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PC-01-20-15 CITY OF SHOREWOOD COUNCIL CHAMBERS PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015 7:00 P.M. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Chair Geng called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. ROLL CALL Present: Chair Geng; Commissioners Davis, and Maddy; and, Planning Director Nielsen Absent: Commissioner Muehlberg APPROVAL OF AGENDA Davis moved, Maddy seconded, approving the agenda for January 20, 2015, as presented. Motion passed 3/0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES  January 6, 2015 Davis moved, Maddy seconded, approving the Planning Commission Meeting Minutes of January 6, 2015, as presented. Motion passed 3/0. 1. MEET WITH PLANNING CONSULTANT JOHN SHARDLOW TO DISCUSS MATTAMY HOMES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT Director Nielsen noted that Council selected Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., and Senior Principal John Shardlow to provide planning consulting services for the Minnetonka Country Club (MCC) residential development project that Mattamy Homes hopes to move forward with. Mr. Shardlow may also take a broader look at the area around the MCC site. He also noted that Mr. Shardlow had done some planning related training work for the City in the past. Mr. Shardlow stated there is no one in the community who was alive when there was not a golf course on the MCC property because it has been there for so long. He commented there will be some sense of loss associated with the course going away. Mr. Shardlow explained that the City Council is the only land use authority in the City. Everything he and the Planning Commission are going to be doing is advisory to Council. He has been charged with working with the Commission, the community and the developer. The Council is his client and it will make the final decisions. A planning advisory committee will be formed; it will be the primary working group. In his presentation to representatives from Council and staff he emphasized the importance of the Planning Commission. The Commission is charged by law to recommend a plan for the future of the City. He views the Commission as being the core of the working group. There is mandatory comprehensive CITY OF SHOREWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING January 20, 2015 Page 2 of 6 planning in the Twin Cities and it comes up every ten years. The MMC property is in many ways a clean slate even though it has various land uses and a network of roadways around it. For this project many, many people will have an opinion but they will not all have the same level of information. A big part of what the process will be designed to do is to educate the Commissioners and facilitate a higher level of interaction between the City and the developer than there would normally be for just a standard subdivision. He noted that every time Stantec does a project, whether it is work related to a comprehensive plan or a redevelopment project, it has a website that allows the members of the community to keep track of what is going on with the project, to provide input, seek answers to questions and so forth. It could just be a page on the City’s website or it could be link to a project MindMixer site. He explained that if a person wants to participate using MindMixer they first have to fill out a simple registration with their name and address. They can then have full access to the MindMixer site for this project. Sometimes when people provide feedback anonymously they like to throw “bombs” to derail a project. The intent is to keep the dynamics civil for this project. Residents will have an opportunity to raise issues and ask questions and each question will be responded to. There will be a picture of a person attached to the response. Registering users will allow the City to track who is actually actively participating in the process and maybe track some of their demographics. He noted that because Stantec has purchased the right to use MindMixer across its entire platform Stantec can offer MindMixer to the City at no additional cost. There will be some staff time required. MindMixer helps organizations create and distribute content. The questions are straight forward. He provided statistics about people attending public meetings, using the internet, owning cell phones, texting messages and so forth. He encouraged the Commissioners to let residents know about MindMixer once it is up and running for this project. He clarified the planning advisory committee is not intended to replace the Planning Commission. It is intended to augment the Commission for the MCC project. He cited a project for the City of Roseville where Stantec used the advisory committee concept with good results. That committee included two open minded, positive representatives from each of the neighborhoods abutting the site of a controversial project. It also included a representative from each of the boards and commissions in that municipality along with representatives from the faith community and educational community. He noted it is extremely important not to politicize the advisory process. He also clarified all of the normal public hearings will take place. He stated to be on the planning advisory committee will require a time commitment by those individuals. There will likely be six to eight workshops. He stated the process is a combination of a focused community visioning, goal setting and education that will hopefully lead to community consensus that will support Council in making its decision and provide the developer with clear, constructive input to use in developing its plans. It will help ensure the Planning Commission has access to a higher level of information than it would normally have in a typical review and approval process. The Commission along with the Council and the advisory committee will have the opportunity to identify and prioritize issues and help in creating a vision for the area. That vision information will ultimately be conveyed to the developer. He noted that the process that will be used is intended to be a flexible process and a work in progress process. He stated when he submitted his proposal he had not had an opportunity to speak with anyone. He simply responded to a request for a proposal. Since then he has had an opportunity to meet with Mayor Zerby, Councilmember Sundberg, Administrator Joynes and some members of staff. He stated that during the January 29 Council and staff retreat he will spend a few hours talking about the scope of the process, various issues, land use alternatives and the area surrounding the MCC site. CITY OF SHOREWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING January 20, 2015 Page 3 of 6 He highlighted the tasks in his draft process and schedule: Project Initiation  Kick-off-meeting  Urban Land Institute (ULI) Minnesota (optional)  Visioning Workshop  Project Goals and Vision Statement  Water and Natural Resources  Transportation, Traffic Management  Land Use (this may be moved up)  Concept Alternatives  City Council / Planning Commission Joint Work Session  Prepare an EAW (Environmental Assessment Worksheet) – not sure if needed but if it is the  Planning Commission and advisory committee should participate in the effort Mr. Shardlow reiterated the process is intended to educate; to provide a higher level of information than would normally be provided; to have the Planning Commission, the planning advisory committee and the broader community (through MindMixer) help identify and prioritize issues and help set goals for the project. After the community has set direction Stantec envisions the project being done in partnership with the developer. Commissioner Davis stated that Mattamy’s (the developer) representative at the last Planning Commission had indicated that the Commission needed to speed things up because of Mattamy’s desired closing timetable for the property. Mr. Shardlow stated he and staff met with the developer and everyone came to the understanding that the pressure is off. He clarified that people will be mindful of the need to move things along but this redevelopment is too important to the City to rush things along. It is his understanding that the developer is willing to withdraw its preapplication for an amendment to the City’s Comprehensive (Comp) Plan. He stated he thought the City has established a good relationship with the developer. Mr. Shardlow stated three of the individuals that served on the advisory panel for Roseville almost 15 years ago view their involvement on that panel as helping ready them to serve on the Roseville City Council. From his perspective if people care about their community then serving on the planning advisory committee will be time well spent and that the community will be better off. But, it will not work if people drop in and out of the process. He noted the committee will meet twice a month until this process is complete in three to four months. Maybe those meetings can be scheduled for the same night as Planning Commission meetings. Director Nielsen noted that one of the reasons Mr. Shardlow was chosen was his proposal indicated there would be strong involvement of the Planning Commission. He stated when the MCC project first came up the Commission talked about there possibly being a need to meet twice a month. He stated he would like the planning advisory committee meetings to be prior to the Planning Commission meetings. Mr. Shardlow stated that would be respectful of the commitment the Commissioners have already made to the community. Mr. Shardlow noted that he is a past chair of ULI Minnesota and currently serves on its management Committee. He stated about two years ago there was consensus that development in the region was not like it had been and that communities needed to rethink their development process. Therefore ULI Minnesota developed a program titled Navigating the New Normal. That program is sponsored by the Minnesota Housing Fund. The Housing Fund pays for a very detailed demographic analysis of a CITY OF SHOREWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING January 20, 2015 Page 4 of 6 community; that is done by a company called Excensus. The data is much more detailed than the normal census data. The research is done at no cost to the City. That information would be presented during a joint work session of the Shorewood Council and Planning Commission. He highlighted the types of data that would be analyzed. A panel of a developer or two, a municipal finance expert and some other real estate developer expert will volunteer their time to hear the presentation about Shorewood. Questions will be prepared ahead of time for the panel and the panel members will come to the meeting with answers to the questions. The panel members would have no vested interest in Shorewood; their goal is to provide their best advice. They would tell Councilmembers and Commissioners what they think the opportunities might be. That has been done 33 times in the Twin Cities and he has served on nine of the panels. He noted a lot of communities have found value in that effort. That work session is currently scheduled for February 25. Mr. Shardlow stated that is all he has to share with the Commissioners this evening. He also noted that he is excited to work with City staff, the City Council and the Planning Commission. Chair Geng thanked Mr. Shardlow for coming this evening. Commissioner Davis asked what the second step in the process is. Director Nielsen stated the discussion during the January 29 Council and staff retreat is the next step. Mr. Shardlow stated after that there will be a visioning workshop the beginning of March. Director Nielsen asked the Commissioners to submit names of residents who they think may want to participate and be a positive, open minded representative on the planning advisory committee. Commissioner Maddy stated during its January 6, 2015, meeting Mattamy presented its preapplication information related to a Comp Plan amendment and how it currently would like to redevelop the site. He asked about the status of the preapplication. Director Nielsen stated it is still in play. Nielsen explained Mattamy had submitted its formal application. Staff and Mr. Shardlow had told the developer’s representative that the City would have much better information after going through the process which Mr. Shardlow will facilitate. The developer has graciously backed off and staff will return the formal application. Staff plans on passing on issues the City has identified along with the preapplication to Council. During the Council and staff retreat on January 29 there will be discussion about whether or not to consider other alternatives for the project itself and the broader area around the MCC site. Maddy commented that the schedule identified is fairly aggressive. Mr. Shardlow noted that is intentional. Maddy asked when the 60-day rule timeline begins. Director Nielsen explained that technically it began with the preapplication being submitted; it should be addressed within the required timeframe. Mr. Shardlow stated that should the City want to amend the land uses in the area around the MCC property it would not make any sense to process two land use Comp Plan amendments. He and staff conveyed to the developer that the City needs to step back and assess the full implications of what is being asked for and what the City wants to do. The proposed land use change is a significant change in the community for a property that has been used differently for more than 100 years. The developer was informed that the City does not want to delay things unnecessarily but it also will not be rushed. He noted that the City could adopt a temporary development moratorium. He explained that if the City were to do an EAW a moratorium goes along with that. It was clear to the developer that the City will not be rushed and it will not get tripped up because of some 60-day rule and be forced to approve something because of an administrative misstep. CITY OF SHOREWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING January 20, 2015 Page 5 of 6 Chair Geng stated everyone agrees that transportation is an enormous issue and that a solid traffic study needs to be done. He asked where that will be done in the process. Mr. Shardlow stated the traffic study needs to coincide with the vetting of the alternatives and noted there is money in the budget to do a traffic study. He clarified it is not a standalone analysis. He noted that before this process is complete a traffic study will have been done. One byproduct of this process will be traffic recommendations. Geng then stated in addition to thinking about recommendations for the planning advisory committee he asked what else the Planning Commission should be doing. Mr. Shardlow suggested thinking about what the most important issues are that must be addressed through this process from the Commission’s perspective because he will be asking for them the first time the committee gets together. He also suggested that the Commissioners give thought to what it would look like if this process went very well and the outcome is very good. Director Nielsen suggested the goals and policies in the Comp Plan should be reviewed because they are still valid. Mr. Shardlow suggested consideration be given to how the goals and policies should be modified in response to the redevelopment. Mr. Shardlow noted that a real clear set of goals will be a byproduct of this process. Chair Geng again thanked Mr. Shardlow for coming and Mr. Shardlow thanked the Planning Commissioners and Director Nielsen for their time. There was discussion about the planning advisory committee membership selection process. There was also discussion about the MindMixer tool. 2. PREAPPLICATION – COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT (continued from January 6, 2015) Applicant: Mattamy Homes Location: 24575 Smithtown Road (Minnetonka Country Club Property) Director Nielsen noted that this item will be moved to the Planning Commission’s February 3, 2015, meeting agenda. 3. MATTERS FROM THE FLOOR There were no matters from the floor presented this evening. 4. OLD BUSINESS / NEW BUSINESS 5. DRAFT NEXT MEETING AGENDA Chair Geng stated in addition to the preapplication for a Comprehensive Plan amendment for Mattamy Homes he asked what else is on the February 3, 2015, meeting agenda. Director Nielsen stated a conditional use permit for accessory space and a setback variance are also slated for that agenda. 6. REPORTS • Liaison to Council • SLUC CITY OF SHOREWOOD PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING January 20, 2015 Page 6 of 6 Commissioner Davis noted that the next Sensible Land Use Coalition session is titled How Has the Great Recession Changed the Home Building Industry? • Other 7. ADJOURNMENT Davis moved, Maddy seconded, Adjourning the Planning Commission Meeting of January 20, 2015, at 8:02 P.M. Motion passed 3/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder