e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the planning commission's regular meeting for March 24th 2025 this time we'll move to roll call commissioner Britain commissioner bot here commissioner Britain here commissioner Fisher here commissioner Frasier here commissioner Canal here commissioner Stevens here commissioner Woodman here thank you item three is approval of the agenda unless there's a motion to amend I would look for approval motion to approve motion to approve from commissioner Stevens do I have a second I'll second second from commissioner fiser all those in favor say I I I post say no motion carries 70 item four tonight is open Forum this is a chance for anyone who's in the audience tonight to speak to the commission on something that is not on the agenda tonight um there are public hearings on the zoning code update and leafline labs and so if there's something that you would like to speak to the commission M that is not one of those two things we will open open Forum seeing none we will close open Forum item five is chair's explanation of the hearing process the Planning Commission is a volunteer Advisory Group to the city council one of the commission's functions is is to hold public hearings and make recommendations on land use and Zoning matters the purpose of these public hearings is to provide an opportunity for each applicant and citizens to present information ask questions and express opinions since these proceedings are televised and recorded for the public record anyone wishing to speak must step up to the podium and give their name and address before addressing the commission staff reports are prepared and provided to the applicant and Planning Commission in advance of the meeting the first step in the hearing will be for staff to present a summary of the report the applicant will then have the opportunity to briefly explain the proposal and provide additional information or comment anyone wanting to speak in favor or against the proposal will then be heard upon completion of the testimony the hearing will be closed to public comment the Planning Commission will then discuss and act on the matter two complete agenda packets are available for viewing on the back table please do not remove those items the city council will act on these items at their meeting on Wednesday April 16th 2025 which starts at 700 p.m. with that we will move to item 6 6A is the zoning code update case t2025 d009 with Max presenting good evening Mr chair members of the of the commission as you're all aware the zoning code had had a major update in 2022 uh as the code is still relatively new from this update uh there are changes that should be made when appropriate uh to keep the the code uh modern and consistent first we'll go over some uh minor changes uh and then we'll get into some more in-depth uh changes to the code uh the First Amendment um we would like to implement would be to remove the Planning Commission action requirements for enironmental documents Eis e AWS uh a RS um the state does not require plan commission to review these and Council uh is a responsible governing unit these uh for these reviews and processes um this lessens the time and coordination needed for the review process uh another change uh would be to remove the fee table uh for convenience of updating year-to year uh it is not required to have we are not required to have the fee table in the uh code itself however fees are still required to be approved by a governing body um this would eliminate an extra area to maintain year toe the fee schedule would would still continue to be published on the city's website um and updated uh we want a partial restructure in the accessory stru structure section of the code um to consolidate language regarding maximum square footage of primary garages uh right now this language is separate um from the main maximum are requirements for accessory structures in the same section this change would make it easier for the public to understand setback requirements and Amendment to the R4 residential district language would uh change the purpose statement to read more accurately with our definitions currently the purpose statement refers to two family dwellings uh but we do not have a definition in the code for two family dwellings as it is under um an attached single family um definition uh this was so this would incorporate other dwelling types described in single uh in attached single family such as multif family clarifications are added for gas station canopies to require class one materials this would make the architectural language consistent with the requirements uh for principal structured use on Commercial Lots um this would add consistency with the standards uh Cottage Grove has for gas station development um in additional provision was added to allow gas pumps uh to have one to include one parking space to count towards the minimum required parking uh for gas stations as the canopy uh takes up quite a bit of area of their lot clarification language is added for parking requirements at libraries this was added uh to the standards for community centers commercial facilities and museums it will now have its own called out parking requir um and then there are several grammar and formatting errors throughout the code to be corrected uh just as a reminder uh sign code was removed last year from the zoning code um no action needs to be taken on the items related to sign code however we still want uh to to inform you of any changes or updates to this code uh we're adding clarifying language to uh allow businesses and shopping complexes um to have both sh a shared and um individual Monument sign um there are also some grammar Corrections in the sign code as well uh clarification will be added uh to differentiate the maximum allowable square footage between single family attached and and single family detached uses in the R4 residential district the current language for accessory structures in R4 states that the maximum square footage for accessory structures is 500 squ ft per unit uh which matches the maximum square footage allowed for higher density residentials such as R5 and R6 um R4 does allow for single family attached and single family detached uh dwellings um this would this change would uh add the th000 square ft for the single family detach which would match closer to R3 this change would honor the intent for the R4 District as a transitional uh density zone between those two or between the higher densities and lower densities residential zones uh we have uh a few developments that have been approved that do incorporate um both a multif family and a single family such as the uh Hinton Woods on [Applause] screen see another change we would move we would move uh setback language uh regarding corner lot setbacks uh from the architectural standard section to the um standard setbacks the with the rest of the setbacks um in that section um this would also just kind of keep everything neat for uh setbacks I'll hand it off to Sam for the remainder all right thank you uh Mr chair members of the commission I will continue on uh talking about our off street parking on Corner Lots this would be properties that are on a corner um and the principal structure faces one street while the garage or drive access uh comes off of a different street um it's been difficult to enforce the provision in our code that the driveway must be paved uh because these drives are technically behind the principal structure where they um according to the code drives be behind the principal structure could be gravel surfaced so this proposed amendment would just clarify that if there an accessory building uh driveway or parking area is coming off of an adjacent street it also must be paved with binous or similar materials we are also proposing to remove the requirement for Street trees on each residential lot instead of and instead require a front yard tree for each residence um as lot s are getting narrower the area to plant the boulevard tree decreases as does the area available to avoid public utilities and for snow storage each Boulevard tree that is planted also comes at a cost for the city to maintain planting a front yard tree will maintain the community's aesthetic and will ensure that the trees are still planted in the community types of trees planted would be complimentary to the lot sizes with smaller Lots receiving smaller stature and smaller canopy tree trees the images on the screen show two neighborhoods in Cottage Grove uh Timber Ridge with Boulevard trees and Mississippi Dunes Estates with no Boulevard trees and you can see that both images do show a treelined street it's also recommended that uh when calculating tree and shrub requirements we use the Disturbed Site Area instead of the entire site area uh when calculating these requirements for project projects and sites with existing development using the entire site area to calculate tree and shrub planting requirements can result in a number of plantings that far exceeds the number that are being removed um example of this is at the Park High School where the impacted lot area with their addition was relatively small compared to the lot size of their property when calculating requirements on vacant Lots it's recommended that we not take into account the undisturbed Site Area um taking out that area ensures that vegetation removed during site development is replaced um an example of that was on the Quick Trip site that we saw last month where we did not we used landscape calculations just for the Disturbed area of their site with all of that it the recommendation to approve the amendments to city code Title 11 uh recommend to the city council is on the screen and we will stand for questions all right thank you any questions for staff commissioner Stevens um I guess starting with the last one the tree only being required for the Disturbed area I think that makes a ton of sense for developers um are we have have we been giving a lot of variances for that in general like has I've been happening a lot where only a portion is Disturbed sure um being new I'll toss it over Mr chair members of the commission commissioner Stevens we've generally uh tried to find a way to make it uh applicable to the project at hand right when we have just an addition or only disturbing a small area of the site we've evaluated our landscape code um to generally use that calculation instead of using the entire site when they're not disturbing the entire site so this has been our standard practice we want it to be very clear in the code okay that's kind of what I figured my thought I guess my question is just