Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-10-18 Planning Commission Minutes Regular Meeting April 10,2018 1. Call to Order Chair Rotty called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members Present: Rotty,Bjorge,Kuyper,Tesky Members Absent: Franceschelli Also Present: Tony Wippler,Planning Manager 2. Approval of Minutes a. Approve Planning Commission Minutes MOTON by Kuyper second by Bjorge to approve the minutes of March 13, 2018. 3. Public Hearings—Chair Rotty opened the public hearings a. Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Commercial Child Daycare/Preschool in the B- 2 Zoning District Grand Projects, Inc. would like to operate Cornerstone Preschool and Childcare at 305— 309 Elm Street. They would occupy the eastern portion of the building. There would be 75 —90 children. There would be 19 off-street parking stalls on the middle lot. An outdoor play area would be at the southern end of the parking area. There are four lots on this property, all owned by the same person. A condition of approval should be that lots 7 and 8 of block 26 be combined into one parcel ID number. The proposed use does meet the six criteria for a conditional use permit. Approval would be subject to the following conditions: 1. A sign permit application shall be required for any signage to be placed on site. 2. The applicant shall obtain all necessary building permits that may be required for the establishment of the proposed use. 3. A lot combination must be submitted to and granted by Dakota County for lots 7 and 8,block 26. Mr.Larry White,the applicant, stated they are paving the alley from Third Street up to their property line between the two vacant lots. Catch basins for drainage will be installed. There is room to the east of the 19 parking stalls for snow piling. The furthest vacant lot will be for future development. Parking could be extended into that area at that time. There will be very few modifications to the existing building. There will be doors installed on the side of the building,windows will be maintained,that portion and the back of the building will be repainted,landscaping will be added around the play area and trees planted along the paved area. A sprinkler system will be added in the interior to that side of the building. Tim and Becky LaBeau, operators of the daycare, stated they will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. They will have 15 part time and full time employees. They have run their daycare in their home for the last ten years. Children can range in age from 6 weeks to 11 years. Mr. White agrees with the condition of combining lots 7 and 8 for future use. Planning Commission Minutes April 10,2018 Page 2 Commission members were very pleased with the proposal and had very few questions. A daycare staff member will be in the drop off area to walk children into the building. The current front door to Elm Street will be secured and will be an emergency exit only with an alarm system. MOTION by Bjorge, second by Tesky to close the public hearing. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by Bjorge,second by Kuyper to approve the conditional use permit, along with the conditions, on the property located at 305—309 Elm Street. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. b. Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Commercial Kennel in the B-1 Zoning District —N2 Investments Inc. The applicant is N2 Investments Inc. and the location is 915 8th Street, the Farmington Mall. They will occupy the northern end of the mall. The business is The Dog House Daycare, Grooming and Boarding. The business will consist of an indoor playground for dogs only as well as an outdoor play area. The outdoor play area will be on the north end, surrounded by a 6 foot vinyl fence. Hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. The boarding will consist of unattended overnight stay. All dogs would be kept in locked kennels from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. with a meal and outside time before closing. The dogs would be six months or older. They will be subject to a screening process and 24 hour assessment period prior to acceptance. Dogs that do not pass the screening would not be accepted. The city code provides standards the kennel is subject to. The business would be required to get a kennel license in addition to a conditional use permit. The license is good for a year. An inspection would be done at the time of renewal. The proposed plan does meet the six criteria for the conditional use permit. Approval is subject to the following conditions: 1. A kennel license shall be applied for and subsequently approved by the city every year that the proposed use is established at the premises. Said license shall expire on December 31 of each year. Reapplying for a kennel license shall trigger the need for a property inspection by city staff 2. All standards as outlined in Section 6-3-2(B)of the city code must be met. 3. The applicant shall obtain all necessary building permits that may be required for the establishment of the proposed use. 4. A sign permit application shall be required for any signage to be placed on site. The applicant was not present at the meeting. The president of the Towns Edge Townhome Association,to the east of the mall, stated they have a problem with drainage from the back of the mall through the townhome garages to their driveways. They get all the rain water and snow melt from the mall. She asked what will happen with the liquid waste from the dogs;where will it go? That area has no storm sewers under the roads. They do not want that coming down into their garages and through their driveways. Chair Rotty stated a question to the applicant would be what are their intentions with cleaning up. There is a requirement that all solid waste must be removed a minimum of once per day and it shall not be allowed to enter a storm water facility or storm sewer. Staff noted the outside area is grass, so any liquid waste should seep into the ground. Inside the building,the flooring has to be an impervious surface where they can wash down the area and remove it in proper Planning Commission Minutes April 10,2018 Page 3 containers. They have to provide certain curbing around the walls to accommodate the wash down. The resident noted until this meeting,they were not aware which area of the mall they were going into. Ms. Mary Christensen, 904 10th Street,had some concerns with how many dogs and also the water runoff getting into the ground. She was wondering how they will contain the urine problem and the smell, especially in the summer. She was also concerned about the noise with barking. They are back to back with the townhomes in a residential area. With the noise, smells and possible problems, there are lots of empty lots in town. Lots of room by McDonalds, an empty business park, why not there? She wished the applicant was here so these questions could be addressed. The commission was glad to have new businesses coming. When this was discussed,the commission put parameters in place as to where it should be allowed. When we have residential zoning next to B-1 zoning there are some concerns. There is a new ordinance regulating this type of business. The conditions of the ordinance make sense. If there are issues,it can be inspected at that time. The concerns of the residents are valid. Without the applicant being here these questions and concerns cannot be answered. The commission was not against having this business in this location. The commission wanted to give the applicant an opportunity to answer these questions. The next meeting would be within the 60-day review time,otherwise it would be an automatic approval. Regarding the drainage, a member asked if the drainage is working like it's supposed to. Staff will check with the engineering staff. MOTION by Bjorge, second by Tesky to continue the public hearing to the May 8,2018, meeting. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. c. Conditional Use Permit to Operate a Commercial Kennel in the B-i Zoning District —Minnesota Animal Rescue The applicant is Minnesota Animal Rescue and the location is 949 8th Street,the Farmington Mall. This business will be on the south end of the mall. This is the same type of business that was just discussed to be located at the north end of the mall. The business will be a rescue center for cats and dogs. The front unit is where the cats would be kept. The back of the unit will be for dogs. There will be an indoor turfed area for dogs as well as a separate area for sick or injured dogs. There will be a fenced area to the south side of the building. The fence has to be a minimum of 4 feet. If the fence is not opaque,a 3 foot buffer would need to be provided along the fence. The outdoor area is currently paved. Staff would like to hear what they intend to do with that area as it was not outlined in their application as far as the fence and how they will deal with the pavement area as far as runoff. Without grass there isn't the mitigating aspect. The other issue is the location of parking stalls in conjunction with the outdoor play area and allowing free flow of traffic through the area. It is part of the overall parking lot. The difference with the previous one,is that is already a grass area and not part of the parking area. The outdoor play area is not a requirement of the code,but it is allowed. The proposed plan does meet the six criteria for a conditional use permit. Approval is subject to the following conditions: Planning Commission Minutes April 10,2018 Page 4 1. A kennel license shall be applied for and subsequently approved by the city every year that the proposed use is established at the premises. Said license shall expire on December 31 of each year. Reapplying for a kennel Iicense shall trigger the need for a property inspection by city staff. 2. All standards as outlined in Section 6-3-2(B) of the city code must be met. 3. The applicant shall obtain all necessary building permits that may be required for the establishment of the proposed use. 4. A sign permit application shall be required for any signage to be placed on site. Ms. Caycee Bregel,the applicant, stated regarding the runoff there will be sand and a water prop barrier on top and gravel or grass on top of that. The outdoor area will be 15 x 7 feet which should allow room for cars. The liquid waste will be washed with a hose down into a small reservoir with a flat water pump to bring the water back inside the building to the floor drain. This should cause less drainage into the residential area. There will be approximately four dogs in the area. She is a certified animal behaviorist and works with animals to keep them calm. They are a foster based rescue so the more behavioral cats and dogs are placed in a home to work with them one on one. If that is an issue with the business,they would be put in a foster home. There will be sound proof walls in the back. They have been in business for a year. Currently any dogs or cats are placed in foster homes. They do not have a shelter now. All services would be at one location. They chose this location because of the dog daycare and hopefully would be able to work with them. A resident still had a concern that they are right behind the townhomes with the noise and smells. She asked if the commission felt it would fit in better in a business park rather than by a residential area. Is there any feeling for the people? Chair Rotty explained when looking at the ordinance, the commission discussed zoning districts. We don't have the option of choosing the location. We address the application in front of us. The right location for the business is up to them if it meets the ordinance. The drainage condition is not a result of these two businesses. The slope has been there for awhile. We don't want pet waste going onto your property and that is what we are trying to mitigate. This applicant has addressed that. The commission asked about the number of animals housed at one time. The maximum