07-11-2005 CC MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . . City Council Minutes July 11, 2005 Page 5 5.3. Discuss Gateway Business Center This portion of the meeting was a joint meeting with the EDA. President Jeff Gongoll called the meeting to order. Commissioners present were: Dan Tveite, Pat Dwyer, Larry Farber, Jerry Gumphrey, Stephanie Klinzing, and Paul Motin. Director of Planning Michele McPherson presented her staff report providing an overview of the area currently being studied. This is the City-owned Cargill land which has been renamed the Gateway Business Center. Properties in this area are under ownership by ten property owners with the City's approximately 60 acre property in the middle of the study area. President Gongoll asked if it is realistic to drain some of the ponds to get more buildable lots. Ms. McPherson replied, yes, but we would have to make a case to the Technical Evaluation Panel and get their approval. Ms. McPherson stated that the land use and zoning maps currently are not consistent with each other. She stated that the land use was amended in 2004 and staff wished to have this Council/EDA conversation before changing the zoning map. She stated that we need to discuss the type of uses in the area and the "split" of the zoning districts. She indicated that another issue to be discussed is how the Council and EDA feel about developing the commercial sites. She inquired as to whether they wish to develop the lots or to sell it to someone else and put those funds into the infrastructure. Mayor Klinzing inquired if in the past the City had developed any commercial sites. Ms. Mehelich stated that the sites in the past have been sold. Mayor Klinzing inquired as to what was the advantage for city ownership -- more control? Ms. Mehelich said, yes, more control but a lot of challenges and the City could end up playing the market incorrectly. She stated that the biggest advantage to opening the site up to a commercial developer is that you get their market input and they are better suited to do negotiations. Commissioner Tveite indicated that he had concerns about the use of a private developer getting this property, and indicated that the City may need some type of controls and dictate to the developer what would go in along the highway. Further discussion followed as to how this property would be zoned. Ms. McPherson stated that one step that the Council may wish to consider would be to create a zoning district putting into the ordinance the building standards that we wish; a "hybrid" to be defined. Commissioner Tveite stated that we may not want full-blown industrial zoning here if we wished to attract offices. He stated that this could be defined in creating a gateway zoning. Councilmember Motin stated that he would like to view this as a business park with southeast of the street being commercial and the west side used for industrial. Ms. McPherson stated that we will need to do a zoning map amendment. Mr. Gongoll stated that he feels this should be zoned Light Industrial and Business Park. Ms. Mehelich agreed and feels this is not a good location for commercial.