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PC Minutes 4-15-08 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 4.The applicant shall revise the easterly elevation retail building proposed to be located on Lot 2 by introducing windows. The building shall maintain a minimum of 50% transparency along the east elevation, facing Highway 41. 5.Approval of the site plan is contingent upon approval of Conditional Use Permit 05-05. 6.The turning movements for the future retail building site shall be revised to accommodate a WB-40.” 7.The drawings for the south elevation of the building shall be corrected. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. Undestad moved, Larson seconded that the Planning Commission recommends approval for Conditional Use Permit 08-05, to allow two buildings on a single lot, and including the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation, with the following condition: 1.Approval of the conditional use permit is contingent upon approval of the vacation, site plan and administrative subdivision.” All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. CARVER COUNTY SERVICE CENTER: REQUEST FOR SITE PLAN APPROVAL FOR A 13,260 SQUARE FOOT TWO STORY OFFICE BUILDING ON PROPERTY ZONED PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD) AND LOCATED AT 7808 KERBER BOULEVARD. APPLICANT: CARVER COUNTY, PLANNING CASE 08-09. Bob Generous presented the staff report on this item. Papke: Debbie, questions? Larson: Yeah. What’s the drive thru for? Generous: To pick up tabs. Things that you can do quickly. Larson: Really? I’ve never seen that. A drive thru for that purpose I guess. Rather than having to stand inside a building in line and wait and da, da, da, da. You can just drive thru, well there you go. Slick. Papke: Just like that. Larson: Just like that. Papke: Denny. 13 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 Laufenburger: When I look at the site I see that the drainage seems to flow from the northeast portion of the lot to the southwest portion and you’re putting a drain area on the east side of the building, is that correct? Generous: That’s correct. Laufenburger: Okay. The, all of the surface water that would be accumulated in the parking lot, it seems like that would naturally flow down to the lowest part of the lot. Is there an accumulation area there where the storm water, or the surface water will accumulate? Fauske: You’re correct Commissioner Laufenburger. The applicant is proposing to construct a rain garden on the east side of the building to take some roof drainage. The remainder of the site will, the runoff will be captured by catch basins, conveyed through storm sewer and then there’s a trunk storm sewer that lies on the south end of the site that runs east/west. They’ll be connecting to that storm sewer at two locations. That storm sewer empties to the west to the pond at the Target site. Laufenburger: Then the other comment that you made Bob was that the elevation of the north side, or the entrance, was actually 3 feet lower than the parking lot. Is that correct? Generous: Well not the parking lot. Than the entrance on Kerber Boulevard. So you’re walking th down into the site from here and also down from West 78 Street. Laufenburger: My primary concern would be that since this is a county taxpayer service center, let’s be sensitive to the fact that as senior citizens approach this area in the winter, is there anything that you’re going to ask the applicant to do to make sure that the sidewalk remains free of ice so that there’s a walking there, there’s no accumulation of any sort. You understand my question? Fauske: Certainly, and when we looked at the grading of this site, all the proposed grades are within the limits set forth through the city ordinance, and we do keep that in mind you know living in Minnesota, our temperate climate, that there are ice conditions. So the sidewalk grades are within that, with that, I believe they’re about 5%. The applicant can correct me if I’m wrong on that, and then we have some pavement grades that at the entrance come up to around 7% but then they do level out quite a bit after. Laufenburger: Alright, thank you. That’s all I had. Thomas: Yeah. I guess they’re talking about, were they talking about future expansion of this building or what they’re going to do with the spaces not currently used in the building? Generous: It’s not my understanding that they’d expand the building. They’re going to build the two stories. There’s a basement level also that has storage and mechanical in it and they would lease out the top floor until they needed it for their operation. 14 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 Thomas: Okay. Also with, how the, I mean, I can’t think. Sorry. Cold. With all the trees that are on the property and the way that property is designed and how it is kind of lower, is it very th visible from roads, besides West 78? I mean can, is this going to be very obvious? I mean like I’m just, I’m looking at the height on it and with all the trees and landscaping around it, do we feel like it’s going to be very obvious that it’s there? th Generous: Well from West 78. Now from the highway, they may get a glimpse of the roof. It’s a 30 foot tall building so they can see it, but signage will be on the north and east elevations. Thomas: Okay. That’s it. Dillon: I don’t have any questions. Papke: Architecturally what other buildings was this designed to blend with? Is this supposed to, are we trying to blend with any of the other buildings in the city? It doesn’t have the roof line of the library. Does it look like the M&I building? Is it meant to be distinctive? Can you add any commentary to that? Generous: We didn’t try to make it fit in with any other buildings. We wanted it to be it’s own destination and identity. Papke: Okay. Generous: With all the windows it does pick up some