good afternoon i'd like to call to order the planning commission meeting it is 4:30 Thursday April 24th 2025 the first item on the agenda is the approval of the March 28th 2025 minutes are there any corrections additions
i'll offer a motion to approve i'll second i have a motion and a second all in favor i opposed minutes have been approved next item on the agenda is the opening of the
public hearing for Valley Sun Valley Properties LLC Liberty Street Variance sun Valley Properties LLC variance request staff report all right good afternoon planning commission uh John Nisley planner with the city of Newm this variance request
is to allow the construction of a twin home to be placed 20 ft from the front yard property line uh the applicants for this variance request are Scott and Seth Dreman the property owners are Sun Valley Properties LLC the legal
description of the uh properties we're talking about here are lot 7 and lot 8 of the Minnesota River Valley subdivision that was platted in 2005 uh the street addresses for these properties are 13 Liberty Street and 15 Liberty
Street a deadline for a decision on this variance uh request is June 7th 2025 the comprehensive plan land use designation for these properties is lowdensity residential surrounding land uses uh according to the comprehensive
plan to the north is low density residential west industrial south medium and highdensity residential and then the east uh commercial and medium density residential zoning designation for this property is R3 medium density residence
district surrounding zoning uh to the north and east is also R3 uh to the south is R3 and R4 which is highdensity residence district to the west it's I1 that's the planned industrial district
uh currently these two sites uh or these two um properties are vacant lots um current area land uses include twin homes and apartments to the south uh to the north is uh vacant uh it's just a
grass area to the west is industrial development in agricultural fields and then to the east are twin homes notice provided to all property owners within 350 ft of the subject property and then published in the journal on April 12th 2025
uh to date staff has received one phone call on the request asking about the specific uh proposal after a discussion with that uh phone uh that caller um and they understood the details of the request they weren't in opposition of the variance when staff was on site
taking photographs they were approached by neighbors regarding the proposal uh the neighbors expressed concerns about the wetness of the undeveloped lots as well as drainage and water pooling problems behind the twin home that was constructed to the south and directly abuing these lots uh they expressed that
the drainage on these lots need to be uh addressed before they could support another twin home being constructed on those vacant lots so the project description uh the purpose of the R3 uh medium density residence district is to
provide medium-density housing including one and two unit dwellings along with directly related complimentary uses lot 7 has 50 ft of street frontage and is 10,577 square ft and lot 8 is has 50 feet in street frontage and is
8720 square feet in size uh the applicant is proposing to construct a twin home on lots seven and eight and to be located again from uh 20 ft from the front yard property line the required setback in that zoning district uh from the front yard property line is 30
ft the side and rear yard setbacks uh would be maintained so the rear yard setback here is 35 ft and the sides are 10 ft uh lots seven and eight are the last two undeveloped lots in this subdivision and at this time the city has not received
any formal proposals to develop the property further to the north of this subdivision uh the property to the north is owned by a separate and private property owner so go through a few site conditions here um the slope shown on
the rear of the lots and I have it pulled up on the screen here uh in attachment five is approximately 29% so that's from the top of the slope down to the toe of the slope um and that's that's very steep um at the toe of the
slope there appears to be water seeping creating wet conditions and that's also shown here in blue on the screen where when we were out on site it appeared that's where the wet areas occurred um at the toe of that slope uh the applicant is proposing to construct the twin homes 20 ft from the
front of the property uh from the front property line in order to distance them as far as possible from that wet area and away from that steep slope in the rear of the property uh the applicant has stated that there is tile in these lots to help alleviate some of the water
issues uh the tile outlets uh to the city storm sewer system and pond uh to the northeast of Liberty Street the applicant uh anticipates placing rock rip wrap on the slope uh on the slope with the intent of stabilizing
the slope as much as possible um the proposed twin home would be slab on grade with tile around the perimeter of the footing that tile would also drain to the storm water per that pond that serves this subdivision um I have here the storm water map in
case anybody wanted to see it um so we have uh public storm water uh in the street that's the kind of pink lines uh the red squares are catch basins and as you can see uh the water is intended to
flow to Newm South and then over here into the catch basin um when on site uh and talking with the developer in black here there are two tile intakes and uh this these tile intakes also drain water
into the city storm water system so um lots seven and lots eight you know could potentially tap into those um other information on the subdivision uh the twin homes constructed on the east side of Liberty
Street uh do not have as much of a substantial slope uh issues as lot seven and eight have lot seven and eight have the most slope uh behind them in this subdivision the abuing lots to the south uh do have slopes uh but the slopes start to taper and become less steep um
as you go further south um there are private development covenants in this subdivision with an active homeowners association uh the proposed twin homes will be required to match other twin homes in the subdivision with regards to uh appearance according to those
covenants i would just uh remind the planning commission the city of New Alm does not administer private land covenants these covenants are administered by the association uh the applicant uh provided the following information on the project
we're only asking for a front yard setback variance because of the substantial slope to the south and west these lots have steep slopes in the rear which other lots do not have to deal with we have tried to set the homes back as far as possible without without having to do a lot of reshaping of the
slope um staff's evaluation um the zoning ordinance variance criteria dictates that there must be features unique to the property such as physical surroundings lot size and shape and topography water conditions or other
physical conditions unique to the property staff believes that the slope at the rear of the property and the wet conditions created by that slope make these properties uh unique while there is slope to the rear of the properties going south it's less severe um as you
go towards North Highland Avenue uh staff staff believes that the variance request on its own uh would not be interest to other properties in the development um as it's been platted and available for development since 2005 that being said uh the development the
developer will need to make sure that storm water generated from this development be directed towards the municipal storm water utility system provided to the subdivision and not leave the site uh onto other neighboring properties uh the request being made uh
