foreign welcome to the Monday February 27th Planning Commission meeting please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 thank you um with that I any changes or additions to today's agenda seeing none I'll take a motion to approve today's agenda so second we have a motion ringstead and second by cheddar all those and savior say aye aye aye tonight's agenda is approved with that then we'll move to the approval the Monday January 9th 2023 meeting when it say changes to those seeing none I will take a motion to approve those minutes so moved all those in favor say aye aye aye motion is approved up to Monday January 9th meeting minutes with that then we will move to public hearings we tonight we have a preliminary plot and a variance with that I will just remind the audience of a few things first of all welcome to the review hearing procedure staff will present its report and request to issue a hand and planning Commissioners will have an opportunity to pose questions to the staff the app clip then will have an opportunity to address the commission and Commissioners can ask the applicant questions following an applicant's presentations I will open the floor to public comment if you wish to adjust the commission that asked you please approach the podium press the red button turn on the microphone and then clearly state your name and address for the official record please limit your comments to five to seven minutes in length and keep them to facts pertaining to specific application this meeting is the official public hearing your primary opportunity to be heard on this matter the city council has no obligation except further public comic in many cases they do not so please do not hesitate to speak and since there is a variance the variance request in this commission act and this board of adjustment has the authority to approve or deny the request without sending the matter to city council however any affected party can appeal the decision of this board all appeals are heard by the city council if you choose to file an appeal you must afford their appeal in writing to the planning department within five business days from this hearing with that I will turn it over to staff for pdebe 22-27 and 28. thank you Mr chairman members of the Planning Commission as you said this item is a public hearing on tonight's meeting and it is both a preliminary plat and a variance request for a project the project is a commercial building site in Prior Lake known as Prior Lake Revival 2. it's known as that because it's the second building project that this group The Prior Lake Revival LLC group has done in the City of Prior Lake around this location so location of the site highlighted here in red and identified is between West Avenue and Duluth Avenue and with County Road 21 or what is known as Eagle Creek Boulevard to the north of it just west of downtown Prior Lake where we are at today there is currently a commercial building that was built excuse me that was built a handful of years ago in just to the east of the site that was the Prior Lake Revival building the initial building of that houses commercial spaces in it right now and you can see the parking lot to the to the south of it as well and this is basically a continuation of another building continuation of the parking I'll get into the details in a little bit here of this commercial site this site is zoned Town Center or our downtown commercial zoning District even though it's not immediately right within our downtown node because of its proximity to downtown and it's and being a block away from downtown as well as being right on County Road 21. the site lens itself to more of a commercial use rather than a residential use property inside specifically is 46 000 square feet so just a little over an acre in size and the building that's being proposed is just over 11 300 square feet of commercial space broken up into various tenant spaces of about three to four tenants uh in the individual building you see the existing building here that's just to the east of it that I just spoke about that building is just over 12 000 square feet so this building not quite as large but very similar and it's going to be similar in style as well they're looking to expand the existing parking lot by adding another 15 parking stalls in total to the site to further to the west and then access would be through a joint access agreement to go back through the existing parking lot and enter on to Duluth Avenue so no direct access on the County Road 21 all the access for this commercial site would uh would go back towards Duluth Avenue here the uh the variance that's being proposed is based on the floor area ratio and this is specific to our downtown business district or our TC District what this floor area ratio means is we have a minimum of 0.5 floor area ratio in our town center and what's that what that is encouraging is that is encouraging to build multi-story buildings um obviously in a downtown business district we want to see more of two or three story buildings not single story buildings and so building a two-story building where you have equal amounts of um uh square footage on the Upper Floor as well as the lower floor then you would have that 0.5 ratio so that would basically we're we're creating a a code for our town center that we would like to have a minimum two-story building um as far as square footage goes of a floor area however even though this is Zone Town Center as I said before it's not immediately within our town center as you can see and part of that reason for that is um it doesn't have that on street parking it doesn't have some of the other aspects to it that allude itself to more of a of a downtown feel commercial district and the proximity obviously directly adjacent to County Road 21 is one of those reasons as well as having residential in behind it if this was a little bit more of a multi-story building it would be a little bit more challenging to uh to figure out those nodes and still establish a good amount of parking directly adjacent to these commercial businesses because we obviously don't have on Street part working right on County Road 21 or directly to the South so they need to they need to provide for their parking they need to provide for other things and they couldn't provide for maybe an adequate amount of parking for a two or a three-story type of commercial building in this site um the sites that are a little bit further to the West are a little bit bigger they might be able to provide for that to have those larger buildings but much like the building that's there today you would need to have greater than 50 parking stalls if you were to have two stories of commercial building space and there's just not enough room on this site to provide that a level of parking so that's that's part of the reason for the request of the variants from the Floria ratio and part of the rationale for why staff does support that that rationale as well just for clarity they did receive a similar variance for the the previous building that was just to the west of the site here's a building rendering that gives you an overview of the site um you can see the architectural materials that the applicant that probably like Revival is proposing to do