storage sale and Rental um in staff's opinion this probably is more for um
equipment rental rather than um cars or or U-Haul rentals uh but but it does currently fall under that and based on the building size of the property it would allow 1,140 ft of outside area um which essentially equates to seven parking
spaces um certainly there's a need from the applicant to have more spaces than that the property is located in the Shoreland District and the proposed parking lot would remain under the 25% impervious surface requirement uh required by code in the Shoreland District um noted in there um the DNR
did review it had no issues with this um current request here um but uh as we'll discuss later in the itinerary we do need to update our Shoreland District ordinance uh as part of the rezoning the council shall consider if the proposed uses are to be compatible with present
future land uses of the area uh the proposed zoning and are compatible with other z uh surrounding uses as a buts railroad property um which is industrial commercial in nature uh property does not directly abut other makers and employment zoning districts however the
primary makers employment District in brainer um is just kind of north of it uh between Charles Street and the railroad just kind of off to the side of where this uh property is located also the proposed use effect on the area in which it is proposed the proposed use will not have an adverse effect on the
area as vehicle repair services are legal and have been operating for a number of years in the current location uh requiring the applicant to pave the parking area will enhance the neighborhood rather than just kind of the dust or class five surface that currently is there uh the current business and proposed U-Haul expansion
will not impact traffic on Laurel Street staff has not received um any complaints about traffic as it's been currently operating um last part is the proposed use's impact on existing public service and Facilities including Parks schools streets and utilities and potential to
overburden City service capacity uh the proposed use will not have an impact on existing Public Services uh so with that the Community Development uh department does recommend approval of the rezoning and Zoning text Amendment for 310 West Laurel uh with the following conditions the paving project must be completed by
July 31st of 2025 I guess I miss Sean do you want to pull up the ordinance so I'll just go through that um quickly here pretty similar to what uh would be allowed um if you want to scroll down a little bit further right here so this would be the added language or potential added
language to an ordinance um so similar to what we have for uh vehicle sales uh this would be more of a vehicle and um trailer rental so um the difference between this and the outdoor storage is the Outdoor Storage requires screening and fencing
where um you kind of look commercial um sales of vehicles would not require that uh so that's really kind of the Nuance to this one uh parking area shall be physically defined on site by surface surfacing which the applicant is proposing parking area shall be set back
3 fet from all property lines that's part of our off street parking code so we have to ensure that um all lighting shall be down hood and downcast um so the light is not visible from the public RightWay that's in our uh in other sections the code as well as a lighting ordinance and then then must be paved
with either asphalt or concrete which the applicant is proposing and then if you want to head down to the last section staff is proposing for this to be um permitted in The General commercial makers and employment and
general and District um zoning districts and then it would be a commercial or conditional use in the commercial Corridor District just because it's kind of tighter properties in that area um so with that I can answer any questions all right thanks James um kind of the
same process as the last one but any comments questions of Staff with this similarly we're moving into public hearing as well all right all right hearing no questions comments we will move into public hearing uh regarding considering resoning and
Zoning text Amendment for Paradigm Auto 310 West Laurel Street at 655 uh speaking for and against state your name and address please Al Schmidt 11573 River Vista Drive Baxter um I am the owner of triaxis LLC
uh it's a little bit uh incorrect up there because as of the first of the year I actually sold Paradigm Automotive to Pat so this affects him just as much as it affects me as the owner of the business the only thing that I saw up
there that I ask for possibly and not necessarily uh uh a sticky situation but the July 31st is going to be contingent upon what I can find or who is available to do the
asphalt at the time and as we all know come this Springtime it's going to be just crazy out there with the road construction and everything I want to get it done before the end of the summer definitely because next year the traffic count
going in front of that business is going to be absolutely astronomical with the Washington Street Bridge Project going on so I've got to have it done this summer and I'm just asking that we can keep that July 31st in there but if something comes up where I find that I
can't get somebody to come in there and do the pavement on there until say August that I would have a little bit of leniency by going to the the council and just saying hey I've got it scheduled for this date type deal um that's all I'm really asking for and just open to
question questions okay thank you I don't know that we have any questions at this moment at this time but we certainly might so thank you any others for against of course name and address my name is Patrick metler uh address is 1411 South 7th Street Brainard
Minnesota uh as Al alluded to uh as of the first year I purchased Paradigm Automotive from him uh in terms of what I've been hearing tonight of course bringing people back back to brainer or bringing people into brainer
