HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-12-04 Council Work Session MINUTES
OF THE JOINT WORK SESSION OF THE
EDINA CITY COUNCIL
HELD AT CITY HALL
DECEMBER 4,2007
5:00 P.M.
Mayor Hovland called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. in the Community Room of City Hall.
Answering rollcall were: Members Bennett, Housh, Masica, Swenson and Mayor Hovland. Staff
present included: Gordon Hughes, City Manager; Cary Teague, City Planner; Heather
Worthington, Assistant City Manager; Ceil Smith, Assistant to the City Manager; Jennifer
Bennerotte,Communications &Marketing Director;and Debra Mangen,City Clerk.
Mayor Hovland said the purpose of the special work session was to preliminarily review the
official controls relative to massing.
Manager Hughes said staff, after being directed at the last Council meeting to prepare a
moratorium ordinance, reviewed work tasks that could be undertaken relative to the massing
issue. He noted that there was a need to keep in mind whatever was accomplished, must be
completed by April 15th when the existing moratorium in the Country Club District would end.
Mr. Hughes said staff believed issues that were of a long term nature included: research and
development of design review criteria; neighborhood character regulations and definitions, and
development of multiple R-1 zoning districts. He said that in the short term staff could, with the
help of a consultant, put together some modeling demonstrating the impact of various Floor Area
Ratio (FAR) options, draft some kind of hard surface coverage regulations, and review the Code's
overall height regulations,returning to the Council with options at their second January meeting.
Member Masica related the results of her meetings with residents, as well as builders and realtors
where they reviewed Lon Oberpiller's Neighborhood Appropriate Scaling which she briefly stated
was based on FAR and the average area of structures within a defined neighborhood also using
some type of escalator that would still need to be determined. Member Masica said the persons
who took part in the two meetings were amenable to the Neighborhood Scaling.
The Council and staff discussed the issues involved in massing including FAR and variations of
FAR, whether or not an accurate footprint of existing homes existed in City records, sloping and
walk-out lots, criteria must be objective vs. subjective in determining regulations, developing
neighborhood definitions, tying building height regulations to lot size, difficulty of
implementation of a design review committee,hard surface coverage and total building height.
Following the discussion of the issues surrounding massing, the Council discussed how to proceed
with public comment on the moratorium issue. Their consensus was they would take comment for
forty minutes, allowing each speaker two minutes, limiting comment to persons who had not
previously addressed the Council. In addition, the Mayor would moderate allowing both sides of
the issue to speak.
Mayor Hovland declared the meeting adjourned at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Debra Mange , City 6lerk