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Item No: 5 Meeting Date: March 2, 2005 Type of Business: Action City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Mounds View Planning Commission From: James Ericson, Community Development Director Item Title/Subject: Concept Plan Review for a Hotel Expansion Associated with the Mermaid Entertainment and Event Center Introduction: Applicant and property owner Dan Hall is requesting concept plan review of a proposed maximum 105-room, four-story hotel addition that would be connected to the existing hotel at the south end by a skywalk system. The draft plans indicate 81 rooms with a possible 24 additional rooms to the west. The applicant desires general concept plan consideration before going to the time and expense of preparing full-scale engineered site plans Discussion: The Mermaid property is zoned Planned Unit Development (PUD) with allowed uses that include Hotel, Restaurant, Bowling, Office, Nightclub, Convention and Banquet area. While the expanded hotel would not in itself necessitate a PUD amendment, because there would be a reduction in parking spaces and a reduced setback, the PUD would require amendment for the project to proceed. Parking. There are presently 825 parking stalls on the site to serve the various uses associated with the Mermaid. The hotel expansion would eliminate 50 parking stalls. When the original hotel was approved in 2000, there was some concern about the actual parking demands given the number of overlapping uses. The PUD process provided some flexibility in determining what the actual count should be, yet staff was reluctant to stray too far form the strict application of the parking codes. In the end, a reduction of 20 stalls was approved, recognizing that there would be some overlap in parking demands. After the hotel was constructed and the banquet area completed, it became clear that there was more than adequate parking on site during all times of day and night. Last year, the nightclub (an intense night use) was closed and converted into additional conference/banquet space. This eliminated the highest nighttime demand for parking, shifting usage to the dayside where there had previously been and remains excess parking available. Mr. Hall currently leases part of the parking lot to Metro Transit as an overflow for the Park and Ride lot on County Road H. This arrangement would be terminated upon construction of the hotel addition. According to the City’s parking code requirements, a hotel would be required to provide parking according to the following schedule: one space per room plus one space per ten rooms and a space for each employee on the busiest shift. At maximum expansion, this would result in the need to provide an additional 120 parking stalls. That assumes, however, no reduction for complementary usage which for this development is quite extensive. While staff is confident that the site can support the hotel expansion without further expansion of the parking lot, it would be beneficial to have a parking consultant conduct an assessment for confirmation prior to formal development review plan adoption.