[Music] meeting of the uh planning commission is now in session. I would like first to call order planning commission and pledge of allegiance. Please pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. First, we're going to look for an approval of the meeting agenda for tonight. This is Susan. I'll make a motion to approve the June 4th, 2025 meeting agenda. This is Kim. I'll second. All right. We'll take a vote. Susan, Susan, I Kim I. I'm an I. Okay. We'll look for an approval of the uh meeting uh May 21st, 2025 meeting minutes. Look for a motion to approve those. This is Kim. I'll make a motion to approve the May 21st, 2025 meeting minutes. This is Susan. I'll second. We'll take a vote. Susan I. Kim I. Robin I. Okay. At this point we would like to open uh up the microphone for a public open forum. Anybody online? I don't see anybody here. Do we have anybody online who would like to speak up? All right. Thank you. Um, next we are going to have a planning commission discussion about the Northwest Quad preliminary and final plat. Do you have anything to add, Eleanor? Um, I did just want to go over this real quick with you guys again. We had the public hearing at the previous meeting. There was no public comment. Uh, this has been on the uh staff's desk for a number of years now of trying to figure out exactly how to split this land up and we're all very excited to get this um closed um through. Uh give me two seconds. But I did want to share some information regarding um some future endeavors regarding this land specifically sorry uh this lot here which is on the north um side of the uh West Freeway Drive. We are interested in doing a resoning project of that. reszoning that to mixed use um to potentially get some apartments, condos or a senior living facility in that uh area. We think that that would fit really well. Um and that would require a comprehensive plan amendment through the Met Council. So, uh, once this land has been split up and we can finally move ahead with that, we'll be getting a public hearing for that reasonzoning process and we get to explain, um, how comprehensive plans work and how those amendments will um, go forward. So, the only update, the only comments that we received from uh other agencies and communities was that the Minnesota Department of Transportation in the last two weeks did submit a comment regarding their uh right-of-way um plat saying that some legal descriptions were wrong there. Some serving uh there were some surveying errors there. That's outlot B. Um and so adjustments were made to that with our surveyors. Um and no other agency has have come forward to ask for any additional um things regarding this plat at this point. So I think that we are finally uh clean and ready to go for this one. Oo, are we really? Which is great news for for us here at the office. Okay. Does any do any of the other commissioners have any questions or comments? Uh, I do actually. Um, after being in in title insurance for about 22 years, I understand legal descriptions, planning, deeds, etc. So, have all the deeds been drafted, the title completed, is everything just ready to basically be recorded to the county at this point? Um, there are still a couple outstanding things with um title commitments and uh such for that will be completed in the next week or so. Um, but besides that, everything is ready to go to Okay. And then as far as the Met Council, this is new to me. Like, is it a big deal for a Met Council amendment? It seems a little or is it not a big deal? I don't know. Um, so I spoke to our sector representative um for for the Met Council, Mr. Door regarding this and another one that I'm actually going to talk about later in the meeting uh for comprehensive plan amendments. I know um this one is fairly simple, but changing anything from commercial to um residential in any way does need approval from the Met Council to make sure that it suits all of uh the residential needs and anything in their big uh 2040 vision. well, our 2040 vision, but um they get a say in it. For this particular one, uh she confirmed that it would be an administrative review process, so it wouldn't go before the actual Met Council at a um meeting of any sort, that one would be reviewed by staff. Uh and she did say that she would suggest that she would recommend approval on that given that um given the context that she knows now. Um, and we would just need to, the process of doing that would be a public hearing. It needs to have adjacent community review. So, we'd send over that information to um, Anoka County. It's close enough to Washington County that we'd have to do that as well. Forest Lake, Hugo, uh, I think there's a couple other ones for comment. Then we send it over to the Met Council. They review it and say, "Yep, you can put apartment complexes there." Um, Got it. And that sort of I no I appreciate that and I like I said I just I had the few questions but like I said given my background I 100% trust staff the attorneys the title of companies to get it right and um I looked at a few things and everything looks to be in order from my standpoint. Again I'm not an attorney. I'm you know I'm just kind of looking at from the general stuff but it all looks to be pretty well in order and I think um I think you guys have a really great handle on this and it seems like a good thing to get cleaned up. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I'm going to look now for a motion to approve or deny uh the Northwest Quad preliminary and final plat. Um, is there any do we have anyone who is No. Would you like to make a motion? I'll make a motion to pass it. Okay. Looking for a second. This is Susan. I'll second the uh recommendation to uh recommend approval of the Northwest Quad Preliminary and Final Plat. Okay, we'll take a vote. Susan, I Kim I. Robin, I Okay, that takes care of that part. Yay. A good thing to get done. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Planning Commissioner's report. I have nothing. Do either of you have anything that you would like to speak up about at this time? Mrs. Kim, I do not at this time. Mrs. Susan, I have nothing at this time. All right, then we go to the assistant planners report. All right. Um, I have a couple things that I'd like to discuss tonight um as a a casual report on my beha on my end. Uh the first thing that I shared with you guys is uh an update on the equipment share PUDC which went to city council last week and was approved. But there was uh quite a bit of discussion regarding this and I wanted to share with you what the final um findings of fact and recommendations for conditions that were decided at that city council meeting. Um there was a couple additional questions prior to that meeting regarding uh noise complaints at other facilities uh if there had been any noise testing um and how the equipment is organized in that storage yard. So we we followed up with the applicant on that and at the meeting we sorted out some additional conditions. Uh the condition suggested regarding the noise testing at six months uh was removed because they uh the council felt that they had added enough other conditions to mitigate that need regarding the um use of the property. And I wanted to provide you guys with this to to see what things you you do have at your disposal to uh add to these conditional use permits. you can uh get a little detailed with it if you feel the need to. Um we often do a dust mitigation plan uh for uh industrial sites near uh residential areas and so requiring that is something you can do. Um there was a request to limit the the hours of operation of nuisance creating activities of to the hours that they suggested and the applicant agreed to that. So that is uh added into the conditions. Um all of the dumpsters have tops on it, but that was added in as a condition for future users. Um and the specific location of those aerial lifts, those boom lifts that need to be uh that could possibly be an eyesore. Um were not removed as a potential use. You can still sore them on the property, but we did outline where they can be. I know that Kim was at that meeting and just for future notice, I I thought it was a good conversation and if either of you are interested in watching that video or skipping through that video to see that conversation with the applicant, I would recommend it. Um, so that's my first update, but I have a couple other little things that um I wanted to mention. the planning commission applications for our vacancy vacant seats um have come in and we're scheduling interviews for those potential um new planning commission members next Tuesday so they can hopefully be uh appointed at the following uh city council meeting and uh possibly be present at our our next planning commission meeting and we might have a full uh commission at that point. So, we're excited about that. We have three applicants uh at this time. So that's fantastic. I wanted to give you guys an update on the MTW truck wash. Uh they were having some issues with the uh sack determination and Rice Creek wershed, but at this point all of their permits are in and they will be starting construction soon uh hopefully. Um so that's fantastic. Um I also wanted to give an update. I off the top of my head do not remember who was present during the non-binding concept. I know that you were Robin for the Zoom zone cart track races. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, they I sure wasn't. Yeah. So, we had we had somebody come in and want to build a go-kart uh track, an outdoor go-kart track race. Go for it. Yeah. Um but that did unfortunately they did back out of that plan. Um, so it happens. Uh, especially with a concept that strange, but it it was fun to talk to them at least. Yeah. And maybe they'll show back up. I don't know. I wonder did they did they end up purchasing the property though? Um, it doesn't look like there was a property transfer. Uh, it looks like that company did pay for some wetland delineations and soil borings and such. I'm hoping to follow back up with them to see where they are in that development. Last time I spoke, they were still looking for end users, still potentially doing that plat and development, but still they were still interested in the property itself, but still trying to find um people to work with that wanted to to go with their proposal. Uh especially since they lost their one big ticket item of a go-kart track. Um, finally, uh, for your reference, uh, a lot of people have been calling, uh, asking for our rules regarding ATV ATVs on public streets. Um, there's some new legislation going through uh, in the Minnesota House, I believe. Um, and Forest Lake just updated their ordinance. That's the main thing is Forest Lake just updated their own rules and now everyone's calling us to see what uh our rules are. So, if anyone calls you or asks you anything, uh we do allow ATVs and go-karts. Um go-karts, not go-karts, golf carts. We don't allow go-karts. Uh ATVs and golf carts on city streets. The county and uh state streets are um operate under their own regulations as long as they are going under 20 miles per hour and are on the far right side of the road. Um and not in the ditch, side slope, boulevard, back slopes, just on the far side of the road. Except of course snowmobiles may operate within the ditches. Um, so in case anyone comes up to you and asks what the code is in there, that's that's what we've been getting a lot of questions on recently. Yes, it's been it's been a mayhem in my neighborhood with uh golf carts and especially four-wheelers recently. Oh, ours as well. All this this whole spring has it's just been crazy. Okay. Yeah. the DNR came and spoke at the Lake Association last week about it and the rules and regulations. Yes, we've been we've been getting our fair share of calls regarding it as well. Um, so those are some of the small things, but the the last big thing that I wanted to discuss was our other potential comp plan amendment situation that I uh recently discussed with both the park board and the city council. um but I wanted to bring up to you guys as well. So since it seems that we are going forward with it um we have been discussing for a number of years the potential sale of sorry let me grab the correct screen here. There we go. um our hidden park, which is a small neighborhood park um off of one 62nd. Um there was some concern on reszoning this or this whether that was legally allowed or there's been lots of back and forth over the years as to whether this is possible um to do and Sorry. In order to return this to a residential lot, that would also require a comprehensive plan amendment to be approved by the Met Council. And so we'll be seeing more of that as that situation unfolds. Um, but the goal of this would be to um use the proceeds of this small underutilized park to help support endeavors in the main big city park. Uh, help support the one that is more frequently used and more of a priority in the eyes of our of our park board and the thing that they would like to do. But, um, in order to do that, there's going to be some some work to be done in the planning commission as well. um to make sure that this lot is is viable for a residential uh unit. Anything else to add to the hidden? No. Ellie, I think you covered that very good. And it's as Ellie said, this has been an ongoing discussion for a number of years. The big issue is that we were told in the past that this land was acquired as land dedication for part of that development. In that case, the city couldn't sell it. The only way they could dispose of it would be give it back to whoever dedicated the property. We did some research and found out no, it was a tax forfeite property. Tax forfeiter property after the city's held it for 30 years then can be sold. The issue we have here is a zoning change. The property is zoned and presented or a comp plan as a park. We want to change it to residential use. That's what's going to trigger the uh comp plan amendment from Met Council is is their formal process, which could probably take up to four months to get done. But then at that time we want to try to market it and use those proceeds for additional improvements in the city park including a basketball court and goal as one of our plans. Yes, some additional work to be done there. Um and with that I believe that is everything that I had to to mention tonight. Thank you Elanor. I just had a quick question regarding the parkland dedication. Is it and again I'm newer to the planning commission. I haven't been involved in any developments, but is it is it the the park board's typical do they prefer the money, you know, per new additional lot or do they prefer the land? The money. I'm just that's more curious. Um we land. Oh, we almost always uh prefer the money over the additional land. Uh I thought so. Same. We we definitely prefer to focus our endeavors on our one uh larger developed park rather than collect uh parcels of land throughout the throughout the the city. Uh especially since uh our residential lots are fairly large and uh our the parks that we would obtain through the parkland dedications would be um not very useful to their communities. Sure. Thank you for the history. I was just I was just curious what the background was. Thank you. One other comment on that, Susan. I think in the past probably that land dedication was the preference when the cities had no property to develop. But they found out soon that these properties just became pieces of geography and without any money to develop them, they were not of any real value. So in as gone on most cities now always prefer cash in lie of land and town. I agree. I get that. Thank you. So all right. Is there anything else from the planning commission? Well Jack. All right. I'll look for a motion to adjurnn then. Motion to adjurnn. Who went first? Sue, would you Susan, would you like to second the motion? Uh, this is Susan. I will second the motion to adjurnn. Thank you so much. Uh, take a vote on it then. Susan, I am I. Rob and I. They are adjourned at 6:21. [Music]