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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/07/1979 P&Z MinutesThe special meeting of the Lino lakes Planning and Zoning Board was called to order by Chairman Gourley at 8:24 P.M. Wednesday, November 7, 1979. Members present; Gourley, Schwankl, Doocy, Heath. Members absent; Reinert, Shearen, Johnson. Mr. Short, City Planner and his assistant Kevin Locke, Marilyn Elsenpeter Councilman elect, Mayor Karth and Councilman McLean were also present. Mr. Gourley stated the agenda tonight will deal entirely with housing and turned the meeting over to Mr. Short. Mr. Short noted this Board wanted to address the housing section all at one time, thelissues, inventories, the goals and the policies as well as once you determine what you want to provide and what the implementation tools should be. Housing will be considered tonight and next Wednesday night and then there will be a review and look at the present ordinances and decide what changes or amendments'should.be considered.to reflect the changes. The last step will actually be a capital improvement program which shows how the City will implement some of the changes that are suggested. Mr. Short prepared a brief housing data inventory based on Metro outlines. The outline was given to members. Mr. Short reviewed the Metro outline. His,goal was to hit the housing issues to get some direction on the issues plussatisfying therequirements of the Metro, Council. Mr. Locke said housing is a special element of any comprehensive plan. The reason Metro council has included 'it in the land plan is it relates to the problems today. Some problems are expense, (homes will probably become more expensive), kind of housing (all one type), and as the community gets older there gets to be a problem of meeting the needs of its residents. Mr. Heath asked for clarification. Mr. Locke said the idea is people at different stages of life require different housing and he further explained. There was a discussion between Mr. Locke, Mr. Short and Mr. Heath regarding younger people staying in Lino Lakes rather than moving into the City for job opportunities because the Cities are easily available by way of the interstate highway system. Mr. Locke suggested some rental property should be available for younger people who work here in Lino Lakes but cannot: afford to purchase. He continued on by saying what Metro Council had hoped to accomplish is that communities will be aware that there is a problem to understand the local implications and accept the idea that they could do something about it. Metro is looking for an inventory of existing characteristics of housing, _. some, projections of how much housing will be needed in the next ten years and then they would like to see some housing policies and some implementa- tion techniques on how community figures to make its policies come ,true. Mr. Locke referred to the Metro outline handout and explained that the in- formation comes from the 1970 census data and only gives a .hint of, what,cond itions mighttbe today and Metro wi'l l be re-evaluating. the tables after the 1980 census. �, I Specific data was discussed on the outline. i I The second table was population and Housing Projectidns, essentially past. history. The 1990 population prediction was discussed and Mr. Short said: essentially the Metro Council predicted on basis of being a irural.commun.ity and Mr. Short said that they are pasically predicting the region as a whole and the Lino Lakes portion of the pie is this. It ignores the fact than,. Anoka County is the fastest growing county, 90 Page 2 Planning and Zoning Commission November 7, 1979 Mr. Locke explained that although there may be a decrease in population there is a slight increase in households because the household encompasses a smaller number of people. The family size is smaller. The average household is now 3.2 people,: Mr. Locke explained the low income, moderate income, etc. housing categories and said what Metro asked communities to,do is to define the numerical goal for the low, moderate, etc. income household opportunities. Lino Lakes does not have a low income goal but does have a modest cost goal. One reason we do not have a low income goal is that it does not have urban services es- pecially sewers. Maybe ten years from now this should be considered. Mr. Short noted that today Lino Lakes is not required by the Land,Planning Act, to provide so much money or "X" number of low income housing but,by 1990,; Lino Lakes should be prepared to address providing this opportunity.: for the low income people. The Metro Council will be reviewing the Land Planning Act. Mr. Short explained that low income housing is generally subsidized. The modest income isnot re- quired to be adopted by any community. The state law does not require that the City provide the opportunity to make sure the units,will be built. All the City has to do is tomake an effort usually through ordinance to, allow practical opportunities for developers to build something that would qualify. This is .where we start talking about lot size and building size. When the Metro Council said that Lino Lakes should have about 93 units it meant that out of the whole region Lino Lakes should provide about 93 homes. Mr. Gourley asked if the projected 93 figure is based on a low estimated popula- tion, the number of 93 is probably low too. Mr. Short said yes, it would be nearer 130 units. This figure is new units, not including existing units. Mr. Short said this means how can Lino Lakes provide these 130 units to modest income families. Can a builder come into Lino Lakes -and not be blocked by ordinance in building this type of house. ,This would be probably a $55,000 house or Tess. Mr. Locke said this is not based on a square footage cost but saying this is a modest income priced home. Mr. Gourley said he had attended a housing meeting at Metro and was in- formed that some of the Metro areas may already be saturated with modest income housing and by appeal procedures some of this type of housing may be shifted to adjoining communities who have developable land. Mr.Locke noted that some communities have gotten together and pooled their quotas and use subsidies to