PUBLIC HEARING: Consider Ordinance #15-02 Amending City Code Section 117-54 (Site plan review) and City Code Section 117-589 (Minor plats)

The purpose of this case is to hold a Public Hearing on Ordinance #15-02 regarding a potential amendment to City Code Section 117-54 (Site plan review) to expand the use of administrative site plan review and City Code Section 117-589 (Minor plat) to streamline the approval process for Minor Plats. The effect of the ordinance would be to allow site plan review for smaller expansions of existing buildings that currently require full site plan review to proceed directly to Building Permit Review and reduce the time and number of steps required to approve a Minor Plat.

Note: the Planning Commission did review a similar amendment as part of a larger, single ordinance in 2012 that was ultimately not adopted. This amendment was a smaller portion of the previous ordinance that showed support for moving forward. The original amendment was coming forward as the City's Strategic Plan was coming forward, so it was a logical spot to pause and let that process unfold first. The current amendment fits in well with the City's Strategic Goal to streamline many of our processes. The Planning Commission recommended that this administrative process be expanded to Minor Plat to streamline that process as well.

 The Public Hearing was published in the Anoka County UnionHerald.

The proposed language for City Code Section 117-54 creates an exception to the required full site plan review rather than creating an entire new section of City Code. The effect of the ordinance would be to allow for expansion of existing buildings that match the exterior of the existing building and do not exceed the size of the original building to proceed directly to Building Permit Review rather than being reviewed by the Planning Commission and the City Council. The result would be a time savings of approximately 45 days and cost savings of approximately $1,000. The end result would also reduce Staff time necessary to process these development requests. The amendment would not grant a waiver from other review processes required beyond the City, such as the Lower Rum River Watershed Management Organization.

In regards to the recommendation to streamline the Minor Plat process, Staff recommends that these be forwarded directly to City Council in order to streamline the process. This process can be accomplished through the Consent Agenda to further streamline. The reason to forward to the City Council is in order to remain consistent with Statewide platting requirement to record a Plat. Formal approval by the City Council will allow a subdivision to still be accomplished through a Plat, rather than a metes and bounds legal description, and obtain the necessary approvals and signatures to forward to Anoka County Property Records and Taxation. The end result of the amendment will be to save approximately 30 days on the process of review of Minor Plats. As with administrative site plan review, the amendment does not eliminate the need for other agency review, if required.

This ordinance is being prepared as part of normal Staff duties.

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Ordinance #15-02.

Motion to recommend that the City Council adopt Ordinance #15-02.