1d. Planning commission Minutes dated January 15, 1997Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Submitted by Kate Aanenson
Planning Director
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Joyce: How long, when would it be completed?
John Barstow: A month.
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
certain topography elevation in order to make it work, but it is nicer putting it in an industrial
park.
Peterson: Questions of staff? Is the applicant here and do they wish to address the commission?
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Peterson: Is there a second to that?
Joyce: I'll second that.
Conrad moved, Joyce seconded that the Planning Commission recommends approval of
Site Plan Review and Conditional Use Permit #96 -5 for a 150 foot telecommunications
tower and an 8 foot chain link fence as shown on the site plan received December 11, 1996,
subject to the following conditions:
The applicant shall submit a detailed landscape plan before it goes to the City Council.
2. The tower shall comply with requirements in ARTICLE XXX. TOWERS AND
ANTENNAS of the Zoning Ordinance.
3. The tower shall have a galvanized finish.
4. There shall be no artificial lighting or signage.
5. The applicant shall submit documentation at the time of building permit application
showing the height above grade for all potential mounting positions for co- located antennas
and the minimum separation distances between antennas. A description of the tower's
capacity, including the number and type of antennas that can be accommodated should also
be provided.
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Joyce: No, l don't have any questions.
Peterson: Bob.
Skubic: The fence and the barbed wire are a little different than what I expected for these sites. I
was expecting nice concrete buildings like we have for the lift stations. However in this location
here where it's between the railroad grade and the loading dock, I'm not so concerned about that
but I would like to remove the barbed wire.
Peterson: Ladd.
Conrad: Yeah the same. Barbed wire I'd just rather not have there. The only other thing, and
this seems funny that I'm concentrating on it. On the fence itself. When it's a chain link fence
and there's not a top rail to it, that seems strange to me. So again there's some minor stuff but it
doesn't look finished. It doesn't look you know, we've got a major facility here and we, I don't
know. My recommendation is no barbed wire and then to finish the top of the fence off
somehow. So it can feel more professionally looking, if that makes sense.
Peterson: One more question came to me. What I asked of staff earlier today, is there a potential,
even though this plan is not requesting it, but is there the potential for a building to be needed on
this site? The future potential. Did you hear the question?
Terrie Thurmer: Is the question is do we need a building:'
Peterson: Potentially. Is there the potential to need a building in the future?
Terrie Thurmer: No. The equipment that we're using... it's all the quality control inside the
building. There is no need for a building. With cellular towers they had to have the air
conditioning and all of that. These are self contained. We don't ever need a building with what
we're proposing tonight.
Peterson: Okay. My only comments would be that the detailed landscape plan be completed and
agreed to by staff before it goes to Council. With that, is there a motion?
Conrad: Sure. I'll make a motion the Planning Commission approves Site Plan Review and
Conditional Use Permit #96 -5 for the 150 telecommunication tower and an 8 foot chain link
fence as shown on the site plan received December 11, 1996, subject to the conditions of the staff
report with the following changes. Number 1, you're to add on the words before it goes to the
City Council and then I'd add, I guess point number 6. That there is no, that the fence does not
have barbed wire and that the fence has a better finishing top to it. Boy, isn't that well worded?
Peterson: Very well.
Conrad: Yeah thanks.
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Joyce: I'll just, for what it's worth, as far as the landscaping.
Al -Jaffa Pardon?
Joyce: I said for what it's worth as far as the landscaping and the arborvitae. I went away for
Thanksgiving and came home and I had six beautiful arborvitaes in my back yard completely
stripped by deer. Not a leaf on it. So I wished they develop my area behind my house so no deer
come running through. I'm just throwing that out.
Peterson: No more questions? Does the applicant or their designee wish to address the Planning
Commission?
Terrie Thurmer: Hi. My name's Terrie Thurmer and I'm with Steven Bernstein and Associates.
Their address is 7625 Metro Boulevard, Suite 235 in Edina. I'm here tonight on behalf of Sprint
PCS and I worked with your former planner, John Rask on the draft of your recently adopted
ordinance from November. I just wanted to let you know that our proposal does meet all these
requirements and it will be in compliance with all of the performance standards of the city,
including the landscaping plan. As for the barbed wire, we don't care. if you want to not
approve the barbed wire, it's not a big deal at all. My preference personally is it's ugly but you
do what you want to do. With me tonight is Jason Funk. He's the sight selection specialist with
Sprint PCS and if you have questions related to this specific site, he'll be glad to try to answer
those. And I just wanted to add that the presentation in the staff memo by Sharmin was very
thorough and I'm not going to be redundant. I just wanted to like to add that both SBA and
Sprint PCS are in agreement with all the conditions, modified, being recommended by staff and
ask if you have any questions for me or Mr. Funk.
Peterson: Questions.
Terrie Thurmer: Thank you.
Peterson: May I have a motion to open this for public hearing.
Conrad moved, Farmakes seconded to open the public hearing.
Peterson: Anyone wishing to address the Planning Commission, please do so now. Seeing none,
is there a motion to close the public hearing.
Farmakes moved, Conrad seconded to close the public hearing.
Peterson: Comments from commissioners. Jeff.
Farmakes: I don't have any questions.
Peterson: Kevin.
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Sharmin AI -Jaff presented the staff report on this item.
Farmakes: These power lines that come out here...
Al -Jaff: It would blend in with existing electric poles that are behind that building. There's a
row of electric poles back there. It doesn't have the reflection. When the sun shines on it, it
won't be that bright reflection that you would see.
Aanenson: Similar to what we did on the pedestrian bridge. We explored painting that. We
actually looked at the two and there's actually less reflection when we left it. If you look at it,
that actually kind of blends into the sky.
Al -Jaff: That's all I had, thank you.
Peterson: Are there questions for staff?
Conrad: is there barbed wire on this fence?
Al -Jaff: On?
Conrad: On the fence.
Al -Jaff: On the fence. The last of the fence, it is barbed wire. There are three strands of that.
Conrad: And that's legal?
Al -Jaff: Under a conditional use permit. It has to be 8 feet, yes. Actually I had to look that one
up because I was under the impression that we couldn't do that either and I discovered that yes,
they are permitted to do so as long as they apply for a conditional use permit. And as long as it
doesn't, the overall height does not exceed 8 feet.
Peterson: Meaning we don't have to approve the conditional use permit for the barbed wire.
Aanenson: And findings why you don't want it, sure.
Conrad: I guess I'd have to defer to staff's judgment on this. On barbed wire but I've never seen
barbed wire on anything in Chan in the last 12 years so.
Aanenson: We had one and we went to litigation on it. A residential area.
Conrad: Really? It just, somebody could make a case I guess but, and actually this was not the
one. The next one coming up with barbed wire is more of a concern to me but again I guess that
one sort of bothers me.
Peterson: Other questions?
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Joyce: So how's this going to City Council?
Conrad: The way you see it. The staff will work on it. They'll probably, I would assume the
developer will have one firm plan presented. 1 would assume the developer and the staff will
incorporate many, well I hope they'd incorporate some of the things that we've been talking
about. You know I've got some issues on Bluff Creek and issues on gathering spots and what
have you and Kevin you've got issues on, you've got a lot of issues. They probably can't
incorporate those but views and vistas and design. You know my assumption would be that
there's going to be some work done by the developer and staff to make the presentation a little bit
more solid to the City Council. My hope would be that the City Council expresses some kind of
opinion about whether a PUD is appropriate here, and the densities. That's my, because there's
no use in us screwing around with it if the City Council is not prone to doing this. And a lot goes
back to communication that's had in the past and expectations and see how sensitive they are.
They are the elected body and I guess 1, normally I'd want to send up something a little bit better
and I'd want to see what it is but right now I think there's some overriding issues that no matter
what we do in terms of sending them a prettier piece of paper, the overriding issues may be more
important than the specific detail that we have.
Joyce: I agreed with your position on not tabling it. I think bringing people back in every
Wednesday night to try and figure this thing out is not right. I feel that what you're saying
though is a neutral stance and I can't vote for that so I have to take a negative stance to that.
That's my reason.
Peterson: My primary reason for voting nay is simply I would rather send a cleaner plan to, and
ensure that the clean plan is going to Council prior to that and I can empathize with your
position. I'm almost on the fence but I'm more biased towards sending Council a cleaner plans
for them to review prior to. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate the comments.
PUBLIC HEARING:
SBA. INC. REOUEST FOR CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT AND SITE PLAN REVIEW
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A 150' TELECOMMUNICATION TOWER TO BE
LOCATED AT 1455 PARK ROAD.
Public Present:
Name
Gary Goll
Jason Funk
Terrie Thurmer
Doug Cowan
Michelle Johnson, APT
Address
1455 Park Road
2900 Lone Oak Parkway, Eagan
7625 Metro Blvd., Edina
1701 East 79 Street, Bloomington
1701 East 79 Street, Bloomington
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
And I don't want to, personally I don't want to screw around with it. If we don't see a
commitment on their part to even consider this. So my recommendation would be to so note this
case and to have staff. I'm not making a motion right now, but I'm telling you if Kevin's doesn't
pass. I would so note this without a recommendation pro or con but to have the developer and
staff incorporate our comments and prepare better material for the City Council to review. And
to get their feedback. We are in the concept plan right now and I think, I'm really interested in
how much more time we want to use if the City Council's not interested in exploring a PUD. If
they're not, I really don't want to, I don't want to fine tune this because we're going to be wrong.
And these folks are going to be back and I guess my perspective is they should hear what the City
Council has to say.
Joyce: Kate, this is not binding then? If this goes to City Council and they approve it, we can
really come back to square one again, is that correct?