is a reasonable use of the property and will not change the essential character of the neighborhood uh staff did uh complete a findings of fact form and that's um that's in your packets here as attachment seven um and we can go through that in a little
bit so project considerations in order to recommend approval of the variance request the commission will need to adopt findings of facts and recommendations using the re review criteria as provided provided in the findings of fact form in your packets uh
the planning commission and the city council must ma make an affirmative finding on all variance criteria in order to grant the variance request the applicant has the burden of proof to show that all the criteria have been satisfied included a number of attachments and I think we should go
through them um with this application um so attachment one is the variance uh request by the applicant attachment two is is um a site
location map so you can see where my point my cursor is right now uh these um larger farmed areas are in the industrial zoning district um there's storage sheds over here to the northeast and then um apartments uh to the south
um here's the zoning map showing the I1 R3 and then other surrounding zoning districts to these properties here's the plat um of the Minnesota River Minnesota River Valley subdivision
highlighted in red are the two lots that we're considering uh for a variance here today um attachment five is a rendition of the showing the slope uh on the property and surrounding properties as well as those
wet areas noted when we were on site and then approximate location of where the Twimhon would be located if it were set 20 ft back from the front yard property line we have photos of the site so this would be looking north uh kind of facing north and
west towards those uh industrial areas this is from uh the kind of uh where it's abudding the neighboring property facing northwest as you can see where my cursor is this is all that wet seepage at the toe of that slope and
kind of the darker brown here is behind the the twin homes further to the south um looking uh this direction uh to the north where my cursor is now or uh where the proposed new twin home would be as you can see
there had been water issues in the backyard of the twin home directly abuing this one uh these lots this was an attempt at me trying to piece together um a whole view or a panoramic view of looking at the back of
those lots so you could get an idea of what the slope looked like as well as uh where the the seeping is coming through you can see where my cursor is this these are the wet areas right at the toe of the slope and then lastly we had uh the findings
of fact form staff would recommend two conditions uh if the if recommended for approval one condition would be that the applicant's development of these lots shall not cause water to flow from these lots onto other neighboring lots and
then two the applicant shall pay the cost to record the variance with the Brown County Recorders Office provided two potential motions um one to recommend approval of the variance with conditions and one to recommend denial and that concludes the staff report
okay I am going to go through the finding of facts form but first I would like to ask the commission fellow commissioners if they have read it and and or agree with it but I'll do that at a later point so we could dispense with
reading every question i am going to open it up to questions and I have a few myself back to the to the drawing that you had up that had both sides of the street
this one I see water already on i'm assuming these are all basementless just just um pad pad home slab on grade okay so the so the lot eight is actually in
the water path of that so there's already a a drainage issue with that property right away but if I go and look would you come go back and show me the retention ponds and or the storm sure
water yeah okay the little red squares are the storm water catch catch basins catch basins okay and then the pink kind of purple line yes for those catch basins take the water into the storm
water pond is that sufficient for as much water as as that exhibit is showing that storm water pond actually serves a much larger area than this than these these lots here it just it it just to me when that
came up it just with the one little tile drainage indicated in the black dotted line didn't look sufficient to drain that much water off cuz the picture of lot six had quite a bit of property damage in
their back backyard because of the water now so and I think that property owner is here and and she can correct me if I'm wrong but I think what had happened was there had been a breach of a a temporary storm water catchment basin
in the industrial area that broke loose and Okay yard so that's been corrected well I think they've attempted to correct it um they might have other uh other thoughts on that um but they did
um what was installed I don't have a great picture of it but this will show it uh there is some rock rip wrap and then these are called hickim bottom tile intakes uh to get to that that other
intake I believe which is right about here yeah if you want a little more clarity on that would you state your name and address please thank you uh Scott Dreman uh 1800 North State
Street and I'll speak and Lann is the is the is the homeowner right here um she's here but what had happened there was to to explain a little bit better was some development up on top of the hill here there was some dirt earth that was moved
and they had built a dyke it was last spring the dyke filled up and it it broke loose and that came down and now since then they put rock stuff there to try to contain some of that that broke loose came down here and that's what you
see here um is just from last uh last year and there's no grass there right now got cleaned up so then we clean that up um this here rip wrap there's tile actually a little bit more detail on that as well there's tile that
actually goes all along this top bluff right here is buried is down about 3 ft we fill that up with rock perforated tile comes down this whole area where the last two twins are is tiled all the way around there and that all goes to that storm sewer or storm storm sewers
and we we had received approval from the city prior to building our first twin and 18 I guess it was to run that tile into that storm um so this now up on top um they have I feel corrected it and
shaped that and sloped it and and tried to divert that water the water all is supposed to divert back into that property owner's storm sewer so a little hard to explain a little bit of a picture there but
um I don't feel that that's a issue to what we're trying to do here it's irrelevant I guess but Okay uh go back John like this map mhm yeah we can go
there the other one is storm water one you want to go back that one okay so we built this twin here and this one so we we have tile on the perimeter of we have an intake uh
here here here um so the water comes around if it doesn't go through this intake it'll go down into this intake we also tiled all the down spouts from the roof so all the roof water then also goes into them same
tile which all ends up into I think we've got it going into One tile going into here one going into here I believe um so it goes around here goes around the top of this block and
actually we planned ahead thinking that we would hopefully someday put another twin here then we also ran solid tile perforated tile down here so this whole area is all Are you saying you have solid tile between seven and eight
