[Music] good afternoon i'd like to call to order the planning commission meeting it is noon on Friday March 28th 2025 first order of business is the approval
of the January 30th 2025 meeting minutes are there any corre corrections i'll offer a motion to approve as presented i'll second i have a motion and a second to approve the me the minutes all in
favor i opposed minutes have been approved the second item is the February 13 2025 planning commission special meeting minutes corrections motion
i'll make a motion to approve as presented is there a second i'll second okay go ahead i get the next one i have a motion and a second to approve the February 13 2025 meeting minutes is
there all in favor i opposed minutes have been approved um next item is the February 27th 2025 planning commission meeting are there any corrections is there a motion
i'll make a motion to approve i'll second that i have a motion and a second to approve all in favor i opposed minutes have been approved um then I'm going to open the public hearing portion of the meeting for the
Meyer interim use permit renewal staff thanks for everybody coming here on a Friday midday versus our normal uh Thursday afternoons at the end of the month um so this is a uh
public hearing on the interim use permit uh application to allow the operation of a part-time gunsmithing business in a detached garage on a residential lot located in the RT2 zoning district um and I would note that this is our first
interim use permit renewal uh it was he was originally issued a permit in May of 2020 um and he wanted to renew that uh permit if possible prior to that um five-year time period expiring here this
May um so Mr meyer has uh um applied for an in uh renewal of his interim use permit uh the legal description of the property is lot 4 block 140 north of Center Street and the address is 1120
1121 South Minnesota Street uh the property is located north of 12th North Street and then east of uh east of North Minnesota Street deadline for a decision is April 2nd uh 2025 the land use
designation for the property is low density residential uh surrounding land uses um to the north southsoutheast and west are lowdensity residential as well can I maybe just um interrupt um I think the street address is incorrect yes and
the legal may not be accurate for the massage my apologies thank you say that again it's correct on the other paperwork okay sorry about that so it's actually 115 North
Washington Street correct thank you uh the current uh zoning designation is RT2 that's a traditional neighborhood single and two family residence district uh surrounding zoning to the north south
east and west are also RT2 uh currently the site is used as a single family residence with the gunsmithing business located in a detached garage that's abuing uh the alley current area land uses again to the north south east and west are all
single family residences uh to the southeast a little bit further down the uh the block is um uh some apartment units as well in the old uh middle school notice was provided to all property owners within 350 ft of the
subject property and then published in the journal on March 18th 2025 to date staff has not received any comments um regarding this application so project description the purpose of the RT2 zoning district is to
provide for lowdensity one and two unit dwellings generally located in the grid development pattern along with uh directly related complimentary uses the applicant is requesting an interimm use permit to continue to operate Apex Custom Rifle Rifles LLC out of a deta
detached garage located on the property the original interim use permit was approved by the city council on May 5th 2020 for a period of 5 years um the business is being operated in that detached accessory building
located towards the back of the property abuing the alley and you can see that uh photos of that uh in your packets uh the layout of the operation can be seen in attachment one in the application pull it up on the screen
um and this is the exact same layout as what uh he had originally um applied for in 2020 there have been no changes to the layout um the the applicant was required to obtain a federal firearms
license from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives as a conditions a condition of the issuance of their first interim use permit in 2020 license was obtained by the applicant and it does not expire until October 1st
2026 um a copy of that license is also included in your packets um the ATF license was issued for the manufacturing of firearms with the following allowances retail sales will be allowed uh to the
extent that Apex Custom Rifles LLC or Brett Meyer uh may purchase firearm parts and accessories which are to be assembled or manufactured by the business for customer purchase a customer may special order through the
business a firearm or firearm accessory from the manufacturer or other federal firearms license up to but not more than six shopubuilt firearms may be available for customers to inspect for the purpose uh of a display model these display
models would be available for purchase if the company decided to dispose of them but no more than 10 firearms can be sold in this manner over a one-year time period uh the second allowance was the business will be allowed to transfer firearms or firearm accessories to
facilitate the legal transfer of firearms or firearm accessories between two parties that require a legal transfer this is to include the transfer of firearms or firearm accessories for repairs modifications to the business and the back and then back to the
customer so in summary um what they're allowing uh is is not just retail sales on the property it's specifically for manufacturing uh custommade rifles and dealing with customers one-on-one for those sales and then they also limit the amount of sales that he can have in a
given year again the applicant is not proposing any changes to the layout or the intensity of the use on the property um other than in a greater amount than what was previously granted um the firearms in the building um not being actively
worked on by the applicant are locked in a secured firearm storage case in addition to those requirements placed in the business from the city the ATF also requires a number of conditions uh to be met including an initial inspection of the manufacturing area
safety protocols being followed and a background screening of the applicant all these items were completed uh when the initial permit was issued uh in 2020 our build city building inspector inspected the site when this was first issued in 2020 um and is willing to do
that again if if we need to the applicant states that they have adequate parking on the property and uh that an additional vehicle for from a customer can be parked on the existing driveway uh the applicant requests that
the interimm use permit be for another period of 5 years so intent of allowing an interimm use permit um an interimm use permit may be allowed based on the any of the following provisions found in section 2.4e of the zoning ordinance one to
allow uh land use for a limited period of time that reasonably uses utilizes the property in a manner that is not otherwise consistent with the comprehensive plan nor permitted in the applicable zoning district two prov to provide the city with a reasonable
degree of discretion in determining the suitability of certain designated uses for specified zoning districts three to allow use that is presently acceptable but not permitted within the zoning district and with an anticipated development may not be acceptable into
the future um and then four to allow a temporary use of the property until a particular date until the occurrence of a particular event or until zoning regulations no longer permit it so as we always talk about when we uh
take a look at interimm use permits um this is not uh this is different than a conditional use permit it doesn't stick with the land um for the life for the life of that property it has a de uh drop dead date in which it needs to either be renewed or it
expires um so since creating the interimm use permit regulations in 2019 uh we've had a number of uh permits that have been issued uh the first two Kala woodworking and the float tank therapy
business uh both of those um are no longer in existence on residential properties um the third one was issued to Mr meyer and he wishes to renew that uh interimm use permit today um so this is the first interimm
use permit renewal that the planning commission has considered um since the issuance of the original uh interim use permit to Mr meyer we have not received any comments or concerns uh regarding this interimm use permit on the property
again the applicant is not proposing any changes to the layout of the business uh within the detached garage um so just a little bit of site history here uh this is a single family home that was constructed in 1915 the
home is located on a 50x 165 ft lot that was platted on the original city plat so a typical grid lot um the location of the business is in a detached garage located in the rear of the property and was originally conducted as a barn on the
site um the new comprehensive plan adopted in 2024 has the following guidance related to this request so chapter 4 land use um says that we should uh provide some land use flexibility and then chapter five
housing goal number three is to preserve the character of existing neighborhoods that give new homem a sense of place this proposed use uh staff does not believe is in in conflict uh with those items set out in the comprehensive
plan so in order to recommend approval of the interimm use permit uh we need to uh the commission will need to determine that the request meets the standards provided in section 2.4E 4E of the zoning ordinance these standards can be found in the interim use permit findings
of facts worksheet that's attachment six i would note the past uh few meetings we've been going through each of those questions individually and then answering them but if you remember a little while back we had discussion with the city attorney we are able to if if
the commission is agreeable to all of uh the answers to the questions and the staff completed finding a facts we can just accept that form al together and not have to go through each question unless there's uh additional things that come up there were six attachments um with
this staff report so we have the application by Mr meyer we have his license by the ATF um we have attachment number two the site location map um attachment number three is the
zoning map attachment four is the site map and it's uh there's an arrow here pointing to that detached garage budding uh the alley and you can clearly see that there is additional parking available if
needed by a customer um here is uh some actual photos of of the property um you can see he does have a sign right here um and it is less than the amount that we allow in a residential zoning
district and then finally attachment six uh it's the uh staff completed findings of facts so um staff's evaluation of this application um we believe that the application complies with the standards for granting an interimm use permit um
there is going to be minimal traffic generated from this type of business at this location uh the city has permitted interim uses for similar businesses and residential areas such as hair salons dog grooming and float uh float tank therapy businesses and actually in the
past the city has issued a number of conditional use permits for gunsmithing in residential areas um um the granting of an interim use permit does not permanently grant the use uh on the property rather it's for a specified period of time and in this case it uh
