This transcript is for a meeting of the **Minneapolis City Planning Commission** on February 5, 2024. Based on the context provided and the dialogue, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names. [0:31] **Alysa Olen**: All right, good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the regular meeting of the City Planning Commission. Today is Monday, February 5th. My name is Alysa Olen and I'm the president of the Planning Commission. The city will be recording and posting this meeting to the city's website and YouTube channel as a means of increasing public access and transparency. This meeting is public and subject to the Minnesota Open Meeting Law. At this time, I'll ask the Clerk to please call the roll. [1:05] **Clerk**: Commissioner Baxley? (Baxley: Here.) Campbell is absent. Chowdhury? (Chowdhury: Present.) Conley is absent. Emme is absent. Ford is absent. Mara? (Mara: Here.) Meyer? (Meyer: Here.) Thompson? (Thompson: Here.) President Olen? (Olen: Here.) There are six members present. [1:17] **Alysa Olen**: All right, we have a quorum. So with that, we'll proceed to the agenda, a copy of which was posted for public access to the city's Legislative Information Management System, which is available at lims.minneapolismn.gov. We’ll begin with acceptance of the minutes from January 8th. Could I have a motion to accept those minutes? [1:46] **Commissioner**: So moved. [1:47] **Commissioner**: Second. [1:48] **Alysa Olen**: All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye." (Commissioners: Aye.) All opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that motion passes and the minutes are adopted. Our next order of business is to organize the agenda for the evening, which again is available at lims.minneapolismn.gov, and there are copies somewhere in this room at that far table. [2:03] **Alysa Olen**: Um, let's see. I will read through the agenda numbers and addresses and state whether the items are slated for consent, continuance, return, withdrawal, or discussion. Consent items will be passed without discussion by the board and we will be adopting the staff recommendation for those items. So if you agree with the staff recommendation, you don't need to do anything. If you disagree with the recommendation and would like to speak on the item, when I call that item out, you can just raise your hand and indicate that you would like to, and I will put that on our discussion agenda. So with that, the following items are on our agenda for this evening. Item number four is 2100, 2106, and 2100 Penn Avenue North. This is a public land sale. This item is on our consent agenda and will not have a public hearing. Item number five is 1315 and a half University Avenue Southeast. Is there anyone here to speak against staff recommendation on item number five? Okay, seeing none, I'll put item five on consent. And item number six is 2325 West River Road, 200 West River Road, 76 23rd Avenue North, and 3326 Avenue North. Is there anyone here to speak against staff recommendation for item six? [3:38] **Alysa Olen**: Okay, seeing none, I'll put item six on consent. So to review, we've got all three items—four, five, and six—on our consent agenda. Could I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? [4:10] **Commissioner**: So moved. [4:11] **Commissioner**: Second. [4:12] **Alysa Olen**: All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye." (Commissioners: Aye.) All opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that motion passes and the agenda has been adopted. So we'll do our consent agenda and in two—first we will proceed to handle the item that does not have a public hearing and then we'll do the two public hearing items. So could I have a motion to adopt item four on consent? [4:38] **Commissioner**: So moved. [4:39] **Commissioner**: Second. [4:40] **Alysa Olen**: All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye." (Commissioners: Aye.) All opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that motion passes and we've completed item four. Um, so we'll move on to items five and six on the consent agenda and I will open the public hearing on items five and six. Excuse me, is there anyone here who would like to speak on items five or six? If so, you can come up to the podium, state your name and neighborhood for the record, and proceed with your comments. Right, I'm not seeing any, so I will close the public hearing for items five and six. Could I have a motion to adopt items five and six as recommended by staff? [5:32] **Commissioner**: So moved. [5:33] **Commissioner**: Second. [5:34] **Alysa Olen**: All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say "aye." (Commissioners: Aye.) All opposed? Any abstentions? All right, that motion passes and items five and six have been adopted. Um, and that completes all of our discussion items for the evening. Um, hold on... All right, but we do have a couple new business items on our agenda today. The first is to receive and file the 2023 City Planning Commission Annual Report, and I'll invite CPED staff to present the item. [6:10] **Staff Member (CPED)**: Yes, so this is really just a formality that we bring it to the commission to receive and file every year, but this is a document that staff assembles—actually, Mang assembled it this year; we won't make her get up and present on it—but we take a look at all the applications that were in front