This transcript is for the **Apple Valley Planning Commission** meeting. Please note that while your context list provided the Mayor and City Council, the Planning Commission is a separate body. Based on the dialogue, the key participants are **Tim Benetti** (Community Development Director), **Mark Roper** (Applicant/Engineer), and Planning Commissioners **Schindler**, **Scanlan**, and **Mahawald**. [0:00] [Music] [1:03] **Madam Chair:** Arm's gonna go off right are the good evening I call the April 3rd Apple Valley Planning Commission meeting to order the first item of business is the approval of the agenda any changes from staff? [1:12] **Tim Benetti:** Madame chair, members of commission, we do not have any changes or additions for you at this time. [1:24] **Madam Chair:** Any changes from the Commissioners? [1:26] **Commissioner Schindler:** Move approval. [1:27] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Second. [1:28] **Madam Chair:** Moved by commissioner Schindler and seconded by commissioner Scanlan. Any discussions? If not, all those in favor signify by saying Aye. [1:36] **Commissioners:** Aye. [1:40] **Madam Chair:** Oppose Nay. Motion carries. The next item of business is the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion without discussion unless a commissioner or a citizen requests to have any item separately considered it will then be moved to the land use action items for consideration. Do I hear an approval for minutes of March 20th, 2024 regular meeting? [2:11] **Commissioner Scanlan:** So moved. [2:12] **Commissioner Schindler:** Second. [2:14] **Madam Chair:** That was commissioner Scanlan and seconded by commissioner Schindler. In favor say Aye. [2:18] **Commissioners:** Aye. [2:20] **Madam Chair:** Oppose Nay. Abstain. Motion carries. Brings us to public hearings and we have no public hearings tonight so then we skip to five, land use action items, and that will be presented tonight by Tim Benetti and it is from KLJ Engineering for the Les Schwab Tire Center. That was a mouthful. [2:42] **Tim Benetti:** It is. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the commission. Proud to present for you tonight a site building plan permit building permit authorization with a conditional use permit on behalf of Les Schwab Tire Center. This application was submitted by KLJ Engineering on behalf of also Rockport LLC. Again, your site building permit authorization is for an adjusted 15,897 ft Auto accessory store with installation facilities. The conditional use permit is pursuant to city code 155.57 D where service bays as an accessory use for the installation of auto accessories in conjunction with an auto accessory store—and we felt that this does meet that definition of auto accessory store. As we introduced, this site is located just to the west of the current Texas Roadhouse, just south of the Mister Car Wash, north of the Quarry Point Park. It is currently zoned RB residential at 15690 English Avenue. Again, just shows the zoning classification that's on there. Retail sales of auto accessories are considered the permitted use and again highlighted in the green is the auto accessory store for service bays. The legal description: very simple, Lot 2 Block 1 Orchard Place Second, so there will be no platting of this lot. As we indicated at the last meeting in February, we do have a subject site that is impacted heavily by drainage and utility easements. No part of the building will impact that easement area; however, parking lot landscaped areas are allowed, so there will be no issues with the effectiveness of the drainage and utilities on the east side. Our site plan here before you again just shows that the 2.72 acre lot will have an impervious coverage about 60% and an open area pervious about 39%. Just highlight the building here with the parking up on the North side and the access points highlighted here. What's also been included in this diagram, as we pointed out at the first meeting, was what we refer to as a lane restrictor or bump out. You may have heard in previous conversations there's been some impacts with people trying to get two-way traffic in this area off of Texas Roadhouse. This is actually a one-way route at this point here going into the area here and we're trying to restrict those people that want to continue down and try to exit out on the 157—it's not working well. So this bump out will hopefully restrict that and prevent that as well. Also, the new signage will be installed here to prevent that as well, we hope. The retail store for parking, nothing changes here. The 19 plus 25 spaces should cover what is needed for the lobby retail area, also the service area, and remaining nine spots for the 18 scheduled employees. With 53 spaces we feel they do meet the ordinance. Utility plan: virtually it is the same as before, no changes there. On the grading: a very level graded site right now so that we don't anticipate a lot of grading changes with this new building. Our last plan has been updated