[Music] I would like to call to order the planning commission meeting for April 2nd, 2025. And we will start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Item number three is the consent agenda, the approval of the meeting agenda. Is there a motion? This is Robin. I'll Miss Robin. I motion to approve the April 2nd, 2025 planning commission meeting agenda. This is Bethany. I'll second. Motion's been made and second. I'll call for the vote. Bethany, I'll start with you. Bethany I. Robin I. Susan I. Kim I. And Lynn I. Next is the approval of the March 19th, 2025 planning commission meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve? This is Susan. Then I'll make a motion to approve the March 19th, 2025 planning commission meeting minutes. There's Robin. I'll second. Motion made and second. I will call for the vote. Bethany I. Robin I. Susan I. Kim I. And Lynn I. Item number four is public open form. If there's anybody in the audience or via Zoom that would like to talk to the planning commission. hearing. None, we will move on to our public hearing or oh, sorry, Eleanor is going to read the public hearing notice. Um, this was a site plan review and therefore does not require a public hearing. Um, it is just a planning commission discussion, but I will read that um discussion item for you guys. Um, Lo's Travel Stops acquired a conditional use permit for a travel center with gasoline and diesel sales uh with accessory highway orientated restaurant food sales and drive-thru services back in 2021. Construction of the new business was completed in August of 2022. Since then, there has been a higher number of visitors to this location than was initially anticipated. The facility reached out to city staff to ask what type of permitting they would need to add four additional fuel stations to their existing fuel pump island in order to accommodate the influx of guests. City staff decided at that time that this project would better fit a site plan review rather than a full CUP amendment. Um, as the proposed addition does not constitute a true expansion of use nor affect any of the conditions of the CUP. The applicant submitted a site plan review on March 6, 2025. Um, and I will open it up to the planning commission for any questions or discussion. Thank you, Eleanor. So, we're going to have a planning commission discussion. Just a couple things before we do. Um, if for the next meeting, we could get copies of the minutes when the council approved the Lo's project. I just want to check and see if there were any dates for completion. Um, whoops. And check that out. And then I know two years ago we had a planning commission member Barbick that brought up the dying trees and we were told the compliance officer went out and looked at that. So if we could get copies of the um compliance officer's reports when he did that, that would be helpful. Um, I did and we're going to go around cuz we have extensively looked at this. Um, I had two site visits. Robin had two site visits because we went with Sue and Kim. And one of them I actually went 20 minutes early just to sit and watch the traffic flow. So, there's going to be a lot of discussion on this. One thing is um when you go in there's arrows but if there's snow on the ground you don't see the arrows on the black top and I would like more signage for a traffic flow. Um, and then is there a report we can get with how many accidents have I mean just fender benders in the parking lot cuz I can't believe there haven't been any just watching it. But um I think uh I think we should have we do we have the general gentleman stand up or step up to the microphone please. Yeah. We're going to put you in the hot seat. If you can answer some of the questions, that's great. If you can't, but state your name and address, uh, you can have a seat. Okay, cool. Okay, you can hear me. All right. Um, I'm Zach England. I'm the general manager of the Love Travel Stops here in Columbus, Minnesota. Okay. So, have have there been any accidents in the parking lot? Uh, as far as I know, no. Okay. Yeah. It's usually pretty uh pretty fairly everyone does usually follow. We'll have one or two that may, but usually everyone goes around and goes and that follows that way cuz the way the traffic is, it's pretty uh simple and then usually pretty good. Well, I mean there's big signs exit only, you know, instead. But while we were there, a car came in and went into the gas pump. Yeah. Where they're supposed and that's going to happen. But when I sat there and watched the traffic flow, you have cars coming in and one was going around to get in to get gas. Another truck came out and went between the pumps and the parked cars like he wants to go out, but then a car was turning to go to Hardies. So, I think if there's just a one way and you have signs, if they want to go to Hardies, they go all the way around to the end and then come in would be a much better traffic flow because you are doing this because you're busier. Yeah. And um then I was told that it's the busiest loves in Minnesota. Yeah, it's the busiest loves. We're number two in the whole company for gas side as well. Um, so fueling wise, uh, pumping per gallons. I'm going to let Robin talk about the trees because I know he has an issue with that. But out I'm going to say is if it is, let's make it look like it's the busiest. Um, when you come up the highway, that's what people see and I want them to know that this is the the busiest love. So, I want it to stand out. So, now I'm going to let Robin ask his questions. Okay. and you may not know the answers uh to some of my questions, but maybe you can get me some answers uh for what'll probably be another meeting. Um I was looking at your revised plans uh for the trees. Um from what I can see, you're going to replace the dead trees with the same kind of trees again. Yeah, I believe uh Yeah, sorry. Okay. I would recommend against replacing the balsom furs with balsom furs. Okay. um they're not really suited to this area or to that type of soil. They need a moist, well- drained soil and typically they don't like hot weather. Um they're more they're more of a forest sort of tree uh than they are for decorative planting. Um so I'm concerned about that. And I'm also concerned about the fact that when they planted those trees, it appears, I don't know, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that the trees were never watered. Is there a sprinkler system along there that waters? Yeah, at first uh cuz they put the plants in during the winter and then right after they put a whole sprinkler system in. I came into the microphone. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Uh yeah. So when they first started they were just planting trees and then the contractor actually saw that and put in a whole sprinkler system in there. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That'll probably help with the new plantings as well. Yeah. Do you have any recommendations on trees for that? I I you know the black hill spruce is a wonderful tree for there. You could also do it with uh the uh Colorado blue spruce. Those are a very pretty tree. Um, but I just know that the balsam fur is not really a tree suited for that type of uh soil and watering needs and coolness needs. They're they're right out there in the sun baking like crazy. So um that was my uh biggest concern um is that something will be be done differently than the last time uh so that we don't have to revisit this uh down the road and say you haven't complied. Yep. So let's uh take a look at that and maybe a couple weeks or you can give me a better answer than I don't know. Yep. Okay, I'll uh bring that up to the site planner who's in charge of that and let them know your recommendations on that. Marvelous. That was the questions that I had for you. I appreciate your uh answers. And this is Susan. Just uh for education purposes, being new to the commission, are there regular checks to be sure that the CUPs and IUPs are following conditions that are laid out in in these staff reports? And how is that tracked? Um so we have a code compliance inspector who will go out periodically to different facilities to check their cups. Um, if there are consistent complaints um they're always checked up on um and follow through on that. I know in 2023 there was um some issues with these dead trees. He went out um and got a number of those dead trees replaced. I think pretty much all of them 2 years later. They're still not doing super great. Um but we're working on that as we go along. Um, I do want to talk a little bit about that landscape plan and the screening plan. The one attached in your packet is the original landscape plan. That was not um a part of this site plan review. Um, as a part of that original cup, um, we gave them 5 years from the date of the CO from the date that the trees were planted to fulfill all those screening requirements to grow to the size um, to screen 80% of those trucks. Um, as of now, they would have until August 17th, 2027 to complete those requirements. With all of this code compliance, um, inspections, all of these things going on, it's become pretty apparent that that's not going to happen by 2027. And we're using this site plan review to kind of put them on notice. However, they're not out of compliance of that screening requirement at this time. So, um, they do technically have 2 years to come back to to us with updated screening plans, new landscaping plans, new perhaps adding a fence to to add to that as well. Um, to update that? Um, yeah. That answer your question? It does. I went off my own little rant. Sorry. Any other questions? I don't think so. I I agree with the the signage because the the arrows are quite hard to see if there's snow cover. I initially I was thinking maybe a median, but then I was thinking about, you know, obviously semi-truckss, 53 ft trailers, you turning radiuses, etc. Perhaps creating a oneway all the way around may interfere with that one way coming out by that fire hydrant. I'm a little bit concerned about that in congestion with perhaps in the propane tank, the fire, you know, hydrant and kind of how that would in that tight section there of turning how that would how that would look. Basically, we were we were discussing uh amongst ourselves about with the extension of the pumps of the pump island. Uh if you have a tanker filling your propane, will a large uh camper be able to get by easily enough? Uh, so if the fereral gas is you're talking about feral gas for replacing that fuel, um, as I mean widthwise, it should be just fine. Um, there should be plenty of room. We only have feral gas that comes every 2 weeks for a few minutes to fuel. Yep. Um, and it's also one direction cuz most campers that fuel um, right there as well or RVs uh, that fuel have to go