00:00:01,270	Zoning commission meeting for August 26th. Roll call, please. Comm. Langing. Comm. Huber. Here. Comm. Mudder. Comm. Horn. Mayor Frali. Comm. Enfeldt. Comm. McLean. Yeah. Comm. Bookmiller. Comm. Smith here. Comm. Hammond. Comm. Gardner. Chair Robinson. Yeah. And we have quorum. We have 7, yes. Thank you.

00:00:58,830	Uh, we have in front of us the minutes from our July 22 meeting. Any questions or changes? Move approval of the minutes. Second, We motion is 2nd to approve the minutes motion by Comm. Smith, seconded by Comm. Hammond. Questions? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Langing. Comm. Huber. Mayor Freilich. Comm. McLean. Yes. Comm. Smith. Yes. Comm. Hammond. Chair Robinson. Motion has passed.

00:01:54,700	We’ll move on to the first of public hearings. Item number one, consider a zone change request from CB commercial to RH Residential for lots 3 through 5, block 2 Meadowlands subdivision. Andrew. Good evening, Chair Robinson and commissioners.

00:02:14,800	This is a request from Meadowlands Park LLC and the applicants are, are here this evening to discuss the request that which would be a zone change as mentioned. To the RH district, the properties that we’re talking about are on the screen, uh, the location is just on the east side of 18th Avenue Southeast, which is a road that. Um, it’s north of 3rd Street, so if I could have the monitors on the screen, that would be great.

00:02:30,200	Yep, that’s where we’re at. It’s always nice when it works, um, and. Or a bit of a broader perspective on the site. We’re just kind of here between 6th Avenue and the Memorial Highway and 3rd Street and Main Street.

00:02:51,000	In central Mandan, Meadowlands was a development that began in 2015, 2016, and the first phase of it is fully occupied and the applicant does seek to um to change the zoning on this property as sort of an adjustment to the master plan development.

00:03:10,200	Um, In the packet I did include an original master plan for the Meadowlands that was in front of this board, um, at the time of the project commencing, which gives you an idea of what the original proposal was to be a mix of um. Office multifamily detached. Manufactured homes and some additional commercial sites, um, a key point of this would be a connection of um 18th Avenue between 3rd Street and the Memorial Highway.

00:03:35,200	The request this evening is to look at the properties and cursor over here which were previously slated for multi-family, probably about 60 or so units of multi-family housing on the property.

00:03:55,170	Yeah and that was just kind of math done by calculating the number of garages that they were showing in balconies and things like that in the site plan typically indicative of units, for example. I do have a draft ordinance for the zone change in the packet for your consideration this evening, however, um, staff is recommending postponement of the request for a variety of reasons. a key one would be the the requested departure from that original master planned connection of 18th Avenue to the Memorial Highway.

00:04:16,170	There isn’t really any um additional development that can take place in the area until there is secondary access and that’s um shorted up in section. Um 10932 13 and 14 of our city code of ordinances, as well as within the fire code.

00:04:38,470	The proposed zone change would would allow for approximately 30 detached units to be constructed on the property preliminarily out it’s provided. To show What that might look like at the scale of the development here. It’s roughly 3.75 units per acre, give or take, um.

00:05:03,230	I think there is some merit that the original master plan does have given its central location and the potential for there to be twice as many dwelling units, for example, um, increasing density and maintaining proposed densities. Um, helps with sprawl and things like that and the diversity of housing types which are goals within our city’s future land use plan.

00:05:24,030	To the north we have commercial development in CB to the Western RH Mobile Home Park and to the east, we have a mix of MA and MB industrial industrial used property. As you saw with the location map list did originally have an industrial land use designation given that this area is not. Um, industrial and in nature, we are not requiring the land use plan to be amended rather just regulating development based on what is around there.

00:05:48,300	We do, of course, recognize a need with previous plans adopting, um. Goals related to affordable housing and particularly affordable housing for seniors, so we do see a need to have this development move forward in some way.

00:06:09,700	However, there are pretty significant concerns regarding access to the park and the proposed access to the park is not to the satisfaction of um the departments within the city such as um engineering fire planning, and as well the Bismarck Mandan Metropolitan Planning Organization, which helps us with transportation planning in the region. So some of the outstanding items I wanted to outline. Um, resolution of of key items in phase one that aren’t complete, um.

00:06:32,800	There is interest in that secondary axis, of course connected to the Memorial Highway. And potentially providing secondary access for different areas within this subdivision, um, such as the Gateway Park to the west.

00:06:52,870	Uh, the zone change really can’t take place until we see a preliminary platform anyways, so we will need to see a preliminary flat in a in a more formal site plan. And I would just restate formal opposition from the city’s engineering fire department planning staff as well as the Bismarck Bad and MPO to this request proceeding without the connection to 18th uh to the Memorial Highway rather. We did notice this, um.

00:07:12,170	I think the most substantial comments I received would be would have been the petition from residents that are seeking that. Uh, that change from the road connecting uh due to their concerns. So based on the staff report and our findings were recommending postponing this request to a subject subject to a future meeting, uh.

00:07:35,370	hearing and we’d we’d like to see details regarding resolution on street connectivity compliance with relevant codes such as the fire code. And other pertinent information. There are some changes that are proposed that are kind of need buy in from different agencies such as the Water Resour district or the Department of Transportation. That have their own review processes that are beyond ours.

00:07:52,130	We’d like to see those complete prior to the city doing anything. And I have a suggested motion in the packet. I do know that the developer is kind of seeking some general feedback regarding the request. So if you do wanna provide any comments to them we can this evening. However, um, our recommendation would be to take no action. Thank you.

00:08:09,930	Questions for Andrew. Andrew, do the other departments fire and that are are they thinking the only alternative is connecting the memorial or are they open to other? Or can you answer that? Chair Robinson, Comm. Smith, um, I don’t want to speak on their behalf. There have been some alternates proposed that they have not, um.

00:08:34,630	Which would be consistent with, you need more time to evaluate. I mean, some key issues with the alternative proposed to use the gateway Park, which is a separate privately owned mobile home park, private streets that we do not maintain. We don’t enforce parking on, do snow removal for, etc.

00:08:54,300	it’s, uh, somewhere between quarter and a half mile long between public right of way and what would be public right of way that we have no maintenance control over, and that would be what would be proposed for secondary access to the subdivision which would consist of fire apparatus.

00:09:11,000	Driving through private property on private roads, going to a gate and having to manipulate the gates so it opens, um, in order to respond to a fire in the subdivision. We do have total control over the public right of place in Mandan such as Main Street Memorial Highway, what would be 18th we can enforce parking, we do snow removal for them.

00:09:25,500	So we have a greater level of assurance that the maintenance will be done in order for fire protection to be provided. Mr. Chair, if we have questions for the applicant, is that? At the next section or should those be posed now? Um, if we’re finished. Visiting with Andrew for the moment, yes, we can move on, open it up. Bring the applicant up.

00:09:51,170	When all the further questions, I’ll open up the public comment. And if the applicant is here to speak on their behalf. I would like to know that Comm. Enfelt has joined the meeting via Zoom. OK, thank you. I’ll have you state your name for the record, please. My name is Barry Jennings. Thank you.

00:10:24,870	Well, thank you for the opportunity to speak. As I said, my name is Barry Jennings. I’m the owner of. Meadowlands Park 55+ community and Meadowlands Development. I’d like to address the issues. A couple of the key issues, uh, that the planning department is laid out. One compliance with other agencies? And to the street connectivity. We are complying with agency requests.

00:10:57,530	Meadowlands has engaged with engineers and consultants to review and complete a seepage analysis as requested by the lower heart. And we will work. With the US Corps of Engineers. And the lower heart. To address any deficiencies. Planning wants to go through and connect to Memorial Highway.

00:11:26,130	Because one It was part of the original Meadowlands master plan in 2015. 2, it provides as they believe, A best practice for community connectivity. And 3 It provides a secondary access for emergency vehicles as required by code. The original master plan was 9 years ago. The situation has changed. That plan envisioned various commercial projects. That would have benefited From Memorial Highway access.

00:12:02,400	Over the course of the last several years. I have met with other. Developers and potential business partners. But none of those opportunities panned out. The Meadowlands Park, 55+ senior community, however. Has become a Really become a mandan success story. It’s provided seniors with new affordable housing. In a quiet and safe environment. Our first phase is now complete.

00:12:42,200	And we have a growing waiting list for our 2nd phase. The city of Mandan, as you know, has an unmet need. Or more affordable senior housing. To me Doing the expansion and growing. is a no-brainer. And also, the sooner the better. We, Meadowlands Management and its many residents. As you can see from their letter.

00:13:15,900	And the large number of signatures. There’s 54 signatures and many more that would have signed, but it wasn’t available for signing. Anyway, we, we management as many residents. Don’t need or want. The connection to Memorial Highway. Connecting 3rd Street and Memorial Highway. Two of the busiest streets in Mandan. would destroy Meadowlands Park. Bye.

00:13:50,870	By dramatically increasing traffic. And creating a highly dangerous situation. For our senior residents who walk across 18th Avenue daily. We do not dispute. The need for a secondary emergency access road. And we have proposed an alternative by using South Frontier Trail through Gateway. Where we already have an emergency access easement.

00:14:27,070	Our proposed improvements To that secondary road. Do meet fire co. And we will, we will go ahead and execute those to meet the fire code responsibilities. This alternative not only provides a safer option. For Meadowlands senior residents. It also gives Gateway. With 205 homes. A secondary access road for emergencies. That previously did not exist. We request approval.

00:15:03,430	Of the preliminary plat and zoning change. With conditions. That we could sign off from the agencies. The US Corps of Engineers and the Lower heart. Are there any questions? Questions for Barry. I do have um questions, Mr. Jennings.

00:15:34,730	So, um, I, I appreciate the perspective of the residents of wanting to to keep in that single family, um, Manufactured home uh style, however, this master plan has been on the, the records at the time that they would have, um, acquired those, um, properties and, and moved in.

00:15:51,900	And so I, I can see we’re going in that direction seem continuing to go in that direction seems like the low hanging fruit, however, I think it might be shortsighted in terms of the, the long term best interests of, of Mandan with Memorial Highway slated to be reconstructed and significant, um, public and private investment that will go into that.

00:16:08,800	That project only improving that as a commercial corridor and so, um, you one of the things that had excited me about this master plan back when it came through was the opportunity to develop some additional commercial adjacent to that, um, roadway in a way that made sense for that senior, uh, living community.

00:16:27,400	So I guess my question for you, you mentioned meeting with some developers and potential business partners, but I’m, I’m curious if there have been other efforts. I don’t recall ever seeing this listed with a commercial realtor, um, for example, over.

00:16:47,570	The the years and so I just wanted to to know a little bit more about what your efforts were to to pursue that original vision that included having some, you know, perhaps medical services or neighborhood commercial, and the, the multi-family components of that, uh, well, I met with, uh, other groups like. Edgewood, for example, we explored that, uh, about enhancing and building in more. Independent living opportunities and maybe assisted living.

