08-11-1997 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Zoning File #2267 July 18, 1997 Page 2 church property. The County Road 19 right-of-way overlaps the torrens portion of the church property at the most southerly comer of the church property. A small triangular portion of the proposed driveway easement is within this overlap area. The only significant impact of this is how it affects hardcover calculations. Site Considerations 1. The submittals do not accurately portray the existing parking layout at the Culvers site. The submittals give no indication of the number of stalls which will be lost, or how they will be replaced. The submittals give no clear picture of existing and proposed circulation at the Culvers site. The submittals provide staff with no comfort level that the applicant has had professional assistance in the design of the new access point, or in hovv it will relate to the existing situation. Having experienced this site in operation, staff finds a number of concerns regardmg circulation in the final parking layout, which does not match the approved plans and which in staffs opinion contains a number of bad design features, including parking stalls that jut out into access points, tlie need for opposing stacking lanes for the drive-thm and car wash, and the impact of the drive-thru 'waiting' stalls adjacent to the handicap stalls. 2. While the proposed access onto County Road 19 is at the location previously proposed in applicant s original concept plan for the church site, that site plan has never been formally reviewed or approved. The City Engineer's early comments on that site plan were that the southerly access, i.e. the access now proposed for the Culvers site, is extremely near the 15/19 intersection and perhaps should move further north. The City Engineer continues to believe that the southerly access for the church site is too close to the intersection and will create problems with traffic on the County Road, especially if a free right turn lane is ever developed from westbound 15 to northbound 19. He suggests a right-in/right-out only limitation may be appropriate from a safety perspective; this would not serve applicant's intent to provide a way for traffic exiting his site to head southbound on 19 to go east on 15. The engineer indicates that the church site might be best served by a single access, and stafFbelieves it could be counterproductive to accomplishing that if the new access for the Culvers site is located as proposed. It should be noted that Hennepin County Public Works has indicated they will approve the access as proposed by Mr. O'Sullivan. Staff is assuming that the County has recognized the difficulties with O'Sullivan's existing accesses onto County Road 15, and sees this as a solution to the problem. Staff sees it as a temporary solution at best and, if approved as