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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/17/2003MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION Monday, November 17, 2003, 7:00 PM City Hall Council Chambers 1830 County Road B East 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes a. November 3, 2003 5. Public Hearings None 6. New Business a. Home Occupation License - 1900 Stealing Street (Snavely) b. Sketch Plan Review- Gulden'sNenburg Tire (County Road D and Highway 61) 7. Unfinished Business None 8. Visitor Presentations 9. Commission Presentations a. November 10 Council Meeting: Ms. Fisher b. November 24 Council Meeting: Mr. Pearson c. December 8 Council Meeting: Ms. Monahan-Junek 10. Staff Presentations a. Note: The December 1,2003 Meeting as been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 2, 2003 11. Adjoumment MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION 1830 COUNTY ROAD B EAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2003 II. III. IV. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Chairperson Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Tushar Desai Mary Dierich Jackie Monahan-Junek Paul Mueller Gary Pearson William Rossbach Dale Trippler Staff Present: Present Present Absent Chuck Ahl, Public Works Director Ken Roberts, Associate Planner Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner Trippler seconded. The motion passed. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ayes- Desai, Fischer, Monahan-Junek, Mueller, Pearson, Rossbach, Trippler Approval of the planning commission minutes for November 3, 2003. Commissioner Trippler had a correction on page 4, item e. it should state shall be no vehicle delivery. Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the planning commission minutes for November 3, 2003, with the proposed change. Commissioner Pearson seconded. PUBLIC HEARING None. Ayes - Desai, Fischer, Monahan-Junek, Mueller, Pearson, Rossbach, Trippler Present Present Present Present Present VI. NEW BUSINESS a. Home Occupation License - 1900 Sterling Street (Snavely) Mr. Roberts said Ms. Frances Snavely is requesting a home occupation license to start and operate a hair salon in her house at 1900 Sterling Street North. The applicant's business would be cutting, styling, perming and coloring hair of individuals. Ms. Snavely would be using an 8.5-foot by 16-foot room on the first floor of her home as the hair salon. She also would be using a sink in the room for the hair salon. Ms. Snavely lives in the home and would be the only employee in the home occupation. The applicant states that she would receive customer visits between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and she expects up to 20 customers per week. Chairperson Fischer asked the applicant to come forward and address the commission. Mr. Roberts said the applicant does not appear to be here tonight. He said because he did not hear any communication from her, he had expected her be present. Chairperson Fischer said this is unusual for the applicant not to appear before the commission. She asked staff if they recommend that the commission table this item until the applicant could be present? Mr. Roberts said that's up to the planning commission members. He said if the commission doesn't feel there is any controversy or problems and they are comfortable with approving this item, then the commission could act on the proposal. Chairperson Fischer asked the planning commission members what their feelings were on this matter? Commissioner Rossbach said he doesn't see any real problem with moving forward with this because he didn't have any questions for the applicant because of the information given in the staff report. Commissioner Pearson said he has no problem moving forward with this especially after reading the responses from the neighborhood. Chairperson Fischer said the applicant answered licensing questions that may have been asked during the questioning of the applicant, therefore, she feels comfortable moving forward with this because of the report and the answers provided. Chairperson Fischer asked the remainder of the planning commission members if they felt comfortable with moving ahead with this proposal? The planning commission members agreed to move ahead with this item. Commissioner Pearson moved to recommend approval of the home occupation license for Ms. Frances Snavely of 1900 Sterling Street North to have a hair salon in her home. This approval shall be subject to the following conditions: Meeting all conditions of the city's home occupation ordinance. This includes that the area of the home occupation is limited in size of 20 percent of the floor area of the house. Customer hours for this home occupation are limited from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. 3. There shall be no more than 20 customers visiting the home per week. 4. All customers or visitors to the business shall park on the driveway. 5. Provide a five-pound ABC dry chemical fire extinguisher in the room. Commissioner Rossbach seconded. Ayes- Desai, Fischer, Monahan-Junek, Mueller, Pearson, Rossbach, Trippler The motion passed. Mr. Roberts said this item goes to the city council on December 8, 2003, and Mr. Roberts said he will touch base with the applicant to inform her of the city council meeting and that her attendance is required. Commissioner Trippler asked staff if the letter staff sends to the applicant strongly encourages the applicant to appear before the planning commission? Mr. Roberts said no it does not. The letters the city sends to an applicant regarding the city council meeting states that if the applicant is not present the city council could table the item. Mr. Roberts said the letters should probably be changed to state that the applicant is strongly encouraged to attend the planning commission and the same wording should be used for the community design review board meeting letter as well. b. Sketch Plan Review - Gulden'sNenburg Tire (County Road D and Highway 61) Mr. Chuck Ahl, Maplewood Public Works Director, said sketch plans have been developed for a proposed lot subdivision of the existing Gulden's Restaurant property located at 2999 Highway 61. This property is on the west side of Trunk Highway 61 (TH61) between Beam Avenue and County Road D. The lot subdivision includes the construction of a new automotive repair and tire store for Venburg Tire on the northern portion of the existing Gulden's property. The relocation of