Apple Valley City Council — Transcript
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Land Use: Sketch Plan for Village Point Plaza Lot Two Block One
Comprehensive Plan Update (2040)
Votes (2)
Land Use Action Item 5A: Sketch Plan for Village Point Plaza Lot Two Block One
Sydney presented a sketch plan for an 80-unit continuum of care facility and a 2,000 sq ft retail building. Staff noted the care facility is not a permitted use and raised concerns about the standalone retail building's viability, pedestrian connections, parking analysis, and architectural consistency. Applicants Ben Krisnak and Lucas Larson explained their rationale for senior housing due to low retail traffic, highlighted the project's low traffic impact, and expressed flexibility on the retail component, favoring green space. Commissioners discussed the project's impact on local retail, traffic congestion, sightlines, and how it aligns with the city's overall housing needs, specifically for assisted living and memory care which might fill a gap. The City Engineer acknowledged traffic concerns would be reviewed.
Other Business: Comprehensive Plan Update
City Planner Terry Dil announced the kickoff of the city's 2040 Comprehensive Plan update, a state-mandated process. She detailed the involvement of the Met Council, the hiring of consultant TC 2, and the tentative schedule for a joint Planning Commission and City Council kickoff meeting in September. The plan is due by December 2028, with efforts to complete it earlier and incorporate community input.
Notable Quotes (9)
A continuum of care facility is currently not a permitted use. So if this project were to move forward, that would need to include some sort of um amendment to that subzone or uh rezoning to a different zone within the central um within PD 739.
Staff does have concerns on the feasibility of a freestanding retail use at this time. There has been no users that have gone into this vacant site for years, so there are concerns that that might not be filled out right away.
from a from a city's perspective, it's kind of nice because we bring in um a strong tax base and we bring in jobs. Um, but we don't bring in the intensity of like a retail building or like a a market rate multi-family building.
my biggest concern is the fact that we've kind of I've you know, I've been here through this whole process and it's like everything was going to be retail with maybe some shops, some office or residential above it, right? Well, that clearly wasn't a market that was able to grow.
I'd like to get your comment on that um uh uh that component of it... in the current marketplace with Medicare and so forth, and that it just wasn't financially viable.
my concern is still the traffic. I hear a lot of grumbling, a lot of concerns, which is legit to um roundabout, okay? And then with the pickleball building coming in and everything, very concerned with that traffic in that area.
A lot of the more senior facilities that we have in town do include more of the independent living um and then the they do include some units for assisted living and memory care. Whereas this facility is different that it only provides the assisted living and memory care. So that might be filling a gap that we don't currently have in the city.
All cities in the metro area are required to update their comp plans every 10 years. That's based on state law. Um in February of 2025, the Met Council adopted their policies in the regional framework for the metro area, and then last September, they issued the system statement for each city that is the requirements of what we need to include in our comp plan.
we're going through the draft public engagement plan of how we're going to um gather community input for our comp plan. So, we'll have all that ready and we will be presenting that to you at this first kickoff meeting.
Ordinances & Resolutions (6)
Planned Development zone where the property is located; continuum of care is not a permitted use
Guidelines governing development within the Central Village neighborhood
General zoning requirements of the city
The city's Comprehensive Plan, currently undergoing a state-mandated update
Guiding documents for comprehensive plan updates in the metro area
Issued by the Met Council, outlining requirements for each city's comp plan