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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 9, 2007 ~~ LtJU t-t-ul 1-d.3-0/ 0 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING - JANUARY 9,2007 The Regular Bi-Monthly Meeting of the Andover Planning and Zoning Commission was called to order by Chairperson Daninger on January 9, 2007, 7:03 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Commissioners present: Chairperson Daninger, Commissioners Tim Kirchoff and Valerie Holthus. Commissioners absent: Commissioners Devon Walton and Michael Casey. Also present: City Plarmer, Courtney Bednarz Associate Plarmer, Andy Cross Others 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES. December 12,2006 The Commission could not approve the minutes due to a lack of a quorum. PUBLIC HEARING: CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT (07-01) TO EXTEND MINING PERMIT FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT 2748 1 61sT A VENUE NW. Mr. Bednarz explained the applicant is requesting to store up to 3,000 cubic yards of topsoil on the subject property. Bringing material in excess of 400 cubic yards onto a property is considered land reclamation and requires a Conditional Use Permit. Mr. Bednarz discussed the staff report with the Commission. Chairperson Daninger stated they only had three Commissioners at the meeting out of the possible seven. He indicated there was just the applicant in the audience and thought they could discuss this and make a recommendation tonight to move it forward and if the Council wanted the Commission to have a public hearing they would do so. 0 There was not a public hearing opened on this item. Regular Andover Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes - January 9, 2007 0 Page 2 Commissioner Kirchoff wondered if this was a mining permit and there will not be a mining permit anymore, just storage. Mr. Bednarz stated it has always been storage. Mr. Rocky Lindberg, Forest Lake Contracting, stated he pulled the first permit out on the property and they did the County Road 9 project. He reviewed a few of the projects they have done in the area. He stated right now on the area discussed Mr. Grant has approximately fifteen hundred yards of dirt. He stated they have utilized the dirt on areas in the city where people need top soil for the new homes. He stated the dirt is mixed up and moved out. He stated there have not been any complaints regarding this. He stated Mr. Grant has taken the site over but Forest Lake Contracting has used the site for bringing in good materials. Commissioner Holthus wondered if all of the material stored obtained from the City of Andover. Mr. Lindberg stated it has mostly been from the City and is from their other projects. Chairperson Daninger asked if three years was conservative or would the Commission be hearing this again in another three years for another permit. Mr. Lindberg stated he could not answer that for sure at this time. He stated there is a possibility this could be extended in three years. 0 Chairperson Daninger asked if the applicant was comfortable with the time of 7 :00 am to 6:00 pm the City gave them. Mr. Lindberg stated they were. Commissioner Holthus stated she would be in favor of this. Commissioner Kirchoff indicated he would also be in favor of this. Chairperson Daninger stated he would be in favor of the motion if it was created so if they had a quorum and took a vote he would probably estimate one of the other people would vote in a positive favor so it would move forward with a positive recommendation. Mr. Bednarz stated that this item would be before the Council at the January 16,2007 City Council meeting. WORK SESSION: a. Consider changes to City Code 12-14-8 Public Hearing Process The Planning Commission has suggested that public hearing notices be mailed to a larger area for applications in rural areas. This item is intended to help the Commission determine what size the mailing area should be. 0 Chairperson Daninger did not think they needed to change anything but he thought it should be left up to staff to decide, if notification should be further out, based on how Regular Andover Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes-January 9,2007 0 Page 3 many mailers are sent out in the rural areas. Mr. Bednarz stated on occasion they will notify additional people based on how many homes are in the area. Chairperson Daninger stated his concern if they were to change this to one thousand or two thousand feet out, would someone at twenty-two hundred feet say they did not get notice. Mr. Bednarz explained the rural and urban maps to the Commission and how they figure the distances for notification. He stated they surveyed other cities in the area and with the exception of Oak Grove, everyone uses the standard three hundred fifty feet which is the Statutory Requirement with a couple of exceptions for specific projects in Blaine and in East Bethel. Commissioner Kirchoff asked if they notified people if the three hundred fifty feet goes into an adjoining City. Mr. Bednarz stated they do contact the neighboring City and get their labels to notify the residents. Commissioner Holthus stated she has gotten more reaction from the public on this issue than any other issue since she has been on the Commission and based on the reaction she has heard from people she thought they could keep the three hundred fifty feet in higher 0 density residential areas but they can get a little closer to what Oak Grove has done in the rural areas because she thought the lot sizes in Oak Grove were pretty similar to the rural areas in Andover or they could do a compromise. Three hundred fifty feet in the high density residential areas and maybe seven hundred fifty feet in the rural areas but she thought it would be appropriate to extend the notices. Commissioner Kirchoff stated he could see if they could craft out what the criteria is. Is it R -4 or the R -1 Districts. Chairperson Daninger thought they should be focusing on the rural areas. Commissioner Holthus thought they could extend the circumference to seven hundred fifty feet in the R-l District but she thought that was a valid change to make. Chairperson Daninger wondered what would happen if seven hundred fifty feet only touched two people. Commissioner Holthus thought it would then be staffs' discretion if they wanted to send out more mailings. Chairperson Daninger stated that is why he thought nothing needed to change and to leave it up to staffs' discretion. Chairperson Daninger stated his concern was if they extended it to seven hundred fifty . feet, people will want it at one thousand feet. He thought where their weakness was, was that they just went by the book and did not use discretion. He stated that is why they put out a sign and a publication in the Anoka Union unless it is a variance. 