09-21-2009 Planning Commission Packet

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, �� r FILE 09-3423 16 September 2009 Page 2 of 3 _ Parkina Needs and Variance City Code: 78-1516(15) Retail sa/es and service establishments, at least one (parking spaceJ for each 950 square feet of net floor area. 78-1516(18) .... garden supply stores, ..... at least eight(parking spaces], plus one (parking spaceJ for each 800 square feet of floor area over 1,000 feet, including warehousing and all outside sales and storage area related to the sales and service functions. The existing tenants will be relocated and Harvest Moon will modify the 9,800 s.f. of retail space for the grocery co-op. 7,000 s.f. will be retail space and 2,800 s.f. will be designated as warehouse, prep areas, back room, kitchens and office spaces. According to City Code, retail uses require one parking space for every 150 sf of retail floor space [7000/150 = 46.6]. Based on this, Harvest Moon requires 47 parking spaces. The Otten Brothers operation is considered retail with elements of a garden supply store. The retail store portion of the business needs 70 parking spaces [10,400/150=69.3] and the greenhouse portion of the business requires 29 spaces [8+(17,900-1,000)/800=29.1]. What hasn't been addressed yet is the 105,000 of outdoor retail space. The Code views all of the retail, warehouse, outdoor sales and storage equally when calculating parking needs for a garden supply store. Staff has separated out the actual retail space from what is considered a garden supply store i.e. greenhouse and outdoor retail & storage spaces. Therefore the 30,000 square feet of outdoor retail space directly adjacent to the greenhouse space requires 37 parking spaces and is considered the main outdoor retail space, the outdoor area further east across the driveway 75,000 square feet of this outdoor area (shown in Exhibit G) would require 92 parking spaces. According to City Code a total of 275 parking spaces are required for this site. The site currently has parking for 132 vehicles (not including the strip of parking along the northern part of the property where the Otten Brothers trucks are parked). Staff would argue that the 75,000 square foot outdoor storage area is not a primary retail space and considering the function of this property over the years, staff questions whether additional parking spaces based on this space are justified. Staff even questions the reasonableness of requiring 183 parking spaces, which is all of the required spaces minus the 92 for the 75,000 s.f. � outdoor retail/storage area. The site has housed various retail and office uses since opening and historically there has not been an issue with parking shortages. Willow Drive Access Configuration The existing main vehicular access to the Otten Brothers site is located approximately 300 feet north of Wayzata Boulevard and 150 feet south of Kelley Parkway. This access location was accepted at the time the Otten site was developed in the early 1990s, but at that time a future public frontage road was also platted eastward along the north boundary of the Otten property. That frontage road has never been developed; the City has no plans to develop it at present. Kelley Parkway was developed as part of Stonebay in 2003. Its intersection with Willow Drive is located directly across from the future Otten frontage road. Stonebay also resulted in a number . of changes to the Willow/Wayzata Boulevard intersection, and included provisions for additional turn lanes as well as a "right-in/right-out only" Willow Drive access for Outlot A, Stonebay. The raised concrete median between northbound and southbound Willow extends from Wayzata Boulevard to just south of the current Otten entrance. While this will effectively keep traffic exiting Outlot A onto Willow from turning left to go north, its current configuration also results in