in the mountains a little bit greetings and welcome to the uh planning commission regular meeting April 3rd 2025 call to order roll call please pearson here willenberg here campbell present data here mccauley here heagen
here wilson noted that he will not be in attendance for this meeting thank you very much pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh we look for approval of the agenda make a motion to approve the agenda second all those in favor i any opposed thank you approval of the minutes does
anyone have any changes that they wish to suggest for the minutes no then I look for approval of the agenda as presented so moved second all those in favor i any opposed thank you very much i'll abstain as well that's of
course true yep uh now now is the time for open forum which is an opportunity for anyone in the audience to make comment if they wish on something that is not on the agenda if it's on the agenda we will discuss it at that time anyone wish to come forward to make
comments i offer a second time for anyone to come forward and seeing none I close the open forum if I've opened it and uh proceed to old business which is none and new business public hearing Baker 7880 44th Street
Court North conditional use permit for a second garage who will present for us tonight that'll be me be Max thank you y thank you chair and commissioners and good evening for us tonight we have a request for a second garage through the
conditional use permit process at 788044th Street North so this is located in the Sunboro development off of Ideal Avenue and 44th Street the zoning is PUD as a part of the Sunboro development
which does follow the standards for the R1 district very low density housing uh where garages are allowed uh second garages are allowed via CUP the applicant here is seeking to add a new detached garage for the city code single family homes are permitted to have one
garage by right and additional garages are permitted through conditional use permit the property as a whole is approximately 1 acre in size and contains a single family home with an existing attached garage here we have the site plan for
the applicant's plans to add a garage the applicant plans to use the garage mainly for storage of tools gardening equipment and parking as you can see the garage would be located just a bit southeast of the house and given that the lot size uh is quite large the site
plan shows that all setback requirements are met with over 80 foot setbacks for most portions of the parcel additionally the applicant has stated that the garage would not exceed height limits here we have formal plans for the garage structure the garage contains two
stories and would feature a balcony on the second story uh when we first saw the plan staff was concerned that there may be a residential use occurring within it uh possibly an accessory dwelling unit however when speaking with the applicant they informed us that the
Sunbor uh HOA requires that uh new accessory buildings be more residential in style and fit in with the guidelines of the community additionally given that the property is on a septic system extending the septic system to serve this building would be unfeasible uh
further we do also have a condition prohibiting the use of the building as a dwelling unit uh within the resolution on file as a reminder conditional use permits are subject to certain review criteria found in the city's ordinance here's a summary of the review criteria
we must use in our evaluation compliance with the comprehensive plan compatibility with surrounding zoning no nuisance effects no traffic congestion or parking issues adequate service uh for public services no excessive costs
incurred by the public and minimal impacts to the environment or natural features specific for additional accessory structures the lot can't be further subdivided uh no pullb barn construction is allowed no door may
exceed 10 ft in height and no commercial or industrial uses can occur within the structure staff finds that the cup review criteria has been satisfied as detailed in the staff report on file staff is recommending approval of the request subject to the following
conditions the applicant shall obtain a building permit the garage shall meet setback and height requirements the garage shall not exceed uh 1,000 square ft in size and the garage shall not be used as a dwelling unit as a reminder this is a public hearing and the
applicant is here with us in attendance i want to note as well that we did receive one written comment in support of this request and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much does anyone have any questions
um do um thank you uh just a question here i understand that um based on the report it's not going to be used for residential purposes um I see um if you go to the elevation plans
there uh the bottom uh left I see a door there is that the door to the deck on the second floor is there a door i do believe there is a door to the uh
second floor balcony and we can also ask the applicant as well okay and are they intending to use it for sort of like entertainment obviously there's a a porch there um there going to be some activity there they going to be to hang
out at least or something i'm unsure of that um exactly i I'm not sure if it'll be served by electricity or not um I would defer to the applicant on that okay all right thank you any other questions if I may just to
comment on that it looks like that deck is just a connecting kind of a passageway to an at grade because there's a grade change there of probably pretty good size change 10 to 12 feet so I think it's just a a way to access that
second level from that upper grade because when you look at it it's it's only entrance to the to the building yeah i mean it's four feet wide okay so any other questions okay if the applicant wishes to make
