[music] [music] [music] [music] All right, I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. Good evening and welcome to the May 28th, 2026 meeting of the Minnetonka Planning Commission. The commission generally meets twice a month, always on a Thursday. The schedule and tentative meeting agendas can be obtained by calling the planning division or by checking the city website at minnotankamn.gov. The commission holds public hearings on land use applications. For all land use applications, the city notifies property owners within at least 400 feet of the site and posts plans and information on minnotanka mn.gov. For some applications, the city also places signs on the properties and places notices in the sun sailor. From a specific process standpoint, the commission makes recommendations to the city council on resonings, subdivisions, conditional use permits, and also amendments to the city's comprehensive guide plan, zoning ordinance, and subdivision regulations. We also make final decisions on site plans, signage requests, variance requests, and expansion permits unless these requests are part of an application that must be heard by the city council. In that case, the commission make the commission makes recommendation a recommendation and the council makes a final decision. In addition to these formal actions, the commission also provides informal feedback on development concept plans. Anyone agreved by a final planning commission decision may appeal to the may appeal the decision to the city council. If you wish to appeal, you must submit a written request to city staff within 10 days of this meeting. From a broader standpoint, the city's comprehensive guide plan, zoning ordinance, and subdivision regulations are the city's best efforts to codify a balance between individual rights and community responsibilities. Individual rights are easy to understand. Community responsibilities are more subtle, but the idea is that we as members of the community agree to limit our individual rights for the common good of the group. The planning division, the planning commission, and the city council are charged with managing this sometimes difficult balancing act. We ask that you keep this broader perspective in mind as we review tonight's applications. To make meetings more efficient in 2026, the city's boards and commissions have introduced a new process for public comments. If you wish to speak at tonight's meeting, please fill out a public comment card, which is available right near the staff podium where Mr. Inglesson is waving. Be sure to include your name and the topic you wish to address. The cards will be collected before the public hearing items and uh the chair will announce your name when it is your turn to speak again. Welcome staff. Please call the role. >> Minion >> here. >> Sher >> here. >> Banks >> here. >> Brink >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> Waterman >> here. There are six of us tonight. Uh moving on to item number three, approval of the agenda. Uh we have the agenda, but I believe there's a change memo. Is that correct? >> Uh correct, chair. a couple of items in your change memo. Uh the first is we're um requesting a change to the order in your agenda um flipping item 8A and 9A as a commissioner will be recusing themselves for the short-term rental ordinance. So, the new order we're requesting you approve this evening is 8A, which would be the concept plan for Quick Trip, and 9A would be the short-term rental draft ordinance. Um, then for both of those items, we have attached comments that were received after publication of the staff report. Those are comments that either came in as emails to planning commissioners, city staff, or were submitted via the Minnitonka matters uh page. Those are all uh again in your change memo this evening. They will be made part of the city council's packet as this goes to city council also. >> Great. Thank you. Uh may I have a motion to approve the agenda with the changes noted by staff? I'll make the motion to to approve. >> Motion Banks. Second. Brink. >> Uh all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> All right. Motion carries. Next up, item number four, approval of minutes. This is approval of minutes from the May 14th, 2026 meeting. Commissioners, any changes? All right. Uh may I have a motion to approve the the minutes? Motion Johnson. >> I'll second. Second minion. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. >> All right. Motion carries. Next up, item number five, report from staff. Miss Thomas. >> Yeah. Thank you, Chair Waterman. Uh, the city council has met once since your last meeting, and that was on May the 18th, the city council meeting. There were several items uh on that agenda that the planning commission had reviewed um and some that you reviewed a long time ago that are uh coming back to the council. They approved a final plat for D Jang Estates. That was a two lot subdivision on Old Excelsier Boulevard and Sparrow Road. I believe um you had approved the preliminary plat many months ago. And uh final plats just go back to the council. They also approved a 12-month extension for an interim use permit for a portable classroom at Glen Lake Elementary. If you'll recall a year ago, you approved a interim use permit for that classroom. Um things are not progressing as quickly as the school district would like and so um we've extended that interim use permit for another year. Um scrolling through this, they also then uh reviewed some conditional use permits uh that the planning commission had recently reviewed. First was for the athletic dome at Hopkins High School. Uh they did approve that per your recommendation and then they also reviewed the conditional use permit for the accessory dwelling unit on Minnotonka Drive. Um if you'll recall the planning staff recommended denial of that request. The majority of planning commissioners recommended approval of the conditional use permit but denial of the setback variance, meaning the applicant would need to move um that. and the the council did um agree with the planning commission and approved the conditional use permit but not the setback variance. So we look forward to a building permit for that uh in the near future. They reviewed the alternative urban areawide review the AUR um for Opus area and adopted that. Uh so that will be a a guiding document that we look to as new proposals come in for uh opus in the future. And then finally they approved an appointment to the planning commission to um take our long vacant space. Unfortunately uh new commissioner Jonathan Shoemaker was not uh available to be with us this evening. He had a prior commitment but hopes to join us at our next meeting. Miss Wishnack and I did have a um orientation with Mr. Shoemaker um today and he seems eager uh to join the group. Our next meeting as a a very much an anomaly of the schedule is actually next week. We get to get together again. Uh we'll see you um so when you're done with this packet, you're going to get another packet uh tomorrow. We have two items on that June 4th agenda. With that, I will turn it back to the chair. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Thomas. Next up, item number six, report from planning commissioners. Commissioners, anything to report? Uh, Commissioner Sher. >> Um, I attended my first sustainability commission last week and so we had a really great discussion about um how we can as a planning commission um maybe wrap into some of the development rules, some opportunities for um green building practices or um things like that. So, I'll do a deeper one. I know we have a long night, so I can do a deeper dive later. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right, seeing nothing else, we'll move on to item number seven, the consent agenda. Uh, for the consent agenda, city staff places items that are considered routine on the consent agenda. No staff or applicant presentations will be made. The commission will hold one public hearing and approve all items on this agenda with one motion subject to the staff recommended conditions of approval. Before voting on the consent agenda, I will open the public hearing, announce each item, and ask if anyone wishes to have a separate discussion or vote on that item. If so, the commission will then remove that item from the consent agenda and hold a separate hearing on it after voting on the remaining consent agenda items. I may allowformational questions without removing an item from the consent agenda. First, I will open the public hearing on the consent agenda. The first and only item on it tonight is item number 7A, a rear yard setback variance for a deck at 11558 Federally Road West. In this case, staff staff recommends adoption of the resolution approving the request. Uh, does any commissioner wish to remove this item? Have a fuller discussion? Seeing none, any member of the audience wish to remove this item and have a full discussion. Okay. As no one wishes to speak, I will close the public hearing. Commissioners, may I have the a motion to approve the item on the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion chair, >> I'll second. >> Second. Banks. Staff, please pull the commission. >> Minion >> I. >> Sher. >> Banks. >> Yes. >> Brink. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> Chair Wman. >> Yes. All right. Motion carries. That is item number 7A. That is a final I believe a final decision of the commission subject to appeal. Uh if anyone would like to appeal the commission's decision, they must provide a written request to city staff within 10 days of the meeting. Good luck with your project. Okay, moving on to new item 8A. This is the uh concept plan for a quick trip at 9800 Mitanka Boulevard and four other uh adjacent properties. Um this is a concept review plan only. So the commission has just asked to give informal feedback. No formal action is required. We're not approving or denying anything tonight. Uh and we will first up start with a presentation from staff. Mr. Inglesson, I believe this is your item. >> Yes. Thank you, chair. Uh zooming through these. There we go. So, yes. Uh as you said just pre just a moment ago, this there's no formal action tonight. Um staff recommends that the commission discuss the concept plans. Um really with a couple things in mind, three questions. Is there merit for the concept to proceed to a formal development review? If yes, why? And then a big one which is the last one on here. So save best for last. What would make the concept better? So um I'll go through the project here and then we'll move on to that discussion. So the subject properties here are located in the northeast corner of the city. Um right here's 169. Here's Mitaka Boulevard for some bearings for you. And those properties again like you said there's five of them. They combined are just under two acres. And there is an existing gas station on the lot. So, here's the largest property probably is uh this existing gas station. Here it is zoomed in. These are also the other properties that are up on Gizmo Avenue. There's two more just straight north of this. You can probably just barely see this. You can see this house here. There it is on below. And then the other properties, this is on looking from F Street. This one's at the corner of F Street in Manunka Boulevard. And this is the house just to the north of that one. So the zoning for this is a here's the zoning for those properties. So it's unique because we have different zoning for them. The two that are on Minnetanka Boulevard are zoned for B2. So there's commercial uses that can be used at those right now uh as a right. And then the ones to the north, the three in the north are currently zoned R1. So you can see those in yellow. So those be for our single family residential district. The land use is a bit unique too because those two that are on Mitaka Boulevard are guided for commercial but then the ones to the north are guided for mixed use. And just for a little bit of a clarification about mixed use we use it a little bit differently here in Manitaka. I think a lot of people when they hear mixed use they think multiple uses on one property like you know commercial on the bottom apartments on top something like that. In Manitaka and when we're when we're looking at our guide plan it's really more used as a flexible area where a lot of different uses could be used there. So it doesn't mean that all these areas are guided to have that sort of multiple use on a property. It's more saying there's a lot of uses that could work in this area. Could be high density like you see over here over this apartment building. Um could also be a commercial area or something else. So just a clarification on that part. Uh you can look in the surrounding area. Um there's some other commercial areas. There's highdensity residential. There's um open space. So a lot of different uses in that in this area. And then here's the concept plan that uh Quick Ship submitted. So it's for convenience and fuel store. There would be a few different accesses removed off of Minnetonka Boulevard, but then also keeping one also an access removed off of F Street and some off of Gizmo, but still keeping one off of that F Street, but removing them all on Gizmo. So looking, you would be able to access through from two locations. Here's the fuel station areas. Uh there is the building and then there's some parking both in the front but then also this sort of overflow. I'm going to assume employee parking or some other use parking over here in the back. Um there's also a fence they showed around here buffering the neighborhood but again concept plan. We're looking very early phases here. Not a lot of we're not you don't expect a lot of detail at this point. Here's a building example. If you've driven anywhere in the metro area, you probably recognize this. There's several around here. This is just an example of what this could look like. So, not getting too into specifics yet, but um similar to what you'd sort of see around the area. Here's a view looking from Minnetonka Boulevard. And then here's another one also from Minnitankka Boulevard just sort of at a different angle. So, uh, looking at again, we're not reviewing any formal requests at this point, but I think it's always good to think about what those will be in the future. So, looking at this, a reszoning would be required for those three residential properties that are zoned R1. They would have to be reszoned to B2. You'll note that there isn't a comprehensive guide plan change because it's guided mixed use. A commercial use