Based on the context provided and the internal cues within the transcript (such as members addressing each other by name and staff members being identified), here is the attributed transcript.
**Note on Participants:** While some Planning Commission members in this 2020 transcript (like Chair Johnson, Commissioner Mitch, and Commissioner Todd) are not on your current provided list, they are identified through the dialogue. **Justin Fortney** (City Planner) and **Dan Wietecha** (City Administrator) are identified as the primary city staff speakers.
[0:00] **Justin Fortney:** Are we still calling roll Justin? Yep. All right, let’s call roll on the meeting minutes.
[0:05] **Chair Johnson:** Commissioner Messina?
[0:07] **Gino Messina:** Hi.
[0:08] **Commissioner Romans:** Hi.
[0:09] **Commissioner Halberg:** Aye.
[0:11] **Commissioner Manske:** Aye.
[0:13] **Commissioner Best:** Aye.
[0:15] **Commissioner Stephen Allen:** Um, I can't remember the word I have to say because I wasn't at the last meeting.
[0:20] **Chair Johnson:** Abstain?
[0:21] **Commissioner Stephen Allen:** Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you.
[0:46] **Chair Johnson:** I’ll vote I. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, here. Johnson? Hi. Hi. All right. Um, we do have one, uh, one thing on the agenda here in the main part. Um, there will be a public hearing. Uh, we’ll hear a staff report first, but this is Mike and Amy Bauer, Special Use Permit 2020-43, historic apartment and parking variance at 321 East 6th Street. Justin?
[1:36] **Justin Fortney:** Yes, thank you. Um, it seems a little messed up. Uh, the use of apartments in existing historic buildings was created last year to allow for residential uses in large historic buildings. It was constructed in 1950 as a convent and later used as a youth shelter in the 1990s. The proposal was listed as a non-contributing property in the Old Hastings Historic District. He said eligible for use as a historic apartment with a special use permit; must also be reviewed by the Heritage Preservation Commission for approval of the special use permit and also for exterior changes to the property. The ordinance regulates apartment density by the size of the property and the size of the structure. Additions of the property and structure would allow 10 units; location 9 are being proposed. He's also required to meet the city's parking requirements, which is two spaces per residential unit, which is the requirement for all residential units in the city of Hastings.
In the past we've been hearing, uh, more recently that that parking requirement is excessive for some specialty apartment projects that include a limited number of bedrooms, including studios and one bedrooms, and also apartment units that are designed for seniors. The parking that they see in those facilities is by far less than what you'd see in a large apartment building that's mostly made up of two and three bedroom apartments. Purpose of um, specialty permits is to determine if there's any special conditions that are necessary to place on the property general character to be maintained in the area that use being approved there. City of Hastings has several historic buildings that are grandfathered in as apartments and we have not received any complaints or issues with those um having negative effects with the area.
[4:04] **Justin Fortney:** Proposal is gonna be back in this light here, the aerial picture here. Got some photographs of the property. This is from the front of the property. One of the changes that they’re proposing to make is on the basement level, putting in egress windows in most of these these windows here so they, you know, it’d have to be dug out and then they would put in a full window to, uh, to leave that space through the window. I photograph the other side.
[5:05] **Justin Fortney:** This is looking at, uh, the property from Tyler Street. The alley is just off the right. The parking lot is going to be redesigned; you're tearing out the basketball court, the existing parking lot, and the garage that's presently there and putting in a one-way with access coming in from the alley. The new driveway would be in this location near this these bushes in this tree and it would come out on Tyler Street. Photograph showing the current back parking area. This is the west side of the building. Site plan showing the parking lot will be configured. This is the floor plan of, uh, the first floor or the basement, sorry, or showing the egress windows in the bedrooms.
The part of the request is variance to the parking requirements. Um, as I mentioned before, the parking requirements require two spaces for every unit. Um, there’s going to be four units in this building that are either one bedroom or studio and with the applicant's experience in properties and how much parking is needed that they’re going to have well more than they need for parking and they could fit in, uh, the 20 spaces that are required. Um, but it causes them some issues with, um, having more area that needs to have snow removed from it and places to put that snow considering that it’s space that they that they don’t need. They’re asking for a variance from that requirement. Staff is recommending approval, um, of the species permit and the variance for the things that are in the staff report that it would cause them with having areas for snow removal and having to remove more snow than necessary, not needing the parking area and the parking area being in a location on the property that by the management of the historic building on the site.
