**[00:00] Chair Frazier:** good evening and welcome to the planning commission's regular meeting for July 24th 2023 this time we'll move to roll call commissioner Rasmussen **[00:08] Commissioner Rasmussen:** [Present] **[00:09] Commissioner Britton:** here **[00:10] Commissioner Fisher:** here **[00:11] Chair Frazier:** here **[00:12] Commissioner Knabel:** here **[00:13] Commissioner Rasmussen:** here **[00:14] Commissioner Stevens:** here **[00:15] Chair Frazier:** thank you thank you item three on tonight's agenda is approval of the agenda unless there is a motion to amend I'd look for a motion to approve **[00:20] Commissioner Fischer:** motion to approve **[00:21] Chair Frazier:** a motion to approve from commissioner Fisher do I have a second **[00:23] Commissioner Rasmussen:** second **[00:24] Chair Frazier:** second from commissioner Rasmussen all those in favor say aye **[00:26] Commission Members:** aye aye aye **[00:27] Chair Frazier:** opposed say no motion carry 6-0 item four on tonight's agenda is open Forum if there's anyone in the audience to like who like to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda can approach the podium state your name and address for the record seeing none will close open forum item five tonight is shares explanation of the hearing process the Planning Commission is a volunteer Advisory Group to city council one of the commission's functions is to hold public hearings and make recommendations on land use and Zoning matters the purpose of these public hearings is to provide an opportunity for each applicant and citizens to present deformation ask questions and express opinions since these proceedings are televised and recorded for the public record anyone wishing to speak must step up to the podium and give their name and address before addressing the commission staff reports are prepared and provided to the applicant and Planning Commission in advance of the meeting the first step in the hearing will be for staff to present a summary of the report the applicant will then have the opportunity to briefly explain the proposal and provide additional information or comments anyone wanting to speak in favor or against the proposal will then be heard upon completion of the testimony the hearing will be closed to the public comment Planning Commission will then discuss and act on the matter two complete agenda packets are available for viewing on the back table please do not remove those items the city council will act on these items at their meeting on Wednesday August 16 2023 which starts at 7 00 PM with that we will move on to item six 6.1 is the zoning definition text Amendment case ta2023-014 with Connor Jakes presenting **[02:18] Connor Jakes (Staff):** good evening Mr chair members of the commission it's great to be with you the application before you tonight is a zoning definition text amendment to city code title 1113 which is the definition section of the zoning code specific definition before you is the agricultural use definition staff is specifically proposing to delete B's and honey from this definition a little background on the proposal tonight the city's 2040 comprehensive plan does state that the city should investigate the policy and ordinance opportunities for residential animal keeping such as chicken and bees to promote healthy food at home here we call in 2022 the city council did approve an ordinance that allowed chicken and Ducks keeping throughout the city on Residential Properties which made great strides towards the achievement of this goal city council recently directed staff to conduct further research on ordinance relating to beekeeping throughout the city in order to adopt a specific ordinance on beekeeping the agricultural use definition would need to be updated to remove bees so there's no contradictions there I would note that a specific beekeeping ordinance would be added to Title 5 4 animal control which is where all of our specific animal related ordinances are placed and where the recent chicken and duck ordinance was placed and then I just remind the planet commission that the council exercises authority over title V like planning commission's purview is highly 11 so that's why the text amendment is the only um item before you tonight and not the whole beekeeping ordinance so the proposal be for you tonight is to delete Bees and Honey from that definition you'll also note on the screen before you there's chickens ducks and eggs also highlighted for removal that's in order to remove the contradictions that currently exist in order to better align with the adopted ordinance for chicken and ducks in 2022. and so with that there's an amended recommendation on screen before you that's different than what was in your packet due to the addition of the removal of chicken ducks and eggs from the agricultural use definition with that staff is available for any questions and I'll leave the recommendation outside before you **[04:09] Chair Frazier:** all right thank you any questions thank you any questions for staff **[04:14] Commissioner Britton:** commissioner Burton um does Staff feel that there's any need to maintain a certain something in agricultural with respect to chickens and eggs in regard to if they exceed a certain number so somebody wanted to do agriculture you know is the new ordinance going to handle Agricultural and residential uses **[04:31] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah Mr chair Commissioners commissioner Britton the previously adopted chicken ordinance does address both residential and agricultural also note we do have a section zoning code for farming operations in both Agricultural and residential districts that would cover you know both of those areas too **[04:47] Commissioner Britton:** and then there wouldn't be a conflict in that that you needed to change the the other ones **[04:52] Connor Jakes (Staff):** correct yep yeah just a clean up here to remove chicken ducks and eggs **[04:56] Commissioner Britton:** thank you **[04:57] Commissioner Fischer:** another question commissioner Fisher is there an ordinance already written that to talk about the bees **[05:03] Connor Jakes (Staff):** Mr chair commissioner Fisher there's an ordinance being written with the city attorney currently that would be for review at the August 16th council meeting before the council **[05:14] Commissioner Knabel:** okay I have a question question does this grandfather in any current beekeepers in the city or how does that work if you already have bees on your property **[05:22] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah commissioner knable um as far to our knowledge there's no beekeeping currently within the city however that'd be addressed you know as we move forward and kind of enact this I'd imagine that we work through that process at that point and look into whether it's legal non-conforming Etc and work through that with the attorney as well **[05:39] Commissioner Knabel:** okay thank you **[05:40] Commissioner Stevens:** Mr Stevens so is this going to be more restrictive or more like allowing of bees beekeeping **[05:47] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah commissioner Stevens the current intent is to allow them both in residential and agricultural districts there's uh proposed to be constraints on the number of colonies which dictates the number of bees you can have and also limits on certain residential zoning districts so just be single family lots um R1 through R4 and then that would limit where they're allowed and there'd be additional setbacks on the colony location as well **[06:12] Commissioner Stevens:** okay and can you just explain so it's come it's we're only approving it to be removed because it's going where that we're not like **[06:20] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah yeah so commissioner Stevens the proposed ordinance in full would be placed in title five which is under the authority of the city council that would be the acting body on that and the planning commission's purviews within Title 11 which is where the current definition is so the textman is before you tonight to delete bees from that since the Planning Commission exercises or has recommendation Authority within title 11. so I'd be removing the definition from there and then moving that to title five **[06:48] Commissioner Stevens:** thank you **[06:49] Commissioner Fischer:** any other questions I have one more question make sure did something happen to uh what was the Catalyst for the B editing here it seems kind of like a random thing for us to be looking at **[07:01] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah commissioner Fisher I think it was maybe a month or so ago city council directed staff um there's interest from the public at one of the council meetings and Council directed staff to conduct further research on whether it's plausible for bees to be within residential areas agricultural um et cetera so staff's been conducting research on that and working with the attorney on a proposed ordinance that would be before Council **[07:23] Commissioner Fischer:** thank you **[07:24] Chair Frazier:** any other questions Connor just I just want to clarify so that everyone who's watching and who's here right now understands so right now the the zoning Amendment or the zoning statute as it is ordinance prevents anybody from keeping bees in residential areas at um **[07:44] Connor Jakes (Staff):** partly correct it'd be any property over five acres in residential **[07:49] Chair Frazier:** and so by removing this city council will then be able to pass an ordinance that they can regulate who can keep them but we'll kind of give greater access to people in the city to keep ease if they have less than five acres **[08:00] Connor Jakes (Staff):** yeah Mr chair that's correct and then I'd also just note there'd be a permit licensing process that would be issued through the city clerk's office similar to the chicken and duck process there **[08:12] Chair Frazier:** thank you is that raise any other questions all right thank you the city is the applicant so I want to ask the applicant if they have anything um at this time I'll open public hearing though seeing no takers I'll close public hearing any further discussion from Commission I'll just say this I'll be interested to see what the ordinance looks like because I know my wife is one of these people who would like to keep bees and she was always very upset that we couldn't do that so um we'll see how it pans out congratulations yeah thanks exactly all right uh any further discussion otherwise I'd look for a motion **[08:52] Commissioner Stevens:** a motion to approve it **[08:53] Chair Frazier:** I have a motion to prove from commissioner Stevens do I have a second **[08:55] Commissioner Knabel:** second **[08:56] Chair Frazier:** second from commissioner knable uh any further discussion on the motion otherwise all those in favor say aye **[09:00] Commission Members:** aye aye aye **[09:01] Chair Frazier:** oh say no motion carries 6-0 item 6.2 is Water Resource chapter comp plan Amendment case cp2023-015 with Mike Rosa presenting **[09:12] Mike Rosa (Staff):** good evening Mr chair Commissioners the City of Cottage Grove is proposing an amendment to the 2040 comprehensive plan to update the Water Resources chapter which is chapter seven uh specifically the um sanitary sewer part of that chapter uh the image on their right side your screen is the existing 2040 comprehensive plan sanitary sewer plan and background comprehensive plan as oh it's our guiding document as our land use in there it has our utility plan our transportation plants all lives in this one giant document and this all comes back to a project that was approved by Council a couple months ago Ravine Crossing which is located at the intersection of Keats and 90th Street um as part of their permit to start grading on site they're required to go to the Metropolitan Council and get a sand tour sanitary sewer extension permit when they applied for that it was brought to our attention that the map and the comprehensive plan is not correct that does not show a point in front of um the send parcel as shown on the screen here so they're requesting staff to update the campgrounds of Planet currently it's worth knowing that the connection points are previously made they're all identified they're just not shown in the map there's stubs out there they're all over the place so they requested us to update our map they did approve the project and the permit but they said hey we'll work with you we'll update it so as part of this project as you can see on the next slide here um the 2030 plans on the left and on the right it's a new one I revised updated map there's over 15 connection points added to it and then there's also a bunch of other proposed lines to provide services in the future to areas that are developing it's also worth noting too that the image on the uh right here does have a stub right connecting right to the Ravine Crossing project so we address their concern and uh moving this forward through the approval process this also required some text amendments too as you sign your packets some minor word changes you know there's five currently and there's 15 proposed and some other tables that were included within your packets I'm not going to go through all those our engineering status here if you have any questions specifically under the tables and um this is more just an administrative process here to kind of get this our mat updated and um making everyone happy and uh the recommendations on the screen I'm here for any questions and so is our engineering staff **[11:29] Chair Frazier:** all right thank you any questions for staff commissioner Rasmussen **[11:33] Commissioner Rasmussen:** real quick just looking at the two maps I see the new connection points which they were asking for what what is in green is that future is that what you're showing there **[11:42] Mike Rosa (Staff):** that's correct for sure that also future um sanitary Pipelines **[11:46] Chair Frazier:** any additional questions all right thank you uh again the city is the applicant so I won't ask the applicant test to make any comments but I will open public hearing on this application seeing none I'll close public hearing any further discussion from Commission seeing none I'd look for emotion **[12:05] Commissioner Fischer:** make a motion to approve uh approve I'll just say that **[12:09] Chair Frazier:** all right uh we'll make them I have a motion to approve from commissioner Fisher do I have a second **[12:13] Commissioner Rasmussen:** a second **[12:14] Chair Frazier:** second from commissioner Rasmussen uh any further discussion on the motion otherwise all those in favor say aye **[12:17] Commission Members:** aye aye aye **[12:18] Chair Frazier:** plus I know motion carries 6-0 item seven tonight is approval approval of the Planning Commission meaning meeting minutes from June 26 2023 unless there's any additions or corrections I looked for a motion to approve **[12:30] Commissioner Knabel:** motion to approve **[12:31] Chair Frazier:** have a motion to approve from commissioner knable do I have a second **[12:34] Commissioner Rasmussen:** second **[12:35] Chair Frazier:** second from commissioner Rasmussen all those in favor say aye **[12:37] Commission Members:** aye aye **[12:38] Chair Frazier:** oh say no motion carry 6-0 item eight is reports from Emily Schmitz **[12:43] Emily Schmitz (Community Development Director):** okay good evening Mr chair members of the commission um first thing I'd like to mention this evening is uh Riley doesn't know that I'm doing this but I'd like to welcome Riley Rooney uh to our community development team um if her face looks familiar it's because she was here with us last summer as our planning intern um as fate would have it we had some adjustment in our staffing and so we were able to open an associate planner position um and Riley so kindly uh was interested to come back and be a part of our team so I just wanted to welcome Riley I'm not going to ask her to say anything but I wanted you all to know who that new face was in the audience since our last meeting we've had only one planet or excuse me uh city council meeting July 19th which if you you recall our last Planning Commission meeting was quite heavy so the council meeting was also a little bit heavy um as we evaluated uh all of our our planning cases from that previous meeting so the first was the shed setback variants which was approved um the other one I'll note is the graymont village final plat was reviewed and approved in addition to there was an easement vacation for those of you who might recall if you remember North Point and there was a Julian Platt if that name sounds familiar to get some 105th right-of-way as they platted that there was a standard perimeter easement that had to be vacated in order for the final plant of gravemont Village to be recorded so that was the proof that evening as well and then the other three items the trellis senior housing project over across from The Old City Hall was approved hornstein distribution over on 95th and Jamaica was approved and then Chase Bank with the drive-through over there between Culver's and U.S Bank was also approved so that was the agenda but of course councilmember Khambata is here if he has anything to add or if you have specific questions for him as well **[14:31] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** thank you again for all your hard work I know that this was a um super packed meeting uh it's always nice to have uh an easy one especially after some of the longer meetings we've had so again the council appreciates all your guys's hard work we know that this is time and effort out of your day so thank you again for everything that you do and I'm available for any questions you might have **[14:52] Chair Frazier:** all right thank you any questions for Emily or councilmember Khambata see you then thank you thank you sir um I don't know any responses to inquiries do we have any planning pushing inquiries for this meeting seeing none we'll move on to item nine which is adjournment do I have a motion to adjourn **[15:08] Commissioner Rasmussen:** we should do adjourn **[15:09] Chair Frazier:** I have a motion to adjourn from commissioner Rasmus and do I have a second **[15:11] Commissioner Britton:** second **[15:12] Chair Frazier:** second from commissioner Britain all those in favor say aye **[15:15] Commission Members:** aye aye **[15:16] Chair Frazier:** oh say no motion passes we are adjourned 6-0