comment please come forward state your name and address of course my name is uh Bob Baker 7880 44 Street Court North um just to comment that this really became um something we felt we really needed to
move forward on last spring we sold our lake home up near Spooner Wisconsin and as a consequence we brought lawn tractors and riding lawnmowers and table saws and compound miter saws and all kinds of gardening equipment and there's really no place to put them they're
they're taking up car space right now and so that's going to become our sort of my hobby shop my workshop and uh my wife's gardening shop anyone have any questions for the applicant the only my only question would be a
verification of is it just out of curiosity is the balcony actually going to be used as an entryway as you come down from the house that's what it's a little basically a gang plank a bridge that'll come across from the higher grade to go straight into the upper level of the Thank you
are you building that into the wall the hill itself yeah we're going to uh excavate um basically um an L-shaped uh slab that will you know pour the concrete in and then we'll have a wall behind it the entrance to that garage is going to be kind of tight going up that
hill and turning isn't it uh we're going to have to do some changing along the you know to get the pathway in uh although technically it's a garage we're not going to be using it for a garage uh my daughter when she lives in Texas if
she drives up we might use it for then but otherwise we'll just put the cars in our existing garage okay thanks any other questions see none thank you very much thank you any final questions from the
commission seeing none oh Mr mr chair just want to make sure that we we open and close the public hearing oh is there a public hearing on this one okay open the public hearing is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to make comment on this issue and again if there's anyone in this in the audience who wishes to make
comment on the issue please come forward seeing none I close the public hearing thank you for pointing that out uh so I'll look for a motion to recommend approval of the conditional use permit for an additional garage at 7880 44th Street Court North so moved second all
those in favor i any opposed thank you very much motion passes second item public hearing for Historia Oak Marsh 8014th Street North uh variance and preliminary plat final plat and site
plan thank you Mr chair so the location of this site it's a proposed development at 80014th Street and it consists of 5 acres for this uh specific development however the subdivision that that accompanies the request that actually
includes Oak Meadows the senior living building there so the the subdivision consists of uh 20 approximately 20 acres whereas just the development site that we're we're mostly focused on is roughly 5 acres uh so this property is located approximately 1 half mile from the new
Helmo station for the Gold Line of course the the Gold Line just opened back in March 22nd just a couple weeks ago the purpose of this request is to establish an 89 unit senior living co cooperative so in general co-op members own a share of the building as opposed
to owning their individual units or lots the developer states that the units will be market rate or in other words they are not income restricted the building will be four stories tall with one level of underground parking and the zoning for the site is R5 that's highdensity
housing where multi-family developments are allowed the comp plan guidance for this site is highdensity residential the proposed density of this senior co-op building is approximately 17 dwelling units per acre which is consistent with the comp plan allowed density range of 8
to 30 dwelling units per acre so access to the site there are two proposed accesses off Fourth Street and one emergency vehicle access off Ideal Avenue i'll show that in just a moment so moving on uh here is a look at the proposed subdivision plat so although u
as I mentioned the development site itself which is shown as lot one for the senior co-op building that's about 5 acres the entirety of the plat is roughly 20 acres and this is because the Oak Meadow site has to be replatted it has to be brought into uh conformance
with the city's zoning regulations so currently there's a line the property line bicts the Oak Meadows building so this plat will help correct that it will shift that lot line further north so that the building now or it will meet setback
requirements so the plat will create two lots so lot one again is for the senior co-op building lot two for the existing Oak Meadows senior uh structure and then two outlots so there's two wetland areas one on the south portion of the lot and then one in the central area of the the
property those two wetland areas have to be platted as outlots and then they will be deeded to the city for future ownership and maintenance so as part of the platting and subdivision process and also in accordance with state law the city is able to require park education
payment for this development um now moving on to the site plan i want to point out a few things here uh the two accesses are off street as I mentioned the uh emergency access which is mainly used for mainly will be
used for fire trucks other large uh public safety vehicles to better ingress and egress from the site it's not shown on this image it will be shown on the next image um the underground parking entrance will be on the east side of the building there are a number of site amenities and probably the developer