staff would support the maximum of 5 years after 5 years the permit can be reviewed again and issues that may arise can be addressed at that time um the proposed business at this location uh will not impact neighboring properties and the home will remain as a
single family residence now and into the future the proposed use will not change the property to a non-residential property we did have uh 14 conditions um and these were actually just copied
over from when this was originally granted um in in 2020 so the first one is that the applicant agrees to sign the consent agreement he did that in 2020 and that's been recorded with the Brown County Recorders Office um number two that the
interim use permit permit approval is for a period of 5 years from the date of the city council's approval number three that the applicant shall not operate the business on the premises outside of the hours from 7:00 a.m to 10:00 p.m monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m saturday and Sunday
four that the applicant will ensure that the business complies with the city code standards for odor dust vibration smoke fumes gases and unsightliness number five uh that the sign on the property shall not exceed that should actually read six square
feet um uh number six customer parking will only take place on the applicant's property and not in the alley right away or on the uh area neighbors property number seven that the applicant will pay the cost to record the interim use permit and consent agreement with the
Brown County Recorders Office uh number eight that activities will will not include the manufacturer stocking of firearms or firearm accessories at 115 North Washington Street for the sole purpose of displaying selling or maintaining inventory for walk-in retail
customers um and then there were two conditions which I previously read uh from the ATF um number nine business operations will not generate noise that violates section 8.08 of the city code number 10
there will be no discharge of firearms on the property number 11 there will be no storage of ammunition on the property beyond what's necessary for the applicant's personal use number 12 before opening the business the app before continuing the business the applicant will obtain appropriate
licenses or approvals from the Department of Justice Bureau and Alcohol Tobacco Firearms Explosives to conduct gunsmithing business um the applicant will comply with and maintain the necessary licensing during the operation of the business so I'm assuming Mr meyer
would be willing uh to give us a copy of his new license once it expires after 2026 we'll coordinate with him on that uh number 13 all firearms and firearm parts uh shall be secured inside the building
which shall be locked uh by a means of steel exterior door with one door knob lock and one dub bolt per door or any walkthrough doors the garage doors will be locked by mechanical means from the interior when the owner is not on the property or at night fully assembled
firearms will be kept in a secondary locked enclosure while the owner is not on the property locked enclosure may include but is not limited to a gun safe steel mesh athletic type locker steel gun cabinet secured uh secured locked reinforced room on the interior of the
building or any other locked enclosure uh that would take considerable effort to gain access to without a key or combination and again number 14 uh prior to the issuing this renewal the city would like to inspect the business location to
ensure that SE security measures have been installed and comply with uh number 13 i would note I want to go back to just real briefly um back to condition number six customer parking shall take
place on the uh owner's property um community development director and myself had did have a conversation with the city attorney regarding um can we make it a condition of a special use permit such as this that the applicant
provide parking on their private property um and maybe uh Dave can fill in here um but we can make that a condition um of a conditional use permit of a interim use permit or permits such
as this but it doesn't mean that if a person or a customer comes and parks in the front of their house on the street uh that that's illegal in any way um or anything like that they're still allowed there to to park because it's public parking but we can make it a condition
that they provide parking for customers with these types of special permits yeah i would also note that um there are a number of uh communities that within their zoning ordinance specifically require for a home
occupation or uh an activity like this that um you're required to have off- streetet parking for that use so um lastly we had two potential motions uh one to recommend approval with
conditions of the interim use permit and one to deny and that concludes the staff report okay i'd like to discuss the finding of facts form and I'm in agreement with the city attorney and everything if everyone has read this
that we save some time and agree or disagree but if there are questions with specific areas then we'll go through the whole thing so how does the commission feel do we accept the reading that we did on our
own or do you want it each question to be gone through no I I think it's I think saving the time here is fine we've all read it it's public record we we we can take something out and discuss it if we want to so I think I think just as a whole is
Are we in agreement i'm okay with that i mean and this is a renewal and we've had no complaints in the past and Okay I'm good to go okay then I'm going to ask if everyone agrees with the yes or no the
yes that everyone's approving the finding of facts okay yes yes yes okay that leaves us open to any further discussion on this before I close it for
the motion we're going to close public hearing close public hearing yes i have just one sort of comment on condition number 12 that has to do with the federal licensing does it would it make sense to say that
