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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlanning Commission Minutes 07-20-20221 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 Approved Minutes Planning Commission Meeting July 20, 2022 Chair Boo called a Meeting of the Plymouth Planning Commission to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 3400 Plymouth Boulevard, on July 20, 2022. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Michael Boo, Commissioners, Bryan Oakley, Julie Olson, Julie Pointner and Donovan Saba. COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Commissioner Marc Anderson, Clark Gregor STAFF PRESENT: Planning and Development Manager Chloe McGuire, Senior Planner Shawn Drill, Senior Planner Lori Sommers OTHERS PRESENT: Councilmember Ned Carroll Chair Boo led the Pledge of Allegiance. Plymouth Forum Approval of Agenda Motion was made by Commissioner Oakley and seconded by Commissioner Pointner to approve the agenda. With all Commissioners voting in favor, the motion carried. Consent Agenda (4.1) Planning Commission minutes from meeting held on June 15, 2022. (4.2) Variance for six-foot-high fence in yard area abutting 60th Place, for property located at 6000 Jonquil Lane (Adam and Ashley Tarr -- 2022-042) Motion was made by Commissioner Pointner and seconded by Commissioner Olson to approve the consent agenda. With all Commissioners voting in favor, the motion carried. Public Hearings (5.1) Conditional use permit to allow an educational facility use in the RSF-2 (single family detached 2) zoning district for property located at 16000 41st Avenue (Wayzata School District - 2022044) 2 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 Senior Planner Sommers provided an overview of the staff report. Chair Boo noted the requirement for three stalls per classroom, however he believed the facility would be used for adult education and therefore the parking may be more intense. He asked if there was any concern with parking. Senior Planner Sommers replied that staff looked at a number of scenarios for parking and did not have any concerns given the number of stalls onsite as well as the parking available across the street. Commissioner Saba commented that there has been use to the northwest quarter of the property for agricultural purposes for a community garden. He asked if this would impact that activity. Chair Boo introduced the applicant, Kristin Tolleson of the Wayzata School District, who stated that they had a conversation with the church and leadership and the church was not planning to do the community garden. She noted that the rentals have all been sunset and no farming is ongoing at this time. She stated that they do have plans to do some updates to the outdoors to ensure everything is of safe standards. Chair Boo opened the public hearing. No comments. Chair Boo closed the public hearing. Motion was made by Commissioner Oakley and seconded by Commissioner Pointner to recommend approval the of resolution approving a conditional use permit for the property located at 16000 41st Avenue. With all Commissioners voting in favor, the motion carried. (5.2) Annual Update to Zoning Ordinance and City Code (City of Plymouth -- 2022-004) Senior Planner Drill provided an overview of the staff report. Commissioner Pointner referenced the native landscape section and asked what happens if someone already has a higher percentage (over 50%) of their yard in native landscapes. Senior Planner Drill replied that the current natural preserves section already sets at the maximum amount at 50 percent. He noted that if someone were already over that percentage for their yard, they would be grandfathered in. Regarding prescribed grazing, Commissioner Pointner asked how staff would monitor to ensure goats are only there for 14 days. Senior Planner Drill replied that staff is not recommending a permit process at this time, and instead would try this set of rules as a first step. He stated that, like other code enforcement issues, it would operate on a complaint basis. He stated that there are companies that bring goats 3 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 in, and they would be aware of the time limitation and other ordinance requirements. He noted that if adjustments are needed, those could come back as part of the next update. Commissioner Olson asked if there have been any problems with goats. Senior Planner Drill replied that staff has been allowing goats for buckthorn removal to occur informally, provided the goats do not stay overnight. There have not been any problems with that. He explained that this provision would allow the goats to remain on-site for up to two weeks and would allow a property owner to use this method twice per year. Chair Boo stated that there has been a lot of discussion related to restaurant parking and asked if staff plans to do a study of the restaurant parking ordinance. Senior Planner Drill stated that staff anticipates completing a complete study of apartment parking in the future, but does not anticipate additional study for restaurant parking. He noted that the adjustment proposed for restaurant parking is minor in an attempt to address the issue of having a sea of parking for stand-alone restaurants. Chair Boo commented that his concern would be that the change is being made on an anecdotal basis and any restaurants that would come forward under the new regulation may be impacted. Senior Planner Drill replied that if the Commission desires, staff would remove the proposed change for restaurant parking. Chair Boo commented that a lot of work was done to develop the digital billboard regulations and asked if the changes are refinements based on what has occurred since that time. Senior Planner Drill replied that the digital billboard changes are proposed to clean up some confusing language in the regulations. Commissioner Pointner referenced native landscape language related to replacement with sod/seed if the area is not maintained and asked who would be responsible for that cost. Senior Planner Drill replied that would be the responsibility of the property owner. He explained that language was added to prevent the situation where someone is not mowing their lawn and it is all weeds rather than native landscaping. He commented that the fee/permit has been removed that had previously been charged for the native preserve because it has become so popular, and staff believed it could be regulated with proper language. Commissioner Olson referenced the issue of parking and asked for clarification on the changes for apartments. Senior Planner Drill replied that a few years ago, the city conducted a fairly extensive study on parking at existing apartments and noted that with additional information the city has gained, staff is comfortable with the proposed change. He noted that staff will be doing additional study over the next year. 4 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 Commissioner Olson commented that sometimes there is not enough parking for apartments but did not notice that in Plymouth. Senior Planner Drill noted that some cities do not have parking requirements for their apartments, which does cause an issue. Chair Boo opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Chair Boo closed the public hearing. Commissioner Oakley asked if the Chair would be interested in including a modification related to restaurant parking. Chair Boo confirmed that he would like to withhold the change to the parking requirements for restaurants until staff can complete further study. Motion was made by Commissioner Oakley and seconded by Commissioner Saba to recommend approval of the update to the zoning ordinance and city code as presented with the following modifications: that the parking changes to restaurants be withheld pending a more detailed study by staff, and that the language “at the expense of the property owner” be added in the native landscape section. With all Commissioners voting in favor, the motion carried. New Business (6.1) Sketch Plan application by Sambatek for lot split at 4465 Vicksburg Ln N (2022049). Planning and Development Manager McGuire provided an overview of the staff report. Commissioner Oakley asked for details on the ownership of the different parcels. Planning and Development Manager McGuire provided details on the ownership of the different lots. She noted that at one time all the lots were under common ownership and while all the properties are still under the address 4465 Vicksburg Lane N, the two triangle properties are registered to a different name. She stated that the county did not have additional information on the different ownership and commented that this is a very unique situation. Commissioner Pointner commented that she is confused as to how access could be provided from Weston Lane without going through another property. Planning and Development Manager McGuire replied that staff would recommend that the property does not subdivide until the applicant owns all four properties and can provide access from Weston Lane. She stated that if that could not be done, the applicant would be able to maintain one single-family home with access onto Vicksburg. She clarified that the cul-de-sac shown in the image is from a plat from 2015 but was not built. She noted that the utilities were stubbed to support three properties. 5 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 Commissioner Saba clarified that the plat from 2015 allowed for two new accesses from the proposed cul-de-sac while allowing the third access to remain on Vicksburg. Chair Boo asked if the city would allow a subdivision where the access to Vicksburg would continue for one home. Planning and Development Manager McGuire replied that the city code would not allow that without a variance request. She noted that any future subdivision of the property would require all access to be provided from Weston. She stated that if there were a desire for two lots, staff could support a shared access onto Weston. Chair Boo introduced the applicant, Steve Troskey of Sambatek, who stated that the hardship in subdividing using one driveway is that the property owner does not own the triangle pieces of property and the person that owns those properties is not interested in selling or participating in further negotiations. He stated that the property owners are therefore stuck. He stated that their idea was then to bring this forward to the commission to discuss the proposal and see what could be done. He agreed that this is a very unique situation that he has not come across in his career. He understood that there is a desire not to have driveways onto arterial roads, but in this situation the city is refusing access and the other