good evening and welcome thank you for joining us it is Monday it is July 10th 27 2023 it's gonna say 2017. does it seem like not whatever it's 6 30 it's time to call to order this meeting of the Burnsville Planning Commission meeting and tonight's meeting is being held both virtually and in person and during the meeting we will have uh sorry let me get my script in front of me if you would want to do this best way the first time last time anyway as child will be leading today's Planning Commission meeting and then public is welcome to participate throughout the meeting members of the public May attend the meeting either joining via Zoom or they can be in here in person if it additional instruction on how to participate are located on the city's website which is at burnsvillemn.gov on the public meeting calendar as tonight usual excuse me as your tonight's meeting is also being viewed on Burnsville bctv and if you are unable to participate in this evening and would like to bring in commentary please feel free to email staff or send us a letter through the mail right to City Hall you can participate tonight on Zoom as I mentioned earlier that's at zoom.us slash join you type in the meeting ID 827 6687-7978 once you're logged in to the meeting please use the chat feature to tell the moderator which item you wish to speak to you can also call into the meeting where look our phone number is 651-372-8299 again the meeting ID would be the same it's 827-6687-7978 maybe you can grab a pen that's okay you can always go to our website again burnsvillemn.gov on the public meeting calendar all that information will be there I will um let people know when we are in the public hearing that they can just hit star six and let the moderator know which item they wish to speak to if you're speaking by phone please turn down the device you're watching the meeting on there's going to be a time and delay it will throw everything off if you keep that up and loud with that we should have received agenda it was emailed early this time Mr tuczynski sent it all to us any changes to the agenda commissioners any change of Staff no changes from staff oh CNN I'm looking for a motion commissioner Braddock a motion made by commissioner Braddock do I have a second commissioner I'll second the motion all right Mr Braddock second by commissioner Awad all in favor please signify by saying aye aye and it passes with that we go on to we had a meeting two weeks ago and I believe that was on the I was a 26 or something in those lines the 22nd 36 26. yeah I was right the first time and those meeting minutes should have been in the packet I hope you had a chance to read them any changes to those meeting minutes Commission seeing that has changed it over to staff any changes no changes no changes I'd be looking for a motion Mr Timmerman move to approve motion to approve by commissioner Timmerman do I have a second commissioner Anderson I second that second by commissioner Anderson all in favor please signify by saying aye aye again approved move on to number three and I think I have the wrong agenda up in front of me do by chance have it there don't because I am in the item yeah yeah technical difficulties in that item is public hearing application for sustainable Safari LLC for plan unit development number three that's what I meant election of chair and vice chair holy cow Guess who's gonna get voted out now after that oh my God I'm making a motion any rape I have held this chair for two years now and I don't feel it's appropriate for me to continue on I am I loved doing it it was it was a lot of fun doing it even Beyond today's spectacle I was hoping to do a little bit better today that's okay anyway I will be I will not be accepting any nominations for chair tonight um but I'd be looking for a new chair so with that we're going to open up the nominations if you have a nomination please raise your hand any nominations for chair point of order if I may um since we do have you know a full Quorum here in full attendance uh I still get to participate in this election correct uh no I believe not I do not correct since we have the full amount here okay so my opinion doesn't matter it matters to some people just not to us because one of us could go down you don't know commissioner Braddock um I'd like to make a nomination who would you like to nominate emotions made to um elect Malia wad as our new chair do I have a second I don't I don't think I need a second I need to throw an election so with that all in favor of commissioner Awad being our new chair please signify by saying aye aye anyone opposed hearing none I want like to congratulate our new chair and I were devoted voted for you as well I appreciate that nice nice because that's that's important too and with that I'm going to move on to our next position which is our vice chair any nominations for vice chair you're not the chairman commissioner Awad I would like to nominate commissioner Braddock is to be Vice chair commissioner Braddock okay nominations been made for if you accept Braddock consider the challenge with that we have that nomination all in favor commissioner Braddock as our new Vice chair please signify by saying aye aye aye it is unanimous I believe yeah for the record I would have voted she has to abstain so does that mean you need to get in there I don't know that's a good