Also there's some landscaping that would be removed from those areas for the parking lot and the applicants are proposing to replace that on the site. We did send a notification out in the newspaper and to property owners within 350 feet and we received, uh, two phone calls. One of them was, uh, just about more details on the proposal and didn't provide any comment on it, and another one of the details here calling to say that past of a shelter caused a lot of noise issues and a lot of... right, and they’re worried that apartment building would do the same with with nine units on there. Um, Terry Whipple from across the alley at 314 63rd East with those concerns. Staff can stand for any questions and just a reminder, of course, that we have a public hearing and I believe the applicant is here to answer any questions.
[9:20] **Chair Johnson:** Uh, thank you, Mr. Fortney. Um, anybody have anything burning before we jump into the public hearing? My vote we open a public hearing. Sounds like we do have some public guests so let's open the public hearing at this point regarding the special use permit, um, 321 6th Street East. Um, comments from the public? Do we have anything queued someone queued up, Justin?
[10:06] **Justin Fortney:** Um, it looks like the only person in attendance is the applicant and I've, um, Amy Bauer and I've clicked her allowed to speak so if she's got any comments she's feel too free to make them.
[10:30] **Chair Johnson:** Okay. Um, commission members you have any questions for the, uh, applicant? Um, let's start with that and then I'll ask the applicant if she wants to say anything. Questions, commissioners? None? None? None. That's what I'm seeing. Um, Amy, you want to tell us a little bit about your project here?
[10:51] **Amy Bauer:** Um, sure. My husband Mike and I are both here. Um, we purchased the building a couple months ago with the hopes of kind of renovating it into a space that was more usable and what we think is more neighborhood friendly than what the previous use was. Um, just to give you a little background on ourselves, I was born and raised and lived in Hastings my whole life. I grew up just two blocks away from here, so I'm very familiar with the neighborhood and the area. My husband and I own a couple other rental properties in town in Hastings and have for several years and we also live here too. Um, if you have specific questions about the, the build out or the units, the aesthetics or anything, we can kind of go into that with you too if you have questions.
[12:12] **Chair Johnson:** Okay. Um, this is also subject to, um, a review and comment because it's in the old historic district, is that right Justin?
[12:23] **Justin Fortney:** Yes, it's in the original Hastings or the old, old, old Hastings Historic District, so the HPC is going to be reviewing it tomorrow night and they're going to be looking at any of the changes that are occurring there and how the use of apartment building may have negatively affected the historical integrity of the property. But given that the, the property is non-contributing to the district because it doesn't meet the era of the, of the district, which is from like the late 1800s to 1940s, um, if they're going to be looking at it as how it affects the streetscape or the district more than the property itself.
[13:08] **Commissioner Lisa:** I've got a question, that's Lisa. Um, so 1940 is the cutoff for the age in that district to be in a different context?
[13:18] **Justin Fortney:** Yes, that's fairly accurate.
[13:21] **Commissioner Lisa:** Okay. And then another question I have is, you know, I, I'm not familiar with alleyways and Hastings—who's responsible to keep them clear?
[13:30] **Justin Fortney:** The city maintains those.
[13:33] **Commissioner Lisa:** Oh, okay, cool. I don't have any other questions.
[13:37] **Chair Johnson:** So I'm, I'm assuming, I mean, as far as the preservation commission, the exterior of the building is pretty much staying the same. Is that, is that true, uh, Amy or Mike?
[13:53] **Amy Bauer:** Yes, um, the exterior of the building is basically going to stay the same with the exception of the egress windows that we, um, talked about and pointed out. Um, yeah, we don't, we don't intend on making any major changes out there and anything that we would want to do we would bring up with the committee or the HPC prior to doing that.
[14:24] **Chair Johnson:** Okay. Okay. Um, well, if you don't mind you could, uh, stick around. We, we may, I don't know if something will come up but I would, I think I might close this public hearing because, um, um, we might as well and but why don't you stick around, uh, and if we have any questions for you we'll let you know.
[15:00] **Amy Bauer:** Sounds good. All right, thank you so much.
[15:05] **Chair Johnson:** Um, I'm gonna close the public hearing and we're gonna turn this over to the commission for, um, any comments and concerns. Um, do we—is this, uh, kind of like one ball of wax, Justin? The, the, the special use permit and the variance? Do we want to talk about them separately, approve them separately?
[15:25] **Justin Fortney:** No, yeah, I think, uh, maybe separately would be the best way to handle this.
[15:28] **Chair Johnson:** All right, well we have, um, maybe we'll just go one at a time here and we'll look at the special use permit. Um, and this has everything to do with converting this to an apartment building and we've basically, um, made that a possibility here last year like you suggested, right? You said, uh, is there anything else? I mean, threshold wise that they need to meet? It's all good? There was just just the numbers of units and they’re they’re at nine instead of ten so that works?
[16:14] **Justin Fortney:** Yeah, I mean, the only thing that, uh, I guess is a gray area is the ordinance says that, um, they may be limited a number of units if they can't supply the parking. Um, but I think the fact that they can supply, uh, the spaces that are, that are necessary—I think they've met that as long as they can, um, achieve a variance.
[16:34] **Chair Johnson:** Right, right, okay.
[16:36] **Commissioner Lisa:** I'd like to approve, uh, you know, motion to approve that the parking variance.
[16:42] **Chair Johnson:** All right, we’re, we’re gonna, we’re, we’re gonna probably do these one at a time so we’re, I guess we’re talking about the SUP right now, this, the special use for me. Um, but you're right, um, they're kind of interdependent but I think as, as Justin has pointed out, um, if they, if they had to make, uh, one more parking spot they, they could, but we’re gonna probably, uh—excite my general feelings—we’ll probably accept the variance and, and so based on the special use permit we know that they had to, they could have all the spots required.
[17:15] **Commissioner Romans:** Yeah, I guess the way I look at that is I think the space is much better utilized for snow. I mean, they’re going to be—it’s going to be plenty challenging the way it is to be able to have snow without having to remove every time or, you know, when it gets a significant, uh, volume.
[17:35] **Chair Johnson:** Agreed. Yeah. Should, I—would someone like to make a motion as far as, uh, approving this SUP?
[17:40] **Commissioner Romans:** Yeah, okay.
[17:42] **Chair Johnson:** Mr. Romans? A second?
[17:44] **Commissioner Halberg:** Second.
[17:45] **Chair Johnson:** Second by Halberg. And any further discussion? Nope. Uh, hearing none, uh, Justin, can you call roll?
[18:37] **Justin Fortney:** Commissioner Messina? (Yes) Commissioner Romans? (Hi) Commissioner Halberg? (Aye) Commissioner Manske? (Aye) Commissioner Best? (Aye) Commissioner Stephen Allen? (Hi) And Chair Johnson? (Hi).
[18:50] **Chair Johnson:** All right. And we could talk about the variance. Lisa, you want to make a motion on that? You would already try it?
[18:55] **Commissioner Lisa:** Yeah, yeah, sure. I'd love to, uh, uh, make a motion to approve the parking variance.
[19:05] **Chair Johnson:** Okay. Motion on the floor. Is there a second?
[19:10] **Commissioner Romans:** I'll second the motion.
[19:12] **Chair Johnson:** Second by Romans. Thank you. Um, do we need any further discussion? No. Seems, seems pretty straightforward. Um, you want to call roll, Justin?
[19:15] **Justin Fortney:** Yes. Commissioner Messina? (Yes) Commissioner Romans? (Hi) Commissioner Halberg? (Aye) Commissioner Manske? (Aye) Commissioner Best? (Aye) Commissioner Stephen Allen? (Hi) Chair Johnson? (Aye).
[19:46] **Justin Fortney:** All right. All right. Hold on. Go ahead. Thank you. Okay, thanks. Um, this will be going forward to be reviewed by the HPC, Heritage Preservation Commission, uh, tomorrow at 7:00 PM, also on Zoom. And then following that, it would go to the City Council on the 19th. I appreciate the Bauers, uh, making a presence here tonight. Nice little project. Um, thank you very much.
[20:20] **Amy Bauer:** You're welcome. Thank you guys.
[20:22] **Chair Johnson:** Some, uh, other business?
[20:32] **Justin Fortney:** Yes. Um, well one thing that I mentioned in the staff report is the, uh, the staff is both is going to be bringing the some parking, um, discussion up to the planning commission, uh, yet this fall, um, to look at, uh, these numbers that are required for a residential at least we've been, uh, actually looking at bringing that forward, um, this year. So I think that'll be—that'll be a good idea.
[21:05] **Chair Johnson:** So, um, really be a change in, in the changing ordinance or...?
[21:10] **Justin Fortney:** Yeah, well, uh, well you'd first just bring it up for discussion to see if it, uh, it looks like there's room for improvement there. We'll do a little research and see what other communities do and maybe looking at, uh, tweaking it just a little bit that to take into account maybe the the different types of residential to some degree. Um, excellent. Certainly not every housing type is gonna have the same parking parking needs so we'll see where that where that takes us when we start, uh, looking into that in the next month or so.
And also upcoming for planning commission is we received, uh, notice that, uh, we're gonna be getting an application in for, uh, South Oaks Fourth Edition, which is, uh, kind of like, uh, detached town homes at, uh, 31st Street West and Olson Drive. We did have that come to the planning commission some time ago and it kind of stalled out. And, uh, so now it's, it's coming—it's like it's coming back again. So we'll have that in, uh, one of the next couple meetings.
And some updates from recent city council actions from, uh, planning related items is the site plan was approved at 1904 Million Street for the Schlamkas and Sieben Ridge, which is now called Heritage Ridge at, uh, General Sieben Drive. That was, uh, the preliminary plan was approved with a grading agreement; there’s still a couple details that they need to work out for, uh, managed plan before they would receive final flight approval. Uh, that's all the updates I've got. Anybody else? Questions for, uh...?
[23:16] **Chair Johnson:** Who started? Was it Todd? Did you start?
[23:25] **Commissioner Todd:** I did have a question for Justin. So General Sieben, is that the, uh, the one out by Solberg mining? Did we ever get an answer on what the offsets are from the mining operation out there? Never—nobody ever really got back to us and said what, what they had to offset or what, how far away from the property line they had to stay with their mining operation from the development area. And I, looking at the what Solberg is currently doing out there, it looks like they've mined up to the the property line in the past.
So I'm just kind of wondering what they would have to do in the future to stay away from that property line. I'm also after thinking about it, you know, Solberg is going to be blasting out there for many years. I'm wondering if that shouldn't be reviewed, and again, just because we're, I'm wondering what kind of farm we're going to create for the city if they—if Solberg is going to continue to operate out there. I do think after looking at the comments that Solberg and the ownership of that mining operation put forward that we should really think about that that whole project again and just just wondering.
[24:55] **Justin Fortney:** So, um, I know those discussions, um, related to that, uh, mining operation were held at, uh, the city council. I'm not exactly sure offhand about what their, what their setbacks are for, for their operation through their, their permitting. Yeah, um, that's something I can check back with John to see if he's got a... right, right. So that's something that you guys discussed and he was looking into. I don't, I don't recall.
[25:35] **Commissioner Todd:** Right, but I, I guess I wasn't, being so new to the committee, I wasn't—hadn't really read through the comments before or saw the comments from Solberg and their concern about how that operation was going to be. They feel how deeply it was going to affect that housing development. They’re kind of warning the city, "Hey, this might be a big pile of, you know, problems if we don't take this seriously." The city is going to have to deal with explosions for the next 40 years out there rocking that development. So just some thoughts.
[26:17] **Chair Johnson:** Lisa, you have a question?
[26:18] **Commissioner Lisa:** I don't, thank you.
[26:20] **Chair Johnson:** Oh, all right. Maybe else got anything before we wrap it up?
[26:22] **Commissioner Lisa:** Sorry, I remembered what I was going to say. Um, I just want to just remind staff that if they are notified at all about some kind of a neighborhood meeting with with that addition coming up, that they make sure to let us know.
[26:58] **Justin Fortney:** Uh, can you be a little more specific? Um, yeah, go ahead Mitch.
[27:03] **Commissioner Mitch:** Oh yeah, um, and I think we, we, um, we had an agreement that, you know, when these public meetings happen, um, the planning commission is notified. Um, so we kind of get in on the ground level when, when these projects are introduced, um, rather than just seeing them for the first time coming, you know, three days before a meeting or whatever the case may be. And I think the same was true maybe with applications that came in front of you guys, um, so we know ahead of time things are in the pipe. I think that's—yeah, I think that's what what Lisa's referring to.
[28:15] **Justin Fortney:** Um, I think we did get some notices, uh, earlier summer. Um, no, maybe it was, maybe it was what was last summer anyway. Um, yeah, we used to get those so we know these meetings are happening and we know an applicant is taking some steps towards a project. Okay, so yeah, we can, uh, send a copy of the public hearing notice to, to the planning commission where we send that out. Uh, generally gonna be there more, uh, before the meeting? Oh, it's really good to know. Okay, I'll just wrap them up in an email and shoot them out.
[28:28] **Gino Messina:** Excellent. Uh, Mr. Chair? Just, yes sir. No, I'm kind of confused what we're talking about. First of all, the the what we requested from and Justin were that if the builder was to hold a special neighborhood meeting to let us know about that. The public hearing stuff is, uh, yeah, wrong term. You're right. Yeah, okay. Because the public hearing notices we don't—those automatically go out that's part of the process. We don't need to notify that. We have—we asked staff to let us know, and they committed to letting us know, if the builder holds a neighborhood meeting in and ourselves aside from the regular process. That's what we wanted to know.
[29:14] **Gino Messina:** Right, and then getting back to the Solberg or the, um, that, that, uh, project: I watched the city council meeting—that's been approved. So there's no going back and reviewing anything on our part unless something happens with the city. And the builders already committed to making sure that there's adequate disclosures in place so that any purchasers are well aware of what they're buying. So you know, that's going to be part of the buying process and so they committed to that. So that was all, that was all handled and taken care of during the city council meeting and it was approved. So I, unless there's some kind of major changes, I don't think we're going to see that come back in front of us nor have any further discussion on it unless there's something major. So I just wanted to kind of clear that up; I was a little confused as to where we were going on that but so you know...
[30:10] **Chair Johnson:** I’m, uh, oh, um, I, I'm not sure but it did and maybe you could correct me Gino, you you were...?
[30:18] **Commissioner Lisa:** Yeah, I used the incorrect term. We're talking about neighborhood meetings, but I think also were we requesting to be notif—or, or maybe receive so when notice for public hearings goes out to those people surrounding a project, um, did we request to receive that verbiage so we—these people were asked or what the statement said, so what information they got about the project? Okay.
[31:05] **Chair Johnson:** I think I remember that. Do you, do you remember that Gino or no?
[31:10] **Gino Messina:** I don't know if—I don't think—I think it was just me, Mitch, and John in the room when we talked about this. I think we informed the rest of the commission. Oh yes, absolutely. Yeah, that was, that was the intention. Okay, I'm just not seeing how, you know, until we get the comments there's really no benefit to that. The public hearing is a pretty standard process, so I mean it's part of the part of it and when we get the, uh, the council meeting minutes it says public hearing right on it so you can probably expect that we're going to hear some comments back on it so anyway.
[32:00] **Commissioner Mitch:** Well, the purpose—going back to the purpose of why we asked for that is so that if we want to talk to, um, people in the community, people surrounding the item, we have time. Because if we get—don't know until, you know, the Thursday before, then we have no time over the weekend to try to get a hold of people in the community to have conversations. So all of it is about us being able to be more engaged ahead of time, and if constituents call us or approach us on the street we have—we at least know that the letter went out and what it said. You know, there's that's the backing and the reason behind wanting that stuff.
[32:23] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Daniel if I can, real quick, and sorry I don't, I don't know all the, the, the background or context on this, but um, there, there's a specific legal process of, of having a public hearing so that constituents of that neighborhood can speak to the planning commission and the planning commission is getting all of those comments. Appreciate wanting to be accessible and if somebody in that neighborhood contacts one of you, certainly good for you to be aware of what that issue is, but I, I would caution against individual planning commission members seeking out individuals in that, that, that neighborhood because then you're getting unequal information. If, if Mitch talks to resident A and Gino talks to resident B, the, the rest of you aren't getting those comments when you're considering action on that. So that really is the reason for that public hearing process is so that the planning commission as a body is getting all the comments and information. So I just, I caution against you guys seeking them out on your own. Grateful to go visit a site, see what it looks like, but I'd be careful about talking to the neighbors to get their opinion outside of the public hearing process.
[33:55] **Commissioner Mitch:** Thanks Dan. Thank you for thanks for that. Um, what I was, you know, partly part of this was coming from me because I fairly regularly get approached by people I'd not necessarily need going down. So I mean it's just, you know, when something goes out saying the planning commission's gonna have this, I mean, I, I feel like a fool if they know and I don't. I can at least acknowledge yes, at seven o'clock on Tuesday, yes, you know, whatever. But I mean, I just feel like we should be included. I'd really appreciate knowing so that I can be involved with from start to finish. I think if we, if we are approached, at least we know what they've been told, how they've been notified, what the project's about, just kind of keeping us in the loop. I, I think that's—I think that's fair. Um, don't go out of my way to contact people, but if I were approached I wouldn't want to be, you know, "What project?"
[35:29] **Gino Messina:** Yeah, but you also have to remember as Dan was saying that there's a legal process in place. Yes, our role here is at a certain point we have a role. Our role is to review it when the staff report comes to us and that's when our, when that's when our role kicks in—is when the staff report is prepared. The public hearing is set, feel processed, the comments are received, and then when that is submitted to us in the staff report. The planning commission's role then is to review that at that time. Any comments leading up to that, so that's not our role to go out and seek out whatever. And if anybody comes to you prior to that—very rarely is that ever going to happen because they're not going to really know about it until the application is made anyway and until the public hearing is done. And so if anybody comes to you prior to the the meeting, refer them back to staff so they're getting the information they need and we're not soliciting opinions based on facts that are not already there.
So we got to follow the legal process that's been in place for as long as i've been on the planning commission, and so our role begins when the staff report is sent to us. When we receive the staff report, that's what our role is here in the planning. And then the city council's role is to go ahead and review what we review, and they are—they have their constituents who contact them direct, and that's their role is to meet with their constituents direct as to what their specific, you know, um, needs and stuff are. And that happens during every city council meeting; you'll hear them, you'll hear them mention all the time that residents, their constituents, text them directly, email them directly and so forth. That's their role. So like Dan said, there's a legal process in place. We need to make sure that we follow it closely and that we're not overstepping our role and we're we're mixing up the two roles here so well well put.
[37:25] **Chair Johnson:** Excellent.
[37:28] **Commissioner Romans:** Yeah, yeah, thank you.
[37:30] **Commissioner Mitch:** You know, and then another—another reason I'm—this, we kind of hashed over this a long time ago, but just as a little bit of a reminder, another reason to know ahead of time is I work weekends. So if I'm getting something late in the day on Thursday, it's—I need time to call staff, whatever it is. I mean, I, I—it’s, it’s a time-saving thing and it's what I, what at lots of times I've approached the situation that I wish we had more time. I wish that the documents and the papers would get to us before Thursday and then I, I probably wouldn't even need to know public hearings ahead of time. But when I've got to cram everything into Thursday afternoon and be prepared by Monday night—weekends are really my busiest time for work. So I was just trying to ease that up too, to be able to know what's being said. And I quite frankly get, I, I get phone calls and comments from people all the time about things they receive in the mail about planning and zoning. I don't—I don't engage, I just acknowledge, and I have knowledge that it's gonna happen and I just, I feel like I'm a part of the committee that way that I know what's going on. Thank you.
[39:00] **Chair Johnson:** Anything else we got? Concerns? Um, updates on any projects? People? None. Motion to adjourn.
[39:05] **Commissioner Romans:** Make a motion to adjourn.
[39:07] **Chair Johnson:** Thanks Emily. Second? Somebody second?
[39:12] **Commissioner Romans:** I'll second.
[39:14] **Chair Johnson:** Looks like around Rob beat you to it. Perfect. Um...