Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023/03/01 - ADMIN - Agenda Packets - Planning Commission - Study Session (2) Planning commission March 1, 2023 6:00 p.m. If you need special accommodations or have questions about the meeting, please call Sean Walther or the administration department at 952.924.2525. Planning commission Study Session Members present: Jim Beneke, Mia Divecha, Matt Eckholm, Katie Merten, Michael Salzer, Tom Weber, Jan Youngquist Members absent: none Staff present: Sean Walther, Gary Morrison Consultants present: Rita Trapp, Jeff Miller 1. Residential districts zoning code update The discussion involved housing types, including single-family, duplex, 3 and 4 plex’s, townhomes, cluster housing, mid and high-rise, live/work units, rowhouses, courtyard cottages and detached units. They also discussed entrance types and lot sizes. Commissioner Beneke asked where condominiums fit in. Mr. Walther stated this is generally related to how the ownership of a property is divided versus a housing type. Commissioner Weber asked if some of these housing types are already present in St. Louis Park. Mr. Walther stated a spectrum of examples of each of these housing types are already present in the city, and were developed under different rules than the city has today. Most of them fall under the broad definition of multifamily or cluster housing in the zoning code and are not well distinguished in the code. Commissioner Weber stated if the city zoning code would allow rowhouses, would the city have to know ahead of time if all rowhouses need to sit on one big lot, or multiple lots. Ms. Trapp stated no, this would just need to be included in the code language with minimum lot size included, so both scenarios are accommodated. She added typically for rowhouses the minimum lot size for a unit is 22 feet wide, and noted right now the code does not include this, and if added it would help the code be clearer about how they are allowed. Commissioner Beneke asked if a builder could combine lots for building. Ms. Trapp stated lots can be assembled and combined into a larger lot. Mr. Morrison stated lots can be combined and re-subdivided to result in smaller lots also. Two adjacent properties that are not large enough to split on their own might be large enough to subdivide into three lots if they are first combined or developed jointly. Planning commission March 1, 2023 2 Commissioner Weber asked if the council has indicated whether it wants the planning commission to help reshape the zoning code to prevent developers from combining lots to build a mega structure, or to be developed in more unique ways. Mr. Walther stated the council did several workshops last fall related to managing change in low density residential neighborhoods. He stated, in general, the city council is interested in more housing, more affordable housing, a greater variety of housing types, and they want to be able to provide for multi-generational households and meet different housing needs for a variety of household types. He added the council wasn’t as clear or achieve consensus about what constitutes appropriate scale, but they have wrestled multiple times with the question of how to prevent houses that are too large and when and if that is a problem. Commissioner Weber stated then the commission should not feel restricted because staff is bringing the ideas to the commission for consideration that council is generally interested in exploring. Mr. Walther agreed and noted these policy changes were supported in the adopted 2040 comprehensive plan. He added there will also need to be public engagement on these issues and the details of how the changes are made will be important to the outcomes. Commissioner Eckholm added a major cost of housing is also the cost of the land itself. He noted if only certain types of homes can be certain lots, that will bring challenges. He added dividing up the land the city has will allow more people to have access to it. Commissioner Weber asked if regulations are included in the zoning code today, related to shadows cast by buildings. Mr. Walther stated yes, it is. However, they only apply to development of new multifamily and commercial buildings. Commissioner Weber asked about when residents are concerned about issues in their neighborhoods with housing, for example in a college area, if those concerns usually are about the home ownership type or residents that live in these homes. Ms. Trapp stated it’s usually concerns about both, noting that oftentimes it’s about having more renters in a neighborhood, and transitions from single-family to rental, and scale of building as well. Commissioner Divecha noted sometimes people use zoning to regulate things like pollution or noise. Zoning, however, may not always be the best tool to do that. The city has other more effective ordinances and tools to regulate these things. Commissioner Divecha asked about parking, and its impacts, and noted several articles she’s read where some cities are removing all parking requirements within a city. She asked if parking will be discussed. Ms. Trapp stated yes this will be discussed within the zoning code. Planning commission March 1, 2023 3 Commissioner Beneke stated he hopes the main goal of this be creating affordable ownership opportunities. Commissioner Eckholm stated he would like to see smaller lots and row houses result from the code changes. A big part of the cost of housing it the price of the land. He added it is all a matter of what will be allowed where though. Commissioner Merten commented that all housing types have the potential to become rentals, especially distressed properties that can be fixed up and flipped or rented. Commissioner Eckholm stated that is part of the risk of trying to lock the community in amber to remain as it is for all time. It will invite disinvestment and may attract institutional buyers to buy up multiple properties. Commissioner Merten stated that may be a concern that adding these other housing types will result in developers building these for rental instead of for sale. Commissioner Weber responded a concern is not about allowing courtyard cottage developments, for example, but that the site design of the developments does not result in the preserved and shared green space and walking paths the city envisions. He added he is supportive of allowing high-rise apartments, but he understands they don’t belong in all neighborhoods. He asked how we can produce the ideal, instead of resulting in too large of parking lots or an attractive building design, and that they meet the standards. He included the example Commissioner Youngquist mentioned of a very garage forward design with a very wide driveway shown in an earlier example photo. Ms. Trapp mentioned that the minimum standards may help prevent the design the community does not want, and perhaps lead to the designs the community favors. Mr. Walther commented that zoning is a limited and relatively blunt instrument and tool. It does not result in good design. It provides the constraints within which people design. Those designs can meet the rules and still look great or terrible. Commissioner Weber asked what’s to keep the commission from agreeing to all types of housing for the city. Mr. Miller shared an example from Grand Marais where they have a severe housing shortage and they changed from having two housing districts, single family and multifamily, to only one residential district. In that district the types of housing you can build are determined by the lot size. The site design standards change based on the size of the lot. Commissioner Divecha asked about the live work units. Mr. Walther stated these have a commercial front. He noted home-based business are allowed across all the city districts, but generally they don’t have a commercial storefront. Commissioner Eckholm commented on a specific picture of a duplex that was shown, and he noted that he does not like the look of it because it tries to disguise it as by making it look like one large house. It is too much massing from the street. Mr. Morrison Planning commission March 1, 2023 4 noted its worth looking at the two years of experience Minneapolis has with their new ordinances to allow duplexes throughout single-family districts. It’s an opportunity for us to learn from their experiences. Articles are starting to appear summarizing their experiences and offering suggestions. Commissioner Eckholm added the triplex idea didn’t take off in Minneapolis like everyone thought overnight. He stated it will be a slow and gradual process until it takes hold and feels like natural development in the community. Commissioner Weber noted the origins of zoning was not only to exclude uses, but also to exclude certain people. He stated the city has the opportunity now to rethink and change zoning rules to create the most benefit for an area, not necessarily the biggest, but the most benefit. The zoning should provide the most opportunity for that to occur, so the zoning does not undersell the promise of a neighborhood. He added he likes this as a guiding principle to help make St. Louis Park a great city. This is a way to exorcise the history of zoning as an exclusion tool, and instead we are trying to rethink it to be inclusive and provide the most benefit. He also stated the city already has many of these types of houses as noted in the report blended in our neighborhoods, so no one should be overly concerned about expanding those types of housing within their neighborhood. The commission also discussed housing types and where they would be allowed. Commissioner Youngquist asked about what was meant by multi-modal corridors and if that meant having bike lanes. Mr. Walther stated this will include all forms of modality present within the corridors, but yes, on the map they seem to coincide with the city’s community bikeway and sidewalk planned networks. Commissioner Eckholm noted a high-rise near the light rail makes sense, but not within a neighborhood. Mr. Walther referenced the land use and zoning maps, but asked the commission to consider if these maps should remain the same, and if adjustments need to be made to the zoning code for the future. Commissioner Youngquist noted housing types in the light rail station areas, and explained there are expectations from the Met Council on density of walking distance with the light rail station, so single family homes there would not be appropriate. Mr. Walther agreed in part. He added there is an average minimum of 50 units per acre in this area, but existing single family and smaller lot single family can still be part of the mix provided the average density of new development in the vicinity of the stations meet those minimum standards. Commissioner Eckholm stated the mid-rise building would be preferred close to the light rail corridor. He added on Excelsior there are areas where mid-rise housing might be appropriate and other areas where it may not be. Planning commission March 1, 2023 5 Commissioner Eckholm also noted the intersection of Minnetonka and Louisiana needs more businesses to walk to vs. drive to. The parking lot is an opportunity to add to those amenities. Commissioner Divecha asked about limits to development in certain areas, and also where should the city be more aggressive about forcing minimum density. Commissioner Weber added that Texa-Tonka is also a nice experiment right now, with some great stuff happening there, noting it could be a nice example for other areas in the city. Commissioner Youngquist noted at Louisiana and Cedar Lake Road the area seems ripe for redevelopment at some point, and she struggles talking only about residential without the context of where commercial and mixed-use areas will be located. Mr. Walther stated the planning commission will meet again in April with another study session regarding this ongoing topic of zoning code updates. Mr. Morrison encouraged the commissioners to get familiar with the comprehensive plan and zoning codes of the city. 2. Adjournment – 8:00 p.m. ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Sean Walther, liaison Tom Weber, chair member