This transcript appears to be a meeting of the **Planning Commission**, presided over by **Gino Messina** (listed under Public Safety, but acting as Chair here) and featuring City Staff member **Justin Fory**. [0:00] Gino Messina: Commission meeting regular meeting for September 8th, 2025. Call the meeting to order. And first up on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from August 25 August 25th, 2025 regular meeting. Commissioners, any who are present? Any? Nope. All right. Seeing none, we'll consider those to be approved. [0:19] Gino Messina: Uh, we have a public hearing on tonight's agenda and it's going to be for special use permit 2025-31 for retail sales and service in the I1 zoning district boat dealership 624 Spiral Boulevard. Mike Tyson and staff report by Justin Fory. [0:41] Justin Fory: Thank you, Chair Messina. The planning commission is asked to review the proposed special use permit and make a recommendation to the city council. The subject property is owned by Industrial Battery Products who utilizes only the rear of the building for warehouse space. The applicant seeks approval for uh to lease the front part of the building which is a office and showroom area for the operation of a boat dealership franchise for a boat manufacturer. [1:12] Justin Fory: The zoning code permits industrial uses by right in the industrial park and allows retail sales and services with a special use permit. The purpose of a special use permit is to review the proposal to ensure that um the proposed use is compatible with the surrounding area and conditions can be added on to an approval for uh assuring that compatibility. [1:37] Justin Fory: This is a picture of the front of the building. There's two entrances um from the street. The traffic and related activities associated with the proposed boat dealership are not anticipated to be out of the ordinary for the area. The proposal includes an outdoor yard for the storage of boats and uh new boats and used boats. [2:07] Justin Fory: The proposed areas um would be paved with asphalt and uh concrete curb and gutter along with uh being surrounded with a 7 to 8 foot tall fence for perimeter screening as required in the industrial park for storage of materials and merchandise. [2:35] Justin Fory: This is a picture of that location that would be paved and screened. And this is uh some examples of the proposed screening fence that would be around that location. [2:56] Justin Fory: The building was constructed for the use of retail and warehouse space which had a higher parking threshold requirement. Uh the current uses that are proposed would require 32 spaces and there's currently 47 um provided on the site. There's an overhead door proposed on the east side of the building which would eliminate uh four or five of those extra spaces. [3:28] Justin Fory: And this is a floor plan um showing the changes that would occur there. Uh north is to the left. It's kind of backwards from the previous slide. [3:46] Justin Fory: Property owners within 300 feet were 350 ft were notified of the special use permit application and this meeting tonight and we have not received any comments yet. Staff recommends approval of the special use permit subject to the conditions in the staff report. [4:08] Justin Fory: Um and with that I can uh answer any questions or uh you can open up the public hearing. The applicant is also in attendance tonight. [4:18] Gino Messina: Okay. Thanks, Justin. All right. We will go ahead and open the public hearing. [4:25] Gino Messina: And is there anybody here that wishes to speak? If so, step up to the podium, state your name and address. [4:33] Mike Tyson: Hello. Uh, apologize on the delay. Um, Ken came with us, which is Princecraft, which is the brand that we're bringing in. Um, so we just met up real quick to make sure that we all got in here together. Uh, I'm Mike Tyson. Um, I'm at um 4433 189th Lane, uh, East Bethl, Wyoming on Lake. Uh, this is Melissa Dhy. Um, and both of us will be owning the dealership together. Um, Melissa and I have worked together for 20 years um, at a car dealership. Um, and but we're very passionate about boats. [5:08] Mike Tyson: She fishes. I can't fish very good, but I can do a pontoon and I can do the deck boats. But um her and I um looked at this and saw an opportunity for us to help better uh the industry first off, something we're passionate about. Um her and I have worked together, like I said, for 20 years. She started as a receptionist for us, and I started as a car washer years ago in the car business. Um and her and I have worked together. She's gone from a receptionist to a salesperson to a sales