##VIDEO ID:GnZYWDifQeM## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon I'd like to call to order the Planning Commission meeting for newom it is 4:30 on Thursday January 30th 2025 first item on the agenda is to introduce and welcome our new member Bill turnblad and I'd like everyone please to go around the table and introduce yourself I'll start with Joe Joe shazco Michelle selner Larry Mack Bobby four back and I'm an Earl da snowberg and I'm John nisley and way in the back I have welcome thank you second item on the agenda is the election of office first for 2025 I'd like to call for you're looking for nominations I would like to call for a nomination I'd like to nominate Ann Earl for chair if she's willing to accept I would are there any other nominations there any other nominations nominate Larry Mack as Vice chair okay if he's willing I'm willing okay are there any other nominations Linda Linda Beck for secretary okay I'm willing okay I have a slate of officers are there any further nominations are there any further nominations no are there any further nominations if not call for a vote all in favor I I opposed thank you and welcome um next item on the agenda is the approval of the November 21st 2024 special meeting meting minutes are there any corrections or additions if not I'll offer motion to approve the minutes from the November 21st 2024 meeting second it I'll second it I have a motion as a second all in favor I opposed minutes have been approved thank you this opens the public hearing portion of the meeting the first item is Chad o John Gog Rental Incorporated conditional use permit staff report okay so the request for conditional use permit is to allow the operation of an indoor commercial entertainment Recreation land use on property that is zoned I2 which is General industrial zoning District the proposed business would include an axe throwing space rage rooms and a Smash Lab um the legal description of the property is Lot B of lot one and lot B2 block 3 north of Center Street street address is 1063 North Street uh the property location it's north of third North Street and West of North Front Street um and if you look at attachment 2 and four in your um staff report that shows the location um of the property U background information the deadline for a decision on this matter is March 3rd 2025 the land use designation for the property in our comprehensive plan is industrial the surrounding land uses to the nor north east and south are industrial and to the West it's industrial and then on the other side of the railroad tracks it's parks and open space zoning designation for the property is I2 which is General industrial district um zoning to the north is I2 and I3 I3 being limited industrial district uh to the east and south it's I2 the West it is I2 and R2 traditional neighborhood single and two Family Residence district and that represents the uh Park area carries a residential zoning classification current site use of the property is it's an office computer repair and Amazon Service uh to the north we have office storage Snap Fitness and Northside GR garage to the east we have storage single family residences to the South we have office single family residences and the CTE Center and to the West we have storage the railroad and then Miller Park a notice was provided to all Property Owners within 350 ft of the subject property and was published in the journal on January 18th 2025 public comments in your in our uh staff report we say none to date we actually did receive an email and um the individual requested that I read this uh to the Planning Commission um it goes as follows greetings my name is Molly Jacobs my husband Josh and I and our three children live at 400 North Valley Street which is just on the block from the building we think the proposed recreational entertainment use of the building is a neat idea and would be a great addition to our community we do have a couple of concerns though since we live so close our first concern is increased traffic as of now we have a fair amount of traffic due to nearby businesses and the storage units next door this is really not a big deal de and is expected but since we do live on gravel and the road is kind of in a hidden area we see a lot of people going way too fast especially around the curve by our house we are assuming this will happen more and are concerned about everybody's safety our second concern is noise we are just wondering if the hours of operation will go into later your evening if so we would just be concerned about noise and activity during those times that is all thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to share our thoughts and for your consideration sincerely the Jacobs family I'll continue with the um staff report then as far as the uh description of the request the purpose of the I2 General industrial district is to provide locations for a wide variety of more intense manufacturing and Industrial land uses which because of the nature of the product or character of the activity should be located in areas that will minimize their impact on neighboring and less intense residential business Commercial and Industrial land uses um indoor commercial entertainment is defined as an establishment providing completely enclosed Recreation or entertainment activities accessory uses may include the preparation and serving of food or the sale of equipment related to the enclosed uses examples of indoor commercial entertainment businesses include bowling alleys roller and ice skating rings bilard Halls swimming pools theaters and similar amusements indoor commercial entertainment uses do not include event centers or adult uses uh the proposed use is allowed in the I2 zoning district with a conditional use permit the anticipated size of the use would be approximately 3,186 Square ft an accessory storage area would have 640 5 Square ft this use would share building space with at least one other business and possibly more the proposed use will not have interior access to any other of the building spaces so you would go into this use but you would not have access to other parts of the building this type of business would be a permitted use in the B2 B 3 B4 zoning district and is also a conditional use in the i1 zoning District the application provides the following information on the business all business activities will take place within the building and will not impact the nearby area secondly no exterior modifications will be made to the building third the building is currently used for business purposes for business parking would utilize shoulder that would be street parking as well as parking in the rear of the property with appropriate signage um five the use will provide a fun engaging place for new arm residents who enjoy themselves by also providing a safe controlled space to d-stress um the location of the entry door on third North Street will likely generate on street parking on third North Street due to the distance to the parking area at the rear of the property and if you look at some of the photographs in attachment 5 you can see where the entry uh door uh will be located if the business was occupying a new building the parking requirement would be approximately 10 spaces that would be one space per 400 square ft of gross floor area and then finally any noise generated from the building would need to comply with the city's noise regulations found in section 808 of the uh city code um considerations for application approval in order to recommend approval of the permit the commission will need to determine that the request complies with the review criteria found in section 2.4 D4 of appendix a of the city code but their zoning ordinance this criteria can also be found on the findings of fact form the Planning Commission and city council must make an affirmative finding on all of the criteria that are listed in order to Grant a conditional use permit the applicant has the burden of proof to show that all of the criteria have been satisfied attachments um include attachment one is the application and building layout um attach and John is showing the attachments um on the video monitor attachment two is the site location map attachment three is a zoning map attachment four is the site um map and I would note that the building um appears to be located on 100% of the property so there really isn't any room for Onsite uh parking so it would have to be it would not have could be located on this property have to be located on an adjoining uh property um attachment five are ground level photographs and there's the uh I believe that's the door to the um currently the Amazon no no this is the door facing third North Third North right so they will be adding a new door on that side of the building uh attachment six is um the staff completed findings of fact form um staff has identified um a number of conditions if the commiss should um recommend approval uh the first is that the applicant property owner will pay the cost to record the permit with the Brown County recorder's office um two all business activities will take place within the existing building at 106 third North Street three uses on the property shall comply with the city code noise restriction regulations found in section 808 of the city code for hours of operation will generally be from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekends and I might note that those hours uh of operation came from the applicant uh chatus and then number five no exterior storage will be permitted on the property and then two motions are provided one to approve the request and one to deny the request that would conclude the staff report thank you okay I'm going to open it up to questions does Chad is here so does anyone have questions for him Chad would you step up to the microphone I have a few questions right now good afternoon would you say your name address please business Chad ois 1063 Street north thank you I have a question about parking and I do see that there is I and I'm familiar with the property and I know there's a parking lot in the back but that is not part of your property is that correct so that if there were people that wanted to park there is that available other than so this back area is where we use uh currently for our Amazon vehicle parking um I actually just spoke to the owner before this and we've come to an agreement that we could actually use the space adjoining or next to our location for parking if we needed to so primarily though you are totally relying on street parking is is that so so on street parking plus we can use um the back area as well okay okay and and then are you using the same entrance that you have now or are you putting in a new entrance so at the at the front of the building that will be the the one that you just saw will be the entrance to this new business and it's the entrance to all your businesses of to your unlimit or your computer repair business C I'm familiar with that okay so you're just shifting them to another door yes then one of the other questions I have is um rental if if I have a group and I want to come down and use it in the evening do I need to have have a separate permit for to use say on a Sunday evening after 5:00 or are you not planning on doing rentals I mean I it appears to me that it would have be an ideal thing for somebody to come and yeah yeah I mean we're we haven't really talked about that yet but we're definitely open to doing that and I'm not sure if we would need a permit what do we do in that case if they want well the you know we we're establishing hours of operation so he would need to comply with those so you he has to stay Within These hours for rental then unless he comes back for another permit if yeah if he that's what he chooses to do or if the commission would choose to amend those hours at this time that's another option so so if I'm hearing correctly Dave we could set those today here and if Chad would let us know what he wants for ours operation and if you wish to change them yeah yeah yeah um can I ask a question if we did want to change those hours because I think maybe it wasn't like did did we say till 5 on the weekend I'm not sure it says from 10: to 5: on Saturday and Sunday okay we might want to adjust that just for for Saturday for sure we might want to go a little bit later than that just right up front just thinking about that so how late would you like to go um you know I would say at least till 8:00 you know give give a little bit more hours um on the weekend I I think that would be good and can we adjust that as we go or does it need to be no this is from what I understand you adjust it now or you come back to change the to reapply for the conditional use is that correct yeah that the way things currently operate yeah okay thank you so you want you want to amend that to a Saturday until 