per the requirements of our natural resources recommendations. Some of the plants that they originally indicated or scheduled on this plan were considered non-native or invasive; these now meet those requirements per our natural resources and they also meet the 2 and a half percent of the mean value based upon employment cost. However, we always examine that at time of building permit to make sure if the mean value has changed we make the applicant or developer adjust their landscaping to meet the 2 and a half percent requirement. Nothing changed on the floor plan; it's still the lobby area on the northeast corner of the building with the service bays inside and the racking on the North side and also some limited racking on the South Side. One way in, one way out. A small utility door on the side here; this will be used to function as a point to dispose of tires. Inside, we've made a special requirement or specific requirement that we don't want to see any tires stored outside either open or in any type of Connex or storage box, and they've agreed. According to Les Schwab Representatives, they do not do that; they store all their dead tires or their discarded tires inside the building, which we hope they comply with. Your original plans did show a very basic tip-up wall panel building and it had smooth features, not a lot of elements or features. We encouraged the applicant since that meeting in February to provide a little bit better materials if they could. Here's what they come up with: these are CMUs—these are block CMUs—so they do look like a brick or block material which is allowed in our ordinance. As we pointed out, they do have the ledge stone or the stone veneer as a wainscoting appearance on the bottom which I think really highlights the building very well. The window features, the articulated roof designs—again, very impressed with that. The color scheme fits very well together. These panels are false wall or false window panels; they're not meant to be windows because they can't with the racking system inside. With the tires up against those racking systems, they're worried that if a tire gets loose or someone gets kind of angry one day and wants to throw a tire up on the rack and it goes through a window, that's not going to bode well for that glass feature. So these are features that look like windows but they're simply a decorative feature. I encouraged them to keep the eyebrow features here just to provide for some accents, so they've done that. And again, four-sided architecture, which is what we require. Don't pay no attention to the signage, all that will get worked out later on as part of a condition of approval. Again, just the backside and side elevations. We did also encourage them to provide us an updated trash enclosure diagram that shows it meets the ordinance. We always want our trash enclosures to marry or look like they belong in the site with the building, so they’ve done this. So this is upgraded from the steel panels or the aluminum anodized panels they had before. Again, the building materials—these are just also part of your packet—just shows what the materials are going to look like. To highlight or remind you, at the February 7th meeting you gave initial consideration, you had a public hearing, you did close that and received comments. The PC recommended the applicant bring back the site building plan and direct staff to work with them, which they did very well the last few months. So we feel that they have met the requirements of our ordinance. We are recommending approval of the new site and building plan as well as a conditional use permit. We have conditions noted on Exhibit A for the site and building plan, conditions number 1 through 21, and also the CUP on conditions number 1 through 5 on Exhibit B in your packet. With that, I will stand for any questions or the applicant's representatives are here to have any added material or information for you as needed. [11:08] **Madam Chair:** Sure. Thank you, Tim. Commissioners, any questions? Commissioner Schindler. [11:13] **Commissioner Schindler:** Madam Chair, I think they did a good job with the elevations. I'm impressed, so I just wanted to thank you for that. That's really all I wanted to say. [11:51] **Madam Chair:** Yeah, I'm happy that they kept the articulation and the roofline structure, the eyebrows. I mean those are features that you know, as a pseudo-student of architecture, I really like those little features that kind of make the building stand out a little bit more. And I know it's a "boring" tire store, most people think how can we make it a tire store better? They did; they made it better. So, very impressed. Those details matter. I think it was next was Commissioner Mahawald. [12:22] **Commissioner Mahawald:** Thank you, Madam Chair. I do think that the applicant has made significant improvements on the details that you mentioned. Are there any restrictions at all like with respect to the size of the windows on the retail side of things? [12:42] **Tim