in some sense from so it makes sense on the developer side on the environmental side it's kind of a nice blanket for making up for the loss of some trees right like over time maybe before we had a tree ordinance but if you weren't enforcing it that way anyways just doesn't really make sense so and Mr chair commissioner Stevens I'll also add that we do have have a maximum impervious standard and and a minimum open space that's required as well right for project SES so even if we're doing a minor addition we're still making sure that that green space or open space is maintained on the site just the same um and then also about the trees so I think it's awesome to take them out of the boulevard um with them coming out of the boulevard so that requirements removed what about when you have like a park or something else adjacent to the boulevard then are we we like reducing the amount of trees overall that will be required with that change by no longer requiring them like every 3et in the boulevard right now it's just per lot and if you're taking away lots and having to park does that make sense Mr chair members of the commission commissioner Stevens I think it does so we're specifically talking about the boulevard trees for an individual lot which was our standard we've always had a Boulevard tree for each new home lot um we're adjusting that to say no Boulevard tree in the right of way uh front yard tree in the front yard open spacing common lot Landscaping is calculated uh a little bit differently in residential projects um so those will still be permitted and required generally speaking however on individual residential lots where adjusting to to remove those Street trees or Boulevard trees did I catch your question I think I think that makes sense I'm just kind of thinking like the in a development the the boulevard right you usually have your sidewalk runs all the way along whether there's a park or a lot and so I guess my thought is just maybe there's going to be a few less trees required because that Boulevard requirement is gone but the open space requirement stays the same correct okay all right thank you that was my only question too Qui any further questions for staff Comm B so regarding the first item removal of Planning Commission review is it just the review part or is it that we won't be hearing any such uh applications for permits is it are we just not being asked to review the documents or if there any application comes which would involve certain environmental uh let's say consequences then the permit or the application doesn't come with come to us with those documents that is a part I I I couldn't understand so uh commissioner bot uh Mr I'll try to answer my best uh so with those the eaas a um so State Statute does not require the Planning Commission to review those or make a decision on those um you are not making a decision on those items when currently if one were to come to you um as the Planning Commission you are very much welcome to participate in that process where the council is the regulatory government unit um and they are the ones you know making the decision and everything removing the formal having the applicant come to the Planning Commission meeting present this to all of you is just taking uh one meeting step out of the process that is just another kind of timeline thing in a very long timeline that is required by these applicants just a quick followup so what kind of applications are these um what kind of permit applications would those be so um commissioner B Mr chair these are um so environmental assessment worksheets environmental impact statements and the AAR which I haven't area Urban some I haven't learned what that one means yeah my apologies um and so those are the the lengthy um think um currently our mining site is undergoing an environmental impact statement right now and study and everything so those large long documents are what is not going to need to come to the Planning Commission for your review and um approval or recommendation thank you Sam I guess um just to to clarify in the e e aw a ARS I forgot what a AR means too but um so anytime there is like a a project that's going to be proposed so a new development the mining um site there is a determination about whether there is enough imp potential impact on the land and the in the surrounding environment where they may have to undergo one of these assessment correct correct all right and so then if there was a determination that one of these was appropriate then they'd have to go through that process and then part right now part of the process is come present this to the the Planning Commission where there then is a public hearing on it correct um as it stands now correct okay and so then as it stands now they still then go to city council do that all over again because city council is the responsible government govern governing unit and then city council makes the decision after a second public hearing correct all right so this is just taking away one of the public hearings allowing city council to have the public hearing and make the decision on those statements right and it's not taking you know it's not required by Statute Mr Che for your the Planning Commission to have this so it's we're not you know doing anything that's out of bounds or anything but if we were hearing the under lying application let's say for a new Housing Development where there was an e or an eaw we would still get that information about what the findings were on that as part of the application that comes before us yes correct okay thank you Mr fer in that same vein I guess um you know I think our biggest job here is to have public hearings and to let people speak about applications and so I guess um if we aren't allowed to do that for certain applications does that affect our ability to make recommendations like the the big one I think about is Mississippi Dunes like that's the big one that we've been through and we've gone you know a lot of us up here went through that process and so we understand that and I think that the public hearings were really valuable for us to look at the whole project and give recommendations on the whole thing so um I guess is there a benefit to that being deleted from this I mean does city council like the one I think we were here for 3 hours right that one night I does city council sit that long and go through all of those too or Mr chair members of the commission commissioner Fisher um so two things the environment these environmental documents are triggered by the size of of a development right and so they dig into the potential impacts of a development um from from a variety of different environmental uh perspectives and then they identify if mitigation efforts are required now those mitigation efforts would be included then in a proposed planning application right that is would come before this group ahead of a council uh review and action right and so as a part of these environmental review documents right there are multiple different uh uh levels for lack better way to put it um they would actually require several public hearings so they require a public meeting and then the council as the rgu would also hold that uh public meeting as well right so there's already two in the state statute process okay perfect that's I think that's what I was looking for was what is required thank you any further questions for staffer Woodman he there uh quick question just on the uh going back actually a little bit to the fuel pump um that being available as one required parking spaces is there any consideration for like EV parking SL charging in that because I know it's very specifically written for fuel pump which um if you think about it uh EV sit there for a much longer time and it might be an incentive for um for fuelers that type of thing to put in EV Chargers if those were considered as one of the one of the parking spaces that were required commissioner woman Mr chair um that was actually not a consideration as part of that um this really spawned out of the quick trip proposal where they were um their surface parking was technically under our requirements but at the pumps they were providing enough parking um if they were to be EV spaces I would say we would definitely be looking at those as more of a longer term space where like mentioned in this the fuel pumps are more of a a quick turnover as we all know all right any further questions thank you thank you and the city is the applicant so we don't have an applicant so let's go ahead and open public hearing anyone wish you speak for or against May step to the podium State their name and address hello Bonnie matter 6649 in skip Avenue South Cottage Grove Minnesota uh a couple of things I have two buckets my first bucket is the question about why um the Planning Commission would no longer be part of the eaw Eis and a I found it very helpful to be able to come and share or learn about some of these things these are Big deals I mean they they impact our community they impact our residents and it's a way for the residents to find out about what's going on and learn more about it during that period and then go before the city council so I personally would feel better if the Planning Commission was also involved the other concern I have about it is there'll be things where there will be a development and there it will also involve the environmental piece of it and I don't know how you can't not be involved in the environmental piece of it it has to be figured out I don't think they can go ahead and develop and then be doing well the eaw on the side so those are my concerns that but that's really not why I'm here but that is one that was it was on my bucket um the reason I'm here is because of uh uh the environmental assessment worksheets and impact statements um the Minnesota Environmental Quality board it's called the EK QB if you're not familiar with it probably are provides very detailed instructions on the process by for handling environmental documents such as the environmental assessment worksheet the environmental impact statement and an alternative Urban areawide review and so I've provided the information where you can locate these documents so that you can look at them um my main concern for being here is I would like to see the city regulation updated to incorporate the Minnesota eqb instructions following the Minnesota statutes and rules provided for example the eqb has a distribution list as well as these statements that go beyond the property owners within 500 ft the rgu shall promptly publish notice of the completion of an eaw by one publishing the notice in at least one newspaper