All right, I'd like to call to order the Planning Commission meeting for the city of Saint Francis for July 15th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. If you'd please rise, we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Jody, please call the roll. >> Chair Chair Pavic >> Present. >> Um Bennett >> Present. >> Becker >> Here. >> Benny >> Present. >> Human Ingos McMahon >> Here. >> Thank you. Looking for a motion to adopt tonight's agenda. >> So moved. >> Have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second. All those in favor, say I. I. Passes unanimously. Can I look for a motion to approve the minutes from last month's meeting? Or yeah. >> I'll move. >> Have motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Have a second. All in favor, say I. I. Passes. Next, public comments. This is for items that are not on the agenda tonight. Planning Commission welcomes public comments. Anyone who would like to submit a comment to the commission may do so by sending an email to Jay Steffens at saintfrancismn.gov. Members of the public may speak on any matter. The commission may not be able to answer your questions tonight and in most cases will not act at this meeting regarding the matters discussed. Matters may be considered at a future planning meeting. The Planning Commission appreciates your input. Ms. Steffens, are there any comments that we've received? >> No comments have been received. >> Open comment 7:01. Anyone from the audience want to speak on anything not on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll close it 7:01. And next, Beth, public hearings. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking here. There we go. Um maybe. >> No. >> There we go. All right. Uh >> Getting quicker. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Chair and Commission, before you tonight is a site plan for a retail building uh along Highway 47. Uh this is proposed to be on a vacant uh almost 3/4 acre parcel uh located between 47 and Cree Street. Uh there is residential property to the north, uh industrial property directly to the south, and then commercial land uh to the east. The site itself is guided for commercial use by the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Uh the proposed multi-tenant retail use is consistent with that guidance. Uh the site is zoned B2, which is the general business district, uh and retail uses are permitted in that district. Uh so, the site plan itself includes a roughly 7,500 sq. ft uh multi-tenant retail building. It's proposed to have three spaces for different tenants uh within the building. Uh, the site would have access onto Cree Street. Uh, and then the site plan also includes a new parking lot as well as some stormwater facilities. So the site as proposed meets most of the B2 dimensional requirements. Uh, however, there uh was a discrepancy with the setbacks on the site plan uh because the property lines were uh labeled incorrectly. And so the property lines for this site would be the front is on onto Cree Street, so on the the east. Uh, the rear of the property would be on the west side. Uh, the interior side is on the north and then the corner side is on the south. Uh, >> [clears throat] >> and so with those dimensional requirements, um the discrepancy is specific to the rear setback, uh which code requires a 25-ft rear setback, uh and an 18-ft rear setback is proposed. Uh, building type and construction, uh we've seen a couple of these uh site plans in the B2 district come through uh lately, and so you should be fairly familiar with these requirements by this point. Uh, the facade materials that are proposed with this building include brick veneer, concrete block veneer, and then some prefinished siding. Um, so that's the um kind of brown color uh on that image on the the screen. Um, >> [clears throat] >> there is some sort of revision that's needed to that front facade um relative to that prefinished siding. So this is relating to the standard that the city has um where 100% of the facade needs to be materials uh that are either brick, stone, glass, stucco, concrete block, um or something that's comparable. Uh, and so the options here would be to either replace the proposed siding with one of those one of those materials or provide some additional information to demonstrate that that siding is comparable in grade and quality. So the applicant can choose to to follow whichever one of those options they would like. The other architectural requirement that we're all fairly familiar with by this point is that the street facing sides of non-residential buildings in the B2 district need to incorporate some facade articulation elements every 60 ft and then also install windows at regular intervals. And so the image that you see on the screen there is the the side of the building that would face 47 and so revisions are needed to that side of the building the south side in order to meet those requirements. So the site is proposed to have access onto the Cree Street itself. The requirements for drive aisle width, parking stall size, and the setbacks for the parking lot are met. However, there are some additional parking spaces that are required. So for this particular type of building the city requires one space per 200 square feet of the retail portion of the use and then one space per 500 square feet of any storage area that's involved. And so that amounts to a requirement of 37 parking spaces and right now what's being shown on the site plan is 28 spaces plus one space that's proof of parking. Proof of parking is something that the city allows but it requires a conditional use permit. And so if that is the case and that's the way that the applicant would like to go then we would need that application to be submitted. As far as exterior lighting goes there's two light fixtures that are proposed to be installed on the the front facade or the east facade. Um staff needs a little bit of an additional information. So, a photometric plan and then the spec sheets for the type of lighting that's proposed just to ensure that it's meeting the requirements for the city for glare. Uh screening is required between commercial properties and then residential properties. So, there's residential properties to the north of this site. So, right now there's a row of coniferous trees that's proposed. And the way that the city kind of spells out screening requirements in the code is that if you do vegetation alone, that's that kind of middle image. And I'm realizing that some of the images are cut off there. But, it's the middle image there where you see multiple staggered rows of trees that are required. Plus some shrubs. So, additional trees would be needed if they're proposing to do just vegetation. Otherwise, a fence or a wall in addition to some vegetation is allowed and then you don't need to do that staggered row requirement. There is a dumpster that's proposed as well. That's the red square there on the north end of the parking lot. Some additional details needed from that as well just to ensure that the height and the opacity of the materials meet code requirements. Oh. As far as landscaping goes, there's 11 trees that are proposed around the site perimeter. That meets the requirements for the amount of trees to be planted based on the size of the building. There are some minor revisions needed just to meet code. So, one of those is that it needs to be prepared by a licensed landscape architect and provide some the information about the square footage of the sodded and seeded areas that are proposed on site. Uh the site's proposed to be served by city utilities. Uh the city engineer did review the plans for grading, drainage, erosion control, and storm water. Uh they were able to provide uh a comment letter. I'm not sure that that got in the packet cuz I think it was a little bit after the deadline. Uh but we do have that and can provide that to the applicant. Uh so tonight planning commission is asked to review the application. Uh this is a site plan, so it's not a public hearing. Uh and then uh once you've had a chance to review and discuss, uh provide a recommendation to the city council. Um so you can either recommend approval. Um there were some conditions and findings of fact in your packet that you could use for that. Um you could recommend denial uh with some findings of fact. Uh or you could table and request some additional information from the applicant. Uh with that, I'm happy to stand for questions. >> Thank you, Beth. Questions from the commission? >> I have several questions, Chair. >> Kevin, [clears throat] please. >> Yeah. How how would they how would the applicant meet the parking requirements? You said 30 37, they have room for 28. How do they handle it? >> Yeah, it's a it's a good question. Um I don't it's not my job to design the site for them, so um I'm not [clears throat] >> of the they're aware of the concern though, right? >> Yeah, this information was provided to the applicant. So. >> [clears throat] >> So we we would have to ask for some adjustments or table it and ask for these various requirements be met or as close to as possible be met, correct? >> Yeah, my thought would be that um if planning commission chooses to table and ask for that information, you could do that now. Um if you chose to approve with conditions, then we would want that information before council. >> Mhm. >> So. >> But the condition is we're asking for a 30-some and they're allowing 28, so that's the problem or >> Right, it needs Right, it needs to either be >> You do tonight speak to that. >> Come on. Come on. >> Yeah, if you want to come up to the mic and state your name, who you're with, and Thank you. >> My name's Kurt Strandlund with Classic Construction. We're the applicant. And we since receiving these comments did some work to try to meet that. Also, with having to make the western property setback larger, we've reduced the size of the building by a little over 600 square feet. So, we can meet that, which also in turn reduces the number of parking spaces needed. And then also the we there will be storage in the buildings in the back. So, with them two things, we feel like we've been able to get the required parking spaces. >> Okay. And also Beth, with the applicant lighting on the south side on 47, would there be any lighting requirements on that? That at all? >> Uh Chair and Commission, there weren't lighting There wasn't any lighting proposed on the south side. >> Okay. Is [clears throat] Is there with the Highway 47 being there, is there any city requirement as far as it's a major thoroughfare, do they need any type of lighting or is there >> Nope, there's no requirement from the city on that. >> All right. And then as far as the tenants coming in there, hours of operation, probably doesn't really matter, it's a commercial entity, so they have reasonable hours of operation. >> Yep, that's not something that we would set with a site plan. So. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And as far as again, the neighbors who built to the north and whatnot, any noise created We again we don't know the tenants that are coming in there. I'm sure it's all going to be very reasonable but noise created during the business hours or Is this a light industrial or is this going to be retail? >> Retail. >> Retail. >> Okay. >> Um that's all I had. I guess I guess Beth do you would you recommend to the commission the to see the revised gentleman's the if they revised some of the their input on this thing should we What way do we go from here chair or Beth? >> I guess the staff decide if we want to move forward with the conditions we set or if we want to table it and bring it back with the revisions that they have done or said they have done. So. >> Or would it go to council with the revisions and the council then he >> It could go to commission council with our conditions and sounds like they've met a lot of those anyways and you guys are going to approve it anyways so. >> Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Any other thoughts or >> I guess I'm always looking for retail. >> Yeah. >> It's good to have something going up. Yeah. >> Um I guess I would recommend approval with the conditions and the findings from the facts presented by the staff. >> I have a motion do I have a second? >> Forward that to the council once they're >> With with the conditions yeah. >> I would second that. >> Have a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Thank you Beth. Uh next eight discussion by planning commissioners anything to discuss? Seeing none I'll move to adjourn. Do I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. >> Have a motion, do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> I have a second, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Passed unanimously. Thank you.