0 Chairperson Daninger stated he was not opposed to going up in the rural area but he did not want to see it go up in the R-4 District. Regular Andover Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes - January 9, 2007 0 Page 4 Commissioner Holthus stated she thought about having the criteria based on how many residents were notified but maybe it is in a certain area that even if they notified twenty- five residents, resident number twenty-five maybe affected very little, if at all from the issue that is at hand so she thought that would not be very effective either. She thought there needed to be some kind of compromise. Chairperson Daninger stated he was willing to suggest a greater distance in that area. Chairperson Daninger stated he would like to go on the record that he would like to leave this the same but when there are only a few letters, staff needs to expand the mailing area and this could be at their discretion. Commissioner Daninger stated he was fine with leaving it and residents needed to become more aware of what is around them. b. Consider Amendmentto City Code 12-l4-16A.5 Discretionary Conditional Use Permits The Planning Commission was recently asked to consider deleting a section of Code that 0 gives the City flexibility to review and approve land uses not specifically allowed in a particular zoning district through the Conditional Use Permit process. Agreeing with the Commission's recommendation, the City Council voted not to delete the section when they met on December 19, 2006. They have directed staff to work with the Planning Commission to rewrite the section to include criteria by which to judge whether a use mayor may not be suitable in a particular zoning district. Mr. Cross discussed with staff the reason for the deletion of the section of code and some examples of cases that were previously look at by the Commission and Council. Mr. Cross stated if the Commission felt that anything else could be added to the criteria to round them out, this could be something for discussion. Commissioner Holthus thought it would help if they thought of this as a miscellaneous clause because this is where everything goes that does not fit anywhere else. She thought this would make it more understandable to more people. Number five says "the proposed site shall not be located in a Residential Zoning District". She thought this was confusing when she looked at the top line "The City Council may consider granting a CUP for a use not currently permitted in a particular zoning district". Particular zoning district to her sounds broad and does not fit with number five's reference to not be located in a residential zoning district. She indicated she would like to change the top line so it says "The City Council may consider granting a CUP for a use not already permitted in 0 BusinesslIndustrial Zoning District", because that would clear up a point of confusion which is vague. They should also give the section a name that identifies what this is all about. Regular Andover Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes - January 9, 2007 0 Page 5 Commissioner Holthus stated as far as going into their list that is attached "Permitted, Conditional and Prohibited Uses", she thought it would be worthwhile to have another work session and go through those because she saw some inconsistencies that did not make sense. For example on the first page of the permitted uses table, under Barber Shops and Beauty Salons, they are conditional in all of the residential areas but are permitted only in limited business but not permitted in neighborhood business, shopping centers, and general business and that is where all the beauty salons area. Commissioner Kirchoff asked if the six criteria listed supersedes the permitted use tables. Mr. Cross stated the table and section do not overwrite each other, they are meant to work in harmony or congruity. There are many uses that are not permitted in a certain district and what they have is just the table to go by so as a solution to that they have the catch all clause. The catch all clause is meant to supplement the table and give the City Council a bit more flexibility in looking at uses that may not be allowed on the table. Commissioner Holthus stated the top line of the Code Section would be clearer if the particular zoning district was changed to Business/Industrial so that it would fit with number five. 0 Commissioner Kirchoff wondered if this would prohibit agricultural. Chairperson Daninger stated items 1 through 6 are broad except for residential and when they hear a case, they are hearing specific situations. Chairperson Daninger asked who authored items 1 through 6. Mr. Cross indicated he wrote it and some of them are taken directly out of the Code. Chairperson Daninger wondered where the supporting data is to come up with the remaining three. Mr. Cross stated items 1 through 4 are directly from the Code, 5 and 6 are site specific, they did not have any site specific standards and they felt they needed them. He thought what the miscellaneous catch all clause did was bring the Council some flexibility in looking at new uses. Chairperson Daninger wondered if item 5 was added per Council direction, was it a guiding point from some discussion. Mr. Cross stated it came about from discussion between staff, the City Code provides a lot of existing regulations for existing areas and so they stuck with that and allowed the flexibility in non-residential areas. Commissioner Kirchoff wondered if someone is in a residential area and wants to start a business, does this mean you carmot. Mr. Cross stated if they are looking at a use that does not currently exist in the City Code, then this new miscellaneous catch all clause is not something that will help at all. The section does not touch new uses; it only has to do with existing uses in the table. Mr. Bednarz stated this should be stated in the City Code 0 because it does not say it now. Chairperson Daninger reviewed what they discussed. Regular Andover Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes - January 9, 2007 0 Page 6 Mr. Cross stated definitions play an important role in the table. There is some updating that needs to be done. He stated there are some definitions within the permitted uses section such as retail, trade and services. Regarding the first part of the agenda item, Commissioner Holthus liked items 1 - 6. Criteria a, b, and c work well for CUP's, so she would be comfortable maintaining those for this potential revision along with a couple word changes to make it more clear. Commissioner Holthus stated on the second part of the agenda item, she thought they should schedule another work session to go through the table and bring it up to date and have it make more sense because she saw many inconsistencies with it. Chairperson Daninger concurred. Chairperson Daninger thought they needed to discuss this further when more Commissioners are at the meeting to give their views but he would like to go through a few meetings with any new Commission members before having this on another work session agenda. 0 OTHER BUSINESS. Mr. Bednarz updated the Planning Commission on related items and the outcome of items that went to the City CounciL Mr. Bednarz noted the Planning Commission armual report has been issued and will be reviewed when Mr. Vrchota is at the meeting. It was noted Mr. Vrchota prepared the report and was very thorough. The Commission appreciated the time spent to get the report to them. ADJOURNMENT. Motion by Holthus, seconded by Kirchoff, to adjourn the meeting at 8:12 p.m. Motion carried on a 3-ayes, O-nays, 2-absent (Walton, Casey) vote. Respectfully Submitted, Sue Osbeck, Recording Secretary 0 TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, lnc.