We will go ahead and call this uh planning comm Eden Prairie Planning Commission meeting to order for Monday, July 14th at 7 p.m. If you could all rise and uh follow me in the pledge of >> allegiance, please stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you. We have an agenda before us. I would look for a motion for approval of the agenda this evening. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and uh motion by Taylor, second by far. All those in favor of the agenda say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. All right. Motion carries. We have an agenda. We have the minutes from the uh June 23rd 20 2025 planning commission meeting before you. You have a minute to look at those. Otherwise, I'd ask for a motion to approve the minutes from that meeting. >> Chair, I do have a correction on the minutes. >> All right. >> Um page two, fourth paragraph, second sentence. Um, instead of starting off with the should be there. >> That's it. >> Do we have a motion then with the adjustment made by Commissioner Taylor? Madam Chair, I'll uh move to approve the minutes as adjusted by Commissioner Taylor. >> Do we have a second? Thank you. >> Second. >> Motion made by Commissioner Far, second by Commissioner Taylor to approve the minutes. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Same sign. >> Motion carried. Thank you. All right. We have a public hearing tonight which is for the Aspen Estates Assisted Living and Memory Care. We have a zoning district change from I2 to RM 2.5 on a 0.908 acres and from rural to RM2.5 on 1999 acres. And then we have a preliminary plat to combine two parcels into one lot on 1.1 acre. and we have a site plan review on 1.1 acre. I believe the applicant is with us this this evening if you'd like to approach and give us your presentation for tonight. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> When you start talking, >> do I push the button? There we go. All right. Hi everyone. Um, so my name is Bill Welch. Uh, I'm a resident of Prior Lake, so about 20 minutes away from, uh, Eden Prairie. Lived in Minnesota, going on 30 years now, so it's my home. It's been a long time. And my family's, uh, there in Prior Lake. And we do have, uh, Dave Treak, who is my architect on on the project, who has a lot of experience with doing senior living builds. Um, so one thing I just want to mention before I start is that, uh, this is going to be, you know, this is really my first project of its kind. So, I'm not a big corporation, you know, building out several of these. I may build out more than more than this one in the future, but really this is um this is I just recently retired from a career in in software sales for a long time, 25 years there. And then uh wanted to do something that would be interesting in terms of not just business, but also doing something for the community and doing something uh that's passionate for me. uh as my my own father passed away um three years ago during the covid situation and uh it was a really tough experience uh living in an environment that he was pretty isolated in kind of gave up on life and so that's the inspiration of building really what you'll see as a much smaller facility than um than I think what you'll normally recognize around certainly Eden Prairie you know there's five of these much larger um facilities like we call it sort of like big box over 100 units this one is 15 um but I'd like to get into sort the overview of the project. I'll start with um give you an idea overall this. So this is uh assisted living. Um it's also memory care. So the entire unit will be in uh lockdown, you know, so that um you don't have any wandering going on if you're familiar with that. Um not only is is the building uh on lockdown um but also the the fencing area around the back of the building will also be uh locked down as well to prevent wandering. Although wandering is pretty uncommon. Um, our ratios, as you'll see here, are 5 to one. And that is what I mentioned before, like even with my dad, for example, uh, the bigger facilities oftentimes, uh, the way that they're set up, the ratios of residents to caregivers is oftentimes 10, sometimes 15, I've heard of 20 to one. Um, and that can be challenging, you know, especially with people with higher need. In fact, it's it's not uncommon for these bigger facilities to offload residents as they go grow in need to a home more like mine where the ratio is much smaller. So, this is um this might seem at the surface like a project that gosh, it's just another one of these assisted living homes where I would say this is um higher care that's that's of great need, especially with memory care and the rise and things like Alzheimer's and dementia. Um we'll have a full-time nurse on site. So, this is going to be very well staffed. I'll have a full-time chef. Uh, and then we'll have a um be very very well staffed as I mentioned with the ratio and we'll be creating over 25 new jobs here in Eden Prairie. Um, like I said, this will be, you know, I would when you think of this home, I want you to think of this as really truly the highest level of care uh in the southwest suburbs. Okay. And do I click um just a quick overview. So, as I mentioned, it's um assisted living. So, this is uh activities of daily living. you know, these folks um are are up there in age. They're usually in their late 80s, early 90s. Um they usually only stay in the home two to four years before they pass. Uh most residents