Aanenson: Absolutely.
Conrad: Yeah, we're not committing to anything Kevin.
Joyce: Well that's my motion.
Peterson: Okay. Is there a second? Is there another motion`?
Conrad: Yeah, I'd make the motion that the Planning Commission notes this planning case,
whatever it is staff, and recommends that the staff and developer works to prepare better
materials for the review by the City Council and to incorporate the recommendations that they
heard tonight by the Planning Commission and to eliminate or to work out many of the 50 some
points that were addressed in the planning staff's report.
Peterson: Is there a second to that motion?
Skubic: Second.
Conrad moved, Skubic seconded that the Planning Commission notes PUD #96 -4, The
Highlands, and recommends that the staff and developer work to prepare better materials
for the review by the City Council and to incorporate the recommendations that they heard
by the Planning Commission and to eliminate or work out many of the 50 some points that
were addressed in the planning staffs report. All voted in favor, except Joyce and
Peterson who voted in opposition, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 2.
Peterson: Kevin, would you share with us your opposition.
Joyce: I think Ladd made a good point. I think, in my opposition I have to ask you a question.
Are you saying that you're denying this?
Conrad: I said I've noted it. No, I have not denied it.
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Jeff Farmakes' microphone was not working and did not pick up his comments.
Peterson: ...direction you could give the developer.
Farmakes: I would like to see these ... to put with, in other words not be cut off ...the point was
made to the development to the east. That's an important point... We don't want to see a wall of
high density corridor for 4 miles running down Highway 5. The point is that's probably what
we're going to see based on what proposals are coming forward...
Peterson: Thank you. My comments are not that dissimilar to my fellow commissioners. I think
that I am actually not opposed certainly to having a PUD on this property, or on these properties.
I think that there is strong potential of having that. What I have seen tonight I don't feel as
though presents me with a compelling reason to rezone, particularly we talk, Jeff mentioned the
Highway 5 corridor. I think that we are having this development in the Highway 5 corridor even
puts a higher standard on what we put on that property. That means that it needs to have a higher
standard of a uniqueness that a feel is there within the design. I think that the single family
homes were kind of left out of the conversation tonight. I do like the, I think the townhouses
have... architectural lines. From my perspective they still may be a bit dense but I like the styles
and the way they've integrated them into the contours of the land and they seem to have ... at least
a certain amount of variety and I got some sense of that tonight. Again it's conceptual but I
certainly want to see more definition to that before 1 move ahead. That was one part of the
presentation tonight that I did find interesting. I too agree that the open space is an issue. The
Hennessy property is an issue. Bluff Creek integration, or the lack of integration needs to be
worked on. ...density of the villas... closest and most visual to Highway 5 doesn't fit in there as
densely as it is presented. I too, I think we need to do some more work before we move it onto
Council. I don't think that I'm comfortable at least with... something that is still at this stage of
progress. With that, do I hear a motion?
Joyce: I'd just like to throw this motion out. I don't know how far it will get but I'd like to
throw the motion out that the Planning Commission deny this conceptual plan.
Skubic: ..discussion?
Peterson: I think we're going to need to. Comments to that.
Skubic: That would mean it would be passed onto City Council is that correct?
Aanenson: Correct.
Skubic: If we table it it would come back before us and...
Conrad: My preference is to get it to City Council. I think the neighborhood is here. They've
expressed their concerns. Their concerns will stay the same. I'm interested in where the City
Council would be in terms of their commitment to certain of the issues that this brings forward.
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
were led to believe, whatever that the lots were 15,000 square foot lots with 3 per acre. In
actuality the City's guided the 33 acres at a maximum of 4 units per acre or lots of at least 11,000
square feet. I guess I'll revert back to the first plan. 1 looked at the single family portion of the
first plan that had 34 single family homes on it and of those homes you had 5 of the 34 exceeded
15,000 square feet. 17 of the 35 were between 15,000 and 11,000. Then we had 12 of the,
excuse me, 34. 12 of the 34 were below 11,000 square feet. So even in the single family portion
of this development, over a third are below what we consider R -4 square footage. The plan also
suggests putting, not only high density in the 17 acres that it's guided for medium density but it's
actually putting 12 plexes, high density in something that's guided low density. I think that's a
stretch. 1 have a very hard time considering a proposal which is just 8 plexes and 12 plexes on R-
4 guided land. You know you're in essence doubling and tripling the guided density. I think that
really should be considered in any sort of conceptual plan. The developer's using a PUD to
distribute the density inside this project area to get it to medium density. My opinions of, or
ideas of what the intent of a PUD is, there are various that we get in our packet. Preservation,
desirable site characteristics, sensitivity development in transitional areas, create a unified
internal order. Gives us some flexibility for higher quality than a standard zoning district. It
certainly allows for diversity of housing types that the City certainly does need. I think the PUD
essence is really to enhance a property. That would be more than what normal zoning would
allow for. And I think there should be a compelling reason to have a PUD. I think that's part of
the idea of a PUD. That we're doing this for a certain purpose. The way I look at this project
however, I don't see any green space. 1 don't see any gathering areas. To me it's really not that
imaginative. It's certainly not that unique. And 1 see that the developer's using the PUD process
to kind of use some mathematical gymnastics to put as many units as he can on this property to
make it available for as many possible units as he can under the guise of a PUD. So I've got a
problem with that. One aspect of this development that is addressed through the PUD is certainly
the intent of the diversity of housing. Or I'll use that, how many letter word. More than four
letter word, affordable housing that we hear so much about. I believe that's really the catalyst for
this project. We all know the City is under a lot of pressure because of the mandate of the
Livable Communities Act. I know that the planning staff, Kate and Bob, are under a lot of
pressure by the goals that were set by the Metropolitan Council. I also know developers are
eager to build these 8 plexes and 12 plexes because they're profitable and they're easy to sell.
But if this is the only criteria we're using to develop these things and change comprehensive
plans for the sake of diversity or affordable housing, I kind of see it as the tail wagging the dog
rather than the other way around. I just, if that's the purpose for all our planning, what's left.
There's property due east of this development that is guided medium density and bigh density,
but once again going back to the PUD, I don't see the compelling issue why we have to change to
an R -4 density up to medium density with pockets of high density in this area. I also don't think
the citizens of Chanhassen that happen to live near or adjacent to an open field would have to
worry about 12 plexes being rather close to their homes because, regardless of land use, because
of this issue of affordable housing. I think the City has a comprehensive plan that should be
followed. I think my neighbors made a huge decision, certainly the biggest investment of their
life, and they use the comprehensive plan as a guide post and I think the City should live up to
it's agreement with the people who bought in this neighborhood that the comprehensive plan will
be followed. But I'm very uncomfortable moving this even past the conceptual stage and I would
vote against it.
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Skubic: March 13` it says. I concur with what Ladd has said. That we certainly need some
diversity in the city, but at the same time on this particular development we certainly are
concerned about the neighbors and preserving their investments and I think their investments are
both financial and emotional. I'm sure you're not pleased with what you see when you look out
your back yard. It certainly has a price of some sort associated with it. I think that both the
applicant and the residents have to make a better case. There is an economic sacrifice if this does
go through as proposed here. I know it's talked about on both sides but I'm not convinced that
this development will decrease the value of the homes in Windmill Run. Perhaps that can be
quantified somehow. And I also agree that the Hennessy area, the homes around it should be
single family or residential homes as opposed to what's there right now. I think I could support
something, some sort of a PUD here. Not nearly as extensive as what we have here. One of my
concerns is, when I look out from Windmill Run and I look at the knoll area and I imagine all
these symmetrical homes on a hill there that's not going to look like what you expected out there.
It's not going to look like a single family development. So that's one thing that I would hope
could be alleviated in some way so that the visual view on that knoll is more pleasing. I'm not
sure what that means, probably single family homes. There's also questions about the contour
required around Bluff Creek. I think there was a contour line of 966 feet and... from the creek to
that contour varies significantly and I understand part of it goes onto what was previously a
cultivated field and I don't understand what benefit it would be to preserve the creek to have the
preservation area extended to that area beyond the tree line. Regarding, more regarding the
density, I suspect that with this development so close to the elementary school, that we probably
would see a greater population of children in this area ... what the applicant has suggested. This is
a different geographical location than what it was compared to I suspect. I don't, I doubt that the
other ones were across from an elementary school. That's all I have to say.
Peterson: Thank you. Kevin.