property owner refuses to sell. He stated that their proposed solution would be to have a shared access drive as that would not materially increase the traffic volume onto Vicksburg and would not add a new access but would allow improvement of the property with two nicer homes than currently exists. Commissioner Saba asked if the city has the ability to put in the turnaround/cul-de-sac without the two triangle properties, perhaps using easements. Planning and Development Manager McGuire replied that the city would not have that ability to put in the cul-de-sac as the right-of-way has not been dedicated. She noted that was part of a previous plat request and would be the responsibility of the developer. Commissioner Saba asked if the owner of the triangle properties lives in the neighborhood. Planning and Development Manager McGuire replied that property owner does live in Plymouth according to city records, but staff has not spoken with that person. Commissioner Olson asked if the developer has spoken to that property owner. Mr. Troskey stated that he personally has not spoken with him. Chandra, 15764 26th Place N., spoke in representation of the applicant and stated that the applicant has spoken with the owner of the triangle properties and that owner is not willing to sell. He stated that has created this situation in which they are stuck. He noted that it would seem to make sense to have two homes on the property because of the size of the property and they could be served by a shared driveway. Commissioner Pointner asked if there would be any latitude in letting this happen. 6 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 Planning and Development Manager McGuire replied that a variance could be granted to allow additional access onto an arterial road. She noted that a variance would need to meet the variance criteria. She commented that it is a challenging property and residential use would be reasonable use of the property. She noted that there could be economic considerations as the applicant could purchase the additional property and an additional home would place addition traffic burden onto the arterial road. Commissioner Oakley stated that there is not a variance or preliminary plat request submitted, noting that the intent is to receive feedback on the concept. He stated that the comments he will make is his opinion alone. He stated that there are two individuals listed for ownership of the properties with the same address, which looks bad. He stated that it would be more believable if at least one property owner were present to provide more information on why the triangle properties could not be sold. He stated that it would also be helpful to have written comments from the owner of the triangle properties, that are essentially unusable, as to why he will not sell. He believed that there would be a reasonable negotiation that could occur to purchase those triangles, which would also result in more developable lots. He stated that he would not support additional access to Vicksburg Lane, noting that there is no circumstance where he would support additional access from this lot onto Vicksburg Lane. He stated that if the existing home were going to stay, he could support leaving that access for the home but if that home is removed, all access should be provided from Weston. He noted that it seems that there are negotiation problems that could be solved and would then support an easy development plan. Chair Boo commented that he could believe that there is a property owner that refuses to act, even though that property is not developable. He was curious as to why the same address is shown for the properties. He noted that the property was sold as a single-family home, that use is reasonable, and the buyer was aware of that use was most likely aware of the access restrictions when the property was purchased, therefore the risk was known when the property was purchased. He agreed that additional access onto Vicksburg should be limited and therefore would not support this proposal and would only support subdivision of the property if access were provided to Weston. Planning and Development Manager McGuire reviewed the draft comments that staff provided which seem to match the comments of the commission tonight. She confirmed that the commission agrees with the recommendation as drafted. Commissioner Pointner agreed with the comments of the other commissioners. She stated that she would want to see proof of communication and would also be interested to find out who is paying taxes on the properties. Commissioners Saba and Olson agreed. Mr. Troskey asked if it would be helpful to have written comments from the owner of the triangle properties expressing his refusal to sell. Chair Boo commented that would not have any bearing as the issue it outside of the consideration of the commission. He noted that the issue is that the subdivision of the property needs to meet the requirements of the city, in that access needs to be provided from Weston and not Vicksburg. 7 Approved Minutes July 20, 2022 He stated that the property owner purchased the property with those issues in hand and therefore assumed the risk. The Commissioners provided feedback to the applicant and supported the draft comments to the City Council as drafted by staff within the packet. Adjournment Chair Boo adjourned the meeting at 8:08 p.m.