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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/17/2008 MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2008 I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Commissioner Joseph Boeser Vice-Chairperson Tushar Desai Chairperson Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Harland Hess Commissioner Robert Martin Commissioner Gary Pearson Commissioner Dale Trippler Commissioner Joe Walton Commissioner Jeremy Yarwood Staff Present: Absent Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Absent Tom Ekstrand. Senior Planner Ginnv Gavnor. Naturalist III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the agenda as submitted. Commissioner Desai seconded Ayes - all The motion passed. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. June 3, 2008 In some instances, concerning visitor comments, it was found the minutes were a little too brief in how visitor comments were noted. Direction was given to staff to have the minutes be more complete when quoting visitors. After the discussion on the visitors' comments in the minutes, Commissioner Trippler moved approval of the minutes of June 3, 2008, as submitted. Commissioner Pearson seconded Ayes - all The motion passed. V. PUBLIC HEARING None VI. NEW BUSINESS a. 2008 Comprehensive Plan Update - Review and Discussion of Land Use Plan Update City planner Tom Ekstrand introduced Ginny Gaynor, city naturalist, who will speak on the natural resources chapter of the comprehensive plan and Mike Martin and Rose Lorsung, consultants with MFRA. Planning Commission Minutes of 06-17-08 -2- Mike Martin explained that tonight the Introduction and Community Profile, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Historical Resources chapters of the comprehensive plan would be reviewed. y Natural Resources Plan Ginny Gaynor, spoke concerning natural resource issues and explained the natural area greenways concept is a new subject in the natural resources plan. The concept is to look at large natural land areas that are connected, both public and private, together with the smaller neighborhood local habitats, parks and trails. Ms. Gaynor described the additional natural resource strategy for an issue- based approach, such as storm water or buckthorn. Commissioner Trippler said the Groundwater Benefits description does not include that groundwater provides drinking water or irrigation. Ms. Gaynor said these items can be added to the description. Commissioner Hess questioned the 660-foot minimum corridor width in a greenway for a developed suburb like Maplewood. Ms. Gaynor responded that an additional proposal for the greenways would be to consider widening narrow areas if possible. Ms. Gaynor said that it is proposed in the future that overlays would be done to possibly add buffer areas to the greenways. Commissioner Pearson noted these natural resources concepts are referred to as being mandated and he finds it distressing that this would take away the rights of the property owners who pay taxes on the property. Mr. Pearson said if properties would be grandfathered in, it should be explained to the public what this would mean. Naturalist Gaynor referred to the City Planning and Zoning section language stating that these are simply considerations. Ms. Gaynor noted that this is a general plan meant to provide options. Commissioner Trippler commented it is not known yet what kinds of things the buffer will need in order to function as a greenway for wildlife to move from one greenway to another and when that is known, those things can be encouraged to be provided by those who live in the greenway area. Commissioner Fischer said each commission comes from a different perspective and she referred to past commission discussion on the taking of land, what is a reasonable taking and what will be paid for the property taken. Ms. Gaynor suggested that the word "consider" be removed from this description on page 11 and replaced with "study". Commissioner Desai said he would like to have "study" inserted and the language on "incentives or mandate" removed at this time. Rose Lorsung, consultant with MFRA, explained the responsibility of every chapter in the comprehensive plan is to talk about the policy and what the implementation strategies are. Commissioner Pearson said the basis of his sensitivity in this matter is that when the wetland ordinance was initially being considered, he was informed that 12-15 of his Beaver Lake Estates manufactured homes would not be allowed to be changed out in the future because of the expanded setback. Mr. Pearson said he does not believe the city has this right. Commissioner Martin said he has not seen the interactive map system mentioned at the previous meeting and commissioners are still using 11 x 17 maps. Mr. Martin explained the commission needs more detailed tools in order to make recommendations. Planning Commission Minutes of 06-17-08 -3- Commissioner Desai questioned the last sentence on page 11 concerning a buffer width change and Ms. Gaynor agreed the sentence should be either corrected or removed. Commissioner Trippler suggested the last sentence of the first full paragraph on page seven should be revised to read "Blanding's turtles were also recorded as living in this greenway." Ms. Gaynor agreed. Commissioner Martin questioned whether the suggested five-year plan review language on page 11 under Implementation Strategies is mandatory. Naturalist Gaynor responded this is a general strategy and it is in the document to encourage plan review and is not a mandatory time period. In response to discussion on the last paragraph of the implementation strategies on page 11 regarding a five-year plan review, Ms. Gaynor said this paragraph will be replaced with language stating the plan will be reviewed in the future as part of the ten-year comprehensive plan review. Ms. Lorsung commented that when the city's five-year Capital Improvement Plan is reviewed, the improvements impacting the natural resources plan should also be considered for possible opportunities to enhance these corridors. Commissioner Fischer noted a typographical error in the second item under Urban Tree Management. Ms. Gaynor said the sentence will be corrected. Commissioner Trippler mentioned that the Figure 2 Natural Area Greenways map shows the classification for lakes as light blue with the lakes shown as colored green and blue. Mr. Trippler noted this is confusing and should be changed. Mr. Trippler said a definition is needed on Figure 3 for Local Habitats and also, noted the color on Figure 4 of the Mississippi Natural River and Recreation Area needs to be corrected. Ms. Gaynor said the color was changed due to the gray overlay, but she would have the color corrected on the legend. Commissioner Walton said the greenways are a good idea because