Good evening. I call the March 5th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting to order and ask you to rise and say the Pledge of
Allegiance. Thank you. Miss Erickson, would you please call the roll?
Here, Travis. Here. Kaluza. Here. Zimmer here. I'm here. Sweeney here. Swenson here. Thank you. Now we're on the third agenda item. Approval of the minutes. Does anyone have
any changes to the February 5th minutes? We have none. Our stellar staff does another good job. We will let them stand as they are. Uh, announcements. I'm wondering if we have any announcements tonight. Uh, thank you, chair Zimmer. No, we do not have any announcements
for you. Thank you so much. Um, the next item on the agenda is a public hearing. And the item is for the preliminary plat for Prime 35 Lakeville. And we will be having a presentation from Jordan
Silver, the applicant and then staff, and then we'll take anybody from the audience who wants to please come up and identify yourself. For the record. Thank you. Hi, I'm Jordan Silver Crosby Development Partners. Thank you guys for having me tonight. Super excited to be doing, uh,
development down here in Lakeville. Um, our Prime 35 project is a 1.3 up to one point 3,000,000 square foot, uh, phased industrial development project. Um, it'll be phased over time in order to deliver the right amount of product and
not not for the market. Um, all different types of users from an industrial standpoint. And, uh, super excited to be doing it down here in Lakeville. Great access and working with the city and work with a lot of municipalities in my career. And like it was certainly high on
the list for for pro business. And uh, working with the community. So I appreciate that and excited about the project. Great. Thank you so much. We'll have staff present and then, um, go from there upon.
Good evening. Chair, Commission members. Request in front of you . Tonight is for a property that is located south of County.
Okay. Can you hear me now? If I try? Hopefully our tech people in the back will be able to do something with the microphones to get it to project to the back. Um, I don't have any ideas right now. And you want to do you guys have, like, hear
hearing pieces for, like, accessibility stuff, but do you know that. I think if you keep speaking, then our, uh, savvy Texas Tech system will bump us up. All right, so what's in front of you tonight is for development
south of County Road 70. It's located between Kaipara Avenue and Jakarta Avenue. The lot is currently two parent parcels totaling about 145 acres in size. The property is zoned I-1,
which is our light industrial district and it is guided for warehouse and light industrial uses. So the proposed preliminary plat and development plans are consistent with the recommended goals and policies in our comprehensive plan. The
request is for preliminary plat and preliminary development plan approval for the plat to be known as Prime 35 industrial. It is for eight lots and four out lots. So this plan is a little bit different than what was submitted in your packet last
week as the. There was five out lots in the southern. One was on the there was one in the very southern part of the development. That lot was going to be used for a stormwater treatment and a private stormwater treatment. So it was a stipulation by staff to have that be included with one of the
other lots to maintain ownership and responsibility of that stormwater. So that's why you are seeing that change has been made now. And there's four lots with that lot, four block four being very large, but that incorporates that stormwater treatment area. Um, another
change on this plat was the accommodated the requirement of having a 40 foot right of way along 215th Street on the northwest portion up here. The original submittal just had that at 33ft, and the city code requires 40ft. So those are the two changes on this plat, which
being forward being brought in front of you now. Uh, the eight lots, though would be used for industrial development. That would be consistent with the I-1 uses of the zoning code that include uses such as warehouse distribution and manufacturing, manufacturing types of
businesses. The final build out will add over 1,000,000ft² of industrial space on all eight parcels combined. Two of the out lots out lot A and C would be deeded to the city during final plat for protection of the
wetlands. And then the other two lots would be retained by the developer. There is also a natural gas pipeline on the property that runs from. um lake west to east. Kind of dissecting the property. It's hard for me to get there. We go right through here. Uh, the property,
because of the size of the development, uh, the state of Minnesota requires an environmental review be done on the development. Due to the size. So with that process, they did look at different development scenarios and the associated infrastructure. So an hour was completed and approved
on this project last summer. So July of 2025. So the square footage of the buildings that are being proposed is actually less than what was studied. Um, so the our kind of looks at worst case and like largest and biggest build outs. So what
we're seeing now is like about 200 square, 200,000ft², less than square footage for building size. And what was looked at for the our the lot layouts are very similar. And then the roads that were studied and planned for in the comprehensive plan in the
air are consistent with what was shown last summer with that. That document. So the project area though does have wetlands on site, uh, drainage features and floodplains that are associated with the West Branch South Creek corridor. Um, the
proposed project also identifies about two acres of wetlands that will be impacted that were considered more farmed wetlands. So on a wetland kind of quality, the farmed wetlands are a lower level, um quality wetland. And
they are kind of in the shaded area on the property. So any kind of wetland impacts will have to be approved by the city, and they are going through that process now to have all their delineations done and working with the Environmental Resources
Department. Um, the development from 35 plat will be required to construct 217th Street that goes through the property, along with a port like Javelin Avenue, which is in the very northeast corner of the parcel. When