00:17:13,670	Um, I had contacted some out of state, uh, Companies that also do that and they looked at the facilities, um, and they both, uh, everybody I talked to was not interested, um, I’d have approached. Uh, other, not through realtors, but other individuals who have gone ahead and been contacting other investors and people interested in the development separate from a listing. And uh we haven’t been successful. We’ve had 3 or 4 discussions, but nobody’s wanted to move forward.

00:17:42,930	And for me personally, financially, um, in this space is also, it’s difficult for me alone to do it. So I really need a partner. In 9 years have passed, and we have idle land. And we have a growing need. For more housing, I’ve got a list of. People who want to move in, they, they want. The Manufactured homes.

00:18:07,630	Because it’s more affordable. It’s a more affordable option and I don’t know if you’ve driven through or seen our community. But those are beautiful new homes with attached garages. And, uh, We think that’s the easiest path of growth right now. We would hope that We could provide other alternatives for housing.

00:18:37,030	For other seniors that maybe will do things like having multi-family where they don’t want to own their own. Uh, but that would be somewhere down the road. Again, I would need to have a partner for that because. It’s not an area where I’m familiar with or comfortable with and making an investment. Mr.

00:18:57,400	Chair, if I could, I, you know, I would concur with you, Mr. Jennings that it is the easiest path. However, I don’t know that it’s in Mandan’s long-term best use to to put that type of, of investment adjacent to such a major commercial corridor and so, um.

00:19:17,600	You know, I myself, um, would be in support of, of trying to continue along that vision of that original master plan. I think the best days for that development are ahead and the interest will be there, you know, as that corridor continues to, to develop and, and evolve and it’s going to look, you know, so nice once it’s, it’s reconstructed.

00:19:35,100	I think that, you know, that it can be a very complimentary, um, development adjacent to that. So I’d be very reluctant to go down the path of approving this zone change. OK. I guess I, I would, uh. As I proposed initially, that was 9 years ago. In those years are waning on me and the city with no development.

00:19:56,470	I appreciate that, but I do think the availability of this property has fallen way below the the radar, you know, screen and that, um, most people wouldn’t even know that it was, was available, you know, with it not having been out there with any, any realtor, you know, listing or advertised in in any manner.

00:20:13,270	So I really think there are going to be opportunities for, for the development that, that more fits with that original master plan and providing some multi-family. senior living and, and some commercial alongside of it that makes sense. Any other questions for Mr. Jennings? Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Comments or questions on. First public hearing, item number one.

00:20:59,030	Again, comments or questions on item number one. With none I’ll close public hearing, and return back to the commission. I can speak for her lower heart. I, I do know I, I spoke with Mr. Jennings a couple of times on the phone. They are working on, uh. The process with the core. And the requirements they need for the levy.

00:21:34,230	The, the one problem there is patience. Uh Um, They have up to a year. To comment on the. Uh, on the presentation you make to him. Uh Hopefully they get back sooner, but it’s, it’s patience. Mr.

00:22:21,300	Chair, it seems like tabling this request for more time would make sense if, if it’s the position of the commission that they’re, um, open to the, to the zone change request and the rerouting of the, um, of the road. However, if, if there is concern about this deviation from the master plan and the highest and best use of that property than it.

00:22:43,200	It may behoove us to You know, if, if, if, uh, anyone else shares in that concern to, to, um, your those thoughts this evening? Uh, Comm. Humor, uh, Mr. Chair, I Might be open to the request, but I’m noncommittal. I would like to uh have a lot better understanding and. I feel comfortable with um planning suggested motion of postponing it.

00:23:19,600	Any other comments? Chair, I guess my only concern is, you know, they’re talking about rerouting it to Frontier Avenue while that court is all. Private snow removal. I’m concerned if there is an emergency. I know people that live on Frontier Trail, getting through there in the wintertime before snow is removed is a pain in the butt. So my concern is for emergency use trying to get in through that way is uh.

00:23:43,370	Not good. Any other comments? No, are you ready for motion? Ah, Mr. Chair, I’ll move to postpone this request to a future meeting subject to applicable noticing requirements. I second. Motion by Comm. Smith, seconded by Comm. Langang to postpone this request, uh. Spending uh All notices in the future.

00:24:56,430	Any comments, Andrew, questions? Yes, I, I have a question. Um, Could, along with that postponement, could I get some guidance? From the planning and zoning commission. On next steps that we get it ultimately to a decision point? I’m not particularly clear right now on What direction, uh, I have. In terms of next steps and resolving.

00:25:23,130	Any of the questions or issues. Well, I think Andrew spoke, uh, uh. How they feel in the pre-planning process with the city, um. Connectivity, uh. Meeting up with some of these codes. I do know with lower heart it’s a process, um, it, it’s not a guarantee, but it’s highly likely uh we’ll get through that.

00:25:53,600	Um, I don’t know if there’s any other direction. Commissioners want to provide to them. I mean, I spoke about my concern about the change in, in land use and zoning and I, you know, I don’t know whether any other other commissioners concur with, with that or not, but. Um, That would be my position.

00:26:19,900	I Yes, I, I would like to know the opinions of the other commissioners and I guess I would also ask on that particular point. Um, You know, I’d like to ask if any of you have actually been to the. Community or been through it and then if not.

00:26:39,470	I would certainly welcome you to go and speak to our residents and get a, get a perspective perspective on what we’re doing, what we’re trying to do, and the benefits of what I believe would involve expanding manufactured home residents for that next area. In particular My opinion that. This would be more immediate solution. We would get some more affordable senior housing. Very nice, affordable senior housing.

00:27:05,970	And any other delays in. Requiring us to hold the initial master plan. I think would involve a much greater delay of time. We’re adding for, for trying to meet that unmet need of Affordable senior housing. OK, thank you. Or turn back to the motion, uh. Again, the motion is to postpone the request.

00:27:39,530	Until further details are provided and Proper notices are made for the next meeting. Any questions? We’ll call vote please. Comm. Langing. Comm. Huber. No. Mayor Frelich. Comm. Enfeldt. Yes, to postpone. Comm. McLean. Yeah, so. Comm. Smith. Comm. Hammond. Chair Robinson. Yes. And the motion is passed. Move on to the next public hearing. Conside final plan.

00:28:36,830	And put amendment for shores of Lakewood’s 2nd edition. Andrew, yes Chair Robinson and Comm. TRX developers is requesting approval of a PUD amendment and a. Uh, final plat for the shores of Lakewood 2nd edition. I have my location map up on the screen. We’re in Southeast Mandan here.

00:28:58,500	Property is currently in our Eg district and the land use plan was amended with the shores at Lakewood master plan to support low density residential uses in this area in the future. So the two items up for um approval this evening. are kind of over are outlined in the overview of the request here. Um, so I’ll start with the plat. It’s a 1003 lot plat.

00:29:22,200	In um in total, and it’s about 47 acres. There’s 3 blocks of different lots that are proposed for varying land uses consisting of. Residential typologies, so I have. The preliminary plant. Here Sorry. Getting used to jumping around in here, so I’m gonna start down here in the bottom and work my way to the top, um.

00:29:52,270	As a reminder, this development will have a secondary street connecting to an oxbow trail southeast, which currently ends by the Lilian court. It will be extended and come into the back of the development, so a new public street being constructed from about.

00:30:14,570	Here, um, about 1000 ft or so to provide another way in and out, um, and then streets constructed would consist of Clear Creek Lane, Clear Creek. Loop and then two private roads, um, within the north part of the subdivision. Most of the lots you see are residential in nature. I’ll call out the ones that aren’t just to keep things simple, at 63 would be a city lift station.

00:30:34,770	Um, Lot 56 would be a private park. Lot 35, a private park and Lot 37 is stormwater pond. The rest of them are residential in nature and zoned to mix um with this PUD amendment, a mix of R 7 R 3.2 and RM.

00:30:59,830	The purpose of the zoning would be to apply single family, um, attached and detached housing units as well as um a 3 unit what they’re calling mansionet in the uh. In the two larger lots in the subdivision, so lot one. Block one down here by the city lift station. And excuse me. Lot 36 block 2, which is closer to Mackenzie Drive and would have frontage on the private park and the development.

00:31:24,230	Those would be developed as the mansionet. Which um PUDs require like architectural renderings and things like that to be submitted. So in line with that, this is what those would look like. On the property and they would be kind of like condos essentially in a way.

00:31:44,900	Um, on the property, so a mix of three kind of independent. Units in there. So those are the two big changes, um. On the property we had a couple outlying items since the preliminary plat was introduced. I believe we had the preliminary plat in May of this year.

00:32:06,700	And a couple of the items that have been worked on, um, an overall reduction in the number of lots, which reduces the residential density. It’s complemented by the 3 unit homes, however, we originally had 126 slots and of course down to 103. Um, we’ve made it through all the corps of Engineers and levee uh work.

00:32:29,100	And Have now addressed utility servicing, lot of access, and the proposed irrigation system, so we are pretty much through most of the issues here. Um, I did outline in the final plant again. Just an overview of what the lots are and what they would be used for, as proposed by the developer.

00:32:48,200	Want to call out in particular, of course, no access to Mackenzie Drive and a variety of different um easements on the platform most kind of principally on the west side, this is for the lower heart. Levey system which is the HOA has some sort of um associated maintenance responsibility over. The requested PUD amendment, the biggest change here is the addition of zoning based in the RM district.

00:33:12,700	This is um primarily a staff comment for anything over 2 units that has to go into the RM district, so we are basing the 3 unit request on the RM. District Over, over the years, the city’s been recommended via planning studies most recently, I think I’m missing middle housing study was done in 23 that actually specifically called out an opportunity to

00:33:32,700	look for ways for pockets of 3 unit homes and neighborhood commercial and things like that to be established within subdivisions, so it, it’s sort of um refreshing in a way to see that integrated into the development plan and and staff is supportive.

00:33:52,670	The inclusion of the 3 unit homes down here as it can provide different housing prices and types um for different people. It’s our understanding that the utility service plan will consist of a new lift station to connect to an upgraded Clift station downstream.

00:34:13,470	We will be working on a development agreement with the developer to detail a variety of various components such as how the vacated right of way from Mackenzie Drive will be addressed in, um, a new, we’ve been relocation, um. Just wanted to update, we did have this in front of the commission and there will be no private irrigation lines, at least crossing the city right away.

00:34:28,170	I know I introduce that to you as a concern a while ago, so I wanted to follow up on it. And then I just kind of reiterated my last comment, um. The recommendation to integrate different forms of housing. And um How it relates to the request.

00:34:49,430	So there are a variety of attachments in the packet tonight, um, I’ll let the developer speak to any others, but the attachments I have with include. Their application, the developers’ PUD narrative of which the draft ordinance is based. The draft ordinance speaks to. The use of lots, so which ones are based in R7, R3.2, and RM, different housing types, how lot combinations would be processed the setbacks designated use of the non-residential lots. Levee monuments, density rags and um elevations and amendments.