is a crucial part of what we look for from the zoning removing removing us having the ability to to to uh service people via rental of U-Haul the next closest place is Baxter
if they don't have it then you're going to to pequ for it or or Crosby or aen um there just unfortunately isn't a lot of rental business allow allowing for people to move their
houses certainly within brainer City Limits let alone within our greater area uh so I think that's a very important thing to consider when we're listening and and thinking about this uh that being said both Al and I are are of the
mindset that we want our our property to look as good as it possibly can and be as presentable as it possibly can uh obviously having a paved parking lot is going to improve the appearance of the building uh as well as as make it easier
to get in and out of uh and make it safer for people in in general as there is a a fairly good amount of walking traffic in front of that if we have a defined parking space that'll certainly help to to keep people walking on the
defined park or walking path not cutting through multiple parking lots to cut off a an intersection that we currently have um other than that I really don't have anything so thank you thank you guys for hearing us you bet uh any others to
speak for or against the rezoning or text Amendment for Paradigm Auto and then anyone online wishing to speak for or against star three that'll let us know you're yes wishing to speak
go ahead yes U Mr chair this is Mike Deval 468 Ty roll Drive um U if if you could project the proposed um um change to U
the zoning code um me that there was a there was a difference in um the lighting standard from The Outdoor Lighting in the ordinance and I wonder
um specifically um 51548 subdivision e of the outdoor light lighting a standard for makers and employment prescribes a different standard than I saw as far as light um coming off of the parking lots into
adjoining area so um U see on that subp part C of the proposed language um the visibility in this in the outdoor lighting standard is is at 5 ft of height uh at the nearest property
line so this would be creating it looks to me like a different standard than what's in the outdoor lighting ordinance um um for makers and employment so just if that's the intention um that it's going to create a different standard
that's that's for discussion but right now it looks to be different than what our lighting ordinance says so thank you okay thank you and I know typically we don't do a back and forth during public hearing but James can you touch on that yeah so this was uh from another part of the allowed to use section so maybe this
is kind of scattered throughout there so I took it from a different part of um a different use within the allowed to use section I think we could probably just remove it and and you just be upheld to the the lighting standard in the zoning code sure okay thank you uh still in
public hearing any uh any other comments for or against seeing hearing none one more call uh those four against hearing none close public hearing at 701 and then of course James yeah I had
one other comment on um the potential condition uh something along the lines if Planning Commission wanted to recommend it uh would be that uh the date is still um July 31st but with an added condition that that can be
extended per Council action without having to come back for a cup Amendment okay yeah that was actually uh well I had a couple comments but that was one of my notes that I jotted down for those same reasons we have a late you know late winter who knows what's going to
happen uh end of May and I don't know that industry fully but you know I could I could see July 31st being a tight deadline potentially so I like that potential and and my thought process through that um I'm not I'm sure you
know council with um taking this issue on probably wants to see it get done but uh um certainly uh Contracting with someone they say can't get it done I think that'd be a good condition to to add to it great other comments questions um I just wanted to make one
other comment to is you know when I going back we mentioned the zoning code updated 2022 I remember this property came up at that time when we were uh when it got initially placed into that town center zoning and there was some actually some pretty good debate on
whether it should be in or out so um you know with it being located right next to the railroad track there's some other adjacent similar uses and types so I think that this um I think I would support the recommendation so be with that I guess any other the
comments otherwise looking for a motion um I'll make a motion to approve with the conditions placed and James going forward with the city council for an extended date if needed and then would you also like to
remove um it'd be section c of that with the lighting portion yes great so motion with um guess amendments is there a second second all
right motion and a second any further discussion uh those in favor say I I I I those oppos same sign and of course motion carries all right thank you uh moving on with our agenda item C consider
conditional use permit and variance for site Properties LLC 324 fth Street South and um with this one we'll kind of follow the same procedure and uh turn it over to community development director
James cranic to set this up for us thank you Mr chair um a conditional use permit was requested by the applicant to add two additional residential apartment units on the second floor floor for a total of three units while maintaining the existing commercial space on the first floor also
a variance request from the landscape requirements in the Town Center District for trees and shrubs uh so the property is in the Town Center District zoning ordinance of pexa table of uses allows for multi family attached dwelling units as a conditional use permit in the TC District uh the applicant is proposing
