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Under this district, the peuuitted uses are limited to "retention of lake /surface waters for municipal <br />water purposes" and "Public open space, parks, playgrounds, trails and athletic fields" and <br />"Nurseries and tree faints, but not including retail sales." Furthermore, only buildings and structures <br />necessary for the operation of the St. Paul Water Works are allowed and these must be approved by <br />Special Use Permit. This WW District would never allow or permit this type of development, since <br />this school is not for the benefit of the St. Paul Water Works. Hence the need for the rezoning from <br />Water Works to R -3 Residential Three. This rezoning will be analyzed later in this report. <br />b) Under the City's Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map, the subject property is currently designated as <br />"Regional Park." To accommodate the rezoning from WW to R -3, the applicant's must also revise <br />this land use designation from Regional Park to Residential 8+ Units /Acre. This land use change <br />will also be analyzed later in this report. <br />c) The entire city -owned site consists of 10± acres. AFSA is purchasing approximately 4.5 acres of this <br />site. The remainder will be retained by the city to be used for future open space or for park and <br />recreation purposes. The city does not have any short-teem or long term plans on what type of park <br />and/or recreation this will be on this residual 5.5 acre site, and staff is not making any <br />recommendations or comments related to this issue within this report. <br />d) The site is relatively flat with a low sloping point near the northwest end, where Mayfair Avenue <br />connects onto Vadnais Blvd. The site is relatively level off of Vadnais Blvd.; however, the site does <br />sit considerably higher than the abutting 5 -Star Estates property to the south, almost 15 -20 feet <br />higher. The proposed school building and overall site will overlook this entire mobile home park. <br />Most of this site is wooded with a majority of white pines, ranging in sizes from 10 " -18" trunk <br />diameters. The site also has number of large red or white oaks and Norway maple trees scattered <br />throughout the site. A few years ago, the site was hit with straight -line wind stouu, which toppled a <br />few of the large pine trees near the westerly edge of this site. The developers were encouraged to use <br />this area to locate the building. This same area is now heavily overgrown with a number of <br />volunteer shrubs and trees. <br />e) Density of a commercial or institutional site is calculated as a ratio of proposed buildings and <br />impervious surfaces (parking lots, drives, sidewalks, etc.) in relation to the overall size of the <br />property. The overall density for this particular site is approximately 44% of the site. Under the R -3 <br />zoning, this lot coverage (density) is typically calculated with multi- family uses in mind, and is <br />usually determined on a minimum lot area per dwelling unit method. <br />The maximum allowable lot coverage of developments in the Office, Office- Business and Industrial <br />districts is up to 90% of the site. In my opinion, this 44% lot coverage is considered appropriate <br />considering the overall size of this site, and the strategic design and layout of the building and <br />parking lot, and the demand by the Council to retain as much open space as possible. This lot <br />coverage therefore does not appear to be an issue for concern. <br />f) To obtain on -site ponding and storm -water run-off requirements for this site, the developers intend to <br />construct a new storm pond near the lower, northwest corner of the site, and also a large underground <br />stormwater chamber system near the northerly edge of the building. The design and needs of these <br />Page 2 1 °9 - <br />