Based on the context provided and the content of the transcript, here is the formatted version with speaker names identified. **Note on Identifications:** * **John Hinzman** (Community Development Director) is the staff member facilitating the meeting, oaths, and roll calls. * **Gino Messina** is the acting Chair for this Planning Commission meeting. * **Justin Fortney** (referenced as "Justin Forney" in the text) is the City Planner giving the staff report. * **Chad Servais** is the applicant/developer for the storage project. *** [0:00] **John Hinzman**: You? I do. Okay, why don't you go first, please. [0:00] **Rob Hallberg**: Okay. I, Rob Hallberg, do affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Hastings, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a Planning Commissioner for the City of Hastings, counties of Dakota and Washington, and State of Minnesota, according to the best of my ability and understanding. [0:35] **John Hinzman**: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hallberg. Uh, Mr. Matzke? You're on mute, Todd. [0:35] **Todd Matzke**: Uh, I don't have it in front of me. Can you send it to me real quick? Pass me up and come back to me real quick. I can find it in my email. [0:56] **John Hinzman**: Okay. I can read Chris's. John, you're on mute now. I can put my name in where Chris is. That would be fine. [0:56] **Todd Matzke**: All right. I, Todd Matzke, do affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Hastings, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of Planning Commissioner for the City of Hastings, county of—counties of Dakota and Washington, and the State of Minnesota, according to the best of my ability and understanding. [1:43] **John Hinzman**: Okay, thank you Commissioner Matzke. Commissioner Peters? [1:43] **Melanie Peters**: I, Melanie Peters, do affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Hastings, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a Planning Commissioner for the City of Hastings, counties of Dakota and Washington, and State of Minnesota, according to the best of my ability and understanding. [1:43] **John Hinzman**: Thank you, Commissioner. And Commissioner Tykan? [2:30] **Chris Tykan**: I, Chris Tykan, do affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Hastings, that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a Planning Commissioner for the City of Hastings, counties of Dakota and Washington, and State of Minnesota, according to the best of my ability and understanding. [2:30] **John Hinzman**: Okay, well thank you, Commissioners, and welcome again to our two new commissioners, Commissioner Tykan and Commissioner Peters. So at this time, I'll turn it back over to you, Chair. [3:16] **Chairman Messina**: All right. Yep, welcome, welcome, welcome. Next one is approval of the minutes from December 28, 2020. Um, and this would be for the commissioners that were present during the meeting. So, um, Commissioner Peters and Tykan, when it comes to the roll call vote, you'll abstain; you weren't here for the previous meeting. So, um, any commissioners? Any comments, corrections, additions, subtractions? No? Okay, I'll entertain a motion to go ahead and approve the minutes. [3:16] **Commissioner Romans**: Mr. Chair, I'll make the motion to approve the minutes. [3:16] **Commissioner Hallberg**: Okay, I'm—second. [3:16] **Chairman Messina**: All right, Commissioner Romans on the motion, Commissioner Hallberg on the second. And John will do a roll call. Normally you would do this all at once if we were together, but because we're on Zoom, for Commissioner Peters and Tykan, we do an individual roll call for each vote. [4:04] **John Hinzman**: Thank you. Commissioner Romans? **Commissioner Romans**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Hallberg? **Commissioner Hallberg**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Matzke? **Commissioner Matzke**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Peters? **Melanie Peters**: Abstain. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Best? **Commissioner Best**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Tykan? **Chris Tykan**: Abstain. **John Hinzman**: Okay, thank you. Passes, five eyes and two abstentions. [4:04] **Chairman Messina**: All right, thank you. All right, next on the agenda here is a public hearing. It's for Simply Secure Storage Special Use Permit Site Plan 2021-07 for 2030 Spiral Boulevard. Um, and staff report by Justin Fortney. Justin? [4:54] **Justin Fortney**: Thank you, Chair. Uh, John, can you um, give me ability to share my screen? Check it out now, Justin, I think it's set. Thanks. All right, uh, the proposed site for the site plan is 2030 Spiral Boulevard. It's across this intersection from Voyager Parkway. We've got a couple of photographs here. These are updated; since this time, there's been some topsoil cells that were removed on the relatively flat site along a trail, similar to the applicant's last project, which is just south of this property, circled in red. [Shows slides] progress taken of that site during construction. A lot of doors. And then this is taken from one of the ends of the building. You can see the materials are metal siding. Um, it's not the typical corrugated metal siding that you would have on a typical pole shed