8:00 could we please um do that until 8 o' for sure at this time John do you want to take care of the okay does anyone else have any questions yeah if I may um I'd like to ask a bit about the um the noise generation I mean I screaming and smashing and whacking things sounds fun but there's a little bit of noise associated with that I'm sure yeah um tell me a little bit about the the office use that shares some of those same walls is that going to be an issue with yeah so I'm to my understanding I'm the only one in that building currently with tech Unlimited and so we would actually move our operations upstairs and really would not be affected by by this at this time okay yep and as far as the noise from from either ax throwing or or the the smash rooms I feel like it's on that other side of the building so if they're smashing things it's really that sound isn't really going to go back the other way especially the kind of room that we're going to build I think we should be okay that way it's not real clear to me where Within the building um the various fun activities will be located could could you explain that to us yeah John do you want to bring up the other image please of the building in the area you think Chad or do you want to pull up your plans well I'm just wondering if we can pull this up so I can show them this could be this is that an option application was one of the ATT should have been one of the attachments have it in there uh I don't know that the site plan was in there but we could have the um guy from newat do the overhead monitor if you wouldn't mind switching to that you switch to this that's F yeah while he's working that the the line of questioning simply is yeah what's located between surrounding properties and and people within the building you sound transmission might not be an issue but it would be good for me to be able to see where things are located to be happy show you I do have some floor plans I I can bring up and try to show you that okay Bic house uh so is your house attached is that the on the corner it's the front so if if it's noisy it's your problem too it's my problem nobody else's right that's good to know yeah I ask a question yes Chad how many people do you think you would have an attendance for say ax throwing or these various activities at a time yeah so so we're we're starting with five lanes for the ax throwing and we would have two smash rooms and so we can we can um have groups of it's really hard to say but like three to five per Lane okay and and then I would say a group of you know three to three to 10 for the smash rooms they can kind of take turns going in there too um so anywhere between how many would that be I would say no more than 25 to you know 30 people at a time at least to start with okay I assume you already looked into insurance for this excuse me you already looked into insurance for this you're step one yeah yeah we'll have a good waiver and as far as food I'm assuming that you just have like the normal Beverages and am I coming in with my bottle of pop or whatever yeah we're not going to go you know full you know Grill you know maybe pizzas and that sort of thing okay are we ready for to continue with the S not ready okay in the screen oh sure um this is difficult but uh so this area I if you can even see that but uh can I just walk around can I show you is that okay apprach the yes you may approach the bench so this is kind of what we're look so this is the current layout um this is what we're this is second floor this is the main first oh I see here's Amazon got it yeah so we're kind of splitting that off from everything else and then we have our lanes okay do you want to go down this group and then right does this kind of make sense y I gotta and then cover absolutely as I see that the most impacted people from a really good smashing party will be will be you next door in your house and then the the Amazon sort of storage space yeah cuz that's back here this is the street entrance right there yep yeah okay okay thank you thanks did you get your question answered I did thanks are there any further questions for Chad while he's up thank you okay thank you would you like to do the finding of facts now during the open public hearing part of the meeting in case there are any additional questions and then I'll close a public hearing after that first question is is the propos you propose Ed allowed as a conditional use in the zoning District in which it is proposed and staff responded Yes indoor commercial entertainment Recreation uses are allowed in the I2 zoning district with a conditional use permit it's staff's opinion that the proposed use complies with the zoning ordinance definition for an indoor commercial entertainment recreational use okay and after each question I'd like the commission to either say yay or nay to the question so that I we know what you're feeling is do we all agree yese thank you is the use consistent with the applic applicable policies recommendations and regulations of the city's comprehensive plan other adopted land use studies and appendix a zoning ordinance staff responded Yes the comprehensive plan designates this property as industrial the city zoning ordinance allows for the proposed use in the I2 indust uh I2 zoning district with a conditional use permit the city council has approved similar uses uh in this zoning District instead staff's opinion uh the proposed use is consistent with the applicable City documents you agree yese will the use adversely impact nearby properties through nuisance noise traffic dust odor or unsightliness and will not otherwise adversely impact the safe the health safety and Welfare of the community that responded uh no the business activities will take place within an existing building as a result uh this should eliminate or reduce any potential adverse impacts on nearby properties staff believes that there are also adequate standards uh in the city code zoning ordinance and the proposed conditions for this request to mitigate any adverse conditions resulting from the business operations we agree age thank you will the use be injurious hazardous or hazardous to the use and enjoyment of other property in the vicinity or impede the normal and ordinarily de ordinarily development and Improvement of surrounding property for uses permitted in the district uh staff responded no the proposed use will take place within an existing building uh this will limit any adverse impacts on surrounding properties do we agree agree agree agree thank you will the use be designed constructed operated and maintained in a manner that is compatible in appearance with the existing or intended character of the surrounding area uh staff responded Yes the applicant is indicated that the exterior of the building will remain the same with the exception of a new door on the street side of the building thank you do we agree agree agree agree could I clarify that yes I heard at one point that there was going to be a new door and another point that there wasn't going to be a new door which is it he said no that there was not going to be new door all right pardon me excuse yes oh there will be a new separate them out oh I'm sorry I understood you were using the same entrance all right thank you okay yes thank you the use will not substantially diminish or impair the value of neighboring properties uh staff responded Yes the use is is not anticipated to have anticipated to have any effect on the value of surrounding properties do we agree agree agree the site is adequately served by and will not impose a burden on essential public facilities and services including utility Street drainage police and fire protection and schools uh staff responded responded Yes the building is currently served by public facilities and services the business will not impact the oper operation or the capacity of these systems you agree agree agree will the development and operation of the you of the use create an excessive additional requirements at public cost for facilities and services will be detrimental to the economic welfare of the community uh staff responded no it is not anticipated that the use will create additional public costs for the community facilities or Services due to its size and location in an existing building do we agree have adequate measures been taken to minimize traffic ingestion in the public streets and provide for adequate in onsite circulation of traffic um parking and loading spaces uh staff responded Yes uh the business does not uh appear to be of sufficient size to generate traffic congestion there is also adequate space to safely accommodate business traffing and parking we agree agree agree will the use result in the destruction loss or damage of natural Scenic or historic features of the major importance of major importance to the community staff responded no the use will not impact natural Scenic or historic features within the community agree agree have impacts such as noise odor hours of AC ity outdoor lighting and sight pollution been sufficiently addressed to mitig um to mitigate impacts on nearby uses uh staff responded Yes the proposed business will not generate odor have excessive outdoor lighting or provide sight pollution the applicant will be responsible for controlling the volume and amount of business noise uh per city code requirements the hours of operation uh appear reasonable okay thank you do we agree agree agree I follow up again sorry it's right this is the time could we clarify again the hours of operation I know I think something was added to it and just so we all hear what they are today okay it's um my understanding that the um hours of operation are on weekdays 3:00 to 8:00 and on weekends on Saturday it's 10 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Sundays it's 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. okay guess I'm fine with that do we agree agree agree am I I'm on 13 now lost okay will the use be require will the use be required adhere to any additional criteria outlined in section 9.2 for the proposed use uh staff responded no the proposed use meets the requirements set forth in section 9.2g uh 12 through 13 and I would note I think we skipped over 12 yeah right which one did I skip 12 12 oh thank you do the Ben benefits of the use outweigh the potential negative effects of the surrounding work community staff responded Yes the use provides a different form of entertainment that should outweigh any negative effects and we agree agree agree thank you thank you for being patient with my losing my way Chad did you have something else you wanted to say we good I don't know if you if you all had the chance to see it but Chad did have the layout over on the overhead projector um so you put it on there real quickly and just and I would note too in this uh goes to the City Council next Tuesday we'll also include uh the site layout that Mr OAS has provided okay why don't you explain it for the benefit yeah so right here we're looking at adding um fine five lanes for ax throwing and then back over here uh two two of the ra and could you show us uh where the the new and existing doors are I still don't quite know what the front of the building will change so here's here's the current layout can see that okay yeah and then what we're proposing to is is adding the the blue in the front oh to the left of that will be the new okay okay is that it for questions does anyone have any more questions before I close the public hearing okay I'm closing the public hearing portion of the meeting I'd like to call for a motion I'll make a motion to recommend approval for with conditions uh the application of Chad and John on behalf of jmg rentals Incorporated to allow an indoor commercial entertainment recreation use on property zoned I2 General industrial zoning district and located on the property legally described as Lot B of lot one and lot B2 block 3 north of Center Street Center of city of New W Brown County Minnesota second okay I have a motion and a second is there any further discussion if not all in favor I I opposed when will this appear at the council uh this will go to the city council February 4th next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. thank you good luck next item on the agenda for public hearing is okay I'm going to mess this up Mary charte simple lot division yeah this is um not a public hearing but somehow it got um included in this particular section did you want to go to the zonings or or do you want to stay here um why don't we continue with the other public hearings and then we'll okay so I'm going to go to the zoning then yeah all right okay next on the remind me please to come back to next item on the agenda then is the zoning Amendment temporary signs okay uh the request here is a public hearing an ordinance Amendment uh to section 10.5 of appendix