of the commission over the calendar year and identify trends. We make a map available to the public to see where development is occurring. You can see application totals for the year—we had 63 variances and 44 site plan review applications, the majority of which were approved. So we identify the ward trends for applications and the number of appeals. We had four appeals out of all of those projects in 2023. But yeah, it's just interesting to look back on; it helps us internally to identify trends and things that need to be addressed in the future. So if you have any questions, we can try to answer those. Otherwise, yeah... [7:31] **Alysa Olen**: Commissioner Meyer? [7:33] **Commissioner Meyer**: Yeah, um, so I don't need like the full presentation, but as I was reading the report, I was curious about like the first couple charts on there that show, you know, substantial reduction in applications. And I wanted to ask—like, my assumption is that's mostly because there are fewer variances and applications are being approved automatically, but I just wanted to know like to the extent to which that's the case or if we're just seeing fewer projects coming forward? [8:02] **Staff Member (CPED)**: Great question, Commissioner Meyer. I think there are a variety of factors informing that. There's a big drop, as you can see, from 2020 to 2021. I think that substantial drop was largely due to the implementation of Minneapolis 2040 and the fact that a lot more projects were approved as-of-right or were approved administratively through site plan review and required fewer applications. From 2021 on, you can see the trend line continues to go down; some of that is still captured by the fact that we are allowing more things as-of-right, but we're also seeing projects impacted by the 2040 lawsuit and the uncertainty that that brings. There's market conditions informing that, so it's hard to say exactly what is informing that number, but certainly those factors are at the top. [8:46] **Alysa Olen**: Any other questions or discussion? All right, seeing none, I will say that the item has been received and filed. Our next item is to adopt the calendar for City Planning Commission meetings for the remainder of 2024. As you may recall, due to a new Council term, we were only able to approve a calendar for meetings for January and February of 2024, and now the Council structure has been finalized and we're able to approve our meeting calendar for the remainder of the year. I presume everyone has had a chance to look at the calendar. Are there any questions or discussion? [9:23] **Alysa Olen**: All right, seeing none, I will move approval of the item. Is there a second? [9:29] **Commissioner**: Second. [9:30] **Alysa Olen**: Any discussion? Seeing no further discussion, I'll ask the Clerk to call the roll on the motion. [9:44] **Clerk**: Commissioner Baxley? (Baxley: Aye.) Campbell is absent. Chowdhury? (Chowdhury: Aye.) Mara? (Mara: Aye.) Meyer? (Meyer: Aye.) Thompson? (Thompson: Aye.) President Olen? (Olen: Aye.) There are six ayes. [9:58] **Alysa Olen**: All right, that motion passes and the calendar has been approved as amended. All right, our final item for this evening is to read a couple resolutions of appreciation for our outgoing Commissioners. So, Commissioner Ford isn't here, we'll start with him. [10:10] **Alysa Olen**: So, this is a resolution of appreciation for Keith Ford for his dedicated service to the Minneapolis City Planning Commission. Whereas Keith has served on the City of Minneapolis City Planning Commission since 2020; and whereas Keith has participated in over 120 Planning Commission public hearings, making decisions and recommendations on over 1,329 land use applications and adoption of one comprehensive plan and numerous zoning code text amendments; and whereas Keith has provided substantial expertise related to planning and development; and whereas Keith served on the Planning Commission on its 100th anniversary; and whereas Keith has demonstrated tremendous dedication and generosity in sharing both his time and knowledge; and whereas the Minneapolis City Planning Commission wishes to formally recognize Keith's dedicated service to the City Planning Commission and city; now therefore be it resolved by the City Planning Commission and the staff of the City Planning Commission of the City of Minneapolis that we thank Keith Ford for his faithful and constructive service in extending the progress of the city and in promoting the welfare of its people; that we extend him our best wishes for good health and happiness, trusting that the friendships and understanding built in our mutual undertakings will be with us always. [11:41] **Alysa Olen**: I know I've appreciated Keith's um, time on the Planning Commission and we're sad to see him go. I wish he could be here tonight. If anyone else wants to say anything, you're welcome to. We will move on to Commissioner Mara’s, and she has a special guest. Very special guest! [12:00] **Alysa Olen**: All right, a resolution of appreciation for Anisha Mara for her dedicated service to the Minneapolis City Planning Commission. Whereas Anisha has served on the City of Minneapolis City Planning Commission since 2020; and whereas Anisha served on the commission's executive committee as secretary from February 2020 to January 2024; whereas Anisha has participated in over 120 Planning Commission public