Based on the context provided and the phonetic clues in the transcript, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names. **Key Identifications:** * **Melanie Peters:** Chair of the Planning Commission (referred to as "Chair" and "Commission Peters"). * **John Hinzman:** Community Development Director (referred to as "John Hinman"). * **Rachel Swedin:** Vice Chair of the Planning Commission (referred to as "M swen" and "Comm Sweden"). * **Missy McGrath:** Planning Commissioner. * **Rob Halberg:** Planning Commissioner/Vice Chair (Not in the provided list, but identified clearly in the dialogue). * **John Moes:** Planning Commissioner (Likely the "G MSO" referred to phonetically). *** [0:00] **Melanie Peters:** All right, first up is the elect the Planning Commission chair and vice chair for 2025. [0:02] **John Hinzman:** Yeah, um, Mr. Chairman, Planning Commissioners, this is our annual election we have for both positions. So all commissioners having served at least one year on the commission are eligible, which means everyone here is eligible to serve. Commission recommendations and nominations can be made either as a group for both of them or individually. Last year, John Moes served as chair and Rob Halberg served as Vice Chair. So I'll open it up to the floor. [0:37] **Melanie Peters:** Okay, we are open for comments and discussion. [0:41] **Melanie Peters:** I think that our current chair and vice chair have done a wonderful job, and I would like to nominate them both for the respective positions for this year. [0:46] **Melanie Peters:** All right, thank you, Commissioner Peters. Appreciate that. Yep. [0:53] **Missy McGrath:** I was going to make a very similar comment. Thank you both for your service, and I think we don't need to fix what's not broken if you're willing to serve again. [1:04] **Rachel Swedin:** I believe that needs an official second, so I'll second that. Good job both of you. [1:12] **Melanie Peters:** All right, well, we—was that a motion? I tried to make one, but I think I said nominate... move... it's been a long day. All right, so Commissioner McGrath, did you have the motion to—okay, and did we have a second? [1:27] **Rachel Swedin:** Second. [1:28] **Melanie Peters:** Second. Do we have any new discussion? All right, if not, all in favor say aye. [1:38] **Commissioners:** Aye. [1:39] **Melanie Peters:** All opposed, no. Okay, the motion carries. I proudly accept the opportunity to continue on as chair. [1:42] **Rob Halberg:** I'll second that, so thank you everybody very much. [1:44] **Melanie Peters:** Thank you, appreciate it. And we're official. [1:45] **Rob Halberg:** We're official. [1:46] **Melanie Peters:** All right, we're official. All right, third: approval of the minutes from the February 10th, 2025 regular meeting and workshop. Commissioners, any questions on those? If not, we'll consider those to be approved as is. Uh, we have no public hearing, so on their actions will be the Highway 55 small area plan with the staff report from John Hinzman. [2:19] **John Hinzman:** I'm batting cleanup tonight. We originally had this scheduled for a couple of weeks ago when our Economic Development Coordinator, Alex Mackey, would be here to present, so I'm presenting in his place. Here we have before us the Highway 55 small area plan, and as the Planning Commission is aware, we have been working on this for about the last 6 months. The purpose of this plan is to look at what could develop in the areas just west of Hastings—basically Highway 55 to the west of the current city limits from about Fourth Street down to 15th Street. The purpose of the plan is to provide guidance towards people who want to develop. What the plan is not, is a plan that compels development or a plan in which we are seeking people to come into the City and develop, and I think that's a key distinction. We want to maintain a good relationship with Nininger Township, in which the land is currently in, but we do get questions from a lot of individuals about the potential for development and what the city would like to see. So we did this plan in response to that. And as you know, we have looked over this for the last 6 months or so. We've had the opportunity for public comment, we've had the opportunity for Planning Commission and Council input on this as well. So let's take a look at the study area here. City of Hastings here in blue. The study area here going from 140th Street/Featherstone Road at the northern end, Jacob Avenue—this is spying down the center—15th Street here, and then going south to just west of where Heritage Ridge is, and then going about a 40-acre parcel west of Jacob Avenue in this area. So about 400 acres altogether. When you take a look at this, this is a very large area. This is an area that we've had within our comprehensive plan for development for a number of years—probably at least 20 or 30 years. We've had some development occur, not a lot of development occur in this area. I don't expect within a 10-year or even a 20-year period for this whole area to come in for development, but this serves as a longer-term plan. So we have our existing conditions map here. We put this together because we wanted to solve and answer some questions. We wanted to focus on growth opportunities towards the west and south to reduce pressure