Saint Paul Planning Commission Meeting - May 16, 2025
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Saint Paul Planning Commission Meeting - May 16, 2025
The Saint Paul Planning Commission met on May 16, 2025, from approximately 8:30 a.m. to about 10:15 a.m. to review several zoning and planning items, make recommendations to the City Council, and advance neighborhood plans. The meeting included approval of minutes, a conditional use permit for a farmers market, a large structure reuse permit, a complex rezoning for the historic Hamm's Brewery site, initiation of a minor text amendment zoning study, release of the Hamline-Midway Neighborhood Plan for public review, and a recommendation on a commercial development district for a liquor license extension. Key decisions included approval of most items, but denial of the T3 rezoning for parcels three and four of the Hamm's site due to spot zoning concerns.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the May 16, 2025, meeting were approved unanimously. (Note: The agenda for this meeting is dated May 30, 2025; the transcript indicates the meeting occurred on the date specified by the user.)
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments or testimony were presented during this meeting. The public hearing for the Hamline-Midway plan and the commercial development district will occur at later City Council meetings.
Discussion Items
- Rice/Larpenteur Farmers Market (25-029-508): Valerie Quarles presented a conditional use permit for a seasonal farmers market (15 vendors, May–October) on the southwest corner of Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue. The zoning committee recommended approval, including a special approval to sell non-crop items. The commission approved unanimously without discussion.
- 325 Dayton Reuse of Large Structure (25-030-214): Chris Hong presented a conditional use permit to convert a former bed-and-breakfast into an event hall, short-term rental units, a Montessori school, and a daycare. The Summit University Planning Council recommended approval. The commission approved unanimously.
- Hamm's Brewery Rezoning (25-015-702): A complex rezoning of five parcels at 694 Minnehaha Avenue E. and adjacent properties from I2 general industrial to various residential and mixed-use designations. The zoning committee split the recommendation into three motions:
- Parcels 1 and 2: Rezone from I2 to RM2 (medium-density multi-family). Passed 8–4.
- Parcel 5: Rezone from I2 to H2 (residential). Passed 8–4.
- Parcels 3 and 4: Rezone from I2 to T3 (traditional neighborhood). Failed unanimously (0–12) due to concerns about spot zoning, incompatibility of leaving three industrial ‘islands’ within a T3 area, and the lack of a coherent overall plan for the full opportunity site. Commissioners expressed frustration that the application resulted from unresolved negotiations between the city and adjacent property owners rather than a comprehensive land-use vision.
- Minor Text Amendment Zoning Study: Initiated and adopted—procedural step to correct outdated language and typos in the zoning code. Passed unanimously.
- Hamline-Midway Neighborhood Plan Update (D11): Staff recommended releasing the 10-year plan for public review and setting a public hearing date of July 25, 2025 (amended from July 11). The plan focuses on thriving main streets, affordable housing, and transit-oriented development. Approved unanimously.
- Commercial Development District at 1626 White Bear Ave N: Request from Cups and Cheers restaurant to allow liquor service after midnight, requiring creation of a new commercial development district. The planning commission’s role was limited to assessing consistency with the Comprehensive Plan and zoning code. Staff found consistency. Commissioner Houmas moved for denial citing insufficient community notice and neighborhood concerns (noise, crime), but the motion failed. The commission voted to recommend approval (9–2–1, with Commissioners Houmas and Ortega opposed and Commissioner Said abstaining).
Key Outcomes
- Conditional Use Permits: Both the Rice/Larpenteur Farmers Market and 325 Dayton reuse were approved unanimously.
- Hamm's Brewery Rezoning: Parcels 1, 2, and 5 were approved; parcels 3 and 4 were denied. The commission will recommend denial to the City Council for the T3 rezoning.
- Minor Text Amendment: Initiated and adopted.
- Hamline-Midway Plan: Released for public review with a public hearing set for July 25, 2025.
- Commercial Development District: Recommended approval to the City Council, which will hold a public hearing in Ward 6 on June 18, 2025 (tentative).
Meeting Transcript
Order. Our first order of business is approval of the minutes for May 16th, 2025. Do we have a motion for the minutes? Motion by Commissioner Sayah. Do you have a second? Second by Commissioner Hood. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Seeing no discussion. We'll order the vote. All those in favor? All those opposed. Any abstentions? All right. The minutes pass. Next up is chair's announcements. No big announcements. Just a reminder for planning commissioners who missed the previous meeting or the second half of the previous meeting meeting that Bill Dermady did a presentation. And I do think it's definitely worth watching if you didn't see it. You weren't here. So recommend catching the video for that. And if you've got any questions, I'm sure staff would happy to answer those. And that is all my announcements for this week. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I'll just add a little bit to uh what Chair Grill just mentioned. You know, if you missed the training, we can also, you know, schedule a one-on-one time to give that to you in addition to what's you know available on the meeting recording. So I just wanted to offer that up if you had any, you know, if you watched it and then had some questions or anything to discuss. Okay. Thanks, everybody. Uh next up is zoning committee. Um, so I know Commissioner Taggyak isn't here currently. Um we can take these items in order. And I'm wondering uh if staff is comfortable coming up and giving just a quick summary. Um so we'll start with um 25029508, Rice Larpender Farmers Market. And we have Valerie uh quarrels here and just as a note for all the the commissioners. Uh this is Valerie's first time in front of the full planning commission. So we we met her at zoning last week. Thank you. I'm just gonna plug in real quick. We're not anyway. So at zoning committee, we talked about uh farmers market conditional use permit over at Rice Larpner. It's on the southwest corner. If you've been up there recently for the monument side is uh it's a conditional use permit for 15 stalls and it would run May through October seasonally. The zoning committee had a short discussion about it and approved it. The only thing to note specifically is that there's a quirk in the code that notes that there has to be an additional approval for selling anything other than crops essentially. So things like you know, wares and prepared foods, and the zoning committee did recommend giving that approval. So we give you approval, and that's the report. Awesome. Are there any questions on the staff report for this?
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