00:35:19,730	So that’s all that it’s included in there. We didn’t have a right of way vacation in June I believe, so I included those attachments as this plat kind of covers that vacated right away.

00:35:37,630	With that all said, our recommendation for the PD amendment ensures that Lakewood 2nd edition is approval if you have any questions for me I can take them and the developers here as well. Thank you. Questions for Andrew. Andrew, perhaps not. Relevant to the approval, but I noticed there was discussion about where the uh. Grass dump would be, you point out where that’s gonna be, or yes. We’re, we’re gonna just kind of.

00:36:09,300	In short, we’re kind of consolidating the stink in a way, so there’s a property on the northwest corner of the city’s wastewater plant. That is underutilized and um. would be accessible by public street, so in the future you would take like this oxbow drive right to the grass dump site. And that’s where we would like it to be. Perfect.

00:36:30,500	It’s actually very difficult to find a new place for a grass stump site. Nobody wants to live by it. So this is a decent solution. Questions for Andrew. Andrew, this is Tanner. Can you hear me OK? I can.

00:36:54,470	Um, just for clarific, I’m in support of the development, but uh just for clarification that Owa Drive that you mentioned, I can’t sign a map very well. Where does that, what, what street does that connect up to or will it connect up to when it’s, when it’s put in. Comm. and Felt and Comm., so thirty-ninth where Edgewood is turns into oxbow trail, so it connects to the McKenzie Drive, um, arterial road network there.

00:37:14,270	It also via 29th can get you over to 40th. So, um. Oxbo trail. I, can you see my screen online? I think you should be able to. Yep, I can see it. That helps when you zoomed in there. Wanted to check. Yeah, so you’d have um the road extend just kind of as I’m tracing it and.

00:37:36,270	Go about There. Of course, on the dry land. Got it. Thanks. This would be the secondary access point into the subdivision followed by a future, I believe a future 3rd. Um, connection as well. Any other questions? With none, I’ll open it up at this time for public comments. Questions Again, we’re on item number 2.

00:38:15,330	Any questions or comments in item number 2. Questions or comments on item number 2. With none, I’ll close and return it back to the commission. I would move to recommend approval of the panel plan Platt and PUD amendment for the shores at Lakewood 2nd edition. Motion by Comm. Huber, seconded by Comm.

00:39:04,000	Frelich, uh, motion is to recommend approval of the final plat and PUD amendment for shores at Lakewood’s 2nd edition. Any questions? Roll call vote, please. Comm. Langing, yes. Comm. Huber. Mayor Frelich. Comm. Enfeld. Yes. Comm. McLean. Yes. Comm. Smith. Yes, Comm. Hammond, Chair Robinson. Motion is passed. Item number 3, Consider a variance for Lot 1, block 1, Bridgeview Bay edition. Andrew. Robinson, Comm.

00:39:47,370	, this is the last public hearing tonight. This is um the location of it, we’re on the east end of McKenzie Drive where it meets Marina Road southeast. In Mandan Lakewood kind of southeast Badan area. So That’s where it’s at.

00:40:06,770	And I have a location map more formally shows it’s in the CB commercial district and the land use plan supports commercial use on this property in the future. This item was in front of you, uh, I think in May of this year.

00:40:24,770	And it was a special use permit request for multi-use shops to be constructed on the property? The applicants are now seeking a request to vary from the city’s code of ordinance requirements for landscape screening and buffering. That’s detailed in the city’s gateway overlay district. Um, special use permit has not been granted yet.

00:40:45,130	This item is still kind of pending um with this evening’s hearing, of course, as far as staff is aware the item or the property has been undeveloped in in nature for quite some time, um, neighboring areas began being developed with formal structures in the 70s or 80s. Um I kind of outlined the history of the request starting in May of 2024 when it was presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission I had originally associated a recommendation to deny with the request. Um That the proposed construction would would.

00:41:10,430	Wouldn’t really fit with the required buffer amount that 6 points of buffering are required for the gateway ordinance. There’s an attachment in your packet that details the gateway ordinance. This has been in effect for quite some time and it dictates when business industrial or multifamily buildings, um, a butt’s property owned for residential use.

00:41:30,230	It’s the business’s obligation. To provide the screening that’s required by the city’s code. Um, Additional submittal is the attachment in your packet right after the application this kind of dictates the applicant’s statement considering the factors that. Kind of warrant them having relief from the city’s code of ordinances. The applicant would seek to fulfill this requirement.

00:42:03,500	With two rows of conifers in a in a fence. So I believe I have a, yeah, this would be the proposed site plan. I wanted to specifically detail the type of pine trees that would be constructed with. Reach about 12 ft tall, 5 ft in diameter.

00:42:22,900	The buildings would be closer to 30 ft tall, so the trees are about 1/3 the size of the structure that they would need to be buffered, um, buffering. Something that could possibly be changed, but I don’t know if a larger tree species would be able to live in that area. Um, I do have some staff comments related to the to the project.

00:42:47,600	I think the commission should carefully assess whether this slot really does have any physical characteristics that warrant a variance. It does have water on two sides of it, but I would recommend treating that just like having neighbors essentially in a way, um. It’s kind of always been there.

00:43:08,200	There have been multiple aspects of the property that didn’t seem fully vetted at the time of the project’s kind of original um. Initiation such as river easements, different property owners having interest in it, for example, of course this gateway screening requirement has been a big issue that they were not aware of on the property at the time of purchasing it.

00:43:31,300	I would recommend that the commission thoroughly evaluate the properties of waterfront nature, like I said in the same manner as any other property that has adjacent uses next to it. It’s generally flat and square. It’s highly visible in its development will only make it more visible. I think part of why it seems somewhat obscured is because it’s a flat parcel that’s behind.

00:43:51,370	Things that are 5 to 10 ft tall in the the marine dealer’s parking lot, but when 30 ft tall buildings are constructed on it it will be fairly visible and it will be visible from the expressway, which is, um, one of the gateway corridors, Mackenzie Drive as well as the Gateway corridor.

00:44:10,670	So I just wanted to provide that contextual understanding of how it looks today versus how it looks in the future. Um, related to visibility. We do have traffic counts at the neighboring intersection that are near other corridors, um, and will only increase as Mackenzie Drive grows in traffic.

00:44:31,270	The expressway, of course, has roughly 20,000 vehicles on it today, not that it’s really the gateway for this property. It’s visible from there, however, um. We were aware of some level of uncoordination in multi-use shop ownership and how they’re ran and what it’s like living near them, for example.

00:44:56,730	And The subject Um, request this evening to take away the screening and buffering is a concern given the known kind of lack of coordination that you see when you have 18 different owners versus what was probably planned to be a single owner developing the site with a single use. Um, of course, there will be things like covenants and stuff like that, but we, um, we’ve seen those with different shop condos as well.

00:45:15,830	I think the commission needs to also be reminded, um, the number one stated need for this variance is because the applicants would not be able to afford the project with all the requirements being in place, it’s stated as. The first response and number one, the unique characteristics. Um, Without a variance would make it not economic.

00:45:38,230	That is not a criteria for a variance under Mandan’s code. It has to be something like. Kind of an exceptionally irregular narrow, shallow, or steep lot, for example, for um a variants to be granted. We’re also as staff guided to discover or prepare. Ways for.

00:46:09,700	Screening and mitigation to be done when variances are granted when the variant subject is screening and mitigation that makes it a lot more difficult. And I would just also reiterate that the proposed screening would be. Possibly a third of the height of the structures at maturity. Um, the structures would be constructed immediately, of course.

00:46:30,100	We do have the zoning, as I mentioned in the CB district with the gateway overlay to the north we have an RM zoned property and a CB zoned property. West, some CB zoned retail to the south, multifamily in the RM district.

00:46:47,770	Uh, the property that requires the buffering from is the is the established single family home to the south in the R7 district on the west bank of the river. Um, Our future land use plan, of course, supports commercial and the proposed land uses have been declared to be a mix of commercial personal recreation storage kind of man cave type stuff. I have received phone calls and I, I believe a formal letter was provided to stipulating concerns with the request.

00:47:11,570	And um at the time of the packet. I was preparing the recommendation and our recommendation just based on cost not being a factor for a variance this evening would be to deny. If you have any questions for me, I can take them. Questions for Andrew. Uh, Mr.

00:47:32,670	Chair, I have, I have several questions and comments if I can proceed, um, my first comment was I have to concede I pulled my hair out on this one and uh I did take a lot of time reviewing the application, the ordinances. I did 2 on-site visits to the property. Um, so I apologize if I go on too long here, but um.

00:47:53,330	One of my questions relates to the calculation of the buffer points. And uh subpart 4A states quote 1 point for each 25 ft of separation between buildings. And There’s about 80 ft between the proposed structure on here and then the adjacent building, so if you interpreted it that you would.

00:48:17,730	would look to the adjacent building we’d have all six points we’d be satisfied obviously plan is not taking that interpretation, right? So the language has to mean something though. It doesn’t say 25 ft. From the lot line. It doesn’t say 25 ft from the setback line. It says 1 point for each 25 ft of separation between buildings. So if you don’t look to the adjacent.

00:48:43,000	Lot or property, obviously it has to mean you’re looking at the lot that’s being developed and if there’s multiple buildings that are going to be on that lot. That’s the only way it can mean, and I look at this and I look at the plant. I got 3 buildings.

00:48:58,900	And I’ve got over 25 ft separation between three buildings. Don’t they get a point? Do you want my answers now, or I mean if we’re going to take a strict interpretation, that is what That’s literally what the ordinance says. 25 ft between buildings. And you look at the plot, the prose plat. And it’s like 82. 98 ft between buildings. obviously intent was.

00:49:25,400	When the drafters, they didn’t want buildings. Clustered. Comm. Smith, to help you understand my thought process with the request. Um, the open space between the buildings that’s used as a parking lot, wouldn’t constitute a buffer.

00:49:47,570	They are proposing a building to be constructed that requires a buffer of 6 points between it and then the joining our 7 lot. Roughly 10 or 15 ft from the property line. That was why this provision doesn’t mean anything. I, I wouldn’t count open space in the middle of a property. What about the space between? On the buffer side between there’s two buildings, there’s open space between those two buildings.

00:50:07,770	Shouldn’t at least that one be a point. I think I would disagree with you, um. When we’re looking at the site plan. Which I’ll pull up on the screen. The open space that’s a parking lot here. Can’t can’t be the full buffer for this building.

00:50:26,870	It’s not on the the side of the building that needs to be buffered. If this building wasn’t here, for example, then it could maybe count as open space. Um, And the use of a neighbor’s property as a buffer is that’s pretty significant concern. It’s someone else’s property rights to be developed under the same code of ordinances.

00:50:52,030	So if, if that lot next door were to be declared as a buffer that home and the homeowners there would not be able to make improvements in that area would need to be kept open for the city’s code. And I would question how that would relate to mitigating negative externalities. And other concerns related to the compatibility. OK, with, with that assumption and um.