elements that you see like in the library or in the M&I building itself, but architecturally it doesn’t have the same façade or feel. Papke: I think you might have mentioned it, but I don’t recall. What was the grade change from the M&I building to this building? I mean how far down below is this going to sit from the M&I building? Generous: 6 or 7 feet. Papke: So, almost a full story below. When we were doing the design, did we have any renderings or drawings that show how, you know what the sight lines are going to look like. What is this building going to look like? Part down below the M&I building, is it going to look like it’s hiding down there or is it tall enough or, I don’t know. I’m just trying to get an idea visually how this is going to look. Generous: From the intersection you will have a pretty clear view of this site because the road curves over. Papke: Right. Generous: As you go west it does get hidden behind the M&I building. That’s a two story building too with that big pyramid roof on top so it’d be difficult without going 3 or 4 stories to get that type of visibility. 15 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 Papke: Yeah. To that end it would seem like a low of people are going to come from the west side, they’re going to come from Target or something like that because it’s a right turn in here. And because the M&I is a pretty good sized building, and is substantially higher, is there going th to be any signage on West 78 so I know to turn there? How do I know it’s there? Generous: That hasn’t been addressed yet. If it becomes an issue, that’s something that we can look at. We can, the City can approve directional signage for locating things that are off the beaten path if you will. We think that as people get used to this, it will be like any of the other ones that everyone knows to go there. It’s behind Target and M&I. Especially, no problem if th you’re going west on West 78 Street. You’ll definitely see it. Papke: Yeah, if you’re going west it will be pretty evident but I’m just concerned coming from the west going eastbound, it might not be quite as straight forward. Generous: Well that’s something that we can look into. Papke: Alright. If there’s an applicant here this evening, we’d love to hear from you. Gayle Degler: I’ll start it off. We have a number of people that want to say a few things. First of all I’d like to thank you for taking all the time that you’re putting into this. We, as the county, enjoy working with the city. Great comment as far as providing signage because yeah, this is a service center. Carver County Service Center and we are providing a service that, if anybody has gone down to Chaska to get a license, we know that this is a very much a needed service that we are providing, and it took a long time for the county to work with the city to find a suitable location. You know we think we got a lot of opportunities out there, and we do, but the right location, and this is the right location. Now I don’t want to say too much but I just wanted to thank you for working with the county and providing this service. Papke: Right. I know who you are. Did you state your name? Gayle Degler: No, I did not. I’m Gayle Degler. I’m the County Commissioner representing the south half of Chanhassen and Chaska. Papke: Thank you. Gayle Degler: Thank you. Steve Taylor: Good evening Mr. Chair and commissioners. I’m Steve Taylor. I’m the Administrative Services Division Director for Carver County. I’m also the Assistant County Administrative and I’m called a lot of different things. Some good. Some bad. I’ve been working on this project for a long, long time. Over 2 years. I dealt with Justin Miller. You may recall Justin, and Bob and Kate and several other people here in looking for a suitable site and I’m just glad we found it. I’m glad we’ve hired a great architect, Bentz-Thompson-Rietow who’s done also some libraries and several service centers for Hennepin County so they have a lot of experience in this. So I just wanted to say that this is an important milestone and we’re 16 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 looking forward to actually getting in front of City Council. Getting this thing approved. Getting construction underway and having these services available for the residents of Chanhassen. Being a Chanhassen resident myself, I’m looking forward to it so, that’s all I really wanted to say. There’s probably going to be some architectural related questions and Ann Voda with Bentz-Thompson-Rietow is here to help with any questions that you may have. Do we want to ask questions of this gentleman or do we want to wait for the architect? Laufenburger: I’d like to ask one. Papke: Sure, go ahead. Laufenburger: You’re excited about this site. Can you talk about some other sites that you considered and why this particular site is preferred for you? Steve Taylor: Well we looked at I would say more than 20 different sites, and a number of them were developer owned and they wanted to do a turn key type of operation where they do a design build for us. They would hire the architect. They would control a lot of what frankly we wanted th to control. We didn’t think we’d have the flexibility to do so, so there were sites on 78, actually th at I believe it was Arboretum and 78. In that area. Further west there were some sites over by Lifetime Fitness that we looked at. There was just various chunks of land. We needed a minimum of an acre and this is actually a little bit less than an acre. Parking has been somewhat of an issue here and the impervious surface requirements, but we’ve been able to work through that and we like the visibility of this area. This particular piece of land so, and Justin Miller at the time, I mean he and I went touring around Chanhassen looking at various sites and he would point on the map and I think Mark Lundgren went with us as well