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PC Minutes - 12-1-20Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 3 PUBLIC HEARING: CONSIDER A REQUEST FOR AN AMENDMENT TO THE CHANHASSEN GATEWAY PUD, MODIFICATION TO PUD-SPECIFIC DESIGN FEATURES, AND AMENDMENT TO CROSSROADS OF CHANHASSEN SITE PLAN WITH VARIANCES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF A 5,100 SQUARE-FOOT AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR SHOP LOCATED AT 8941 CROSSROADS BOULEVARD. Weick: I will give it to Sharmeen. Al-Jaff: Thank you Chairman and members of the Planning Commission. The application before you is for a site plan to allow an automotive repair shop within the Crossroads Development. The site is located southwest of Crossroads Boulevard. It has an area of .79 acres and is zoned Planned Unit Development. Just a brief background on this. The 2030 Land Use Plan guided the site mixed-use. The area surrounding 212/101 intersection has been guided mixed use. These are the types of designations for uses that will meet the daily needs of the surrounding area. They also will accommodate high-density residential developments. In 2005 the City approved a concept plan for this area overall location and basically the area located north of Highway 212 was guided residential. The southern portions was a combination of commercial as well as office spaces. Again with the intent that these are neighborhood types of commercial uses that will meet the daily needs within this vicinity. We began working with Christian Bros. approximately six or seven months ago. This is an auto repair facility. Auto repair shops are not a permitted use within the Crossroads Development. As part of the work that we asked of them we needed a complete design that they submitted. The request is for a 5,100 square-foot building. Because this is a Planned Unit Development the overall site coverage is calculated as not to exceed 70%. In this case the total hard surface coverage within this entire development is 43.8%. The architecture of the building and design is attractive. All four elevations of the proposed building have received equal attention. Materials used on the building are of high quality. It is proposed to include brick, block, EFIS, as well as metal. The garage doors (there will be nine of them) are proposed to be made of glass and metal. They are fully screened. The overall design of the building is compatible and harmonious with existing buildings as well as future proposed buildings. This is accomplished through using compatible materials, complementary design elements including parapet walls, pronounced entryway, use of canopies over the windows, awnings over the windows, and glass windows throughout this development. Parking for this building is buffered from views through evergreens and landscaping. The total required parking for this development (there is a shared parking agreement for all of the buildings) and the total should be 247 and this entire development is proposing 278 parking spaces. Signage is proposed to include two wall-mounted signs facing northwest and southeast. Signage is in compliance with the ordinance. They do need to apply for a building permit but these are individual letters, backlit. There is one monument sign proposed along the northwest corner of the site and it may not exceed 24 square feet. Trails and sidewalks are intended to allow for connection between the subject site and the surrounding area and it will separate pedestrian from vehicular traffic. The landscaping plan is in compliance with ordinance. The shrubs along the east side of the site will fully screen the parking lot as well as the garage doors on this side. The applicant is proposing to Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 4 have a bench at the entrance in the southeast corner of the building. Lighting plan is in compliance with ordinance. What you see along the right side of the screen is existing light fixtures. What the applicant is proposing is very compatible with this development. This development was permitted a maximum number of 71,500 square feet of total building area. With this building the total number is going add up to 67,271 square feet. As I mentioned earlier, the current standards for the planned unit development do not list auto repair shops as a permitted use. Staff has prepared ordinances that regulate the automotive repair shop. The site plan cannot be approved without approval of this planned unit development amendment. We are recommending approval of the application with conditions. I’ll be happy to answer any questions. Weick: Thank you, Sharmeen. Very thorough as was the staff report. At this time I would open it up for commission questions. You can go ahead and just speak up if you have them. McGonagill: Sharmeen, the question I have go back to the site plan. Walk me through, I have two areas of curiosity. One is how the effluent will be handled inside the bays. What