is that what between the house it goes right here okay so we we will eventually put another intake here and here just like we have here is there any tiling along that slope we know it's
going to right through there yeah at the bottom of this at the toe to the top well we know there reason we're asking for another 10 ft to slide that house ahead a little bit is so we can build a swale back here okay because of the water issues right
so we'll another 10 ft we'll slope that water slope the the earth and run it back into these intakes here all right originally we actually I don't have it with me but we originally had a site plan tile map designed by engineered by
Bolton Make before we started anything can you can you step a little closer to the I know you we need to get pointers or something um originally like I said uh we had we had Bolton Mate design us a a tile map for this because it it was it was a wet there was wet lots there was
water that was running down the street that's been corrected it was just supposedly there's they say there's a spring back in here but it's it's dry now is any of the sight grading up on top of the hill in the industrial area is that affecting anything that's coming out at
the slope at the toe is it making it worse or No it shouldn't okay i I mowed this last SP uh we cleaned up this back here um we just did it I guess all that away
and then I mowed I mowed the entire property and I was able to mow everything that I could this slope is is not mowable you can't get up it um so like John said we're our plan is to
uh we'll lay down some fabric and rip wrap that slope with like some six or eight inch boulders just to stabilize it cuz you can't you can't mow it we did take a look at the grading on the
industrial lot directly abudding um and sort of there's a building here now but there's actually two catch basins um on this site one towards Thompson Street and then the other one to the north uh
let's call it north corner northeast corner and then there is slope behind that that goes down towards these folks's property along Liberty Street that was just done in the last fall into
the spring and they're sp they're actually supposed to seed it this week um so that'll be seated uh into permanent vegetation now you know there between now and then it uh could rain could rain um we hope it does but the idea they they did grade the site to
take water towards either the catch base basin in the south uh southwest or the northeast so that's the way it was it's going to the southwest and there's like a bridge line where it breaks yep okay I get it you said the uh um spring has dried up
so it's not is this is we're talking mostly the biggest concern is runoff and not necessarily a spring bringing it up i I would like I said this I feel like that was microphone John i'm sorry that's okay
um I feel like the majority of that spring water was back over here um but like I said I last fall I I mold this whole thing here it was it was dry
um the tile has been in since 18 um it needed to be done we knew that prior to purchasing the lots um and tile will serve its purpose so it's it's taking care of the water
john what's the standard setback is it 30 ft um Madame President just a comment that the pond that you see there was designed by an engineer that's a requirement uh for a
storm water pond that and that's why I was looking at it because there seemed to be a lot of water behind these lots now on the the the one drawing and it seemed to me that there was a an issue with how it was
draining into the retention pond but the city seemed satisfied with it going into the storm drain and the storm drain taking it over is that correct okay are there any other
questions please step up to the microphone state your name and address please i'm Lanne Liner and I live at 11 Liberty Street which is this house the house
backyard backyard so a few things the blue in this pond there's no water there that's fine there's no water but there is a holding pond in here that usually has water just as I listen here a few
things um one of the questions is is it worse yeah how much rain have we had today my phone said 2 in i I think it's maybe more but I have a pond in my backyard my yard has not dried up since
spring so do I think that spring is worse well we're in spring but since it rained the 1.8 eight inches it's just wet and their lot is wet so um I think it has gotten worse i think that taking
down the trees on the hillside did that comp you know compromise the hillside maybe and all the fill that was filled i would say how how much did they raise that lot up 50 ft i mean it's it's a mountain and to
have that mud coming at me was a concern so my question is can this be tiled i am definitely looking at some retaining something um but to me in my
head this at the bottom of that hill it needs a pipe it needs a drainage system there we've got enough drains all over that we can take that water to a drain but I'd really like to see something at
the bottom of the hill catching some water or I think my water and I have it on my phone and this afternoon when I got home I put it a video on my phone to show the the pond that is there the birds love it it's my water my bird
fountain but um I really want a backyard and I didn't have one all last summer last summer was all rock and thanks to Seth and Scott and their kids their three boys I at least got the rock picked up and it's um the seed never
really came so it's mud but um kind of waiting to see what will be done next to me um I've talked to a few people out in the in the Liberty Street um people that I would like to see between the two lots
maybe one of the dry river creeks that you could put grasses you could put rock and you can tile it i just want water tiled somewhere um I walk these drains a lot that one I
think it's one of these too it never stops running up there if you go to those one of those drains and I can walk you to it you always will hear water so um some active springs in the area and we haven't had enough rain if
we have 7 in and that river comes at my house again oh my goodness so um yeah those are my concerns i don't know thank you can you come can you come up to the microphone and ask your question state
your name and address please i'm Elaine Pollson i live at 8 Liberty Street lannne last year when all this rain came it Can you step closer to the microphone please it not only came in your backyard did it it came into your house um okay
what came into my house was I was gone for a week and we had seven inches of rain actually Mano had 10 inches that week came back for a funeral and I walked into my house my patio door the frame of the patio door that's
where it leaked in and I have pictures of it i'm been cataloging all this um probably not a whole lot of mud it cleaned up very good but yeah it leaked there on my house and I also took a
picture of the bottom board or siding of my house i don't know it's maybe that wide and halfway up there was a water line so when that came down it started
May 31st and it was a little river and 20 minutes later it was a larger river um but it was bad when my opinion is a a Olympic swimming
pool was po formed between these two properties and when that found an outlet it was mud in my rock mud on my patio and um yeah but that has been fixed um you know they have worked up there and I
had equal logs around my house for a while so so for me it will be yes if I sell my unit I have to say I had mud in my house so and water up to it because it just came down
here and right to me and you can tell this is all mud yet or dirt um and there is a drain between us right in there that you don't see right there so all around us is tiled