looking at site review of the development. The minimum lot size for an I-1 district is about 30,000ft². For minimum lot size. What you're seeing with this development is that the smallest lot in this development is 375,000ft², so we exceeding
any of our minimum standards. Uh, the proposed building sizes range from 69,600ft² right now for the smallest one to the largest one being about 247,000ft² in size. Building setbacks for the I-1 district
are 40ft from the front, 30ft from the rear, and ten feet for the side yard. Unless it's abutting right of way, then it would be a 30 foot setback. Parking and drive aisle setbacks are 15ft from right of way and then five feet from side
property lines. There. If you look at the grading plan, which I know these plans are, is a lot, right. And I'm sure when you're looking at your packet, the lots so big and lots of lines going on here, but there are some grading that's happening within that pipeline
easement. So the applicant has been working with the gas company since last fall to obtain, um, approvals of all the work being done in there. And they have received preliminary approvals and they are just kind of going back and forth and some of those final impacts and final designs. But they have been working with the gas company and
have their blessings for this development. Stormwater on the site for lot one, block one and for lot one, block two. So for the two northern buildings, uh, those lots are being treated by filtration basins. So stormwater
on the remainder of the property is treated with a system that's two pretreatment cells in the southeast corner. And then those are going into a very large infiltration basin on the south end of the site. So the final stormwater design must be
approved by the city, meeting all volume and rate control requirements for any work that's done in this, any work. The final approvals have to be done before any work can happen on the property. This is one of our first preliminary plat
applications that we've had that have had to comply with our tree preservation ordinance. Um. So on this slide, it is very large as mentioned. So over 2000 trees were inventoried with the I-1 district. They are allowed removal of up to 70%. Anything
above 70% would require tree replacement or mitigation. In this case, what they are proposing, you can kind of see the green areas are the trees that are being preserved, and the red is what is being removed. So they are exceeding
going above the 70% removal. And the numbers that are forestry department ran all the numbers for us and calculated everything for us and came up with that. They'll have to replace 560 diameter inches. But because of the fact that they were able to
preserve some of their heritage trees, that number was reduced. So from the Tree preservation Ordinance, they have to replace 280in for the tree preservation. So when you're looking at our tree preservation and landscaping plans, I know once again that that map was probably
a lot to look at. Um, I just kind of blew up the buildings on the lot one, block one and lot one, block two. Um, a lot of the the trees that are being planted are it's a mixture of the coniferous and deciduous and ornamental trees. And there's
also shrubs being planted. Most of them are focused along the private drives and around the parking lots, with the exception along the westerly border of lot one, block two, where it's abutting a residential district. So there is a solid row of
coniferous trees along that property boundary. So what is proposed does comply with our tree preservation and landscaping requirements. So one thing to note about the request, and one of the stipulations is that, uh, city code does require
that all lots have road frontage on a public street. Um, that all lots have frontage along a public street, unless it's approved by a conditional use permit. So in this case, this lot right here, lot two, block
four is proposed south of lot one, block four, and is shown with a shared access. So a cup would be required for this configuration as it is shown today. Um it is not included with the preliminary plat just because of the timeline that it may take to develop this whole
site. Um, and the timing of the final build out is unknown. So one, we don't want to be approving a conditional use permit that may just expire. And to there still could be some changing here. Um, you know, these lots can be consolidated into one. They could change them to run like a north southwest.
They both have frontage. There's just different options. Yet if it stays how it is, a conditional use permit would be required, which would then come back in front of you guys for that review. Um, otherwise, at this point, the preliminary plans would go to City Council
anticipating the next council date meeting in March. And then, um, the final plat would then come forward at a later time, and that would just go to city council directly, unless there's changes that are substantially different than what we're seeing tonight. So staff is
recommending approval of their preliminary plat with the 11 stipulations listed in the planning report, plus the requirements and stipulations listed throughout the engineering report. So I'll stand for questions. Thank you so much. Um, is there
anyone this is the public hearing. Um, is there anyone that would like to speak on this development? Not seeing anyone. I'm ready for a motion. Madam chair, seeing no one come
forward, I move to close the public hearing. Second. We have a motion. And a second. All those in favor of closing the public hearing, please say I. Aye aye aye aye. Opposed? The public hearing is now closed. So we'll open it up
to commissioners for questions. Please call up the, uh. We can call up the developer or our staff to discuss it. And I'm sure that Commissioner Swenson has some water questions.
Madam chair, if we could have the applicant come forward, I just have some. Please come forward, Mr. Silver. Just for the public. If you want to maybe talk to us about timeline on on. You know, this whole project. What are you what are we looking at for how soon
this will get to final build out? Sure. So, um, I think that in any circumstance, here, our plan right now is to start the site work immediately. It's 145 acres. That's a lot of dirt and and stuff to move around. So we want to start kind of working on
that piece as soon as possible. Um, and hopefully have a shovel on the ground, on a building or two in the next 12 months. Um, and then it's all going to be market driven. You know, in a best case scenario, we're moving quickly in a slower market.