Benetti:** I'm not aware of any, Commissioner Mahawald, but at this point we can verify that or check into that if you need to. I don't believe there are, but if there are, I wish my other planners were here tonight—they probably would know but I don't recall there's any. Sorry for alerting you there. [13:08] **Commissioner Mahawald:** Yeah, the reason I ask is because I looked up some Les Schwab facilities at other parts of the country in Colorado and Oregon and California that just have a much more modern looking, a little bit more glass, larger windows—things like that that would seem to me would fit in better in that newer development than this. This is definitely a significant improvement over that, but I think they could do better when it comes to fitting in with the area a little bit more with some larger windows. It's a significant improvement, but I don't know that we've gotten all the way there yet in my opinion. [13:56] **Tim Benetti:** Commissioner Mahawald and members of the Planning Commission, I believe I may have indicated some designs from their buildings. Since they started in the West Coast, Bend, Oregon, and they started moving towards the Midwest, you saw the progression. You can see the progressions by just going on their website—their older stores versus their newer stores. There are some really nice looking buildings out there, and not to say that this is not as well-designed as the other ones, but this is a feature that they're bringing to the Midwest area and we feel it does meet the requirements. It does blend in with the other uses out there. You know, sometimes windows, depending on how expensive they are or how efficient they are—if the applicant could throw more windows in there I'm sure they would have, but if you would want me to encourage them to provide those, we could ask for those. [14:52] **Madam Chair:** Tim, can I see a previous picture? [14:55] **Tim Benetti:** I don't know if I have it on... oh, I thought you did... I'm sorry, I could go through the old presentation. [15:02] **Madam Chair:** I was just watching the previous meeting today because I was not at that meeting from February 7th. I'm just going to speak as a former store manager—when we had windows, they were a pain to keep clean. I'm guessing that you probably do more non-windows in this area due to the weather. When it gets really cold, it was drafty and stuff like that. I'm just saying that windows sometimes make it look more dingy and dirty because sometimes you don't get a cleaner out there once a week, etc. I was out there cleaning it usually. So, I think it looks good. Commissioner Scanlan. [15:52] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Thank you. I had a couple questions. You already brought up the fact of signage—it doesn't comply. Was there any concerns from Fire as far as egress? [16:11] **Tim Benetti:** Right now, preliminary review by our fire department did not indicate any concerns. All that will get reviewed fully and comprehensively at the building permit process. And so these signs again are just for diagram or illustrative purposes only; these will get fully reviewed and vetted out later separately. [16:35] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Correct. And then also with the lighting plan? [16:36] **Tim Benetti:** Correct, the lighting plan will also have to meet code, which is basically all the lighting has to be contained on the site and cannot have any direct impact to any roadways or distractive measures of any nature. We usually call that out to be just a typical downcast or cut-off type light. [16:58] **Commissioner Scanlan:** And then the other couple of questions relate to the elevations. I'm going to kind of echo the sentiment in terms of the windows. If you go across the street and look at the Caribou, similar roof line design. The fact also that we're doing all these faux windows—it would I think balance things out better by increasing the window coverage in the sales area, from my perspective. And then also on the loading elevation, if you could bring that up please? [17:48] **Tim Benetti:** Which one? The loading side, oh, which is I think the West Side. Yep, right here. [17:54] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Yep. That there's kind of a lack of balance on that side compared to the other three sides of the building. You have a garage door and then a, I guess that's the tire loading door. [18:04] **Tim Benetti:** Yeah, since this is pretty much—I believe this bump-out area is pretty much dedicated for the storage of those old tires and there's probably not much to do on that side. But if you think more faux panels are warranted, you could make that as a requirement or as a suggestion. I guess that's the only suggestion that I would see at this point unless the applicant had some additional comments on both areas: windows and on this part of it. But it is a greatly improved over the initial presentation we saw in February. That concludes my questions, thank