would fit within that guidance. So, that's not included as of right now. And then also a site and building plan review would be required for any building. So there's already been a bit of a process that's gone on. Um there's a notification sent out to all the neighbors uh back in February uh sent out to 96 households. There were 17 people that attended that meeting. We hosted it here at the community center. The main questions and concerns at that meeting were traffic buffering to the neighborhood to the north, hours of operation, effect on property values, and pollution. So, right now we're at the planning commission meeting. We also have this chart here that sort of shows where we've gone. So, we have a plan submitted, developer hosted neighborhood meeting, and then we're at the planning commission phase. Next would be going to city council for another for another concept plan review. And then that sort of stops phase one or step one I'll call it. Um if the applicant then at this point because this is sort of a breaking point decides to move forward with step two. It starts another process where it has to come back to the planning commission. Neighborhood would be renoticed again. It'd go to city council. So all those things would occur again sort of the same phase again. So we're still in the early parts of this. Um we're not that far along I guess a good way of saying it. So tonight again the recommendation is there well first off there's no formal action so no voting will occur uh but really we're thinking about those three main questions and then I was talking to my colleague Susan when we talk about concept plans because they're sort of unique we think here usually we're talking about making final decisions and Susan is really smart so she watches a lot of Jeopardy so we think of this as a reverse Jeopardy so you usually have to phrase everything in a question tonight we're not doing that we're going to phrase everything as a statement like um the example that I had was you might be very interested in something like storm water. You might want to say hey I have a question about storm water. No say I need to learn more about storm water. So saying that as a a statement not as a question we're not hold off on those but we're giving our input to the applicant right now. So this is their opportunity to show their uh potential idea and yours to give feedback on that idea. So with that I end my presentation. I hand it back over to the chair for questions or more importantly statements shortly. Thank you. >> Noted. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Mr. Englesen. Uh, commissioners, I guess [laughter] I'm so accustomed, of course, I have it saying questions. Maybe uh, if there are any maybe highle procedural type questions, this would be the time otherwise I do think we would want to move on to the uh, applicant presentation. Um, and I'll also just pause. I saw some people come in a little bit later. Just sort of a final notation that there is a comment box. If you are looking to speak at tonight's meeting for any of the remaining agenda items, you do need to fill out a comment card um and indicate your name and the item for which you want to speak. There we go. Um and we'll be closing it after this. Um so that commissioners, any questions for staff on on this or should we move on to the applicant presentation? Commissioner Minion, >> I'd like to learn more about the buffering So, we won't get into the specifics of what the ordinance requires. Uh, there was something brought up by the neighbors about buffering and wanting to request for that. So, I think that's a good question for the applicant about what their ideas are buffering. But again, good statement and I will accept questions still. [laughter] >> Commissioner Brink. >> Uh, yes. U Minnetonka Boulevard I believe is a county road. So, I'll be interested in uh what the county has to say about traffic, some of the traffic concerns and uh particularly access um you know that close to the 169 intersection there and uh left turns out of the proposed you know uh quick trip what what that would look like with the kind of sight lines aren't the greatest there and you got residential properties a couple on both sides of the road couple of them you know very large apartment buildings high density so I'll curious how uh traffic study might shake out. >> Sure. Commissioner Brick, if I can add one thing, too. Um we we always keep pretty good communication with the county. We This is something we don't typically route to them, but we did have a quick conversation with someone from the county just noting the project, but no comments at this point. Obviously, >> if I may add, um Mr. Involen, we we would not route this at a concept level. We absolutely would route this at such point that it becomes a a a project if it does. >> Great. Any other questions for staff? Uh okay. Well, I'd like to welcome up the applicant if you'd like to make a presentation. All right. Thank you. Welcome. And if you could just give us your name and address for the record. some >> 9900 Del Ridge Road, Bloomington. Uh officially out of Lacrosse, Wisconsin also. Got it. All right. Thank you, commissioners. Um tonight, we'll give you a little bit of overview of the company itself. Um, many of you, as Drew stated, know of Quicktrip, but a lot of people don't know what's involved in Quicktrip. Um, many people put us in a very similar category as a sea store, uh, Holiday, Casey's, some of those brands, and I'm going to go through some differential points that I think are critical to the Minnotonka community. Um, we started, we focused on really doing things right for our customers and our community. We're family-owned. It was started by a farmer in Lacrosse who felt grocery um was a critical part to sea store operation. And so they started in 1965 and it's been in operation. We celebrated 60 years last year and it is currently still familyowned by four generations of the family. Um, we operate 920 stores in the eight Midwest states and we employ more than 38,000 co-workers. Um, QuickRip calls us co-workers because we fortunately are able to receive a 40% profit sharing back from the company. So, Quicktrip takes care of its co-workers by ensuring that they take care of the co-workers who take care of the customers. 80% of our own branded products in the stores are made in Lacrosse and shipped to the stores daily. So we bring in locally sourced milk especially um dairy uh we make many of our products on site and then ship them to the stores [music] for the um for the stores. We also provide no fee ATMs and that's where the vertical integration comes in. We are unlike other sea stores where we're vertically integrated and what that means is all stages of production of a good from the acquisition of raw materials to the retailing are controlled by us. So we bring in raw material, we make dough, we take dough and make it into bread or pizza crust or whatever we make in Lacrosse. Um that way we control it. We have health and safety. We just won the black pearl award award for health and safety in a sea store food which has never happened [music] before. We have worldclass production facilities and that's how we remove excess cost and controls is by controlling everything in Lacrosse and it gives us a competitive advantage because we make it, we ship it, we sell it. our core values, which is another big part of who we are for the community. Um, we have six of them and honesty and integrity, respect, excellence, humility, innovation, and work ethic are our six core values. And if you visited one of our stores, um, you're going to see these into play. um respect and humility, especially for our customers who when asking for help. Our staff and our co-workers drop what they're doing to change a tire, a flat tire for someone, help get locked keys out of a car, clean up a sick child who's just gotten sick in someone's car. There are many, many examples I could share with you of how we give back to our customers and treat our customers with respect and um excellence. We give back to the community a lot. We like to be involved personally in our communities by supporting local events, local teams, local parades, local food shelves. We are big community partner and [music] we love to get involved with with our communities. That also goes to at every level if um different organizations can write into us and ask for gift cards, ask for contributions, ask for different things. They can also hold fundraisers at our stores. So, we do a lot of different things with our community partners. This is the project overview. As Drew went over, um the store itself is about 7,000 square ft, 16 fueling stations. Um, we like to have a 24-hour operation when possible. Uh, we obviously would like a monument sign on the corner. We have 31 parking stalls as Drew um related. Also, we provide full-time and part-time jobs. 60% is part-time, 40% is full-time. So, those additional parking spots that you see, we typically staff about 10 people in a store at [music] one time. and then one time a day deliveries and then we provide picnic tables on site. This is the overview again of the store. And another one, a couple things. As Drew pointed out, the concept plan, you'll see a fence. Um, to answer the buffering question, there are lots of ways we can increase buffering. Um, helping build up BMS, provide fencing, provide additional landscaping. Um, so there's lots of ways to buffer to create that yearround uh buffering. And again, another view just showing the green space on the back side. Drew also went over the preliminary uh elevations and then the approval process. Also, as Drew uh stated, these are just some new pictures. One of the things that we've changed in the stores over the year is what we offer and how [music] much we offer. Um, we significantly have increased our grocery offering so that it's a one-stop shop. We have take-home pizzas, as you can see, take and bake. We have take-home meals. We have take-h home meats. Um, we have many graband go things that people can get for that last minute uh dinner, lunch decision. Um, the other thing that we also do is provide take and bake. So if people call ahead and want a pizza made ahead of time, they can do that also. And the pizza is ready for you when you get to the store. This is the hot spot. This is obviously a big a very big part of what we do. We we provide quality food. Um this is a separate manager in itself who manages the food in our store. That's how important it is to our organization. They [music] do time checks, they do temperature checks. Um this is managed obviously with the assistance of the health departments in the cities and this is a significant part of providing good quality food uh for our communities. As you can also see in this picture you have dairy, you have eggs, you have the different um coolers in the background. One of the newest is a produce island we put in the store specifically for produce. So, in our older stores, um especially in our smaller communities where we first started, produce was on an what we call an endcap. And this is an area that we really wanted to improve because we heard from lots of communities who don't have a larger grocery store that they would like more produce um offerings. And so, this is a change we made in our stores. And then I am open for questions. Thank you for your time. Um it's really really uh important to understand that we're not just that brand. We did win uh again for the eighth year in a row USA Today top sea store of the country that we were voted in because of the quality of our food, the cleanliness of our stores and how we upkeep our um sites. Every person who does work for Quick [music] Trip helps run our stores. maintenance, truck drivers, everyone does work actually for the QuickTrip organization. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Watson. Uh, commissioners, what questions do we have? What are we interested in? Commissioner Johnson, >> my question is, do you envision this to be a 24-hour operation? I noticed some of your stores um are close at 11:00, but they open at 5 in the morning. And so what do you envision this operation? >> We would envision 24, but if we'd also take into consideration where it is and if that does not align, um, we would consider different hours. And we do do that a lot in different communities where we do minimize the hours. Um, in the Twin Cities, we obviously like to take into consideration all the jobs that and people who work second and third shift or very early first shifts, but we also understand the concern. So, we always are willing to take that into consideration. >> One other question. Um, do you have any quick trips? Cuz I I'm a big fan. Um, I like the one in Clo. It's on the way to the lake. Um, very nice. But do you have any that butt up right to R1 existing family homes? >> We do in a lot of our smaller communities. That is where we actually started where we butt up to R1 residential homes. So it's more so because we started in Wisconsin and Wisconsin has a lot of the smaller uh communities that have our stores originally because they started there. Um, but we do have residential that surrounds a majority of our stores in Lonsdale I'm building and that is directly across from an R1 residential neighborhood. Um, as you'll see us grow, you'll see us be more there's usually typically we are surrounded by residential. >> Commissioner Sher, >> uh, thank you for the presentation. Um the 7,000 foot size is that typical size or do you have smaller models for say tighter spaces? >> That is a what they call a gen two. Our the reason we do this size store in this size location. This is actually not our biggest store. Our biggest store is 9100 ft². But in order to create um a significant amount of food, we need a significant size kitchen. And so that's the additional a lot of times the square footage is in the kitchen size in order to produce the amount of food that we that we create. >> Um this isn't a food desert. So um I'm not too concerned about the size and what's in it. I'm I'm thinking a lot more about the community that it's going in. So what is the smallest footprint you have for a sea store and would it would it be feasible financially to put that here? >> I don't know if it would be feasibly financial. I think the smallest is about 5,000. So I think it's between the four and 5,000 somewhere in that area, but I would need to confirm that. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Minion. Um, I'm glad you're here. I have a high regard for Quick Trip and how you treat your people, how you treat your customers, and the product that you bring. Um, and if there's anybody to make this successful, I'm glad it's Quick Trip. I think you guys are are top of your game. >> Mhm. >> I am deeply deeply concerned about the neighbors and the people living here. Will you share a little bit about how you can lessen the impact whether it's noise pollution, light pollution, um trash in the neighborhood? Can I talk about how you operate? You talked about possibilities of a high sign as opposed to maybe a single monument sign. Um timers, things like that. Will you talk a little bit about kind of how you operate and the impact you have with the immediate neighborhood? >> Yeah. So with the operations first, we staff significantly to maintain our property. So in regards to trash, regards to overall upkeep, um that is the responsibility of the store manager and its co-workers who go out on rotations to take care of those things. On this plan, again, this is a concept plan. You see fence along um if you look at this picture I would call it the west side if north is straight up and along that whole border bordering those properties. Again this is a rendering. Is that all the landscaping we would do? No. There is additional landscaping that can be done to minimize the impact of the neighbors. And on that side noise-wise, how we minimize that? First, the one thing I want to point out here, there is no car wash here. So, that in itself is um a differential maker when it comes to sometimes the noise concerns is that there is no car wash at this location. Um the other thing is speakers and speakers at the fuel stations for example can be turned off or turned significantly down. Um, so those have volume controls, lighting. We design our stores to meet very close to what they'd call a lead certification. We do not go through the lead certification process, but we design to that standard. Lighting is all facing downward. Light pollution stays on our lot. It is not fluorescent. It is LED that is set up in the canopies and up in the overhangs. So there is not a direct light that comes down and you would that would shoot across. So when you're standing typically if you look at our stores you're not going to see this bright fluorescent light in your eye. It is up flush with canopy. Um it's one of the changes that is pretty significant for our design of our stores in the last so many years. But we we do LEDs and we ensure we do a light plan when we submit for civil plans that the lighting meets the standard code for that um for that area. Um trying to remember everything you asked. Pollution sound. Um you'll see there's the big yellow box that you guys see on this overhead is where our delivery truck just backs in and then leaves. We get one delivery a day. That would be the only truck that would come. This does not have room for big diesel trucks to come in. This would have diesel for cars, but that would be it at this station. Um trying to think what else really. It's landscaping, fencing, some additional height potentially in grading that can help minimize all those those impacts. Did I answer your question, Commissioner Minion? Do you need any? >> Commissioner Minion, I'll let you go. And then I saw Commissioner Banks. >> Just a side note, are you familiar with the term dark sky compliant? Have you heard that with your lighting? >> No, I have not. >> Okay. I It sounds like you're there, but it's a more of a technical term. >> Okay. I will bring it up to store engineering. >> Commissioner Banks. Thank you, Chair. Um, [clears throat] so to kind of piggyback on the the questions about the size, um, you do have a location in Plymouth. I had a chance to ride by there, >> kind of ride around it. I don't know the size of it, but if are you familiar with that store? Do you know the size of that one and how it compares to what this plan >> has? I think it's a little bit smaller than I think it's about it went to about a 5,000. We just recently added on to it, so I think it's about a 5,000. >> Okay. Um, and [clears throat] then you mentioned there would be one delivery a day, and I'm assuming you're referring to groceries, food. >> Yep. Groceries, food. >> How many deliveries for um the gas that is brought in? >> Typically, it's weekly. Um, it really depends on how fast we would go through it. Maybe two a week, maybe. But I don't even know if that it I would need to get specifics from store engineering on what that would look like. >> Okay. >> Commissioner Johnson, >> um just on the average, uh you've got 16 pumps. You've got a significant size of a grocery store convenience store. How many trips do you estimate would be made to this location on a daily basis? I would need to get back to you, Commissioner Johnson, on that um and to Drew on that and what that would look like. >> Does most of your traffic occur during um rush hours? >> It's usually morning traffic, people on the way to work and people on the way home from work. um noon hour depending on where we are it can be a significant because if people are working in the area and don't have a QSR which there is not a QSR directly in this area which is a quick serve restaurant like a Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, things like that. People use our store because again it's a good quick easy in and out to grab some food and go. So, we're not capturing any more visits than probably what go by here, but because there isn't food alternatives, drive-throughs here, that's where we would probably capture maybe some noon hour. But typically, it's A.M. and P.M., um, the 4 to 6:00 p.m. time zone and when parents and people are coming home. >> What I'm concerned about is traffic. I know the quick trip in Plymouth, um, we go there all the time with Home Depot. It's a real problem. That is a tangled mess to get in and out of there. The one in Cloquet generates tons of traffic during the morning. It is so busy you may not even you have to wait to get a pump. It has the potential in my mind to generate a lot of traffic on a two-lane road that has a north south street Oakidge Drive that is not signalized and that's a tough uh left turn if you're going to go west on Minnetonka Boulevard. So I'm very concerned about the level of traffic um that this could generate. They are very attractive. They are very good stores. I do love Quick Trip, but I'm very concerned about this location. >> Yeah. And as Drew stated, um what if we were to go through final um typically county gets involved on any type of traffic uh concerns um and we work with them on what that potentially might change or affect in regards to traffic. >> Any other questions? Commissioners, Commissioner Sher, >> um, do you provide charging for electric vehicles in your locations? >> We have, we don't have it on this plan as of yet, but it could be a part of a plan. Um, we are significantly adding chargers through major corridors right now on freeways. Um, that's been the biggest ask is 94 going from Minneapolis to Chicago. um some of the thoroughfires through Wisconsin um and then some of the sites do have uh one or two charging units depending on where it's located. So it can be added. >> Commissioner Minion, >> you talked a little bit about environmental impacts, things like how you're going to deal with snow plowing, salt, salts in general. Are your roofs solar ready? um how you going to try to mitigate the uh build process like the quality of your envelope. I found that really the best way to be energy efficient is to build a big qu good quality tight envelope and then add the rest of stuff after that. Will you kind of address some of those concerns? >> I will. Um it is more of a question I would like to bring it back to store engineering to get specifics for you to be able to bring that forward and answer some of those specific envelope questions because there's a project manager. Oh, so there's a project manager that works with me once we get to application who does all the civil plans, works with storm water, the civil engineering design group to ensure we meet all the the code and regulations for all the items necessary and that would be one of them, but I would like to bring that back. >> Thank you. >> All right, any other questions, commissioners? Uh, you know, again, do you want to keep this focused on uh it being a concept plan, whether this is something that should proceed for formal development review, what would make it better or not? Really can kind of keep it on the things that are in our purview, zoning impact on the neighborhood, less about um environmental aspects necessarily because there there is a city group that will study that. Um, so not not to tamp down any questions, but any Okay, Commissioner Sher. >> Last question. Uh, it's just a safety record. So, I know there's going to be there will possibly be some questions about um how close it is to hopefully this is not going into what we just talked about um to the watershed area. Just what are your do you have an idea of your safety records for spills and such? Thank you. >> Very good. We hold yearly inspections on our tanks. We have doublewalled tanks. Um we have a security system at the pump that shuts off any potential spill that happens. Um there there are many security measures in place. We go into a lot of watershed districts and a lot of um areas where there are strict standards and we are able to meet those standards. Thank you. A lot of the questions have I had have been covered. I guess the only one that wasn't was just could you could you just provide a little more information on the picnic area or what you're thinking about for outdoor seating, outdoor? >> Yeah, in this plan I think what makes sense is behind uh the building over by the parking that you see um that faces Gizmo somewhere behind there to have a few picnic tables. Um, they are picnic tables with umbrellas on them with uh four seats on on each table. So, I think on this plan that would make the most sense. Um, I don't necessarily want people having to eat lunch on the Minnetonka Boulevard side. I think it would be nice if you could tuck them along that other side and put them in landscaping and make it a a shaded, more quieter area for that. Um, the other thing we also do to help with if needed is if a sidewalk potentially is needed here, um, that is always in consideration. And then bike racks, uh, for people who bike to the stores, that is also something that we add to our to our sites. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, so this is a concept review, not a noticed public hearing, but the public is welcome to comment for the record. Uh, we did have a couple comment cards on this, which I will call up in the order in which they were received. Uh, when you when I call your name, please come up. Uh, state your name and address for the record. Uh, and we usually try to keep it to three minutes. I believe there's a clock there that I I don't know if I see here, but it'll come on. Okay. Uh, first up, Michael Cavis. Welcome. >> Hi. Thank you. This on. Okay. Uh, sorry. I'm a carpenter, so public speaking is not my thing. I tend to speak real fast when I get nervous, so I apologize. Um, and I know some of my neighbors are going to speak, too, and um, I will agree uh, with them as um, on their reservations towards [music] this plan. I want to speak um specifically to one small part of it and that is the west exit. [music] Um this plan is new to us. It was not um this is pretty much 180 degrees different than what the neighborhood [music] was shown at the uh the the review earlier. So this is a bit of a shock to me. Um and it seems like the concerns that were made have been dumped on me. Michael Cavis 9916 Minnitanka Boulevard. I didn't mention that. But we are the uh zoned R1 um directly to the west uh right at where that driveway exits. And so my concern is um that basically the layout of this plan realistically arguably arguably sends 50% of the traffic onto F Street. If you look the way a common sense traffic flow is going to go, people coming from the parking lot, people leaving the pumps, they're going to exit that versus exiting onto Menadonka Boulevard where people are coming in. So that puts 50% of traffic, let's say, onto a very, very no narrow F street, which was not in my opinion designed for that. It's a very narrow road, no center line, no lights, it dead deadends into a wooded area, all sorts of issues potentially with that. Um, and then going back to my property, not just to speak about my property, um, because I believe holistically that the this plan has problems, but we are zoned R1 and in the 24 in the 24 uh 40 plan, we m we remain R1. So, I see issues the issues I'm raising now aren't going to go away in the 2040 plan because we're still R1. We're adjacent to that. We have a sight line which because of that driveway is is not uh able to be screened to the uh canopy to the pumps to the store. Um so that is the problem that I'm speaking about right now. Um I have other reservations but I think that's the one I want to focus on right now and that's one I want to leave with you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for the questions you asked. I hope you get the qu the answers because I do know that some of those questions were asked at the neighborhood meeting. Um so I'm surprised there were not answers now. So thank you. >> Great. Thank you. All right. Uh next up, Jason Mel. Again, apologies if I mispronounce any names. Uh welcome. If you just uh provide your name, correct pronunciation and uh your address for the record. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Uh Jason, excuse me, [clears throat] Jason Meccl for the record. 9914 Minnitanka Boulevard neighbors to uh Mike and Jade. I prepared some comments and I just want to commend you first of all for asking the questions that you did. Uh Commissioner Johnson, you asked some very important questions about the residential zoning, the trips, the morning rush hour traffic and so forth. And those were some of the things that were most concerning to many of us when we heard about this project. When I first learned about it, I mentioned to my brother-in-law and he said, 'Oh, I like Quick Trip and I said, 'Yeah, but it's going to go right next to my house. And he said, 'Well, that's not good for you. And I said, explain. Well, he's a police officer. He's worked 169 for a long time, patrol officer. 