All right.

The January 9th, 2026 meeting of the St.

Paul Planning Commission will now come to order.

Our first order of business is approval of the minutes from November 14th and November 5th, 2025.

Do I have a motion?

Oh.

Moved by Commissioner Holt and seconded by Commissioner Riley.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

All right.

Seeing none, we'll now move forward with the vote.

All those in favor?

All those opposed.

Any abstentions?

All right, the minutes pass.

Next up is chair's announcements.

I don't know how to do the two pieces of business we have.

So we'll start with the obvious one.

It's been a really sad, challenging week.

I'm really excited and proud that we're all here.

Everybody came into business when everything is so hard.

So I'm just really thankful for all of you.

And then related to that, um, Commissioner Martinson passed out some literature.

It's not part of official business, um, but we did he is allowed to just pass it out.

We appreciate him taking the time to do that.

Um I don't know how to do this transition.

Um, but I would like to thank Commissioner Risberg for his time here at the planning commission.

Um his time will be wrapping up at the end of the month.

And there is an honorary resolution honoring is appreciation and the service as a planning commissioner.

So I'm gonna start reading a lot of whereas and thanks for you.

Um and I want to flag that uh Commissioner Homas was also um was really instrumental in getting the ball rolling on this.

Um and so even though he's not here at the moment, just want to um make sure that his the impetus for this was acknowledged and his time.

Um so an honorary resolution and appreciation of the service of planning commissioner Risberg.

Whereas the City of St.

Paul Planning Commission is charged with advising the mayor, city council, and city departments on matters related to land use zoning, comprehensive planning, and the orderly growth and development of the city, and whereas Commissioner Risberg has faithfully served as a member and officer of the St.

Paul Planning Commission since 2017, dedicating his time, expertise, and thoughtful judgment to the review of complex planning, zoning and development matters.

And whereas Commissioner Risberg chaired the transportation committee, a subcommittee of the planning commission through many projects, including the Summit Avenue Regional Trail Plan and the St.

Paul Bike Plan update.

And whereas Commissioner Risberg worked to improve the complete streets aspect of these projects to encourage Transportation Committee members to speak their voices on these important issues.

Whereas throughout his tenure, Commissioner Risberg demonstrated a commitment to empowering his fellow commissioners to speak their voices to public service to careful deliberation and the long-term well-being of St.

Paul's neighborhoods, residents, and businesses.

And whereas Commissioner Risberg service contributed to the transparent decision-making, meaningful public engagement and the advancement of the city's planning and transportation goals and adopted policies.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the St.

Paul Planning Commission hereby expresses its sincere appreciation and gratitude to Commissioner Risberg for his dedicated service and valuable contributions to the planning commission and the city of St.

Paul.

You're here.

Wonderful to be able to contribute a bit to this city and be a part of this great commission.

And it keeps getting better, I swear year after year.

And I think we're in the city's in great hands with the commission that we have and uh the staff that we have.

And I'm um just so proud to have been a part of it.

And it's been uh a great experience.

So thank you.

And um I I should put a point out that the Transportation Committee has also um shown a lot of a lot of growth um over the last several years with some really good people, uh, citizen members, and that that works really well, whether it continues with this commission or not.

in great hands with the commission that we have and uh the staff that we have and I'm um just so proud to have been a part of it and it's been uh a great experience so thank you and um I I should put a point out that the Transportation Committee has also um shown a lot of a lot of growth um over the last several years with some really good people um citizen members and that that works really well whether it continues with this commission or not but um it's really been a great experience leading that effort so well thank you anyway so thank you and this will be available after the meeting I've got a copy please oh thanks okay thanks Bill pointed out that we should actually vote on it uh so uh I've read uh the honorary resolution um is there I'll make the motion in this in this case is there a second second second by commissioner starling is there any discussion on the motion thank you for your time and your guidance thank you thank you so much all right seeing no more discussion move uh to vote all those in favor uh all those post any abstentions abstain uh thank you commissioner risburg we really appreciate you thanks and we're gonna hold um planning directors and outputs just to the end so that we can move forward with the zerning committee business if folks are all right with that all right I'm gonna give Simon just a moment to pull his items up because he didn't know okay so um we have two items on the agenda today um the first of those is 42 Water Street uh C UP that is an additional use permits to allow for to increase the liable building heights 75 feet from uh a maximum 50 and I believe it's to enable a packing ramp.

So I don't think I was at this one but um the motion coming out committee is to adopt the staff recommendation to approve a condition use permit to increase level building height from 50 to 75 feet 42 more street west.

All right thank you so we have um the motion is there discussion on this motion all right seeing none we'll move forward with the vote all those in favor all those opposed any abstentions all right the item passes our next ice cream is um 500 broadway rezoning um and that says uh on ed res uh triple 200 2025 that's to rezone four parcels that the currently reserved currently zoned I1 light industrial to B5 central business service district that's at 500 Broadway streets um that is to enable the mixed use uh residential developments thank you and the emotion coming out of zoning committee was unanimous approval for three zero move is to adopt the staff recommendation to approve rezoning of four I1 parcels to B5.

All right thank you is there any uh that's the motion coming out of committee is there any discussion on this I have one question which is um I've looked at the map of this area and obviously that's a huge swathe of you know I one and then connecting to I2 further off there's there's sort of B B5 sort of across the way there's one B5 next this parcel it feels like this is an area in transition and I'm kind of curious about why the B5 zoning versus say like a T district or something like that and or and then also whether the whether the department is considering sort of a broader rezoning study for that area if it really is moving away from you know a bunch of warehouses and other such things um we'll have Bill Germany come up and comment on it from the staff reflective I will say this was part of the conversation at zoning committee as well.

If someone wants to wants to wants to summarize the conversation that'd be great too I would love to I'd be glad to answer your questions thank you um Chair Commissioner.

The uh the rezoning to B5 is what they applied for certainly T District could have been an option as well but this is adjacent to downtown the B5 uh intent statement is meant to be sort of a um edge of downtown supportive service for downtown so it's appropriate for that um we have not uh launched a zoning study we could here and in other places uh as you know it's an area of transition and that it's mostly industrial today um but the comprehensive plan calls for it to be mixed use this portion at least the southern part of that industrial area um we have just by uh by default at least um taking the approach that it would be a um uh market based transition when people want to transition they would come and rezoned certainly could be an option to do a a zoning study in advance this isn't the only area in the city where we have this it's uh that is an approach we could take we just haven't got it thank you so many appreciate it yeah I'm thinking very much of sorry just advantage I'm thinking very much of sort of you know avoiding acting as having to come for these sorts of things if we have you know already done this en masse all right um I'm gonna do Commissioner Riley and then the director has a comment yeah just a comment uh um commissioner tagyas question um I think that um the what I'll call the nice thing about this B5 zoning district uh which is unique among all of the districts is that it allows for a different mix of um of

All right, um, I'm gonna do Commissioner Riley and then the director has a comment.

Yeah, just a comment to um Commissioner Tagia's question.