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041014 planning commission CITY OF NEW HOPE 4401 XYLON AVENUE NORTH NEW HOPE, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA 55428 SPECIAL PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES April 10, 2014 City Hall, 5:30 p.m. CALL TO ORDER The New Hope Planning Commission met in regular session pursuant to due call and notice thereof; Chair Svendsen called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Jim Brinkman, Mikel Dumonceaux, Wade English, Greg Gehring, Jeff Houle, Roger Landy, Ranjan Nirgudé, Steve Svendsen Abstain: Absent: Christopher McKenzie, Tom Schmidt Also Present: Curtis Jacobsen, Director of Community Development, Jeff Sargent, Community Development Specialist, Steven Sondrall, City Attorney, Alan Brixius, Planning Consultant, Chris Long, City Engineer, Debra Somers, Recording Secretary Continuation of Chair Svendsen stated there was a quorum present and the Commission will Consideration, go forward with the continuation of consideration of Planning Case PC 14-05, Planning Case 14-05 Request for a preliminary and final plat, site plan review, 10-foot rear yard setback variance and a 3-foot side yard setback variance for the construction of a 32-unit apartment building known as the Gates of New Hope, 9390-9398 27 th Avenue North, Baruch Associates, petitioner. Mr. Sargent reported that the April 1, 2014 Planning Commission meeting was continued in order to gather more information addressing the specific conditions of approval. Mr. Sargent stated that staff found that the combination of the existing lots meets the city’s zoning and subdivision standards and recommends approval subject to the following conditions: 1.The applicant shall pay a park dedication in the amount of $8,100.00 prior to recording the final plat. The applicant agrees to pay the park dedication fee of $8,100 2.The plat and title is subject to the review and approval of the City Attorney. The applicant agrees to incorporate the required changes requested by the city attorney. In conjunction with the preliminary and final plat approval, staff recommends the site plan be approved subject to the following conditions: 1.A demolition permit will be required for the removal of existing structures and utilities on the site. All existing site utilities to be removed must be appropriately disconnected/capped. A demolition plan will be applied for either in conjunction with the building permit or as a separate application. 2. Applicant shall provide a detail of the recreational area surfacing, play equipment and grills for city review and approval. The recreational area must be properly fenced to control access. A fence detail must be provided for city review. Detailed plans will be submitted during the building permit application process. 3. The site plan must illustrate ADA accessible sidewalk connections. The sidewalk connections shall be provided to the outdoor recreational area, and safety measures (e.g. crosswalk, striping and signage) shall be implemented in the parking lot to provide safe pedestrian movement across. The applicant revised the site plan to show the specific ADA compliance at the driveway apron. Also the ADA compliance for the accessibility into the recreational area from the front entrance of the building is met, and includes striping across the parking lot area, the widening of the distance between the two parking stalls to gain full ADA compliance into the recreational area. 4. All construction drawings must be adjusted to account for the increase in the aisle width to 24 feet for the four parking stalls north of the surface parking lot. All construction plans have been adjusted and are included in the submitted Planning Commission packet of information. 5.The grading, drainage, stormwater treatment plans shall be subject to review and comments of the City Engineer. The applicant will work with his Engineer and the City Engineer to address the concerns in regards to any grading, drainage, stormwater treatment plus maintaining solely to the property itself. 6.A detailed planting and maintenance plans for the bio-filtration basins must be submitted for city approval. The maintenance plan shall address the efforts to ensure that the basins function, and that the landscaping in maintained in an attractive and managed appearance. A maintenance plan/agreement for the stormwater storage and filtration facility must be submitted and approved by the city. The agreement shall then be filed with the county recorder to run with the title to the property. Special Planning Commission Meeting 2 April 10, 2014 The applicant agrees to enter into a standard city stormwater agreement that outlines the maintenance plan for the filtration basins. 7.The City Fire Inspector and City Engineer shall review and comment on the acceptability of the utility plans, hydrant location and fire connection location. All construction plans will be designed to incorporate the recommendations of both the Fire Inspector and City Engineer. 8.A sign permit must be obtained. A sign permit will be applied for prior to the installation of the site signage. 9.The applicant shall provide lighting cut sheets illustrating the light fixtures, pole heights, of wall exterior light fixtures. All light must comply with the cutoff standards of the New Hope City Zoning Ordinance. These items will be selected and the details provided for city review. 10.The applicant shall submit a revised photometric plan that dictates the light intensity readings along the north property line. The applicant has revised the photometric plan and the area in question was just north of the parking lot area, along the north property line the light standard reading are now within the city ordinance code requirements at 0.4 foot candles along that property line. A new revised photometric plan has been submitted by the applicant. 11.The driveway apron to the site does not meet existing sidewalks at grade, a condition which must be revised to allow for continuing ADA accessible pedestrian ways around the perimeter of the site. These connections will be made and in full ADA compliance by the applicant. 12.The applicant shall enter into a development agreement prepared by the City Attorney that outlines all conditions of approval and secures all site improvements. he applicant agrees to enter into a development agreement as drafted by the City T Attorney after review. 13.Per Hennepin County requirements, the existing concrete driveway apron along 27th Avenue North shall be removed and replaced with concrete curb by the developer prior to an overlay project scheduled for late summer 2014. In addition, any utility excavations planned as part of the development that affect the county road pavement should be completed Special Planning Commission Meeting 3 April 10, 2014 prior to the county’s overlay project. The applicant will direct his engineer and contractor to complete the work above prior to the overlay project scheduled for late summer 2014, pending the development goes forward. Mr. Sargent stated staff recommended the Planning Commission approval of both the 10-foot rear yard setback variance and the 3-foot side yard setback variance for the construction of the attached 32-car parking garage. Mr. Sargent indicated the meeting notifications for this special planning commission meeting were posted at city hall, which met all of the city’s notification requirements. Staff also sent out specific notifications by mail to all attendees who signed in or spoke at the Planning Commission meeting on April 1. Mr. Sargent commented that the main point tonight would be how the stormwater issue would be handled. He stated that both the city engineer and the applicant’s engineer were on the site and looked at the issue. The city engineer felt that the previously composed plan for stormwater management would be sufficient to help alleviate any kind of problems on the site. There is room for improvement but what the applicant has proposed would be sufficient and would improve the conditions that are currently on that property. Chair Svendsen asked the Commission if they had any questions for Mr. Sargent; there were none. Chris Long, City Engineer, explained he took another look at the site and spoke to the adjacent property owner to the east, the applicant and the applicant’s engineer. This stormwater area is a three parcel area on the east side, north and northwest contributing areas to the site. The work the Gates of New Hope is doing now on this property would actually improve the current conditions. With the parking garage, the applicant would collect drainage water with a 12-inch storm line and direct the water into the filtration basins from the south side of the property. Mr. Long stated the adjacent properties have runoff coming from the roof drains and the rest of the property going to this area. There are even more issues for the eastern property north of the garage units. Mr. Long indicated this is an area-wide issue which can be looked at further from a public works level and/or working with the private owners to help alleviate the problems. The applicant for Gates of New Hope is doing their due diligence for their site. Chair Svendsen asked the Commission if there were any questions for Mr. Long; there were. Commissioner Houle commented that the applicant is adding gutters along Special Planning Commission Meeting 4 April 10, 2014 the east side on the garage, and asked if that would pick up all the rain water coming off of the roof. Mr. Long replied it may not collect all of the rain water but all of the water going to the east and to that eastern direction would be collected in a 12-inch pipe that goes to the south filtration pond. If there is a need to install a 15-inch pipe the applicant will take care of that. Commission Houle asked if Mr. Long was confident it will pick all of the rain, even during heavy rain events. Mr. Long has asked the applicant to prepare a capacity calculation and give that to staff. Commission Houle asked what it would take to solve the larger area problem. Mr. Long stated the best option would be to ask city public works to lower the rim elevation of the city storm sewer beehive collection manhole located right north of the sidewalk and lower the grade level enough to allow drainage to flow from north to south to the storm sewer. His suggested either working with a private contractor or city public works to install drain tile up to the marshy area and back, and possibly add another inlet or French drain to suck the area dry. Mr. Long stated that there is a problem in this area and over time when sediment, etc., accumulates, changing the grade, it will not drain properly. Whenever a the property has a grade less than 1%, which this area is probably at a less than .5% grade, it is not enough grade to make it drain properly and the water sits. As a separate issue, there is standing water behind the parking garage next to the Gates of New Hope site, which is also causing the homeowner issues. Mr. Long reiterated that for a large rain event, there is a lot of water from the other building complexes that drains straight onto the applicant’s site. During an emergency overflow, the water should flow over land to the south because the pipe sizes cannot handle that type of flow. The water would drain over land, like a river, to the south. Mr. Long stated that during a rain event the water may still run like a river but the marshy land would be dry. Commissioner Houle questioned whether the new development would push rain water from an emergency event onto the bituminous driveway next to the development. Mr. Long explained there would be a 10 foot wide drainage and utility easement between the Gates of New Hope and the property to the east. The applicant will have that space to do the best grading possible