seth do you think that putting in the swale and all the other corrective actions that you mentioned do you think that that would correct the issues that she's talking about this was Oh I'm sorry you look the same i mean address please
i'm Seth that's Scott seth Dman with Okay sun Valley Properties 1800 North State um I really feel like we're being punished a little bit here for what happened up above it was a different property what was formed there through
construction of that was basically a swimming pool it was a levey that broke mhm and since we've owned this 18 17 17 we've tiled it between each
properties like Scott said we have intakes in the back there's an intake back here where this black dot is so intentions to put the tile at the toe of the slope going to the end of the next
lot but there's never been a water issue until the construction that was up above okay so which doesn't answer any of the problems what is addressing the issue
that happened up on top to help with the the the poor neighbors well that was addressed by the homeowner up above by putting in the storm uh that's actually sloped away from his property now so
it's not running down what What did happen surface water what happened can you step up to the microphone please what had happened up above was during construction they didn't get it complete we have a 7in rainfall and it was they
didn't have enough time to get the fill hauled in mhm which then like Lann said we had a 7-in rainfall it was sloping towards here sloping towards this bluff and it ran down here so they had to wait for it to dry up before they could
finish their construction and I think they actually like John said I think they're seeding it this week so it's has taken that long it was farm field before this whole thing slopes towards here we knew that of course when we bought it um
but now when you raise it up even higher and say you raise it up 30 ft and you don't get finished and you get a rainfall it's going to still run it's going to run faster and they built a a a dyke right here and that dyke filled up with water lots of water and it let go
so is is all of the repair complete or is it do we have to wait another week or something you talked about John talked about grass being planted and and things so has that correct the issue is corrected in your mind
we checked with the city engineers office um who is in charge of the storm water management on these types of developments they checked with the developer today um and the site grading is largely done they have to bring in some top soil and then they will be seating here they were supposed to start
seating this this week but they haven't had the chance with with the wet weather but she still has water in her yard today that would be I would assume groundwater that's from from I always have it's always wet and you
can see the hill thank you i appreciate it so it has been wet it's always wet um but I don't usually have the pond of water and you have a pond today i have a
pond today again and it had just kind of gone back and you can see halfway up the hill and I think even for them on their property if you look at the hill it's wet so I just I worry about the amount
of spring water in there and um yeah I can I plan to do something it's either going to be some tiling or something um so it's a lot so I I'll
disagree with Lan just a little bit but it if a spring is a spring it's wet all the time yes like I said I went back here after this was cleaned up we'll take the credit for that because nobody else wanted to clean it up it should have been this person up here that
should have came down and cleaned this we didn't cause the problem john would you turn the microphone a little bit towards hired us to clean this mess up we cleaned it up we put everything back we regraded it put dirt in there seated
it it was last fall it's probably still wet right now because it hasn't had a chance to grow prior to us doing any home construction here we're first going to uh stabilize this hillside we have to before we put a home in there because we won't be able to get back in there so we
our plan is to rip wrap this hillside from we'll go over into Lann's property we'll talk to her i'm sure she won't oppose to it um or if she wants to do something else that's her choice but we'll rip wrap this hillside here to stabilize that
hill and make it buildable we're not going to we're not going to uh take the chance of liability and stick a hole in there and and not do do the work ahead of time go ahead so so you'll stabilize the hill with rip wrap and then are you going to swail at the toe and then at
the bottom here then we'll slope from that toe to each to the drain on each side from from the back side of the house the patio we'll slope that down 10 ft and we'll slope the other way 10 ft and that'll run there'll be an intake here and there's an intake here okay so
it'll take care of whatever this tile on the top of the hill here doesn't catch it'll come down here and it should catch it there okay Scott the tile lines are they s sufficient for the size are they like a
six eight six inch six inch that's what Bolton requested and I think our mains are our mains are 8 in tile so we got mains here 8 in here here here and then
a 6 in here that comes down and the whole thing is tied together there's no bike separation so it comes down goes this way goes this way goes into this storm goes into that storm prior like Seth said prior to this construction we never we've owned it
since 17 we haven't any issues and we've had other rainfall events like Sure a 7 in rainfall and and with Luen's concern about the water we these are just bare lots we never graded anything to get anything to
flow away because of us having to shape that hillside dig some out so we weren't going to waste the time on that y and her lot where the damage was done we didn't seed that till last right fall so
that's why there's no vegetation yet um but there is slope from the damaged grass there to this intake right here sure
and if and to L's point if there is a a hole here or a little pond of settling we'll fix it i'm not going to leave that and not if we got to do a little reshape in there means it was so late in the season and it maybe settled or we'll fix
it i'm not opposed to making it right did you have a question Bobby well I was just going to ask and I mean an engineer would probably have to look at it but is it is it viable to put like a tee in there that would help that drainage right where that pond was or is
that sufficient with a little extra yeah right there on that property i don't know if it's you could I mean you could run a perforated tile up in there she does have a sprinkler system oh so so maybe a little extra grading
might help and I truly I think it would fix the problem if I don't think it's had enough time to get seated that that tile that on the one pitcher that's on the top side it
comes all the way along the top yep starting from here up the hill all the way down and then it comes down like in Luan's property here we come down into the center there and that tile is tied into this intake that's in the
center over here okay and that's that's new since the the one with the rock and everything that was that was there before the event last fall the only reason that it didn't
it didn't have the capacity for the right so we put because of the amount of water that came down that hill when that levy let loose uh we ended up putting much bigger rip
wrap in there to withstand that issue I just go ahead want to note that um I grew up on West street and right behind me was a hill yes and our next door neighbor had a spring coming out of the hillside watered his garden in the
