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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2.27.2024CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS Planning Commission City Hall 2077 West Larpenteur Avenue MINUTES February 27, 2024 at 7:00 P.M. A. CALL TO ORDER: 7:00 P.M. B. ROLL CALL: Scott Wilson _X_ Laura Paynter _X_ Jacob Brooks _X_ Mike Tracy _A_ Jim Mogen _X_ Rick Seifert _X_ Jake Anderson _A_ Staff Liaison Lynch _X_ Council Liaison Meyer _A_ C. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Paynter requested moving item E2 to item E1, and E1 to E2. A motion was made by Commissioner Brooks to approve the agenda with this change. Agenda was approved by consent. D. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. January 23, 2024 – Regular Meeting 2. January 23, 2024 – Workshop Commissioner Brooks made a motion to approve the minutes from the January 23, 2024 regular meeting and from the January 23, 2024 workshop. Minutes were approved by consent. E. PUBLIC HEARING 1. Hollywood Court Permit Parking Petition Chair Wilson invited Staff Liaison Lynch to give an overview of the permit parking petition for Hollywood Court. Staff Liaison Lynch explained Hollywood Court has historically had public street parking. It is a neighborhood located separate from the rest of the City’s neighborhoods, and is right behind Amber Union. Since Amber Union opened, City staff has received an increasing number of concerns from residents about cars parking on the street during the night, loitering and increasing noise complaints. The City offers residential permitted parking in several areas of the City, and it can be requested via a petition signed by 75% of owners of all residential structures in the area. Staff Liaison Lynch continued that a few considerations regarding residential permit parking includes residents will need to pay $15 per permit for vehicles one and two, and $25 per permit for vehicles three through five. The City also offers temporary permits for guests, construction and service vehicles necessary for performing work on a property, and special event parking. These temporary permits are $3 for up to two weeks. She also mentioned that additional regulations can be put on the parking, such as 2-hour parking only between the hours of 8 AM-4 PM, or 15-minute parking only unless by permit. Chair Wilson opened the floor up to comments from citizens. • Nicole Porter – 1590 Hollywood Court – Stated the residential permit parking is being seen as a last resort to fix issues they are seeing (overnight parking, overnight traffic, overnight noise). Stated Hollywood Court is very narrow and she can hear people talking from the road which isn’t a problem during the day, but it is at night. Since the issues have begun, the sheriff’s department has been called multiple times due to loitering vehicles and noise concerns from the traffic overnight, however by the time the officer arrives, the vehicle has already left. She stated she has tried to talk to Amber Union about the issue but they have been through three different management companies. She said two neighbors have contacted Amber Union and have been told it’s not on their property so they cannot manage it, and there is no proof the people on the road are Amber Union residents. She stated it is also an issue when people turn around in the middle of the road instead of going to the end, which causes headlights to shine into her home in the middle of the night. She stated if the Planning Commission looks at restrictions, they are okay with those. She stated daytime parking would be fine, and possibly 10 PM – 7 AM, permit parking only. • Judy Bailey – 1617 Hollywood Court – Stated she has lived on Hollywood Court for probably 50 years. She stated it is a sweet neighborhood and in the past they’ve organized their trash collection, but there aren’t many things that bring them all together. This issue is something that has done that, though, and especially the people close to Snelling. Stated a few years ago there was an emergency on Hollywood Court, and there were cars on both sides, and she is concerned about emergency vehicles getting through. She stated she is further down the street so she has less of the noise and trash, but she understands the first six houses are dealing with issues. She says her first concern is about the public safety vehicles, and she would love her neighbors on the Snelling end to be more comfortable. • Val Gyurci – 1607 Hollywood Court – Stated she is glad that Judy brought up the issue about trash because it’s not only noisy, but trash is being left on the curbside at the east end of the street. The second thing was a question about the permits available for guest parking. She wants to make sure the request for guest permits are coming from a resident on Hollywood Court. Staff Liaison Lynch confirmed that yes, a resident must apply for a guest permit, and that these temporary permits are also available for special event parking and service and construction vehicles that may need to access homes on the road for work. • Nicole Porter – 1590 Hollywood Court – Stated they do not have any sidewalks on Hollywood Court, and everyone has a path from the front door to the road. She stated people park in front of the paths and is emergency vehicles come in, they cannot take people out of the homes on stretchers if the path is blocked. Chair Wilson called twice for additional speakers before calling for a motion to end the hearing. Commissioner Seifert moved to close the public hearing, hearing was closed by consent. Chair Wilson then opened up the floor for Planning Commissioner comments and discussion. • Commissioner Paynter asked Staff to explain how these permits would