Based on the context provided and the roll calls within the meeting, here is the transcribed townhall with speaker names added. [0:06] [Music] [0:49] [Music] [0:56] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening and welcome to the October 21st City Council meeting. If you join me for a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the nation, God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, Ms. Orlofsky, roll call please. [1:21] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Michelle Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. **Ann Orlofsky:** John Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. **Ann Orlofsky:** Dan Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. **Ann Orlofsky:** Joshua Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. [1:33] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll move on to item number three, citizens' comments. This is an opportunity for anybody that would like to address the council for up to three minutes, typically for items that are not on the agenda. Not seeing any, we'll move on to item four. Any additional agenda information, Mr. Miller? [1:50] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing tonight here. [1:51] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll skip over five, there's no presentations. On to our consent agenda. These are more routine matters before the council. Any thing to highlight there, Mr. Miller? [2:07] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing to note tonight. [2:09] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, very good. We're going to be out of here quick. Council, any issues that you'd like to further discuss on the consent agenda? If not, I'll take a motion to approve. [2:17] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to approve the consent agenda. [2:19] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. [2:22] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, any further discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. [2:24] **Councilmembers (Unison):** Aye. [2:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Consent agenda passes. We'll now move on to item 7A: Lakeville 35 Logistics Park North Edition preliminary plat and CUP, and I think Mr. Bus or Nordland will be presenting. Very good, welcome. [2:54] **Ed Far (Architect):** Thank you. Good evening Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Ed Far with Edward Far Architects, representing Likewise Partners. Yep, and you've met Steve Bus already. Also with me this evening is Eric Miller from Sitech in case there's any questions, civil or landscaping. So, really we just wanted to introduce ourselves and thank you for looking at our application. We're here for preliminary plat this evening dividing that large parcel bisected by County Road 70 into two triangles. We're looking at the North half, about 190,000 ft speculative office warehouse development. At this point in time probably breaking ground first thing in the spring. Working on that intersection with County currently, but otherwise we agree with all the staff report conditions. I think there were 10 conditions in there. We had a nice Planning Commission meeting and look forward to your comments, approvals, and if you have any questions, we stand down for that. Thank you. [3:43] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Council, any questions? Ms. Goodroad, you have a staff report? [3:45] **Community Development Director Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. Thank you Mayor, members of the council. Yes, representatives of LPDC LLC have submitted application for a preliminary plat and conditional use permit. On the screen is the northern triangle. This property is bisected with Juniper Way or County Road 70. There is an opposite triangle to the South. The property is zoned OP (Office Park District), so the proposed use of office combined with manufacturing and warehouse is a permitted use. There's the survey and here's the preliminary plat. So the north portion, or the North triangle as I refer to it, is what they are proposing to develop first, and this is Lot 1, Block 1, and then an outlot for the southern portion. The plat will be known as Lakeville 35 Logistics Center North. Again, you can see on the site plan the proposal for 189,078 square foot building. The access for the site will be at the northwest corner. Originally the thought was it would be at the opposite corner for a full access, but in working with the county, it's become apparent that they would like this access change to the northwest corner to accommodate improved visibility due to the curve of the road at the opposite corner. So this will serve as the main access—right in, right out. Trucks will enter the facility, they'll be able to pull into the back; the dock doors will load from the back or the north side of the site. Employees and visitors to the site will be on the south side of the building. There is some grade at that corner. There is a small wetland that was identified through a wetland delineation. It's determined of not of high quality or necessarily to be preserved, but it's been incorporated into the drainage basin area in that portion of the site. All of the setbacks and parking requirements are being met. Again, you can see a little bit easier on the aerial for the full access location, and this is the only access that the site would have. It doesn't have access—because of the northern properties—to 210th Street. Again, you can see the grading plan, landscaping. In the OP District, 30% of the entire site area shall be landscaped; they're providing 40%. You can see trees being provided along the edges of the building as well as building perimeter landscaping and then the elevations. They're proposing a building that has, I believe, it's 39 ft in height in compliance with the OP District. It will be constructed of a smooth textured pre-cast panel. Again, one of the things in the OP District we look for is to really kind of create a design that has separated space so it breaks up that building. They're doing that with a different shading of the pre-cast as well as the accent material in the blue. The Planning Commission did hold a public hearing on October 3rd. There were no public comments at the hearing and the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval, and I would stand for any questions. [7:24] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Council, any questions? [7:26] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Well, you answered my question about the wetland because I was curious, when it was identified as a wetland in the corner, how dry ponds would accomplish preserving that. But it sounds like the quality was determined as not being a quality that needed to be preserved, but that this meets the wetland requirement. That's the part I was trying to understand—how a dry basin protects or preserves the wetland in that area. [7:59] **Tina Goodroad:** I'm not a wetland expert. I don't know if the engineer wants to expound on that. He can probably do it better than I can. [8:10] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Sure, thank you. I know we've researched, you know, we've looked into this and obviously our natural resources team has reviewed this and blessed it. But Mr. Miller might want to expand. [8:22] **Eric Miller (Sitech):** Sure, thank you. Yeah, the wetland is located in the northeast of the site. It's a very small depression, 144 square feet. It's where our storm water facilities and also a drainage swale to accommodate run-on from the property to the north need to be located. And so a 144-foot impact is within the de minimis allowed. The de minimis right now is around 4,300 square feet, so it will be an impacted wetland based on the de minimis requirement that we'll permit with the city. [9:00] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Sure, thank you. The other question I had, which actually is for staff, is with this access change, can you predict how this might impact access to adjacent parcels and their access to County Road 70, and if that changes because of this movement? [9:11] **Tina Goodroad:** You know, we have not... parcels to the north and west of here also abut 210th Street to the north, and so they have access that this site doesn't have. There is potential for them working with this property owner—the immediate site to the west—to work with this property owner to have a cross-access easement to be able to utilize this as a secondary drive. But because of the grades on some of the properties to the west that are so significant—I mean it's a 40-plus foot drop—we believe the access is better to the north. But it is possible. The county is the one who dictates the access versus the city. There might be opportunity for the site to the west to have a right in, right out; I don't know that for sure, we have not researched that. We have had conversations with both representatives of the partnership that owns the property as well as their real estate folks and have basically said the same thing: really need to start digging into it with the county, but I believe the access should be provided to the north or utilized to the north. [10:35] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Sure, and I think that was kind of my initial instinct, was that if access to 70 was something that was strong and desired, that a joint agreement with this current parcel might be something to explore, certainly for full access in the future. But okay, thank you. [10:43] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Can you just tell me... a truck coming off of 35W from the south, coming east, what the heck are they supposed to do? A U-turn? [10:55] **Tina Goodroad:** They're going to open up that median, so it's going to become a full access. [11:00] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I thought you told me it was going to be a right in, right out. [11:03] **Tina Goodroad:** Oh, you'll be able to do right in and full access—right and left turn movements. [11:09] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Oh, okay. [11:10] **Tina Goodroad:** Yep, sorry if I didn't make that clear. [11:12] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I must have missed it. [11:13] **Tina Goodroad:** It's a bigger undertaking moving this access because there is a full access technically at the South End that was established in a location that was there prior to the improvements to County Road 70. That's why all of us were kind of locked in on that being the primary access, but in working with the county due to the visibility, they're not satisfied with that and so we're having to move it to the northwest. So the developer is participating in that improvement and that cost. It'll benefit the properties to the south as well, but it is going to open up that median for full attorney movements. [12:12] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Okay, I need to open my ears, so thank you. [12:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. I have a question for the developer folks. So do you have any—and this is more on the business side of things, not the construction—do you have any sense of what type of business will be operating here? Here's the reason I'm asking: this has nothing to do with your application. These fields at Lakeville South have real trouble with access for people with mobility issues to get to kids' games on the weekends. So I'm just wondering in the future, is there conversation about letting people park here, because it's a lot closer walk to some of these fields? This is completely separate from your application, but if you're not operating on a Saturday and Sunday, I'm just curious—is that an added bonus we're getting out of this deal? [12:44] **Steve Bus (Developer):** Well, this is the first time we've talked about it. So I think on weekends, depending on the... we don't