manager. Now she runs the dealership that um I formerly used to run. I stepped down to start this business. Um and I was there for 21 years. Um and very grateful for the man that's helped us and helped us succeed. [5:54] Mike Tyson: Uh but has taught us to help us look within our company to build people. Um I think we put five people through college or kids, younger adults. um and have come back to work for us. Um I think it was three ladies and two gentlemen. Um but we look to build within the community uh with our people. Everyone is when was in the White Bear Lake area pretty much that we have helped build in that and seen them grow and be successful. And we actually love doing that for um people like us that didn't get the opportunity or someone took a shot on us to give us the opportunity to grow. And that's what we're going to bring. We're not 100% sure as far as um how we get this together. We're going to need your guys' guidance and help and we are flexible on figuring out how to do that. But that's what we can bring to the table. [6:40] Mike Tyson: Um, I know the building and location is beautiful for where we're at. It's a little off of the main strip, but I think that's perfect because we can find it by the advertising of what we do to bring other people from all around the metro to this area. And I think it's beautiful. It's gorgeous down here. Um, and the service that we deliver is way different than what I think a lot of the boat people do. um our boat dealerships do. Not that they're not doing a great job. [7:25] Mike Tyson: We can deliver a little bit more to help build people um awareness of Hastings. This river is right there. We're going to do deliveries. She's going to show um if you bought a boat, Justin, and you don't know how to drive it, she would take you out and show you how to deliver it and go through it and spend anywhere from 20 minutes if you wanted to three hours. Um and um that's what we can bring to um help I guess bring awareness to Hastings and that like I said I think it's a perfect opportunity for us and I said we're flexible. Um if we need to change or tweak or we're nimble we can figure out that together and work through it. [8:04] Melissa Dhy: Um we want to bring luxury to the boat business, take care of our customers, but also build within the community and be a big part of the community. [8:15] Mike Tyson: Yeah. [8:16] Melissa Dhy: Yeah. in Wiper Lake. We did quite a bit stuff with the choir that was amazing. When we had some events when Prince Crest has a new boat out, we had them come in. Um Valerie played the harp. It was beautiful. And um she came back and she bought a Volvo from us at the time. [8:29] Mike Tyson: Um and she was 17 years old when she did it. Um around the holiday times, we buy all the uh poinsettas from there. Right. So, we understand and like to help in all areas of that, but especially in the communities because it's our family and it is 21 years. It was hard for me to step down except for I knew that I wanted an opportunity to build my own business myself and help create what I have done for Mr. Klein. Um, I actually opened two dealerships for him in Los Angeles. Um and um I went from 50 employees that we had at Volvo to 150. We never released anybody. We helped build the people that were there and uh then hired more people in the Los Angeles area. [9:15] Mike Tyson: I came back uh my wife of 31 years. Thankfully, she's still with me after being gone for four years back and forth uh uh with our two kids. She took care of the home and that I missed my family and I wanted to start something here that I missed when we were coming into Klein Volvo. It was like going to see my work family. I never went there one day to say, "Man, I got to go to work." I actually was happy to see what they did, what they did for the weekend. When they were successful, we were successful. And um you know, when they got a new house, uh Sammy Sam, he just got a new house, a mechanic that started as a car washer like I did, he was so proud to come tell me they got this house. And that actually gave me the warm and fuzzies and remembered where I came from and where we can all start that way and to give people that opportunity. So that's why I came back from that. [10:02] Mike Tyson: So I went from, you know, probably having 90 things going on to um focusing on this and um we are here to be here and stay here. Um I don't know Brad if we can say this, but the—can I? [10:19] Melissa Dhy: Yes, you can. I will say one thing is the lease agreement that we're looking at is 10 years. So we're not just coming in for a couple years. [10:22] Mike Tyson: Not for a