that way as well. Uh, just get around. Okay. So, usually there is still plenty of room with that round area right there. Okay. Well, it just kind of became an issue because um the minimum width is 24 ft. But with the canopy, you're going to be at 22' 3 and 1/2 in. And so if you have a tanker filling up the propane, a car might get through, but would a big motor home truck pulling a trailer. Um that you know that could lead to congestion. Um and then do you know what kind of fence you're putting up around the I do not average area. unfortunat I know that there is a fence um Midwest Fencing has been contracted from what I was told I called um Steve or Scott to go out and do a site visit and I didn't realize he's the one putting the pumps in so he referred me to Dylan but he's the one who told me that Steve Wilson who is a Columbus resident um that works for Midwest was fencing was going to put the fence around the garbage area and I just wondered if we had any idea what it was going to look like. Um so he was actually um going to also submit some proposals to increase that screening all along where those trees are on uh I35. However, that can't I did speak to our city attorney about adding that as a condition of this site plan review. And since the condition in the original cup gives them until 2027, they're like, um, we can't use this to compel them to do the screening at the same as a condition of this. It's more of a way to put them on notice. Um, and let them know, hey, this needs to happen soon. Um, and it should be happening soon. It just, um, didn't line up perfectly. So, I know that Midwest Fencing will be coming forward with some fencing details, some screening details to propose to add to um Loves. Okay. Kim or Bethany, did you have any questions? You guys kind of covered it. Yeah, you covered sort of the thing that I was Kim, did you have any questions? Nope. You hit everything on my list. Um, I just I have a question just because we all kind of chuckled about it when we were there. What is the red spray paint for by the parking spots out front the the curb? I think they just put that in. Usually there's not if it's a no parking area uh then they put red. But for that I think whoever did the contracting Well, we just looked at it and we were like red. Oh, that's fire lane and there's a fire hydrant there. But all these cars are parked there. So, it's like, okay, if there's a fire, we just thought that odd, you know. It is odd. That's why I was like, and it's original paint, too, cuz we actually uh powerwashed it and a part of that chipped off and it was still red underneath. So, I was like, it's a different type of been there. Um, so yeah, I agree with you on that part. Usually, it's supposed to be just usually. Yeah, usually yellow, meaning you caution, you have to move maybe. Yeah. Well, I'll be repainting here in a few months cuz it's chipping. So, I'll probably repaint something else. I'll go with my DM on that cuz I was going to do red or something a little bit brighter, not that pale. So, maybe we'll make it yellow to be a little bit more friendlier. Cool. And then I just I it fits. You have enough parking spots. You took 14 away. You have 67. you're required to have 64. I guess I would like that clarified that they're still required only 64. If you're adding pumps, you're adding business. And I'm just using a figure of 20 or 25 employees a day. Um I you know, is that enough parking? Do we mean even adding on is that going to be sufficient? I can certainly look into it a little bit further, but I believe that it still fits our code parameters. Okay. And I'd like to add on that. We're I think the next expansion, not expansion, but we're going to take away probably I think three or four uh spots next to the compactor in the very back and make that into employee parking. So that'll add additional parking for our employees and remove them from the front area for customers. Yeah, it would have been nice if you could have gone out the other end, but then you're taking away parking spots. Then there wouldn't have been such a tight Right. issue the other way. I understand that. Yep. Anything? All I had. Okay. So, we will continue our discussion on April 16th um once we get the information from Elellaner. Does anybody else want any other information they can think of that we don't have a site plan or No, if he answers my questions about the trees, I'm going to be a happy man. Yeah, he he is a happy man with the trees. Lynn, can I can I ask something? Um, were you able to check into those questions that I had? Yes. Because that might be helpful also. Um, there was one, [Applause] sorry, there we go. Um, specifically about the parking, there was a correction that was pointed out on my found findings of fact about the current number of parking spots. Um, although they did remove 14 in the last couple years, they did add two more. So the correct um total number currently is 83 and will be reduced down and then was no sorry. So the current number is currently um 69 parking spots instead of 67. Um that was one correction. Um and we will be speaking um a suggested condition to this was also um adding a a due date for that landscape and screening plan. Instead of giving them the you have until the the condition is up in 2027. Instead say all right we know this is going to be an issue. We want to give you enough time to implement the new plan. We can