Based on the context of the meeting, here is the transcript with speaker names added: [1:35] **Chair Zimmer:** Good evening. I call the March 5th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting to order and ask you to rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Miss Erickson, would you please call the roll? [2:10] **Miss Erickson:** Here. Travis. **Commissioner Travis:** Here. **Miss Erickson:** Kaluza. **Commissioner Kaluza:** Here. **Miss Erickson:** Zimmer. **Chair Zimmer:** Here. **Miss Erickson:** I'm here. Sweeney. **Commissioner Sweeney:** Here. **Miss Erickson:** Swenson. **Commissioner Swenson:** Here. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. Now we're on the third agenda item. Approval of the minutes. Does anyone have any changes to the February 5th minutes? We have none. Our stellar staff does another good job. We will let them stand as they are. Uh, announcements. [2:37] **Chair Zimmer:** I'm wondering if we have any announcements tonight. **Miss Erickson:** Uh, thank you, chair Zimmer. No, we do not have any announcements for you. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you so much. Um, the next item on the agenda is a public hearing. And the item is for the preliminary plat for Prime 35 Lakeville. And we will be having a presentation from Jordan Silver, the applicant and then staff, and then we'll take anybody from the audience who wants to please come up and identify yourself for the record. Thank you. [3:08] **Jordan Silver:** Hi, I'm Jordan Silver, Crosby Development Partners. Thank you guys for having me tonight. Super excited to be doing, uh, development down here in Lakeville. Um, our Prime 35 project is a 1.3 up to 1.3 million square foot, uh, phased industrial development project. Um, it'll be phased over time in order to deliver the right amount of product and not for the market. Um, all different types of users from an industrial standpoint. And, uh, super excited to be doing it down here in Lakeville. Great access and working with the city and work with a lot of municipalities in my career. [3:44] **Jordan Silver:** And Lakeville was certainly high on the list for for pro-business and uh, working with the community. So I appreciate that and excited about the project. **Chair Zimmer:** Great. Thank you so much. We'll have staff present and then, um, go from there upon. [4:04] **Heather Jensen (Staff Planner):** Good evening. Chair, Commission members. Request in front of you tonight is for a property that is located south of County... [4:20] **Heather Jensen:** Okay. Can you hear me now? If I try? Hopefully our tech people in the back will be able to do something with the microphones to get it to project to the back. Um, I don't have any ideas right now. And you want to—do you guys have, like, hearing pieces for, like, accessibility stuff, but do you know that? [4:42] **Heather Jensen:** I think if you keep speaking, then our, uh, savvy Texas Tech system will bump us up. All right, so what's in front of you tonight is for development south of County Road 70. It's located between Kaipara Avenue and Jakarta Avenue. The lot is currently two parent parcels totaling about 145 acres in size. The property is zoned I-1, which is our light industrial district and it is guided for warehouse and light industrial uses. So the proposed preliminary plat and development plans are consistent with the recommended goals and policies in our comprehensive plan. The request is for preliminary plat and [5:28] **Heather Jensen:** preliminary development plan approval for the plat to be known as Prime 35 industrial. It is for eight lots and four out lots. So this plan is a little bit different than what was submitted in your packet last week as the—there was five out lots in the southern. [5:45] **Heather Jensen:** One was on the—there was one in the very southern part of the development. That lot was going to be used for a stormwater treatment and a private stormwater treatment. So it was a stipulation by staff to have that be included with one of the other lots to maintain ownership and responsibility of that stormwater. So that's why you are seeing that change has been made now. And there's four lots with that lot four, block four being very large, but that incorporates that stormwater treatment area. Um, another change on this plat was the accommodated the requirement of having a 40 foot right of way along 215th Street on the northwest portion up here. The original submittal just had that at 33ft, and the city code requires 40ft. So those are the two changes on this plat, which [6:32] **Heather Jensen:** being forward—being brought in front of you now. Uh, the eight lots, though would be used for industrial development. That would be consistent with the I-1 uses of the zoning code that include uses such as warehouse distribution and manufacturing, manufacturing types of businesses. The final build out will add over 1,000,000ft of industrial space on all eight parcels combined. Two of the out lots, out lot A and C, would be deeded to the city during final plat for protection of the wetlands. [7:04] **Heather Jensen:** And then the other two lots would be retained by the developer. There is also a natural gas pipeline on the property that runs from um, lake west to east, kind of dissecting the property. It's hard for me to get there—we go right through here. Uh, the property, because of the size of the development, uh, the state of Minnesota requires an environmental review be done on the development due to the size. So with that process, they did look at different development scenarios and the associated infrastructure. So an AUAR was completed and approved on this project last summer, so July of 2025. So the square footage of the buildings that are being proposed is actually less than what was studied. Um, so the AUAR kind of [7:50] **Heather Jensen:** looks at worst case and like largest and biggest build outs. So what we're seeing now is like about 200,000ft less than square footage for building size and what was looked at for the AUAR. The lot layouts are very similar. And then the roads that were studied and planned for in the comprehensive plan in the AUAR are consistent with what was shown last summer with that—that document. So the project area though does have wetlands on site, uh, drainage features and floodplains that are associated with the West Branch South Creek corridor. [8:24] **Heather Jensen:** Um, the proposed project also identifies about two acres of wetlands that will be impacted that were considered more farmed wetlands. So on a wetland kind of quality, the farmed wetlands are a lower level, um, quality wetland. And they are kind of in the shaded area on the property. So any kind of wetland impacts will have to be approved by the city, and they are going through that process now to have all their delineations done