169 is a thoroughare of criminal activity in his words. And he said that sea stores, convenience stores, become meetups for criminal activity. So I said, "Well, what do you mean?" He said, "Well, that's where people go to do deals. They become, in his words, a target-rich environment for police officers." So I really hope that if this project goes any forward, farther forward, that there's some serious consideration about what this is going to mean for our residential neighborhood. Having heard this from him, I reached out to the city of Minnitonka and I will say I'm very proud to live in this community that responded within one day. I asked for all of the police records, all of the visits to every gas station convenience store in the city of Minnitanka. There's seven of those locations. None of them surrounded by residential properties, mind you, which I also confirmed through aerial photographs. There's one that has residential on one side, but not that would have residential on all three sides, which is what our neighborhood represents. There were 543 police calls to those seven stations over a 5-year span. And when I went through those records for one of the stations, the one that's the closest to us, which is at Hopkins Crossroad and uh uh Cedar Lake Road, when I went through those records and I looked at every reason that was listed for those calls, and I have the pages, and they're all highlighted, and you guys obviously can get these too, but I have an email I can share. I identified 101 calls that listed the and the reasons that were listed for those um visits. Let me find it here. Sorry, I'm jumping around in my in my notes. Disturbance, unwanted persons, suspicious activity, customer trouble, harassment, theft, narcotics, drunks, arrest warrants, alarms, holdups, trespassing, domestic court order, court orders are being issued, drug overdose, assault. That was 101 of the 543. There were many other things, you know, some of them may be a little more benign, but I found that number staggering. What I also found is there's not a single record of a police call to the existing gas station that's there today. Zero is the right number of police calls to our neighborhood. This is not the right location for this great business, good company, all those things. Who can argue with any of that, right? We all I'm not arguing that this is just the wrong location. When I reviewed um I looked at the uh city of Minnitanka's website and um it talks about um Minnitanka together, a citywide investment plan that will strengthen public safety, expand recreation, and improve community connectivity for years to come. This is a peacemeal approach to put Quick Trip into a residential neighborhood. It's not consistent with Minnitankka's purpose. It's not consistent with our state mission. This will draw traffic off of 169. This isn't just going to be the people that are currently using Minnetonka Boulevard. There isn't a gas station or sea store within 2 miles in either direction on 169. Guess where they're coming? And guess what street they're turning on? The one where we walk our dogs, the one where we enjoy the wildlife, the ducks, the turkeys, the deer, you name it. The quiet little neighborhood that we have will not be a quiet little neighborhood anymore. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, okay. Those were the two comment cards I had. Uh, bringing it back to the commissions. Any remaining questions for staff? Uh, just as a reminder, um, and I don't know if we want to throw up those questions that we are asked to answer. Uh, is there merit for a concept to proceed to a formal development review? If yes, why? And what would make the concept better? Anyone want to kick it off? with public >> sir. Yes, we actually we were uh I announced it a couple times that we are taking uh >> yeah I guess I just never I mean for 42 years I've been to a million of these council meeting I never heard about the council. >> Sure. >> I did some >> right here. Why don't you come on up? >> Y >> yeah let's hear come on up. It's nothing that really saw the first thing you had. >> Sir, we we just need you on the microphone for the public record. >> Name address for the record. Dura 3020 Gizmo lane, >> last house on the left, lots of animals, you name it. Eagles, every kind of duck, wood ducks, turkeys, deer, sandill cranes, uh, swans out in the creek. Not really on the creek. There's a part that hooks off that's got a lot of water now. But I was looking at that plan and where she's talking about picnic tables right on Gizmo. That parcel is like bigger than our whole area. So, it's kind of like my house, which is The last one there would be we have this huge gas station convenience store and then a couple houses afterthoughts and then a couple houses across the street. My biggest concern I mean obvious traffic as everybody's talked about bicycles. There's tons of bicycles. I know they've always talked about doing it as a whole, you know, the whole neighborhood. This just breaks it up and almost limits any other development pretty much. I know when they were talking about it before, they were talking about, and I think I don't know if any of you were still on the or were on the council, widening the road because of the traffic concerns with 169 emptying and the apartments across the street. Everything kind of goes right where Gizmo goes out. The Waterford apartments come around. I know to mitigate some of the apartment stuff, I got them to put the stop sign at Waterford, not at Gizmo, so we'd have to wait for millions of cars coming out of the apartments, but that's never really been a problem. But and there's a lot of foot traffic from the apartments, which is nice. They walk their dogs, they walk in the neighborhood, but if there's a lot of strangers, it's pretty hard to kind of watch over your neighborhood and see who should be there and who should not. But I guess one of my main concerns is just how they're breaking it up and I mean you look at the size of that compared to the neighborhood and it's not good. That's about all I have to say. Um I bet none of you even know why Gizmo Lane is Gizmo Lane. >> No. >> One of the neighbors in World War II who was EFG petitioned the city to call it Gizmo Lane because in the service everything was a gizmo. Very good. Thank you. Um, okay, Commissioners, back to our uh questions. Um, what are what are our thoughts? Commissioner Johnson, I feel that the comments were very helpful. Um, I also want to talk about what Dr. Bryant in the veterary clinic across the street said. Everybody likes Quick Drip, but this is too intense a use in um that particular neighborhood. The businesses that are there are current small businesses. You've got Carl's auto body. You've got the veterary clinic. You've got the tire place. Um she was concerned about light pollution, traffic backups. I don't have to be a traffic engineer to know that this is going to cause traffic backups on Oakidge. It's going to create problems on Minnetonka Boulevard. Minnitanka Boulevard isn't big enough to accommodate what I presume will be the traffic. Here you have a path there across um Minnetonka Boulevard that is a really well-used trail. I see every day people walking their dogs and enjoying the creek and the peaceful nature of that neighborhood. Um you've got uh that oaked road which is the lifeblood between Minnetonka and Highway 7. You have bike lanes. Uh, I would love to see a quick trip, but I do not think that this concept should go forward for a formal development review because it's not the right area. Um, and I don't see what could make the concept better. The 5,000 square ft Plymouth Quick Trip. Um, I don't even go there anymore because it's too hard to get in and out with the traffic from Home Depot and then getting back on. But even then, you're on a four-lane road. So, I I don't like it. I'm better in a different area. I'd love to see it, but not there. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Banks. >> Thanks, Chair. Um, yeah, thanks for the presentation and and the comments um from from the neighbors. Um, a lot of great information. Um, I mean, no one no one will, you know, doubt or deny that Quick Quick Trip is a great brand. Um they have actually I mean one one of the better you know companies with with you know what they do um [clears throat] how they treat their people. Um I've always had great experiences um when I'm traveling and and have a a stop at a quick trip. Um I do have also concerns about this area. So is there merit for a concept to proceed in my opinion? Um and and unfortunately, you know, I how do you take one of your favorite brands and and say no? You know, that's that's tough for me. But but the answer is no because >> [clears throat] >> um I I try to see what problems are being solved and um and we have a couple of problems in in Minnetonka that, you know, we try to solve with the 20 2040 comp plan and and you know um just a lot of different ways. In my opinion, one of them is um um grocery stores. There's always conversations about, you know, we need grocery stores. Um but unfortunately for me, does this merit that um no, because there are grocery stores very close to this area. Um the um [clears throat] the gas stations um there are gas stations close to this area. So I don't with those two, you know, I don't those are the two things that Quick Trip provides, you know, the groceries, um the gas station or or the gas at the gas station. And so when I look at those two main products, does it merit, you know, consideration um in this area? And to me, it doesn't only because um you know, we we have those things in this area. We need them other places. we do in Minnetonka. Um I also think that um going from R1 to you know whatever we would have to go to to make this work um commercial um we need housing and so I think does this merit um you know proceeding forward reducing the ability to to do housing in Minnetonka especially when we want to um try to have more affordable housing Um to me again that's a no. And so because we will be losing um you know the ability to to have more housing potentially uh hopefully in this area. Obviously we can't you know um control what developers decide to put here. But I think I'm more against um reducing the ability to have the potential to have more housing uh in the city. And then again as well to repeat myself um because the groceries are not in high demand in this area. Gas station is not really in high demand in this area. There seems to be both uh fairly close by. In fact, multiple um that would be my reason to to say that this does not merit. Um, in addition to a lot of the other concerns I heard from the neighbors as well, traffic, I know that would be taken care of with a traffic study, light pollution, sound pollution, all of those things will be taken care of once engineering got more involved. There will probably will be tweaks and things like that to to make that um more acceptable. Um, but for the reasons I mentioned, I would say no, this doesn't merit um proceeding forward in my opinion. >> Thank you. Commissioner Minion, >> may I ask that you bring up that uh map that you had the changes with the mixed use and stuff on it? Um, we're looking at a moment in time right now. I think as we look at the future and how things are going to change, we don't necessarily predict how this neighborhood's going to change in the future. The fact that the city's planning that there's going to be some change um I think should factor into our decision. I am I am believe that there's there is merit for this plan. Um I think it's going to offer more jobs for our community. It's going to offer more conveniences for our community. It's going to give us more competition for fuel prices and food prices. Um, but I'm gravely concerned about the neighbors. And I think for me to like this plan better, I'd like to see some more physical buffering in the way of possibly buying more land. Um, the F Street uh conversations about how narrow it is could be solved by maybe moving those boundaries and taking some of that green space away, making that road wider. But I still think it's a huge impact on the people who live here. Um, it'll be a great impact for everybody else in the city, but I think the people who are immediately right here are going to be infected in a pretty negative way. And I'd like just like to see more thought to make the plan better. I'd like to see more thought given to obviously the the traffic study, but um how we basically protect the residents of the neighborhood and how we take care of the neighborhood as it sits now. They've made the investment. They're here now. Um, we can't predict the future. We don't know as these changes come to the zoning what will be there. But um in general I'm in support of it. Yes, I think there's merit for it, but I'm I would highly encourage just more thought to protect the neighbors and and ways to possibly buy the people out that are close by to make their lives better if that would be an option for them and an option for Quick Trip. Thank you, >> Commissioner Brig. Thank you, Chair. And uh thank you to the applicant for um the presentation and answering the questions here. Um I'm I'm open to um this proposal moving forward um into into more of a formal development review. I do have some serious concerns just like everyone else that has expressed the impact of the residents uh traffic uh amongst other things. Um, I think being open to see it move forward. Um, I think the applicant may have to be open to um reducing the size of the the uh um of the store. Um, I think there were some questions that came up and they were answered regarding how small you could go. But I think once um it moves into some kind of preliminary design and u we get a better feel for the traffic and um how how the neighborhood can be protected um it may require a reduction in the size. Um you know when I look at the concept plan also um it it seemed like it was kind of crowding up as close to Minnotonka Boulevard as it could. But um bicycle and pedestrian traffic really has to be considered here. And Minnetonka Boulevard is a kind of a main bicycle transportation link all through Minnetonka and through St. Louis Park and connecting regional trails on both ends. So um with both the county and the city's input on this, I would expect um you know some significant sidewalk and trail or bicycle infrastructure will have to be included with this. So um and then another concern I had that needs to be addressed is just the close proximity of this to many haha creek. There's only one residential property um separating this property from the proposed uh station property to the creek and and a significant portion seems to drain that direction toward the creek. Um, so I'd be uh um I would just