The Crystal Planning Commission met tonight, and we finished the meeting in record time- from start to finish the whole thing lasted only 15 minutes.

There were only two items on the agenda:

1) Consideration of a Conditional Use Permit for a new dental manufacturing facility and

2) Consideration of an application to allow an expanded garage on a residential property.

The first item was for the Crystal Barber’s building on Douglas Drive.  The new owner wants to use the building to do some light manufacturing of dental appliances like crowns and bridges.  Because the property is zoned for commercial use, the manufacturing use required a conditional use permit.  The item passed unanimously.

The second item regarded a homeowner who wanted to expand a non-conforming garage.  Apparently in 2004 the way the height of a structure is measured was changed.  It used to be measured as the mean of the peak of the roof and the eave, and now it’s measured as the peak of the roof.  Code only allows a garage to be 15 feet tall, and the existing garage is about 19 feet tall.  Because the change was made after the structure was built, the garage became what is called “legally nonconforming” which means it is allowed to stay as is indefinitely, but if the structure is modified in any substantial way it must be brought into compliance with the current code, or granted a variance to stay out of compliance.

In this case the homeowner just wanted to add an addition to the back of the garage, and obviously didn’t want the new addition to have a lower roof than the existing garage.  The item passed unanimously.

The only other thing to report is that Hennepin County approved the curb cuts for the Gaulke property on Douglas Drive (see here for background) which I believe was the final potential regulatory road block for the project.

There are currently no agenda items for December’s meeting, so that could be my last planning meeting before I join the council!