in looking at sites. And Todd Gerhardt spent time with us looking for a site so, it was quite an adventure. Laufenburger: Second question. Assuming you receive approval on this, when do you anticipate serving your first taxpayer in that building? th Steve Taylor: December 20. Laufenburger: 2008? Steve Taylor: 2008. Laufenburger: That’s all I had. Papke: Anybody else? Thomas: Actually I do have a question. How do you feel about the visibility of the site? I mean you’ve kind of scoped that. Do you feel like it will be very visible and no one will pass it by to go to Eden Prairie to get their tabs or something like that you know? Steve Taylor: Yeah. We’ve talked about signage you know from 5 for example. And that’s something we’re going to have to look at maybe a little bit more closely. I think we certainly 17 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 will need some city signage on the streets. Just like we have library signs. I think that’s important. You know we may just have to play this a little bit by ear and can see how this all lays out and it’s something we can certainly look at in the future. That’s very important to us is visibility. Clearly. And if I could go back to that last question. There was some, I was being a th little bit facetious. December 19 is on our Gant chart for completion of this project. Barring any you know unforeseen circumstances, I want to put the caveat in there. But our schedule calls th for construction starting the last week of May and being completed December 19 according to our construction manager so we’ll see how good he is. So but visibility, getting back to your question is very important to us. Thomas: Yeah, me too. I want to make sure the residents know it and use it and utilize it. Steve Taylor: I have had two meetings in my office this week with reporters and they’re going to be reporting on this, similar to the Chaska Service Center and what we’re doing there as well so, there’ll be something in Thursday’s paper. Thomas: Good, thank you. Papke: Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else from the applicant? I believe there was mention of an architect present. Ann Voda: Hello. I’m Ann Voda from Bentz-Thompson-Rietow Architects and I wonder if I can get this graphic up. I guess I would start by at least commenting about the visibility issue as well because it’s been an ongoing part of the design response. When you talked earlier about what they’re trying to blend in with and really we’re trying to make it distinctive and eye catching for this very reason that you’re mentioning. And this rendering shows a little bit of the view from the street, from Kerber. Looking down into the side which slopes away continuously, almost 10 feet difference from that northeast corner down to the southwest. So that was one issue. And then the other issue is the way that we oriented the entrance so that we could get this, a nice big window facing the front and containing the views for people inside using the space, they’ll be able to look out from the waiting room onto this exterior courtyard on the north so two different responses to that issue. Papke: Questions? Larson: Haven’t, thank you. Dillon: No questions. Papke: Just looking at, that’s a very interesting rendering there. The one thing that kind of stands out to me that would be, the door isn’t obvious. It isn’t obvious where I go in. Can you comment to that at all? Ann Voda: Well I think that the entry location is obvious by the fact that there’s this vertical swap of color and that marks the, there are actually two entries flanking that. 18 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 Papke: Can we put the monitor on? Ann Voda: This piece right here. Papke: Right. Ann Voda: So there’s an entrance here and an entrance on this side right here. Papke: So the awning there kind of is the architectural piece that suggests that that’s where you go in? Ann Voda: Well, I think there’s a couple readings. One is from the greater distance back, around the parking lot you’ll be able to see quickly this larger marker. And then as you approach either by foot from, another issue is that we have with entrance that really wants to face two ways because parking ramps on two sides so there’s a door facing Kerber, and then this door you’ll notice when you’re coming from the other side of the parking lot. Papke: The drive up is in the back and as Commissioner Larson pointed out, this is not a common feature of a license, a great feature of a license center but not real common. Unless I know it’s there, I may not use it. Is there anything that’s going to facilitate someone driving in to know that there’s a drive up hidden behind the back? Ann Voda: Well the way that the technology works right now, you have to plan ahead to go use the drive up. You actually work on line to make a drive up pick-up. That may change with technology as it develops. Larson: How would someone know to go online to do this? Thomas: It’d be like if you’re doing your tabs and then you pick them up? Ann Voda: Yeah, there’ll probably be notices in your tab renewals or I’m sure that the… department will make that clear. Laufenburger: Would it be possible for me to drop off my property tax statement at that window? Ann Voda: My understanding is yes. th Laufenburger: Too bad I won’t be able to do that by October 15. Ann Voda: Next year. Papke: Any other questions for the. Thomas: No. 19 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 Papke: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Is there anyone else from the applicant here that wants to mention anything tonight? Mark Lundgren: My name is Mark Lundgren and…Division Director. A couple of the things that we’d like to maybe answer a little clearer. There is only one other drive thru. That’s in Maple Grove, so Hennepin County does have a drive thru that’s alive and well. And yes, we