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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-04-25 PACKET 07. - APPROVE PC MINUTES City of Cottage Grove Planning Commission March 28, 2022 A meeting of the Planning Commission was held at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine Parkway South, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, on Monday, March 28, 2022, in the Council Chamber and tele- cast on Local Government Cable Channel 16. Call to Order Chair Frazier called the Planning Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll Call Members Present: Ken Brittain, Jessica Fisher, Evan Frazier, Eric Knable, Derek Rasmussen, Emily Stephens, Jerret Wright Members Absent: None Staff Present: Christine Costello, Community Development Director; Mike Mrosla, Senior Planner; Emily Schmitz, Senior Planner; Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director/ City Engineer; Tony Khambata, City Council Liaison Approval of Agenda Wright made a motion to approve the agenda. Fisher seconded. The motion was approved unanimously (7-to-0 vote). Open Forum Frazier opened the open forum and asked if anyone wished to address the Planning Commission on any non-agenda item. No one addressed the Commission. Frazier closed the open forum. Chair’s Explanation of the Public Hearing Process Frazier explained the purpose of the Planning Commission, which serves in an advisory capacity to the City Council, and that the City Council makes all final decisions. In addition, he explained the process of conducting a public hearing and requested that any person wishing to speak should go to the microphone and state their full name and address for the public record. Frazier stated that those wishing to speak would have a time limit of three minutes. Public Hearings and Applications 6.1 Kimbro Avenue Antennas – Case CUP2022-026 Dish Wireless, LLC has applied for a conditional use permit to add equipment to an existing antenna tower as well as ground equipment to the site located at 10475 Kimbro Avenue South. The applicant is proposing to install three antennas and a ground-mounted equip- ment platform. Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 2 of 8 Schmitz summarized the staff report and recommended approval subject to the conditions stip- ulated in the staff report. Brittain stated he noted that the new equipment would not to be inside a building and asked what level of new equipment would be required to be in a building and when would the City not require it. Schmitz stated that it is out of her purview as to when equipment would need to be installed indoors. Brittain asked if that is part of the City Code. Schmitz stated she would need to review that and would report back to the Commission. Brittain noted that in the past equip- ment was stored in a building, so he assumed it was part of our Code. He does not see any issues with this application, but wanted to look into that. Schmitz stated the applicant submitted construction plans, which were reviewed by a construction engineering team. There is a cabinet placed on top of that platform, so she believes the majority of the equipment is inside that cab- inet. Brittain stated that he asked about that because it appears there are multiple pieces and not just one. Schmitz stated they’d report back. Jay Suriano, 12778 Balbo Place, Fishers, Indiana, stated he was here on behalf of Dish Wire- less and would be happy to answer any questions. Frazier opened the public hearing. No one spoke. Frazier closed the public hearing. Fisher made a motion to approve the conditional use permit, subject to the conditions stipulated in the staff report. Wright seconded. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). 6.2 Oppidan Construction Staging Area – Case ICUP2022-030 Oppidan Development has applied for an interim conditional use permit to allow the tempo- rary use of the property located at 7781 Hardwood Avenue for storage and staging of con- struction equipment to be used for the development of Cottage Grove Apartments located directly to the north of the proposed staging site. Schmitz summarized the staff report and recommended approval subject to the conditions stip- ulated in the staff report. Rasmussen asked what the proposed plan was for getting over the curb, such as a curb cut or putting some rock down. Schmitz responded that they will probably just drive over the curb. The City will hold some escrow money from the developer and the applicant to ensure that they complete any repairs upon completion of the use of the site. Fisher expressed concern that the access point is located on a blind curve and about large vehicles making wide turns into the site and asked why that particular access point was chosen. Schmitz replied that the applicant will be using this site mainly used for passenger vehicle park- ing for the workers and deliveries will go to the site itself, though there may be some large vehicles accessing that site also. Fisher noted that the staff report referenced storage of mate- rials, so she assumed there would also be trucks. Burfeind responded that the proposed access point lines up with East Point Douglas Road, which is helpful if vehicles are coming and going at both points at the same intersection. When the site develops in the future, the driveway would actually be in that location. He noted that the speed limit slows down to 30 miles per hour there and the elevation is pretty flat, which helps with sight lines for those coming out at a right angle. Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 3 of 8 Knable asked if any of the utilities would be impacted, as there are a couple light posts on each side of the access. Burfeind replied that the light poles would not be removed. He noted that they are proposing the access to be on the north side of that pole. He added that there is other utility infrastructure on the south side of the driveway access. Stephens asked about prevention of mud and debris runoff from the site into the street. Burfeind responded that our grading permit code requires a rock entrance from the site itself. Paul Tucci, with Oppidan, 400 Water Street, Excelsior, stated he would answer any questions. He stated there may be some storage, but most of the larger items will go on the site as they do not want to have to pick it up and haul it again. Fisher asked how many cars are expected to be parked there. Tucci replied it depends on what part of the project is being constructed, but he estimates maybe 20 to 25. Frazier stated one requirement of the ICUP is consistency with the zoning of the property and asked how that property is currently zoned. Schmitz responded Mixed Use. Frazier opened the public hearing. No one spoke. Frazier closed the public hearing. Rasmussen made a motion to approve the interim conditional use permit, subject to the conditions stipulated in the staff report. Brittain seconded. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). 6.3 Cottage Grove Logistics Park Amendment – Case PP2022-029 NP BGO Cottage Grove Logistics Park, LLC has applied for an amendment to the Cottage Grove Logistics Park preliminary plat to add a parcel legally described as Lot 2, Block 1, Smallidge Fields to the NorthPoint Development’s overall plat. Schmitz summarized the staff report and recommended approval subject to the conditions stip- ulated in the staff report. Christina Hubacek, P.E., NorthPoint Development, stated that they have not yet closed on this site and hope to after Council approval of the preliminary plat in April. Frazier asked if another building would be built on this additional parcel. Hubacek replied that this parcel was too small for a building; once the right-of-way is taken out, it would be about 25 acres. They are proposing to use it potentially for a regional detention pond or extension of parking. Given the timeline of closing, they wanted to get the preliminary plat amended before they come back with the actual site plan. Frazier opened the public hearing. No one spoke. Frazier closed the public hearing. Brittain made a motion to approve the preliminary plat amendment, subject to the stipu- lations in the staff report. Rasmussen seconded. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 4 of 8 6.4 Aggregate Industries Scoping EAW/EIS – Case MP2022-025 Aggregate Industries – MWR, Inc. is proposing to move its mine area, which supports the existing Nelson Sand & Gravel Mine Facility, onto an approximately 395-acre parcel of pri- vately-owned land that the company leases in the backwaters of the Mississippi River on Lower Grey Cloud Island. The Planning Commission’s role is to provide a forum for the public to make verbal comments on the contents of the Draft Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) and Draft Scoping Decision Document (SDD), which will be compiled in the Planning Commission minutes and responses to those comments will be included in the final record of decision. Schmitz stated Beth Elliott with Stantec and Patty Bestler from Aggregate Industries would co- ordinate this presentation. Elliott stated she is representing the City as the Responsible Governmental Unit (RGU) and explained that the purpose public hearing is to collect public comments on the Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) and draft Scoping Decision Document (SDD) for Aggregate Industries/Nelson Mine backwater project. She pro- vided a presentation on the proposal, the process, and the findings in both documents. Schmitz stated this is a forum to request comments on the published Scoping EAW. The con- sultants are here to provide answers to questions that the commissioners might have. Wright stated his first thought was there is a high-profile project north and asked if this new mining area would impact any of the waterway traffic near the new development with the City park and boat launch. Schmitz explained that it will be more of a passive boat launch and will not necessarily be for motorized boats, mostly by canoes and kayaks. She also believes it would be a little further to the north, in the Mooers Lake channel. Wright noted that it appears there is enough of a buffer, but he was not sure what equipment would be in that area where it narrows a little bit. Schmitz stated she understood most of that activity would take place further on the north side of the island at this point. Fisher stated it looks like this mining is being planned for 25 to 30 years in the future; it had been mentioned that the river is dynamic, things change all the time. She wonders as the mining happens if environmental concerns will be reevaluated because things can change vastly over time. She understands that the permit will have to be renewed every year, and asked over the whole scope of the mine how the environmental concerns will continue to be monitored. Schmitz replied with the City’s annual review of the mining permit, if there were any additional issues that needed to be addressed or reviewed more specifically, the EIS process will outline any long-term review or mitigation strategies that are required to take place with the proposed operation. Rasmussen stated when talking about reclamation of the site once the mining is complete, much of it appears to already be backwaters. He asked when this project is wrapped up, if it was still going to look a lot like it does today with a lot of backwaters or will the islands become larger. He also asked if there be much more land and how that will look when the project wraps up. Braun replied that right now those islands would still allow for fish passage, and for the foresee- able future would provide some level of protection. The current plan is for them to stay in place; however, what goes into an EIS process is often not what comes out of the back end of the EIS process, especially as Aggregate Industries is working with agencies like the DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers. A lot of that future use will be dictated by permit conditions. Currently, that Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 5 of 8 is what is proposed, but she thinks there are still a lot of those details to be worked out as we go through the EIS process and permitting. Frazier opened the public hearing. Terry Schilling Gilberstadt, 1760 Colvin Avenue, St. Paul, stated she is a landowner on the island and is one of the general partners of PAS