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08-28-06 PC Minutes . . . Regular Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August28,2006 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, August 28, 2006. Chair Keysser 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 and Administrative Assistant Lisa Wittman. I. Approval of minutes July 24, 2006 Planning Commission Meeting MOVED by Eck, seconded by Kluchka and motion carried unanimously to approve the July 24,2006 minutes as submitted. II. Informal Public Hearing - General Land Use Plan Map Amendment Applicant: City of Golden Valley Address: 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue South Purpose: To change the General Land Use Plan Map designation for the properties at 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue South from Light Industrial to Mixed Use. Grimes reminded the Commission that at their June 12 meeting they recommended approval of adding a Mixed Use land use category to the city's Comprehensive Plan. The City Council adopted the new Mixed Use land use category at their July 5 meeting. He stated that there is now a request to consider changing the Comprehensive Plan designation for the Miner Site located at 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue from Light Industrial to the new Mixed Use land use category. Grimes stated that staff feels the Mixed Use category is appropriate in this area and it is consistent with principals defined in the 1-394 Corridor Study. He stated that a mixed use development on the property would lower the peak hour traffic issues, is consistent with the Housing Policy and that residents have said that they would like to see uses other than just office space in the 1-394 Corridor. Frank Dunbar, Union Land X, LLC, stated that he had nothing more to add to Grimes' description. Keysser opened the public hearing. Hearing and seeing no one wishing to comment, Keysser closed the public hearing. . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August 28,2006 Page 2 MOVED by Cera, seconded by Kluchka and motion carried unanimously to approve changing the General Land Use Plan Map designation for the properties at 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue South from Light Industrial to Mixed Use. III. Informal Public Hearing - Preliminary Design Plan - Union X, LLC, Miner Site - PUD No. 103 Applicant: Union Land X, LLC Address: 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue South Purpose: To allow for a mixed use development that includes approximately 218,000 sq. ft. of office space, a 74 unit condominium building and about 10,000 sq. ft. of retail space Grimes stated that by the Commission recommending approval to change the General Land Use Plan Map designation they can now go forward and discuss the PUD application for the Miner site at 700 and 800 Xenia Avenue. He referred to an aerial photo of the properties and stated that the north building is currently occupied and the south building is vacant. Grimes referred to his staff report and discussed the applicant's proposal. He explained that there will be two buildings located on this 5.9 acre site. One will consist of approximately 218,000 square feet of office space and will be 10 stories high with approximately 10,000 square feet of retail space on the first level and a parking deck. The second building will consist of a 74 unit, market rate condominium building with a parking deck which does meet the parking requirement at two parking spaces per dwelling unit. Grimes stated that the applicants have submitted a Traffic Demand Management plan and there are some things that will need to be added to it as a result of the city's consulting Traffic Engineer's review. Grimes referred to the proposed site plan and noted the large plaza area which is important because it will help draw people to the site. He stated that there will be a pond used for water quality located entirely on this property and that the applicants have done a good job with the landscaping plans. He referred to the traffic concerns in this area and said that staff feels that the traffic will function well and will be maintained at a level that they feel is acceptable for the area. He stated that staff has taken the traffic for other sites in the area into account when reviewing this proposal. Cera asked about the height of the buildings around this site. Grimes said that the office building will be shorter that the Allianz office building located to the west. He added that the Golden Hills redevelopment plan call for a step down of buildings along the corridor. Keysser referred to the Colonnade site and the large office development being proposed near this site in St. Louis Park and said that those potential developments would have to have an impact on the traffic. Grimes explained that the City is really stressing traffic Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August 28,2006 Page 3 . management plans and added that there are going to be some additional traffic improvements that have to be made on Golden Hills Drive as a result of these developments. Keysser asked how much leeway the City has regarding changes to 1-394 access ramps. Grimes said that the City could propose the changes, but it is ultimately MnDOT's decision. Noah Sly, UrbanWorks Architecture, 901 North 3rd Street, Minneapolis, Architect for the project, gave a brief history of the site and discussed the site plan. He explained that as a part of designing this project they looked at the Comprehensive Plan, the Golden Hills Redevelopment Plan, Envision documents, and the 1-394 Corridor Study. He discussed the circulation of the site and talked about how the project was changed to accommodate the traffic patterns. Sly referred to a site plan and stated that both proposed buildings address the street, but at the corner there is a public plaza, a semi-public restaurant eating area and private eating areas inside the office building. He referred to the condominium building and stated that it compliments the office building and makes for a nice transition. He added that they are focusing on sustainability by re-using the existing site, the existing two bus stops and capturing their own storm water. . Eck referred to the parking ramp for the condominium building and asked if it will be an enclosed facility. Sly said the condominium parking facility will be an enclosed, secure, above grade structure. Keysser asked why the parking ramp is proposed to be above grade. Sly said it has to be above grade because ofthe water table. Eck asked about guest parking for the condominium building. Sly explained that there will be guest parking in the parking ramp. Keysser asked if the office building will have one tenant, or multiple tenants. Frank Dunbar, Union Land X, LLC, Applicant, said it is their desire to have a single tenant. Keysser referred to a letter the City received from Canadian Pacific Railway expressing their objections to this proposal. Dunbar said he hadn't seen the letter, but would respond to it once he's had a chance to read it. Grimes said he thinks it's a standard letter the railroad sends when housing is being proposed near railroad tracks because they want buyers to be aware. Cera asked about the price range of the condominiums. Dunbar said it is a tough market right now for condominiums, but they are thinking they would be in the $300,000 to $500,000 range. He said he thinks the condominiums would be built in a second phase, later than the office building. . Cera asked about the timing of the project. Dunbar said they would like to build the office building immediately, but that they would be prudent about entering the condominium market. . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August 28,2006 Page 4 Kluchka asked the applicants if they have given any thought to having public art on the site. Sly said they would look into it. Kluchka asked if the trail could be extended to go around the proposed pond in order to make it look more like a Golden Valley park. Sly explained that there are some fairly steep grades in that area, but they would take another look at it. Schmidgall referred to the wetlands that run along the north part of this site and asked about what kinds of amenities could tie into the wetland area. Sly said he'd be open for suggestions. Schmidgall stated that most of the vegetation is along the east side and suggested that the north side be softened up a little. Grimes added that the applicants are providing a trail on the north side of the site and sidewalk connections. He said that 24% of the site is green space in a very urban setting. He agreed that some public art would be a good idea. Kluchka referred to the north side of the parking ramps and asked about how the fa9ade engages the neighborhood and if it could be more friendly and more to human scale. Sly explained that they've located the more active uses at the south east corner. He explained that they are creating a layered parking ramp to try and break up the look of the solid concrete wall. McCarty said that there are a lot of condominium projects being built in the Twin Cities. He asked the applicants if they are worried that this proposed condominium building will sit empty. Keysser asked the applicants if they have considered building rental units instead of condominiums. Dunbar said he's assured the neighborhood that there will be no rental units. He explained that this proposed condominium building will have a very unique view and it is the last parcel to be developed in the Golden Hills Redevelopment area so the view will not change. He reiterated that there will only be 74 units and that they are going to walk slowly in the condominium market. Grimes added that from the City's perspective it's difficult to demand that the buildings be condominiums and not rental units. Cera asked if the condominium building would be higher than the existing Golden Hills Office building. Dunbar said it would be slightly higher. Kluchka asked where the bike racks are proposed to be located. Sly referred to the site and plan and pointed out the bike rack location. Waldhauser asked about the traffic management strategies for managing the traffic flow. Dunbar stated that if they have a single tenant, rather than multiple tenants they will have more control over the traffic management. Grimes suggested that the language in the Traffic Demand Management plan be tightened up and use words like "shall" instead of "may". Keysser stated their major concern is traffic. Mike Kotila, PE, the City's Traffic Engineer from SEH said that there are going to be a lot of cars. He stated that he looked at all of the traffic generators in the area when he wrote his report. He said the key to making this . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August 28,2006 Page 5 site work well with the others are the access points and focusing more of the trips toward the freeway to minimize the traffic issues. He said that currently there is quite a bit of capacity on the streets and that by estimating and modeling with the best tools they have they feel they will be serving people with a level of service they will be comfortable with. Keysser referred to the Duke site being proposed in St. Louis Park and asked if that traffic will go onto Xenia. Kotila said that traffic will be focused to the freeway as well. John Hagen, Traffic Engineer at SRF Consulting, stated that their firm is working on this project and is studying the traffic on the project to the south. He said that a significant amount of traffic is predicted to use 1-394. Keysser noted that there are a number of references to constructing new ramps to 1-394 and asked if that is something the developer does or if the City can do it. Hagen explained that generally with those types of projects, the City can petition MnDOT to do the work, but they are under MnDOT's jurisdiction. He clarified that they are not proposing to add additional lanes to 1-394, just access ramps. Keysser opened the public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one wishing to comment, Keysser closed the public hearing. Eck said that it is obvious that a very large amount of planning had gone into this proposal. Schmidgall said he is inclined to recommend approval of this proposal. Keysser agreed and said he was very impressed. Kluchka said he would like it to be made clear that the office building parking ramp can be used by for parking by the condominium owners and their guests especially in off-peak hours. MOVED by Schmidgall, seconded by McCarty and motion carried unanimously to recommend approval of the requested PUD to allow for a mixed use development that includes approximately 200,000 sq. ft. of office space, a 74 unit condominium building and about 15,000 sq. ft. of retail space with the following conditions. 1. The 27 sheet Miner Site Plan Submittal prepared by UrbanWorks and dated 8/22/06 shall become a part of this approval. 2. The Union Land X, LLC Application for Preliminary PUD Plan and attachments shall become a part of this approval. 3. The Miner Site Redevelopment Travel Demand Management Plan (Draft) prepared by SRF Consulting Group, dated June 2006 shall become a part of this approval. 4. The Memo from Deputy Fire Marshal Ed Anderson to Mark Grimes, Director of Planning and Development dated August 2, 2006 shall become a part of this approval. . . . Minutes of the Golden Valley Planning Commission August 28,2006 Page 6 5. The Memo from City Engineer Jeff Oliver, PE, to Mark Grimes, Director of Planning and Oevelopment dated August 24, 2006 (with attachment) shall become a part of this approval. IV. Reports on meetings of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, City Council, Board of Zoning Appeals and other meetings Waldhauser stated that the 1-394 Corridor Advisory Group met last week and the consultants from URS are ready to put together their final report. Keysser stated that he talked to Jeff Oliver about coming to a future Planning Commission meeting to discuss storm water issues. Grimes suggested having Oliver come talk to them before one the Planning Commission meetings in October. V. Other business Subdivision Ordinance and Infill Housing Development - Lot Splits Keysser said he would like to continue discussions on the Subdivision Ordinance and infill housing at their September 25 meeting. VI. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.