05-09-2016 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 9, 2016 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 15 of 28 10. #16-3822 LAKEWEST DEVELOPMENT, 3245 WAYZATA BOULEVARD WEST – PRELIMINARY PLAT/RPUD REZONING/COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT (continued) Gaffron stated in order to get to the ten units per acre overall for the site, based on eight acres, they would need to get to 80 units. Walsh asked what would get the City to three. Gaffron stated Staff does not have an answer to that yet. Walsh stated the bigger question in mind is what will get the City to the three units per acre, which would give the City Council a better idea of what the landfill site should be guided for. McMillan asked how the building would be stabilized. Campion indicated their borings showed more glacial till and suitable soils down at the bottom of the borings and that it was not all soft and organic. Cornick noted there was some discussion by the Mayor about possibly doing Phase II first. Fretham stated they would prefer to do Phase I first and that it does not seem practical to do Phase II first. Campion stated the only reason Phase II is depicted on their plans is that they wanted to have something in writing so the residents of Phase I could not say they never ever saw Phase II. Campion stated it was not their intent at the beginning to build Phase II right away but that they would like to show it as a possibility at some point in the future. McMillan stated Phase II may not be viable and that she does not want to go to the Metropolitan Council with it included. McMillan indicated she would like Phase I to pretty much stand on its own and that she does not want to use Phase II to make Phase I more desirable. Wickstrom stated she is talking about satisfying the Metropolitan Council and not the City of Orono as it relates to the density. Wickstrom stated if the City needs to target a certain density on Phase II, they will not come back and say they want to construct more single-family homes. Wickstrom stated if it is included in the Comprehensive Plan and approved by the Metropolitan Council, which is what it will be targeted at. Wickstrom stated they have found that the site is worth cleaning up if an acceptable density can be reached but that Phase II is a little further down the road since it probably is not feasible to build a multi-unit building on that site currently. McMillan stated she also does not believe a multi-unit building is feasible at the present time and that she would like Phase I to stand on its own. Walsh stated the City still has to guide it even if it is not built for a while. Walsh stated another piece of information the City needs is what it will take to get to the 3.0 units per acre. Walsh stated in his view the City is missing that information before they will know how big the building needs to be. Walsh stated if Phase I has 27 units and 40 are required to meet the density that would throw everything out.