Venburg Tire to this site from the east side of TH 61 is proposed as a part of the city's realignment and extension of County Road D east of TH 61. The County Road D project, as approved by the city, requires the acquisition of some or all of the existing Venburg Tire Property. Mr. Ahl said the proposed lot subdivision and new Venburg facility would require city approval of a lot split, a conditional use permit, and setback variances. The city has zoned the Gulden's Restaurant site M-1 (Light Manufacturing). Commissioner Desai asked Mr. Ahl about the future R-1 residential property with the Gulden's Restaurant, will there be a 350-foot setback from the future R-1 residential parcel to the restaurant? Mr. Ahl said the code says automotive type uses shall be located 350 feet from any residential property so the 350-foot setback would not apply to the restaurant use. Mr. Ahl said the question for the planning commission is, does the 350-foot setback mean from the current residential property line or is it for the future R-1 residential property line? Commissioner Mueller asked if Venburg Tire was built in that location and someone wanted to build on the future residential R-1 property, how would that property be accessed? Mr. Ahl said the proposed frontage road would provide access to the R-1 portion of the parcel. Commissioner Mueller said he assumes someone owns that property? Mr. Ahl said LaMettry and Mr. Steve McDaniels, the owner of Maplewood Toyota, jointly own the R-1 parcel west of Gulden's Restaurant. Mr. Ahl said there has been a lot of discussion regarding that property. Mr. Ahl said since the start of this study a number of developers have been inquiring about this property in this area. The city has seen the value of property skyrocket since this project has started. The right of way acquisition cost has increased dramatically because of this. From the city standpoint, increased property values are always good for the city, on the other hand, when you are acquiring a right of way from project budgets, it has a negative impact. The existing property owners are very happy to see the price of land going up. Is R-1 the appropriate type of use of that property. Would the city consider some alternate type of use such as a medical office or another type of office use? Commissioner Mueller asked if rezoning a piece of land is a request that comes from the owner or does the city just take that responsibility on? Mr. Ahl said rezoning could be done by the city but typically that is more of a risk taking because the city opens themselves up to property owners. The suggestion is to rezone in cooperation with the landowners. Commissioner Mueller asked what the standard way to measure the 350-foot setback is, is it from the current residential property line or from the future residential property line? Mr. Roberts said without reading the exact code the 350-foot setback is from land that is used or planned for residential use. In this case, the 350-foot setback would apply to the more restrictive interpretation. Chairperson Fischer asked what percentage of developer inquiries were for R-1 and what percentage was for higher densities or other uses? Mr. Ahl said the inquiries that he fielded were for townhomes and a senior townhome development. Chairperson Fischer asked if there would be any problem with the setback distances from the residential property and the new westerly parking lot? Mr. Ahl said the 350-foot setback is measured to the building and not to the parking lot. Commissioner Trippler said he thinks the turn lane shown on the plans in exhibit 2 is too short. Because the turn lane is so short it could have the potential to back traffic up if there were several cars waiting to turn. Mr. Ahl said he agrees the turn lane is way too short and should be redesigned to be longer. Chairperson Fischer said in the past she recalled a city engineer stating the city likes to keep the streets at a 5% or 6% grade and she asked if this proposal meets the criteria? Mr. Ahl said yes the city would try to keep these roads at a 5% or less grade because of the volume of traffic. Commissioner Trippler asked if the city should rezone the R-1 property to B-C? Mr. Ahl said if the planning commission thinks that would be appropriate, otherwise that might not be the best thing for the city at this time. Commissioner Rossbach said the city has always used the planned property line for the setback restriction. There are factors here that need to be considered. One of the factors is the topography. The existing residences on Duluth Street are considerably higher than anything on Highway 61. The issue has to do with noise and possible fumes from an automotive business. In the past the city has had restrictions put on businesses such as carwashes to have doors to contain the noise to buffer the residential neighborhoods from the impacts of noise. This is a tire store so there will be fumes and noise from air wrench tools. He thinks a variance could be granted from the existing ordinance because the city doesn't allow an automotive business to be within 350 feet of residential property. The city's normal course of action is for the commercial properties to create as much of a buffer as possible from the residential areas. Having this small parcel of R-1 property in this area allows the city a way to wheel and deal and protect the residential area on Duluth Street. Commissioner Monahan-Junek said she would like to see a landscape buffer plan to see how this area could protect the residential neighborhood by using landscaping as the buffer between commercial and residential. We need to do the best we can as a city to protect the residential area and keeping the open parcel as R-1 and M-1 will help do that. Commissioner Desai said the frontage road will be privately run. He said his concern with the frontage road being privately run and so close to Highway 61 is he sees that people will try to take a short cut and get out onto Highway 61 without having to wait for the stoplights. He sees the traffic in this area as being quite extensive. He asked if it would be better off as a public road rather than a private road? Mr. Ahl said the frontage road has some distinct curves and will have some stop signs, which will slow traffic down and from what the traffic consultants have said they don't believe people will take this frontage road as a shortcut because it will end up taking longer to drive that route. Chairperson Fischer asked if this site is unique enough to grant a variance due to the topography and location? Mr. Ahl said the city looked at locating the building farther up on the property. From a city staff standpoint the city thinks it's unique enough of a situation to grant a variance for the area. Commissioner Trippler asked assuming someone wanted to put a home in on the R-1 property what is the height difference from the residential homes on Duluth Street and the ground level for the R-1 parcel? Mr. Ahl said the elevation difference is between 30 and 40 feet high for this area. Commissioner Trippler asked Mr. Ahl if it would be his professional opinion that if a resident was concerned about the noise level from Venburg Tire that the noise level would be much higher from the traffic on Highway 617 Mr. Ahl said Highway 61 is extremely noisy in his professional opinion. Mr. Ahl said Mr. McFarlane could describe how Venburg Tire runs and what the noise level is. Chairperson Fischer asked if anyone in the audience wanted to speak regarding this item. Mr. Mike Gengler, owner of Gulden's Restaurant at 2999 Highway 61, residing at 6291 Jasmine Avenue, Grant Township, addressed the commission. Mr. Gengler said he has owned Gulden's Restaurant for almost 14 years now and Gulden's Restaurant will be celebrating its 70th year in business next year. When the proposal for the road came in his concern was that he would not be able keep Gulden's Restaurant in this location. He received his assessments a few months ago and is concerned about the cost. Venburg Tire and Gulden's Restaurant are two family businesses that would like to stay in the vicinity and after the cost of the assessments they will probably not be able to reap the rewards of the land. Mr. Pat McFarlane, owner of Venburg Tire will be a great neighbor and he will enjoy having Venburg Tire as a neighbor. Venburg Tire works different hours of business and will be closed when Gulden's Restaurant is open and at their busiest so they could use the parking lot of Venburg Tire for overflow parking if needed. Mr. Pat McFarlane, owner of Venburg Tire at 2990 Highway 61, residing at 2237 Southwood Drive, White Bear Lake, addressed the commission. He said about two years ago he was checking into purchasing the land and building from his brother in law. It was his brother in law's intention to sell and it was Mr. McFarlane's intention to buy the business so he could pass it onto his two sons that also work in the business. It was determined by structural engineers that Venburg Tire is a functionally obsolete building that would require spending over $300,000 to bring the building up to code. The building is currently sitting on land that he cannot add on to. It is built on 18 feet of fill and a minimum of 3 feet of peat under the fill. With the roadway coming in he would lose a portion of the Venburg Tire building. Both Mr. Ahl and everyone he has had contact with at the City of Maplewood has been fabulous in trying to help Venburg Tire stay on this current site but it just isn't possible. Mr. Gengler came forward and offered some of his land on the Gulden's Restaurant site as an option so Venburg Tire started pursuing that option and then the different zoning and setback issues came up. VII. VIII. IX. Mr. McFarlane said Venburg Tire is trying to accommodate the surrounding properties within the area to give them access to the area. They are very concerned with the residents behind the property on Duluth Street. They planned the proposed building so they could direct the bay doors, which is where the mechanical operation will be towards the north. Venburg tire does not do engine work, they only do under car care. Mr. McFarlane said they have 3 service bays, which are for the tire operation, which is where most of the noise will come from because of the air tools. OSHA has very strong standards and requirements and they put tremendous pressures on automotive businesses. Venburg Tire has been using biodegradable products for over 15 years and the new building will be built with a heavy emphasis on minimizing environmental impact. Commissioner Mueller said Mr. Ahl said this is going to be a private road. He asked what that means in terms of snow removal and upkeep? Mr. Ahl said the city is placing the requirements on this entire proposal so the landowners will have to have cross easements and access agreements with the adjacent landowners. Included in those agreements will be the procedures for plowing, and making sure that access is allowed at all times. Therefore, the city thinks this roadway is something the public shouldn't be involved in maintaining because the road is necessary for the surrounding businesses to gain access. Commissioner Trippler said he likes the design of this proposal other than the turn lane that he wants to see made longer and safer. He would like to see the applicant provide some buffering both visual and sound barrier buffering in order to allow a variance for a 350-foot setback. We have to assume the open parcel will remain R-1 and we need to provide the proper buffering in case it remains residential. Chairperson Fischer asked if a motion is necessary? Mr. Ahl said no motion is necessary, he will take the comments made by the planning commission and staff will provide direction to the applicant and take this to the city council on November 24, 2003. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS None. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS aw Ms. Fischer was the planning commission representative at the November 10, 2003, city council meeting. The only planning commission item that was discussed was the Home Occupation License at 1828 Radatz Avenue, which passed 3-2. XI. Ms. Monahan-Junek will be the planning commission representative at the November 24, 2003, city council meeting. Items to be discussed will be the Mixed-Use Zoning Ordinance, the CUP for University Auto Sales at 1145 Highway 36 East, and the Proposed Lot Subdivision for Gulden's Restaurant/Venburg Tire Relocation. Mr. Pearson will be the planning commission representative at the December 8, 2003, city council meeting. The only planning commission item to be discussed is the Home Occupation License at 1900 Sterling Street North. STAFF PRESENTATIONS Note: Just a reminder that the Monday, December 1, 2003, Planning Commission Meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, December 2, 2003, because of the city council budget hearings. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m.