could explain those better than than I can but you can see that there are some here in the uh kind of the south and east portion or to the south and to the east of the building there's a couple pickle ball courts here to the east and then there are two storm water basins one here to the south and then one to
the east of the proposed building um the developer is seeking a variance to deviate from three of the city's zoning uh standards so number one is building height uh number two is setbacks and number three is minimum lot size so in terms of the building height the R5
zoning district limits buildings to 40 ft in height so the proposed average building height of this structure is 46 ft and there is one portion of the height that will be about 62 feet and that's the gable truss the northwest corner of the building you'll be able to
see that better in the elevations for setbacks the required build the required setback is based on the average building height which again that's 46 ft those set setbacks will be met with this site from all property lines with
the exception of just a small portion here on the northwest corner there's a little bit of a bumpout so in um the proposed setback there from that bumpout is 35 ft and again the required setback is 46
minimum lot size the R5 district requires a minimum lot size which is based on the composition of the units so for example 2,000 square feet are needed per each studio unit and then 3,000 ft² for one or two bedrooms and then I believe it's 3500 square ft for every
3bedroom unit uh so based on the unit composition 6.15 acres is needed the proposed lot size here for this uh senior co-op building is 5.1 acres and there the developer did note that
there's an update in um what's shown in the staff report it says that this lot is about 5.5 acres but uh the developer uh ran the calculations for for the wetland and the the outlaw that has to be platted here um so it's actually
closer to 1.5 acres for this proposed lot so given the irregular shape of the property and the presence of environmentally sensitive features including wetlands slopes significant trees uh approving a variance request to
exceed the R5 district's height requirement the setbacks and the minimum lot size appears appropriate from the city's city staff's perspective in order to allow and accommodate the proposed development uh furthermore other recent residential
projects built within the city all of which have been actually PUD or planned unit development they have exceeded these standards uh very in very similar manners and then staff finds that the criteria for approving a variance has been have been met as this request um
I'll summarize the the criteria here number one it's consistent with the comp plan number two it appears in alignment with the purpose and intent of the zoning ordinance number three the use appears reasonable in manner not permitted by the ordinance number four the circumstances are unique to the
property and are not created by the property owner and number five the central character of the area will not be changed uh moving on to parking the parking requirements for this site have been met uh so the the city zoning code requires one space per dwelling unit for
senior housing however the initial development can be as low as 0.5 spaces per dwelling unit the proposed U parking for the site is a total of 139 spaces so that's 114 covered or underground spaces
and then 25 sur surface parking spaces continuing on with tree preservation regulations so the city's tree ordinance allows up to 35% of significant trees to be removed and when we say significance based on uh the the diameter of a of a tree or the height of
a tree depending on its species and uh the developer uh when they did their inventory they identified 505 significant trees and 270 of these trees are planned for removal in order to accommodate the development that roughly
results in about 49% of the significant trees on site having to be removed um the uh developer proposes installing 144 new trees in accordance with the trees replacement schedule and that's um also accompanies their
landscape plan so staff finds that the developer's landscaping plan sufficiently satisfies the tree replacement requirements as 51 additional trees would be planted beyond the minimum requirement uh just one note here uh while I have this image up
there's an existing pedestrian um uh infrastructure there their walking trail rather that serves Oak Meadows and it looks like that the developer will preserve that and it'll be a a feature for both Oak Meadows and um this proposed senior
co-op so this image here the the paving plan it clearly shows where the proposed vehicular accesses are for this development again two accesses off Fourth Street and then the emergency access off Ideal Avenue so this is a mountable curb or mountable concrete
curb and the um it's intended only for emergency vehicles the fire department did note that it's going to be important to pro prohibit or make sure that uh vehicles are not blocking this access either off ideal or within the culdesac
there so um so that emergency excuse me emergency vehicles can properly utilize it so as such the developer must install signage that prohibits parking along the curb line moving on to sidewalks the city's
uh bicycle and pedestrian plan identifies the need for sidewalks to be built along the east side of Ideal Avenue and along the south side of Fourth Street and the main purpose of this is to encourage walkability and connect the area to the nearby Helmo station there's also a new park that's
being built less than a quarter mile to the west if you recall from the Enclave development that went before the planning commission a few months back and additionally the city's subdivision regulations also enable the city to require pedestrian ways to be built as
