This transcript appears to be from a **Planning Commission** meeting dated October 10, 2022. Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the recording, here is the identified transcript. Please note: While the provided list identifies Melanie Peters as the current Chair, the 2022 transcript features a male Chair and refers to Melanie Peters as a Commissioner eligible for the Vice Chair vacancy. I have used the label **Chair** for the presiding officer and matched other names to the provided staff and commission lists. *** **[0:00] Chair:** 10th 2022 regular meeting. Commissioners, any corrections? All right, seeing none, we'll consider those to be approved. All right, and other actions. Hey, election of Planning Commission Vice Chair. **[0:15] John Hinzman:** Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you know, with Kyle's departure here, we do have a vacancy in the Vice Chair position. All Commissioners having served at least one year are eligible to serve in that, so that'd be Commissioner Hallberg, Manske, Peters, and Teigen. So they would be eligible in serving in that Vice Chair position. The way nominations would work: someone can take a motion and or a second on a specific candidate, and we can take a vote from there. **[0:45] Chair:** All right, sounds good. Who wants it? I will take a motion. Any volunteers? **[0:50] Commissioner Manske:** I make a motion for Rob Hallberg be Vice Chair. **[0:55] Chair:** All right, we have a motion for Commissioner Hallberg to be elected as Vice Chair. Do I have a second? **[1:00] Commissioner O'Brien:** Second. **[1:05] Chair:** Right, second by Commissioner O'Brien. Any further discussion? Nope. Okay, take a vote. All in favor say aye. **[1:12] Commissioners:** Aye. **[1:15] Chair:** Opposed? That motion carries, and Commissioner Hallberg is now officially elected Vice Chair of the Planning Commission. Congratulations. **[1:25] Commissioner Hallberg:** Thanks. Awesome. **[1:30] Chair:** All right. Next on the agenda is Continuum Companies Site Plan 2022-54 for Therapy Ops, 1312 South Frontage Road. Another report by John Hinzman. **[1:45] John Hinzman:** Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Planning Commission. I'm just gonna pull this thing up here. Here we go. Before us today is a site plan approval for Therapy Ops, which is located at the northwest corner of South Frontage Road and Westview Drive. About a two-acre parcel or so. They're proposing to put a 2,000 square foot building for therapy services on that property. Taking a look at the property itself, this is a lot better on my screen here. Property looks something like this: vacant property. You've got other commercial properties surrounding it right now with AutoZone and AA Auto Tech; you can see those in the pictures here. And then Westview Drive surrounding it. This is a property that's been designated commercial for some time, part of a development plan from 20 years ago that developed the other properties there. This has been the last property to develop, and we're happy to see that come forward today. **[2:40] John Hinzman:** As far as our zoning and comprehensive plan, both conform to what is being proposed here. Property is guided for commercial development and is zoned C4, a permitted use within that district. As you can see from the picture here, there's a little bit of a slope on the property, not much. A couple of trees on there that were planted as part of the original site plan back in 2000 and then a retaining wall area down here. Site development is limited to a portion of the site itself. You can see the building here, parking area that would be developed like this. All the access will be served internally through this existing access road which serves AA Auto Tech and AutoZone here, so a curb cut on this private road and then a connection point over to AutoZone at this point. **[3:30] John Hinzman:** The building would be located here, quite a distance back from the property lines. There are some utility lines that run through the property somewhat like this. So, a good site development that we see here. Access and parking meets our standards. The parking that we have required for this property—this property does exceed that. We did ask the property owners what they anticipate to see for visitor traffic and workers within the building, and with the other facility that they have, they thought that this would best match what their needs would be, and so we are satisfied with that and the configuration as we see here. **[4:10] John Hinzman:** Looking forward more down the plan here, grading plan on the landscape plan: they do meet the requirements that we have there for perimeter landscaping of both deciduous trees and shrubs on the site here. Good site development as we see it. From an architectural standpoint, they do meet our architectural standards. The project itself will be consisting of brick along the bottom portions of the building itself and a cementitious board and batten siding along the rest of the elevations here. So those do meet our architectural elevation standards. The only thing that we've added to this is from a sidewalk connection standpoint. We are looking to have a sidewalk connection between where the building's sidewalk by the parking lot is down to the sidewalk system itself