As an expert transcriptionist, I have analyzed the context of the meeting and identified the speakers. Please note that the names of the Planning Commissioners (Charlon, Surma, Sta, and Hooley) are derived from the transcript text as they are not listed in the provided City Council/Staff list. The staff member presenting the report is identified as Sam Crosby, the City Planner. Since specific timestamps were not provided in your raw text, I have used a standard `[00:00:00]` placeholder format. *** **[00:00:00] Chair:** Good evening. It's time to call to order this November 25th, 2024 meeting of the Richfield Planning Commission. As a reminder to everyone attending, please address and be recognized by the Chair before speaking. The first item on tonight's agenda is the approval of the minutes of the regular Planning Commission meeting that occurred September 23rd, 2024. Do I have a motion for approval of the minutes? **[00:00:25] Commissioner Charlon:** Moves to approve. **[00:00:27] Commissioner Surma:** Seconds. **[00:00:29] Chair:** Is there anything to discuss regarding the minutes? If not, let's vote to approve. All in favor say "Aye." **[00:00:35] Commission Members:** Aye. **[00:00:36] Chair:** All opposed say "Nay." Minutes approved. We will now conduct an Open Forum, which is an opportunity for the public to address the Planning Commission regarding items not on our agenda. The call-in number for tonight's meeting is 415-655-0001. Please use webinar access code 2368 068 5126 and password 1234. If you're here in person to speak to anything that isn't on the agenda, please sign in at the podium. If you're calling in remotely, staff will assist you when it's your turn to speak. Before speaking, please state your name, address, and the organization you represent, if any. Each person is allowed five minutes to speak, ten if present representing a group. Staff, are there any callers? **[00:01:20] Sam Crosby (City Planner):** Chair and Commissioners, no there are not. **[00:01:23] Chair:** Were there any emails or voice messages received? **[00:01:26] Sam Crosby (City Planner):** Chair and Commissioners, no there were not. **[00:01:29] Chair:** All right, if there's nothing for the Open Forum, the next item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion? **[00:01:36] Commissioner Surma:** So moves to approve the agenda. **[00:01:38] Commissioner Charlon:** Seconds. **[00:01:40] Chair:** All in favor say "Aye." **[00:01:42] Commission Members:** Aye. **[00:01:43] Chair:** All opposed say "Nay." I meant to say "Aye" when they said "Aye," so the agenda is approved. Next up, we have a public hearing to consider a conditional use permit for a 115-child daycare at 7132 Portland Avenue, Hope Church. Staff, do you have a report? **[00:02:00] Sam Crosby (City Planner):** Thank you, Chair and Commissioners. Miguel Lozada, doing business as Neo Daycare, is before us this evening proposing to open a 115-child daycare at Hope Church, which is at 7132 Portland Avenue. State-licensed daycares serving 15 or more children within a non-residential building require a conditional use permit. The previous daycare, which operated for many years and allowed 244 children in the same location, closed in 2023. The previous daycare has been gone for more than a year; therefore, approvals for a daycare at this location have expired and a whole new conditional use permit must be issued. This new preschool would occupy approximately 15% of the floor area of the church building, and no exterior changes are proposed outside of the building. There are the same programs that have been operating out of this building during the week, including a high school and a food shelf. All the other programs accounted for, including this new daycare, the parking is more than three times that which is required by code. Staff finds that this proposal meets all of the zoning code requirements and therefore recommends approval of this conditional use permit. Thank you. **[00:03:15] Chair:** Did anyone email or call in regarding the public hearing? **[00:03:18] Sam Crosby (City Planner):** No, Commissioners. **[00:03:20] Chair:** Do you have any questions right now for staff? I understand the applicant is in attendance. If you would like to add anything or speak tonight, I'd like to invite you to the podium. You're welcome to; if you don't want to, that's okay too. Great, yes, please approach the podium and sign in and state your name and address for us as well. **[00:03:45] Miguel Lozada (Applicant):** Hello, can you hear me okay? Good night, everybody. My name is Miguel Lozada. I'm the owner and the CEO of Neo Daycare. I have been in the business for the last 13 years and we are so excited to open a daycare. It is going to be bilingual and we are so excited to provide our community that beautiful opportunity for our children and all our families in the Richfield location. We are very, very, very much excited about that, and this is the reason why we are here with my partner, Roberto. So, we are very glad to have the opportunity again. Besides being in the business for too many years, the opportunity we have, or the plan we have, is to provide that opportunity to be bilingual—like 50% Spanish and 50% English—providing a curriculum about the diversity what we have in the area. Our curriculum is working very hard about the community area, the social-emotional activities, and we try to participate so all our children know all the diversity what we have and to provide the best benefits and the best caring for them too. So again, we are very excited about that and I hope we can open soon. I don't know if Roberto wants to say something too. **[00:05:10] Chair:** Welcome. Before you're done, would you please state your address as well? I'm not sure that we got the address. Could you state your address, please? **[00:05:20] Miguel Lozada (Applicant):** My address? Yes, where I'm living right now? Yes, just for the public record. I'm living in Uptown at 2922 Aldrich Avenue South, Apartment 523, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like 10 minutes from here, right? And yeah, this is where I'm living. I'm originally from Peru. I became a citizen in June 2023. We are excited; our daughter is 7 years old, she's in Peru right now visiting. And I'm engaged with my beautiful fiancee, so we are so excited to be here. Everybody can enjoy that beautiful country. Thank you. **[00:06:05] Chair:** Do you have any questions for the applicant right now? **[00:06:08] Commissioner Sta:** I'm not super familiar with your company. Do you have other daycare centers? Will this be the first? What's kind of the history there? **[00:06:15] Miguel Lozada (Applicant):** Well, I was working in three different daycares before I started to be an operator, and then I became a Director of Operations, and then I was a Director for a daycare. All the daycares where I was working before were Spanish Immersion daycares. This is the first daycare that we wanted to open. We have been working for two and a half years on this plan; this is a family plan. It's just a lot of "Neo"—I don't know if you guys know, "Neo" means "Nest." N-E-S-T. That's what "Neo" means. So again, this is a family project. My fiancee and my stepfather are involved in this project; they are supporting me very, very much with this project financially and everything like that. That is basically our goal in our project with Neo: to provide all our community the best benefits about bilingualism, diversity, and culture, and obviously education and caring too. **[00:07:20] Roberto Palma (Consultant):** If you'd like to speak on behalf of the project, you're welcome to. Please tell us your name and address and sign in. Thank you. My name is Roberto Palma. I'm assisting Miguel in the project of Neo from the compliance consultant point of view, basically dealing with the Department of Human Services and putting together a project like this. It has been Miguel's and my passion for the last maybe 10-12 years. We actually met a long time ago in one of the well-known centers and since then, I think in our careers as they grew, we saw a lot of "no-nos" and a lot of "yeses" about childcare. In this position, I have been supporting the project of Neo from the technical aspect and the compliance aspect of the Department of Human Services. The license pursues 115 kids. Certainly, the space technically would host more kids, but part of the plan is to not have overcrowded classrooms because, from safety and for the simplicity of behavior control and quality of service, it is not doable. In that way, I can speak for the project. Of course, the benefits of a project like this in a community like Richfield will certainly have—and Miguel and the project expect—financial success, but first before that follows quality and supporting families. Actually, part of the project will serve at least 30 or 35% of childcare assistance families that have been actually relegated from different private childcare brands that don't accept that for different reasons. That's something that is very important in the project because, as Miguel said, the variety of families and the community in Richfield and the closest communities surrounding Richfield need those services. Of course, if you have any questions about that, I can answer. **[00:09:30] Chair:** Thank you very much. Commissioners, do you have any additional questions? Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak tonight? Thank you very much. At this time, I'll call for a motion to close the public hearing. **[00:09:45] Commissioner Surma:** No, just excuse me—I have a comment, but let's close the public hearing first. So, motion to close the public hearing. **[00:09:52] Commissioner Charlon:** Seconds. **[00:09:54] Chair:** All right, we shall close the public hearing. Commissioners, at this time you need a vote to close the public hearing. All in favor of closing the public hearing say "Aye." **[00:10:05] Commission Members:** Aye. **[00:10:06] Chair:** All opposed? All right, thank you very much. At this time we can discuss this application. If anybody has any comments, please share them. **[00:10:15] Commissioner Surma:** I would just commend the proposal. It’s services that are needed in Richfield. So, I am excited to see the proposal. I think the use is expected and the need is in our community. So, I wish you the best of luck and I'll be supporting the motion. Thank you. **[00:10:35] Commissioner Sta:** I will second what Commissioner Surma just said. I think the staff report looks good, everything looks good. I think this is something that is needed, so I also support. **[00:10:48] Chair:** Yeah, I want to note that I have daycare-aged kids and it is hard in any community to