This transcript is for a **Lake Elmo Planning Commission** meeting. Please note that while the provided context includes City Council members, the speakers in this transcript are Planning Commissioners (Rezy, Rain Camp, Bowling) and an applicant (Jerry Bach). [00:00] **Planning Commission Chair**: Should have my eight-year-old—she made a movie trailer like on the iPad. I was gonna say it looks like a professional movie, just good. All right, good evening. Oh wait, all right. Good evening, we're going to call the Lake Elmo Planning Commission to order for May 13th. If we can all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:25] **All**: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:40] **Planning Commission Chair**: All right, if I can entertain a motion to approve the agenda for tonight. [00:44] **Commissioner Rezy**: Motion to approve the agenda of Monday, May 13th, 2024. [00:48] **Commissioner Rain Camp**: I'll second. [00:50] **Planning Commission Chair**: First by Commissioner Rezy, seconded by Commissioner Rain Camp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:55] **Commissioners**: Aye. [00:56] **Planning Commission Chair**: Those opposed? Motion carries. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of April 22nd, 2024? [01:02] **Commissioner Rezy**: Motion to approve the minutes of April 22nd, 2024. [01:05] **Commissioner Bowling**: I’ll second. [01:07] **Planning Commission Chair**: First by Commissioner Rezy, second by Commissioner Bowling. All those in favor signify by saying aye. [01:12] **Commissioners**: Aye. [01:13] **Planning Commission Chair**: All those opposed? Motion carries. First item for tonight is the public hearing for the Bridgewater Village zoning text amendment. [01:21] **City Staff Member**: Good evening Chair, members of the Commission. I have a very brief presentation for you on this item. Uh, somewhat straightforward here; request from Bridgewater Bank. They are requesting to change the zoning ordinance as it relates to the parking requirements for a financial institution or bank. This is in association with the requested Bridgewater Village Development that the Planning Commission reviewed at the end of last year. So again, just to remind you, this is an applicant-initiated text amendment. What we are reviewing this evening is a request to change the rules. I'll get into some of the details here. This was prompted again by a proposal for the Bridgewater Bank. The bank is proposed to be 6,000 square feet in gross floor area. The last amendment, as far as we can tell, to the parking standards for banks does not appear to have been in the last 5 or 10 years. There have been some adjustments to that section 105.12.410, the table for parking standards, but it does not seem that the City's really reviewed these parking standards in great detail recently. To talk a little bit about what this is and what this means, I wanted to talk about how financial institutions are defined. This means a provision of financial or banking services to consumers or clients. Walk-in and drive-in services are generally provided on-site. Typical uses include banks, savings and loan associations, savings banks, credit unions, lending establishments, and drive-up ATMs. So that's what a financial institution means when you see that use within the city code. I'm using the word bank and financial institution interchangeably. In terms of the zoning map, I wanted to talk quickly also about where this particular use is located within the city. It is in eight of your zoning districts which allow commercial uses. It's one of those uses that you see nearly anywhere that there is going to be some type of commercial use. Within Lake Elmo, this is concentrated in the developing areas within the city's MUSA boundary. These are in the Village area and areas within the Village planning area that allow for commercial, and then also along 94 in the South growth area. Cutting right to the request: the current city code standard is one space per 100 square feet of usable floor area. The request is to increase that to 200 feet. We did ask the applicant, Bridgewater Bank, to help us out with the research here to provide information about their own bank facilities. They provided some information on several bank facilities across the Metro—examples in Shorewood, Orono, and Minneapolis. Generally speaking, these bank properties are providing at least one space per 200 feet or more. I also took a look at the employment information. It averaged out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 to 14 employees based on the example bank in Bridgewater Village, which is 6,000 square feet. With the code standard applied that they're requesting, we would go from 60 stalls as currently required to 30. We also wanted to understand how some of our neighboring communities regulate this. In a lot of the area communities, we're seeing a minimum 200-foot per one-stalled parking or more. Staff looked at the request and we have changed the proposed language a little bit. We're proposing to change the word "usable" to "gross" floor area. The reason for this is because it's more consistent with the rest of the parking standards in the ordinance and it's more objective. Usable floor area can be a little bit subjective. This will still allow the Bridgewater Bank project to move forward with their proposed number of parking stalls on their site plan. I have some findings proposed to you in the staff report. I'd also note that we have a public hearing that was posted for today; we have not received any comments or questions from the public. With that, I'll bring that to the recommendation, which is to move this on to the City Council. I would note that the applicant is here this evening and happy to talk about their project. That's all I have for you, Mr. Chair. [05:45] **Planning Commission Chair**: First, I was going to ask you: do we define "usable" in the code anywhere? I mean, you did touch on the fact that's why we're moving to gross rather than usable, because of mechanical rooms or back-of-house. [06:00] **City Staff Member**: I don't think it's actually explicitly defined in the ordinance as far as I could see. Looking at Table 52, you don't really see that term used for many of the other uses. Offices and retail are similar in nature to banks, and to have different language felt a little out of order. Making sure that we have consistent requirements across the board helps staff when site plans come in. [06:28] **Commissioner**: So how does it change the—I mean, obviously we're going to reduce the parking lot—how does that change the overall dynamics of that development? What's that look like, and are there other properties or business types that we're looking to reduce as well? [06:45] **City Staff Member**: Right now, this is a really narrow request. It's specifically for financial institutions. Staff have not broadened the scope of this at all to include other uses. If you're suggesting that staff should review all of the uses, that definitely is a conversation that the Planning Commission and staff can have. But for this particular request, this will go forward with the Bridgewater Village final plat. [07:12] **Commissioner**: So this would be, if a larger bank wanted to come in, this would be the minimum amount that would currently be done for a financial institution? [07:20] **City Staff Member**: Correct. That being said, staff found it to be pretty reasonable considering the fact that it is pretty consistent with area communities. I would also just mention changes in how banks do business; technology has gone gangbusters and ATMs of all different shapes and sizes exist now to help people digitally. [07:42] **Planning Commission Chair**: Any other questions from Commissioners? Okay, thank you. If the applicant would like to come forward, if you can state your name. [07:51] **Jerry Bach**: I'm Jerry Bach, CEO of Bridgewater Bank and Bridgewater Bank Shares. I have Jeff Re with me, our principal of MDG Architects. We're excited to be here today, obviously we're excited to be potentially opening a business in town here. All of our branches in suburban areas have—I'm not going to say limited parking—but parking just like we're representing here. A lot of green space, less parking, less tar, more open space, grass, flowers, bushes, shrubs; it's an overall appeal that we like. [08:25] **Planning Commission Chair**: What's your ideal number of parking spaces if you were going to build it and didn't have any restrictions? How many would you put in? [08:33] **Jerry Bach**: Same, 30. [08:35] **Jeff Re**: 30... 35, whatever. [08:37] **Jerry Bach**: There’s your opportunity to tell me I think 10 is all we really need, but no. You have some like after-hours events or something like that, you need some parking. And I think it works overall with the overall design. I don't think we'd want to get by with 20. [08:55] **Planning Commission Chair**: All right. Okay, any other further questions for anyone? Okay, thank you. All right, this is a public hearing so if I can get a motion to open the public hearing at 7:12. [09:08] **Commissioner Rezy**: Motion to open the public hearing for the Bridgewater Village zoning text amendment. [09:12] **Commissioner Rain Camp**: I'll second. [09:14] **Planning Commission Chair**: First by Commissioner Rezy, second by Commissioner Rain Camp. We'll open the public hearing at 7:12. Did we receive nothing? Okay. Is there anyone here? All right, we will close the public hearing. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? [09:30] **Commissioner Bowling**: I move to close the public hearing. [09:33] **Commissioner Rezy**: Second. [09:35] **Planning Commission Chair**: Motion by Commissioner Bowling, second by Commissioner Rezy. Public hearing is closed at 7:13. If I can get—there is a motion on the table—if I can get someone to... [09:47] **Commissioner Bowling**: I move to recommend approval of the zoning text amendments requested by Bridgewater Bank as proposed by City staff. [09:55] **Commissioner Rezy**: Second. [09:56] **Planning Commission Chair**: First by Commissioner Bowling, second by Commissioner Rezy. Any comments? Mr. Bowling? [10:02] **Commissioner Bowling**: I understand that things have definitely changed and you don't need the parking like we used to. And I don't mean to compare—I'm sorry to do this—but one of the things I love about Lake Elmo is Lake Elmo Bank and all that green space because I walk there all the time. The fact that you're getting rid of cement and putting in green, love it. [10:25] **Commissioner Rain Camp**: As for me, I appreciate the work by both the applicant showing us what their parking spaces are at some of their other branches, and by staff comparing to similar municipal ordinances. 200 seems appropriate looking at some of our neighboring cities, so I'm all for it. [10:43] **Planning Commission Chair**: I'm for it as well. I think it's kind of hard to be against this when you want less parking. Any other comments, questions? All right, all of those in favor of the motion, if you can signify by saying aye. [10:56] **Commissioners**: Aye. [10:57] **Planning Commission Chair**: All those opposed? Motion carries five to nothing. All right, thank you very much. We'll just give them a few seconds and then we can move on to new and unfinished business, which there is nothing. All right, new and unfinished business, we don't have anything. For item six: City Communications updates. [11:20] **City Staff Member**: Communication updates: at the May 7th City Council meeting, there was a handful of planning items on the agenda. The Public Facility Zoning District text amendment—the City Council did approve that with an amendment to keep the parcel maximum at 20 acres. Kramer Lake—the application was withdrawn, so that did not go forward to City Council. Birch and Haven Comprehensive Plan Amendment—the Council denied the zoning text amendment and approved the Comprehensive Plan Amendment, so that is now going to be submitted to Met Council for their review. And then the Chavez property, which is the zoning map amendment and Comprehensive Plan Amendment—the City Council approved both of those and again, that will now need to go to Met Council. And then upcoming meetings: May 28th will likely be cancelled. The notice will be posted next week. And then June 10th, we do have a couple items. [12:15] **Planning Commission Chair**: Okay. Any other issues, items for concern? Right, then we will close the meeting at 7:16 p.m. Done.