the addition of two units one a two-bedroom and then a three-bedroom as well both units meet the size requirements of the zoning code uh requirements for granting a conditional use permit the proposed use shell produce a total visual impression and environment which is consistent with
the environment of the neighborhood so as required by section 515 D4 D2 of the design standards exterior building materials multif family dwelling unit shall be designed to create visual interest or a v variety of materials
colors textures installation Direction structural elements such as balconies porches and wall patterns or other characterist istics that create articulation either between units or floors uh staff did view the property uh went over to it and and viewed it the existing building um does have
alternative siding patterns between Windows uh and the and the stucco um and I believe it has recently been painted it does appear to be in good condition um however it's kind of in the eye of the beholder um does the building meet the visual interest uh interest standard
um staff does recommend that no additional conditions should be added since it is an existing building that is maintained well and does technically have the alter alternate siding patterns uh the proposed use shall also organize vehicle access and parking to minimize traffic congestion in a residential
neighborhood um again this is kind of a commercial partly residential neighborhood uh but as indicated in the parking uh section this site will have the necessary parking spaces and there should be no increases in traffic congestion uh moving on to the variance request uh General Landscaping
Improvement standard states that four shrubs shall be planted per dwelling unit so anytime you're adding to a unit like this you'd have to meet the code um variances may be granted when the applicant for the variance establish that there are practical difficulties in
complying with the zoning ordinance and the plight of the land owners is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the landowner uh so this building has existed for a number of years on the property and then also one of the the biggest limiting factors is that it has a zero foot setback kind of
on all siid the building so it's not really conducive to Landscaping enhancements uh and another portion of that is the request can't be done because of economic considerations so with that the Community Development Department recommends approval of the conditional use permit and variance
requests for 324 South fist Street and I can answer any questions thanks James uh questions comments of Commissioners none if not be looking for for a motion uh public hearing oh I'm sorry
jumped the gun um with that then um yeah so same thing if there's any questions but I guess everyone wants to hear what the public has to say so 707 we will open public hearing wishing to speak for or
against and this one again is a consideration of conditional use and variance for sweet Properties LLC 324 5th Street South and of course same goes for anyone online you know by now star three if you'd like to
speak and a third and final call anyone wishing to speak for or against and hearing none we'll call the public hearing to a close at 7:08 and bring it back to the commission for questions or comments hearing none looking for a
motion move to approve motion is there a second second motion and a second is there any discussion all right um those in favor say I I those oppos same sign and motion
carries all right this is brings us to 8D consider preliminary and final plat for three uh three Pat LLC 15770 Delwood Drive I'm GNA recuse myself I'm part of this very
good thank you Mr chair so the purpose of this request is to create a common interest Community uh done through the preliminary plat and final plat and they can be done at the same time uh a conditional uh just as a reminder for this property conditionally use permit to construct a mini cell storage
facility was issued on 221 of 23 the applicant began site work in 2023 and the building permit was issued uh in 24 here to start the construction building one located on the North End is in the process of construction uh the applicant was required to update the stru update the structural plans to include
firewalls between units to allow for additional uses other than Mini Storage uh the cic plat will allow each unit to be sold to individual Property Owners uh for a variety of uses uh the proposed use shall preserve the objectives of this ordinance and shall be consistent
with the comprehensive plan uh Economic Development Goal three help local businesses grow and attract new businesses policy two states to attract new businesses best suited for the community's assets increasing local employment options and the and building the city's tax base uh number three is
to encour uh encourage entrepreneurs to start their own businesses uh so with this uh the proposed project allows new businesses and entrepreneurs to start small in their privately owned spaces uh small businesses in this proposed common interest development are far better for
the city's tax base as well as allowing those for those entrepreneurs to you start a a business and grow um compared to storage units uh and so and then also uh allowing for the expanded use uh certainly uh beneficial uh the site is physically suitable for the proposed
density of the development uh the site and storm Roder plans were designed by wood Seth they were included in the packet uh the site storm water and erosion control plans plans met the requirements of the city code and was approved by the city engineer uh the development does not have a significant
amount of a street parking spaces other than what is front of each unit uh staff does recommend that the common interest agreement includes a provision that prohibits parking on Delwood Drive uh Delwood Drive really isn't suited for U parking on the street and is is a a
