Green Valley Greenhouse/Davis Farms 2nd Addition Plat and Rezoning

Background
The City Council approved the Comprehensive Plan amendment, the amended conditional use permit (CUP), and the introduction of the rezoning ordinance at its meeting on August 8. 

Green Valley Greenhouse (GVG) has been in operation for many years along the south side of Green Valley Road.  Over the years, the business has expanded after receiving the proper approvals.  The most recent approval, in 2018, identified an overall area for additional greenhouses to be installed in phases over the years.  GVG is planning to purchase a 22-acre portion of the property to the west owned by the Hunt family to expand the greenhouse operations further.  The portion southwest of the meandering ditch will be retained by the Hunt family.

Staff mailed a public hearing notice to property owners within 700 feet of the parcels included in the plat on July 28, 2022.  A notice of the Public Hearing was also published in the Anoka County UnionHerald, the City's official newspaper.

Plat
The proposed minor (final) plat of Davis Farms 2^nd Addition is proposed to turn these three existing platted parcels into two lots.  By incorporating the area southwest of the ditch into the Hunt’s southern parcel in the plat, the possibility of a landlocked parcel is eliminated. 

Zoning
The GVG property is zoned R-1 MUSA.  The Hunt property is split with the eastern half also being zoned R-1 MUSA-80 and the western half being zoned R-2.  Commercial greenhouses are an allowed conditional use in the R-1 districts, though the use is not allowed in R-2.  In order to expand greenhouses fully onto the adjacent property, it must be zoned entirely R-1 to accommodate it.  Approximately six acres are affected.  In exchange, a 6.73-acre portion of the Hunt property (conveniently drawn from two lot corners) is proposed to be rezoned to R-2.
 
Comprehensive Plan Amendment
Simply rezoning the R-2 to R-1 MUSA-80 on the Hunt property cannot be accomplished since that portion of land is also guided for medium density residential uses in the Comprehensive Plan.  Zoning designations must be in conformance with the Comprehensive Plan per state statutes.  An amendment to the Comprehensive Plan  was approved on August 8 that re-guides the medium density land to low density residential.  The amendment was forwarded to the Metropolitan Council for review on August 11.
 
In recent years, the City has been under pressure from the Metropolitan Council to maintain or increase overall density to justify its investment in the sanitary sewer system in Ramsey.  Getting the Metropolitan Council to sign off on downgrading approximately six acres is extremely unlikely as our existing overall density is at 2.9 units/acre (3.0 units/acre is the benchmark).  Therefore, the applicant is looking to swap density on the Hunt’s property to the south.  This land is still adjacent to other medium density property.  Once the density is swapped, the rezoning can occur for both the area that GVG is purchasing and what the Hunt family is retaining. 
 
 

All costs associated with the application is the responsibility of the applicant. 

At its meeting on July 28, 2022, the Planning Commission recommended (6-1) to approve the proposal.  Concerns about noise and traffic were discussed along with different options for guiding/zoning the Green Valley Greenhouse property.  The Environmental Policy Board (EPB) reviewed the proposal and recommended approval of it contingent upon submitting a landscape plan on July 19.

Two motions are required at this time:

Motion to adopt Ordinance #22-24 rezoning lands between R-1 MUSA-80 and R-2 southeast of Green Valley Road NW and Nowthen Blvd. NW.

Motion to adopt Resolution #22-183 approving the final plat of Davis Farms Second Addition.