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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPCMinutes-20080225City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 1 of 8 Hastings Planning Commission February 25, 2008 Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m. Chair Truax called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Roll Call 1. Commissioners Present: Truax, Hiedeman, Zeyen, Peine, Stevens Commissioners Absent: Schmitt, McInnis Staff Present: Planning Director John Hinzman Associate Planner Justin Fortney Public Works Director Thomas Montgomery City Engineer Nick Egger Approval of Minutes 2. –February 11, 2008 Motion by Hiedeman to approve the February 11, 2008, meeting minutes. Seconded by Stevens. Upon vote taken, Ayes 5, Nays 0. Motion carried. PUBLIC HEARINGS City of Hastings – 3.Amendment to Home Occupation Ordinance. Planning Director John Hinzman gave the staff report. Commissioner Truax confirmed that renewal would be after 4 additional years rather than 2. Hinzman confirmed this. Public Hearing opened at 7:03 Public Hearing closed at 7:03 with no comments being made Action by Planning Commission: Motion by Stevens to approve the amendment to the home occupation ordinance. Seconded by Hiedeman. Upon vote taken, Ayes 5, Nays 0. Motion carried. OTHER ACTIONS City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 2 of 8 City of Hastings – 4.Review Public Improvements for OHDS Consistency. Justin Fortney, Associate Planner gave the staff report. Commissioner Stevens asked Fortney if the Commission can act on the two items separately. Fortney responded yes. Commissioner Stevens asked if the HPC has reviewed this request. Fortney responded yes, but they have tabled St. John’s request for on street parking to a special meeting tomorrow. Commissioner Truax asked if the sidewalk adjacent to St. John’s was going to be extended. Nick Egger, City Engineer said no because of all the boulevard trees and it is not specified in the comprehensive plan. Truax said parts of it are in disrepair and asked if it will be repaired or replaced. Egger said like all sidewalks in the project area it will be evaluated. Commissioner Stevens asked Egger if any of the trees proposed for replacement are located around St. John’s Church. Egger responded no. Egger added that the trees to be replaced were chosen by the City Forester because of their poor health or risk of coming down. Commissioner Truax said that when they were discussing the Original Hastings Design Guidelines they were told there would have to be at least 4 ornamental streetlights per block to provide adequate light. He asked if this is still the case or would any changes in technology require less streetlights. Egger responded that it is possible, but they would work with a lighting engineer to determine the correct amount based on the type of lights. Thomas Montgomery, Public Works Director added that the city has a policy not to light continuous areas due to high electrical costs. He also said that ornamental lights are ornamental and are for an improved streetscape rather than for lighting. Montgomery said that existing streetlights on wooden poles at intersections will not be removed. Stevens asked if the lights are put in later, would it cost more than installing them now. Montgomery said either way they would be installed using directional boring to limit damage to trees so the cost would be about the same. Stevens asked what is the smallest width of streets that will be maintained. Egger said it would be 28 feet. Truax asked if money was the driving factor in not including streetlights in the area like was done on Eddy St. Montgomery said we put the lights in the downtown area, which is the only reason there are any on Eddy St. There are also some on County Road 42 that were paid for with a scenic byway grant. City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 3 of 8 Truax asked if the Guidelines still say to install ornamental lights. Montgomery said yes, but in this case the lights were not included in the bonding, we didn’t know about them being necessary, and there is no money available for them. He added that at the HPC meeting staff suggested adoption of a street light installation program if ornamental lighting was still desired within neighborhoods. The Planning Commission may want to consider similar direction. Truax said that Southview Drive was built narrower to slow traffic. Montgomery replied that there was only 40 feet of right-of-way available and parking was restricted to only one side. Dick Graham, 608 Eddy Street said that he has lived in his home for 33 years and the City seems to be invested in historic preservation. Citizens are asked to do what they wouldn’t normally do. He said that Thomas Montgomery said if they wanted to keep the roads narrow they could. He added that this is important to keep cars out of there. He said we don’t want Eddy Street to be a feeder street. He added that he was told that the savings from keeping the streets and sidewalks narrow could provide one blocks worth of ornamental lighting. He ended by adding that his assessments are in excess of 10,000 dollars. Truax asked Graham if there was only parking allowed on one side of the street, would it be a problem. Graham responded that there are not usually cars parked there. He added that the less concrete the better. th Graham asked if 6 St between Eddy St. and Spring St. was going to be widened. Egger said the map shows that it is under a different jurisdiction and it may or may not be widened depending on constraints. Truax asked Egger if he was open to negotiation of street widths. Egger responded that negotiation is not the correct description. He said that we are looking at the characteristics