of General circulation in the geographic area where the project is proposed or two post in the notice on a website that has been designated as the official publication site for publication of proceedings Public Notices and summaries of a political subdivision in which the product is proposed and C within five days of the date of submission of the eaw to the eqb staff the rgu shall provide a press release containing notice of the availability of the EA for public review to um at least one newspaper of General circulation within the area where the project is proposed the press release shall include the name and location of the project a brief description of the project the location at which copies of the eiw are available for review the date of the comment period uh expires and the procedures for commenting the rgu shall publish legal notice or advertisement of the availability of the EA if the proposal requests and agrees to pay for the notice or advertisement the notice or advertisement shall contain the information required in the press release there is a very very long distribution list in addition to those requirements for the uh rgu uh the other thing that I would like to say is that hopefully the other governmental units they just refer to governmental units in the distribution list I would hope that at the very least uh that would include the South Washington Watershed district and any adjacent cities that may be impacted we haven't been real good about doing that so that would be helpful if we let other cities know what we're doing um and I would appreciate the following I'd appreciate a written response to the letter I would like the updated regulation copy and I would like inclusion of this letter and the city's response in the meeting minutes please let me know if you have any questions or concerns thank you very much thank you y thank you I'll take a copy of that letter if H yeah got it I have one from so I'll bring it back later thank you thank you without objection we make that part of the record of the meeting thank you all right any further public comment seeing none we will close public comment then I don't know who would like to take some of the concerns that were raised I guess my first question I think one of the big concerns was publishing any Eis eaws I know we just from doing this in the past and Emily can correct me from wrong but when we do those we do send them to the eqb to be published as part of um their kind of publication that goes out Mr chair members of the commission we follow the state statute rules for any environmental document ew Eis EA r a part of that is uh publishing it in the EQ Environmental Quality board uh monitor um and there's certain timelines that we required to meet to do those Publications okay um I think the other concern was there was another concern about just timing of if these environmental assessments are going on there's a planning document that's also kind of on a parallel track if the planning can the planning document be ahead of any environmental work that's going on and doesn't does that make sense based on the fact that they kind of need to be working together Mr chair members of the commission yes sometimes they can be happening congruently right um however we wouldn't be able to act on a development proposal application right the official application until that environmental uh work is complete for lack of whatever we put it right so they can run congruently however we would need those actions to line up appropriately and that's because as part of the recommendations and conditions of approval for any application on the planning side we would need to know what the impact statement says or what the assessment says to include those as part of the conditions of approval correct Mr chair members of the commission if there were mitigation efforts required uh as a result of that work or that environmental uh worksheet Eis whatever it is um those would be required to be included in those conditions okay all right any further questions comments discussion from commission I commissioner Stevens on when you do an Eis or an eaw do you have neighborhood meetings to discuss any of that as part of like a newer subd development or anything like that because I like Monty was saying it's helpful for residents to come they can ask questions count Planning Commission ask questions are there any other work shops that happen as part of the process that might help with that yep Mr chair members of the commission commissioner Stevens a public meeting is typically required as a part of those processes right so that applicant is holding a public meeting to which we invite the Planning Commission sometimes other commissions if they uh you know would hold an interest right and ensure that those uh folks have the opportunity to hear more about the project at the early stages right that helps them to be involved and informed okay thank you commiss m um so who conducts these impact service I mean what is the Authority or competent body which would be conducting these impact surveys Mr chair members of the commission so typically uh the applicant right whether it's a developer um Builder who's proposing a project will hire a consultant uh to do the work however as the responsible governmental unit we are required to review all of that work and ensure that it meets our standards typically we do hire a consultant who is a professional in the field whether uh it's specific to uh the impact to muscles in the Mississippi River um or uh ensuring we're protecting uh a a bat or a bird right um uh we review those that work that comes from the consultant on the applicant side uh my second question is um is it automatically triggered these impact surveys or assessments or is it triggered during these public hearings or meetings uh an eaw an e or an Eis is triggered by State Statute um for different uh levels or sizes of development uh it can be it's typically based on unit the number of units in a residential development or the square footage of a commercial or industrial project that triggers the need for this additional review and that is specified in the zoning code or no it's it's state statute okay thank you any further questions comments discussion from commission otherwise I would look for someone to make a motion motion to approve I have a motion to approve from commissioner Britton do I have a second second second from commissioner Woodman any further discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor say I I I I post say no motion carries 70 item 6B tonight is leafline Labs case cup 20259 with Sam presenting yes thank you Mr chair members of the commission um I just there we go all right Le uh leafline Labs has applied for a conditional use permit to allow their operation on 97th Street South to be licensed as a medical cannabis combination business with the state of Minnesota the property is approximately 21.84% property is currently used for the processing manufacturing and cultivation of medical cannabis which was permitted as a conditional use in 2014 with amendments in 2020 and 2022 the 2022 cup allowed for structure additions in two phases phase one was constructed however phase two was not constructed and is not proposed as part of the cup application tonight in 2023 legislation passed in the state of Minnesota that created an adult useed cannabis Marketplace in the office of cannabis management or ocm ocm will oversee and enforce statute 342 and licens cannabis businesses in response to these changes the city of Cottage Grove updated its ordinances for adult use cannabis in 2024 at the state level the statute under which leafline is currently operating will be repealed December 1st 2025 to account for these state and local changes and to allow leafline to operate as a medical cannabis combination business a new conditional use permit must be applied for to ensure compliance with city and state statutes and rules uh the applicant is not proposing any footprint changes or substantive changes to current operations the biggest change will be that the Cannabis products will be allocated to the medical and recreational Marketplace any future building expansions or operational changes would require a sep separate planning application to the city ocm has been tasked with rulle making to establish final state regulations governing the adult use cannabis Market Draft rules have been prepared with expedited review enacted and final adoption is anticipated very soon statute created 13 license types one of which is the medical cannabis combination business the deadline for businesses to apply for ocm consideration was March 14th 2025 ocm is now reviewing these applications for compliance after preliminary approval the applicant will have 18 months to obtain local government approval uh for a signature to ocm and during that 18 months after local government approval ocm will conduct final inspections and pre-licensure measures and issue the license in Cottage Grove a leny must also register with the city before commencing operations as one of only two medical cannabis producers in the state the applicant does not foresee any issues obtaining their state lure city code title 11418 contains performance standards for a cannabis uses one of these is a minimum structure setback of 300 ft since the structure was constructed prior to the 2024 adoption of Standards the building is considered an existing non-conformity landscaped or screened buffers are also required on site uh the site is very well screened from the north south and east sides with trees and shrubs planted Northwest of the building during the 2022 expansion in 2022 it was determined there is not enough room on the out on the west side outside of a utility easement to uh for screening to be planted with no footprint changes and no additional landscaping or screening needs to be installed here a security plan must be submitted to the city's director of Public Safety the state draft cannabis rules include very strict Provisions for security at cannabis businesses um the applicant provided a summary of their security plan to staff today um their security includes electronic video surveillance multiple levels of alarms key card entry um and there and runs on an auxiliary power source to ensure operation during power outages uh their equipment is inspected at least once every 30 days and any revisions required by ocm once final rules are adopted will be implemented by the applicant State statutes allow local governments to establish buffers from Cannabis businesses to other land uses these buffers are the maximum allowed by State Statute and the