know the users, but we expect typical kind of manufacturing, office, warehouse users. If we don't have weekend parking needs from the customers or tenant customers in the building, we'd be open to a discussion about that if it helps the city and the school district. [13:04] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Easy enough. Any other questions? Yeah, Michelle. [13:08] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Okay, this is just a petty question, but I have to ask it because the building is on the north side of 70. The white, gray, blue is driving me nuts. I don't... because it doesn't, for me, it doesn't just flow into the schools, the houses that are back there. And I guess I'm just torn as to whether you're set on that color or can you jazz it up a little to make it a little eye-worthy, I guess? [13:49] **Ed Far:** So, architectural challenge. Frankly, you'll probably see a lot of blue, gray, white office warehouse buildings like this around town. [14:03] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** On the other side, yeah. [14:04] **Ed Far:** There you go, there you go. The market shows that tenants are attracted to this color palette quite frankly, and that's fine. The light tone, of course—the white and the light grays—make the large mass seem smaller. Darker colors would make something feel larger, more substantial. So that's why we kind of keep it light on its feet and use darker colors as accent colors to warm it up. I did use those blue arches at the end; they have wood-tone interior faces. So as you approach each tenant space, the wood tone approaches your eye and presents itself to the people that are actually getting out of the cars and walking into the tenant spaces. At 50 miles an hour passing on County Road 70, you may not understand that with the eye, but the layers of the design open up as you approach the building like that. So again, the light tones, neutral tones just to keep it light on its feet. The darker punctuated blues to announce tenant entrances—again, very much market-driven—and then try and warm it up with other proportional and wood tones on the way into the building. [15:19] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Yeah, I knew it was going to be a moot point, but I figured I better ask. [15:23] **Ed Far:** It's a fair question. [15:25] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** No, it’s not worth dismissing at all. I know it's going to be an eyesore for a bit till everything else gets built up out there, but if it were on the other side, it's so justifiable because that's the industrial park. On the other side, as a citizen, you know that that's where it is. And you are now an outlier because you're on the other side where citizens like myself think of school houses, even though it's perfectly normal for you to go there. And I'm just thinking about, you know, when you're driving on 494, you know, you don't see a lot of the... you see the more brick-looking, the more... if I remember correctly, I haven't been on 494 for a while, but they don't jump out at you, I guess. And so that's just my thought process. So thank you, thank you for your perspective. [16:32] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Other questions, comments? If not, I'll take a motion. [16:36] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** I move to approve: one, a resolution approving the preliminary plat of Lakeville 35 Logistics Park North Edition; and two, approval of a conditional use permit to permit a warehouse building in the OP Office Park District and adopt the findings of fact. [16:51] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [16:53] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call please. [16:56] **Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. [17:03] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** You're good, thank you. We'll now move on to Item B: Crown Lakeville Apartments preliminary plat and CUP. And I believe Tom Lovel... Mr. Lovel, are you presenting? Welcome. [17:21] **Tom Lovel (Applicant):** Mayor, council members, thank you for meeting with us tonight. We are working on an 182-unit one-bedroom, two-bedroom apartment complex. It is north of 210th/70th and it is west of Keokuk. We've been... it's a challenging site, it’s into the side of the hill. We are using underground parking to make it work. Consequently, when staff makes a report, you'll see that one of the things we're talking about tonight is we have an unusual amount of exposed parking because it steps into the hill. So we're asking for help dealing with that. When we went to the Planning Commission, we had the residents of the north there; they asked us to complete a full north fence across the north end of the site, which we agreed to, and the color black—we agreed to that also. And the other question was there's a tree that may be right on the line and we'll work with them on... I'm not clear if they wanted it removed or saved, but whichever will make sure meets their needs. I have Mark Anderson from Sitech with me tonight if you have any technical questions on that, and I'm here and happy to answer any questions. So thank you for your consideration. [18:36] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. There is a staff report. [18:37] **Tina Goodroad:** All righty. Thank you. Crown LMN LLC has applied for, as he mentioned, preliminary plat and then conditional use permit for a few items—specifically construction of the building greater than 40 ft in height and an exception to building materials because of the underground parking. But some of these plans will help that all make sense. Again, the property area is located north of 210th Street. The property is zoned and guided for high density, so the use is a permitted use within the zoning district. This is the plat; they're platting in one lot, a single lot for the proposed multi-family. There'll be two buildings on a single lot, so that's one of the