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Agenda Number: D.2 CITY OF HUGO PLANNING AND ZONING APPLICATION STAFF REPORT TO: Hugo Planning Commission FROM: Emily Weber, Community Development Assistant SUBJECT: Xcel Energy, 414 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55401 — Variance and CUP Amendment for site located at 13620 Fenway Boulevard North. DATE: March 16, 2021 for the Planning Commission meeting of March 25, 2021. ZONING: Business Park (BP) 60-DAY REVIEW DEADLINE: Apri130, 2021 BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF REQUEST: Xcel Energy currently owns and operates a training facility on property within the Bald Eagle Industrial Park. The site plan and conditional use permit was originally reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission and City Council in 2012 and later amended in 2017 to include a 12,000 square foot building addition. The overall site is used to train many different electric and gas utility operational disciplines, including electric distribution, substation, and gas distribution. The addition is used for indoor training exercises to compliment the electric and gas field training. The large open area of the site is utilized for hands-on training such as breaker maintenance, smaller transformers, load tap changers, direct transfer trip schemes and relay packages. The applicant is proposing to construct additional training facilities to include a "mock" transmission line dedicated to training exercises for transmission line construction employees. This requires a conditional use permit amendment to amend the site plan for utility pole locations in the conditional use permit. The transmission line is proposed to have approximately 12 poles of various types, conductor, cross -arms, and hardware. The line will not be energized but is designed to provide valuable field experience and safety training. The applicant is also requesting a variance from the maximum building height for the training poles to be 72 feet tall, where 50 feet is required by ordinance for structures and buildings. The applicant has stated that the proposed facility design has reduced pole heights by 20-40% to that of live operational transmission facilities and that the proposed heights are the minimum needed for adequate training. One of the poles is proposed to be a small lattice tower, shown as pole number 5 on the site plan.