summer in the winter time they actually had to pipe it into the basement so there was a place for the water to go 24 hours a day 365 days a week along this um starting at this location
going all the way to the south there are pockets of springs mhm and it's just something that people that live in those neighborhoods something they have to they have to deal with um the hospital
takes out a tremendous amount of water and that's why there's always water in that pond so it it's just something about the geology of that area that can can also be a contributing factor no is very rich in water there's springs
along German Street all over by the ballpark as we know it was flooded there's the springs by the hospital there's a lot of issues i Are these people disclosed when when they're purchasing the property that there is a spring issue in
the area um because it would affect how you how you build at the you know at the time a lot of this was developed that's probably wasn't something that was um known um known or discussed or what the impact would be um yeah but I think
since that time um maybe disclosure would be required well that was my question earlier about whether this was on a a a flat block or was whe whether it had a basement because basement issue would certainly
be more of a a problem um I was looking again at where the initial pond is behind um Lann's and and lot seven and
eight and that comes up onto the platform for for lot eight but you're saying to to me Seth or Scott or whoever that that pond is ponding is going to be cured by the
RIP Rob whatever and so that is not going to reoccur and the city engineer has agreed i think we're talking about slightly two different things um the pond was created through a an
event where they had 7 in of water and and dam broke loose up above okay um what these gentlemen had just talked about if if needed they would bring it sounds like probably top soil or what have you to level off the area that was flooded and is not currently growing
grass um but the springs are the springs are springs springs um they're going to be running like Dave said 24/7 365 days a year um one of the things they had mentioned here was of course tiling
around the house um but also catching water like they said um in a uh in kind of let's call it a swale and then directing it towards that tile intake um right here mhm
plus one sorry but plus there'll be another one over here right so this water is going to come into the swale and we're going to divert it okay we try to split it in between the middle of the homes or basically the parcel line so split it
from here that way and if need be this way mhm or and on the elevation of our house all might go this way to this one okay and then that'll go around okay john would you go back to the setback
map please for me let's see okay yes that that's that one and I'm I'm looking at the 20 foot marker on on lot eight it actually comes
closer than or is it's because of the curve it's really all behind the 20 foot marker where on lot seven you could come up farther if it were placed like the other twin homes in this subdivision that are along the curve the
closest point to the front yard property line is basically the center of that home um so that's why if you look uh the 20 foot is right here mhm this corner and that corner actually set back
further okay so they'd be building a a straight in a straight line okay thank you yeah we're not actually to your point we're not actually utilizing the hole setback because of the curvature of the
road and the straightness of the hole okay just the center are there any other questions concerns before David i I would just like to add a comment that I think the approach that the duckmans have indicated that John has talked
about this is a drainage issue yes and you you have to move the water from the backyard to the front yard and you do that most easily probably through the construction of swailes um and um getting water going in the
proper direction yeah and I understand it's a setback issue is is the the question is setback and not water it's I'm just wondering if it's enough of a setback or if But that's 20 foot is is about as low as
it would normally go correct for setback i would agree i think the more area that you have to work with in the backyard helps you deal more effectively with the drainage issue yeah that's why I was wondering in my mind I was thinking like 15 feet but then that puts it way in
front of the other properties in the neighborhood and it's okay well I think about that if you have a vehicle being 20 ft they can park in the driveway right and it's not hindering the sidewalks right and I'm going to just add we have done a couple curves within
the city for a smaller setback up on South Ridge there was one that we did about I don't know seven eight years ago i remember sitting on the zoning for that capacity because he was adding another stall in his garage to circle in
those regards at all okay so is the is the yellow rectangle does that represent the footprint of the new building or is that just the building envelope approximately yeah okay so then
between that rectangle and the slope you put the swale in there all right when we actually went out there to measure it off at 30 ft it actually looks better at 20 because next to
Lann's house that corner was you know 10 ft further back from the corner mhm she would have benefited more from the setback being 20 ft well just because of the curvature of the road yeah yeah um I honestly I'd
like to reassure everyone here whoever came we've spent numerous time putting tile in this development for two twin homes planning for the two but also the
third so I think a little confusion may come on how much tile we have but we've tiled between every home in the back put intakes to catch basins for
that water tied in each downspout uh where able um I think but if you go back I think all of them but maybe one or two aren't I tied in just because
of uh have to double check that but we tied in the the rain gutters to get rid of that water um so it's just there's a lot of tile out here actually and rock to allow for
this any other questions i'm good picture of the lot there either okay well this will work so the like success point we build this home we'll do the same thing here lann's
downspout gutters is going into this tile here and then when we do this home here we'll do the same thing to eliminate as much water as we can on the surface we'll run that into that tile as well to not cause any issues thank
you are there any other questions or comments does anyone else in the audience wish to speak if not I'm going to move on to the finding of facts i just need to get to it has everyone on the commission read
the finding of facts yes yes do you all agree with the consensus as it is written yes yes so is everyone agreeing to wave the
finding of facts form yes yes okay that saves us some time okay I'm if there are no other concerns or questions then I'm going to go ask someone to go back to the motion page please and somehow I got into park and
wreck okay I'll I'll make a motion to recommend approval with conditions the variance request by Sun Valley Properties LLC to construct a twin home 20 ft from the front property line as
shown in the site plan provided with the variance application on the property legally described as lot 7 and lot 8 Minnesota River Valley subdivision i'll second i have a motion and a second
are there any other questions or additions all in favor i opposed motion carried when does this appear at the commission this goes to the city council on May 6th at 4:30 p.m thank
you thank you all for attending and and and speaking yep good luck thank you yes Lan good luck especially I'm closing the public hearing on the valley Sun Valley Properties