a the city zoning ordinance uh to the city code to update temporary signage requirements the applicant uh is the new home city council uh property owner legal address and street address are not applicable here there is not a deadline for a decision on this matter um there are no land use uh designations no surrounding land use uh designations but the zoning uh designation this would this temporary sign uh update or Amendment would apply to all zoning districts uh in the city of new uh notice of the hearing was published in the January 18th uh 2025 uh edition of the newm journal to date we have not received any public com comment regarding this amendment um in your packets and I'll pull it up on the computer screen here um we actually have uh the amended uh language um that we're that we're proposing um gosh we having computer troubles tonight um and I just want to read that for the record okay we're getting there so in uh in section 10.5 of uh appendix a that is all of our sign regulations uh in this in the zoning ordinance um and within that section there are number of different areas where we are making these amendments to um basically try and clarify those uh temporary sign regulations and then also make sure there's not any mystery as to how how else they apply to a permanent sign or things like that so the first um uh amendment being proposed is actually in the table it's table 10.5 and the only change in this table uh is the underlined word here so previously in our zoning ordinance it said all signs in the business districts may be illuminated so that would include both both permanent and temporary signs we wanted the ordinance to reflect that the only signs that are allowed to be illuminated uh in those business districts would be permanent signs um so that was the only change in in that table as you go further on uh in your packets uh 10.5 d2a um that's where we start to really specify the different um regulations regarding temporary signs um previously uh what we had in this in this section was um a small part on uh temporary signs in all zoning districts um and then we had one provision regarding residential zoning districts we wanted to make sure that um we added language that uh said temporary signs is permitted over and above typical signage uh limitations on property uh for permanent signage subject to the the following restrictions one it couldn't be illuminated um two it be placed on the premises as described in the permit application uh three uh it be displayed for no longer than one continuous 30-day period from the date of issuance to the per of the permit and then four only be displayed uh for a maximum of one month within a 4-month period so what we were trying to do here is to say this simply these can't be illuminated um it needs to be on the sign of on the property of which it was permitted so you couldn't take a temporary sign out uh for City Hall way on the north end of town um it can only be displayed for a continuous one continuous 30-day period and that can that 30-day period can only be once basically per quarter um and then specifically in our um previous language we didn't specify whether or not temporary signage was over and above permanent signage if you if you would have read it it would have inferred that both temporary and permanent signage would be added together just to count for all signs on the property um so here we're stating that the temporary signage is over and above what's allowed on that property um for permanent signage I should say um we further clarified that uh in all districts you can have one sign up to 12 square ft um should be allowed over the base allowance uh when the subject property is for sale uh such signs shall not be displayed in the public right of way you can also have one additional sign of up to 12 square ft um over the base uh sign allowances when the subject property is has an active building permit and construction activity is going on in accordance with the uh issued permit um such signs shall be removed when the construction activity is substantially complete or ceased within one or more week so we wanted to provide clarification there uh in residential zoning districts one sign up to 64 square feet in surface area shall be allowed over base sign allowances for a group of properties created through a final plat process such sh signs shall be no more than 8 ft in height or less than 2 feet above grade so these uh you typically see when the brand new uh development is created through the platting process Dakota west had them we've had add them up in the industrial park uh as well I would note we did receive one comment on that that maybe we should consider clarifying language on a triggering mechanism that says you have to remove that um you know maybe something for the Planning Commission to think about what would be that triggering mechanism uh to have that sign removed uh in commercial and Industrial zoning districts uh you can have one sign up to 32 s ft in surface area with a maximum of two surface sures that shall be allowed over the base sign allowances um such a sign shall not exceed 8 ft in height at ground location uh at the ground location of the sign and no more than one uh sign shall be displayed per business the reason the reason we use the term per business is you could have a situation where it's one single property multiple businesses on the property we have strip malls in both the North and South into town this would allow for uh that situation to have one temporary sign of up to 32 square fet per business on that property um uh we further clarified uh under banners uh that banners uh attached to buildings and walls shall be considered permanent sides signs all other banners shall adhere to the requirements for temporary signage we have a couple examples in new Al where uh their businesses where they have um uh Banner consistently daily 365 uh of the year but they're changing that um when we're taking a look at that we wouldn't consider that to be a temporary sign rather it's a permanent sign and uh counts towards their permanent sign allowances on that property so we just wanted to make that clarification language um the proposed amendments are being recommended by staff to further clarify temporary sign regulations in the city of news uh zoning ordinance we had three attachments uh the proposed ordinance um is in your packet that was drafted by the City attorney um we have temporary sign examples I'll pull those up in the screen so here are just a number of uh different temporary signs that we've we've seen within the community um there are a lot of different types of temporary signs um but here are just a few examples uh and then we have the findings of facts uh supporting or denying uh a zoning text or map amendment I would note the reason that this is before you today is that we did have a situation where someone placed temp a temporary sign and we were trying to determine how to deal with this particular situation and what we found is that our ordinance was inadequate in helping us answer a number of questions and so that's why this was put together and it's you know we're presenting it to you today joh can I can we go back to the banners and one thing that I see always you know for banners so how do we do we have to have a special permit for banners say Center Street and Broadway there's a fence that has uh banners continuously say for different uh the residents well it's banners for say like State Street Theater to to uh to the legion to other activities in the community how does that get addressed does that relate to this in any capacities those would be considered temporary signs so are they so they're permit they're permited basically or they have to get a permit to put the sign there they should be yes so he's only allowed one every four months that's the way the the rule reads so so we don't enforce it or it hasn't been or it hasn't typically we've been uh with temporary signs in particular it's been on a complaint basis is how we've been handling those so once we receive complaint uh we go out and enforce what is in our zoning regulations and we felt um part of clarifying this is we didn't have really good uh specifications on how we were going to regulate it if we did receive a complaint and that's why we are presenting this to you today so if this is updated moving forward and if there's a complaint you'll have the tools that you need to address whatever the complaint might be yeah do you have a question yeah I'm wondering about that specific piece of property um is there um a provision for getting a variance to allow those banners to be up more frequently or more often they tend to change whenever the theaters got a new production or it sort of becomes the advertising for the theater it's kind of offsite as well so uh they would have the opportunity to apply for some sort of variant I would note that that property is in the B1 z z zoning District so it's a residential property yes but it's in a commercial zoning District okay I wouldn't not that I want to be a spoiler here but it's it's like basically 501c3's is it not that is doing the advertising on that that's what they're using for their and yeah and I agree with that you know it gets to be a lot of signs but if you start enforcing that Banner Ordinance do you enforce the other ordin ordinances that are in town that said it's roasted chicken night or it's all of the other banners that are constantly hanging off of businesses again we would do that on a complaint basis if we would receive a complaint complaint about that we' we'd go out and take the the proper steps to enforce uh this regulation at this time uh we don't require those folks to come in and and uh apply for for a permit I do have one question regarding um the all zoning districts um it's in the beginning of this part it's number four only displayed for a maximum of one month within a 4mon period if I was putting up a temporary Banner or sign that said building for rent do can I only have that sign up for a one month out of a quarter it would it would be our intent that those things were dealt with um let's call it uh separately that those for sale types of things um would be separate from commercial advertisement let's say the the way the code is written um um the um the four sale signs were kind of a a separate category and there was separate provision uh for them um and so we're really talking about two different um types of things one of the examples is a for sale sign though that that say that again it would we're use there's a for sale sign there that's being displayed I think it was perhaps more the the type of signage the size of the signage uh one of my questions is um all right so political signs that people put in their yard um school pride signs that people put in their yard all these things would be uh regulated under this temporary signage I would I would note that temporary signage is over and above what's allowed for the uh for permanent signs on the property in residential zoning districts we allow up to six square feet of signage on the property so if you had a sign um you could you could tell us that this is a you know our permanent sign and this is my six square feet that I'm using I would also note that when it comes to political signage there's a certain time period that's prescribed in State Statute in which the um local jurisdictions have no authority to basically regulate that signage um after outside of that particular period of time you could still put up a political sign it just would have to comply with our requirements well there you know the Human Rights Commission has the signs that are permanently on people's yards so right now we allow six square feet of signage in in a residential zoning District did you say we do we will do variances for special circumstances we we have variance procedures that um basically if if anybody wants to vary from what is written in our zoning ordinance if they follow those procedures they have the right to apply for a variance I just think about like when the business I operated burned down we had a banner up for this is when we're opening and we had a banner for hiring staff and that's a special circumstance obviously build a business isn't going to go through do that on a regular basis but if you do then in that circumstance you may need extra signage you know it's not like roasted chicken tonight and that could stay up for 30 days that's understandable okay but I may I so just to clarify for myself and maybe others if I have a um you know Human Rights Commission sign in my front yard it's under six square ft these temporary sign regulations don't even apply to that I'm simply allowed that right um and you know if I want to say I love blue sky and as long as it's under six square feet I can say that um I think some of us might have been thinking