06-07-23-PC Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 15, 2023 (updated letter) City of Arden Hills 1245 West Highway 96 Arden Hills MN 55112 Subject: New Horizon Sign Application on Land O’Lakes Property As part of the headquarter campus expansion completed in 2018, Land O’Lakes partnered with New Horizon Academy (NHA) to provide onsite childcare for Land O’Lakes employees. The NHA center is licensed to care for approximately 120 children. Enrollment was steadily increasing until March 2020 when the impact of COVID 19 forced the HQ campus employees to work full-time from home. At that point enrollment plummeted to 25 children and since then we have not been able to increase enrollment beyond 50 children. The impact of employees now having remote or hybrid schedule (work from home and in the office), onsite childcare is not as valued of an amenity post-Covid. Parents are choosing childcare close to home for more flexibility. Since we opened the childcare in 2018, NHA continues to receive many inquiries from non-Land O’Lakes employees about childcare openings and offerings. With the space already built out for childcare and not needing this space for any other purpose, Land O’Lakes and NHA agreed to offer the childcare to the community. A key driver to marketing childcare is visible road signage. In determining the best location to place a NHA sign, we agreed a sign along Lexington Avenue given the amount of traffic that road handles daily. However, having a combined Land O’Lakes and NHA at the entrance of the Land O’Lakes drive on Lexington Avenue would be very challenging. NHA is in Building C of the Land O’Lakes campus which is located on County Road F. For parents/child(ren) safety and convenience, we have drop- off/pick-up spots in front of Building C close to the NHA entrance. Having a combined sign on Lexington Avenue would create confusion as there would be an assumption that is the entrance to NHA. We would need to redirect parents to County Road F, Building C. Therefore, we are proposing the placement of the New Horizon Academy sign 200 feet north of the Land O’Lakes sign on Lexington Avenue which is south of the Land O’Lakes property line. The Land O’Lakes is proposing to reskin/reface the Land O’Lakes monument sign on County Road F to include New Horizon Academy’s name on the sign along with an updated Land O’Lakes logo. At some point in the future, we will be replacing the Land O’Lakes logo on the other signs along County Road F and Lexington Avenue. All other information on the signs will remain the same. The proposed NHA sign on Lexington Avenue satisfies Subd. 1 and Subd. 3 criteria of the Sign Standard Adjustment criteria. The site plan packet depicts the rendering and location of the proposed NHA sign on Lexington Avenue and the proposed reskinned Land O’Lakes sign on County Road F. Both New Horizon Academy and Land O’Lakes would be very appreciative of this application being approved by the city of Arden Hills. Sincerely, Marcia H. Droege Director, Real Estate & Facilities