property exceeds all of the required buffers from schools daycares residential treatment facilities and attractions in public parks regularly used by miners the operation also complies with all required buffers from residential districts and uses for manufacturing outdoor and indoor cultivation City staff have received multiple odor complaints related to the facility since 2022 the 204 cup required odor monitoring from Three locations and these locations were not changed during the 2020 or 2022 cup processes leafline uh continues to take nasal Ranger readings on a regular basis as required however their readings submitted to the city indicate no odors are present the applicant hired buyer scientific to analyze odor mitigation equipment and processes on site February of 2025 they toured the entire facility and identified mitigation measures that could be taken immediately and mitigation measures that could be done in the future leafline plans to do all immediate mitigation measures including establishing an older task force to respond to complaints the long-term mitigation measures will be done in the future as funding and order lead time allows there are conditions included in your packet tonight related to odor mitigation condition number six states that the dilution to threshold or DT measure shall not exceed seven at the property lines a seven is cons is scientifically considered to be an ambient odor level that could sometimes be considered a new this means that cannabis spell smells still may be present around the facility in Cottage Grove the measurement is calculated using the nasal Ranger and means that the odor needs to be diluted seven times with odor-free air before it is no longer detectable a recommendation has been included this evening to resend the 2022 resolution and recommend approval of the cup um prepared condition number five should be modified to remove the first sentence which conflicts with proposed condition number six um condition number six requires that more scientific dilution to threshold measurement um represent and requires um more scientific measurements so um this evening representative from leafline and buyer scientific are also available for questions and for that I will stand for questions thank you thank you any questions for staff commiss Bren uh you mentioned that uh level seven was it smells M and this was not to exceed seven but seven smells so why wouldn't we have something lower than where it actually smells um commissioner Britain Mr chair the measurement of seven is commonly used um in a scientific the scientific measurement where um other Industries even in this area have used that measurement of seven which is considered to be like I mentioned you can still smell it but it is not considered to be harmful to health effects things like that so um the measurement of seven is giving kind of an idea of there will still be smells present and is much like other Industries in the area um and they will be required to ensure to measure that okay that that's a concern for me commissioner Brittain if I may unfortunately I become kind of an expert on smell uh because one of the other cities I represent has a rendering plant and it can't seem to stop smelling so we use this company that is uh known I I would say Nationwide but it's actually around the world as an expert in um this kind of technology and so they're the ones that developed the nasal Ranger they are scientific experts in this field and they have determined based on a very objective analysis that is withstood the federal court of appeals scrutiny on being constitutional as an objective measurement for odor so I strongly support the scientific methodology that stands behind it because we have experts that can testify to it which is why I suggest we keep seven well I agree that having having a scientific method for measuring is extremely important and valid what my question is is that the measurement is set to the point where it still smells so if we're measuring it and we're measuring it and saying this still smells but it's okay that that's what confuses me is why we're not setting it to the point where the smell for whatever product is being is contained within the building so I I guess that's what I'm looking for why are we seven I I agree with the scientific method and setting a level but it sounds like it should be six if I can smell it at seven I don't want to I don't want to smell it your honor and members of the commission I think every property has an odor whe and and sometimes it's the smell of grass uh sometimes there are properties that we have a a a bread shop in town that smells wonderful um but it still has an odor and it becomes at some point it becomes subjective so everybody's sense of smell is different not every person and I'm sure leafline has discovered this can be a nasal Ranger technology user because their sense of smell is too sensitive I was I was uh crossed off the list because my nose is too sensitive so there are certain there needs to be an objective measurement and it will smell things just do and so we can't keep all sound completely quiet we can't keep all smell completely contained but there becomes a level of nuisance that we have to measure it by so that's the part that exceeds where we can then say now you have to address it but we have to have a threshold we can't be at zero because it's not reasonable and it's not realistic okay thank you any further questions for Steph I have a quick one I'm Mr Stevens I'm just curious about that level seven and the fact that people were complaining about the smell but their nasal Rangers said there was no smell what is that about wouldn't it be a seven on the nasal Ranger yep you're honored members of the commission although we have not we didn't have this seven level obviously we're putting it uh in this particular condition uh we don't we didn't know enough about the nasal Ranger in the 2014 uh conditional use permit we didn't know enough about odor frankly uh as we do today and so now we know there can be an objective test we also know the nasal Rangers have to be calibrated we know that the operators have to be certified we know so much more about the technology that we know the questions to ask so it's very possible that they were producing these results at you know at places where it wouldn't have mattered or wouldn't have have measured the appropriate level of odor or by maybe the machine had not been tested or calibrated lately we didn't ask for all of the backup we just took their reports at face value now we know now we you know we're putting a lot better uh odor mitigation conditions um there will be an odor mitigation plan that will have to be approved by the city so we're getting smarter about it as we go okay thank you commissional I had a non-smell question um in in uh under performance standards about the hours operation of retail sales of cannabis all that are leafline are they selling cannabis at other location just wondering why that's in there uh commissioner canable Mr chair uh they are leafline is not retail selling their products on site um and they are not allowed to sell retail products on site in the industrial district so then under G for performance that's just a part of the CBD THD law that we have uh correct okay sorry just mentioned retail sales and all that I was just kind of curious question my question is actually related so while presenting you indicated that this application is for for a transition from an existing license to a different kind of license right and the new license is this combination business license what's the existing license again o um commissioner B Mr chair uh their existing license is just as a a medical uh cannabis um in our ordinance at the time around 2014 it was considered like pharmaceutical manufacturing um this medical cannabis combination license it has been brought about by the legisl the new statutes the new license types that were are required to be permitted in all municipalities across the state so there really is no like mentioned in the um report no change to what they propos to do except allocate products to the recreational market and they need to be licensed as the medical cannabis combination business with the state I see so um as of today all the product is going for pharmaceutical application but from in the future it's going to go for recreational also correct okay thanks any further questions Bishop Woodman I noticed on the um and this goes back to the original plan again going back to odor where the monitoring locations are it shows that to the west of the building is where they have the two down wind uh sensors and Cottage Grove our dominant winds are out of the Northwest generally and follow down the river so it feels like that's somewhat inverse of downwind I'm just wondering if that's based on the physical location or if we're maybe U not sampling where we should be knowing that the wind is most likely pushing it down towards Anderson in that area uh commissioner woman Mr chair um I would definitely say in that presentation though those um monitoring stations were from 2014 um so you will notice that they were up against the buildings themselves in our conditions that we have proposed for you tonight uh we propose that they are required to monitor from three property lines um to get them out away from the structures um property lines odors we don't want those at the property lines so instead of being right up against the building in those locations um that is one thing that is changing uh if as recommended thank you all right thank you the applicant would like to approach and add anything additional I do have um just a bit of information about our company if it's okay sure thank you pass yes might have gotten some extra was this this did you too many I think we got an extra copy too thank you [Applause] y one sec lost my page okay all right good evening Mr chair and members of the commission my name is Tiffany Newber Johnson and I serve as director of government Affairs for leafline labs and green green thumb Industries um which also owns and operates the rise dispensaries located throughout Minnesota um I'm joined today by Dee Fischer our general manager of production who will be able to answer any specific questions about our manufacturing and production facility um also here is Mark buers from buyer scientific who'll be able to answer questions about um what's included in your packet um his recommendations um and the proposal that they've put forth for some of the products that we are procuring um leafline has proudly called Cottage Grove home since 2015 and is one of only two licensed