be enforced. Staff Liaison Lynch stated residents would have to call the non- emergency number for the sheriff’s department and an officer would come out to issue a ticket. • Commissioner Mogen asked if the person paying for a guest permit also needs to have been issued a residential permit. Staff Liaison Lynch stated it’s likely not all residents will opt to get a residential parking permit, as they also have an alley behind their homes with access to driveways and garages. Because of this, if a resident was out of space back there and needed a guest parking permit, that would be allowed even if they did not have a residential parking permit. • Commissioner Paynter asked if there were other options besides the 2-hour parking and 15-minute parking, or if they could limit it to only restricting night- time parking. City Administrator Linehan stated yes, the policy which was adopted in 1991, has key suggestions for how to regulate parking, but they are mostly based around UMN, thus restricting daytime parking to two hours or 15- minutes. He recommended any recommendation to City Council be accompanied by a recommendation to add another parking category to the parking policy, such as no parking 10 PM – 7 AM except by permit only. Commissioner Paynter asked if the policy has been reviewed since 1991. City Administrator Linehan stated he would think it had been as the City has implemented permit parking in other areas of the City since then. • Commissioner Mogen noted the parking policy has two pieces, one that the residential permitting be the last option. It also says that staff should assess the nature of the problem, such as the counts there during the day and overnight, the width of the street, etc. Staff Liaison Lynch stated she does not have counts and the City is basing this off resident complaints and general issues that staff has seen flowing over from the property next door. She stated during the State Fair, there is only parking on one side of the street for emergency vehicles to get down there. She confirmed right now, two cars can be parked across from each other. • Chair Wilson asked if it could be made to be one-sided parking year-round. City Administrator Linehan stated it could be. One of the considerations with Hollywood Court is they do have alleys behind the homes that Public Works plows during the winter. Emergency vehicles, while tight, can get down these alleys for access. He stated the width of the main road is comparable to other streets in the City and emergency vehicles can get down there. Chair Wilson stated he recalls that at the end of Hollywood Court, there is no turnaround and rather you have to turn left or right and go down the alleys behind the homes. • Commissioner Seifert stated he lives on a road that has State Fair parking only on one side and parking on both sides the rest of the year, and when there are two cars directly across, emergency vehicles can still get through. It’s more of an issue when it’s that way down the full road, but he doesn’t believe it’s going to be very often this is the case on Hollywood Court for a long period of time. • Commissioner Brooks asked what would be another option before getting to parking permits. If all other options need to be exhausted, what are those other options. City Administrator Linehan stated the attempts made have been discussions with the sheriff’s office where they too brought up issues they have with the parking and idling based on complaints from residents. He stated the next option would to be to look at civil engineering to look at signage, how to make the flow correct, etc. The City’s analysis and why Staff recommends going to this system and bringing it to the Planning Commission, is because the issues are not vehicle issues. It’s the actions and activity, and the concerns are somewhat unique to this property. It’s not a city-wide issue and is an issue for these residents specifically. He stated the permits are a tool that can be used for this, and the permit parking can be revoked in the future should the need change or the residents request it. • Commissioner Mogen asked if there has been a time that permit parking has been revoked. City Administrator Linehan stated permit parking used to be all through the Falcon Woods neighborhood, however it was revoked on the north side because residents requested it be. He confirmed that this was resident- driven and not the City revoking the permit parking. • Commissioner Mogen commented that his initial feeling is all the residents in the City live as a neighborhood, and he is concerned about residents at Amber Union being considered as a “they” versus “us.” The idea of using tools of the City to exclude our neighbors from public places is also a problem. He doesn’t like using a parking permit to exclude people from an area. He is also sympathetic to the management issues of the noise and the garbage, but he does not like the idea of closing off a neighborhood due to a couple of bad actors. He also doesn’t believe that all the options have been exhausted, but he is not as stridently against this idea as he was when it was initially proposed. • Commissioner Brooks asked why Tatum and Lindig have parking permits. Chair Wilson stated those are mainly due to UMN traffic and preventing cars from parking there the whole day for classes at the University. City Administrator Linehan confirmed that was likely the case, and these permit parking areas were also by resident petition. Chair Wilson stated these are very difficult issues, as Hollywood Court is having overnight problems instead of daytime. • Commissioner Paynter appreciates Commissioner Mogen’s concerns, however the residents of Amber Union don’t really have a good reason to