building. Um, it has hidden fasteners. It is a different building; also includes some opening of appearance-type material. [6:30] **Justin Fortney**: A final picture of the buildings. The elevation drawings of the proposed things on the site are going to be relatively similar to the other buildings. There are going to be some man or service doors on some of the larger units. See how those would be in the building. There would also be some windows facing the Spiral Boulevard elevation side. The applicant also mentioned going to four feet tall with the brick and the wainscoting rather than the three feet of the last project. [7:22] **Justin Fortney**: Just considering using this product for the new buildings. It's a different metal type siding; also, it doesn't have fasteners and it's got a slightly different profile than the other buildings. Site plan of the site—this is just the north half of the site because it's hard to share it on the screen. The setbacks of the site are going to be similar to surrounding development. Yeah, similar to the last project, I think slightly greater setbacks from a lot of the different property lines. [8:08] **Justin Fortney**: The drive aisles are going to be really wide compared to what you'd find in a parking lot. Um, this would allow for people to better maneuver around for unloading, also to allow people to still pass them if they're up to one of the overhead doors. With even greater setbacks on the west side of the site, those being fairly large—that's more for business type of storage, and so they'll see some larger vehicles pulling in there to access those sites to sort of make sure the ability to properly maneuver. Quite a bit larger at 49 feet of maneuvering area. [8:55] **Justin Fortney**: Applicant did include a station showing that there's enough room for a fire truck to maneuver around there. Um, the fire department doesn't know if that would meet their largest vehicle, which is their ladder truck that they bring out on every call, but the fire marshal said that they wouldn't be bringing their fire trucks into a site like this. Um, if there was any type of a call there, they would just set up at the entrance and they would come in on foot so they're not putting their vehicles in jeopardy, and they don't have any problem with the site layout. [9:41] **Justin Fortney**: Duration—there will be a gate again on this site and the fire department would need access to that. Um, the applicant said, of course, they would have it. Site will also have fencing around it. Be more like a decorative style fence in the front, kind of like the wrought iron style with probably aluminum along the front and then probably a chain-link fence, I would imagine, is being proposed around the back. And then this is looking at the south into the site. There's of course a loop around the smaller building, and then where there's that wide drive aisle, it widens all the way to 54 feet, allowing even large vehicles to turn around and leave the site that way. [10:27] **Justin Fortney**: Landscaping plan—the landscaping regulations require trees and shrubs based on perimeter size and also the amount of impervious thing of driving aisles and parking lots. The balance of the landscaping materials are being shown to be located to the most visible areas of the site that can be seen from the curving Spiral Boulevard around the site and along the pathway there. Just taking a strict look at the requirements of the ordinance, it did show that, you know, trees are needed and several shrubs, which the applicant says they are issue in supplying. [11:13] **Justin Fortney**: And then staff did question five dwarf trees, a type of a crab apple tree. I think it's actually these five here. Concern there is that just doing some research on those tree varieties, um, it looks like they can max out anywhere between five feet and 10 feet. So, you know, for all intents and purposes, they may be closer to a shrub than a tree. But if this variety that he's looking at from a supplier can reach—is expected to reach 10 feet—that would be fine if they could just provide us with those assurances. Otherwise, I think it's best to substitute a little bit larger tree for those. [12:45] **Justin Fortney**: Things to discuss would be the special use permit, which is the requirement for the zoning of the area. It is I1 in the Industrial Park zoning district. It allows manufacturing uses, warehousing uses, and wholesaling uses. Use of mini storage is geared towards individuals—retail use—individuals coming and going there for their own storage needs, which could be allowed like other retail use in this district if it gets approval of a special use permit. The purpose of reviewing a special use permit is to make sure that that use fits into the character of the area. [13:33] **Justin Fortney**: Uses allowed by special use permit are generally thought to be okay in that district, but because of some of the unique aspects of those uses, it is important to each specific site and consider if any conditions are necessary to make sure that continues to fit well with the surrounding area. Reviewing this site with the previous one that was approved last year—while it's more of a retail use, there's not going to be a lot of retail customers coming and going. The use of the site is going to be more for