Minutes - Council - 06/26/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Case #6: Request for Preliminary Site Plan Review of the Anoka County Medical Examiner Facility; Case of PSD, LLC and Anoka County Assistant Community Development Director Frolik stated Anoka County has entered into an agreement with PSD, LLC to develop a new facility for the medical examiner on a portion of , Outlot GG of Ramsey Town Center. The site is adjacent to Rhinestone Street NW, south of Sunwood Drive and north of Civic Center Drive. The property is zoned TC-3, a work place sub- district of Town Center for which corporate and medical campuses are encouraged. The proposed medical examiner facility will be approximately 17,850 square feet in size and is placed on the site to allow for a future expansion. The minimum floor area ratio in this district is .25; the proposed floor area ratio is .43. Ms. Frolik advised the TC-3 district regulations require 2-4 story buildings; the proposed building is one-story. However, the Town Center Guidelines for the TC-3 District indicate that occasional one-story buildings are acceptable if they do not dominate the street frontages and the rooflines are at least 18 feet in height. The medical facility has been designed with a clerestory to give the illusion of a 2 story building. The height to the top of the clerestory is 24 feet. The clerestory includes some windows to bring natural light into the building. To intensify the illusion of a functional second story, the architects have added spandro glass, which looks like a window but does not function as a window. These same spandro windows have also been added to the main floor of the building to give it more street level interest where windows would not normally be placed on the interior floor plan. One additional consideration of the one-story building is that the site location is not on a highly visible Town Center corridor such as Sunwood Drive or East and West Ramsey Parkways. Assistant Community Development Director Frolik stated the TC-3 District setback from the street is 0-15 feet; the proposed setback of the building varies from 15-53 feet. However, a planned future expansion of the building would occur on the west wall facing Rhinestone Street and will bring the building into compliance with the 15 foot maximum setback. The Board of Adjustment granted a variance to the maximum setback until that expansion occurs. In the interim, the site has been designed to use wrought iron fences, garden patios, entry canopies extended to the sidewalk, and landscaping to bring the hard edge of the site development out to the sidewalk. Ms. Frolik advised the site will derive public access from Rhinestone Street. The site will have two standard accesses and one right-out only access on Rhinestone Street. The site does not exceed the maximum parking space standard of four per 1,000 square feet of building for medical clinics and offices. Per staff s suggestion, an on-site parking area located at the south end of the building was removed from the site plan because of potential traffic conflicts with the southerly site access. The current site plan provides three on-site parking spaces, 10 on- street parking spaces, and 39 shared parking spaces, for a total of 52 parking spaces. The County will enter into a shared parking agreement with PSD, the developer. Ms. Frolik stated the park dedication and trail development fees need to be addressed prior to final site plan. The Planning Commission and staff recommend approval of the preliminary site plan. Councilmember Dehen requested further information regarding the park and trail development fees and the statement included in the staff report that staff will work with the developer and Anoka County to explore options on how this obligation can be met. City Council / June 26, 2007 Page 10 of 38