will in fact pass pass on um in our home. Um but they're the ones that need help with eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, you know, walking around. Uh we're going to have a private chef preparing meals and snacks. So this will be a full-time private chef. Uh we'll have housekeeping and laundry services for the residents. uh 24-hour emergency, we're going to be very focused on the social aspect. And again, that's another big difference between these smaller homes and say like the larger ones is um the activities and the and the and the you know, things like exercise programs. The residents of our home are going to be living in the living room and in the kitchen. Uh they're not going to be like my dad, for example, who really just was frankly pretty isolated in his own room. So, the concept is, you know, when we make this more like a home than a facility. And the design and architecture of the property, it's going to very much look like a large home, which I'll get into that in a minute. Um, we're going to have Memory Care certified staff, so absolute pros with memory care with the challenges that brings. Um, and we're going to have some fun things like an on-site salon for some amenities. Here's a rendering of the front of the home. Um, all top materials. So, we're doing uh anything you see that's in sort of the white um you know, if you can see, it's kind of hard to see from this angle, I suppose, or this if it's zoomed up more, but it's either going to be hardy board or it's going to be white stone. Kind of hard to tell and differentiate on the picture unless you have a a closer view than that. We might have some closer views, but as you can see, it's it's looks like, you know, it's a single level. Um you the dormers are really for decoration on top to break up the roof line. It's all single level living and it's going to be uh 11,000 just just under 11,000 square feet with a singlecar garage. This is the back of the home. So then you see the fenced in area as I mentioned there. And then we'll see other views here, but there's a walking path that goes in a circle um that exists not only on the outside of the home as you see here, but the inside is designed to have kind of a walking a natural walking area that goes in an oval as well. That's important for obviously exercise, but also for dementia uh dementia residents. This is another view. We'll have raised planters in the back for seniors who like to, you know, do gardening raised obvious for obvious reasons. They don't have to bend over to do that work. Have a lot of shaded areas for the seniors. Uh the two little like what look like a little garage stalls in the back, that's actually for the garbage. And then you can see on the lefth hand side there of the picture, you'll see sort of that the actual garage entrance. U, this is not a rendering actually of the house itself, but this is the inspiration. So, if you're wondering what is the quality when you walk in, I would call it, you know, five-star. It's it's going to be very, very nice inside. Wood beams throughout. We're going to have a kitchen much like what you see there that's facing for the residents. And there's also going to be a back kitchen that's the required commercial kitchen, but the residents won't be in the back and the back kitchen. That's frankly not safe for them. The front kitchen doesn't even have an oven, you know, or I'm sorry, it doesn't even have a stove rather. It's really to give them that feel of home where literally they're going to have a big the main area of this home is going to be a nice living room like what you see pictured here. It'll be a kitchen area like you see behind there. Uh vated ceilings and it'll have two tables of 10 when they when they eat and they'll all eat their meals together. Uh you might see some nice features like the library you see on the right hand side. We will we will have a library with coffford ceilings and you get a feel for what the kitchen table would look like there. The resident rooms are going to be really I'd say decked out. you know, they're going to have I'll have Wayne's coating actually throughout the house. We'll have Wayne's coating on the on one of the featured walls there. Every resident will have their own um heat and AC PTAC system you see below the window there that'll be operated via thermostat. And the bathrooms are going to be decked out as well. You know, full tile for the showers and done really well. We'll have LPV throughout the entire home to make it easy for the residents to get around. Uh I think you probably will assume this, but things like traffic very very minimal. you know, um the residents don't drive, so they're they're too late in age to be driving. Um we'll have nine spots. That's according to city code. Um so we meet that requirement and one indoor garage spot. The goal of that is for it's winter dropping grandma on and in and out when it's 30 below. I want that to be in an indoor um heated garage. And then it'll be quiet. You know, the residents there, they're in bed before 9 p.m. Uh location. So, if you're familiar with Aztec, Aztec drive, so that's right off of Flying Cloud, just to the west of what you see boxed in there. Um, that box right there represents two lots that we're combining to one that that was mentioned earlier. Uh, we are doing reszoning from rural. One of one of the smaller lots is mentioned uh Miss Duncan mentioned that that the the 2acre lot is rural and