05-04-2007 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 14, 2007 . 7:00 o'clock p.m. ( #07 -3278 John Terrance Homes, Continued) On Friday, May 11 `h, Staff and the Mayor met with the applicants to discuss the process for moving forward with the proposal for retail use of Outlot A. It was suggested that Staff and Council would formulate a set of questions and required submittals for a sketch plan review of the proposed uses since the co -op was not prepared to submit all of the detail normally required for a PUD application without some degree of assurance that the use would be acceptable. The applicants were advised that some type of disposition of the current CMP amendment application needs to be made by the Council and that once that is done, a sketch plan PUD review may be an appropriate next step. Murphy stated his comments should not be interpreted tonight as evidence that he is opposed to the food co -op or bank on this site but that he has experienced frustration on this application given the number of times this application has been tabled. Murphy stated the applicants should withdraw their application and resubmit it when they are ready or the Council should deny the application. Murphy stated he is unclear whether the resolution before the Council is appropriate and that in his opinion the Planning Commission maybe should not have dealt with this matter in the way that it did. At the time the Council changed the City's Comprehensive Plan approximately three years ago they did so in good faith and the application for this site later fell through. Murphy noted Orono's Comprehensive Plan states the following: "Orono will coordinate its commercial development planning related to Highway 12 area with the City of Long Lake to ensure the Long Lake downtown area remains vital and viable, to focus retail development in a compact downtown retail area, and to prevent the extension of retail development west of Willow Drive in Orono." Murphy stated a great deal of discussion went into development of the Comprehensive Plan fifteen years ago and that the City of Long Lake and the City of Orono should sit down together and discuss the retail area of Long Lake. _ Murphy stated the three points raised in Staff's report provide a good basis for denying the application and that he has a concern with additional retail space being added to Orono given the amount of empty retail space currently in the Long Lake area. Murphy stated he also has a concern that Staff has not adequately addressed the impacts of retail on the surrounding residential area. Murphy stated the previous City Attorney recommended that the best process to follow in this situation would be to pursue a PUD. McMillan stated the focus on the CMP amendment is unfortunate and has possibly created some confusion on the best way to proceed with this site. McMillan stated the Council is interested in the food co -op but that the amendment is not the best way to achieve the desired result. McMillan stated she would like to see a PUD application rather than an open -ended retail CMP amendment. McMillan stated there is no guarantee that the food co -op will be constructed on this site and that the amendment would leave it open to a number of different retail uses. Johnston stated they did meet with City Staff months ago when the two uses for this site came up and that the food co -op did not have the resources to submit a full PUD application at that time without some idea • of the support by the City for that use. Johnston stated the direction they were given is that if they cannot PAGE 20