it's a mix of cement boards some bricks from stone accents obviously some awnings similar to the the nautical theme or the theming of the architectural design that the building had again the East to just to the east of the site as well so they're tying into similar similar type of architectural Styles flat roof but it's varied in the elevations varying rough Heights obviously not a straight rectangular building it has varying shapes to it so it does add some of that architectural character to the overall site there's a couple more renderings as you see from the perspective of both the the parking lot side as well as the side that would face the north elevation which would be along Highway 21. I went through this already and someone in the recommendation but when we look at all of our variances in particular for what would be approved tonight if the Planning Commission deems it so um is to section 1152 or zoning ordinances and there are four criteria that all of our variances um are evaluated against uh for whether they're practical and something that the City of Prior Lake wishes to approve and they basically that they should be only permitted when there are Harmony or consistent with our code and Conference a plan they're granted when the applicant demonstrates what's known as practical difficulties given the situations unique to that specific site not something just based on costs or economics alone but something that's more based on the aspects of the specific character of that neighborhood or the specific site that is identifiable in this case as I said before the site being a town center zoning but not being directly adjacent into our downtown lends it to not necessarily have the adequate parking and site designed to support that two-story or multi-story building that's why uh the floor area ratio staff does support that it it doesn't quite meet that that character as well as the building existing building to the to the east did a few years ago when they got the variance approval for that one the other recommendation before you tonight is for the preliminary plot and the preliminary plot I'll just go back to it again is merely to approve a plot that would combine the two existing Lots you can kind of see a thin line here between them these are two lots currently they would be combined together under one platform the Prior Lake Revival II built project and it would design the parking lot standards the Landscaping the building site and whatnot which all do meat are City zoning ordinances for those type of those type of design standards the site does not have setbacks in the side of um it's a downtown zoning District that's why you don't see a lot of separation between property lines in the building itself there is a minimum setback from County Road Highway 41 but other than that they do have a little bit more wiggle room to put the building in the parking a little bit closer and we would actually like that as long as they meet their Spore monitor stormwater design so that we are using as much buildable area to the site that we can for our downtown projects so with that I'm here to answer any questions Nick bonsroots here as well if you have any engineering questions about access stormwater traffic parking anything on those lines the applicant is here as well if you have any questions for them I'll take any at this time thank you thank you very much Jeff I just have one question probably more for Nick how would the storm water flow either this like uh commissioner tieman it would I'm going to steal the mouse from Jeff here there you go thank you um it'd be collected in the parking lot via a number of catch basins and then it does go along the west property line into this area that has this heavy black line that's actually a retaining wall and then within that area is a storm water Pond or an infiltration Basin okay and then It ultimately discharged to an easement to the west to the county stormwater system there okay thanks this wasn't quite picture and how it would flow so thank you commissioner Johnson questions I have no questions commissioner ringstead no questions commissioner cheddar the only question I had was around traffic both on Duluth and through the the parking area for Revival one are there any concerns or city considerations for that access through Revival one and then two is the throat long enough for Duluth on to 21. for the traffic volumes that we'll be adding commissioner cheddar um so we did look at traffic counts okay and we did have our traffic engineer take a look at those numbers as well and from his takeaway the main backing up would be within the parking lot so it would be contained on private property it would be people primarily exiting the properties again depending on use it was the main area he saw that could be a problem but again that's private property so as a city or not really concerned with that also when prior Revival one went in that was prior to the 21 project so we'd have done significant improvements to the intersection there by not allowing a left office or excuse me um left out of Duluth onto 21. um as well so no City concerns or considerations nope not a traffic flow or volume okay good thank you and commissioner covert excuse me it mentions uh future access to the West would that line up with that Racine Street that connects with West Avenue is that that isn't a developed street is that commissioner kalberg any access that comes from that site would depend on what those other two lots development ends up being so at this time it does not perfectly line up racing with Racine geometrically there would be some sort of jog on the other property but again there could be a building there as well and not connected all the way through and one other question the ratio is based on not based on the footprint of the building but the floor areas so if you make two stories would you have enough parking to accommodate a two-story building of that size yeah and that's what we were looking at when we're looking at this site is whether that the parking adequate was going to get tight the more stories we added to the site hence the reason for the variance at access on the on the site because it would get to be more problematic with that parking design it seems like if you want three four stories you're gonna run way out of parking space correct oh there seems to be a little conflict in that racial calculation but for this building it's not a problem because it's a one-story building thank you thank you uh the applicant like to add any additional information just state your name and address for the record and then hit the button to turn green on the microphone yep Matt Schaefer owner of Briar Lake Revival two and one uh so thank you planning Commissioners and City staff for considering the variance I just want to reiterate what Jeff had mentioned which is uh we're building a smaller building than what the city's requiring and as much as we'd like to build a much larger footprint and a much larger building perhaps two or three stories we also want to make sure that we set up our business owners for success in the building and one of the challenges we have with our current building is that parking lot is full three or four days out of the are the week and we