Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/04/2005 MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION Monday, April 4, 2005, 7:00 PM City Hall Council Chambers 1830 County Road BEast 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes a. March 21, 2005 5. Public Hearings 7:00 Easement Vacation (Wyngate Town Homes- Legacy Village) 7:15 Parking Lot Setback Variance (Heritage Square Fourth - County Road D, west of Highway 61) 6. New Business None 7. Unfinished Business None 8. Visitor Presentations 9. Commission Presentations March 28 Council Meeting: April 11 Council Meeting: Mr. Desai April 25 Council Meeting: Mr. Ahlness 10. Staff Presentations 11. Adjournment MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA MONDAY, APRIL 4,2005 I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Chairperson Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Eric Ahlness Commissioner Jeff Bartol Vice-Chairperson Tushar Desai Commissioner Mary Dierich Commissioner Michael Grover Commissioner Daniel Lee Commissioner Gary Pearson Commissioner Dale Trippler Staff Present: Present Absent Present Present Absent Absent Absent Present Present Tom Ekstrand, Senior Planner Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner Trippler seconded. The motion passed. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ayes - Bartol, Desai, Fischer, Pearson, Trippler Approval of the planning commission minutes for March 21, 2005. Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the planning commission minutes for March 21 , 2005. Commissioner Desai seconded. V. PUBLIC HEARING Ayes - Bartol, Desai, Fischer, Trippler Abstention - Pearson a. Easement Vacation (Wyngate Townhomes - Legacy Village) (7:03-7:05 p.m.) Mr. Ekstrand said on October 26, 2004, the community design review board (CDRB) approved the plans forthe 50-unit Wyngate Rental Townhomes at Legacy Village. After this approval, the applicant found that there is an unneeded drainage and utility easement on the site. This easement had followed a lot line that was created as part of the original Legacy Village plat. Planning Commission Minutes of 04-04-05 -2- Mr. Ekstrand said when the site was replatted for the Heritage Square Second Addition town house development and the Wyngate site, this lot line was moved to the west to enlarge the Wyngate property. The end result was a remaining drainage and utility easement that serves no purpose as it would lie under the building. Mr. Frank Janes, of the Hartford Group, Inc., is requesting that the city council vacate this easement. Chairperson Fischer asked the applicant to address the commission. Mr. Frank Janes, of the Hartford Group, Inc., addressed the commission. The planning commission did not have any questions for Mr. Janes or for staff. Commissioner Pearson moved to adopt the resolution in the staff report vacating an unneeded drainage and utility easement on the Wyngate Town House site. This vacation is because it is in the public interest since this drainage and utility easement would serve no public purpose. Commissioner Bartol seconded. Ayes - Bartol, Desai, Fischer, Pearson, Trippler The motion passed. This item goes to the city council on April 25, 2005. 7:05 p.m. - Gladstone Update Because it was too early to start the second public hearing, Chairperson Fischer asked Commissioner Trippler to give an update on the Gladstone Redevelopment area. Commissioner Trippler reviewed the Stepping Stone handout that was mailed showing three different concept designs. b. Parking Lot Setback Variance (Heritage Square 4th Addition - County Road D, west of Highway 61) (7:15-7:40 p.m.) Mr. Ekstrand said Town and Country Homes has requested approval of a gO-unit town house development on the Trout Land development site west/northwest of Gulden's Roadhouse and Venburg Tire. During the staff review of this proposal, we found that the interior frontage drive and some of the parking spaces do not meet the required 15-foot setback from the County Road D Extension right-of-way. The proposed pavement would be nine feet from the front lot line requiring a six-foot setback variance. The applicant has revised the plan to have a 10-foot-wide utility easement as recommended by Chris Cavett in engineering. On March 7, 2005, the planning commission reviewed the applicant's preliminary plat. On March 8, 2005, the community design review board (CDRB) reviewed the design plans. The CDRB required that the applicant "Revise the site plan to provide a 15-foot setback for the proposed frontage drive and visitor parking spaces or obtain a variance from the city council. The applicant must provide at least .5 visitor parking spaces for each unit. The northernmost building needs two additional visitor spaces while taking into account the 15-foot setback requirement." The applicant recently revised their plans to have three additional visitor spaces. Planning Commission Minutes of 04-04-05 -3- Mr. Ekstrand said state law requires that to approve a variance, the city council must determine that: 1. Strict enforcement would cause undue hardship because of circumstances unique to the property under consideration. 2. The variance would be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the ordinance. Staff feels the variance should be approved. Commissioner Trippler asked if the CDRB had a preference for granting or not granting the variance? Mr. Ekstrand said at that time the staff recommendation was that the site plan would need to be revised. The applicant said they would prefer to ask for the variance. At that point the CDRB amended their recommendation to either change the site plan or obtain a variance. Staff didn't get a sense for their preference for or against the variance. Chairperson Fischer asked the applicant to address the commission. Mr. Kevin Clark, Director of Land Development for Town & Country Homes, 7615 Smetana Lane, Suite 180, Eden Prairie, addressed the commission. Mr. Clark said because of the changes in the design of County Road D, changes to the Town & Country Homes design plan had to be made, and this is the reason for the variance. Chairperson Fischer said if anyone in the audience wanted to speak regarding this item, they should come forward and address the commission. Mr. Hal Tetzloff. 