hearings, making decisions and recommendations on over 1,329 land use applications and adoption of one comprehensive plan and numerous zoning code text amendments; and whereas Anisha has provided substantial expertise related to nonprofit funding for affordable housing and small businesses, planning, and development; and whereas Anisha served on the Planning Commission on its 100th anniversary; and whereas Anisha has demonstrated tremendous dedication and generosity in sharing both her time and knowledge; and whereas the Minneapolis City Planning Commission wishes to formally recognize Anisha's dedicated service to the City Planning Commission and city; now therefore be it resolved by the City Planning Commission and the staff to the City Planning Commission of the City of Minneapolis that we thank Anisha Mara for her faithful and constructive service in extending the progress of this city and in promoting the welfare of its people; that we extend her our best wishes for good health and happiness, trusting that the friendships and understanding built in our mutual undertakings will be with us always. [13:41] **Anisha Mara**: Yeah! (Laughter/Applause). I tried! I'm just kidding. [13:45] **Alysa Olen**: Well, I would just say that I think I speak for everyone when we say we have absolutely appreciated your expertise in public art. We've never—I've never—on the commission had someone who's had that expertise, and it's been a learning experience and extremely useful along the road. Great, we will get a signed copy of that sent out to you, yes, and to Commissioner Ford as well if he's listening. Excellent. So, thank you both. Yeah. I also just want to quickly welcome our newest Commissioners, Commissioner Thompson and Chowdhury. We're glad to have you. That's right, yeah. All right, are there any announcements from staff? [14:55] **Staff Member (CPED)**: Yes, um, so with the departure of Commissioner Mara and Commissioner Ford, we have two new Commissioners who will be starting on February 20th. Public hearings were held at the Business, Housing, and Zoning Committee of the City Council last week and are going through the final council process, but we expect to have Kelly Rose Jones, who is actually a former city employee—she's retired from our Regulatory Services Department—joining us, and then Joe Wagner. They are both mayoral appointees. And Joe Campbell applied for reappointment and is currently working through the City Council process; his public hearing for reappointment will be on February 13th. So we'll do some orientation and have new members on the 20th. We're excited to have them on board. Once they are onboarded, we'll give them one meeting to get settled in, and then we will talk about our executive committee and doing elections for president, vice president, and secretary. And then we will also be using likely one of the March Committee of the Whole dates for a study session, retreat, business meeting—whatever you want to call it—where we will take a deeper dive on a few issues that have come up over the last year. So I have a running list, I believe President Olen has a list as well, but if you have something that you would like to discuss, you can email it to me. We'll try to prioritize and tackle as many items as we can, but we plan to do that once in the spring and once in the fall this year. [16:21] **Alysa Olen**: All right, thank you. Any other announcements from the commission before we adjourn? [16:27] **Staff Member (Clerk’s Office/Casey Carl)**: President Olen, can I make one comment? Too, just a note for the body now that we are finally in our new temporary space. We will be in this temporary Council Chambers for at least the year of 2024. We are working very diligently to ensure the... the competition for this space is getting more and more fierce as the city broadcasts more and more meetings. So our plan is that going forward, we will no longer have the Committee of the Whole meetings in this space as we did in City Hall across the street. The bulk of Committee of the Whole meetings that have been scheduled have been scheduled in the Public Service Building, which is the newer city building where we have been for the last month or so, in Room 100. So just keep that in mind for Commissioners as well as for the public. The Committee of the Whole meetings are likely to be mostly in the Public Service Building kitty-corner from City Hall on the other side of the street. But keep an eye on your emails and LIMS as well for any changes in location. Thank you. [17:28] **Alysa Olen**: All right. Um, with that, we've completed all the items on our agenda for this meeting, and if there's nothing else from anyone and without objection, I'll declare this meeting adjourned. Due to President's Day, our next regular meeting of the Planning Commission will be on a Tuesday—it's Tuesday, February 20th—and our next Planning Commission Committee of the Whole meeting on this Thursday is cancelled. Um, and I'm not sure when the next one is, but we'll pay attention to that. [18:00] **Staff Member (CPED)**: The next one is on the 22nd, which is the... date I gave for when our new Commissioners are starting—they are starting on the 20th, okay—and will hopefully also be with us for Committee of the Whole on the 22nd. Our next Committee of the Whole meeting will be February 22nd. [18:22] **Alysa Olen**: All right, thank you everybody. (Meeting Adjourned).