Associates that leases the land to Aggregate Industries. She and her husband also own a home at 12085 Grey Cloud Trail, and PAS owns a home at 12075 Grey Cloud Trail. Aggregate Industries has been a good tenant and steward of the property. The current lease began in 2001 with the current Aggregate Industries, but actually Schilling family began leasing land for mining in the early 1950s to JL Shiely Company. The original company has been expanded and acquired by several different entities throughout the years; hence, it is now Aggregate Industries. PAS proudly and confidently leases the land to Aggregate Industries. The company pays serious attention to all environmental regulations and always performs business in a sound environmental way. The way Aggregate Industries con- ducts business has been a major factor in the City granting them yearly mining permits. Aggre- gate Industries has been a good neighbor, and there are no complaints that she is aware of from the surrounding community. PAS Associates is confident in the high level of environmental compliance and professionalism that will continue in the next phases of mining in the back- waters. Rod Hale, 11701 Grey Cloud Trail, Cottage Grove, stated he was a member of the Advisory Committee representing neighbors on this project. His question might be premature, but his concern was the location of the conveyor transporting the gravel back to the pit itself. There are some options for that travel, and he just wanted to make them aware that we are concerned about that particular issue. David Gilberstadt stated he and his wife Terry own 12085 Grey Cloud Trail South, which is approximately 18 acres just north of the proposed mining location. He said that as property owners, they are watching quite closely what happens with this project, and don’t have objec- tions at this point. He also said that he is the owner of a 28-foot cruiser in the Watergate Marina, north of downtown St. Paul, so he is a stakeholder as far as whether boating will be unimpeded going around that project. Tom Bell, 5868 Pioneer Road South, Upper Grey Cloud Island, apologized ahead of time if the answer to his question had already been given; unfortunately, he has severely impaired hearing. His inquiry is this is the third application that he is aware of for the same project, and he knows that two environmental studies have been done for two previous applications. He knows that because he did the Waterfowl Usage Survey for the EIS. He does not know the outcome of those previous applications, if they were refused or just withdrawn. He just thought it would be of interest to the Planning Commission to know the results of the previous studies. He also knows in the last one he mentioned that they really do not need to do another Waterfowl Usage Survey; the area where they are proposing to operate is not really used by waterfowl. They may rest there for a minute, but it is not a feeding area. He and Mr. Hale are very familiar with all of the backwater areas and what animals use it; there are deer that use the islands and feed there and we see them walking along the water. He just wondered what happened to the other two or three applications; this is the third application for the same project. He is also really interested in eventually what you are going to learn from a 200-foot hole when they strike it; it might make Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 6 of 8 history. He does not know if they talked about the Glacier River Warren that deposited that stuff in the first place. Dick Polta, 9600 Geneva, Grey Cloud Township, stated he used to live by the golf course years ago and has lived down here since 1966. He is going to approach this from a totally different standpoint than anybody else. One of the big problems in Pool 2 is sedimentation; it is a huge problem, and nobody has done anything about it. It has been talked about, you can Google it, and the Army Corps of Engineers has a dredge management study that has been going on for a few years. He feels if anybody that can take sediment out of that river bottom, praise them and be glad they are doing that. If you look at the drawing, all of you are familiar with where River Acres is, on the right-hand side of that triangle there are fingers pointing toward River Acres and they are heading to the upper part of that map. None of that was there years ago, and it has been placed there in about the last 50 years; that is all sediment coming down the river. The island she talked about on the bottom-left side of their triangle, the Corps did not put them there, that’s sediment. All this stuff on the lower-left side, the fingers coming in, that is Spring Lake. If they showed the whole thing, Spring Lake used to be five-or-six feet deep years ago; that lake is now about two-thirds filled with sediment, and those fingers go all the way to the west end of it. It is working its way out, down to the bottom right. The point he is trying to make is the thing is filling with sediment. The DNR has done nothing. All the Corps does is dredge the main part of the navigation channel; he worked for the Corps for six years and they are driven by what they are told to do. He looks at Aggregate Industries’ project here and if somebody is willing to take sand out of there, by God, let them take it out of there. The only thing he would say is anything that comes out of there, you don’t put back in the water. One of his main concerns coming up here was they dig these 150-200 foot holes, what happens to them; he knows the Corps would want to put their dredge spill back in these holes. That really does not accomplish anything, but it does get some out of there. He would say anything that comes out should be put on the mainland of the island. Where they are mining right now, they have 150-200 foot holes, and they do not know if they have enough sand to fill them in; well, by God, there’s sand all over out there. When they are done making these holes out in the river, believe me, they could walk away from them and not fill them in, and it would not take long for Mother Nature would fill them in. Sediment is actually getting worse because the Army Corps of Engineers closed