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_________________________________________________________________________________________ City of Arden Hills Planning Commission Meeting for August 9, 2017 P:\Planning\Planning Cases\2017\PC 17-006 - Higher Education Study\Memos_Reports_17-006\PC Memo (08-09- 17)_17-006 V2.docx Page 3 of 7 The “Higher education, classroom/office” use is intended for classroom space that is becoming more common for off-campus continuing or graduate level education and other higher education uses that function similarly to a traditional office use. The staff suggested definition is: “Higher education, classroom/office. The facilities of technical colleges, junior colleges, colleges and universities approved by the Minnesota Higher Education Coordinating Board for the Minnesota Department of Education that function in a similar way to traditional business office uses. These facilities are limited to classrooms, administrative offices, or similar uses.” Higher Education, Classroom/Office Use The purpose of the separate Higher Education, Classroom/Office use is to allow for higher education uses that function similar to traditional office uses or have similar impacts or benefits as traditional office uses. The method to ensure that the higher education uses do not create impacts greater than traditional office uses would be to codify conditions and standards that a conditional use permit for higher education uses would need to comply with. These conditions could also address the City Council’s concern that higher education would occupy too much of the City’s limited commercial area. Staff would recommend that Higher Education, Classroom/Office be limited to a conditional use in only the B-2 zoning district. This would be more restrictive than the current Schools, Higher Education use which is a conditional use in the B-4 and Civic Center zoning districts as well. There are currently no higher education uses in the B-4 and Civic Center zoning districts, so no uses would become non-conforming if higher education was eliminated from those zoning districts. To address these concerns, staff has prepared the following draft language. “1320.085 Subd. 6 Higher Education, Classroom/Office Additional Conditional Use Criteria. In addition to meeting the requirements of Sections 1345 and 1355.04 Subd. 3, Higher Education, Classroom/Office uses shall conform to the following: A. No more than 25% of the total building area within the B-2 zoning district shall be occupied by Higher Education, Classroom/Office uses. B. Any Higher Education, Classroom/Office use shall provide benefits and have impacts to the B-2 district similar to an office use. C. The Higher Education, Classroom/Office use shall not generate any hazardous wastes, shall not result in any outdoor storage, and shall not require any mechanical or HVAC equipment that would not typically be required by a traditional office building.” The limit of 25% of the total building area within the B-2 zoning district was determined as acknowledgement of Bethel University’s current ownership and use of the Anderson Center at 2 Pine Tree Drive. The Anderson Center is 227,138 square feet in area. The total area of buildings