the 0.9 acre lot is industrial. Those are being combined to do one lot and RM2.5. This is consistent with the comprehensive plan um that's designates a medium density and I think what's what's nice about this if you look to the east that is pure residential and if you look you know just south and to the north and to the north there those are that those are single level office suites just to the north uh to the south there's actually quite a bit of land just south of the lot that I'm um planning to build on u but then that is also TGK Automotive you see that little white building to the southwest of what's boxed in there and then across from Aztec Rocket to the west is caliber collision. So it's it's I think what fits in well with the comprehensive plan is that it's a nice segue between you know commercial industrial and then residential. So I think you know the I'll get to the neighborhood meeting but the feedback's been really really warm and receptive of having something more like a home than say something more industrial. So this is the uh preliminary plat. You'll see the two lots here, the 0.9 and the 0 2 approximate approximate lots here that we're combining. This is the site plan. So you see we'll have the folks um they'll be able to this really for visitors will be able to drive in um to the south of the building. Again, the goal there was not to have the parking lot in front because that's going to look more like a facility. I wanted the parking lot to be off to the side so that it looks so the front of the home can really show off its grand um kind of view and and homey feel. That's why we designed it that way. And then you kind of see the walking path to the east of the building there for the residents as well as the fence. We're going to be adding a sidewalk along the west side of the property that there does not exist a sidewalk today. That will all be added. This is another view. This would be the Let's see. What are we looking at here? This would be the the civils uh version of the site plan. Now, in this one here, you can see we have a we handled storm water. We've got a I guess I call this layman's term the holding pond on the left or I guess the west side and the northeast side has a small pond there. So, we can handle the storm water requirements. Uh this here is showing what the tree plan will be. So, this is our landscape plan. If you look along the east side of the property, this is based upon the neighbors request is that we add an entire line of shrub. We'll be adding an entire line of shrubs um along that east line. And there are what you don't see pictured here, there is an enormous amount of trees also just to the east of those shrubs that are on technically on the neighbors lots. So, they already have quite a bit of privacy and we're adding just another entire line of shrubs to add to that. And then we're also adding quite a few trees as you can see here. So the neighborhood meeting I think the exact number was 57 but we notified approximately 60 neighbors. Uh we had one actual neighbor that's within the 500 ft attend and then some other you know um folks that were interested in this project that are also from Eden Prairie. So a total of two couples came very supportive. Um they actually have experience. One of the neighbors in fact um built out a couple assisted living homes elsewhere. So they are very familiar with this project and very supportive. Um, this one in particular happens to be literally on the border of um of where I'm building. So, just to the northeast uh of the lot that I'm building on. Uh, let's see. I also met with the president of the HOA in that area. Just I reached out to her and met her one-on-one. She was also very supportive. She notified the neighbors on top of my notification. So, I'm sure everyone is aware. I don't think anyone has showed up, but um I've got nothing but good feedback. And that's it. Thought I had more, but that's all. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Welch. Uh, does any commissioner have any questions for the applicant? >> Commissioner, I have a question in in addition to the amenities or the services you have. Would you there any physical therapy or is this more end of life type of uh service? >> Sure. Um, it'll be a little bit of both. So, we're going to have um with the Yeah, I'll have a full-time activities director. that'll be my wife actually. So she's has a background in physical training and phys um I yeah say physical training. So she'll do a lot of um like mini exercise programs throughout you know on a on a daily basis that ought to be daily. Uh in addition to that when you think of this home think of this home as a landing spot for outside services to come in. So things like uh physical therapy that's typically done will be done through the residential insurance that they have and they can bring a physical therapist in. Um there's an organization I think it's called Blue Stone I could be mistaken. U that's a common one. Does that ring a bell? Yeah. A lot a lot of homes like mine will will go through this this um this provider for things like medical physical therapy and whatnot. So instead of having let's say whatever insurance they have, they might switch to them because those doctors those doctors and nurses will actually come on site on a regular basis for care. And then in in addition, I'll have a nurse on staff. The nurse will be full-time. And this is intentional when the nurse is not