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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-03-15 PC Minutes MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION 1830 COUNTY ROAD B EAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016 7:00 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER A meeting of the Commission was held in the City Hall Council Chambers and was called to order at 7:02 p.m. by Chairperson Arbuckle. 2. ROLL CALL Paul Arbuckle, Chairperson Present Frederick Dahm, Commissioner Present Tushar Desai, Commissioner Present John Donofrio, Commissioner Present Absent Allan Ige, Commissioner Bill Kempe, Commissioner Present Dale Trippler, Vice Chairperson Present Staff Present: Michael Martin, Economic Development Coordinator 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the agenda as submitted. Seconded by Commissioner Kempe. Ayes – All The motion passed. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the February 23, 2016, PC minutes as submitted. Seconded by Commissioner Kempe. Ayes – Chairperson Arbuckle, Commissioner’s Desai, Donofrio, Kempe, Trippler Abstention – Commissioner Dahm The motion passed. 5. PUBLIC HEARING None. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Consider Approval of Overnight Parking Allowed 1-Yr Pilot Project in Legacy Village in Response to Homeowner Petition i. Economic Development Coordinator, Michael Martin introduced the item and turned the discussion over to Public Works Director Michael Thompson. Mr. Martin also answered questions of the commission. March 15, 2016 1 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes ii. Public Works Director, Michael Thompson gave the presentation on the overnight parking in Legacy Village and answered questions of the commission. iii. Maplewood Police, Michael Shortreed and Joe Steiner introduced themselves to the staff and commission. Maplewood Officer Shortreed answered questions of the commission regarding parking and the correlation of crime with parking on the streets. There was a petition signed by 43 residents of the Cottages of Legacy Village requesting that 24 hour parking be allowed on the two sections of Hazelwood and one of Legacy Parkway adjacent to the property and designated area on the map in the staff report. Four residents came forward to address the commission. Chairperson Arbuckle asked residents to come forward to address the commission. 1. Suzanne Fry, 3060 Cottage Lane, addressed the commission. 2. Shelly Kaufman, 3036 Cottage Lane, addressed the commission. 3. Ken Hartman, 3022 Hazelwood Street, addressed the commission. 4. Richard Van Wagner, 3010 Hazelwood Street, addressed the commission. The residents expressed comments and concerns which included: 1. Buying and selling these units has been very difficult because there are only two parking spaces and no driveway. If you rent the unit out and there three and four bedrooms to a unit you can still only park 2 cars there so if you are renting to three or four single people there is not sufficient parking for the same number of renters. 2. I would never buy in this development but I am currently renting here. I have college kids that come home on breaks and there is no place for them to park their cars. 3. I bought here and at the time had no children. Life changes occur. You could meet someone after the fact that may have older kids and they need a place to put their cars. 4. Right now I have small kids but have enough room to raise a family, however due to the parking issues here I will be moving out of Maplewood when the kids are at the age to drive because of the parking issues. 5. When we bought here we were told there was visitor parking, we did not know the parking was no overnight parking so that doesn’t help if you have overnight visitors and there is no parking between 2 am and 6 am. 6. With winter and snow on the roads parking is even tighter and the roads are even narrower through here which is dangerous with clearance and backing up. 7. The commission has made recommendations of where they think additional pavement could be added for more parking but due to the grading and drainage of the area you can’t have more pervious surface and not expect to have flooding issues with basements in these units. Commissioner Kempe stated he thought the commission should recommend approval of this project for one year and see how it goes. In his opinion the developer was greedy and wanted to get as many units in this development as possible and the short driveway apron is worthless. Commissioner Desai said he was concerned about the legal ramifications of allowing this request and then not allowing it in other neighborhoods. Commissioner Dahm was concerned about the overnight parking and crime statistics. Commissioner Kempe moved to authorize approval of a 1-year pilot project to allow overnight parking as depicted in the attached map on both Hazelwood Street and Legacy Parkway. It is further recommended that after 1 year the staff shall report back to the City Council and make a permanent recommendation based on the lessons learned from the pilot project. March 15, 2016 2 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Seconded by Chairperson Arbuckle. Ayes – Chairperson Arbuckle, Commissioner Kempe Nays – Commissioner’s Dahm, Desai, Donofrio & Trippler The motion failed. Commissioner Trippler stated he could not approve this request. He stated he has served on the planning commission since 1998 and served when this original proposal came through the planning commission. At the time the commission was reviewing this proposal he had stated there was not enough parking here. The commission was told by city staff that it met the code requirements that the city had at that time and the developer/applicant stated there is more than adequate parking planned and any homeowner that buys a unit here will know the parking situation and what spots are available. He stated he was not the only planning commissioner that voiced their concerns and said it was not a good plan. The developer provided additional parking but didn’t tell potential buyers/owners that you could not use those spots for overnight parking. At that point the city should not have passed the plan, the city should have changed the code to require more parking but instead the city allowed a bad plan and the parking code existed. Even back then it didn’t seem feasible that a unit with 3 and 4 bedrooms would not end up running into parking issues. If you allow the additional parking to occur and then get a request from another area, how will the city be able to not allow it. Commissioner Kempe stated he doesn’t believe this has anything to do with wealth or poverty it has to do with the need to add more parking spaces to help with the concerns of the residents living here. Commissioner Dahm stated he wants to make sure the homeowners don’t see this as a dead end because the majority of the commission did not recommend approval of this request. He stated he believes there are options within the property to do something. This item goes to the city council on April 11, 2016 for the final decision. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. 8. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS None. 9. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS a. March 14, 2016 City Council Meeting - Commissioner Kempe was the PC representative and all three items were passed by the city council. ● Galilee Lutheran Church Community Garden, 1958 Rice Street ● Wetland Buffer Variance, 2214 Woodlynn Avenue ● Vacation of a Public Utility and Drainage Easement, 2215 Lydia Avenue 10. STAFF PRESENTATIONS None. 11. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Arbuckle adjourned the meeting at 8:18 p.m. March 15, 2016 3 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes