12-11-17 PC Minutes - Comp Plan Special Meeting of the
Golden Valley Planning Commission
December 11, 2017
A special meeting of the Planning Commission was held at the Golden Valley City Hall,
Council Conference Room, 7800 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, Minnesota, on
Monday, December 11, 2017. Chair Baker called the meeting to order at 7 pm.
Those present were Planning Commissioners Baker, Black, Blenker, Blum, Brookins,
Johnson, Segelbaum, and Waldhauser. Also present were Planning Manager Jason
Zimmerman and Associate Planner/Grant Writer Emily Goellner.
1. Comp Plan Work Session — Land Use
Zimmerman reviewed the schedule for completing the Comprehensive Plan update and
pointed out that the early part of 2018 would be spent reviewing draft chapters of the plan.
He summarized some of the feedback he had received regarding the land use plan,
including concerns that it was hard to capture all of the areas of the City where passive
and active open spaces uses mixed on the same parcels. One solution would be to
generalize all of the open space on the Future Land Use Map and allow the individual
park plans to specify locations for passive uses. Baker emphasized that it was important
to recognize the passive use area so that they were not assumed to be unimportant and
would be protected as future changes took place. Others agreed and Zimmerman said he
would look at additional ways to make this point in the chapter.
Zimmerman displayed changes that had been made to the land use plans since the last
conversation in October. Goellner pointed out a few areas along Highway 100 that were
excess highway right-of-way properties and needed to be guided for future uses other
than right-of-way. All but one were targeted to be low intensity residential. The property at
300 Turners Crossroad was large enough that there were potentially options for other
uses there. The Commissioners discussed the possibility of preserving the area as open
space, using it for single family homes, or building attached housing. All agreed a broader
community engagement process should be used to get the input of the neighborhood to
the west.
Staff discussed a potential redevelopment project at 2445 Winnetka Avenue and
suggested the proposed medium intensity residential use might be a better option than
the commercial use that had previously been discussed.
Zimmerman presented an effort to distinguish between "neighborhood" and "community"
level flex use/mixed use nodes on the plan. Goellner reviewed some revised land use
categories that distinguished between the two and asked for feedback. Zimmerman
pointed out which nodes were being targeted for neighborhood-level activity and which
were marked for community-level activity. He also reviewed a chart showing the preferred
housing/job breakdown within each area.
Special Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission
December 11, 2017
Page 2
Questions were asked about how the zoning would work to support the vision of the land
use plan. Staff described some ideas, including targeting specific uses for the two scales
of mixed use development, utilizing site design standards that are already in the I-394
Mixed Use district, and creating a Pedestrian Overlay to help encourage good design and
exclude auto-oriented uses such as gas stations along certain road corridors. Goetlner
pointed out that all of the mixed use nodes were in areas where redevelopment was
either likely or encouraged to occur. Blum asked if there would be more detailed plans for
any of the areas in order to guide redevelopment. Zimmerman noted that the four
Planning Districts on the draft Land Use Plan would be described for planning purposes,
but there would also be more detailed descriptions for small areas or specific parcels
within the Districts. He also discussed a few opportunities for further planning, including
money in the 2018 City budget to create a plan for the downtown and work being done
around the Golden Valley Road light rail station as part of the Bottineau Community
Works project at Hennepin County.
Blum expressed some concerns that the mixed use nodes were too segregated and that
perhaps larger areas should be designated as mixed use in order to allow better
coordination. Zimmerman reminded the Commissioners that the four Planning Districts
that were initially discussed would provide guidance, but that there were many properties
where change was not being encouraged. Blum said he was not convinced that the
industrial properties that were being preserved were as valuable as he was being led to
believe, and that there may be greater value in seeing them redevelop. Blenker said she
was worried there was not enough residential density proposed to support the amount or
retail that the Commissioners indicated they wanted. Baker suggested that the
Commission and staff continue to seek expert feedback from sources such as the Urban
Land Institute for the City's planning purposes. Goellner added that experts at the last
feedback session with Urban Land Institute noted that revitalization of the existing Golden
Valley Shopping Center holds significant opportunities and that it is beneficial to keep that
property guided for commercial use.
2. Comp Plan Work Session — Transportation
Goellner displayed some of the maps that were generated as part of the work on the
Transportation chapter, including a functional classification map and maps showing the
projected levels of congestion on roads in Golden Valley in 2040 based on population
growth and the draft land use plan. She also discussed the Highway 169 Mobility Study
and what it might mean for future bus rapid transit along Highway 55.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:52 pm.
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Ron lum, Secretary Lis Wittman, Administrative Assistant