2020-12-08 PC Minutes
ALBERTVILLEPLANNINGCOMMISSION
TUESDAY,DECEMBER8,2020
APPROVEDMINUTES
ALBERTVILLECITYHALL7:00PM
1. CALLTOORDERȟROLLCALLȟADOPTAGENDA
Chair Buhrmann called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Maeghan Becker conducted roll call.
Present:Chair Buhrmann and Commissioners Anderson, Huggins, and Zagorski.
Absent:Commissioner Hayden and Council Liaison Halling.
OthersPresent:City Planner Al Brixius, Building Permit Technician Maeghan
Becker, Robert Kelly, Casey Darkenwald, Darron Lazan, Wes Wiley. Present on Zoom
was Adam Nafstad, Rob Olson, and Mike M.
MotionedbyAnderson,secondedbyZagorski,toapprovetheagenda.Ayes:
Buhrmann,Anderson,Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:None.Absent:Haydenand
Halling.MOTIONDECLAREDCARRIED.
2. MINUTES
MotionedbyZagorski,secondedbyAndersontoapprovetheOctober13,
2020PlanningCommissionmeetingminutes.Ayes:Buhrmann,Anderson,
Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:None.Absent:HaydenandHalling.MOTION
DECLAREDCARRIED.
3. PUBLICHEARINGS
A. PublichearingtoconsiderarequestfromAdvancedVolumetric
Alliancefor:
ȥComprehensiveplanamendment
ȥZoningMapAmendmentchangingthezoningfromB2AtoIndustrial.
Brixius went through his December 2, 2020 Planners Report informing the
Commissioners that Advanced Volumetric Alliance (AVA) LLC is requesting to
manufacture a plant on a 33-acre site located in the Norwest corner of
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Albertville, south of 70 Street and east of Kadler Avenue. AVA is requesting
the approvals of the following development applications:
1. Comprehensive Plan Amendment.
2. Zoning Map Amendment.
3. Preliminary Plat.
4. Site and Building Plan Review
5. 2 Conditional Use Permits:
a. To allow accessory outdoor storage upon west side of the
33-acre AVA site.
b. To allow accessory outdoor display upon the east side of
the 33-acre AVA site.
He went through Exhibits A through P with the Commissioners.
To accommodate the use, it is necessary to change the guided land use of the
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Special Business to I-2, General Industrial.
Brixius went through the criteria for evaluating a plan amendment or a
zoning change:
1. The proposed action has been considered in relation to the specific
policies and provisions of and has been found to be consistent with
the official City Comprehensive Plan.
2.The proposed use is or will be compatible with present and future
land uses of the area.
3.The proposed use conforms with all performance standards
contained herein.
4.The proposed use will not tend to or actually depreciate the area in
which it is proposed.
5. The proposed use can be accommodated with existing public
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6. Traffic generation by the proposed use is within the capabilities of
streets serving the property.
A change of land use guidance and zoning remains a policy decision of the
Planning Commission and the City Council. However, City Staff would
recommend supporting the land use and zoning change based on the
following findings.
1. 4§¤ #¨³¸Ȍ² ΑΏΒΏ 6¨²¨®¨¦ 3³´£¸ ¨£¤tifies a demand for industrial
use expansion in the area.
2.The proposed industrial uses are similar to guided land uses
located in Otsego to the north and west of the site.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
2
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
3.The subject area is not considered ideal for future retail
commercial uses (per existing guidance) from both a use demand
and site access/visibility perspective.
4. The subject site offers convenient access to major roadways which
will be conducive to industrial users and related truck traffic.
5. As a requirement of site plan review, compatibility issues will be
addressed through screening, land use transitions, building
location and site design.
6. Traffic generated by future industrial uses will be within the
capability of existing and future streets which serve the area.
Developer shall be responsible for need street improvements
identified by City Staff and the traffic Study.
7. The proposed land uses will not overburden City utilities and
sewer capacity.