00:51:17,630	Let’s assume that As you, as you’re asserting the applicant is a 3 points short. So to get to 6, they could do 5 rows of trees and a fence. If they had room. Correct. And then you’re looking at. Trees of 20 ft. Oh probably. So if you do 5 rows of trees. We’re looking at.

00:51:44,700	Plus a little bit of distance between the trees and the building, you’re looking at about 80 ft in that range. This line, I looked up contains 93,0218 square feet. Unlike a regular law in 19,200 square feet consists of marine water channel and Rira. There’s another 14,000 square feet burdened by easements and setbacks.

00:52:12,000	You’re down to 59,000 ft. buildable area approximately. So if you play the 6 buffer points in 80 ft. You’re taking 24,000. square feet Out of the buildable area of the lot. 40% of the billable lot area. Of a lot is taken out by the buffer. I guess My thought is that’s a hardship.

00:52:38,800	I mean, this is a commercially zoned lot and you’re taking by this ordinance 40% of what you’re able to develop. Out That that’s kind of where, where I’m coming from. I mean, in my opinion, that’s just. It’s almost a taking. Yeah, we would, we would just kind of go back to the main point that there are.

00:52:59,800	A number of ways for this property to be developed in adherence with the code of ordinances and the proposed layout. It’s Potentially the issue if the building was built in the center of the water or favored the north side of the lot, that 40% of open space could be used for other landscape requirements, parking requirements, um.

00:53:16,700	Side yards, of course, the buffer, all things that were in place at the time of the projects commencing. The stated need for the variance is not based on setbacks and easements. They said it’s due to the financial costs of adhering to the code. That’s what they, that’s the reason for their application.

00:53:36,100	Well, I guess, you know, my final thought is I’ll turn it over to the other commissioners, but I think we need to be careful and Again, it’s commercially zoned. And a lot of things can go in here and I think we need to be careful of what we dictate goes in there if you, you know, I went through the.

00:53:52,670	All the possible things that could be placed on this lot that are permitted. Including auto truck, motorcycle, construction equipment, farm sales, service, leasing and rentals, lumberyard including to tools and equipment sales, including on-site millwork operations, feed grain and farm supplies, trailer RV manufactured home sales and service. All of these are permitted.

00:54:16,070	Um, there are also a lot more community benefitting users that I think you maybe can continue to mention, but. These are primitive uses that the developer could put there and there’s nothing you can do about it.

00:54:31,370	Right, I think staff’s concern would be the special use permit, the lack of adherence to the city’s land use plan and of course, the topic of it. Kind of being the only thing that might potentially. Protect the neighbors being landscapes screening and buffering. Thanks for your responses, that’s all I have for now, so. Are there any other questions for me? Questions for Andrew. With none at this time, I’ll open it up for public comments, questions.

00:55:02,230	Taking comments or questions on item number 3. Good evening Chair Robinson. Mayor Frelich and commissioners. My name’s Wade Vogel. And I’m here on behalf of the garlics who are who are the developers and unable to be here this evening.

00:55:28,730	Um, thanks for everybody’s comments here so far, um, Andrew was right last time I was here in front of planning and zoning was May 29th for the special use permit, which was approved and since then we’ve also been to Mandan Architectural Review Commission, um, August 13th, and that was also approved, so.

00:55:52,000	Um Last time I was here, um, it was made mention that we need to look into the easement by the Morton County Water District, water management district. We have looked into that and we have completed that and come to agreement with them. Um, so to the current site plan from the from the earlier edition, there have been some changes. We went from 22 units down to 19 units, um, in order to accommodate that easement.

00:56:11,100	So that was one of the changes, um. Uh, city staff also suggests that we look at the conditions set forth by the Memorial Highway overlay district. Um, we have looked at over extensively, um, we’ve got legal opinion on it, and we feel our site plan, our current site plan, meets the requirements that are in compliance.

00:56:34,700	Um, however, it was suggested to us by staff that we request a variance to the buffer yard requirement. Um. Again, I did not write the ordinance, but the way the ordinance is currently written, um, we feel we meet. The needs, um. And I, I didn’t see anything in the ordinance about height.

00:56:59,370	Trees, it’s showed spacing for trees, so if we need to readdress the trees that’s, I think that’s a simple, easy fix for us to go back and look at that, um, It was talked about that, um, the buildings are going to be 30 ft tall. We’re surrounded by 30 ft buildings down there. All the buildings are 30 ft except for the neighbor to the south, um.

00:57:21,170	And that neighbor would be able to also put a 30 ft building in a two-story building addition onto their home and right would be right next to adjacent to this property, so, um. I guess I just wanted to point that out, um.

00:57:47,030	I’m not sure why we’re getting so much pushback on this, we’ve been doing everything we can to the garlics have been doing everything they can to be considerate of the neighbors, um.

00:58:07,330	It was a boat storage facility or Lot for a very long time, uh, collecting no revenue for the city of Mandan and we feel this is a very nice project and would make a great addition to the city of Mandan. It is not a personal storage shop condo. Um, development, um, we’re calling it Flex commercial. We’ve got um. 3 Uh Businesses that are in the oil and gas industry that are. Uh, that have commitments on 3 of the units.

00:58:34,630	We’ve got a realtor, um, that’s got a commitment on one for real estate office. I, I plan on putting an office space in there, um, we have uh salon that’s looking at at a space uh commercial space in there. I’m not a shop condo, but a commercial space, so, um. I prefer if we don’t say they’re shop condos, so. Just my opinion, um.

00:59:02,400	In our legal opinion that we obtained, it was stated the requirement of L4 is not ambiguous. It clearly states one point will be given for each 25 ft of separation between buildings. Ordinance section 105-4-6L4. There’s no mention of property lines.

00:59:28,400	It also, it also of note that the property requirement in Section 10546 reference property lines and property setback requirements. When an ordinance does not refer to property lines or setback but does specifically reference distances between buildings and requirement is made, which directly conflicts with the plain language of the ordinance, that interpretation is clearly arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable and is in a contravention of well settled law.

00:59:51,970	So, um, we did not share this letter, um, we can, if anybody wants to see it, but we just felt we wanted to be. We’d rather be friendly about this and, um, ensure that we have a successful project. Any questions for me? Questions for Mr. Vogel. In questions for Mr. Vogel. Thank you. Thank you.

01:00:32,670	Again, we are open for public comments or questions on item number 3. Good evening. My name’s Ramona Furlong. My husband and I are the adjacent property owners. To the south, and as you’ve read recently in the letter that I submitted, we opposed to the variants.

01:01:04,730	The letter lays out the reasons for opposition and I don’t want to repeat everything that’s in there, but I did want to draw your attention to a couple of things. One, there’s nothing wrong with that law that requires a variance in order for the garlics to build their shop condos or their flex condos.

01:01:26,730	Hm What the garlics told us was if they don’t get to build enough units on the lot, then they won’t get a return on their investment. And as has already been mentioned, economics is not a reason to grant a variance. The other thing the garlics told us was they did not do any due diligence on the lot before they bought it. They didn’t know anything about the easements or about the buffer.

01:01:47,900	Which I’m not sure why they would make such a substantial investment without doing any due diligence. And it’s our understanding that they paid. In excess of 1.5 million just for the land. No. I think any prudent developer would go to the city and make sure that what they want to do on the property is approved first.

01:02:12,700	Instead of spending that amount of money. And, and hopes that Because they’re developing the property that whatever they want to do is going to be approved by the city. We acquired the property in 2010 and before we Spent any money on it before we bought it, we. We did a lot of homework.

01:02:36,300	We looked at the title. We looked at the zoning. We saw that that lot was zoned commercial. And we. Talked with the then owner about the lot and about his plans for the lot. And even though we knew it was commercial, we also knew that the buffer would provide. Some level of protection for us.

01:03:06,400	The fact that the ordinance was in place when we bought the property. And the ordinance was in place when the garlics bought the property. Um, we shouldn’t be penalized. Um, It If if you grant their variance, it you’re.

01:03:33,500	You’re rewarding them for not doing their homework and you’re penalizing us when we did our homework and we relied and are relying on that ordinance to protect our property. has as has already been mentioned, they’ve not given. A valid reason. Why that variant should be given. We didn’t create the problem. And we should not be forced to give up the buffer.

01:04:12,970	And they should not be rewarded or given special treatment because they’ve invested substantial money without doing their homework. You know, having said that, we believe in property rights and they should be able to develop the property as they want, but not at our expense. We did have some what I thought were productive conversations with the garlics. We wanted to make sure that they could do their project without.

01:04:38,870	Without wrecking our property. Without wrecking our quiet enjoyment of the property and they told us that. They would impose certain restrictions in order to make that a reality, but um. What’s happened is Not what they promised us, for instance, at the, at the May planning and zoning meeting. One restriction that was discussed was no overnight parking.

01:05:09,330	What happened in later conversations was the garlic said well. Once people buy the units and they’re in there, there’s really nothing we can do about overnight parking or whatever they want to do on those properties. The other thing they told us was we’re gonna make these buildings look high-end, and they showed us pictures of.

01:05:32,630	Posts, posting beams on the outside of the units. They looked. Like high-end homes. Um, high-end real estate. And what happened was, unbeknownst to us, they went to the architectural review committee. And got. Something passed that was different than what they showed us.

01:05:58,800	So what’s what’s happened is we have no confidence that they are going to do the things that they said they would do to protect our property. So we need the buffer zone to protect the quiet enjoyment of our property. Wade had mentioned that all buildings around them are 30 ft. If anyone else has been in the property, uh, there’s no buildings around them. We’re the, we’re the only ones around them.

01:06:33,600	They’re apartment buildings. Across the street and a little catty corner to where they are. Uh, Mort’s Marine is Caddy cornered to where they are. Otherwise it’s, it’s water on a couple of sides and then it’s our property. And if they are not. Required to comply with the buffer we’re going to have.

01:06:59,870	Well, I guess 19, it was 22, but 19 different businesses, feet from our yard, feet from our house. Feet from our property and. It’s It’s going to be an intrusion that I, that I don’t think should be allowed.

01:07:26,270	You had mentioned also the how how the buffer points are interpreted and whether the open space in our yard can be used for their. and I think the. The obvious answer to that, despite the ambiguity in the in the ordinances. No, of course not. You cannot use someone else’s property to fulfill your buffer requirements. That’s a violation of The Constitution of the state of North Dakota and of the United States.

01:07:54,330	One thing about the trees I was looking at. They, their submission that it be 2 gallon moffett junipers. I spoke with a local nursery who informed me that a 2 gallon. M Fitz Juniper is about 18 inches tall. That these junipers require full sun. They’re slow growing 6 to 8 inches a year.

01:08:25,630	It’s going to take 10 to 12 years for those junipers to breach the height of our fence. And which brings up another point, the fence that they mention. And uh In their submission, it’s our fence. We have property several inches on the other side of the fence. So they would need to put in their own fences in addition to. Trees.