reasons for the conditional use permit. There is a wetland on the property that will be preserved. The wetland is being conveyed via an easement—a conservation easement—to the City versus an outlot. It's a little bit different, but it provides the same level of protection for the easement as well as the buffer. The underlying property owner will hold ownership of it, but the easement will go to the city. Environmental resources staff and planning staff worked with the applicant on this option and supported it. We don't always support it when you have an easement around a wetland in more of a single-family area because there's more likely to have encroachment—people don't understand the conservation area. In a multi-family area, that's going to be less likely to happen, and there will be signs around the wetland to identify that area. Here's a site plan. You can see the two buildings: one is L-shaped and one is just directed north and south. The lot is just over 8 acres in size. The East Building has 94 units and the West Building is 88 units for a total of 182. 70% or 128 of the units are two-bedroom, while 54 units or 30% are one-bedroom. There's 160 surface parking spaces and 130 spaces underground in the East Building and 114 in the West Building. So the ordinance requires 364 spaces based on the unit count and the bedroom type, and 377 are provided. There's three garage entrances: one at the south end for the East Building and then there's two for the West—one on the south and one on the north. Those garage levels are divided, so if you go into the south one to access your space, you're not adjoining the other level of the garage space. There is quite an amenity area being planned at the north corner of the buildings, or where the buildings meet. That will include a patio, a pool, splash pad, a playground, and then there is a small dog run also provided. As Mr. Lovel mentioned, there are significant grades on the site. Slopes on the south and west slope up from the building and the north and east corners slope down, so there are several retaining walls on the site. The landscaping plan is on the screen; it meets all of the requirements. There's trees provided along the south elevation and the south property line as well as within the parking lot areas and abutting the building to provide that building perimeter landscaping. I'll describe the building elevations a little bit. There's two buildings that will look identical. Each will have a pale, more gray brick paired with dark inset and trim materials to really kind of divide up the building. Again, it's four stories of living space. The CUP request for the exterior materials really is dealing with the notion that from grade level up, it meets the requirements at 50% or even a little bit greater. On Building E, we're at 52%, but because—and you can see it more on these elevations—because of the underground parking and the grades, there's a little bit more of that exposed concrete block. And when you calculate it all out based literally on how the code reads, they're slightly below that 50%, and so that is the reason for the CUP. We weigh that against the benefit or the overall exterior, which is a good appearance and lots of elements to it. And it also has the benefit of providing that underground parking. So we're weighing that in support of the CUP and so it makes sense to support that. Similarly with the west building, they're at 52% again ground up. Their exposed is a little bit greater—you can see on the color elevation as well as on the black and white—just due to the grades and having the two levels of underground parking. Again, we're weighing that CUP request against the benefit of having the underground parking. So those are the really... the specific CUP requests are for the height differences and the overall material differences and the two buildings on one lot. Again, here is one of the buildings' floor plans. I didn't have them both up. This is the underground parking and you can just get a feel for the layout of the units. The Planning Commission did hold a public hearing on this item on October 3rd, and Mr. Lovel was correct in the two folks that addressed the Planning Commission and their requests. And again, the applicant is happy to honor those requests, which we appreciate as staff. And the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval. [24:34] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council, any questions? I had a question for the applicant. Will the parking, underground parking, come with a unit or is that... so I guess you have any sense of what the mix on the above ground versus underground would be? [24:46] **Tom Lovel:** Mayor and council members, we have adequate underground parking for each resident, and one space would come with each unit. [24:58] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** John? [25:00] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Just a question about your management. What's your management model for this property? [25:08] **Tom Lovel:** Our property model? I'm not sure... [25:10] **Councilmember John Bermel:** How do you manage it? Is it 24/7? Do you have on-site management? [25:13] **Tom Lovel:** We have on-site management. And something like this, our management company will be 50 years old at this time next year—surprising, looking at my youthful appearance. But so we've managed a lot of apartments, still do. And yeah, this is a sizable project, so there would be... not living on-site, but on-site staff. You know, you'd have office hours and we'd have 24-hour available response. [25:46] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Right, thank you. [25:48] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Question, yeah Michelle. [25:50] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** So this is a question that came from the Planning Commission meeting. You are not going to have the answer, Tina's... okay Tina might not even have the answer, but