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Planning Commission Minutes - March 21, 1995 Page 4 The problem is that the site is small. SuperAmerica contacted the Dairy Queen owners, but they have not been able to negotiate anything with them, due to the Dairy Queen’s circumstances. SuperAmerica is willing to buy the DQ site and relocate them. Mattila said he advised Sam VanTassel of SuperAmerica he would ask the Planning Commission for ideas to solve the site problems. After a brief discussion, the Commission suggested the SuperAmerica, Dairy Queen, and the small office building sites be reconfigured. The SuperAmerica project could be the trigger to solve several problems with all these sites. Mattila said the proposed building would be similar to a SuperAmerica building in Vadnais Heights. The building is faced in brick and glass and the gas pump island columns are brick. Mattila says he made slides of the Vadnais Heights site. SuperAmerica trimmed their building to match an adjoining office building instead of using their standard color scheme. Arden Hills Nursery (temporary greenhouse for Erickson’s New Market parking lot) — Mattila said Arden Hills Nursery approached New Market to put a plastic nursery bubble. These greenhouses usually stay up for about 6 weeks. The City’s policy has been to discourage retail “back of a truck” operations. The nursery proposes to do plant sales on a temporary basis. Livingston asked how many parking spaces would be lost. Mattila responded approximately 14 spaces. Jensen remarked there is always plenty of parking available at New Market. Mattila pointed out the proposed location on the site. The Commission said they would have no problem with the proposal. Tom Thumb - Silver Lake Road site plan — Mattila reported Tom Thumb has submitted two proposals for the Silver Lake Road store. The first proposal was to replace the present building with a 7,000 square foot building with gas pumps. Some of the businesses in the complex would be taken over by the expansion of the Tom Thumb. Mattila said that proposal was ruled out because the parking would be in the setback area, some parking would only be 10 feet from the right-of-way. Tom Thumb’s second proposal takes the whole site, but the parking is 30 feet from the right-of-way. There would be an addition to the existing building. The existing codes would apply under the Type IV nonconforming use standards. A new building would necessitate use of the new building codes. The store would be expanded and the roof would be reconstructed. This plan would entail major reconstruction work. Williams asked, at what point in a planning and zoning discussion, do you entertain the question of what does the community need as opposed to what landowners want to do with their property. Williams pointed out Tom Thumb has major competition in the area now. There may possibly be a major super market in the area in the future. Mattila said the choice in this specific case might be between the existing building and a new, better looking building. Jensen agreed with Williams and said he felt there are already enough gas pumps in the area.