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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION <br />Tuesday, February 16, 2021 <br />6:00 o'clock p.m. <br />this is the minimum without having to change how they guide a lot of things in this area, where were they <br />planning on going when they guided it ... because how do they add more? Knowing the traffic that goes in <br />and out, knowing the area, knowing how difficult it is to egress and ingress. He thinks okay, what would <br />they rather see here, an apartment complex at 3-4 stories? He does not know and said that does not solve <br />the traffic. Ressler still does not like that small of a buffer between Wayzata Boulevard and the proposed <br />development; he does not have a constructive answer about what would do it without reducing the <br />number of units. Knowing that they need to add massing and housing, he noted they had a proposal <br />further west that they kicked around that also would have helped with that exchange and that is not what <br />this application is. He does not know, but if they asked him, he would rather see a taller structure that has <br />more greenery to provide some clearance for enjoyment and less pavement and massing of structure than <br />one -level living. However, one -level living seems to be more in alignment with the community and that <br />is where he struggles. For whatever it is worth that is his perspective. <br />Libby said to add merit and credence to the planners and several other members perception about that <br />front -facing Wayzata Boulevard and the impression of the community, there is great validity to that. <br />Being the only person here other than the developer that has sold hundreds of units like this over the <br />course of 30 years and listening to the voice of the consumer in a year than most people in the room deal <br />with in a lifetime, he can tell them that they are conjecturing on what the garage side of these would look <br />like. He said they have not really looked at it or seen a perspective and how attractive, like a single- <br />family home, the garage side entry to an architectural design can look. It is not as unwelcoming as the <br />Commissioners are proposing and they have not even seen the design of the garage side of one of these <br />units. Again, there is another serious concern he has regarding the change to Road A, and he thinks the <br />developer was very open-minded and had an ear to the environmental aspects of moving a gathering place <br />for children or kids to the center from the outside. What do they do then? They take an area that now is <br />kind of a safe spot in the middle of the living center of the community and by adding Road A, they <br />intensify noise pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide pollution into an area where they will disturb <br />everybody every time. Whether a UPS truck, a garbage truck, or a recycling truck going on to that road; <br />they may not disturb the people on the backside on Kelley, but certainly will have a high concentration of <br />just about every kind of pollution as long as they have high combustion engines delivering packages and <br />picking up garbage. They are moving all of that to the inside versus having it dispersed widely on the <br />outside. He noted they can make a garage approach architecturally very attractive and look very nice <br />from the street side. That is Libby's perspective and he said they are exacerbating a problem that they <br />have already kind of solved by turning these around and flipping them to the other side. <br />Ressler said until they go to the next generation of electric powered heli -taxis, they are all in this <br />conundrum together. He said again, he is trying to be constructive here because it is kind of a tough one. <br />Libby said they can do the environmental metric fairly easily as they have the capacity to do that, <br />engineering and design people do that all day. <br />Ressler does not think environmental is necessarily the biggest concern here, that is a personal opinion. <br />He struggles with buffering to a busy road and traffic; he does not know how they fix that. He is not <br />going to recycle the same comments he has already made in essence of efficiency and wants to clarify he <br />is not arguing, either. <br />Erickson made a comment on traffic, and would like to make a little historical background as he first <br />looked at this area in 1971. He said it was 80 acres for sale between Willow and Old Crystal Bay Road <br />and many years before the City showed any interest in building this building. They were occupying the <br />Page 29 of 38 <br />