03-11-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Tuesday, February 19, 2019 6:30 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 4 commented he has seen an escalated spiral for rental rates in the Twin Cities area, and asked whether the rent would be about 50 percent of the gross monthly income of someone who is making around $31,000. Fink indicated they have recently updated some proforma market rates for another property in Minneapolis and that they brought this development into line with those rents. Trident has not done a unit by unit pricing for this project yet but it likely would range around $2 per square foot or $1,100 for a studio apartment. Libby commented that is comparable with other communities. Fink stated as the units get larger, the rent per square foot will decline to around $1.75 for the larger units and $1.80 for the two-bedroom units. Ressler asked whether this project would help with the City’s density numbers. Barnhart indicated it would help the City meet their goals. Ressler noted there are not a lot of places where this type of development can be built in Orono. Ressler stated in his view it is a nice plan and does not appear to be overbuilt. Landgraver asked whether the outdoor amenities have been determined yet. Fink indicated they are still developing that aspect. Landgraver asked how critical the third floor is in terms of the economics. Fink indicated it is critical. Landgraver noted traffic on Kelley has gotten somewhat better since the road improvements and asked whether the existing residents on Crystal Bay will be up in arms due to any additional traffic on Kelley. Barnhart stated the former school configuration improvements on County Road 6 did contribute to traffic being backed up on County Road 6, which has been somewhat solved. The engineers have also discussed improvements to this intersection to line it up on the other side, and so the situation will continue to improve. The City would prefer to have traffic on Kelley rather than Wayzata Boulevard. Landgraver asked whether there will be sidewalk all the way to the school on Kelley or to Old Crystal Bay on one side of the road. Landgraver commented that if this development has families with children, they will likely want to walk to school. Barnhart indicated the sidewalk is located on the south side. Olson indicated he does not have any additional questions at this time. Libby asked if he knows what radius the tenants will be drawn from. Fink stated he is not sure he has a good answer to that right now and that a market analysis will look at that.