the these new regulations say you can only have out that out there for 30 days and a quarter and that doesn't that's not true right no thank you for that clarification that that's a good assessment one of the uh problems with the um changes that are being proposed is is that the um you know we had a list of changes for temporary signs and there were about eight of them and we're just one through eight and the attorney took those eight and put them into our existing signage um ordinance and so a lot of the things that John repeated is actually that um language that's already there um and so there's some new stuff but there's a lot of old stuff as well could I follow up on so some new stuff related to the I guess I'd call it a subdivision development sign it's the it's the big board that a developer will use to sell off his individual lots and you know it write sold on a lot as it sells off and when he gets to the end of it with this new regulation proposed new regulations there really isn't any uh event or timeline to get rid of that sign and I think it would be better if we put something on that it said I don't know within two weeks or 30 days or something after that final L is sold this this big sign needs to go away from that property yeah we currently have that type of provision in our with our commercial and so we it would be easy enough to add it to our um to to these types no it's it's it's the um uh or signage for um that's for sale for properties that are for sale for rent whatever we have that provision so we could take that provision and added to this as well we have something similar when someone's done with their Contracting job on a site that after a certain amount of days that needs to be removed that top right corner picture that wouldn't be allowed with with what you're proposing correct only one of those banners would be allowed right one of the banners like the top right corner picture it shows a whole slew of them y only one of them will be allow one of them up to 32 ft so in case of uh car sales at the you know say Jensen motor puts up three of those that's outside of the ordinance the way this uh these new Provisions read They're allowed one one temporary sign up to 32 square feet do our businesses know the current Zoning for everything for the signage temporary and stuff like that um or have we how do we how would we deter determine that um I mean these sign regulations uh were first of all adopted in 2022 and I felt like there was enough public comment period to to address that we didn't hear anything on it um these new uh regulations this is the first time they've been brought to the public um so I'm assuming there will be maybe some information in the newspaper regarding this matter and then it's also going to the city council twice um be reviewed as as well what did you say about 2022 cuz there was sign regulations in place prior to that there was but when we adopted the new regulations that was in 2022 got it I was aware there was sign but I don't remember how it was brought to my attention I think maybe the city called me over something with banner I don't recall well it's come to my attention several times on different commissions because people hang signs because very few people understand that yeah that that's controlled it's like you know painting your building downtown early you have to almost come because it's a historic place you have to come before yeah which and very few people understand that or or Know It new new business of people coming to town right so but it's I it's easily handled it's nothing that I mean you're not fined or taken to the Woodshed or anything it's just a right right same with this when I was made aware of this of the sign regulations they just called and I mean it wasn't a it wasn't a negative thing no I'm wondering if once every four months is is a little overly strict for a business well that's what I was thinking if you had a business and then it fell through and you wanted to put another sign up that was where I was going with that if you needed to repeat the sign in within four that four months is sorry are you just to clarify here um I think I heard two different things um to clarify um chair you're saying that if the business shut down and a new business opened up or didn't even come to fruition say I rented this space out and and it fell through and then we needed to resign or or put something up or or the business changed in in that period of time can we or a help wanted sign want good yeah any signage that you want to put up it may occur again within four months okay because the situation has changed right or like she Bobby just brought up a help wanted grams at a temporary signage sh front and two locations entries for several years is that a permanent sign now Perman right so these are great questions one in the 3M situation they're allowed a fair amount of signage because of the amount of Street Frontage that they have I don't think they come close to meeting that maximum amount so that wouldn't be a concern but that's one way we could approach this is to look at does that fit within the total sign area allowed on the property uh if it doesn't meet that criteria then we would have to take another look at it and um see if this is something kind of special circumstance and then work with those Property Owners yeah I think it's important to remember that um these properties already have the right place signage and there are you know standards for that so it's um you know and they they may be under what those standards are well I guess is is the answer to my question with the four months thing um if it's a second sign and I've come back with it are you going to wait till you get a complaint to come and enforce that sign you know I'm not asking you how to break the law I'm just saying how can I break the law no we if it comes to our attention whether we're driving by or we receive a complaint on it we'll act upon it I would also note that with any change that we typically recommend to you um in our Zone in ordinance we look what other communities are doing and the one month out of four months was something that we frequently saw okay and we're and we're always looking at communities that generally are our size so I'll be said are you is your question answered it is it it's just difficult because businesses have so many different situations that could occur and I think once every 4 months is is pretty strict for all the situations that could occur for a business how many how many businesses so you said like with 3m they are not hitting their maximum footage for for their sign how many businesses are are in that situation where they have a little bit of leeway because they're not using their maximum I I would say uh let me I don't have an exact number for you yeah I don't expect but in when we um I think it's been since zoning ordinances have been adopted in the city of New Alm think we've only had two signed variance requests to go over and above the allowed amount so that would indicate to me that they're either at that threshold or below the threshold okay I I help wanted is a big one that I think of we I don't want to hurt businesses by saying well you can't put that sign up it's once every four months and they're struggling to get staff or you know all the different situations that could occur there's there's a lot of them that we're not even thinking about here okay go for it um I I think I understand the Help Wanted situation and maybe that's covered in businesses are allowed a certain amount of their Windows to be covered in signage and and as long as you haven't maxed out what you're allowed on site you can put whatever you want in their business oriented as long as it doesn't cover more of your window than it's allowed and you don't have more than your front of your building would support so it doesn't I don't think it sounds like a problem though I'm not a business owner so I I can't say that for sure for not not every business is going to want to do that I mean 3M for example if they have something in their window you know I'm not going to see that I'm not going to see that unless I go into the business you know so I don't I don't know that's sufficient for a lot of businesses I guess I was thinking downtown you're right I think it's more answered by what John said if they're not hitting their maximum um for their sign and they still have some leeway there help yeah Help Wanted signs aren't typically you know six feet long or whatever so so I think it would be addressed there are there any other questions otherwise I'm going to move on to the finding of fax form if everyone is ready okay are you ready John yeah in your opinion does the proposed amendment correct an error in the original text or map uh staff responded no there was not a mistake in the texture map that precipitated this proposed changed is everyone agree agree okay in your opinion does the proposed amendment address needs Arisen arising from the changing condition itions Trends or facts affecting the subject property in surrounding area staff responded Yes uh the use of temporary signs has seen an increase in the recent past and has generated questions regarding the regulation uh it's the intent of this zoning Amendment uh to provide clarifying language in the zoning ordinance with regards to location size and duration of temporary signs everyone agree agree in your opinion is a proposed amendment consistent with achieving the goals and objectives outlined in the comprehensive plan staff responded Yes this amendment provides more clarification on temporary sign regulation in the city of New Alm providing clear and concise zoning regulations is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan does everyone agree agree okay is there any further discussion before I close the public hearing part portion of this meeting and we call for a vote uh the only thing I would ask is that if you're wanting to provide further clarifying language uh regarding the large residential signs for development could you put that in the motion with with an amendment to that motion understood may I move you may I would like to close the public hearing portion of the meeting and then you may call then you may move um I'd like to uh move that we recommend approval of the amendment as as outlined in the staff Report with the additional language that the um large I guess we'll call them development residential development signs be removed within 30 days of sale of the last lot I'll second I have a motion in a second is there any other questions if not all in favor I I opposed thank you next item on the agenda is the zoning Amendment lot area requirements in the i1 zoning District staff report okay uh this is a public hearing uh for an ordinance Amendment and uh SEC amending section 6.2 the i1 development standards and section 13.1 uh rules of appendix a uh of the City Zoning or ordinance uh to the city code applicant is the New Alm city council um the zoning designation in which this amendment would apply uh would be to the i1 planned industrial zoning District um uh public hearing notice was published in the journal on January 18th in the 2025 uh to dat we have not received comment regarding this proposed amendment um Amendment uh amended sections of the zoning ordinance would include uh the following one section 6. uh two would establish a second set of development standards I'm going to pull that up for everybody to see that second set would be uh the column labeled grid lot and pattern um in the i1 planned industrial zoning District uh section 13.2 defines the terms grid lot and grid pattern um and the proposed definitions are as follows uh grid lot would be a parcel of land within a legal subdivision composed of two sets of lines each set drawn to to a definite pattern and intersecting at uh intersecting the other at right angles to form a grid and then grid pattern would be a type of City plan in which the network composed of two sets of streets each uh set drawn to a definite pattern consisting of uniformly spaced parallel streets intersecting the other at right angles also known as a grid plan uh a grid Street plan or a grid iron plan uh for reference in new home the grid pattern can generally be considered the uh area bounded by 20th South uh South Street uh extension on the South Side South Pain Street on the West Side Center Street on the South Side North Garden Street on the west side and 20th North Street uh on the North side North Water Street on the east side eth North Street on the North side and North Front Street and South Front Street on the east side and ending at 20th South Street um that grid pattern uh if you're familiar with seeing the original City plat that is clearly laid out uh in the original City plat um that grid pattern of the city including outlots um the purpose of this