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MSP Assisted Living Proposal - - Planning Case 559-99 • July 21, 1999 , Page 3 • Staff spoke with a representative p from Chandler Place, an assisted living facility in St. Anthony, Minnesota. The city requires one space per every five beds and one space per employee on the largest shift. The representative indicated that there is often a parking shortage at the facility, which shares the parking lot with a nursing home. During these periods, however, there is on- street parking available to accommodate overflow, an option that is also available in Mounds View. Mounds View's code requires that all required parking for a use be accommodated on-site, yet does not prohibit vehicle parking on streets where parking is allowed. Given this and the availability of additional spaces on site, parking should not le an issue of significant concern at this point. Access: This use as proposed would take sole access from County Road I. A concern was raised at the Commission meeting about how delivery vehicles--semi tractor trailers in particular--would be able to perform a safe entry and exit from the site. As currently proposed, there is only one way in and one way out of the parking lot and no room is available for a large truck to turn around. Given the number of times such a vehicle would be servicing this location--perhaps once a week, it might not be completely unacceptable to have a truck backing out from the facility. On the other hand,any time a vehicle, especially a large truck, has to back out onto a busy street is one time too many. For this reason, staff instructed the applicant to initiate discussions with SuperAmerica to see if it would be possible to tie into their rear access onto Mounds View Drive as shown on the attached • site plan, indicated with Option 1. A better alternative to this option, shown as Option 2, is to reconfigure the parking lot and add an exit onto Mounds View Drive. This would eliminate the need for any cross-access easements or agreements between the subject property and the SuperAmerica property, as well as preserve the overgrowth of vegetation that acts as a screen between the two properties. The other issue with regard to access is that there is a median between the east and west lanes of County Road I which extends just beyond the proposed entrance to the property. Because the vast majority of traffic destined for this property would be coming from Highway 10, the median would cause vehicles to either'cut in front of the median into oncoming traffic or perform a u-turn at Mounds View Drive and County Road I, neither of which would be a safe maneuver. It is not yet known whether the county would permit the median to be cut back to allow safe access, but staff would require that some alteration be made to make access more convenient. Tax Capacity: The question of taxes was brought up at the Commission meeting, pertaining to the differences in tax generation between the proposed use and an unspecified commercial use. Because of the number of unknown variables involved, it would be difficult to provide any substantial response other than the tax rates that would be used. In speaking with Ramsey County Tax Department, staff learned that a use such as the proposed assisted living facility would be taxed at the same rate as any other commercial use--2.4 percent up to the first $150,000 in valuation. From that point on, commercial uses are taxed at the rate of 3.4 percent. There is a provision in the tax code that • allows for"elderly living facilities"to maintain the 2.4 percent rate at valuations after$150,000 as well, thus the proposed use would be taxed at the 2.4 percent for its total valuation. While a commercial use may be taxed at a higher rate after the initial $150,000, it would not be unrealistic to assume that the proposed use would be"valued" significantly higher than a retail or commercial