question anyway no anyway congratulations Commissioner Karen Braddock is our new Vice chair pleasure [Applause] so you get to sit next to you yeah okay good good job okay I'll keep that we have a seating order put together everything's going to be great with that clumsy um interference I am going to hand it over to commissioner Awad to take over how do you feel about that chairwat okay well that or do you want me to continue for tonight I was not prepared but I you know what's the process is that is that the process or is it effective at the at the next meeting yeah so you you have the ability to take over right now otherwise you can allow commissioner John to continue chairing through this meeting if you would prefer yeah have you seen what I've done so far I'm more than happy to oh yeah if you yeah I okay please uh yeah we'll please continue on well good deal with that I would like to move on to the next item on our agenda then I'm gonna borrow that real quick if you don't like it because I came prepared today oh it's a public hearing for the application of sustainable Safari LLC for a planned unit development Amendment for an indoor Petting Zoo located at 915 County Road 42 West within the Burnsville Center Mall here to present is our planning Sarah Madden this man the floor is yours that's how I'm going to go out that's that's great good evening planning commissioners passing notes I didn't realize thank you um so as mentioned tonight we have a public hearing within the Burnsville Center plan unit development for sustainable Safari LLC um so to start off I'm sure you're very familiar with the Burnsville Center property and location located just south of County Road 42 it's our main Commercial Center shopping mall that's been in place for um since the 70s and the application that we're looking at tonight is related to a zoning and land use which is not currently listed within the mixed use zoning District which is the mall Center's zoning property it is a use that's mentioned within the city code stating that the city council has the ability to issue a permit for a zoo type use provided that all applicable zoning controls are completed so this plan unit development amendment to allow the use is the zoning control uh to approve that so what we are looking at this evening is a space within the Burnsville Center mall and with the maps that Kevin has made he's kind of put it approximately where it would be located so it is in the former Old Navy space which is next to that uh JCPenney anchor slot um So within the mall they would be looking at approximately maybe 17 000 square foot of space so if you're not familiar with the applicant group sustainable Safari does currently operate out of Maplewood Mall and they have since 2019 and this would be a second location for their business to go into the Burnsville Center and it's something that they've been coordinating with that ownership group for a number of months and with staff as well kind of discussing this potential Beauty Amendment application um for from a zoning perspective as I mentioned the list itself is not listed in the mixed use zoning District or under other districts but it's mentioned in the police regulations title of the overall city code under animal regulations that we would be able to review this use for the zoning controls so um within their space within the mall they have their overall zoo or an interactive Zoo space they also have shown that there would be a room available right here for a party room they have what they're calling this an education center as well for more assembly type spaces within their overall leasable space but otherwise it would be entered from the central portion of the mall would not have an exterior entrance for customers and they would be able to then navigate through the various animal exhibition areas once they have purchased their you know their tickets for their visit to the space from a parking perspective the Burnsville Center has shared parking between all of the properties within the plan unit development with this type of entertainment based use we don't feel that this would have a significant parking demand beyond what is already there the overall space within the Burnsville Center is still considered to have more parking overall than would be required from the minimum standards of the ordinance and that would have been required within their plan unit development that established that shared parking within the space itself um I'll defer to the applicant for more questions about the specifics about business operations uh at the time that we can open up for questions for them I would ask though that it the questions be featured mainly about how it relates to the zoning and land use of the property um as this is a kind of a unique use here that we haven't seen before um but stick to uh zoning if we can um otherwise from a beauty zoning perspective um there are no deviations that are requested as part of this amendment it is strictly for the use itself of the what we're calling the indoor petting zoo use for this applicant and from a benefits perspective staff feels that the proposal use is unique to Burnsville it would draw in new customers and visitors and the applicant had mentioned in their narrative letter that they've seen great success in a variety of visitorship to their existing location at