zoning Amendment uh uh the reason this is being recommended by staff is to correct an error in the existing ordinance and to take into account existing property and their configurations in the grid pattern in new historically grid properties in the grid pattern area of the city are smaller in size than newly platted undeveloped i1 zoned areas and um we provided uh both or we provided the proposed zoning Amendment language um but I I think this map here attachment uh to can be useful this area in light blue is the only area i1 uh zoned area within the grid pattern of new Al in which this zoning ordinance Amendment would affect this is on the North End of new WM you can see 20th Street North is or 20th North Street is the boundary on the North side and then we have uh 12 North on the south side with the railroad uh being the boundary on the West and then uh essentially the bike path to the east um so following uh a public hearing the planning commissioner shall adopt findings of facts and recommendations using each of the review criteria outlined in section 2.4 B5 recommendations and decisions on zoning Amendment shall be based on the consideration of the following review criteria a whether the proposed amendment corrects an error in the original text or map B whether the proposed amendment addresses needs arising from a changing condition Trend or fact fact affecting the subject property and surrounding area and see whether the proposed amendment uh is consistent with achieving the goals and objectives outlined in the comprehensive plan uh the city council May adopt the amendment or any part of uh the amendment in such a form as deems advisable a decision on any request shall be accompanied by the findings of fact as part of the approval process the city council will direct the City attorney to prepare an ordinance identifying the changes uh to be made in appendix a city council will conduct two considerations of the ordinance following the second consideration City will vote on the ordinance Amendment the amendment requires uh the approval of four fifths of all members of the city council and the amendment is also effective 30 days after its uh final publication in the journal so for planning cons uh commission consideration uh does the Planning Commission believe that proposed amendments comply with review criteria outlined in appendix a and are there additional or fewer requirements of Planning Commission would like to see incorporated into the amendment so um staff would recommend approval of the zoning amendments uh described in the proposed ordinance this ordinance would allow staff to deal with existing properties more effectively by establishing a second set of i1 development standards and providing definitions for the terms grid lot and grid pattern in the city of new home zoning ordinance there's two motions uh one to recommend approval of the uh ordinance Amendment and one to recommend denile the ordinance Amendment and that concludes the staff report are there any questions for this before we begin the finding of facts I have just one I'm wondering what what the purpose is for setting a maximum size on the lot in the the grid pattern part of the of the city so um I think to provide clarification on this what we're really trying to do is provide a minimum size up to 20,000 Square F feet they can have a SI they can have a lot that's over 20,000 Square ft in the grid pattern but if it's in that 12,000 to 20,000 range these less restrictive uh zoning uh regulations would apply I I would also note that uh prior to the adoption of the new zoning ordinance in the i1 zone our minimum lot area was 12,000 Square ft so what we're doing is we're reverting back to what it previously was and um we've done that with a number of different zoning districts um and we've had a number of amendments that we've uh approved recently correct yes would it be confusing let's say I own a lot in that in the um grid pattern i1 area and I've got a 30,000 square foot lot do I automatically assume I have an if I look at this this this table I wouldn't assume that I get to go under the standard the standard regulations that I would have to fit them under the under this under the grid lot pattern is it confusing to anybody besides me um evid not it's okay this is the same um this is this is the same way we've configured the patterns where we've made adjustments to lot areas with the other zoning District so we're being consistent in in that manner um you know what we're saying is that you know your minimum lot area um we're reducing from 20,000 which is what it currently is down to 12,000 MH and in reality there isn't a Max really no cuz it's 20,000 or larger okay I follow I follow did that answer your question yes it did thank you okay there any other questions I want to move on to the finding of facts form then you ready John yeah in your opinion does the proposed amend correct an error in the original text or M uh uh step responded uh no there was not a mistake in the texture map that precipitated this uh proposal change do we agree agree in your opinion does the proposed amendment address needs arising from changing conditions Trends or facts affecting the subject property and surrounding area uh staff responded Yes the change arises from the fact uh that was not considered when the new zoning ordinance was adopted the new zoning ordinance did not take into consideration smaller i1 proper properties and the grid pattern locations the city do we agree agree age in your opinion is the proposed amendment consistent with achieving the goals and objectives outlined in the comprehensive plan uh staff responded Yes the amendment will allow grid Lots in the i1 zoning District to develop uh to develop that are greater than uh 12,000 Square ft uh but less than 12 20,000 s ft the i1 zoning District Amendment um and additional definitions of grid pattern and grid lot aligned with the comprehensive plan industrial uh zoning industrial districts are there any other questions before I close the public hearing portion of this meeting okay I'm closing the public hearing portion of the meeting and calling for a motion please on page three well I'm not hearing anybody so I'm going to offer a motion to approve recommended approval the ordinance number 2025 to two to be determined making arrangements in appendix a of the new Al city code on second I have have a motion in a second are there any other questions before I call I have a motion second all in favor I opposed okay this goes before the city council how many times twice go twice uh the first reading will be February 4th okay next Tuesday thank you now I'm going to move back to the Mary because this is not a public hearing correct you Mary chartier um simple lot division okay the um legal description of the property is lot six block 30 North of Center Street street address is 923 North Valley Street property is located east of North Valley Street and south of 10th North Street deadline for decision is March 26 2025 land use designation according to the comprehensive plan is low down City residential um you find that same land use in the comprehensive plan north east south and west we also have industrial to the east zoning designation is rt2 which is single and two Family Residence District we have the same zoning to the north east south and west to the east we also have I2 which is General industrial district uh the current site land use it's vacant although along its South property line of lot six there is a single family dwelling and garage current area land uses um are all single family dwellings in all four directions to the east we also have the railroad and then schaer crane uh notice none is required public comment none has been received to date um a little bit about this particular request the applicant is the owner of lot five six and seven a block 30 North there are two single family dwellings on the three lots one residence is located on lot 7 and the second residence is located on lot five but as I indicated it is fairly close to the South property line a lot six both residents have detached garages the existing Lots all three of them have dimensions of 50 by 165 so they're typical grid iron Lots total lot area of 8,250 square ft applicant is proposing to divide lot six into two equal parcels and attach the new Parcels to the adjoining Lots this would establish two lots that are 75 ft wide um the proposed legal descriptions would be as follows it would be the north half of lot six and it would be the South half of lot six there are required setbacks but none would impact this lot Division and the staff has not been advised of any utility conflicts caused by the proposed um lot division there are five attachments there's the applicant letter there is a site location map zoning map a simple lot division map and then ground level photos staff would recommend approval of the simple lot division with actually it's not one condition I'd like to change that three conditions since it complies with city code requirements the um proposed conditions would be as follows the applicant will record the resolution authorizing the simple lot division with the brown County's reporter's office and that is when it is effective um the second uh condition would be the north half of lot six will be combined with the adjoining lot seven of block 30 North of Center Street to form one parcel of property for tax and building purposes the reason we do that is because um one half of lot six is not a legal lot in the city of New Al so that's why it has to to be attached to the adjoining lot and that is what the property owner wants to accomplish um the third condition is that the South half of lot six will be combined with the adjoining lot five of block 30 North of Center Street to form one parcel of property for tax and building purposes that would conclude the staff report thank you are there any questions so what this currently is one or owner once they're combined it doesn't go back they can't come back and say we want to split them back off and make a I guess if they wanted to come back and um you know establish three lots there yeah they probably they could do that are there any other questions if not I'd call for a motion I'll make a motion uh to recommend approval with three conditions the simple lot division of lot 6 block 30 North of Center Street city of New Brown County Minnesota with the new legal descriptions to read as follows the North North 1 half of lot 6 block 30 North of Center Street city of New Brown County Minnesota the South 1/ half lot of lot 6 block 30 North of Center Street city of New Al Brown County Minnesota have a second I second it I have a motion in a second are there any further questions hearing none all in favor I opposed motion is carried moving on to reports uh first report is the adult use cannabis regulations uh the Cannabis presentation from um January of 20125 and the Cannabis and hemp businesses and Zoning memorandum City attorney so we go to the first one for now let me just uh pull it up here view I don't know what's going on with the computer tonight it's pretty rough um it's taking a long way to long time to load too so it pulling up on your computers yeah yes yep let me cancel out here and see if I can get it guess it's one of those kind of technical nights so while this is uh pulling up um first of all I want to thank these folks for waiting here uh this whole time they've been very patient and they have listened through the whole meeting um but uh the state of Minnesota in 2023 um adopted or um created a law that allows adult use cannabis um in the state of Minnesota and uh with that uh there are certain things uh that the city uh can can regulate or participate in um regarding this law um but I would note that I don't know why this isn't pulling up the planning commission's role in this matter is not to make a decision whether or not the the legality of adult use cannabis in the state of Minnesota our role here for the Planning Commission is to provide guidance on um provide guidance on both uh where what the use types should be defined as in in New Alm and where we would allow or not allow those different types of cannabis related uses uh in the city so I just want I want to make that clear from from the GetGo um and you know due to time here uh I'm I'm wondering if you want me to kind of go through this a little bit quicker and maybe summarize a little bit more okay um that depends on them do you want a quick summary or do you want a main here to see if you guys have any questions or concerns okay so we intend on starting a ret location in and we want make communicating with the city concerns questions come on come on up here if you our intent is please state your name and address please glener 37055 561st Avenue lafette so our intent is to start a retail location in new w we will be cultivating in the city of Lafayette we have a building secured that we will be doing that in and we would like to be a part of downtown and but we also want to be on brand with new W you know what and we just kind of want to make sure and see if anybody has any concerns or questions just kind of open a communication line so that's pretty much it if you guys have anything okay okay then if it's okay with the commission is the commission opposed to an abbreviated version or do you want the lengthy version of John's presentation good I'm fine with abbreviate but I have one quick question so so if so if I go to the bar and have it have drink I'm okay going and driving home because I'm under the legal limit if I'm going to go to your establishment and what am I going to do am I going to smoke am I going to eat a gummy is there multiple options um so there would be we would intend for there to be in an area which would be separated as per the rules that you could consume but that would be not smoking anything so it would be mostly Edibles so it would be up to us like we can't serve intoxicated people and try to make sure that people are okay with what don't want to let somebody have too much in drive so it's just like drinking like there's a limit yeah I mean yeah exactly okay so does Edibles include liquids um Edibles would be consumed yeah we would um be serving if if if the business plan and the state doesn't change any more rules our intent would be to have like gummies and chocolates and um drinks these aren't things that you would have to to um these aren't things that you would have to consume there certain things like once you open if you buy something with the intent to consume it there you can't take that item out the door so I can't sell you a drink you can't take it outside and give it to somebody but yeah we're let open bottle one whatever yeah is there smoking too or is that not there is you can smoke cannabis but that's not something that we would want on premise you know so we'd prefer that that's more bothersome to people people if you kind of understand like The Vaping and stuff it smells a little bit like strawberries or whatever that's kind of fine but some people don't care for the Cannabis smell and we want to make sure that we are keeping with newal and not trying to degrade anything so there'll be vaping but no smoking there would be vaping would be outside and smoking be outside downtown as per the regulations that new has we wouldn't allow anything in the building itself gotta that's mly does anybody else have any questions before do and is everyone okay with the abbreviated version yes yes thank you so much no problem um I would note that I I I'll give an abbreviated version but the in the beginning of this presentation there's a number of terms and those terms are things that we'd probably want to have as definitions in our zoning ordinance and uh use those ter terms that we Define as to where it's permitted or not permitted within certain zoning districts in New Alm so I I I I think it's important to at least note the terms we have a micro business that can cultivate cannabis and manufacture cannabis products and hemp products and package those products for sale or C uh to customers and other licensed cannabis business they can only operate a single retail location these these uh terms are coming uh straight out of the state uh law so a meso whoops a meso business May cultivate cannabis and manufacture cannabis products and hemp products um but they may operate up to three locations uh retail locations if I understand the difference and correct me if from wron guys is that a micro business you can apply for the license and they can essentially grant that license uh a meso business is through the lottery system yeah loty system uh from the state so you're not guaranteed a license in that type of situation uh cultivator May cultivate cannabis and package such cannabis products for sale to other licensed cannabis businesses manufacturer uh uh manufactures cannabis products and hemp products uh and packages them for sale uh to a licensed cannabis retailer retailers may sell immature cannabis plants seedlings cannabis products hemp products and other products authorized by law to customers and patients wholesalers um they're allowed to sell again uh immature cannabis plants seed seedlings uh and other things that the retailer would um from another cannabis uh licensed business wholesalers may also import hemp derived consumer products at lower potency hemp Edibles transporter May transport immature cannabis uh plants and seedlings products and hemp products to licensed cannabis business um testing facilities May obtain in uh test in cannabis plants and seedlings and products from a licensed cannabis business event organizers uh May organize a temporary cannabis event lasting no more than 4 days um and delivery services uh May purchase cannabis and related products from retailers or other cannabis businesses uh with retail endorsements for transport and delivery to customers then there's a medical cannabis uh definition and then the lower potency hemp edible manufacturer and retailer and again if I'm not mistaken those bottom two are already uh were previously Allowed by state law before this cannabis law came in into effect um so we as a local government have uh various means of oversight and regulating uh the Cannabis um laws uh or or rules in the city of New but we can't outright um ban and cannabis uh related businesses uh in the in the city of newm Beyond what's uh provided by inst state law and that state law says if you have over 12,500 residents within your community you you you basically Can't Ban it within the within the city um there's kind of a this is this will be kind of like a two-step process okay um if I understand correctly when they apply to the state for their license um there's a number of things that they have to to work through on the state side of things the state will then call and verify that they're allowed in a certain zoning District um before they issue the license to anybody who wishes to um participate in these types of businesses so they're already doing a zoning check before they even get their license from the state um if they've picked a location um uh local governments May issue uh more than the minimum number of registrations so we have to allow up to one Reg registration per uh 12,500 people this was brought to the city council a week or so ago and at a work session they were um discussing the number of two to three um retailers um within the city um then we have uh how taxes and um and there are uh timing restrictions where the city uh May prohibit retail sales of cannabis between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10: a.m. Monday through Saturday 9:00 p.m. and 2 a.m. the following day um again I think that would be handled on the licensing side which be covered by our finance uh office so more the the zoning and land use uh part of this discussion so in the in the law um they provide uh buffer guidelines and it says that state law does not restrict how local governments conduct uh its zoning designation designation for cannabis businesses except that they may prohibit the operation of cannabis businesses within a th000 feet of a school 500 feet of a daycare Residential Treatment Facility or other attraction within a public park that is regularly used by miners including playgrounds and athletic fields the City generally considers the entire Bark Park boundary as uh regularly used by miners uh therefore the park boundaries were used to identify buffer M uh buffer areas within uh the maps that we're going to show you here so um we have a key here of all uh both parks or Parks daycares and schools so the daycares are in the light blue um squares parks in green and then schools in that kind of yellow orange color and um you can see uh that covers a fairly large uh uh portion of the city of New W uh when you start to uh add those buffers up um so this map is is busy um and can I ask a quick question what happens if they go into one of the spots where they fit and then a daycare decides to open up right so great question um it actually the daycare would have to take that into consideration we wouldn't Force the Cannabis um okay business to move okay good question this map is uh just like that previous map but we took the buffers off and we took uh some of those labels off and you can see in those uh the red areas uh are commercial districts um the blue areas would be industrial that purple area in the middle is our B4 downtown uh zoning District where this could potentially be allowed and then on the south side again we have both in uh Industrial and Commercial districts where it would meet these buffer guidelines where the Planning Commission could consider permitting or uh regulating the different types of cannabis use uh businesses um the state uh office of can cannabis management it's often referred to as ocm has provided some guidelines to local governments um of which we pulled almost all of our information from to to provide to you today um but what they one thing they did provide in some of their guidance was uh this table that you see right here and what they're trying to show you is that the endorsed activity we refer to is in new Al as the use um and what they're trying to show is where are those uses to finded uses typically allowed or what type of zoning districts would you maybe consider them in your community so this just provides some guidance uh for the Planning Commission uh to take a look at um this is sort of a a repeat a little bit of a repeat um I would note that there are compliance checks on uh on cannabis or hemp business holding a retail registration at least once uh per calendar year so there are there are checks on that um so propose zoning uses in new W uh the office of can cannabis management recommends that cannabis product be zoned similarly to El alol um and production and sales so in general the city allows for sales of alcohol and all business uh production in uh industrial and production with sales as conditional use permits uh in the industrial district I would also note that we've done something similar for like Brew Pub for instance you can produce on site sell on site uh in in the downtown area or commercial districts um this zoning pattern would seem like it would also work well uh for the production and sales of cannabis products uh in the city of New the definitions that we provided here are are identical or uh what we're trying to do is mirror those definitions uh that we provided in the beginning of this presentation we've also taken a look at a number of different zoning ordinances or proposed Z zoning ordinances to make sure that these definitions are in line with what other communities are are doing as well so we would like to use actually Define all of these terms uh in the zoning ordinance um once we get to that uh part and this table um is I just pulled our uh our use table from our zoning ordinance and then um filled in where we allow these different types of alcohol use types up on top so we can see where we allow those types of things or conditionally allow those types of things and then I put the different types or the different types of cannabis potential cannabis uh businesses or uses below and an italics on the left hand side um and then um filled in just a few places uh where these things could be considered uh permitted or conditionally permitted um now one thing uh that I would note about this table I have nothing in the B4 zoning District prior to that we were taking a look at two locations downtown um and whether or not they met the definition uh to require a buffer okay and uh when this went out to the Planning Commission um we hadn't fully vetted those and found out that uh the two that we were discussing didn't qualify as a school and didn't qualify as an inpatient treatment facility so we removed those from the map um but we didn't uh change that that table yet so that's for the Planning Commission to provide some guidance on um you can see we'd want to put cannabis Manufacturing in industrial areas um same with hemp manufacture and wholesale cannabis retail um we we considered maybe permitting that in the B2 and B3 and now potentially uh the B4 and then conditionally permitted um in industrial districts and then Transportation Andor delivery uh as permitted in the I2 go ahead what's a brew pub a a brew pub think of like a micro Brewery uh where one of those biking things that are mobile well yeah no BR brw Pub they produce on site and they sell on site okay so it's staying on spot okay wouldn't um black cross be a that type of um operation where you can buy and you can it's produced there yeah that would be a Distillery micro wouldn't it though yeah yeah right but they allow that so