so it will improve the overflow. Typically, with a new development there is a 10 foot easement on both sides of the building to allow plenty of room for both properties to improve it, but this will be better. Commissioner Brinkman asked where the position of the garage would be in relation to the marshy area. Mr. Sargent responded that the garage would be 17’5” from the north property line and 20’ from the east property line. He believes a corner of the garage will be close but once they grade for the garage and be sure the rest of the area is graded appropriately to account for the Special Planning Commission Meeting 5 April 10, 2014 marshy area, he does not believe there will be much of an issue. Commissioner Houle stated that the reasons for granting variances is there needs to be some practical difficulties in complying with the city’s zoning code in order to grant the variances; what would the city have to fall back on here for granting the variances because it appears that the issues are controlled by the applicant relative to the size and placement of the number of units, the garage parking, etc. A project could easily proceed without any variances if the applicant were to change things under their control. Commission Houle asked what the basis would be for the commission to grant a variance that meets the language in the zoning code. Mr. Sargent stated that the part of the code that staff relied on was whether the property would be used in a reasonable manner. Staffs’ interpretation was yes, it would be used in a reasonable manner. Staff then considered what practical difficulties were causing the applicant to have to place this building in the location they would place it in. In this respect, the applicant has had to comply with ordinances the city bestowed upon him and was told they had to comply. Mr. Sargent continued that the applicant’s initial application did not require any kind of variances for setbacks. The applicant would have needed a variance or possibly a proof of parking on the property. Staff interpreted that the parking would be more critical than a setback to a property line. Staff recommended the applicant apply for a variance so they could get more parking on the property, which staff felt was more critical at that point. Staff reviewed the overall property and the variances were not extreme in any sense of the word but the applicant was getting closer to the property line. Staff felt the overall use of the property was consistent with good planning and it was a reasonable use of the property at the same time. For those reasons staff felt that it would be adequate to support the request. Commissioner Houle could not see any features on this project that could not be resolved by the applicant himself. Al Brixius, City Planner, agreed with Commissioner Houle in that there are certain elements that could be changed. Some of the things staff thought were very unique to this property and with the combination of the property staff converted a side yard to a rear yard configuration where the property to the east has a side yard setback which is 20’ and a driveway at the property line. Having a 30 foot side yard or a rear yard setback in that area that was going to be utilized exclusively for lawn and landscaping, staff felt it was reasonable to require that and in exchange staff told the applicant the city wanted full parking compliance and full compliance with the other components. The applicant had the option to do the proof of parking and they were compliant with code in that respect and in that respect that was a tradeoff. Staff looked at the setback off the north property line and at that from the standpoint it was a 2.5 foot encroachment and the encroachment really represents the turnaround area at the edge of the garage. In that respect, staff looked at these variance Special Planning Commission Meeting 6 April 10, 2014 requests in relationship to what staff previously looked at for other multiple family developments and felt these are very minor flexibilities in consideration of what is being proposed. A practical difficulty is the reconfiguration of the lot and, by definition; the east property line becomes the rear property line rather than a side. Everything developed along that yard is a side yard setback, so it is generally reflective of the existing development pattern. For clarification, Mr. Sargent remarked that the ordinance states that on a corner lot like this lot that the front lot line for definitional purposes is that lot line having the least width of the two along a public right-of-way. These properties were originally configured north and south because they are the least width of property line along 27 Avenue North, but because of the th combination that front yard now comes along Hillsboro Avenue North. Motion Motion by Commissioner Landy, seconded by Commissioner Brinkman, to close the public hearing. All voted in favor. Motion carried. Motion Motion by Commissioner Landy, seconded by Commissioner Dumonceaux, recommend approval of Planning Case 14-05, and send it to City Council request for a preliminary and final plat, site plan review, 10-foot rear year setback variance and 3-foot side yard setback variance for the construction of a 32- unit apartment building known as the Gates of New Hope, 9390- 9398 27 Avenue North, with all of the conditions that have been in packet th one and packet two and whatever has been discussed tonight. Voting in favor: Brinkman, Dumonceaux, English, Gehring, Landy, Nirgudé, Svendsen Abstained: Houle Absent: McKenzie and Schmidt Motion approved. Chair Svendsen stated that the City Council would consider this planning case at its meeting on April 28. ADJOURNMENT The Planning Commission meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:06 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Deb Somers Recording Secretary Special Planning Commission Meeting 7 April 10, 2014