01:08:51,700	The other thing about those trees is. I’m looking at the. I’m looking at the buffer requirement and it says that conifers. Must be 6 ft in height. So that doesn’t qualify. 18 inches to 6 ft. And as far as the screening goes, it says. When it talks about anything that’s 2 gallon, they’re they’re.

01:09:23,500	equating that with a shrub. A small mature evergreen tree. The minimum size of planting is required to be 3 ft to 6 ft in height. So again, 18 inches is. Not 3 ft to 6 ft. It My last point is. The ordinance is there. It was there when, when we bought our property.

01:10:07,270	And as you mentioned, it’s been there when they bought their property. Right. The fact that. The lot is smaller than what they thought. That’s not our problem, that’s not our problem. They should have done their due diligence. Who spends $1.7 million without doing some due diligence. I, I don’t know if it’s.

01:10:32,070	The arrogant presumption that what they want to do is going to be approved or they relied on. Professionals that they shouldn’t have relied on, but they, they knew nothing about the property. We told them about the easements. We told them that the marina owned a corner.

01:10:52,930	He told them that the marina had vacated the street and owned the street in front of the property. And they said, well. Nobody told us about these things, well. Again, that’s not our problem, but. They’re in the, they’re in the gateway, they’re in the overlay. They’ve not given a valid reason under the ordinance. For variants, and it should be denied. Thank you. Thank you.

01:11:27,230	Again, we’re open for comments or questions and item number 3. Comments or questions at 3. I just wanted to Point out a couple things, um. It was stated that we’ve changed the. The look and feel of the buildings, I guess I, I didn’t, I didn’t think we did to the point that. It would disrupt disrupt or disturb anything.

01:12:03,900	Um, we thought we improved them because we had gone from 22 units down to 19 units. Um, we didn’t change how they. We changed the color of them a little bit, um. I didn’t think we Seriously changed them and I think.

01:12:24,500	I think they look great, but anyhow, um, that was one thing and then reading the ordinance here, I’m not certain here, but it says 1 point for a single roll of conifers 6 ft in height, 15 ft on center. I didn’t, I didn’t interpret that to be when you plant them, they’re 6 ft high. I thought that meant at least at a minimum of 6 ft high.

01:12:42,000	Um, a maturity, um, like a fence would be a fence is a buffer that’s 6 ft high. And so I didn’t, I didn’t interpret it that it needed to be anything different than that, um, and we got some advice on the trees and maybe we got bad advice or spoke to somebody, but They’re in the tree business, they sell

01:13:02,300	trees and, um, so we can certainly revisit that for for sure. I mean, there’s other, there’s other options or alternatives out there and we’re willing to. To make it right, so. Thanks. OK, thank you. Any other comments? I would like to uh. Yes, my name’s Tim Furlong.

01:13:29,900	I’m the property owner directly to South with Ramona. And one of the things, and I appreciate all of you, Comm. and Mayor. Um, I wanted to address, uh, Comm. Smith’s calculations of the lot and why that may be a hardship.

01:13:49,470	Um, when you calculate, when you look at the lot, and I looked at this lot, I actually made offers on this lot and did a lot of due diligence on this lot. Previously and looked at buying it from the previous. 2 owners ago I guess would have been.

01:14:08,570	The at that time, they were representing X amount of square feet the lot was, but a lot of it was in the water is what I determined, well, when you would purchase the lot, you would obviously know that these this calculation would be that you weren’t able to build on this area that’s underwater. It’s actually in Riickers Bay. So I don’t consider that, uh, any kind of calculation and any type of hardship thoughts here because.

01:14:30,870	When you spend that kind of money again, as Ramona said, you would do your due diligence when I bought this when we bought this property, I actually did the due diligence. And went and and checked all that and actually came to the city and asked him about this overlay zone.

01:14:47,530	And was told that we would be protected by this buffer. And at that time we were told that you had to have the 6 points of buffer or be able to obtain 6 points to create this buffer of whatever it was made up of. There was a previous project that was proposed here several years ago and the and um.

01:15:09,630	But One of the owners is here which was less kern was there and that was that project was actually not continued forward because of this buffer zone, the same kind of issue. So I think people are aware of this buffer zone. I don’t want anyone to to be uh Uh, I understand that that that’s not 3 points.

01:15:28,730	It’s always been 6 points. We bought our property based upon 6 points. When they bought their property, it was based upon these six points of, of buffer and separation. So it’s about 70 ft to the property lines. So, I just don’t see the hardship. I don’t see how you can claim hardship here to get a variance.

01:16:01,900	I just, it just doesn’t make any sense to me because it’s nothing’s changed from day, from 2006 when this overlay zone was, was, uh, passed by the city and it was done to protect this type of situation which would be commercial and residential joining each other, so. I just want to make sure that that was clear.

01:16:22,700	Appreciate everyone and hopefully we can do the right thing here. Thanks. Can I, can I ask you a question, Mr. Furlong? Smith. Thank you. That was interesting background some wasn’t aware of. Um, I find it interesting that you look at the property too and and didn’t purchase it.

01:16:44,370	And um also advised us of other developers that looked at it and they weren’t able to. To do anything with it, um, my question is not so much relative to this application, but just in a this property hasn’t been developed for a reason. And it’s not going to get developed in the future.

01:17:05,970	Is it, should we let the 6 point buffer determine the fact that this property can commercial property can never be developed. Well, I mean, it’s I guess you can, if you want to give the variance of development, then it’s, it’s, it’s damaged our property because we bought our property based upon that ration, so, so, um, I don’t, I don’t

01:17:23,470	know, but I mean, that’s why I didn’t buy it and, and, um. Because I did that due diligence and found that I couldn’t, I probably couldn’t build what I wanted to build on it for that price. Now the lot maybe is worth less and could be developed with at a at a lesser value.

01:17:42,030	I mean, it’s not, it’s not our problem again that someone overpaid for the property without understanding what could be built there and part of that is, is that overlay district and part of it is is what what can be built on the property, but price would determine.

01:18:00,830	I mean, you can’t obviously probably can’t make the property At over $1000 now if you can’t make it work, then you would obviously the property is not worth as much as someone paid. So I hope that answers your question. Yep. Thank you for your response. Thanks. Thank you I’m sorry. No thank you you will thank you.

01:18:31,830	Anybody else comments or questions? Uh, my name is Les Kern. Um, I was a previous owner of part of this property owned 10% of it. At that time we did propose to put a 3 story condo union with a bar and restaurant, and the furlong as we’re at that city commission meeting and we did get that approved.

01:18:48,900	We just decided not to build it. So that was never turned down. So I just want to be clear on that. Was out with the 6 points buffer? Did you do that? That wasn’t even brought up, to be honest. At the time the city Comm.

01:19:10,800	just said, hey, they own a lot and we approved this project and there’s nothing you can do about it. We just move forward with it because the building turned out to be 1,000,000 more than what we thought, so. Any questions? Oh boy.

01:19:34,700	I, I recall that project and, and I’m just, I’m not positive if if my memory is serving me correctly, but I think maybe the youths got approved, but I don’t know that it ever got to the point of a an actual site, you know, plan and moving forward to the point of, of what would have been needed for a a building permit and such, so I think it was a little bit more high level conceptual plan in the, in the

01:19:48,170	use is what, what I recall and, you know, and I do recall her being back at the records it was approved. Any other questions? Thank you, thank you.

01:20:21,570	Any further questions or comments? I guess maybe just a comment and And then maybe it’s a question to both parties, and that’s that this is a really tough one, In its purest sense, somebody’s gonna be very unhappy by either action, you know, of this commission and, and some, I guess I’m wondering if there’s a way to Um, reach some compromise and, and maybe nobody’s. Completely happy, but maybe nobody’s completely.

01:20:44,330	Angry and and going to sue the city, you know, either and so I’m just, I’m wondering, for example, if, if there could be a commitment to, um, You know, um, more rows of trees, mature trees at the, at the get is there, is there any, um, opportunity, um. Aside from, you know, fully 6 buffer points that that could allow, um, both parties to, to be reasonably.

01:21:12,030	Contempt with an outcome. I don’t know what less is remembering, but that project was never approved. Um, And then to answer your question, uh, we were talking with the garlics we had a lot of. Conversations with them that I thought went really well and As I said, we, we want them to be able to develop their property.

01:21:43,300	And they said that they understood that we wanted to protect our property and that they would do what they could and we had a lot of conversations about. Oh, the parking and the lighting and no windows.

01:22:03,400	That would be high on the building where people could look down into our our lot, but the, the very first things that they told us they would do, they, they didn’t do. So we’re willing to talk to them. I just don’t have a lot of confidence that unless everything is. I put in a format that they can’t back out that. Anything’s gonna happen. But we’re willing to talk to them.

01:22:39,100	Yeah But no, OK, sir. Yeah, you may, so, um, are you able to put up the buildings here? For us. I just put up the plan that shows the buildings and where our properties and relationship to it. Yeah, right, so I wanna, I wanna go back down towards the building that’s facing the river. So, um.

01:23:11,300	In our conversations with Blis. At one point in time, we said that we would like to be able to purchase those 2 units. This is at the two units that would be. Closest to our property and and facing the river. Um, here’s where the issue becomes.

01:23:34,900	Where we understand we can get some buffer and some separation between the building, well, they have this building that butts our fence here. It goes Would be east and west. The other ones, the one I’m referring to is north and south. It’s on the river.

01:23:53,970	This when you they want, they’re gonna have patios on there now as well, and you’re gonna have, and you’re gonna want to have decks, presumably, I don’t know if the decks have been approved. But when we’re, when we’re looking out our property. I mean, we’re gonna see all of this. We’re gonna see all this, this stuff that’s going on on the patio and so we weren’t too worried about it at first until.

01:24:12,370	I mean it was, it was mentioned to us there’d be no overnight parking that there could be an overnight stay. I’ve heard from three of these people that they were referring to earlier that said oh it’s gonna be great we’re going to be a party there, we’re gonna be able to stay there at night and do all these

01:24:26,270	things. So all of a sudden it changes our thought pattern of, of some some sort of simulation of some sort of, of privacy to our property. So then, um, Glick said, well, we’re gonna need your, like when we had our last meeting with them, they said, we’re going to need to have your property as part of

01:24:45,630	the buffer zone. I mean, they admitted that they needed it and they said there’s about 70 ft there. Otherwise, we’re going to start losing more of our Buildings So I said to him, Well, here’s what we’ll do then if we can come to some kind of conclusion, but we’re still gonna have to get through the

01:25:01,030	lighting issues. We’re gonna have to get through some of these other things. We, if you want to use our property to do that, which will hinder us from being able to develop our property, then, then you, we will take one unit, the one that’s closest to us so that we can now control.

01:25:17,330	And keep people because then we won’t have all this. Right next to our property. Because there’s no back patios on this building going. Uh, east and west now. So this is the building, that’s the building that’s gonna probably cause the most problems for us and privacy, so I thought that was a pretty good solution.

