As an expert transcriptionist, I have analyzed the context provided and the dialogue to identify the speakers. Please note that "Hema/Emma" in the transcript appears to be a phonetic transcription of Planning Commission member **Isaac Naatz**. [5:21] **Brian Douglas:** welcome everyone to the june 13th planning commission meeting uh i'll call the role emma here [5:27] **Isaac Naatz:** here [5:28] **Diane Johnson:** johnson here [5:29] **Matt Montgomery:** montgomery here [5:30] **Brian Douglas:** gives me i'm here uh can we get an approval of the agenda [5:35] **Isaac Naatz:** i moved to approve the agenda [5:36] **Diane Johnson:** second [5:37] **Brian Douglas:** uh moved by uh hema second by johnson to approve the agenda any further discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries uh public input is there anybody here for public input john [6:09] **Brian Douglas:** aaron you you have anything oh i'll talk to you later okay so we're just going to bypass the public input we'll get right onto the planning commission business there's a recommendation for a particular recommending a petition for hearing for annexation diane do you want to take over [6:28] **Diane Johnson:** there's been a request for an annexation by aaron smith of greensmith builders this property is currently in cannon falls section 7 township 112 the request for annexation is for approximately 44 acres the proposed purpose will be for our three medium density residential single family homes and just for everybody's information [6:54] **Diane Johnson:** single family homes are 9 000 square feet the lot and the lots are 135 feet deep by 60 feet wide for regular lots and corner lots they would be 135 feet deep by 70 feet wide also if this goes forward just a couple notes so we know how this would run um if you guys approve recommendation to counsel to tonight then it would go to the next council meeting on june 21st at that meeting there would be a motion to permit a hearing after 30 days of notification and [7:41] **Diane Johnson:** we'll stick with that for now yeah [7:52] **Brian Douglas:** we have aaron smith from greensmith builders developers they would like to probably uh explain their project it's on this time yeah good okay [8:03] **Aaron Smith:** hi those of you that met me last time hi again and those uh that are new on the council or i think i've met most of you but we we couldn't be more excited to be here in cannon falls this is just a beautiful project on some beautiful property so we've put together roughly 50 to 54 acres in total under the r3 it'll be enough for 129 houses they're 350 to 500 000 houses that will go in there [8:39] **Aaron Smith:** and the views are just if you haven't been up on the property the views are just incredible i know attending some of the chamber meetings now we felt the same way when we looked at cannon falls that we just desperately need housing for people to come in talk to my neighbors at gemini to the west can you build housing just for us you know and it'll definitely be available but i think that you know we talk a lot about bringing jobs to towns but we got to bring the housing to bring the jobs and we stand ready to go um i know we want to get phase one going as as soon as we can the annexation helps us with some of the dirt balancing as we do the earth moving throughout that property i think we'll attack it in three phases throughout [9:26] **Aaron Smith:** and we will greensmith is in our name we will do very energy efficient solar we'll try to keep people's utility bills low we figure that that's a a great way so people can afford a little more house with a little bit less utility bills um we've just from an experience perspective so greensmith builders is myself here in minnesota and my partner mark wigder we went to school together and we've done properties and we have two projects in houston right now and we own projects across florida and new york and connecticut so lots of experience between the two of us on bringing developments online and then [10:11] **Aaron Smith:** kind of our thesis has been here in minnesota to help small towns develop and bring housing to great small towns we have another project out in laverne and i think that's a good overview but i'll open it up to the council for any questions that you might have for me [10:33] **Diane Johnson:** um are three and that's just single family homes or is there a possibility of um i believe you were going to have the potential for multi-family homes [10:45] **Aaron Smith:** yeah i know we've talked about um and was kind of talking to gemini and talking to the city that the phase one which is on the lower tier and abuts the current viking drive [10:59] **Aaron Smith:** that actually we could do something there in a pud and do some nice town home property there and potentially do for rent property there i think that would allow us to get the uptake a little bit quicker and i think if we go that route with the city it would allow us to build