on Frontage Road. That's the only real thing that we've added as conditions to this. Other than that, the standard conditions that we have on there are on the recommendation for approval. And we do have a representative here from Therapy Ops if you have any questions. Other than that, I could stand for questions as well. Thank you. **[5:24] Chair:** Okay, thanks John. I did research, so I know what Therapy Ops does. You want to take a couple of minutes and talk about it? **[5:35] Chris (Therapy Ops Representative):** Sure, sure. You come step up here and... thanks. My name is Chris. My wife Rachel and I already own a clinic up in Inver Grove Heights and we're looking to expand down here. Our clinic is fairly standard in terms of what we're asking for. We do occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy. We're predominantly pediatrics or young adults with special needs, and we also do offer some group therapies and some feeding therapy as well. And so this site here is a perfect location. We have a lot of partners down in Hastings already. We actually draw about 20 percent of our families from Red Wing, Hastings, Cottage Grove, Rosemount—this area. Opening up here would offer more convenient services for this area and it would allow us then to offer additional services to the area we already currently serve. Thank you. **[6:50] Chair:** Thank you. Yeah, open up to any questions, comments? Commissioner Manske. **[6:57] Commissioner Manske:** So in the grading plan, I don't see anything for the additional impervious surfaces there. Stormwater management—the city engineers, they don't have anything for what's the minimum requirement for putting in buildings and new parking lots and having stormwater management? **[7:15] John Hinzman:** Sure. It's based on a couple of different things. One would be net impervious surface disturbance of at least one acre. So this site here is a little over two acres, so that net disturbance would be less than the one-acre threshold. Also, with a pre-existing plat, which this one is, then it would be my understanding is that would be exempt from those stormwater requirements. **[7:40] Commissioner Manske:** Okay, thank you. **[7:43] Commissioner Peters:** Just a question looking at the amount of office space: there's certainly enough parking, but I was wondering if one handicap parking spot is sufficient for the type of services that you're going to be providing there? In looking at the plan, yeah, it's just one, even though there's the space there for wheelchair access from like a side van. Just wondering if that's enough? **[8:10] Chris (Therapy Ops Representative):** Yeah, the building that we currently own is about four times this size, and we have two spaces and one gets used maybe every other day. So at this point, it feels like that's enough. **[8:25] Commissioner Peters:** Okay, thank you. **[8:28] Chair:** Commissioners, any other questions? Commissioner Teigen. **[8:32] Commissioner Teigen:** Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple things I notice in the provision: there's a four-sided waste recycling area. Where's that going to be? **[8:45] John Hinzman:** I put the requirement in there that if they choose to have a waste disposal area, they can't put the dumpsters outside; they would need to construct that at a later date. So, nothing proposed at this point, but if their operations necessitated an outside dumpster, then they would need to build a structure to contain that. **[9:05] Commissioner Teigen:** So it's not required off the bat? **[9:08] John Hinzman:** Not required off the bat, but if they choose to do so, those requirements would come in. **[9:12] Commissioner Teigen:** And then you know, I looked at the architectural standards and can you explain to me how this is... is it just certain types of material required? That's it? **[9:20] John Hinzman:** Mostly certain types of materials. So depending on the type of building, there's three different classes of materials and different percentages of those materials required. So that's what we look at here is that combination between the different classes. Looking at these things here, we've got 25 percent of what we termed Class 1, which is bricks, natural stone, glass, and metal. So that brick and that glass would qualify as that. And then the Type 2 would be what that board and batten siding would be comprising, and that would need to comprise another 25 percent of that. So it would meet the requirements from the material standpoint, yes. **[10:05] Commissioner Teigen:** Because—and hopefully these pictures are just not very good—but it looks like a pole barn to me. It's kind of curious on how that meets our architectural standards, but if it's just based on material, not actual design of the building, I understand that. Yeah, it's unfortunate. That's all I got, Mr. Chair. Thank you. **[10:35] Chair:** Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioners, any other questions, comments? If not, I'll entertain a motion. **[10:50] Commissioner Hallberg:** I make a motion to approve the preliminary plans for the Continuum Companies subject to those conditions. **[11:05] Chair:** Okay, we have a motion to approve the site plans subject to those conditions listed. We have a second? **[11:10] Commissioner Peters:** Second. **[11:12] Chair:** Second, Commissioner Peters. Any new discussion? All right, seeing none, take a vote. All in favor say aye. **[11:20] Commissioners:** Aye. **[11:22] Chair:** Opposed? All right, motion carries. **[11:28] John Hinzman:** Okay, thank you. This recommendation of the Planning Commission will go forward to the City Council at their November 7th meeting. **[11:36] Chair:** Oh, thank you. And thank you for coming tonight. **[11:38] Chris (Therapy Ops Representative):** Thanks, appreciate it. Thanks. **[11:42] Chair:** Thank you. All right, other business. Other business? **[11:45] John Hinzman:** Well, let's think of what else I have to share here. Enclave Companies broke ground today at their site by Coborn's. So that's the first phase of the 100-unit apartment building. And then we also had work beginning in the last couple weeks on the Stencil project downtown on the old UBC site. So with that one, if you live in the area, you'll notice that it's a little bit noisy down there; there's been a lot of rock hammering down there with some of the foundation work and digging down. I think that they're just about done with that, just from my bird's eye view today of looking at the site and how far they need to go down. So we have been in communication with the neighbors on that one to let them know what's going on. **[12:35] John Hinzman:** As far as anything new beyond that, I don't know as far as applications coming forward. Our next meeting is going to be on November 14th. I've got one application waiting in the wings, so that might fall on the 14th at this point, but I'll let you guys know on that. As far as past Council actions go, we had a meeting last week pertaining to the Confluence and an extension of their completion time frame on it. That was precipitated by a tour from HEDRA the week before, in which they were able to take a look at the interior of the building and see what progress has been made. **[13:10] John Hinzman:** I know that you guys are well aware that this project has been going on for quite a long time and there's been a lot of schedules and dates of completion that have been established and have not been met. With the progress going on right now, this May 31st deadline which has been approved is very feasible. They're putting together their online team as far as taking reservations, which will be up in December, and taking a look at the project, that seems to be a very feasible date to occur. **[13:45] John Hinzman:** The other thing that the Council did do with that is to put together a minimum assessment agreement, which establishes a minimum value for the project for taxes to be levied upon it. This basically means that even if the project is partially completed and of a substandard value from its completed point, we have established a floor much higher than that, so we will get the taxes levied upon that. So that'll be helpful in retiring the debt that we have for that building. So that one is moving along. And then we also have the approval of the plans from Intek last week as well, so they're continuing to move forward on that project. It's about all I have for updates. Oh, the other thing I've got too is we're looking for Planning Commissioners! So if anyone's out there that would be looking to serve on a Planning Commission or HEDRA or Park Board, we are looking for individuals. I think we've got a deadline date set for October 31st to take in new applications, but we’d love to have more people apply for these positions. **[14:43] Commissioner Teigen:** The Confluence was before my time—and mine and yours—so I'm not exactly sure what is going into the Confluence. What are the phases? Is there any expansion that was planned beyond what the footprint already is, or what is supposed to be there at the Confluence that need to be reviewed if they didn't meet deadlines? **[15:28] John Hinzman:** Got it. Yeah, the project itself, the building that's there right now is what is going to be the project. So it's going to be an 80-room hotel. There's going to be about, I think, five or ten apartment units within there. There is going to be a banquet facility and a restaurant. Those are the main major components. When you're looking at the building from Second Street, the area towards the bridge is going to be the restaurant. On the first floor, they have a 150-seat restaurant and then the back of it would be an outdoor patio area. And then above that would be a banquet facility, about 350 seats. So those will be run by a company called IDM Hospitality, who would run the banquet, restaurant, and hotel. **[16:15] John Hinzman:** And then as you go to the other side of the building where the parking lot era used to be, that's going to be kind of a park area for the hotel itself. And then that area that kind of juts out towards the river, that is going to be apartments and then some long-term rentals on that one as well that are going to be operated by the hospitality group. So that's what's going to be on the site right now. Yeah, we went through site plan on this one quite some time ago, probably about 2015 or so I would imagine, so it probably predated anybody here at that point. **[16:50] John Hinzman:** Some of the history of that project: we purchased the building back in 2009 when the Bridge Project was going on