We're going to be it's going to be market driven. So I would say realistically 3 to 4 years probably over, you know, based on kind of deliveries that like feel seen over the last, you know, a couple of years. Um, it's a realistic timeline. Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, madam chair. Commissioner Travis. Um, question. For the staff or the developer. I'm just looking at the plat. It's a square. There appears to be a small, like, um, platted chunk there. So I'm just
wondering what what happens to that unplanned area along the the northern side? There? Uh, they don't want it. Thank you, Miss.
That property in the middle is just separate private property. Um, my understanding is that maybe they were approached at one time. If they wanted to sell or work with the developer. But my understanding is they were not ready to sell at this point. And so it's just in private ownership and residential lot.
Thank you. Thank you. Other questions from commissioners. Madam chair. Commissioner Swanson. Believe it or not, I don't have
any comments on stormwater today. Oh. First. Um, did just want to talk through a little bit. Um, a couple of things here. One, um, thinking about the action that
we as a body are taking here tonight and what exactly we're approving. Um, we're approving a preliminary plat or working to provide a recommendation for approval of preliminary plat to city council. What we're not doing here is we're not approving a specific user on any
particular lot. We are not promoting any particular use. We are not reviewing any buildings. We're not looking at any of that kind of stuff here this evening. It literally is just the, I'll say, the physical layout of the lots, the grading, etc. to accommodate these future
potential uses. Um, along with that, I would just say we should recognize that that may mean some of these buildings may come in in the future. Um, I'll say more of an administrative role where we don't have a copy or another action that we have to take, or may go directly to city council. So just some things to
recognize. I don't know if city staff wants to comment or add to any comments on that. Um, but I just. Sure. Mister Swenson is correct. So
what you're looking at is the preliminary plat of these eight lots. So they all do have to be final platted at some point before they can actually be built on a final plat, though once they receive preliminary plans at this level, that final plat does not have to come back
in front of the Planning Commission. So if a use comes in , um, manufacturing use, let's say, which is a permitted use, and they comply with all of our code requirements, that can just go straight forward to probably like a site plan review process, which may require council
approval, again, with like a stormwater agreement or development contract and through that process. But it may not be in front of you guys. If the use is a conditional use permit or if they need some outdoor storage, or if they're not in compliance with their code, then that would be brought in front
of you guys for review. Or if it's substantially different than what you're seeing at this preliminary level. Does that make sense? Okay. Thank you. I do think the civics lesson is important. And to get that on the record. It is. Thank you. If I may yeah. I just
wanted to make sure that that was crystal clear. And it's something that's a little different than a lot of the things we have seen come before this body. We're typically we're looking at a building and one particular development, that type of thing. This is a different scenario where we've got a much larger parcel. There's potentially in the
future that type of thing. Um, another question that I have, if I may. Please go ahead. Um, was just kind of taking a look at the layout and with the exception parcel that is not part of this plat. Um, I was just kind of curious what the future plan for access in and
out of that parcel may be. Since I know it today, it has access off of the county road. Um, but was just kind of curious with the look at that. And then also, um, kind of its relationship, I think, to Outlands B and D on the plat. I think the developers
retaining those for future development rights. Let's see if we can get back to. the presentation. Let's see if
we can't go back there. Okay. Sorry, I'm not there controlling
it in the back. Like we were fighting with each. Other. AI. Okay, so talking about the exception area right here. Um, at this time, I don't believe we
would be eliminating that access point, but I'm probably going to refer to the city engineer to confirm that. Or step in if I'm mistaken. Um, and then going forward in the future. You know, looking at a lots B and D, those
potentially could be developed at some point to. So at this point out loud, you would obviously have access to two 17th and out lot B. We would be looking at um, probably some kind of shared access agreement through lot three that we would be addressing that at the time
of like the final plat of lot three. Right. And do you have any other updates on the one lot? Uh, no updates on the lot, but just concurring with you that there's the existing access on the northwest of that off of two
15th Street. Uh, that would be permitted to be used again with development with the creek crossing. Um, and then connectivity to two 17th Street would be a little bit tricky with the curve. But there is the potential as you get further to the south to have that
connection for that out lot. D and like Heather said, the shared access agreement for outlet B. So in the map in front of you would be the southeast corner here to this tip kind of goes up to two 17th. Thanks. Thanks for that explanation. I just wanted to
kind of think through how the future of this might look as well. Um, since these are not being developed as part of this project or retained for future rights. So it's important to confirm that the property owner has access.
