The concept plan for turning the aging Wayzata Bay Center into a pedestrian-friendly housing, retail and office development was approved by the Wayzata City Council in a 3-2 vote.
Concept plan approval gives Presbyterian Homes and Services, the applicant, ability to submit a detailed general plan for council review.
Council members, even those who voted for approval on Dec. 18 in Wayzata Community Church, said they want to see more visuals to help answer a contested question: Will the four and five story buildings be too high?
Design has been given extra attention compared to normal Presbyterian Homes projects, said John Mehrkens, vice president of development.
"Whatever happened here had to be special. It had to be extraordinary," Mehrkens said.
Council members Mary Bader and Jack Amdal voted against the proposal.
Amdal said he wanted to postpone a vote until Presbyterian Homes shows that the proposal's height and density is needed to make it an economic success.
"It's the unknown that bothers me the most," Amdal said.
The two five-story buildings on the north and east blocks would be about 68 feet. The city's height ordinance is 35 feet.
The Bay Center is bordered by Lake Street, Superior Boulevard and Circle A Drive.
Council Member Ken Willcox said he supports the project, and fears that if it isn't approved, the site will turn into a derelict shopping center or an office park.
"The worrisome part of this really is, for me, the height issue," Willcox said.
Bader said putting the highest buildings nearest the Circle A Drive neighborhood would "rob the residents of their sky, their sun, their views."
She predicted an approval would send a message to other developers.
"If we open the door to a four or five story building, we can expect every other developer who comes before us in the future to ask for the same thing," Bader said.
Final approval of the project would likely require the city to remove a 35-foot height limit from the city's Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance, said City Attorney Bob Meller. He said that would put future project heights at the council's discretion.
Submitting a PUD allows for greater flexibility than the more strict provisions in other parts of the ordinance.
Meller said a height limit does not belong in a PUD ordinance that's purpose is to allow flexibility for creative design.
The height of the current proposal, and how it would look to residents, was a common topic on Dec. 18.
Ed Briesemeister, a spokesperson for the developer, said the appearance of height depends on design, and distance from buildings.
"The discussion of height, in my view, has been kind of exaggerated," Briesemeister said.
Early in the meeting, with about 140 in attendance in the church sanctuary, more than 30 people commented to the council about the project.
Andrew Mullin said he wants to live where he can walk the entire city east to west, north to south, and said he liked the proposal's park space that would face Lake Street.
"I wish we could have more common space to come together," Mullin said.
More people opposed the project Dec. 18 compared to the responses heard in the Planning Commission meetings. A common subject for those who opposed it was height.
"I live in the shadow of this project," said Bill Berneking, who lives on Circle A Drive. "The impact this project will have on my neighborhood is very harsh."
Berneking said the buildings would block sunlight, especially in the winter.
"We get sunlight on inside walls. Seventy-foot buildings would eliminate that," he said.
Steve Fox, a Circle A Drive resident, said the project needs to be scaled back. Presbyterian Homes and the development team is "a pretty inflexible group, in terms of design and what it wants to accomplish," Fox said.
The last two development proposals - one from Madison Marquette in 2004 and another from United Properties in 2006 - received concept plan approvals, only to have the developers later withdraw their plans.
Presbyterian Homes has said it has no plan B for the site.
"Does that mean it can't be adjusted? It can be," Mehrkens said. He said "tweaks" are OK.
"Sweeping changes would be detrimental to the site," Mehrkens said.
Council Member Sue Bangert said the project is appropriate, architecturally diverse and interesting. But she said moving from the 35-foot limit to 70 feet is a lot to ask.
"I'd like to see at least a couple of the buildings altered in height. Lowered," Bangert said.
But she also conceded that the council may need to compromise: "Maybe that's where we give."
Mehrkens, of Presbyterian Homes, said he wasn't opposed to making changes to the buildings.
"If those can be adjusted so they can squeeze here and expand there as to your liking, we would like that opportunity," he said.
Among the 20 minor conditions attached to the resolution to approve the concept plan was a non-binding one noting the council's concern about project height.
The council shot down a condition proposed by Bader to require the developer to reduce the height.
Mayor Andrew Humphrey said the project would revitalize the city's retail market, and provide a place for young families in addition to the senior housing. It would reconnect what's now "a sea of asphalt" to the rest of town.
Humphrey, like other council members, wanted a clear idea of what residents in the Circle A Drive neighborhood would see. He said that means moving the proposal to the general plan stage.
"It's actually a fairly easy call for me to approve it at the concept plan" stage, Humphrey said.