and the bridge was taking out their loading and receiving area and forced them into making a change in where they operated. So we were able to move them over to 10th Street next to Smead. They operated there for a few years. We bought the building, did some partial demolition of it, did a lot of environmental remediation of the building, and sought new developers for that. We looked at about four other entities that were interested in developing the building. I think we ended up with a contract with Confluence around 2015 for different performances of what they've done. **[17:40] John Hinzman:** And then there's been, you know, some difficulties in there. Part of it being the complexities of the project, part of it being economic, part of it being historic. But one of the things that they're doing with the building is they are doing it as what's called a tax credit project, which requires a certain threshold to be met for historic preservation. So there's obviously more time and more expense that goes with that, but there's tax credits that this project will have that other entities can buy off to bring income into the project, which was an important part of being able to finance the project privately. So that's kind of the history of that in a nutshell. **[18:30] John Hinzman:** And it's changed some directions over time too with things being: is there going to be a hotel? Is it going to be more apartments? Various other things that have happened within the building. But we've been fortunate that since Confluence has been involved in the project in 2015, they've continued on with it. There were times in the not-so-distant past that I wasn't certain whether the project may actually come to fruition because of economics and other things that were happening. But it's happening. I mean, you look in the building right now, you can see everything framed up—all the rooms for the hotel, all the areas for the apartments, the electrical, the HVAC, the plumbing. I was down there last week where they had the outline framed up of the bar and I could actually belly up to it, which was kind of interesting. **[19:18] John Hinzman:** No, I think it’s great. And then you can see from the outside of it, they've done the brick work. The stripe that they've painted on the building—that black stripe—is reminiscent of how the building looked in the 1920s. It was also a sign band that was used there, and they're going to do that again. They're going to be putting on some logos of the Confluence and other things related to what's there, so it'll have that look to it. And they went through with all the old windows in the building and rehabbed most of those windows, which has taken some time but really has added a lot to it. **[20:00] Commissioner Swedin:** I just have a quick question. Is there also going to be some like commercial or retail space? Because I think it was last summer, or summer of ‘21, the e-bike rental... eventually they'll go in there. Is that space still—is that still happening? **[20:15] John Hinzman:** Yeah, there's still a space right along the trail for that type of rental service. I'm unsure whether it's going to be that entity or another entity that might be going in there, but the space is created there now. And as far as retail space, yeah, there's some retail/office space that's part of it. They do have a single tenant that has been identified for that now. **[20:41] Commissioner Teigen:** So my question would be: as they did not meet their deadline, would there be something that the Planning Commission reviews for this? **[21:00] John Hinzman:** No, because it was the... we had a purchase and development agreement that was more of a property sales agreement. So it was more something between HEDRA, the Council, and Confluence. Not anything that we would need to review at this body. **[21:15] Chair:** John, can you just explain for everyone that's looking at or watching at home how HEDRA figures into the coming up with that plan for this meeting and that deadline? **[21:27] John Hinzman:** I guess I'm trying to understand your question. You said that HEDRA was involved in coming up with this agreement? Oh, the agreement for payment of taxes or the extension? Yeah, both actually. When they came forward for an extension last year, we added the requirement to have them pay that minimum value of taxes on the property. Prior to that, they were paying at whatever the market value was. When we had purchased the building, we had relied upon the improved value for that building to retire the debt that we paid for—we paid about three million dollars in that. We did that through a TIF district, TIF bonds, in which the increased value of the property taxable revenues would pay those bonds back over time. The delay in the project delayed that happening. So that was one thing that we insisted on last year was: okay, we'll grant you the extension, but you've got to pay taxes on the full building. **[22:14] Chair:** All right, Commissioners. Any other business? All right, if not, we'll accept a motion to adjourn. **[22:20] Commissioner Manske:** Make the motion to adjourn. **[22:22] Commissioner Teigen:** Second. **[22:24] Chair:** Second by Commissioner Teigen. All in favor say aye. **[22:28] Commissioners:** Aye. **[22:30] Chair:** Opposed? We are adjourned.