[Music] we're going to open the meeting we're going to start our Planning Commission meeting for July 17th 2024 it's 6:03 p.m. so we'll call the meeting to order and start with the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all and welcome to everybody that's online and before we um go any further I want to welcome Scott to the Planning Commission it's his first meeting and we're glad you're here oh thank you I appreciate it glad to be here okay so I will look for a motion to approve the meeting agenda this is Bethany so moved Mrs barbal seconded I will call for the vote Bethany I Barb I Scott I and Lyn I now I will look for a motion for the approval of the May 15 2024 Planning Commission meeting minutes this is Barb um motion to approve Scott I'll second okay motion second I will call for the vote Bethany abstain Barb I Scott I Lynn I okay number five is a discussion on the upcoming ordinances um ordinance 24- XX chapter 7A housekeeping and table of content Pages 2 through 8 elanar do you want to lead us in this yes um it's been a minute since I've seen everybody here so um glad to be back in the Planning Commission um the first page of our packets is a general overview of the ordinances that are on the docket for the rest of 2024 um for the past couple years we've been doing a lot of ordinances every year we've really really changed this um code and um so the two that are before you today for the discussion is a lot of housekeeping of we did a lot really fast and some things fell through the cracks whether that be um typos or um things that were not clarified very well or just organ organizational things that fell through when we were doing this huge upheaval of our code over the last couple years so that's what we're working on today but since we have everything pretty locked away and organized we can start moving on to the next phase of redoing our code and starting to work on that there are a couple things on this first page of updates on new ordinances um the first one is our cannabis ordinances which is going to be coming up and we're going to be working a lot on that in the next couple months that's going to be our main focus on ordinances because that does need to be in place by January 1st so that has a pretty firm deadline of when we need to have that pretty much sorted out our first big conversation on that is going to be our next meeting August 7th we're going to have a joint meeting of the uh city council and the Planning Commission come together and start really hammering down some of the big policy decisions so we can start working out that cannabis um ordinance so that's that's the big one coming up but let's sort out the little housekeeping things that we need to do first the there are a couple of ordinances on this list that aren't going to be coming before you at the Planning Commission but I wanted you to be aware of them because there's stuff that the staff is working on and there's stuff that's going to change one of those is the second one that I've mentioned which is low floor elevation driveways and illustrations those are common things that we often get asked or questioned on with contractors and building officials where there's just some things that don't quite line up between what we have in our code and what's in the State Building officials um code and what our engineer thinks and so it's constantly like coming up and having to sort out those issues so we're going to try to um work on getting that cleaned up and clear so we have those answers without having to go back and forth between a bunch of different departments every time something comes up with those the next one on the list was the regulation for short-term rentals this is something that we mentioned quite a while ago and has just been sort of sitting on the back burner um and I was hoping to get some sort of guidance on whether we still want to pursue that kind of Regulation and what we are hoping as an outcome of that because we are seeing more uh airbnbs and that um sort of business popup in col Columbus and if we want to have those um require a license or a registration of some sort put some sort of um regulations on how how those are operated um and then have a discussion on how we would that then enforce those rules if we decide to put those in so if anyone has some real burning passion to work on that please let me know what your what your thoughts and desires are on that and then the next two are also on on that will probably not be coming before Planning Commission the um septic systems ordinance which is a major uphaul overhaul of our septic system chapter um that the building department has been working on for some quite some time and should be coming before city council if anyone is interested in attending those or getting more information contact me or Carissa and we can we can talk to you about what we've been working on there and um the next one was our animal control stuff which was started back in 2022 and then sort of fell on the back burner and I'm trying to pick up the pieces of where we left off and see how to move forward with that I was not here when it was being worked on so it's a lot of piecing together a little puzzle piece with that one the last one on the list was our large animal ordinance which is a something that has been mentioned quite a few times and I I am not entirely sure what the direction on that um is wanting to be so I want to get some work done on it I know that some people want an um an overhaul of how we monitor or regulate large farm animals and large animals but if there are any specifics I would love to hear it now that doesn't mean that all of those little questions that I just gave you does not mean that you have to come out and tell me right now if you have something fantastic if not you can email me uh and we can start that discussion for those two curious about how and what like why are certain things Planning Commission things and other things go straight to city council yes so is that a dumb question no that's perfectly okay question so the