ask that that you know it will be required that storm water has to be addressed especially storm water treatment that close to the creek. But um yeah, I mean there's a lot of concerns here. But um I I think it does have some merit moving forward provided um a lot of these issues that have been brought up can be can be addressed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Sher. Um, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the comments from um the neighbors. I appreciate them. They had me thinking um a little bit differently as well. However, I am also thinking that I would kind of like to see this go forward. Um just but right sized it. It needs to be something in my opinion that fits into the community. Um Target did it, Best Buy did it. they they created their stores, their retail spaces that could go in smaller spaces. Um I don't know why this couldn't be one of those things where you really looked at um having a model um that fits into a community into a neighborhood. So maybe there's fewer pumps. Maybe it is just community focused more than than the size that this is. So just just a thought. Um, I' I'd like to see something where it sticks in the B1 without having to uh reszone the commercial area without having to reszone if that's a possibility. Um, thank you. That's all I had. >> All right. Thank you. And I will go um a lot of the same comments as my fellow commissioner sort of a mixed bag. I think that there is uh merit for a concept to proceed here especially because it's guided for mixed use. There is already a gas station at one of those properties. It's a bit of a dead zone. I I would like to see that gas station redeveloped uh in a commercial way, but a lot of I mean really the public feedback tonight and and in the packet, it does carry a lot of weight that maybe this is a bit much. I also don't envision that 169 Minnitankka Boulevard corridor becoming like a heavy industrial area. Like if you think about just down the road at 169 and 7 where you know you have multi-lane traffic like I I wouldn't I don't envision that developing into that and this quick trip which I also will go on record saying how much I love Quick Trip. Uh um seems like would lend itself a little bit more to that. Um so maybe maybe something different. Um uh I do I mean just acknowledging some of the things um that there there isn't a lot right there that might I would I would utilize the space. So just you know we have to balance that against the impact to the the neighborhood. Um I do like that there's no car wash kind of being mindful of speakers at the fuel station. um that it sounds like that F Street is is pretty narrow and not great. And it's interesting that the it is a concept plan, so it is subject to change and it sounds like this was um adjusted from what was presented to the neighborhood. So maybe some additional work to do to get the the neighborhood on board. Um so but overall um merit for a concept. I just don't know about this one. Commissioners, any other comments? Great. Okay. Thank you. Um, so again, no formal action really required here. Uh, feedback shared with the applicant and apologies. Is the city council expected to review this or this stays here? >> Yes, you're correct. It'll go to the city council >> on what I >> June 8th. >> June 8th. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to item number nine. This is the public hearing non-consent agenda items. uh non-consent agenda items. And before we begin, I'd like to review the steps in the process and the public hearing procedure. First, the item will be announced and staff will will report. The commission will then ask questions. The public hearing will then be open. So, anyone present who has also filled out one of the cards and provided them to the staff uh may comment and after the hearing is closed, the commission will then discuss the item. Um so, again, if you wish to speak, fill out one of the comment cards. uh can drop them over by staff. Be sure to include your name and uh presumably the only topic remaining is what you want to address. Uh we ask that you do keep your comments brief. We have a 3minut timer. Try not to repeat points already made. Uh if there are neighborhood spokespeople, that is encouraged and you will be given up to 15 minutes to present. Um so the item that we have, item number 9A, this is the short-term rental draft ordinance. Uh it's an amendment to sections 530.02 and 530.04 of the city code regarding registration of short-term rental property. Uh this is a public hearing. The commission is asked to take public comment and provide feedback to the city council. No formal action is required. Uh before we proceed on this, as we indicated in the change memo, we do have just administrative swap out. We do have to switch up meeting chairs. I have to recuse myself on this discussion. So, I will step out for the remainder of it. Um, so commissioners, might I have a motion to appoint Commissioner Banks to serve as the acting chair for the remainder of the meeting? >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion Johnson. >> I'll second. >> Second. Minion. Uh, >> do we have to pull the commission on this one or just Okay. Staff, please pull the commission. >> Minion. >> Yes. >> Sher, >> yes. >> Banks, >> yes. >> Brank, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Chair Waterman, >> yes. Okay, so that motion is approved. Commissioner Banks. Awesome. You're in the driver's seat. [laughter] All right. Um, okay. So, [clears throat] before we continue, I will just u repeat um as a reminder um if you would like to speak on the on this item, u please do fill out a card located by u the staff. uh make sure you include your name and and address. Uh when the public hearing is opened, I will announce the name. Uh I will announce your name and when it's your turn to speak and again each speaker will be limited to uh 3 minutes uh on this topic. Um I believe Miss Lawson, is this your item? Okay. Uh would you please provide us with the report? >> Yes, of course. Um well, hello everyone. I'm new um to present to the planning commission. Um, I'm Mackenda Larson, the housing coordinator. Um, and generally you find me at the EDAC to talk about housing issues, but um, because of short-term rentals, uh, is a housing, uh, item, uh, I'm here to present to you today. Um, so thank you for the welcome. uh to start off um again as you said holding a public hearing as the action to again uh regarding the draft ordinance and having the planning commission provide feedback um for the city council. Um it's somewhat of a unique item um since the um ordinance amendment being discussed today does not uh relate to the zoning ordinance um but um it does involve property. So staff is requesting that um a public hearing um the planning commission hold this public hearing and provide feedback. And the feedback um that the planning commission um will provide to council um is will be a consensus of the planning uh commission's discussion. To provide some background um the rental registration overall rental registration in the city started in 2024 um in February of 2024. Um, prior to this, there were no specific ordinances related to rental properties in the city. Um, didn't mean you couldn't have one. So, um, you know, there's been rental properties for a long time in Minnotonka. Um, but starting in 2024, this is when long-term and short-term rentals were required to register with the city. Any rental um, needed to register. Um the city council adopted the ordinance to ultimately create a better connection network between um property owners of rental properties and the city so that we could have more communication for um communication of what's going on in the city to also have better contact information for rentals um if needed. Um and so that was both for owners and managers. So that was a big reason uh the ordinance was adopted. Um and then again, all rental properties are still required to follow city's nuisance code um just like any other property in the city. Um and so that was indicated um as well in in the um ordinance that currently exists for rental registration. Um right now there are um 24 active short-term rentals in the city that are registered with the city. Um and uh kind of going back um a few months here, staff presented uh short-term rental research um to the city council on March 2nd um during that study session. Um uh for your background, a short-term rental um as we're talking about it um is a property where the owner rents all or part of their home uh to guests for less than 30 days. Um and so during that study session conversation, um the council had concerns regarding um investor-owned properties, um the impact on property values, impact on access to housing stock um for ownership um specifically. Um and then also safety and absentee landlords. Those were some of the big topics discussed um at that time. Um during that discussion, council did not express consensus to um have a total ban on short-term rentals. Um but they were interested in exploring um some alternative regulations uh for short-term rentals, including you know a cap on short-term rentals or um you know requiring a homestead status or looking at specific location. Um so at that time um direction was provided to draft an ordinance um to regulate short-term rentals. Uh the next meeting uh with more discussion was at the April 27th uh council meeting. Uh at this meeting the uh a draft ordinance was introduced. Um, the ordinance required licensing for short-term rentals and required that an owner or applicant could not own or have interest in one in more than one licensed short-term rental in the city. There was one exception um in in the ordinance that an owner of a homestead status property in Minnotonka um may operate their homestead property as a short-term rental um and then also hold interest in one additional um home uh rental property short-term rental property in the city. Um during that discussion um of the proposed um draft ordinance, the council discussed concerns about violations and how those would be addressed. Um requiring homesteaded status um and then also looking at um would the regulation should it be licensing or should it be registration? Uh there was you know during that discussion support for homestead status as an eligibility requirement. Um and then also with that concern regarding be versus licensing or registration, there was some concern that it could be time consuming um for the city and ownerous for residents to keep to do licensing. And so um ultimately uh the council supported the registration process um instead of licensing. And so at the end of that discussion, uh the council consensus was to change the introduced draft ordinance that was presented um to then change it to allow only homesteaded short-term rentals and to require them to be registered with the city. Um and so the updated draft ordinance then amended the current city's uh rental registration ordinance which um as you see on the screen is not in the zoning ordinance um but is in a different section um of the the city code. Uh after that meeting um the we had a few um items for or times for resident feedback so far. Um there was a May 13th uh virtual meeting that was held for uh short-term rental owners and managers that are currently registered with the city. Um and so there were seven individuals that attended that virtual meeting um some of the comments um that were provided during that that discussion. Um really focused on specific circumstances, kind of what their properties were used for by travelers. um specifically indicating some items such as um you know needing a place to stay when people have homes that are undergoing remodel or repair and they don't want to leave the community. Um and so um finding a short-term place uh to live at that time. other things like having a bigger space um when family come into town for holidays or different celebrations like weddings, uh graduations um and other other kind of events like that. Um just having more space. And then in addition, it was also commented on the benefits to guests to um local spending and then also to the owners for supplemental income um being able to have that um opportunity. Um and then also during that discussion um there was overall concern about the homesteading requirement um of the draft ordinance while also acknowledging the concerns about the kind of corporate investorowned properties um and the concerns around that. Um there were also um with that acknowledgement of concerns uh there were some presenta um presented some ideas of several suggestions from those on the call. um of, you know, adopting, you know, maybe the Minneapolis model, which would allow one short-term rental in addition to a homesteaded property. Um looking at maybe requiring owners to have a homestead property within the Twin Cities metro area, not necessarily in Minnetonka, but in the metro, so that they'd be close by. Um, another um suggestion was requiring the use of property managers to screen guests um to address those types of concerns. In addition, a Minnotonka Matters page was um opened the day after that 20 April 27th meeting, council meeting. Um and since that time, uh 19 individuals have provided comments on the Minnotonka Matters page. Most of the feedback um supports some sort of form of short-term rental registration with the primary disagreement focused on uh that that homestead requirement that is proposed. In addition um as as mentioned uh earlier in the meeting that some additional emails um um as well as some additional comments from Minnotonka matters um were received after the packet um went out looking at next steps for um the current timeline. So, the um city council, the next city council meeting will be on June 8th. Um that will review all the resident feedback. Um and then staff will present the final draft of uh ordinance language. Um and then of course if adopted um in any form at that time then the next steps that you see um on the screen then staff would move forward to do outreach um and to outline new requirements and and continue that process going forward and there would eventually be a time on here January 1st of like that dead that deadline of when registration would need to um have compliance uh with the new ordinance. But of course, this is all um dependent on if the ordinance is adopted at that next meeting. And so, back to um reooking at the staff recommendation for today. um that um as we continue here, the ordinance, just to kind of lay it out for clarity sake, um the ordinance will do what what it will do is require a property owner to be homesteaded, have that homestead status, and then um register their property as a short-term rental. What it won't do is prohibit rentals in the city, um specifically short-term rentals, um and it won't prohibit investor own rentals of any type. Excuse me. Um, and it won't uh change property related enforcement with those nuisance items as I mentioned before. Um, so you can see on the side there I put in the changes for the what the ordinance is changing what's being amended to um section 530. Um, and so again adds that definition and then adds the requirement for eligibility. Uh again, the action for tonight is to hold a public hearing regarding the draft ordinance and for the planning commission to provide feedback to the city council. Um and during that um planning commission discussion, um Miss Thomas will put up a form to track um the conversation to look at what advantages and disadvantages um are discussed during your discussion. And so with that, I finish my presentation. Any questions? >> All right. Thank you, Miss Lawson. Um, so commissioners, um, just a reminder, we're going to have comments after the public hearing. Um, but now is the time if you have any questions for for staff. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, chair. Just um to clarify in my mind, we've had a few of these accessory dwelling units approved in the city, both uh detached and attached. Could those be rented out under this ordinance if the property underlying property was homesteaded? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, the opportunity is and this ordinance um when you say doesn't prohibit investorowned rentals for any type of rental, does that mean that long-term rentals of those properties would be uh okay under this ordinance if they were more than 30 days? >> Yes. And I think uh Miss Wishnack wants to add. >> Yeah. The only thing I was going to add to what you said, Miss Arson, is uh under the ADU, they can be rented today. There's no there's no issue with that. Um the ordinance simply would clarify if you're under 30 days, you have a different requirement. So, it's actually pretty close to the language in the ADU ordinance. The way it's I think it says 185 days u required for the owner either of the ADU. they have to occupy the ADU or the house. So it it's almost identical to what you have here. So >> Commissioner Br. >> Yeah. Thank you, Chair. Um just a question on on um u homestead versus um you know non-owners corporations of the 2024 that are present now um are any of those presently non-homesteaders or investors outside of the community? I guess my question is if the ordinance is adopted with this homestead requirement, are they required? I mean are they no longer eligible to have a short-term rental then? if they're not, are they grandfathered in, I guess, or are they like, "Okay, too bad." >> Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Brink. Um the homestead status, um right now there are two owners that are outside of Minnotonka and out outside of Minnesota. Um so those um would be uneligible um when this goes into effect. Um there are also um I was looking at the data earlier and 11 um Minnotonka residents own short-term rentals. So of that 24 11 of them are owned by Minnotonka residents. Um whether or not their properties are homesteaded. That would have to be um you know that would be a determination um if if they wanted to continue to do short-term rentals if the proposed draft ordinance is adopted as is. Um but yes, so any there would be no grandfathering in of any current uh short-term rentals. Um so if they didn't meet the eligibility requirements, then they would not be eligible. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Sher. >> Thank you. Um quick question. if um this doesn't pass. Um now or the homestead portion comes off of it? I think maybe you answered it with the whole grandfathering because like does it ever terminate for the existing ones if it's not homesteaded? How does or is it just an ownership change at that point? So, if they uh to end a short-term rental, is it just an ownership change that would end their license, quote unquote, or their existing registration? Does it am I asking that right? [laughter] Um, >> so how long do these last? Is this indeed? >> Yes. Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, uh, Commissioner Sure. I uh the rental registration requirements uh for all rentals in the city is an annual they have an annual registration. So every year any rental in the city in the city has to reregister and do a renewal annually. Um and so if there is an owner change um at any time even if it's not at that annual mark if it's an owner change then it has to be re-registered and do a new registration. But there is an uh an annual renewal every year for all rentals. >> Commissioner Minion, >> don't hate me. Um this kind of just struck my mind actually with a previous presentation brought it up. So I don't actually want to answer. Um, but I just liked maybe if you can share it when you present to the larger council is um, of the units that we currently have in place, what are the calls for service for emergency services uh, via the number of units and what would that look like in regards to just an average neighborhood that wasn't having short-term rentals? Just something that would be nice to know and and I don't expect an answer now. It's a terrible thing to do to you. I apologize, but hopefully that's some information that can uh be considered with the council after us. Thank you. Right, commissioners. Any other questions? Okay, I do have one question. Um, [clears throat] so I just want to be sure this does not prevent the homeowner or who whomever is homesteading the property. It does not prevent them from having a property manager to manage the their lease, their short-term leases. Is that correct? >> That is correct. Um, they could have a they could homestead their property and have a manager just managing the the rental portion if they desired that. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. If there are no more questions, commissioners >> chair, just a point of information for Commissioner Minions. We had already run the information on the and it was shared with the council. So, it just wasn't part of this presentation, but they had that information. Thank you. >> Okay, great. All right. If there's no other f further questions, I will open the public hearing. Um, again, I will uh read the name on the card um as given to uh staff. Um when you come up to the podium, please um try [clears throat] to keep your comments to 3 minutes. Um no particular order. Um, we will start with with Joel Stone. Uh, and then next up would be Kevin. >> Joel Stone, 6930 Grace Bay Boulevard. Um, can you see the slides? >> Okay, great. Uh, thank you for your work on the planning committee. Um, I have three STRs, short-term rentals within 500 yards of my house. Not, it's not a one-off in my neighborhood. Um, this shows five guests from my neighboring ST, my neighboring short-term rental in my backyard with one dog. Why do they migrate to my backyard? Because the short-term rental owner's dock is decrepit and dangerous. One guest fell through dock panels and cut up his leg. Others navigate rocks to get into kayaks. Normal neighbors would never do this, but short-term rentals would be gone next week. So, they figured, let's be safe. Um, I did run my house as a short-term rental in 2013, this house here, uh, for one month. Upon seeing the damage and harm it was doing to the neighbors, I changed immediately to a 38 plus rental. And I did that for 5 years. And now we moved in, and that made all the difference. No more uh short-term rentals in my house. On next, next one. Here you can see guests would bring um five gas cans and two rolling gas caddies to service their illegal number of boats that they brought on. They'd bring on three jet skis and a wakeboard um with dock. They'd have the gas cans on docks, decks in the backyard, you can see in the backyard here with an open fire very close by. They don't care if they spill fuel in the lake. They'll go to a different lake next year. Uh, next one. We see outdoor beer pong with flood lights mounted on tripods, decrepit docks, loud parties day and night. All summer, far more cars, guests, and trash than uh residential property can support. Thanks. Here's an example. This all my neighbor know electrical and water spigot sharing a post. It I'm not a plumber. I'm not electrician, but it doesn't sound like a good combination to me. Uh, it's tilted 30° out vertical. Next one. Uh there's a backyard lawn uh showing the grass is often a foot tall. Sure, this could happen in a rental property, but this is a short-term rental and neighbors absent in another u state. They don't care. Next slide, please. This is the condition of the house. You can see in the bottom right corner a brick circle laying around. The fences are not painted and the railing has a huge holes in it like a foot tall where a kid can fall through it when they're crawling around. And then at the bottom left circle the panels falling off the deck. So it's it's dangerous. Keep going. Whenever I purchase consider a major purchase or life change, my first step is finding reviews. I go straight to the zero star reviews. the same process would could be used for a proposed ordinance. Um, acknowledging a lot of false statements have been being tossed around about this um, ordinance. I personally live next to the most expensive and most popular short-term rental in the city of Minnitonka, currently charging $1,400 per night in the summertime. Yes, this is a for a first world problem, but it could be your problem if an unsupervised investorowned mini hotel from a distant landlord opens up next door to your house. Um, next slide. Staff claims that current residential nuisance laws are adequate. That's false. Staff claims they'll enforce current nuisance laws and this will be adequate to keep short-term rentals at peace. But short-term rental guests generally do not violate residential nuisent ordinances. What occurs is that there are too many guests, none are working, none are attending school, they're all on vacation, they go in the backyard, uh they have lots of vital time to play. It's the frequency that harms the neighborhood, not the activities that they're doing. Staff cannot enforce these normal family activities. It's okay to have a backyard pool with lots of noise occasionally, but every day is the problem. Uh next slide is a there's a tree in my neighbor's yard was diseased. I had five arborists come through my uh yard working on my trees and they said, "Hey, that tree is going to start falling. Might be next month, might be a couple months." Um staff claims that we'll address STR issues with citations, fines, and city court. Last year, I brought this to the city's attention. I talked to the arborist. They agreed. I talked to Mike Funk and Julie Wishnack and the arborist. They agreed that the tree is dying. They just um said they don't know when it's going to start falling. They refused to do the citations and the administrative citations and the fines and the city court that they promised they'll do for STRs, but they wouldn't even do it for a life-threatening risk to the tenant. And this is a tenant. So, it's there's an ordinance they passed in 2024 to make sure that these are safe properties. And they wouldn't even enforce their own ordinance. So, now they're saying they'll enforce the short-term rental nuisance, but they wouldn't even enforce a life. They said I I could go to court. I could take them to court. Problem with that is if the limb happened to fall my direction and kill me, I couldn't go to court to do anything about it. Um, next one. Um, investors and corporations will purchase many properties for short-term rentals. That's false. Most of these are owned by one person or one couple. Um, next slide. Um, one idea was the limit to one Matonk STR would be a significant restriction. That's false. Most of these STRs only have one owner and one STR. Um, next slide. Grandfather suggestion. This would be fair for all. That's false. Everyone should be protected. I've had an STR next to my house for 5 years. I should be protected just like everyone else. Please don't grandfather anybody on this. Um uh next banning investors from operating unsupervised buys many hotels in Mitonka will invite lawsuits as occurred in Wesetta and other Minnesota cities. This is false. Inberg Grove Heights has adopted an identical ordinance which prohibits short-term rentals from operating in the city. The only exception is identical to the Minnotonka proposal where homestead owners are allowed to operate short-term rentals. Immer Heights did go one step further and allowed only homestead properties are also owner occupied. That's a key difference. Next slide. This shows a short-term rental across from the Grace Bay Marina, 17209 Graves Bay Boulevard. It's been sale for sale for over 12 months. It's priced ridiculously high because they don't want to sell it. They're making more money at a short-term rental. The absentee owners are renting it out on Airbnb. In the law, you're proposing Next slide. This property is marked Homestead on the Henipin County website. It's Homestead, but they're not living there. Homestead can stick around for two years after someone moves out. So, please make a change to this law that just like Inberg Grove Heights law, and they didn't get any lawsuits. Make the change that it's got to be homestead and owner occupied just like Inberove Heights did. Um, internet, uh, next slide. Internet platforms, Airbnb, and VRBO screen guests. That's false. Yes, they check a photo ID, but that's it. There's no background checks, no employment verification, no criminal checks. If a guest is banned from Airbnb platform or VBOR, they simply create a new account with a different email or have their spouse or parents book the property next time. Um, let's see. Um, last night, uh, owner owning a home in the city of Mntaka is like playing Russian roulette. A short-term rental could pop up next door anytime and make your home unlivable and unsellable. It could eliminate your peace. That statement is true. Thanks for your time. All right. Thank you, Joel. Um, again, uh, just a reminder, um, try not to make points that other people have made and, uh, let's try to limit it to three minutes. Okay. Uh, Kevin, and then after Kevin, we have Andy. Okay. Thank you, commissioners and chair banks. Uh, appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I