This transcript is from a **Cottage Grove Planning Commission** meeting. Based on the context provided and the names mentioned in the dialogue, I have identified the speakers (including the Planning Commission members and city staff). **Note:** As the original text did not include timestamps, I have omitted them or used `[00:00:00]` as a placeholder. *** [00:00:00] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Good evening and welcome to the Planning Commission's regular meeting for March 25th, 2024. At this time we will move on to roll call. Commissioner Raspon? [00:00:10] **Commissioner Brock:** Yeah. [00:00:11] **Commissioner Britain:** Here. [00:00:12] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Commissioner Fiser? Commissioner Frazier? [00:00:14] **Commissioner Frazier:** Here. [00:00:15] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Commissioner Kanable? [00:00:16] **Commissioner Kanable:** Here. [00:00:17] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Commissioner Rasmussen? [00:00:18] **Commissioner Rasmussen:** Here. [00:00:19] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Commissioner Stevens? [00:00:20] **Commissioner Stevens:** Here. [00:00:21] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Thank you. Item three tonight is approval of the agenda. Unless there's a motion to amend, I would look for approval of the agenda. [00:00:28] **Commissioner Britain:** Motion to approve. [00:00:29] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a motion to approve from Commissioner Britton. Do I have a second? [00:00:31] **Commissioner Raspon:** Second. [00:00:32] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Raspon. All those in favor say aye. [00:00:34] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:00:35] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. Item four tonight is Open Forum. This is a chance for anyone who's here in the audience tonight to speak on something that is not already on the agenda. So if there's something you'd like to speak on that's not on the agenda tonight, at this time I'll open Open Forum. You can step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. [00:00:55] **Dan Oman:** Hello, I'm Dan Oman. I'm a Town Chair with Grey Cloud Island Township. My address is 9680 Geneva Avenue South, St. Paul Park. I just came before you today, I guess just with the Dunes development starting out, just curious if there's any provisions or any of that stuff that the city has made for construction traffic? I'm receiving calls non-stop for all the heavy equipment; everything—nothing's coming underneath the train bridge, so it's all traveling through our Township roads, not County roads, our Township roads and through our private residences. We have a lot of mining trucks that go by and all that stuff and we get compensated for that. So I guess I just was wondering what has been put in place or any of that as that development goes on, to keep traffic off of our roads and all the housing and all that stuff to not have to travel there if we have to expect to see that go on. Okay, thank you. [00:01:45] **Dick Pooley:** Yep, Dick Pooley, Grey Cloud Town Board, 9600 Geneva Avenue South. And same thing with Dan, we're going to get all the traffic. And all I've heard from the 103rd Street bridge so far was when I was here before and said well, they're going to put an additional signage "Stop Ahead." Talking to Carla Bigham and looking at the County's plans, there's nothing in the plans for that 103rd Street bridge. Nothing finalized, nothing finished, and Carla agreed with that. Okay, and I brought up to her, I said well what you should do—because this traffic affects us and St. Paul Park—because you got 10-foot-4 clearance underneath that 103rd Street bridge. So all your ready-mix trucks, sand, gravel, everything, building products, everything is going to come through our Township and St. Paul Park. So I suggested to her, and this would help you guys out, why don't you make a County road all the way through St. Paul Park all the way down? And now part of it is County road before you get to the "Y" down there when you take a left of Grey Cloud Trail. Make that a County road at least up to the Cottage Grove border. And if you guys wanted it further, pursue that. And at the same time go in the other direction—it's County road halfway around Grey Cloud, two-thirds of the way—make the rest of it a County road. Then our problems would be alleviated; it actually helped you guys out. So I'd ask you guys to push it on to powers that be to work in the County to make that a County road. Because I've taken a close look in different County roads—they start in a city and stay in a city or in a Township and stay in a Township. There's other ones like 19 that go all the way through, you know, Woodbury down here. Okay, so that would be a perfect fit for a County road because it's a major arterial for St. Paul Park, Grey Cloud, and Cottage Grove's development, and development on the Lower Island if/when they have that park down there. So I just ask you guys to push it along and try and put some pressure on our County Board to do it. Carla didn't give us an answer, she just, "Okay, okay." But anyway, we'd appreciate it if you guys would help pursue that too. It'd be to everybody's benefit. Thanks. [00:03:30] **Chair Jerry Koch:** All right, thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on something that's not on the agenda tonight? All right, seeing none we're going to close Open Forum. Item five is the chair's explanation of the hearing process. The Planning Commission is a volunteer advisory group to the City Council... [Chair explains the hearing process]. With that, we'll move to item 6. 6.1 is Summer Valley cases ZA 22-8 and PP 22-4-8, with Connor Jakes presenting. [00:04:30] **Connor Jakes (Assistant Planner):** Yeah, good evening Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. Great to be with you. The two applications before you this evening are a Preliminary Plat and a Zoning Amendment for the proposed residential subdivision to be called Summer Valley... [Connor Jakes presents the Summer Valley project details]. With that, I would leave the recommendation on screen before you. Staff is available for any questions, and the applicant is in attendance as well. Thank you. [00:07:45] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Any questions for staff? All right, thank you. At this time if the applicant would like to add anything additional, please state your name and address. [00:07:55] **Brian Tucker (Applicant):** Thank you Chair, Commissioners. My name is Brian Tucker with Summergate Development. We're based out of Lakeville, and with me is Christian Fry from Westwood Professional Services, they are our engineer for the project. Don't really have too much to add to staff's presentation in terms of project details. If we're successful through the entitlement process, we would expect to start grading probably the end of June, early July assuming weather cooperates here over the next few months. That being the case, then we'd look to hopefully have infrastructure in by the end of this year... [Brian Tucker continues]. So with that, we're happy to answer any questions as well. Thank you. [00:08:50] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Any questions for the applicant? Thank you. At this time we're going to open public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak for or against the application can now step to the podium, state their name and address for the record. [00:09:05] **Dee Shanker:** Good evening, my name is Dee Shanker. I live at 619 Jasmine Bay South, which is a little cul-de-sac right behind that farm. We didn't receive the notice for the March 12th meeting, so we thought that was this one. However, we're a little concerned about—I know that you already said that the owners of the farm that's behind us said no to the road—would we be notified if there's any road going in? Because our trees are on our property kind of bend up to the farm, and would we be notified if any construction or if they changed their mind and put the road through for this construction project? I mean I don't have any objections to it, I'm just wondering if we'd be notified before that would happen since we have fencing, our neighbors have fencing, and our property is right on the line. If they do change their mind for whatever reason, things change in the course of a construction project. So would we be notified, the residents that lived right up back behind the—back up to the farm? [00:10:00] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Okay, so your question is you live at the city border there, and so that driveway that runs east-west, you are abutting that. And so your question is if there is a change and construction traffic starts to use that, are you going to get notified because of the concerns about your fence and trees and property there? [00:10:15] **Dee Shanker:** Right. And then if anything—if they damage our trees and our fence, will they be responsible for the replacement? That's kind of what we're looking at since it's kind of like, when you look at that property, it is literally right on the line. And if they were to put their driveway through to accommodate any kind of construction, it's going to be a big deal. I know his combine comes right up to our fence. So if they decide to use that, that would be something that I would hope that we would be either notified or had some input on. [00:10:40] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Okay, thank you. Staff has taken notes, they're going to discuss all the questions and concerns later. Thank you. [00:10:50] **Anthony Lavine:** Howdy, Anthony Lavine. Live at 9440 63rd Street, just behind the pond that we were all seeing a second ago. Just figured I would take a moment to voice my overall support for the development of the current design. Happy that we're bringing more housing to Cottage Grove. The only things that I'm going to note which have already kind of been spoken about which are the concerns regarding the traffic, especially at the corner of Jensen and 63rd. It's a school bus route; you get a stop right there, 20-30 kids lining up, so we're always a little concerned there... [Anthony Lavine discusses vibrational controls and stop signs]. Otherwise happy that it's getting developed and again adding more homes to Cottage Grove. So thank you all. [00:12:15] **Chair Jerry Koch:** All right, thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak for against the application? All right, at this time I'm going to close public hearing. I'll have staff kind of answer/talk about some of the things that were brought up. [00:12:30] **Connor Jakes (Assistant Planner):** Yeah, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. Just to touch on the northern access point along the border... [Connor Jakes addresses the private driveway access issue]. And then I'll defer the traffic questions to our—or the stop sign question and bus stop—to our City Engineer, Amanda Meyer. [00:13:00] **Commissioner Britain:** I got a question for you here first. So I understand that that's the plan. I think the question was is if for some unforeseen thing changed and that plan changed, would the homeowners be notified? [00:13:10] **Connor Jakes (Assistant Planner):** Yeah, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, Commissioner Britain. We would work to notify all property owners along that access route to ensure there's a plan in place and everybody knows dates and times of occurrences relating to that access route if it was to be utilized. Thank you. [00:13:25] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineering Staff):** Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. So a couple of things to touch on regarding some of the comments and questions/concerns... [Amanda Meyer discusses traffic length, stop signs, and vibrational controls]. [00:15:30] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Any questions for Amanda? I do have a question for you. So one of the things I know that we read in here and obviously has come up now tonight is the school bus stops and traffic construction traffic going through. [Chair asks about adjusting construction hours]. [00:16:15] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineering Staff):** Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. So the hours that you see in the staff report are actually set by city ordinance... [Amanda Meyer explains city ordinances and timeline]. [00:17:00] **Commissioner Brock:** Oh, you didn't walk away fast enough. You mentioned the 103rd Street bridge. So are the trucks going down to the development not being able to use the bridge because it's too short? Are they being diverted or are there any complications? What's going on, I guess would be my question? [00:17:15] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineering Staff):** Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. Unfortunately I don't have a good answer for you right now. I haven't heard there being concerns about not being able to get under the bridge... [Amanda Meyer promises a follow-up memo]. [00:17:40] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Okay, thank