just all right I have 5:30 let's go ahead and call this February meeting of the Detroit Lakes Planning Commission to order uh it looks like we have a quorum y all right I'm getting a nod so then with that I would look for a motion to
approve the minutes I so move to approve the minutes as presented file second any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes all right we have one public hearing on
the agenda tonight we have a little bit of business with our new routine of training uh on the monthly basis except when we have a long meeting in which we will tell Larry to defer and uh then we will wrap it up for the evening so I'm going to go ahead and
suspend this meeting and call to order a public hearing to give consideration to a variance to allow a zero foot parking lot set back from Lemon Road RightWay at 1321 Highland Drive Highland Lake View LLP um and Dennis uh are you going to want to say something
tonight what okay we'll have Larry go through his thing and I'll give you an opportunity and Larry I'll maybe have you read in uh that letter before we open it up for public comment as well you want to give us the rundown first yeah basically Highland Lake View LLP
has requested a variance for a zero foot setback to allow a parking lot on the property adjacent to Lemon Road the required setback is 5 feet the requested variants will allow a parking lot to be built along the Northerly property line this will enable the building to be moved further to the
north and keep the building free and clear of an aotter Tail Power electrical utility easement that's on the property uh this utility easement is for transmission line it's it's a 20 foot easement it also doesn't run totally on
the southernly edge of the property it goes partway through the middle so it creates a problem with the develop M as they've laid it out and this variance would allow them to continue with the project that was approved uh staff recommends approval of
the variance subject to the following findings of fact first the variance is in harmony with the purpose and intent of the ordinance the requested setback reduction will not create any safety or visibility concerns and the property owner controls both of the sub both the
subject site and the parcel across from Li across the street on Lemon Road the variance is consistent with the comprehensive plan the city's comprehensive plan has identified a need for additional housing and the pro proposed development directly addresses
this need by providing multif family residential units the variance supports the efficient use of the site while furthering the city's goals of increased housing availability The Proposal puts the property to use in a reasonable manner
the lot is uniquely shaped and is located at the intersection of Highland Drive in land Randolph Road the layout and design take into account the site constraints while ensuring functionality and compatibility with the surrounding properties number four there are
circumstances unique to the property the lot is in irregular shape and is encumbered by multiple existing utility easements these factors create a challenge to developing the site to its full potential and necessitates thoughtful design and solutions to
ensure efficient use of the property and finally the variants will maintain the essential character of the locality the proposed development is consistent with the previously approved project and the requested setback reduction will not negatively impact the overall Aesthetics
or functionality of the area site design considers the surrounding properties and ensures compatibility with the established character of the area promoting a well integrated development and then we do have a letter or an email
that came in from Dwayne lemon I'll read that into the record uh it is disappointing that the developer continues to pack too much on this small lot the requested variance further reduces the Green Space buffer along Lemon Road the variance would not
allow trees to be planted along the road adjacent to the Park area parking areas this project and this variance request does not maintain the essential character of this neighborhood with its large rule lots and large setbacks from the roads why have setback rules if
you're not going to follow them the developer should cut back on the size of the building to allow the project to fit into the lot or move the Road North more thoughts on integrating this project into the neighborhood the paved portion of Lemon Road is too narrow to support
this project we would expect no parking signs on both sides of Lemon Road and a dead end no turnaround sign to minimize traffic East on Lemon Road and that's from Dwayne lemon great um before we open up any
further public comment can you just bring about the map and show where that easement is so that we're all looking at the same thing where is that I'm looking nope never mind that pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
no it would be good if I did no I thought I hit all these things in the in the right spot but I think it's just the next page past that one job sented here we
go so let me blow this up a little bit this one so there's the 20 foot utility easement on the south end of the property it follows the uh Road here but then it jogs in here and goes through
kind of the partway into the property so so that's what creates the problem and necessitates this shift 5T to the north for the building which shifts the parking lot up that 5T okay thank you for bringing that up Dennis did you have anything you wanted to uh
address the to the uh commission if if you could come up to the mic and just do me a favor and state your name and uh address for the record Dennis kenck 28284 Lemon Road um I'm Dwayne's neighbor and he pretty much covered
everything I was going to do um say the uh drainage up there is it all goes to the North or it goes to the east so the north side of Lemon Road already
has water on it today but um but you said it's only 5 feet would that be 5 feet towards the there's a 22t utility easement on the south side of Lemon Road correct on both sides of
Lemon Road correct there's a 66t wide road eement I don't recall what the paved width of Lemon Road is but this this map you sent that's 66t wide Road and then a 22 foot or a yeah 20 foot
easement ontil that's a utility easement right correct so the road isn't actually 66 feet wide that's just the road RightWay the actual paved service surface of most city streets is 36 ft
which leaves 15 a 15ot Boulevard on each side of the road okay so they can't they can't build on the they can't build on the right the easement for the utility easement they can construct parking lot over the