medical cannabis um companies authorized by the state to cultivate manufacture and dispense medical cannabis over the past decade leafline has invested tens of millions of dollars into building out our cultivation and Manufacturing operations right here in Cottage Grove ensuring that safe highquality cannabis products reach medical cannabis patients across our eight medical dispensaries Statewide we currently employ over 240 minnesotans in Union represented positions including over 70 employees at our Cottage Grove cultivation and Manufacturing facility um I included in your packet there is a one small typo and I apologize but we started off with um just about 10 employees so we grew from 10 to over 240 at this point um we proudly serve over 52,000 Minnesotan medical patients Statewide many of whom are minors um who rely on Specialized medical grade cannabis products such as tinctures topicals and pill capsules for Relief as required by law leafline submitted its application for a medical cannabis combination business license to operate under the new adult use program on February 21st and we have already received positive feedback from the office of cannabis Management on its contents we are required to apply for a new license under the new law in order to maintain our current operations and continue service Minnesota's medical community we do remain committed to full compliance with all applicable state laws and regulations and we are aware that the odors from our cultivation and Manufacturing operations have been detected at the community and we want to be clear that we take those concerns very seriously leafline has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to being a good neighbor and minimizing odor and and traffic at our facility responding to any Community complaints and Pro proactively complying with the city's requirements we submitted An approved Odor Control monitoring protocol and have a trained employee taking daily odor readings using the nasal Ranger as required by the city and to further strengthen our odor mitigation commitments we voluntarily retained Byer scientific and an independent odor mitigation expert to conduct a comprehensive inspection and Analysis of our facility on February 19th 2025 buyer conducted an on-site evaluation of our fac facility and identified both immediate and long-term mitigation steps following the report we took immediate action to establish an internal odor task force that is responsible for inspecting all engineering controls and exhausts and immediately investigating and addressing any sources of odor upon notice of a complaint um of a community complaint we took the additional immediate step to inspect all exhaust and air handling units to ensure they are properly installed and operating under the correct settings including turning off the economizer mode for some of our rooftop units and taking the sanitation room exhaust out of service um which had been um identified by buyer as one of the sources of OD odor we also purchased a meterological station to better assess the source of exterior odor upon a community complaint we are committed to taking the additional steps to mitigate sources of odor and are working with buyer scientific to Source the necessary products and components we are in the process process of procuring several molecular filtration units that will be installed to capture and remove odor as well as procuring buyer patented waterless Vaper phase Odor Control unit these specialized systems are custombuilt with extended lead times due to supply chain constraints and the proprietary nature of the technology the capital investment exceeds $125,000 with ongoing maintenance and operating cost of more than $100,000 these are extraordinary commitments but ones that leafline is willing to make to uphold our responsibility under the city's ordinance and remain a trusted business in the community we have reviewed the proposed requirements for an odor mitigation and maintenance plan and may have questions about certain points and we do look forward to meeting with the city staff to discuss such points and working with them in the future odor mitigation is not a one-time fix it is an ongoing effort that requires monitoring adjustment and partnership we are committed to this process we remain steadfast in our commitments to our employees patients and the City of Cottage Grove and we will continue working closely with the city to address any odor complaints and mitigate the source of odor thank you for your opport thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for considering of the critical role that leaf line has played in supporting the medical patients across the state and our community all right thank you any any questions for the applicant shat um who are there in this order mitigation task force what is the composition of this task force um it includes some of our production employees including um our general manager of production Dee Fischer um de I don't know if you want to step up and give the additional persons uh thank you uh the order task force is made up of a combination of hourly employees and Leadership employees um and basically what it is is to identify as simple as did we spell order when we came to work today uh we start that off with 8:15 meeting in the morning it's one of our agenda items and we talk about safety and quality um from there if any order is detected in the parking lot um we automatically go and investigate uh the investigation includes uh as simple as hey let's check all of our hbac our building controls mechanical controls in the system are they all function as normal um do we have any doors a jar or breached or anything like that where we might have odor coming through the the operation and we also make note then of the meteorological outside and we also take notes as to what part of the process is operating at that point of the day are we in the middle of harvest are we transporting a product from one room to the next um so it's a very um kind of a immediate check all of the things that we can control um monitor all the things that we have identified through the kind of the buyer report and or previous um known um I'll I'll call it odor creators uh previously um but it's really about caption or note so we can kind of further understand what's happening what might be contributing to the order any further questions for the applicant Comm Fisher first oh sorry um I was just curious if you are planning or anticipating an uptick in production when when you're able to provide for recreational use as well as medical I mean I know it sounds like you I appreciate your presentation thank you for kind of explaining you know the people that you serve and your numbers um but are you expecting some pretty major growth or do you have any insight into that um the answer is yes I think um when you look at the overall facility we talked a little bit about footprint nothing's going to change from the outside building um but changing the product mix um from a demand standpoint as to what that looks like um we have some general information um as to what we can experience in other I'll call it states as they've gone to Au um but a lot of it some of uh Chang some sizes changing some of the products to a different size quantity and so on um but the full intent is to convert the biomass that we have into whatever that salable mix is going to look like um I'll be honest I can't forecast what the mix is going to be um you know I think we're waiting from the standpoint of what are the final regulations going to be from the state um we are kind of a little bit of an a holding pattern to understand what that final license is going to be and then understanding what that forecasted demand is going to be so it's a little gray right now but the answer is we would try to maximize our canopy sure okay thank you Wisher Stevens um I just wanted to clarify at the end of your um letter statement you said that there's probably going to be some questions on what I think is in our packet did I understand that correctly like no no no um so bu scientific um created a recommendation which we included in the packet so if there's any questions about the specific recommendations the behind it um just wanted to let you all know that he was here to I completely heard that wrong all right just wanted to clarify thank you any further questions all right thank you both I do have oh I'm sorry commissioner bot so you talked about the biomass are there any regulations on how much of a biomass or how much can you cultivate does that Define uh your uh capacity to produce certain number of let's say production units for the lack of better word so I I can answer it so yeah the the state um require has a limitation in law as to how much we can manufacture and produce um they also um include a canopy cap um that we cannot go above so there are limitations in place set by law and one other question is you mentioned about purchasing a meteorological station where is this meteorological station is it in the same um same site or outside you talking about order mitigation or the meteor it's the meteorological station that you it's outside it's outside yes okay thank you commissioner BR um you mentioned that um the amount of recreational that you might produce would be it sounded like uh determined by supply and demand something along those lines would that negatively impact the amount of medical product that you guys are currently since there's only two of you in the State um so the the state also placed a restriction on that so right now um in the law there is a ratio as to how much we can output for adult use um that ratio is dependent on how much we sell in medical so there there is a limit um to how much we can actually produce for adult use if that is also a concern so it won't take over and we no longer have a medical supply because there's that balance in the rules there is um there's actually a requirement that we must continue selling medical which we would do anyway but um but that's in there thank you all right last call any questions for the applicant seeing none thank you both very much thank you thank you sorry U did Mark do you all want to no I don't think we have any more questions so thank you can I sorry are you from bioscientific okay so why don't you go ahead and step up commissioner bot so were your recommendations based on the the uh order level that we talked about 7 or below 7 or above seven so the recommendations that you put in uh was it based on that or some other metric no those are really two different things um I'll address a few things um first let me tell you who