be on Hollywood Court at 2 AM, so she has a lot of sympathy for the residents who have taken the time to petition the City and ask for the parking permits. If the City decides to move forward with the permits, she feels the nighttime restriction makes the most sense, 10 PM – 7 AM. • Commissioner Seifert is sympathetic to the property owners who have come within their rights to come to the City with a petition and they got the right number of signatures, and he is sympathetic with the problems they are having. He does like the idea of the nighttime restrictions and hopefully that would help with a lot of the issues. He is in support of the idea. • Chair Wilson stated he sees the parking lot at Amber Union and it is never full, so he doesn’t understand why people are parking on Hollywood Court. He does agree with Commissioners Paynter and Seifert and wants to make sure they can figure out a way to help them and also make sure it is enforced correctly to hopefully correct some behavior. He asked Staff Liaison Lynch for the next steps. She stated if they want to recommend approval to City Council, she recommends making a motion to amend the parking policy to include the “10 PM – 7 AM no parking except by permit only” regulation, and then a motion to City Council to approve Hollywood Court to have permit parking with that regulation. Chair Wilson stated his only concern would be if people need a guest over right away for an emergency and they don’t have time to get a temporary permit, he doesn’t want them to be ticketed. He doesn’t know how often that would happen, though. Commissioner Paynter made a motion for Hollywood Court to be allowed to have permit parking only for nighttime hours, 10 PM – 7 AM, and direct City staff to amend the parking policy accordingly. Chair Wilson called for a vote. The motion passed 4-1 with Commissioner Mogen in opposition. 2. EVSE City Code Updates Chair Wilson invited Staff Liaison Lynch to give an overview of the EVSE city code updates. Staff Liaison Lynch stated this was something that was discussed at the January workshop. The City of Falcon Heights is part of the EV Smart Program which, for the past year, has been a resource of information on electric vehicles, charging equipment, how to make them accessible, and generally how to move the City forward with the electric vehicle movement. Right now City Code does not mention electric vehicles or electric vehicle charging equipment at all, but it is assumed it is permitted. The updates clarify that charge equipment is allowed as an accessory use in all zoning districts, and it is something the City supports. The changes to City Code are adding definitions, allowing EVSEs as an accessory use in all zoning districts, allowing EVSE parking stalls to count toward minimum parking requirements, requiring signage designating the spaces for EV charging only unless no other parking spaces available, and requiring one EVSE stall to meet ADA requirements for parking lots with 10-20 parking stalls, two EVSE stalls to meet ADA requirements for parking lots with more than 20 parking stalls. Chair Wilson opened up the floor for resident comments. Chair Wilson called twice more for speakers before calling for a motion to end the hearing. Commissioner Brooks moved to close the public hearing, hearing was closed by consent. Chair Wilson then opened up the floor for Planning Commissioners to comment and hold discussion on the topic. • Commissioner Paynter and Commissioner Seifert stated the changes looked great. Commissioner Mogen stated all the comments and changes from the workshop were captured in the changes here. Chair Wilson agreed that all comments were added. • Commissioner Mogen stated he had one comment, that he would like to, in the future, consider the idea of having non-private charging in residential areas. Staff Liaison Lynch agreed this could always be amended in the future, and as part of the EV Smart program, as the world of EVs and EVSE changes, any updates that other cities may be looking at in this realm would be provided as education to staff. Commissioner Mogen made a motion to recommend approval of the proposed ordinance to allow EVSEs as an accessory use throughout the city. Chair Wilson called for a vote. All were in favor. The motion passed 5-0. F. NEW BUSINESS 1. Cannabis Regulation Update Staff Liaison Lynch gave a brief update on the cannabis regulations. The city attorneys advise no changes need to be made at this time at the municipal level. The state is still working out administrative rules, and they do not expect applications for cannabis licenses to be available until early 2025. The Office of Cannabis Management is also still working on model ordinances. G. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Staff Liaison Report Staff Liaison Lynch stated the Larpenteur and Snelling Corridor Development Study had a focus group meeting last night with a good turnout of 25-30 people. She stated they were divided into four groups with each group having one section of the intersection at Larpenteur and Snelling to discuss. They were then divided into two groups to discuss the greenhouse and dry cleaner locations, followed by a discussion of the golf course and the multifamily house directly east of Town Square on Larpenteur. She also stated the Partners in Energy program had a community meeting last Wednesday which also had a good turnout. This is a program the City is working on with the Environment Commission, Xcel Energy, and the Center for Energy and Environment to develop an Energy Action Plan for the City. 2. Council Liaison Report - None H. ADJOURN Commissioner Brooks made a motion to adjourn. Motion was carried by consent. Meeting was adjourned at 7:46 PM.