call the regular meeting of the oakdale city council to order uh march 6 2025 roll call please pearson here wilenbring here campbell is absent mccauley here
data here hagen also absent and wilson here uh pledge of allegiance please 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 okay i call for approval of the agendas any changes anybody needs to make or we just approve it make a motion for approval of agenda
second all those in favor i any opposed thank you approval of the minutes anyone have any changes to the minutes uh that they need to make make a motion to approval of minutes second
all those in favor i i any opposed motion passes thank you call open forum this is a time chance for anybody who is in the in attendance who wishes to make a comment that's not on the agenda to come forward and speak but again it's
not on the agenda anything that's not on the agenda does anyone wish to come forward seeing none i close the open forum uh we have no old no old business so we will start with new business a public hearing for the ethiopian
evangelical church in minnesota 736033rd street north a conditional use permit for a place of worship thank you chair so i will have the uh presentation slides up here in just a moment so the location of the site is 7360 33rd street it's the former
la fitness site uh the zoning for this property is planned unit development or pud and the purpose of the request is to establish a place of worship or a church and places of worship are allowed in all zoning districts through the conditional use permit process i would like to note
that there is federal law that also provides some guidance here it's um our lupa or the religious land use and institutionalized persons act of 2000 it essentially requires that religious assemblies and institutions be treated equally as non-religious assemblies and
institutions for example um city buildings or school district or school public school district buildings uh they all have to be treated um equally so access to the site it there is an existing access off hemingway so as you probably know the intersection of hemingway and 34th street can be a
little bit tricky to navigate because there is no left turn lane off hemingway to go westbound on 34th street so at the request of both the city and the washington county public works department the developer commissioned a traffic study uh for the proposed change in use and i'll talk a little bit more
about the traffic situation in just a moment so here's a look at the site in question it's outlined in red the existing building is approximately 45,000 square ft i'll show the concept floor plans in just a moment but the uh the main assembly hall would be able to
accommodate up to 915 people so however the church which is currently located in st paul uh it currently has about 700 congregants and that this figure includes not just adults but also children uh now for parking requirements which is based on the size of the
assembly hall and the office space that's associated with the church 247 parking spaces are required this site has 300 existing parking spaces so there uh the parking requirements aren't met so here are some photos of the
property when it was previously operating as a commercial gym and the applicant has stated that there will be no exterior building expansions or additions all renovation work will be limited to the inside of the building only i would like to note that uh any changes to signage would require a sign
permit through the city so here's a look at the preliminary floor plans for the church and again the main assembly hall would is expected to seat up to 915 people there will be approximately 3,000 square ft of office
space a mom/family room connected to the assembly hall seven sunday school classrooms an infant and toddler room restrooms a gym an entryway a gathering area and also a kitchen so here's another look at the
preliminary floor plans which show the existing uh partitions and rooms which is kind of in the lighter outline it's very difficult to see on on this screen so i apologize about that um but moving on so as a reminder conditional use permits are subject to certain review
criteria that's found in the city's zoning ordinance and i'll just briefly summarize those review criterias the first one is compliance with the city's comprehensive plan next is uh compatibility compatibility of the use with the zoning district in which it
is located no nuisance effects generated no traffic congestion or parking issues and again i would like to note that again the uh the applicant worked with the traffic engineer to prepare a traffic study uh moving on with the criteria the
use must be adequately served by public services no excessive costs incurred for public services or infrastructure and finally minimal impacts to environmental and natural features so with that said staff finds that the conditional use permit review
criteria of the ordinance has been satisfied as detailed in the staff report on file uh staff recommends approval subject to the following condition of approval and if you're following along on the in the agenda packet i'm on page 20 last page and it's uh in the draft resolution and again
it's just one condition of approval so wayfinding signage shall be added at the intersection of 33rd street north and hemingway avenue north and along 33rd street north so the wayfinding signage is intended to help direct drivers who are
looking to go westbound on 34th street and essentially trying to avoid having them um make that turn um at the intersection of hemingway 34th they would be redirected further east in that neighborhood so that they could make a proper left turn at the intersection of
marketplace and 34th street uh one final note so although there is only one condition of approval staff is suggesting but is not requiring that the applicant implement the recommendations that's found in the traffic study and these include adding
excuse me adding a feature sidewalk connection from the church to hemingway avenue developing a shared parking agreement with the adjacent property conducting further traffic analysis adjusting internal driveway alignments and also working with washington county on potential future
traffic improvements and as a reminder this is a public hearing the applicant is here in attendance and i'd be happy to answer any questions thank you okay anyone have any questions i don't one question one one question i have
though so the traffic study is going to be limited to just sort of those two parking lot that you are conditioning to be um shared like a shared parking agreement or we talking maybe highway 14 or that 34 uh typically it's a
right-hand turn on 34 uh going east to loop around to go uh west or you're looking at creating an intersection there at hemingway and 34 so yeah in terms of u i guess if i'm understanding the the question correctly
so the traffic study yeah one of the suggestions was um i'll i'll take the parking first the the question on the parking uh it's just a suggestion that um the church work with the property immediately to the east so that's the
the multi-tenant building just for the cross parking agreement and then um the actual condition of approval for that wayfinding signage um it's just a a a couple signs is really all that it would
amount to to help direct traffic um instead of going taking a a a left turn if you're exiting the church taking a left turn or going north on hemingway really trying to prevent that and have them go closer or um take take a
right-hand turn go south on hemingway and then east towards target and then uh going to that intersection okay all right thank you it's good but there wouldn't be any blockage for them to go up hemingway and turn right to go east along 34th
no you could still make that right turn going north on hemingway and then east on 34th is there any other there's a pylon sign down further by the gas station is there a pylon sign near there for pins or
anything like that i believe there is a pylon sign there's several pylon signs in that neighborhood um and then there there's the old la fitness pylon sign as well that's close on the the west side of the site along the interstate
go ahead michael i was just going to ask is there an apartment complex that's being built directly to the south of it or am i thinking of like to the south southeast of it southeast okay i was just thinking of like the adjacent parking workout or
traffic uh analysis there but looks like it's just the gas station that's right next to it that' be the only the a doctor's building that was minimally used but they've got uh some parking facility in there as well okay but it's just during the day not not on the
weekends i believe and i can bring up the location map here in a moment um so where my cursor is that's the new apartment that just opened back in november and then the gas station to the to the north so there is a bit of a separation distance from uh the proposed
church to the th those two structures any further questions just as as a thought traffic and parking was my only issue with this and could there be a on a new onramp lane i don't know how
i'm saying this on the corner of um hemingway and 34th going east just because you know there's going to be a higher traffic there adding a little bit larger lane as traffic turns onto there it gives a little more of an on-ramp there so 34th street is it's also it's a
county road so it's also called county road 14 um i my understanding is there's no immediate plans for improvements at that intersection but it's it's it's certainly on the county's radar in terms of making improvements and as this area
continues to build out anyone else if not then i guess i'll proceed to ask if there's anybody in the audience who wishes to come forward to speak to this matter my name is chuck blair i've been i'm an attorney i've been assisting the church
on the acquisition of the property and the conditional use permit um and i think some of the the issues with the uh traffic i i i reviewed too and i think the thing with the county uh what was recommended to us and through the city
engineer and also our own engineer was that the the county most likely would start by retiming some of the lights that hasn't been done for a long time and especially on sunday so the church's use by and large is going to be pretty
minimal uh they have one service sunday morning late in the morning until i think just afternoon and then otherwise uh they have religion classes where like 40 50 students show up and then they have some events here and there so i
think by and large the only traffic uh concern is going to be on that sunday uh coming and going during those limited times when i i suspect that traffic overall may be lessened because it's a sunday rather than a weekday um so we'll be working with the the engineers on
that and then as far as the way uh finding signs as a condition is uh perfectly fine i think the only thing we'd want to do is kind of get some direction on what that means and when that should be done i think in talking to luke the thought was we'd do a bit of
a wait and see approach to see what's necessary and what would be best based on some experience so i'm not sure how that would work into the approval um but other than that we have the architect here if you had any questions about the internal renovations um but otherwise i
think it's all uh well set out and luke did a great job of presenting it so i don't really have anything to add the only question i would have for the engineer would would be a off the subject question as to what you going to do with the pool because it's it's marked it's marked my understanding it's going to be filled it's not going to be
built in yeah they're not going to use it as a pool no i think they went to just building a floor over it or taking it all out basically just infill it saying insulation and then this concrete over the top okay answers my question okay thank you
anyone else have any questions for them one question here is the second floor demo too also the mez the mezzanine it's marked it's actually marked in there for seating as well oh that's what they call a mezzanine yeah that's what it is okay all right got it
anyone else have a question for me okay i'll bring it back here for uh final final questions amongst the commit amongst us uh anybody have any final comments
none okay then i look for a motion move to recommend the approval of the conditional use permit to establish a place of worship at 7360 33rd street north second second all those in favor i any
opposed motion passes thank you very much our staff leazison update yes thank you so really just one update here so i expect that we will have an april planning commission meeting we
have two applications or um two requests so one is a senior condos proposal by um fourth and ideal or the oak meadows uh apartment if if you're familiar with that and then we have another conditional use permit for an oversized
garage that's all i have thank you thank you commissioner updates so anyone have any updates that they wish to express no since uh you mentioned april i would actually not be available at that meeting i'll be on vacation okay thank
you that's all council liaison miss wenbring nothing new to report but happy to answer questions i have no questions for you no questions
nice to see you again yeah yeah it's been a long time what's that i said it's nice to see you again oh yeah thank you yeah i was out of the country for a while oh nice [Applause] okay thank you very much uh move to adjourn so moved all
those in favor i all those opposed we stand adjourned quick meeting quick meeting 18 minutes