everything at one time and then lease it up [11:17] **Diane Johnson:** thank you thanks [11:19] **Matt Montgomery:** i'm looking at the i'm looking at the concept plan and i'm trying to look at google images there too the road to the left that's viking drive that continues off into the field to the north [11:32] **Aaron Smith:** yes sir [11:33] **Matt Montgomery:** and then the little bit on the bottom corner that's uh highway 17 again [11:37] **Aaron Smith:** yes it comes back out at 17. okay so right across from that cul-de-sac so we bring it out right to match with that cul-de-sac we wanted to make sure that wasn't like a frontage road that yeah [11:44] **Matt Montgomery:** no okay no front is planned okay you said uh 350 to 500 000 um tough question but with today's economy inflation uh building costs are you seeing things slow down in some of the other projects i know those are different markets different states but we're all dealing with a lot of the same stuff with fuel costs and things like that so [12:10] **Aaron Smith:** yeah no a great question the the bigger issue actually right now for development and construction is supply chain disruption uh it's getting your garage door getting your air conditioner in fact i was talking to ceta about renting aware if if you're out there watching you have a warehouse space for rent so a lot of it for our laverne project we had seven semi trailers and [12:32] **Aaron Smith:** we loaded our inventory in there so that we're ready to build so somebody's gonna get the material so materials are a bigger issue on the lumber side it's been a lot of fluctuation but lumber costs have come back down now quite a bit now you are seeing some fuel surcharge but that's a smaller percentage and i'm kind of my take on interest rates and i'm a little bit older but you know i don't have a crystal ball but maybe we're going to see another point to two points of interest rates historically that's still been a fairly good interest rate but it's going to change that's why we think rentals are probably a good safe first bet and then we follow that on with single family for [13:18] **Aaron Smith:** sale back on the second tier of that bluff which is the gorgeous bluffs behind and the nice retainage bond so did that [13:28] **Matt Montgomery:** yeah absolutely do you think that this um for your maybe market research or do you think this is going to be first home builders coming to cannon falls or do you see this being kind of the ricochet effect of appealing to locals that know the area and say oh there's views all this stuff and build a house put the house on the market or what kind of effect do you think they can have [13:50] **Aaron Smith:** we don't discriminate in who we sell to so it's whatever uh whatever people think but what what i saw in canada falls was i always say it's such a cute town you've got the national historic district like if i had to develop [14:05] **Aaron Smith:** a town to look like like that's what i would pick you're equidistant between mayo clinic the 5 billion expansion and the cities i think you're going to get professional couples where maybe it is their second house and they're saying you know what we want to be in that great small town we want to be in that school district i don't need to be in the office in minneapolis as much so it's a little bit of that zoom effect and one of us works at mayo and works in minneapolis or st paul so that's where i think cannon falls really benefits make sense [14:42] **Matt Montgomery:** absolutely okay okay [14:47] **Diane Johnson:** um looking at how to funnel people in and out of these developments on the east end it's [14:51] **Diane Johnson:** going to exit on this 17. [14:55] **Aaron Smith:** yes ma'am [14:56] **Diane Johnson:** on the west end it'll go through phase one [14:59] **Aaron Smith:** yes it'll go through phase one and out there viking to seventeen um [15:05] **Diane Johnson:** if i were the people now living on viking i would not be happy with this is that excuse me that's a lot of cars you'll have you will have 129 houses i mean you would presume that 60 people would probably go out to 17 and 60 would go out viking [15:36] **Aaron Smith:** most of them would be heading east so yeah you might have an extra 120 cars a day on viking i know vikings gonna be redone is on the schedule to be redone [15:47] **Matt Montgomery:** well it will be as soon as you're yeah after i'm done messing it up i'm gonna redo viking but well i know that just to answer the question just to answer the question um that road was dead end there for a reason to supply a out for that future property that's why it was done that way so otherwise it would have been a cul-de-sac [16:22] **Isaac Naatz:** this is not going to be a association we already talked about there might be a difference of properties but this isn't going to be styles one through four and three different colors and that's all you get this will be multiple designs or what's the i don't know exactly yet um so i hate to yeah yeah i hate to answer without but i think that there's always that potential of you know do we bring in two or three other builders and then they each you know do lot take down and and that way we'll get the neighborhood built more quickly if we build a mall ourself then it's going to be well you really got to pick like 12 to 16 different styles and and do it throughout but we will have some design covenants either way that we go so it's kind of [17:10] **Aaron Smith:** consistent with i call it modern prairie farmhouse okay which seems to be the stop my interior designer tells me that's what that's what the gals really like [17:21] **Isaac Naatz:** basements [17:23] **Aaron Smith:** it's a lot if the suits it i think if you look at the north side of the property where you're sloping up to the bluff line you know you might be better off with tuck under garages the way the architects have looked at it with the basement behind it and then the house sitting up and walking out to the backyard but then as you're on the south side which would be the continuation of viking drive then the lots slope away down to that retainage and my goal is you know that nice retainage pond with the walking path around it a little waterfall in there a dock for the kids those will be walkouts on that side [17:57] **Aaron Smith:** because you want to look at that pond lake retainage pond [18:13] **Diane Johnson:** so sidewalk on here too [18:15] **Aaron Smith:** yeah sidewalks required on one side of the street [18:18] **Diane Johnson:** how about green space are you gonna have any common green space areas that you would set aside for recreation [18:25] **Aaron Smith:** the bluff yeah all right what are you going to do with it can't do anything with the bluff but i think that the bluff is beautiful green space i know we looked at some opportunities to the west for an amenity space or some potential for the existing farmstead and i can't control for that but the existing farmstead to be an amenity space for the project and kind of our vision would be [19:00] **Aaron Smith:** i know i think as long as we're going well through phase two that we look at that amenity space and it's the barn there's some community gardens there's a dog park all the paths kind of lead today out of that farmstead so that would be really nice to capture as kind of a phase four to be that agrihood uh type of center amenity but that's future state at this point [19:26] **Matt Montgomery:** do we have uh any expectations with uh developments with parks i feel like uh with sandstone we had talked about something that's all a park now isn't it [Laughter] i know too much now yeah you know when the uh [19:46] **Brian Douglas:** when this whole concept comes in we'll have to have that discussion okay you know it's uh um right now we're looking at the annexation but the preliminary and the concept plan when that comes piling through um you guys will get an opportunity the park board gets an opportunity to take a look at all this stuff so then we got viking park right there it's little but if that fits well you know you have when it comes to the development agreement you have the option of land or fees and if there's a park there that can be expanded that might be the option [20:19] **Aaron Smith:** yeah council member montgomery that was kind of my take on it looking at that is i'd rather pay a fee let's really make that viking park park a little more [20:31] **Aaron Smith:** fun for kids and it's right there on the side it's right there yeah same side of highway 17 so we don't need yeah that's right yep [20:38] **Matt Montgomery:** uh if if there's more discussion great but i'd make a motion that we uh approve a recommendation for a petition for a hearing for annexation [20:49] **Isaac Naatz:** i'll second it [20:51] **Brian Douglas:** uh it's been moved by montgomery second by hema to move this forward for a hearing for annexation is there any further discussion all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries thanks aaron [21:08] **Aaron Smith:** thank you very much thank you you okay [21:18] **Brian Douglas:** i got to clean up something on the on the agenda here um i didn't approve the minutes from the april 11th meeting so i need a motion to approve the minutes from the april oh you didn't do that [21:32] **Isaac Naatz:** make a motion to approve the minutes from april 11th [21:35] **Matt Montgomery:** second [21:36] **Brian Douglas:** there's been a motion to approve the minutes from april 11th by mr hema second by johnson is any further discussion all in favor aye aye aye opposed kerry laura do you have anything as long as you're here you guys anything [21:56] **Laura Qualey:** thank you [21:58] **Isaac Naatz:** i'd like to make a motion to adjourn then [22:04] **Matt Montgomery:** a second [22:05] **Brian Douglas:** motion by hama second by montgomery to adjourn any further discussion all in favor aye aye aye auction carries meeting adjourned