short time. We want to be a part of the community and help and um do what we normally do as far as um building the community, helping us be successful, which helps you guys be successful, and we all work together like a family. And Ken, yes, you can see. [10:41] Ken Chandell: Uh I'm Ken Chandell. I'm the regional manager for Princecraft Boats. We're a division of the Brunswick Corporation. Um, one of the things that I look at when I'm, uh, setting up a new dealer prospect is looking for an area that's going to give them the opportunity to grow and make money. Uh, I have about 15 dealers throughout Minnesota and northwestern Ontario or pardon me, uh, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota. And uh again, one of the main reasons that uh I wanted to hook up with these guys, number one is their passion. And number two is um from a Brunswick standpoint, they're well financed and they have their ducks in a row as far as service, sales, the accounting. Uh we have pretty strict guidelines as far as our dealer agreements go and these have followed them to the letter and have no problem with it at all. So I'm excited. Brunswick's excited and yeah, love to uh be here in Hastings often. [11:44] Mike Tyson: Like like to call this home. [11:46] Ken Chandell: Yes. [11:47] Mike Tyson: Thank you. [11:48] Gino Messina: Okay. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. [12:00] Gino Messina: Is there anyone else that wishes to speak? Nope. Do we have uh Zoom working tonight? [12:03] City Staff: Nobody there. [12:05] Gino Messina: Okay. If there is nobody else that wishes to speak, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing and I will open it up to my fellow commissioners if you have any questions. Of course, we have the applicant here as well. Commissioners, any questions? Commissioner Halberg. [12:19] Commissioner Halberg: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Justin, in terms of lighting, what kind of a effect is that going to have on that area with having the boat storage on off to the west? That'll be a probably want to be a well-lit area just with um with that kind of an inventory on hand. What's that going to affect like from a candle standpoint? [12:42] Justin Fory: Um well, the zoning ordinance has the zoning ordinance has a lighting um standards uh which would allow up to one foot candle at the property line in a commercial industrial area. um we would be doing a site plan review administratively for this because it doesn't have a big impact on the area but um that's when we would look at what the lighting impacts would be. [13:09] Commissioner Halberg: Okay. All right. Thank you. [13:13] Gino Messina: All right. Thank you, Commissioner. Any other—Hey, Melanie Peters. [13:14] Melanie Peters: Um just a quick question Justin with the area in yellow right there. Looks like most of that is a grass right now. Um, so if that's all going to be paved, was there anything like when you do the internal site plan, are there um will you be looking at like water and drainage and things like that? Because we're not reviewing the site plan necessarily. We're just reviewing the special use permit. [13:47] Justin Fory: Yeah, the engineering department will look at the impacts to the drainage. I believe um it currently drains through there. I don't believe it any water sits there. Um so after it's paved, I think the the the end uh location for the drainage would not would not change. Um when this site was developed in 2002, um they did plan on this area being an expansion area for the building and a parking lot. So, it was anticipated to have development in this location. [14:25] Melanie Peters: Okay. Thanks, Justin. [14:27] Gino Messina: Commissioners, any other questions? [14:32] Nicole DePalma: Commissioner [DePalma], um, may I ask um, how much inventory are you planning on having at any one time? And is this a seasonal business or is this a year-round business? [14:44] Mike Tyson: No, you can come up here. [14:46] Gino Messina: Oh, okay. Yeah, just because we're—Yeah, because we're we're on camera too as well. So they can hear you at home. [14:50] Mike Tyson: Uh yeah, we'll we'll roughly keep around 48 boats probably at all times, meaning for service, sales, storage. Uh it it will be all year. Um this will be my full-time job for, you know, we'll be doing from mechanic warranty work to that. I mean, I have 10 employees already hired, including me and you as owners. Uh but um so we'll be doing all that and that's why we need the paving, etc. that me and Justin walk through and and so it will be there all year. Um we'll um about 40 boats will be about the max though. [15:25] Melissa