Maplewood Mall um as being a kind of a destination for specific visitors that may not have otherwise come to Maplewood itself or Maplewood Mall the least of the vacant space would increase economic viability of them all and reduce underutilized parking which is a goal of the Burnsville or the Burnsville Center Village vision and that it's the pro proposal is consistent with the city school of a diverse and creative retail mix within and around the principal Center and also that the proposed use would be mixed use zoning districts intent of providing entertainment and and or recreational let's say within close proximity to Transit which does serve the Burnsville Center property as a whole and as mentioned no deviations from the zoning ordinance for this use as it is internal within the Burnsville Center Mall um so with that staff is recommending approval of the Pud Amendment subject to the condition which is a standard for puds within the city that conditions have previously approved puds remain in full force in effect um this is a public hearing this evening and I can stand for questions if necessary well thank you city planner Matt appreciate it um any questions commissioners Miss Madden you showed where the an outlay of the mall the area where is this located in the mall itself so it is and this is of course Ariel but it is located on the I would say the walk-in level of the mall that ground level former Old Navy space so on the back side on the back side so this right here this red line separates the forensic Center property from the JCPenney property and their entrance would be close to where we've got the arrow kind of going sure oh yeah Pearle Vision the the eye doctor is right there where are the glasses okay it has this private entrance and private exit and no Mall entrance no it has a mall entrance okay but it is close to gotcha yes all right well thank you uh say no questions by Commissioners I it is a public hearing it is 6 45 I'd like to open up said public hearing if you have joined us on Zoom please tell the Madre you like to speak this issue if you're on the phone Dallas R6 if you're here in person I would like to speak to this issue the podium is yours please come on and step up and let us know what you think and it doesn't look like anybody's on Zoom um I would like to take this time actually uh some of our applicants are here and if they would like to step up and come speak on their on the behalf of the property if you could just state your name in the uh in your address for the record please um my name is Bob pills I'm the owner of sustainable Safari my address we're up in Scandia Minnesota is where we live so I'm coming for you just looking for the change we want to briefed on it a little bit before we started just this is our second location uh my first location in maplewood's just been very very successful we brought about a hundred thousand people to Maplewood Mall that wouldn't have come before so we interview kind of question our guests so we kind of know where they're coming from and we expect kind of the same thing down here in Burnsville to really become a draw for the Burnsville Center and help it come back to life so we intend to have around 200 different animals we brought little KJ as some of you have seen today a little baby Rue but we have also many other smaller species we focus on we don't do the lions or the Bears or stuff like that of course smaller things like coat of mundies kinkajous Janet kusamances um a lot of them you've probably never heard of that I just said and that's kind of our goal is to get you introduced to some really unique species that are really in need of our doing some different things in the world to help them survive too so that's kind of why we have the name sustainable Safari to build an education program around the animals that we do house and show so they look like KJ's getting some camera time here [Laughter] so cute anything else I can appreciate any questions for the applicant Commissioners commissioner Timmerman thanks for coming I have a number of questions that um you know I just want to provide a little context for and that is that this is the one opportunity for the city of Burnsville residents to hear from your business and understand a little bit more not only about the project and what we're looking at but also uh to make sure that it's a safe opportunity for Burnsville and for kids and families to attend and so I had asked last week for staff to reach out to you and and try to get some information about your licensing could you provide us some information about your Licensing in our background I believe it was USDA DNR as well as fish and game and one other organization Board of animal health did you get that email Kevin I did not oh okay well that makes sense and I sent you a whole whole bunch okay I'll just reiterate then yeah so uh USDA is the main license uh federal government yeah United States Agricultural and we've had that since 2002 that's the main license we use for public display and handling and breeding selling that kind of thing we can't do anything without that license so we've had that one again since 2002 when we originally called cockadoodle Zoo so we transitioned right after uh kovid to sustainable Safari um they do random inspections so um I've had the same inspector for about 20 years well since the beginning