just want to make sure that there's enough parking available for these tenants otherwise their customers patients or clients they won't come back to visit if they can't find a place to park I also want to address one of the questions I believe it was commissioner cheddar that regarding traffic in and out of there we did do a traffic study and we anticipate an additional 444 cars or trip visits per week to that site and what I can tell you is that ever since the county and the city did The Joint project on Eagle Creek Road improvements in front of our building it's been a huge success and certainly reduced accidents and certainly has kept traffic flowing very well since they've done that project so we appreciate that joint effort between the county and the City thank you I appreciate the comments any questions for the applicant oh commissioner Charter uh yeah so I appreciate your comments about the traffic I do visit a tenant in Revival one I agree with the parking situation I was surprised to not see sidewalk connections between the two properties since you are effectively pooling the additional parking in this new outlet so I certainly would encourage that just to keep people from walking through the lot sure parking lot if possible so I think I'm glad that you weathered the construction in kovid and everything else and that we're back here to talk about this project today thank you thank you Mr ringside just wondering do you have any attendance committed to the building at this point uh no known tenants at this point thanks good thank you very much appreciate it with that I will take a motion in a second to open tonight's hearing so I moved second we have a motion and the second shutter and culbert all those in favor say aye aye tonight's is open for comment anyone have any comments on this agenda item I'll ask one more time any comments I see none oh we have one okay please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record and I don't know if that it's green or not can you check and see if it's green the little button it's green okay perfect now you can just talk okay so don't press anything yeah you're good um my name is Kaya kraftchek I live on 4353 Racine Street Southeast the white duplex that's on Racine um right there and just wondering so um and I know that with the open plots to the west of this property with those not being filled done or anything um currently I guess my question is it with those get developed the properties to the West will Racine uh connect to Duluth ultimately I've turned that question over to Nick probably you're probably the best dancer that or Jeff wanting you to I can take that so not at this time the only two Parcels or property area that would be graded and developed is the area that's highlighted in red here the other areas are actually owned by they're not only bright currently by Prior Lake Revival development company they're owned by a different property owner and they we don't have any proposal for any development on those at this time anymore I know there has been rumors and some Concepts that have been proposed but nothing is nothing is in at the city for any kind of building permits or any kind of development activity right now so they would just remain vacant and as is for the time being okay [Music] um and and I know I came in late so I probably missed some stuff but the the timeline for starting the this project yeah go ahead and you can address it you can speak from there that's fine you know thank you as well okay thank you very much for answering great with that I'll ask one more time I don't see anybody else in the audience anybody else like to address the commission today on this item okay with that I will take a motion in a second to close tonight's public hearing so move second we have a motion and a second ringstad and cheddar all those in favor say aye aye aye aye the public hearing is closed on this item um one point of clarification for staff we need to do two different things we have to do a motion for the plat and then we have to do a second one for the variance correct correct one is a recommendation to council for the preliminary Platinum the other one would be an approval of the variance okay so I thought all right perfect with that I have no concerns I think it's a nice continuation of a very nice development in town so I think it's a very good project I hope it goes through and we've got a nice another piece of developed land there instead of a vacant lot so others commissioner Johnson uh just a comment I'd like to applaud the applicant for bringing this forward I would I would second your comments I think uh the building that's there looks really nice provides services to our community diversifies our tax base and I see this as an extension of that so I will be uh in support Mr ringstead I think the staff report laid out the variance criteria being met and I agree with that completely so I too will be voting in support of this tonight commissioner cheddar I agree that the both the plat makes sense and the variance criteria have been met I am also proud of the of the appearance of these products in our commercial Corridor I think that this is a great addition to what's really turning into the centerpiece of Prior Lake for people that are passing through and commissioner Colbert yes this is certainly a logical use of the property and hardly unexpected the picture sign has been up for how many years though sooner or later we're going to hear this um the effort to add parking to help the other building in his uh a fellow commissioner commented about connecting walkways between the two buildings if they're going to share of that parking so other than that I am in favor of the there of the palette and the variants great okay with that then I'll take a motion a second to recommend approval the private Lake Revival 2 preliminary plot so moved second we have a motion by each other in a second by ring said all those in favor say aye aye aye the recommendation goes forward and also I would like to get a motion in a second for approving a variance from the minimum floor ratio of 0.5 in the Town Center zoning use District so moved I got a motion from cheddar a second from Johnson all those in favor say aye aye aye motion is approved with that I will open it up to staff is there any announcements or other information so yes that was your only action item on the agenda tonight um we do not have a meeting scheduled for you in two weeks at your regularly scheduled meeting which I think was on the fourth I'm sorry the 13th and uh don't anticipate having that meeting since we don't have any items scheduled and the 27th of March as well typically we do know how to have a meeting on that I don't anticipate having a meeting that that at all in March then just due to lack of items at this point we have been hearing about some projects coming in but they're more likely to be in April or May scenario before we see them before you so uh we'll update with those plans change but as of right now there's not anything anticipated for March great thanks Jeff with that it will take a motion in a second to adjourn Stein's meeting we have a motion by each other and a second by Johnson all those in favor say aye aye meeting is adjourned thank you