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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6A Faith Lutheran Concept Plan CC report 4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA REPORT MEETING DATE: JULY 15, 2019 AGENDA #: 6A PREPARED BY: JEFF MATZKE, PLANNER PRESENTED BY: JEFF MATZKE AGENDA ITEM: PRESENTATION OF THE FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH (16840 HIGHWAY 13 S) CONCEPT PLAN DISCUSSION: Introduction The purpose of this agenda item is to review a concept plan for future townhomes and a child care facility to be added on the existing Faith Lutheran Church property. A concept plan review allows the City Council an opportunity to provide informal, non-binding feedback to the applicant. History The city’s zoning ordinance allows applicants to review their concept plans with the City Council in order to help direct them in the preparation of their land use applications (i.e., Comp Plan Amendment/Rezoning, PUD, and Plat). The Planning Commission heard the Faith Lutheran Church Concept Plan presentation at their July 8, 2019 meeting. The Planning Commission offered the following comments at the meeting: • The proposed child care and townhome land uses appear to complement the area. • Traffic analysis may be required to determine the impacts to the Five Hawks Avenue traffic particularly in coordination with a nearby school. • Screening/buffering shall be considered by the applicant for the adjacent properties to the north and east of the site. • A comprehensive plan change will need to occur following the approval of the City’s draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan by the Metropolitan Council. Current Circumstances Faith Lutheran Church has submitted a concept plan for a proposed subdivision of the property located at 16840 Highway 13 S, northeast of the intersection of County Highway 13 and Five Hawks Avenue. The site is approximately 4.5 acres. The property is designated as R-LD (Urban Low Density) on the 2030 Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map and zoned R-1 (Low Density Residential). This proposal would require a future comprehensive plan amendment change to R-HD (Urban High Density) and a future rezoning 2 to R-3 (High Density Residential), which allows 7-20 residential units per acre. The R-LD section in the Comprehensive Plan states that “Typical Uses” include multi-family attached dwellings and/or other dwelling designs by Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and Planned Unit Development (PUD) including Group Day Care/Nursery School. Conclusion City staff and the church have discussed the concept plan which will be presented at the City Council meeting. In the attached narrative the church and child care company has listed further details regarding the purpose of the request. The City review process to approve this development project would include: 1. Separate Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Zoning Map Amendment (rezone) applications (to change the designation from low density residential to high density residential); and 2. A combined Preliminary and Final Plat application for the 4.5 acres to subdivide the property into lots; an approved final plat would include payment of development fees. ISSUES: City Staff has reviewed the proposed concept plan and has the following comments: 1. High Density Residential – The area to the north of the church property is zoned high density residential and contains apartments and townhome units. The townhomes proposed would be consistent with these adjacent uses to the north. 2. Density – The density of the residential units under a high-density designation must meet a minimum of 7 units per acre. The proposal of 6 townhome units on potentially 0.9 acres of the norther lot would only constitute 6.67 units per acre. In addition, the dimensional standards in Subsection 1102.605 of the City Code (such as minimum lot width, building setbacks, and open space requirements) must be met. Adjustments to the lot size or number of residential units will be necessary. 3. Child Care Facility – A Child Care Facility is an allowed use within the R-3 (High Density Residential) Zoning District. Minimum play and drop-off area standards as well as parking, landscaping, buffering/screening (particularly from the low-density residential dwellings to the east of the site), and architectural design standards will be required under Section 1107 of the City Code. 4. Parking – The proposal identifies separate parking lots and drive aisles for the church and child care facility. City Staff recommends a combination or (at a minimum) a connection of these parking areas to increase efficiency of parking for the sites. Many churches have peak parking needs that are opposite business hours and with the collaboration of the church and child care perhaps a joint parking agreement can be created. 