Brixius went through the following with the Commissioners:
1. The Preliminary Plat
a. Streets
b. Lots
c. Wetlands
d. Easements
e. Park Dedication
f. Development Agreement
2. The Site and Building Plan Review
a. Site Access
b. Setbacks
c. Off-Street Parking
d. Loading
e. Trash Handling
f. Building Materials
g. Building Height
h. Landscaping
i. Lighting
j. Signage
k. Future Development
l. Grading, Drainage and Utilities
3. Conditional Use Permits
a. Evaluation Criteria
b. Outdoor Storage CUP
c. Outdoor Display CUP
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
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Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
Brixius went through the recommendations with Commissioners:
A. ComprehensivePlanandZoningMapAmendments:
Approval of the requested Comprehensive Plan amendment (to change
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amendment (rezoning the subject property from B-2A, Special Business to
I-2 General Industrial) based on the following findings:
1. 4§¤ #¨³¸Ȍ² ΑΏΒΏ 6¨²¨®¨¦ 3³´£¸ ¨£¤tifies a desire for industrial
development within the City to expand local employment
opportunities, diversify job groups, provide livable wages and increase
the local tax base.
2. The proposed industrial uses are similar to proposed land uses
located north, and west of the site.
3. The subject area is not considered ideal for future retail commercial
uses (per existing guidance) from both a use demand and site
access/visibility perspective.
4. The subject site offers convenient access to major roadways which will
be conducive to industrial users and related truck traffic.
5. As a requirement of site plan review, compatibility issues will be
addresses through screening, land use transitions, building location
and site design.
6. Traffic generated by future industrial uses will be within the capability
of existing and future streets which serve the area.
7. The proposed land uses will not overburden City utilities and sewer.
8. The proposed land use will contribute to the City tax base and will
generate significant fees for the City utility and park funds.
B. ThePreliminaryPlat:
!¢³¨® ® ³§¤ ¯¯«¨¢ ³Ȍ² ¯±¤«¨¬¨ ±y plat application must follow the
#¨³¸Ȍ² ¢³¨® ® ³§¤ ±¤°´¤²³¤£ #®mprehension Plan and zoning map
changes. Upon approval of the Comprehensive Plan amendment and
zoning change, City Staff recommends approval of the Preliminary Plat
subject to the following conditions:
1. Kadler Avenue and Keystone Avenue must be designed and
constructed to city standards for an urban industrial street.
2. Kadler Avenue and Keystone shall be constructed with the AVA
project. No building occupancy permit shall be issued until these
streets are complete.
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3. The intersection of Keystone and 70 Street must be coordinated with
the City of Otsego to create a full intersection.
4. The preliminary plat be revised to provide a 40foot right of way
dedication Kadler Avenue.
5. The preliminary plat must provide a dedicated cul-de-sac right of way
at the southern boundary of the plat. The length of the street may be
reduced if the exception property south of the plat is acquired and
included with the plat.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
4
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
6.Kadler Avenue must be constructed as an urban industrial street. The
street will need to be a 10-ton urban design, 44foot wide street
terminating in a cul-de-sac have a 45foot radius.
7.Developer shall be responsible for off-site improvements identified by
the traffic study.
8.Applicant shall provide anticipated travel routes and travel times for
approval by City Council. The wide load hauling shall avoid A.M and
P.M. peak traffic hours to prevent traffic conflicts with motorists.
9.Street design and issues shall comply with the City Engineer
Memorandum dated December 1, 2020. All street plans shall be
subject to review and approval of the City Engineer.
10. As part of future final plat consideration, Outlot C shall be combined
with Lot 1, Block 1.
11. The applicant shall provide a wetland mitigation plan that identifies
the replacement of any impacted wetlands.
12. Within Lot1, Block 1, Wetlands and their buffer areas located along the
north and south side of the development area shall be platted as
outlots and dedicated to the City.
13. Wetland buffer areas located in any of the outlots shall be covered
with a drainage and utility easements and dedicated to the city. The
plat shall be revised to illustrate these easements.
14. The landscape plan must illustrate the proposed ground cover within
the wetland buffer areas.
15. The drainage ditch that connect the wetlands shall be cleaned and
graded to a minimum standard of 4ft bottom with 3:1 side slopes.
16. Applicant shall address the comments of the City Engineer in his
memorandum of December 1, 2020.
17. The plat must include drainage and utility easements over proposed
storm water ponding areas as well as wetlands and buffer area within
the outlots.
18. The plat must show drainage and utility easements over any municipal
utilizes outside of the street right of way.
19. The location, size and configuration of all required easements shall be
subject to the approval of the City Engineer.
20. The applicant shall respond to th¤ #¨³¸ %¦¨¤¤±Ȍ² ¢®¬¬¤³² ®
grading, drainage and utilities outlined in the December 1, 2020
memorandum.
21. All grading, drainage and utility plans shall be approved by the City
Engineer.
22. As a condition of final plat approval, park dedication requirements of
the City shall be satisfied.
23. The applicant shall enter into a development agreement with the city
with the approval of the final plat.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
5
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
C. SiteandBuildingPlans:
Approval of site plan dated 11/10/2020 and building plans dated
10/13/2020 subject to the following conditions:
1.The site plan must be revised to illustrate the right of way
requirements and street construction for Kadler Avenue as outlined in
the preliminary plat review.
2.The applicant is to provide a revised site plan showing the proposed
building expansion and site alterations related to the expanded floor
space.
3.The City shall reserve the right to require the construction of
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4.Due to the limited amount of available truck maneuvering space, the
intent of loading activities on the south side of the building shall be
clarified by the applicant.
5. Details related to trash handling activities shall be addressed by the
applicant.
6.The outdoor storage area is required to be screened from public
streets. The landscape screen must be extended along the fence line
along Kadler Avenue.
7. A detail of the proposed fence shall be provided and meet the city
standards.
8.The landscape plan shows seed turf in areas to be maintained. This
seed mix extends beyond the fence line. Areas between the fence and
the wetland buffer may be better served with no-mow buffer seed mix
to avoid issues of access and maintenance beyond the fence line.
9.The landscape plan shall illustrate the wetland buffer ground cover.
10. A photometric lighting plan shall be provided which includes the
following:
a. 90-degree cutoff light fixtures with a shielded light source.
b. Light pole locations and heights.
c. A photometric plan which overlays the entire site.
d.Building mounted lights.
11. A sign plan shall be submitted which specifies sign locations
(freestanding and wall signs and directional signs), sign height, sign
area, construction materials and illumination. All proposed signs shall
be subject to the issuance of a sign permit.
12. The applicant acknowledge that any approvals granted for the
submitted applications shall in no way be construed as an approval of
³§¤ ȏ¥´³´±¤ £¤µ¤«®¯¬¤³Ȑ ² £¤¯¨¢³ed on the site plan. Any future
development upon the site shall minimally be subject to subdivision
and site and building plan approvals.
13. The grading, drainage and utilities shall address the comments of the
#¨³¸ %¦¨¤¤±Ȍ² -¤¬®± £´¬ £ ³¤£ December 1, 2020. All grading,
drainage and utility plans are subject to the review and approval of
the City Engineer.
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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
D. ConditionalUsePermitforOutdoorStorage:
Approval of a conditional use permit to allow accessory outdoor
storage in the rear (west) area of the site per the site plan dated
11/10/2020 subject to the following conditions:
1. Details related to the type of security fence and fence height shall
be provided subject to City approval.
2. The landscape screen must be extended along the fence line along
Kadler Avenue.
3. The width of the screening/buffer yard alongside the single-family
home in the southwest corner of the site shall be increased from
15 to 20 feet (such that coniferous trees can be staggered and
spaced 25 feet on center).
4. The applicant shall provide information related to proposed snow
storage locations.
E. ConditionalUsePermitforOutdoorDisplay
Approval of a conditional use permit to allow the outdoor display of
models in the front (east) area of the site per the site plan dated
11/10/2020 subject to the following conditions:
1. Outdoor display activities shall be specifically limited to the
boundaries of the four display areas depicted on the site plan.
2. The intended surfacing material of the outdoor display area shall
be specified by the applicant.
Darrin Lazan who represents Advanced Volumetric Alliance (AVA)
approached the podium. Lazan went through the production process of how
they build their product step by step in this factory and then how it is shipped
out. There are benefits with this environment because they do not have to
worry about the weather elements as everything is built on-site with all the
materials and workers needed at one place from start to finish.
Lazan addressed loading and unloading is pretty simple. The drivers come in
with a specialized trailer and the unit is set on the trailer and locked down.
Zagorski confirmed with Lazan that all the dock doors are at grade level.
Buhrmann asked where they will be storing the product coming in. Lazan
explained that they are still working on the floor plan of the building but are
planning on storing the material on the north half of the open space above the
work spaces.
Lazan did state that they are working on changing the floor plan a bit, to
increase the size of the manufacturing portion of the building increase in
floor area square footage from about 120,000 square feet to about 160,000
square feet. They are still in line with all their setback requirements.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
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Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
Buhrmann asked what type of materials are being proposed for the Outdoor
Storage CUP. Lazan responded that there will be finished units that are shrink
wrapped and ready for delivery. There will also be an outdoor display area
for some finished units that customers can walk through.