the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in 2015 or so; when they did that, they quit dredging in the Mississippi River where it splits off to the Minnesota River. They used to dredge that out; the sediment would drop out up in there, but they quit doing that, so that is going to work its way down into Pool 2 and the Corps acknowledges that fact. Regarding 150-200 foot deep holes, in reality water much over about 20 feet deep in the river, as far as he knows, is pretty much useless. You are hearing about lakes having dead zones, where there is no vegetation, no growth. You go scuba diving, you get to the end of the weed line, there is pretty much nothing there. The weeds will grow back in; let them dig it out as deep as they want. He is in favor of this. For example, with Lock 2, when all the logs and debris come floating in there, they get in front of the dam gates; if they go down and pick them out of the water with a clamshell, they cannot put them back in. What do they do to clear them out? They grab them, keep them in the water over on the other side, and flush them through the dam. The same thing should happen here; anything that comes out stays out, and that would be great. He is in favor of this 100 percent. Another thing with Master Plans for parks, someone asked about your boat launch up there. The way it is going right now, if it continues on, you are probably not going to be able to get to it. You can hardly get around the lower tip of that island down there where these peoples’ house is down there. We used to own a houseboat from Mr. Hale’s house down out to the river there, and you had three-or-four feet of water; well, now a foot and a half would Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 7 of 8 be good, it is terrible. If nothing was done, your boat launch might be useless in the future to be able to get to it. That whole area to the north of the island, even heading west, is filled in with water; that little lake that is shown there, off to the left where it says Grey Cloud Slough, that is where Mr. Hale lives. That has been shallow every year, it is almost useless. The current actu- ally comes downstream, goes around the tip of that island, and heads back northwest. Then it heads over to River Acres; you can actually see the lines in the water. The residents in the River Acres area are all concerned that that island is going to reach over to River Acres, and they are not going to have access to the river. That is how bad the sediment problem is. With the Master Plan for this Washington County Regional Park, if it comes to be, the selling point for that park is to be able to circumnavigate that island in boats or canoes. Well, the south end down here is getting almost impassable. It is not shown on here, but if you go to the west end of Lower Grey Cloud Island, where you run into Baldwin Lake and where Aggregate Industries has their mining equipment, you can just barely get through there right now. He would say in another two years you are not going to get through there; if it wasn’t for Aggregate Industries and their barge- loading place there and their continued dredging of material out, it would already be filled in. Let Aggregate Industries take the sediment out of there, but don’t put anything back in there; Mother Nature will take care of that for you. No one else spoke. Frazier closed the public hearing. Brittain stated in looking at the picture that was displayed, he thinks the black lines are where the conveyors are going to go. For each of those phases, it looks like there are little stubbed black lines and he assumes that is where the conveyor will be moved to each time. If that is the case, he just would like staff to make sure that they work with the residents down there with any concerns they have with the location of that conveyor. Right now, he is pretty sure the conveyor is away from everything else; he asked staff if it is going to be over in that area to make sure that we look at that closely. Approval of Planning Commission Minutes of February 28, 2022 Wright made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 28, 2022, Planning Com- mission meeting. Knable seconded. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). Reports 8.1 Recap of March 2022 City Council Meetings Costello provided a summary of actions taken at the March 2 and March 16, 2022, City Council meetings. 8.2 Response to Planning Commission Inquiries None. 8.3 Planning Commission Requests Brittain wanted to formalize his request about the cell towers equipment storage, noting that in the last 20 years he has never seen the City or allow antennas to be added without requiring Planning Commission Minutes March 28, 2022 Page 8 of 8 that related equipment be stored in a building. He asked what is different about the proposal tonight, such as the smaller size of the equipment, that a storage building is not being required. He asked if the equipment maintenance would be monitored. Costello responded that staff would review some of the past antenna permits regarding equipment buildings, and also look at what the current equipment trends are. She noted that what was shown on the site plan is just a panel. Annual Organizational Meeting 9.1 Adopt 2022 Planning Commission Rules Frazier asked if there were any proposed changes to the 2022 Planning Commission Rules. There were none. Fisher made a motion to adopt the 2022 Planning Commission Rules. Wright seconded. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). 9.2 Election of Officers Frazier asked if there were any nominations for Vice Chair. There were none made. Costello advised if there are no nominations, the current Vice Chair can be reappointed if they are willing to do it again. Fisher made a motion to renominate Brittain for Vice Chair. Brittain accepted the nomi- nation. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). Frazier made a motion to renominate Rasmussen for Secretary. Rasmussen accepted the nomination. Motion passed unanimously (7-to-0 vote). Adjournment Brittain made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Knable seconded. Motion passed unani- mously (7-to-0 vote). The meeting was adjourned at 8:21 p.m.