street that actually Baxter um is is in control of uh also the potential uh updated use has been reviewed by the building official and Fire Marshall uh th uh those two uh uh employees along with myself sat down with the app
applicant um and stated in the agreement uh under uses no changes in the use of the property shall be made without prior receipt of all appropriate governmental approvals and shall be consistent with the zoning regulations on the property um so if somebody were to propose a use in there uh they would have to um have
it obviously run by the Community Development Department the building official and the fire marshal uh if there's a um a use within the industrial zoning District that's permitted essentially talking mainly with the building official and Fire Marshal to make sure it's okay um any conditional
use that would potentially go into one of those units would go through the same process um that any other applicant would have in the in an industrial uh Zone District so with that staff does recommend approval of the preliminary and final plat with following conditions a provision is added to the Declaration
of covenants conditions restrictions and easements to restrict parking on Delwood drive and I can answer any questions thanks again James questions comments of Commissioners hearing none I'll move into public
hearing we'll open the public hearing at 7:12 and anyone wishing to speak for or against again the consider considering preliminary and final plat for three Pat LLC 15770 Delwood drive and anyone
online wishing to speak for or against Mr CH yes is he okay um go ahead and hit star six unfortunately we had a he got muted somehow thank you okay you're you're there you go thank you we can hear you go
ahead great Mr chair thank you um I want to speak in favor this proposal um with the um the addition of specific information in the covenants regarding the maintenance of the septic and and
the well system um any other place in the in the city would you beond um the BPU Services which are taking care of for you but in this instance that's there there's no service for those features there so it just needs to
be um uh it would be important to have that specified because septic pumping uh well testing for cfor bacteria those things tend to fall off of of of your vision and and not at top of the Mind particularly if you're a tenant in there
um those are things that you know if the toilet flushes uh everything's good and it may not be or the water is cold when it comes out of the to so specifying a schedule here that that can provide guidance to anybody there
plus future managers suspect that Mr Peterson would already or or his Partners or whatever would already be on top of this but it's sort of having even those documents for future um property managers thank you thank you can I even uh repeat just
what specifically you were asking to have added there um I know you said and describe it but one more time to the covenants U to the covenants themselves just specificity
um so adding adding a specific maintenance schedule um for septic and Wells um so you know there are best practices out there for these that for example you inspect your septic every 3
years um you know testing of Wells is sort of less specific but the the point being to have specific language in there and and you you could turn to the uh the applicant perhaps for what a reasonable schedule is here
because it's going to vary based on the use and how many tenants you have and if it's a lot of customers versus an office okay appreciate that thank you does that help yep thank you any other comments for or
against all right hearing none uh we'll close the public hearing at 7:15 and James you had a comment or question I had a thought with that um possible condition to add would be that the applicant works with staff to add a provision for um for septic compliance
and water inspections sure okay thank you all right well then bringing it back to commission for comments questions um one more call hearing none I I just wanted to say I think it's a really neat
proposal um had a chance to talk with James about it before the meeting and I think that it's it's almost like a mixed use for Mini Storage so it provides a lot of unique opportunities so um again I think it's a testament to the unique flexibility kind of written into the
zoning code that we we've got so very neat to see so unless there's any other questions comments be entertaining a motion move to approve all right thank you a motion to approve with is that with um so there's one attached
condition and then I did mention a possible added condition with this one um uh provision as written in the staff um recommendation I guess I'm going to move to approve without that condition okay
um being as Baxter manages that street I think they can manage the no parking signs on that street if they need to thank you and then what about the potential addition of the septic and that would be up to
the commission if they'd like to add that um recommendation to it in our code um I believe it states that uh new construction has 5 years for septic compliance and then 3 years after that I think that's
typical um anytime that there's a um a permit pulled or a conditional use permit pull that's something that we do have have to you know check on that side of things I don't believe we have any um things about well testing in there okay that's fine just clarifying the motion
so um motion is there a second all right Motion in a second any other discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those opposed same sign and motion
carries all right thank you very much we're back at full strength and um that brings us to uh item number nine unfinished business uh 9A discuss uh data center ordinance and development director
cranck thank you Mr chair um so uh Planning Commission is very close to kind of finalizing this ordinance here uh there's a few items in the actual ordinance John if you want to pull it up that I've highlighted um first one was uh there was concern about how many