01:25:37,430	They said yes at the beginning, then they came back and said no. You’re being greedy. I said, well, OK, well, that’s, I mean, I don’t know. If, if, you know, you paid this amount for your property you’re asking for.

01:25:56,300	70 ft of our property times 310 ft long as a buffer, so I don’t know what that’s worth, but it seems to me it would be worth more than that one shop condo, but, um, that’s, that’s, that’s kind of the history of how we’ve been trying to get along here, just so you know, so I, you know, I’m willing, we’re willing to do that, but.

01:26:12,300	I, I mean, maybe, maybe then this building shifts over or something for more of a buffer there because when we look at our house, we look at the bridge and we look at the water intake and the zoo, so we don’t have anything else across from us. I mean, we have a lot of open space there.

01:26:28,400	But that will be get pretty noisy, I think, if this goes on and when we ask where we like about the. Um, this stuff going on overnight, they said, well, you know, there’s, you know, once, once you’re in there there’s nothing we can do about it even if we have it’s in the CCNRs, it’s not gonna probably happen, so, and I don’t think the city

01:26:45,270	wants to have calls to try to police this either. I mean, that’s not something we would want to do, but if you know, the neighborhood’s pretty quiet. It’s pretty good.

01:27:02,570	Yeah, and, um, but you just, I just, we do want someone, we want them to be able to develop their property, but there has to be, as you say, Comm., there has to be some sort of give and take here and so. Willing to do that, but I can’t. I just don’t want to give up what I bought. If someone else just thinks they can do whatever they want because that’s not how they bought the property.

01:27:19,970	They brought the property with these things in place, you know, the water part of the property is in the bay. You don’t have as many square footage as you think. There was easements back there. We actually talked to worlds, helped him with this core easement because I knew the core easement was there.

01:27:35,270	And um it was kind of an odd shape and I said, well, you should be able to go back to the core and you should be able to look at this plat, do this and do that, and they said, yeah, they were gonna do that, so, but they didn’t even know that they didn’t even believe that that was there when we

01:27:46,430	first told him that it was even there. So obviously no due diligence was done on this property prior to their buying it. And um there were some other easement issues that made him aware of, but.

01:28:00,630	They didn’t, it didn’t appear that they knew any of these things, so when they bought it, so I just keep going back to. Just because you pay a lot of money for a piece of property, it doesn’t entitle you to get a change in the property. Probably should have figured that out prior to buying the property. I’ll let you go. I know it’s getting late here, so thanks. I have a question to Comm.

01:28:18,430	Huber’s question to your response, is it the proximity of that one particular building that’s an issue. It’s the proximity of all of it, but I think, I mean, I mean, if, if you’re gonna ruin their project by doing something, I think that I mean that’s probably, I mean, for us, that’s gonna be probably the

01:28:35,330	worst part of it. None of it’s gonna be good because. If, if you grant them the variance because it’s, it’s gonna be, it’ll be right on top of us when we bought the property, we knew that there was this separation of property so that we could, that we would be able to have enjoyment of that

01:28:51,400	property. When, when you have, when you have a 30 ft building, uh, 25 ft high right next to your yard, that’s not. That’s not very good privacy and that’s not what we bought, so.

01:29:07,600	But I, you know, we’re willing to work, try to work something out, but we still have some issues about lighting and other things and we want to make sure that those things are all tied down before this is approved just so that we, so that they don’t. Doesn’t change the neighborhood up a lot. I mean, I’ve, you know, Morris has put in some new lighting, told them, hey, the lights shine it right.

01:29:23,200	I mean the light was coming right in our, in our in our house and so I asked Eric Morts if he could do something to change around, so it’s not, I mean everyone’s trying to get along, it’s just. Now, you can’t run over the top of someone else’s property.

01:29:39,970	It’s just to, to benefit yourself because you paid too much for the property. OK, thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, thank you, guys. Any further comments? Just a real excuse me, quick on Jim keeps talking about they maybe paid too much for this property. Jim did put an offer on this property for more than what they paid. And the partners turned down his offer.

01:30:23,870	So It doesn’t matter what they pay, it’s for the use of it, and Tim was willing to pay more. Well, I, I agree for for our conversation. That’s What the price was, it’s that’s not our concern. Any other comments? Comm.

01:30:52,530	, if I can make some clarification, I would just um try and bring it back to the key request based on cost is not a reason that a variance can be granted. I would not make a, I would not recommend that this board make a motion to approve this variance tonight, um, that’s not something that we are able to approve variances based off of PR code.

01:31:08,330	It might make sense in your head it’s just not something that we’re allowed to do. Um, I did not prepare any comments in the staff report regarding the use of the neighboring property as a buffer. However, our ordinance is kind of a trickle down. If you were to start reading on page one or probably get to page 100.

01:31:26,430	It does stipulate in I think it’s 105. 101144B. That, um, no yard or open space on one lot shall be considered as a yard or open space for a building on any other lot, and I think that goes both directions, um.

01:31:51,200	And it’s intended for different regulations contained later on in the ordinance to be applied with that kind of trickling down into it, so sort of trying to. Build a character around how to understand the rest of it. Um, I have not asked for a formal opinion on any conflicts that that has between uh the required buffer language that doesn’t say that it has to be on the property, but.

01:32:06,000	I do believe it would be in the best interest of the city to uphold that to make sure that. Building regulations are contained on the property that the building is. Built on, um, as they own it and control it.

01:32:23,100	And are able to kind of flex for the requirements as as they’re able, so those are the two comments they made, um, can’t be based off of cost and our ordinance does that, as I believe, stipulate that it’s regulations fall on the property. Thank you. Since Andrew brought, I’m sorry since Andrew brought up the. Um, ordinances and stuff. CB commercial District Section 105-3-12.

01:32:54,300	On item number 8 side yard in uh talking about side yard that says no side yard shall be required of any principle non-residential building in a CB district. This is a CB district and that ordinance states, is that right, Andrew, the ordinance states that no side yard shall be required of any principal non-residential building in a CB district. I don’t know if that pertains to this.

01:33:15,400	That does not pertain to this, um, there is a buffer required on this property for the gateway. So the gateway is an overlay that overlays under any underlying zoning, is that correct, Andrew? That’s correct, Comm. Huber, so we would not approve a zero side yard setback on a property that required buffering and screening for the gateway.

01:33:44,170	I’m looking to wrap up this conversation, so any final comments? With none I’ll close the public comment portion and return it back to the commission. Well, Mr. Chair, I’ve, I’ve already talked too much and let other commissioners speak. Um, I like Comm. Huber’s idea. I wish the parties could uh.

01:34:38,670	Uh, work this out and come back with us with a plan. Uh, that other Comm. speak, see what. What they say? I guess my comment would be that’s why I asked the question and it, it did sound to me like there’s a chance something like that would happen.

01:35:00,330	Um, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that. If the furlongs get a unit, it’s OK and if they don’t, it’s not and it’s, you know, I got, I got to wrap my head around that, so somewhere I think there’s a compromise. Comm.

01:35:19,830	, I don’t want to interject, but yeah, I would, I would tend to try and find some sort of way to uphold this requirement in a more perpetual manner, um, I think that is a It’s a fine solution right away, but eventually when there becomes a lack of coordination between the owner of the home and that condo unit.

01:35:40,400	That’s not really a cure and it’s not really gonna work, so I, I would. And my advice would be to come up with something that is more perpetual that doesn’t require such coordination, um, to meet the requirement. I mean, to me, 5 rows of trees. Is not needed, but. Two rows of 18 inches. Or 6 ft trees is not acceptable.

01:36:05,900	I mean, it seems to me there has to be a. A way to compromise this where. And I thought I did hear a sense of for some other options for compromise and, and so, you know, for example, can there be a commitment to these being mature, you know, more mature trees of a certain minimum height at the get go, those

01:36:26,200	types of things. So, you know, that’s where I would encourage those types of, of conversations to occur. I may Say one thing. One reason the unit might work for us is because. We talked to the garlics about CCNR changes requiring 100% approval by owners.

01:36:56,970	So if we owned a unit, And we put restrictions in the CCNRs that people then wanted to change. They couldn’t do it unless. We were approving of it. So we would have to say, oh, you want lights in this building now? Well. No, and then like. Wouldn’t do it.

01:37:19,970	That’s, that was our thinking just for everyone’s understanding, can we um spell out what the acronym CCNR is, I assume it’s a covenant, um, but for those not familiar with that term, can we just make that known? Believe it stands for Covenants, creeds and restrictions. That’s really not the concern of. The Commission is it? What they do So The concern of the commission.

01:38:02,530	Is the variance And the buffer, right? So what they do After this meeting is between them. So we need to decide on whether granting the variance. Or not. Question, Andrew if the request for variance is denied tonight. They can reapply. With a different plan Excuse me, Comm.

01:38:36,230	, uh, Chair Robinson, that’s correct, I believe, um, the only final final would be, I believe, a city commission denial. Um, it’s possible that any recommendation made tonight would have to be carried to the city commission, um, I would have to double check what the next step is. I don’t want to speak out of kind of out of line, but it is possible that a decision to deny the request could be final.

01:38:57,400	Um, By the board and I’m kind of a required recommendation to the city commission. And if they were to make that recommendation or that decision to deny, I think it could be final final and and our code wouldn’t allow this project to pursue. This avenue. relief. It would be the end.

01:39:21,500	Chair Robinson, is there a third option that could be something along the lines of either postponing or, um, tabling this to give the parties opportunity for more conversation and and either postponing definitely and bringing it back at the next meeting or tabling it until such time as they signify they’ve reached.

01:39:42,570	Compromise and then bringing it back? Could that be an option? I’ll jump in for Bill. I, yeah, I think, I think that’s an option, of course that would allow for a little bit more time. It would be.

01:40:00,570	Most likely sometime like the soonest could be like in October, I think it could come back for the October Planning Commission meeting, September would be cutting it probably pretty close for a lot of these to be reviewed um or past the application deadline for that month for, for what it’s worth, but. Um, I think that’s an option. I didn’t include a draft for that, um.

01:40:22,770	I would have maybe included a recommendation to postpone, but In my understanding of how you would get larger trees, you would need more space and the issue is space and the cost that they incur if they aren’t able to build within a certain amount of space, so I drafted recommendations based off of.

01:40:46,730	My kind of comprehensive understanding of the key issue here, which was the buffer not being fulfilled due to um economic factors, and while I’d be willing to reintroduce this item, I don’t know how. That’s going to fully work. If It’s a limited space they have to build in.

01:41:06,030	Well, and I only suggested the postponement because then it allows them to pursue any alternative, um, that, you know, could that could bring it, um, into compliance or at least more into compliance in a in a way that could be, um, satisfactory to the adjacent property owner without having to, um, pay another application fee or or that sort of thing. So if, if. If that’s an alternative that anyone is interested in, that’s something I could support.

01:41:26,230	I would rather postpone than deny at this time. That’d be my preference. I mean, amongst all the conversation, it did sound like there’s a chance to. Figure it out. I believe the variants would need to come back with another hardship. If it comes back in the variances that if it’s not granted it’s because of costs.