actually Shell's Brewery right now has essentially a brew pub they sell on site uh products that they produce on the site any of those popup micro Brees are pretty much yeah the one in I think the closest one is probably sleepy ey I don't yeah sleepy ey and medelia both have uh small small breweries where they're both doing production and serving on site okay could you could you for my benefit I'm probably someone else's I don't know go back to the map and so I can thoroughly understand where B4 and B2 and B3 so right and just point out the areas for me please bright red yes here bright red is B3 okay that's our that's along the highway commercial District um two um there's a little bit right here there's also more B2 on North End kind of where former Dairy those areas this is seventh North okay and there's a B2 area where B outside of those buffer areas this in the purple uh would be the B4 or the downtown business district where uh outside of those buffer areas then as you go Center Street West um there's Al as well down here this is B3 commercial and then the dark blue uh is I2 so General industrial and then the light blue is i1 and Industrial okay and again this map shows those areas where there's potential for locating these businesses outside of the bu so if if so if I was going to open a shop in the business district downtown how is that not buffered because there's Park there's a park downtown uh you're you're talking about uh um yeah keyling house not necessarily keying house well that's part of it but there's also another little Park towards the alley was it is it on oh behind the chamber yeah with the little toys that's not a park yeah that's not a designated Park it's not designated it has Park equipment in it yeah but it's um it's not a city park it's not a city park the keyling house was included in this buffer M okay and German Park was and the BMX uh BMX track and skate park yes so that's why it's shortened down there for the purple for the downtown district correct what about um uet om is a I mean it's WR by keyling so that but it is that considered a school with the classes they have in in Al s home good question so all of the buffers that we created for this map we went on the state of Minnesota's website and determined whether or not they're an accredited school or okay a school that way same thing goes for daycares and in uh residential treatment facilities we tried to we tried to cross verify that with how they're licensed from the state of Minnesota okay yeah I would note that um we use the definitions and at least like for school that was in our zoning ordinance right okay okay so I can understand um where Canabis cultivation we might suggest putting it I understand Outdoors AOS how much space does it take to do um a retail amount of of growth I'm wondering why it is we we limit indoors not that I want to go everywhere but I'm just wondering why we limit indoors to the AOS zoning District the the growing operation yeah there's the two categories there's the outdoors and indoors and I understand the outdoors why it would be AOS I'm just trying to figure out why indoors would be AOS only as well great question I think what we're this is just staff putting uh up here but I think we were basically just trying to say the growing operation should be in the AOS whether it's indoors or Outdoors okay now again tonight is simply for discussion purposes so we're all have a better idea of what what's coming down the pike here we are going to have that special meeting that you should have all been notified about I hope you were notified about that uh on February 13th at 5:00 p.m. in which we'll be here 5:00 p.m. in which we'll be actually taking a look at uh drafted [Music] ordinance and that should be the only item on the agenda for that night theoretically are there any questions on this part um before we move to the second half well if you wouldn't mind um provide staff with some guidance on what you think we should do in the B4 or um is it something is there something unique that other communities are doing in the B4 that you can think of or it's like hours of operation or where they can you know I don't think many people are limiting this right right exactly everybody in the state is so it's uh I don't think many uh folks are limiting the hours of operations they're kind of viewing that similar to like you would a bar or establishment that can sell alcohol one thing uh since this is new um you know you the Planning Commission uh could consider something like a conditional use type permit rather than outright permitting it so you can have a further review process um like an interm permit I wouldn't I would I would not probably suggest an interm permit for the sole purpose uh that they're already in a a district where they're allowed to do retail okay um right how how do you mean so if I put in all the money to start a business we could then pull it back from them and say at a later date we're taking this back no I'm saying with a conditional use permit it it sticks with the property okay interim use permit is for a a specified duration and time five years then you can do another five years yep got it okay thank you now but with it correct me if I'm wrong because we've gone back through this conditional use permit it stays with the property so I mean 100 years from now somebody could you could not be growing for 100 years but somebody else could come in then a 100 years from now and because that property was once designated for that purpose we could they could again if it stays the same I mean if someone came along and decided that this commercial District should now be an industrial district and that use is no longer permitted there um it would be you know there there's a legally non-conforming for an existing business but once once it's that business ends then you'd have to abide by the current zoning requirement so it's it that statement is true if the zoning stays the same stays the same correct okay have you had much in terms of uh Community questions or people that are interested in opening something or we've had a few few people inquire um we've also had I think it's it's a national type of uh company that's asked us multiple times on where we're at with our zoning regulations or Citywide regulations do they want to come in uh I think they're just gathering information is there a regulation that we have to have a ordinance by a certain time like through State Statute or anything uh I don't know that there's an ordinance that is states that we have to have that but they're going to start issuing license here uh licenses here can thank you um so the state uh decided to change on how they're doing some of the things with the micro grows they've noticed notified uh 162 different businesses of intent to give them their license but there's still a review period on the rules they're updating the rules and changing them because it's just a lot with the with everything in it so so yeah people will be able to produce an open retail Place mid- March end of March if any of the social Equity people wanted to come into this area so I don't know what would you do if there isn't anything any ordinances that that's a good question that's a good question that would be a council decision and they probably should make that decision um on what they want to do if they don't have nordnet adopted by them because in all reality here uh we're talking about first of all February 13th um let's say all things went really well and there was a recommendation to the city council that could go to the second council meeting in February um there would be the first reading if they agree with everything there then there is a 30 uh 30-day Peri or sorry you'd have to have second consideration you have to have a second consideration and then it's not adopted till 30 days after that so you're probably looking uh at a minimum of April April 1 sometime in there so the council think that's optimistic right yeah that's assuming everything goes well yeah do we know if there's some cities that are ahead of us already have this in place already have a business taking off yeah uh I don't know about the business taking off part but there are a number of cities that have uh cannabis zoning regulations or licensing options in place they don't have a business in place yet so we could go back and check with them and ask them if they made any mistakes or want to change anything I I don't know that there are um I don't think they can until they have businesses that have been registered by the state license issued and it sounds like that hasn't taken place yet do do um folks who want to set up a new bar is that use conditionally permitted or is that an outright permitted use in certain zoning districts it's an outright permitted use in certain zoning districts provided um if they're going to do manufacturing of products and sell it at at the bar all right um then it's typically conditionally permitted okay and the reasoning for not doing any growing in i1 2 or three we just I guess staff from staff's opinion it's the AOS the larger Parcels um that would be the setting for that but we're open to discussion with the Planning Commission and and providing any recommendations on that is there a lot of interest in the cultivation or is it more the retail end that there is the interest I would say I would say there's a lot of interest in both in both yeah like so for us we're going to be using a 23,000 ft facility to produce and we will with our figures we like if we had a location in new WM we produce a little extra so that we'd probably be if there was another dispensary in town try to work with them to sell it so essentially you'd cultivate someplace else and and ret our intent is to cultivate inlf yet and just purely do the retail we're going to look into doing cultivation Manufacturing okay what notus inside oh producing outside versus inside there are definely step a little bit closer to producing outside versus inside um like so for us we are trying to get a micro so that allows for 5,000 foot of maturing flour um if we went out outside that is up to half an acre that you can use a 202,000 some square foot of out outside grow but but you can green houses and hoop barns are also considered outside growes just so you're aware you want a climate control and when you're producing this CU they are bioaccumulators so if Bob down the street you know someone's growing outside and Bob on the streets buries pesticide to kill mosquitoes he could kill off the entire crop or not kill it off but poison it and I think correct me if I'm wrong I think what Glenn means by that is that his products have to be tested before they're sold at a retail setting and that could show up in the testing results not allowing them to sell it yeah each each plant is actually tracked so they're tracked at first in a group of 100 and then once they receive get 8 Ines tall then each plant is tracked all the way to sale how much you get out of each plant and you have to take tests off of everything it's it's pretty extensive be a lot easier to have a Distillery tell you that maybe it sounds really expensive you think that there'll be enough of a of a interest in purchasing yeah um in new with estimates I'm going to guess when it's legal and people like the amount of people that admit to using marijuana um um go to dispensaries if you do some math roughly 50,000 a week in New Alm Plus in cannabis sales yes I would agree say yes if not even higher than that there there will be people yes it just sounds so expensive like your cost is gonna have to oh yeah we can't write anything off of taxes either so and I want to clarify back to to to what's on sale you're selling Edibles plants uh our intent I don't think would be to sell plants we've not had discussions for that okay so it's it's Edibles are you distilling and and and we were talking liquids too yeah liquid is a possibility that we would do our own distiller distilling okay can also purchase from outside and have it in you CU that's becoming a really big development part ofs it's like BNL sells them I know for a fact and you can get them at most of the liquor stores and you can get gummies from gas stations right right okay and you're not doing medicinal sales or you are doing medicinal sales no we will not be doing this medicinal medicinal sales that's that's very well controlled yeah yes ready okay onsite consumption stag most it be homegrown okay basically off yeah off sale did you want a little direction from us on whether we we as a commission think that outright permitting versus conditional permitting is our desire or is that for sometime or is that for the special meeting uh I would it would be my preference that we would get at least some direction today um so we when we have a draft ordinance coming to you on February 13th we would have those