[0:02] [music] [0:07] [music] [0:19] Unknown Speaker: Hey, how are you? [0:51] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right, we'll call the meeting to order. On behalf of the planning commission, I'd like to welcome our residents and viewers to this regular meeting of February 10th, 2026. On tonight's agenda, we have two discussion items. Uh before we get to those, we've got some what I'll call housekeeping items. Um but Tony, you want to start with the uh the first one? [1:10] Tony Whipler (Planning Manager): Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair, commission members. Uh on behalf of staff, I would just like to welcome our two newest uh commission members, uh Mr. Gary Rutherford and Miss Elizabeth Ellis or Lisa Ellis. Um so yeah, just would like to uh thank you for your service and your time and uh welcome you to the commission. [1:31] Dirk Rody (Chair): Thank you very much for serving the residents of this community. We appreciate it. Um February is our organizational meeting. So with that uh comes the election of our two officers, our chair and vice chair and then also the appointment of commissioners to various uh committees. So, at this time, I'll turn the meeting over to our planning manager, Tony Whipler. [1:52] Tony Whipler: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, yes, this is the time of year where we ask the commission to elect a chair and a vice chair for the commission. Uh, member Rody served as chair in 2025 and numerous years prior to that, uh, with former commissioner Tesy serving as vice chair. Um, so at this point, uh, I will ask for a nomination from the group for, uh, chair. If anybody would like to... [2:20] Phil Windshuttle: I would nominate Dirk as chair. [2:23] Tony Whipler: Is there a second? [2:25] Andy Berg: I will second. [2:27] Tony Whipler: Mr. Rody, will you accept? [2:28] Dirk Rody: That's fine. I will accept it. Yes. [2:30] Tony Whipler: All right. Uh we will take a nomination then for vice chair next. [2:33] Andy Berg: I would nominate Phil. [2:36] Lisa Ellis: I will second that. [2:39] Tony Whipler: Mr. uh Windshuttle. Will you accept? [2:42] Phil Windshuttle: Thank you. [2:43] Tony Whipler: Thank you very much. [2:44] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right. Thank you Tony. Um, as I mentioned also, we have various committees that this commission uh assists with, works on. Um, a lot of them are dealing with our uh joining townships uh and the city of Empire. Um, usually it's a commissioner, a council member and staff that that'll work with it. Um, so I'll go through it and inquire from the different commissioners. The first one is the Empire Farmington Planning Advisory Committee. Um, Commissioner Windshuttle, would you serve on that comm—that committee? [3:16] Phil Windshuttle: Yes. [3:17] Dirk Rody (Chair): We got the Castle Rock discussion group. Commissioner Rutherford, would you serve on that? [3:19] Gary Rutherford: Yes, I will. [3:22] Dirk Rody (Chair): And then we got the Eureka Farmington Planning Group. Um. Commissioner Berg, will you serve on that? [3:26] Andy Berg: I will. [3:28] Dirk Rody (Chair): Then we got what's called the MUSA Review Committee. Um, this is uh made up of uh a number of different organizations within the city. Um city council, planning commission, school district, and really what it looks at is the growth of Farmington, the MUSA, which is Sanitary Sewer Extension. Commissioner Ellis, will you serve with me on that committee? [3:48] Lisa Ellis: I will. [3:49] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right then. We have our committee assignments. Is there a motion for the approval of this? [3:56] Andy Berg: I'll make a motion to approve. [3:58] Dirk Rody (Chair): Have a motion. Is there a second? [3:59] Phil Windshuttle: Second. [4:00] Dirk Rody (Chair): Motion second. Call the role, please. [4:01] Tony Whipler: Berg? [4:02] Andy Berg: Yes. [4:03] Tony Whipler: Windshuttle? [4:04] Phil Windshuttle: Yes. [4:05] Tony Whipler: Rody? [4:06] Dirk Rody: Yes. [4:07] Tony Whipler: Ellis? [4:08] Lisa Ellis: Yes. [4:09] Tony Whipler: Rutherford? [4:10] Gary Rutherford: Yes. [4:12] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right. Thank you everybody. Um those will be our 2026 committee members and um we'll move into our discussion items. The first one's a zoning amendment request. Um the applicant is Barb Ackerman, Pilot Properties on the industrial park. Tony, you'll take this? [4:25] Tony Whipler: I will. Thank you, Mr. Chair, commission members. If you recall, a similar discussion was held about a year ago on this same property. Uh the property is located at 5465 212th Street West. Uh so right on the corner, northeast corner of Pilot Knob and County Road 50. Um the property contains uh three different uh buildings. Um two of which are currently occupied. The third is uh vacant right now. Um the property is zoned MUCI which is our mixed-use commercial industrial. [5:02] Tony Whipler: Um what they would like to do is again bring back the conversation on basically auto repair major. They have a potential tenant who uh currently has a business out on Minnesota 50 on the east side of town um called Sea's Truck Repair. Um and they would like to um potentially lease space out of that third building um over there. And basically they do large truck repair. Uh so on semis, RVs, things like that, larger vehicles. [5:38] Tony Whipler: Um auto repair currently — auto repair major currently is neither permitted or conditional use in the MUCI district. Um in order to allow this tenant to move in, um one of two things would either have to happen. There would need to be amendment to the MUCI district to either allow auto repair major as a conditional or permitted use or uh