utility easement they can yes they can so how far how far is their parking lot going be from Lemon Road it would be at least 15t from the road surface maybe if that road surface is less than 36 feet
wide okay I know it just seems like you know the developer made the building too big for that size a lot and now they're asking the city to accommodate for them and I don't think
that's like Dwayne says why have zoning laws if you're going to change but um so that would be my comments I guess and before I forget tell Jacob
that Larry reman says hello hi will I'll do that all right seeing as there's no one else here to make comments thank you Dennis I appreciate it I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and open it up to the commission for
discussion or a motion oops go ahead I just have a question about so the the building um has already been approved we we're not doing anything as far as approving the building is that right I'm sorry what's the question the actual building that's being built the
building has not changed from the one that we approved so this is the plan that we approved quite a while AG the only reason that they're requesting the variance is because this easement is in an awkward place for so to match the building with I think I
added there's like 50 some 53 parking spots how many units are in the building 39 39 36 so that it's like one and a half for each how does that work they are required to have oh yeah
what's the parking requirement it varies but typically one and a half space per per unit if it's over two bedrooms then they're required to have two spaces per unit okay Jen can you go to or Larry can you go to page 11
is this the is I get back to the Planning Commission y this number of parking spaces is the exact number that they need to match this is the number that we required them to have okay so back one page that previous map if you look at
the pay page 11 now that I've seen the easement I I can see this better if you look at the bottom left corner of the parking lot on page 11 you can see it basically touches right on that easement it looks like what they did is
they moved that parking lot off of that utility easement right that's all they did was shift it just so they could get outside of that easement area and then looking on the north side
trying to see if I could see the uh easement up there and then just to clarify with the questions of the the neighbors um Larry the building that's been approved is the size that fits what the size of this lot
is yes it's not overbuilt for what the size of the lot is okay is not because they also own the property that's on the north side of Lemon Road is that right is that part of they own that as well okay and as you can see on this plan there are storm water holding
areas on the west end and East End of the property MH to address the runoff right okay the only thing I would say about that is in March 11th there's another meeting regarding this property to
eliminate the drainage what all that we're doing on the 11th is we're talking about vacating the drainage easements that were dedicated on the plat that are no longer required because uh they are dealing with the storm water drainage
through our storm water permitting requirements and those locations that they were were identified on the original plat are not where we want the drainage to go so this is a new plan so we're not eliminating the drain need
it's just restructured okay any other discussion or comments from the commission otherwise I'd entertain a motion I just have one question Larry can we consider the dead end no turnaround
signage that would be something that could be requested and that would go through the public works department okay thank you would anyone like to make a motion yeah I would like to make a motion to approve the uh request for a variance um
with the um considerations that um this in within the STA have report okay is there a second I'll second that all right so we have a motion in second on the floor to approve the variance with in concurrence with
the recommendation of the staff any further discussion on the motion all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries all right thank you for your time absolutely thank you for coming Dennis we appreciate it
all right so then um we will jump to business unless you have something else for us that wasn't on the agenda I have nothing else for you okay then take it away Larry okay we're going to start our training with a video from the league of Minnesota cities on
land use and if I do this right we'll all see it those of you that have seen it already and don't want to sit through it again are free to leave told you this is Larry's way you gonna pause it so we can ask questions I do have questions so
quiz l no I think you have to hit access this course don't you yeah so this mini course is like 15 minutes that full course is actually pretty good it's really thorough takes a little longer than 15 minutes though and don't you have to pay for that wasn't it
a registration fee I don't remember I know when I looked at the full course it was a registration fee this mini course was free I know I went through it I don't remember paying for it though no maybe you have special privileges as a console maybe I charged it and gy never
caught it next section at the bottom yeah I [Laughter] did so Nancy gets a gold star too yeah yeah you had to I mean they know I watch
it there gota be some kind of a record I think right start I guess there's always a record that for M are you looking for something specific Larry I'm looking for what button I'm
supposed to click to play this did that one this one you flip it to get the answer to what's it I see I'm not looking for the test here I'm looking I want to give you the
information I think I I think I used the test colge check oh great Nancy what's the answer well come on those were all true I just want to do the video well it won't let when we do the
next training it'll just be me talking so I can do that without losing my spot and TR not understanding how to navigate this system thank you I think you actually have to go back to page three of seven for the video that you want so if you
look at top you're in seven of seven if you go back to three of seven there's a video on there we skipped past that's the 3c's video at the very top though right there the if you scroll down just a tiny bit tiny bit Larry contentiously it's
all or nothing with me don't I know it h so can I ask a question yes have we ever been sued um on drive we haven't been sued we've had individual Builders take us to
court because they didn't like decision on certain areas but they never got to the point of trying to sue us because I think that the judge threw their thing out of court because they didn't have standing or something
okay I've been in court before but I've never lost so right you know I think this makes me think of like one one of the reasons why we do this right is that we can't write a regulation we can't
write a an ordinance that fits every scenario right and so we have to think about what are those scenarios and that's why Larry and Dylan do such a good job of pushing us on on on the reasons why because we really have to say like hey this is why the the
regulation shouldn't apply in this scenario why it makes sense why we think it makes sense to allow this variance and allow this change and then remember that there's a lot there's a certain amount of permanence to many of our decisions because those things often become property rights and they stay
with the property for forever so Larry do you watch Minnesota League of cities or do they provide you information on recent Court decisions that may have an impact on our existing yeah the league is usually pretty good
about pointing out those things when they come up okay I also get an email every time there's a court of appeals decision you do yes okay they usually come out 90 days after their thing and I get an email and then can read the
decision so then we take a look at it and see if it may have an impact on our existing okay good answer so did list into all these well you can look at I mean you can just basically that's that's that
part yeah I mean you can flip open the those are the three c three C's you know if you flip that it tells you it describes what the contentious is what costly is and what the can't remember what the third one is confusing
fusing that wasn't ironic at [Laughter] all yeah it basically is written what he just said right yeah so then the next section should be the the next
so is that yeah so you have to like once you do this you have to complete the test and then you go and then you can complete the lesson and then you go to the next lesson and there's another video so we can answer the questions real quick for you we can it was it was a difficult
test just hit next Larry next no and actually on the very top where it says section three of seven no not anymore see where it says section 37 click on that okay above his face up at the top there
you go right there yeah click down to click down to knowledge T check six six that's why I won't let it go past right scroll down hit true true true true
okay true true true true got to get a scroll wheel Larry what you need to get a scroll wheel for your mouse need something I think he missed a true in there though I think he did miss one think I did I thought I got three of
them there were four of them four well okay then I missed one then hit next second next section yeah yeah then complete lesson yay and then then Skip raing
Skip and you passed at 100% so now you can hit start the next lesson and there's a video right there there we go the video is right on the top you kind of went right oh you got to hit next section then you go I think don't you there it is there it is there he is
there he is again not the I'm I got a previous section maybe maybe or next no I think you go next oh no that's the course evaluation yeah you get that's weird we missed a we did miss a
we missed a whole section yeah so on the very top very top very scroll way up to the top click land use regulation mini course yep and then in the Middle where
it says discretion and somehow we completed the so you'll need to hit the arrow next to the two completed lessons I think I think you're right yeah and then you should see discretion and land use regulation
process go ahead and click on that title click on the actual title yep and then the first page there has the video I think you're looking for there we go I think you scroll too far what scroll too far
so what do we want it that's it just it names those three now you go to the next section and it should talk about those three you guys are in the process of updating the comprehensive plan aren you I'm sorry what you're in the process of
updating the comprehensive plan aren you we are not at this time no no in the Horizon at all it's always on the horizon depends on how far you can see is it a five year 10 year outlook what we should probably do it sooner rather
than later so create they're talking about when we are creating our subdivision or zoning regulations we have a lot of freedom that's a legislative action so we click next section what click next section once this will be actually the
Perfect Graphic for what you're asking for scroll down just a tiny bit there you goes that help sure that's what you were saying because you you were just so basically when you're creating you have broad authority
to talk about all kinds of issues and advocate for certain viewpoints and and when you get to the Quasi judicial part of it though you're taking your ordinance and you're interpreting that and you're dealing with variance
requests where you shouldn't be taking aside you should be listening to all of the evidence that's presented and all of the comments that are presented and making your decision based on that you shouldn't go out and beat the drums for your favorite developer and what he
wants to do because that's not your role I don't know that's a that's the short course on quasi judicial and then administrative that's dealing with things like building permits or with um our mitigation program where that's done
administratively if they meet all of the requirements you have to allow them to have that use and you don't have much discretion about voting it up or down and you just have to administer um would that be an example
of what you would call a permitted use uh no it would be more like the mitigation program where you have to meet certain requirements in order to do it or even even uh conditional use permits get to
be in a kind of a fuzzy area between quasi judicial and administrative you do have some ability to add conditions but if they meet all of the conditions that are listed in your zoning ordinance you basically have to give them that
conditional use permit because they're entitled to it so that's one of those slippery ones and our most recent legislative one was was the Cannabis where we added cannabis into
our ordinance right okay although it was barely legislative because the state too much said what we had to do well legislative I know legislative in principle
for for for I think we'll stop there thank you all for hanging out with me and going through that thank you Larry all right any further business hearing none I would call this
meeting adjourned