02-21-2017 Planning Commission Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMMISSION Tuesday,February 21,2017 6:30 o'clock p.m. businesses are quite localized. The proposed daycare use is likely to be providing service to local residents and potentially to some smaller subset of commuters. In residential zoning districts where daycare is allowed, it requires a conditional use permit. Daycare is also allowed in the B-1 and B-3 districts as a conditional use. Little Acorns Childcare is looking to occupy the existing building on the site and remodel the interior. The building on Lot 2 to the immediate east consists merely of a foundation. The rest of the site has had extensive grading done on it in 2007-2008 in preparation for future office condo use. In other areas of the City where daycare is allowed, it is a conditional use. In residential districts where it is allowed there are no specific standards for a daycare other than it is to be a conditional use. In the commercial districts where 'day nurseries' are allowed,the only condition is that not less than 50 square feet of outside play area per pupil be made available and that it be fenced. The applicants have proposed two outdoor play areas, one at the north end of the parking lot and another behind one of the building pads. The primary intent of this part of the application is to determine whether daycare is appropriate for this site and then to define what conditions should be established for the use. One of the issues is the fact that the site contains five separate building sites. In discussions with the applicant and others over the past five or six years, it was noted that it is not likely the remainder of the site would be developed in the configuration as originally proposed. Gaffron stated in a perfect world there would be a comprehensive development plan for the site rather than a piecemeal approach. At the time of the original plan, one of the City Council's concerns at the time the property was being developed was that only one of the buildings would get built, rather than a complete timely buildout of the site. Unfortunately,the former has occurred. As it relates to parking, the original approvals for parking required 3.5 stalls per 1,000 square feet using 85 percent of the gross floor area,which was felt to be a realistic standard for the office condos. The site plan was approved with a parking layout that just meets the minimum with 102 stalls. The 'Day nurseries' use under current code requires four stalls plus one for each 500 square feet in excess of 1,000 square feet of floor space in the principal structure. Based on that formula, a total of 15 parking stalls would be required. Gaffron stated the daycare will potentially take up more than one-fifth of the total parking on the site and will need to be reviewed as part of the Little Acorns CUP application. The parking area as constructed meets all required setbacks. The parking stalls have never been striped. By all indications, it also appears that the wear course of bituminous has never been installed. A backup apron was included at the end of the most northwesterly parking area. The site shares a driveway entrance to Wayzata Boulevard with the Orono Woods Senior Housing property. Original office condo approvals in 2007 and earlier took into account the lack of a direct, full- turning movement access to the site from Wayzata Boulevard due to the median and no turn lanes. At the time the senior housing project was approved,the City required a cross-access easement through the senior housing parking lot to allow direct access to and from Brown Road from this property. The current Hennepin County plans for improvements to Wayzata Boulevard will remove the median and insert an opposing left turn lane system. This will allow for full turning movements at the shared driveway and will make access to the applicant's property much easier and less of a burden to the senior housing property. Page 2 of 32