Agenda Packets - 2005/04/25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council March 28, 2005 Regular Meeting Page 19 Director Ericson stated that this is a proposed 105-room addition to the 70-room AmericInn. He 1 stated that the site plan has an initial footprint of 81 rooms to the west. He advised that this is 2 a highly-occupied AmericInn, and this is an opportunity to capture greater use of the hotel, 3 greater use of the Banquet and Convention Center by expanding the hotel. He stated the 4 Planning Commission had looked at this issue, and there are two issues. One is the parking, and 5 there are currently 825 stalls, and would be reduced to 775 after the addition is built. The 6 Planning Commission had suggested checking with other facilities to see what their parking 7 requirements were for similar facilities. He stated he had checked with the Northland Inn and 8 Grand Rios, and they have less parking stalls for similar facilities, so staff feels confident that 9 there is sufficient parking available. He stated that the second issue is that the addition would be 10 within 12 feet to the property line, and the other line would be 30 feet, which is a standard 11 building setback. The PUD required a 50-foot building setback because at the time there didn’t 12 appear to be the need to have any reduction of a building setback. The plan that was adopted 13 with the renovation and expansion of the hotel originally, it didn’t appear that there would be any 14 further expansion of the site, so they went with a 50-foot setback. He stated that County Road 15 H is not a well-traveled road during the evening hours. He stated that the Planning Commission 16 would support the new setback. He stated the parking information from Grand Rios and the 17 Northland Inn makes staff believe the parking is more than adequate. He stated that this 18 resolution does not obligate the Council to approve the site plan when it is brought forward. 19 20 Council Member Thomas stated she hoped the speed would be slow enough on the back side 21 coming in from Highway 10 as far as visibility goes. 22 23 Dan Hall stated that it’s actually the cars that block the visibility at this time. 24 25 Council Member Thomas stated she was speaking of the cars on the road not seeing the cars 26 coming out of the parking lot. 27 28 Mr. Hall stated that the cars parked on both sides are what blocks the visibility, and once those 29 cars are not parked there, that takes away the sight block. 30 31 Council Member Gunn asked if the buildings are going to be connected. 32 33 Mr. Hall stated that they would be and there is also a third floor skyway. 34 35 Council Member Flaherty stated that parking is not the issue. He stated that traffic was what he 36 was concerned about and he asked whether there had been a traffic study done recently for that 37 area. 38 39 Director Ericson stated that they have 2003 numbers for that. 40 41 Council Member Thomas stated that since they are concerned about the 12-foot setback, whether 42 they could have the six rooms on the east side be the conditional rooms. 43 44 Mr. Hall stated that that could be arranged. He stated he is working with two different 45