u if their lensure expires a federal lensure expires this becomes invalid i think the even rewarding it by continuing doesn't quite close the gap it doesn't say that if the licenses expire it doesn't really say what
happens to this IUP um maybe we can tie the two together and just say if that one expires this becomes invalid sure so add to number 12 if the federal lensure if the applicant's federal lensure expires the interim use shall become
null and void something like that okay perhaps just inv however you want to word it i don't know that we want to come back here again if he were to get his license renewed again and he still had his five years maybe we're okay with just saying it's valid again so maybe
it's not null and void maybe just invalid okay okay are there any other points of discussion i would like to know so originally prior to opening the business the city shall
inspect the business location to ensure that the property security measures have been installed since then has there been does this type of business have inspections has there been any inspection since by any entity right hi my name is Brett Meyer i'm at 115
North Washington um so yeah as far as the inspections ATF requires inspections um at their willingness whenever they want so yes and I have had one of those
atf did come in and inspect and make sure that um mainly what they're looking at is recordkeeping that all my government documents all my forms and everything are filled out and completed and everything is the way it's supposed to be so yes that has been done uh that
was a couple years ago they came in and they checked everything and they were happy so thank you do they just do that randomly yes anytime they want yes so they they they typically give you a heads up within like a week but not
necessarily they can come in like if I'm open today they could come in and declare that they want to do an inspection and they look through everything so you basically have to keep up on this stuff on a daily basis and it there's requirements and um there's all sorts of stuff that you need to follow
as far as paperwork and everything else to to be on top of it because yeah they could come in at any moment and if they find something they don't like they will close you down so it's it's kind of a big deal
yeah as far as the city itself we could inspect it if we wanted to um but normally I don't believe we would go in and inspect it unless there were a complaint sir or concerns that another that they got calls on it cuz it's been
inspected before it opened so however you know the commission could ask for it to be inspected at this time before you renew right if the AT I just want to know if there was an entity that was that was
checking in to make sure regulations and stuff were being followed but if the ATF is under with what you said I'm I'm good okay any other concerns thank you if not I'm going to close the public hearing portion of this meeting and call
for a motion well if I may I'll move that we um recommend approval of this interuse permit as presented by staff with the 14 conditions um and with the amendment to 12 second i have a motion and a second is
there any further discussion if not all in favor i opposed thank you when does this go before the council it'll go to the city council April 1st at 4:30 next Tuesday
thank you and the building looks really nice too you put some work into it thank you for coming yeah yeah okay next item on the agenda is the Tinko Tinklinberg Terra Construction
Conditional Use Permit i should be punching buttons instead of I need to pay attention city report okay um this is a conditional use permit to allow the installation of a special
purpose fence the applicant is Chris Tinkllinberg on behalf of Tira Construction the property owner is uh Russ Encom Ekholm on behalf of the state of Minnesota Department of Military Affairs um the legal description here is
lot one block one Palmer edition with a street address of uh 2100 Palmer Avenue the property is generally located west of the airport and south of US Highway 14 i'm just going to pull up a
uh the deadline for a decision on this application is May 10th uh 2025 the land use designation in the comprehensive plan is public semi-public um surrounding land uses uh to the north are commercial parks and open
space uh to the east the airport to the south national guard uh future business and then future in uh industrial and airport to the west uh no future land use designation has uh been noted uh
zoning designation is the B2 it's the service business district surrounding zoning for this property to the north is uh B3 general business district and then the AOS A uh agricultural open space to
the east it's a AOS and then to the south it's A1 uh agriculture and that's a Brown County zoning designation to the west it's also A1 um agriculture and that's again Brown County zoning designation
current uh site land use uh the Minnesota National Guard built a vehicle maintenance shop on the property in 2022 they're currently constructing the National Guard readiness center on the same property and this application is is literally to extend the fence um that
they uh were permitted to do uh in 2022 to now put a barbed wire fence around the readiness center as well um current area land uses uh include to the north it's Menard's Walmart agricultural land and then airport
safety zones to the west and south agricultural land um and airport safety zones and then to the east the new home municipal airport notice was provided to all property owners within 350 ft of the subject property and published in the journal on March 18th 2025 and to date
staff has not re uh received any comments regarding this application um the city's fence regulations are found in section 10.3 of appendix A uh these fence regulations allow electric barb wire special purpose fences and fences taller than the height
limitations uh established in this subdivision only with the conditional use permit so because this is uh they have barb wire fence um for the top foot of of this fence it's considered a special purpose fence and therefore requires a conditional use permit
uh a National Guard readiness center supports the training and administrative duties including a large assembly hall office space weapons storage vault and logistical uh requirements for the assigned National Guard units the location of the readiness center is
generally bound uh by the field maintenance shop to the south New Airport to the east US Highway 14 to the north Palmer Avenue to the west the location of the uh proposed fence can be viewed on attachment one that's what I have pulled up on the screen here and
the fence is this orange uh line um to to the east uh to the east of most their property and then uh just to the east of their building i would note if you drive up there right now there's
a there's a gate as you're entering into the readiness center and I asked them if they were going to want to expand the fence there and that's not uh that's not their intent you can get into the parking lot entirely the barbed wire fence is actually to the east of their
parking area is that back area fenced now where the red dotted line is because you're removing fence yep there's it's fenced currently and they're going to be removing that so they can move uh vehicles easily back and forth from the readiness center to the field
maintenance shop which is located to the south is there anything on that side of the of the land use there is one storage building uh there is one storage building just to the east of the
readiness center parking lot cold storage building and that's about it but it doesn't leave a gap in in in fencing anywhere no okay so I because I was a little bit confused looking at this and I thought well why am I why are you putting a barbwire fence if you're
leaving a big gap in the back it's not okay sure thank you good question um we also show the location of the fence on attachment 4 that does show kind of kind of addresses your question here it's it's
it would be attached to the building or budding the building go all the way to the uh and connect with the existing fence that's surrounding the field maintenance shop and then continue that fence um from the field maintenance shop up to the north and again back into the
readiness center um the applicant provided the following information on their requests uh one that the National Guard requires a section of barbwire fence along the top edge of the fence two that the fence is
a total of 8 feet tall 7 foot of chain link and one foot one foot a one foot section of three strand barb wire fence at the top uh three that the barb wire fence in question is approximately 200 feet away from the road and will have
minimal visual impact um or impact on other properties and then four that the purpose of the fence is to keep persons from entering the site as it will house large military vehicles and operations the existing National Guard
vehicle maintenance facility located at 1523 South Washington also has uh an outside area with the similar fencing arrangement if you're familiar with that site the New Public Utilities Electric Substation at 1523 Cell South State also
has a similar fencing arrangement um and again the field maintenance shop which was uh constructed at 2100 Palmer Avenue was already granted a cup uh for a barb wire fence in the past so in order to recommend approval
of the permit uh the the commission will need to determine that the request complies with the review criteria section uh found in section 2.4D4 of appendix A of the city code that same criteria is also found on our findings of facts
form um we did have six attachments here so we had attachment one which was the application and then they included a site plan uh with fence locations um as well attachment two is a
site location map and you can see here uh this is what's shown here as being constructed is actually the field maintenance shop uh where the arrow is pointing um is going to be where the readiness center is going to be located and they're they're well underway um
with construction i'm assuming we'll be finished this this this year with the construction of that site um attachment three is zoning map attachment four is a little bit closer view uh site map and then showing where
the fence is going to be located in orange and then attachment five are ground level photos of the site uh staff would recommend approval of the request uh for the following reasons um one you can see the staff's
completed uh findings fact form and that's all of the reasoning behind uh why we would recommend granting approval of this conditional use permit um we do recommend four conditions one that the applicant pay the cost to record the permit with Brown
County Recorders Office two that the fence be installed in the location uh shown on attachment four or as they've presented to us in their application three that the fence and the height uh the fence height and the amount of barb wire uh fencing installed uh will be
described in the conditional use permit application dated March 7th 2025 and then four that if there's a change in ownership or occupancy of the applicant's property at 2100 Palmer Avenue the installed fence will be brought into compliance with city fence
regulations within 3 months of the change we had two potential motions um one to recommend approval with conditions and then one to deny the application and that concludes the staff report thank you i have one question and
I think it's just to refresh my memory the the um South State Street facility stays right or is that is that all moving out to this facility also yeah as far it's the city's understanding that everything at that