Joyce: Well I'm a little more, a bit more familiar with this property than the other
commissioners I think but I will try to be as objective as I can about my comments. First off,
looking at this, maybe you fellows have more insight than I do but I'm totally confused. I've
seen three plans so far tonight and I don't know which ones to follow. I mean we got a plan
Thursday. I know I met with the developer and looked at another plan and then there was a plan
presented tonight that took into consideration the Bluff Creek easement and I guess this is a
conceptual plan but I look at it as kind of a conceptual, conceptual plan. I'm really kind of
uncomfortable about it because I just, I think having 50 conditions like this, that the developer
really is just kind of throwing something up and seeing if we'll bite is my feeling. I would have
liked to have seen a lot more preparation. I think a couple phone calls could have reduced a lot of
these conditions. Given us a better view of what they're trying to present to us. It's very difficult
for me to take the three plans and incorporate them into something that, see what they're trying to
do here. I know that Rick Murray tried to explain it verbally but well it's an important project I
think. 50 acres with a PUD and I would have liked to have seen something a little more
organized and I didn't see that tonight. So that was just I guess a consideration of the process
itself. Specific points I'd like to address is that you have the 33 acres that are guided for low
density and 17 acres are guided for medium density. We've already heard, obviously there were
expectations from the neighborhood about what those 33 acres were to consist of. They thought,
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
tough one to deal with. I really don't want, if we ever get into housing diversity in Chanhassen,
that doesn't mean it's stamped out. It means that we have some variety here. I just don't want
to put up quonset huts when we start building more of the lower income or townhome. The
products that are selling, we don't have products in Chanhassen that are selling right now so
that's why Rottlund's considering this. To put up things that are selling. That doesn't mean we
have to take it. It's got to fit but on the other hand, we need the design alternatives and that's
why I was asking some of those questions on design alternatives. I've got to be positive we're
not putting in blocks here. There has, and I just have to be positive about that. Every time we
preach bringing in denser things and every time you see it on paper it looks awful. 1 tell you, it
scares you when you see it all of a sudden, you see them all and you say well is that creative and
is that whatever and it makes me nervous. Yet on the other hand, there's some nice things to
what I saw. The overall, if we were to go forward with this, the overall density or the overall
quantity of housing has to be under what it was originally guided for in terms of density, and I
think the developer's coming back and saying those things so that's maybe not appeasing to the
neighbors but it has to fit into what it originally was guided for, overall. The Hennessy property
has to be incorporated. I think I heard some things that it is, but it, I wish it was part of this
overall property. It looks like it's going to be a chunk out there that's not incorporated but that
incorporation is important. The totlot was an issue with me. I really like, again you want places
for people to recreate and gather and do those things. Whether it's the totlot or a gathering place,
again every time you see a footprint of stuff like this, you say well where are people going to go?
Well that leads me to the Bluff Creek aspect and Bluff Creek is the biggest asset this project has
and I didn't see how it fit. There are a lot of words here that said we've got to do things but I just
didn't see how Bluff Creek fit into the overall plan of this and that's got to come back. We have
to see how it's integrated. We have to see how it becomes an amenity to Chanhassen and to this
development and to everybody in the area. I need to see the Park and Rec recommendations on
this also, and I don't think they've met yet. That's just, again that always bothers me when we
don't get to see what they are talking about and incorporating it into what we see. We have to
turn the ponds in this property into an asset. The holding ponds rather than just being there so I'd
like to see how those can be turned into an asset. Those are my comments Mr. Chairman. Those
are my comments.
Peterson: Bob.
Skubic: I have a question of staff regarding the 92 twin homes. Is that still a possibility if this
does not go forward?
Generous: Sure, they can come in and final plat that.
Skubic: Thank you.
Aanenson: It does expire in.
Generous: In March.
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
children will be out with the other children in the neighborhood riding their bikes in the street. I
think by extending the road of Windmill Drive into this new development, it will severely impact
the overall affect of traffic increase in our neighborhood. What I think that does is a bigger issue
than what we're talking about here, which is density. It puts my children and other children in
danger and I am very much against that as a part of this overall development, so I would urge you
to take my comments under consideration and hopefully voting this down. We moved to
Chanhassen, very happy to live in Chanhassen but we didn't think we would be impacted by
something like this and I believe us all to be reasonable people here. I'm not here for any other
reason than to do what's right and hopefully you will be as well. So thanks.
Peterson: Before we get too much farther, I guess I'd like to pause just for a second before
anybody that would be in support of this, loses their fortitude to come forward. So if there is
anybody in support of this project, I'd ask that they come forward now. I had to ask. Anyone
else that would like to address the commission? Seeing none, is there a motion to close the
public hearing?
Farmakes moved, Joyce seconded to close the public hearing.
Peterson: The public hearing is closed. Thank you all for your comments. Commissioners.
Ladd, do you want to take a stab at this one?
Conrad: Sure. Someday we'll get this land developed and we won't have to keep meeting like
this. I appreciate, I think the last time you were in I said this and I'll say it again. I appreciate the
work and effort you've done. It's always a pleasure when people present as well as you have and
makes some good points. Again we're hit, and it's hard to tell you what we know and maybe we
don't know much up here but it's hard to get into issues and get us out by 1:00. It becomes a
balance. Obviously what we've got to do is figure this out. A few things, as I've always said, I
really support neighbors and their neighborhoods and try to meet expectations. On the flip side
of the coin, before I say too many positive things that way, Chanhassen really does have some
problems. The housing diversity is, we don't have it. We're not providing the homes that we
need to have so this plan, and I'll state up front in terms of PUD, is not bad. It's looking, if you
can do PUD's, which we never get to do. We do cookie cutter things basically. That's what we
do. That's how Chanhassen develops. Here's a chance on the positive side for Chanhassen to do
something that's a little bit different. And again I heard you say a lot of valid points. It's just
hard to not appreciate what you said. Yet, and it's easy to discount diversity but we don't get it.
We don't get developers coming in here with diversity. Period. And when you do, you've got to
take a look at it so, that may tell you, I'm not real popular today but I'm willing to look at this.
From the standpoint. There are 50 some points of staff concerns. I guess what I'm saying
tonight, I would entertain looking at this again. I'd sure be interested how City Council reacts to
that because I think, as we talked about before, there were expectations and communications
made and that always bothers me what people bought versus what we're thinking of doing if we
make a change. Specifically on the plan, the concerns, I think we've talked about them but I'm
just going to relate to my concerns that I saw here. Besides maybe the 50 some points that have
to be addressed and some of them are template things in the staff report. The issues that I really
have, when you get into mass, bigger projects like this is visual diversity and I tell you, that's a
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
problem. Today we have service problems with the growth of Chanhassen, specifically on the
mail side. The delivery of mail is getting later and later in the evenings. Density of housing. As
he suggested in his plan, we have multiple families in the area with a higher density in his
proposal which creates a larger avenue of cars and activity, which just puts additional strain on
Galpin, on the service roads and on Highway 5. We currently have, as you well know in the last
couple days, several incidences of traffic accidents on TH 5 with the density. If you add another
150 homes over the normal allotted density, it creates that much more traffic. So Galpin will
have to be expanded. Highway 5 will have to be addressed, so on and so forth. Thank you for
your time. Any questions? Thank you.
Peterson: Anyone else wishing to address the commission?
Jon Noeldner: I'm a little taller yet. My name is Jon Noeldner. I live at 7511 Crocus Court and
all of you probably received a letter my wife and I authored dated January 6` That was mailed
to you. I just want to reiterate a couple points that my neighbors have made, and those being
we're new neighbors to the neighborhood. We just moved in the end of October. Like the
previous people who built there before us, we bought an existing home. 1, myself went to the
City Hall. Looked to check where the frontage road is going to be going. Looked to check how
the land uses south of us was going to be, and at that time which was about 6 months ago I'd say,
I was told this is zoned as this under the comprehensive land use plan, that's how it's going to be
built up. Single family homes and 1 wasn't told anything else and that played a big important
factor in us purchasing our home. I just wanted to reiterate that fact and hope that you vote not to
approve this development. Thanks.
Brian Monteith: I guess I'm short. My name is Brian Monteith and i moved in about 2 years ago
February and I also authored a letter to you all and sent it to your homes, I hope you don't mind,
dated January 6` and I just wanted to say a couple things. I moved here from Washington D.C.
area, the suburbs of Maryland where it's very, very highly dense population with a lot of
development that went on, that's very similar to what's being proposed here. And just what I'd
like to say is that the overall quality of life that we enjoy today in Chanhassen is going to be
severely compromised if we're able to allow this to continue. And I state this because I know it
because I've lived it and you really don't want to go through anything like that. It really detracts
from the overall things that we take for granted today as being overall the part of life in
Minnesota that we've come to enjoy since moving here. The other thing that I'd like to say is
that the figures that were proposed earlier by the gentleman from Rottlund, .1 kids per house in
the Mission Hills development over there must be very, very highly questioned because once
again coming from an environment where I came from, there were absolutely more than 2 kids
per house in those types of homes and I just find it very hard to believe. The reason I bring that
up is that the impact to the schools, Bluff Creek in particular, who if you've been there and if you
have children that go there, you will know that they really can't even afford to have one more kid
attend that school because it's over crowded as we speak. I haven't heard any plan, or I haven't
seen anything that says that we're going to add additional schools in the time frame that would be
consistent with the building of this development and I would urge you to take that into
consideration. The last point that I'd like to make, which hasn't been brought up yet, is the
overall impact to traffic in our neighborhood in Windmill Run. Today, in a typical summer, my
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
staff, by the people at the schools and the other people that I talked to. I too, like my
predecessors, visited the Chanhassen planning staff before we moved in and spoke with them.
What is being proposed here is obviously not low density and it's obviously not predominantly
single family homes. As you've heard from the speakers who preceded me, most of the property
that is being discussed here is guided in the comprehensive plan for low density. And low
density is defined in the comprehensive plan as from 1 to 4 units. It is also defined as
predominantly single family housing. What is being proposed here would transform the
neighborhood that I live in, the Windmill Run neighborhood, and the Royal Oaks neighborhood,
into a neighborhood that is not predominantly single family but instead is predominantly multi-
family housing. If you look at the numbers, I've heard the fellow from Rottlund Homes tonight
talk about his product. He's talking about entirely a townhome product. Everything that is going
in there, the cottage homes and the villas are a townhome product. So what we have left is a
neighborhood, including ours, an extension of our neighborhood going down, that becomes
predominantly multi- family. That was not the expectation that I had or that my neighbors had
and that's not what it is guided for and is represented in the comprehensive plan. I think the
issue before you tonight is whether or not you want to approve an amendment to the
comprehensive plan that is such a fundamental and basic amendment to the plan that results in
the transformation of an area that's been guided for low density into an area that will become
high density and medium density. That is a profound change to the comprehensive plan,
particularly in a community which has stated that it has a policy of being primarily a low density
community consisting primarily of single family homes. As many of you probably know, the
State legislature has recently enacted a statute which gives even more weight to our
comprehensive plans, which says that we can't put in a zoning ordinance that is contrary to the
comprehensive plan. Obviously the legislature believes that there is a lot to a comprehensive
plan and as Cinda said, why put in our effort into this comprehensive plan if we're simply going
to amend it every time a developer wants to make a change. I think reading through the
comprehensive plan I was struck with the way it all sort of fits together. It's a web. In guiding
the various areas for low density or medium density and high density, the other services in the
community are tied to those densities. And by amending the plan and upping the densities,
you're obviously making changes. Impacts to the schools, transportation and other things.
