[Music] Good evening. It's 7 o'clock. We'll call the meeting to order. Ken, can you do the role, please? Commissioner Wagner here. Commissioner Steeler here. Commissioner Gerard here. And I will note for the record that Commissioner Stender and Commissioner Young are absent this evening. We ask you if you're able please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation. Chair is looking for a motion to approve the agenda as presented or with changes. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as uh presented. I had a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second it. I have a motion and a second. It's a non-debatable motion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Abstensions? Motion carries. Next is our open forum. We invite anyone who would like to speak uh for any topic in particular or unparticular. You're more than welcome to come up. State your name and address for the record. spend a couple minutes giving your thoughts. Once we have heard everyone, we will move off the open form into the consent agenda. Would anyone wish to speak this evening? Ken, do we have anyone online? No, we're no longer doing that. We're not doing that anymore. You didn't know that. Did we announce it at the last meeting? Was I not listening? Must have been. I won't speak for you, Mr. Chair, but that was Yeah, we're no long They're no longer taking comments. You may not have spent speaking, but Yeah, people can watch but they can't Oh, all right. interact and nothing to be read in. Definitely not. All right. Seeing no one come forth. We'll move on to item six, consent agenda. Consideration tonight is to one item a approve minutes from regular meeting of March 12, 2025. I'll make a motion to approve the uh consent agenda. Have a motion. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. A regular agenda item is minor subdivision for 18323 Forest Boulevard North. Justin Bowser. Case file number PZ25-1304. I'll take this one, Mr. Chair. Very good. Thank you. Uh the request before you this evening is to review and make a recommendation about a proposed minor subdivision for the property at uh 18 323 Forest Boulevard and the neighboring property. So the 18323 Forest Boulevard is here. It's a h has a house and a pullb bar and a detached garage. The commission may recall we reviewed a variance request related to this back in January. The applicant who is which is Mr. Emry is proposing to buy this approximately 5 acre piece and an additional five acres from the adjoining property which are both currently owned by Justin Bowser to create a 10acre parcel. The zoning code however requires a 20 acre minimum lot size in this area. Commissioner reviewed that variance request and approved it allowing to have a 10 or 10.1 acre property here with going through the platting process. They have now made that application to subdivide the property officially. Try to zoom in a little bit on this. This will become the 10 acre or 10.1 acre property here by really adding this area and a little bit down here onto the 5 acre property. They are also showing on as part of the plat the dedication of right away for Forest Boulevard Highway 61 in this location. If go back, I'm going to go jump to this map. This is This map shows property lines in the area. This is uh where's my mouse? Right here. This is 18323. And the property line currently goes out into the center of Highway 61. The new plat will straighten that out and line it up so there's a full rightway dedication. And then this is the remainder piece uh to the south and east. all this large piece over here. So again, switching back to this, this is again the large piece that will remain for future development if and when that ever happens. So really the request for you this evening is to make a recommendation about this proposed minor subdivision. U as shown on the screen, we're recommending a staff approval of that subject to two conditions, excuse me. One is that they they have they the applicants have the surveyor prepare a final plat showing this because this if you we zoom out this is shown as concept plat and needs to be prepared as a final plat so it can be signed and recorded and approved by the city council. And then we're also having condition that the city will not issue any building permits on either parcel until all the planning is done and recorded and if and if there's any other conditions from the watershed district or the Minnesota Department of Transportation. I did send this request to the DOT again because of adjacent to the right ofway. See if they had any comments. They I haven't gotten any comments yet. I haven't even gotten a no comment yet, but Mandot is notoriously slow for providing comments, but I would think they'd be happy that the additional rightway is being dedicated. I don't foresee any issue with that. So, that is the staff report and our recommendation for this evening. Again, there's a uh page 11 your packet, page three, the report has the recommendation. Really, I guess we'd recommend, but I'd ask you to make a motion based on what you think is correct. This is scheduled to go to the council on April 28th. And lastly, the applicant called me today and said, unfortunately, he was caught out of town, so he was unable to attend. I told him I thought it was pretty routine. The commission had already seen this item once, but to be sure to be at the council meeting when it goes to the council, he understood. That's my report. Thank you. Thank you. Questions of city? No. I have none. Can I make a motion? Absolutely. I will make a motion to recommend to the city council of Forest Lake approval of the proposed minor subdivision. This minor subdivision is for the replplatting of the existing property located at 18323 Forest Boulevard North and the adjacent undeveloped property known as Outlot A Forest Lake Preserve Estates. Um the property ID stated there. This minor subdivision enlarges the property located at 18323 Forest Boulevard to 10.1 acres and reduces the size of the existing undeveloped adjacent property a lot a forest uh lake preserve estates to 163 acres. Uh this approval is subject to the following conditions. Number one, the applicants surveyors preparing a final plat of the minor subdivision for the approval by the city council and suitable for signatures and recording at Washington County. And number two, no building on either of the parcels shall occur without first obtaining all required approvals and permits from the city, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and Rice Creek Watershed District. And with the following 11 attachments, and I won't read all the attachments, but they're all there. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second it. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. Thank you, commission. All right, we'll move to item eight, which is discussion, which really we always merge with item nine, the updates. So, um, unless you have a topic for discussion, we'll move on to the our esteemed council member here. I I don't have any discussion. My stuff will be all updates as well. All right. So, we'll start with our council member Larson. Welcome to the planning commission. We always appreciate your wisdom and knowledge while we're here. Thank you, Mr. chairman and commissioners for this evening and your work on our unfortunately short staffed commission. Um I know it's troublesome to try to find uh some folks that are willing to step up, but we're constantly uh looking and it's a topic in uh on our web page as well. And like we always say, if you guys know of anybody as well, please ask them to come forward. Um because I know we'd like to get some positions filled, but it's a tough it's a tough stop unfortunately right now. So um the only thing I have real quick is uh we met Monday with the EDA board um on a topic of the headarters 123 area. Um we met with the a real estate our real estate company and some uh another gentleman regarding uh some planning possibly for that area. Um we might be looking at maybe making it smaller or having smaller lot sizes as we once discussed at one point before. I recall we did that. Uh so we're looking at that and uh there might be some possible movement maybe on the property as well. So to be continued with that. And for the commission, that's this area here I put up on the screen. Southside of Headwaters Parkway. Are we looking for all residential or they hoping to still have some of it be commercial? I think they're looking for commercial more or less. Um, that's still it's a toss up. Um, there's room leads. There might be some that might be interested in in some of the property. So, like I said, to be continued with that. Um, also the other thing I'd like to just mention, I'm sure you're all aware of, but Broadway is going to be under construction on the 14th. So, that will probably stir the pot a little bit for uh our main thoroughfare in through town. So, which which part? Um, I think they on the site I think they have like one of the westbound is going to be closed completely. So, there's signage. I'm not I guess I didn't really go too far into it, but there's all kinds of signage and stuff down there getting ready to be popped up for the 14th. Yeah, it's from I35 to the roundabout at 61 concrete concrete repair, especially those colored crosswalks that have failed. Yeah, heating out there and stuff. And there I my goal I think their goal is to get it done before the 4th of July or most of it so it doesn't affect Fourth of July activities and then MDOT's supposed to start the Highway 97 project later this summer maybe after that starting at the west end down by Hornsby. Yeah. So we'll all be under construction. And you'll have to have a map to try to figure your way in and out of town. So because Northshore will be under construction, too. That will be coming too from 235th to 97. So where? So you're going to get off interstate and you're not going to be able to go right on Broadway. Does that be closed? I think they're going to keep at least one. Where do they think the traffic? I mean, I know there's no way of knowing until it happens, I suppose, but I suppose 97 is going to take a hit and 61 and or go up to Highway 8. Or if you're in town, you just go to 11th, cross over there, get to the other side. Yeah. I mean, you can't get off on can't get off. You used to be able to. Did you really? Yeah. A long time when they bulldozed. No. Uh when they bulldo the 97 bridge or is it Broadway? No, when they bulldoze the Broadway bridge. I don't know how many years they eight, seven, eight. Yeah. Okay. They closed it. You know, we took a one-year construction. They put on on it's in temporary room. Lots going on. It's going to be a busy summer. So get out and tour around so you got your way home. I have to boat everywhere. That's all I have. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Any questions for the man? Nope. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Ken, what do you have for us? Uh, couple three things. The next plan commission meeting on the 23rd is canceled. We'll send an email to you. Uh, we are still finalizing as a staff the landscape ordinance update. Mayor, we had a draft of it. We worked through some things and then we didn't get it ready. So, we needed to schedule get that wrapped up and get a public hearing scheduled. Obviously, it won't be in the next meeting. Maybe in May at some point. And I think at least two of you know, Jesse may not have heard. I have resigned. My last day here with the city will be either Thursday the 24th or Friday the 25th. So, we're Aby's got me busy wrapping up projects like this that we had tonight before I depart the city. I'm taking a position with the city of North St. Paul. Start there on Monday the 28th. Take other questions. Well, first on behalf of the planning commission and um congratulations on your new position. You think you're a very good addition to city of Forest Lake. spent a lot of time and effort u preparing for the meetings. You tweaked your style to at least we could sort of roll with you then, you know. So, it's been a I think it's been a good endeavor. So, on behalf of the planning commission, thank you for Thank you. all your time and effort that you've put in. Yeah. and and for me it professionally it's been a great position but this other position doing some different things and a lot closer to home. It's a 9 mile drive instead of 31. Now that's not the primary reason to take it but it's it's not a bad one. It helps. It's kind of the cherry on top kind of thing. So I'm excited about the new opportunity. So thank you. You guys haven't been You guys haven't been too bad to work with either. And I I believe they're discussing having Bolman make Yes. have a a rent a planner from Yeah. A couple days a week they'll have somebody come in to work on things. So, uh you guys are fairly we had Nathan, right? uh before Ken. So, they do a good job, but it's not quite the same as when you have your own staff. You know, I heard about uh my neighbors who I heard great things about my neighbors saying they worked Oh, I was at the city worked with this guy Ken had really positive things to say about you. Thank you. May have been also that they had dealt with the rented guy before. I don't think that's the correct term, but uh yeah. No, contract help. Thank you. contract. Uh, one other thing I'll add too is I I Jeff, I don't know if Jeff knows it, but I think on the council agenda Monday night, they're going to have some discussion on staffing for the city and they're advertising for a finance director right now and looking at creating and hiring a planning manager position and some more help for code enforcement because I was doing a lot of that. So, there more But hopefully positive changes moving forward. Our finance manager left too. Yeah, he left about the first of the year. You know, this not being on council. Ignorance is bliss. And he got a job about four miles from home, so he's pretty happy about that, if not less. Very good. That's all I have. Thank you. No, no. Good luck to you, Ken. Thank you. Pleasure working with you, Jesse. Good luck to you. Thank you. And I and I have no other uh comments tonight. So the chair is looking for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second it. I have a motion to second. It's a non-debatable motion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. Thank you for your diligent service this evening. [Music]