Other than that, I had a bunch of other questions that I asked city staff, and they answered all of those to my satisfaction and don't have any further questions or comments. Anyone else? I guess my comment
is it's pretty exciting to have some development at this. At the light industrial that is on such a big parcel, and that important to have that tax base here for Lakeville. So excited about that
opportunity. Madam chair. Commissioner Kaluza. Um, Ready for a motion? Uh, I would motion to recommend a city council approval of the preliminary plat for an industrial development, subject
to the 11 stipulations and the planning report dated February 23rd, 2026. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. Miss Erickson, would you please take the roll? Travis, I, a Zimmer I, I think I
Sweeney a Swanson a Tinsley. I. Uh, motion is approved. Um, we thank you, Mr. Silver. And your folks, for coming today. And look forward to watching the
development phase in. The next item on the agenda is, um, public hearing for the preliminary plat. Conditional use and vacation of easement for the city of Lakeville Commons.
And we have, um, Allen Keenan to present on that. Thank you so much. Please come forward and say your name for the record and tell us about the project. Great. Thank you. Allen Cannon, City of. Lakeville I'm the associate.
Assistant city administrator. Uh, tonight we're going to review a project. That has taken several years to get to this culmination of a lot of work by the fire department. So a couple of years ago, the fire department started looking at their facilities plan and how and where their fire stations should be located and how to
best efficiently serve the city with the best response times. So part of that study said, look at the intersection of Dodd and Cedar Avenue for a new fire station. In addition to that, modernization study that they looked at was also looking at their staffing models. And what would be the most efficient way
to staff their fire stations. And part of that conclusion was to start moving towards a full time staffing with a hybrid model with paid on call as well. So, um, with those two studies being done, it kind of pushed us in this direction to start looking at Fire Station at Dot
and Cedar, as well as updating and modernizing the rest of the fire stations. So tonight we're going to focus on the on the fire station, new fire station two. But in the future you may be seeing some additional, um, stuff come through for some of the other fire stations. So as I
mentioned, the city eventually landed on this location at the corner of Granby Lane and Dodd Boulevard and 1/79 Street. Um, it's 12 acres that we purchased from the Fisher family. Uh, we're going to end up taking up about four acres of this site
with the new fire station. It is going to be about a little over 48,000 square foot fire station with seven bays. Access to the site will be off of Dodd Boulevard, as well as well off of Granby. Um, the primary
location for the fire stations to be, uh, leaving the station is going to be from Granby down to 1/79 and going east or west from that. Um, from that intersection, most of the the visitor parking is going to be coming off of Dodd Boulevard and parking in that parking lot that
you see there. That's north of the, of the building. Uh, the site will also include the extension of a new internal access road that you see to the east. That's being cul de sac right now. Uh, that will provide access to the site from the from the east side of the of the
property. Uh, this is really small, but, um, you'll have to take my word for this. So this is the interior of the building. Um, so this is also this is not just going to be, um, for the fire station staffing, but it'll also be for, uh, before the
administrative offices. So a portion of this is going to be, um, for the administration staff, which include, uh, conference rooms, um, classrooms , uh EOC area. Um, mechanical space, um, the lobby area, the public restrooms at the
entrance. And as you move into the building, you get more into the the station staffing where the the firefighters will have their, their, uh, management staff and that area that'll also include a workout area. Uh, some
more general, uh, storage access to the second floor. And then as you keep moving towards the inside the building, you get into the seven bays where the apparatus bays will be, um, located in the center of that area, um, is where the firefighters will have their
equipment bays. They'll have the area that they get dressed in, decontamination area, shower area, um, some more storage and, um, uh, just general equipment area for their, for their, um, trucks and for the, their
service. Um, so the second floor, uh, floor plan. So now that we have full time staffing, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we have to have dorms for the firefighters. So this new fire station will be the first modern fire station with full
blown dorms, uh, specifically devoted to 24 over seven staffing. Um, so, as you see, this is proposing to have ten dorms, um, which will have individual bathrooms and showers and locker rooms, as well as just general living areas of
kitchen, dining room and, uh, like a living room for them. So it's really kind of creates a separation between when they're on call versus when they're waiting for calls to come in. It creates a, a space for them to kind of relax when they're when they're not working or whether
or not on calls. Uh, the central area again, uh, moving further into the building, that area is just an open area. It's a second, uh, two story open area above the bays. But as you move into the center area again, that's a second floor at that section. Um, that's going to be
a training area that'll, that'll they'll use for multiple different training purposes. There'll be some storage room up there. And then on either end of those are that training. Central training area is going to be towers. Um, the one towards the upper part of the page is going to be uh, whether that's going
to be the high tower that we're asking for, the cup, uh, approval for, that's not only going to be a training tower, but it will also be that area. The height has to be that for we're dragging hoses up that height for drying and maintenance of the of the fire hoses. Um, and then and then the
tower towards the bottom of the page is a stairwell, and it's going to be some mechanical room and some other equipment storage. So, um, that one doesn't have to be as tall as the, the one on the east. So it's just kind of a quick shot of all the elevations of the
building. Um, this is the front as you're coming off of Dodd Boulevard, this will be the main entrance to the offices and administrative area. Uh, this is towards the west. These are the bays. These were the fire apparatuses will exit the
building on the Granby. This is the east side of the building. Uh, this is where the actual. The fire trucks will circle around or come in off of that new access road and actually enter the building. Um, one of the things that the fire department wanted to absolutely try to avoid was backing in to
the station. So the station has been designed to allow the fire station for the fire trucks to either come in off of Granby and come around the building and access the building, or coming off of that new north south road off of Dodd and access to the building from that direction.