Another reason not to amend the comprehensive plan. In conclusion I, on a personal note, I think
I live in a wonderful community and a wonderful neighborhood and the kind of neighborhood
that I think we ought to be trying to emulate. There are 50 or more kids under the age of 10.
There's a lot of diversity. We have a lot of people. We have single parents. We have people
from other places, other countries. It's an absolutely wonderful neighborhood. Apd I'm really,
I'm happy and proud to live there. I think by doing what we see in this plan tonight and
transforming this neighborhood from a single family neighborhood into a multi - family
neighborhood, predominantly multi - family, there's a possibility to destroy that wonderful sense
of community that we have here in Chanhassen and I hope you don't vote for that, thank you.
Peterson: Anyone else wishing to address the commission?
Ken Weis: I'm a little taller. My name is Ken Weis. I live at 2101 Majestic Way. I'd like to
talk a little bit about services. The gentleman from Rottlund discussed services in the fact that
the community would be serviced by their own system, but the road is not specifically the
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
neighborhood of detached homes to the north. To me it's a hodge podge of overly dense, poorly
planned, cookie cutter houses with little or no green space and no personality whatsoever. This
is diversity at it's worst in my opinion. It makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I don't see any
transition between the housing types. The high density in the cottage homes, the high density
villas and the cottage homes are to me thrown together. There isn't any natural break between
the two. I think the developer's claiming that division to be a road, which to me is not a
transition. It makes no sense to me at all. We do have another overlay here that 1 would like to
put up. And I'd like to say that I'm certainly not a developer. Therefore 1 don't claim to know
specifications needed to reflect setbacks, easements, drainage, or anything like that so this is
more of a conceptual plan. I think it reflects a better match with what the comprehensive plan
really is. I've also drawn in the line noting the difference between the low density on the
comprehensive plan and the medium density. Dave, can you point that out please? Right there.
That I believe is where the line is reflected, upon referring to the comprehensive plan. I think
this makes a lot more sense. It also incorporates the Hennessy property, which we all know
pretty much where that is. That is a single family detached house on that property. 1 think it's
important to be sensitive to the idea that this ought to be incorporated into a neighborhood and
not just left unconsidered and stacked up against a bunch of cottage homes on very small lots. I
firmly believe that these proposals definitely need to be turned down. I don't think it's even a
matter of approving a conceptual plan. It just, I think there's so much to be done to better
accommodate what ought to be put in this area that I think the whole thing ought to be just turned
down. And I'd like to give you a copy of the overview of the two comparisons between the two
so you have these for your files. I'd like to thank you for your time and I'd like to ask if you have
any questions at this time.
Peterson: Commissioners, any questions?
Joan Joyce: Okay, thank you.
Peterson: Anyone else wish to address the commission?
Virginia Bell: I'm a little shorter so I'll move this down. My name is Virginia Bell and I live at
7476 Crocus Court which is part of the Windmill Run development as well. I'm also opposed to
the concept and to the idea of amending the comprehensive plan here and I wanted to talk for just
a few minutes about the comprehensive plan. When this proposal came out I went to the library,
or actually I asked one of my neighbors to go to the library and get a copy of the comprehensive
plan and I read through it. And I might admit at the time that we moved in we did not move, I
did not read through the comprehensive plan. But in reading through it I was struck by the fact
that the vision that is encompassed in the black and white here in the comprehensive plan is the
vision of Chanhassen that I had when I moved in and when we chose to move here. Looking at
one of the sections called housing, I read that Chanhassen's adopted goals and policies call for a
diversity of housing types and styles. While providing this diversity the City has established a
policy of being primarily a low density community consisting primarily of single family homes.
That's the vision of Chanhassen that was included in the comprehensive plan that was approved
by the City Council, approved by the Met Council and it's frankly the vision that I had of
Chanhassen when I moved here. It's the vision that was communicated to me by the planning
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
you on the spot but I do want to recognize that the staff has supported staying within the
comprehensive land use plan previously for this area. The last thing I'd like to say on density is
just, I find it odd that the community has to come out to defend the comprehensive land use plan
and that if the City put that much effort into developing a land use plan, and then when it comes
down to actually needing to use it, which is today. I mean this is the time, and we don't use it,
what good is the plan? What's the effort, you know all the effort that goes into it. It seems like
lost effort. If diversity of housing types is an objective of our city, we believe that this still can
be done without amending the comp plan. In closing we'd like to simply ask that you,
commission members, reject or deny the developer's current proposal to amend the
comprehensive land use plan and to increase the density on this area. We do not believe
amending the plan is in the best interest of our neighborhood or our city. Instead we ask you to
look for thoughtful development of this land which stays within the comprehensive land use
plan, benefits the neighborhood and the city, and incorporates the ingredients of a well planned
community. And in just a minute one of our other neighbors, Joan Joyce will speak and one of
the things that she plans on sharing is again a rough outline of a possible way of looking at
developing this land that would still stay within the current land use make -up as well as
introducing diversity of housing types and keeping natural and gradual transitions with regards to
density levels. Thank you for your time.
Peterson: Thank you for your comments.
Joan Joyce: My name is Joan Joyce. I reside at 2043 Brinker Street, and I'm one of the many
property owners in the Windmill Run/Royal Oak development that was told by, told that the
majority of the land south of my neighborhood was going to be single family homes on lots
similar in size to the lots on Windmill Run. A majority of our decision to build our home, to
build where our house is, was based on the concept communicated to us from the planning staff
at the City Hall. A continuation of our neighborhood would be in fact single family homes,
detached, on lot sizes, on lots that are equal in size to ours. We were not at the time told single
family housing included twin homes or any other diversity of housing other than single family
detached. It is very unfortunate to feel as though we must continue to compromise our
expectations of what the City had in mind for this property as compared to what is now being
proposed. It is also unfortunate to see that there isn't more of an attempt to create a more
definitive neighborhood that allows for safe streets, less traffic, and a sense of community for the
neighborhoods in this area. I've become very familiar with the term diversity of housing over the
past 2 % years, and although I think every community needs some diversity of housing, I strongly
believe that there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish this goal. I'd like to show you an
overview of this area that we're considering with regard to this proposal. I thought it necessary
to take a look at this with regard to how this whole thing connects with the existing property to
the north, Windmill Run/ Royal Oak development, and as you can see the lot sizes in the
Windmill Run/Royal Oak development are about 3 homes per acre. This gives you a comparison
of exactly the density difference between the two areas. Personally I think it's ridiculous.
There's very little green space to the south. I can only imagine the view of any one of a number
of homes from the northern tiers looking up to the top of the knoll that a lot of this development
is going to be placed on. To me it's almost going to be as close to looking at some sort of a
skyscraper when you see row after row after row of homes looking down upon this single family
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
developer wants to develop is currently designated for low density development, and obviously
this would be an enormous benefit for the developer if they could have all of this land reguided
as medium density. We do not think that this makes sense for our neighborhood or for the City
to increase the density here. The developer's currently showing a site plan that places 268 units
on approximately 50 acres. This represents 180% increase in density as compared to our
Windmill Run/Royal Oak neighborhood where we have 58 homes on 30 acres. Now granted the
developer is showing single family homes up on the upper tier, but many of those homes are on
smaller lots sizes than what would even be called for under R -4, low density zoning. I want to
point that out. Plus if you look at the definition for low density, it says predominantly single
family detached, so once again our expectation from our neighborhood, all the way down to the
line. David, do you want to point the line across. That is, we've overlayed two transparencies.
The one that has the line on it with the slash marks. That's showing, that's picked up exactly
from the comp plan that shows where the land designation is. R -4 to the top, low density and R-
8 medium density on the south. Another big density issue for us is that this developer is
introducing high density, I repeat high density housing into an area that is not guided by the
comprehensive plan to show high density housing. We are showing right now 15 acres. Dave,
do you want to point that out`. 15 acres of property, or one - third, approximately one - third, just
short of one -third of this entire area is showing high density housing right now. And that is you
know clearly not on the comprehensive plan. In addition you can see how far it climbs into the
low density housing designation. I understand in talking with Kate Aanenson that 6 acres of the
50 acres is required for, a full 50 acres is required for public roads and a small wetland. And 1
also understand that these 6 acres are calculated into the net density for the land, which according
to the site plan we would have looked at would have been 6.8 as a net density. I also understand
though in talking with the City and the developers that several other acres are, of this land, are
seen as land that should not be developed. For example the Bluff Creek easement. The City has
informed me that although these items are necessary for the development, they need to be there,
they do not count toward the density calculation and instead the density is transferred or
compressed back into the developable land. In addition I think the developer does benefit with
all of these private roads. The private roads through the cottages, the private roads through the
villas, because these roads also do not need to be included into the density calculation. So I ask,
with a sizable chunk of land that's already seen as land that should not be developed, which
already compresses the density into a smaller area of land, it does beg to question why would the
City even want to consider amending it's comp plan and even further increasing the density on
this property. Particularly in an area which contains the headwaters for both the east and west
branches of Bluff Creek. Recently I asked Kate Aanenson if all of the land in Chanhassen were
to be developed as designated in the comprehensive land use plan, would we have sufficient land
for medium and high density and she said yes, according to the calculations based on our growth
numbers. She also showed me the progress that has been made with the 1995 land use effort,
which I understand has allowed us to be able to increase medium density to the overall
comprehensive land use plan. So with all of that, I ask again why would we want to take the
comp plan and amend it and further increase density in this area when we have a very sensitive
area and we're already compressing density back into this land? I want to point out one other
thing in terms of density. That on November 2nd of 1994 when the previous twinhome
development was being proposed, Kate, you made a clarification to the commission stating that
the City was not recommending medium density for this area. And I'm certainly not trying to put
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
a number of communities. I can remember dragging all 3 of our kids along in the car and
checking out Afton and Stillwater and Delano and St. Michael and Anoka and Chaska and a
whole lot of them but we felt that Chanhassen offered what we were looking for and we felt that
it really did have that small town feel. From our first interest, and this is I think real key here.