field maintenance shop will now be going out to the state so so the South State Street property becomes available then also potentially but it's our understanding they have to go through that federal process of trying to sell that and that can be a little bit of a timeconuming
process okay that would be f that that was my question i couldn't remember are there any other questions okay going to the finding of facts form again has everyone read them and do they
agree with the acceptance or not you agreeing yes yes okay then then we'll wave the reading of the finding of facts form are there is there any further discussion no
and I would close the public hearing portion of the meeting and call for a motion i'll make a motion to recommend approval with conditions the application of Chris Tinkllinberg on behalf of Tara Construction and Russell Eholm on behalf of the state of Minnesota Department of
Military Affairs for a conditional use permit to allow the installation of a special purpose fence on the property legal legally described as lot one block one Palmer edition i'll second i have a motion and a second
is there any further discussion that's with the conditions correct correct okay yes is there any other discussion all in favor i opposed and when does
this appear this will also go to the um April 1st city council meeting at 4:30 thank you very much next item on the agenda is the simple lot division lot one Front Street Industrial
Park second edition okay the um applicant um in this case is Willis Schaefer the property owner is Robert Dietrich um street address is um a thousand North
Front Street the property is located east of North Front Street and south of 12 North Street deadline for a decision on this matter is uh May 10th 2025 land use designation for the
property is um industrial according to our comprehensive plan surrounding land uses to the north and south is industrial to the east it's parks and open space and to the west it's a
combination of industrial railroad and lowdensity residential the uh zoning of the property is I2 which is general industrial district to the north and south it is also I2 to the east it's AOS which is
agricultural open space and then to the west it's I2 I3 which is a limited industrial district and then RT2 which is traditional neighborhood single and two
family residence district um the current site use um of this property is it's vacant but there also is um storage taking place and this refers to the area where the simple lot division will take
place there also is an office building located on the property um so current area land uses to the north we have Minnesota Valley Testing Labs to the east we have property that's vacant and flood plane
to the south we have um Schaefer crane and to the west we have Schaefer crane and then storage buildings uh notice um uh none is required and no public
comments have been provided on this request a little bit about the proposed request schaefer Well Company is purchasing the property from Robert Dietrich on contract perdeed
basis the lot area of lot 5 is 10.5 acres as noted previously there is one building on the property sheet street address again is uh 1,00 North Front Street the building
has on the property has 11,292 square ft the applicant is proposing to divide lot five into two parcels the new parcel of property um is located on the north side of the
property by the MVTL building this would allow Schaefer Contract to construct a new office building on this new parcel of property um the new parcel would have a width of
150 ft and a depth of 470.79 ft a cold storage building could be constructed on the property at a later date um the approximate um size of the
new parcel would be 1.62 acres um the proposed new legal descriptions would be as follows it would be the south easterly 150 ft of the northwesterly 190 ft of the southwesterly
470.79 ft of lot 5 block one Front Street Industrial Park second edition city of New Brown County Minnesota the second parcel would be described as lot 5 block one Front Street Industrial
Park second edition city of New Brown County Minnesota accepting there from the northwesterly 190 ft of the southwesterly 470.79 ft i would note that um I had
these descriptions reviewed by the county recorder and she said that the descriptions are acceptable um there is no lot area lot width or lot depth requirements in the I2 zoning
district there are required setbacks but none would impact the um lot division more so it would impact any development that took place on the parcel and the staff has not been advised of any utility conflicts caused by the proposed
lot division you have attachments uh the first is the applicant's letter and you will note that uh in the signature lines there are no signatures but we do have copy of that letter that has been signed
now by both parties um attachment two is a site location map which um why don't you go back to attachment two and that shows the uh proposed location of the new buildings so the uh uh shaded area on
the left side of that um picture is uh North Front Street and you can see the MVTL building is um is John showing that with a cursor okay then we have um the uh zoning map is attachment three
attachment four is the simple lot division map on an aerial photograph and then attachment five is ground level photos um of the uh of the
property uh staff would recommend approval of a simple lot division with one condition since it complies with city code requirements the approval is subject to the applicant and that condition is the approval is subject to the applicant recording the resolution
authorizing the simple division with the Brown County Recorders Office there are two motions one to approve and one to deny the request that would complete the staff report thank you
are there any questions for staff i have just one is there any issue with the uh trailer storage on what becomes sort of the orphaned lot when it's the smaller lot is vacant after it gets split off will it continue to have the open
