Minutes - Planning Commission - 10/10/2002

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Associate Planner Wald showed a map of the area and stated the developer is not proposing to develop phase three yet and when phase three is developed, Sunfish Boulevard will be expanded to accommodate this. Motion by Chairperson Nixt, seconded by Commissioner Kociscak, to approve the sketch plan for Plants and Things and recommend that the City Council grant final plat approval contingent upon compliance with City Staff Review Letter dated September 27, 2002. Motion Carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Nixt, Commissioners Kociscak, Brauer, and Reeve. Voting No: None. Absent: Commissioners Johnson and Watson. Case #11: Request for Site Plan Review of Plants & Things; Case of Larry Hickman Associate Planner Wald stated the City received an application from Larry Hickman proposing to redevelop the existing Plants and Things facility located at the comer of U.S. Highway 10 and Sunfish Lake Blvd. Site Plans are not required to be subjected to public hearings. The subject property is 11.87 acres in size and zoned B-3 Highway Business. Plants and Things is an existing indoor/outdoor furniture and plant sale facility; the existing retail activities are permitted within the B-3 Highway Business district. Plants and Things currently utilizes several accessory structures for their business operations. The applicant is proposing to remove the existing structures from the property and construct a new 49,100 square foot furniture facility. The site plan is also providing for a 40-foot outside display area along the front, east, and west side of the facility. City Code restricts building coverage to 35%; the site plan is proposing 9% building coverage. The proposed building meets the required front, rear and side yard setbacks established in the B-3 Business District. City Code requires a 20-foot landscape area adjacent to all public streets. The site plan is meeting this requirement along Sunfish Lake Blvd. and U.S. Highway # 10. The sketch plan for Plants and Things subdivision is providing an outlot along the northern property line to be utilized as a future public street through the development. At such time when the outlots are turned over to the City, the City will require 20-feet of green space along the public street to comply with City Code. The applicant should take this future green space requirement into consideration since the site plan is proposing 38 parking stalls where the green space will be required when the outlot becomes public street right-of-way. City Code does not establish a number of required parking stalls for a furniture store like Plants and Things. Applying the "retail shopping" of 1 parking stall per 200 square feet of retail floor space, as defined in City Code, does not provide an accurate measure of how many parking stalls are needed for a furniture store. Staff researched other cities parking criteria for furniture stores and looked at the parking guidelines established by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. On an average, the ratio of 1 parking stall per 500 square feet of floor space is used. Applying a ration of 1 parking stall per 500 square feet, the proposed facility is subject to 99 parking stalls; the site plan is proposing to provide 159 parking stalls. Staff feels the proposed 159 parking stalls will provide sufficient parking area for the proposed facility. The new Plants and Things facility is Planning Commission/October 10, 2002 Page 13 of 20