The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2008-11-19 PC Packet t' r illwater "~ ~ THE BIRTHPLACE OF MINNESOTA ~ CITY OF STILLWATER PLANNING COMMISSION NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008 The City of Stillwater Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday, November 19, 2008, at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Stillwater City Hall, 216 North Fourth Street. AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. PUBLIC HEARINGS 2.01 Consider approval of the Draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan 3. OTHER BUSINESS CITY HAll: 216 NORTH FOURTH STREET . STillWATER, MINNESOTA 55082 PHONE: 651-430-8800 . WEBSITE: www.cLstillwatermn.Us " REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR COpy OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN -Sii Ilwater Q"~~, ;Ht" afR"rHF'.ACr. 0'. M1NNf-S01A .J DATE: November 14, 2008 TO: Planning Commission REGARDING: Review draft of 2030 Comprehensive Plan Bill Turnblad, Community Development Director D ~ FROM: BACKGROUND Throughout the summer draft chapters of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan were developed with the direction and approval of the General Plan Steering Committee and the Downtown Plan Steering Committee. The chapters were compiled into a single volume referred to as the Review Draft, which was released for public review on October 17, 2008. Copies were given to the Stillwater Library and were made available at City Hall and on-line from the City's website. The Review Draft was presented to the City Council for comments at their October 28,2008 work session. It was the subject of an Open House for the general public on October 29, 2008. Following that, the Heritage Preservation Commission, the J oint Board, and the Planning Commission all considered the Review Draft. Suggested changes so far have been more cosmetic in nature than substantive. I believe this reflects the quality of the committee work, comments from the public at visioning sessions and workshops, as well as all the review that has been done by City Commissions and the City Council throughout the past two years. All of that work created good draft chapters for the updated comprehensive plan. TASK AT HAND Tonight the Planning Commission's task is twofold: 1) Conduct a public hearing to consider the Review Draft; and 2) Make a recommendation to the City Council on whether to approve the draft or approve it with changes. 2030 Comprehensive Plan Review Draft NEXT STEPS 1. Over the next several weeks, City staff and the City's planning consultants will compile all comments. If the comments are of a cosmetic nature [word choices, grammatical edits, organization, etc. ] staff will incorporate those comments directly into the Review Draft. If the comments are of substance, they will be included in a memo to be considered by the City Council together with the Review Draft on December I st. 2. On December 1, 2008 the City Council will hold a public hearing to decide whether to approve the Review Draft, or approve it with changes. 3. On about December 10,2008 City Staff will distribute the Review Draft to surrounding jurisdictions for the statutory 6 month comment period. 4. When jurisdictional comments are returned they will be discussed with the Planning Commission and City Council to determine whether they should be incorporated into the 2030 Plan. 5. On July 6, 2008 (earlier if surrounding jurisdictions do not need the entire 6 month period to read and comment on the draft plan) the City Council could consider approving the 2030 Comprehe~sive Plan (with the condition that it be found acceptable to the Metropolitan Council.) 6. On July 20, 2008 (earlier if surrounding jurisdictions do not need the entire 6 month period to read and comment on the draft plan) City staff could submit the plan to the Metropolitan Council. They have 60 days to determine if the plan is consistent with their systems, 7. On October 1, 2008 (earlier if surrounding jurisdictions do not need the entire 6 month period to read and comment on the draft plan) the City Council could adopt the 2030 Comprehensive Plan if the Metropolitan Council found it acceptable. bt ~ .._<>~<7-[Q)~~~B@------ 08 properties 752 Stillwater Road Mahtomedi, MN 55115 Fax 651631 1500 Voice 651 247 7007 dennis@dennisproperties.com www.dennisproperties.com November 13, 2008 Via Hand Delivery Stillwater Planning Commission c/o Bill Tumblad City of Stillwater 216 North Fourth Street Stillwater, MN 55082 Re: Stillwater Draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan The GA TEW A Y Property Dear Planning Commission Members: This letter is being written to you to provide input on the draft 2030 Comprehensive Plan as it relates to the 50 acres of land that is located in the northeast quadrant of Manning Avenue and Highway 36, which we refer to as The Gateway property. 1\ If.,.. ~___.........+"....."""..~ '"'f'~..-_.... 0r._-l-.~..-_ _-_~-_....1 T ..........--c ~1.....-_ .-_-,.1...... .__..".,.~....,.........4__ ._.+ 0....-..-.............._.-"- T"'\,.-...,.,........1.-...,.-..........................+ T T n ...,.~1_;'""1_ lV1Y po.1Ulvl, 11Ul \../o."lUU, auu 1 o.lC lUC "V1C VWUC1" V1 \../1C,,\.-Clll VvVl.IVPUl\.-l1l, LL~, VVlH\;U is the record owner of The Gateway. My company, DENNIS Properties, is a principal in the ownership of more than $75,000,000 of commercial real estate, primarily in the Twin Cities. Tenants include the headquarters for the Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota Department of Corrections. I have lived in White Bear Lake for 30 years and have always regarded Stillwater as a neighbor city. We are quite proud to be the owners of a Gateway site into the City of Stillwater. I have attended a large majority of the Comp Plan meetings over the last year. Tim and I do appreciate the time and consideration which the staff, committees, Planning Commission, and City Council have expended in this process. As we have pointed out in this process, we support development of approximately half of The Gateway into a first . _, class_business. parlcOuriny.estmentstyle is to_own-4-ualit:y. oifKeb_uildings, lease them,__._ _____ ~__ and own them for a very long time. However, we do have a concern that the City is unrealistic as to the amount of office space which the City of Stillwater can support from now through 2020, or even 2030. The City did no market study for office space at The Gateway as part of the Comp Plan process. The current draft of the 2030 Comp Plan contemplates the entire 50 acres as corporate facilities, which could be 450,000 square feet or so of office space--and that does not include the 20 acres which Paul Bergmann owns to the north and east of us. It simply is not realistic to think that Stillwater, as far east as it is from the Twin Cities' concentration of work force and executives, could ever support that much office space. To give you some idea of the size of 450,000 square feet, it would be enough office space for 2,250 employees needing over 15 acres of parking lots. We also doubt that the City would want a warehouse or distribution type of facility, which certainly could bring living wage jobs, but not in the size or magnitude of other high quality development. It is because of this that we urge the City to consider other types of high quality uses, including some retail, as a part of The Gateway. This is true especially on the western portion of The Gateway. Attached is a map done by City staff that shows the current use of the western portion of The Gateway as Commercial. We do recognize that the current draft of the 2030 Comp Plan does have more flexibility in it than what was disoussed earlier this year. Specifically, the draft currently states: Through implementation of the Comprehensive Plan the city will update this zoning district to expand the list of uses allowed to support the goal of a high quality development that will increase the city's tax base and provide high-paying' jobs. We support that flexibility, particularly for some potential retail on the westerly side of The Gateway (but NOT all big boxes on the entire 50 acres). Tim and I do want to emphasize our desire to work with the City to achieve The Gateway image, jobs, and tax base that we all desire. Very truly yours t2-- - Denny Trooien cc: Tim Cashin 2 Set forth below is a portion of the City's map entitled "Site Analysis" which shows existing land uses on the GATEWAY (Bergmann Nursery) site. The red is Commercial and the light green is vacant space I J r::::-p ,;,\ l'l, i .;:11' I .- . t." . The owner and developer of the GATEWAY SITE propose that: RED area be designated a type of Commercial/Retail on the Comp Plan and LIGHT GREEN AREA be designated a type of Commercial/Office on the Comp Plan 3