Minutes - Planning Commission - 07/18/2000 - Work Session

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Commission conducted that public hearing at their regular meeting in July and the purpose of this meeting is to further refine the draft ordinance on density transitioning. Mr. Goodrich noted that these Charter provisions have also been implemented in the draft Comprehensive Plan that is at Metropolitan Council for approval. Commissioner Dempsey noted that the Charter Amendment is ambiguous and needs clarification. At this time, the City would be obligated to implementing the Charter as it currently reads and the City fix the Charter before implementing it into the Zoning Regulations. Mr. Goodrich pointed out that the law says that if you can’t follow the established regulation, you try to follow its intent. Commissioner Dempsey pointed out that the authors of the amendment may say what the intent was, but do all the petitioners agree with the interpretation of the intent of the Charter Amendment. Mr. Goodrich indicated that a majority of the council is committed to transitioning, but a majority is not committed to following the Charter Amendment the way it is currently written. Commissioner Johnson stated that if we adopt something for a tier development, you will never achieve the maximum density. But if you do a PUD, you can get to the maximum density with congregating density in the middle of the property beyond the required buffer or transition area. Commissioner Johnson summarized that the discussion so far is leading to an ordinance that would require a step down or tiered density transition and the density of the property will be determined by the number of tiers. There would no pool of unused density allowed beyond the tiers. In other words, at no level of the development can the established maximum density per acre be exceeded. The Commission was also agreeable to some creative buffering for higher zoned areas, like proximity to a major county or state aide highway, topographical features, lack of development on adjacent parcels. Councilmember Hendriksen stopped in to listen to the discussion and stated that he believes wetlands and rivers constitute buffering and the number of tiers are directly related to the disparity of the development. He also noted that he is acceptable to open land use replacing one or more of the transition tiers. Staff was directed to draft a new ordinance for the next Planning Commission meeting based on the evening’s discussion. The new ordinance draft should focus on the fact that the number of levels of tiering and buffering performance standards are related to the intensity of the adjacent land uses. The Commission took some comments from the audience. Persons present included Jack Miller, Jon Aune, Kerry Immanuel, John Lichter, and Mike Black. Planning Commission Work Session/July 18, 2000 Page 2 of 3