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MEKUS STUDIOS LTD SUNSET FUNERAL HOME AND CEMETERY CONCEPT REVIEW SUBMISSION ST ANTHONY,MINNESOTA PROJECT UPDATE PROJECT UPDATE September 21,2004,the Alderwoods Team first presented to the City of St.Anthony Planning Commission their proposed design for a new funeral home and administration building at Sunset Memorial Park.This presentation was a'Concept Review`to introduce the City to Alderwood's desire to build and new funeral home in the location of the existing cemetery administration building.In order to achieve this, a few revisions were required to the current zoning designation and zoning code.The property is currently a legal non-conforming R-1 district.We asked the Planning Commission to rezone the property to R/OS(Recreation Open Space).In addition,we requested a text amendment be made to the R/OS district to allow Funeral Homes as a conditional use.Finally,we presented the proposed new funeral home preliminary drawings. The Commission expressed concern on the proposed demolition of the existing Administration Building in order to construct the new Funeral Home.The Chairman asked if we had considered other locations within the cemetery for the budding or if we had studied the feasibility of expanding the existing administration building. Also,MSL was asked to investigate possible other source for Historical Building Registries to see if this building Is listed. (Our investigation that followed the meeting did not discover any other sources that identified this building as a historic building.) October 19,2004,Sunset Memorial Park was on the agenda for a Public Hearing requesting a rezoning from R-1 to R/OS.The Asst.City Manager(Ms.Hall)made clear that this was the only topic of the Public Hearing. (She did go on to explain that we presented last month a Concept Review for a new Funeral Home and text amendment. We were initially on the agenda but asked to be pulled off the October Agenda.She informed the audience that future Concept Review presentations and Public Hearings would be required by Sunset if the Funeral Home were pursued.) OWD presented our request to rezone the property from the current non-conforming R-1 to R/OS.This is in keeping with the intent and the language of the current City Code and within Minnesota Statutes. The Chairman suggested to the commission that he would like them to entertain the idea of recommending to the City Council that the request be extended by 60 days.They voted and all agreed to recommend the extension. October 26,2004,The St.Anthony Planning Commission presented to the City Council a request for extension to the petition to rezone the property from R-1 to R/OS.The extension would be for 60 days from the application date.The City Council did not grant the 60 day extension and voted to DENY the rezoning request.The reasons stated for the denial was a lack of information regarding the impact of the zoning change on the future of Sunset and impact on the other cemetery within the City boundary that Is also zoned R-1. Although denied,the Council did not indicate this was to constitute closure to the issue of the zoning request or a proposed funeral home at Sunset.They felt there was not adequate information on this issue and that an extension would overlap an election with potentially new Commissioners and Council members replacing the current sitting members. November 2004,The City of St.Anthony formed a Planning Commission Subcommittee made up of two Interested members of the Commission.The subcommittee requested that we present our previous site studies and existing building expansion studies for their review.The subcommittee also requested that we study an alternate parking arrangement that would preserve the center mall landscaping. December 14,2004,a group from the Alderwoods team met with the St.Anthony subcommittee and City attorney to review the above requested information. During this time,Alderwoods discussed having an Open House at the existing cemetery administration building to present the new building.This would allow the nearby residents and Council Members/Commissioners to learn more about the proposed building. January 11,2005,Alderwoods held an Open House at the existing administration building.This event was well attended by both local residents and council members.Constructive and favorable comments were given to the team about the project. At this time,the City retained the services of Hess-Roise a local historical consultant. They were asked to be a"third-party consultant'to our issue. Their scope included researching the budding for any historical significance and for reasons why or if it should be considered for Historical Registry.They were asked to determine through their findings if the budding should be considered for refurbishment or it could be replaced. March 2,2005,Hess-Roise issued their findings in the form of a report This report was presented to the Planning Commission by Ms.Charlene Rolse on March 15,2005 at a special session. April 2005,The Alderwoods Team retains the services of Mr.Charles Nelson to assist with the design and with the State Historical Preservation Office review PROJECT NO.20425 Page-3 April 19,2005