And this is just the the southern elevation that you'll see some of that through from 1/79 Street, kind of peeking through the trees. And, um, it's just kind of the driveway. So, um, so that's kind of the basis of the project. And I'm going to
turn it over to Chris to kind of go through the planning commission items, um, with me before I forget is Mike Myers. He's our fire chief, and Brian Jacobson, he's our district chief, and we're all available for any questions, if you have any. Thank you. Thank you so. Much.
Bring up Miss Jensen. Are you sure she's going to answer? First off, where's the fire pole? In the place. That out. When we get. There. At least on the plans. Uh, so, as Alan said, this is at the
corner of Dodd and Granby. Just to orient yourself. I can get my mouse. Go on Cedar Avenue and the new one, 79th. Uh, Dodd, which no longer continues through Granby. Was the new connection created with the summer's creek. So this area
here, um, it's there. And then you can see in the zoning, there is two zoning districts. It is the northern portion is C3. Uh, and then the southern portion is, um, the public open space district. Um, the, the plat
boundary is made up of three parcels. Uh, and I can get to this a little bit later as well. But there's the Fisher property. There is a small mouse here, uh, out lot. That was part of the summer's creek. And then, um,
the 1/79 Street is actually not within right of way through this area. It is just on city property. So we will be doing an administrative subdivision of the Central Maintenance Facility property. So everything 1/79 Street and North will be split
off and then included with the plat so that the proper right of way is dedicated for 1/79 Street. So that's why it looks like the street doesn't exist on that map. Um, no surprise, there are a number of various, uh, easements and platted some
platted right of way. That does need to be vacated. This is just to keep, you know, the the title clean for these. So we don't have underlying easements under plat areas. So you can see a few different colors there which are different easements that will be
vacated. Um, they will all be replaced with either easements or new right of way. So there isn't any loss of access for any utilities that may be in that area. Again, here's that preliminary plat. You can kind of see where the the new right
of way for 1/79 Street. We're actually, um, dedicating right of way for Cedar, 1/79 Granby and odd. So we've got right away on all four sides that we're doing a lot. One block one is for the fire station, a lot is the stormwater pond out. Lot B is the water tower site. And
then the remainder of the site will be in out lot C, which will be available for future development. It would require preliminary and final plat before any development of that area. Uh, Allen already went over the site plan. I'm just
going to add that, uh, with the cup for the additional building height, there is additional setbacks that are required. It's an additional five feet for every ten feet over the maximum building height. The C district allows 35ft. Uh, the building is
just under 45ft at its height. So it does require the additional five feet. There. Setbacks for the north, east and west are at least 75ft in each direction, so they're well above and beyond those required. The rear setback at the south is the
30ft, which does not need to be increased for the height. Um, and then for parking on the site. Uh, no surprise, our ordinance does not simply say, here's how many spaces you need for a fire station. Um, so we looked at the floor plans in the various uses and kind of came up
with our own, uh, reasonable requirement. We looked at the office space, areas, classroom and conference room spaces, and then the dormitory areas, which we came up with a requirement of 61 spaces, and there are 69 that
are being provided on site. Uh, this is just to illustrate that truck turning movement. Um, you know, this would be a, coming in off of Granby. This. Sorry. Um, and being able to wrap around
the building and here, you know, coming in this direction and then in this one, they're coming off of Street A, so they did take that into account. They will be able to do that. Uh, the grading plan I know it's tough to see the, um, it does slope
down from, from north to, to south. So this parking lot will sit several feet below DoD. Um, it which necessitated this driveway here was initially coming straight out Street a it has shifted south and that's so
that the sidewalk in that area can meet, uh, slope requirements for Ada accessibility. And then there is another access to sidewalk access in this location, but that will have steps due to the grade in that area. Uh, tree inventory was
done. And I'm now learning that the site will actually be masqueraded rather than just a portion of the trees. Um, being removed. So I think this exhibit needs to be updated, but the inventory that was done about the tree removal is does have
the correct numbers on it. So, uh, that's just more of the tree removal. The landscape plan, uh, as you would typically see, um, uh, mix of deciduous, ornamental , evergreen, um, quite a few shrubs also being proposed
around the site. And the stormwater pond. Uh, this is just to illustrate the two areas that are the tallest portion, um, on the kind of north end of the building, there's some mechanical screening, um,
screening is exempt on the roof when when it is three feet or less, which this is taller than that. So it does have to be included. So that's just under the 45ft. Uh, and then this is the East tower, which is just under 43ft. So those are the two
primary areas where we were exceeding that height requirement. Um, the fire pole is right there. Oh. , no, wait. I'm sorry. It's right here. That was the elevator right there. Making sure we had one. Yes.
They do. Um, Allen went over the plans. Uh, again, there's offices, classroom and breakout rooms. Uh, workspace for the firefighters in the seven vehicle bays. Again, this is the day room. There's the fire pole
right there. So. Uh, the exterior materials do meet. Our requirements are about 68% grade A materials and a mix of brick and stone and glass. Again, these are the color elevations that you saw previously. Uh,
staff does recommend approval of the preliminary plat, cup and easement vacation, subject to the one stipulation as well as adoption of the findings of fact dated March 5th. And I'll stand for any questions you may have. Thank you so much. Uh, this is a
public hearing, and, um, do we have anybody that would like to come forward and speak? Please come forward and state your name for the record. And, uh, give us
your comments. Thank you. I think. Our home is on the corner of Graphite Lane and Granby. Um. My concern is, um, when they
did, Dodd. Um, I watched a 14 year old boy be killed on Dodd trying to cross Dodd two summers ago from my deck, and we cringe to watch all the kids on electrical bikes, etc.. We were
at the original meeting several months. The city was. Or the fire department was considering taking part of the park that exists on along Granby Lane for the fire station, and one of the
concerns there was the traffic car was totaled two months ago. Maybe trying to take a left. On 279th Street or Dodd. And quite
honestly. One of our neighbors never come. Out onto Dodd. If we have to go to the left, if we have to go east, if we're coming downtown to High View or coming down
Dodd, we'll take a right. But, um, it's it's already very dangerous coming toward the west on Dodd and 179 and trying to take a. Left. Is very difficult. There's a
turn lane. However, there's a slight rise. And if there's anybody traveling west in. That. Turn lane, you. Cannot see. Coming west in the other. Two lane.
Um, if we want to go, um, south on Cedar, we go left. On Granby. , and then we have that little past the. CVS., that little turn onto. Cedar going.
And you have to be really careful there because coming north on. Cedar., for people coming north. On cedar. You turn because they are going north on cedar, and they want to
go south on Cedar. And they have to do so. You have to be careful when you're turning out. Because you have no idea. In which they're going to make you turns. If we want to. Go.
We go to Grand. We take a bright on Glacier Way, and then we take a left.. And that is a nightmare. And so.
We're sitting east. In the in the lane going east and take a left turn on to Cedar North. And you have to watch because there are no left turn signals either in either.
direction. And there are no left turn. Lane. And you wait and you don't know the people coming west if they're going to turn left or if they're going to come straight
and, um. So. Um, I talked to Summer gate, who has an office building right there and a gal who works there. And she says. I'm sure you already know it. I know. Because I look at their I see
their report, their police report. But she says at. Least there's somebody that has an accident. At that, at that intersection. Well, it would be a year.
Ago. It was the spring going into last summer, and a lot of people had that same concern, and we were told at that point, or my understanding. was that they were going to. Work on that intersection.
Of Glacier Way and Cedar and that turn lanes were going to. Be put in. But nothing's happened. And then there was some. estimate about putting a light at Granby Lane in 179th Street for the fire
trucks to get out. But there's no. Light there.. And frankly, I don't know how you could put a light there, because if you're trying to travel on 179th across Cedar, if you've ever been there any time of the day, especially 5:00, the
cars are backed up five, ten or more, going both directions across Cedar on 179th. So I guess that's my question is where are the fire trucks going to. Go? For the fire trucks trying to
get out, and then also for the the the residents in that area trying to get out. Thank you so much for your comments. We'll address that. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would
like to speak? Seeing no other folks coming forward, I would take a motion. A. Motion to close the public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second,
all those in favor of closing the public hearing, please say aye. Aye, aye. Opposed? The public hearing is now closed. I'm thinking maybe, um, staff and or the traffic engineer could answer some of
those questions about whether there's going to be turn lanes or semaphore or what the plan is for that area. Yeah. So in process currently we're working with the code of county at the intersection of
Granby and 1/79 Street on what the vehicle preemption should look like. There was this fire station being installed. That's something that we've been working in collaboration with them closely. Oh, we're not at a point here today to know what that preemption looks like, but
we're looking at examples of similar situations in communities like Eagan where they have a similar layout and a similar situation by a county road. Um, and then I believe I heard, um, for the intersection of Cedar Avenue and Glacier Way.