medium and long-term storage of individuals and so there won't be a great deal of traffic or needs. [14:20] **Justin Fortney**: And also this site is on a fairly main thoroughfare, so it's not likely to cause any issues having a lot of traffic on a small side street or cul-de-sac in the area, especially coupled with the low volumes that are expected. That, um, I'd be happy to answer any questions before or after the public hearing. Thank you. [15:10] **Chairman Messina**: Okay, thanks, Justin. Um, I think we'll go right into the public hearing. And have we received any last-minute comments on email that weren't included? [15:10] **John Hinzman**: I have not received any comments myself. [15:10] **Chairman Messina**: Okay. Um, when looking at the participants, I see we have two attendees. If you wish to speak for the public hearing, use the raise hand feature that's on your screen so that we know that you want to be heard. And then if you could state your full name and address prior to speaking. And again, we have two attendees aside from us—one just has a phone number and one, I have a Paul Erhard who is logged in. Either one of you wish to speak, go ahead and use the raise hand feature. And Justin, is Chad on with us at all? The applicant? [16:04] **John Hinzman**: Not to my knowledge. Okay, unless you have the phone number—I think he's the phone number, and I think he may have just raised his hand here. I'll bring him into the meeting here. Okay, thank you. Chad, I think you're in the meeting, if that's you. [16:50] **Chad Servais**: Yes, thank you. [16:50] **Chairman Messina**: Chad, did you have some comments? [16:50] **Chad Servais**: Um, I think Justin did a really good job. We are going to be just revisiting a little bit of the landscaping plan to make sure at least meeting or exceeding the landscaping. And probably—not probably, we will be replacing those Tina Crabs as they are dwarf; they probably top out at about 10 feet. So we will absolutely be replacing those with something with a little bit more substance. And um, I guess I just, yeah, thank you for the team for working with us so far on this. And uh, we feel this is a good project, hopefully for Hastings and for that spot in particular. So thank you. [17:35] **Chairman Messina**: Okay, thanks Chad. If you could just stick on with us for a little bit, I might have some questions for you after the public hearing. Um, I don't have one other attendee and I don't see any other raised hands, but just a couple seconds... anybody else wish to speak, go ahead and hit the raised hand feature. Okay, I do not see any raised hands, so we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Commissioners, do you have any questions, comments, concerns? [17:58] **Commissioner Romans**: Mr. Chair, Romans. Um, just a quick question for the developer or Justin. Um, I didn't see anything in here, but I'm assuming there is no outside storage, correct? [17:58] **Justin Fortney**: There will be no outside storage, correct. [17:58] **Commissioner Romans**: Perfect. Um, that's all I had for now. Thank you. [18:44] **Chairman Messina**: Thank you, Commissioner Romans. [18:44] **Chris Tykan**: Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry... it was Chris. [18:44] **Chairman Messina**: Oh, okay. Commissioner Tykan. [18:44] **Chris Tykan**: Greg—and you know, excuse me as I kind of ramp up the speed here on how things work in Hastings. Um, I have a few questions about this one. I don't—I know we mentioned the fence. Is that within our fencing—do we have a fencing standard that that meets? [18:44] **Justin Fortney**: But yeah, for commercial fencing, um, it allows fences of pretty much any height, um, as long as there is not—I think you can do—um, like razor wire or something like that if you got special permission, but generally that's not allowed either. [18:44] **Chris Tykan**: And then I think I read in here that drainage still has to be approved. Is that something that... [19:29] **Justin Fortney**: Yeah, the engineering department reviews, um, and they would have to have approval by the time, you know, they get their building permit. [19:29] **Chris Tykan**: Okay. If there's any details to work out on that. I'm guessing it's blacktop asphalt pavement? And then is there any—just kind of looking at here—there's gaps enough in between the ends of the road and the fence to pile up snow in the wintertime? [20:16] **Justin Fortney**: Yeah, when it's typically something that, you know, they're going to have to contend with. They don't have enough room for their snow storage, they'll have to, you know, truck it off-site. Even times when they do have ample area, if there's a year where we get a lot of snow, that's something that their removers have to contend with. Um, I think I did see some notes somewhere in the plans about snow storage area. [20:16] **Chad Servais**: Yeah, if I—if it's there, I missed it. This is the developer, Chad. So we have a substantial amount of snow storage planned on the south side of the site, approximately 40 feet by probably about 150 or 160 feet. And then as a backup, we also have about a 40-foot by 40-foot section toward the front. [21:02] **Chris Tykan**: So, and then my last question is: is the city okay with the language as far as around the landscape plan needing to be improved? To