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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL — NOVEMBER 24, 2025 11 Senior Planner Fransen stated she did not have this information in front of her. Mayor Grant indicated the Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend approval of this request. He did not believe this vote would change if the matter were sent back to them for further consideration. Councilmember Holden commented if the Council does not like the shoreline impacts the Council should table action to December 8, versus sending this application back to the Planning Commission. She clarified that no portion of the existing homes were grandfathered in because the applicant was proposing a brand new build. Councilmember Monson inquired if the applicant were to add onto the existing structure into the new lot, would the Council have the same considerations. City Attorney Bjerkness advised the applicant would be allowed to keep the non -conformities that exist today, but they could not be expanded. Councilmember Monson stated she would be more open to supporting this request if the applicant was not building anything new within the shore impact zone. Councilmember Holden indicated this was a Council decision and was a policy issue. She supported the Council either tabling action on this item in order to provide the applicant with the opportunity to bring another plan back to the Council for further consideration or voting on this item at this meeting. She explained she was very concerned about the crawl space and the fact this area would flood, especially given how many 100-year flood events have occurred in recent years. Mayor Grant reported if the City Council were to vote this request down, the applicant could not bring back another application for six months. Community Development Director Reilly stated this was the case. He explained another option available to the Council would be to add conditions or ask staff to bring back conditions that were more appealing to the applicant. Councilmember Rousseau inquired if the applicant would be interested in reducing the size of the living room that reaches out into the shore impact zone. Councilmember Holden stated she did not believe the Council should be redesigning the house for the applicant from the dais. Councilmember Rousseau asked if the space within the shore impact zone could be further reduced or was the design based on the Planning Commission's recommendations. Tan Nguyen, the applicant and architect hired by the property owner, explained the design was based on the Planning Commission's recommendation. He indicated the kitchen area (Lot 4) does not cross into the flood zone at all. He reported he could look into reducing the area that juts into the flood zone, but noted this would just flow over to the other side on Lot 4. Councilmember Rousseau questioned if the applicant would support delaying action on this item to January.