That is also another topic of conversation with the county that's having ongoing discussions. As far as what that looks like, we've got an upcoming mill and overlay project in 2027 to be constructed, where we're going to be looking at some alternatives that that could
help with the issue for getting onto Cedar Avenue. There. Commissioner Kaluza. And for the engineer, just so everyone knows, Cedar is a county road, so the city can't, you know, unilaterally do these things. You have to work with
the county. And their timeline in order to kind of get some of these traffic improvements, correct? Yes, correct. They are both collaborative efforts that the city and the county are working on.
Please come forward. Mr. McKinnon. Madam chair, just to add a little bit to John's explanation on the optical system is the technical term of the system that the fire station will be using. So we are working with the county. All the details haven't been set yet, but in
general the way it will work is when a fire call comes into that station. Um, they'll roll their doors, open, the fire engines, turn the lights on. There's going to be a, uh, a receiver on Granby that will see that it's going to be just like what you see at intersection lights. When
you see fire or police personnel go through, they've got a signal that turns all the always red so the fire police can go through that intersection. So that's the same system that we're going to use in front of the fire station. So when that is signaled then on Granby it's going to turn the intersection
of Cedar and DoD. It's going to stop the traffic there, which will provide gaps for that for the fire engines to pull out on the Granby and then pull out on the 1/79 and go east or west as needed. Um, in addition, we're looking at putting on some yield and some flashing lights on on
179 towards the west, which would also be activated at that same time. So with that system in place and John's right, we don't have that whole system designed yet. But the idea of that system in place should create the gaps and the traffic that we need, or slow down the traffic for the fire trucks to
safely pull out. On 179 going east or west as needed. Okay. Thank you. Um, I'd have a question for our traffic engineer. Can you give us a little bit on the timetable or what? I understand you're working with the county, but
what are residents to expect? Yeah. So as we get through into the final planning process here, we are starting to get to the point of we are currently at our 30% design plans will we'll get at a point with the civil plan
set here to be at our 69,001 hundreds within the next three month period. Here to have a more fleshed out idea of what that preemption system exactly looks like, and how we'll be managing that with the county. And like I said, we we are
working off of example cases in neighboring communities that have similar situations to this, where you're exiting the fire station and entering onto a high volume, high speed roadway. Thank you, Commissioner Travis.
Yes, madam chair, um, just a question for Mr. Johnson. Uh. the road plans are forming, and they seem quite specific, but not final. And is that because this is a preliminary plat and at a preliminary plat stage, we
wouldn't necessarily know exactly what the roads will look like. Um, well, the only road construction that would take place. Is. I'm sorry, the traffic, not the. Roads, but the. The traffic system is not completely finalized yet, but
it's a preliminary plat. So is that right? The, you know, the the traffic system to allow the trucks out on to, to cross or, or access 1/79 Street doesn't need to be in place until the fire station is actually fully built. So, um,
you know, fire station of the size takes quite a bit of time to construct. Allen, what's the timeline for construction, please? Allen used to be a planner here. I'm sure he's.
Enjoying it. Yeah. Uh, so we. Are going out. For the. First phase of the bids are going out in the next month, and that'll be for, um, grading and utility installation. The second phase will be pretty close. Following after that in another month. In May or so. Um, and
that'll start the construction of the overall site. Um, and there's about 18 months construction. So we're looking at a good almost two years from now before this is fully operational. Thank you.
Other questions for Mr. Gentleman or the Mr. Keenan Commissioner. Question. Um, I've been familiar with the new construction of fire stations and Burnsville in Apple Valley. And I'm wondering, is the catch the same architect
that's doing this one. Yeah. C and H is the same architect. All right. So I mean, I'm sure you've probably toured the new stations in Burnsville and Apple Valley. How does this new one
for Lakeville stack up to those? Yeah, I'll turn it over to Mike, our fire chief. But we've toured several fire stations throughout this process. But I'll turn over to Mike. From a design side. I mean, if you've been in Burnsville, it resembles Burnsville, but
there's also other components from other stations that we toured and seen and kind of those elements that we want to draw into this station, too. So it's very similar to Burnsville. And I'll say that kind of the the future designs of fire stations are taking into account as far as the wellness of the
firefighters cancer, uh, free environment. So, uh, those are the components that really play into the effect of designing a station and making sure that we're not bringing, uh, contaminants, if you will, from the bays into the living space or the work areas. Uh, so that's kind of where that center
mezzanine that, uh, Mr. Keenan was talking about as far as the fire station goes. Thank you. Um. Do we have other questions? Madam chair, and a couple of
things on my mind here. Um, one, I did want to compliment the folks who put together the plans and everything else in terms of the visuals of the building and everything else. One of the little. It's a little detail, but something that, um, I appreciated seeing on that was you had the, uh, I'll say the
generator boxes and locations shown on the figure. Knowing this is a public safety facility and it does require power, regardless of any natural disasters or anything like that. Um, it necessitates having facilities like that available. Um, a lot of plans that we see