you. [18:56] **Madam Chair:** Commissioner Mahawald. [18:57] **Commissioner Mahawald:** I would just like to follow up on those comments because I do think the eyebrow features over the front door and the front panels do help to break up that space. And going to the loading area, the West Side, and even I guess the East Side as well—that those are nice architectural features that kind of help break up those walls that you see on the South and the North side, but not on the East and the West side. So I would echo those comments as well because it's just nice... I don't know, again, the other stores have a nice mix of materials that seems to be lacking here, but it's a significant improvement over what it was before. [20:07] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Just a follow up on that on the elevations. I think if we were looking at this building in an area of a home improvement store, something like that, there would be more flexibility in some of the comments that I presented. But in the fact of where it's being placed and the surrounding established commercial properties there, I think it warrants some additional changes to the architectural components to the building. Thank you again. [20:53] **Madam Chair:** Anybody else? If I remember correctly, it was recycling once a week, right? And they're pretty concrete on that—that they come once a week and do that? Okay. And I would echo also the faux windows on each side of the West and East with the eyebrows; that would be a good addition. So, do I have any recommendations for approval? Can we get any comments from the applicant? Oh sure, did you want to make any comments? I didn't mean to ignore you, I'm sorry. [21:28] **Mark Roper:** That’s good, thank you. My name is Mark Roper, I’m here with KLJ Engineering on behalf of Les Schwab Tires. I thought maybe I can come up and speak to a couple of those questions you had. About the windows and the kind of design of the building itself—this building is fairly unique and I'm not sure if you saw that from some of the photos out west. This one's unique in the sense because all of the bays are inside, so we don't have the doors and windows along that side. They're working through this design because it is unique, so there's not a template of how many windows or where they can put things. So that's why we were stepwise trying to address some of those issues along the window side. And that also plays with that West Side. We didn't show it in there about the truck moving, but the truck generally comes in about once a week to drop off new tires and takes up the old ones, and they're on that West Side. They come in on that West Side so some of that thing that you see on there, why we don't have a lot of other encroachments or accessories on there, is because we will have a semi coming in there and out of. So we're trying to limit anything that they could hit or take out. But we can at least do maybe some of those faux windows or some other things that are maybe not sticking out or at least can break up some of that West Side. [22:48] **Madam Chair:** Good fixtures. Good, thanks for explaining that. [22:50] **Mark Roper:** Yeah, so what you're saying is on the West Coast they have open doors and all that other stuff with their bays? In Minnesota we have to have it all... well, that was one of the conditions is to have everything inside the building. If you've seen some of the other places even like Tires Plus or Costco, they have the doors out front, but just this one's unique that we're trying to keep everything inside. Just have those two doors for the truck vehicles to come in and out. [23:25] **Madam Chair:** Sure, makes sense. Thank you for the explanation. Does anybody have any questions? [23:32] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Madam Chair, turning to the showroom commentary with windows and changes there. The jump we made from the first one to this one is we've got larger windows in there, taller windows. Maybe not as many—we can talk about maybe more in there—but we listened to and the architect put in a few more taller windows and larger windows in those areas. So we increased the surface area. Is that a concern with us going forward to put larger, putting more windows? [24:12] **Mark Roper:** Both sides of the building there? No, we can do it. It's again, this was trying to address some of the things we heard in the last meeting about breaking up... that's why in there you'll see that some of the roof lines that now have changed. We've got underneath the roof lines of the soffits, there'll be a wood accent underneath those. The roof itself... we can do a little bit on this one. You'll see that there is some raised blocks coming out, so it's breaking up that not only the vertical but the horizontal portion of the buildings, and then keeping those eyebrows over top of the entranceways and those faux windows. Definitely like to work in it. Again, just the one thing about the West Side is that we do have that semi coming in and out of there so that was probably the most concern on that side of not having things that they can hit. [25:04] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Okay, thank you. [25:05] **Madam Chair:** You would think that you'd have the semi coming in the back of that section there instead of where we have it coming in. [25:09] **Mark Roper:** I don't know if I can go to that... yeah, there we go. So we'll go back to the site plan itself in here. With the way we have the truck route coming in on the Far West End, the truck will pull in this way and then back up into this portion because this is where the racks are back here where all the tires are held. And then as Tim pointed out, the recycled tires will be here. So the idea is that the truck will park there and that's where they'll do all of their in-and-out. And then when they leave they'll come back out this way and leave outside the site. That’s kind of how we got the route of the truck coming in and out. [25:54] **Commissioner:** Yeah, thank you Chair. Just want to echo the comments from Commissioner Schindler earlier. Appreciate the upgrade in the exterior finish from the pre-cast to the block; it's a nice improvement. Thank you. [26:15] **Madam Chair:** Yeah, anybody else? Okay, do I have a motion? [26:22] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Thank you Madam Chair. I recommend approval of a site building permit authorization of a new 15,897 ft Automotive accessory store with indoor installation service and storage area subject to a list of conditions 1 through 21, plus adding a line 22 to include revising elevations on the loading side of the building and then also revisiting the showroom windows to increase the height and width size of windows and the faux windows on the loading elevation. [27:14] **Madam Chair:** Do I hear a second? [27:15] **Commissioner Schindler:** Second. [27:16] **Madam Chair:** Motion made by Commissioner Scanlan and seconded by Commissioner Schindler. Any questions? All those in favor signify by saying Aye. [27:24] **Commissioners:** Aye. [27:26] **Madam Chair:** Oppose Nay. That motion carries. [27:30] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Madam Chair, I recommend approval of a conditional use permit to Les Schwab Tire Center for interior service bays as necessary to use in conjunction with an auto accessory store located in RB retail business zone subject to a list of conditions 1 through 5 noted on Exhibit B. [28:07] **Commissioner Schindler:** Second. [28:09] **Madam Chair:** Motion made by Commissioner Scanlan and seconded by Commissioner Schindler. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying Aye. [28:16] **Commissioners:** Aye. [28:18] **Madam Chair:** Oppose Nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to other business and that again is Tim Benetti, please. [28:39] **Tim Benetti:** Thank you Madam Chair. Just a reminder your next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday April 17th at 7 p.m. followed by May 1st, 2024. Our Council meetings are on April 11th and the 25th of April, and we hope to see you there. And we also want to encourage you very quickly to remind everyone that our Home and Garden Show is this weekend at Eastview High School from 9 to 3:00. Our wonderful staff will have our own table; we'd love to give out some free candy and swag to our favorite planning commissioners. So feel free to also "feed the beasts" as we're working there that day as well. We'd love to have you stop by and say hi and if you'd like to just sit with us for a bit and talk with others as they come by, happy to have you. You're more than welcome. [29:28] **Madam Chair:** Thank you. I'll be greeting at the door so I'll stop by and get a Tootsie Roll. All right, any updates on applicants? [29:34] **Tim Benetti:** We are... I'm not sure if we're expecting to have a new Applewood Point 2 coming through forward. These are the town homes that are going to go in front of the Applewood Point Co-op Center up on McAndrew and Pilot Knob Road. I believe Alex is still working on that. Evan, I'm not sure if you have any updates on that one? [30:05] **Madam Chair:** I actually meant applicants for the board. [30:10] **Tim Benetti:** Oh, that one! That's okay, I'm sorry. So yeah, we do have good news. Next Thursday at their council meeting, they will be appointing the commission. There's nine applicants for the Planning and then they had five for the Parks and Rec, that's what I heard. [30:46] **Madam Chair:** Or have that backward? [30:48] **Tim Benetti:** Reverse that—was what I heard too, yep. Nine Parks, five Planning. [30:54] **Madam Chair:** Okay, well at least it was a good turnout for applicants. [30:58] **Commissioner Scanlan:** Motion to adjourn. [31:00] **Commissioner Schindler:** Second. [31:02] **Madam Chair:** Made by Commissioner Scanlan and second by Commissioner Schindler. All in favor signify by saying Aye. [31:07] **Commissioners:** Aye. [31:09] **Madam Chair:** This meeting is adjourned. [31:11] [Music]