part of this development and as such the developer must update their plans to include sidewalks in accordance with city standards along the east side of Ideal Avenue and the south side of Fourth Street so next I'll show some of the elevations of the uh proposed building
so this is the north elevation or the side of the building that will face street so this image is broken into two parts in order to show some of the building's detail so currently there are no uh specific requirements related to exterior building materials for property
under conventional zoning and um when we see multif family buildings being subject to exterior design standards those that we've seen in the past few years have all been under PUD zoning so they have special regulations now under the forthcoming zoning code which we
expect will be adopted later this summer uh this type of building would be subject to or would likely be subject to exterior design standards as a multif family structure um however the design elements of this proposed building should be considered as they relate to
the developer variance request to exceed building height and setback standards and with that staff finds that the building's architectural elements including varying roof lines roof accents uh the building has a a distinguished front entrance and the the building also incorporates different
types of exterior building materials such as stone veneer fiber cement and concrete masonry units that all helps to enhance the the appearance of the the multitory building uh some more elevations here to follow so here's a look the top left image is a portion of
the building south facade and then the top right and bottom images are the elevations the the east side elevations of the building that will face Oak Meadows and I would like to note that the east side of the building will have the underground parking and I would also like to point out that these bu that the
units will have balconies so two more images here showing the south elevation which would face just a handful of single family homes and finally here's a look at the west elevation which will face Ideal Avenue i would like to note that the developer
must provide updated plans to show the location of any rooftop and ground level mechanical equipment and the methods of screening them as well as exterior trash enclosure areas and methods of screening those as well uh just returning back to the the site
plan just uh as as we engage in some questions and answers here comments uh but to conclude staff finds that the developers request for a variance preliminary plat final plat and site plan are consistent with the the city's comp plan and the city's ordinance as
detailed in the staff report on file and therefore staff recommends approval of this request subject to the conditions that are found in the resolutions that are in the agenda packet and I will read them so the first resolution is found on page 38 of the
packet so this is the final plat prelim plat for Oak Marsh so there are 11 conditions so bear with me here while I summarize those as best I can so number one is approval of a variance to exceed building setbacks and minimum lot standards number two approval uh
approval of a site plan number three execution of a development agreement number four approval of the site civil construction plans by the city engineer number five satisfaction of park dedication requirements number six u adherence to the city attorney's plat opinion and recording instructions
number seven the developer must revise the plat to designate both wetland areas and their buffers as outlots and those outls along the east side of Ideal Avenue and the south side of Fourth Street number nine the devel developer must include a 10- foot wide easement
along the easterly lot line of lot 2 block one so that's the Oak Meadows property just ensuring that there's the proper easement there uh number 10 establish an easement for access to and maintenance of the north filtration filtration basin and number 11 is
permits and approvals from outside agencies must be uh obtained by the developer moving on to the resolution on page 41 this is the variance there are no conditions of approval so I'll just uh skip on to the
final resolution and that is on page 43 and this is the site plan resolution for Oak Marsh 10 conditions of approval here i'll try to zip through them so number one approval of a variance two execution of a development agreement three approval of the site civil construction
plans four installation of the sidewalks as mentioned number five installation of signage to prohibit parking along the curb line of the mountable concrete curb number six approval from the fire department for hydrant locations and fire department
connections number seven prov uh the developer must provide details on rooftop and ground mechanical equipment and methods of screening number eight uh developer must provide details on the location of external trash collection areas and methods of screening number nine the site lighting or phototric plan
must be revised to ensure that it that site lighting is in accordance with the city's zoning standards and number 10 is that permits and approvals must be obtained from outside agencies so as a reminder this is a public hearing the developer and the development team is
here if you have questions otherwise I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you Luke any questions from the commissioners for of Luke's report not at this time okay so at this point
I'll open Nope i'll offer time to the developer to come forward if they wish it was a quick game of not it you won i drew the short straw earlier yeah um Josh Calman with Leap Development and Atoria Cooperatives just wanted to take a minute to thank you
guys for um your review of our project it's been quite a process been talking to Luke for a very long time uh I think our council workshop was over a year ago now um so not without challenges but definitely excited to be at this point and moving the project forward and and looking forward to being a part of uh
the city of Oakdale so um cooperatives are a unique housing type um our sales team and marketing team have been um working really diligently over that last year uh since we since we launched the project and are achieving um good sort
of benchmark check-ins and so it's our hope that uh things will sort of align as we make it through hopefully successfully through this process that uh the sales will also align and we'll be able to close construction um about the same time that they achieve our our
pre-sale requirement so um with that um myself landscape architect civil engineer and architect are all represented here tonight in case there are any questions that uh that you guys have so thanks so much do we have any questions for the applicant i have one can you talk to us about trash kind of
how the Oh yeah how that's going to move through the site where it's located things like that yep great question uh intended to address that because um trash will actually be completely housed interior and so there will be a tracing shootute inside of the building that will go from all floors uh down to
the lower level parking garage where it will um then be taken care of from that so then will a truck drive down that ramp and then back up yeah so I think um the logistics of that whether it backs down the ramp or
whether it just pulls past the ramp and then the um the receptacles then would be pushed either up the ramp or just right into the truck if it's able to back down yep good question anyone else have questions
thank you i guess you're off the hook thank you at this point then I will open the public forum is there anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward to make comment on this issue hi uh I'm Alexander Pavisson um my
address is 7825 Third Street North uh I am one of the the tenants for the Oaks Business Park um I just wanted to I'm sure you've already thought about these questions but I just wanted to bring them up because it was right across the street um so the first one is about traffic control and whether the kind of
uncontrolled intersections like Ideal and Fourth uh or there's several stop signs and things like that along the way along Fourth Street whether you're anticipating any changes being needed to those intersections as a result of the increased density um because I know there have been a few residential areas and now with the senior co-op and lots
of more people in in that same space whether you'll anticipate that change uh and then along with that just a reminder to consider the pedestrian safety as you consider the walkability of that space too uh it's important that we not just add the sidewalks but that as you're driving through that space you don't you
have the right controlled intersections to have the pedestrians be safe when they're in the when they're on the sidewalk um and then the second piece would be the environmental analysis i'm not sure if that happens at this stage or if that already happened but just considering like the water runoff uh any short-term air quality concerns with the
removal of those trees stuff like that thank you i'm sure that the uh city planner will take those into consideration do you have any comments you wish to make at this time Luke yep thank you chair so in terms of traffic controls at the intersection uh specifically there at um
Ideal and Fourth Street so the city engineer reviewed this request and there were no recommended improvements no um no additional stop signs or um any other traffic control measures there so um um pedestrian safety i mean that
that's a great point especially with the additional sidewalks there um we can huddle up as city staff and see if there's any additional uh improvements that that we could suggest as part of this proposal and then environmental considerations in terms of the storm
water it has to be storm water runoff has to be addressed through uh on-site storm water basins and as well the the site plan's not there on the screen yet but it will be in just a moment uh the two basins there that they will um
ensure that the the storm water runoff is is being managed accordingly and and the developer has to work with not just the city engineer but also the wershed district to make sure that those are are properly functioning storm water basins uh the other the other point about the trees
um it the like I had mentioned in the the in my uh staff presentation uh in terms of the tree replacement that the developer is exceeding the the tree replacement schedule so they're they're planting an additional 51 trees so um I
guess what I can say in addition just to the removal of trees you know some level of of or some percentage of trees has to be allowed to be removed just to accommodate certain developments and I know that the developer they put together quite the
extensive u tree inventory for this site and uh also just designed the site to minimize some of the impacts to the trees especially to the to the south and to the southeast of the site as well thank you anyone have any further
questions do we have a couple more um it looks like these are pickle ball courts i assume those are unlight or unlit correct okay and then Luke you'd mentioned that there's going to be a mountable curb coming off of Ideal so are we keeping two driveways onto Fourth
Street in addition to the mountable curb that's correct okay yeah anyone else then I will list the motions uh motion to recommend approval of the variance for Atoria Oak Marsh chair yes
