All right, I will call to order the July 1st meeting of the City of St. Louis Park Planning Commission. Gabble. Uh, start off with roll call. >> Uh, Commissioner Bencki >> here. >> Commissioner Kton. Kenton. >> Kaitton here. >> Kaitton. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Dveta >> here. >> Commissioner Eckholm, Chair Flanigan >> here. >> Uh, youth commissioner Mlec >> here. >> Vice Chair Strain >> here. >> Commissioner Weber >> here. >> Okay. Uh, next in the agenda is the approval of the minutes for the June 17th meeting. Uh, any comments from commissioners? Any clarifying issues? >> I move to approve the minutes. Second. >> Uh, okay. All favor approving the minutes as written. Second by saying I. >> I. >> Any oppose say nay. >> The minutes approved. Uh, item number three, hearing. Back over to you. >> Uh, no hearings tonight, chair. >> Great. Uh, number four, other business. All right. Thank you. Um before we get to election of officers, which is next on our agenda, I do want to introduce our new um planning commissioner. Uh I already butchered his name, but uh Christopher Kaitton. Do you want to introduce yourself? >> Hi, I'm Chris Kaitton. I've met all of you, I think, at this point. I'm really looking forward to working with you. This is exciting. >> Welcome. Great. Um, and so tonight, uh, we will be, uh, electing officers for, uh, chair and vice chair. Um, usually the way this process goes is, uh, folks will nominate themselves. If no one nominates themselves, then we will ask others to nominate others. Um, and, uh, the role for the chair is usually uh, running the meetings. um facilitating our uh public hearings um things of that nature and then vice chair will sit in whenever there are absentees. So um and we cannot have the same um people serve uh in the same positions but um if John and Sarah you guys want to swap, you can do that. So, I'll leave it at that if anyone wants to jump in. >> Does our vice chair want to be chair? >> Yeah, I I am excited and and absolutely voted for you last year as vice chair with the expectation you would become my chair. uh uh but actually I I I would love you know one of the purposes is people have you know a leadership role and we we we switch it up a lot. So if you are immunable Sarah I would love to have you consider being chair because you are our vice chair this year. >> All right. I don't let us twist your arm though like you're not you don't want to do it. No, no. I I I think that makes sense. I'm I'm happy to put my hat in the ring for chair. >> Oh my god. >> Okay. Do we do we vote? Um, does anyone want to jump in for vice chair? >> I haven't had a turn for a while. Uh, if no one else wants to, I guess I'd nominate myself. Uh, >> I'm I'm always I'm always happy to jump in. I I love being chair. I'm always happy to do it, but I also think there's a big value in rotating and getting different folks taking up that position. So either way, >> um, well, it's possible I won't be here in two years to be chair anyways. I want you. >> Oh, okay. So, you're saying no. >> I guess I say no. Why don't >> you're respectfully withdrawing? >> Sure. Or >> Okay. Sure. Yeah. All right. I will nominate myself for vice chair. All right. We have our nominations and um all in favor for uh chair and vice chair, chair strain and vice chair dveta. >> I >> all opposed. Excellent. >> Uh John, we will ask you to finish out the meeting if you don't mind. and thank you for um your service as chair this last year. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh next on the agenda, um we are looking to review and approve the planning commission and board of zoning appeals purpose statements. Um you may not have even known that we have purpose statements for both planning commission and uh board of zoning appeals. Uh these are obviously to state the purpose of these uh uh bodies. The city council has given direction to staff um for us to reduce inconsistencies between our city's boards and commissions. Um, and in your packet are the proposed revisions uh put together by staff. These are um can be adjusted by you all tonight here um and then uh voted on. So I'll just quickly read through the the statements. Um the statement or the purpose statement staff have prepared. Uh, the planning commission advises the city council on land use, zoning, comprehensive planning, and community development. It reviews the city's comprehensive plan, zoning and subdivision regulations, and applications for zoning amendments, conditional use permits, and plat. The commission promotes the orderly, efficient, and sustainable growth of the city in accordance with the community goals or excuse me, with community goals and legal requirements. Any discussion on this one before I go to board of zoning appeals? All right. The board of zoning appeals helps make sure zoning laws are applied fairly while allowing reasonable use of property. It reviews appeals when someone disagrees with the zoning decision or needs clarification on how a rule applies. The board may grant variances when practical difficulties prevent a property from being used in a typical way as long as the change fits the surrounding area. It does not change zoning laws, but applies them to individual situations in a balanced and consistent way. >> Yeah, I have I have a comment here. I I actually very much like most of the changes as I think it makes more clear and plain English to people what it's doing. Um my two comments helps make sure just don't love that phrasing but it's not an issue and the content I don't know that it is clear. One thing I actually did like on the previous one was something about the final determination, right? Like we do make the final call compared to planning commission work wherein we are advising and I think that adjustment of the prior to use the word advising was accurate and I feel like there needs to be something that is more declarative here that this these decisions are not advise recommendations to council but rather they are the final call. Obviously, there's an appeals process, but can we make an adjustment that incorporates that feedback? >> Yes, absolutely. And then to your other point about the helps make just if you're open to just a a thought the bo the um it could just be the b the board of zoning appeals works to apply zoning laws fairly while allowing reasonable use of property. more active voice. >> Um, I can make these changes and bring it back to you all for a vote or if you want to direct me to vote or as amended uh and then we can go from there. >> To clarify, basically we vote with the trust that there will be an adjustment to let Okay. You the motion is as as amended, right? >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> I move that we approve this new language as amended here in this meeting um with commissioners and city staff. >> Second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any oppose say nay. >> The motion passes. Uh, next on the agenda, it's the top of the page, communications. >> All right. Thank you. Um, after this meeting of the regular meeting, we do have a study session immediately after and we'll be um over on the other side of the room. Um as a reminder those meetings are not broadcast um but we do record the audio for uh minute taking. Um we are having our first study session on parking minimums uh scheduled for our next meeting on July 15th. Um and that will be kind of easing into the discussion talking about uh different case studies uh for that topic. Um, also tonight we will be talking about uh uh the comprehensive planning process and um city council will be considering the contract for um the consultant that staff have recommended um for the comprehensive plan um at their July 20th meeting. um until it's on that meeting, we're not um sharing publicly their scope of work yet. So, coming soon and that is it. Great. Any communication from commissioners? Okay. Uh seeing no communication, I will adjourn this meeting. >> Comes to an end.