06-22-2005 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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NORTHWEST ASSOCIATED CONSULTANTS, INC. 4800 Olson Memorial Highway. Suite 202, Golden Valley, MN 55422 Telephone: 763.231 .2555 Facsimile: 763.231 .2561 planners @nacplanning.com MEMORANDUM TO: Little Canada Planning Commission FROM: Stephen Grittman DATE: June 14, 2005 RE: Little Canada — PUD Permit for Social Service Office FILE NO: 758.09 - 05.18 Background and Analysis Women's Life Care Center is a service organization providing counseling to pregnant women. They are seeking approval to occupy one of the office units in the Market Square Town Offices. The Town Office project was approved as a PUD for office uses, under the condition that retail -type facilities would not be appropriate due to location and parking supply. Each unit is approximately 1,800 square feet of area, to which approximately 7 parking spaces were allocated, on average. The proposed use would include three office staff, along with one to five clients that may visit the site for counseling and other services. The hours of operation are currently limited to afternoons, with occasional evening hours. The use itself would appear to be similar to other office service uses, in which office staff meet with limited numbers of clients, often by appointment. The facility would not appear to be likely to attract large numbers of walk -in clientele. Although the parking issue may be viewed as a private matter for the Office Association, it does have implications for the public. When a site overflows with parking demand, the overflow can raise issues of on- street parking in congested locations. In this case, the location of the project area along Market Drive limits on- street parking due to the transit station. As such, the City should be careful to limit PUD permits to office uses that will not raise parking concerns. In this case, the parking demand would appear to be limited, and in keeping with the expectations for the office project. Even if the hours were to expand, the use would appear to be consistent with other office - service uses that might be common occupants of this project.