HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes07_0227City of Falcon Heights
Planning Commission Minutes
February 27, 2007
PRESENT: Commissioners Long, Lukermann, Noble, Rodich, Salzberg, Watkins. Also present was Staff Liaison Deb Jones.
ABSENT with notice: Mercer-Taylor, Kuettel
The meeting was called to order by chair Rich Rodich at 7:02 p.m.
The minutes of the January 23, 2007, meeting were approved.
There were no action agenda items.
INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Staff Liaison Jones announced upcoming training opportunities for new (and continuing) Commissioners. The Government Training Services brochure has been sent by email to commissioners.
Classes are coming up soon.
Commissioner Long gave an update on the comprehensive plan. There have been nine neighborhood focus group meetings. Community feedback was presented to City Administrator Miller, who
will compile the results. In the next step the steering committee will meet with the commissions, and the committee will meet again on March 19.
The city expects to have a draft of the comp plan ready to present to the public in May or June, with official approval in July or August. Then, in September, the draft would be submitted
to adjacent cities, the school district and other required agencies for their review. The plan would be submitted to the Metropolitan Council in March of 2008.
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 7:09 p.m. to a workshop (open to the public).
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Jones, Staff Liaison
Workshop Notes:
Orientation on Variances: Staff presented a short training on variance procedures in Falcon Heights and expectations for commissioners regarding variances. Commissioners had many questions.
The orientation and accompanying discussion lasted about one hour.
Proposal for on-campus fraternity housing: Staff informed the Commission that the University is in discussions with Alpha Gamma Rho, an agricultural fraternity presently
housed on the St. Paul side of Cleveland avenue, to build a new fraternity house on the southeast corner of Cleveland and Commonwealth, just north of the Commonwealth Terrace Cooperative
student housing. The site could come under Falcon Heights’ zoning jurisdiction, depending on the terms of the agreement between the University and the fraternity. As the City has no
provision for fraternity houses, zoning provisions would have to be created from scratch and the site would need to be rezoned. (It is presently zoned for public use, with underlying
single-family residential zoning.)
The Commission held a preliminary discussion of the zoning issues related to the proposal and the steps that would have to be taken on the part of the City. The discussion included
parking and implications for group housing elsewhere on campus and in the City. The consensus (with reservations) was that a reasonable approach might be to create a special zoning
district or overlay for “university housing” on the block south of Commonwealth that includes both the proposed fraternity site and the existing student apartments at CTC. This could
serve the University’s needs and minimize the impact elsewhere in the City. Parking concerns would have to be addressed, since the site has no room for resident parking.
No concrete City action is proposed at this time. Discussions will resume if an actual application is made to the City. Staff will seek more information from the University on their
long term plans for fraternity housing on the Falcon Heights campus.
Corrected as approved 4/24/07