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HomeMy WebLinkAbout072820PCMinutesCity of Falcon Heights City Hall 2077 Larpenteur Avenue West Minutes Planning Commission Meeting Tuesday, July 28, 2020 7:00 PM NOTE: THIS MEETING WAS HELD BY WEB CONFERENCE A. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Chair John Larkin at 7:00 PM. B. ROLL CALL: Present: Larkin, Williams, Kotelnicki, Gerich, Wilson, Phillips (new) Absent: N/A Present Staff and Council Liaisons: Staff Liaison Markon, Council Liaison Gustafson There was an introduction by a new member, Scott Phillips. C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: June 23, 2020 The minutes were approved by roll call, 6-0. D. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS There were several announcements and discussions that took place including: Chair Larkin asked Liaison Markon if there was any news from Dino’s regarding the drive-through request. Liaison Markon said that he has not heard from Dino’s. Wilson asked Liaison Markon if he had an update on the TIES Building (the Amber Union project), if they were starting to work on the project. Markon responded that he was not sure when work will begin. He said we are anticipating January 2021 for when they will get their needed State Bonding money for affordable housing. That money is different from the State Bonding money that, for example, the University of Minnesota and the Cities get for projects. That is different Bonding money than the affordable housing bonding money. The affordable housing money is given out administratively twice a year without much special guidance from the Legislature. Markon continued by saying that we are anticipating the Amber Union getting their Bonding money in January 2021 and then beginning demolition and some of the contamination cleanup (remediation) in Spring of 2021. Some grants have already been received for the cleanup and more grant money will be anticipated. Markon said that after the Spring demolition and cleanup, construction will be expected to start in Summer of 2021 and continue for about a full year. If everything stays on schedule as anticipated, we could expect an opening sometime in Summer/Fall of 2022. Larkin said that most on the commission would have noticed that the Hendrickson housing development is open. His wife met one of the new tenants. The development may have a couple new tenants now, but not many more. Markon commented that one of the new tenants asked about absentee voting. Also he offered that he hoped that the building will fill up soon. Larkin asked for any other announcements, information or questions that anyone on the commission might have. Markon answered that the CTV broadcast will end following the adjournment of the formal meeting, but the meeting will continue in a workshop setting that will discuss variances, zoning code review and the vacant building ordinance. All those discussions with be for purely informational purposes. He said that no formal decisions with be made during the workshop. Gerich asked Markon if he was going to mention the garden subcommittee work. Markon said he could give a brief update. Since the garden subcommittee met over a month ago towards the end of June. The full group got together after the 4th of July and had another meeting on the 15th of July. The subcommittee discussed where they wanted to take the process. For tomorrow’s sub-committee discussion on Zoom (July 29th) they will be talking about an initial public feedback process for what residents may want to see in an ordinance. They want to put some feelers out to the committee and ask them what they think about residential gardens, community gardens and all aspects of those. Markon deferred to Gerich and Liaison Gustafson (sub-committee members) for any thing that they would like to add to the subject. Gerich said that the only thing he would add is that the sub-committee will be taking the draft to the Planning Commission for review, so that would be coming probably for the next month’s meeting. Markon responded that it depends upon how the timeline shakes out. He thinks that the Planning Commission could have a look at a draft ordinance soon. Hopefully the sub- committee will be able to write something up by the next meeting of the Planning Commission and they can take a look at it. Larkin asked if there is a discussion on how the engagement is going to work? Is it going to be a blast e-mail to everybody asking for feedback, or a public meeting announcement where people will attend in person to give feedback? Markon said for this initial process he is anticipating that it will be online only. Even though like the later part of what we did for native landscaping where we had the brief survey, this feedback process will be a little bit more involved than that. Markon says that he is anticipating a long series of potential options for folks to mull over. It will likely be purely online, a passive way for folks to go on their own and put their thoughts down. When we get to the public hearing part of the process we will be taking live feedback and some back and forth. Markon said that he would anticipate that a public hearing would not take place for another couple months. There might be other opportunities for feedback along the way. Chair Larkin said that hearing no additional announcements, he will entertain a motion to adjourn. Wilson motioned to adjourn the public meeting. Kotelnicki provided a second. Williams, Kotelnicki, Wilson, Gerich, Phillips and Larkin approved of adjourning the meeting in a row call, bringing the regular meeting to a close. E. ADJOURN Adjourned at 7:14 PM. F. WORKSHOP AGENDA 1. Discuss Variances Liaison Markon described the variance process in Falcon Heights providing information, references and examples. A brief discussion of variances then took place between commission members. 2. Discuss Zoning Code Review Liaison Markon described the zoning code review process in Falcon Heights, citing examples. A brief discussion of zoning code review then took place between commission members. 3. Discuss Vacant Building Ordinance The Vacant Building Ordinance will be looked at in more depth. A subcommittee was formed to study the matter, made up of three members: Chair Larkin, Commission Member Williams and Commission Member Phillips. The subcommittee will meet separately and provide recommendations to Liaison Markon and the Planning Commission regarding possible changes to the current Vacant Building Code. Liaison Markon described the vacant building ordinance and the review process in Falcon Heights including priorities and who would be involved in the review. A brief discussion of the vacant building ordinance and the review procedure required for changes to both zoning and variances then took place between commission members.