they block out large areas for habitat rather than the small, piecemeal effect, but he does not think anything should be forced or mandated. Commissioner Desai agreed saying that it is a good idea and to go forward. Naturalist Gaynor said she would make the suggested changes for the next review. Mike Martin said the Introduction and Community Profile, which came out of the background report from the planning commission at the beginning of this process, would be discussed next. y Introduction and Community Profile Commissioner Fischer mentioned that a Health and Welfare goal was dropped due to a clerical error from the prior comprehensive plan. There were no further comments on these sections. Planning Commission Minutes of 06-17-08 -4- y Land Use Plan Commissioner Fischer pointed out that in the demographics information the numbers for comparison to Maplewood used in the past were for the entire Metropolitan Area and now Ramsey County's numbers are used for comparison. Commissioner Trippler mentioned that on page 2-13, the last sentence under Residential mentions three subdivisions and the third subdivision is missing and needs to be added. Mr. Martin said he did not have the code in front of him, but believes that two of the subdivisions deal with the same density but different design characteristics. Commissioner Desai questioned whether this should be further defined. Commissioner Fischer said townhomes are not listed in the residential category and should be recognized as the appropriate category. The commission discussed the Metropolitan Council's figures used on page 2-11 and suggested a sentence be added clarifying that the figures are from the Metropolitan Council. Commissioner Pearson said the wording of the second sentence of paragraph four on page 5-1 needs to be revised. Commissioner Walton suggested that the projected population forecast number on page 2-1 be added to the last paragraph of the Land Use Plan section on page 5-1. Commissioner Trippler said in reference to the Goals and Objectives listed on pages 5-2 through 5-6, that if the city council does not think that it's going to devote the time, the energy and the resources to do the things that are in here, they should take them out because it is foolish to have things in here that the city does not intend to do. Commissioner Martin responded saying that if the Goals and Objectives are omitted from the plan, it is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue that comes into play and they should be kept in the plan at least on the back burner. Commissioners Hess and Fischer both agreed the objectives should be left in the plan. Referring to Goal 12 on page 5-6, Commissioner Fischer mentioned that additional parking for some developments has been allowed to be delayed until some future time if it is found to be needed. Ms. Fischer suggested this information be noted in Goal 12, since the city does not want to add any more impervious surface than is necessary. y Mississippi River Critical Area Commissioner Fischer asked whether the large acre lots existing in some neighborhoods were included in Future Land Use Table 5.2. Mr. Martin responded that this table describes how the land use plan has been guided thus far. Ms. Lorsung explained this table is the land use plan and what Commissioner Fischer's question deals with is a policy change or a zoning issue and will be addressed later as part of the zoning districts discussion. Ms. Lorsung said it is not too late to make this change and it could be discussed with the map of the low density properties at the next meeting. Planning Commission Minutes of 06-17-08 -5- Ms. Lorsung said she and staff would get the information together and get it to the commission for discussion at the first meeting in July. Commissioner Trippler said that "industrial" appears under Institutional on page 5-17. Mr. Martin said that is a typo and will be corrected. Commissioner Trippler questioned whether the text in this section reflects that there are no zoning districts designated for institutional uses. Ms. Lorsung responded that the institutional land use designations are governed within other zoning districts by conditional use. y Historical Resources Commissioner Trippler said the last paragraph of this section is circular and redundant and could be taken out without losing the idea that it conveyed in the previous chapters. Mr. Trippler further stated that there are typo errors and it is very poorly written. Planner Ekstrand said that changes discussed at the meetings have been made in content, but it still needs to be gone through to correct and clean up the wording so that it reads properly. Mr. Martin assured the commission that this is not the last review and they will have the opportunity to review the entire revised document. Commissioner Fischer relayed a language problem in number ten on page 6. Mr. Martin responded with the correct wording and said this language will be corrected. Commissioner Walton asked whether the second sentence under Discussion, Challenges and Issues was part of the last plan. Staff responded that it was included in that plan and that "now" should be removed from the sentence. Mr. Martin said the commission would receive further chapters of the plan to be reviewed at the next meeting. b. Election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson Commissioner Martin nominated Lorraine Fischer as chairperson. Commissioner Hess nominated Tushar Desai as chairperson and Dale Trippler as vice chairperson. Commissioner Walton nominated Tushar Desai as vice chairperson. The commission voted as follows for Lorraine Fischer as chairperson: Ayes -four Nays - two Abstention - Fischer, Desai Commissioner Fischer was voted as chairperson. The commission voted as follows for Tushar Desai as vice chairperson: Ayes - four Nays - two Abstention - Desai Commissioner Desai was voted as vice chairperson. The commission voted as follows for Dale Trippler as vice chairperson: Ayes - one Nays - five Abstentions - Desai, Trippler Planning Commission Minutes of 06-17-08 -6- VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None VIII. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS None IX. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS . June 9 Council Meeting: Mr. Boeser will report at the next meeting. . June 23 Council Meeting: No planning items. . July 14 Council Meeting: Mr. Martin will attend. . July 28 Council Meeting: Mr. Walton will attend. X. STAFF PRESENTATIONS a. Annual Tour Update - June 30, 2008 Staff asked for confirmation from those commissioners planning to attend the tour. Commissioner Desai asked whether the regularly scheduled planning commission meeting on July 1 will be held. Staff responded that the July 1 meeting will be held as planned. XI. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:22 p.m.