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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL – MAY 26, 2015 10 <br /> <br />City Administrator Klaers stated that he believed that the Mayor’s presentation to the County <br />Board on the City’s proposal for TCAAP was very well-received. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden commented that she would like to decrease the maximum density within <br />the NB-3 Zoning District from 8 units per acre to 6.75. She was in favor of approving a 95% <br />efficiency for future TCAAP developments. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden stated that she was concerned with how the City would meet the <br />County’s 20% affordable housing requirement. She questioned how this goal would be met <br />unless the City was to offer TIF. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant understood that the County believed “there was lots of money out there” to assist <br />with subsidizing affordable housing projects. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant questioned how the density within the TCAAP neighborhoods was calculated. <br /> <br />Community Development Director Hutmacher reviewed how staff had calculated the density, <br />noting that it was a gross acres net of parks, regional stormwater infrastructure, and arterial roads. <br />She reported that the neighborhood streets were included in the calculation. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holmes inquired if the Council had to approve the 95% efficiency requirement <br />when the density levels had already been set. <br /> <br />Community Development Director Hutmacher clarified that staff was responding to a request <br />made by Councilmember Holden with regard to the 95% efficiency requirement. This led to the <br />proposed density decrease in the NB-3 Zoning District. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holmes believed that this was a waste of time and that the slight reduction of 40 <br />units was not worth additional Council discussion. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden commented that it was important to her because without the adjustment, <br />the Council would be locked into 1,476 units on TCAAP instead of 1,431. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant added that it may be to the advantage of future developers to have slightly larger <br />lots, but noted that there were still a large number of 50-foot lots. He supported Councilmember <br />Holden’s proposed change. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden asked what kind of deviations within the land use plan would be <br />reviewed by the City. <br /> <br />City Attorney Jamnik advised that the Council reserve the authority to review significant <br />deviations from the adopted plan. He discussed Section 3.3 within the TRC and commented that <br />the Regulating Plan Map and TRC were to be approved by the Council. He explained that <br />because this framework exists, any significant deviations from the original plans should be <br />reviewed by the City Council. He reviewed language that he had drafted last week that speaks to <br />this matter noting that it would be written into the Comprehensive Plan Amendment. This would <br />ensure that the Council would be able to review any large-scale deviations.