Minutes - Council Work Session - 10/17/2023 - Special

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Councilmember Musgrove agreed with Councilmember Riley and added that she met with Staff regarding this concern. She noted that she is more in favor of looking for potential areas where they could make high density to see if this would satisfy some of the concerns of the Met Council. She stated that the area that is designated to go high density is over a swamp. She added that there are other factors involved in the cost of housing increasing and it is not just because the City has not built enough houses. She stated that she would be willing to look at areas that could be potential for adding some high density housing. She added that she does not see the area off of Highway 47 being developed for high density very quickly. Councilmember Riley noted that changing the COR zoning would not really help with this. Planning Manager Larson explained that they can discuss this with the Met Council to see if there is a benefit of just doing a change in the COR. Councilmember Riley added that this area has changed a lot over the last few years. He noted that where the townhomes are going in was originally meant to be big box stores. Councilmember Howell shared her frustration with the Met Council being more focused on density rather than affordability. She added that tiny homes should be something that can be considered which would give people property and a house that they could afford. She asked if there is a limit on how tall they can go with buildings in the City. Planning Manager Larson stated that the Met Council puts the density numbers and leaves it up to the cities to determine what this housing would look like. He noted that they could look at high rise apartment buildings or they could do tiny home villages. Councilmember Howell shared that if they were to pursue a project like a tiny home village she would like the Met Council to work with them on the number of density requirements, understanding that this is an affordable option that they are providing for people. Planning Manager Larson explained that right now in the zoning code the minimum house size is 745 square feet; however, this could be reduced. He stated that a lot of cities have put these kinds of communities in as they do not want to have trailer parks in their city and would rather have something with more substantial construction. Councilmember Woestehoff said that they could lower the threshold for house footprints and have large setbacks on each side of the house to make it fit into place to shrink the buildable lot size. Councilmember Specht asked if there was anywhere south of Highway 10 where they could fit some of this high density housing. Planning Manager Larson explained that this exercise is implementing the comprehensive plan. He added that they are keeping all of the densities in the comprehensive plan and using the zoning as a tool to implement this. He stated that if they are looking at areas that are currently zoned commercial or lower density residential and want to change it to high density residential then it City Council Special Work Session/ October 17, 2023 Page 3 of 16