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City of Arden Hills Planning Commission Meeting for April 6, 2016 P:\Planning\Planning Cases\2016\PC 16-003 - Arden Square Master & Final PUD - 1160 County Road E\Memos_Reports_16-003 Page 5 of 11 Section 1325.05 Subd. 8 – B-2 District Design Standards The standards in this section only apply to building or site elements being developed or altered. In this case, staff reviewed the project based on the specific standards for screening, landscaping, parking, pedestrian circulation, and bicycle parking. Screening – Meets Requirements Trash and recycling containers are required to be fully enclosed and integrated into the architecture of the building. The proposal would upgrade the existing trash area, which is now screened with wood fencing, with a new enclosure at the southwest corner of the property. The enclosure would be 8 feet in height and constructed with a decorative rock face concrete block that would be consistent with the architecture of the building. Landscaping – Meets Requirements A minimum of one tree planting is required along the right-of-way for every 40 feet of street frontage. The property has 200 feet of frontage along County Road E and five tree plantings are required. There are four existing trees along the right-of-way and the proposed landscape plan shows three new deciduous trees planted around the driveway to the site. Parking – Meets Requirements The design standards discourage the placement of parking between the street right-of-way and buildings and require that no more than 50 percent of parking be located in the side yards. However, because the property is already developed this standard was not applied in this case. The Zoning Code requires plantings to be used to shade parking lots and provide screening from adjacent public streets. The landscape plan includes nine new deciduous trees to be planted in and around the perimeter of the parking lot that will add shading and screening. Parking lot islands are also to be used to distribute large parking lots and must be planted with at least one tree. Two parking lot islands would be added on the north side of the building to help define the two one-way drive aisles. Both islands include a Honey Locust tree and perennials. Pedestrian Circulation – Meets Requirements Sites must be designed to accommodate the safe mobility of pedestrians to and within the site. Pedestrian accessibility to the site has been improved with the recent completion of the County Road E sidewalk improvements. The proposed landscaping and traffic calming measures within the parking lot will better accommodate the safe mobility of pedestrians on the site. Bicycle Parking – Meets Requirements For commercial properties, one bicycle parking space is required for every 20 automobile parking spaces. In this case, there would be 67 parking stalls on the site and four bicycle parking spaces are required. The applicant has included two bicycle racks on the north side of the building in proximity to the tenant space entrances that would be able to accommodate up to four bicycles.