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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/15/20041. Call to Order MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION Monday, March 15, 2004, 7:00 PM City Hall Council Chambers 1830 County Road B East 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes a. February2, 2004 5. Public Headngs None 6. New Business a. Easement Vacation - Van Dyke Village (Van Dyke Street) Venberg Tire (Highway 61 North) Setback Variance Conditional Use Permit c. Kennard Street and Legacy Parkway Landscaping Plan 7. Unfinished Business None 8. Visitor Presentations 9. Commission Presentations a. February 9 Council Meeting: Mr. Desai b. February 23 Council Meeting: Ms. Dierich c. March 8 Council Meeting: Ms. Fischer d. March 22 Council Meeting: Mr. Pearson e. April 12 Council Meeting: Mr. Trippler 10. Staff Presentations 11. Adjournment MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION 1830 COUNTY ROAD B EAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2004 I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. I1. ROLL CALL Chairperson Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Jeff Bartol Vice-Chairperson Tushar Desai Commissioner Mary Dierich Commissioner Paul Mueller Commissioner Gary Pearson Commissioner Dale Trippler Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Staff Present: Tom Ekstrand, Senior Planner Ken Roberts, Planner Chris Cavett, Assistant City Engineer Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner Bartol seconded. Ayes- Bartol, Desai, Dierich, Fischer, Mueller, Pearson, Trippler The motion passed. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of the planning commission minutes for February 2, 2004. Chairperson Fischer had a correction on page 3, in paragraph 7, removing the words has been from the sentence. Commissioner Trippler moved to approve the planning commission minutes for February 2, 2004, with changes. Commissioner Dierich seconded. Ayes - Bartol, Dierich, Fischer, Trippler Abstention- Desai, Mueller, Pearson V. PUBLIC HEARING None. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -2- VI. NEW BUSINESS a. Easement Vacation - Van Dyke Village (Van Dyke Street) Mr. Roberts said Mr. Bruce Mogren, representing the developer and the property owners, is asking the city to vacate an existing drainage and utility easement on the site of the Van Dyke Village townhouses. Mr. Mogren is requesting the vacation because the existing easement would interfere with the proposed location of one of the buildings within the development. There is however, an existing sanitary sewer line in the easement. As such, the city needs an easement over the sanitary sewer but it does not need all of the existing easement in its current location. Commissioner Mueller asked how the developer determined after the fact that there is an existing drainage and utility easement? Mr. Roberts said he understood the soils were corrected last fall, architect laid the plans out, and the engineers did the preliminary work. He said the surveyors were doing a detailed site survey for financing and final building permits and when doing the title work they discovered the easement. Mr. Roberts said at that point the building pads were already laid out on the site. Chairperson Fischer asked the applicant to address the commission. Mr. John Faraci, Project Engineer with Development Engineering, St. Paul, representing the applicant, addressed the commission. Mr. Faraci said it was assumed that in the title work the easement was already vacated because it was an old plat. However, six months later the attorneys discovered that the easement was not vacated. Commissioner Pearson asked Mr. Faraci what the depth of the line closest to the garage? Mr. Faraci said the line is about 8 feet deep. Commissioner Mueller moved to approve the resolution on page eight of the staff report. This resolution is for the vacation of a drainage and utility easement within the site of the Van Dyke Village townhouse development on Van Dyke Street. The reasons for the vacation are as follows: 1. It is in the public interest. 2. The existing easement in its current configuration is not needed for utility purposes. This vacation is subject to the owner providing the city a new 30-foot-wide drainage and utility easement for the existing sanitary sewer line, subject to the approval of the city engineer. Commissioner Pearson seconded. Ayes- Bartol, Desai, Dierich, Fischer, Mueller, Pearson, Trippler The motion passed. This item goes to the city council on April 12, 2004. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -3- b. Venburg Tire (Highway 61 North) Mr. Ekstrand said Carol and Pat McFarlane, the owners of Venburg Tire, are proposing to relocate their tire business across Highway 61 to property on the north side of Gulden's Roadhouse. They are moving their business because the city is realigning County Road D and the new road will run through the current Venburg Tire Site. Mr. Ekstrand said because the applicants' construction proposal would take away existing parking spaces from Gulden's, they are proposing to relocate much of Gulden's front parking lot to a new parking lot behind the restaurant. The owners of Gulden's, Brenda and Mike Gingler, would install their own screening for the proposed new parking lot. Mr. Ekstrand said another aspect of this project is the construction of a shared private roadway that would separate Gulden's from the proposed Venburg Tire site. This private roadway would intersect the future County Road D north and west of the proposed Venburg Tire building and connect with the driveway in front of LaMettry Collision to the south. The city will construct this roadway as part of the County Road D project. Commissioner Desai asked Mr. Ekstrand if the city knew what the townhouses would look like and how they would be positioned on the property? He said he wished the property owner were present tonight to hear the concerns of the commission and answer questions that may come up. Taking the property owners word doesn't seem sufficient and he is concerned that after Venburg Tire is built the property owner will come back to the city with objections. Mr. Ekstrand said it's hard to say what a future owner might say. He said currently the townhome plan is only a concept and that he has a preliminary site plan showing what the townhouse layout would look like. He said the only thing the city can rely on at this point is the property owner's agreement that he has no objection to the 220 feet reduction. Commissioner Desai asked if the verbal agreement could be put in writing? Mr. Ekstrand said when the city sent out a survey to the surrounding property owners the property owner wrote his opinion on the survey form so the city has it in writing already. Commissioner Trippler said until the city has more than a concept in hand he believes the commission should base their decision on what is currently before them not based on a concept. He asked what the distance was between the proposed Venburg Tire property and the closest home along Duluth Street? Mr. Ekstrand said it is roughly 500 feet in distance between the closest home and the proposed Venburg Tire building. Commissioner Trippler asked what the elevation difference was between the homes along Duluth Street and the proposed Venburg Tire building? He also asked how tall the Venburg Tire building would be? Mr. Cavett said he estimates there is over 40 feet of elevational difference between the existing homes and Venburg Tire. ~" T I I I Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -4- Mr. Ekstrand said the height of the proposed Venburg Tire building is 18 feet. Commissioner Mueller asked what would happen if the developer of the townhouse property came back and claimed it was too noisy and congested and that Venburg Tire is too close to the townhome property? Mr. Ekstrand said they could raise noise issues but after the Venburg Tire building is built they can't complain about that. Mr. Ekstrand said during the CUP review the city can go back and talk to the applicant about the noise concerns that were raised by the neighbors. Mr. Ekstrand said he believes the placement of the Venburg Tire building and the way the service area is facing away from the residential homes should help with the noise level. Commissioner Dierich said she is concerned how the city can go ahead with this plan whether the builder of the future property says yes or no. When the developer of the future property comes before the commission she said she will look very closely at the plans to see how close the townhomes are to the Venburg Tire building. She asked if the future developer understood that it's possible that the city could require extra soundproofing in the townhomes or the city may decrease the number of townhome units to be built. She would feel better about this whole situation if she knew the developer understood these circumstances because he is probably not going to be living in one of these units but others will. Mr. Ekstrand said he would relay that concern to the developer. Commissioner Dierich understands the city needs to accommodate Venburg Tire. The last time the commission reviewed this proposal she didn't realize it would be for such a large variance. She said she is fine with the 50-foot distance but not with 120 feet. She said she wouldn't have approved a variance this large in the past had she understood the distance. She said she thinks the neighbors have a legitimate concern that the city should not be able to change the variance when they feel like it just because it's to the city's advantage. Mr. Ekstrand said this variance wouldn't affect the homes on Duluth Street so much as it would affect the property that the townhomes could possibly be built on. He said unfortunately the city doesn't have anybody else to ask their opinion about other than relying on the written agreement on the survey from the current owner of the property. Commissioner Pearson said he saw something on the site plan for a storage area. He asked if there would be outdoor tire storage on this property? Mr. Ekstrand said he spoke with the applicants prior to the meeting and they stated they are no longer going to put that concrete pad and there would be no outdoor tire storage. Commissioner Trippler said Gulden's Roadhouse restaurant is already 200 feet from residential property and he wouldn't feel right not granting Venburg Tire the 220-foot setback when a commercial building is already closer than the proposed Venburg Tire building would be. He said maybe in the future the city should look at rezoning the strip of land that may have townhomes built on in the future to (BC) Business Commercial. Commissioner Desai asked if the applicant had looked at pushing the building farther so there would be a 50-foot variance instead of a 220-foot variance? T T I I Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -5- Mr. Ekstrand said the applicant would have to answer that question. Mr. Roberts said he understood from a previous discussion if Venburg Tire moved their building too close to Highway 61 the building would visually block the view of Gulden's