um regulations in place you can change them at that time but at least have something here uh for not only you to look at but the public to look at when this goes to U you know a public hearing what's the difference between this and the CBD oil places like so like just like CBD oil you're talking about so CBD oil is naturally a product of cannabis plant most CBD comes from hemp um but that's regulated for that like a hemp plant can only have. 3% THC in it where a cannabis plant can have up to 30% and there's various extraction Pro processes you can do to get CBD and versus THC and the type of THC and what not thank you I might just be br brave enough to start the discussion on conditional use permit versus permit I think personally since it's so new and since we're all trying to find our way I think it might be beneficial to the city to to start out as a conditionally permitted use it gives us a little more control we we can look at things again easier than if it was just outright permitted um I think it gives us a little more flexibility in in in growing into this the business that's where kind of where I asked about our interm one you know because then we can kind of use it as a tool and review it every couple years or five years and it's not tagged for the life of the property perhaps or but a conditional use permit is tagged for the life of the property is it not I I would be and I I'm not in the Cannabis business um but I I I would kind of echo the at least the thought process this this is a very expensive business Endeavor to get into now that's not to say whether that should be conditional or not but to not know uh that you can you're allowed to do this for more than a period of 10 years I think would be um potentially hurdle you might not want to approach so it's just something to consider I'm Excuse me go ahead please state your name and address Sarah Christensen 18 Lincoln Lane um through our business plan and some of the closer to the microphone sorry with our current business plan and some of the financing conversations we're having we are actually looking to purchase a property so um in order to you know make that come to fruition we need to have some viability of a a permitting future um so a conditional use would would probably not look great to our investors as as much as a permanent permit if I could just provide some clarification on that um so permitted use would mean that there will be no addition steps for you to take just you're allowed to do that um a conditional use would mean it's a permited use with conditions um and that would stay with the life of the property as long as that that use stays the same then there's an interim use permit which is uh shorter in duration it can be up to 5 years and then it can go for another period of 5 years so those are the three different options okay thank you for the clarity I would also note though that with a permitted use you could as part of your ordinance you know that could include conditions as well you know for example in our zoning ordinance we have uh a requirement that um what is it if you have a a church uh the building has to be uh 50 ft from any residential property line Ian so you can have those kind of requirements um you know in your ordinance [Music] did that did that get you anywhere yeah and and for you folks you know the conditional use permit also gives the city the opportunity to hold a public hearing and you know I think since it's so in it's in its infancy and there a lot of there's a lot of information out there that might not be correct public hearings probably aren't a bad thing they get a little noisy but it's not a bad thing with is there any limit that how many I don't know if you're going buy pounds or weight or volume for material for Safe Handling or storage needs that I'm just asking the question is there I mean are you talking about like on-site storage yeah everything needs to be locked up every night and everything is going to be in a childproof container already so there wouldn't be any issues with throwing things away or whatnot and you know so everything would be sealed and there should not be any issues with that no environmental issues at all so the the city itself has gone and put the permitted and conditional uses just as targets correct and we are and you're asking us to to say whether we agree want to enhance or amend the the already proposed area for you for guidance and again there there doesn't need to be a decision on that tonight if if uh um if you want to wait that's an option too but we will come on the 13th with a draft ordinance okay so I'm going to go back and ask you a question about some of the Manufacturing cuz we're saying it's for are you talking about doing all your Manu facturing offsite where where is all of this going to be you do all of the manufacturing that we would do would all be in Lafayette this would specifically this area would just be a retail location okay so but you have the capabilities of doing all of it on site in your Lafayette location yes yes so if I want to open my own plant and I want to do cultivation and I'm cultivating in an AOS area canot um we're we're just definitely saying that we have to we cannot manufacture according to this direction we can't do any of the manufacturing in the basement of our retail business downtown is because I don't know what it takes to manufacture that's the way it's currently laid out right okay that would be my recommendation you don't want some of that manufacturing process C is you don't want it you want it in an industrial area well yeah that's because I don't know anything that's what I'm asking is that I think the direction from the state was to you know okay the sales area should be in retail uh zoned areas and the the cultivation the manufacturing should be in industrial areas unless I'm distilling alcohol I can distill it in the back room you know if if I'm doing you you know if we're talking micro Brewery here well actually we are separating that micro Distillery is a conditional use permit in our in our commercial districts okay so that's conditional you that's good to know okay I'm not if I'm not mistaken right yeah yep in all in the B2 B3 and B4 it's all additional use okay I I guess I'm I guess I'm only reading the bottom half I'm not but that's because that's the m manufacturing portion of that Distillery process that's the reason it's conditional use permit if they were to just have a a tap room and sell their spirits that would be a permitted use so so I'm I'm to understand that it takes more to manufacture the products that they want to sell versus the manufacturing of a Distillery or that it's a more involved process for odor whatever yeah it's I mean essentially like if you're going to do distilling you would have to be like we're doing distilling but we're in control of the product from it when it's a seed so we have to take care of that and grow special varieties for special things okay so that all right I I understand that now I may look confused if we decided at some point to say um it's all conditional can we come back in a certain time period and say it's okay it's now it's all permitted areas yeah you could that yeah the council wanted to um and essentially there's change it to all being permitted uh by ordinance you can do that and and essentially it has no effect on the the people that are going down to and establishing a business buying a building if it's conditional now it's and they they have no time limit on a conditional use permit correct you mean in terms of hurting them for financing and whatnot is that what you're asking yeah so if I say um a business downtown is conditional is it going to affect how they finance it or I would the things they do with their business bus that's up to the bank yeah that would be up to the bank on financing it could I mean in all honesty it could on a commercial loan okay so that we are we would be restricting them possibly in in that way so any business that in my opinion we would want to have permitted then if it's a business now Tom for that reason okay just for information there are some cities that are in front of us on this topic and so we can we can see what they've done maybe get that out to you in advance of the meeting so you can maybe take a look at that that would be good this is such a good start but to try to get into the nitty-gritty when we don't have anybody else that's gone ahead of us it's pretty tough Well you aren't going to really have anybody until they license people it's pretty tight unless you're going up to the reservations I think they're the only people now that are and and I haven't heard of any negatives coming off of that but I guess I haven't really paid that much attention to it I'm sorry it's quite all right yeah this is a very like it's new to all of us you know so it's that's why we want to be here we want to everybody's learning on the go okay do you have enough direction from us do we want to go onto the Cannabis and hemp business part or is that all the same thing that was really just to provide to the Planning Commission and to the public that these are some some of the direction from the city attorney's office we basically covered all of that in the um discussion in the PowerPoint so okay um I'm this was not a brief discussion and nor should it have been um but I'm looking at the clock and thinking we should probably move on does anyone have any objection to closing this portion of the meeting I'm okay okay all right Joe did you have a question no no thank you thank you for being patient and answering our questions okay hearing no further discussion I'm going to move on to um the city decisions concerning the Planning Commission matters in December of 2024 and January of 2025 okay um we'll try to get through this quickly um December 3rd meeting um they um approved the interim use uh permit request uh that was made by Ally and Justin schaer on behalf of Steve and Jennifer hessie and that was for the bakery business um John do you know what the status is of that I I tried to get in contact with Holly uh regarding where she's at um and I haven't heard back from her I know she's had a couple popups there but as far as I understand uh could a building permit hasn't been pulled uh so there hasn't been any interior remodeling or construction okay they also approved the uh simple lot division U yeah 516 11th North Street um we're still waiting for the um the easement back on that but we expect to receive that shortly um at the December 17th meeting um this is something that John has been involved in um they signed a purchase agreement or the city council authorized a signature of a purchase agreement with um uh the uh Cassandra Koo and Dylan sharen Camp to buy the house that was at 20 um North Broadway and that is now at 107 North Minnesota and I would just note on that uh we're really close to the Finish Line on that and probably looking at a closing date in the next couple weeks what about what about the where the property where it moved from the 320 North Broadway property yeah if I understand the city manager correctly they're also in the process of finalizing a a purchase agreement uh with a let's call it a with a a company uh to purchase that property okay um at the same meeting they approved an orderly annexation agreement with Milford Township um only for us to find out that we didn't do it properly and so we have to go back and do it over um they also um approved um my Citywide strategic plan at that meeting and I think you've got received that previously and they approved a revised development agreement with Bey LLC that's for the Target property um so it was nice to get that um finished and recorded um at the January 7th meeting um they received the communication from M andd properties which is an LLC um Mike cdale Bard and they uh requested um the establishment of a tax abatement program for their project at 2229 North Highland Avenue they're doing an 8p uh town home project uh and uh Council authorized staff to um to look at that and then at the uh January 21st meeting um we came back with a um recommendation to establish a a 10-year tax abatement program and my recollection is that the um amount of assistance would be roughly $99,900 per year for 10 years that's 99 that's it Heritage preservation commission uh we had a quick meeting to go over some get gather some information on the shiple conference coming in September on what type of Tours and stuff they wanted to go with that's all we had oh good thank you I have one last item I would like to thank Kate Marco for her service hopefully she's listening we didn't have a December meeting so we could properly send her off but um she did a great job and I for one will miss her and and I hope she's enjoying retirement is there any other business to come if not we stand a journ thank you for