LLC moving on to plats preliminary plat Highland Apartments edition Highland Apartments preliminary plat staff report with attachments please okay the applicant in this particular case is Chris Raymond on behalf of
Keepers Incorporated the property owner is Keith Marty the legal description is part of outlot 194 195 196 and 197 street address of the property is
901 North Highland Avenue property location it abuts North Highland Avenue on the east and is located north of 7th North Street deadline for a decision on this matter since this is a preliminary plat
is August 9th 2025 the comprehensive plan land use designation now is high density residential surrounding land uses are to the north lowdensity residential medium
density residential and public semi-public to the east is low density residential to the south is commercial low density residential and parks and open space and to the west low density
residential the zoning designation is OAS which is agricultural open space uh within the next month or at next month's meeting you can expect I anticipate to receive an application for
a planned unit development zoning designation for that property the surrounding zoning to the north is OAS and INS which is institutional educational district
that's for the high school to the east it's R2 which is single and two family residence district and R1 which is single family residence district to the south it's R1 and to the west it's OAS and
R1 um current site use or perhaps past site use is that property was farmed to the north it's farmed and you have the new alm high school to the east it's twin homes and single family dwellings to the south kids XL Center single
family dwellings twin homes and Fender Park and to the west it is farmed notice none is required public comment uh none received to date on the plat utilities are located in North Highland Avenue and
south of 7th North Street and by south of 7th North Street what I mean is that there are side streets coming up to 7th North Street where the utilities are located but they have not gone into 7th North
Street comprehensive plan does not recommend a park within the platted area the area proposed for platting totals 9.9 acres the property generally slopes from north to
south property currently consists I indicated previously part of four outlots um outlots are generally 4 acres in size the plat will divide the
property into four lots and it will also provide street right away for the extension of 10th North Street okay the four lots will have frontage on the extension of either 10th North Street
North Highland Avenue or 7th North Street the lots have the required frontage on an existing or proposed street the plat will divide the property as follows
lot one will have and I'm going to round this off 93,000 square ft which is 2.14 acres lot two will have 105 square ft or 2.42 acres lot three will have
87,900 square ft which is 2.02 acres and lot four will have 100,700 or 800 square ft which is 2.31 acres then we have the rightaway for 10th North Street that is
43,750 square ft and that is 1 acre so you have a total area of 40 431,000 square ft or 9.9 acres the property is proposed for platting as
a plan unit development district the plat has been evaluated using the development standards for the R4 high density residence district and whenever we receive a request for a
plan unit development or anticipate receiving one we go to our zoning ordinance and we try to find the zoning district that best matches the proposed use of the property and we use that then to evaluate
um in this case the plat all four lots comply with city zoning standards for the R4 zoning district um the proposed buildings comply with city setback requirements okay there are a number of
attachments um and the first one consists of a number of documents we have the application we have the preliminary plat we have the site plan and we have the aerial photo and I'd like to go back to
the plat and so what John has on the screen that is the official preliminary plat and John why don't you point out the location of at least the streets in
the area if you can okay so here's 10th 10th North uh which would be extended um through this project here's 9inth North this is North Highland Avenue
um and then the 7th North Street Old County State Aid Highway 27 27 uh is here to the to the south kids Excel Center is right here on the corner and the new high school is over here as well as the
uh termination of Oak Street okay thank you um attachment two is a site location map attachment three is a zoning map attachment for our ground level photographs that that part that's
outside of the preliminary plat that's next to this Excel Center is that being planted is south in Yeah that that corner of the field there that's owned by Kids Excel Center it is okay all right and in the past there has been
some discussion about that being a possible expansion location for the Excel center for the Okay awesome more curious than anything yeah staff would recommend approval of the preliminary plat with conditions since
it complies with city code requirements uh the conditions are as follows there's six of them uh pay the parkland dedication fee of $4,200 for the plat that's
$1,50 per lot so we have a different requirement when we're dealing with um something that is a planned unit development or something that is a highdensity residential um use uh secondly provide an electronic file of
the platin and AutoCAD 2016 or newer format third determine if a connection fee must be paid for access to a storm water quality pond located south of 7th North Street a little bit of explanation
um a good or a portion of the area to be platted um is part of a larger drainage district that extends to the south to that pond that um
abuts Fifth North Street and serves the Milford Heights area that's closest to the Milford Heights area um and so um the proposed site that's to be
platted if it drains if it sets its storm water systems up to drain in that direction and to eventually go into that pond then there is a fee that is to be charged for having that access or using that
access so that's a decision that the developer needs to make whether they're going to hold their water on site or are they going to allow it to drain to that
pond okay number four developers shall enter into a development agreement with the city of NOAM that would be part of the plan unit development process um number five the resolution approving this request that being the plat will be
filed with the Brown County Recorders Office and number six the owner and/or developer will secure the planned unit development zoning designation for the platted area there are two um motions
one to approve one to deny now I'd like to point out um something that is somewhat unique about this property when it comes uh to platting um the area that um Mr marty owns which
um is more than just the area that you see to be platted john do we have a Okay could you maybe show the location of the Marty area it's everything in red except these two pieces as well okay
that has that is what is called Torrren's property and there's kind of two different types of property one is abstract which lists everybody that owned the property from when things first
uh started and then there is Torrance property which is um I'm going to get this probably wrong probably but the district court issues a certificate of title which means that you don't worry
anymore about who owned it in the past the district court has determined that that person who is making that request that they are the lawful owner of the property so going forward you only you start at that
point um and so apparently though those regulations are going to require a plat of the Torrance the entire Torrance property and then within that area they're going to have to plat the