Roadhouse restaurant from the highway. Commissioner Trippler said it would look strange to have Gulden's sitting farther back on the lot and Venburg Tire's building closer to Highway 61. Building Venburg Tire where it is on the plans would keep the properties more in line with each other. Commissioner Mueller asked if the way the vacant property is zoned currently if apartments could be built on the property? Mr. Ekstrand said no, the property is zoned for single family. Commissioner Mueller said the reason he asked is planning commissioners said they think the property should be zoned something other than residential because of the closeness to Venburg Tire but apparently it needs to remain single-family housing. He said he is impressed that the two owners of Gulden's and Venburg Tire are working together. Their agreement to share parking space as well as being able to work together is impressive. He said he wished those types of agreements could be worked out more frequently in developments around the city. He said realigning County Road D is a good thing and in order to have the realignment Venburg Tire is going to be displaced. Fortunately moving Venburg Tire across the street allows them to stay in the city and the city gets a road realigned so both arrangements are a positive thing for the city. Commissioner Dierich said she is happy as well to see the two business owners working together and sharing the drive and parking lot for overflow parking. She also wished those types of partnerships would happen more often in developments in the city. Chairperson Fischer asked the applicant to address the commission. Mr. Pat McFarlane, owner of Venburg Tire on Highway 61, Maplewood, addressed the commission. Mr. McFarlane said he and Mike Gingler the owner of Gulden's have worked very hard on this project. He wanted to thank the staff from the City of Maplewood and the surrounding business owners who have been working diligently with Venburg Tire while they have been finalizing these plans over the past two years. They have worked with landscapers, customers, and everyone possible to figure out a decent plan to help provide screening, which is a requirement of the city. They are currently planning on investigating moving the large coniferous trees on the property, which would give immediate screening to the homes behind the property. Planting six-foot trees would take about 20 to 25 years to provide proper screening and he felt moving the existing trees would be a much better plan. He said this has been a tremendously difficult project because there are so many players in this plan. This includes people such as the State of Minnesota, the surrounding businesses, the City of Maplewood, and cross easements and restrictions on the property. He said the original plan called for a holding pond in front of the Venburg Tire property, which would have pushed the building even closer to the residential homes. Thankfully that plan changed and now the building is going to be placed as it is shown on the plan. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -6- Mr. McFarlane said one major issue is the physical position of Gulden's on the property. He said if they could move the Gulden's building they would, but they can't. Therefore, they have to work around the positioning of the building in order to make it possible for both Gulden's and Venburg Tire to be visual seen from Highway 61. Commissioner Trippler asked the applicant what the two large doors on the west side of the building are for and what was going to be on the other side of the two doors? Mr. McFarlane said that is going to be warehouse space. Originally they wanted that area to be a loading dock but they do not ship or deliver tires, they only receive tire deliveries. The only time they open the door is for periodic deliveries of 150-500 tires at a time that are unloaded and the door gets closed. He said ideally they would like to be able to have a door large enough to back a truck in and out. Commissioner Trippler asked Mr. McFarlane if he had the opportunity to speak with any of the neighbors about their concerns that live along Duluth Street? Mr. McFarlane said he personally did not have the opportunity to speak with the neighbors but some of his staff did and the neighbors had been very open with their questions and comments. Commissioner Desai said moving those large coniferous trees is a big project and is very expensive but so far it's the best solution for screening and keeping the noise level down between the business and the residential homes until potentially the townhomes are built. Commissioner Mueller moved to adopt the resolution on pages 31-32 of the staff report approving a conditional use permit for the proposed Venburg Tire building to be located 220 feet from the adjacent residentially zoned property to the west. Approval is based on the findings required by city code and the following reasons: 1. The use would be located, designed, maintained, constructed and operated to be in conformity with the City's Comprehensive Plan and Code of Ordinances. 2. The use would not change the existing or planned character of the surrounding area. 3. The use would not depreciate property values. The use would not involve any activity, process, materials, equipment or methods of operation that would be dangerous, hazardous, detrimental, disturbing or cause a nuisance to any person or property, because of excessive noise, glare, smoke, dust, odor, fumes, water or air pollution, drainage, water run-off, vibration, general unsightliness, electrical interference or other nuisances. 