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05-22-06 PC Minutes . Regular Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 A regular meeting of the Planning Commission was held at the Golden Valley City Hall, Council Chambers, 7800 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, Minnesota, on Monday, May 22,2006. Chair Keys~er called the meeting to order at 7 pm. Those present were Planning Commissioners Cera, Eck, Keysser, Kluchka, McCarty, Schmidgall and Waldhauser. Also present was Director of Planning and Development Mark Grimes, Planning Intern Aaron Hanauer and Administrative Assistant, Lisa Wittman. Chair Keysser welcomed Dean McCarty as a member to the Planning Commission. 1. Approval of Minutes April 24, 2006 Planning Commission Meeting Eck stated that the motion on page nine regarding the subdivision and variance request at 621 Turners Crossroad was confusing. He suggested that language be added explaining that the Planning Commission decided to divide the request into two separate motions in order to make it clearer. . MOVED by Schmidgall, seconded by Eck and motion carried unanimously to approve the April 24 minutes with the above noted change. 2. Informal Public Hearing - CUP No. 113 - Dick & Rick's Auto Upholstery- 6100 Olson Memorial Highway Applicant: Rick Zirbes - Dick & Rick's Auto Upholstery Address: 6100 Olson Memorial Highway Purpose: To allow the applicant to operate an auto upholstery business in an existing building located in the Industrial Zoning District. Grimes stated that the applicant is a requesting a Conditional Use Permit in order to operate an auto upholstery business at 6100 Olson Memorial Highway. He explained that any auto use in the Industrial zoning district requires a Conditional Use Permit. He stated that he doesn't have any issues with the proposed 6,500 sq. ft. area being proposed for this use because it is far from any residential areas and there are no negative impacts but that there is an issue regarding the parking lot. The Zoning Code states that any additions or alterations to the building require that the parking lot to be brought up to current City standards. In order to go forward with this proposal the owners would have to install concrete curb and gutter and ponding to meet water quality requirements. He stated that the proponents feel that the requirements are harsh, but according to the Zoning Code . the parking lot needs to be brought up to current City standards. Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 Page 2 . Keysser referred to the site plan and asked about the area to the north. Grimes stated that area would also need to be re-paved. Keysser asked about several items being stored on the property. Grimes stated that there is a landscaping business and a towing business at this property and since it is zoned Industrial it allows for these types of usage and storage with proper screening. He added that he has not received any complaints about the storage on the property. Eck referred to Grimes staff report and asked about setback issues on the west side of the property. Grimes explained that if the parking lot is ripped out down to the bear dirt or if the footprint of the building is being expanded the applicant would then have to meet the setback requirements, but if they are just patching or re-Iaying asphalt over the parking lot the setbacks would be alright as they are currently. Rick Zirbes, Applicant, 423 W. 90th Street, Bloomington, stated that they work on the interior of cars such as cleaning and repairs. They do not do any work on the exterior or engines. Keysser asked if cars would be stored in their proposed parking area. Zirbes stated that most of their clients are in and out in the same day so there would not be any cars stored on the property. . Schmidgall asked the applicant to give an example of the type of work he does. Zirbes stated that they fix holes in carpeting and seats or cracks in dashboards. Schmidgall asked the applicant if he has other shops in the area. Zirbes said they have a similar shop in Bloomington. Keysser asked the applicant if this was the only available space in this building and if they really required a new driveway, access and parking lot. Zirbes explained that given the structure of the building this particular space has the best layout for his use and he would like a space in the front of the building for his customers. Grimes asked the applicant how many employees he would have. Zirbes said two or three. Keysser asked why there needs to be 14 parking spaces. Grimes stated that is what the Zoning Code requires for this type of use. Keysser asked Grimes if he thought that might be too many parking spaces. Grimes stated that there could be a different tenant in the future who may require more parking. Waldhauser asked if staff has looked at the overall parking requirements for the site. Grimes stated that the property requires approximately 185 parking spaces using the warehouse/office ratio. . Kluchka asked who the applicant is. Grimes explained that the applicant is the future tenant, Dick & Rick's Auto Upholstery but the owner of the property has signed the Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22,2006 Page 3 . application giving the tenant permission to go forward and apply for the Conditional Use Permit. Keysser opened the public hearing. Perry Bolin, Architect for the project, explained that the owners have plans to lease the rest of the building. The area to the south has loading dock access and the accessible areas are already leased. He