03-15-2021 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Tuesday,March 15,2021 6:00 o'clock p.m. Gettman clarified the target numbers are based on the 48 units and he knows City Council has pushed back quite a bit on the 3 versus 4 story scenario. Mr. Richardson noted they are basically a 3-story building but they have underground parking. He thinks when they are fully landscaped it will not look like the extra story underneath which would have originally been underground anyways. Gettman asked if they have run numbers to make this still feasible in having two levels of apartments. Mr. Richardson said they would not even consider it; it is not possible. Libby said the ceiling heights can also be a constructive way of dealing with building height and asked if the top floors are any higher ceiling-wise than the lower. Mr. Richardson replied they are trying to keep them uniform at close to 9-foot ceilings, but there are structural beams, sprinklers, electrical, lots of stuff to get in there. Libby said from the grade and elevations, is it conceivable in order to bring the overall building height to a 30-foot maximum, can they do garden levels on the main level and still be able to have the density, rental income, and cash flow they need to do that. Garden level apartments right now are renting for over a thousand dollars a month. Mr.Richardson understands where Libby is coming from. He does not want to make it feel like one is half underground on the main level. He noted the codes have just recently changed to that 30-foot level—they have always been 35 or 36 feet. He said they are not trying to exceed the old code but they were not able to do this project until this point because of the road construction project. He noted he has been in a lawsuit with Hennepin County since 2016 on it and have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have gone to development, but he could not develop it when he was having problems with the County. If he could have done this right from the get-go and rolled right into it;the neighboring building Orono Woods is 45-50 feet. He is not asking for the max,but they just want 35. He thinks it is a very reasonable number to ask for, it is not in a high residential area,but right on the end of Orono and the site was elevated another 10 feet as a hill was cut out of there. If they had gone with the original plan and grading,which he did not own at the time, he does not think they would even have had an issue because they are hauling dirt out in massive quantity to get the grade into the hill that was originally there. Ressler wants to clarify the height by definition is not cut and dry,it is not actual, it is how they measure it. He noted they have been 30 feet for at least ten years or perhaps longer. He asked Staff to clarify how they measure that height. Barnhart stated they measure height through a combination of the lowest floor and where the highest adjacent grade touches the footprint of the building and then on a flat roof structure, the top point of that flat roof. For a hipped roof structure, it is usually between the midpoint of the peak and the eave. In his memo, he included some arithmetic sheets and the Applicant also provided their math of how they get to the height. There are two buildings in town that he is aware of,that are more than 30 feet,one is the building next door that was approved in 2002 and that project also received City financial assistance because the Council at that time had certain goals in mind for that property. The other one is the Stone Bay project that was approved in 2002 or 2003;again,that was approved with RPUD and the Council had specific goals for that. With any of the requirements in the RPUD zoning district,the Council can waive certain requirements. Page 29 of 34