set a um a sooner due date for that updated landscaping and screening plan. say 3 4 months whatever you guys decide [Music] to come back with that. So that was a suggested additional condition. Yes. Could I provide one clarification? And I know you didn't direct the question specifically to me, but the the basis for parking in all of our businesses is a function of square footage or in the case of restaurants, the number of seats and things like that. When they add the actual fueling stations, the parking is at the fueling station. So, it's not increasing the footprint that we base our requirements on. Doesn't mean that you can't have a conflict necessarily. And as you probably witnessed sitting there, an awful lot of people will go from the pump and take one of those spaces and go inside. Others, in spite of 40 cars lined up waiting to get in, abandon their car and go into the store and come out 20 minutes later, right? And that doesn't help the flow of anything. But on the basis of our requirements, um, they they still exceed what we required. And one of the things that Loves promoted when they originally came in was that they uh take pride in their bathrooms, the amount of parking they provide, things of that nature that are uh customer friendly. We can't hold them to those, right? So, as long as they meet our standards, that's fine. Uh they can actually lose a couple more. The other uh thing that Elanar and I talked about regarding the some some of the information that's in the packet regards the actual setback of the physical canopy. Yeah. Which has no bearing on impacting the traffic. The the traffic um potential issues with a fueling station or the waste dump uh conflicting with this. It's what space do you have next to the actual fueling station station to get around? And as most of you know, if you've used this facility, people go in and out of this in both directions and they're weaving in between cars cuz everybody wants to get the first pump that becomes available. I don't see an issue from a setback. I don't see an issue as I think Ellanar raised the question does it need to be marked one way. It's not a through lane but it is a bypass area and as such we don't have a specific standard but where a car is parked is going to be more than that 24 ft. So it's still a full aisle but if somebody's parked at the dump station uh which would have the conflict that is where people dump their sewer. Yeah. Yeah, that's the real conflict I think more than the propane area. Um, you still have adequate room between somebody parked at the dump station and getting gas to go through. And if it's either direction, it's not a street. It's not that we want to maintain 20 mph speed limits. You just want to be able to get through. I hope that helps. My watching was more for like the first car came in, the second one behind him is turning left to go into Hardies and there's cars coming that you can't see from the pumps. And if it was one way, if you wanted to go to Hardy's drive-thru, you go around, you come this way, and then you go right. And then you don't have everybody trying to step on their brakes and stop. than than the ones that are overly anxious to get out of there weaving in between. I mean, I'll be I'll be honest. I've only ever gotten gas there once just because it's so crazy and it's I live on the other side of the uh highway. So, I just go there because but I've gone there and I mean we went there and I know it's growing pains uh when they first opened and we were going up to the lake and we got a late start and we're like we'll get gas. So, we went to gas up and then oh we're hungry we'll get our dinner and Hardies was closed cuz they didn't have enough staff. So, I was like okay. So, I know it's a busy busy place and I sat there for 20 minutes and watched it. And I just there's got to be a better flow to things than making people not want to go there. You want to make them too come here. So, and you have the signs exit only on the pumps. They're big signs, but unfortunately, no matter where you go, people aren't going to listen to them. I I would say that the exchange that you're having now with the management of the station is the way it should be because we don't have those standards on private property and so we can't dictate. Um you made a decision that a lot of other people are that they're not going to go back there because they don't like it. But I guarantee you cuz I go to Holiday as well. It's as nuts over there now since Love's opened. It's It's drawn a lot more people to this community since Oh, yes. Definitely. And I'm I'm concerned if we get another plan for an EV station at Holiday, it isn't going to fit where they had originally proposed it. So, we have to keep an eye out for that. Yeah. Also, no, just a suggestion. We can't make you do a traffic flow, whatever. just like we can't make somebody put a ingground sprinkler system in, but if you want to spend the money on landscaping, you will to keep it nice. But it's just some observations from when we were out there. But I think if we at the next meeting get the information we asked for and um um specifically just to make sure that I'm on the same page as everybody. The information that I have uh been directed to gather is copies of those CC uh city council minutes. All of the minutes pertaining to the original planning um loves CUP approval. um copies of our code compliance