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ORONO JOINT PLANNING COMMISSION & CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Wednesday, March 2, 2011 5:30 o'clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 6 Franchot asked what area is considered shoreline. Gaffron indicated it would be the first 1000 feet near the lake. Most of the rural area away from the lake is not subject to hardcover regulations. Gozola stated all of the properties feed into the water system regardless of whether they are considered shoreland properties or nonshoreland properties. Gozola asked whether the City is interested in looking at including those lots that are not currently included. Bremer commented in her view they should be looked at since the hardcover impacts appearance and massing. Curtis noted the reason the industrial, RPUD and PRD district have hardcover regulations is because they have been created within the last ten years. McMillan commented that Orono does have a tremendous amount of wetlands within the City, which helps to filter the water before it reaches Lake Minnetonka. McMillan asked whether the City should be more aggressive on industrial/commercial lots. Gaffron noted that all of the City's industrial lots far exceed the hardcover limits and that the City should be more aggressive in requiring different types of ponding on industrial/commercial properties. McMillan commented that NURP ponds can also be expensive to maintain over time, but that the City could incorporate a number of different requirements to help infiltrate the water in those areas. Gaffron recommended that there be a different set of standards for the industrial districts. McMillan commented that rain gardens are becoming more popular on industrial sites and that they are easier to monitor on those sites versus residential lots. Franchot stated one of the issues the City struggles with is that the regulations are written from the perspective of starting with a vacant lot, which is often not the case. The question then becomes, how does the City transition from where we are with the things that we don’t like to where we like them. Franchot indicated small lots are a classic example of lots that meet very few of the City's minimum standards. Franchot recommended that as part of this process the City spend some time thinking about ways to improve Navarre and make it a better place to live. Gozola stated to achieve something like that, the City could build in some incentives to have those types of investments. Franchot commented one of the reasons people come in here asking for something is that their neighbor has it, but they are not always aware that some of those items were previously allowed but are no longer allowed. Item #03 - CC Agenda - 03/14/2011 Approval of Joint Planning Commission & City Council Work Session Minutes [Page 6 of 13]