portion that's going to be sold for the apartment project okay oh so we're going to be vent what you're saying is we're going to see another preliminary plat for the rest of this whole space yes and you're going to see us so you're
going to see two plats actually simultaneously one following uh the procedures that we have uh in place for this so there'll be a final plat and then we're going to see another
um so that would um conclude the um the staff report we have a representative here um from Bolton Mink who was involved in the preparation of the plat and he might be able to give a better explanation about process than I do i'll
if you're satisfied with mine otherwise you can feel free to speak please state your name and address absolutely hi my name is Nate Meera i'm a project manager at Bolton and Mink uh out of Mano so 1960 Premier Drive is our
address um I've helped create this plat um and kind of when we submitted this plat we weren't under the understanding that this was Torren's property though it was abstract property well there's key things key differences how we have to handle Torrren's property and again
you did a great job explaining Torren's property there's a little bit more to it than that obviously the district court has an action against the property so what they do is they um go through the torrening process torrening process actually notifies all the adjoining
owners gives them an opportunity to make claim on that property so the torrening is really more of a making sure nobody can adversely claim that property after the action has happened so this property all has that now against the property so
by state statute we have limitations on how we uh fractionally split off Torrren's property and you can do it in two ways either an RLS plat which is a registered land survey which follows the same platting guidelines in the city of Newm as a regular I call it a 505 or the
statute 505 platting um in this case and I think different than what we had talked last Dave uh is they're going to go with the regular plat rather than the two plat scenario so what will happen is when this comes back to you we'll give you a revised preliminary plat that
shows you the balance of the property as an outlot and then the new would follow the exact same uh preliminary plat that you're seeing tonight for the creation of 10th and the creation of the four lots um and I kind of listened to the
conditions of the platin i I agree with all of the conditions um obviously we will continue to work with staff on the storm water fee um and best evaluate that so that we can make sure that um with the additional storms that we're
having to making sure that we have some storm water control on site before it gets to the regional pond um so we'll again keep working with staff and make sure that we get that taken care of and uh that it meets or exceeds city code so with that uh I'll answer any additional
questions that you would have um on the project i have one yeah maybe directed at our engineering staff who's not here tonight um but I'm just wondering if if the location of the existing surrounding
streets and the planned extension of 10th at a future platting are we going to be able to connect up are we cutting off any of the options for connecting future streets yeah absolutely sorry about putting you on the spot that
was No we actually um our city engineering staff has drafted some potential street layouts for that area and they're circulating that amongst staff to take a look at and provide feedback okay um so they are trying to think actually kind
of based on your comments when we when we first looked at the the comp comprehensive plan change um uh so they've they've put together a layout um and they are trying to connect Oak all the way down to seventh in some fashion
or or there will be there will be streets from Oak to get down to seventh may not be a direct connection but okay I think something I would like to do since that was brought up at the time we talked about the change to the
comprehensive plan and that land use is uh maybe to you know put together some potential layouts um and then some also identify some possible land use uh
designations and then that's something the commission can maybe look at and discuss and decide what they think um would be appropriate for that area and I'm thinking that maybe we would look at the entire Marty property
um uh you know as um as kind of our our location of study yeah be that'd be good to see cuz with the school you know if you ran oak straight through there I'd be concerned about
um speed limits and that kind of you know with the kids driving and stuff it actually might help in the in the one intersection but might if it's a straight run you might get some bad driving i
don't know just I mean be good to I'm just saying I'd like to see some different ideas well when we get those layouts we'll bring them back to the planning commission for your review and and andor recommendation thanks thank you are there any other questions concerns
i have just one other and it's it's really not related to this plat specifically but um I noticed that there's no public hearings for preliminary plat why is that it's uh been the city's
um plat approval procedure that the public hearing is held before the city council oh okay at their um with the final plat just a thought and that is that once you get to the final plat um as long as it's
consistent with the preliminary you don't really have many options to say no anymore so if there isn't a public hearing earlier than that I I evidently it's never been a problem but I'd be a bit nervous so I'm not sure why there why there isn't a public hearing held
earlier in that process um it's just been I guess you say tradition or that's just the the policy that or the process that we've followed and it works so I'm not here to change anything i was just curious right
if there are no further questions or comments I would entertain a motion off for a motion to recommend approval with conditions preliminary plot of Highland Apartments Edition i'll second i have a motion and a second
is there any further discussion all in favor i opposed thank you is this next week at the council or
the same meeting as so it's May 6 next item on the agenda is a preliminary plat Sarah Hills fourth edition staff report um members of the planning commission um in this particular case the applicant property owner is Melvin
Schugal Jr the legal description of the property is out lot A and B Sarah Hills first edition out lot A and B Sarah Hills third edition and part of lot two auditor's
plat of the balance of lot two the northeast quarter the northeast quarter section 24 township 110 north range 31 west the street address of the property
is 1827 Ryan Road and 1900 Allison Avenue property to be platted a butts the west side of Ryan Road and the east side of Allison Avenue and is located north of Maplewood
Drive deadline for action on this item is August 13 2025 land use designation in the comp plan is low density residential surrounding land uses to the
norththeast is low density residential to the south is low density residential and plan unit development and to the west is low density residential commercial and parks and open space zoning is
R1 uh we have R1 zoning to the north to the east along with AOS which is agricultural open space to the west it's R1 B2 which is general business district and
AOS and to the south it's R1 it's planned unit development and Brown County has an A1 agricultural zoning district the current site use is undeveloped