01:41:52,800	The board is a kind of obliged to deny it. That’s our code of ordinance stipulates that this board cannot grant a variance for cost. So uh we’d be entertained, we’d be willing to entertain a different hardship, for example, it would have to be.

01:42:10,200	That would have to be vetted and it would have to be for sure not about project cost. If it comes back and it’s we’re providing relief to the code of ordinances because if it has to be done, we can’t afford it. We’ll be doing this again. For the same reason that we can’t. Granted Well, one of the reasons is when I brought up earlier is the uh.

01:42:31,300	Buffer takes up about approximately 40% of the property, I mean. You can say implicitly maybe that’s economic, but. How many lots in the gateway area where we have a situation where The buffer is literally taking up that portion, that larger portion of the property. That’s a hardship. You can make that argument. And there’s other areas when we do variances where.

01:43:03,400	Economics implicitly comes into play, take for topographical reasons. Um, you may have a hill or something, we grant a variance because of that, well, technically an engineering standpoint, you can be able to wipe out that topographical. Or fix that problem, but it’s just economically impossible or impractical to do so. It’s not the primary.

01:43:26,600	Reason economics, but. It’s ultimately that’s one of the factors that you look at. Well, I would move that we postpone um this item until the next meeting at which it can be properly legally noticed. All 2nd. seconded please. Tenor. We have motion in a second to.

01:44:27,570	Postpone this until we can uh meet again after legal notice? Sounds like October. Any questions? Roll call vote please. Comm. Langing. Comm. Huber Yes. Mayor Frelich, Comm. Eveldt. Yes. Comm. McLean. Yes. Comm. Book Miller. Comm. Smith. Comm. Hammond. Chair Robinson. And motion is passed. We’ll move on to other business which is uh update and Q&A on the zoning rewrite study. Andrew.

01:45:13,430	Robinson, commissioners, I don’t intend this to be long no nor terribly formal. We did have an open house on Monday of last week. That would have been the 19th. And had probably a good 2030 or so folks show up to hear about some of the updates in our zoning code study.

01:45:29,530	That day we also had a um. I guess a kind of a workshop with some commissioners here. I’m gonna try and get this in presentation mode. Um, so there were some changes that they had kind of walked us through, um, of course, with the draft version of the ordinance being introduced to you guys sometime likely in November of this year.

01:45:48,400	We want to give you an idea of what to expect in terms of changes potential, um. Things such as. Hearing some concerns around as well, so you can kind of get ready for all of that, um.

01:46:11,100	The biggest change that I’m honestly looking forward to is just organization like having the same regulations spelled out the same way in the same chapter, uh, so that it kind of has a nice flow to it.

01:46:25,400	It’s been sort of difficult as stuff I think to pick a certain format because we all have written in different ways, so it’s you can’t, I can’t guarantee that if I draft an ordinance today it’s gonna be in the same format, it’s different regulations. That’ll be nice. We’ll of course be adding our rural residential district which will support more rural lifestyle, this would be Single family, most likely septic system.

01:46:51,370	Rural water, larger accessory buildings to park a camper and, for example, our 2015 land use plan said that we should open up some areas for rural residential development and we’ve never created a zoning district for that, so this would be how we would regulate that in the future.

01:47:05,470	We’ll also be able to take some properties that are currently In egg or R 7 districts that are kind of forced into the country country or city, city, um, to get them into a zoning district that kind of lines up one with how they’re used and how we feel that they’re desired to be used, so we’re talking potentially like Ansels, Montani, um, whispering hills, for example, are some subdivisions where they are more rural in nature that are currently our 7 that

01:47:23,970	probably should be in a different district. If we have them in the R7, we’re kind of stipulating this city lifestyle and city form that. It’s kind of a natural point of tension. Um, The biggest changes that we’ve seen are.

01:47:47,130	To, um, what, what’s being proposed for accessory dwelling units, for example, uh, to have that be an entitlement rather than a special use permit with the idea being that if we have a path forward that the city is going to be OK with this if all 9 of these boxes are checked then maybe we should just be OK with it, and the public hearing might not be a huge value add.

01:47:59,730	Um, So that would be kind of the key changes for moving the special permit for the ADU from our 7. And uh, I believe. Keeping the R4 district around as a smaller lot, urban, single family district R 3.2, um, potential to allow some accessory dwelling units and then our RM district might.

01:48:24,130	Kind of continue to have some commercial uses within it, um, but they’re stipulating that it only be as part of a mixed-use development which we’re still kind of adding to see if. That’s necessary or not.

01:48:40,500	Um, as we’ve talked about, we did move forward with a reduction of one of our industrial districts, so we’ll have a three-tier industrial zoning district system here will have kind of a lighter industrial manufacturing, um, probably heavier commercial. Possibly can kind of go artsy can kind of go commercial in a way we’ll have an MB district that’s gonna be a little bit more focused on.

01:48:59,200	Larger materials or heavier industry and then kind of like the heaviest industry class, which would be for um things like Hust. And for the refinery, um, CHS, for example, concrete batch plants. Um We do need to get something for the refinery, of course, as I think I’ve detailed to this board, the refinery is currently in a county industrial district, and I think it’s maybe questionable my ability to enforce zoning

01:49:22,200	regulations on different jurisdictions ordinances, um. It hasn’t been a big deal, but it’s a nice thing to get cleaned up within the commercial districts we’re not seeing a whole lot of changes again, just trying to standardize how regulation is done in some districts we talk about setbacks and height limits and others we talk about

01:49:37,800	for area ratio. Both are good setbacks and height limits are a little bit more. Um, interpretable to the average person, which is a huge goal. It’s to have people be able to kind of help themselves as they review the code.

01:49:57,370	Um, adding a neighborhood designation to the commercial district, I think will help uh to line up with our land use plan goal for neighborhood commercial. It’s kind of meant to be like a lighter district and we talked about.

01:50:12,970	Actually talked for a while with a neighborhood commercial district should be able to have a standalone bar or not right now, you really can’t, but you could have bar restaurants and stuff like that, so. I think where we landed is. Maybe um. With some Asterisk behind it. Huge change in the downtown area, of course, will be reducing the size of the downtown fringe, hopefully to kind of just the one block two block area around the downtown core area of Mandan.

01:50:34,170	So this would be basically between Maine and First Street and the the lots along First Street from about. Om’s cafe to Burger King, for example, whereas today it’s a huge area up to the hills in every direction and it sort of implies that we’re OK with some commercial uses infiltrating the neighborhood.

01:50:53,830	Which can be done, but probably should be done with some more thoughtful regulation that we have today. We’ll be keeping PUDs around and just specifying how PUDs can work, um. We’ve had some pies in the metro area that have.

01:51:15,030	Allowed different uses to take place in an area they’ll say, OK, even if, even if it is commercial, you wanna do this too, um. This soldiers kind of more clearly guide PUDs towards um development standards. Based on allowable developments from our plans and studies and from underlying zoning, for example.

01:51:36,530	And, and uh kind of another thing that’s gonna be interesting it’s more of a clear focus on what the public or city benefit of a PUD would be maybe that’s open space protection. Um, providing a mixture, a mixture of uses being a a kind of an ancillary benefit to the community, um. Historic or cultural preservation and then maybe the creation or provision of affordable housing, all things that a developer could do to kind of try and um.

01:51:58,000	Sell their project some more with some community benefits associated. They did draft a future zoning map which will be helpful, um, it’s kind of. To operate like a future land use map I guess you could call it.

01:52:16,400	Um, the goal was to do this prior to drafting ordinances to some extent that we could run some impact analyses, for example, we are finding um that we’re making some tweaks after saying let’s try this, well, that actually might not fit on every lot. So going back to the drawing board based off of this, but kind of the the outlined.

01:52:33,000	And it’s sort of hard to see on my screen, but you can see where we’re rezoning for recommending to rezone properties to that rural district where there are rural uses today. Peeling in the downtown fringe back in the day, it would have been pretty much this whole orange area that kind of implied that commercial uses could be allowed, etc. And our, our land use plan recommends keeping that in a more sole medium density residential, um.

01:52:53,200	Future development pattern. And, um, keeping the commercial uses closer to the downtown core, that’s um a bit of a reduction in the downtown fringe. Some of my comments I think I’d like to see it extended. Um, I think I’d like to see it extended further out on East Main, um, Comm.

01:53:13,300	Here brought up good points that I’ve looked at as well. That the downtown fringe is a little bit more flexible for development than the CB and CC districts are and what those railroad leases and the smaller blocks, it might be better to have some narrower setbacks and design standards, um. The more urban environment.

01:53:33,200	Um, Combining our industrial districts cleans up the Memorial Highway quite a bit and our impact analysis is just kind of being done to make sure that our properties are being used today would work in the future to to uh to at least a comfortable level. Also combining our MB and MD district.

01:53:51,070	These were districts that we adopted and we started saying, OK, we’re going to add a new zoning district and this is going to be everything that the MB was, but it’s also gonna allow. A stockyard and it’s like, well, maybe we should have just figured out a way to have the stockyard be a special use in a current district that we have.

01:54:04,870	If the only difference is going to be that, um, so that’s kind of a an easy one to fix up. We are doing some um this the slides not necessarily totally correct by saying it’s city initiated.

01:54:22,870	We did have some developers initiate some changes, of course, in the Meadow Park and the Gateway Park, and they are recommending that we do put existing manufactured housing parks into RH residential. I have some questions about how that relates to like major conflicts in the future land use plan, um.

01:54:39,230	It’s kind of a sensitive topic when you’re talking about like the homes of 200+ families, right, saying, OK, we’re not gonna allow this to happen anymore or not where we are, um, so not quite sure what we’ll do with some of the parks that are obviously like an industrial areas, for example, but.

01:54:59,030	Um, I, I kind of detailed this earlier, but the area in black is zoned to Morton County Industrial, and it’s not that it’s really been a big deal, but when, when we talk about development regs on those properties. I know, um, one of the utility providers is looking to do a development on one of these properties, it’s kind of begs the question of like how are we supposed to do this because if if it’s in my jurisdiction, but it’s in the

01:55:18,230	Morton County planners ordinance book. We should probably just um. Change that around so we have their rules adopted or or write our own rules that are um. In allowance of the refinery and Hasco being there and then.

01:55:36,930	Very, very minor, but a few lots up on the river that were in the Morton County residential district would be put into a city residential district. It’s just a lot cleaner when we can regulate our people with our rules. Um, as it relates to youth groups, I think they are.

01:55:53,000	Pleased with what we have for youth groups today and they are recommending that we just kind of um modernize and streamline some of the ones. There have been some innovations, I guess, in retail service and industry that.

01:56:11,700	Some of the ways that they describe stuff like in the 1950s just don’t quite carry over into clear ties to today and for your understanding, youth groups don’t necessarily have to list every single possible thing that could happen in the zoning district, but they provide examples and there are some modern examples that just need to be, probably need to be shored up in the code as they are introduced into the community that yes, it’s a it’s explicitly listed or something explicitly similar to that is um included in the code.

01:56:31,900	So the changes, um, for group dwellings, they are recommending that we include transitional housing. Um, I think that’s one that’s possibly going to result in some community conversations for retail Group A, Clearing up garden centers, um, not all of these are major. Major pinch points, of course, um.

01:56:51,370	They are eliminating a youth group that can be kind of consolidated with our general farming group, which will be an easy fix. I think the nice things that I’m looking forward to would be the addition of medical offices in our office bank group, it’s, it’s sort of been difficult.

01:57:10,070	We have a development that is restricted to office office, which would be like white collar office, but not necessarily. Dental or medical in nature, um, so that would, would be helpful when. They kind of all kind of agglomerate in office parks. Probably something we could have done a while ago, but while we’re at it, we’re gonna fix it. We are adding regulations for campgrounds, um.

01:57:30,870	And some new like fitness centers, for example, things that weren’t really stipulated in the code before, um. So this hasn’t been a huge area of focus, but to general farming, I think they’re adding beekeeping which is kind of modern in a way.

01:57:49,530	The health medical group is gonna actually be removing medical clinics pretty much altogether and putting that into the office group where they are more commonly cited and kind of office parks and things like that, and in most cases, the zoning will overlap. It’s only in a few different key areas where these youth groups kind of do separate some of some of the busier stuff from each other. It’s not gonna result in.

01:58:04,030	Drastic changes, of course, but I’m just trying to call out these things for your awareness. The religion groups most likely to be renamed to something like Assembly group. Um, I think there are regulations in place that do guide how cities that dictate um land uses based off of religion. So it’s.

01:58:24,030	A little bit better to just stay away from saying that it’s OK if it’s this type of religion or that type of religion and. Particularly when you say something should be like a church versus something else, so. Places of assembly will help, I think the questions around that will be. You know, that could be. Busier than like a bona fide.

01:58:41,800	Once or twice a week religious assembly. So we’ll, we’ll work on that some more. We did have some discussion on shop condos, of course, um. About For and and location effect and and things like that and.

01:59:03,200	The direction that we’re hoping to go with this is to try and kind of provide some retail component to them, um, they do provide some sort of incubation space. I think these will be guided a little bit more towards industrial areas, um. And kind of in in consideration of that incubation space that they do provide, having integrated units that are more facilitated towards office in later stage businesses, um, where they can be a slightly larger and have a slightly more presentable

01:59:26,100	appearance will. Be a positive change and then just some kind of like boots on the ground stuff. Where does parking take place in shop condos if I’ll just call your names out like if if Bill’s going to Jim’s shop condo can Bill park in front of Victoria’s Shop condo. It’s kind of hard to tell.

01:59:43,870	I’m not exactly sure, so maybe having a dedicated parking areas every once in a while for more customer serving businesses and and also getting more of an upfront declaration of what exact businesses they want to have in these.

02:00:00,670	A lot of times what we see is they’ll they’ll ask for the the the businesses that are allowed by zoning, um, and that. Introduces a whole lot of nuance and how we should go about things like fire suppression. And, um, and parking and things like that, so. That’s the big change there and then of course our self storage is being recommended to be put into.

02:00:19,570	A um industrial use group, so that would be going on two areas of our of our map that are purple in nature, and then we’d also have some design standards for them as it relates to frontage on. Major roads, etc. um. As it relates to 109, this is our land subdivision ordinance. We are adding a park dedication requirement, um, hopefully.

02:00:41,530	And that’s gonna be a kind of a collaborative process between the city and our park district to try and work towards a deficit of parkland that’s been outlined in our comp plan.

02:01:01,530	We’ll be adding hopefully an administrative approval process for minor subdivisions, um, I think it’ll still be a commission item, but it’ll allow for a quicker turnaround on. Different projects sometimes it’s been sort of discouraging to to communicate a 34 month timeline on things and being able to do minor changes quicker I think is in the interest of all of us.

02:01:23,130	Um, Making some lot size adjustments, of course, that’s within their, um, our current lot sizes like like smaller than some septic fields have to be, so it’s gonna be good to have that more right size and then having, of course, better access management, um, intersection spacing, block length, um, kind of a discouraging cul de sacs and things like that will help with our subdivision layout.

02:01:41,900	We are being recommended to go with some narrower rights of way and narrower streets were kind of still vetting to see how this works for town and what our common ground is on this one. And I guess as it relates to.

02:02:01,000	Um, our community survey, there were about 5 or 600 residents that participated and and stakeholders, I guess that participated in our community survey at the beginning of the year. Um, folks want a more modern ordinance. They want park dedication they support clarity for commercial residential fringing around the downtown.

02:02:19,900	They support a need for updated parking regulations and that that might mean that we want the same amount of parking, but we’re a little bit more clear about how we want it, like maybe striped parking, paved parking, parking with some landscaping, excuse me. In addition to some. Administrative reduction of opportunities. We’ll kind of keep monitoring.

02:02:41,900	How some properties have been constructed, but um that’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to is being able to take more of a contextual look at properties such as the the project that was presented earlier this year that seek a parking reduction based on their um. um, lower income affiliation.

02:02:56,200	I think a lot of cities are moving towards that, and that’s something I might be able to be able to do without a public hearing, which would be nice. Uh, and then overall just kind of reducing the number of things that need to come to the board trying to clear the clear the road for folks if they want to do a special um. Like accessory dwelling unit or something wouldn’t necessarily need to be a public hearing under the new code.

02:03:13,500	And then we’ve updated most of our tables and terminology, um. That’s I guess the side columns actually just kind of the response to that, so you can feel free to observe. I’m reading someone else’s slides if you can’t tell. Um, a lot of folks were OK with street woods.

02:03:29,100	A lot of folks acknowledge the need for more single family and senior housing town homes, um, a lot of housing stock that um is in demand right now. We’ve made some minor changes to the right of way, as I stated.

02:03:49,470	And, um, Moving the minimum dwelling unit size from that R12 district I think will be, will be nice as we kind of repurpose that into a rural district. And this is my last slide, so we’ll be good to go soon. Uh, this is the process that we’re in right now, we’re kind of ramping out of, I guess, ramping out of code. And, um, gonna be taking like a.

02:04:10,970	Hiatus for just making sure all the drafts line up with each other and that the public’s reviewed them before we come to adoption. I think we’ll be taking a. Probably be taking like a pretty generous adoption schedule.

02:04:28,370	I don’t think we’re gonna rush this on anybody, of course, um, and there are some implementation strategies that can be vetted such as maybe the city committing to kind of line in the sand on if you got your application in on X day, we’re gonna go old rules and if you come in on X day, we’re gonna go new rules so that um. Projects that are kind of currently in development aren’t. Drastically affected by this.

02:04:46,330	Um, but I, I would say continue to look for us to move into adoption as as we get into Thanksgiving time and hopefully we get it in front of the commission, city commission, that being, uh, sometime.

02:05:06,530	Over the winter So that was a lot, but that’s kind of what we’ve outlined as some of the biggest changes to expect with the ordinance, um, an additional coordination is kind of taking place on most of these. So if you have any questions for me, I can take them. If not, thanks for your time tonight. Is there a certain time frame or date you’re looking to. Have this completed. Chair Robinson, Comm., yeah, we, we do have a contractual date, um.

02:05:27,130	That I think it’s kind of close to around New Year’s time and it’s it’s subject to negotiation as needed, of course. Um, one of the things I’d like to do is.

02:05:44,800	Kind of push that out just a little bit further if we need to, and of course I didn’t highlight this, but for I think 6 months following adoption, we have the contractor to help with. Kind of training staff preparing what’s new guides for the folks that actually design the community because I mean it’s it’s only so good if the people who like review designs know how to do it, we have to tell folks who design properties as well.

02:06:02,200	Um, so we’ll have them probably through about June. Any other questions? Chair Robinson, um, one of the things I, I noticed and, and learned since the working group meeting was a little bit more that there can be quite a variation in what’s considered a data center and right now I saw that they’re in industrial, um, but one of the

02:06:21,700	things we might keep in mind is that something like a Dakota carrier network, um, could also be considered a data center or perhaps even national information solutions cooperative and so I wonder if, if they could take another look at that to look at it more from a standpoint of, um, You know whether it emits noise or, you

02:06:46,270	know, appearance construction if there are other approaches to to take a look at that and, and, you know, wasn’t able to attend that recent public service commission hearing on that topic, but just would want to make sure that, well, people might be, you know, thinking about Williams County in a very noisy container like data

02:07:04,470	center that they can come in other forms to that might be very appropriate and more of an office, um, kind of a, a district. So that was. Um, maybe one area that, um, I would encourage taking a little bit deeper dive on, um, I, I was also reminded, um, recently that the gateway overlay

02:07:26,070	district maybe could take a, um, a look at to um understanding that, for example, that it goes quite far north on, um, Highway 1806, etc. so I was just wondering if as the downtown core was looked at if if they took any look at the, at the Gateway district just to make sure that it is.

02:07:44,730	Get another set of eyes on that to make sure that it is, um, appropriate and, and intentional, um, as I know that that stemmed from architectural Review Commission, uh, action. And then, um, the, the third area where I just questioned was um the stockyard conditional um.

02:08:07,230	Use permit and and I think specifically with respect to KIS livestock that if there were ever a change in owner, um, or if, if they, if the current owners were, for example, to lease it to another operator, would they have to reapply for a conditional use, um, permit because I would, you know, I think, um, not want us to inadvertently do something to um injure Mandan’s very strong agribusiness sector.

02:08:28,630	Thank you, Comm. Huber. I think, I think the data center topics being addressed as it relates to the. Various nuances and scale. Um, the gateway is being addressed as well.

02:08:47,400	Um, I, I don’t know if they’ve formally decided to move away from it, but most of the other development rigs have been lifted up to the standard of the gateway essentially. There was, I’ve, I’ve detailed this to you guys before, but it’s like.

02:09:05,700	Hard to really support it when it says that forty-sixth Avenue and 40th Avenue are really important, but 3rd Street isn’t Sunset Drive isn’t an old red trail isn’t, and it’s like we can continue to keep expanding it to new corridors if we want to. But if every site’s important and every neighborhood’s important then the standard should be uniform across the city. So that’s kind of one way that the gateway may be addressed.

02:09:25,700	I’m not sure exactly how it would really function as all the other standards are lifted up around it, and it’s possible that it might be in front of you just to be repealed overall. Um, that doesn’t mean that it’s regulations would go away, it just would mean that they would come back in a different way by potentially short up landscaping ordinances for every property.

02:09:42,270	And then he adds it relates to the soccer, we definitely don’t wanna do that, so we’ll work on that. Thank you. Any other comments? I think the term they use in the data side is it’s the data mining facilities is what. Creates a little bit of heartburn. That’s the noise, yes, yes, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, with nothing further, I’ll take a motion to adjourn. So moved.

02:10:29,370	Black then all in favor. Say goodbye by saying aye. Aye. Uh. Thank you