attain their goals. Mr. Short noted that the goal numbers suggested were not required but just a recommendation. Mr. Gourley said the meeting he attended the Metro Council suggested that maybe approval of the Plan hinged on meeting these goals. Mr. Short said the Metro person they talked to stressed Metro Council was not trying to spread the low, modest and moderate housing out so much but trying to make Cities provide the various housing opportunities that their residents will generate. At This point Mayor Karth asked a question but it was not audible. It apparently involved Shenandoah 111. —Page 3 Planning and Zoning Commission November 7, 1979 There was.a discussion the data available was from the 1970 census. Mr. McLean felt this threw the whole project out of prospective. The whole character of our community has changed since 1970. Mr. Locke said this was the only data available.. This was kept in mind during the prepartion of this material for this evening. Mr. Short said that:if it seems that the conclusions he as reached are in error because of out dated census figures he will try .to use'IRS tax returns salary figures. He did not feel this would affect the Plan. Mr. McLean noted the 20% of the homes were built before 1940 based.on 1970 census data. He felt this was not realistic today. Mr. Locke said some of the finds are based on poor or limited data. ,Mr. McLean felt each statement such as above should be prefaced because findings are outdated. Mr. Short went through the Key Findings from the data he prepared. The pre- dominate housing is single family homes. Mr. Locke pointed out the difficu-, lities some one wouldlhave looking for multi -family housing. The second item is how much of the housing is rental as opposed to owner occupied. The 1970 data shows 87% owner occupied. It would be difficult to show a different percentage today. Mr. Short asked the Board if someone were looking for 1_, rental housing in Lino Lakes what would the Board think of the stock avail- able? Mr. McLean said "terrible", and explained in order to have rental property you need sewers (Municipal). Mr. Short noted that rental property is limited mostly to duplexes and asked what should the City do about this situation, what should be the City's goal? Mr.McLean said this had been discussed relative to land use. Mr. Short asked if there is any feeling on the types of multi -family units. Mr. Gourley said in the land use plan they did talk about some condoniniums along Highway #8 and multi -family along Birch Street or Highway #49. A map was consulted and there was further discussion by Mr. Heath that was not audible. Mr. Short felt the important issue is that Lino Lakes recognize the impor- tance of providing a variety of housing types and he will discuss providing housing for a variety of family income types. There was a discussion about Shenandoah 111 and again most of this could not be picked up. Several people were talking at one time and were too far from the mike. Mr. Gourley asked if the Board had to be specific on the multi -family areas, especially on what we plan to put in there as far as the plan is concerned. Mr. Short said not as far as the Land Use Plan is concerned but :this should be discussed with the housing plan and especially with the zoning district plan (R2, R3, R4, etc). Mr. Heath noted these area 'should be specifically zoned R2., R3, R4, etc. Mr...Short said this should appear on a zoning dis- map which would be formally adopted. by the Council. The 3rd. item continued Mr. Locke relates again to 1970 date and concerns owner occupied housing values as estimated in 1977 and is more current. Based on the 1977 estimate a fair amount of Lino Lakes housing is affordable for 27% low income and 44% for modest income. These were Metro Council figures. The question would be where do you go from there? Will you try to Page 4 Planning and Zoning Commission November 7, 1979 continue.modest cost?, Mr. McLean asked if the "Experiment" project will be, addressed? Mr. Short said later he,would like to address this. 'There will be a statement that Lino Lakes recognizes the need for lower cost housing and has lowered its lot and house size standards for this!"experiment". The size of the houses were discussed. Mrs. Schwankl noted that funding .for housing is more difficult at this time and this should be considered if these houses do not,sell well at this time. Mr. Gourley said the Board, conclusions on,the "experiment" should be based on how well these houses look, not how they sell. Mr. Short said the Plan should say that Lino Lakes provides for various cost related housing. (Low, moderate, etc.)IMr. Short asked about the Council de- cision regarding the house sezes in Shenandoah 111. Mr. McLean explained and said the reduced house size applied only to Shenandoah 111. Mr. Locke continued the next items are based on old data. (1),Overcrowding of. the family unit. In 1970 over 16% of the units were overcrowded.. This is a relatively high statistics and,p robably more than diserable.. There was also a higher % of homes inadequately plumbed. Mr. McLean felt it should be noted that the City adopted the WPC-40 code to help improve this situation. Mr. Locke said:this means that there are some homes probably built before:1940 who have inadequate plumbing -arid inadequate electrical service and will probably need updating inthe future and probably the'Ci,ty- should provide some. inspection of these houses and a -plan to pay for this up- dating if desired. Mr. Short said that Lino Lakes has historically provided single family housing for.modest cost housing needs and suggested that Lino. Lakes should continue to do this as in Shenandoah 111. This Board should come up with some policies that will say this. Mr. McLean noted he toured some housing in St. Louis and felt they were far ahead of us and further explained this statement. Item 6: the vacancyrate is not particularly appropriate for Lino Lakes but will become relevant as Lino Lakes developes. There was discussion of the rental property available and the demand far exceeding that available. Item 7 also based on 1970 data deals with the population age of Lino Lakes and is made up primarily of families with children. Mr. McLean