From our very first interest in Windmill Run we visited City Hall on two occasions and we
specifically talked with city planners and we asked them exactly what was to be developed
around the Windmill Run and Royal Oak neighborhood. We were shown the comprehensive
land use plan and we were told that this land, approximately 30 acres south of us, was to be
zoned the same as Windmill Run with similar homes and similar lot sizes. And I want to
underscore zoned the same as Windmill Run with similar homes and similar lot sizes. And it
was upon that information that we made our decision to build our home at 2173 Brinker Street.
The fact is that several families in our neighborhood, and if you look at the Minutes from the
meeting from November 2" of 1994 or December 7` or if you review letters that this
neighborhood sent to both the Planning Commission and City Council members, you're going to
find that a number of people did the same thing that we did and they took the steps to contact
City Hall to get information of how this land was going to be developed. Many of the
individuals in our area were told that this area was going to be developed as single family
detached homes. Similar to our neighborhood. And I've got to just tell you that I had a picture
and my picture was, we have about 30 acres in our development with 58 homes and they weren't
all developed at the time that we moved in. But I had a picture that about, approximately that
same amount of area to our south was going to be developed very similarly with similar homes
and similar lot sizes, and that was my vision. I mean that's what I picture this, a continuity of our
neighborhood to the south, and 1 know that I'm not alone on that and a number of neighbors feel
the same based upon the information they received from the City. But here we are today with
another developer, a different developer who's proposing to even further increase the density on
the same 33 acres of land than we were told would be developed as single family homes. We
don't think it's right and we also don't really enjoy bringing up this issue of misrepresentation
but the fact is it happened. And we think it's important to the development plan that's in front of
you today. The second item I would like to discuss is with regards to density, which is obviously
a very big issue and Rick brought that up earlier. We'd like to point out, actually I'm going to
take one step further back and I'm going to come back here. I do want to show one transparency
at this time that also speaks to the fact that we were, received misinformation from the city. This
is a map, most of you have seen this because this has been sent to your house by one of our
neighbors, Dawn Ronningen, who lives in Windmill Run. This was a map that she was given
when she visited City Hall before she purchased her home and one of the city planners used this
map to outline what was going to be developed to the south of Windmill Run. And you can see
up there where the HC /2 letter is. You can see SF, single family showing for about 33 acres right
south of us and then there's an indication of mixed medium density below that. At that time
when this was shown to her she was told that SF would be developed with similar homes and
similar lot sizes. She also looked at several other communities before they moved here and Eden
Prairie and Chaska were two of the communities that they looked at, and in their guidance SF
stands for single family detached. So I think it just is another point showing that, how obvious it
was to us that this was is exactly how we thought this land was going to be developed and we
were going to see an extension of our community. Thanks for letting me go back. Now David
do you want to just put the next transparency up? 66 %, 66% or 33 of the 50 acres that this
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
asked me to speak on their behalf, so I am representing more individuals. We'd like to voice a
very strong opposition to the proposed Highlands development plan. And we're opposed to this
plan for a number of reasons but bottom line, we feel that this plan is not in keeping with the
City's comprehensive land use plan. We think that it is not also in keeping with the City's
preliminary recommendation for low density for the majority of this area that was made back in
March of 1995. We also think it's not in keeping at all with information that several of us
received directly from City Planners before we purchased our homes in this area. And we also
feel that this represents dramatic increases in density, not only to our neighborhood but also to
the comprehensive land use plan. We do not feel that the City should amend it's comprehensive
land use plan and we don't feel that the density should be increased in this area. I want to point
out here that we certainly recognize the field that's behind us is going to be developed someday
and we are not opposed to development. We're also not opposed to Rick Murray and his
development staff. It's his current plan that we're opposed to. With that said however 1 just
want to reiterate that we do not want to see the City amend it's comprehensive plan and increase
the density in this area and instead we would rather see the City endorse development which is
consistent with the comprehensive plan which still can achieve some of the objectives that the
City would like to see. I think we can be creative here. This particular property can be
developed in other ways besides amending the comprehensive plan, and we feel that it can still
be developed that will show natural and gradual transitions of density and still incorporate
different housing types. In just a little bit one of my other neighbors will speak and part of what
she would like to share is a rough proposal of an idea of how we think this land could perhaps be
developed that would recognize diversity in terms of housing styles but would still stay within
both the letter and the spirit of the comprehensive plan and would not move away from what the
comprehensive land use plan is showing right now. At this point though I would like to discuss
two items, and the first item I think is very important. It's a reminder for those of you who were
on the Planning Commission 2 years ago. Mr. Conrad and Mr. Farmakes and regarding the
situation with the twin home development proposal that was in front of us at that time and the
concerns that our neighborhood had with that twin home proposal. For those of you who are new
to the commission since then, hopefully you've had a chance to find out some of the history on
this particular twin home development proposal that was in front of the commission 2 years ago.
Either by reviewing the Minutes of both the Planning Commission and the City Council Minutes
surrounding that particular proposal. But at any rate I believe it's important to recall, and I
should qualify that. I think we believe it's very important to recall the fact that many of us in the
Windmill Run and Royal Oak neighborhood specifically received information from the City Hall
that informed us that this particular 33 acres of this land was to be developed as single family
homes detached, SFH. Another reason that we were opposed to the previous development is
that we did not see a gradual and natural transition of density types with the way that the plan
was laid out, and if you review the notes you'll see that. I'm sure many of us in this room have
selected to live in Chanhassen for a number of reasons, many of which we probably share.
Maybe it's because of the less crowding, parks, the open space, great churches, great schools,
neighborhoods, and businesses and so forth. But whatever we all chose reasons to live in this
community. I want to say in the case of my family, we looked and saved for just the right
community for over 3 years and approximately 2 years ago we moved our family from St. Louis
Park to Chanhassen. And when we were looking for a place to live, I can remember at the very
top of our list we had, we were looking for a community with a small town feel and we looked at
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
opposed to having five different bricks, maybe we'd have two. Having five different colors, but
we'll mix them up. We typically have about a five color palette so then you take that 12 to 16
elevations and multiply it times the 5 different color palettes and that's what we, plus like 1 say,
this could be reversed. There could be a side loaded garage or it could be a front loaded garage.
And with that we can create a lot of diversity.
Skubic: The elevations you're speaking of are due to the terrain, is that correct? We don't have
different sizes or profiles of these units?
Tim Whitten: I'm sorry, could you say that again?
Skubic: The elevations you're speaking of are due to the terrain.
Tim Whitten: These elevations? No, it's actually just the designs as I'm speaking about the
elevations. Along with that there will be a variation due to the fact that some of these will be
walkouts and that's added to this.
Peterson: How many meetings have you had thus far with the neighbors? One'?
Rick Murray: We had the one open house on Saturday and then 4 or 6 neighbors that met with us
on Thursday.
Peterson: Questions from commissioners? Thank you. I'd like to have a motion to open this for
a public hearing.
Joyce moved, Farmakes seconded to open the public hearing.
Peterson: With that in mind, obviously we have a lot of people in the audience this evening. We
want to hear your respective thoughts and opinions, and also realize that time is, we don't want to
have you or us be here until 3:00 in the morning so if you would please limit your comments to
those that you feel are relevant and that may not have been said before. As the meeting goes on, 1
will apologize in advance if 1 interrupt. With that, would anybody like to make a presentation to
the commission?
Cinda Jensen: I'm not bringing up water because I'm going to talk long but just because I have a
little sore throat here so. My name is Cinda Jensen and 1 live at 2173 Brinker Street and my
husband David Jensen is going to help me out with a couple of transparencies here too so. Now I
think we're going to work from transparencies that show this second site plan, as opposed to the
first site plan since, even though we're talking conceptually, if we do get into a few details, we're
going to work with the developer's second site plan which shows a total of 268 units. Okay.
And Chair, I think I was at one of the last meetings with the twin home development that ran
until 1:00 in the morning so I will try to keep my comments concise and non - repetitive, but at the
same time I do have several points to make so I'd like to refer to my notes if you don't mind.
Okay. First of all I need to point out that several of my neighbors in the Windmill Run and Royal
Oak neighborhood, which is just north of the proposal that we're talking about tonight, have
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
the grading. The grade issue along that pond and I think there's 18 of those units. So it would be
subtract 18 from 174.
Joyce: Are those sixplexes?
Tim Whitten: Yeah.
Peterson: Will there be two associations within this development then?
Tim Whitten: Correct.