I am real quick my name is Mark buers I'm the owner of buyer scientific um we're in the industrial odor mitigation space so that includes solid B um and and other we work with Exxon Mobile for example uh we just uh have a particular expertise in the Cannabis space um if you associate a particular animal with cannabis we all know skunk we were the first entity in the world to identify why that is I have two PhD a chemists they're teaching professors they're also shareholders I made them shareholders for a reason um we set out to understand um the science because uh the literature the science everyone said cannabis odors from tpin tpin are about 99% of the plant in reality but that's not how odor Works um and it's actually a sulfur it's a thol for any chemists but it's a it's a sulfur um and so um that informs a lot of of what we do um so um Miss land nailed it um the 7D overt that's not arbitrary but also it doesn't um there's a lot of history behind detection over threshold and to your concern of a seven I'll tell you from what I do I'll take seven d overt all day long if that's what my threshold is because we can that's not we work in Santa Barbara County California for instance which is the largest concentration of cannabis cultivation in the United States we're talking about millions of square feet we measure it in acres we don't even measure it in square feet it's so much and we have receptors we'd say sensitive receptors within 100 feet of a facility and 7D overt is our threshold there and we're successful so um that said that's an experience on the periphery that really has nothing to do with how we go in and assess a building so the first thing we do is and and and you know like any business we've evolved our science um as as we become more understanding this is a very Niche industry of course and so um we want to be data driven exclusively data driven um we never want to be the fox guarding the hen house so we sit next to our client not across from them and we show them what we discovered and so every building this building including a cultivation space they're Le living sort of breathing animals almost and so we just go go in and initially we just want to understand how does it work how does it breathe what does it how does it behave um and that's simply going around and really understanding where the air cooling units are what does air handling look like where are the egress points things like this then it does get very data and very science driven we use gas chromatography M spectometry um we take a lot of um samples we have our own lab but we actually sub out all of our all of our results to a third-party lab just for intellectual honesty they're delivering the results then we sit down with the results and we go this is what we see that your building is doing some of it's intuitive Sometimes some of it's counterintuitive um I will say this is a fairly Light Lift I don't want to get over my ski tips here but this building doesn't have a lot of egress points um but it has a lot of capacity for recirculation so um we rely on a couple of different techniques um at the end of the day activated carbon is the single most um efficient source of adsorbing odors we live in the physical world so as you know nothing ever goes away people think it just goes away it doesn't we can't make Mass disappear what we can do is trap it essentially indefinitely in carbon um activated carbon a very specific carbon substrate a very specific size that our science evolved to understand we've actually instructed the largest carbon companies in the world actually the right carbon that they should be using for cannabis um and then so that's a physical reaction called adsorption if anyone wants to wonk out um we uh we also developed um what we know is pretty much the rate that a canopy exhausts we developed we were the first in the world to devel what we call the gas phase emission rate and so that instructs how many how many circulations we want to get internally so theoretically if I had a box in here and I turned it on at some point every bit of air in here would have to go through that box theoretically now if we size that up and deploy those properly now we're going to move air through carbon and sequester essentially in that carbon uh any of the odorous gases right um we know that they're going to you know we we we can't stay ahead of everything because there's diminishing marginal return we' take up all the space with equipment right and so we built a model of of or a system of um scrubbing basically in select areas in their particular facility um and then actually two of the larger units that we've ever done will go on their uh exhaust hoods they not hoods I misspoke they're exhaust points um and then I have a patent on a system to essentially take a odor neutralizer any liquid really any liquid and put it into its Vapor state that will be on the roof so that is a uh a last line of defense for instance um sometimes we say belt and suspenders to me that implies redundancy this isn't redundancy this is a third polishing step that is necessary but the combination of all that um well I I I say this all the time sounds hokey maybe but it um my last name is on the company and that's not because of ego um maybe a little bit no um no it's that um it's not acne scientific so if we fail um my name's on it and we don't grow our business and I've been doing this since 2014 we work with the largest uh cannabis companies in the world we're in the Middle East and we don't achieve that without being successful so that's a long answer to your 7D overt or whatever it was but one quick follow-up question um after all that a fun no I'm kidding so what's a I mean do you have a set uh pattern for recycling or scrubbing the activated carbon or do you replace your carbon at a certain period of point is it automatic or how do you do it or you that's a really good question yeah so um the um so wow I get too long-winded yes we will go in what we'll initially do is is a somewhat arbitrary at about six months we'll take carbon samples um and we'll take a a nice mixture of them those go to a lab um the lab does a butan life assessment and a humidity assessment and that'll basically spit out what the uh remaining active life is but that's one data point so that doesn't tell us a lot it just gives us an idea and then in another well you know it's part art part science probably within about four more months so about 10 months we'll take another set of samples now we'll start to get a plot but if we're starting to experience anything then we'll know maybe we're getting going through carbon a little quicker than we anticipated um but that's a whole program and and that's something that the applicant has agreed to is our um it's a whole service and maintenance plan we will take over everything we'll ensure that the carbon is constantly replaced but again it's data driven we're not doing a wet finger in the air we we we see what the data is telling us all right any further questions thank you very much for being here thanks all right at this time we will open public hearing on the application anyone wishing to speak for or against the application can step to the podium okay py matter 6649 inip Avenue South Cottage Grove um all I would like to make what I would like to know is will the this change have any impact as far as increased water usage increased energy usage or increased waste water thank you thank you any other comments questions for public hearing seeing none we will close public hearing on the application I don't know if applicant wants to take that or if staff I know staff during presentation there was comments about this is not going to change footprint so I'm assuming the answer to miss Matter's concern is no it's not going to but um Mr I would ra I would have the applicant speak to that probably if they are inclined one second and I guess I'll just say while you're go ahead if you have an answer for us and I was just going to say if you don't know because this is a issue that's going to be disc decided based on what the business looks like going forward then that's the answer yeah the answer is yes you're pretty close um it'll again it'll depend upon supply and demand from that standpoint um I think the uh the other part to kind of think about is all of the process is kind of a closed cell so it's constantly recirculating moisture and everything within the room so it's a really low water in uh footprint I would say overall in the entire process so we aren't evaporating anything out to outside atmosphere it's all being contained inside so okay thank you any further comments discussion by commission seeing none then I would look for a motion I will make the motion I'll make a motion uh that the city council resends the previous resolution noted and approves the conditional use permit um subject to the stipulations in the staff report and also including the condition number five that is noticed or that's noted here that the one word needs to be changed and removing the first sentence correct all right I've got a motion to resend the prior resolution approve a new conditional use permit subject to the conditions in the staff Report with the noted amendment is there a second I'll second second from commissioner canable any further discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor say I I post say no zero motion carries 70 item seven tonight is presentations and we were going to get a presentation on the 2025 housing needs analysis okay thanks okay thank you technology um good evening Mrs chair and Commissioners um it's my pleasure to be here this evening I'm Mary bjo with Maxfield research and our firm conducted the uh housing needs analysis for the city of Cottage Grove so I was told tonight that I had about 10 to 15 minutes to present the study so I endeavored to keep very close to that and there's I know that there's a lot of information and I know you have the full study in your packets um it's a rather lengthy study with a lot of data but I'm going to try and just highlight some of the things that we identified in the analysis for you tonight and then of course I'll take questions so a little bit about the objective um so we were asked to provide an analysis of housing needs for the city we've done a number of these we actually started doing them um and we've evolved our our methodology and our analysis since the time we started but we first did one for the city of Brooklyn Center in 1985 and we've kind of continued to do them for both cities counties um larger areas um the approach was General to provide a guide and framework to consider key housing priorities