are they doing to wash down the bays, clean up, because there is oil and stuff leaking every day? How will that be handled inside the facility itself environmentally? Does it go to our stormwater? Does it go to sewage? Where is it going? The second one is out in the parking lot, the slope of the parking lot. Which way does it go? For example, if someone brings in a car and its leaking oil as they do and they are bringing it there for maintenance in rain, snow, whatever, which way will it go? Will it go to the stormwater pond that you have there? I’m just curious about that. To keep the contamination as I would call it on that site? Aanenson: Sharmeen, do you want to let the applicant answer that question? If that’s all right, Commissioner McGonagill? Al-Jaff: Sure. McGonagill: Sure, that’s fine. Or we can wait until the applicant presents. Aanenson: I think they are probably more technically… McGonagill: We can do that. What about the overall site grade? Do you know that? Henricksen: Sharmeen, I can butt in here if you guys can hear me. This is Erik Henricksen. I’m with the Engineering Department. I’m the Project Engineer. I did review of these plans. To kind of go back to your previous question, if I recall in the plans, and I would leave this up to Kimley- Horn too, but I believe they have a coalescing oil water separator. It’s a system that is pretreatment prior to discharge into the sanitary sewer system. I believe I did see that on the site plan. As far as slopes or grades it is relatively a flat lot. When the PUD was built out as mass graded, this lot was a part of that mass grading so it is relatively flat. As far as the parking lot itself, it does grade and drainage does go to the storm that’s going to be collected there so it Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 5 would be routed to catch basins in the parking lot. As far as the issue when cars are leaking in a repair area there is really no pretreatment on the storm that it goes directly to but the main focus again is how you deal with the pits and the drainage inside, which again is that pretreatment. It did appear adequate from our review. Again, I think Kimley-Horn knows more about the ins and outs of the, or the minutiae of that part. McGonagill: Thank you. That’s what I was expecting was some sort of a water coalescer. Usually that’s what you will see. Thanks. Wakefield: This is Jonathan Wakefield. I’m the property procurement director for Christian Bros. Automotive. I’m more than happy to answer the first part of the question regarding how we handle the internal cleanliness of the shop. We are not a wash-down shop at all. Modern EPA standards wouldn’t allow that and we’ve been compliant since we started operating in 1982. The way that we operate we have a Zamboni-style machine. It looks like something you would see on a small-scale hockey rink. It is a daily clean and scrub of the particulate matter that drops from the cars. That includes snow melt, so on and so forth. There are trench drains within the shop to take snow melt, rain, and so forth. That’s carried to the 750 gallon sand and oil separator that the Engineering folks alluded to earlier. I can go into a deep dive of our environmental compliance but we literally have a three-level containment system that more than exceeds state and federal containment requirements. Again, if you want me to go deeper into detail I certainly can, but we are as above and beyond as can possibly be imagined. McGonagill: Thank you. That’s all I have. Weick: Thank you. Great. Other questions from the commission or clarifying points? Von Oven: This is Commissioner Von Oven. On the staff report pages 13 and 14 is where you’ve got the PUD amendment and there you indicated staff had some concerns. In the bullet points below that, two bullet points I wanted to call out and just understand if they are somehow related or if they are not at all related. Bullet 2: All repair, assembly, disassembly… shall occur within a closed building. The second to the last bullet point is all service garage doors shall be screened. Is a garage door with a screen on it considered a closed building? Al-Jaff: No. The screening of the garage door is through landscape purposes. Von Oven: So we’re not talking about screens that allow noise through. We are talking about like blackout? Al-Jaff: No. Visual screen. Weick: Like the trees. Al-Jaff: So the trees along this… Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 6 Von Oven: Thank you. No further questions. Al-Jaff: Thank you. Aanenson: If I may, Chairman, I think that was one of the things that we contemplated when we looked at the orientation of the building for noise. This is adjacent to kind of the frontage road adjacent to 212 and so looking at that orientation the bays internally, but then that screening, the landscaping screening provides an additional visual impact and the noise attenuation. So that’s, it was kind of a twofold thing. We’ve had other auto repairs that there was conditions put on that the doors had to down the whole time. That is really onerous. For one, staff to try and enforce, and then seasonal times of the year that there may be some ambient noise. We have confidence that the way this operation is going to go that it would fit in. Again, we know there’s a demand fr this type of service in the community, and this seems like a good site. Kind of a transition when you are behind the existing gas station with that Kwik Trip and working on that orientation. Weick: Thanks, Kate. Reeder: I’m Mr. Reeder. Does what we’re doing here is a repair business and not a collision repair business? Does our ordinance distinguish between those? Al-Jaff: Yes, it does. What you have here is basically the equivalent of changing tires, oil. It’s not a body shop. It is actually engines and the running of… Reeder: So you would not expect to have a car that’s missing a front end or a … or whatever sitting in this parking lot? Al-Jaff: Well it depends on what type of damage has… Aanenson: Let’s let the applicant answer that. Wakefield: Again, this is Jonathan Wakefield. We don’t do anything to the exterior of a vehicle at all whatsoever. We don’t even do touch-up paint to a bumper. No window replacement. None of that. We are strictly internal and with a modern vehicle, a very high percentage of the work that we do is electronic and electronic diagnostic. Most vehicles have 32 on-board computers and/or sensors and that’s the vast majority of what you fix anymore. The mechanical aspect is still very important but our technicians are really accomplished at working with both a wrench and a laptop. So, all the work happens within the bays and happens to vehicles that, they are not there to have any kind of body work at all whatsoever, they’re just there to be repaired and put back on the road. Does that answer your question? Reeder: It does for you. My question for staff is whether or not the subsequent owner of this building would be restricted to that kind of repair? Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 7 Al-Jaff: Yes, they would be. Reeder: How? Al-Jaff: The city code defines auto repair shops and differentiates it from body shops. What the applicant is requesting is an auto repair shop, not a body shop. Reeder: So if somebody wanted to put a body shop in this building, they would have to go through an amendment to the PUD? Al-Jaff: That is correct. Reeder: In this current proposal are there any regulations on how many cars they can have sitting in their lot waiting for repair? Al-Jaff: No, there isn’t. There’s a limit on the number of parking spaces, there’s a limit on the square footage and how many bays there are so I’m assuming that if they reach capacity as far as vehicles that need to be fixed, they just will let their clients know that their appointment would have to wait to a later date or time. Wakefield: If I may I can elaborate on that as well. So there’s also is a stipulation in the restrictions that we have accepted with staff and those restrictions require that any vehicles that are in our parking lot, especially for overnight, must be operable. In other words, they can drive under their own power. If they can’t, they are in the bays overnight. They also have to be licensed. That keeps derelict vehicles from staying for extended periods of time. We don’t want that. A, it’s a bad look. This is a high-end neighborhood. We want to look like our neighbors and be attractive to them. That’s Item 1 and the other, somewhat self-serving here, when the cars leave, that’s usually when we get paid. So there is no incentive for a vehicle to stay long term, overnight occasionally as maybe somebody has to work late and they can’t pick up their vehicle until the next morning and so it forces a courtesy. The first nine vehicles we have go in the bays overnight, and if there happen to be some stragglers, we’ll put them in a lighted part of the parking lot and they will be picked up or worked on the next day. Aanenson: Chairman, if I may? Weick: Yes. Aanenson: That’s condition number 9 of the PUD and that’s what regulates it and that’s what Ms. Al-Jaff was talking about. We do differentiate it in the code but it is further spelled out in the PUD ordinance what was specific to this zoning district. Weick: Thank you. Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 8 Reeder: Mr. Chairman, I’m not sure if I heard all of that but everything he says sounds super to me. Is that our requirement or the decision of the company that’s coming into this building at this time? Aanenson: It’s our requirement in the PUD. It says no vehicles that are inoperable can be parked there and that also they have to be licensed. That’s pretty much universal throughout the zoning district in the city. All other places that would do repairs. Reeder: Super. Weick: Great questions. Do you have more, Commissioner Reeder? Reeder: I think I’m good. I’m just looking for the trash receptacle. I assume it’s on the end of the building, is that correct? Al-Jaff: That is correct. It is along the north, right here. Weick: Which is towards Kwik Trip I think, right? Reeder: Super. Thank you. Al-Jaff: Northeast. Weick: Great. Other commissioners with questions? Hearing none, I would ask the applicant to rejoin us and if there is something to add. I know we’ve heard from you a couple of times already and we certainly appreciate that. That is very helpful. But we’d give you an opportunity to speak about the project and the neighborhood if you would like. Wakefield: Absolutely. So again, my name is Jonathan Wakefield. I’m the Property Procurement Director for Christian Bros. Automotive. I also have representation from Kimley-Horn. Christian was kind enough to give up an evening to back me up if you ask anything too terribly technical. Our Chief Development Officer is also on the call so you’ve got a Director and a CDO. That hasn’t happened before and hopefully that speaks to how important this project is to us and how taking root in your community is something that we dearly want to have happen. Also, a representative from the current owner of the property is here. We are in the process of buying it, developing it, and it is our goal to bring it to fruition. In looking at the history of this site, the lot that we are occupying was original designed for a bank. There are some things about Christian Bros. Automotive that I want to get into; some advantages that may not be too apparent. One of them is that our traffic count is extraordinarily low. As compared to a bank, we will reduce the traffic that it would have generated by 60-80%. So, at worst 60%. At best, 80%. The McDonald’s that’s already there and operating, we do less business by volume from a traffic standpoint all day than they do in 30 minutes. It’s stunning. There’s a value add in having a very low traffic generator. That’s really speaking to the transactional side of Christian Bros. coming in Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 9 and becoming part of this development. From a noise standpoint, that wasn’t brought up here in this particular forum, but it was brought up by staff. It was a detracting letter that was sent in an email. Somebody gave their voice and had a concern I wanted to address that as well. As staff alluded to our building orientation places the bays facing inboard and away from the street. The only people who might hear anything out of us might be the Kwik Trip, at worst. We’ve done two acoustic studies in other locales for other municipalities and we know, without any shadow of a doubt, that by the time the sound reaches our property line and crosses into somebody else, our loudest noise, which is the air hammer which takes the nuts off of a tire, is 74 decibels at the door and is attenuated out to somewhere between 40 and 50 decibels at the street. For reference, my speaking voice, I’m told, is somewhere between 50 and 55 decibels. I can talk all day as my staff will tell you, but we’re not running an air hammer all day. We work on about 17 cars a day, and that’s it. We are a true repair shop. We are not a tire and lube shop. That’s not our bit. We don’t need 200 cars a day to come through to have a viable business. That’s not what we’re there for. We see some real advantages. There was a line in the staff report that I really enjoyed and it was talking about neighborhood commercial uses: “Those uses that meet the daily needs of the residents.” That’s exactly what we do. A gas station does that. Having a childcare facility there does that. Across the street, although not part of this development necessarily, the Park and Ride does that. McDonald’s does that. Businesses that may or may not be liked in what they do but have a strong and positive impact on the community in the way that they serve it. Christian Bros. Automotive certainly does that. There were some environmental questions. I think I answered those. Lighting has been talked about. Again, that’s the transactional part of our presentation but I also want to move into the relational aspect of Christian Bros. and who we are and why we do what we do. We’ve been in operation since 1982. We have over 230 stores across the nation approaching 30 states. We may have 30 states. I’ve actually lost count in the 10 years I’ve been with the company. This is not our first rodeo by any stretch of the imagination and it’s not our first store in this particular area or your state. We are also in places you may have heard of: Maple Grove where incidentally we are part of, we are actually in their parking lot, for Parnassus Preparatory Charter School, so we play very well with others, even educational facilities like Primrose who is directly adjacent to us. Also in the Maple Grove facility, there is a Tender Time childcare facility as well and our Lakeville location we are one lot over from a KinderCare and actually we are directly adjacent to a KinderCare in Clive, Iowa. We’ve got another location coming up in Inver Grove. Two more in development: one in Woodbury and one in Savage. Actually a couple more that are too early to talk about. I say all that to say this: We are a highly professional company. Extremely reputable. Incredibly clean. I would challenge anyone and we offered this to staff as well, at least I told Christian to offer it to staff. Feel free to drive and look at any of our other facilities, the way they are operated, way we handle cars, the way we treat our customers, the shuttle vehicles that we have and then we take them to work and back, which helps reduce the car count. We are excited about the Park and Ride, that somebody could conceivably drop their vehicle off and before they hop on that mass transit vehicle, drop it off with us. We will fix your care while you are at work and come pick you up at the parking lot and take care of you. That’s a service that very few can offer. Again, I can’t stress enough how deeply embedded we are in the communities that we serve and service. We don’t look at our customers as customers or clients. They are friends. I know that sounds a little bit salesy but we Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 10 are a faith-based company and we are very proud of that and we feel that if we’re allowed to be a part of this community, a part of this development, we will have a lasting impact. I don’t know if I said it or not but since 1982 we have not closed a single location. Our business model is sound. Automotive repair is an essential business and during this time of COVID where we are all coping and doing strange things like having meetings in your home office, we have continued to shine. We had one down month and then it picked up immediately. Actually, the month after our down month was the best month we’ve ever had. We’re survivors and we’ll do well here and are very much looking forward to being part of what you already have and possess here: a great community. Again, I’m open for any questions. I’ve been with Christian Bros. for 10 years. There’s not a whole lot that hasn’t been thrown at me before and I can take it. Weick: Well, thank you very much. It’s a great presentation. You answered quite a few questions of mine. In that presentation, and I will certainly turn it over to our commission members if there are any clarifying questions they need to ask you or your team. We’ll give everyone a second to gather their thoughts if they would like. Wakefield: This is usually the part where I say I’ve flown in from Houston, Texas and my time is your time, but obviously we are not doing that right now. So I’m actually going to get to have dinner after this with my family so that’s kind of cool. Weick: That is a good side of it, yes. Wakefield: Anything you’ve got. We’re an open book. Very transparent. Weick: Are you working on something over there, Commissioner McGonagill? Okay. I wasn’t sure if you were turning or not. Okay. McGonagill: I’m good. Weick: I can see you. I can’t see everybody else. It doesn’t sound like, it sounds like you’ve touch on everything and you’ve certainly answered a few questions, throughout the staff presentation as well, so thank you very much. I appreciate the detail you provided and it certainly left our Commission members speechless so it must have been thorough. I will now open the public hearing portion of this matter. I will say that we did receive a couple of emails, or at least two and those are in the record. I think one was in favor and one was opposed to the building of the item. Al-Jaff: Correct. Staff has received phone calls. Weick: Okay. Al-Jaff: Mainly inquiries about what is the development and we just were able to answer all of their questions and ensure that if they had any comments or any concerns to let us know. Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 11 Weick: Okay. Great. Anyone here present this evening who would like to come forward and speak an opinion on this item may do so at this time. Just please state your name and talk as loud as you can because the microphone is covered with plastic. Thank you for coming this evening. Chintaginjala: Good evening. May name is Bala Chintaginjala. My address is 8982 Southwest Village Loop. That is a townhome. From my home this proposed project is 800 feet away. By the way, I spoke to Sharmeen earlier today about this project. She tried to explain. Actually, I went through this project last weekend. It was very good. I am also a civil engineer. I worked for 10 years in the construction field but for the last 20 years I’ve been working in IT. I want to thank the applicant for investing in our city. He created jobs and also he will fulfill the needs of neighborhood residents. My request is, as long as we can keep the noise levels low as for the allowable limits, as for the core, and pollution is under control as for the limits. I don’t have any problem. I welcome this project and I want to vote yes for this project. Thank you very much. Gentlemen, thank you. Excellent job. Weick: Thank you so much and thank you for coming this evening and offering your views on this project. Very important. Anyone else present who would like to come forward on this item? We also have the call-in number on the screen. Is it lighting up over there? Al-Jaff: Nothing is happening. Weick: All right. So I mentioned the emails have been noted and are in the record and thank you this evening for speaking. Your opinion on the item as well. We’re just checking the phones. We’re just making sure anyone who wants to call in, can. I know it’s weird. We’ve done this a couple of times but it still is a challenge to get used to the new way of doing things but we will perfect it, I’m sure. With that, I will close the public hearing portion of this item. We’ve heard from staff, our applicant, as well as members of the community in person and via email, and telephone calls earlier. So thank you to everyone who has expressed their views and opinions on this item. At this time the item is open for the Planning Commission to discuss the item amongst ourselves, voice any opinion, concerns, and certainly would be open to a motion and a second as appropriate. Yes, Commissioner Skistad. Skistad: I am Commissioner Skistad and I appreciate all the work that went into this proposal and I’m excited about having it. I do think it’s something we need for the community and it’s very well done and very well thought out. The building is beautiful, so this would be something that I would definitely support. I appreciate all of the parties that worked so hard on this project. Weick: Awesome. Thank you. I concur. Some things that were touched on that I had written down. Certainly people had mentioned noise a lot and one thing that I had sort of, I know Commissioner Reeder had mentioned it, is it like, could it be a body shop and it’s not like that. My big question was, is it like one of those quick-change oil places where you got like you mentioned. They make money by turning cars. Turn and burn. Turn and burn and that’s where I Chanhassen Planning Commission – December 1, 2020 12 think you can start to get into unsightly potentially traffic patterns, noise patterns. They’re not as concerned with limiting those things, right? They need to get in and out. That’s clearly not what’s going on here and so I think that’s great. In fact, having seen that area and, I don’t think it’s the number one probably noise unsightly or detractor, if you will, in that area. That Kwik Trip is packed and like there’s cars everywhere, and people pumping gas and going in and out of the store and running through the car wash. All this stuff. I just think it’s a good use of the land and I think it will be a, I honestly believe it will be a good neighbor for the area. McGonagill: Mr. Chairman, I would agree with you and I think the thing that I think about with their effect is true. I mean a third of the price of your car these days is electronics. Weick: Right. McGonagill: And you’re not, everybody guarantees their drive trains for 100,000 miles but the electronics are the ones you’re working on so I think it’s good. I appreciate the way they thought it out. I do also appreciate staff’s conditions that you put in there on the fact of it has to be drivable, things like that have to be kept sitting out there and there are some conditions to try and keep it up as nice as possible and I think it would be a good add. These kind of facilities, if you think about it, it will probably hire 12-15 people that will be good, permanent jobs by the time you go through it all, not counting the suppliers, not counting anything else that goes through there. It’s a nice extension so I’m in favor of it, Mr. Chairman. Weick: Awesome. We would certainly entertain a motion if there weren’t… Reeder: Mr. Chairman? I’m prepared to make that motion. I think it’s a good project in a good place. I’m pleased with the operation suggestions that they have so I would make the motion. Reeder moved, Noyes seconded that the Chanhassen Planning Commission recommends the City Council approve the Site Plan consisting of a 5,100 square-foot automotive repair shop and Planned Unit Development amendment for Chanhassen Gateway allowing automotive repair shops with standards, Planning Case 2020-21 as shown in plans dated received October 30, 2020, including the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation, subject to conditions. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Weick: The motion passes unanimously 7-0. Again, thank you for all your hard work Sharmeen. I know this has been a long one and detailed and it’s very important any time we are amending PUD and adding a new neighbor. We want to make sure that its right for the neighborhood and this feels like a good one. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you to representatives from Christian Bros. as well.