5. The use would generate only minimal vehicular traffic on local streets and Would not create traffic congestion or unsafe access on existing or proposed streets. 6. The use would be served be adequate public facilities and services, including streets, police and fire protection, drainage structures, water and sewer systems, schools and parks. 7. The use would not create excessive additional costs for public facilities or services. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -7- 8. The use would maximize the preservation of and incorporate the site's natural and scenic features into the development design. 9. The use would cause minimal adverse environmental effects. 10.The neighboring properties along Duluth Street would be 440 feet from the proposed Venburg Tire building. This exceeds the 350-foot separation noted by ordinance. 11. These property owners, furthermore, will be separated from the proposed Venburg building by a future town house development. 12. The owner of the abutting westerly property that is proposed for townhomes! approves of the proposed 220-foot building placement from his adjoining lot line. Approval of this permit is conditioned upon compliance with the following: o All construction shall follow the site plan that the city stamped February 3, 20104. The Director of Community Development may approve minor changes. , The proposed construction must be substantially started, or the proposed u~se utilized within one year of council approval, or the permit shall become null and void. The council may extend this deadline for one year. The city council shall review this permit in one year. The applicants shall submit a revised landscape plan, prior to the issuance of a building permit, providing a six-foot tall and 80 percent opaque landscaped screen for the abutting property to the west as required by the code. The applicants shall sign a maintenance agreement with the owners of Gulden's and the city for the upkeep of the private roadway. Outdoor tire storage is not allowed by this permit. All tires shall be kept within a screening enclosure. The potential for excessive noise from this business is a concern of neighbo!s. The operator shall take care to keep doors closed to prevent nuisance noise from affecting residential neighbors. The city council shall review this during its periodic reviews of lhis permit. Commissioner Mueller moved to adopt the resolution on pages 33-34 of the staffireport approving a variance to locate a building that would be used for automotive repair, 220 feetlfrom an abutting residential property. Approval is based on the following findings: 1. Strict enforcement would cause undue hardship to the applicants because the site is not large enough to accommodate the proposed building without approval of a variance. The variance would be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the ordinance since the grade slopes downward from the existing home sites to the west, which helps to Obscure some of the mass of the proposed building. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -8- 3. The owner of the adjacent property to the west, the most affected neighboiring owner, is in favor of the proposed building placement. Approval of this variance is conditioned upon the applicants submitting a revised landscape plan for staff approval providing for screening on the west side of the proposed parking lot. This screening shall comply with city code that requires a visual screen that is at leasl six feet tall and 80 percent opaque upon installation. This landscape plan shall also include a tdrf establishment plan for this area. Commissioner Mueller moved to adopt the resolution on pages 35 of the staff report approving a variance from the 15-foot front parking lot setback requirement. Approval ils based on the following findings: Strict enforcement would cause undue hardship to the applicants because it would cause them to set the parking lot further back needlessly, with no benefit. The variance would be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the ordinance since there would be 95 feet of setback from the highway edge, which is approximately 40 feet more than the typical parking lot setback in this situation. Commissioner Mueller moved to adopt the resolution on page 4 of the staff report vacating unneeded roadway easements on the northerly 33 feet and the southerly 16.5 feet of the existing Gulden's Roadhouse property. The vacations of these easements are based on the following reasons: It is in the public interest since there is no need to use these easements for roadway purposes. The city council vacated a portion of Lydia Street in 2001 that aligns with the 33-foot- wide easement, The southerly 16.5-foot roadway easement is not needed. The owners of Gulden's Roadhouse have access to their entire site without the need of this easement. Commissioner Mueller moved to approval of a lot division to split the proposed Venburg Tire site from the Gulden's Roadhouse property, at 2999 Maplewood Drive. Before the city signs the deeds creating the new lots, the owners of Venburg Tire shall do the following: Agree in writing to provide a new rear parking lot for Gulden's Roadhouse to replace lost parking due to the creation of the Venburg Tire site. The construction of this parking lot will be coordinated with the construction of the Venburg Tire site. Agree in writing to reciprocal parking arrangement with the owners of Gulden's to accommodate at least 11 parking spaces on the Venburg Tire site for use by Gulden's patrons after Venburg Tire is closed. 