This transcript is from an **Oakdale Planning Commission** meeting. Based on the roll call at the start and the specific professional backgrounds mentioned by the commissioners (e.g., Commissioner Wilber's involvement in the car wash industry), I have identified the speakers accordingly. [0:03] **Chair Pearson**: Opening the regular meeting of the Planning Commission for February 1st, 2024. Uh, call to order. Call roll call. [0:08] **Staff/Recording Secretary**: Yes. Pearson? [0:10] **Chair Pearson**: Here. [0:11] **Staff**: Wilber? [0:11] **Commissioner Wilber**: Here. [0:12] **Staff**: Campbell? [0:13] **Commissioner Campbell**: Present. [0:14] **Staff**: Stolarski? [0:15] **Commissioner Stolarski**: Here. [0:16] **Staff**: Moli? [0:17] **Commissioner Moli**: Here. [0:18] **Staff**: Toot is absent. And Hagen? [0:21] **Commissioner Hagen**: Here. [0:22] **Chair Pearson**: Our Pledge of Allegiance please. [0:25] **All**: I pledge allegiance 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. [0:42] **Chair Pearson**: Okay, for the approval of the agenda, I would uh request a motion to move the open Forum item seven to follow item 8bi. [0:53] **Commissioner Wilber**: So moved. [0:54] **Commissioner Hagen**: Second. [0:55] **Chair Pearson**: Second. All those in favor? [0:57] **Commissioners**: Aye. [0:58] **Chair Pearson**: Any opposed? Thank you very much. Uh, next is the uh approval of minutes. Anyone have any comments or issues with the minutes as stated or as presented? [1:15] **Commissioner Campbell**: Move to accept the minutes. [1:17] **Commissioner Stolarski**: Second. [1:18] **Chair Pearson**: Second. Those in favor? [1:20] **Commissioners**: Aye. [1:21] **Chair Pearson**: Any opposed? Thank you very much. Okay, the next item is item 8bi, the new business: Oakdale Marketplace and Oakdale station planned unit development study. Luke, you have someone present it for us? [1:38] **Luke McClanahan (Planning Manager)**: Yes, thank you. And I'll start with an introduction of what the study is, what we're doing with this, and then I'll hand it off to our consultant from WSB to lead the discussion with the commission. So I do have a map we'll display on the screen here in just a moment. So the city is currently engaging in a study of two planned unit developments... [Continues background on Oakdale Marketplace/Oakdale Station]. With that, I will kick it off, hand it off to Kim to help guide us through this discussion. We really appreciate your feedback on the study. Thank you. [5:02] **Kim Linquist (WSB Consultant)**: Hi, um, I'm just going to tell you a little bit about myself and WSB to intro. WSB started out as a civil engineering firm... [Continues introduction]. I have enlisted Andrew [Gitzlaff] to be the flip chart guy because I always enjoy flip charts. Then people can see what he wrote down. I have a green and black pen... so really um we're just going to run through the questions that are in your packet. I guess before we do that, does anybody have any questions or comments you'd like to make before we do this exercise? [8:21] **Chair Pearson**: My only suggestion is if you're going to move the Flipboard back a little bit so that that camera can pick it up for the public to see out at large and also the people in the audience. [8:35] **Kim Linquist**: I just would make a comment to, we pulled some demographics those are at your desk... [Continues regarding restaurants and market data]. My first question is: could you define a little better "fast casual"? Because what immediately comes to mind is McDonald's, which we already have there. [11:39] **Commissioner Hagen**: Oh yeah, that would be fast food. [11:42] **Kim Linquist**: So fast casual tends to be like a Panera, Chipotle. So it's fast, but they also have some sit down... any border—not bordering on fine dining, but more of the upgrade for McDonald's in a sense. [11:58] **Commissioner Hagen**: Yeah, kind of that midrange. [12:02] **Kim Linquist**: Yeah. So anybody want to jump in on what your experience has been there? [12:12] **Commissioner Stolarski**: I go to McDonald's a lot there, but that being said, I think that whole area to me, it seems like it's just a slop together scattershot of businesses here with no rhyme or reason. The roads going through there—are they a road or are they a driveway? It's really tough to tell. [13:11] **Commissioner Wilber**: I think to add to that, I somewhat agree with you. It is—we shop there, we go there, we're in the area multiple times a week, but it is not a cohesive development. So we may go to Target and then we leave. We may go to Pins and then we leave. There's nothing that draws you there and kind of anchors you in that space for a long period of time. [13:34] **Kim Linquist**: Just trips. Right, right. [13:38] **Commissioner Wilber**: Right, right. So yeah, you're going there and then you're on your way to another, you know, retail shopping center. [13:42] **Kim Linquist**: If I to—if you wouldn't mind, what do you mean about the roads versus the driveways? Like they're not wide enough? [13:51] **Commissioner Stolarski**: The one between—so when you're the one that goes by SA then it goes to AutoZone... it's the one that's higher up that one right there and the ones that go through... it's just weird when you come in there. If your person is like—it's just, if you come there the first time, it's confusing on even how to get, like if you were going down to LA Fitness, I don't think you can drive straight down that road to get to LA Fitness. You've got to go out and around. [14:43] **Chair Pearson**: It's certainly a matter of whether or not you go there frequently. I go to LA Fitness practically every day. But if you wanted to do other things, you're segregated and separated. [15:10] **Commissioner Campbell**: If you know where you're going, it's just if you're coming in the first time it doesn't make a lot of sense. [15:18] **Commissioner Hagen**: LA Fitness is pretty easy. The exit from it is a bit more difficult because you legally have to come back down that road... I agree it's not clear. I know we've taken the wrong turn, you know, by Pins thinking we can get to Target. [15:43] **Commissioner Wilber**: Kim, you mentioned signage. I think if there was a more cohesive—like, there's not a signage plan right there. I think if you had some wayfinding signage that helps again anchor that development as one cohesive unit. [16:21] **Commissioner Campbell**: Is the signage there just basically one pillar for all of the stores? [16:26] **Commissioner Wilber**: There's at least one pylon sign that I'm aware of off 34. I could be misremembering though. [16:34] **Commissioner Campbell**: If there is, I honestly don't remember it. [16:38] **Kim Linquist**: I have two thoughts on that. One, going back to the direction thing... those are the same things that businesses are worried about. If people can't figure out how to navigate to get to them, then obviously it becomes a less attractive site for them. [Continues regarding highway signage]. [18:11] **Commissioner Campbell**: Do we know how many individual landowners have these vacant pieces? Because it's not all one landowner, correct? [18:21] **Luke McClanahan**: Yeah, if we could bring up the map on the screen I could point it out. [Luke points out different owners for various lots]. [19:25] **Kim Linquist**: So I'm going to move on. The next question is: what do you like about this area and do you think there's any neighborhood amenities that are missing? [20:14] **Chair Pearson**: I know that Pins is the only restaurant type place up there at this point. So I'm assuming what you were describing as somewhere between fine dining and McDonald's—that would be a good asset there. [20:54] **Commissioner Campbell**: A bakery would be amazing. Besides gas stations, do we have a bakery anywhere in Oakdale? [21:13] **Chair Pearson**: I don't think a dedicated bakery. I think the closest one that I go to is Grandma's in White Bear. [21:23] **Commissioner Stolarski**: They make bread down in that industrial area on 4th, but they don't sell it—not a bakery. [21:39] **Kim Linquist**: The staff provided some information to us about some restrictions on the property... [Explains private restrictions/covenants]. [22:28] **Commissioner Wilber**: Was that due to the original plan development for that area? [22:32] **Kim Linquist**: Not the city regulations, correct. [22:34] **Commissioner Wilber**: So as an example, my industry is car washes. Target has a restriction on that development that you can't have a car wash... and then it gets us into this situation where you're handcuffed. [23:15] **Commissioner Campbell**: We kind of voiced our opinions against car washes for the northern section as well. [23:25] **Commissioner Wilber**: So I know! I'm going to fight it now because I'm on the other side of the coin, I've seen the light! [Laughter]. [23:45] **Kim Linquist**: So, what do you like about the area? [23:51] **Chair Pearson**: As I've said, I go to LA Fitness practically daily. So that's one of the things I like about the area is it does have that facility. [24:12] **Commissioner Moli**: I hate to say it, but I shop Woodbury, so I don't even go out that way. I don't shop that area at all. [24:19] **Kim Linquist**: Do you think there's any amenities missing? Talking about like sidewalks, trails, a park, or landscaping? [24:34] **Chair Pearson**: As I've said, getting from north to south and south to north—that's an issue. And this will exaggerate that problem. There really, except down by the stoplight, there isn't a safe place to cross. [25:12] **Commissioner Campbell**: A pedestrian bridge or something would be useful I think for joining the two sides. [25:35] **Commissioner Wilber**: It's an interesting point. What I'm curious about is there's a number of Anna's Grove residents here tonight and I'm curious how many of them walk to that development. [26:02] **Kim Linquist**: What kind of uses do you think are missing or would do well in this area? [26:14] **Commissioner Moli**: See, I don't know if this is considered an amenity, but a community garden? Are there any community gardens in Oakdale? [26:47] **Commissioner Wilber**: To me this seems very much like a neighborhood center. It's not a power center like we see over in Tamarack. When I look at this, I think of things like a place where you can get your haircut, a local coffee shop, a bakery, those neighborhood services. [27:54] **Commissioner Hagen**: One that just came as a possibility is something like a UPS Store for shipping, mailing, post office boxes. [28:13] **Commissioner Campbell**: Your Amazon! There is a delivery one over in LA Fitness actually. [28:22] **Kim Linquist**: What about "experiential" uses? [28:38] **Chair Pearson**: Pins does have an entertainment center for kids and things like that. [28:55] **Kim Linquist**: What uses would you NOT want to see in that area? [29:08] **Commissioner Stolarski**: I guess I'd agree with the office spacing because that really was the original intent... and it economically just never materialized. [29:32] **Commissioner Hagen**: Banks and fast food don't get me excited. No more auto parts stores. [30:00] **Commissioner Wilber**: Car wash would look real nice there. Have somebody hand-wash my car. [Laughter]. [30:15] **Kim Linquist**: And the final question: what can the city do to assist? [30:26] **Commissioner Wilber**: I think what's challenging is, again, I just think about my day job. We're making our site selection decisions on the area demographics first... I can tell you that I think our city does a good job already of working with developers. I think Oakdale operates in a "our door is open" way. [32:15] **Kim Linquist**: [Asks about residential/multi-family vs waiting for commercial]. [32:58] **Commissioner Stolarski**: In short order we're going to have what, 700 units of people there. There's going to be some desire for them to have places to shop. We waited many years for Oakdale Mall to leave... and once Hy-Vee came in, it changed. To me, give it time for people to come in there and see. [33:55] **Commissioner Wilber**: I'm not inherently opposed to multi-family residential. But does that mean I'm in a position to say all of that vacant land needs to go to residential today? Not at all. [Suggests mixed-use/retail on first floor]. [35:10] **Commissioner Stolarski**: To tack on to what he's saying—I grew to like when I was over in Europe, people would live upstairs and the whole street level was where you'd get your bread and meat. I sort of like that concept. [36:00] **Kim Linquist**: Well, that's kind of the end of our questions. [36:25] **Chair Pearson**: At this time, I'd like to open the public forum. [Explains rules]. Anyone wishing to make comment please come forward. [37:16] **Dan Zimlet (Resident)**: How you doing? Name is Dan Zimlet, 7532 31st Street North. We love Anna's Grove... we were really upset when we found about the apartment building being built. A lot of us was promised that was going to be retail. [Continues regarding need for restaurants and his objection to more apartments]. I washed my car yesterday at SA right over there. My industry is Tunnel Express/Tunnel Car Washes. That's why Target doesn't want that—because we're bringing in a thousand cars a day. So I want to see something close. [40:40] **Dylan Michelle Cosgrove (Resident)**: Dylan Michelle Cosgrove, 7680 31st Street Plaza in Anna's Grove. Do we walk there? There's paths, but no, we don't because I go to Target or LA Fitness and that's it. I'd love to see a bakery, meat shop, a brewery. Something where we can sit down. [Discusses infrastructure, foot traffic, and lack of cohesive look]. Things we don't want to see is more residential, that's for sure. [43:45] **Chair Pearson**: I close the public forum. Move on to staff liaison update. [44:03] **Luke McClanahan**: Yes, thank you. Do expect that we have a March meeting. The Public Works building facility will go to the city council on February 13th. Thank you. [44:55] **Chair Pearson**: Any commissioner updates? Liaison Mr. Jake? [45:06] **Councilmember Jake (Liaison)**: I have nothing but if you have questions I'd be happy to try to answer them. [45:15] **Chair Pearson**: That moves us to adjournment. [45:20] **Commissioner Wilber**: So move. [45:21] **Commissioner Hagen**: Second. [45:22] **Chair Pearson**: All those in favor? [45:23] **Commissioners**: Aye. [45:24] **Chair Pearson**: We stand adjourned.