of the rights-of-way and will be limited by trees, walls, etc. Truax asked what the benefit of widening the streets was. Montgomery said it allows for safer parking of parallel cars and limiting parking to one side in an existing neighborhood could be bad. He added that a 30’ wide street with cars parked on both sides will slow traffic more than a 28’ wide street with cars parked on one side. th Joe Balsanek, 224 W 7 Street said that he wishes we could table this request for another year to restart this process. He added that when the planning began the Engineering Department didn’t even know that this was a historic district. If they had known we could have discussed ornamental lighting and sidewalk treatments. He said that changes to the streets can negatively effect the historical integrity of the historic district and the individual property be distorting the scale. He added that as a historic homeowner he is required to spend more on projects. He said that his projects have cost him from 25% to City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 4 of 8 28% more to complete due to the required Historic Guidelines. He added that if homeowners have to spend more to maintain their properties under the guidelines, the City should reciprocate and do the same. He added that he would like all of the extra money from the road narrowing to be reinvested in ornamental streetlights. Egger said the savings would be about 20,000 to 30,000 dollars, which would be enough for about a block of streetlights on one side of the street only. Balsanek said that I have heard that the streets are being rebuilt because of the Vermillion Street wall reconstruction project. If this is true there is no need to replace the streets this year and we can table it until next year. Truax said this project did not just come up all of the sudden. Balsanek said that the other two districts have ornamental streetlights and this one does not. Truax asked if we recommended a narrower road what would staff suggest. Montgomery replied that if the Commission recommended anything less than 30 feet wide, staff would recommend there be no parking on one side. Commissioner Zeyen said if we recommend anything less than 32 feet wide we’re ignoring the plan. He was opposed to making amendments to the Guidelines for the request. Stevens said that a 32’ wide street would accommodate parallel parking. Action by Planning Commission: Motion by Zeyen to approve the proposal as stipulated below. Seconded by Stevens. Reconstruct streets at 32 feet wide to accommodate parallel parking when possible Boulevard tree placement and preservation 4 foot minimum width sidewalks 4 foot minimum width boulevards Recommend the adoption of an ornamental street light program Upon vote taken, Ayes 5, Nays 0. Motion carried. Truax said to the audience that the Commission would be interested in hearing from the th public concerning the request by St. John’s request for curb cut parking on 8 St W and the west side of Eddy St. St. John’s Church Pastor Percy Damrow said he has been pastor since 1981. He said he th would like to have the street plan amended to add curb cut parking on 8 and Eddy City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 5 of 8 streets. He added that parking is essential for any business and a church is no different. He said they bought the historic home for parking and when the City opposed it they sold it and planted some trees. He added that the City also discouraged adding parking to the landscaped area south of the carriage house. The HPC suggested curb cuts for parking. The Engineering department made a diagram of how the parking could be laid out. He said because of this they have had this idea in their long range plan. He said we appreciate the variances from the Planning Commission and City Council in 1988, but we still need parking. He said he felt betrayed when they suggested a private parking lot rather than curb cuts that were recommended in 1988. David Senter with St. John’s said we did everything we were told to do in 1988 and our request should be grandfathered due to it being worked out prior to the new guidelines. Duane Groth who spoke on behalf of St. John’s said he is a long time member of the church and added that angled parking is preferable to parallel. He also said parallel parking spots are often passed up because it is hard to maneuver into. th Ken Dahl of 205 7 St W adjacent to the request spoke in opposition to the addition of curb cut parking. Mr. Dahl said his family built their house and has lived there since 1906. He added that the Commission voted in favor of the staff recommendation to deny this request. He said it is not an appropriate use of public space. He added that it wasn’t a historic neighborhood when any recommendations were made 20 years ago. He said there are many more homes in a designation study and this will continue over time. He said this curb cut parking is inappropriate at this time. th Rita Dahl of 205 7 W adjacent to the request spoke in opposition to the addition of curb cut parking. She pointed to a picture of Eddy Street and spoke of its beauty. She added that this is the entrance to the neighborhood and would only be used for a limited time on Sundays and Wednesday evenings. She said it is hard to visualize the loss of beauty this would cause. She said there are children in the neighborhood and a 66-foot wide road could cause an increase of traffic and speed in the area. She ended by saying a petition will be passed around the area. Groth asked the Dahl’s questions as they returned to their seats and Chairmen Truax called for order. Damrow mentioned that the Church would surely replace the lost trees. Mr. Dahl said the Church used to own their neighbors house and had an opportunity to turn it into parking at one time but instead sold it. Rita Dahl said the City should not be providing convenience parking for a private use. She added that the church has mentioned numerous times that this parking is for convenience. Groth said they say why provide parking for a private use, but we aren’t asking. We City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 6 of 8 aren’t asking, we’ll pay for our portion. We didn’t do it then because we didn’t want to replace the road. Dan Dancer who spoke on behalf of St. John’s said we have upheld preservation by adhering to the recommendations of the City. He added that he cannot dispute the beauty of the street, but there should be appropriate balance of safety of children and the elderly. He ended by saying we haven’t had this opportunity in the past. Commissioner Peine said the legal posting for the variances and minor subdivision at the th June 13 Planning Commission meeting mentioned the possibility of angled on street parking. Hinzman said in that staff report for the variances the Planning Director recommended adding of conditions to the variances like angled parking but the Commission did not add them to the approval. Truax read a quote from the minutes from that meeting where Turney Hazlet representing the church said the Church does not prefer the on street angled parking arrangement. Truax added that a deal was never made. He said that he sees a lot of references in the 1988 documents about possibilities not approval. He also said the June 1988 City Council minutes say the approvals of the variances are not to be construed as giving prior approval of a parking lot building permit when or if a permit is applied for. Truax said this doesn’t give any approval for additional parking. Truax said he believes by granting the variance to the parking requirements the Planning Commission and City Council allowed the church to have less spaces rather than having to obtain spaces in other ways being proposed. Truax said if there ever was a time to install additional on street parking spaces it would be now. The City would be responsible for building them, maintaining them, plowing them, in addition to accepting liability. He added that the spaces would only be used by St. John’s Church and we’re giving up more green and trees. Damrow said that the spaces may also be used on Fridays by Todd field goers. Brian Weinkauf with St. John’s said with a 30-foot wide street that has parallel parking it chokes traffic and it would be hard to get emergency vehicles down it. Zeyen asked if the HPC will be meeting again on this matter. Hinzman said yes tomorrow night at 7:00 right here. Zeyen asked if the property was registered as historic when they bought it. Fortney said yes and the district was formed around it in 1999. City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 7 of 8 th Stevens said he wouldn’t have a problem expanding the 8 Street angled parking 4 to 5 spaces. He added that there were possibilities in 1988 for increased angled parking, but in 20 years times have changed. Zeyen asked the Church if they have considered building a parking lot on the vacant church property adjacent to the gymnasium. Groth said they may want to add on to the church in that area at some point in the future. He added that they were against curb cut parking, they wanted a parking lot on the historic property. He said I wish we had the right to teardown the historic house in 1988 for parking. th Bruce Reuter with St. John’s asked what type of curb is proposed on 8 and Eddy streets. Egger responded the same type that you find on all newly constructed roads. Reuter said they could install low curbs that people could drive over and park on. Action by Planning Commission: Motion by Stevens to recommend approval of the 4 to 5 additional angled curb cut th parking spaces on 8 Street W adjacent to St. John’s Lutheran Church and recommend denial of angled parking on Eddy Street. Seconded by Peine. Upon vote taken, Ayes 5, Nays 0. Motion carried. Discussion 5. – Discuss future amendments to the Adult Use Ordinance and possible rezoning. Associate Planner Fortney gave the staff report. Chair Truax asked if the adult use spacing could be changed from 200 feet from any residential property to 200 feet from any residence or another way that would keep the separation from homes rather than from zoning for homes. Stevens asked how we came up with the 200-foot separation. Fortney replied that 200 feet was adopted with the existing adult use ordinance. Stevens said he was just wondering because St. Paul requires 1,500 feet. Peine asked if there was a plan B on where the adult uses could be located. Hinzman responded no, the industrial park offers the only commercial opportunity on secondary roads that are not highly visible as opposed to the main roads where other commercial opportunities exist. Peine asked if we could provide much less than 6% of commercial area to adult uses if the property was largely vacant. Hinzman responded that court cases mostly look at total available land and not vacant land. City of Hastings Planning Commission Minutes – February 25, 2008 Page 8 of 8 Other Business 6. Planning Director Hinzman updated the Commission on an ordinance amendment that the city Council is considering that may change commissions’ term limits. Hinzman also th noted that Comprehensive Plan Committee will be meeting on Wednesday the 27 of February. Adjournment 7. Motion by Zeyen to adjourn the February 25, 2008, Planning Commission meeting. motioned, seconded by Peine. Upon vote taken, Ayes 5, Nays 0. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 9:38 p.m. Respectfully submitted, _____________________________ Justin Fortney Associate Planner