ones that I mentioned that go straight to city council do not have anything to do with Planning and Zoning they are building department they are peer regulation nuisance uh abatement that kind of stuff and there are no of our usual ordinance amendments like our design standards are where do we put these what are our setbacks what are our lighting look like and that's really what the Planning Commission focuses on so with like cannabis um short-term rentals we could do some regulation stuff with you guys on zoning where do we want to have these allowed same with large animal ordinances how do we want to allow um like hobby Farm enclosures to look um that stuff is Planning and Zoning but the floor elevations how we regulate our septic systems all of that stuff does not necessarily have to come to Planning Commission if you have thoughts on it you are welcome to ask or come up and talk to me about it that's okay I am curious about the septic situation like do you what's happening there like what's changing is this is this the right spot to ask this like is this the right time to ask that or do I should I just talk to you later we can talk I can speak a little bit to that if you want me to if you would like to yeah um there's various various ordinances at the county level at the state level at the local level and they don't line up and there's also language in ours that leaves a lot of interpretation to the inspector um and some of it isn't related to technical interpretation it's more policy interpretation so we wanted to we wanted to um make sure that the language in our ordinance lines up with what the state and the county says and then also um clear up some of the more vague references in there that that I think has caused some confusion between residents or businesses and and our um staff level and our and our then inspector MH so it's a huge investment so it's not like if there's you know a little a little miscommunication it's no big deal it's a big deal yeah so and there were I think two or three variances that came before you guys regarding septic systems and that really started this of oh we need to look deeper into this code because if there's a lot of variances about something that means that something something needs to change not working I I had a question about the large animal ordinance um that was just revised in February of 2022 what are what is the concern there and you had a little handout too I mean it was really cool I looked it up it has pictures and everything and tells people how many you know which I is really valuable I can speak to that too since you weren't there yes um so I think there was there was work done at that time to help determine the number per acre um but what we didn't talk about is where they can be or what type there were categories of animals that weren't even they were excluded um and there wasn't much in there that referenced um sort of what is what's considered pasture you know pasture your land so if you had X number of acres and 90% of it was swamp that that's not habitat that you want to have hoofed animals on but our ordinance doesn't address that so it's it's things like that how does that affect the people because they you know I went door to door A lot of people that have actually horse read horses is that going to affect them negatively um I don't think so because the people who do that care about the habitat that the animals are in I think it's people who move here they don't know very much about large animals now they have 10 acres or 5 acres and they think yeah let's get you know four horses and I mean we just had a guy down the road that had 15 pigs and they got out and they were rooting around in the park and there was nothing in our ordinance that said you can't have 15 pigs right in town I was surprised about that home because I'm familiar with pigs I lived in Mano and they really do not smell nice yeah so I can't imagine is that the same house that had the there was like chickens that kept being on the road I don't know if it's the same I know I had they had chickens too but I don't know if it's the same one so I mean I I don't think anybody's looking to say you can't do this it's more about putting language in there so if there really is um you know it's not it's not reasonable to think you can have that many animals on this property or they're so close to their neighbors that you know any large would really be um a problem it's it's to address things like that yeah well thank you for that M um I guess if nobody has any questions on those feel free to bring them up later in this conversation if you think of something but we can move on to our two little housekeeping amendments um the first one sorry neither of them are numbered but I'll next time you see them they'll have numbers on them um was the General housekeeping for the whole of chapter 7A um Dean in Dean um really combed through the whole of 7A specifically in the titles and the way things are structured to help make some edits specifically around when the CI Light District came in and there were some things that didn't um make it into titles it didn't make it or the wrong things made it into titles and that's what this ordinance is is to clean that up it's renumbering some stuff um making sure that light is in bold in the title because there have been quite a few people that have mixed those up cuz it's not clearly labeled and then finally the um SE section 7824 which accidentally had limited in the title which did cause some confusion and um issues and looking through minutes and talking to um Megan who originally drafted this said that yes it is not supposed to be the Contractor Yard limited referenced in this section it is supposed to be the contractor yard so that is a clarifying thing that was supposed to make it into the original adoption of this ordinance and um wasn't and then a complete rehaul of the table of contents for chapter 7A uh I don't know if you've looked at it recently but it is pretty hard to navigate the table of contents of this chapter there's lots of random