Greetings and welcome to the uh Oakdale Planning Commission regular meeting April 2nd. Call to order and call to roll. >> Pearson >> present. >> Will >> here. >> Campbell is absent. Moli also absent. Data >> here. >> Wilson here. Shaba also appears to be absent. Uh, pledge of allegiance, please. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Uh, approval of the agenda. Does anyone have any issues with the agenda? No sir. >> Seeing none, I ask for the approve. Motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Approval of the minutes. >> Anyone have any comments or changes to the minutes from last time? Seeing none, I ask for approval of the minutes as presented. >> So move. Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? So approved. Now it's time for open forum, which is a time for anyone to make comment that's not of something that's not on the agenda. Uh if there is anyone, please come forward. I'll give one more option. Anyone who wishes to make comments not on the agenda, please come forward. Seeing none, I close the open for forum. Uh, planning commission review of old business. There is none. New business. A public hearing on the zoning ordinance amendment recreational vehicle. Max. Thank you, chair. Thank you, planning commissioners, and good evening. Uh before you tonight, we have a few updates proposed to our recreational vehicle ordinance, which is located in the zoning code, chapter 25, article 9, division 200, section 215. This topic was originally suggested by our code enforcement and building team, who noted that many residents in the city were unable to comply with existing RV regulations. It was later brought up at a council workshop where staff received direction to update the ordinance. Staff is proposing a number of changes to the ordinance uh which are intended to provide a greater flexibility for residents while still maintaining reasonable neighborhood standards. For reference, recreational vehicles are defined in the city code as any vehicle that meets the recreation class criteria defined by the DNR. This can often include campers, motor homes, boats, ATVs, snowmobiles, and others. I want to now briefly walk through some of the more important changes to the ordinance on the next few slides here. If you want to follow along, the ordinance can be found on pages 12 and 13 of your packet. So, first up, uh we are proposing increasing the number of recreational vehicles allowed on a given lot from 1 to four. The purpose here is to with our code enforcement team, we have quite a few cases where if someone has say a camper and a jet ski or a ATV, that would technically be a violation under the current code. So, we're looking to loosen that up uh given that it's a common occurrence with many of our properties in Oakdale. Next, we're proposing seasonal setback exemptions, uh, replacing them instead with a universal setback that's proposed to be 15 ft. The existing ordinance currently treats different recreational equipment differently depending on the time of year. For example, campers can be parked closer to the curb in the summer and snowmobiles can be parked closer in the winter. There would still be a 48 hour grace period for loading and unloading. Next, we're proposing the removal of the hard surface requirement uh in the rear and sideyard. It would still be required to be a hard surface in the front yard. Uh the purpose here is a that we this is also one that our code enforcement team runs into with issues and sometimes it can be a burden to the homeowners or many properties may be running up against permeable surface limits in the zoning code. And then as a last small change uh to the section of the ordinance, we're proposing adding a additional clarification that any recreational vehicle should be free of leaking hazardous fluids. Uh this helps with the loosening of the permeable surface requirement to ensure that we're still making those environmental regulations work. So that summarizes the changes staff is proposing. Uh to conclude, staff is recommending approval of the ordinance. Just as a reminder, given that this is an amendment to the zoning code, this item is subject to a public hearing. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions from the commission. >> Thank you. >> What do we consider a sideyard? >> The sideyard on the code is defined as behind the front yard. Uh but that space in between the front of the house and the back of the house going to each side property line. >> So where does it start when you consider front yard and backyard and sideyard? Is it at the corner of the property? The I mean the actual residential building. >> So a sideyard would start um behind the house on the left and right of it. >> It's got to be behind the yard. So the sideyard is actually part of the backyard then not the actual side of the yard. >> Sideyard and backyard. Sometimes the sideyard gets colloquial called the backyard, but they're technically two separate things but very similar in the zoning ordinance. There is a corner side setback as well for corner lots. So, I'm just wondering if you've got a house that's an L-shape, you have a different sideyard on the left side and the right side since the structure comes out further on the right side. generally with a L-shaped house on a corner lot like that. Um there are special corner setbacks, but we would still consider a front yard to be from the front of the house uh to the front property line. Uh so for example, with a fence regulation, fences could only be 4 feet from the front of the house and would