Anderson asked if the units in the outdoor storage will be taller then the
fence height requirement. Brixius responded that the height of the product
may be taller then the fence requirement, but that there will be added
screening/landscaping for this issue.
Buhrmann asked about the timeline for building this industrial building.
Lazan responded that they hope to be built by the spring of 2022. Anderson
asked how many employees, Lazan responded with around 150 (about 100
employees in the plant and about 30 employees in the office).
Lazan wanted to bring up four items that he wanted to discuss and work
through with the Commissioners. The first item being the construction of
Kadler versus Keystone. Lazan is asking to continue to work with staff to
construct Keystone rather than Kadler, which they believe the City will have
more to gain from.
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Anderson asked about if there was a 4 way stop at 70 Street. Brixius said we
want a full intersection but there are things still in the air and depends on
how the north develops.
Buhrmann wanted to point out that as far as the request goes for
constructing Keystone versus Kadler is going to be needed to work out with
Otsego, Albertville and the Wright County. Lazan stated that he understands,
and that they will continue to work with staff on this topic.
Lazan stated that the second and third items are to reconsider the zoning of
lot 1/block 1 to industrial, but leaving the rest of the outlots zoned as a B-2A.
This would possibly allow future growth.
Anderson asked Lazan to describe what the future expansion entails and how
that might be affected by their product display or outdoor storage. Lazan
responded that there would be smaller units to show, but he is not 100% sure
what product will be on display yet. There was discussion that the display
units will be on temporary foundations and site for months, and the other
units that are built to spec are shrink wrapped and on trailers ready for
shipment. Anderson also confirmed that the front of the building faces I-94.
Lazan responded yes, the building will be facing I-94.
Lazan brought up the fourth discussion item about wetlands and outlots and
how to make them beneficial in the future.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
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Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
Buhrmann asked Lazan why they would like to build here in Albertville.
Lazan said that Casey Darkenwald proposed this for his family land and
because of the location. You can see it from I-94 and also having the options
of future development on the surrounding lots.
Huggins asked Lazan about the truck traffic and where it will be taking place.
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Lazan responded that in-bound deliveries may come in on 67 street, they
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are going to encourage their semi-traffic to come on 70 street. The out-
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bound deliveries are the ones that they control and that will go up 70
and
across to MacIver and from there to the I-94. Huggins also asked about the
size of the loads that these trucks will be hauling in residential areas. Lazan
responded that the classification of the roads will allow the oversized loads,
and that they had their logistics figure out the best direction path.
Brixius stated that they have requested that a traffic study be done in time for
when this is reviewed at the council meeting.
Huggins stated that he is concerned about the daily traffic on County Rd 37
already being narrow and how semi-traffic will affect that.
MotionedbyBuhrmann,secondedbyAnderson,toopenthePublic
Hearing.Ayes:Buhrmann,Anderson,Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:None.
Absent:HaydenandHalling.MOTIONDECLAREDCARRIED.
No one wished to speak.
MotionedbyAnderson,secondedbyHuggins,toclosethePublicHearing.
Ayes:Buhrmann,Anderson,Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:None.Absent:
HaydenandHalling.MOTIONDECLAREDCARRIED.
MotionedbyZagorski,secondedbyAnderson,toapprovetherequestfrom
AdvancedVolumetricAlliancefortheirComprehensiveplanamendmentand
ZoningMapAmendmentchangingthezoningfromB2AtoIndustrialwiththe
conditionslistedintheDecember2,2020plannersreport,changingcondition
number4underthePreliminaryPlatrequiring70ftofrightofwaydedication
forKadlerAvenueinsteadof40ft,andtheEngineerreportdatedDecember1,
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2020andthatalternativedesignelementscanbemadeuntiltheJanuary4
CityCouncilmeeting.Ayes:Buhrmann,Anderson,Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:
None.Absent:HaydenandHalling.MOTIONDECLAREDCARRIED.
4. OTHERBUSINESS
A. None.
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
9
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020
5.ADJOURNMENT
MotionedbyAnderson,secondedbyBuhrmann,toadjournthemeetingat
8:24p.m.Ayes:Buhrmann,Anderson,Huggins,andZagorski.Nays:None.
Absent:HaydenandHalling.MOTIONDECLAREDCARRIED.
Respectfully submitted,
Maeghan M. Becker, Building Permit Technician
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes
10
Regular Meeting of December 8, 2020