Um area land uses are single family dwellings to the north single family dwellings to the east along with some mining to the west single family dwellings and the design home center and then it's vacant
property and to the south it's single family dwellings it's vacant and we have farming notice none required public comment noneto date Um utilities are located in both Ryan Road and Allison
Avenue to serve the property services have been extended previously um the comprehensive plan does not recommend a park within the platted area uh the platted area totals there's a mistake here um it's not 2.75 acres
it's 0.58 acres property is generally flat the property currently consists of four outlot or four outlots um and one parcel of property being the
um airport former airport street now when I refer to four outlots those are four smaller outlots those aren't the traditional outlots that we normally talk about uh plat again will divide the property into two lots both lots will
have the required frontage on either Allison Avenue or Ryan Road platt would divide the property as follows lot one block one would be 12,500 square ft that's 0.29 acres lot 2
block 2 would be 11,761 square ft that's 0.27 acres um the alley uh which would separate the two lots is um 1,200 square ft or 0.02
acres so the total is 25,461 square ft or 0.58 acres um as noted previously both lots have the required frontage on their adjoining streets
uh both lots comply with city zoning standards um the largest portion of both lots is 60 ft wide and that was the former location of Airport Road airport Road was never dedicated as a public
street and therefore it is not necessary to vacate it um it has been the city's intent to establish two lots in this location with the platting of Siri Hills first edition in April of
2005 so 20 years ago a decision was made that we wanted two lots in this particular location um the um attachments attachment one is a preliminary
plat john's going to show that attachment two is the site location map attachment three is the zoning map attachment four is the site map and attachment five are ground level
photographs staff would recommend approval of the preliminary plat with conditions since it complies with city code requirements um the recommended conditions are pay the platting fee at $260 um second is to pay the parkline
dedication fee of $700 third is to uh provide an electronic file the platin and AutoCAD 2016 or newer format and fourth is to provide um easement areas um and they would be located 10
feet abuing the front property lines of lot one and two that's both on the Allison Avenue and Ryan Road uh frontage and then a 5- foot um easement area abudding the rear or alley property line and that would
apply to both lot one and lot two i would note that we have easement areas on both sides of these lots that's why we want to connect them uh two motions one to approve and one to deny the report that will conclude the staff
report questions if not I'd entertain a motion kind of seems to me that this is simply finally bringing to fruition something that's been planned for like 20 years so I would um offer a motion that we would recommend approval uh with the
conditions outlined there by staff i'll second i have a motion and a second is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor i opposed motion carried
city Council decisions concerning planning commission matters of March 2025 okay for um it says March it should be April excuse me okay i'll go with April we're still in
there okay at the April 1st meeting um they approved the vacation of a street rightaway on 16th North Street between the GOG building and the bike trail it's a half block property
um so that was unanimously approved uh approved the conditional use permit for the National Guard readiness center where they wanted um to use a bob wire fence and that was in order to be able to connect uh two different um parking
lot areas now uh they approved the interim use permit at 115 North Washington Street to Brett Meyer to allow a gunsmithing shop and that was with conditions um they approved the simple
lot division of lot 5 block one Front Street Industrial Park second edition that address was um 1100 North Front Street that concludes that particular meeting april 15th
um they authorized or they approved a purchase agreement uh with Landhaven Development LLC and uh this is out in the airport industrial park third
edition and it's with uh Tony Golden is the president of this particular firm the address is 2211 Jacob Street so it's right behind Walmart and what he's proposing to do is
construct 29 or flat 29 lots service them with private roads and on those 29 lots would be storage built and some of the storage buildings would
be connected to water and sewer and would allow for residential um uh living in those locations and I'd say about 50% of the lots would would
qualify now this obviously requires a plan unit development and so Mr golden will be appearing before you future meeting um he also will need to plat the property and so that will also have to
come back does this is this the answer to our tiny homes what's that is this the answer to our tiny homes no these are going to be regular storage buildings okay um and a segment of the building would be devoted to living quarters okay it's a sh It's a
big building opposite of a 10 yeah yeah some of these are going to be So these are big storage units okay and and he's proposing three different sizes um all the same color there's going to
be an association that runs them and um they're going to be sounded like pretty um strict on uh what is allowed outside of the uh storage buildings they want it to look nice so interesting i would note
that we're we're potentially going to have three plan unit developments coming next month so that being said I really want I'm probably going to be summarizing a lot up here and I hope that you guys take the time to read the whole general development plan because
that's the meat and potatoes of of that whole process um because otherwise we could be here for many hours reading through those whole things so just keep that in mind okay great there is nothing um to come before
us from the Heritage Preservation Committee activities so is there any other business other than we more or less confirmed that we we did receive the money for the Shipo conference but well we ordered the
horses for the tours at least i would note maybe I should just follow up on what I talked about real briefly last month about legislation that would um basically establish statewide standards for um increasing
density with the intent that somehow that was going to create more housing um apparently the the bill is stalled in both the um Senate and the um House however
um nothing is really ever dead at the legislature until a final gavvel sounds so now what the um approach is that they're taking is to say that um when you apply for a
grant or from a loan or for any type of program a financial program that the um state of Minnesota provides that if your community has the standards that um were in these bills
that increased density that you get points for that and so basically um a community that doesn't do that probably has no chance of getting a
grant from the a housing grant from the state of Minnesota makes absolutely no sense because we're no longer concerned about need we're now concerned about um employing something that um
will probably work in the metro area but will not work in greater Minnesota it's pretty difficult outstate correct and then but then there's also some other bills that have been come out of nowhere um and so like I said you you just
really never know that stay tuned stay tuned yeah is there any other business if not we stand adjourned thank you i shouldn't have let him talk