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January 13, 2014 <br />Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers <br />Patrick Klaers, City Administrator <br />Matthew Bachler, Planner I <br />Multi-family Design Standards <br />Review the minimum unit size standards for multi-family dwelling units and direct staff to make <br />changes to Section 1325.045 Multi-family Dwelling Units Additional Conditional Use Permit <br />Criteria of the Zoning Code if necessary. <br />At the City Council Work Session on January 22, 2013, the Council requested that staff review <br />-family dwelling units. Currently, the standards <br />require multi-family dwelling units to be a minimum of 600 square feet, with an additional 100 <br />square feet required for each bedroom. The Council has expressed concerns that the standards <br />could permit multi-bedroom apartment units that do not provide adequate floor area per resident. <br />For example, under the existing requirements a three-bedroom unit would only need to be 900 <br />square feet in size and a four-bedroom unit only 1,000 square feet. <br />Staff has collected information from seven cities in the metro region that have adopted similar <br />minimum unit size standards for multi-family dwelling units. The cities included New Brighton, <br />Blaine, White Bear Lake, Maplewood, Fridley, Coon Rapids, and Bloomington. An analysis was <br />completed comparing the average square footage required per unit in these cities with Arden <br />Hills standards. Additionally, staff looked at ten multi-family development projects that have <br />been recently completed or that are under construction in outer-ring suburban communities to <br />evaluate the average unit sizes currently being built in the private market. These projects are <br />located in the communities of New Brighton, White Bear Lake, Arden Hills, Elk River, Apple <br />Valley, Ramsey, Eagan, Osseo, and Maple Grove. <br />Page of <br />