#15 - Inwood 8th Add Prelim Plat, PUD & Comp Plan Amend

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Inwood Townhomes Page 2 • Traffic Concerns. o Included in this resubmittal is a Traffic Review of the Inwood Development executed by SSTS, LLC. The conclusion of this analysis is that the traffic volume shows less intense traffic volumes than those previously studied in the 2014 Traffic Study for the Inwood development. No adverse traffic impacts are anticipated on surrounding roadways and intersections. Traffic from the proposed development is anticipated to be primarily to/from the south (I-94 and retail) and west (I-694 and retail) with very low demand to use Island Trail through the neighborhood to the north. Additionally, Island Trail is designated as a Minor Collector per the City’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan and was designed and built accordingly. • Turn Lanes. o The engineering memorandum indicates that turn lanes should be added along Island Trail for both the east and west access locations, each having more than 35 units. The Inwood Preliminary Plat contemplated a very similar site design to what has been submitted with this application with a similar number of units, and Island Trail was designed and built to accommodate this plan. No turn lanes were required at that time. There is not sufficient room to accommodate turn lanes, and this would result in ripping up previously constructed sidewalks. Additionally, the adopted Lake Elmo Engineering Design and Construction Standards Manual do not require a turn lane for developments with 35 units or more. • Design Comments. o The staff report states that vinyl is prohibited, but the Lake Elmo Design Guidelines and Standards Manual state that materials which are prohibited as the primary façade material include vinyl. This indicates that vinyl is allowed but must be secondary to the primary building materials outlined in said manual. We would agree to use Hardie siding for the board and batten on the townhomes but would not be amenable to using this material for the entire façade for a number of reasons. First, Hardie requires more maintenance than vinyl including painting and caulking. This would increase Homeowners Association dues and maintenance. Vinyl breathes well, has a higher energy rating, and there is almost no possibility of water intrusion with no requirement to paint or caulk. Second, Hardie would add a significant cost increase, as much as $7,000 a townhome, where buyers see little to no value in this change in material. We have provided a breakdown of the percentage of vinyl the townhomes would incorporate if we used Hardie for the board and batten, and the total percentage would be 42.6% vinyl, with the front elevation consisting of only 30.7% vinyl. We have also included a rendering of the apartment building from the 5th Street side in response to a comment about the apartment design. • Landscaping. o We added additional entrance landscaping as well as a landscape feature in the middle of the site and buffering from the bank parking lot. While there is not a tree proposed exactly every 50 feet along the private streets, the ordinance reads that a minimum of one tree per lot or one tree for every 50 feet of street frontage, lake shore or stream frontage, or fraction thereof (whichever is greater) shall be planted and specifies that such trees may be clustered or placed at regular intervals to best complement existing landscape design patterns in the area. We also meet the requirement of providing a minimum of five trees per acre of disturbance in addition to the aforementioned requirement. C O M P R E H E N S IV E P L A N A M E N D M EN T With the 2040 Comprehensive Update (well after the entire Inwood site had an approved preliminary plat), a portion of the site to the west of Island Trail was re-guided from High Density Residential to Mixed Use Commercial, and the east side of Island Trail remained High Density Residential. This Land Use Guide Plan change was inconsistent with the approved preliminary pat for Inwood At the time of the Inwood PUD approval the City of Lake Elmo allowed the blending of densities across parcels. Since, then, however,