Peterson: The villas would have one and then the townhomes will have the other?
Tim Whitten: Yep. They have some different interests and concerns and so we found it best to
have it separate. We've also, if there's common elements, we have developed master
associations that can be an umbrella so you can tie the two together. So if that's of interest, that's
something we can certainly look at.
Peterson: One of the points that staff recommended was more play area perhaps or, and part of
your rationale for not putting it in there was some of the... earlier'?
Tim Whitten: Yeah, that's something that we come across with both these products on occasion
is that, is putting in the totlots. We're open to putting in an amenity. We're not always sure that
a totlot's the appropriate one. And so in some cases we actually make recommendations to the
City and we could even put aside the same amount of money and the same amount of land and
put it in escrow and have the association kind of decide what's appropriate. Or if the City could
determine what it is. We're not against the land space or totlots or anything. It's just really what
is appropriate for that type of user is the only issue.
Rick Murray: ...that area that will become green space ... it might be more appropriate that that
gets incorporated into some sort of gathering spot. In discussing with the staff ...maybe it's a
better gathering spot ... so that's been, we're investigating that too.
Peterson: Thank you.
Conrad: Different designs you mentioned of the cottage type. How many would there be?
Tim Whitten: Well we really have four plans. We'd have two types of the sod line grade. We
have two types of the walkouts. And we are actually looking at generating another type of plan.
So somewhere between 4 to 5 different plans of which each of those would have different
elevations so as you would go down, I guess if you multiplied it by at least 2, and in some cases
we have 3 elevations for some of the plans, there'd be somewhere between I suppose a dozen to
16 different elevations available. Then what we do is for the colors, we're trying to be that
balance between better alternative townhomes but not as diverse necessarily as single family so
you get some threads and consistencies of architectural elements and colors and materials. So as
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
they're arranged in 2 car garages on the outside and single car garages on the inside. They're
slightly larger and they have the walkout expansion option. This particular product, our smallest
unit approaches 1,200 square feet and our larger units are about... square feet on the ends. When
we get into townhomes, we're approximately 1,250 square feet for the interior ones and about
1,450 square feet, not including the lower level of the walkouts. That type of product. The
architectural style is really we're focusing on a colonial townhome type of look. Where we're
adding some shutters and lap siding and that's the kind of look that we're probably... work with
staff as far as the, and the Commission and the Council regarding the color palettes and so forth,
and how much variety deemed appropriate. All the products that we're showing are, would be
vinyl siding with asphalt roofing and brick accents and to promote the maintenance free aspect.
Price range in these go from, it shows $80,000.00 in the packages. It's probably going to
approach a little bit more of a $90,000.00. The lowest price range for this type and probably
moves up to about $110,000.00 to $115,000.00 price range. Here, as in our townhome version,
we go from about $100,000.00 to about $150,000.00, depending on the location of the site.
Some of the points I just want to highlight on this particular product, or both products, is that it's
all owner occupied. One of the things that historically that we have found is that both these
markets have very few children. In the villa products we have about .2 per unit. And in the
cottages, .1 is actually a little high than what our history so there's very few kids. In one
development we had, in 40 units there are 2 children in the cottage type. As mentioned, it is all
private streets and that we have associations that will maintain the exterior and the landscaping
with sprinkler irrigation systems. And they have regulations to, and covenants of which to guide
them. And the empty nesters and the townhomes, we get this information from our traffic
consultant, is that to factor in just an understanding of the traffic because I'm sure that's going to
be one of the issues that are brought up. Is that the amount of trips per day in the empty nester
product is about 4 trips per day. In our villa is about 6 trips a day and that compares to single
family which is about 10 trips per day. One of the things that we're kind of focusing on and
we're doing this in other projects is the product diversity. We're finding that in established
communities like Chanhassen where the people that have lived in Chanhassen for 30 years are
looking for an alternative. Don't really have that alternative so the cottages are an answer to that.
Also to the children of the families of Chanhassen, to have a place where they can actually buy a
home in a moderate price range or below $120,000.00 is something that isn't as available to them
as we might like and so it's really addressing those two markets and giving some diversity in this
housing type, that I think this development does offer. And I'd be happy to answer any questions
regarding the housing type at this time or at any point. Thank you.
Peterson: When you talk about the townhome villa ... what percentage of those units are there
from the total? Approximately how many units are there going to be from the townhouse down?
Do you have any idea yet?
Tim Whitten: I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
Peterson: How many of the townhome villa style, the number of what those would be.
Tim Whitten: The villa style, we have a total of 174 and how much would be row townhome and
how many would be the back to back? We have three buildings of the row type to make up for
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
the lining up all the units straight onto the streets and having all the garage fronts face the street.
You turn it at an angle so you get a broader view of the units and to get a view of the front door.
Now on half the units we're really promoting the front porch and the other half of units will have
side entrances. It also creates private spaces so that this becomes a private entrance space, front
yard, this unit as well as this one, this unit. The same with the rear yards. Creates more private
spaces. As opposed to being zero lot line where you really have one side that has no windows of
the adjacent unit, we're actually mixing it up a little bit where this portion has no windows...
landscape screening and this becomes private space for this unit. It also allows for the units to
have exposure on all four sides of the units. It also lessens the amount of units that we have
within the narrowest portion of... These are platted as townhomes so our plats are, they actually
have the property line with a box around the units. To equate it to a lot, it'd be approximately a
47 foot wide lot by about 120 feet deep. Rather than platting it as individual lots, we're platting
it as townhomes. That is mostly for the reason of the association and the maintenance of the
property. That's one of the things that these buyers are looking for. No maintenance advantage.
These are going to be priced, and we have history in Plymouth of this product, between
$140,000.00 to about $200,000.00. Right now we're going up to about $180,000.00 but with the
walkout version, of which we have quite a few, that will move the price up a little bit higher. On
the plans themselves we have a number of different exteriors, just a couple of example exteriors
that we have. To give you a little bit of an idea of the two different types. One is the ... which
promotes the front porch. It also allows for side entry garages. It's shown in the plan that we can
create some variety down the street by having some of the garages load in the side. Then we
have the three bedroom version, which is a side entry to that. But in effect with the four different
plans, basic plans that we have and each plan having two to three different elevations, just kind
of the sampling of the number different elevations that we can create, that we would have, like I
said, two elevations for each plan. Vary from two to three elevations per plan. They vary from
hip roofs to hip and gable combinations. The gable roofs. And then with the four different plans
that we have and then with the four to five different color palettes that we would incorporate, in
fact those units can be flipped from one side to the other and side loads. We could virtually have
a different unit on every site. Every 61 of the units on this site. To talk about the villas a little
bit, and if you're familiar with the villas in Mission Hills. It's something along those lines where
we have the, as mentioned before, we have the 8 unit buildings and the 12 unit buildings. With
the new site plan that Rick presented, we're incorporating some, what we call row type villas
where they're actually more traditional townhomes where they can have walkouts and the reason
staff request was to because of some of the grading situations that if we can incorporate a product
that would not only give the diversity but also adapt to the grades a little bit more. So we are also
including that into the mix. Here, this is a focus on an 8 unit building. So we have the back to
back type units, which this is, and we also have the more traditional row. As another, also on the
cottages we incorporated the walkouts type to adapt to the topography. We kind of come from a
history of grading sites to adapt to the product and here we're trying to actually create the product
to adapt to this particular site. We have two types of units in this building where we have the end
unit, which have two car garages and the interior units which have single car garages. The
difference between this building and the Mission Hills, like I said, we've actually enlarged the
interior units slightly. We added 2 feet. That allows us to get a little bit bigger unit on the inside
but it also allows to add that space to the single car garage so we oversized the single car garage.
It's a little bit compared to what we have done. The row townhomes are similar to this where
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
stepping down through the site, using the terrain of the site. We have a slope that runs from the
north to the south down to Highway 5. The cottage homes on, and this is being a little bit broad
brush but the cottage homes on the north side of the private roads will predominantly be slab on
grades. The cottage homes to the south side of the private roads will predominantly be walkouts.
So we step our way down the site. The cottage homes are all served by private road which are
association maintained and association owned. As far as a burden on the public works
department, that's a burden on the homeowners association and not the public works department.
The cottage homes are bordered on the west by the new public road running north and south. On
the south by the Bluff Creek corridor and on the west by Mr. Hennessy's property. Mr.
Hennessy's property is about 50% guided for low density and about 50% guided for medium
density. The units in the space that we have abutting his property, actually abutting his property
in that very northeastern, northwestern section is 3.4 units per acre. It's slightly less dense than
the rest of the cottage homes as a whole. Staff recommended that we supply an access to Mr.
Hennessy's property. We supplied an access approximately where it would best use or might
best fit the area of his property that would logically be developed. There would be an association
covenant that would allow him access through and across, ingress and egress through and across
our private roads incorporated in our association documents. Transition into the villa units is
through the public road and they abut the properties, the abutting properties to the east, as I
mentioned, we medium density and the regional park area. Staff report spoke to a contour line,
and that's the contour line in dark blue. That's along Bluff Creek. We haven't addressed that
yet. We are looking at several options to see how that will best fit. We're here today, or this
evening to solicit your comments and your suggestions. We're also here to listen to our
neighbors and encourage them to make their comments and hopefully come out of this evening's
meeting with some suggestions that we can go onto the City Council with incorporating them
into a plan that works well for the community, the neighbors, and our property. With that I'll
introduce Mr. Whitten from Rottlund Homes. He's going to speak to the particular types of
homes.
