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PLM 08/20/2014 PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CITY OF FRIDLEY August 20, 2014 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Kondrick called the Planning Commission meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: David Kondrick Brad Sielaff Dean Saba Courtney Elford MEMBERS ABSENT: Leroy Oquist Tim Solberg Todd Olin OTHERS PRESENT: Julie Jones, Planning Manager Kay Qualley, Environmental Planner APPROVE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES: June 18, 2014 MOTION by Commissioner Saba to approve the minutes as presented. Seconded by Commissioner Saba. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 1. Consideration of EQE Recommendations to review and make recommendations for a Resolution for Green Step Cities. Kay Qualley, Environmental Planner, stated the Environmental Quality and Energy Commission (EQE) is a standing commission for the City of Fridley. It has has five active members, one from each ward. The chair is Todd Olin and vice-chair, Courtney Elford, represent the EQE on the Planning Commission. The Green Step program is a voluntary challenge assistance and recognition program to help cities achieve sustainability and energy goals. It is sort of an organization to bring cities together with the goal of reducing and sheparding resources through the use of practical and innovative best management practices. It is a free program, a continuous program, and it helps you stack up what you are doing as a city against other cities of similar size or in your area. Ms. Qualley stated it is an interesting program, because it is a combination of public and private Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 2 partners. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is one of the partners, but the League of Minnesota Cities strongly supports it and also conducts classes and seminars that help to educate the city staff and interested commissioners and councilmembers who choose to attend these educational presentations. The Minnesota Department of Commerce is another active partner. Ms. Qualley stated there are more than 70 Green Step cities throughout greater Minnesota. Many of these cities, including Coon Rapids, are present in the Twin Cities and are of similar size to Fridley. Ms. Qualley stated the program was established in June 2010. Best Management Practices are clustered in several areas. It is important for the Commission to know that this is a self-paced program. No one is hurrying Fridley to do anything, and it is guided by many of the things the City is already doing, including the 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Ms. Qualley stated the five areas Best Management Practices are contained within are: (1) Transportation and Streets; (2) Economic and Community Development; (3) Energy, Building and Lighting (such as street lighting); (4) Land Use; and (5) Environmental Management. Within environmental management many of the areas that the EQEC investigates in order to try and create and shepardize the City's resources include things like air pollution and air particulate matter, storm water management and energy. Ms. Qualley stated the City has already taken several of the steps that are encouraged for Green Step cities. Even if the resolution were not passed, the City has already completed steps, like passing an Active Transportation Plan, making waste improvements in storm water management and recycling, and creating a TOD zoning district. Ms. Qualley stated that the City wants to achieve the goals in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan because soon we are going to be in the next phase of comprehensive planning with the Met Council.. Ms. Qualley stated the City's SHIP grants and Active Transportation Plan have been touching on many of these areas as well. If the City participates, instead of reinventing the wheel in some areas the City wants to pursue, it can cross-reference what other cities are doing and maybe dovetail and fine tune instead of reinventing something. And it creates relationships, too. When you sit down at the League of Minnesota Cities with somebody who is wrestling over some of the same concerns that have been brought to the staff by the City's commissions and Council, they do foster that kind of cooperation together. It can also help staff prioritize improvements for budgets, too. Ms. Qualley stated the last advantage is to poise the City for possible status as a Resilient City. Being a Resilient City means taking sustainability to the next level and possibly working with the University of Minnesota in an application to become a Resilient City much like North St. Paul was two years ago and work on many different areas with specialists from the University of Minnesota grad programs. One of the steps to really be considered for that program is to become a Green Step city as well. Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 3 Chairperson Kondrick stated he can see how this is going to be a benefit to the City in many, many different ways. Commissioner Saba asked Ms. Qualley if they have any standard metrics they are using to compare Fridley to other cities, other programs within itself, and continuous improvement? Ms. Qualley replied, there is a spreadsheet that, once you are a member, you get access to, where you can see what the different cities have achieved in their goals or in their measurements for different things in terms of something like efficient city fleets or innovative storm water management. You gain access to comparative data if you become a member. None of the categories of these 29 Green Step practices are forced down your throat. However, with a specific metric, the idea is to take your baseline measurements, and then make improvements based on those. But then how do you determine that benchmark if that is one of Commissioner's Saba questions, it can be by comparison with cities of similar size which have gone through some of these exercises. Chairperson Kondrick asked, so there is much to be gained by talking to Fridley's sister cities and see what they have gone through? Ms. Qualley replied, exactly. Recycling tonnage, maybe reducing solid waste and trying to figure out how many tons of garbage is being generated by our City compared to another city can help us decide whether some of our programs we have constructed are being successful. Commissioner Sielaff asked whether there was any interaction between cities like a committee or something like that who discusses what is being done in the city and working together to attain some sort of goals? Ms. Qualley replied, the program is not constructed necessarily for a group goal type of situation; but each year the League of Minnesota Cities hosts a group of seminars that are interactive with the participant cities. For instance, January 14 last year there was one on efficiency on the streets, complete streets, and outdoor lighting. A specialist came in on LED lighting to talk about the conversion and where the paybacks would be, and the cities could weigh in on where they were at or if they had done some test roadway examples and which were the most successful. Therefore, instead of having to go through the expense and wondering when the payback was going to be, industry experts along with cities who have tried things were present and so that type of interaction as opposed to maybe a gathering for a group goal is probably more likely. Commissioner Sielaff asked whether it is the League of Minnesota Cities who is kind of promoting this and encouraging the cities to do this? Ms. Qualley replied they definitely are because they are an active host of the seminars. However, the Pollution Control Agency is driving some of the metrics and suggesting the best management practices for cities to try and make sure they are not using more resources than they Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 4 possibly have to. There is a combination of organizations involved like the League of Minnesota Cities, the Department of Commerce, the Pollution Control Agency, and the Center for Clean Energy. These groups have produced a nice synergy, and the product is good, but it is not onerous, and it is not necessary that we meet a certain level of best management practices in any particular year. There are steps to move up the ladder if we choose to move more quickly. We can go at our own pace. Chairperson Kondrick asked what is the City's B3 Benchmarking Database? Ms. Qualley replied that she is not familiar with that and would need to get up to speed on it to report on in the future. The B3 Database is basically what she referred to earlier where all the cities track their information when they are reporting on a best management practice they have achieved. The City has access to that database when it becomes a Green Step city, so it is not available to read and peruse in the meantime. Chairperson Kondrick stated the first step this evening is to go along with this concept to realize there is a need for this to happen, and they should be aware of what is going on in our community in terms of conservation. Then how do they go from step one to step two? Ms. Qualley stated the Environmental Quality and Energy Commission would be the most actively involved. Based on measurements or assessments of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the Active Transportation Plan, and other projects the City is completing, we would pick from and select things that the City gets credit for, then you can obtain step two status. Chairperson Kondrick stated the EQEC is going to be kind of the measuring device, and they report to the Planning Commission or the Council? Ms. Qualley replied, they would report through this Commission. Chairperson Kondrick stated through them and then to the City Council. Julie Jones , Planning Manager, stated the reason why this resolution is before the Commission tonight is because she believes from the Charter and the City Code anything that the Environmental Commission brings forward is to come to the Planning Commission before it goes onto the City Council. And there is good reason in a project like this procedure exists; because it could impact future planning. Commissioner Elford stated she just encourages passage of this because to her, coming from a background with a double Master's Degree in environmental studies, someone who has been in the field and working in corporate sustainability for five years, policies in the environment are going to get a lot stricter, and this is going to help put Fridley on the route where it is already. For her it should be pretty straightforward. To be sustainable is common sense. That is just her generation and her mindset. Commissioner Sielaff asked as to what they are voting on, becoming a Green Step City, which Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 5 is allowing them to access the database? He is not sure what specifically best management practices they are talking about or are they still being developed and eventually they would be looking at those? We have 28 Best Management Practices right now? Ms. Qualley stated and she is sure as Commissioner Sielaff is surmising they will be developed along the way. They can pick and choose from that just like a menu. Tonight it would be ideal to move the accompanying draft resolution to Council if the Commission approves of the concept of pursuing Green Step City, step one status. Motion by Commissioner Saba approving the consideration of EQE recommendations to review and make recommendations for a Green Step Cities resolution. Seconded by Commissioner Elford. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 2. Receive the Minutes of the June 2, 2014, Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting. MOTION by Commissioner Sielaff to receive the minutes. Seconded by Commissioner Saba. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3. Receive the Minutes of the June 5, 2014, Housing & Redevelopment Authority Commission Meeting. OTION M by Commissioner Sielaff to receive the minutes. Seconded by Commissioner Elford. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OTHER BUSINESS: 4. Update on the TOD Grant Master Plan Project. Ms. Jones stated Mr. Hickok has asked her to give them the full report staff did at the open house a few weeks ago. They did have some public meetings back on July 24. This is a project they have been working on all year. In the City's TOD area they are encouraging mixed-use development. The City has actually created a TOD zoning district, and this master plan is looking at part of that district and creating a master plan for it. In those areas they also look at creating amenities not only that will support the Northstar Train Station but the other transit opportunities like the bus transit the City has in that area, creating convenient access to that transit to allow less parking and have more people walking and biking, and making it safe for everyone. Also they would like to create a unique sense of identity. Those are some of the things they are looking at in this master plan project around the Northstar station. The real Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 6 purpose of creating a TOD master plan comes from the fact that the City has this ability to create a special transit tax increment financing district in this area. Ms. Jones stated as new development occurs, tax increment can be used for transit enhancements in this district. The City wants this plan in place so that the City Council and the HRA have guidance as to how to use TIF money when it becomes available. Part of that plan is to create a cohesive network of trails and multi-modal access to transit. Right now everybody can get there by car but it is not so easy to get there by bus and walking because they have this train station that got plopped into a fully-developed area without the planning happening over the years to make those multi-modal connections to it. Staff is also hoping that the master plan will serve as a guide to developers, showing what the City' has preliminarily approved for a site. Ms. Jones stated the City created a TOD overlay zoning district, which is basically Main Street on over to the river, south of the train station over to the freeway. There are a lot of things that have happened that are being taken into account on this plan. One of them is the HRA identifying a redevelopment interest in a multi-family housing area south of Stevenson Elementary School some years ago. The HRA ended up buying a property that became offered to them for sale in that area, and they did a market study of the area to look at what could be developed there. A market study revealed it was going to require millions of dollars more in subsidy than they were prepared to spend, but they obtained insight into what could be marketable in the area. Ms. Jones stated the City completed its 2030 Comprehensive Plan in 2009. There are many things in that Plan which involved the TOD area. There was much attention given to Islands of Peace Park and wanting to create more visible access to that park. The big thing that came out of the Comprehensive Plan was a need for a 57th Avenue connection over to East River Road. Ms. Jones stated the City received special legislation in 2008 to create a Transit TIF district and in 2009, the Northstar commuter rail station opened. Then, the City created its TOD overlay zoning district in 2011. Ms. Jones stated a big piece of what is being incorporated here is the East River Road Corridor Study, which was completed a couple of years ago. A lot of neighborhood discussions and meetings took place during that project to look at how East River Road could be improved. The main plea the City heard was please keep East River Road more like a parkway. There was a plan made to put in planted medians in the middle of the roadway, to put in lighting in the area, and create a five-foot sidewalk on one side and an eight-foot trail on the other side of the roadway, creating alternative transportation connections. Ms. Jones stated that creating a parkway connection into Islands of Peace Park on Island Park Drive and making it a full intersection out of that neighborhood along the river there rather than Charles Street became part of the plan. Interestingly the engineer who is working on this project now thinks differently about that, so that is currently being debated. Ms. Jones stated there were a couple of market studies done related to the train station. One of Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 7 them was through a HUD grant which gave them some insight into the fact that there really is very little market support for commercial areas around the commuter rail station. The reality is that even though you have commuter rail traffic going at rush hour, in order to sustain a business, there needs to be traffic other times of the day to support that business. Ms. Qualley was very instrumental in getting an Active Transportation Plan passed last year, which they are using as guidance for trail and sidewalk connections. Ms. Jones stated they found out at the beginning of the project that the City could not use the Livable Communities grant money to do anything related to park planning. Luck had it that Anoka County (who manages Islands of Peace Park - the land is owned by the City but it has a joint powers agreement with the County to run the park and maintain it) was updating their master plan for Riverfront Regional Park which includes Islands of Peace Park. They are putting a master plan together because they wanted to do some improvements to both Riverfront Park and Islands of Peace down the road. It was kind of good timing that they got together, hired a consultant, and came up with a plan. A key piece they found in the neighborhood meetings was that neighborhood to the north of Stevenson Elementary does not have good access to that park and would like it. Ms. Jones stated as far as zoning it really is already a mixed use area. They are not looking at really changing uses at all as it is already is mixed use. She showed the key map that was approved in the Active Transportation Plan that kind of shows the different routes of focus for improvement. One of them is the Safe Routes to Schools which will fund a new trail section along East River Road. Also the City received Transit for Livable Communities money for on- street bike lanes and new sidewalk along Main Street. Finally, the City has received Transit Enhancement grant funds to build a pedestrian bridge over the freeway at Main Street to create safe access over the freeway and continue the Main Street bike trail concept all the way to the south border of the City to the bridge that goes over the rail switching yard. Ms. Jones stated that the existing sites in the project area west of East River Road contain 604 multi-family housing units. There are seven industrial businesses and two commercial businesses, Home Depot and Goodwill. From the calculations staff got from those business, there are 821 jobs in the TOD area. It is an ideal place to for recreation with the amenities of the parks and River in the area. The housing opportunities and jobs in the area make it a great area where you can live, work, and recreate all in the same place. The City just has to figure out how to make it better. Of course there is the train station, too, which is an amenity. Ms. Jones explained the debate occurring with the County about stop light spacing and access connections between the park and future multi-family housing along East River Road. Ms. Jones stated that one of the key factors being studied is the potential 57th Avenue connection. Meetings with Burlington Northern Railroad have revealed a 32 foot height clearance requirement for new bridges, which makes it impossible to meet ADA slope requirements within the space available for the bridge connection. Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 8 Ms. Jones stated some money from this project was spent having an engineer look at the bridge design feasibility. Also, they spent time looking at whether they could tunnel underneath the railroad tracks in that area. The difficulty they have known all along is that the Metropolitan Council’s high pressure sanitary sewer line goes through this area and there is not enough distance between where that is buried and the bottom of the railroad tracks to meet the height needed for truck traffic. Also, Burlington Northern is planning on spending millions of dollars in improvements in this area, so they will not allow the City to put any support pillars for the bridge in their rail right-of-way, which means it would then have to become a suspension bridge, which doubles the price of the bridge. Ms. Jones stated some people asked what if they just put in a pedestrian/bike access, but people were saying you really need to make it accessible for cars, too, to make it really usable. Staff has the consultant looking into the feasibility of at least creating a bike/ped access. Ms. Jones stated staff has also met with Metro Transit because, as everyone knows, the park and ride sites are not being used to the capacity they were designed for. Metro Transit staff indicated that they realize now that they do not need the number of parking stalls they planned in Fridley. They are agreeable to developing some of that land into some other use and are agreeable to decking some of that parking if the City wanted to do more intense development there. Therefore, the City is looking at that on the west side of the tracks which is owned by Metro Transit and also the east station site, which is owned by the HRA and leased to Metro Transit. Ms. Jones stated staff has met with Kapstone Container and Tristar Installation staff, two industries along the rail line. Both industries would like to expand but have no room to. The City is keeping them in the plan thinking industry is going to stay along the rail line. Ms. Jones stated staff has met with the School District folks a couple of times, looking at what their needs are. They really would like to have a secondary access at Stevenson for safety reasons and for better bus traffic circulation. That is why they supported a secondary road going south of the school, to give them another access point. Ms. Jones stated staff has met with the County Highway Department and they will have another meeting with them now that staff has gotten some more traffic study information. Ms. Jones stated as far as the land use concepts, they are really not talking about changing much. They are looking at one area that could maybe be a live/work building with a parking deck at the West Train Station. Ms. Jones stated they are proposing more looped trails through the park area along the river and connecting that to the MRT Trail and the concept of having sidewalk and trail in the area close to the park and connecting that along East River Road. Ms. Jones stated staff is analyzing the impacts of proposed new housing units on traffic. On the east side of the train station site they were looking at 100-160 new housing units or a 60,000- 80,000 square foot industrial building. As far as the site right in front of the Goodwill store they Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 9 see potential for maybe a small fast food restaurant or small retail shop in that corner. They are still planning for a new parkway concept even if the 57th Avenue bridge does not happen, having a nice parkway view into the new expanded park and having a park pavilion building in your line of sight from East River Road. Ms. Jones stated as far as new housing in the area west of East River Road, they are seeing a potential for at least another 130 housing units there. Chairperson Kondrick stated the main problem is getting in and out of there. Ms. Jones stated that is why the traffic is being closely studied. The intersection to the freeway entrance has been rated at a Level D, but we have to be careful they do not develop too much that it makes it worse. The City's traffic engineer who just looked at the traffic analysis again stated it is only mostly at the afternoon peak rush hour, a very limited time, where those poor ratings are happening. It is not like an all-day problem. However, a big of piece of this, too, is the timing of the lights. The City has had some discussions with the County and with MnDOT (because some of those lights are also controlled by them and they are not working together to have them timed right), and they have said it is a fairly easy fix. Chairperson Kondrick asked about the property east of East River Road and south of the box company, if it turns out to be industrial or retail, how are those cars going to get in and out? Ms. Jones stated it is proposed to be a mix. They had to do a traffic study for their master plan, and it was concluded they were going to need another turn lane. The City's engineer looked at it, too, and agreed they will need two left-hand turn lanes coming out of that site. Ms. Jones stated they have to wrap up the project by the end of the year. They are tentatively planning the next round of public meetings on November 5. The City Council and HRA will probably have some work sessions to take a look at this again. Staff also has materials posted on the City website. Commissioner Sielaff asked whether they will incorporate any changes at the upcoming public meetings? Ms. Jones replied the idea is that the next public meeting will be the presentation of the draft final master plan. She explained that the draft plan would them come back to the Planning Commission before they take it to City Council. ADJOURN: MOTION by Commissioner Saba, seconded by Commissioner Sielaff, to adjourn. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON KONDRICK DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:10 P.M. Planning Commission Meeting August 20, 2014 Page 10 Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Recording Secretary