reserved for future uses bolded we talked to lawyers to make sure that we could take those out but we can and um do some ruming make sure that everything is consistent with each other so all of the districts the same format of going in the right order and having the same labeling conventions um combining them and making sure that all of the page numbers are correct just fixing up the table of contents so that's our first ordinance uh does anybody have any questions on that I don't no perfect um and then the second one that we were talking about today is our um the entirety of 7B um section 300 when you are looking at our current sign regulations it still has never been updated to the new freeway Corridor districts it still has commercial showroom districts um they don't line up with what our current zoning map looks like they were never um updated whenever the the districts were changed and so this one there is very little substance being changed here but it is actually making the language line up to the zoning districts that Mak sense for it and it's cutting about five pages off of it because we combine instead of ah here the section b304 on page uh 2 of n on the bottom of this it says Community commercial General commercial Highway commercial all of these in the original um in the current code it just has Community commercial these two pages of sign regulations uh General commercial these two pages of signed Comm um regulations and the same content so combining them all will make it a lot easier for people to read and um save me time tracking stuff down so that would be nice um and then the only other substantive change is adding the mixed use districts in and adding um regulations for the commercial developments because a lot of our mixed uses have been residential and so we have regulations for those but we didn't have anything for commercial developments in those mixed use districts so we added in um regulations for that I think that was it oh and um changing the wall signs from in the rural residential district the wall signs for um residential Zone businesses which we recently changed they we no longer have residential own businesses we do have home occupations so we um had that match our new sign regulations for our home occupations and removed the reference to residential Zone businesses so a good overhaul of the sign regulations but nothing really changed in the substance however if there is any large concerns with this chapter this would be the time to do it um when coming through it I didn't see any issues I haven't heard a lot of complaints from people in the freeway district with how our signs are um regulated the size the setbacks all of that stuff but if there are signs that you think are too big or obnoxious or needed if you need any change in this this is the time to talk about that as well for ever hold your or forever hold your peace well no we can always have another ordinance hold your for a while I think it's good work thank you yep I have a quick question um yes on the the section 7B 304 where all of the districts got combined in the original version were each of those separate then they just repeated the same content is that what you said yeah so originally the sign District only had the they didn't have these districts they had you know a commercial showroom and general business I think stayed um and yes it was the exact same thing just repeated twice so where I'm going with this is um each one these numbers like 7B 303 is mixed use high density they kind of one number goes with one district and I'm just wondering whether putting three districts is it three three districts four districts however many under one number might create future problems if you end up thinking that you might call something out differently in one of them but now they're all under one number whether keeping them separate with different numbers might make more sense so so yeah and I re I realize that the horse racing district is 7 b305 so that's not how it must have originally been organized I'm just I don't I'm I'm not saying we should do it I'm just calling it out because I don't know if that creates more problems down the road if you do want to call out different different uh standards for different um districts within that that number bra system no that is a that is a good point and something that um I would probably talk to Legal about of how that codification works if we decide to pull one out say actually we want to change how The General commercial district is and we want to pull that out how would we do that in the future if the numbers are all the same is that what yeah yeah because because I think you'd have to assign them different numbers which is going to then affect everything that follows mhm and it might be easier to do that now since you're doing it rather than wait until it comes up but yeah it also might just be six of one half dozen of another so yeah so in my mind when we pull that out we would just renumber the future the ones down the line we could also move horse racing to a further number and leave a little gap for future changes in the numbering or we could put them all in separate so those are our three options on that right elanar I just wanted to point out on yes uh section 7 b-34 and page two you have commercial Community commercial CC and then General commercial CC I think it should be GC you are correct thank you good catch well that's what we're here for right yeah right all righty does anybody have any questions for elano okay so do you want to just um like every meeting poll one and go through and cuz I'd like to see what the state guidelines are and the county guidelines and what ours reads so that we can do ordinances so we can you know kind of come up with some language that fits USU cuz like the large animal we we need to it's kind of like we didn't um our paw it wasn't zoned yeah so then we had to backtrack so I'd like to look at it and then us put our heads together with what animals do we need to add to it mhm instead of just when it comes up we then we