maybe you will have the answer. I apologize, you just might because you know your demographics. Of the 128 two-bedroom apartments, how many do you think of your clientele will actually have children attending the Lakeville School District? [26:15] **Tom Lovel:** You know, it's impossible to give you an exact number, but the two-bedrooms do not yield a high number of children. In fact, what we're finding now is the market in a two-bedroom is people want home offices. And usually a two-bedroom, too, is also a divorced parent probably needing a room for their weekend or whatever type of visitation rights—certainly happens. [26:45] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Well, the only reason I bring up the question is because that is a concern of citizens lately with the crowding of the schools, and then to see another apartment go up. I know that there's a demographer that has a ratio of what to expect, like out of townhomes, I just didn't know this day and age what to expect out of an apartment building. And I figured it would be pretty low. [27:07] **Tom Lovel:** Yeah, you know, the apartment's more ephemeral tenant. You know, we build townhouses for rent, for example; there we get more children. You know, these are smaller units, so this will be much fewer than you would see in a townhouse project or so. [27:32] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Yet you put in amenities for children? [27:35] **Tom Lovel:** So we put in amenities to rent units. People come and look at them; they seldom use them. [27:44] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Okay, makes sense. [27:45] **Tom Lovel:** The workout rooms, you have to dust, right? [27:48] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** It makes sense. Can I... I know this is a silly little question because this is the way I am sometimes, but are those windows that you can see for the parking garage? The part that you know is the underground parking. Are those small windows that I'm seeing or...? [28:13] **Tom Lovel:** They’re not so you look at cars. They're designed to break up that wall. They're windows, but they'll be dark and they're designed to create some fenestration in the wall, excuse me, so you're not just seeing solid wall. [28:23] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** That was my concern, is that somebody theft-wise would be able to see into the garage and see the great-looking cars that are under there. [28:32] **Tom Lovel:** Correct. And I assume you have some sort of security for the building? [28:37] **Tom Lovel:** Oh yes. [28:38] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** All right, those are my little questions. [28:44] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Joshua? [28:46] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Director Goodroad, with another conservation environmental question for you. How is a conservation easement managed differently than what we would typically put here? [29:06] **Tina Goodroad:** In this case, it'll be very similar because the easement will be to the city, and so we have the same as if a wetland were in an outlot—to be able to protect it, inspect it, have access to it. It'll operate the same way. [29:21] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** So I mean in terms of mowing... I mean because that's part of the easement, right? Is to ensure that there's still natural wildlife along the edges there? [29:31] **Tina Goodroad:** Yep, there is a required buffer, and so the applicant owner will then have to communicate with whoever is maintaining the site to make sure they understand the areas to avoid. I think on the east side of this wetland there are similar signs that say that this is a conservation easement on the north side of the medical building, so those I'm guessing would be the same signs that are on the west side of this too. [29:48] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Okay, thank you. [29:49] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Any other questions? John, ready for a motion? [30:00] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I am. I move to approve: first, the preliminary plat of Crown Lakeville Apartments; two, a conditional use permit to allow A) more than one principal building on one lot, and B) construction of multiple family residential buildings greater than 48 feet in height, and C) an exception to the exterior materials requirements; and three, adopt the findings of fact. [30:30] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Second. [30:33] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, and is there any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call please. [30:35] **Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. **Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. [30:44] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Very good, good luck. With that, we'll move on to unfinished or new business. Seeing none, announcements: our next council meeting is a work session next Monday night here at City Hall in the new Lake Marion conference room. Our next council meeting is Monday, November 4th here at City Hall. And then just a reminder, this weekend is Trick-or-Treat in downtown Lakeville on Saturday from 11:00 to 1:00. And a new feature this year is adding a food drive for the Open Door Pantry. So if you head downtown this weekend, please bring canned good items. There are four drop locations, including Lakeville Brewing, Highview, the Lakeville Mall, and Dairy Delight as locations for dropping off food donations this weekend. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn. [31:29] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** So moved. [31:31] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [31:33] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say aye. [31:35] **Councilmembers (Unison):** Aye. [31:37] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? We are adjourned. [31:38] [Music]