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PL 02/03/1999 - 30965�--, CITY OF FRIDLEY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 3,1999 CALL TO ORDER: Vice-Chairperson Kondrick called the February 3, 1999, Planning Commission meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Dave Kondrick, LeRoy Oquist, Dean Saba, Brad Sielaff, Connie Modig Members Absent: Diane Savage, Larry Kuechle Others Present: Barb Dacy, Communiiy Development Director APPROVAL OF JANUARY 6. 1999. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES: MOTION by Mr. Saba, seconded by Mr. Sielaff, to approve the January 6, 1998, Planning Commission minutes as written. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK �—. DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 1. REVIEW ALTERNATIVE URBAN AREAWIDE REVIEW (AUAR). FRIDLEY LAKE POINTE CENTER: Ms. Dacy stated the Altemative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) submission is by Medtronic, Inc., at the Fridley Lake Pointe Center at the northwest comer of Highway 65 and I-694. An AUAR in an altemative form of an environmental analysis that is established under State law and works well, in this case where a multi-phase type of project is proposed where the timing may not be absolutely certain at this point in time or where there is some question as to the exact type of uses that will be on the property. This analysis does have the same amount of analysis as an environment assessment worksheet or an environmental impact statement. Ms. Dacy stated State law requires that the City look at the worse case scenarios or, in this case, the most intense of development that may occur on the property. State law does require that, after comments are received on this draft, the City analyze those comments and publish a final AUAR document and mitigation plan to address the impacts pointed out in the document itself or by a responding agency. The law requires that the City distribute the AUAR draft to agencies such as the Department of Transportation, Department of Natural Resources, Rice Creek Watershed, and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The Metropolitan Council will also review this document. It is also available for the public at the Fridley Municipal Center, the Fridley library, and at some libraries in the metro area. People have until February 10 to make a comment on the draft AUAR. After the deadline on February 10, the City looks at the comments, reviews the draft AUAR, decides how to address the comments that have been made, and then publishes a final AUAR and mitigation plan. The tentative date for adoption of these documents would be April 12. � PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 2 Ms. Dacy stated Medtronic has requested the flexibiliiy to develop up to 1.6 million square feet of oifice on this site. The AUAR looks at that development in terms of four phases of construction of about 400,000 sqware feet each. There may be a number of buildings of the site, and Medtronic is requesting to go up to 10 stories in height. Parking ramps are proposed which is much the same as the original finro proposals on this property. There will be a five-level ramp proposed in each of the areas of the site. It is proposed that three of the levels would be above grade and two below grade. Ms. Dacy stated different from what exists on the property today is a slightly different public street connection to 7th Street at the northwest comer of the site as opposed to where Lake Pointe Drive intersects 7th Street right now at the southwest comer. Medtronic is suggesting the removal of Lake Pointe Drive in that particular area and creating an east-west road from the 7th Street right-of-way on the west side of the development over to Lake Pointe Drive on the east part of the site. Ms. Dacy stated the AUAR is also required to look at impacts as a result of this development. After 800,000 square feet of development occurs on the site and in conjunction with the typical background growth in traific that will occur over time, the traffic analysis is suggesting that in the year 2005 to 2007 the level of service at the Highway 65 and Lake Pointe Drive intersection will drop down to a level of service F. This means a longer wait at the stop light at peak hours or between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. The primary reason for the congestion is that there is so much north/southbound through � traffic that there is not enough lane capacity to accommodate the additional background growth plus the growth from the development. There is a potential altemative of adding an additional northbound lane on Highway 65 across Moore Lake and the possibility of using the existing shoulders as an interim approach to creating additional capacity on Highway 65. This altemative is under review, and the City would likely get comments from MnDOT on that idea. Ms. Dacy stated another impact, although less intense, is that the traffic study identified there might be a free right tum required as you go northbound from 57th Avenue onto University. The need for that is not until approximately 2010. By that time, the City would have a better feel for the traffic impacts on the roadway systems. Ms. Dacy stated there is a sewer line capacity issue after 400,000 square feet of development. Either an additional sewer line needs to be installed along the 57th/7th Avenue right-of-way or a bigger line should replace the line that is there now. Ms. Dacy stated that in terms of traffic impacts, the AUAR suggests that the 7th Avenue intersection at 57th Avenue have certain striping characteristics to create a left tum lane onto westbound 57th and also a striped right tum lane to tum right onto 7th Avenue southbound. Ms. Dacy stated the Environmental Quality & Energy Commission (EQE) reviewed the AUAR on January 19. At this meeting, staff is asking the Planning Commission for any comments they would like to have the City Council address as part of the comment period prior to completion of the final draft. She distributed copies of a memo from SRF � Consulting Group on behalf of Medtronic to respond to the EQE comments. ,r-�� PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 3 Ms. Dacy reviewed the responses. First, the EQE was very concemed about the impact to Moore Lake as a result of the development, speciflcally the impact to the quality of water. The storm ponds that are proposed will have to meet Rice Creek Watershed, MPCA and the EPA guidelines. These guidelines are established to help reduce suspended solids and pollutants, the total amount of phosphorous, total nitrogen and total lead. Based on comments from their engineers, the ponds will exceed the size requirements. This was done to provide the maximum amount of treatment possible. They will design the ponds to have traps for floatable pollutants. The impervious parking areas are reduced by the construction of the parking ramps. Because finro stories are underground, the building code will require that the run-off be discharged to the sanitary sewer. That is a tremendous savings in terms of storm treatment of surFace water. There will be a series of filtration systems, either swales or other ponds, that are proposed to be incorporated into the plan. These will be included on the master plan. The AUAR documents need to be changed to reflect these recent master plan changes. The consultants are stating the amount of maintained turf will be reduced to half. Theoretically, that means a lesser amount of treatment by fertilizers, etc. Ms. Dacy stated the EQE was concemed about adequate capacity for water usage by the building development. The engineers have verified that there is adequate capacity to serve a development of this size. The code requires water conservation flxtures in buildings, and they will have to conform with those requirements. She did not know 'rf any of their processing requires a lot of water for treatment. The water usage would mostly be �"'� by employees and for the lunchroom areas. Mr. Oquist asked if Medtronic could put in its own well. Ms. Dacy stated, no, the City would not permit that. Ms. Dacy stated the EQE suggested a transportation demand management (TDM) approach to minimize the amount of traffic to the area. At the suggestion of the consultant, staff talked to St. Louis Park staff who has an ordinance for the I-394 and Highway 100 area. They require a traific management plan for owners of properties and tenants when certain conditions occur on the roadways. If the level of congestion on the roadway exceeds a certain amount and their property is development beyond a certain threshold, then the owner is required to submit a traffic plan. The Citiy does not dictate what is in the plan. The plan is to be devised by the owners of the property. Ms. Dacy stated the measures that the ordinance suggests are similar to what the AUAR is discussing such as flexible amval and departure times, working with the bus system to incorporate a direct type of bus service to the site, etc. Medtronic is beginning to evaluate a shuttle service between their existing campuses. Medtronic has advised staff that they are encouraging #heir staff to use bikes or to walk between facilities. They are encouraging biking befinreen the facilities in Columbia Heights and at Rice Creek. The City just finished the bike trail on the east side of Highway 65 along old Central so that link is in place. Another TDM technique is to provide preferred parking spaces in the ramps for those who car pool. � Ms. Dacy stated the EQE made a general statement about the impact to Moore Lake if additional lanes to Highway 65 are constructed. The current method of construction under investigation is a sheet pile wall that would be constructed on either side of the r"�� PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING�FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 4 edge of the existing roadway. The HRA will be evaluating a contract for soil borings along the embankment some time this month so they would know the suitability of the soil to support that type of construction. The EQE is concemed that there be no filling of Moore Lake. Ms. Savage contacted staff to emphasize her concem about that as well. Ms. Dacy stated the EQE questioned if the recent Highway 610 construction would affect the project based on traffic patterr�s for employees to the proposed site. That would probably not have a significant impact. The consultants are suggesting that 60% of the traffic will enter the site from the east entrance and 40% at the west entrance of the site. Mr. Oquist asked Ms. Dacy to explain sheet pile construction. Ms. Dacy stated it is a method to hold the flll so that you don't have to go into the lake bed to create the pilings and support for the additional width for the lanes. What is needed is an additional 12 feet. Staff has met with the DNR and Rice Creek on that. The DNR said if you can remain above the ordinary high elevation, it does not require a permit. Rice Creek, however, will require that the run-off from the road be sent to some type of a treatment pond. In this case, this would be an improvement because run-off now goes directly into lake. There may be an advantage to have the project done. They would have to find a site to treat the run-off. Mr. Kondrick asked if the highway would be widened on both sides. � Ms. Dacy stated the traffic analysis showed that the major requirement would be for the northbound side. MnDOT stated they may want that for the southbound lane as well. However, the level of service F really only happens in the aftemoon peak hour. MnDOT is trying to improve the overall operation of Highway 65 but there are no state funds that are allocated to Highway 65 for lane expansion, widening, or improvement. Mr. Saba asked if the bikeway connection to the Columbia Heights facility would be on 7th Avenue or be taken off road or improved. Ms. Dacy stated that right now, it is just an on street path and they would continue to encourage the on-street use. They would create an off-street path in conjunction with their parkway approach along the north side of the development all the way to Highway 65. There is no proposed improvement to the 7th Avenue bike path but they want to make sure employees can connect to the system. Mr. Saba asked if any thought has been given to a pedestrian walkway across Highway 65. Ms. Dacy stated, no. The expanse of an overpass takes a good amount of distance, especially for the accessibilifiy guidelines. She did not know if there was enough room other than to provide an elevator. Everything to this point has been discussed at grade. Mr. Kondrick asked if a tunnel under Highway 65 had been considered as an altemative. Ms. Dacy stated she did not know if this would work with the elevations in that area. ,� PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING� FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 5 Ms. Modig asked if they were talking about 12 feet on both sides or 12 feet total. Ms. Dacy stated they are talking about 12 feet on both sides. That is the standard lane width. Mr. Sielaff asked if there would be any monitoring of Moore Lake for water quality. Ms. Dacy stated she did not know if the DNR does a regular check for water quality or if the Rice Creek Watershed District is the better agency to conduct that. Mr. Sielaff stated that while he understands the comments about phosphorous, etc., it does not address the issue of soluble nitrogen, phosphorous, etc., that will get into the lake. Also, run-off in the springtime contains a lot of salt. What is the best way to monitor that? Storm water will go into a retention basin. Is there any managed way to get rid of storm water? Mr. Oquist asked where the storm water is going to come from that is not there today. Ms. Dacy stated right now half of the property drains to the east and half to the west. The east half is under the jurisdiction of Rice Creek. In order to meet Rice Creek's standards, they have to create a pond. The pond size exceeds the requirements. They want to use it as an amenity. It will flow into Moore Lake. � Mr. Oquist asked if anyone monitors the lake today. Ms. Dacy stated she has gone through the files. The DNR does stock the lake with fish on a regular basis. She has not seen any reports, but she will check to see who does that. Mr. Kondrick stated he would like to know the frequency of the monitoring and keep track of the changes. . Mr. Oquist stated it is important to know what it is today so they have a benchmark and don't make it any worse. Mr. Sielaff stated one of the discussions by the EQE was the use of lawn chemicals. One of the comments was that this is going to be a corporate headquarter so they want to keep the lawns lush. They discussed how much and what types of chemicals are to be applied. Ms. Dacy stated she brought that to the attention of the company, and they will address that issue. Mr. Sielaff stated that regarding the water usage, they were not sure whether 60,000 gallons per day were accurate. It could be more. Again, it comes down to the issue of how much watering they will be doing. He did not know if the storm water retention basins would provide that much water. They will want to maintain a certain amount of r"�, water for aesthetic purposes so he did not think they would use that for watering the lawn. ,^� PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 6 Mr. Kondrick stated he was sure that the engineering staff had taken that into consideration. Ms. Modig asked what was going to be put in the area designated Light Industrial. Ms. Dacy stated a lot of the uses appear to be similar to what Medtronic now has on its existing campus. It may be a laboratory testing area or a manufacturing area where they assemble products. Based on what she knows now, that is the best description she can provide. Mr. Oquist asked who will be responsible for the hotel and restaurant. Ms. Dacy stated that since the publication of the AUAR, the company is not going to propose a hotel or restaurant on the site. On the AUAR, they tried to consider all the possibilities and tried to test for it in terms of environmental impacts. To a certain extent, the traffic from a hotel and a restaurant would occur throughout the day but there is also a different set of impacts along with that. Mr. Kondrick asked if there is a possibility that property could be sold to another hotelier. Ms. Dacy stated that based on the information given to the City, the company is concemed about that. They want site control., and they don't see that as an option. !'� Mr. Oquist stated the pond area proposed is where the restaurant and hotel were proposed. There is no room for it there. Mr. Oquist asked that if this does not go through and someone wants to build there, do we have to go through this again? Ms. Dacy stated that depends on the nature of the development proposed. If similar, she thought they could use this analysis. Mr. Saba suggested that Medtronic incorporate some of the design ideas already used by the City such as the decorative fences at entrance points to the development. 2. REVIEW RESULTS OF VISIOIV SURVEY Ms. Dacy stated she wanted to review the results of the survey conducted last fall. They wanted to see from the communiiy at large what their level of agreement was with the outcome of the vision meetings that the Ciiy conducted in May and June. They put an insert in the Fridley Focus and did a direct mailing to the business communiiy. They received comments from mid-October through December. Approximately 10,000 surveys were printed. The City received 146 responses. They wanted to spread the word about the vision process and let people know about the outcome of the meetings. By doing this, they are completing the community-wide input into the Comprehensive Plan process. Ms. Dacy stated the survey asked if residents agreed with the 14 characteristics that were identified by the vision meeting participants as "vital" characteristics and important to the ,�"'� future of Fridley. Three-fourths of the respondents agreed. Some disagreed, and there were a variety of comments without a consistent theme or characteristic. Almost every respondent agreed with question #3 that the most important characteristic was safe ,�"� PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 3.1999 PAGE 7 � neighborhoods and communiiy; second was high qualifiy education; third was to expand and maintain housing stock; and fourth to upgrade image. The remaining characteristics had an almost even response rate, but these four came up on almost every survey. Ms. Dacy stated there was disagreement on what should be done about these things. Less than half of the respondents agreed with the action steps included in the survey. One third did not agree at all. In general, there was strong agreement on updating and improving the City's image or improving the properties in the communiiy. This was identified as an important thing to do, within the next five years. There was also a strong concerr� about the qualiiy child care issue. Because this was listed as an action step, people interpreted that it was a govemment function. During the vision meetings, the comment was that we want to make sure that there is child care provided for those that need it. Ms. Dacy stated there was strong support for improving trails and bikeways. There were mixed opinions about the necessiiy of ramps and overpasses. One side said ramps and overpasses are needed to make connections; the other side said they are ugly and no one has the opportunit�r to use ther�. Ms. Dacy stated that, in general, she was impressed with the number of comments about better public transportation or transit and to move that up in the time frame. The community is dependent on the automobile, that we need east/west connections, and we need to improve service. There were a few comments about light rail. Mr. Oquist stated there is a common thread in the comments to maintain, improve, and upgrade housing. Ms. Dacy stated that if the City Council was polled, she thought they would say that is what they are trying to do through systematic code enforcement and with the housing programs. That was listed in the 5-10 year box and that should be in the 0-5 year box. Ms. Dacy stated that, in general, she thought they received some positive comments about the process. They did receive"thank you's" and "good jobs". On the other hand, some said the sunrey might be a little biased. The positive oufinreighed the negative. As you can tell by the specific issues, there were a variety of comments on a number of issues. No action is required. This is part of the process to develop the basic information for the Comprehensive Plan. The consultant is hoping to get drafts out to the advisory commissions as early as April. Mr. Oquist stated those residents who did respond had good comments. Mr. Sielaff asked about the schedule for the plan. Ms. Dacy stated the consultant is in the process of putting this together. They had originally developed a schedule by chapter that they would start with land use and the housing elements flrst. Those are the ones that require the most time and attention and have the most issues associated with them. Then, the other chapters will be done. She thought those would be the issues presented in March. She thought the Medtronic � proposal would be discussed at the March 17 meeting. She will try to get something together as early as March 3. If not, it may have to wait until April. The Ciiy received a six-month extension from the Metropolitan Council. PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, FEBRUARY 3, 1999 PAGE 8 3. RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 7. 1998. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING: MOTION by Mr. Oquist, seconded by Ms. Modig, to receive the minutes of the December 7, 1998, Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 4. RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 23. 1998. APPEALS COMMISSION MEETING: MOTION by Mr. Sielaff, seconded by Ms. Modig, to receive the minutes of the December 23, 1998, Appeals Commission meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 5. RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE JANUARY 13. 1999. APPEALS COMMISSION MEETING: � MOTION by Mr. Oquist, seconded by Mr. Saba, to receive the minutes of the January 13, 1999, Appeals Commission meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 6. RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 15. 1998. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MEETING: OM TION by Mr. Sielaff, seconded by Mr. Saba, to receive the minutes of the December 15, 1998, Environmental Quality & Energy Commission meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 7. RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF THE JANUARY 7. 1999. HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING: MOTION by Mr. Oquist, seconded by Mr. Saba, to receive the minutes of the January 7, 1999, Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, VICE-CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. r-'� ^ PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING�FEBRUARY 3,1999 PAGE 9 OTHER BUSINESS: � Mr. Saba stated he would like to have the staff provide a report and/or an update on the Ciiy efforts to address the Y2K issue. There is a lot of concem in cities from citizens on what is going to happen. Does the City have an emergency plan in place? He would like to know if the City has a plan. Ms. Dacy stated the City has had a Y2K analysis. The League has required communities to do a reporting system to them the first of this year to make sure the issues are addressed. The City has an inventory of each department. Staff can make a presentation. Mr. Saba stated this also reaches the County. He did not know what the County is doing. Ms. Dacy stated staff is doing analysis and is preparing. She can get those details. She will also check for a report at the County level. Mr. Saba stated he would also be interested to know of there are contingency plans. ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Mr. Sielaff, seconded by Mr. Oquist, to adjoum the meeting. ^ UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SAVAGE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE FEBRUARY 3,1999, PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:23 P.M. Respectfully submitted, �� �t�wb.� G avonn Cooper Recording Secretary ``� � �� r� ��, CITY OF FRIDLEY SIGN-IN SHEET PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING s � ��/...1�. � --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name and Address Agenda Item of Interest �