Dhy: So continuously moving around though. [15:27] Mike Tyson: Yeah. In and out new inventory. We'll have about five to six inside to show. So most of the boats uh and as far as lighting, I know you asked that question in the garage. Um it's going to be lit to whatever the standards are that we need to do. Most of them are going to be covered. Um, and we'll have the boats to show on the W, you know, in the show floor. If you want to see it, we'll we'll take it off. But a lot of it's we're not going to be walking back there and showing you the boat back there unless you're interested in like, I want that blue one or this black one. Let's open it up and we'd actually probably pull it in uh to our shop so you can see it inside. Um, you know, during the summertime, can we walk out and take a look at it? But they'll be sealed and and shrink wrap and covered before a delivery. You know, we're going to clean it because we don't want to—we want you to have your brand new boat that's, you know, perfect. So, but about 40 and it'll be all year round. [16:21] Nicole DePalma: So, just one other question, please. Or maybe Justin, you know the answer. Um, what type of security is needed for a business like this? [16:26] Mike Tyson: Uh, um, you know, for the inside, we'll have an alarm system, but in the car dealership world and that stuff, but same as what the boats would be, um, obviously they're insured, right? Um, we'll have the the fencing that we discussed and that stuff. Um, we can put a gate in the front if we need to. Um, I'm worried about the curb appeal, but I'm I'm good with it either way. If you don't want to see the front, let's do that or not. But really, what happens? We have a systems that we can we lock them down. So, you can't get into it. The keys are inside. Uh, inside there's an alarm system, right? If we know, right, Ken? Yeah. So, there's alarm system in the inside. So, to get a key to get it out, but you actually run cables through or have wheel locks, they can't they really can't move it. The best thing that I think we invested in is where the hitch goes on there or the trailer goes on. It's got a lock in there with a key. You can't even put it on a trailer. So, to get it out, you wouldn't you wouldn't be able to do it. [17:16] Mike Tyson: So, and that but but we're we're flexible. Like I said, we're we're open to suggestions on that. If if that's something that seems like, you know, gates should be necessary, then that's fine. Um we look at that, too. But security wise, I think we got that as far as the stuff that's out there. It's pretty minimal for attracting people that way. The stuff that would, you know, like the motors are going to be attached, electronics or anything that would be loose, we would keep that inside so to, you know, to minimize if there's any, you know, stealing. So, [17:52] Nicole DePalma: okay. Thank you. We're good. [17:55] Gino Messina: All right. Commissioners, any other questions? Commissioner Halberg. [17:58] Commissioner Halberg: Mr. Chair, I'll make the motion to approve the special use permit 2025-31 retail sales and service in I1 zoning district at 624 Spyro Boulevard with the conditions. [18:10] Rachel Swedin: Second. [18:11] Gino Messina: All right, we have a second. Any further discussion? All right, we have Commissioner Halberg on the motion, second by Commissioner Swedin. No further discussion. All in favor say I. [18:25] Commissioners: I. [18:27] Gino Messina: Opposed? All right, motion carries. And Justin, when will we see that again? [18:31] Justin Fory: Um, this will be going to the city council um, next Monday. [18:33] Gino Messina: Next Monday. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate it. [18:47] Mike Tyson: Thank you guys very much. So, thanks. Thanks. [18:48] Gino Messina: Thank you. You, too. Thank you. All right. Other business, Justin. [18:56] Justin Fory: Um, we don't have any uh upcoming applications for review yet for the September 22nd meeting. Um, as far as previous business, uh, this just that the city council uh was presented with the downtown parking lot study that the planning commission had had also reviewed. Um, and that's all for us. [19:18] Gino Messina: Okay. Thanks, commissioners. Any other business? [19:26] Melanie Peters: No. [19:28] Gino Messina: Okay. If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. [19:30] Melanie Peters: I'll make a motion to adjourn. [19:32] Gino Messina: All right. Melanie Peters second. [19:34] Commissioner Halberg: I'll second. [19:35] Gino Messina: All right. Commissioner Halberg second. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. And we are adjourned.