on sensitive resources on the eastern side of the community. Plus, this is really where people want to grow or want to go. Carefully planned for the contiguous properties on the western fridge of the city perimeter with major road corridors—we understand Jacob Avenue, 15th Street, those would be streets that would need to be developed in the future to have this growth to continue—and we're looking at this out to 2040, probably longer time frame, getting ahead of ourselves so that we can be proactive as to what we want to see in this area. So this is what the future land use plan and the comprehensive plan says today. There are some differences and changes from what you see here in our comprehensive plan versus the small area plan that we have before you. Some of the areas include having a little more commercial along Highway 55, some more employment area in this portion of it. Most of this is similar with a mixture primarily of lower-density residential housing within the area itself. So the comprehensive plan is going to be the official guidance for properties within this area, but the small area plan that we're looking at tonight is going to provide a blueprint of what we're looking for. One part that, when we picked the consultants HKGi to do this project, I was very keen on, was I wanted to make sure that there was a market reality to what was presented. It's very easy to put on desires within a map and types of housing types of commercial, but I wanted to make sure there was some market reality to that. So they did take on Loci Development who was able to provide some key market findings, which is an appendix to the report, to highlight that residential—the growth area would work well for residential development. Absorption of single-family dwellings and townhomes has been steady despite market swings and interest spikes. We're seeing a steady growth as we've seen with our annual reports the last couple of years. Developers have brought several new rental projects to the market where absorption has also been strong, so residential has been good. Restaurant and retail would work well at parcels immediately adjacent to 55; that's probably no surprise to anyone, that's really where commercial would like to go on that. Overall, the primary market for retail development has been slow. We've seen some demand along Highway 55 and we've had some concepts for potential more demand along 55. This presents a vision of where it would go and how it could be designed. Industrial is something we also looked at. Within our existing industrial park, we have one large shovel-ready site, and we were asked the question whether other employment areas should be located outside there, so that was part of the study as well. Community engagement was a big part of this in a couple of different ways. One, all the properties we showed on the map before—all 400 acres—there was probably about 15 property owners altogether. We went out and met with every one of the property owners that wanted to meet with us; a couple of them declined the offer, but we wanted to hear from them what they wanted to see and to make that part of this report. We also had a couple of concept plans that we looked at the last time we were all together and we had those out for public comment throughout December into January. During that time period on the website, we had 678 site visits, 550 individual visitors, 86 total contributions. So we had a lot of impact back and forth. It was a neat way that people could comment—they could go on a story map and put comments directly onto there. We heard a variety of comments regarding attraction of business and expanding employment; some people thought it was a good idea, some people were concerned about losing the rural character in that area. There was a need for affordable housing options but some concerns over wanting a predominance of single-family, which is something that is more well known. So those are a few of the comments that were received there. This is what we ended up with in the report itself. As you recall, the last time we looked at this we had three different concept plans. What we did is we put together two of them and into what we see today, and I'll go through what we're looking at altogether. Highway 55 is located in this area here. This is the west edge of the city: Walmart, Cub Foods, the substation, General Sieben Drive. So this is all area within Nininger Township. Jacob Avenue, rural road, located here. So as you look down Highway 55 going north and south, we have most of this area designated for commercial to Jacob Avenue and beyond. Frankly, this is a lot of commercial property, and the absorption rate that we've seen for commercial over the last 20 years—this will go well beyond that. So I don't expect all this to go commercial, but we do have a lot of land there for future commercial in the future. We also have a portion in the middle of it where we mixed in some high-density residents. You may recall we thought about putting more of a kind of a village area in the middle of it where people in apartment buildings could be very close and walkable to some of the other commercial areas to be able to create something in this area that was a little more walkable than your typical suburban big-box area here. So we hope that that apartment area in the middle of it would assist in providing that. We also have some employment areas in purple. Now, employment would be anything from light manufacturing to office, etc. It's a very fickle job market right now; obviously, office has changed with a lot of work-at-home. Manufacturing—it's difficult to predict where that might go in the future. However, within our Industrial Park, we've been marketing a 50-acre parcel there for a number of years as shovel-ready, and the response that we get back from many individuals is it's difficult to get to, it's hidden, and you have to drive through town. So if we have something here on the 55 corridor, which is on the western edge of the city and closer to major roadways, might that be more of a draw for a commercial employment? When we're looking at this employment area, we're looking at properties that would be of a high-quality finish, no exterior storage on the outside of it, something that would be compatible. I think one of the things that we discussed the last time we met was having commercial be predominant along Highway 55 with the employment behind, so we did that here with a little more of an option as you go further west. When we look at other things, all the yellow here is low-density residence—that's primarily single-family homes. The orange area is mid-density; this would be more of a townhome type variety. We've not seen a lot of that type of development within the city over the past 15 years—frankly, we've seen none of it. In the future, maybe there's going to be more of a market. We'll be able to provide that as a transition zone between the commercial and the lower-density residents. And then we have some higher density along in the middle of the commercial here, just southwest of the high school towards Jacob Avenue and South Frontage Road on either corner here. So that's what this looks like. Some of the blue storm-water basins and then, I think it was pointed out earlier, there's a geographic feature at this portion where there's sort of a ridge line, and so looked at creating some park areas here in the future. This goes out way further in development. The other thing this does is take a look at roadway corridors as well. Jacob Avenue would be the primary spine as we develop west. When we look at Jacob Avenue, we're looking at something likely akin to what we see on General Sieben Drive. This would not be a four-lane road; it would typically be a two-lane road, maybe some turn lanes within it. We're not expecting it to be anything of a Vermillion Street or Highway 55 caliber for roadway from a traffic standpoint, but something that would carry north-south traffic throughout the city similar to General Sieben Drive. We also have some other connections here with Fourth Street going west, North Frontage Road, South Frontage Road, and other roadway connections. These are more hypothetically placed as we look into the future. Really looking at how we improve Jacob Avenue and 15th Street and then up towards 140th Street/First Street here in the future. When we look at the time frame for development here, a lot of this is going to be based upon property owner and development interest. I'll say that to begin with. So we try to make some predictions based on what's out there right now and also with the utilities. I will note within this report there was a large section here that dealt with utility availability with water and sewer and topography and how that should all be placed within there. So there was an engineering component to this, a market component, as well as a land use component that went into this. What we're looking at here is the green area, which is immediately available. This is kind of difficult to see, but Highway 55 runs here, Jacob Avenue here. This encompasses property in which we've spoken to owners and they're currently marketing that area for development. This is generally the Augustine property towards the southwest of the substation and then AGC property/Kemus Holdings to the north. So both of those entities appear to be requesting development within those areas. We have the areas in yellow which are towards the south and the west. This is really dependent upon extension of trunk sewer lines through this area from Heritage Ridge going north. So really we would need to develop this from south going north to get to this area. And then a future area more towards the blue. When we talk specifically to owners up here, they were primarily large estate owners that were not planning development in the future; they moved out to the country, they want to be out in the country still. So we don't see the demand coming there for quite some time, where much of the area down here is agricultural land and some of those owners have expressed interest in development. So that's what we're looking at here, and that's the report that we'd have. What we're asking tonight is for the review or questions by the Planning Commission, a recommendation and adoption of this to the City Council, and then we would take that to City Council on the 17th. That's the direction of the board, so I can stand for any questions. [15:30] **Melanie Peters:** Okay, thanks John. Appreciate that. Um, very comprehensive report. I mean, very easy to read and understand. I'll open up to Commissioners with any questions or comments for John. [15:48] **Melanie Peters:** I have a question about the green area. So when that—when we talk about immediate availability there, and that would probably be the first area to be developed—would there be infrastructure needed for that development like the sewer, sanitary sewer? Would those kinds of upgrades be needed for that area? And then additionally, would you anticipate needing to make, you know, changes to Jacob Avenue in order to accommodate the development in the green areas? [16:30] **John Hinzman:** Sure. In the area in the green to the south, owned by the Augustine family, they have that marketed right now for development. There was an entity that was on board with a preliminary purchase agreement that expired. What we did do about a year ago is go through a preliminary sewer capacity study and water capacity study for this area because the plan is to bring everything from the south to the north, but that hasn't happened yet. We did find out that there's 300 units of single-family homes that could be developed in this area. That doesn't mean it has to be single-family; we could take that into a different conversion for multiple-family and commercial within this area. So that's what we have immediately available within sewer and water for this area. One of the entities was looking primarily at commercial within this area north of South Frontage Road to 55; perhaps that will be something to come forward in the future, or some combination of commercial up here and residential below. So the infrastructure for sewer and water would be an important part. The other thing is roadway; when we talk about development of this area, we want to make sure that Jacob Avenue gets developed and improved as part of that, and also if it's going to be commercial primarily, Highway 55 and getting an understanding of what the access routes would be for MnDOT out there. [17:59] **Melanie Peters:** All right, thanks. Commissioner Peters... excuse me. Commissioners, any other questions? [18:06] **Rob Halberg:** John, thank you very much. This turned out really, really well. Um, appreciate all of the hours that was spent on this by staff and also by the group that you brought in. Um, I guess I would make the motion to approve to send this to City Council. [18:32] **Melanie Peters:** All right, we got a motion to approve, Commissioner Halberg. Do I have a second? [18:34] **Missy McGrath:** Second. [18:36] **Melanie Peters:** Second. Okay, any new discussion? [18:38] **Rachel Swedin:** So I do have just a small note. The appendix has pages cut off—like, I don't know if you've looked at the appendix of this thing—but like there's text missing on the right-hand side. So if that can get fixed before that goes to City Council, we will fix that. That would be swell. Absolutely. Small words here and there, but like there's just every now and then you can see something cleaved off. [19:07] **John Hinzman:** Oh yeah, we'll do that. It would be nice maybe to just have the whole picture catch. [19:11] **Melanie Peters:** All right, all right. Subject to that condition, do we have any other further discussion? If not, all in favor say aye. [19:21] **Commissioners:** Aye. [19:22] **Melanie Peters:** All opposed? All right, motion carries. [19:24] **John Hinzman:** Thank you. Thanks John. And that we'll go to City Council next Monday on the 17th. [19:32] **Melanie Peters:** All right, great. All right, perfect. All right, next on the agenda that is slowly pulling up, we have other business. [19:33] **John Hinzman:** Other business. Well, I was telling Planning Commissioners prior to the meeting, but I'll make a general announcement here that we do have an opening on the Planning Commission. Commissioner Chris Tyken, who has served the commission wonderfully over the last few years, unfortunately moved out of town and had to resign his position. Chris will be a tremendous loss to the commission, I think as we all discussed earlier, but we do have an opening for a new commissioner. We'll be posting information; applications will be due at the end of March and we hope to have someone on board in April for that position. So if anyone out there may be interested in being on the commission, our website has more information, or please reach out to me and I can tell you more about it. So we do have that opening coming up into the future. In Planning Commission world, our next meeting is coming up on the 24th of March. I don't have anything scheduled for that meeting at this point, so we'll see what might come up for that, and I think that's all that I had at this point. So I can stand for any questions you might have. [20:46] **Melanie Peters:** Okay, thanks John. Yeah, I agree. Commissioner Tyken brought a lot of experience to the commission, just a wealth of information and knowledge, and always thought-provoking discussion. So I appreciate his service here, and we're going to miss him. Absolutely. All right, Commissioners, any other business? All right, if not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. [21:03] **Rachel Swedin:** Motion to adjourn. [21:04] **Melanie Peters:** Second. [21:05] **Melanie Peters:** Second, Commissioner Peters. All in favor say aye. [21:12] **Commissioners:** Aye. [21:13] **Melanie Peters:** Opposed? And we are adjourned.