got to scramble and go backwards where if we use the foresight to go forward okay okay yeah I think that's a good system or a night where we don't have anything we could have a couple of them to just kind of dig into and and really dig into I agree but good work it I mean it's something you got to look at and when and when we don't have a lot on the agenda it's kind of nice since we're coming here to be productive and have something to do yeah um so I will start working on really digging into that large animal ordinance it sounds like that's something that everybody wants to work on perect um with these housekeeping ordinances are we good do we want to call a public hearing at some point soon or do we want to continue discussing I don't think we we need a public hearing do you we I mean I think some of them are we legally do have to have a public hearing for these okay well then we need a public hearing I guess so it's just a matter of if we call it now or we talk about it more before we call it exactly policy-wise we come here we do a little discussion on any ordinance we call public hearing and then go ordinances always need a public hearing I can throw it on a night where we have other things so that the guy who wants to keep an elephant in his pond can come and talk about it yes usually it's [Laughter] hippopotamus the elephants need to take a bath mhm I wouldn't do a I mean unless you have to do a public hearing I mean it's you do yeah yeah well any ordinance always need public car I feel the need to talk about it further but I don't know you know Janet brought up a point that I don't know how that's how significant that is so with the whole like numbering thing okay yeah so I don't know if that how like to what extent that would need to be but I I think it looks nice all right I mean the goal is to get this in the books as soon as possible so let's get through it okay otherwise Jack would you like to come come come up and talk about the technology so are we moving on to number six are you okay with that you can unless you've got something to add to that no I I don't have anything to add to the ordinance discussion I think Ellie did a very good job on that and I'm sure she'll make those Corrections and everything will be ready to go at the next meeting uh she gets to talk about the good fun stuff I get to talk about the bad stuff so what I'm here and we're giving this presentation it's already been given to the City Council planning commissions next and then the Eda and the par boards it involves our interactive technology meetings or our virtual meetings and in order to comply with our open meeting laws there State statutes that address this and I'm going to give the summary view of it and if you have any questions you can we can follow that up when I'm finished but it says a city meeting may be conducted by interactive technology in compliance with the open meeting law if all the following requirements are met number one at least one member has to be physically present in the building so it means you can have a meeting with interactive technology or virtual attendance if only one person's here however all members must be able to hear and see each other and all discussion and testimony presented at any location at which at least one council members was present so you have to see each other and you have to be able to hear them to conduct the meeting all members of the public at the regular meeting location must also be able to hear and see all discussion testimony and votes of all the members all votes are conducted by roll call so each member's vote on each issue can be identified and recorded and here's where the stickier stuff comes in each location at which a member is present is open and accessible to the public so that means if you're attending remotely wherever you are has to be accessible to the public however a meeting that satisfies the requirements to open meeting law even though a member of the public body participates from a lo location is not open to the public if the member has not participated more than three times in the calendar year from a location is not open or accessible and the member is serving in the military and is a required drill deployed or on active duty or the member has been advised by a health care professional against being in a public place for personal or family medical reasons so means you can do three virtual meetings a year if you meet those conditions so it's a lot stricter than what we've done in the past but in order to comply with open meeting laws we're presenting that to all of our commissions committees boards and councils uh so we don't run a foul of these regulations and these are Minnesota laws that's correct that state statute and again just the the brief rule card on it is is if you wish to attend virtually you can do it three times a year and even that has requirements uh that were mentioned but when you do you have to notify the city of where you are where you'll be and where you are is open to the public at that point so in other words you can't do it from your home you can but then your home is open to the public oh my if sick I'm very entertained by this yeah and and there there has been some discussion at the legislature to change some of this but that didn't go anywhere this year uh you know is it too restrictive maybe so but uh that's the the one that we have to comply with at this time so just a heads up and uh if you have any questions on that or you know if you if you look like you're if you think you're going to be absent for a meeting give me a call and I can walk you through what you need to do to be able to attend virtually I had a question about when people are on the screen some of them just have a phone number they don't have to identify who they are they should and they're was there are occasions where if a phone number comes up and we don't recognize it we haven't let them in or admitted them to the meeting I've been kind of looking at that and familiarizing myself with the numbers so there was one person that attends these regularly uh she's a citizen and uh she'd tried to get in before and we wouldn't let her in because we didn't recognize her number and we're also going to look at a policy called for Zoom bombing it's these people that try to disrupt a meeting virtually and that's why we're a little lery of phone numbers we'd rather at least have a name so we can recognize that so yeah because it's more common now and especially with the atmosphere and the we had that happen a couple months ago didn't we somebody was on here like saying weird stuff yeah so is it set up where you have they have to be invited in and you have to is there any way to ask a name when they want to get in um the way that Zoom is set up it just has who's trying to get in um and a button to say admit or not admit there is no capability to be able to like chat to them of saying hey can you tell me who you are tell me who you are Before I Let You in um it it's it's either or but they they can send us they could send us a chat request we see it on the screen my thought process is is they sign in when they come with their name and their address back there so is there some way to capture you know instead of just looking at a black box with a phone number actually knowing who's dialing in well it makes it very difficult unless you've got a tremendous memory there's certain numbers that you do recognize especially if you have admitted someone and they let you know who they were we make an effort to try to have at least a list of that or I try to memorize them too so we can let those in upon that recognition but uh it's it's it's a challenge to do that and it would be best if we maybe even had some type of little instructions on the screen or when they log in or people that do that so we can give them here's the process we're doing so you'll be sure to get in and not be denied admission so to recap it you can miss three meetings a year you can attend three meetings a year virtually okay now I think the the Planning Commission has bylaws it says you have to attend at least 80% of the meetings but and if you go on the webinar and come into the meeting from home you have to do we have to State our address so that people know where we're at that's that's and uh you have to have your door unlocked so if somebody wants to come visit they can yeah that that's correct and you really need to notify Us in advance if you know enough in advance so that we can make that announcement too at the beginning of the meeting okay really funny Jack is the is the requirement for those three times you still have to either be in the military or have a doctor or some medical excuse It's not I'm correct my hair is not right today so I'm going to do it on Zoom that's correct put a paper bag that's why they make no cuz they have to see you that's the other thing if you're if you're going to be on Zoom you have to leave your camera on and they have to see you because that's part of the law too which we've not enforced so that's why they make baseball caps yeah that's that might work for you anyway okay I thought maybe Sue would turn her camera on since we were talking about it but she didn't no she she's not she's a member of the public just address what's that toe can you hear me okay yes she is yeah oh she looks I'm having an okay hair day but I am outside on the deck um anybody can come and see me but I'm not a member of this right board yeah I'm uh I'm kind of like a I don't know I'm not actually considered a citizen um but I'm not part of the board so that's why I didn't think I needed to have my camera on you don't I was just teasing you okay all right but I'm here and listening so if you have any questions about the policy and the state statute feel free to give me a call and we'll walk you through any issues or things that you come up and see what we can do to uh make sure you meet all the requirements for attending virtually well thank you for the meeting requirements cuz I don't think we're always you know all I mean things change years ago you didn't have the interactive technology so it's a good refresher to have and with new people on the Planning Commission it's good to put it out there well during the pandemic too things get kind of LAX yeah yeah there there's a lot of things we're going back after Co even though that's been in our rearview mirror now for about two to three years that we're trying to get caught back up on to make sure we're doing everything properly and the reason for that is the way our society is today if the Planning Commission makes a decision that's challenged and you know we have a member that's not attending meeting the state statute it may have an effect on what happens may not exactly overturn it but it may make us go back and have to repeat a process okay well thank you again you're welcome thank you and now we will go to public open form is there anybody here that would like to say a few words to the Planning Commission is there any anybody online that would like to say a few words to the Planning Commission hearing none we will move on to the planning commissioner's report Bethany do you have anything I do not Barb Scott nothing okay and I will just um mention we are starting to get geared up for Fall Fest so if you want to help let us know and um we will be getting going I'm looking forward to it so having a petting zoo this year elephants huh you got elephants on the brain I guess she does okay um Planning and Zoning tech report um I did send out an email earlier today and mention it a minute ago but the next meeting which will be on um August 7th is going to be a joint meeting and we will really be tackling that Canabis um moratorium so just a reminder of that um I know that I said that we were thinking about July 31st but it's not going to work out so just letting you know that that is not what's going to happen perfect so I will look for a a motion to adjourn the meeting this is Bethany I motion to adjourn this is bar I second and I will call for the vote Bethany I Barb I Scott I and Lyn I meeting adjourned at 6:42 [Music]