and working with the Environmental Resources Department. Um, the development Prime 35 plat will be required to construct 217th Street that goes through the property, along with a port like Javelin [9:10] **Heather Jensen:** Avenue, which is in the very northeast corner of the parcel. When looking at site review of the development. The minimum lot size for an I-1 district is about 30,000ft. For minimum lot size. What you're seeing with this development is that the smallest lot in this development is 375,000ft, so we exceeding any of our minimum standards. Uh, the proposed building sizes range from 69,600ft right now for the smallest one to the largest one being about 247,000ft in size. [9:46] **Heather Jensen:** Building setbacks for the I-1 district are 40ft from the front, 30ft from the rear, and ten feet for the side yard. Unless it's abutting right of way, then it would be a 30 foot setback. Parking and drive aisle setbacks are 15ft from right of way and then five feet from side property lines. [10:07] **Heather Jensen:** There. If you look at the grading plan, which I know these plans are—is a lot, right? And I'm sure when you're looking at your packet, the lots so big and lots of lines going on here, but there are some grading that's happening within that pipeline easement. So the applicant has been working with the gas company since last fall to obtain, um, approvals of all the work being done in there. And they have received preliminary approvals and they are just kind of going back and forth and some of those final impacts and final designs. But they have been working with the gas company and have their blessings for this development. Stormwater on the site for lot one, block one and for lot one, block two. So for the two northern buildings, uh, those lots are being treated by filtration basins. [10:51] **Heather Jensen:** So stormwater on the remainder of the property is treated with a system that's two pretreatment cells in the southeast corner. And then those are going into a very large infiltration basin on the south end of the site. So the final stormwater design must be approved by the city, meeting all volume and rate control requirements for any work that's done in this, any work. [11:15] **Heather Jensen:** The final approvals have to be done before any work can happen on the property. This is one of our first preliminary plat applications that we've had that have had to comply with our tree preservation ordinance. Um, so on this slide, it is very large as mentioned. So over 2000 trees were inventoried with the I-1 district. They are allowed removal of up to 70%. [11:40] **Heather Jensen:** Anything above 70% would require tree replacement or mitigation. In this case, what they are proposing, you can kind of see the green areas are the trees that are being preserved, and the red is what is being removed. So they are exceeding—going above the 70% removal. And the numbers that are forestry department ran all the numbers for us and calculated everything for us and came up with that. They'll have to replace 560 diameter inches. But because of the fact that they were able to preserve some of their heritage trees, that number was reduced. So from the Tree Preservation Ordinance, they have to replace 280in for the tree preservation. So when you're [12:27] **Heather Jensen:** looking at our tree preservation and landscaping plans, I know once again that that map was probably a lot to look at. Um, I just kind of blew up the buildings on the lot one, block one and lot one, block two. Um, a lot of the the trees that are being planted are—it's a mixture of the coniferous and deciduous and ornamental trees. And there's also shrubs being planted. Most of them are focused along the private drives and around the parking lots, with the exception along the westerly border of lot one, block two, where it's abutting a residential district. So there is a solid row of coniferous trees along that property boundary. So what is proposed does comply with our tree preservation and landscaping requirements. So one thing to [13:14] **Heather Jensen:** note about the request, and one of the stipulations is that, uh, city code does require that all lots have road frontage on a public street. Um, that all lots have frontage along a public street, unless it's approved by a conditional use permit. So in this case, this lot right here, lot two, block four is proposed south of lot one, block four, and is shown with a shared access. So a CUP would be required for this configuration as it is shown today. Um, it is not included with the preliminary plat just because of the timeline that it may take to develop this whole site. Um, and the timing of the final build out is unknown. So one, we don't want to be approving a conditional use [13:59] **Heather Jensen:** permit that may just expire. And two, there still could be some changing here. Um, you know, these lots can be consolidated into one. They could change them to run like a north-southwest. They both have frontage. There's just different options. Yet if it stays how it is, a conditional use permit would be required, which would then come back in front of you guys for that review. Um, otherwise, at this point, the preliminary plans would go to City Council anticipating the next council date meeting in March. And then, um, the final plat would then come forward at a later time, and that would just go to city council directly, unless there's changes that are substantially different than what we're seeing tonight. So staff is recommending approval of their preliminary plat with the 11 stipulations listed in the planning report, plus the [14:46] **Heather Jensen:** requirements and stipulations listed throughout the engineering report. So I'll stand for questions. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you so much. Um, is there anyone—this is the public hearing. Um, is there anyone that would like to speak on this development? Not seeing anyone. I'm ready for a motion. [15:11] **Commissioner Kaluza:** Madam chair, seeing no one come forward, I move to close the public hearing. **Commissioner Swenson:** Second. **Chair Zimmer:** We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of closing the public hearing, please say aye. **Commissioners:** Aye aye aye aye. **Chair Zimmer:** Opposed? The public hearing is now closed. So we'll open it up to commissioners for questions. [15:29] **Chair Zimmer:** Please call up the, uh. We can call up the developer or our staff to discuss it. And I'm sure that Commissioner Swenson has some water questions. **Commissioner Swenson:** Madam chair, if we could have the applicant come forward, I just have some. [15:48] **Chair Zimmer:** Please come forward, Mr. Silver. **Commissioner Swenson:** Just for the public. If you want to maybe talk to us about timeline on on, you know, this whole project. What are you—what are we looking at for how soon this will get to final build out? **Jordan Silver:** Sure. So, um, I think that in any circumstance, here, our plan right now is to start the site work immediately. It's 145 acres. That's a lot of dirt and and stuff to move around. So we want to start kind of working on that piece as soon as possible. Um, and hopefully have a shovel on the ground, on a building or two in the next 12 months. Um, and then it's all going to be market driven. [16:26] **Jordan Silver:** You know, in a best case scenario, we're moving quickly in a slower market. We're going to be—it's going to be market driven. So I would say realistically 3 to 4 years probably over, you know, based on kind of deliveries that Lakeville seen over the last, you know, a couple of years. Um, it's a realistic timeline. [16:45] **Commissioner Swenson:** Great. Thank you. **Commissioner Travis:** Thank you. Um, madam chair. Commissioner Travis. Um question. For the staff or the developer. I'm just looking at the plat. It's a square. There appears to be a small, like, um, platted chunk there. So I'm just wondering what what happens to that unplanned area along the the northern side there? [17:13] **Heather Jensen:** Uh, they don't want it. Thank you, Commissioner. That property in the middle is just separate private property. Um, my understanding is that maybe they were approached at one time if they wanted to sell or work with the developer. But my understanding is they were not ready to sell at this point. And so it's just in private ownership and residential lot. [17:35] **Commissioner Travis:** Thank you. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. Other questions from commissioners. **Commissioner Swenson:** Madam chair. Commissioner Swanson. [17:51] **Commissioner Swenson:** Believe it or not, I don't have any comments on stormwater today. **Chair Zimmer:** Oh. First. **Commissioner Swenson:** Um, did just want to talk through a little bit, um, a couple of things here. One, um, thinking about the action that we as a body are taking here tonight and what exactly we're approving. Um, we're approving a preliminary plat or working to provide a recommendation for approval of preliminary plat to city council. What we're not doing here is we're not approving a specific user on any particular lot. We are not promoting any particular use. [18:27] **Commissioner Swenson:** We are not reviewing any buildings. We're not looking at any of that kind of stuff here this evening. It literally is just the, I'll say, the physical layout of the lots, the grading, etc. to accommodate these future potential uses. Um, along with that, I would just say we should recognize that that may mean some of these buildings may come in in the future. Um, I'll say more of an administrative role where we don't have a CUP or another action that we have to take, or may go directly to city council. So just some things to recognize. I don't know if city staff wants to comment or add to any comments on that. Um, but I just. [19:03] **Heather Jensen:** Sure. Mister Swenson is correct. So what you're looking at is the preliminary plat of these eight lots. So they all do have to be final platted at some point before they can actually be built on—a final plat, though once they receive preliminary plans at this level, that final plat does not have to come back in front of the Planning Commission. So if a use comes in, um, manufacturing use, let's say, which is a permitted use, and they comply with all of our code requirements, that can just go straight forward to probably like a site plan review process, which may require council approval, again, with like a stormwater agreement or development contract and through that process. But it may not be in front of you guys. If the use [19:49] **Heather Jensen:** is a conditional use permit or if they need some outdoor storage, or if they're not in compliance with their code, then that would be brought in front of you guys for review. Or if it's substantially different than what you're seeing at this preliminary level. Does that make sense? [20:06] **Chair Zimmer:** Okay. Thank you. I do think the civics lesson is important. And to get that on the record. **Commissioner Swenson:** It is. Thank you. If I may, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that that was crystal clear. And it's something that's a little different than a lot of the things we have seen come before this body. Where typically we're looking at a building and one particular development, that type of thing. This is a different scenario where we've got a much larger parcel. [20:27] **Commissioner Swenson:** There's potentially in the future that type of thing. Um, another question that I have, if I may. **Chair Zimmer:** Please go ahead. **Commissioner Swenson:** Um, was just kind of taking a look at the layout and with the exception parcel that is not part of this plat. Um, I was just kind of curious what the future plan for access in and out of that parcel may be. [20:48] **Commissioner Swenson:** Since I know it today, it has access off of the county road. Um, but was just kind of curious with the look at that. And then also, um, kind of its relationship, I think, to outlots B and D on the plat. I think the developers retaining those for future development rights. [21:07] **Heather Jensen:** Let's see if we can get back to the presentation. Let's see if we can't go back there. [21:25] **Heather Jensen:** Okay. Sorry, I'm not there controlling it in the back. Like we were fighting with each other. [21:40] **Heather Jensen:** Okay, so talking about the exception area right here. Um, at this time, I don't believe we would be eliminating that access point, but I'm probably going to refer to the city engineer to confirm that. Or step in if I'm mistaken. Um, and then going forward in the future. You know, looking at outlots B and D, those potentially could be developed at some point too. So at this point outlot D would obviously have access to 217th and outlot B. We would be looking at um, probably some kind of shared access agreement through lot three that we would be addressing that at the time of like the final plat of lot three. [22:26] **John (City Engineer):** Right. And do you have any other updates on the one lot? Uh, no updates on the lot, but just concurring with you that there's the existing access on the northwest of that off of 215th Street. Uh, that would be permitted to be used again with development with the creek crossing. Um, and then connectivity to 217th Street would be a little bit tricky with the curve. But there is the potential as you get further to the south to have that connection for that outlot D and like Heather said, the shared access agreement for outlot B. [23:04] **Heather Jensen:** So in the map in front of you would be the southeast corner here to this tip kind of goes up to 217th. **Commissioner Swenson:** Thanks. Thanks for that explanation. I just wanted to kind of think through how the future of this might look as well. Um, since these are not being developed as part of this project or retained for future rights. [23:23] **Commissioner Swenson:** So it's important to confirm that the property owner has access. Other than that, I had a bunch of other questions that I asked city staff, and they answered all of those to my satisfaction and don't have any further questions or comments. [23:41] **Chair Zimmer:** Anyone else? I guess my comment is it's pretty exciting to have some development at this—at the light industrial that is on such a big parcel, and that important to have that tax base here for Lakeville. So excited about that opportunity. [24:06] **Commissioner Kaluza:** Madam chair. Commissioner Kaluza. Um, Ready for a motion? Uh, I would motion to recommend a city council approval of the preliminary plat for an industrial development, subject to the 11 stipulations and the planning report dated February 23rd, 2026. [24:24] **Commissioner Travis:** I'll second that. **Chair Zimmer:** We have a motion and a second. Miss Erickson, would you please take the roll? **Miss Erickson:** Travis. **Commissioner Travis:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Zimmer. **Chair Zimmer:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Sweeney. **Commissioner Sweeney:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Swenson. **Commissioner Swenson:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Tinsley. **Commissioner Tinsley:** Aye. [24:40] **Chair Zimmer:** Uh, motion is approved. Um, we thank you, Mr. Silver and your folks, for coming today. And look forward to watching the development phase in. The next item on the agenda is, um, public hearing for the preliminary plat, conditional use and vacation of easement for the city of Lakeville Commons. And we have, um, Alan Keenan to present on that. [25:18] **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you so much. Please come forward and say your name for the record and tell us about the project. **Alan Keenan:** Great. Thank you. Alan Keenan, City of Lakeville. I'm the Assistant City Administrator. Uh, tonight we're going to review a project that has taken several years to get to this culmination of a lot of work by the fire department. So a couple of years ago, the fire department started looking at their facilities plan and how and where their fire stations should be located and how to best efficiently serve the city with the best response times. [25:47] **Alan Keenan:** So part of that study said, look at the intersection of Dodd and Cedar Avenue for a new fire station. In addition to that modernization study that they looked at was also looking at their staffing models and what would be the most efficient way to staff their fire stations. And part of that conclusion was to start moving towards a full-time staffing with a hybrid model with paid-on-call as well. So, um, with those two studies being done, it kind of pushed us in this direction to start looking at fire station at Dodd and Cedar, as well as updating and modernizing the rest of the fire stations. So tonight we're going to focus on the on the fire station, new fire station two. But in the future you may be seeing some additional, um, stuff come through for some of the other fire stations. So as [26:33] **Alan Keenan:** I mentioned, the city eventually landed on this location at the corner of Granby Lane and Dodd Boulevard and 179th Street. Um, it's 12 acres that we purchased from the Fisher family. Uh, we're going to end up taking up about four acres of this site with the new fire station. It is going to be about a little over 48,000 square foot fire station with seven bays. Access to the site will be off of Dodd Boulevard, as well as well off of Granby. Um, the primary location for the fire stations to be, uh, leaving the station is going to be from Granby down to 179th and going east or west from that. Um, from that intersection, most of the the visitor parking is going to be coming off of Dodd Boulevard [27:18] **Alan Keenan:** and parking in that parking lot that you see there. That's north of the, of the building. Uh, the site will also include the extension of a new internal access road that you see to the east. That's being cul-de-saced right now. Uh, that will provide access to the site from the from the east side of the of the property. Uh, this is really small, but, um, you'll have to take my word for this. [27:40] **Alan Keenan:** So this is the interior of the building. Um, so this is also—this is not just going to be, um, for the fire station staffing, but it'll also be for, uh, for the administrative offices. So a portion of this is going to be, um, for the administration staff, which include, uh, conference rooms, um, classrooms, uh, EOC area, um, mechanical space, um, the lobby area, the public restrooms at the entrance. And as you move into the building, you get more into the the station staffing where the the firefighters will have their, their, uh, management staff and that area that'll also include a workout area. Uh, some more general, uh, storage access to the [28:27] **Alan Keenan:** second floor. And then as you keep moving towards the inside the building, you get into the seven bays where the apparatus bays will be, um, located in the center of that area, um, is where the firefighters will have their equipment bays. They'll have the area that they get dressed in, decontamination area, shower area, um, some more storage and, um, uh, just general equipment area for their, for their, um, trucks and for the, their service. Um, so the second floor, uh, floor plan. So now that we have full-time staffing, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we have to have dorms for the firefighters. So this new fire station will be the first modern fire station with full- [29:12] **Alan Keenan:** blown dorms, uh, specifically devoted to 24/7 staffing. Um, so, as you see, this is proposing to have ten dorms, um, which will have individual bathrooms and showers and locker rooms, as well as just general living areas of kitchen, dining room and, uh, like a living room for them. So it's really kind of creates a separation between when they're on call versus when they're waiting for calls to come in. It creates a space for them to kind of relax when they're when they're not working or whether they're not on calls. Uh, the central area again, uh, moving further into the building, that area is just an open area. It's a second, uh, two-story open area above the bays. But as you move into the center area again, that's a second floor at that section. [29:57] **Alan Keenan:** Um, that's going to be a training area that'll—that they'll use for multiple different training purposes. There'll be some storage room up there. And then on either end of those—that training central training area—is going to be towers. Um, the one towards the upper part of the page is going to be—uh, whether that's going to be the high tower that we're asking for, the CUP approval for—that's not only going to be a training tower, but it will also be that area—the height has to be that for—we're dragging hoses up that height for drying and maintenance of the of the fire hoses. Um, and then—and then the tower towards the bottom of the page is a stairwell, and it's going to be some mechanical room and some other equipment storage. So, um, that one doesn't have to be as tall as the, the one on the east. So it's just kind of a [30:43] **Alan Keenan:** quick shot of all the elevations of the building. Um, this is the front as you're coming off of Dodd Boulevard, this will be the main entrance to the offices and administrative area. Uh, this is towards the west. These are the bays. These where the fire apparatuses will exit the building on the Granby. This is the east side of the building. [31:06] **Alan Keenan:** Uh, this is where the actual—the fire trucks will circle around or come in off of that new access road and actually enter the building. Um, one of the things that the fire department wanted to absolutely try to avoid was backing in to the station. So the station has been designed to allow the fire trucks to either come in off of Granby and come around the building and access the building, or coming off of that new north-south road off of Dodd and access the building from that direction. And this is just the southern elevation that you'll see some of that through from 179th Street, kind of peeking through the trees. [31:39] **Alan Keenan:** And, um, it's just kind of the driveway. So, um, so that's kind of the basis of the project. And I'm going to turn it over to Heather to kind of go through the planning commission items. Um, with me before I forget is Mike Myers. He's our fire chief, and Brian Jacobson, he's our district chief, and we're all available for any questions, if you have any. [32:02] **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you so much. Bring up Miss Jensen. Are you sure she's going to answer? First off, where's the fire pole? **Heather Jensen:** At least on the plans. Uh, so, as Alan said, this is at the corner of Dodd and Granby. Just to orient yourself, Cedar Avenue and the new 179th, Dodd, which no longer continues through Granby. That was the new connection created with the Summer's Creek. So this area here, um, it's there. And then you can see in the zoning, there is two zoning districts. [32:43] **Heather Jensen:** It is—the northern portion is C3, and then the southern portion is, um, the public open space district. Um, the, the plat boundary is made up of three parcels. Uh, and I can get to this a little bit later as well. But there's the Fisher property. There is a small outlot that was part of the Summer's Creek. [33:07] **Heather Jensen:** And then, um, the 179th Street is actually not within right-of-way through this area. It is just on city property. So we will be doing an administrative subdivision of the Central Maintenance Facility property. [33:22] **Heather Jensen:** So everything 179th Street and North will be split off and then included with the plat so that the proper right-of-way is dedicated for 179th Street. So that's why it looks like the street doesn't exist on that map. Um, no surprise, there are a number of various, uh, easements and platted—some platted right-of-way that does need to be vacated. This is just to keep, you know, the the title clean for these, so we don't have underlying easements under plat areas. So you can see a few different colors there which are different easements that will be vacated. [33:58] **Heather Jensen:** Um, they will all be replaced with either easements or new right-of-way. So there isn't any loss of access for any utilities that may be in that area. Again, here's that preliminary plat. You can kind of see where the the new right-of-way for 179th Street. We're actually, um, dedicating right-of-way for Cedar, 179th, Granby and Dodd. So we've got right-away on all four sides that we're doing. Lot one, block one is for the fire station, a lot is the stormwater pond, outlot B is the water tower site. And then the remainder of the site will be in outlot C, which will be available for future development. It would require preliminary and final plat before any development of that area. Uh, Alan already went over the site plan. I'm just going to add that, uh, with the CUP for the additional building height, there is additional setbacks that are required. It's an additional five feet for every ten feet over the maximum building height. The C district allows 35ft. Uh, the building is just under 45ft at its height. So it does require the additional five feet. There. Setbacks for the north, east and west are at least 75ft in each direction, [35:13] **Heather Jensen:** so they're well above and beyond those required. The rear setback at the south is the 30ft, which does not need to be increased for the height. Um, and then for parking on the site. Uh, no surprise, our ordinance does not simply say, here's how many spaces you need for a fire station. Um, so we looked at the floor plans in the various uses and kind of came up with our own, uh, reasonable requirement. We looked at the office space, areas, classroom and conference room spaces, and then the dormitory areas, which we came up with a requirement of 61 spaces, and there are 69 that are being provided on site. Uh, this is just to illustrate that truck turning movement. Um, you know, this would be a, coming [35:59] **Heather Jensen:** in off of Granby. Um, and being able to wrap around the building and here, you know, coming in this direction and then in this one, they're coming off of Street A, so they did take that into account. They will be able to do that. Uh, the grading plan—I know it's tough to see—the um, it does slope down from, from north to, to south. So this parking lot will sit several feet below Dodd. Um, it—which necessitated this driveway here was initially coming straight out Street A—it has shifted south and that's so that the sidewalk in that area can meet, uh, slope requirements for ADA accessibility. And then there [36:45] **Heather Jensen:** is another access to sidewalk access in this location, but that will have steps due to the grade in that area. Uh, tree inventory was done. And I'm now learning that the site will actually be mass-graded rather than just a portion of the trees being removed. So I think this exhibit needs to be updated, but the inventory that was done about the tree removal is—does have the correct numbers on it. So, uh, that's just more of the tree removal. [37:17] **Heather Jensen:** The landscape plan, uh, as you would typically see, um, uh, mix of deciduous, ornamental, evergreen, um, quite a few shrubs also being proposed around the site and the stormwater pond. Uh, this is just to illustrate the two areas that are the tallest portion, um, on the kind of north end of the building, there's some mechanical screening. Um, screening is exempt on the roof when—when it is three feet or less, which this is taller than that. So it does have to be included. So that's just under the 45ft. Uh, and then this is the East tower, which is just under 43ft. So those are the two primary areas where we were exceeding that height requirement. Um, the fire pole [38:03] **Heather Jensen:** is right there. Oh, no, wait. I'm sorry. It's right here. That was the elevator right there. Making sure we had one. Yes. They do. Um, Alan went over the plans. Uh, again, there's offices, classroom and breakout rooms. Uh, workspace for the firefighters in the seven vehicle bays. Again, this is the day room. There's the fire pole right there. So. Uh, the exterior materials do meet our requirements are about 68% grade A materials and a mix of brick and stone and glass. [38:42] **Heather Jensen:** Again, these are the color elevations that you saw previously. Uh, staff does recommend approval of the preliminary plat, CUP and easement vacation, subject to the one stipulation as well as adoption of the findings of fact dated March 5th. And I'll stand for any questions you may have. [39:01] **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you so much. Uh, this is a public hearing, and, um, do we have anybody that would like to come forward and speak? Please come forward and state your name for the record and, uh, give us your comments. [39:19] **Public Speaker:** Thank you. I think our home is on the corner of Graphite Lane and Granby. Um. My concern is, um, when they did Dodd, um, I watched a 14-year-old boy be killed on Dodd trying to cross Dodd two summers ago from my deck, and we cringe to watch all the kids on electrical bikes, etc. We were at the original meeting several months—the city was— [39:58] **Public Speaker:** or the fire department was considering taking part of the park that exists on along Granby Lane for the fire station, and one of the concerns there was the traffic. A car was totaled two months ago maybe trying to take a left on 179th Street or Dodd. And quite honestly, one of our neighbors never come out onto Dodd. If we have to go to the left, if we have to go east, if we're coming downtown to High View or coming down Dodd, we'll take a right. But, um, it's—it's already very dangerous coming toward the west on Dodd and 179 and trying to take a [40:56] **Public Speaker:** left is very difficult. There's a turn lane. However, there's a slight rise. And if there's anybody traveling west in that turn lane, you cannot see coming west in the other two lanes. Um, if we want to go, um, south on Cedar, we go left on Granby, and then we have that little—past the CVS—that little turn onto [41:31] **Public Speaker:** Cedar going. And you have to be really careful there because coming north on Cedar—for people coming north on Cedar—you turn because they are going north on Cedar, and they want to go south on Cedar and they have to. So you have to be careful when you're turning out because you have no idea in which they're going to make U-turns. If we want to go [42:05] **Public Speaker:** we go to Granby. We take a right on Glacier Way, and then we take a left. And that is a nightmare. And so. We're sitting east in the in the lane going east and take a left turn onto Cedar North. And you have to watch because there are no left turn signals either in either direction. And there are no left turn lane. And you wait and you don't know the people coming west if they're going to turn left or if they're going to come straight and, um. So. [42:57] **Public Speaker:** Um, I talked to Summergate, who has an office building right there and a gal who works there. And she says—I'm sure you already know it—I know because I look at—I see their report, their police report. But she says at least there's somebody that has an accident at—at that intersection. Well, it would be a year ago. It was the spring going into last summer, and a lot of people had that same concern, and we were told at that point, or my understanding was that they were going to [43:38] **Public Speaker:** work on that intersection of Glacier Way and Cedar and that turn lanes were going to be put in. But nothing's happened. And then there was some estimate about putting a light at Granby Lane in 179th Street for the fire trucks to get out. But there's no light there. And frankly, I don't know how you could put a light there, because if you're trying to travel on 179th across Cedar, if you've ever been there any time of the day, especially 5:00, the cars are backed up five, ten or more, going both directions across Cedar on 179th. So I guess that's my question is: where are the fire trucks going to go? For the fire trucks trying to get out, and then also for—for the residents in that area trying to get out. Thank you so much for your comments. We'll address that. Thank you. [44:43] **Chair Zimmer:** Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Seeing no other folks coming forward, I would take a motion. **Commissioner Kaluza:** Motion to close the public hearing. **Commissioner Swenson:** Second. **Chair Zimmer:** We have a motion and a second, all those in favor of closing the public hearing, please say aye. **Commissioners:** Aye aye. **Chair Zimmer:** Opposed? The public hearing is now closed. I'm thinking maybe, um, staff and or the traffic engineer could answer some of those questions about whether there's going to be turn lanes or semaphore or what the plan is for that area. [45:26] **John (City Engineer):** Yeah. So in process currently we're working with the Dakota County at the intersection of Granby and 179th Street on what the vehicle preemption should look like. There—with this fire station being installed. That's something that we've been working in collaboration with them closely. We're not at a point here today to know what that preemption looks like, but we're looking at examples of similar situations in communities like Eagan where they have a similar layout and a similar situation by a county road. Um, and then I believe I heard, um, for the intersection of Cedar Avenue and Glacier Way. That is also another topic of conversation with the county that's having ongoing discussions. As far as what [46:13] **John (City Engineer):** that looks like, we've got an upcoming mill and overlay project in 2027 to be constructed, where we're going to be looking at some alternatives that—that could help with the issue for getting onto Cedar Avenue there. **Commissioner Kaluza:** And for the engineer, just so everyone knows, Cedar is a county road, so the city can't, you know, unilaterally do these things. You have to work with the county and their timeline in order to kind of get some of these traffic improvements, correct? [46:47] **John (City Engineer):** Yes, correct. They are both collaborative efforts that the city and the county are working on. **Chair Zimmer:** Please come forward, Mr. Keenan. **Alan Keenan:** Madam chair, just to add a little bit to John's explanation on the optical system—is the technical term of the system that the fire station will be using. So we are working with the county. [47:09] **Alan Keenan:** All the details haven't been set yet, but in general the way it will work is when a fire call comes into that station, um, they'll roll their doors open, the fire engines turn the lights on. There's going to be a, uh, a receiver on Granby that will see that—it's going to be just like what you see at intersection lights. When you see fire or police personnel go through, they've got a signal that turns all the—always red so the fire police can go through that intersection. So that's the same system that we're going to use in front of the fire station. So when that is signaled then on Granby it's going to turn the intersection of Cedar and Dodd. It's going to stop the traffic there, which will provide gaps for—for the fire engines to pull out on the Granby and then pull out on the 179th and go east or west as needed. Um, in addition, we're [47:55] **Alan Keenan:** looking at putting on some yield and some flashing lights on—on 179 towards the west, which would also be activated at that same time. So with that system in place—and John's right, we don't have that whole system designed yet—but the idea of that system in place should create the gaps and the traffic that we need, or slow down the traffic for the fire trucks to safely pull out on 179 going east or west as needed. [48:18] **Chair Zimmer:** Okay. Thank you. Um, I'd have a question for our traffic engineer. Can you give us a little bit on the timetable or what—I understand you're working with the county, but what are residents to expect? **John (City Engineer):** Yeah. So as we get through into the final planning process here, we are starting to get to the point of—we are currently at our 30% design plans. We'll get at a point with the civil plan set here to be at our 60, 90, and 100 percents within the next three-month period here to have a more fleshed out idea of what that preemption system exactly looks like and how we'll be managing that with the county. And like I said, we—we are working off of example [49:05] **John (City Engineer):** cases in neighboring communities that have similar situations to this, where you're exiting the fire station and entering onto a high-volume, high-speed roadway. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you, Commissioner Travis. **Commissioner Travis:** Yes, madam chair, um, just a question for Mr. Jensen. Uh. [49:24] **Commissioner Travis:** the road plans are forming, and they seem quite specific, but not final. And is that because this is a preliminary plat and at a preliminary plat stage, we wouldn't necessarily know exactly what the roads will look like? [49:40] **Heather Jensen:** Um, well, the only road construction that would take place is—I'm sorry, the traffic, not the—roads, but the—the traffic system is not completely finalized yet, but it's a preliminary plat. So is that right? The, you know, the the traffic system to allow the trucks out onto—to cross or, or access 179th Street doesn't need to be in place until the fire station is actually fully built. So, um, you know, fire station of this size takes quite a bit of time to construct. Allen, what's the timeline for construction, please? **Chair Zimmer:** Allen used to be a planner here. I'm sure he's enjoying it. [50:21] **Alan Keenan:** Yeah. Uh, so we are going out for the—the first phase of the bids are going out in the next month, and that'll be for, um, grading and utility installation. The second phase will be pretty close following after that in another month, in May or so. [50:38] **Alan Keenan:** Um, and that'll start the construction of the overall site. Um, and there's about 18 months construction. So we're looking at a good almost two years from now before this is fully operational. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. [50:55] **Chair Zimmer:** Other questions for Mr. Jensen or the—Mr. Keenan? **Commissioner Kaluza:** Question. Um, I've been familiar with the new construction of fire stations in Burnsville and Apple Valley. And I'm wondering, is the—it the same architect that's doing this one? [51:18] **Alan Keenan:** Yeah. C and H is the same architect. **Commissioner Kaluza:** All right. So I mean, I'm sure you've probably toured the new stations in Burnsville and Apple Valley. How does this new one for Lakeville stack up to those? **Alan Keenan:** Yeah, I'll turn it over to Mike, our fire chief. But we've toured several fire stations throughout this process. But I'll turn over to Mike. [51:40] **Mike Myers (Fire Chief):** From a design side, I mean, if you've been in Burnsville, it resembles Burnsville, but there's also other components from other stations that we toured and seen and kind of those elements that we want to draw into this station, too. So it's very similar to Burnsville. And I'll say that kind of the the future designs of fire stations are taking into account as far as the wellness of the firefighters—cancer-free environment. [52:04] **Mike Myers:** So, uh, those are the components that really play into the effect of designing a station and making sure that we're not bringing, uh, contaminants, if you will, from the bays into the living space or the work areas. Uh, so that's kind of where that center mezzanine that, uh, Mr. Keenan was talking about as far as the fire station goes. [52:19] **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. Um. Do we have other questions? **Commissioner Swenson:** Madam chair, and a couple of things on my mind here. Um, one, I did want to compliment the folks who put together the plans and everything else in terms of the visuals of the building and everything else. [52:44] **Commissioner Swenson:** One of the little—it's a little detail, but something that, um, I appreciated seeing on that was you had the, uh, I'll say the generator boxes and locations shown on the figure. Knowing this is a public safety facility and it does require power, regardless of any natural disasters or anything like that. Um, it necessitates having facilities like that available. Um, a lot of plans that we see oftentimes neglect some of those utility type things. And, um, so the location on this one, it's tucked back behind the building. So the townhouses on the west side won't be hearing any of the noise or anything from that facility. So I did just want to point that out that, um, that was nice to see. [53:21] **Commissioner Swenson:** Um, also appreciated you showing the, um, truck turning, um, diagrams. Uh, I work for an entity that, um, has a lot of large vehicles and poor visibility out of the the rear. Um, and know that backing is a—kind of our number one source of some vehicular accident items in that type of thing. So I appreciated seeing the figure where we can maneuver those, um, trucks, uh, internally and hopefully not have to have those backing maneuvers. So from an—so an overall safety culture, um, much appreciated to see that. Um, and then again, you've talked to the optics on facilities and what's happening on that. The only other thing I was just going to talk real briefly about was the, um, training towers. I did ask a question regarding the training towers, just in terms of what was going to be done in those. I think my concern was [54:06] **Commissioner Swenson:** coming from a spot of: are you doing, like, any burning or anything like that in the towers or anything like that? So just if you kind of clarify what the purpose of—appreciated. [54:21] **Mike Myers:** Uh, the training tower is what we call just a wet tower. So the only thing that we would be doing in there is, uh, fire hose movement, uh, any water discharge. So it can handle that. There is no burning so that, you know—we have a burn site that we use in Burnsville, so there's no burning that's going to occur here. Uh, the only thing that we would put in the building, which most people wouldn't even notice, would be artificial smoke. So if we want to create that, uh, decreased visibility for training purposes, that's the only thing that's in the tower, in that second-floor area. [54:51] **Commissioner Swenson:** Thank you. If I may continue. **Chair Zimmer:** Please continue. **Commissioner Swenson:** All right. Um, last thing I was just going to say on my—my end in thinking through things. I understand, and I hear the concerns related to traffic in this area. And I appreciate you coming up and speaking to those items. I think it's important that we acknowledge there are issues out here in this area. [55:11] **Commissioner Swenson:** Are they going to be solved and fixed with this fire station project? No, they're not. Um, but I think it's important that they're on the table. City staff is aware of them. They hear you. Um, and hopefully that will move forward into future things. And I do want to say I am concerned when I hear things about, uh, particularly the turn at Hamburg where you're not able to react in time to traffic moving and speed, that type of thing. I would encourage engineering to at least take a look at that and just see if there's something there. Um, that something may have been missed or overlooked in the overall design of how 170 was put together with, um, sight distances, etc. related to speed in that area. So just—this—this commission isn't empowered to fix all those traffic issues that the county [55:58] **Commissioner Swenson:** has to be involved. But city staff hears your concerns. So I just want to make that loud and clear. **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. I appreciate that, Commissioner Swenson. I was going to comment on the accident, uh, occurrence—once a day is—is certainly something that we would want traffic engineers and our law enforcement to take a look at. [56:18] **Chair Zimmer:** So good advice and that we've raised those concerns for our staff. Commissioner Kaluza. **Commissioner Kaluza:** I just wanted to commend the city staff, the planning staff, the administration, fire department for all the work that you've done on this. I mean, Lakeville is now the largest city in the county. Um, you know, if you look at kind of where this location is, look at what's surrounding it, um, you know, you have stuff fully developed north of it and south of it. That's where a lot of our future growth for the city is going to be. It's a lot of greenfield development that's going to be coming in. Um, you know, the neighborhoods that are around there are, um, you know, have—have all came in in the past few years. Um, so, I [57:06] **Commissioner Kaluza:** mean, this is really kind of planning for the future. And I'm glad that you guys are going to have everything that you—you need in there. Um, you know, no one wants to need the fire department, but, um, when—when you do need it, you're going to be glad that they're going to be able to get access to you quickly. And I think that the city has done a lot of great work kind of thinking of what the future is. As Lakeville continues, um, to build out, I think we're, you know, if not over 80,000 pretty near that. Uh, Mr. Keenan might know the the exact answer, but there's—we still have a lot of room to grow, and, um, you know, the. I'm going to be excited when this fire station gets built out. And hopefully we'll be able to provide, um, [57:53] **Commissioner Kaluza:** safety to our residents and going forward. And I also really appreciate the city staff for kind of hearing the—the concerns of neighbors. And, you know, I hope the the county hears that as well as we work to kind of, um, figure out, you know, the best traffic solution going forward. [58:14] **Chair Zimmer:** Thank you. Everybody. There are no further comments. Then I think we'd be ready for a motion. **Commissioner Tinsley:** Madam chair. Commissioner Tinsley. Move to recommend City Council approval of the preliminary plat, conditional use permit and vacation of public roadway drainage and utility easements subject to the stipulations in the planning report dated February 23rd, 2026 and the findings of fact. [58:43] **Commissioner Kaluza:** Second. **Chair Zimmer:** We have a motion and a second. Miss Erickson, we take the roll please. **Miss Erickson:** Kaluza. **Commissioner Kaluza:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Zimmer. **Chair Zimmer:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Sweeney. **Commissioner Sweeney:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Swenson. **Commissioner Swenson:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Tinsley. **Commissioner Tinsley:** Aye. **Miss Erickson:** Travis. **Commissioner Travis:** Aye. [59:01] **Chair Zimmer:** Motion prevails and uh, good luck as you move forward. Sounds like a lot of fun, uh, working on the the plan and the site and, uh, traffic issues as well. Thank you so much. Um. [59:18] **Chair Zimmer:** Let's see. We have a staff notice included in our packet, um, about some upcoming—or at least I think we did potential upcoming items. Um. And, um, the next—the items above will be considered for, uh, March 16th city Council meeting. And the next planning commission is scheduled for March 19th. And I don't know, Miss Jensen, do you have anything else for comment? [59:47] **Heather Jensen:** Nope. **Chair Zimmer:** Um, and so with that, we will stand adjourned.