05-09-2016 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 9, 2016 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 12 of 28 10. #16-3822 LAKEWEST DEVELOPMENT, 3245 WAYZATA BOULEVARD WEST – PRELIMINARY PLAT/RPUD REZONING/COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT (continued) McMillan stated if Phase 2 goes in, they would likely want two access points and that there should really be a dedicated outlot for the future road. McMillan stated she is concerned about whether a big building is doable on the site and whether that would be a great selling point for the other portion of the site. McMillan stated she is having some issues with the whole concept and that she wants to be somewhat confident the City knows the direction they would like to proceed prior to approaching the Metropolitan Council. McMillan asked whether Staff could discuss the City’s density with the Metropolitan Council without this specific application in front of them. Gaffron indicated City Staff would need to know how the Metropolitan Council calculated the three units per acre and that he was surprised the Metropolitan Council did not call out the Gonyea site as being the straw that broke the camel’s back. Gaffron stated lower density on this site will push the City under that limit. Gaffron stated it may be possible that the Metropolitan Council is doing some things doing differently from the City and that they might be adding or excluding different properties. Gaffron stated one option is to make the application for this project and the other option is to say the City has a possible project that is guided for this many units and see how they react to it. Walsh stated Hennepin County has also thrown a curve ball at this development. The other issue is having a multi-family building next to some expensive homes, which would look a little strange, and that the City needs to know whether the Metropolitan Council is going to hold the City to the three units per acre. McMillan stated one of the challenging things about the site is that it is unknown whether the landfill site can be mitigated. McMillan stated one of the questions is whether the Council is happy with the proposed density on Phase I. McMillan stated she does not feel confident that Phase II will solve the City’s density problem and that somewhere down the road the City may have to have higher density on another property as well. Levang concurred that the Council should not count on Phase II to get the City to the appropriate density with the Metropolitan Council and that they need to know what the ramifications are of not having the density at what it was originally guided for. Levang stated if Hennepin County limits the access to only one location, it would really limit the number of units that could be constructed. Levang commented she would have liked to have some more guidance from Hennepin County on where they would like to see the road and that she is not sure if this plan is going to work with only one access point, especially given the 55 mile an hour speed limit in the area. Walsh stated the City has to guide the landfill site for something even if there are no guarantees. McMillan noted the City did not guide it for anything because it is a former landfill site.