stated that they would like to look at other options that would not require them to re-do the parking lot because that is a significant requirement and cost. He referred to the south east side of the lot and stated that the ground is lower there so presumably that could be developed into a pond but that they have not had an engineer look at the property yet. Cera asked how much of the building is already leased. Bolin said all but 20,000 sq. ft. is leased. Waldhauser referred to the proposed loading dock changes and asked if that had any relation to this proposal. Bolin said the loading dock serves other tenants. Schmidgall referred to the acrylics business and asked about their access. Bolin said they have access through the vacant space. Grimes added that the acrylics business did pull building permits so the access they have is ok. . Kluchka asked about the parking for the acrylics business. Grimes said their parking is in front. He stated that signage is also going to be an issue for this proposal and told the applicants that they should talk to the Inspections Department about the City's signage requirements. Schmidgall added that it would be nice to bring the signage under control at this building. Schmidgall asked about using the existing loading dock entrance as the access for the auto upholstery business. Bolin said they would look in to that option. Schmidgall said he is hesitant about taking away existing green space. Grimes added that if the owners don't change the outside of the building then they wouldn't have to re-do the parking lot. Cera asked if converting a window into a door would kick in the same parking lot requirements. Grimes said he would check with the City Attorney. Jill Marsolek, one of the owners of the building, 8910 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, said she is completely confused about the parking lot and water quality requirements because about two months ago she came to the City with a request for a building permit for the acrylics business to install an overhead door and nothing was said about redoing the parking lot at all and now this proposal has all these requirements. Grimes explained that the acrylics business was a permitted use and didn't require any planning action or a Conditional Use Permit, so that is why it is different than the proposed auto upholstery use. . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 Page 4 . Marsolek said that it is almost not feasible to do all that is required for a 6,500 sq. ft. space. Keysser stated that one option would be to use the front loading ramps as an entrance for the upholstery business. Marsolek said she would like to leave the loading docks for the existing space because they are more expensive than access doors. Keysser asked Zirbes if it would make sense for him to use the existing access. Zirbes said he did not want to have to make his customers go all the way around the building to access his business. Schmidgall said he thought it might be worthwhile for the owners to do a plan for the entire building. Marsolek said she already has and that she is adding restrooms. Eck asked if the building permit for the acrylics business to have an overhead door was issued in error. Grimes said it may have been, but that the acrylics business didn't need a Conditional Use Permit so it probably wasn't caught. He added that the owners have had this unpaved parking lot for years and years and if they were to come to the City today to build this building they would have to follow the same environmental standards as everyone else. Keysser asked Marsolek when she is planning to re-do the parking lot. Marsolek said within the next few years. . Jack Babcock, one of the owners of the building, stated that they learned about the parking lot requirements last week. He stated that AEI Electronics, another tenant of theirs, made a fairly significant alteration to the building by adding a tower to build racks and now they are finding out that the driveway entrances have to be 26 ft. wide if the building is over 35 ft. high. He said he wishes he would have known that when AEI made their alterations. Grimes explained that the City adopts the State Building Code and that the requirements may have been different when AEI was allowed to build their tower. He explained that right now their building is considered non-conforming and it is the goal of the City to bring buildings into conformance or get rid of non-conformances so now that the applicants are going through a planning action it's a chance to bring it up to the standards of the code. McCarty stated to the applicants that re-doing the parking lot now will make the property nicer which would attract new tenants. Shelby Babcock, one of the owners of the building, 6820 Merrimac Lane N., Maple Grove, stated that she and her husband bought this building several years ago and were doing very well until their business went overseas and left them high and dry. She said they held onto.the building and want to continue leasing it out. She said it would be great to do all of the things being asked of them but where will the money come from. She said to do these improvements now with no renters would be too hard. . Seeing and hearing no one else wishing to comment, Keysser closed the public hearing. Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 Page 5 . Keysser explained to the applicants that they have some options to consider. They could table their request, have the Commission vote on the request, or withdraw their request. Bolin asked if they provided access for the auto upholstery through an existing truck dock door of an existing door on the northeast side of the building if they could avoid re-paving the parking lot. Keysser said that would be correct because they would not be altering the building. Babcock stated that they would like their request to be tabled. Schmidgall reiterated that he thinks it would be a good idea for the applicants to look at the layout of the entire building. Grimes suggested that the Commission give the applicants a deadline to come back with a different proposal. Keysser suggested a month. Bolin said that would be fine. MOVED by McCarty, seconded by Waldhauser and motion carried to table the request for a Conditional Use Permit for Dick & Rick's Auto Upholstery at 6100 Olson Memorial Highway for one month. --Short Recess-- . 3. Discussion about creating a Mixed Use land Use Category for the General land Use Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan Hanauer stated that at the March 27, 2006 Planning Commission meeting the Commission gave staff direction to write the language for a Mixed Use Land Use Category for the General Land Use chapter of the Comprehensive Plan. He stated that currently there are 17 land use categories in the Comprehensive Plan and that the definition he wrote took into consideration comments from the March 27 Planning Commission meeting, the proposed 1-394 Corridor Study and other cities definitions. Keysser asked why the City needs this language instead of relying just on the language in the PUD Ordinance. Hanauer reminded the Commission that there has been a request for a mixed use development at the former Olympic Printing site. Grimes said that the Comprehensive Plan designation for that site is Light Industrial. With this Light Industrial designation, a Mixed Use PUD could not be built on the site. Keysser asked if the City could have a mixed use Comprehensive Plan designation without having a mixed use zoning category. Grimes said that is something the Council will have to decide. He added that this proposed Mixed Use designation is only proposed to be applied to the Olympic Printing site at this time. A mixed use development could go forward by the PUD process. . Kluchka asked if in the meantime the Commission could work on a Zoning Code definition as well. Waldhauser added that the Zoning can specify more details than the Comprehensive Plan language. . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 Page 6 Eck asked if certain areas would be designated for mixed use as it comes up, or if the Commission is deciding which areas should be designated mixed use. Grimes stated that right now they are just looking at the proposal for the Olympic Printing site. Kluchka asked about the order of things and where changing the zoning of the property comes in. He asked if the City wants to wait for applicants to ask for this mixed use category or if we want to proactively say how we want areas to look. Cera asked if all the uses in the proposed language were defined somewhere else in the Comprehensive Plan. Grimes explained that the proposed language doesn't say that we are excluding any uses and that the zoning language can be more flexible. Keysser asked how the City would say no then if a used car lot wanted to come into a mixed use district. He said he was concerned that if the definition is too broad the City can't say no. Grimes said he understood his concern but that certain types of commercial uses wouldn't work in a mixed use area. Hanauer added that is why it is important to set parameters in the Zoning Code. Grimes stated that it can also be controlled through the PUD process. McCarty suggested striking the last sentence that talks about the uses. Cera suggested "such as" before listing the uses. Keysser said he is fine with the proposed definition. Grimes suggested that the Commissioners think about the language and call staff with any suggestions. Kluchka said that if the Comprehensive Plan trumps the Zoning code then they need to take the language very seriously and make their intentions known. McCarty agreed and said that is why he would like to strike the last sentence or say that it excludes certain uses. Grimes said he would talk with the City Attorney and bring the language back for a public hearing in the near future. 4. Reports on Meetings of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, City Council, Board of Zoning Appeals and other Meetings Schmidgall reported on the May 16, 2006 City Council meeting. He stated that the Council approved the Doolittle's PUD Amendment, denied the 621 Turners Crossroad subdivision request and approved the ordinance to allow accessory use in non-residential zoning districts. 5. Other Business Cera stated that he would like to have a joint meeting with the City Council to talk about in-fill developments. Keysser stated that the Council is planning on talking to them about in-fill developments and subdivisions. . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission May 22, 2006 Page 7 Election of Officers MOVED by Eck, seconded by Cera and motion carried unanimously to keep the same slate of officers, Keysser as Chair, Waldhauser as Vice Chair and Eck as Secretary. The Commission decided that Waldhauser will continue to be the Planning Commission representative to the Board of Zoning Appeals until someone is appointed to the vacant Board of Zoning Appeals position, then McCarty will become the Planning Commission representative to that Board. 6. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm.