Based on the context provided and the dialogue in the transcript, here is the formatted version. *Note: Since timestamps were not provided in the source text, I have used sequential markers. Names have been corrected to match the staff/council list provided.* [00:00] **Chair HC Johnson**: I'd like to call the Planning Commission meeting for February 24th to order. The first item per action would be approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. [00:15] **Commissioner Sta**: So move. [00:17] **Commissioner Hoie**: Seconds. [00:19] **Chair HC Johnson**: Moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. All in favor say "I." [00:23] **Commissioners**: I. [00:24] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? All right. The next item on the agenda would be the Open Forum. That's a time for community members to discuss things generally that aren't on the agenda or to receive comments that may have been submitted ahead of time. Planner Crosby or Planner Via, did we get any comments electronically or otherwise? [00:40] **Sam Crosby**: Chair, no I did not. [00:42] **Chair HC Johnson**: Okay. All right, seeing no one here for the open forum, we'll just continue. The next item would be to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. Do we have a motion? [00:48] **Commissioner HC Johnson**: I move to approve the agenda. [00:50] **Commissioner Charlton**: Seconds. [00:52] **Chair HC Johnson**: All in favor please say "I." [00:54] **Commissioners**: I. [00:55] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? All right. The next item on the agenda would be officer elections. Do we have a staff report? [01:02] **Sam Crosby**: Chair, thank you, we do. The bylaws of the Planning Commission require that the Planning Commission hold an annual organizational meeting at the first regular meeting in February and elect from its membership a chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary. Any member of the Planning Commission may nominate another member or they may nominate themselves. A nomination of an officer requires a motion, a second, and a majority vote. [01:25] **Sam Crosby**: According to the bylaws, a majority vote is necessary to first elect a chairperson and then to elect the remaining officers. The chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary are to take office immediately upon election and hold office until their successors are elected next year. There is no limit on tenure except for the officer's willingness to serve in such capacity. The chairperson is responsible for conducting all Planning Commission meetings and public hearings. The chairperson is also responsible for representing the Commission in dealing with the City Council and staff. The vice chairperson fulfills the responsibilities of the chairperson in the event the chairperson is absent, and the secretary assumes these responsibilities when both the chairperson and vice chairperson are absent and signs all minutes and official commission documents. By motion, you may elect the Planning Commission chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary. [02:15] **Chair HC Johnson**: Thank you. So, do we have any nominations for Planning Commission chair? [02:20] **Commissioner Charlton**: I'd like to nominate for chair, Commissioner HC Johnson. [02:24] **Chair HC Johnson**: Accept it? Yes, I would. I will accept that. [02:28] **Commissioner Hoie**: And I'll second it. [02:30] **Chair HC Johnson**: Any other nominations? All right, hearing none then, all those in favor of electing Commissioner HC Johnson as chair please say "I." [02:38] **Commissioners**: I. [02:39] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? All right. The next item would be to elect the vice chair. Any nominations? [02:44] **Commissioner Charlton**: I would like to nominate Commissioner Sta for vice chair. [02:48] **Commissioner Hoie**: I would second that. [02:50] **Chair HC Johnson**: Do you accept the nomination? [02:52] **Commissioner Sta**: I do. [02:54] **Chair HC Johnson**: Any other nominations? All right, hearing none, all in favor of Commissioner Sta for vice chair please say "I." [03:00] **Commissioners**: I. [03:01] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? Right. And the next item would be the election of the secretary. Any nominations? [03:07] **Commissioner Hoie**: I would like to nominate Matt Commissioner Charlton. [03:10] **Commissioner Charlton**: I'll accept. [03:11] **Chair HC Johnson**: Do we have a second? [03:12] **Commissioner HC Johnson**: I'll second that. [03:13] **Chair HC Johnson**: Any other nominations? All right, hearing none, all those in favor please say "I." [03:18] **Commissioners**: I. [03:19] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? All