capacity is 20 cats and four dogs. The commission asked about the fence. They plan to mirror what the kennel is doing on the other side of the mall. Chair Rotty noted the other applicant is doing a 6 foot vinyl fence. Ms. Bregel asked if it could be 4 feet and stated they are trying to do something similar. The commission noted they were thoughtful by including minimum fence height and it cannot be completely opaque,requiring vegetative buffer,kept clean and sanitary,no dogs outside unattended. All these are expressly stated in the ordinance. The commission thought about having these businesses in many areas in the city. The commission asked about whether the drainage should be a condition. Staff stated that would be part of their building permit. The commission asked about the air quality testing. The business would have to hire an expert to provide that information to the city. The commission noted sound proofing the walls will be inspected. The inside walls will have material to allow for hosing down the area. The outside fence has to be opaque. They are using vinyl because animals can scale a chain link fence. From a plan standpoint, is coming out 7 feet for the outdoor area going to interfere with access to the rear of the building? There are other businesses that utilize Planning Commission Minutes April 10,2018. Page 5 the back side. Staff noted we want to ensure there is adequate room. That should be reviewed before building starts. We also need drawings with specifications of the outside for runoff. Staff stated that will be covered with the building permit. Chair Rotty stated he has heard reasonable explanation for the concerns. MOTION by Kuyper,second by Tesky to close the public hearing. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by Kuyper,second by Bjorge to approve the conditional use permit allowing the operation of a commercial kennel within the B-1 zoning district on the property located at 949 8th Street subject to the above conditions. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 4. Discussion a. Site Plan Review—Express Auto—22015 Canton Court Express Auto is proposing to construct a 27,337 square foot building with 2,022 square feet of office space and 25,315 square feet of truck terminal. They are a nationwide auto transport carrier. There will be 20 truck bays. The building is oriented north and south with the office facing 220th Street W. The building crosses the joint property line of lots 1 and 2,block 1,requiring these lots be combined into a single lot. The drainage and utility easements will need to be vacated by the City Council. The lots surrounding the building will be paved with bituminous. There are 21 off-street parking stalls towards the northern end of the lot. The front yard requires a 20 foot setback. The site plan shows a setback of 25 feet. However,2201 Street is a minor arterial road which requires a front yard setback of 50 feet from the planned right-of-way. Therefore,the building needs to be shifted south 25 feet. The side and rear yard setbacks are 6 feet, Those requirements are met. Design standards have been established for the business park including building materials. The side facing 220th Street must comply 100%with the materials. Other exterior walls must comply 50%with the materials. There are five lots in the business park owned by Sterling State Banlc. Two are the northern area where the building will be located and three additional lots on Canton Circle. The applicant would like to use the southern three lots for the parking of cars to be hauled to or from the site. The parking area surface would be a milled bituminous. Engineering has some concern with that. There are two storm ponds directly to the west of the site. There is concern for the milling to wash out into the ponds. Staff will continue to discuss the bituminous with the applicant. There will be two accesses off Canton Court for the terminal and a single access for the parking area. Conditions for approval are: 1. A sign permit application shall be required for any signage to be placed on site. 2. The applicant shall obtain all necessary building permits that may be required for the establishment of the proposed use. 3. A lot combination must be submitted to and granted by Dakota County for Lots 1 and 2,Block 1 Farmington Business Park. 4. The vacation of the drainage and utility easements along the shared property lines of lots 1 and 2,block 1 Farmington Business Park by the City Council. 5. The site plan being modified to show the building setback from 220th Street W at a minimum of 50 feet from the planned right of way Iine. Planning Commission Minutes April 10,2018 Page 6 6. Contingent upon engineering comments and additional discussion on parking area materials. A representative of the applicant stated Express Auto Transport has been in business for 25 years. They currently have 28 employees. The commission asked if there will be lighting. There is a residential subdivision to the south. The commission cautioned the applicant about the direction of the lighting so it would not interfere with the subdivision. The applicant was okay with the additional setback. The commission agreed with the new type of metal for the outside walls. They haul cars to and from the southern part of the cities. The commission asked about truck movement. The trucks would pull through the building. The building height is just under 20 feet. The color of the outside has not been determined; something earth tone. Hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will not be loading or unloading of vehicles at night or on weekends. They are considering a chain link fence around the area. They plan to be open within six months. MOTION by Bjorge, second by Kuyper to approve the Express Auto Transport site plan with the above conditions. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 5. Adjourn MOTION by Kuyper second by Tesky to adjourn at 8:54 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Muller Administrative Assistant