Tim Whitten: Thank you Rick. Good evening. I'm Tim Whitten. I'm Vice President of the
Rottlund Company and I'll try to cover the things that Rick didn't cover. I'm going to use some
boards ... the best position for the easel I guess. I guess I jump back and forth a little bit. First I'll
speak about the cottages. There 61 cottages proposed on the site that Rick had mentioned, and
the cottages are detached townhomes. They're targeted towards the empty nester market and the
retiree market. As mentioned before we have this product going in the North Bay project, just
north of Lake Riley. We also have introduced this product in a project in Plymouth, Minnesota,
and so we have a little bit of history and our buyers are kind of halfway between empty nesters
and retired buyers. And it's designed specifically for that product for most of the product on this
site and what we proposed in the past, it fit on one level and that's what our buyers are looking
for. And what's a little bit different on this site is that because of the terrain we're introducing a
new version which is the walkout version. So you still have the same living space on the main
floor, but included is a walkout expansion space. The units vary in two types basically. There's
a two bedroom unit on the main floor, and three bedroom unit, and they vary in square footage
from 1,350 square feet to about 1,600 square feet. And we have designed it in the site plan
orientation purposely to angle along the street at about a 30 degree angle. And that is to create
more variety in the site plan and to create private spaces. So along this streetscape as opposed to
.,
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
transition between our own product lines. The transition between the single family to the north
and the cottage homes, or the detached townhomes in the central area, takes place across the back
yards and the ponding area. The transition between the cottage homes, which are 3 %z -3.9-4
units per acre, to the villa homes, is more intense and we tried to do that through the public road,
which is a pretty standard transitioning tool. When the road was on an east /west axis, that
transition more or less took care of itself within the aspects of your comp plan. Because it had
low density, low density housing to the north and medium density housing south of Arboretum
Boulevard itself. When we revised this particular plan, the 5 acres that's on the Bluff Creek
corridor was revised to be 100 feet from the creek bottom and the line that goes across there is a
surveyed line. That is not in compliance with your staff recommendations at this time. The staff
recommendations would move that line about 125 -150 feet up into the soybean field. The
surveyed line is the edge of the vegetation and we were proposing a 20 foot setback from the
edge of that vegetation with our buildings. Staff has indicated that the Bluff Creek corridor, the
City's spent a lot of time, energy and effort on looking at that and they wanted to see a greater
buffer area. Greater protection area. We haven't had time to address that yet. That would be the
impact, or roughly the impact on this particular plan. If that is incorporated and it ends up being
5 % or 5.2 acres. The issue gets back to where would we get to this 10.7 units per acre on a
medium density because it exceeds your medium density. And the answer is, we got it from the
donation, so to speak, of the right-of-way to the south. The excess right -of -way to the south and
the Bluff Creek corridor to the City. There literally are somewhere around 40 or 45 units that
need to be displaced. To the north where we kept the single family in lieu of 4 units per acre,
there's 13 acres and we displaced another 1 %z units. Or 20 units to the north so the redistribution
of units on this site was approximately 60 units and that's where, although the densities stay
within the low density requirements for the 13 acres to the north and for the 15 acres to the west,
the grouping of the density within the villa areas hit 2.7. Adjacent to the villa areas, which is
transitioned to the west by the public right -of -way, adjacent to it to the east is the area that Dave
referred to as this stormwater management plans. Regional ponding area and it's to the south of
that is medium density guiding property. So it would be a similar usage with a regional or
community ponding area incorporated around it. The pond that we show there, to answer
Kevin's question, will be much reduced from as it's shown here. When we drew this it was, we
were under the impression that staff had wanted a permanent pond that would be kind of a tier to
the regional pond. Since talking with Dave again and after we had finished this particular plan,
that pond would be a temporary pond. It would probably end up being about a third or a half of
the size that it is represented there. Most of the area in that back yard, or all of it will eventually
be green space. About 50% of it at this point in time would end up being green space and be
incorporated into our plan. Single family. Each of these units, and I'm going to introduce Mr.
Whitten from Rottlund Homes in a few moments and he's going to go through the particulars of
both the cottage homes and the villas. I'll speak to them very briefly before I introduce Tim.
The single family area, the lots that we're proposing there range from 65 feet, in the southeastern
tier, to 80 feet along the northern tier. They all face the public right -of -way. They would all be
served by a public road. There's a large percentage of them which will end up being walkouts.
Especially those in the southern tier of lots. Where the opportunity exists in the northern tier of
lots we're encouraging our engineers to incorporate those as walkouts as well. They're just
better received in the marketplace. The cottage home, these single family of course transition
across back yards and the ponding area to the cottage homes. The cottage homes reflected
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
was not the plan that the neighbors and I discussed Saturday. The plan that the neighbors and I
discussed Saturday, and the plans that you received on Saturday, most of you, were revised to
reflect meetings that we had with staff about density and the distribution of units. A couple of
road locations. The parts of your staff report that talk about the separation from property lines
that are permissible in a PUD. There was some information that we simply didn't have in the
original drawing. Bob, if you could put up. This plan still incorporates our basic concept, and
the concept is literally having us absorb the transition between the single family housing to the
north, within our own plat, and transitioning that down to the high intensity use that we, well is
exhibited along Highway 5 and that we feel will be exhibited along Arboretum Boulevard when
it's constructed. The north end of the site, the loop road that connects Galpin to the existing
neighborhood is designed as a residential loop. The T intersection was at the direction of staff
and the intent there was to slow traffic down and discourage a short cut or cut thru through our
site down to Arboretum Boulevard when it's constructed. The low density transition through the
site comes about 2/3 of the way through Mr. Hennessy's property. It's the north 33 acres. I don't
happen to have that on an overhead. If you walk through our densities on this particular site, we
tried to stay within the low density features of your ordinance. The top tier, Bob if you could put
the next overhead up, just a moment. And the reason I'm jumping into densities is that's what
the neighbors and we discussed for the most part of Friday, or I mean on Saturday. And I'm sure
that we'll listen, that we'll hear that again this evening and hopefully be able to address some of
the specific questions. The low density that transitions through the site is about 2/3 through Mr.
Hennessy's property, which is just north of the access road. I'in just south of the access road. In
that first tier of, just south Bob. Right there. Just to that tier and it goes across to where the pond
is on the eastern property line. North of that is approximately 33 acres and that's what the comp
plan designates as 1.2 to 4 units per acre. Now the north side of our site, that north 13 acres has
got 33 units on it and that's at 2 % units per acre. The area that's contained in the cottage homes
is approximately 15 acres. There's, well it's actually slightly more than 15 acres because the
density that's calculated in the cottage homes is 3.9 units per acre. The density that's calculated
in the villas is 10.7 units per acre, and of course the south end of the property where the Bluff
Creek corridor is 5 acres and obviously there's no density in either that or the right -of -way. The
density that would have been on that Bluff Creek area and the right -of -way area, both areas
which will be owned or restricted and benefit to the community, has been transferred and is
transferred to the medium density area of the site. Transitioning on this site was actually much
easier to do prior to the movement of the Arboretum Boulevard to the south as a frontage road
along Highway 5. When Arboretum Boulevard actually came through the middle of this site,
approximately where the access road to Mr. Hennessy's site is. Bob you might point that out
because that's, and that's exactly where when we did our first calculations we were under the
impression that north of that line or where the old, or the existing preliminary plat is, was the low
density area and south of that line, the line's just a little bit higher than that I think Bob.
Anyway, the initial calculations that my engineering firm had received was 26 acres north and 24
acres to the south. We thought we were dealing with 300 units. That's why the previous plan
had 292 units on it. We were in error. The information that we picked up was inaccurate. When
it was pointed out to the staff, we revised that plan and this is the plan that's been revised to
address the 268 units. The density is transferred off of, the area has been put over into the
medium density area, which is shifted from literally the south part of the property to the south
and eastern part of the property. It's shifted there because we were looking for reasonable
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
which we probably haven't seen, and maybe that will be a later on issue but it's the most significant
asset in the property and it's not visualized for me so those are issues that I sure hope we talk about
in the upcoming minutes.
Peterson: Bob, do you want to address any of those prior to the applicant making a presentation?
Generous: They might be able to address it. They've already been working on some revisions. We
haven't had the plan sets to look at. We are requiring that access be provided for the Hennessy's.
There is the PUD requires a larger setback between the properties so we are getting some separation
from that. They did try to, they contacted Mr. Hennessy to see if they could purchase the property.
Aanenson: As far as the Bluff Creek, if I could just to that. That's one of the issues that we think
needs to be further articulated and again under the concept, we're just trying to flush the issues out
but that's something certainly we think that needs to be further developed.
Peterson: A couple of the conditions that I hadn't seen before that I was more interested in. Item
number 15 where it says that it shall include a draintile system behind the curbs to convey sump
pump discharge from the units. I haven't seen that before. Is that ... to this property or`'
Hempel: Mr. Chairman, actually that has been incorporated over the last few years. A lot of times
we've just brought that forward to the applicant before even doing the report. Be aware that this is
going to be a requirement and make it a requirement as a part of the construction process. This was
taken out of the previous staff report from back in 1994 -'95 when it was first coming out that we
did have a problem with sump pump discharge. Streets creating ice problems this time of the year
or the algae slim build -up in the summer so it's been working very well for us and the last few years
we've incorporated that in the recent construction projects.
Peterson: Thank you. Talk about, staff you made a recommendation that the lots shall be, a certain
amount wider in the single residential area and you didn't really specify how wide. You kind of left
it open. Was there a specific reason why you didn't give a recommendation as to the width?
Slightly.
Generous: Well no, it was to get input from Planning Commission, residents.
Peterson: Probably my questions also. With that, would the applicant or their designee wish to
address the Planning Commission? State your name and address please.