oftentimes neglect some of those utility type things. And, um, so the location on this one, it's tucked back behind the building. So the townhouses on the west side won't be hearing any of the noise or anything from that facility. So I did just want to point that out that, um, that was nice to see. Um, also
appreciated you showing the, um, truck turning, um, diagrams. Uh, I work for an entity that, um, has a lot of large vehicles and poor visibility out of the the rear. Um, and know that backing is a kind of our number one source of some vehicular
accident items in that type of thing. So I appreciated seeing the figure where we can maneuver those, um, trucks, uh, internally and hopefully not have to have those backing maneuvers. So from a, so an overall safety culture, um, much appreciated to see that. Um, and then again, you've talked to the
optics on facilities and what's happening on that. The only other thing I was just going to talk real briefly about was the, um, training towers. I did ask a question regarding the training towers, just in terms of what was going to be done in those. I think my concern was coming from a spot of, are you doing, like any burning or anything like
that in the towers or anything like that? So just if you kind of clarify what the purpose. Of. The appreciated. Uh, the train tower is what we call just a wet tower. So the only thing that we would be
doing in there is, uh, fire hose movement. Uh, any water discharge. So it can handle that there is no burning so that, you know, we have a burn site that we use in Burnsville, so there's no burning that's going to occur here. Uh, the only thing that we would put in the building, which most people wouldn't even notice, would be artificial
smoke. So if we want to create that, uh, decreased visibility for training purposes, that's the only thing that's in the tower, in that second floor area . Thank you. If I may continue. Please continue. All right. Um, last thing I was
just going to say on my my end in thinking through things I understand, and I hear the concerns related to traffic in this area. And I appreciate you coming up and speaking to those items. I think it's important that we acknowledge there are issues out here in this area. Are they going to be solved and
fixed with this fire station project? No, they're not. Um, but I think it's important that they're on the table. City staff is aware of them. They hear you. Um, and hopefully that will move forward into future things. And I do want to say I am concerned
when I hear things about, uh, particularly the turn at Hamburg where you're not able to react in time to traffic moving and speed that type of thing. I would encourage engineering to at least take a look at that and just see if there's something there. Um, that something may have been missed or overlooked
in the overall design of how 170 was put together with, um, sight distances. ET cetera. Related to speed in that area. So just this , this commission isn't empowered to fix all those traffic issues that the county has to be involved. But city staff hears your concerns. So I
just want to make that loud and clear. Thank you. I appreciate that, Commissioner Swenson, I was going to comment on the accident, uh, occurrence once a day is is certainly something that we would want traffic engineers and our law
enforcement to take a look at. So good advice and that we've raised those concerns for our staff. Commissioner Kaluza. I just wanted to commend the city staff, the planning staff,
the administration, fire department for all the work that you've done on this. I mean, Lake Bill is now the largest city in the county. Um, you know, if you look at kind of where this location is, look at what's surrounding it, um, you know, you have stuff fully
developed north of it and south of it. That's where a lot of our future growth for the city is going to be. It's a lot of greenfield development that's going to be coming in. Um, you know, the neighborhoods that are around there are, um, you know, have have all came in in the
past few years. Um, so, I mean, this is really kind of planning for the future. And I'm glad that you guys are going to have everything that you you need in there. Um, you know, no one wants to need the fire department, but, um, when when
you do need it, you're going to be glad that they're going to be able to get access to you quickly. And I think that the city has done a lot of great work kind of thinking of what the future is. As Lakeville continues, um, to build out, I think we're, you know, if not
over 80,000 pretty near that. Uh, Mr. Cannon might know the the exact answer, but there's we still have a lot of room to grow, and, um, you know, the. I'm going to be excited when this fire station gets built out. And hopefully we'll be able
to provide, um, safety to our residents and going forward. And I also really appreciate the city staff for kind of hearing the the concerns of neighbors. And, you know, I hope the the county hears that as well as we work to kind of, um, figure out,
you know, the best traffic solution going forward. Thank you. Everybody. There are no further comments. Then I think we'd be ready for a motion. Madam chair.
Commissioner Tinsley. Move to recommend City Council approval of the preliminary plat , conditional use permit and vacation of public roadway drainage and utility easements subject to the stipulations in the planning report dated
February 23rd, 2026 and the findings of. Fact. Second. We have a motion and a second. Miss Erickson, we take the roll, please. Kaluza, I Zimmer. I. I think I Swanee, I Swenson I
Tinsley I Travis I. Motion prevails and. uh good luck as you move forward. Sounds like a lot of fun. Uh, working on the the plan and the site and, uh, traffic issues as well.
Thank you so much. Um. Let's see. We have a staff notice included in our packet, um, about some upcoming. Or at least I think we did potential upcoming items. Um.
And, um, the next the items above will be considered for, uh, March 16th city Council meeting. And the next planning commission is scheduled for March 19th. And I don't know, Miss Jensen, do you have anything else for comment? Nope.
Um, and so with that, we will stand adjourned