right, excellent. The next item on the agenda would be liaisons. Do we have a staff report for that? [03:25] **Sam Crosby**: Yes, thank you, Chair. The role of liaison is to keep the Planning Commission informed of other work or decisions happening in the city by attending or watching meetings or reading recent minutes and sharing updates with members of the Planning Commission. A description of each liaison position is in the staff report. I won't read it all, but I will just list who holds each liaison position currently. Currently, Chair HC Johnson holds the City Council liaison position. Commissioner Kowski holds the Community Services Commission liaison position. Commissioner Sta holds the HRA liaison position. Commissioner Canal holds the Richfield School Board position. Commissioner Surma holds the Transportation Commission position. Commissioner Hoie holds the Chamber of Commerce position and Commissioner Charlton holds the Sustainability Commission position. You can discuss and agree upon which commissioner will serve as liaison to any board or commission. I don't think you necessarily need to motion, but you can just discuss and agree upon it. [04:30] **Chair HC Johnson**: Anyone have feelings about this? Go ahead, Commissioner. [04:34] **Commissioner Hoie**: Chair, I was just going to say I've been serving as the lead of the Chamber of Commerce and it's fine, I'm happy to do it. I'm generally sharing information with them about going on in Planning Commission. It's very rare that there's anything at all that comes up that I bring to this commission, so I'm happy to continue to do that. But if there's a need for a different liaisonship, I'm happy to do that as well. I just wanted to offer it up if someone wanted to exit one or if there's one that's unattended right now, I'd be happy to chat about that too. [05:05] **Commissioner Kowski**: I am interested in trying out some new commissions. [05:09] **Commissioner Hoie**: Would you be willing to step down from Chamber of Commerce? Are we trading? Is that what's happening? [05:14] **Commissioner Kowski**: I am exiting Community Services. [05:17] **Commissioner Hoie**: What's your... Community Services? Okay. How often and when do they meet? [05:22] **Commissioner Kowski**: Every month, and they're pretty good with updates. I just read the agenda minutes and get a good grasp of what's going on. The big focus right now is Wood Lake. [05:32] **Commissioner Hoie**: Okay, yeah. That would be interesting. Okay, cool. [05:36] **Chair HC Johnson**: We can kind of see whatever else says. No one else wants Community Services? All right. Who else... we have Community Services and we have Chamber of Commerce. All right, so we still need City Council, and I would be happy to turn that one over or continue. My preference would be to do City Council or School Board, but I have no strong feelings about any of them. [05:58] **Commissioner Sta**: I was just going to add that I'm happy with HRA, so I would be happy continuing it unless somebody else wants to take it over. [06:05] **Chair HC Johnson**: Is anyone else interested in HRA or City Council? Right then, yeah, we can continue with that. So we still need sustainability, transportation, and School Board. [06:15] **Commissioner Charlton**: I'm happy to stay in sustainability unless anyone else wants it. [06:20] **Commissioner Surma**: I'm happy with where I'm at. [06:22] **Chair HC Johnson**: If there's no big shake-up, it sounds like everyone's pretty content though, and folks who wanted to change have switched. So I think we're sounding pretty content, unless I'm wrong. Everyone? Everyone's missing out on switching their commission or their liaisonships? Oh no, it's fine. [06:38] **Commissioner Hoie**: Yeah, if you wanted to switch... is it City... I'm sorry, remind me the name of it again? [06:43] **Commissioner Kowski**: Community Services. [06:44] **Commissioner Hoie**: Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm fine with that if you are. [06:46] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, we can just say by unanimous consent then. So unless someone has an objection, we'll just keep going. Commissioner Canal will remain on School Board? Yeah, okay. He's not here, so we'll pick for him. You can talk about it next year. All right, so the next item of the agenda would be the review of the Planning Commission bylaws. Can we get the report? [07:05] **Ruby Via**: Yes, thank you, Chair. Part three, section three of the bylaws requires that the Planning Commission review the bylaws each year at the February organizational meeting. The city has selected Civic Plus as a new agenda-building software platform. This new system will streamline the creation of agendas