3 5. Stormwater – the proposed pond is located in the rear of the child care lot. This location may create an issue of private or public maintenance of the pond. While the pond may help buffer the child care facility from the eastern properties, consideration should be made to allow accessibility to the pond feature. Additional review will be done with the submittal of future grading plans. 6. School District – The area is within the Prior Lake Savage School District (ISD 719). RECOMMENDED MOTION: No formal action is required now. The City Council should provide the applicant with comments, impressions, and concerns about this concept plan. Councilor comments are not binding, and the applicant should not rely on any statements made by an individual Councilor as the sentiment of the entire body. However, in the absence of City Council concerns, comments or suggestions to the contrary, the applicant will likely proceed with the development as presented in this concept stage. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Location Map 2. PUD Concept Plan 3. Church and Child Care Narratives H IG H W A Y 13FIVE HAWKS AV SECREEKSIDE CIR SEW I L L O W W O O D S T S E H IG H W A Y 13Ü Faith Evangelical Lutheran ChurchConcept Plan Location Map UPPER PRIOR LAKE GD(904) SPRING LAKE GD(912.8) LOWER PRIOR LAKE GD(904) PIKE LAKENE (820.5) MYSTIC LAKENE HAAS LAKENE (907.3) BLIND LAKERD (948.7) ARTIC LAKENE (906.7) MARKLEY LAKERD ( ) HOWARD LAKE NE(957.3) CRYSTAL LAKE NE(943.3) RICE LAKE NE(945) CLEARY LAKE NE CAMPBELL LAKENE (Not Estab.) SUBJECTPROPERTY SUBJECTPROPERTY DESIGN/BUILD | CONSTRUCTION Narrative on Faith Lutheran Church re-zoning request Fifty-two years ago, the initial congregation of Faith purchased almost five acres at what is now 16840 Highway 13 South in Prior Lake. Fifty -one years ago, an approximate 2,500 square foot Sanctuary was built. The lot utilization was approximately 1/4th of the total acreage considering both the Sanctuary, parking spaces, and landscaped areas. In 1983, there was an approximate 2,500 square foot Fellowship Hall and Narthex added to the original building. With this in place, Faith now utilized about 50% of the available lot space. In 2017, another 34 years later, we completed a total renovation in the Kitchen and Bathrooms in the Fellowship Hall along with a cosmetic renovation in the Narthex and the remainder of the Fellowship Hall. For many of the fifty years, the congregation remained very stable in numbers with little attrition and small amounts of new Members. In 2017, we started initiatives with the updated property to consciously add new Members and bring more people to God’s word in the Congregation. In spite of the Nationwide numbers of Church Members declining, as well as an impactful decline in Church attendance, Faith Lutheran Church has grown an average of over 10% annually in Church attendance over the past three years. Faith Lutheran church has a new mission to provide more resources for our existing congregation, while engaging potential new members, and becoming a resource for the City of Prior Lake and the Prior Lake Community. “Outreach” will be our rally call moving forward. In order to identify the potential needs of the Community, we have met with various organizational leaders in the Prior Lake area to identify current and potential future needs. Following are some of the leadership staff and potential business and resource opportunities that were identified: Leanne Weyranch, Director of Community Education Services identified the needs that the Prior Lake- Savage School District has for meeting and classroom space. She also identified the ongoing need for a Teen Center in Prior Lake. Lesley Young, City Recreation Program Assistant identified the potential need for the Senior Citizen Center to be expanded from three days per week to five. With over 6,000 visitors last year, the program could be expanded. Also, there is need for an Arts and Crafts program for the Senior Citizens program. Today, the Seniors meet on their own at individuals’ homes. The opportunity to provide the opportunity for interaction between Senior Citizens and youth is a great opportunity. There was a highlighted section in the Sunday Minneapolis Star and Tribune which really brought out the synergies of the two groups. It was also pointed out that there is no religious connection within the Senior Citizens Center for this who may wish to partake. Tim Bell, Principal at Five Hawks Elementary School, and a neighbor of Faith Lutheran Church, identified the need for a crosswalk and sidewalk on the East side of Five Hawks Avenue. Today, all departing students must exit to the north from the School, regardless of what direction they need to proceed home on. Additionally, there is a void in the afternoon for Students who do not have home supervision and their parents cannot afford the additional cost required for additional supervision. These students could be potentially tied into an activity with Faith and or our Child Care facility. The Community Education Mission “requires that parents, family, schools, Faith Communities, businesses, community organizations, and all people living in our Community work together. This can be done through a cooperative effort in meeting the recreational, educational, social and culture needs and wants of the Community.” Our goal is to provide a viable resource for the Community, as we expand and grow our Church outreach. The Child Care Center is a great example. When completed there will be 140+ Children in the Center on a daily basis. We are looking to build a Christian based Child Care Center that will provide a great learning environment as well as a Christian learning environment for the Child Care attendees. The staffing required for the Center will create new jobs and opportunities for the City and the Community. The profits of the business will be utilized in the Marketplace and not in a Wall Street stock. If we are granted the zoning change, we would propose building the Child Care Center in 2019-2020. Once the Child Care Center is completed, we would start the initiative of expanding the Fellowship Hall to meet all of the needs that the Faith Lutheran Church identifies as going forward strategies. This would include many of the above identified areas, as well as addressing additional business, health, and personal needs of our Congregation and the Community. Areas such as Mental Health, Financial Planning, etc. would be housed in offices within our expanded Fellowship Hall. We would plan on building the addition and any additional renovations to the current facility in 2021. Finally, we would look at the needs of our current and future Congregation in the Sanctuary. This could become even more of a multi-purpose facility that would also be used to meet the needs of the Faith Lutheran Congregation and the Community. We would like to plan the Church Sanctuary renovation and or new facility in 2022. This will allow us additional time to identify and sort out all of the potential opportunities before we make the final piece of the construction process. We believe that since the Child Care Facility would necessitate about 1.4 acres, we would still have about one acre of vacant land. Our thought process would be to build aesthetically pleasing townhomes in that space. The town homes could be purchased by Seniors who like the proximity of a Church and a Health Facility very close by. We believe that young adults with young Children would be interested with the proximity to the Child Care Center, Church, and Elementary School We aren’t looking to sell the property to generate income. We are running out of space for growing our Church, having sufficient parking spaces, and being able to meet the current and future needs of our Congregation and our Community. The monies recognized from the re-zoning and sale of the remaining unused lot, would be spent to upgrade our facilities, our capabilities, and our resources to meet those needs. We are a profitable congregation with little debt today. Our path to the future is to be able to use identified resources to improve what we can provide to our Membership and the Community. We greatly enjoy the opportunity to meet with the Planning Commission and the City Council on our proposed re-zoning and building initiative. Sincerely; Roger Toomey President Faith Lutheran Church July 2, 2019 New Creations was founded in 2011 as a way of providing quality, affordable, Christ-centered, child care to our community. The early childhood education field is different from other businesses, and we understand that. We don’t “make” a product. We “are” our product. Our success depends on how we treat our community. At New Creations we take great pride in creating a foundation of lifelong learning for each child. We have 9 additional locations in the Twin Cities area including Andover, two locations in Blaine, Big Lake, Brooklyn Park, Crocus Hill, Lino Lakes, Maple Grove and Ramsey. Each location has a current enrollment of between 60 and 140 children. As we look at expanding into Prior Lake, our building design would include 2 infant classrooms (24 infants, ages 6 weeks to 14 months), 2 toddler classrooms (42 toddlers, ages 15 months to 36 months), and 3 preschool classrooms (60 preschoolers, ages 3 years and older). This center will also include an indoor large motor area, library, indoor and outdoor play areas, lactation room for nursing moms, warming kitchen for our catered meals as well as a staff lounge. We also anticipate employing between 20-30 people at any given time. Our nutrition program is a catered meal program that is delivered daily to the building just prior to serving. The food temperature will be maintained with countertop steam trays, plated and delivered to the classrooms from the designated warming kitchen. As such, we will not be cooking food at this location. The kitchen will include refrigerator, freezer, countertop steam tray as well as all required sinks, drains and countertops. Our business model will continue to be to offer educationally focused, faith-based child care at an affordable tuition rate. We will provide a family atmosphere for not only our clients but also our staff. We hope to start construction on the site as soon as we receive approval from the city. Sincerely, New Creations Child Care and Learning Center