inspections and all of those going um most of them are from 2023 and then he recently started going out back again uh since the snow is melting and he can actually get a good look at things. Um and you also mentioned wanting records of any sort of fender benders. I think the best I can do for that is try to get a copy of the Anuka County Sheriff's Department um reports from Loves regarding car accidents and was that all of the information? Yeah. You know, it just because not one of us sitting here was on the planning commission understood. When this happened, not even me. And it was like, okay, so we don't know what was approved, if there were dates to for completion. I mean, we're just kind of looking at this like, oh, okay, you know, and haven't seen it from the beginning. I mean, any actual mandate dates to completion would be in the cup conditions. Um everything else is finding effect and things that were talked about but they're not conditions of that cup. And so the only date mentioned was 5 years from was for the trees to be um large enough and pretty enough to screen the trucks 80% uh after 5 years of growth. And um city staff interpreted that as 5 years from the date that they were planted, which would have been in 2022, August of 2022. Okay. Yeah. Cuz it's just if we can look at that and see what the council's thought process was at the time, it might spark another question from us. So, of course. And did I miss it or did we actually actually also then ask about what kind of fence? Is there a plan for the fence or what type it was? Um, so they're working on that right now. It's not a part of this particular site plan review. Since we're not amending the CUP, we can do this kind of in stages. Um, since this site plan review is not we can't com hold them accountable for that condition of the cup until 2027, but we're putting them on notice and saying, "Hey, you guys should do this um soon." So by next meeting we might have some pretty good plans for that fencing. Thank you. Perfect. Anybody else? Any other questions? Well, I I would like to make a motion to continue discussion of the Lo's Travel Stop site plan review as presented in our April 22nd planning commission packet at the next planning commission meeting on April 16th, 2025. This is Bethany. I'll second. Motion's been made and second. I'll call for the vote. Bethany I. Robin I. Susan I. Ken I. Lynn I. So we will come back on April 16th and resume discussion. Thank you Zach for coming. I know I went in to let him know if he saw us out there walking around not to be concerned. Uh he said when's the meeting? So, I appreciate that you came. Yeah. No, thanks for having me and I'll definitely have some more answers as well and then look forward to talking to you guys in a couple weeks. Okay. Thank you. Thank you guys. [Music] Now, it's time for the assistant planners report. Well, hello. Since we had a short um agenda again this week, so we're going to continue our little inservice conversations. Um uh this week we've got a couple handouts which is what we're going to start with which is very basic. What is zoning? Going through all of those permits again, what those those reviews processes look like and what kind of things to look out for. Um additionally, we have the actual state statute that gives you the authority to make these decisions, the actual law printed out for you. Um, and so going through this handout, I'm going to go through it pretty fast and then we're going to have some conversations about it. But zoning, uh, originally started as a way to write to prevent property owners from doing harmful activities to each other's land. You can't put an incinerator in the middle of a residential neighborhood. You can't put your well next to the butcher shop. You can't put your dispensary next to the school. Those types of things. Um but as time has gone on and especially in the last couple decades, zoning has broadened to provide um a stepping stone and a plan of your community's growth patterns. Um less about just restricting what is what you can and cannot do and trying to guide how your community will be moving forward. Um it's the regulatory tool. We put together our rules and then those um so well we put together our comprehensive plan and then our rules based on that um and then we process our applications through those rules. These are things that you guys know um the actual application of these zoning rules when it comes to the administrative side my side behind the desk um is pretty inflexible. You fit it or you don't. um and applications that come before you tend to have a little bit more flexibility. You get to have some actual say in these applications. Um recent legislation enables planning to give even more latitude. So with the planned unit developments, those mixeduse zoning, uh incentive zoning, all of the options that you guys have to build what you see in your community and what you want for your community's future. Um, so that's my introductory, but I am going to go through some of the things that you're going to consistently see and explain them just in case anybody feels weird about asking those questions and feeling like they are basic questions, but we should go over them anyways. So, in when you're looking through your ordinance, there's um they're broken up in a pretty recognizable pattern. You've got your definitions, which is anything that is specifically