and she's very very strict very very good and she teaches us at the same time as scolds us so it's it's kind of nice sometimes and um but that's that's the main one DNR is native animals I've had that one again for about the same time that's uh in our case it would be raccoons foxes squirrels opossums smaller mammals again and um to be honest I've not met my inspector in 20 years he's not shown up I just pay the buck the the fee and they send me the license so but they're governed under they look for the same stuff as USDA so I think they just kind of go off of that with my reports that we pass every time so uh board event or and the DNR is now the whitetail deer they've they brought whitetail deer back to the DNR and at the current Maplewood we have five baby white-tailed deer we bring in new whitetail deer every year we bottle raise them for a company in southern Minnesota who has a big deer farm and then we bring them back once they're once they're out of the fun age the the baby bottle age for us uh Board of animal health is another license they um they do all the other survey now survey day is the Deer family which includes moose white-tailed deer fallow deer Munchak so everything outside the whitetail deer Board of animal health now regulates and we have the Munchak which is part of that license so when they do random inspections I've met their inspectors they're really nice very thorough and so that one's also very good fish and wildlife covers all endangered species through the Lacey act and that we're just tracked on that to any endangered species that we do get we have to go through that process for licensing and they just track it all so never really met an inspector for that we just do everything through paperwork with headquarters whatever so okay thank you I've got a couple additional questions here if I may go ahead commissioner um so in the same vein as as far as considering the health and well-being of our residents can you talk to me about the insurance policies that you've had in place either in Maplewood or that you anticipate having in place in Burnsville yeah it's the same policy it's a national policy for zoos entertainment same company writes the policy for Valley Fair so I'm just guessing that but they do they do the the big parks the big entertainment items it's called k k Insurance based on Indiana and we've had them for for the whole time I've been doing mobile exhibiting that policy I believe has a two million dollar coverage and for incident kind of thing I'm not the insurance expert but that's who um that's what we use never had to use it never had to make a claim so wonderful great thank you and then um the last question is related to kind of what you were speaking about your name sustainable Safari I'm wondering um beyond the education component uh in the background it sounded like there was some potential for non-profit uh giving back to other animal organizations can you talk about your work in that area um that's been it's been developed so when I created sustainable Safari I always wanted to be different I didn't want to be a known as a petting zoo cockadoodles it was a fun name but it really was kind of a hard sell for non-profit style so we do have a 501c3 in sustainable Safari we run as a for-profit but we have that segment off we haven't found a real definite use for it yet as our sustainable messaging is being created and broadened and um just it's just ground floor with that right now so um part I don't have a great answer for what your question is but part of what we're creating um it's hard to explain for my Hardware we want to go but with another level you know I hit that in the letter you didn't get was um we're working on accreditation through the zoo Association of America and they are requiring conservation um programs in order to be part of an accredited facility so so we have a lot of work we're doing in a very short time to create all our programs that have to do with that um it was kind of an incomplete answer but it's it's we're working towards a very significant impact on conservation through our company so I appreciate that I I mean I think personally for my family that's a that's a big draw is the conservation side of things I mean the petting zoo you kind of alluded to that it's you know the the cockadoodle zoo I mean it's cute it's kitschy but I think the conservation side of things is going to draw a lot of people in as well so yeah I appreciate that you're yeah researching and going Dave knows I've been struggling for a long time trying to just get it out of my head what what that means so and it's once it finally hits it's going to be pretty extraordinary I believe so cool I just don't know what it is yet it's coming thank you so much appreciate it any other questions for the applicant how do you handle the smells and things of that nature clean up those types of things Sarah's gonna get mad that was our zoning questions um so I hit on that a little bit before so our ventilation system is pretty crazy at Maplewood so um it's a reverse reverse air system negative air system so no air actually goes back out the front door at Maplewood I'm using example so the air is all sucked from the common areas through our doors right out the roof in the back of the mall and that's cycled every six minutes and our space there is around 12 000 square feet