referred to the proposed Land and Oaks development for County #14 and 35E and suggested this could be an area for multiple housing and shops. This is near the sewerline. Item #8 compares incomes with the housing cost estimates. These figures were based on 1970 data and it was felt that this situation has changed some- what. It would appear,that based on these figures there is more modest cost housing than the number of modest income families which suggests some families bought less expensive houses than they could have afforded. Mr. McLean asked about the business of supporting the services? What about encouraging higher income families or housing. Mr. Short said he had concentrated his efforts on what he perceived to be the larger of its — Page 5 Planning and Zoning Commission November 7, 1979 problems and felt the higher income housing takes care of itself. He felt setting percentages takes care of the various housing types. Mr. Short said that the statements per say will not be included in the. housing plans but wanted a reaction tothe items so that some policies, could be developed. The polices will be reviewed. Mr. Locke said from the feel that he and Mr. Short get about housing con- ditions in Lino Lakes is that the most significant problem is the question of getting a variety of housing. It appears that the amount of,low and modest cost housing meets the needs of the people but that could change in the future. There comes a point as the community grows older and the housing grows older ther will have to be a greater concern that hte housing will be maintained and kept up to date or replaced. Potential House Policies - Mr. Locke said he and Mr. Short picked and choose from some sample policies which the Metro Council produced and which seemed appropriate. 1. The City will remote development of a variety of housing types for all stages in the life cycle. 2. The City adopts Metro Councils fair share allocation for modest cost housing as it relates to this community. Mr. Short talked about adopting a percentage policy. For instance a certain percentage could apply to Urban Service 1 and,a certain percentage for Urban Service 11. In this way the City could possibly realize its.goal. There was discussion of when Urban Service 11 was proposed for. It was decided that Urban Service 11 will be implemented by 1990 probably between 1985 an; 1990. Mr. Short was to ask Mr. Gotwald if he had excluded commercial and state lots from the total Tots in Urban Service 11. Mrs. Elsenpeter.asked if by chance the City decided on providing some sub- sidized low income housing will this change our fair share low income housing alocation? Mr. Gourley said it will fulfill our allocation. She asked if it would meet our Modest cost housing? Mr. Short felt this would help. There was discussion regarding encouraging developers or discouraging de- velopers of a particular size house or size lot especially smaller houses and Tots. The next policy number 4 was, The City will be receptive. to Federal, state, local and other financial resources in an effort to promote accomplishments of the City's fair share of modest cost housing. Mr. Gourley noted that the City is already getting housing built with special low interest state or federal money. Q, 1 Page 6 — Planning and Zonning Commission November 7, 1979 The fifth policy is the City will adopt and enforce the necessary codes and inspections standards to prevent blight from occurring. Mr. McLean said the City has adopted the State Buildind Code, but Mr. Short said this probably does not include a maintenance code and Mr. McLean noted that the staff this City presently has does not allow for much in this area. Mr. Short said the statement should read something to the effect that the City will continue to enforce the State Building Code, Plumbing Code and Electrical Code and will be receptive to ideas of applying a maintenance code when the City grows to the point where it can handle the administrative end. There was more discussion on a maintenance code. Mr. McLean noted the City has a Nuisance Ordinance which seems to be a catch all for mainte enance and other problems. Mr. Gourley asked if a maintenance code was required or needed. Mr. Short said the Board should tell him if it should be included. It was agreed not to getinto this until the need arises. The last three items, Mr. Locke said may be a little "far out" but could be considered. There was discussion on Metro recommendation for lot sizes, 6,000 to 8,000 square feet for sewered lots, and no minimum size for houses. Mayor Karth gave Mr. Short and Mr. Locke the background on the lot and house size decision in Shenandoah 111. Mr. Short asked if the City looked into reducing the street frontage re- quirement. It was explained it is presently 75' on sewered Tots and 150' on non-sewered lots. Mr. Short asked if the Council would like to see any recommendation on smaller lot sizes. This will be discussed at the next meeting. There was discussion on Centerville lot sizes. Mr. Short said policies are an important part of the Land Use Plan. They should be in.conjunction with a map. The Shoreline Management restrictions were discussed in relation to building multifamily housing near our lakes. Density was discussed and what each type of multi -family housing constituted what amount of density. Mr. McLean talked about a specific instance but this was not audible. (something about for instance one acre, 18 units, etc.) Park requirements were discussed in conjunction with high density population and probably the developer would be required to give more park dedication in this instance (not necesarily land but rather the facilities.) Mr. Gourley said the next meeting will be Wednesday November 14, 1979 at 8:00 p.m. Mr. Short said the City could apply for an extension of time to complete the Comprehensive Plan. The best time to apply for the extension is when the City is sure• it cannot meet the deadline. At this time we are pretty much on schedule. There was a discussion on the progress of the Plan and what will happen at Page 7 Planning and Zoni�g Commission November 7 1979 the public hearings. Two public hearings are scheduled. Meeting nd'Rurnad, ' Topes transcribed by Marilyn Anderson. / i ` /