stated um throughout the ordinance, and then all of those defined very specifically so you can understand what what's going on with each of those things. We defined what a um micro cannabis business is. So when you see it later on and you go, well, what does that actually mean? you can go back to the definitions, look it up and there'll be some explanation of what that constitutes as that thing. We have our general provisions um for how we process applications, what we generally allow, what everybody has to do for anything. And then we have our zoning district provisions. So in we split up our city into different zoning districts and then each of those will have um different uses and different standards for that area. Performance standards are for the specific uses. So we've got the zoning district provisions, what can be allowed in what area and then what those uses are allowed to do. Um administrative provisions and zoning map. The administrative pro provisions, how we process everything. Zoning map is just the physical representation of where we allow certain things. Do we have any questions on the first spiel? Okay, I'll give a brief introduction to all of the different types of uses. So, we have permitted uses. Those will never um they're allowed by right as opposed to requiring any sort of special permit. So that's why when anyone builds a house in the rural residential neighborhood, they don't come to you for a cup. It's a permitted use. They're allowed to build a house there. They come to the staff and ask, "Where can we build this?" And we sell them. Um we we at the city of Columbus do not have a lot of permitted uses. We don't actually have any commercial or industrial permitted uses within any of our commercial or industrial zoning districts. um all of them are either managed by conditional use or interim use. So we don't have any time any business is coming to the city, they're going to come to you for a permit. They're never going to go through the permitted use process. And that's very unique. a lot. Most cities will have some permitted uses or larger cities will have tons of them. We don't have a lot of land. We're very particular about how it's going to be used. And um accessory uses are the additional uses that are on these properties. Um the example in your handout is is a garage to a house, but in the commercial district, this can be a little bit more broad. For instance, in Lo's Hardies is its access its accessory use. A whole restaurant could be the accessory use. Um, in some of these things, it's the not the primary reason that the business is there, but something else that they're doing that also needs to be regulated as such. Conditional uses [Applause] um are typically required for a project that might have the potential for uh adverse effects to its neighbors. So it might create nuisance situations um might require specific performance standards or designs that need to be examined a little bit heavier. Um Okay. So, a zoning ordinance must clearly define general requirements for all conditional uses as well as have very specific criteria for specific conditional uses. Again, we use this for pretty much everything in our city. It allows us to have a little bit more control over um zoning decisions and what businesses can do in our zoning districts. interimm uses um are for the temporary use of a property. It lasts for either a very specified period of time. Um and it's very similar to a conditional use permit, but unlike a conditional use a conditional use permit will travel with the land, not the business. that can be taken over by a different business that's doing the same thing and will not have to come back for a new permit. Um, an interimm use does not travel with the land. It will terminate with that business and is only allowed a certain amount of time. So, those are our three general ways to permit uses. Any questions on any of that? Okay. The big thing um that we have next is variances which allow specific people um projects to come and wave um or vary the strict application of zoning ordinance requirements. Typically they tend to be setbacks. Um that's a very common one at least if there's something very specific with the land where you cannot use it unless you vary from a setback in a sort sort of way. Um those are what variance is for. It's to allow a project to go forward that does violate some provision of our code. You can't really give these out willy-nilly. They are very specifically um there unlike conditional uses or interm uses or permitted uses. There are statutory things that each of these applications have to fulfill in order to be granted a variance. um they have to have a practical difficulty which means there has to be something with the land itself that is preventing it from being used and it would need to be uh given this variance from the code in order to be used. It can't be based on something that the land owner did. It can't be based on just I would like to do this instead of the way it's supposed to be done. It can't be based on purely economic reasons. it can't be the way to do it the right way is too expensive. Um and um the goal is to not give out a lot of variances. If you keep getting variances for the same thing, that is when you change the ordinance to allow those types of things. Um, so there's some more information about specific things, um, such as an interim ordinance where we stop