me that just seems kind of vague, but I'm just—like I said—I'm just trying to get up to speed. [21:22] **Justin Fortney**: Yeah, I mean, we're fine with that. We'd like to see his—we can see that was on a revised plan or he can make a sketch on the existing plan of what he would propose to do there. [21:22] **Chris Tykan**: I'm good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [22:09] **Chairman Messina**: All right, thanks Commissioner Tykan. Good questions. Um, I had a very similar question on the fencing when they did their first phase, and their finished product is exactly what they said it would be and it's exactly what it's supposed to be. So it was spot on. Go by it almost every day. [22:09] **Todd Matzke**: Mr. Chair, I have a question. [22:09] **Chairman Messina**: Commissioner Matzke. [22:09] **Todd Matzke**: So DakotaNet shows that it is still owned by the City of Hastings, correct? Property being currently transferred to a new ownership and being developed? [23:01] **John Hinzman**: That is correct. The City of Hastings owns the property as part of our Industrial Park. We have a preliminary agreement with Mr. Servais to transfer that property upon him receiving the permit approvals for site plan and special use permits. So once he would receive those approvals, then we would move to closing the property. [23:01] **Todd Matzke**: So he is purchasing the property; there's no long-term lease or anything like that on the property, correct? [23:01] **John Hinzman**: That is correct. He would be purchasing that outright. [23:01] **Todd Matzke**: All right. Thank you. [23:01] **Chairman Messina**: Any other questions, comments, commissioners? If not, I do have one question. Um, I know this all gets pre-approved and looked at ahead of time before we get the report. As far as the placement of the driveway or entrance, I should say—which is very close to a three-point intersection—that particular intersection is a lot busier than the Lightborne Court intersection used for the other project, their first phase. [23:48] **Chairman Messina**: Also, if you commissioners are not familiar with that area, that is a hill and that crosswalk is actually right at the top of a blind hill. And so that entrance out of that development where Rushmore Drive is and Yellowstone and Voyager Parkway, it's the only entrance out of that neighborhood currently. So during the morning rush and sometimes in the afternoon, especially in the evening, that particular intersection is very busy. [23:48] **Chairman Messina**: And then we have the crosswalk; a lot of people use that trail. I don't know if you noticed that, Chad, when you built your first phase—it's a very heavily used trail. I know there's not going to be a lot of traffic going in and out of the storage facility per se, which is fine. What I'm more concerned about—and maybe it's not something that it's even within our purview—is the construction process, and to ensure that construction vehicles aren't staging on Spiral Boulevard, because there isn't any room there for that at all, not even pickup trucks. And so I'm wondering: have you addressed that with the contractors and have you thought about that or given thought to that? [24:34] **Chad Servais**: Since it's so close to a major intersection for that area, we obviously will have to do that. Um, it isn't honestly something I've given a lot of thought to, but as I think back to last spring, yeah, there were definitely some there... yeah, there's just going to be a lot of movement. So yeah, we will have to come up with a safe way to deal with that. And I wonder if it'd be quite possible to use our same Lightborne Court area as there are, you know, vehicles setting up and whatnot. [25:20] **Chad Servais**: Um, it's probably going to be a slightly—probably relatively short during the excavation stage, so it was probably when it would mostly be. Because after we've got our excavation done, they're going to be coming driveways and gravel on-site. So it probably would be about that 10-day period. And we're looking to deal with a local excavator there who's got it planned, I think for about seven or eight days. [26:06] **Chad Servais**: And um, probably the key thing—and I'm thinking this was a talk—we really... it's called cuts and fills. We really aren't going to have a lot of truck traffic, just the way it's going to work. We've worked it out; there really isn't going to be much coming on or going off. But the only thing we're going to have is some class 5 gravel. Otherwise, all the black topsoil and whatnot is going to be kind of kept on-site. And so I guess from that emphasis, there isn't probably going to be nearly as much traffic from the excavation or from the dump trucks on this site as last site because we've kind of figured that out. But so I think, yeah, give me... yeah, we will have about a two-week period in April and we'll have to think that through. [26:54] **Chairman Messina**: Yeah, I'd appreciate that. Because Spiral Boulevard wasn't built to accommodate any parking. Um, and my concern is what we had when they removed the topsoil—the mounds of soil—the dump trucks actually did stage on Spiral, and they also actually staged on Yellowstone and they blocked the entrance to Yellowstone Drive when they were doing it. And when it forced us to go around