10-12-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Monday, September 21, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 5 of 6 suggests trying to think out of the box as far as literally mixing and matching different things to come before the City Council with. Mr. Saddiqui said with all due respect, they are not trying to shove anything anywhere; they are proposing what they think works best given the parameters they have in Orono. On a parcel of this size, they cannot mix the product…it would have to be substantially larger parcels and this is a very tight amount of acreage to have 2 or 3 different types of product mixed. Gettman noted it’s not mixing it just to mix it, but rather to get the most out of the area. Barnhart said he thinks they’re giving good feedback in terms of what they’d like to see, but noted they’re getting into the weeds a bit. He said now the Applicant takes the feedback and either chooses to make changes for the Council or they want to hear what the Council has to say. He said they should pull back a bit on some of the detail comments because he feels they got the message out in terms of what they’d like to see with the setback. Frankly, it’s not suggested to introduce commercial or even a mix of units here, the Council has already suggested that the 20-25 units is too high and they’d like to lower that so that is what the Applicant is trying to do. At the sketch plan level, he feels they’ve gotten good feedback and they can leave it at that. Mr. Saddiqui said they will use the two setbacks Mr. Ressler mentioned as a guideline and they’ll see what they can come up with and try to address the outlot, as well. Libby concurred with Kirchner on the setbacks for the two thoroughfares for Willow and Wayzata, he thinks they need to be set back and they’re fortunate to have someone in law enforcement who deals with these issues on a technical basis with cause-and-effect. He said he likes several things he heard and always greatly admires people with a compass of staying for the long-term and people who have a commitment to high fit and finish when it comes to architectural design and style, and he compliments the Applicant for that. He said he’d also like to support Chair Ressler’s comment, with all of Mr. Barnhart’s hard work on the 20/40 Comprehensive Plan, which brought from a 20 year old plan and kept the integrity of what countless people in Orono believe and enjoy, which is the rural setting versus an urban setting. He noted the plan is different but that doesn’t make it bad, and it satisfies something very important: Orono needs housing. If this is quality housing that people like and want to buy, it’s complementary to the community. He noted the more the development can look and feel like a rural community he better off they will all be. Mr. Saddiqui said if anyone is in Maple Grove in the future, he asked them to please visit the Donagal development, where the buildings are detached townhomes which are eight feet apart and it will give a glimpse the product, the aesthetics, mix and multiple elevations, color and materials they have come up with. He said it is a very impressive and well-received landscape of architecture and noted they are selling like hotcakes all across the country, because they are addressing what people are looking for in suburban living with urban looks. Libby said the design is considered to be an urban, medium-to-high density residential mixed use. Erickson said historically, about 15 years ago, he served on a volunteer citizens committee that was a joint committee between Long Lake and Orono and they were looking at alternatives and design features for the County Road 112 improvement. One of his positions was trying to get funding for as much buried