allowing a certain thing, uh, while we study and fix the ordinance surrounding that. um public hearing requirements. Those are when we for any interim use for any conditional use, we require a public hearing where notice is sent out to the neighbors. It's published in the newspaper and we allow the public to come speak on any particular project and the concerns that they might have. And there's also specific guidelines around how long we can take to review an application. If we go beyond the 60-day window, there is an exception where we can broaden it to 120 days. Um, we have to have some justification for that. But if th that timeline comes and goes with no movement, no um actual effort to get something done, the permit is approved. So, we do try extremely hard also to be kind to our applicants to to fit every review within those 60 days. It's the first thing that's in my report is when they applied, when the application window is up, um when we need to make these [Applause] decisions, our performance standards can also be for um how the buildings themselves look. They can be for our design standards. They can be for how our uses are allowed to work, how much of the yard is allowed to be storage, how much of it needs to be screened from neighbors. They're specific to both the district and the the specific uses. [Music] Um, we don't have a ton of overlay zones in this area. that's kind of like a a secondary zoning district on top of the additional one. The only one that we have is a shoreland district and that's just a th000 ft from any major body of water. There's specific building codes and performance standards that they have to fulfill. Um I'm going to let Dean talk about planned unit developments a little bit if you don't mind. I'd be happy to. [Music] So, I have to back up. Part of our philosophy in every community, quite frankly, that that I've worked in is feedback on what Elellaner said about variances. Um, it's it's my complete pet peeve. They set a precedent. Once you've approved one, somebody else wants to do it. uh and if you don't grant it again and that party goes to court, the courts routinely will grant permission. And so it leaves a trail that I think is unnecessary. And ended her comments that if you have a lot of requests for variances, you ought to look at your rules and amend them. If you want flexibility, um that's the purpose of a planned unit development. It's intended um to do the same thing, vary a standard, but we uh establish a a system of tradeoffs, if you will, that um we like to get something that is a public benefit in exchange. So, if someone uh wanted to change the uh the size of their parking standards, depending on the type of use that it is, like an apartment building, I don't have as big a problem with that because that's not a major public use, whereas a grocery store or a retail business is. So, you first of all start picking and choosing. And if somebody says, "I want 9 ft wide parking spaces." If it's in the grocery store I'm going to go to, my recommendation is no. You get banged up cars, dinged up cars, people can't move in and out. We want our 10tx 20 foot parking spaces. But in a in an apartment complex, you may say, "Who cares? It's those visitors. It's not the general public that's frequenting them." But you simply say what is the purpose of this? Did you run out of land or you don't want to have an excessive amount of parking? And it may be that you increase the amount of pedestrian ways that could serve a development. Uh we looked at that in the apartment project that has not been built in the community yet. We've looked at more than one set of plans and it was making accommodation for sidewalks that would go to at at that time a H high store which hasn't happened either. You do have a coffee shop over there and those are the things that you might look at as tradeoffs. Um, we had a project on um on uh Lake Drive um where some of the standards to redevelop the property for a contractor use um could certainly be done by plan unit development, not by variance. But what is the public tradeoff? And in that instance, I think we simply said, you're a landscape business. Let's come up with a plan that makes a statement. Um like you wanted with the screening at Loves. Uh you didn't necessarily want people to see all trucks. You you wanted them to screen it. And so the plan unit development procedure requires a public hearing and there has to be an approving mechanism and that is as a conditional use permit. And so we established in this ordinance and in most of the communities I work in the same way that you can uh allow a plan unit development conditional use permit and you again negotiate these things. We want a taller building. We want 50 more units or whatever. What is the tradeoff? And you look for something that's good for the community or the public. So, it's it's it's relatively simple. I'm happy to do the next one because it's a little more complicated. Transfer of development rights. Um, this this is a project where two communities that I worked in, well, one is right here next to you um in Chicago County. there was an interest to preserve the corridor uh along the scenic river and the property owners felt that why are we getting penalized that we are allowed one home per 40 acre and the rest of the county gets one per 10 acre or one per 5 acre. And so the provision there is that people that own