06-27-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, June 13, 2016 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 8 of 14 10. #16-3827 RICK DENMAN/CHARLES CUDD, LLC, FOR OWNER DDK, LLC, 2525 KELLY AVENUE, 2535 AND 2545 SHADYWOOD ROAD, SKETCH PLAN (continued) Staff and the applicant are looking for direction as to the appropriateness of the proposal. Printup asked if the site is guided for mixed use. Barnhart indicated it is and that it is guided for four units per acre. Barnhart stated one of the things Staff looked at was along Shadywood. A number of comments have been received in the past about the traffic on Shadywood and that Staff and the MN Department of Transportation are attempting to look at long-term solutions to ease traffic in that area. One option is to consolidate some of the turning movements, with this parcel being one of those pieces being looked at for consolidation. Barnhart stated this application provides the City with the opportunity to combine all of those accesses into one area. The applicant has set this up so that when the Freshwater parcel develops, that access will line up and shift to the corner of that site and at some point the access to the church will be changed as well. Walsh stated a big office building will likely generate more traffic to this site. Walsh commented consolidating the accesses is a long-term vision and that he is in agreement that it is a tough area for traffic. Walsh stated hopefully the City can get that cleaned up at some point. Cornick stated it is critical to note that Staff feels that if the City goes ahead with this project, there are other areas where the City can increase the density. Barnhart stated this represents one of the few green field areas for new growth and that those are typically the easiest to develop. Barnhart stated there are other opportunities but that they are limited, especially in the Navarre area, and that the City Council will need to discuss that component of it. Rick Denman, Charles Cudd, stated it is a unique piece of property. The site is bordered by single-family to the southeast side and is a transitional piece. Denman stated the property allows them to showcase a viable product for the site and that they have done a lot of luxury detached homes for empty nesters in other areas. Denman noted Mayor McMillan visited one of their sites in Medina and that he would invite the rest of the Council to visit it. Denman indicated they would like some feedback to see whether they should pursue this. Printup stated it makes sense overall to align the driveways. Printup noted the density issue was also raised during the Planning Commission meeting, which was good, and that he would like to hear from the neighbors. Andrew Whitehead, 2620 Kelly Avenue, stated single-family housing would be nice on this site since there is other single-family housing in the area. Whitehead stated he is assuming the pond will stay and that runoff might be their only concern since they have had water issues in the past. Whitehead stated he does not have a comment on how many houses should be on the site but that if it is too many, he is assuming there will be some complaints from the neighbors. Walsh asked what he thinks about mixed use for the site.