only be 4 feet on the corner side that's still in front of the house. Anything behind that could be 6 ft. So, where are you going to consider it? If I got a garage that comes out 20 feet in front of the house, so the left side of my yard house is 20 ft further back than the garage is. What's the sideyard on that? Do you go by the garage or you do do you go by the house? I'd >> have to take a look at the lot, but generally we would go by the house. Even if the garage is attached, >> if the garage is attached to the house, um, we consider that we would measure from the closest point of the garage. >> Okay. So, that's actually going to extend a sideyard into the front yard on the non- garage side of the house. Correct. >> Again, I I admit I'm having trouble visualizing a little bit. Um, >> uh, think of an L. You got an L and the garage comes like this. So the house is sitting on your property like this garage comes out. So where's the sideyard begin? Does it begin over here or does it begin over here? Cuz a garage like this and your street is out here. So you've got your garage shuts out 20 feet in front of the house and they're attached. So your house is an Lshape. If you if you've been by my house, my house is an example of that. >> Cuz theoretically, if you're using the garage as the front of the house, then you're going to have somebody able to park in the front yard because it's a sideyard based on the house. Even though based on this regular structure, it wouldn't be till 20 feet back potentially. Yeah, the whole yard situation can can get very tricky and um each lot is kind of unique and in that we have to evaluate each lot. Um if it's a corner lot, if it has unique angles or different depths of straight on rectangular lot right in the middle of the block. >> Okay. And you got an L-shaped house in it. >> Mhm. Lots 80 ft long. House comes out garage comes out 20 feet further from the actual front end of the house though. So your sides are different. So if you use the garage as your side, then people could potentially say as your markoff point, people could actually be parking in the front yard on the left side of the house when it would actually be the sideyard on the garage side of the house. might be something you guys want to look into and >> yeah, absolutely. >> Get that defined because that could cause issues down the road. >> Oh, that's a fair point. Okay. Anyone else have questions or comments? I like the fact that you're loosening up. It's still not enough for me to be able to bring my RV onto my property, but If there are no other comments and I guess I would look for someone to give a motion or bring forth a motion for to recommend approval of the ordinance amendments to chapter 25 zoning related to recreational vehicle storage. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I Any opposed? >> Motion passes. Thank you. Uh next on the agenda is the overview of the 2050 comprehensive plan update. Thank you chair. Uh so with this uh item here on the agenda, we want to provide just a highlevel overview of this multi-year project. happy to answer questions, field suggestions from the commission and this is just the first of many discussions and workshops for the comprehensive plan. So for starters, what is a comprehensive plan? I know you know a few on the the commission are relatively familiar with the comp plan. You were here during the last cycle, but um the the comp plan it defines the vision, goals, and aspirations for long-term development and redevelopment for the city. and we're talking about a 20-year time frame. So, it's intended to shape land use and transportation patterns, conserve natural features, identify needs for infrastructure, housing, parks, and open space. So, it's the um essentially the city's main policy document for land use, and infrastructure planning. So, why do we have to update this plan? Since, you know, we have a current comp plan, why do we have to update it? Well, the simple answer is that state law requires it. The Metropolitan Council or Met Council um requires that all cities within the 7ount metro area comp um update their comp plan every 10 years and I would like to note that the plan cannot conflict with the Met Council's regional system plans related to various policies such as affordable housing. So besides the legal requirements of updating the comp plan, it's it's also just a best practice that the community have a a solid plan for future for its um just have a vision and a good framework for future development. So there are eight required plan elements that are displayed on the screen and the Met Council specifies minimum requirements for each and again these are required elements. the the city's comp plan can have more um more substance to our plan um once it's once we go through the process and it get gets adopted. But at a bare minimum, Met Council requires us to to touch on these points. So the first one, and I'll go through each of them very briefly, land use, which specifies future land use categories and residential density requirements. The development must align with infrastructure capacity that the city has. housing. Uh for that we would take an inventory of existing housing and project into the future our needs for the city. We would uh also be required to plan for affordable housing. For transportation, the focus is on aligning local infrastructure with regional systems such as the county and state um uh highways, interstates and transportation is also meant to address both vehicular and pedestrian. for water resources. This is focused