working. I'll have um licensed practitioners, nurses. So that's so I'll have an RN that's full-time. and that's like the highest level of a nurse and then the LPN's which is um I guess not as much education but there'll be LPNs when the actual RN is not there so we'll always have a nursing staff 247. >> Thank you. >> I have two questions. My first question is um are you planning to limit to only one resident per unit or would you be doing Octoia occupancy on a few of those? >> Sure. So um great question. We have um it's currently designed for 13 single units and then two of the units are designed for double occupancy. Um that said, each one of the units of the 13 are they are in fact large enough if we needed to do double occupancy and I can see that possibly coming into play if the you know if the resident comes in and they they're running low on funds. Uh it might be an option where they could do elderly waiver and and you know share a room. So we've got a great flexibility that way. And my second question is is when and if you do become fully occupied, >> um how many staff members do you anticipate being employed at the same period? And then >> the main question I ask is I know once they get filled >> they have families visiting holidays, weekends, and I notice there's only nine parking spots there. Is the plan to use some of that street parking? >> Sure. So um let me think here. The first part of your question was about staffing. So I think when it's fully staffed, I anticipate anywhere between 25 and 30 employees total. Now they're rotating in and out cuz it's 24 24 by7. So that some of those folks will be full-time. Some of those folks will be part-time. Um as far as people that are in the house at one time. It'll really never be as far as staffing goes more than five. So you'll have essentially three caregivers are the ones literally with the residents all the time. Um you'd have the chef there that would be that would be full-time. And then you'd have a um the administrator. So this is a licensed assisted living administrator that has all the training that's commonly a nurse that might be a nurse as well that'll be on staff at uh at all times. You know, I I would add um probably a six actually because the activities director in case my and myself, you know, here and there. So um then a second part of your question was you know I think the biggest impact will be at at like you know many moments or many segments in time will be parties you know so we're going to have Christmas party and really any holiday we want at you know a reason to bring everybody together and have that sense of community and reduce isolation so I think at that point we could have you know 15 16 cars is is possible but I think along the drive coming into the house I think that would accommodate um that number of spots. thoughts. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions from the commissioners for the applicant? Otherwise, I'll turn it over to Jeremy for a staff report. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Welch. >> Okay. Do I sit down? >> Yes. >> Okay. It's my first time. Thanks. >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you, chair, commissioners. I don't have a lot to add. Um, as the developer noted, they're proposing a singlestory 15 unit assisted living facility. Two of the rooms will have um double occupancy, at least initially. Um, more uh staff will require more parking. Um, so the the property is based on how it's laid out now in terms of 13 single occupancy and in two double occupancy buildings. Um and then the the ratio as of staff as proposed by the by the developer. Uh the project does require resoning of the parcels from I2 and rule to the RM2.5. This is both consistent or this ordinance change or um zoning ordinance change is consistent with the comprehensive plan and so there's no issue there. Um access to the site will be from Aztec as noted uh to the uh to the west. there is no connection pedestrian or vehicular to the residential neighborhood to the west or to the east or to the northeast. Um so there is a a separate neighborhood though you can visually see the difference between the two. Um the building materials are stone, glass, fiber, cement and wood trim. They are designed to meet the minimum requirements of our zoning code. In fact, this whole project was based on meeting the zoning code. There's no waivers requested. no waiverss um needed uh to to improve this project as it's shown. Um and those standards do include the density uh the building materials, landscaping setbacks, all of those things. To answer your question, um Commissioner Civet, um in terms of parking, the the the property does meet the parking requirements. that actually exceeds um the applicant is not counting the garage space as a parking space, but we do allow that in residential development is a garage spaces is is counted as a parking space. In this situation, it seems more like a a transition uh area uh to get uh residents out of the weather um coming and going. So, we're comfortable not counting it, but they do exceed the parking requirements there. Um, and then you obviously can park on Aztec drive on those party events type of thing. That's permitted. >> Can or cannot. I'm sorry. >> Can >> can. Thank you. >> Um, so staff is recommending approval subject to the conditions outlined in the staff report. Um, and be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you, Jeremy. Any other questions for Jeremy before I open the public hearing? Madam Chair, um I'm assuming the building is sprinkled, the residential sprinkler system. Okay. Um is the fire department okay with access around the different sides of the building? Maybe with fire hydrants or something like that? There's ponds in a couple corners and the fenced in backyard and driveway just on one side. So everybody's okay with that? Yeah, we collaborate very closely with the fire department and the review of a site plan and building layout and things and and partly because of the distance from Aztec. Um fire department has not raised any issues or concerns with access around the back of the building. >> Okay. And then if I'm not mistaken in the staff report, it also talked about this landscape buffer on the east side against the single family residential. And I didn't know if that was a required buffer. The applicant said that it was a voluntary buffer based on resident u input and feedback. Is there a mandatory requirement for some buffering? It's our district, our district. I didn't think there was, but >> a required buffer is a strong term. U what we always encourage in these infill type projects is to provide as maximum amount of screening between existing neighborhoods and a proposed neighborhood regardless of the land use. Um, in this situation, this lot is there's quite a bit of volunteer vegetation that will be gone. Um, now a lot of that along the property line to the east there, some of that will stay because it's on the the adjacent neighborhood uh to the east, but the applicant and trying to address a a concern of the city in terms of providing as maximum amount of screening as possible, they've added a row of a variety of shrubs to provide additional screening. Plus, this land use isn't too um too aggressive in terms of peace and quiet when you relate to the property to the east. So, we're comfortable with the screening plan proposed. >> Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> All right. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. If anyone is here would like to uh make comment to this application, please come forward. State your name and address for the record, please. All right, seeing none. Uh, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? >> So move. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. >> Uh, motion by Gro and second by Taylor. All those in favor to close the public hearing say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Same sign. All right. We have uh the public hearing is now closed. Uh, what is your wishes? Commissioners, any questions or discussion? >> Madam Chair, I'll start first. I think this is a really nice project. It's great infill opportunity. Um quiet uh part of town. Um I think it'll fit in very well. Uh applicant and the architect has done a good job and I think designing this facility. Um we like the fact that there's no waiverss. Thank you for doing that and it seems to be well received by staff as well. So I I think it fits u and it's very well presented. So I'm all for it. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I second that. I drove by there earlier and just seeing the layout of the neighborhood, I think it's almost a near-perfect fit. You know, just the way you're keeping a single level, looks very inviting, kind of blends in with the rest of the neighborhood. So, I too am quite supportive of this project. >> Yeah. And and again, I like the fact that it focuses on 12 or 13 or 15 units versus kind of 30, 40 or 50 units. um provides a lot more personal care for those that are are in need of this uh assistance and and memory care. So, I'm also in favor of it. >> Having said that, I I uh agree with everything that's been said up here is a very well thoughtout application. You meet all the requirements as stated. It's not always the case all the time. So, we appreciate that. um very much fits within the surrounding environment and a and a better reasonzone in my personal opinion. So, thank you for the good application. With that, do we have a motion to uh approve this? We actually have three separate motions. >> Madam Chair, I'll take a stab at it. Um, I'd like to have a motion to move to recommend approval for zoning district change from I2 to RM2.5 on 0.908 acres and from rural to RM2.5 on 0.199 acres. Uh, also a preliminary plat to combine two parcels into one lot on 1.1 acres and a site plan review on 1.1 acres. All as recommended by staff represented in the July 14th, 2025 staff report. I I don't think we need Thank you for that different actions right >> together. Thank you for that clarification. Do we have a second for the motion? >> Second. >> All right, we have a uh motion made by Commissioner Far. Second made by Commissioner Gro. Do uh is there any discussion? Right. I'll uh all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I >> opposed. Same sign. >> All right. Motion carries. Thank you so much. Good luck. >> Good luck. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Planners report. Is there a planners report this evening, Jeremy? >> No, just that we will have a planning commission meeting in two weeks. >> Very good. Thank you so much. Any member have a report for us tonight? Oh. All right. Then we're looking for adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn the mo the meeting? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Same sign. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone.