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AR GENDA EVIEW The agenda was amended to include the I-35W Corridor Comprehensive Plan Update under Announcements and Updates. RCA EPORT ON OUNCIL CTION Gregori said the Council asked the Planning Commission to think about ways New Brighton might follow the Metropolitan Council’s request to integrate more high density housing into the Comp Plan when it considers the update of the Comprehensive Plan. PH UBLIC EARINGS LP-336 & VN-317 Donatelle Plastics Terry reviewed the case report concerning an application for site plan review and a setback variance to construct a 82,448 square foot office/manufacturing building in an I-1 District. Baker asked if the applicant would build the proposed building on top of two monitoring wells. Terry stated the monitoring wells would be removed before they construct the proposed building. Norm Wells, the project architect, stated he has worked with the Chuck and Mike Donatelle for thirteen years on their building projects. Tonight’s proposal represents a significant step in the growth of their company. Wells gave a brief history of Donatelle in New Brighton. Wells said, two years ago, Donatelle was planning a 40,000 square foot building on a different site. Donatelle Plastics’s size requirements have doubled over these two years. Donatelle planned to use the old plan when it first started looking at the proposed site. The Old Highway 8 Visioning process made it apparent that the building that Donatelle had been planning would not be compatible with the streetscape proposed in the Old Highway 8 Vision. Wells said he and Donatelle redesigned the building and went from a square building to a rectangular building to fit on the proposed site. Wells said it had been an experience trying to fit the proposed building on the site and work with the constraints of the site, most significant of which is the contamination of both the soil and groundwater. Wells described how the proposed building will integrate with the City’s proposed streetscape. Donatelle Plastics would enhance the streetscape with its proposed landscape design. At this point, Wells said we did not know the details of the streetscape, but Donatelle will work with the landscape firm selected to do the streetscape. Donatelle projects that, within five years, it would build a mirror image of the proposed building. Wells described how the proposed building would integrate with the proposed extension of County Road E2. Wells showed the features of the proposed building on the site plan and compared it with the old buildings and uses on the site by MacGillis and Gibbs. O’Brien asked if the monitoring wells would create a problem for construction of the proposed building. Wells responded the site has about a dozen monitoring wells and several are in the way of the earthwork needed to start the building. Donatelle projects a late March or early April building start, but the monitoring wells may not be removed until May. The monitoring wells have to be removed under strict guidelines of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Minnesota Environmental Health Agency (EPA). Donatelle asked for more land, but the cleanup on the land to the south is incomplete and will not be complete until next year. Wells pointed out the site constraints and said they feel they have done a good job on siting the building. Baker stated this is a public hearing and asked if anyone in the audience wished to speak on this proposal. There was no response. I:\COMMISSIONS\PLANNING\MINUTES\1998\01-20-98.WPD 2