find the right fit. I'm excited that this space that has been used as a daycare has another shot to continue serving our community in that capacity. I'm excited to hear that families who need financial assistance will have the opportunity to come and work with you. So, I'm glad to see this. **[00:11:15] Commissioner Surma:** I just want to also signal my support for this proposal as well. I agree with all that has been said here. **[00:11:22] Chair:** If we're ready for a motion... **[00:11:24] Commissioner Sta:** Recommends approval of the resolution for a conditional use permit for a 115-child daycare at 7132 Portland Avenue. **[00:11:32] Commissioner Surma:** Seconds. **[00:11:34] Chair:** Thank you, Commissioners. We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as written and as described. It's time to vote. All in favor? **[00:11:42] Commission Members:** Aye. **[00:11:43] Chair:** All opposed, "Nay"? No—I'm sorry, I said "Aye." We're all in favor. Motion approved five to zero. Next on our agenda are the liaison reports. The Community Services Advisory Commission is up. Is that one of us? **[00:12:05] Commissioner Surma:** Thank you. Our chair is out tonight; he won't be able to provide a report on the City Council. **[00:12:10] Chair:** Next up is the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. **[00:12:12] Commissioner Sta:** So, in HRA news, the approvals that we gave for 1016 66th Street, which is on the corner of 66th and Stevens—the HRA had been participating in that project with some financial assistance. That financial assistance, the deadlines on it have passed. Our approvals for the land use expire in January, but regardless, that project is not going to move forward. It sounds like the tax increment financing that was used, or was hoped to be used in the initial project, won't be able to be used for any future projects because the blight's already been corrected. So, we hopefully will be getting another proposal for that land sometime soon. Thank you. **[00:13:00] Chair:** The Richfield School Board is up next. **[00:13:03] Commission Member:** I don't have a report right now. **[00:13:05] Chair:** Transportation Commission? **[00:13:07] Commissioner Hooley:** Yes. The Nicollet new design—Hennepin County is moving forward on their designs for four roundabouts at 67th, 70th, 73rd, and 76th Streets at Nicollet. There was an update on bicycle facilities, which were broadly favored by the public, but conversation is ongoing regarding that project. The main things that were brought up were about Nicollet Avenue; it's still scheduled for construction in 2026. The city is still pursuing bonding money from the state, from the legislature, in the upcoming session for the local match for that project. So, more to come on that, but it's still on track for 2026. Thank you. **[00:13:55] Chair:** Commissioner Hooley. Chamber of Commerce? **[00:13:58] Commission Member:** Nothing substantive to report from Chamber. Thank you. **[00:14:02] Chair:** Sustainability Commission? **[00:14:04] Commissioner Charlon:** Only thing was that the residents of City Bella went through some of the things that they've been working on to boost their efficiency at their location, and just some outreach to get more student commissioner positions filled in the future. Thank you. **[00:14:20] Chair:** Before we move on to the City Planner report, I want to just make a correction. Before, with the public hearing, I said that we approved it four to zero. I miscounted; there's five of us. Instead of fixing that next month, I thought what the heck, fix that. **[00:14:35] Commissioner Surma:** I thought you were doing a bit. **[00:14:37] Chair:** No, no bits. Onto the City Planner's report. **[00:14:40] Sam Crosby (City Planner):** I think we would have caught that. So, the ordinance amendment establishing zoning regulations for cannabis businesses was adopted without any changes by the City Council on October 22nd. The sister ordinance to that, which does the registration regulations, was on the November 12th meeting for a first reading, and adoption is anticipated tomorrow night. With that, we should have all of our cannabis rules and regulations codified before the end of the year, which was our goal. Also, I wanted to mention that starting next month, we will no longer be doing the call-in option for the Open Forum and public hearing portions of the meeting. If people want to comment, they can write in, call in ahead of time, or attend the meeting the old-fashioned way. This is being discontinued mainly because, for over a year now, it hasn't been utilized at any of the meetings, much less the Planning Commission. So, it was a relic of the COVID era and it's just not being used anymore. That's all I've got. We do have a meeting next month; one item on the 9th. **[00:15:55] Chair:** I know you didn't ask for our votes on approval to take the phone call option out, but it seems fine. Our next regular meeting will be Monday, December 9th, 2024, here at City Hall at 7:00 PM. And with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. **[00:16:10] Commissioner Sta:** So moved. **[00:16:12] Commissioner Surma:** Seconds. **[00:16:14] Chair:** Done. We didn't vote—we should vote first. All in favor of being done, of adjourning? **[00:16:20] Commission Members:** Aye. **[00:16:21] Chair:** You can stay. There you go.