and current housing gaps and the deliverables were essentially short and long-term housing needs and then recommendations to guide future Housing Development so our data collection actually I'm sorry that's incorrect so our data collection was the second and third quarters of 2024 we did deliver a draft in October and of course the general prese presentation is now so we identified a primary market area from which and um essentially 70% of the demand for housing in that market area would be generated and that includes the city cities of Cottage Grove Woodburry Newport St Paul Park great Cloud Island Township Denmark Township and Hastings 30% of demand is expected to be generated outside of that primary market area and that can include a number of different reasons people relocating people just deciding that they want to live in the area um sometimes it's generated by a lot of new housing or housing that um people you know are looking for so demand is somewhat fluid between adjacent communities and it may affect the realized demand over the period of time so a little bit about population growth um so Cottage Grove experienced its greatest growth between 1960 and 1970 in terms of population with a second growth spurt between 1990 and 2000 and this isn't unusual for a community um such as Cottage Grove so in terms of like when housing um development started in the community and its trajectory over time so I would say that certain I mean some communities grow more rapidly than others and some start um their process sooner and then maybe take um a pause and then start again and I just want to comment so that since 2000 growth has been at a very steady but generally um decelerating Pace in terms of the rate of growth so it's consistent with most of expanding metro area Suburban cities especially as um those cities become more fully developed and in also I want to comment that some of what we're seeing too is related to General demographic trends that we're seeing both in the metro area and across um Minnesota as well as also throughout um the nation so for sale home prices continue to climb I don't think it's really a surprise to anyone that we do have housing a general housing shortage in a number of different areas and this has occurred primarily since the 2000s so we went through that period of a housing recession and then what happened is we experienced during the recovery a period where we had declining housing mortgage rates and we had tremendous um development occur and that occurred primarily up until about just recently actually so mortgage interest rates started to rise but what really happened too even with that despite the fact that we had mortgage interest rates rise because of the housing shortage that we already had then we continue to see home values rise even though we've seen some declines in U Market activity um the days on Market that's continued to be be very low we do not have enough homes on the market in terms of being able to satisfy the demand and being able to have what we consider to be a balanced housing market and that has continued to be the case since for more than five six years where our months of supply has continued to be very very low so that increase in pricing of course has knocked out a number of entry-level buyers out of the market um move up buyers since the higher mortgage interest rates there a lot of them are staying put and not moving up and we were also relying on that move up to be able to create more housing for that entry level buyer so we've really started to see some um a kind of a period of stagnancy in the housing market at this point because of the situation new construction is also suppressed because of a Slowdown in um the demand again due to those higher mortgage interest rates land prices have not decreased so we're having difficulties in terms of being um having developers being able to make numbers work and be able to buy land at an affordable rate and then we also still have supply chain challenges so a little bit about um market rate rentals so a lot of people who are priced out out of the housing market often shift to um rental properties um during the 1990s and 2000s we had a dir of new apartment Construction in the Twin Cities metro area but then new construction post um the recession just increased dramatically so we had a number of new rental units come into the market um we've also had just even within the past 5 years a lot of new rental construction and that has help helped I would say in terms of being able to satisfy some of the housing demand um what we're seeing now is again in this situation too we're seeing a lot of significant increases in rents not only in the among new construction but we're seeing existing rental housing also dramatically increase its rents of course again due to shortages um this has created and again this has led to kind of exacerbation of affordability in both not only the for sale Market the rental market so we're we're really kind of getting hit hard in terms of um how we're trying to be able to satisfy housing demand among a number of different um housing segments so new multif family construction has slowed due to higher mortgage interest rates again demand does remain strong I will tell you that we continue to work with um a lot of private developers who are looking to try and put new housing into the market um they are struggling a little bit um because of trying to um balance um the financial end of it with land prices and with construction costs so some are um we've seen a lot of public private Partnerships in trying to get new housing accomplished we've also seen of course developers out there trying to increase their capital and Equity because of lending um the mortgage interest rates and lending requirements so there there are um those situations I will also say that we are seeing developments move forward so it's uh not all All Is Lost yet um it's just more difficult and um I would say we're seeing the same type of thing I'll talk a little bit about that in the next slide but in terms of affordability we're seeing the state Step Up in terms of a lot more housing dollars to try and assist new construction affordable development so um I I would say along with that rise in uh in rents that we're seeing among market rate properties that does also affect what we're seeing in terms of affordable rents so the affordability even though affordability is lower those rents are also starting to creep up and so there what we're seeing too is we're starting to see um households even though new market rate development is at this level and affordable rents are at this level we're still seeing households I would say a number of households struggle to be able to even make that affordable rent at new affordable properties most of which are developed through the tax credit program the federal tax credit program we are seeing some um alternate types of things so there is some bonding going on there is some there are some other Niche financing programs that are being used to try and get um rents at a more affordable level than just using the tax credit program um so and again I mentioned that so it's and the tax credit um funding resources are a highly competitive situation um not only in Minnesota but elsewhere and so developers sometimes try two three times to be able to be awarded those tax credits before a project gets funded um there was the state of Minnesota did provide a significant amount of funding through a Workforce funding program and I as I understand they are looking at providing additional dollars through that same program unfortunately there were so many projects that were trying to obtain that funding that there really wasn't enough dollars to go around and there are some Workforce housing developments particularly in uh greater Minnesota that are still kind of waiting waiting for new funding so this kind of focuses more um on Cottage Grove in specific so we did project demand for both owned housing so detached and attached and then there is strong demand again for market rate rental housing there is a need for all housing products across the Spectrum I would say there's a you know if you if we could just um create a situation I think where we would provide affordable housing that didn't have significant income restrictions then we would definitely see much higher demand for that type of product um so sometimes we call um just generally Market affordable housing Noah or naturally occurring affordable housing most of the time what that is in the market is our older properties that have lower sale prices or lower rents and they just are that way because of the fact that they're older um not because of the fact that they may be new and have affordab affordable rents or affordable pricing um we are seeing some areas of the state that are trying some different more Innovative products so like a um housing Cooperative that's for sale um just and just generally so not targeted to seniors although senior cooperatives have been very popular in the state um so and then we are seeing some um some smaller lotsize development some development where it's modular based which can get some of the pricing down so we are seeing some options for products um most of those are not being developed actually in the Twin Cities metro area so senior housing demand um so there's demand for senior housing and it's going to continue to increase over the next 20 years thanks to a lot of us baby boomers um and um I would say though that as we go along um originally when we first started doing senior housing I think that people had thought that everybody was just going to automatically move into senior housing and so there was a sense of um oh senior housing is kind of the all the all the Baby Boomers all the seniors they're all just going to go to senior housing well over time we found that that isn't true and the market has expanded and started devel to develop other types of housing products that appeal continue to appeal to a very broad age group and different um needs of seniors so I think you're probably familiar with assisted living and memory care and those two products are still recovering from a significant downturn during the pandemic for a lot of different reasons um one of those reasons though is that labor shortages continue to negatively affect their ability to satisfy demand in the service levels so while there's been some there was there was quite a bit of pullback in assisted living and Memory Care during the pandemic we have started to see that demand come back but because of Labor shortages we're still seeing a number of facilities not be able to