[Music] good evening I'm going to call to order at 6 p.m. the Planning Commission meeting for April 3rd 2024 we will start off with the Pledge of Allegiance Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all next I'll look for a motion to approve the meeting agenda this is Judy I make a motion to approve the agenda this is Robin I'll second I'll call for the vote Judy I Barb I Robin I Lyn I next I'll look for an approval of the March 6 2024 Planning Commission meeting minutes do I hear a motion this is Barb so moved this Robin all second I'll call for the vote this is for the March 6th 6th Judy I farb I Robin I ly I next we'll look for the approval of the March 20th 2024 planning Comm commission meetings is there a motion I move that we approve the minutes or is there second call for the vote Judy of stain Barb I Robin I Lyn I next we will go to our public hearing um elanar would you read the notice published in the forest lake times of course notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held by the city of Columbus Planning Commission on Wednesday April 3rd 2024 at 6: p.m. or as soon thereafter as parties may be heard the hearing will be conducted in person and by interactive technology at the Columbus City Hall located at 16319 Kettle River Boulevard Columbus Minnesota to consider a request for a variance to allow type 2 septic systems in Li of the required type 1 septic syst septic systems in the rural resid enal zoning District members of the public interested in attending in person monitoring the meetings or wanting more information should contact the city offices at 651464 3120 or visit the city website at Columbus mn. us the hearing shall continue until all evidence and testimony has been received the applicant is Deborah Academia and the property owners is the Nancy s dully trust trust thank you Elanor now I will ask the applicants so Deborah I don't how do you say it Academia Academia okay so sorry if you want to come forward and have a seat at the table and if you each want to give your name and address you guys okay um hi everyone I'm Deborah Academia um I live at 10414 East Keats Avenue that's Mesa Arizona 85209 uh Ben zerki 28587 Jeffrey Avenue shago City H Jordan Lance s with whth and I'm my residence is in North Branch thank you um the commission has reviewed your application and as a normal protocol for the record could you brief us just a little bit about your plans yes so I'll be brief um so essentially we are looking to take the current property and divide it into separate Parcels um the preliminary plats been submitted to you guys already and the one factor we were trying to figure out was the fact that it's in the flood plane and therefore we can't do type one septic we have to do type two septic and so we're submitting a variance to see if we can go ahead and get approved so we can separate those make those um separate parcels with the type two septic okay um for the record did you receive a copy of the staff report developed by associate planner Elanor Han dated March 29th um 2024 regarding this application the report notes certain findings from 1 to six on page 31 to 33 it also notes recommendations 1 through3 do you understand these recommendations and conditions and do you have any questions yes I received it um and no questions okay elanar would you give us a review absolutely um so this particular project has been in the works here for a number of years the preliminary plat was approved back in 2021 there um is it is currently three Parcels they want to um divide it into four separate um residential Parcels um the issue with this is that a large section of um these Parcels are in the flood plane which is a ferally designated area we don't have any control over it the state doesn't have any control over it it is a federal designation um a lot of Columbus is in the flood plane and therefore a lot of times we have to um have applicants come in and get a um map amendment to say hey your flood plane is wrong and I'm not in the flood plane or let me bring in Phil and bring this building area out of the flood plane and do all that the um dues have done that so the houses will be lifted out of the flood plane on Phil and federal government's all good with that the issue is that you cannot build septic systems on Phil so the septic system and that area will still be in the flood plane and we'll have to use type two systems now I'm not a septic expert so we have to rely on our septic experts to say that that is okay to use the type two and a lot of my report is regurgitated information that I have gotten from our septic officials thank you so now we're going to open it up for questions and I already forewarned them since we have our aseptic expert here what is the difference between type one and type two I think I should start actually by talking about type one two and three because um that's kind of a those are the three categories of system that are kind of maybe in play so a type one system which is the system that um Columbus ordinance States as the preferred system um it's designated based on the characteristics of soil and that soil has to be native undisturbed and have at least 12 12 in to any restriction so in this in the case of Columbus we're looking at water table um everything that has less than 12 in or is on fill or has been driven on or compacted or somehow Disturbed falls into a category called type three and some of you are maybe familiar with the type 3 systems there's I don't know dozens and dozens and dozens of those in Columbus um because we have lots that don't have any of that preferred soil and um when we go out to do a septic design at a pre-existing home that doesn't have the type one soils we end up with a Type 3 Mound so when discussing um this property with um Chris at the city here um you know we did talk about could we add fill to these sites just like we're doing for the houses to lift the septic areas out of the flood plane and um putting our heads together we kind of decided because we have good native soil with more than 12 in to restriction that we would prefer to leave it native and undisturbed and the reason that it just falls into that type two category is the flood plane designation so normally type two the most common type two systems are holding tanks it's just kind of a little corner of the septic code that's a catchall um so it's holding tanks and flood plant systems are are type two so we would still have those type one soils um which are the the most reliable soils for accepting effluent and treating it but we don't have that FEMA designation to allow it to be considered type one so everything is there for a type one except for that flood plane that's just the only difference here is it's getting kicked to type two because of the FEMA designation anybody else have a question um I had a question um from what I understand uh from different sepy guys that I've talked to cuz everybody has their septic um serviced out here um supposedly all septic systems eventually fail and what will you do then if you don't have a second site on these yeah all of these lots have room for primary and secondary that's a requirement um I can even look at like some of the square footage here that's they're well over what we would need for two sites so consider like a four-bedroom Mound um out here would have a 20 foot X 50t absorption area that's 1,000 square ft so at a bare minimum you'd only need 2,000 square feet of area set aside for a primary and a backup um we like to see more um usually just in case there's issues you know a mistake is made or um you know I don't know you get an overzealous uh you know uh siding guy drives through the septic area and damages a part of it or something during construction you know whatever can happen so we do like to have a little extra but um you know we're looking at Square I think one of the Lots say 17,000 square fet of area we've identified so way more than you would ever need for two sites and and just to anticipate the followup here when you when you use up both of those um you can pull them out and you know rehabilitate that area and put in a type three at that point which is what happens in areas like with a lot of lakes Shore where you just run out of physical space um we're starting to see that a lot up in my area and this is Sago Lakes area where we're having to do that and for the most part we haven't seen any um hydraulic issues with those systems so and Elanor will that be designated that area on the final plat yes so that was a part of this process originally on the approved preliminary plat it was a general area of this is where the septics going to go for this variance we made them point out um two separate areas uh one where the septic will be going and then the designated alternate septic area that will be left undisturbed during construction okay that's all I had I'm good okay thank you for coming is there anybody in the audience or online that would have a question regarding [Music] this variance no okay thank you I am going to close the public hearing with the right to reopen it in two weeks when we will have our discussion so that will be on April 17th 6 o' right here and that's when we as Commissioners will do a discussion good idea to be here in case we have any more questions so public hearing is closed thank you thank you public open form is there anybody that wishes to address the Planning Commission hearing none planning commissioner's report I just want to say I forgot to announce it at the last meeting but I did attend the Columbus breakfast and um it was a very well attended very informative uh breakfast with the speakers so their next one is a happy hour correct I think so yeah so anybody else have anything to say I have nothing City administrator you're up I have nothing to to add I was prepared to answer the top two question but the gentleman did a much better job than I could so thank you yeah I just figured since he was here I went over and asked him if he would Enlighten us uh elanar do you have anything to report I do not right now okay then I'll look for a motion to adjourn this is Judy I make a motion to adjourn this Robin I'll second I'll call for the vote Judy I Barb I Robin I ly I meeting adjourned at [Music] 6:15