3. Agree to a maintenance agreement with the owners of Gulden's and the city for the maintenance of the shared private roadway. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -9- Dedicate the excess property in the northeast corner of the Venburg Tire site to the City of Maplewood for right-of-way. The city engineer shall determine the exact configuration of this additional right-of-way. This is denoted as Remnant Parcel 3 in the staff report. The triangular-shaped remnant property located south/southeast of the intersection of proposed County Road D and the proposed private roadway shall be adjoined with the Venburg tire site. This is denoted as Remnant Parcel 2 in the staff report. Provide drainage and utility easements as recommended by the assistant city engineer in his memo dated March 8, 2004. Since the exact locations of these easements may need to be determined after the stamping of deeds to split the lot, these easements must be dedicated prior to the applicants obtaining a building permit. 7. The deeds creating the Venburg Tire site must be recorded before the city shall issue a building permit. Commissioner Pearson seconded. Ayes- Bartol, Desai, Dierich, Fischer, Mueller, Pearson, Trippler The motion passed. This item goes to the city council on April 12, 2004. c. Kennard Street and Legacy Parkway Landscaping Plan Mr. Ekstrand said city staff is requesting approval of the right-of-way planting plan for Kennard Street and Legacy Parkway in the Legacy Village planned unit development (PUD). Staff has been working with the engineering firm of Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc. SEH, who has prepared the enclosed proposal for boulevard and median plantings. Ms. Veronica Anderson of SEH, Vadnais Heights, addressed the commission. Ms. Anderson gave a presentation on the proposed landscaping plan for the Kennard Street and Legacy Parkway area. Commissioner Trippler said he thought Locust trees shed pods in the fall and if that was the case he asked who would be responsible for cleaning up the pods that were shed? Mr. Cavett said the leaves would be removed during the street sweeping. Locust trees have very small leaves that would be easier to take care of compared to larger leaves like those that come from Maple trees. Ms. Anderson said they are using a Skyline Locust tree, which is a thornless tree and pod development is very minimal. Commissioner Trippler said he likes the fact that they are proposing to use shrub roses. However, shrub roses are very thorny and he asked who would be responsible for maintaining them? T T I I Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -10- Ms. Anderson said the attractive thing about the thorns on shrub roses is that it will keep people out of the medians. From a maintenance standpoint the cultivar selected would have minimal maintenance in terms of die back. Commissioner Trippler asked who would be responsible for the maintenance of the landscaping and would it be part of the city budget? Mr. Cavett said the city is looking at getting a maintenance contract for the maintenance of areas such as this as well as the roundabout area. Commissioner Trippler asked how he could get this type of landscaping done in his neighborhood as well as other streets in the city? Mr. Cavett said unfortunately landscaping such as this is not in the city budget. He said there was an increase in Hartford's contribution to upgrade the design to have a parkway type design. This area would have been a three-lane design without a lot of landscaping. Commissioner Dierich said her experience with the Skyline Locust and the Shademaster Locust tree is that they have no pods and their leaves are so small they have minimal waste and disintegrate leaving little debris. They also have a nice canopy and are salt resistant. She asked why they chose Elm trees because currently there isn't a species of Elm resistant to Dutch Elm disease. She asked if Ms. Anderson thought of using a Kentucky Coffee tree, which is a messier tree but is more disease resistant? Ms. Anderson said in the research they did for selecting the Accolade Elm, which is a hybrid, has shown to be very good at disease resistance. They have chosen not to use many of the Elm trees and have placed the trees 60 feet on center. Cities within the metropolitan area are starting to introduce hybrids such as these. By spacing the trees 60 feet apart if there is any type of disease spread the trees are not connected in any way so this would not spread disease. Commissioner Dierich said she knows the staff at the Maplewood Nature Center is trying to stay away from non-native trees and the Linden tree is the only non-native tree used in this design. She asked if the Maplewood Nature Center staff has had any input into this design and landscaping process? If they haven't she would tike to make sure they see this plan and had the opportunity to offer input. Mr. Cavett said no the city has not involved the Maplewood Nature Center staff regarding the landscaping design. He said if this area were adjacent to open space such as the area by the roundabout at English and Frost then the staff would have consulted the Maplewood Nature Center staff. Commissioner Mueller said since we live in the City of Maplewood he asked if they thought of using Maple trees? Ms. Anderson said that was a consideration. She said Elms are flood plain trees that can withstand tough conditions such as living in cement medians and they are salt tolerant. She said Maple trees can't withstand the same tough conditions. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -11- Commissioner Mueller said he can't imagine there would be a 100% success rate for the trees to live, he asked what happens if the trees died, who would be responsible for replacing the trees? Mr. Ekstrand said he thought the trees were guaranteed for one year depending on what the maintenance agreement said. Ms. Anderson said the maintenance agreement would be for two-years. Mr. Cavett said yes the agreement is for two years and after that point if any tree should die the Public Works department would be responsible for replacing the trees as necessary. Chairperson Fischer said landscaping is not something the planning reviews, she asked if the reason this came before the commission streetscape? commission typically was because of the Mr. Ekstrand said the reason city staff brought this item before the planning commission is because this is such a large development and the city staff was looking for comments to help guide the process. Commissioner Trippler said he thought the plan was very nice and his only concern is the use of Elm trees along the boulevard and if a disease came through the trees would die all at the same time. He thinks we should mix in some other varieties of trees incase of disease. Commissioner Dierich said she likes the formalness of the plan and she too is concerned about the use of the Elm trees. She would like Ginny Gaynor with the Maplewood Nature Center open space to review the plan and get her input especially if we are not using native plantings. She said she appreciates that the city staff brought this before the planning commission members. Seeing this plan makes her excited to get things started in the Legacy Village area. Commissioner Pearson said he likes the plan and believes the more species you introduce the better chance for disease. Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the right-of-way planting plans date-stamped February 3, 2004, for Kennard Street and the portion of Legacy Parkway between Kennard Street and Southlawn Drive in Legacy Village. Commissioner Desai seconded. Ayes- Bartol, Desai, Dierich, Fischer, Mueller, Pearson, Trippler The motion passed. This item goes to the city council on March 22, 2004. VII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. I ~ '] Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -12- VIII. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS None. IX. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS a. Mr. Desai was the planning commission representative at the February 9, 2004, city council meeting. Items discussed were the CUP for Ohlson Landscaping at 1949 Atlantic Street, which passed ayes all, and the resolutions of appreciation for Jackie Monahan-Junek and Will Rossbach, which passed ayes all. b. Ms. Dierich was the planning commission representative at the February 23, 2004, city council meeting. Items discussed were the Hillcrest Area Land Use Plan Map Changes and Zoning Map Change, which passed ayes all. Many residents in the Hillcrest area wanted to change their lots from residential to commercial zoning. The other item was the Woodhill Subdivision for 16 single-family homes on Linwood Avenue, which passed ayes all with various changes to the original plan. They reduced the development by one lot, the road was pushed closer to Linwood Avenue in order to bring the lots further back from the wetland, the developer deeded the city another 10 feet of land so the city has 30 feet from the wetland. They also will have a lower grade so there is less runoff, the setback on lot 5 was changed, they will be putting in boulders on the back of the lots in order to keep people from mowing into the no mow zone, the will use gutters to direct the water flow, there can be no fertilizer usage, and once the covenants are written the developer is going to allow the city to look at the covenants. c. No representation was needed from the planning commission for the March 8, 2004, city council meeting. d. No representation is needed from the planning commission at the March 22, 2004, city council meeting. e. Mr. Trippler will be the planning commission representative at the April 12, 2004, city council meeting. Items to be discussed include the Easement Vacation for Van Dyke Village on Van Dyke Street and the Venburg Tire setback variance and CUP on Highway 61 North. X. STAFF PRESENTATIONS Mr. Ekstrand gave a brief summary of the Gladstone neighborhood meetings that were held at the Gladstone Fire Hall regarding the redevelopment of the Gladstone area recently. Planning Commission Minutes of 03-15-04 -13- Mr. Roberts reported that Ramsey County is looking for a new site to build a new suburban courthouse. Currently Ramsey County leases space in the building on the 2700 block of White Bear Avenue near the mall and apparently the space is not working out. The county sent out requests to the suburban communities looking for a site about 2 acres near transportation and bus lines. The city council offered the site on the south side of the pond behind the Maplewood Community Center where the gardens were planted last summer. Mr. Roberts put together a memo and some maps for Ramsey County and the city council to review. The Ramsey County manager and the property manager talked to the city council and they thought it was a good site. The stipulation is that the city has to give the land to Ramsey County for their building and the city council has agreed to do so if the plan goes through. When the decision is made where to build the new courthouse, the plan is to begin construction in August 2004. Xl. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:52 p.m.