you. All right, thank you. Yes, any further discussion by Commission? Seeing none, I would look for a motion. [00:17:50] **Commissioner Britain:** A motion to approve subject to the conditions stipulated in the staff report. [00:17:55] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a motion to approve subject to conditions. Do I have a second? [00:17:58] **Commissioner Stevens:** Second. [00:17:59] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Stevens. I should say the motion's from Commissioner Britain. Any further discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. [00:18:05] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:18:06] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. Item seven is approval of the minutes. Unless there are any additions or corrections, I'd look for a motion to approve the minutes from February 26, 2024. [00:18:20] **Commissioner Rasmussen:** Motion to approve. [00:18:21] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a motion to approve from Commissioner Rasmussen. Do I have a second? [00:18:23] **Commissioner Brock:** Second. [00:18:24] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Brock. All those in favor say aye. [00:18:26] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:18:27] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. Item eight is reports. 8.1 is recap of March City Council meetings and we'll turn to Director Schmitz. [00:18:40] **Emily Schmitz (Community Development Director):** Yeah, good evening Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. Looking back all the way at the March 6th Council meeting, if you recall 9826 East Point Douglas Road... [Emily Schmitz provides a recap of City Council approvals]. And that is all of the update that I have, but of course I will turn it over to Councilmember Khambata if he has anything to add. [00:19:30] **Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Emily, I think you did a great job covering everything. We've had a couple of busy meetings, that's for sure. But I am open to taking any questions from the Commission. [00:19:45] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Any questions for Councilmember Khambata? Thank you very much. I'd like to thank you guys again for your hard work and dedication and it's nice to have a couple of quick meetings here. [00:20:00] **Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Yeah, I suppose now you jinxed it. [00:20:05] **Chair Jerry Koch:** 8.2 is response to Planning Commission inquiries. We didn't have any from last meeting. 8.3 is Planning Commission requests. I'll take Commissioner Britain's request for information about the bridge as one. Do we have any other requests for staff? [00:20:15] **Commissioner Brock:** I have a question. I was just wondering, do you know when they're starting the construction back up on East Point Douglas Road and Jamaica there? Let's get it off the books. [00:20:25] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineering Staff):** Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. So East Point/Jamaica, we have a tentative startup date of April 8th, weather depending. That will be with the full closure of East Point between the temporary signal and 92nd Street to construct that roundabout. Would you like more details? Because I could go further. [00:20:45] **Commissioner Brock:** No. Are you sure? [00:20:46] **Amanda Meyer (City Engineering Staff):** Okay, sounds great. [00:20:47] **Chair Jerry Koch:** All right, thank you. Any other inquiries for staff? All right, then we'll move on to item nine. This is the March meeting, so it is our annual organizational meeting. 9.1 is the acceptance of the Planning Commission rules for the next year. So again, unless there are any modifications, additions, deletions from the rules, I would look for a motion to approve. [00:21:05] **Commissioner Kanable:** Motion to approve. [00:21:06] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a motion to approve from Commissioner Kanable. Do I have a second? [00:21:08] **Commissioner Rasmussen:** Second. [00:21:09] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Rasmussen. All those in favor of approving the rules as suggested say aye. [00:21:12] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:21:13] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. 9.2 then is election of officers. There are two officers: Vice Chair and Secretary... [Chair explains officer roles]. So we'll start with Vice Chair. Currently our Vice Chair is Commissioner Britain. Are there any nominations to serve as Vice Chair for the next year? [00:21:40] **Commissioner Kanable:** I think Mr. Britain does a fine job and I'd nominate him again. [00:21:45] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a nomination for Commissioner Britton. Do I have a second for that nomination? [00:21:48] **Commissioner Stevens:** Second. [00:21:49] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Stevens. Do I have any other nominations for Vice Chair? Hearing none, then on the sole nomination, all those in favor of Commissioner Britain being Vice Chair for another year say aye. [00:22:00] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:22:01] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. All right, and then for Secretary. Currently our Secretary is Commissioner Rasmussen. Do I have any nominations for Secretary? [00:22:15] **Commissioner Brock:** I'll nominate Commissioner Rasmussen, he's been doing a great job. [00:22:20] **Chair Jerry Koch:** I have a nomination for Commissioner Rasmussen. Do I have a second on that nomination? [00:22:22] **Commissioner Kanable:** Second. [00:22:23] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Kanable. Any other nominations for Secretary? Seeing none, then on the sole nomination of Commissioner Rasmussen for Secretary, all those in favor say aye. [00:22:30] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:22:31] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. The motion carries 6-0. Item 10 is adjournment. And so at this time I'd look for a motion to adjourn. [00:22:40] **Commissioner Rasmussen:** Motion to adjourn. [00:22:41] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Motion to adjourn from Commissioner Rasmussen. Do I have a second? [00:22:43] **Commissioner Britain:** Second. [00:22:44] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Second from Commissioner Britain. All those in favor say aye. [00:22:46] **Commissioners (Unison):** Aye. [00:22:47] **Chair Jerry Koch:** Opposed say no. Motion carries 6-0. We are adjourned.