want to speak in favor of the proposed homestead only uh short-term rental short-term rental ordinance. Um an investorowned short-term rental is a commercial endeavor. Uh allowing short-term rentals investor-owned short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods seems to be at odds with why the other people are living in the neighborhood. We have residential neighborhoods because that's where people want to live and they want to live there in many cases to be a part of that neighborhood. uh that just doesn't seem be the case with uh investorowned short-term rentals. It seems to be a zoning issue and that we're going through a zoning rewrite. Maybe there will be some opportunities to come up with with some kind of compromise or something when we go through the zoning rewrite, but it seems wise to kind of wait until that's finished before we go at all beyond the homestead only uh rental. Um, this is also seems to be consistent with what other Lake Minnetonka communities are in terms of going to homestead only uh short-term rentals. So, that seems consistent. Um, it also kind of falls on me as I and I could be wrong, but just noticing tonight the amount of time that was taken looking at the quick trip proposal of having to kind of change the zoning uh in order to kind of do a commercial entity and in include residential property. Is that the case with short-term rentals? I mean, I've been coming to meetings for a long time, and I haven't seen anyone have to come before the city council or the planning commission to say, I'd like to approve a short-term rental in this neighborhood. Maybe there is a process, and I'm just not not aware of it, but it just seems like there should be more of a process than people just buying a property and being able to do short-term rentals. Um, finally, allowing investor own short-term rentals u takes away from an individual family or an individual being able to own a home who wants to live in Minnotonka. And secondarily, being able to allow those kind of uh investor own short-term rentals puts upward pressure on the price of homes. It's just another person who's competing for a property in Minnotonka and it's already difficult enough. So, for those reasons, I just ask you to kind of recommend that uh we move forward with the proposed homestead only short-term rental ordinance. Thank you. >> All right, Andy. Um and then [clears throat] after Andy, uh Monica would be next. Evening, members of the uh commission here. Andy Loose, 16922 Graze Bay Boulevard. Thanks for your time tonight listening to me. Um, as I said, I just live over here in Graves Bay Boulevard. I moved all the way one almost exactly a year ago from Bloomington, Minnesota, and I work at the airport for Delta Airlines. So, why did I give up my 9 and a half minute commute so I can sit for 40 minutes and gridlock on 494? Well, I wanted to buy into the experience out here living on the lake, the property itself, the water, the shoreline, the lawn, just the vibe of the community and the short-term rental impacts is ruining my experience out here, just in my one year here in my brief experience with this. Uh, my neighbor Joel's just a couple houses away. property that he showed is in between us. And so having my experience ruined and and looking at how my future here and what I've invested in could be tarnished is a great motivation. I won't belabor all the points about the trash and the noise and all that. You already know all that and it's all in here in these in these email copies. But what I will say that's very troubling to me is the unpredictable nature of who may show up from month to month or weekend to weekend. You don't know what to expect. That's uh very concerning to me. Uh on a very personal note in the interest of time here to shorten this um as I said I work for Delta Airlines. I fly aircraft for a living and as a captain on an airplane and uh as you can imagine my number one concern is safety. Taking care of my fellow crew and the passengers. You want me well rested when I fly you to Cancun, right? You want me to feel good. You don't want me to have interrupted rest in the middle of the night with people making noise and racket in the neighborhood. And that's what happens with these things. U I've got a neighbor, Bill, across the street. He's a dentist. I'm sure that his patients want him well rested before he drills on their teeth at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. So, you can see where I'm going with this. There's a little bit of a safety aspect to this that I I would uh ask that you consider as you move forward with this. And thank you for your time. >> All right. Thank you, U Monica. And then last we will have Craig. >> Hello. Thank you, Monica Butler, 7108 Chicago Avenue. Um, I'm here on behalf of Minist Professional Short-Term Rental Management Company. And the more that I'm I'm hearing what the public is saying is um increasing my awareness of the need for professionally managed homes, which is what my company does. We professionally managed short-term rentals and have two in Minnetonka and um actually have a pretty lengthy process for our guests. We don't just allow anyone to come in, but we have a lot of systems in place to mitigate things like noise complaints um things like background checks and um quiet hours and things like that. Um so we've been in business for about eight years and manage 100 properties in the Twin Cities and uh two of those are in Minnetonka and I do want to acknowledge that Minnotonka has put some thoughtful short-term rental regulations already in place and we appreciate the balanced approach. These new homestead requirements, I think, sound simple, but in practice, it really functions as a near ban to many responsible homeowners um with the requirement that they be living in their home for 180 days out of the year. Uh our Minnetonka owners are families who intend to return to their homes. One of them is living abroad temporarily and another plans to retire here in a few years and lives currently in the Midwest. Uh these are not speculative investors. Under this homesteading rule, they would likely be forced to sell because carrying a vacant home long-term is not financially realistic. [snorts] Um I won't say much about the short-term rental guests. I think we've heard that they are often u friends and family coming in town to visit friends and family, staying for weddings or graduations. Um these are temporary homes for people with an actual connection to the community. Um, short-term rentals fill a lodging gap. Minnitanka only has five hotels and um, which is a limited inventory for a large city. Um, and these visitors of short-term rentals do visit the Minnitonka's wonderful restaurants and grocery stores, local businesses. Um, our our homes are individually owned and responsibly operated and a blanket homestead requirement would penalize these small-cale owners without addressing the issues it aims to solve. Uh just some data points, there are like what was mentioned about 24 registered short-term rentals, which is just 0.9% of the housing units. Uh since registration began in February 2024, there have been a total of zero nuisance complaints. Again, something like a short like a professional management company would be able to mitigate those noise complaints. Um and um yeah, there there's I think it's questionable that any of them are investorowned. Um we respectfully ask the commission to keep the current licensing framework. I think it works very well and instead of adding a homestead requirement, focus on targeted enforcement that addresses the real concerns without forcing responsible owners to sell the homes that they intend to return to. Our goal as a professional management company and members of this community is the same as yours. Safe, well-managed homes that support Minnetonka residents, visitors, and local businesses. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Monica. Um, [clears throat] so we we do have one additional comment. So, we'll have Craig come up if you will, please. And then [clears throat] um Craig after you we will have um I might say this incorrectly. You can correct me when you come up. Um Miss Jervisy. >> Awesome. Uh [clears throat] good evening. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Um I'm here tonight for two reasons. The the first of which is we purchased our first home in Minnotonka. Put a lot of love and a lot of money into it. Uh became best friends with our neighbors and we started our family here. So I love Minnetonka. have a personal connection to it. Always will. Um, my address currently is 1867 61st Avenue North, Plymouth, Minnesota. So, I'm down the road a little bit now. Um, but it's good to be back here this evening. Um, I'm also here as a full-time resident of Minnesota, a professional operator in Minnesota, and a board member serving the Minnesota Short-Term Rental Association. Um, the biggest thing I want to emphasize this evening is that I stand behind the importance and necessity of regulations and licensing requirements. Um, to echo Monica a little bit, regulations, safety standards, and compliance form the backbone of professional management, which is very different from some of the examples that we may have um been introduced to this evening. and we appreciate the city's vested interest in how we professional welcome professionally welcome visitors to Minnesota specifically to Minnotonka. Uh the name of my company is Skyron Vacational Reynolds. Uh we are locally owned and we are locally operated which is very important. Um we currently manage one licensed short-term rental in Minnetonka. The property specifically maintains a 5.0 and O rating across all booking channels has zero logged complaints. The property is owned by full-time Minnesota residents who reside within the Twin Cities and about 80% of our reservations for the property are family travelers visiting family in Minnetonka which happens to be the main purpose my client currently holds the property for personal use. Professional management is highly competitive. So, properties must perform. And in order to perform, they must be cared for, monitored consistently, and improved upon literally every single day, which is the case with the above reference property. I have a lot of data prepared. I don't want to belabor the data because a lot of it has been discussed. I think what I really want to focus on with my remaining time is addressing the concerns and the experience that some of the other gentlemen have brought forth tonight. Um there are routes that I'm hoping the city will consider in moving forward. Um the homestead status is limiting uh to operating a short-term rental. There are other avenues that we could hopefully explore together that present more viable solutions. I think professional management is definitely a major consideration and ensuring safety compliance and standards not only for the property but the neighborhoods as well as the city. I'm also hopeful that city leadership will take into account a potential grandfathering clause so that operators that are currently operating within compliance in good standing with zero issues um and who are improving the neighborhoods that they manage properties in can be given the opportunity can to continue giving back to the community. Thanks for the time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Recy, >> again, if that's incorrect, please um give us your name and address. >> I uh thank you for trying that name because it's French. I'm Norwegian and Swedish, but [laughter] I just But you at least tried to do it, which is is awesome. And and before before I I just have to say something that's not about short term or long term or anything. I'm I'm long-term as you can see. I'm old and um I'm not dead yet, but I do have concerns about Minnetonka and where I live. My name is Jery. It's um French and with a Peterson on the end. and I live at 212 Towns Lane, the most northern part of Minnetonka that you can get to up by Plymouth. So, um, anyway, we have a I live in a dead end area and we have one way in and one way out. You can drive in and then in order to get out, you have to stop at a stop sign and you can go to the right and go to Plymouth or you can go to the left. The roundabout is out here in Plymouth. You can go to the left and go to Weisetta. So anyway, our community has 30 ho homes in it and we are kind of like uh we we like to live there. I've been there 59 years if you can imagine. But uh it's a great area. We know each other. We have lists of of um the telephone numbers and the addresses and the kids and the dogs names and everything that that um we need to invite people over or whatever. But it's a family place. It is. We have older people and we have medium people that have the kids have already flown in the nest and and then we have the younger ones with all the cute little kids that we are very much concerned about and I am very much concerned about and I'm running going to run out of time here. But anyway, it's it's been a family community and we like it and we I think we're pretty fortunate to live there up until about a year ago and then we had an unfortunate selling of a property to a fellow that we thought was going to stay the stay there and be a part of our community. He was not. And so he it ran into an Airbnb which Julie knows it's um a problem. But we like our kids. We like our community. The the little ones are protected. We don't they play in the streets or in the culdeacs because they don't have a park to go to, but they ride their bikes in the road because there is no other place. But anyway, we want to keep it. We want to keep our area for families if we can. And I think that Minnotonka has been a really good spot. And I think they brag about the fact that it's a family community. Um I I'm not for Airbnbs after the situation that we've had. So, um, and then I I just want to I I did talk to a number of people in my community and I'm going to say most of them are not for they they want they're not for having party houses in our neighborhood. We have too many little kids that are riding their bikes and and they they don't know our kids like we do. So this is a very big concern for me and for anyone that lives in in my area. So and then I want to mention one other thing because I'm old. Um I've gone to meetings and and I came to this meeting and I had a hard time understanding what you were saying because you did not and I w looked at you. You did not inunciate. I'm this is this is your lesson for the day. Okay? When you're when you're on a commission or whatever on the council, speak into that microphone and and speak clearly so that it comes out especially to the older group in the that are sitting out in the back. Okay. Anyway, it's not and I no offense. It's just my lesson [laughter] for you for the day. Okay. And Julie, >> you're Julie. Well, I had Julie there. >> I thought I wanted to be your eyeball eyeball. Got it. Got it. [laughter] >> All right. Thanks. Thanks everyone um for those comments. Uh since we have no more comments from the public, I will close the public hearing. All right. Um commissioners, um so we've been asked to provide feedback to the council. Um staff will take notes of our comments, um as well as the public comments tonight and provide to the council. Uh would that be the next meeting uh council meeting or Okay. Um Okay. So, commissioners, uh who would like to go first with comments? Okay, Commissioner Johnson, >> I think um I want to congratulate the city for going forward with us. Now, there's a big event coming up, the NFL draft. And in my experience, one of the uh big uh events, those big events like Super Bowl, uh NFL draft, uh concerts, that's the market for many of these short-term rentals in addition to people wanting to enjoy the lake. Whether they're corporate owners um or, you know, private owners with a rental property, if you're not living there, you're not a stakeholder in this community. It's a commercial use of property that is generally zoned R1. As the many many emails um that I read through, uh they indicate that nuisances are likely. The homes are filled with sometimes 16 to 18 guests with many c comingings and going. So there's traffic. They can be party houses. Um, I like the solution of having a stakeholder in charge in the city to regulate the property's use and to listen to the neighbors and to hear their complaints because 24/7 you may have problems. The only people who are going to be able to respond to that are police and they're, you know, that's not going to solve the problem. It may just cut the party down for a bit, but it's not going to solve the problem. So I see it as a purpose to protect residential quality of life, housing affordability and ownership in this community. Why Zetta I went and their website and I looked at court records and everything. They um had such a problem that they uh enacted an ordinance that banned short-term rentals completely. Other cities do too. Bloomington bans them because of the problems in the staff uh level of staff work that has to be done. Weisetta is in litigation. They did a moratorium after that ordinance was thrown out for a lack of public hearing. But they have if you look at run uh search for short-term rentals in Weisetta, you're going to find them clustered um with many many um right around the lake. They have a ton of short-term rentals. So the horses out of the barn there, I mean, it's going to be very tough for them to rain it back. So, personally, I think this is an elegant solution having it a homestead property. Um, you've got accountability. You don't have staff having to go over there and um address problems on a 247 basis. Um, there are other options for the owners of these uh homes that are nonhomestead. They can sell the home. They can rent it out long term. Uh it doesn't mean that it is devaluing their property, but their existence, listening to the gentleman from Grace Bay, it does affect the property values and livability of their neighbors. So, I I support this ordinance. I think it is a real elegant solution before you have a real problem. And if you wait too long, um, you may not be able to rein it in. >> Thank you. Any other commissioners? Commissioners, Commissioner Sher. >> Uh, thank you. Um, commissioners, I have Thank you for the comments from both sides. I appreciate hearing those. Um, as a I I also approve the ordinance as written. And I think it it really protects the uh residents. Um concern I have with the having a um company that is going to review the um or to manage the properties is ownership change. So when that company decides it wants to sell because most people have an out for a business they own. I have an out for a business I own. Who do they sell it to? Are they going to sell it to an angel investor or a conglomerate who wants to run it a different way? So, what happens to those properties that are being managed by a company that gets sold? So, and do they have to get rid of their businesses um or their the land, sorry, the houses? Um the other one is I like the idea of limiting it. If you need to be homesteaded, it has to be 180 days. That means you need to live in that house. um if there is going to be a short-term rental, limit the time that these do happen. Um even if they're homesteaded and land use was a really interesting comment is this is a business now and it's like being run being run by a hotel because there's people that are managing the bookings, managing the cleanup, managing all of that. So how does is that allowable use in an R1 operating a business like a hotel? Um I think if we don't want to actually license and manage that way is that something that comes before us where they actually have to change and reszone which we're spot zoning is not a good thing. So we don't want to do that either. Um so there's there's a lot of questions to me about why this is not a good idea in a neighborhood just like we talked about the oversized quick trip. So, um, thank you for that, >> Commissioner Minion. Well, hats off to the city staff and and the leadership of the city for being proactive and not reactive to this. I really appreciate them uh bringing that insight and and helping us get a uh get the right step in the right direction. We need to walk before we uh we need to crawl before we walk. We need to walk before we run. And I think the directions that were before us are are uh a good direction to to start that process. Um I've heard a number of good things here tonight and I appreciate everybody that's come up and talked and everybody that's written in. Um it's all really good points that I think you've brought to light. Um, something I didn't hear is, uh, last fall I went out hunting in a little town called Matiti, Wyoming, and I had a nice guide and he was telling us a story about he and his wife work full-time. They're gainfully employed. He works as a guide in the hunting season. He's a full he's a volunteer fireman. He's invested in his community. And when he wants to buy a home, he's living a long distance from the fire station, but he wants to buy a home and can't. you want your fireman 30 minutes away from your fire station. The reason he can't is because there's a large number of um ranchers who are buying homes in this town and have taken all of the housing stock. Literally all the housing stock. He's not buying a home because he can't afford it. He's buying one because there is none that exists. And it's a nice town. It's wellrun. It's well managed. But that housing stock is gone. Will that happen here? not on a gross scale but I think on a small scale absolutely it'll it'll make a big negative impact on the actual housing stock that we have. Um something else I think is is um a good direction that that uh we need to keep in mind is that when you're running a property full-time as a hotel is that what we want in our one area? Um that really concerns me. I do think there are good landlords out there. I think there are good management companies out there and uh some of the things that have been presented tonight from them I think have brought up some really good plans to say I think there's value in having some sort of a local agent that can address problems right away. Um I can't imagine what I would do if I saw somebody cooking a barbecue on my dock. Uh it would not be good. It's not something I wish on anybody. Um, so we need to get some steps in place to go in the right direction. So I'm I'm supportive of making these steps, how that looks, how it shapes up. I think our term that we've used in the past is it needs time to stew. So I'd like to see us move forward with something and then as we get more insight, more growth, more input, we can continue to change that and develop it as it goes. But uh, we definitely need to do something and I think what we what we have uh, seen so far is is something that definitely needs to be addressed. I think that we've got a good plan to move in that direction. >> Commissioner Brink. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, yeah, I echo the comments of my fellow commissioners. I I think the draft ordinance is a good progressive step moving forward, kind of being ahead of the game a little bit. Um, and I want to thank staff and and the city council for um um setting up a good public process to go to uh to address this. Um, you know, Minnotonka is unique. It's it it would be easy to just say, "Oh, here's an ordinance that works in a different city, you know, like you St. Louis Park, Minneapolis." But I think through our public process and the comments we received, not just tonight, but all the emails we've received really shows how unique our community is when you look at the lakefront and and uh the demographics and just just our community in general. Um, so you know, I just uh want to thank thank staff again for the uh setting up this good public process and everybody for turning out tonight and kind of look forward to the city council addressing this further. All right. Uh, any more comments? Okay, I'll go last. Um, yeah, I am also in favor of the changes as well. A lot of the same points u that have been made. Um, you know, certainly with short-term rentals, there's the potential for um a lot of things to go wrong. Uh, you you don't know who's rent renting the place um [clears throat] and if they're, you know, bringing any issues um with their efforts to have a good time in their rental. So, I like the idea of a consistent registration process. I like the idea of a consistent ownership status process um because those are things that we can potentially control. Um we cannot control the renters, but I believe that if um the homeowner or the the person who's renting um the home has a vested interest in the home other than to just make money, um they will put forth the effort to make sure the home is taken care of. Perhaps there's the additional screening of who they're renting um the home to. Um so we hope that all of these are going to be good things that come out of um these changes. Um I do agree that it does protect um the homeowners, neighbors, but there's also a level of protection for the renters as well u with this sort of a change. So u I am in favor of it and um I hope we we see it go forward. So, >> staff, anything else you needed on this topic? >> Uh, Chair Banks, I I don't think so. Um, were there any drawbacks of the proposed ordinance that you saw? >> If not, that's fine. I just want to make sure my comments here that I've typed out are thorough. >> Uh, commissioners, >> just one question. chair um to staff enforcement. Um I know that Minnitonka, like a lot of cities, if this were a code violation, um it could technically be a misdemeanor, which is punishable by jail, but they also have I think we have administrative citations also, do we not? And if I read the ordinance correctly, it's potentially punishable, say if somebody decided to continue operate by a $2,000 civil fine per day um maximum. So there is an enforcement mechanism um and that can go against the property and the property owner, which is a really that's one of the reasons why I really like this ordinance because you've got a built-in enforcement mechanism that I think should be effective. I I just want to add uh chair if I may. Um Commissioner Johnson, there is that stipulation for the civil violation. I do want to draw attention to the administrative fine is a graduated uh situation. So that's not exactly how we do it in terms of the first violation, um second violation, etc. And then they're sent through city court. Um if things get out of hand, um civil is the next step. So I just there is a process that is a little bit different than what you described. I want to make sure the public uh understood that. Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh yes, Commissioner May. So for drawbacks, um I think it's important that we maintain an opportunity to try to be business friendly. Um I think the complete band lends itself to uh people just negating it and going around it. So having some sort of a mechanism in place like you're providing I think is a great opportunity. But um it would be nice to see if somebody did want to operate this as a business that we have some sort of a opportunity for them to do that in a community way that's appropriate. meaning is there a home that could be bought near a a a current business district or is there a way that we can fit this in so that there was a mechanism to do that in the appropriate in the appropriate scenario. I think of our our pyramid that we that we kind of rely on so often is it would be nice to see I I would hate to be completely business negative. I think it's important that we have an open idea of offering those opportunities. Um, but I would like to see something in there that, you know, some way we can offer an actual business to operate. But, uh, it's going to be need to be done on a case- by case basis. I think, >> does that get you where you want to go, Julie? >> Commissioner Sher, >> um, I I second that. I like small business. I like local businesses. I think um possibly the I know other places have done like Minneapolis has Homestead plus one and maybe that plus one has a requirement of being in a commercial district if they want to do that. Um our family gets together 16 17 of us and we rent a huge house in Duth um that's set up for it and we love it because people come from California and Chicago and all over to be able to go Iowa. Um, so the homestead plus one, as long as that one is located in a uh commercial district or abuing a commercial district. Thank you. >> Is that what you were looking for? Okay, awesome. >> Yeah, I think the council just wanted any comments that you had entirely. So I think that's gives them a full picture of all of the issues. Thank you for your comments. >> All right. Okay. So I believe with that this brings us to the fi final item on the agenda which would be the adjournment. Uh do I have an motion to adjurnn? >> Make the motion. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> I'll make the motion to adjurnn. >> All right. Minion. >> Second. >> Second. Sure. All those in favor say I. We return.