12-14-2023 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION DECEMBER 14, 2023 2 multi-family housing development. She noted that on May 24, 2023 the City Council reviewed this proposal in workshop and provided a resolution of support to submit an application for an ARPA grant. Reuter Walson and the property owner also hosted two neighborhood meetings on June 7th and November 28th. She commented that the restaurant will be moved to the corner and provided details of that land swap. She reviewed the proposed site plan as well as the zoning code requirements for the lot combination. She stated that the City Council will hold a public hearing at its meeting next week. She invited the applicant to come forward to provide a presentation. Paul Keenan, Reuter Walton Development, commented that this is their third project in Little Canada. He stated that there is an agreement in place with Flameburger to swap properties, which makes the project possible. He noted that the restaurant is excited to move as they will be getting a new building with a patio. He stated that originally, they presented a 175 unit building with no access to Rice Street, which would have pushed all the traffic onto Demont. He stated that was a huge concern for neighbors and so they completed a traffic study and as a result made some changes to their plans. He presented the updated plans which include a right-in/right-out onto Rice Street that would be controlled by a center median in order to alleviate traffic onto Demont. He stated that they are also working with the County to coordinate the traffic lights north and south of the site. He noted that they also reduced the unit count by 15 units. Commissioner Thorson asked if there was any other motivation to reduce the unit count, outside of parking and traffic. Mr. Keenan replied that they changed the unit mix, removing some one-bedroom units to add more three-bedroom units. Commissioner Kulousek asked and received confirmation that the action tonight is for the rezoning and lot combination. Commissioner Carlson-Clark asked what else currently exists in that area. Mr. Keenan stated that there is a dilapidated single-family home that would be removed along with a service parking lot. Commissioner Masrud stated that within the C-2 zoning it states that land uses are not allowed that require an extraordinary amount of auto oriented surface parking and asked for clarification. The Community Development Director stated that when the zoning update was completed it was noticed that Rice Street had a lot of auto related uses such as car lots and other similar uses, therefore the Council felt it would be appropriate to move away from auto oriented businesses. She provided additional details on the thought towards walkability and the reduced parking requirements in order to better plan for development that fits the vision of the community.