11-16-2020 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Monday,November 16,2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. Libby supports Chair Ressler's statement about the importance of a work session and said this is becoming very familiar because a number of individuals spent quite a bit of time in recrafting and redrafting and clarifying the 2040 Comprehensive Plan where the efficiency and more of the practical matters of making some things a little simpler. Libby thinks it is commendable that Barnhart is thinking and kind of carving a path for the Commission to discuss this but a work session would be the appropriate time to hack through this. He noted Barnhart is carving out a path to discuss right now but there is quite a bit of content and they could spend hours on this tonight, and he favors a work session and would be very happy to come and go through that. He thanked Barnhart for thinking about this because the intent is to try and take some of the burden of some of these somewhat cut-and-dried situations that perhaps the Commission spends more time on that could be Staff augmented. Libby thinks it worked out well with the Comp Plan to simplify and edify and was a great benefit to moving forward; he thinks there could be a good benefit to this but the work session would be the appropriate time to do that. Chair Ressler said the average lakeshore setback and lake yard setback would be probably the only time they would not at least want to start with that. Barnhart clarified,he would suggest that those would probably be major expansions versus minor expansions. The difference is the minor ones Staff could approve and the major ones the Council would approve. The reason he would not want to exclude those completely is that is a fair number of applicants and he would want the opportunity to at least discuss that option with the Council. Erickson commented regarding the criteria. Number 1 under criteria and the second one, absence of adverse offsite impacts such as from traffic,noise, odors, and dust—he thinks traffic and noise are very valid considerations. Odors and dust seems to kind of hark back to more of an agricultural use. He has not heard of any neighbor complaining about either odors or dust. Chair Ressler said Watertown Road. Erickson said nobody does brand new gravel driveways anymore and especially if they are talking about an addition to the house,they are not going to be looking to keep farm animals in there, so he thinks they could scratch those. A couple others that might be worth considering for addition would be sightlines to water features besides Lake Minnetonka could be storm water management ponds or other ponds, wetlands, or conservation areas...anything that is considered a desirable view. Similarly, sightlines that relate to traffic, like coming out the driveways, or sightlines with approaching traffic or pedestrians might also be one to consider those elements as they are making a decision. Barnhart said that is and will be helpful feedback. He will schedule a workshop in January,which occur the hour before the monthly meeting. He can bring the Commissioners some text to react to. McCutcheon thinks it would help speed it along in looking at what problem they are trying to solve. He knows it is not fun to go through and mine a bunch of data,but to at least have a good store or perception of the calls where Barnhart sees areas they could improve,which are somewhat outlined in the memo. Extra examples would really help some of the decisions,because Barnhart is right, some of this does seem silly,but they don't want to be unfair to citizens as to what the Commission might think is minor, and give citizens the right to object to certain things. Kirchner said to his point regarding the criteria that would represent this Commission and this Council, his concern is that if they do it,and it could come up for review at any time and could be contested. When Page 22 of 23