1260 Hiahridae Court. Maplewood, addressed the commission. He appreciates the additional parking that has been added to the site for the 18-unit townhome building but he still has concerns about where visitors will park when people have parties or holidays. He asked if cars would be allowed to park along County Road D? He believes people will be forced to park along County Road D because there will be no other parking alternative for the additional visitor vehicles. Mr. Ekstrand agreed with Mr. Tetzloff that visitor parking is still a concern. Even though the applicant has met the city standards for parking, staff realizes the serious need for additional visitor parking which there never seems to be enough of. He frequently visits friends and relatives who live in townhome communities and finds a lack of parking most of the time. At the time of reviewing the Legacy Village development plans, which is currently being built behind Maplewood Mall, staff established a formula for at least % a visitor parking space for every unit (or 1 parking space for every two units) and that is what staff is recommending the applicant provide. He is sure there will be overflow parking problems, and if cars park on County Road D, there would probably be tickets issued. The city would encourage the applicant to put in as many additional parking spaces as they can, even though they meet the city standards. Planning Commission Minutes of 04-04-05 -4- Mr. Tetzloff is concerned about the curviness and the grade of the road if people decide to park on County Road D. Parking along County Road D would be a public safety concern as well for the cars driving on County Road D. Mr. Ekstrand said the street is not designed for on-site parking. The road is meant to move traffic along. He believes County Road isn't intended for parking, but he would clarify that. He would estimate people would try to park within the town home development and along the driveway area before they would try parking along County Road D. Mr. Ekstrand said he would be happy to check into this matter further and would telephone Mr. Tetzloff with the answer. Mr. Tetzloff is also concerned about the trail connection and sidewalk to be built in the area where a lot of pedestrian traffic will occur and would be a safety concern. Mr. Clark said there is a pre-construction meeting Tuesday April 5, 2005, regarding County Road D so the question of parking or not parking on County Road D could be answered then. Commissioner Bartol said the city must know how wide County Road D will be, and he would assume because this is a county road there wouldn't be parking allowed on this street. The resident raises some very good issues that should be looked into. He is concerned where the snow would go when it gets plowed because this could further cause a lack of parking spaces. Mr. Clark said the homeowners association would have a contract for snow "removal" and not snow "storage", so snow would have to be removed from the site and therefore would not take up parking spaces. In earlier discussions with Trout Land, this situation didn't occur until there was an adjustment in the location of County Road D and the design where it got pushed to the west. This is the residual impact of the design of this. Commissioner Desai asked if there had been any discussions with the commercial property owners along County Road D to see if overflow parking could park in those parking lots? Mr. Clark said there hasn't been a specific appeal to any of the commercial property owners, but that is something they could check into. Mr. Ekstrand mentioned a brief telephone conversation that he had with a resident in the area, Mr. Edmund Trolander. 1256 Hiahridae Court. Maplewood. Mr. Trolander voiced his opposition and felt the setbacks should be met and that there is a reason the City of Maplewood has codes. Mr. Tetzloff knows there are economic reasons why people do or don't do things. He would like to see the applicant reduce the number of units for this 18-unit building down to 16. The applicant probably wouldn't like this, but it is the easy solution which would take care of the parking problem and the setback. The building originally had 20 units, and the applicant reduced the number of units by two. The applicant could reduce the number of units by two more, and this would take care of all the problems except for the applicant's economic need. Commissioner Trippler moved to adopt the resolution on page 5 of the staff report approving a five-foot parking and driveway setback variance from the future County Road D Extension right- of-way line. Approval is based on the following findings: Planning Commission Minutes of 04-04-05 -5- 1. Complying with the 15-foot parking lot/driveway setback code would cause the applicant undue hardship due to the narrow shape of the site which makes setback compliance difficult. 2. Relocating the parking lots, frontage drive and buildings to the west would require additional grading and slope stabilization and would impact the neighbors by reducing the building setback to the west. 3. The variance would meet the spirit and intent of the ordinance since there would still be adequate area to plant trees between the driveway curbing and the front lot line. The reduced setback would also not be visually noticeable. Approval of this variance is conditioned upon the applicant revising the plans to provide a 10-foot pavement setback in order to stay off of the required 1 O-foot-wide utility easement. As required previously, the applicant must also provide at least nine visitor parking spaces for the northerly building. Commissioner Pearson seconded. Ayes - Desai, Fischer, Pearson, Trippler Nay- Bartol The motion passed. This item will go to the city council on April 25, 2005. Commissioner Bartol said he voted against this proposal because of the challenging site, the topography, curves and width of County Road D, the unknown traffic volume, as well as the minimal amount of visitor parking. To grant another variance goes against what he feels is a sound decision for this neighborhood and the overall community that would be using the thoroughfare. This development has a history. This item was discussed less than one year ago when the planning commission recommended medium density for roughly 72 units. The developer was fine with that density a year ago, and it should work economically now too. Reducing the number of units on the site by one or two units would greatly ease the lack of visitor parking, and the variance would be unnecessary. The economic benefit of the developer is not a sufficient enough reason to vote for this variance. VI. NEW BUSINESS None. VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. VIII. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS None. Planning Commission Minutes of 04-04-05 -6- IX. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS a. No Planning Commission representation was needed at the March 28, 2005, city council meeting so there was nothing to report. b. Mr. Desai will be the planning commission representative at the April 11, 2005, city council meeting. Items to discuss include the Ramsey County 800 MHz Antenna Facility (645 Sterling Street South). The city council will also hold interviews for the planning commission. c. Mr. Ahlness was to volunteer as the planning commission representative at the April 25, 2005, city council meeting, however, he was not present at the meeting. Therefore, Lorraine Fischer said she would change places with Eric Ahlness. Items to discuss include the Easement Vacation Request for Wyngate Townhomes (north side of Legacy Parkway), and the Parking Setback Variance for Heritage Square 4th Addition (New County Road D and Highway 61). X. STAFF PRESENTATIONS Mr. Ekstrand reminded the planning commission of the public Gladstone workshop on Thursday, April 7, 2005, at 6:30 p.m. at the Maplewood Community Center. XI. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.