and packets for both the City Council and all commissions all within a single platform. As we begin the process of creating templates for our agendas in the new system, we would like to make things more uniform. The Council, the HRA, and the EDA all have the same order of operations with the Open Forum occurring before the approval of the minutes. The Planning Commission has approval of the minutes before the Open Forum; therefore, staff proposes changing the order of operations to put the Open Forum before approval of the minutes. If any of the Commissioners have any other change they'd like to consider, now would be a good time to bring it up for discussion. By motion, you can amend the recommended staff changes for the bylaws. [08:00] **Commissioner Hoie**: I have a question. So we approve the agenda after the Open Forum, but the Open Forum is for items that are not on the agenda. What happens if something is added to the agenda after? I mean, should the Open Forum be after we've planned the agenda so we can decide what will be discussed in the Open Forum that's not on the agenda? [08:18] **Ruby Via**: I think the practice about Open Forum for things on the agenda... that is just the suggestion, but people are free. I mean, that's what we just say, like generally for items not on the agenda, but I think that the way it's written, someone could talk about something on the agenda. [08:35] **Commissioner Hoie**: My thought was someone comes in because of a new, fresh hot topic, and then we want to add it to the agenda. It's like, okay great, we should have that conversation later. [08:44] **Commissioner Charlton**: I think that was discussed—I can't remember if it was last year or the year before. I believe we amended the bylaws to change to put it in that order because I think it used to be we approved the agenda, then there was the Open Forum. But I think other commissions had the Open Forum first as well, and the idea was that if something were to come up, we could then add it to the agenda, amend the proposed agenda, and proceed from there. I think that was a year or two ago. Staff could correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we had this discussion. [09:12] **Commissioner Sta**: Chair, the reason why we made that change a year or so ago was because we were unable to change it in the platform that we're using now, and we wanted the bylaws to align with our actual practices. But I think it makes sense to have the forum first because then if there was a desire to, you could add it to the agenda. [09:33] **Chair HC Johnson**: Yeah. Any other discussion? All right, we would need a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for bylaws changes. [09:41] **Commissioner Charlton**: Commissioner Charlton makes a motion to amend part one, section seven of the Planning Commission bylaws. [09:46] **Commissioner Hoie**: Seconds. [09:48] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, it has been moved and seconded to amend the bylaws. All those in favor please say "I." [09:53] **Commissioners**: I. [09:54] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? Right, the amendments are adopted. The next item on the agenda then would be the scheduling of meetings for the next year. Do we have a report on that? [10:02] **Sam Crosby**: Yes, thank you, Chair. During last year's bylaws review, the Planning Commission indicated a preference for annual rescheduling of Planning Commission meetings that fall on city-observed holidays. This year, the May meeting falls on Memorial Day. Staff recommends rescheduling the May meeting to Wednesday, May 28th, which would be the next date that the chambers are available. The other alternative would be Tuesday the 20th. While the December meeting for 2025 does not fall on a holiday, the Planning Commission has traditionally voted to reschedule this meeting earlier due to end-of-year travel arrangements. Staff recommends rescheduling the December meeting to two weeks earlier, Monday, December 8th. Some of the other days that would be available, we're not available, so that's why it's a little bit early. In the attached staff report is a list of basically all of the holidays for the following year and the proposed alternative dates for Planning Commission meetings. And then you can motion to approve the rescheduling of each of the meetings, and if there's any other meeting you'd like to discuss, you can bring it up now. [11:10] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, any discussion? [11:12] **Commissioner Sta**: If I remember last year, we had quite a long discussion to iron this out, and this was kind of what we came up with. I think we ran around in circles and came back to how we had it. [11:22] **Chair HC Johnson**: Yeah, and this seems to make the most sense. [11:25] **Commissioner Sta**: With that said, I would like to make a motion for rescheduling of the May Planning Commission meeting from Monday, May 26th to Wednesday, May 28th. [11:34] **Commissioner Hoie**: Can I also make an addition to move the December 22nd meeting to December 8th? [11:39] **Commissioner Hoie**: Seconds. [11:41] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, all those in favor of changing the dates of the May and December meetings please say "I." [11:46] **Commissioners**: I. [11:47] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? All right, that is adopted. The next item would be liaison reports. Community Services Advisory? Is your mic on? [11:55] **Commissioner Kowski**: Wood Lake design plans are nearing completion. Construction bids opened up last week, and then a presentation will be given to City Council about the exhibits at Wood Lake. They've also appointed a new person on a three-year term to the Friends of Wood Lake board, approved by consensus. [12:12] **Chair HC Johnson**: Excellent. The next item would be City Council, and I do not have a report. So then we would have HRA. [12:18] **Commissioner Sta**: No report. [12:19] **Chair HC Johnson**: School Board? He is not here. Transportation Commission? [12:22] **Commissioner Surma**: Yes, the Transportation Commission met on February 5th, and their main topic was a presentation by staff from Metro Transit discussing proposed changes to bus stop locations as part of the Nicollet Avenue reconstruction that will take place in 2026. They presented some data on bus stop usage along Nicollet and where they're proposing to consolidate bus stops along that corridor and gathered feedback from the Commissioners. [12:47] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, thank you. Chamber of Commerce? [12:49] **Commissioner Hoie**: No report. [12:50] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right, and Sustainability? [12:52] **Commissioner Charlton**: No report. [12:53] **Chair HC Johnson**: All right. The next on the agenda then would be City Planners' reports. Planner Via, Planner Crosby? [13:00] **Ruby Via**: Thank you, Chair and Commissioners. On January 28th, the City Council approved the second reading of the amendment to the sign code to permit dynamic drive-through signs for those businesses that have drive-throughs. Also on January 28th, the City Council had a work session to discuss limiting short-term rentals but were undecided on the minimum duration to be imposed. They asked staff to solicit feedback from the broader community, so we have put together a survey that was released on February 13th and will close on March 7th. On February 11th, the City Council approved the site plan for the Wood Lake Nature Center. And we did anticipate the center would be closed and demoed in early March, but now it's looking like that is being pushed back by a month or so. [13:50] **Ruby Via**: Then on February 19th, Johnny Opara with JO Companies hosted a neighborhood open house for the Penn Station Apartments project. The open house was located at the Wood Lake Nature Center and was sparsely attended. The apartments project would be located at 6501 and 6525 Penn Avenue, kind of right across from the Arc Value Village and the America's Best Eyeglasses. There is a correction that is needed: the open house for the Loos Line Food Hall project at the amphitheater site was postponed. We're hoping that it'll be rescheduled in early March, so scratch that from your calendars if you had planned on attending. And then finally, METC is still working to refine their plans and has tentatively scheduled a joint City Council/Planning Commission work session for Tuesday, April 22nd at 6:00 PM. [14:45] **Chair HC Johnson**: Thanks. Any questions? I might ask that when you find out about the rescheduled Food Hall, if you could send out an email to us certainly. I think that's one that will have high community interest, and so it might be good if at least some of us can go. [15:00] **Sam Crosby**: Oh, and Ruby just reminded me that we have not had any formal land use applications for the March meeting. We always wait until the public notice deadline before formally canceling the meeting, but it's looking like it's going to be canceled. [15:15] **Chair HC Johnson**: Yeah, thanks. Any other questions about the planner report? All right, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [15:21] **Commissioner Hoie**: Motions to adjourn the meeting. [15:23] **Commissioner Surma**: Seconds. [15:25] **Chair HC Johnson**: And all those in favor of adjourning please say "I." [15:28] **Commissioners**: I. [15:29] **Chair HC Johnson**: Opposed? And we stand adjourned.