03-29-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, March 8, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 20 of 23 The Applicant, Bill Stoddard of 440 3rd Street Excelsior, approached the podium. He was an Orono resident for 20 years, lives in the same zip code, and was on the Planning Commission in the mid 1990’s. Barnhart made him promise not to keep the Council up until 1:00 a.m. like they did on a few of the Spring Hill Golf Club items they reviewed. Mr. Stoddard is a pretty low-key developer, he did the 10 brick row houses by the Excelsior Brewery, the 18 twin villas a block away on the same bike trail, and down Highway 55 the 172-unit apartment building in Golden Valley. He does a number of things, and since the Planning Commission meeting, they made a few changes to the site plan which the Council sees today. They had a little access to the park on the east side, changed the entrance area and had a traffic engineer provide an opinion letter regarding the sight line. There is an emergency vehicle kick-out to the south in case the Fire Department wants to come a few feet to put out one of those fires. This is also a non- ornamental fence project, finally the storm water management was just a thought, and he is getting some feedback about density. This project would probably not work at all to put in all the necessary utilities from the sanitary sewer and water; one is south of the Fire Department on Willow Drive and the infrastructure costs would all be the same. To share those over five units really would not work. He said they came up with a density that they thought was smack in the middle of the City’s guided density. In terms of storm water, they have not done any borings to date and to keep it open after they design it, if they are going to lose a bunch of units, would the Council want the storm water on the City-owned land. That would be if they designed it and built it large enough to accommodate the south access road that could eventually go to serve the Community Garden area. The Council pointed out it is a unique site and is not the most preferred lot in Orono. Mr. Stoddard is here to brainstorm their thoughts and concepts. It is guided for residential and he asked if this is something the Council would rather see a commercial use on; then perhaps they wouldn’t care so much about the sound from the Fire Department. He is available for questions and thanked the Council. Seals said she feels for the Applicant in having to figure this out as it is a really tough, narrow lot. She spoke with some of the Firemen and Planning Commissioners. She received feedback that this was not something they were super excited about because of the density, the Fire Station being right next to it, and she knows the water will also be a big struggle and that is perhaps the Achilles’ Heel of the project. She thinks 3 makes sense to the Council but the Applicant needs a bigger number to make it work and they are just not there yet. Crosby thinks this Council is pretty much committed to the lowest density possible, if it is open space and never gets developed, they could care less and that would be great. As Seals said they could probably go with 3 units/acre and go from there. He does not see as much of an issue from a Fire Department standpoint, even though Seals has received some feedback, because typically when they are exercising, their water is going to the rear of the building. He could see the water as being a major issue and that could be a nightmare if the Applicant cannot take care of that situation. He thinks a lot of builders are under the misconception that Orono wants building here – and they really do not. The City has basically designed it for density to be along Highway 12. Walsh said even there, on that last development they brought it to the lowest common denominator they could bring it to. Crosby noted people move to Orono because they do not want the density. Mr. Stoddard asked did it just change from high density to the medium density in the last Comprehensive Plan.