Rick Murray: Yes Mr. Chairman, I'm Rick Murray with Residential Development and with
Bob's help, since there's a number of our neighbors in the audience behind us, it's probably
easier to view it on the screen than it is the boards. Commissioners, good evening. Thank you
for allowing us to have this presentation and thank you for the opportunity to get input from both
yourselves and the neighborhood. We have had a couple of meetings with the neighborhood and
with Mr. Joyce. We had them at the Rec Center last Saturday and some of the input that we
received was very helpful. The staff, the ongoing conversations with staff over this past month
and a half has also been very helpful. The plan that's up there and the plan that's in your booklet
31
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Hempel: It would remain there until the downstream regional pond was constructed on the property
to the east. Once that was constructed the pond could be removed.
Joyce: What would be slotted to be in there?
Hempel: It could be slotted for open green space. It could be placed on a buildable lot. That's
been done in the past in some developments.
Joyce: So there could be an option to build on that?
Hempel: If the plat is designed that way, yes. If the intent is in the future, yes
Aanenson: To take that further Kevin. If you're concerned about something like that, I think that's
certainly something you can certainly address in the PUD contract. That's the purpose of the PUD.
If that's something that you wanted to address.
Skubic: A little bit more clarification of the proposal. Would we be voting on the rezoning, the
land use amendment tonight?
Generous: No.
Skubic: That is not part of the.
Aanenson: That's never done until we're ready to record the plat because we wouldn't want to
rezone it unless the project's for certain and ready to go and be recorded.
Skubic: But wouldn't we be implicitly approving it if we approve the concept? I mean because
that would be required for concept approval wouldn't it?
Generous: Concept has no standing. It provides direction for the applicant. It's almost like, the
way it's advertised tells people if they want to do this project, these are all the things that have to be
done.
Joyce: If we deny this, will this still go to City Council?
Aanenson: Correct.
Peterson: Other questions?
Conrad: Just a couple things, and they're probably not questions but I think as we, at our public
hearings some issues that I'm real interested in and maybe staff, Kate or Bob you can talk about it
right now but maybe we'll flow into it. I'm real interested from the neighbors talking about the
transition from their property, from the Windmill Run subdivision into this. I'm curious about
specifics and the transition. From staff's standpoint I'm curious about the Hennessy property
incorporation or lack of incorporation. Also interested in how Bluff Creek fits in here visually,
5
Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Aanenson: Yes. It does go to the City Council. Although technically the conceptual approval has
no legal standing. If it came back under the preliminary. If you were to give it conceptual approval
and even added to conditions and made any modifications, when it went to the City Council they
would also review those and make any modifications they would have. If the application came
back under preliminary, and you felt it didn't meet what you gave it conceptually, it doesn't have a
legal standing. If they haven't reviewed responded to what our issues were, we're not going to give
you preliminary approval. So whatever direction you give them tonight, if you've missed
something, you still have another opportunity under the preliminary process to add additional.
Joyce: So nothing's binding as far as what we do tonight?
Aanenson: That's correct.
Peterson: Questions of staff?
Joyce: I have a couple quick questions here Bob. Number one, a couple times in our packet it said
8 and 10 unit townhouses. It says it on page 1. It says it on page 7. I just wanted to clarify.
They're 8 and 12 units aren't they? There aren't any 10 unit houses at all.
Generous: That's correct.
Joyce: All right. I just wanted the Commissioners to be aware of that. This might be a premature
question but I was just curious to ask, because of the comparison to the North Bay cottages. is the
City considering targeting those cottages for the kind of financing that was used in there? The TIF
financing or anything like that that you're aware of?
Generous: Not at this time.
Aanenson: It's never been discussed.
Joyce: Never been discussed. One other item. On the project there was a pond on the eastern side
of that project. I understand that's temporary. Dave, maybe I can ask you that. I understand it's
kind of a temporary pond right there.
Hempel: That's our request. We do with our regional stormwater management plan show a
regional pond just to the east. There's a low lying area that's very conducive to stormwater
ponding. This easterly pond that you see would be a temporary sedimentation pond and also rate
control to meet the pre - developed runoff rates so we would not be flooding the properties
downstream.
Joyce: Once it went from temporary to another status, would it connect to another pond or would
it?
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Public Present:
Name
Bill Scose
Brian Erdman
Brian & Jennifer S. Monteith
Nancy Mancino
Julie Wojfanowski
D. Cook - Ronningen
William Thompson
Steve Janson
Tom Campbell
John Hennessy
Mark S. & Wren Feyereisen
Cindy & Henry Wanserski
David & Cinda Jensen
Joan Joyce
Bonita Mihalko
Naomi Noddner
Allan Olson
Virginia Bell
Amy O'Shea
Rick & Margaret Manning
Steve Monson
Pam Schwarz
Rick Murray
Lee Glover
Tim Whitten
Bob Payette
Joe & Jean Bray
Dean Gregory
Andrea & Mike Salvador
Wendy Stone
Richard Neff
Terri & Hani Gidani
Joan & Ken Weis
Jon Noeldner
Charles Peterson
Susan Reimers
Address
2187 Brinker Street
2091 Brinker Street
2159 Brinker Street
6620 Galpin Blvd.
2145 Brinker Street
7471 Tulip Court
7491 Tulip Court
2199 Brinker Street
2065 Majestic Way
7305 Galpin Blvd.
7501 Windmill Drive
7521 Windmill Drive
2173 Brinker Street
2043 Brinker Street
2198 Brinker Street
7511 Crocus Court
7461 Windmill Drive
7476 Crocus Court
7475 Crocus Court
7460 Windmill Drive
8850 Audubon Road
7509 Tulip Court
15 Choctaw Circle
15 Choctaw Circle
The Rottlund Company
Sathre - Berquist, Wayzata, MN
2126 Majestic Way
2101 Majestic Way
2086 Majestic Way
2103 Brinker Street
2150 Majestic Way
2117 Majestic Way
2101 Majestic Way
7511 Crocus Court
7496 Crocus Court
7495 Crocus Court
Bob Generous presented the staff report on this item.
Peterson: Technical question first. Due to the fact this is now a conceptual approval, will that
require a motion this evening or not?
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Planning Commission Meeting - January 15, 1997
Peterson: We have a motion to open it to a public hearing. Anyone who would like to make
presentation. Seeing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing?
Conrad moved, Farmakes seconded to close the public hearing.
Peterson: Commissioners. Ladd.
Conrad: No, nothing. Looks fine.
Peterson: Bob.
Skubic: No comments.
Peterson: With that, I have none either. Is there a motion?
Conrad: I make the motion Planning Commission recommends approval of the replat for West
Village Heights 3 rd Addition subject to the conditions in the staff report.
Skubic: Second.
Conrad moved, Skubic seconded that the Planning Commission recommends approval of the
replat for West Village Heights 3rd Addition subject to the following condition:
Access for Lots 1 and 2, Block 1, West Village Heights 3rd Addition shall be limited to a
joint driveway off West 78th Street."
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
PUBLIC HEARING;
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. INC. REQUEST FOR A LAND USE AMENDMENT,
FROM RESIDENTIAL -LOW DENSITY TO RESIDENTIAL- MEDIUM DENSITY FOR
THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE PARCEL, PUD REZONING FOR APPROXIMATELY,
50 ACRES OF PROPERTY FROM A -2. AGRICULTURAL ESTATE TO PUD -R, .
PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL: CONCEPTUAL AND,
PRELIMINARY PUD REOUEST FOR MIXED DENSITY RESIDENTIAL,
DEVELOPMENT. SITE PLAN REVIEW FOR 67 COTTAGE HOMES AND 192 VILLA
HOMES: PRELIMINARY SUBDIVSION REOUEST OF 295 LOTS. 2 OUTLOTS AND,
ASSOCIATED RIGHT -OF -WAY LOCATED AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF
GALPIN BLVD. AND HWY 5. THE HIGHLANDS.
1d.
CHANHASSEN PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 15, 1997
Chairman Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Farmakes, Ladd Conrad, Bob Skubic, Kevin Joyce, and Craig
Peterson
MEMBERS ABSENT: Alison Blackowiak
STAFF PRESENT: Kate Aanenson, Planning Director; Bob Generous, Senior Planner; Dave
Hempel, Assistant City Engineer; and Sharmin Al -Jaff, Planner II
PUBLIC HEARING:
T.F. JAMES COMPANY FOR PRELIMINARY PLAT (REPLAT) APPROVAL OF 3
LOTS INTO 3 LOTS ON PROPERTY ZONED BG. GENERAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
AND LOCATED ON THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF POWERS BLVD. AND WEST
78 STREET. WEST VILLAGE HEIGHTS 3 RD ADDITION.
Bob Generous presented the staff report on this item.
Peterson: As we talked earlier Bob, just to maybe give us some sense for the rest of the
commissioners as to the probability of a driveway and where it might go.
Generous: There was a site plan submitted last fall for this property and the driveway came in
right on the common property line between Lots 1 and 2. In addition there is a service road,
frontage road within the West Village Heights development connecting the West Village Center,
which the Byerly's all the way over to ... so someone could conceivably internally go to all of the
developments on that block.
Peterson: Thank you. Does the applicant or their designee wish to make a presentation?
Generous: The City is representing the applicant on this. It was due to our vacation and
realignment of the roadway. We're bringing this forward for the applicant.
Peterson: I assume you refrain from making any further comments?
Generous: Yes sir.
Peterson: Do we open this for a public hearing then? With that, do I hear a motion to open it for
a public hearing.
Joyce moved, Farmakes seconded to open the public hearing.