them, the problem is people were in the crosswalk. And so when you get around the trucks, you don't see them in the crosswalk until you're right up on the crosswalk and that's dangerous. [27:39] **Chairman Messina**: And then when you're coming up the hill, it's completely blind until you get to the top of the crest of the hill. And so I'm just concerned for the safety of the residents who are using that crosswalk and also the vehicular traffic that's going back and forth east to west and then coming out of the development turning onto Spiral Boulevard. I just don't want to see any accidents there because you do have to literally go completely in the other lane to get around any other stopped vehicle on Spiral Boulevard if that is the case. So if that's something you could just give some attention to, it really... [27:39] **Chad Servais**: Yes, thank you. That's a good common-sense suggestion. [27:39] **Chairman Messina**: And so I'm assuming, Justin, the city looked at the placement of the driveway and it meets all the city requirements as far as where it needs to be engineering-wise? [27:39] **Justin Fortney**: Yeah, I mean it's, you know, separated almost as far as it can be, right? So luckily, there's not going to be a lot of traffic from the site. [28:32] **Chairman Messina**: Okay. All right, thank you. Commissioners, any other questions, comments, or suggestions? All right, seeing none, I'll go ahead and entertain a motion. Do I hear any motions to approve? [28:32] **Todd Matzke**: I'll make the motion to approve. [28:32] **Chairman Messina**: Okay, Commissioner Matzke. Any further discussion? Otherwise, I'll take a second. [28:32] **Rob Hallberg**: Second. [28:32] **Chairman Messina**: Commissioner Hallberg on the second. Okay. All right, and John will take the roll. [29:17] **John Hinzman**: I'll take the roll. Commissioner Tykan? **Chris Tykan**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Best? **Commissioner Best**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Peters? **Melanie Peters**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Matzke? **Todd Matzke**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Chairman Messina? **Chairman Messina**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Hallberg? **Rob Hallberg**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Commissioner Romans? **Commissioner Romans**: Aye. **John Hinzman**: Now we'll note that that passes on a 7-0 vote to recommend approval. Where this will go is to the City Council on their March 1st meeting for final action. Thank you. [29:17] **Chairman Messina**: Okay, thank you John. Um, other business? [30:04] **John Hinzman**: Other business. Well, it's been a little while since we've all met together here, so hopefully life has been treating you well. Although we have not had any planning commission meetings, we remain busy with new development coming forward for the spring, and I think that'll—we'll see part of that over the next couple of meetings here. We are under construction as with the Heritage Ridge subdivision off General Stevens Drive. That first phase of nine lots, I think, has been spoken for as far as building permits. They have application in for their next phase of 31 lots, and so we hope to bring that to Planning Commission in March for approval. [30:50] **John Hinzman**: Along with that, we also have the apartment project, the senior apartment project along County Road 47, which will be 75 units of assisted and memory care units. The final plan for that subdivision should be before us on the 8th as well at that next planning commission meeting. We'll also be considering a preliminary and final plat for South Oaks of Hastings Fourth Edition, which is 33 lots along the around 31st Street and Olson Drive in the southern end of town. That will be brought forward for your consideration. [31:38] **John Hinzman**: And we also got the plat in for Villas on Pleasant. Now, we did take action on this last year as a two-phase development. We approved the preliminary plan for the entire subdivision, which was about 36 lots altogether. They had planned to do it in two phases; they had increased demand and they are now going to do the entire project as a single phase, which will require them to come back with a new final plat. So nothing changed from what you saw last fall, but certainly good news with the market that they are expanding the entire development in a single phase. So that one will come forward to you, I think, at the last meeting in March. So I think I got the next two meetings in March spoken for you. And development continues there, which is great on the residential side. Our permits have been up from last year with COVID, and they continue to move forward this year. We have a number of conversations with people that are kicking things around for residential development as well. So hopefully more of that to come here. So I can stand for any questions. [31:38] **Chairman Messina**: Great, thanks John. Any questions? Any other business from any other commissioners? If not, I'll take a motion to adjourn. [31:38] **Commissioner Romans**: Mr. Chair? Yes, I'll make a motion to adjourn. [31:38] **Commissioner Best**: Second. [31:38] **Chairman Messina**: Commissioner Romans and a second—Commissioner Best on second. Therefore, we are adjourned.