so every six minutes twelve thousand square feet of air is shoved right out the door so that really helps control the air or and the smell on top of that every day we clean and scrape bleach sanitize pretty much the whole zoo so we have a sec I mean we're crazy cleaners we have to because we know we're in in a mall you know so it's we're on top of it I don't know how else to say it all the all the all the shavings go right to a farm we have a local farm that we dump them on he composts them um so that's part of our name sustainable great thank you I appreciate that dude for me it's it's just people are want to visit the mall they want to make sure that there's not going to be orders or anything like that nature and we don't want it either because I mean say we're this only works if our ventilation works exactly yeah so and the ventilation we have specked out for Burnsville is it's going to be a dream in there it's going to be its own climate so when we started Maplewood we I I talked I think to one of you guys earlier is about we've Maplewood or Mall of America was our goal and the system was designed pretty intense for there but we just couldn't afford it so we started Maplewood with a simple system they approved it now we know what works and doesn't work for the new one we've designed an intense system and it's five times the cost of what Maplewood was and it's just going to work it's going to be 70 and sunny in there well 70. not too much sun but um it's going to be fabulous so we're excited for that and I sorry I just I wanted to know it I mentioned in my background but didn't mention just now that our inspection staff did have a site visit to the existing Maplewood Mall location that did include our plumbing mechanical on HVAC inspector and plan reviewer and so they have already been coordinating with the applicant for Planned preparation for the building permit and the plumbing permit mechanical permit stage on these systems so it is something that they've already been in discussion for several months with our other inspection staff about great great so and that's all public now this is great well thank you so much really appreciate you coming in and unless any other Commissioners have questions we really appreciate your time thank you thank you with that at 6 57 I'm going to close that public hearing and I'm going to look for comments questions concerns speaking items one thing I I just want to say thank you for coming to Burnsville I don't think the Mall of America deserves you we're a great place you'll be a great draw to our mall that we need something to pull people in and this is one of those things that the big box stores on online can't can't replicate so this is a great asset to our our mall so thank you so much for coming to Burns on choosing Burnsville we're very happy to have you good deal anybody else have comments motions Mr Timmerman um I would like to um add to the motion that's on the table just that we confirm and verify licensing so if that can be included in the motion but I will just make the motion then if there's not comments or discussions on that all right can we get that back up please all right so I would make a motion that the Planning Commission recommended city council approval of the planned unit development Amendment subject to the following conditions the condition of previously approved PUD shall remain in full force and effect and adding a second that the the applicable licenses are confirmed I have a motion on the floor do I have a second commissioner Anderson at least second that second by commissioner Anderson with that we're gonna hold the vote any other discussions seeing none and be evolved there's a motion by commissioner Timmerman second by commissioner Anderson all in favor please signify by saying aye anyone oppose unanimous it ends up on the consent agenda at the city council meeting on June 18th I believe it's next Tuesday at 5 30 here in these very Chambers am I right it's July 18th I said did I say June yes oh my gosh today is just kind of you're sitting a bar for a chair not a very high one not a very high one very low bar very low bar and that's okay with that uh we'll move on to the next item on our agenda which is updates any updates commissioners okay any updates staff uh no updates from staff other than that your next Planning Commission meeting is see I'm not prepared either yeah uh July 22nd I believe uh later this month yeah okay all right with that we'll take it to our next item on the agenda which is adjournment do I oh commissioner white has something to say um I just want to before I make a motion to adjourn I Just Want to Thank You commissioner Johns for your leadership over the last couple years uh commissioner Timmerman you were the vice chair right uh yes yeah well you didn't uh nobody you really knew because commissioner John did such a nice job yeah I never went down yeah it kept showing up yeah couldn't get him to leave couldn't get him out of here you guys try uh thank you both yeah for if all your all your service and let's have a fun Year yes thank you appreciate it so with that I move D I move uh that we adjourn a motion has been made to adjourn do I have a second commissioner Braddock second by commissioner Braddock all in favor please signify by saying aye aye that's all we have have a great night thank you for joining us