sir i believe do you have to close it in the public hearing or I can close the public hearing since there's no one else in the audience coming forward uh again motion to approve recommend approval of the variance for Atoria Oak Marsh some moved
second in favor i thank you any oppose motion to recommend approval of the preliminary plat and final plat for Atoria Oak Marsh some moved second all those in favor i any opposed no
and a motion to recommend approval of the site plan for Atoria Oak Marsh so moved second all those in favor i any opposed thank you all three motions have been moved and
passed and we go on to staff liaison update thank you chair so uh do expect to have a planning commission meeting in May and I I think this summer is is going to be incredibly busy just with the the amount of development interest
that we have uh trickling in um and then the other thing I want to note is that we have a couple or actually three planning commission members whose terms are up in June so I just want to connect with you not not here but I'll follow up with some some emails some phone calls
uh so commissioners Campbell Hagen and Data so But already already battled that we uh we certainly appreciate your time on the commission your contributions to the the commission and
uh yeah we'll we'll be in contact about uh uh the terms and if you're interested in renewing so thank you thank you uh commissioners any updates from anyone on the commission nope okay council leazison
update miss Wenbring good evening good evening just one quick thing we were having a chitchat and workshop about um the commissions and an issue came up about start times and so I'm here to ask you if you would prefer
to change your start time to something like 5:30 or 6 versus 7 i like seven i know you do i'm kind of I'm kind of on the southern side as well i like the six
i I mean I mean I would prefer it earlier especially in the winter but my term will be up soon so I'm fine with seven i think 5:30 is too early we don't have that it's like our meeting is what it's 7:35 and we're
going to be getting out of here we're not done yet we're close i would prefer earlier but seven is what it is and it doesn't bother me okay i think it makes it easier for the community too if they got to come into a
meeting if there's coming in at 5 they're just getting home from work or not home yet yeah or not home so I think seven gives them a better chance to actually make a meeting the other ones I see a lot in my day job is 6:30 i don't
see much that starts before that so if we were going to consider that I would say 6:30 would that work for everybody if we did 6:30 just Yeah is there a push for this oh yeah no not necessarily it's totally up to you guys i like seven i know
how do you really feel yeah 6:30 couch in the winter so does anyone have any any push pushing desire to change the time i would I don't have any pushing desire i would welcome it but I'm not going to
make a deal of it i guess that's the summary okay thank you any questions for me no all right thanks thank you i got a question i don't know if it goes to you or to Luke
this particular project sounds like it was talking you guys were talking with them for a long time of what we and we're just getting what we see tonight how big of changes were there or were there many changes from the original concept to where you are
tonight so or if you're allowed to say that i should ask i don't even recall i I don't remember if the front entrance was like that when we looked at it but it was almost a year ago wasn't it yes the the workshop the council workshop was
February of last year I believe okay i have that noted here but now staff has been working with the developers for almost three years I believe at this point so the discussion started even before I got here so I I don't know the full
story or or the extent of the changes but I I would say the majority of what what was presented tonight looks a lot like what I saw when I got when I started here at Oakdale almost 3 years ago and
um the developer did mention that this is a very similar type build that they they've uh they have elsewhere in the metro so they don't they didn't seem to deviate too much from um what what has been working for them elsewhere the only thing I could add on that is a
comment about the traffic my in-laws live at a a story facility down in in Woodbury was a a different vendor or a different management company before but the traffic in and out of it is basically when people like me come in and visit you almost never see anybody
come in and out so it's really light traffic i just want to speak to one more thing with the Historia project um part of the reason that it has taken up to upwards of three years is primarily financial in nature as a part of the cooperative
model they do pre-sales um so that that alone adds on quite a bit of time as they work with their marketing team okay I look for a journ motion one question okay can you give me an update of what's going on in projects on Helml
Avenue just south of 15th there was an early childhood and a dog pound of some sort so the animal facility or companion animal um that request is going through the building permit process it's it's under
per building permit review at this time as far as we know that they're they're still expecting construction sometime um possibly the summer and then the Marus Early Childhood Education Center it's taking the developer a bit longer i'm
not quite sure why um just that's they're they're operating on their timeline but um um there's they're still intent on developing that site as well any further questions i'm done okay i look for a
motion to adjurnn so moved second all those in favor i any oppose no we stand adjourned