storage there is is that an issue no that would not be all right [Music] are there any other questions i've got no questions i'm going to recommend approval with one condition the simple lot division of lot 5 block
one Front Street Industrial Park second edition city of New Brown County Minnesota accepting their form the northwesternly 40 ft of lot 5 block one
Front Street Industrial Park second edition i'll second i have a motion and a second is there any further discussion if if hearing none all in favor i
opposed again is this an April 1st april Fool's Day right thank you next item on the agenda is city council reports okay at the uh council's March
4th meeting um they approved the interim use permit to Daniel McKinley at 11:21 South Minnesota Street and that was for the um
myofascial release therapy business um they also approved the condition comprehensive plan amendment which was a change from low density residential and medium density
residential to high density residential for 901 at North Highland Avenue and that was to permit the um future construction of um apartment buildings there they also um had second
consideration of an ordinance um pertaining to cannabis business uses and they approved that um uh as well and then um also on the uh
agenda uh for this uh meeting there was a public hearing that was uh conducted on the sale of property to Landhaven Development LLC um Land Haven Development uh is proposing to purchase property in the
city's um industrial park which is um um airport um industrial park third edition uh the public hearing was required because of the amount of the assess or financial assistance that's being
provided uh to allow this development to take place uh the proposed use of the property is um there's the uh developer is going to flat 29 lots and they're going to be sold for storage building
purposes and then with the option in some of the units being able to accommodate residential units in order to do this going to require a planned unit development zoning designation and
I expect that will be before you probably at the April could be the April meeting if not it would be the main meeting um then at the same meeting they received a uh vacation petition um and
set a public hearing date uh for April first and that was for um a portion of 16th North Street behind the um go sheet metal building on North Front Street um
there's a segment of 16th north that is still a city street and so they uh petitioned for its vacation uh last year they also petitioned for vacation of alleys and street right away in that area as well and it just would
facilitate uh future development but I think also they wanted to put up a fence and so rather than having public rightway there if it's private rightway then the fence can go across the property that would conclude the
um the items that the city council has previously con considered you know John has talked about our conversation with the city attorney about the uh parking issue and then there is one other thing
that I'd like to cover real quickly and this is um something that is taking place at the legislature and it's something that um you know is going to impact uh or could
impact what this group does summary put together by the coalition cities thank you thank you thank you and so for the past uh two or three
legislative sessions there have uh been bills introduced that uh w with the um hope that um if we modify zoning
regulations we will be able to address the affordable housing problem that um you know basically it's probably nationwide and so each year there's been
these bills introduced and for the past couple years they have not been successful um this year they've introduced um a series of bills and it's kind of called the Yes to Homes legislative package
um and I mean some of the features or proposed legislation is um uh pretty um um uh significant as far as the changes that it would bring to the community i
would note that this these laws would apply statewide so from the smallest town to the largest town although there are some uh different requirements for different cities um based on um
population but um there are three uh main bills and I would note that these bills change there's things taken out and being added and as it goes through this process but um some of the common features you know on the first page is
there would be no parking requirement so if you wanted to you could build an apartment building and not provide any parking now what the proponents would say is well they're going to have to provide parking for
people that um that that live there but um they also don't have to or they can reduce the amount of parking that they provide maybe let some parking take place out on the street which you know is is legal to a degree
um design requirements um municipality can't impose requirements for construction materials or methods or um architectural elements building egress durability energy efficiency you know we
don't have anything like that in our zoning ordinance um some of this kind of I'm curious how this is going to interface with uh the building code um so that's going to be kind of interesting um they're recommending um
the fourth bullet an administrative approval process um where things uh they want to accelerate the approval process and they want to eliminate public
hearing and still have um you know the ability I think uh you there there would be uh meetings but they would not I I don't know if we sent you can send out notices anymore a lot of this is still
like being developed uh we're not real certain about it but they they want to get rid of public hearings for for a lot of items and um so that's kind of the uh the common features if you turn to the
second page um this is kind of a a list of the um of the three bills and what their what their content is so we have the Minnesota Starter Home we have the Missing Middle Act and we have the
Housing and Commercial District and um the um Minnesota Starter Home Basically there is uh they want uh there's no such thing as single family
zoning anymore um so you have to require um duplexes and ADUs adus is auxiliary dwelling units that's something that you would attach to a single family dwelling as well as town homes and newly platted
districts and vacant lot so if there was a vacant lot in the grid iron part of New Almet where you've got single family dwellings around it you could put a town home there um and I some of the legislation allows you to have like three units you
know in a in a structure uh the missing middle act you may remember this uh from uh the comprehensive plan process there was a missing middle housing that was
identified um in in the comp plan but um so the the first bullet um all covered cities which I believe no would be a covered city must create mixed housing districts in at least 50% of the
city's land that is zoned residential these mixed housing districts must allow either of the following as permitted uses so single family dwellings town homes duplexes triplexes or ADUs combined with single family
dwellings forplexes are optional um and then the other option is any combination of residential dwelling units or mixed housing to support the density of at least one residential unit for every 4,000 square feet we pro in
our grid iron we're one you know at um 8,250 square feet but we do allow in a good part of our grid iron um um you know duplexes so we actually would come in at least that particular zoning
district we probably would comp come close to complying with that standard um but then you've got to create commercial corridor districts uh that encompass lots that abut um state aid streets um at some increased
density um you know you as indicated you can't impose requirements uh unless provided for in the state building code um the um then there's um it uh places the
standards on that on housing must any standards on housing must be directly related to protecting public health safety and general welfare um the third bill is housing in commercial districts and basically with
the exception of heavy industrial zoned areas they want to allow housing in any other district so um and there's you know other requirements height limitations are
restricted um the administrative re review is limited to 60 days so this is under active consideration and this has actually been passed out of some uh subcommittees already so um this
is really a a very radical change and in um the coalition of Minnesota cities and actually I think our staff would agree that this isn't going to solve the problem because the problem very simply is cost
cost of land cost of infrastructure cost of materials to build a house cost of labor to construct and those elements um you can't generate rent or mortgages
to cover that that's the problem and I I don't know there a lot of this is being driven by um metropolitan area legislators um and um I I don't know if they've ever
been to outstate Minnesota or green Minnesota just to see what things are like out here and what the problems are that we deal with but this is just completely foreign to us how this uh has any any standing and why this is given active consideration
because it very simply isn't going to be successful so why don't you go ahead and read it and if you want to call if you know any legislators like to call them and tell them i'm waiting to see how the Falcon Heights parking resolution comes up
where they're going to permit one parking place per residence and the rest of the parking places are $25 a day on the street that's for the state fairgrounds that's around the state fair i read a little bit about that just recently so you you get one parking
place if you live there whether you pay property tax or not so stay tuned for further updates is there any other business be to come before the commission because the Heritage Preservation Commission has no
report i'm going to just ask David a question you know so you you spoke briefly about uh the potential 29 lots that could be under a planned unit development so there could be a chance that this could be adopted by our government we may not even have to go
into a planned unit development then for that area would that be correct if I'm interpreting well there's yeah there's a provision in there about planned units of elements i think they would like to get rid of them um and
I you know it all depends on you know the the existing terms that are being used uh if that the area is classified as heavy industry I guess then you couldn't do it I don't think that area would meet that
definition but we haven't seen a definition so I guess I really don't know but basically it kind of almost makes a free-for-all it's a free-for-all if I'm stating correctly you know and what what I'm reading here so and another thing they want to do is they want to shrink uh the size of the
lot with you know 4,000 feet but they also want to shrink setback and I I think um if you've ever had an opportunity to Minneapolis St paul to see the residential housing there you'll
know that they are pretty compressed and I I think that's the direction that they're trying to take well some of the older parts of New Walmart too i know our house in particular is probably a foot from the lot line so well you know
our requirement in the RT2 district uh is 5T sideyards and that probably is what you would find here but that would apply to all res okay i think also they they want this to be
enacted statewide in 26 if I'm if I'm if if it does pass well it would certainly be interesting i would like to hear public comments since you're taking none oh certainly you know you know I think
right now you know the uh comments should be directed to the legislators because they're the ones that are making this decision okay okay is there any other questions
business if not this meeting stands adjourned thank you