there would need to be a rezoning of the property to a district that would uh allow that type of use. Right now our code allows uh auto repair major in three zoning districts. Those being the B2 downtown business, B3 general business, and our spruce street mixed-use zone. Um and as far as the mixed use um... [6:25] Tony Whipler: ...the use must be contained um entirely within the building itself. Um or we don't allow any of those changes. Those are basically the—the options that are before us. Um I do want to mention that with regards to um the auto related businesses, so auto repair major, auto repair minor, auto sales, um probably 10 years ago, there was a large discussion both at the planning commission and city council regarding those uses. Um and they were—and based off of those discussions, we really limited where those uses could go. Um and hence that's why you only see them in essentially... [7:10] Tony Whipler: ...three districts right now. Um of which the B3 is a very limited or small district that we have in this community. Um, but there was a concerted effort to try to—I don't want to say rein in those businesses, but to um make those areas a little more attractive, I guess, because sometimes these type of businesses have a lot of exterior storage and can be a little bit of a—I don't want to say necessarily an eyesore, but they can create some—some issues with some neighbors potentially. [7:47] Tony Whipler: Um, so there was that concerted effort a handful of years ago to um deal with that. Um, there's a couple things that are uh that we'll be working on as a commission and as a city as a whole over the next year, two years. um two things, the 2050 comprehensive plan update along with a zoning code um update as well, looking at not only the downtown but the overall districts as a whole. Um so this could be a potential where we look at that corner, see if there's a better um better, more appropriate type of use at that corner. um not committing to anything but at this point I think it... [8:33] Tony Whipler: ...could be something that we could look at as part of those processes. So... [8:38] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right, [clears throat] thank you Tony. Um let's remind the commission just what Tony had mentioned that commission along with staff and the city council will be working on the comp plan and the zoning code real soon this year. [8:52] Dirk Rody (Chair): So um I just want to leave that with you before—before our discussion. Let's start with Commissioner Windshuttle. [8:57] Phil Windshuttle: Yeah, I think you—you know, you made a good point I think about looking at this with you know the changes to the comp plan certainly. Um I guess in question of this lot like is this lot big enough for this type of business? [9:15] Tony Whipler: They do have quite a bit of uh property on the backside of it um that would accommodate at least from what I've been told would accommodate what this gentleman is looking to—to do. [9:28] Phil Windshuttle: And another question is in her email she states, you know, RNL and the bus company both is—do they both fix semis and buses on their property? [9:37] Tony Whipler: They do have some of that. They—the difference is is that the uses for RNL and the—the bus company, they're not their main function isn't auto repair. Um their main function is to be a truck terminal and a bus garage. They just happen to have a—a small facility where they can fix their own vehicles if necessary. So, it's not a general auto repair type of use. That's not the main use of the property. [10:09] Phil Windshuttle: And so, she's looking at getting this whole corner... [10:12] Tony Whipler: Potentially. [10:13] Phil Windshuttle: ...potentially changed. Okay. Um, no, I think those are just a couple of questions I had. I think it's personal opinion. And I think it'd be best to look at it with everything else uh in review of the 2050 comp plan. [10:26] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right. Thank you, Phil. Commissioner Berg. [10:29] Andy Berg: Yeah. Kind of along the same uh lines. Is the bus company and RNL—I know is zoned industrial right now. [10:37] Tony Whipler: So is the bus company. [10:38] Andy Berg: Bus company is too. Okay. So it's really just this one corner that... [10:41] Tony Whipler: It is. [10:42] Andy Berg: ...not. Okay. [10:42] Tony Whipler: And if you'll recall as part of RNL, we did do a rezoning of a portion of their property. Um originally it was I think 550 feet uh on that corridor from 208th to um County Road 50 that was zoned this mixed-use commercial industrial and that was done 15-20 years ago. [11:04] Andy Berg: Right. [11:05] Tony Whipler: So... [11:06] Andy Berg: I remember that from our recent conversations. That's kind of why I was asking. So, okay. [clears throat and cough] For me, I agree with—with Commissioner Windshuttle that I think this is part of the larger discussion. I don't have an issue with maybe adjusting for that considering what other um places are around there, but I do think it belongs in the larger conversation versus a one-off discussion. [11:32] Dirk Rody (Chair): Thank you, Andy. Commissioner Ellis? [11:34] Lisa Ellis: I agree. Um, I think it's best that we have this discussion as part of the rezoning. But just a couple questions about the property itself. It's only—it's about three and a quarter acres that property and Pilot Knob's a limited access road. County Road 50 is a limited access road. So the only point of access is going to be what's existing, right? [11:55] Tony Whipler: Correct. [11:56] Lisa Ellis: Okay, that's um that's helpful. So anyway, I agree we should just have this discussion as part of the larger discussion with the comp plan. [12:04] Dirk Rody (Chair): Thank you, Lisa. Commissioner Rutherford? [12:06] Gary Rutherford: I would tend to agree with the uh the other commissioners on the the whole aspect of with the—with the re-evaluation of everything going to take place this year that we should just consider it um in the larger context of the citywide re-evaluation. Um I do have one question, Tony, if you know um why was that or what was the reasoning behind the MUCI designation for that property and what used to be — um what was rezoned with the RNL expansion? [12:39] Tony Whipler: That was originally done um when the—oh boy that was 2006 I believe is when that changed and it was part of some negotiations with the uh Mr. Pat Rean when he was developing uh the RNL piece at the time. Um because originally it was indust—that entire piece was industrial. Um so that was part of the negotiations with him at that time to basically have a corridor um to allow more commercial type of uses versus strictly industrial. [13:18] Gary Rutherford: Okay. [13:19] Tony Whipler: So... [13:20] Gary Rutherford: That helps. Thank you. [13:22] Dirk Rody (Chair): Thanks Gary. And I agree with the other commissioners. They are great questions. Um, we can discuss the pros and cons of either rezoning or anything else in the midst of our—of our comp plan update. I think that's the time to do it. Um, this is going to be an important road, important corner, I think, right here for the community. Um, but we can discuss what we feel should be on it or not on it at that time. [13:47] Tony Whipler: Absolutely. [13:48] Dirk Rody (Chair): Tony, at this time, can you get back to the uh — to the applicant. And I don't know — really the reason the commission that I heard anyway was that we're in the middle of a starting a comprehensive plan update also a zoning code and that we at this point aren't going to — ready to commit and discuss the pros and cons of what — what should or shouldn't be there. [14:14] Tony Whipler: Absolutely. [14:15] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right is that enough for this item for you then? [14:17] Tony Whipler: More than enough to get back to—to her. [14:18] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right thank you we'll move on to our second discussion item that's the open meeting law and Tony you discuss with us—this with us every year. [14:25] Tony Whipler: I [clears throat] I—I do. It's more of a reminder, but with two new uh commissioners, uh I feel it's even more appropriate uh this year. Um included in your packet is some information from the League of Minnesota Cities regarding the open meeting law. Um basically uh some high points. Uh open meeting law serves three uh vital uh purposes. One, it prohibits actions from being taken at a secret meeting where the interested public cannot fully be informed of decisions made by the body or detect improper influences. Two, it ensures the public's right to be informed. And three, it gives the public an opportunity to present its views on things that are being discussed at the meeting. Um, in addition to that, um, there are a number of high-level things that I just kind of want to run through. [15:13] Tony Whipler: Um regarding open meeting law. [snorts] Um things that the commission should try to um achieve or not do. Um first is avoid gathering in a quorum. That would be three or more members of this board. Um outside of a regular meeting, if a quorum is present at a social gathering, uh please do not decide — do not discuss business is the — the main thing to uh know there. Um there are a few exceptions to this law. Uh these typically pertain strictly to the city council um for things such as labor negotiations or even a sale of a property, things like that. Um those are... [15:58] Tony Whipler: ...typically held on closed meetings. Uh serial discussions between less than a quorum could violate the open meeting law uh under certain circumstances. So try to avoid phone calls, emails or texts um and social media uh to discuss uh city business. Um if you do try or if you do discuss business, make sure it's at a meeting. [16:24] Tony Whipler: Um, and then any person who intentionally violates opening meeting law is subject to a civil penalty of up to $300 uh for a single occurrence. Um, and just so you know, the public body will not pay for that uh violation. [16:39] Tony Whipler: So, um, those are kind of the highlights. Um, as you go through the the information, if you have questions, feel free to reach out. Um, we can certainly have a more in-depth discussion, but I wanted to at least present you with information so you can be informed. So... [17:00] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right. Thank you, Tony. Were there any questions for Tony on the open meeting law? [17:01] Andy Berg: No. [17:02] Dirk Rody (Chair): Right. If not, was there anything else from staff? [17:03] Tony Whipler: The only thing I do want to mention is on uh March 9th, we will be having a special uh meeting with the city council um at six o'clock um to talk comprehensive plan and zoning. So... [17:21] Dirk Rody (Chair): Okay. And Tony, as usual, uh will you send a reminder out to the commission and any uh information that you feel is important for us to look at ahead of time? [17:25] Tony Whipler: Absolutely. [17:26] Dirk Rody (Chair): All right. I appreciate that. Anything else from the commission? [17:27] Andy Berg: If not, I'd look for a motion to adjourn. [17:28] Phil Windshuttle: Motion to adjourn. [17:29] Dirk Rody (Chair): We have a motion. Is there a second? [17:30] Lisa Ellis: Second. [17:33] Dirk Rody (Chair): Motion to second. All in favor say I. [17:34] Commission (Unison): I. [17:36] Dirk Rody (Chair): You're officially adjourned. Thank you. [music] Hey hey hey. [17:48] [music]