that land that is being restricted for a public benefit ought to have a mechanism where they can receive an economic benefit and they can sell their right to property as long as they put a covenant on their property. So again, if you've got 40 acres and you're allowed one home per 40 acres, you can say, "Well, the rest of the county's got one per five." Do they have eight development rights like everybody else? You can, and that's the purpose of this program. And you create scenic easements or conservation easements on those properties, and you have to track them. I mean it's like uh recording documents but someone may create a value and another developer comes along and says gee they've got eight units over here I'd like to add them to this and you would review that first of all as a simple banking exchange you bought eight units but now you need a mechanism like a plan unit development because they want to increase the density from five acre parcels. If they're buying more, maybe they become three or 4 acre parcels. So, it's a it's it's a much more sophisticated situation. And I would say most well, the only experiences that I've personally been involved in is where you have prime farmland and one per 40 zoning or you're in uh scenic prime uh properties like the St. Cray River or or other areas. And it just allows it allows the county or the city as a whole to say it's too bad you bought that property because you don't get the same benefit. But you can create that, but it's complicated. Um, and a lot of communities feel it's worth it and a lot of them don't want to touch it. So that's a peculiarity. We have a modest uh transfer of development rights and that is that we allow through our plan unit development procedure people to build on less than 5 acres as long as you balance it. So if you allow a 2 and 1/2 acre lot, you got a 7 and 1/2 acre lot. And usually with it as much wetland area as exists in the community, it allows somebody with a 40 acre parcel that is half wetland. You can subdivide that property and get all eight lots. Whereas if you did a conventional development, four of those would be total wetland. So, it's again a way of uh attempting to balance um economic opportunities across the board. Some would argue that well, they paid nothing for that wetland over there. Why should they get benefit? Well, if all 40 acres is underwater, they're not going to they're not going to be able to develop it. You still got to have uh land to build homes. and as as long as you have a building site that meets our legal requirement, the rest of the lot can be underwater. So those it's a little different from transfer development rights, but that's that's kind of an incentive based opportunity in community. So again, it's a little more confusing, but we've we've done a few of these. The old turkey farm up off of uh Broadway is a good example of that. We transferred some of the development across one side of the street to the other where it was better to and and you just have to put ease permanent easements on the balance of property that you're not allowing development on. So, I'll quit. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. All right. So, that was the handout. Um, we're also giving you the official control zoning ordinance, which is the state statute. I'm not going to go through all of the legal requirements of this, but it is something that you guys should look into. Um, it's very um important for you guys to understand where you get the legal right to make these decisions, what your authority is, and therefore you can know where you can push it, that you do have some authority in some areas to do things, and there are some areas that you can't push it. Um, so it's interesting. Um, and I I encourage you guys to check it out. But other than that, that's all I've got. So the just a quick question, months ago, we had the large animal ordinance to be reviewed. All right. And we haven't done that since. So, uh, just a note that maybe we should look at that since we're talking about ordinances. I'm like, yep. I would love it if you guys gave me what you guys want to see. So, a large animal ordinance can definitely be um if not next meeting, the meeting after as um at least a discussion point and really sort out what we want to do there. What about small animals? We kind of already regulate the small [Applause] animals. Okay, you're here. Yep. So now planning commissioners reports and I just want to um got to look at my calendar for the dates because our pause is having their open house. Um let's see is it trying to look here what date it is. Um, and then also Waldo is having a 50th anniversary open house. That one is on May 17th. And I'm looking for our pause here. I know I put it on my It's on Palm Sunday. Oh, yep. The 13th of April. So, um, that one I think is 10 11 to 4 um on April 13th. So, I just thought I'd let everybody know about that's coming up and Wild Ducks in May. But I think that's pretty incredible that we have, you know, a new business and then one that's been here for 50 years. So, absolutely. Anybody else have anything they'd like to announce? Nope. Okay. Then I would look for a motion to adjourn the meeting. This is Robin. I motion to adjourn. This is Susan. I'll second. Motion's been made and second. I will call for the vote. Bethany I. Robin I. Susan. I. Kim I. When I. Uh. Meeting adjourned at 6:55. We'll call it [Music]