hope to be able to cut down some of the trips to Chaska for things that can be taken care of quickly. Obviously your title work, that type of thing is not going to be able to be done through a drive thru. But tabs. Dropping off tax payments. Homestead applications. These type of things. What we’re trying to do at the county is to work ourselves into a situation where we used to have an auditor, a treasurer, recorder and assessor. We now have one division that entails all of that so we’re trying as we get into different areas to meld all that together. I think one of the unique things, and I won’t, well maybe I should ask you if you bought your tabs in Chaska or not. We can use the two bucks, but if you’ve been to the Eden Prairie Service Center, we are going to utilize a product that’s called Cue-Matic. If you’ve been to Chaska you’ve seen people standing literally outside the door and it’s just a very poorly designed building. It’s served us well 7 years ago, but we’ve just completely outgrown it. Along with this we do have an addition that’s going on. Chaska’s going to be remodeled. The only thing that will be left will be 3 walls and we’re going to expand that. And in both of those areas then we’ll use what’s called a Cue- Matic. So we will have you come in. You know have a greeter. You’ll actually get a number. That will then be cued to the 5 or 6 different people that are working. You’ll be able to take a seat. Watch hopefully a little bit of television. I want to introduce too Laurie Englund who’s a Taxpayer’s Services Director here. Has had a lot of input into this type of thing. Even looking to an area where we now can have a little bit of something for some children. Maybe a video. Something like that. So it gets us to a destination rather than frustration. Hopefully one that you can conduct your business in. And I think we look forward to the Cue-Matic more than anything else because it’s a great service tool, and it’s the only way that we know of that we can expedite your visit. Serve you in a proper manner. Also it’s going to help to take a load off of staff. Those people work very hard and get very few kudo’s for the work that they do. Most of the time it’s something that’s maybe a little difficult, but we’re looking forward to this spot. If you’re familiar with Chaska at all, on 41 there is a standard sign that will say, one directing you to the Government Center. One to the service center so I’m sure that we will be talking with Bob th or whatever is necessary in terms of some signage out on West 78 Street. I don’t know if there are any other questions. If you’re curious about Chaska. What we run in Chaska now, first part of 2007 we were running about 350 people a day through that small building. Papke: And what do you expect to run through this one? Mark Lundgren: That’s a good question. We had an enormous amount of business from Eden Prairie in Chaska, and we still do do a fair amount. We would hope that we can approach that within the next couple of years. We certainly understand that we’re not going to do that as soon as we open the doors. But also what we have here now also is the traffic that goes west from here. There is no deputy registrar that can do what we can do in Waconia, Norwood-Young America or any points west so hopefully it’s a lot of these people that are coming back and forth and you know again the drive thru we think is a great feature. Gee, I need to pick up my tabs today. And scoot through Chanhassen. State of the art type of thing. Get it taken care of. So 20 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 eventually we would hope to be at that number, but it would be facetious for me to say it’s going to take us 8 months or 12 months. We just want to make sure that everybody that comes in there leaves with a smile on their face. Papke: Do you have a design spec for how many people the building and facility and the interior layout and everything is designed for? Do you know what your trip load? Mark Lundgren: How many chairs do we have Laurie? Do we have 42 waiting? I think we’re at 42 waiting, which is very ample. And we’ll run somewhere, depending on, we also have I believe 10 stations designed of different areas so that depending on the work load and we’ll find out soon enough what that is. We will also be open one evening. We are currently open in Chanhassen, I’m sorry. In Chaska on Thursday evenings so I imagine we’ll alternate like a Tuesday evening or something here and be open til 7:00 so that people in this eastern corridor, where so much of our population is, will be able to conduct their business. One of the other things, do you want to mention anything about vitals Laurie? Since they’re going to be a service center and not just a license center. Thank you for your time. Papke: Sure, thank you. If you could state your name. Laurie Englund: Good evening. Laurie Englund, Mr. Chair, commissioners. At this, currently we have vital statistics that we process out at the Taxpayer’s Services Department. In other words, marriage license, death and birth records. What we will do in both Chaska and the Chanhassen License Center is we plan to process those in both of those facilities. In other words so if someone needs one of those documents for a driver’s license. For a passport, they can get that in the same building as opposed to having to go back down to the Government Center. Papke: Thank you very much. Okay. Anyone else from the applicant? Alright. Is there any public that would like to get up and comment on this facility? Seeing no one but applicants, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the commissioners. Comments. Undestad: Yeah, I think it’s a very, very nice building and I know all the spots they looked at, I agree. That’s probably the best location. Keep it right in town and handy. I think it will fit in great there. Looking forward to it. Dillon: I like this a lot. I think there, you know a couple things. I think the architectural colors and the design adds a little flare to the area, so that’s nice. It’s a little different and like Mark, I think it’s going to be you know kind of like a, not an anchor tenant but a reason for people to have a presence in the center of our city and so they’ll be there and then hopefully they’ll be, you know continue to support the other businesses that are there while they’re doing other errands and things so I think it will have an other side benefit of that. Thomas: I am also excited about the building being placed there. I think it’s a really good location. I’m excited to have it within our town and just in the heart of Chanhassen. I think it’s a great opportunity for the city. The only thing I just want to make sure that it is nice and visible because as I’m sure some people know, the Eden Prairie location that they have that’s over by the mall is like a best kept secret because nobody knows it’s there so I just want to make sure it’s 21 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 really utilized because Eden Prairie’s, you can go there and get in and out, which is great, but I’m sure they’d love to see it more utilized. Laufenburger: I concur. I think the Eden Prairie facility probably suffers from baggage. People think it’s the library, which it was at one time. Whereas this is coming in as a service center so it will, it will have it’s identity from the origination. I think it’s wonderful. Larson: I agree with everyone. I’m glad it’s coming in. I have typically used the, either the service centers down in Chaska or Excelsior, and Excelsior more often for tabs just because I live on the north end of town and I’m so glad that I can go to a new building. Not that I dislike the little building in Excelsior but this will be a very welcomed addition to the city. Papke: Okay. I don’t really have any concerns. I’m fully excited. I think one of the comments that the applicant mentioned tonight stirred some thinking in me. I hadn’t considered the possibility of people coming from other cities but certainly Byerly’s and so on is a real Eden Prairie destination so I’m quite confident that we’ll get a number of people using this facility from the surrounding areas so I think it will enhance the downtown area, which we definitely need now that we’re starting to see development along 312. It’s starting to pull some of the businesses away from the downtown so I think this will kind of re-attract more traffic to the downtown area so I’m very supportive of this. And with that, I will entertain a motion. Larson: I’ll do a motion for you. The Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends that City Council approve Planning Case #08-09 for site plan approval for a 13,260 square foot, two story office building. Plans prepared by Bentz-Thompson-Rietow, Incorporated dated March 14, 2008, stamped Received March 31, 2008, subject to the following conditions 1 through 14. Papke: Is there a second? Thomas: Second. Papke: Would anyone like to make any amendments concerning any of the signage? Any conditions on it or recommendations of staff or are we good to go with that? Okay. Larson moved, Thomas seconded that the Planning Commission recommends the City Council approve Planning Case #08-09 for Site Plan Approval for a 13,260 square-foot, two-story office building, plans prepared by Bentz/Thompson/Rietow, Inc., dated March 14, 2008 (stamped received March 31, 2008), subject to the following conditions: 1.Wood chip mulch area will be extended in the northwest corner of the site. The proposed turf area under the tree in the corner peninsula will be removed. If desired, a single strip of sod may be placed along the curb line of the peninsula. 2.The building is required to have automatic fire extinguishing systems. 3.Building plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State of Minnesota. 22 Planning Commission Meeting - April 15, 2008 4.Retaining walls over four feet high must be designed by a professional engineer and a permit must be obtained prior to construction. 5.One (1) “van-accessible” parking space is required. 6.Additional window area shall be installed in the break room in the southeast corner of the building. 7.Signage shall be permitted on two building elevations only. 8.Staff recommends that the curb line north of the drive-thru be shifted to the east to provide for additional vehicle stacking. 9.Staff recommends that manhole 4A be shifted into the curb line and replaced with a catch basin to capture additional runoff from the parking lot. 10.The developer’s contractor must contact the Engineering Department a minimum of two business days prior to connecting to the public storm sewer. 11.An encroachment agreement is required for the retaining walls. 12.The developer must ensure that the “no build easements” noted on the Certificate of Survey will allow for the construction of parking lots and retaining walls. 13.City trunk sanitary sewer and water hook-up fees and the MCES SAC fee are due with the building permit. The 2008 rates are $4,799/unit for City water, $1,769/unit for City sanitary sewer and $1,900/unit for the MCES SAC. These fees are based on the number of SAC units as determined by Met Council. 14.The Certificate of Survey must be signed. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 6 to 0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Thomas noted the verbatim and summary minutes of the Planning Commission meeting dated March 18, 2008 as presented; and the summary minutes of the Planning Commission meeting dated April 1, 2008 as presented. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS: None. Chairman Papke adjourned the Planning Commission meeting at 8:05 p.m. Submitted by Kate Aanenson Community Development Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 23