serve the demand adequately because they can't um find workers to be able to staff appropriately um so this graph does show Demand by service level so we looked both at shallow subsidy which is what we call Affordable senior then deep subsidy or subsidized senior Memory Care Assisted Living Independent Living which is primarily lots of times Independent Living is attached in a campus so attached to independent with assisted living and memory care so that there is a transition for people who move in may move in at an independent living stage and they can transition if they need to some people never need to but some people do may need to trans transition to higher levels of care and then we have what we call adult rental and then adult owner um we are seeing more I think we are seeing more adult owner occupied types of products um even though the senior Cooperative has been the most prevalent especially in Minnesota but we are starting to see more um age 55 Town Home developments and as well as age 55 Town Home Rentals so we are seeing those products in the Market um the primary adult rental product has been kind of that three-story apartment building although early on in the 80s there were a number of um affordable cottage style developments that were put into the market that proved to be extremely popular and they still are very very popular but we haven't seen a lot of that a lot of that um type of product come in new to the market so I I put this slide in kind of to just talk a little bit about some of the the impacts and the factors that we're seeing that have led especially to when I talk about entry level and Middle Market I'm talking specifically about the for sale market so a number of different things have impacted our ability to really provide um affordable for sale housing um zoning regulations density requirements design and material requirements permits impact fees infrastructure costs building code changes increasing labor and material costs land acquisition costs financing challenges for smaller developers and Builders so I will say that during unfortunately during the recession we lost a lot of our small Builders during that period of time some have come back but a lot of them have not and the ones that have come back they began to focus um primarily on just luxury custombuilt homes lenders of course have tightened underrating standards um developers are having to put higher Equity into their their developments Bank regulation is also increasing with some recent bank fail failures and of course we need economies of scale so we tend to see that we're needing larger size developments and or many more homes to be able to make the numbers work so some key takeaways population and household growth was strong last decade there has been increase in family households but not enough to overshadow those without children and singles living alone I will say though that Cottage Grove is a community where we have it generally um in this past decade seen a fairly strong increase in family households so that is atypical of what we've seen in a lot of other communities especially communities nearby but also other communities in the Twin Cities metro area Cottage Grove near-term growth is primarily led by Millennials and Baby Boomers that's resulting in demand for housing products somewhat at the opposite ends of the spectrum although there is some overlap in market rate rental housing and for sale town homes where we can you can satisfy kind of both of those groups with similar products growth in the 65 plus cohort will dominate in the next 15 to 20 years what housing products are needed so I say this and kind of tongue and cheek a little bit because um about 20 years ago I was having the same conversation with a number of my colleagues who most of whom were um senior well not only senior housing developers but multi housing developers and they were all trying to figure out what the Baby Boomers were going to want in next uh 15 to 20 years and I I don't know we didn't have an answer then and I don't know that we have a really good answer now um I I will say that I think baby boomers have truthfully redefined the housing market in every single decade that they passed through and I think they will continue to do that as they age um for sale and Rental housing will combine to increase the housing stock in cottage growth as low density land Supply decrease decreases it will be important to Target locations for higher density development for senior housing active adult products rental and for sale will continue to be popular high home prices enable seniors to sell and relocate to more convenient housing products between 2024 and 2030 demand is estimated for 1,9 104 sale units 933 that's uh well that's all all rental units so that's market rate and uh affordable and subsidized and then about 1,23 senior units that's across all service levels and that was it did I make it in 15 minutes maybe not thank you you're welcome any questions from the commission all right thank you very much for the presentation thank you thank you very much this time we'll move to item eight which is approval of the minutes there are no additions or Corrections I'd look for a motion to approve the meeting minutes from February 24th motion to approve motion to approve from commissioner Stevens do I have a second I second second from commissioner bot all those in favor say I I I oh say no vot carries 70 nine is reports 9A is recap of March 5th and March 19th city council meeting minute or meetings with Emily presenting Mr chair members of the commission going all the way back to March 5th um the only item that I'll mention on that agenda was the greymont Third Edition final plat lenars project down south of a 100ra street um that is their third and final phase of that development so 74 more Lots will come online towards the end of this year March 19th two items that I wanted to mention at North Point and their outdoor storage was approved at the council table um to move to uh I'll call it building number two of that North Point where they're expanding their space and expanding their outdoor storage area and then finally uh the council did have a workshop with uh a group called yellow tree who is working on uh We've we're calling it Outlaw a of Everwood so just behind Kohl's there's a vacant l lot there um those folks are working on a multif family project market rate Apartment project and had a good conversation with Council about the potential for some subsidy to support their project with such a unique site there's some limitations to what they can do and how many units they can they can build so um they did get a favorable nod from the council so they will move forward with putting together a formal plan set um so I I anticipate in the next handful of months we would see a planning application before you and with that of course I will leave it to Mr council member Justin Olsen if he has anything to add or questions from the commission I don't think I have anything to add but I'll certainly entertain questions on anything that you may have heard this evening or heard through the proverbial grape vine I know that the the uh social media is usually pretty busy with all kinds of things that may or may not be true so what can I help you with all right thank you thank you to both of you um any questions for council member olon all right thank you that makes me happy thank you no rumors to question today uh B is respons the planning Comm commission inquiries we did have an inquiry from last meeting which talked about um illumination on principal structures in commercial areas I think specifically we did get a memo from Sam on that topic um any additional comment concern from commission about that seeing none we'll move on to Planning Commission requests for this meeting any requests for staff email does it's in the packet no I don't think we got a separate email I think it's just in the packet yeah I don't see any requests so we will move on to 10 which is the annual organization meeting since this this the March meeting um a is the 2025 Planning Commission rules sta has requested that we table that for another meeting because there are some changes I think that they want to tweak on that so if commission agrees I'd look for a motion to table the 2025 Planning Commission rules till the next regular meeting I'll make a motion to table it to the April meeting all right I have a motion to table from commissioner fiser to the April meeting do I have a second second second from commissioner Brittain all those in favor say I I post say no motion carries 70 which leaves us with B which is election of officers we have two officers besides myself that serve on the commission one is vice chair who primarily um as well as being a leader on the commission would take over chair duties if I were not present for the meeting um and then the other is secretary um which takes the role at the meeting and I think in the event that both I and the vice chair are not here takes the chair duties as well um and so right now um commissioner Brittain is our vice chair commissioner r was our secretary he is no longer on the commission and so um I would be looking we'll start with Vice chair I'd be looking for any nominations from any member of the commission you can nominate yourself you can nominate somebody else to be Vice chair for the next year any nominations it's always so awkward I know right they've yet to come with a better way to do it so I know right well I guess the question is if Mr Brittain wants to continue to be the vice chair or if he would like to be relinquished of his duties I would be happy to continue to serve as Vice chair with that do I have a nomination for any member of the commission what if someone else wants to do it doesn't sound like anyone's rearing to do it what's that no that's fine then he's approved by unanimous consent right yeah with no objection and then we'll make commissioner Britain our vice chair for the next year all right how about secretary any nominations I wouldn't mind being secretary okay commissioner Fisher nominate herself anyone else would like to nominate themselves or somebody else for secretary seeing none then without objection commissioner fiser will be our next secretary for the next year all right thank you both y congratulations for your willingness to serve again on top of normal um which leaves us with 11 adjournment I look for a motion to adjourn then motion to adjourn motion to adjourn from commissioner Britton do I have a second I second second from commissioner bot all those in favor say I I I OPP say no motion carry 70 we are adjourned e for