07-25-2007 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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The visual impacts to the adjoining property will be dealt with as a part of the Planned Unit Development (PUD) rezoning and plan review process that is expected to occur in the August planning cycle. As a part of that application, the City will require that the applicant submit complete building, utility, grading, and landscaping plans that detail the impacts of the proposed project, and how those impacts will be addressed. Under the Comprehensive Plan amendment request, the City should address land use - related impacts at this time. St. Jude Medical has been one of the City's most prominent businesses for some time. The expansion of their office /laboratory campus onto the existing athletic fields would not appear to raise concerns related to conflicts with surrounding land uses, with the potential issues related to building proximity and visual impacts to the twinhome development to the west. As noted, the related traffic issues for County B2 will also need to be addressed. Apart from these, the primary issues appear to relate to site planning details of the project itself. As noted above, these issues will be addressed during the PUD reviews at the next stage. Summary and Recommendation The proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment appears to be reasonably consistent with the surrounding land uses, and is supported by several policy statements in the Comprehensive Plan related to business development and employment within the City. With the note that traffic issues and visual impacts on adjoining land uses must be addressed as a part of any PUD consideration, planning staff recommends approval of the proposed land use plan amendment from Public to Regional Commercial for St. Jude Medical. Pc: Kathy Glanzer Steve Westerhaus Lee Elfering Steve Dorgan, Cressa Partners, 80 S. 8th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402 Jason Berkas, St. Jude Medical, One Lillehei Plaza, Little Canada, MN 55117 2