days that they'd be required to produce a sound study if there's issues from city council um so staff did recommend adding a condition that says or show proof they have contracted with a third-party engineer and the results will be available in a reasonable amount of time U so that's a potential addition
to um add because there were concerns from the last meeting also a section for the water and wastewater plan uh prior to approval the developer shall submit a water and Wastewater plan for review by the public works department and public utilities department uh this was brought
up as well uh I do think that this is probably beneficial um I know it was discussed at the last one is there too much in this ordinance um regarding this and BPU could could handle this uh this is really just a checks and balance to make sure that they're coming to Planning Commission when they're fully
ready and not coming to Planning Commission before everything's been fully vetted by the Public Utilities Commission um so this is kind of standard with certain other types of things so staff does recommend um adding this provision uh the last one is energy standards data center operations shall be required to develop or purchase
sufficient renewable energy to offset certain percentage of the electricity consumed by the operation um didn't really have a clear understanding of where this ordinance was going to go on the last one know there's some discussions about essentially just meeting brainer Public Utilities plans
for it um the staff kind of looks at it from the perspective that they're going to be negotiating the power with brainer public utilities and Public Utilities has to meet those standards anyway so this one might be something that wouldn't have to be in there um but certainly Planning Commission um you
know could could put a different language in here uh we do have the director of Riner Public Utilities here to answer questions um if you do have any on the on the energy portion thank you James any comments questions of
Commissioners Mr chair I I would like to remove the yeah I mean literally we know nothing about energy where we have the gentleman over here I mean it just doesn't make any sense for us to even kind of go that route I I I believe so that that's more of a comment my comment
than anything so I would leave it up to staff to perform that would be my recommendation thank you any other um yes thank you yes I was invited here to answer just the one particular part but
I would ask that if I could make some general comments because I actually got to read this please okay I guess uh first off uh I guess just question as to the the definition portion so I'm starting at the beginning and just going
down just making some notes uh you know I guess as far as definition goes we have data center then you have data center with air quotes so it's like what are we going to call this and then of course you know crypto so I guess my my
question our observation is that you know if it's going to be a legitimate data center that through the planning process that they should identify themselves with either their certification or standard that they're going for to be a legitimate data center whether it's the iso
271 the ssae16 the isae 342 the IEC 22237 some type of standard because again you know it could be a mechanism where you identify yourself as something to try to circumvent a
process uh with that said going down for Part B noise I guess the question is for the noise study would that include uh the possibility or the findings with any on-site generators running whether or
not that that adds to the debels or cancels because again a legitimate data Center is a 247 operation so you have a higher propensity for generators to be running as opposed to something that's just claiming to be a data center or
something other than a data center that may or may not be running uh with that I guess uh section B part five uh in regards to uh backup electrical supply during power outages I
guess the other little wrinkle with data centers or at least these large purchase powers that they have uh curtailments or voluntary shutdowns so whether or not they would argue that a voluntary shutdown or a
curtailment is an outage for the definition of be able to run a generator or not that would be something that I I would recommend that you dig a Little Deeper on uh part C hazardous waste plan I guess the question is that you know it
says prior to appro approval of the developer I guess the situations when the developer is not necessarily the end user if a if a project is being built built as you know for example a spec or a turnkey operation where the developer
may or may not actually have the information that we're requiring for for the process uh and just as some examples you know again going into the water waste water side a little bit that you know when you take the boilers out of service how are those drained uh what What's the
uh composite of the uh liquid in the boilers is it glycol is it water how's that is it stored reused boed down so and uh I guess with
that you know some of the recent projects that came through you know we made requests uh as far as you know whether they actually uh provide SD SDS sheets uh again if it's just a spec
Builder that they don't necessarily have the answers to the questions which in turn goes to section a verification of the electronic waste uh is that strictly the uh computer equipment itself or does that include the immersion technology that those
devices are in is it corn oil is it mineral oil is it water is it evaporative uh which again you know we've made requests to a couple of these last companies and the answers we've got back
is we don't know what we're using yet and of course that you know sets the tone or direction for what's required uh as we get into the water and wastewater plan uh I I guess one thing that I would
uh recommend that you add is that uh prior to approval that the developer user whoever actually applies for a sewer extension permit through the mcpa the Minesota Pollution Control agency because that would actually
generate or force them to provide more information to the city uh for as well as the environmental review pre-screenings and some of the other uh parts of a process um
uh okay and then I guess as far as the screening you know whether or not that the screens uh for the adjacent public rights away and everything if that screening compromises the uh clearances
around equipment for maintenance that if the uh uh you know if it's a Transformer or some device that you know before you put the screening in you can actually service it or work on it given some situations or
if the screening would would compromise that so again I guess an extra part of the uh review process uh finally again I guess the energy standards that was kind of a u uh a unique or a standout thing
as far as what you would expect to see for a planning or an ordinance the actual power portfolio for that but in keep in with or mirroring the other sections of the plan I would suggest something similar
to uh and again to assist with Eda and planning and zoning something to the effect of prior to approval that loads over one megawatt in capacity will be responsible for having a system impact study completed by the
appropriate power transmission owner operator in the area that way you know everybody is cognizant of any power constraints or if that's any additional timelines re required for uh construction or upgrades
to the transmission lines coming into the city EXC and I can answer any other questions or any other comments thank you all right thank you um is that kind of list that you have there something you can share with James and we can kind
of um and I guess a question for James too what's what's what's the action you're asking for of us tonight if any and are these suggestions can we can kind of maybe consider incorporating so um when staff put this together um looked at a number of
ordinances you know kind of around Minnesota and around the country um we could certainly work with brainer Public Utilities further to potentially incorporate some of these um at times Z zoning code doesn't get as specific with that and you work with
departments for approvals so I think maybe there's some things that need to be added and you know maybe maybe some things are just something that's done when you're um you know kind of speaking with with brainer public utilities on you know kind of final approval with some of these things so um you know if
we are interested in adding some of these and having more dialogue we're probably not ready at this point to move forward with a public hearing at the next meeting okay questions comments um on some of maybe the comments you've heard or or we we have quite a few new new people
on this and two of the ones that have been here a while are gone so I think it makes it very hard In fairness to everyone else that's here about this and and honestly I I think it needs to be more generalized and go a lot of this information in this ordinance literally
needs to go back to staff almost before it comes to the plan Planning Commission in my mind they're the ones that know you know by just what you were stating tonight some of the things that we'd have to research and go deep into which I don't think we're
really qualified to do that to be quite honest with you I I I think this plan the ordinance should be more generalized in our aspect of it and and and so that it's more defined when it comes to us I guess this is allowed this
is the area they want to put it in are you okay with that any other comments questions kind of to that effect um and so I guess just given that feedback and I tend to agree you know
partially from what we've heard tonight from BPU um could we maybe push it off one yeah so maybe what incorporate what we could do is is I could work further with Chris and and and from a staff perspective um you know we can make recommendations to maybe add things if
it's not super consist uh different from what it is but it's just maybe a little bit more specific we could potentially hold a public hearing at the next meeting um if it does if if staff does think that it's changing too much maybe we hold off and have the Planning Commission review it so I think kind of
given an option to staff to you know if if we're just making things a little more specific we could maybe bring it back but if we're adding you know a lot of additional language then we just bring it back for more discussion yeah and I think your point about new members I think is a fair fair judgment um it
just gives us a little bit more time to kind of digest that yep before moving forward to a public hearing thank you thank you any action on that tonight then or just that that would just be it to kind of table it do you need a motion
to that effect I don't think so okay all right moving on then um nine uh on the revised agenda here 9B review planning Comm Mission yearly itinerary James yep so as we're
finishing up on the crypto mining um data center AI Center kind of portion of that um mainly called the data center ordinance uh staff is looking to for direction from the Planning Commission and kind of the next work items to work on obviously the letter was included
from um the DNR that our Shoreland management regulations need to be updated uh specifically for the uses that are defined in there um however they did note to that this hasn't been um looked at for I think over 20 plus years so um staff would like to you
begin working on that uh it is a quite a long ordinance so it's something that will take probably a couple months before it be in front of the the Planning Commission for a review uh I think this would work you know hand inand with one of the sections that staff would really like to review as well which is the allowed use table um
now that I've been in the position of community development director for a couple years and have come across different uses and a variety of zoning districts I think looking at this to see you know what are the real impacts to surrounding neighborhoods businesses versus what aren't you know what has too
much of a regulatory process what can be maybe scaled back uh I think this would be you know could go hand inand well with looking at those uses in the Shoreland District as well uh so working on that in conjunction and then I think working in conjunction as well um is the industrial a street parking requirements
I know this is something that's uh kind of a top priority that I've heard from some council members uh about uh so right now in most of our parking areas we and all of our parking areas you require um it to be either concrete or asphalt except really in residential zoning districts next to
alleys um So within the industrial off street parking requirements say existing businesses have um a gravel parking lot that's behind or their whole business is gravel and they want to add on to it um they would not be able to add on Class 5 to it because the code would require
pavement to it so I think um allowing in our Industrial Park you know some nuances to this would also help um businesses expand as well we've um we went on an Eda visit uh to giovan's Pizza in town uh they predominantly have a class kind of a class 5 parking area
and they want a little turnaround at the back of it and certainly looking at ways that uh you know the city could help them on that part of it um changing the ordinance for you know allowing a little bit of a turnaround area would would certainly be helpful to where they wouldn't have to then pave that um so
with that staff's looking for direction to really start you know digging in and working on those three um next sections and probably wouldn't be anything in front of the Planning Commission at the next meeting but um you know kind of things would be subsequently done in the next few months to begin working on it so looking for direction and then if
there's anything else that uh Planning Commission members would like to add to it um we certainly do that as well okay thanks James uh so from the like longer list essentially kind of broken that down into those four main prioritized
categories that is that accurate some yep so I did order it based on what staff's recommendation would be um and then uh we do have it in the budget to do an update on the comprehensive plan um but you know based on uh what the DNR had said in their letter needing to update our our Shoreland ordinance and
then doing the allowed use tle I do think that needs to probably come before the comprehensive plan and uh um and then the comprehensive plan would probably start sometime Midsummer okay comments on that
questions um again a lot of new members but um you know this would be a good opportunity to kind of refocus and you know prioritize going forward so looking for a motion on that you said yeah probably with a motion if uh um
you're good with what staff has ordered here uh with the I would say it still it has the March 19th for the public hearing so obviously with that change then be looking for a motion I'll make a motion
to Second motion that a second any further discussion hearing none uh those in favor say I I I I those opposed same sign motion carried all right it brings us to item
number 10 public forum anyone either in person or online who would like to speak on items not on the agenda for public forum for items not on the agenda and last call hearing
none brings us to 11 staff reports yes so I just have one update for the Planning Commission tonight so the Eda held a special meeting last Friday um block metrics which is looking to purchase um the property that vcv has
uh is updating or wanted an update on their purchase and development agreement essentially to um make a slight adjustment to the construction plans with it uh so they kind of flipped where the building was uh there's potential if they have power to add um a ninth uh
cooler unit to that as well as the data miners themselves uh so that was approved by the Eda to move forward with that they are um building uh permits have not been uh turned in yet but they have been in contact with staff so it is looking like that they are um going to
be developing the property but again the the building permits have not yet been turned in okay and is that something that we can expect on our next agenda or is that no that's just kind of an update until the data center ordinance is actually in place um there's no review by the um Planning Commission okay thank
you and you said just the one item item go around any updates other administ Royals Mr Evans thank you other staff Stephanie
Sean all right uh thank you very much and I think that brings us what to the end uh commissioner member reports I I I have I never say anything but i' I've got more homework for my new guys here too since we're going through
these table of contents and stuff I'd like to see or hear what everybody thinks of turned you off what everybody thinks of um you know we're looking at a lot of architectural standards I'd like to you to come back on your report next uh next
month is what is your favorite looking building business building in the city of Brainard and then what style of residential house do you like is it log is it you know U modern I'm just Cur it's more of a curiosity it on my point to see what's out there because we have
on the gamut in town and and we're keep focusing and pushing one way or the other but I'm just curious that's all sounds good that's a homework for everyone thank you all right um uh commissioner Higgins anything to
add not at this time next time next time all the whole meeting nothing all right thank you well thanks for letting me run the meeting for one night and one night only and uh look forward to getting the full commission back
and working with the rest of you so welcome aboard so with that I think that brings us right to the end isn't it we will adjourn 7:39 thank you