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Chisago City Council approves variance and design review for Brinks Market expansion
Summary
The council approved a variance and design review allowing a 9,000 sq. ft. addition at 11460 Brink Ave., increasing impervious surface to 82% and keeping 78 parking stalls; city staff said curbside service and adjoining parking mitigate impacts.
Chisago City Council voted unanimously June 24 to approve a variance and design review that will allow Brinks Market at 11460 Brink Ave. to build a roughly 9,000-square-foot addition.
Associate Planner Leah Nelson told the council the proposal requests reduced setbacks — 48 feet to the north and 36 feet to the west versus the 50-foot right-of-way requirement — would raise the site's impervious surface from about 75% to roughly 82% (the zoning code maximum is 70%), and would not add parking stalls to the existing 78-space lot, although 84 spaces are available in adjoining lots. The Planning Commission and city staff recommended approval, finding the use is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and that the market serves a necessary community function.
Nelson noted the property is zoned Highway Commercial and in the Shoreland Overlay District and that the applicant provided a drainage plan to address runoff concerns. Council member Craig Meyer said the commission's primary concern was drainage but that commissioners supported the project as an essential local service. "The addition makes sense," Meyer said.
Tomas Bruce, senior vice president of Rice Companies, which is handling the project, thanked staff and council for a collaborative review. "It is super helpful, especially when you have a client that does so much for the community," Bruce said, and indicated he hoped to submit the building permit application the following week.
City staff pointed to changes in customer behavior, such as curbside pickup and delivery, in arguing the original parking-stall ordinance (written in the 1990s) no longer reflects current grocery usage patterns. The council approved the variance and the design review and authorized staff and the mayor to execute Resolution No. 25-06-01.
The approval allows the applicant to proceed with engineering responses the council noted will need to be satisfied before a final permit is issued; council members emphasized runoff and drainage plan compliance as outstanding engineering matters.