on sustainability of wastewater, water supply and surface water management systems, parks and trails is intended to support recreational infrastructure and pre preserve in environmental features such as natural habitat for climate. The aim there is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce flooding and extreme heat. And just a quick note on this one, the city has applied for climate grants and if awarded that money would be used to support um the comp plan to go above and beyond the minimum requirements of the Met Council for natural systems. This is intended to reduce pollution and also be considerate in terms of development around sensitive features such as wetland. And then finally we have implementation which outlines the process in which the city will achieve the goals of the comprehensive plan. Uh before I continue any questions about the required plan elements? >> See we see none. >> Okay. Uh so the city's existing 2040 comprehensive plan will be used as a framework the starting point for the 2050 update. We also have a pretty solid portfolio of existing planning documents as you can see on the lefth hand side of the screen. So we have 10 recent plans that have been completed since 2021 and actually the majority of them have been completed since 2023. Also, there are some other plans that we can utilize such as the Minnesota DOT Highway 120 corridor study and the forthcoming Washington County climate action plan and also the the county's forthcoming long range transportation plan, which actually might have just got adopted. Um, and in addition to leveraging existing planning documents, the Met Council has a number of resources that are available to the city um when we're updating our our comp plan. So tentatively we've identified a few key areas of focus for the comp plan. Um back on January 13th, the city council held us, you know, similar workshop. Um we provided the same information to the council uh to get some some early feedback on the direction of the the plan. And uh so just to summarize some recommendations suggestions that the the council has provided thus far. They want to uh utilize prior community feedback from existing planning documents as the foundation for future engagement efforts. Want to detail want us to de excuse me develop a detailed timeline and phased approach for community engagement. They want us to lean into the expertise of the city's planning consultant for engagement best practices. I'll speak a little bit more to the the planning consultant in just a moment. The council also suggested leveraging input from advisory bodies such as the planning commission, tree board, environmental management commission, and parks and wreck uh commission as well. So, we anticipate having multiple work sessions with the council and advisory bodies, especially uh in regards to the vision, goals, and strategies. So, back on the January 13th council workshop, one of the recommendations was to align the implementation section of the plan with the city's strategic plan, which just makes a lot of sense in terms of, you know, consistency with goals of the city. Another or a big theme for this comprehensive plan update will be redevelopment. Um, that's just the the evolution of the city. We're running out of land. uh inevitably we're going to be looking for new creative ways to use land more efficiently, more um probably in a more mixed use type uh pattern as well. Uh also the city is uh like I mentioned seeking grant funding for climate and environmental planning uh to potentially go above and beyond the the minimum requirements for the Met Council. So here's our tentative schedule for the comp plan update and I'll walk through the steps. So, the city is currently in the process of selecting a planning consultant uh to assist with this project. We're hoping to have a consultant on board in the next couple months. Um that's where we're at right now in in that quarter one kind of end of quarter one. Uh the next stage after that would be the data collection and analysis and that would occur you know well into 2027 kind of um Q3 quarter 4 of 2027. public engagement also very long process uh that would extend from about mid 20 or summer 2026 well into uh 2027 and then the goal is to complete the draft plan by the end of 2027 and hold the required public hearing. Then after that there is an affected jurisdictions review. So that is a requirement of the Met Council. That basically means that other overlapping or adjacent jurisdictions such as you know the school districts, city of Woodbury, Maplewood, Washington County, u Minnesota DOT, those those different uh government agencies have an opportunity to review and comment on Oakdale's comprehensive plan. And then finally, um we would submit the plan to the Metropolitan Council. and our goal is to submit it by June or July of 2028. So, we built in roughly a six-month buffer into the schedule because the plans do not have to be submitted to the Met Council until the end very end of 2028. But with such a large project, very complex, we want to give give ourselves a nice buffer. Um, and with that, happy to answer any questions or if you have suggestions on on the comp plan, happy to hear them out. Thank you. >> What part of the system statement are you guys appealing? >> So the uh the appeal with the system statements has to do with population projections. Um uh the city finds that the Met Council projections are are pretty low, you know, in terms of uh the 2050 numbers. And so that we're actively working towards um a resolution in terms of the the projections. >> Another thing I didn't see it mentioned too much in your overview, but I think one of the biggest challenges we're going to have is the state posting net zero on us by 2050 for most things. That's going to probably entail a lot of electrical infrastructure upgrades. How is our plan addressing things like substations, battery storage, new lines going in, infrastructure corridors? Is that going to be pretty detailed in this this time around? >> Uh potentially. You know, we're very early in the process and um with the more technical details or I should say technical infrastructure requirements, we would rely more heavily on our engineering team. Uh I just I I don't know that I'm qualified, you know, to to speak to the the technical details there, but you know, it's I would imagine it it'd be a a consideration of the plan. So, >> um what's the effective date of the comprehensive plan? So, it's you said >> they're updated every 10 years. So, we submit it in 2028. So, then it's effective in 2030. It's escaping me right now, but when the the the Metropolitan Council has to um uh approve the plan, but there we have to submit the plan to the Met Council no later than December 31st, 2028. I I just don't know offhand um when the Met Council has to approve the plan. >> Okay. But >> I don't know if you know offh hand >> the process can take a couple months after submission. So perhaps the latest would be early to mid 2029. Okay. >> But as soon as it's approved by the Met Council, uh it becomes effective. Our goal would be to have that done before the end of 2028. I have no further questions. >> Okay. Well, thank you. And like I mentioned, we're very early in the process. We'll we'll be checking in with planning commission, council, other advisory bodies, and there'll be opportunity for public engagement uh for the residents, for business owners, uh different stakeholders throughout the city throughout this process. Okay. Next on the agenda is a staff liaison update. >> Yep. >> Just a few updates here. So, the public works new facility. There's a ribbon cutting ceremony open house on May 2nd. I believe you received an invitation uh either today or yesterday. Um it's a very impressive facility. Um so, if you're able to attend, I we certainly encourage you to. Just a few updates on the city hall renovation and police department expansion. So, if you recall just a few months back, uh the site plan for the remodel expansion was brought to the planning commission and and things are starting to take shape here and and actually move pretty quickly. So, um in on May 26, the the majority of city staff will be actually located into that new public works facility. So that's where a bulk of the your your day-to-day business with city hall will actually occur uh for quite some time. You know, it's going to be about 18 months to remodel and um expand city hall and PD. Um so the police department, they will be located in the south fire station just down the road here. And then fire department will be fully consolidated to the north fire station during the during that time as well. Um there's just a few of us, Max, me, a couple other staff members will be located at the Discovery Center, but the m majority of city hall staff will be at the the new uh public works facility off Granada Avenue. And um so that means public meetings like this will likely be held at the Discovery Center, just so that you're aware. And then the process for the the new city hall police department um renovation expansion expect about 18 months or so. So we'll be clearing out of here so that the teams can demo the building and and really get to work on on the new facility. Um and last we do not expect to hold a May planning commission meeting. We don't have any applications at this time and just the complications with uh relocating to the new facilities and uh figuring out logistics for the the meetings. Um we do not expect a meeting in May. So we'll likely see you in June. That's all I have. Thank you. >> You any questions for them on their report? Commissioner updates. Anyone have any updates they wish to voice? See none, we'll move on to council leaison update. >> Good evening everyone. Uh just a couple of things that I'll mention that that Luke didn't mention um that are coming up here in April. Uh we'll be having our ecoair at Castle Elementary on April 25th and that this our second one. and we annual last year and uh it's a great opportunity to learn about um some of the things that are going on in the city and and learn about natural resources and and um recycling and that type of thing. Uh a couple other things we're we've got improvements planned at some of our parks this year. Um so Tower Park and Golf Buil Golf View Park will be getting new playgrounds. We'll have public engagement uh opportunities for the public to come and um comment on those on the next two Thursdays. So, if you look at the city website, uh you can find information on those. Uh and then Tanner's Lake will also be getting improvements this year, but we have not scheduled a public engagement for for that park yet. Um and lastly, I will just say the council is uh continuing actually finalizing uh the search for a new city administrator to replace our retiring current retiring city administrator. So, hopefully there'll be some information coming soon about that. Any questions for me? Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. >> Brings us to a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? I I >> hopefully no one opposes. Good night.