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03-28-05 Joint PC-BZA Minutes . . . Joint Meeting Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals To Discuss Envision Golden Valley March 28, 2005 A joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals was held at the Golden Valley City Hall, Council Chambers, 7800 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, Minnesota, on Monday, March 28, 2005. Planning Commission Chair Keysser called the meeting to order at 6 pm. Those present were Planning Commissioners Cera, Eck, Hackett, Keysser, Rasmussen, Schmidgall and Waldhauser and Board of Zoning Appeals Members Hughes and McCarty. Also present were Director of Planning and Development, Mark Grimes, Planning Intern Aaron Hanauer and Administrative Assistant, Lisa Wittman. I. Envision Discussion Keysser explained that the City has gone through a long range visionary planning process and the challenge to the boards and commissions is to figure out how to implement ideas and look at things through the Envision Guide concepts. Waldhauser stated that she did a summary of the Envision Guide because she wanted to highlight some of the things that the Planning Commission could look at. She said one of the themes in the Guide was community development and it seems to her that the Planning Commission and the City Council could take a firmer hand in pushing what developments would seem to be appropriate. She said housing was another area where she thinks the Planning Commission can have some input. She referred to the transportation section of the Guide and said it is very important because Golden Valley is just barely suburban and in many cases older people want transportation choices and younger people want a low cost commute. There are also some highway issues too such as upgrading, improving the traffic flow through Golden Valley and aesthetic issues. Keysser explained that some of the reasons he moved to Golden Valley were that the Hopkins School District is one of the best in the state and that it is very close to downtown which is appealing to people. He referred to the Winnetka/Highway 55 area and stated that a proposal for that area is going to be coming back to the City and that will be a way for them to use the ideas in the Envision Guide. Waldhauser said that she feels like the City has been waiting until a developer proposes something for that area and that she thinks the City should propose something and let people respond to what the City would like to see. Hackett agreed and said that there are several areas in the City where he would like to see the Planning Commission and Council help guide the development. Keysser asked if the City could playa more proactive role in developing the Olympic Printing site. Hackett stated that typically task forces get appointed and that they begin to create ideas, discussions and proposals. Minutes of the Joint Meeting with the Golden Valley Planning Commission and BZA March 28, 2005 Page 2 . Grimes stated that the Council did ask the Planning Commission to look at possible locations for higher density housing but that it is hard to change zoning designations and the Comprehensive Plan without causing speculation and because the legislature has said that Comprehensive Plans and zoning maps have to be consistent. He explained that this is part of the reason why the City is doing the 1-394 Corridor study in order to get a vision on how it should look. Keysser said he thinks it would be helpful to know what funding or resources are available. Grimes stated that there is some TIF money available for soil correction and pollution. He referred to the CDBG program and explained that Golden Valley doesn't qualify for as much money as it has in the past and that we now have to compete with six or seven other cities. Rasmussen asked if there has been any talk about designating neighborhoods and that that might be a way to get certain areas to look a certain way. Grimes stated that Golden Valley has a strong neighborhood watch group, but that they feel very strongly that they are for discussing safety issues, not for discussing planning issues. Waldhauser stated that she has looked into the origin of how Golden Valley neighborhoods were defined for the various neighborhood watch groups and found that it basically was the block captain's choice. . Rasmussen asked how many neighborhood watch groups there are in Golden Valley. Schmidgall stated that there are 104. Waldhauser stated that St. Louis Park has 35 designated neighborhoods but that she is not sure what they do with those designations. Cera stated that St. Louis Park didn't go any further than naming their neighborhoods. Hanauer stated that Minneapolis has 81 designated neighborhoods. Grimes stated that designating neighborhoods could be something the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals could do to help create a sense of community. Hackett s.aid the point would be to give people something to identify with and then maybe the Council could determine jobs or roles for the people in the various neighborhoods to help build community. Cera suggested tasking people with ideas discussed in the Envision Guide. Waldhauser stated that younger families want to be part of a neighborhood. Rasmussen agreed and said people want a sense of place. She suggested that maybe the media could do different pieces on particular neighborhoods. Grimes said he would talk to Joanne Paul in Public Safety regarding contacting the neighborhood watch groups because they would probably be the people most interested. . Hackett suggested identifying areas of the city that are considered gateways and having a competition for people to design the gateways. He talked about a similar competition in Galveston, Texas. Grimes stated that he is in the process of organizing a public art tour for his planning group. Keysser summarized the two main ideas that came from this discussion: identifying neighborhoods and establishing gateways. . . . Minutes of the Joint Meeting with the Golden Valley Planning Commission and BZA March 28, 2005 Page 3 Grimes said he thinks it would be a good idea to talk to some other cities about how they've identified neighborhoods. Hackett suggested having another contest to name the neighborhoods. Eck suggested asking the Historical Society if they have any input. Rasmussen stated she thought that was a good idea. Grimes stated that these ideas will brought to the Envision Connection Project group and that he would talk to Jeanne Andre about their suggestions. II. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 pm.