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Board approves Riverbend Commons common‑area landscaping with phasing and frontage conditions
Summary
The board recommended approval of the Riverbend Commons common‑area landscaping plan, after the applicant and landscape team described phased street‑tree plantings, enhanced buffers and a multiuse pathway, and after staff required a phasing plan, trash‑enclosure agreements and a Highway 44 frontage cross section illustrating berm and back‑of‑curb details.
Applicant representatives described Riverbend Commons as a mixed‑use site that will be anchored by sportsplex facilities (planned tennis and pickleball courts), with a phased landscaping plan that provides street trees along Highway 44 and Copper Silo, enhanced evergreen buffers adjacent to residences, and a 10‑foot multiuse pathway.
"The primary anchor for this site is Sportsplex facilities... tennis seems and pickleball seem to be the main drivers this time," applicant representative Dave Jorgensen said. Landscape architect Josh Renaker outlined phase‑1 street plantings and phase‑2 buffers and said the plan meets or exceeds the code requirements in several locations. The applicant said it is working with ITD on access and that ITD has signaled a preference for right‑in/right‑out primary access with the main signal farther east.
Planning staff (Barb Williams) recommended conditions to remove overhead utilities where feasible, require revised landscaping around six shared trash enclosures and a joint trash‑enclosure/cross‑access agreement, set maximum light‑pole heights adjacent to residential parcels (15 feet), and supply a phasing plan and a cross section for the Highway 44 frontage (showing berm and back‑of‑curb relationship). Board members accepted the tree‑mitigation approach (larger evergreen specimens in lieu of thinner deciduous caliper inches), asked for coordination with the adjacent Stillwater sidewalk alignment and for a phasing plan for the record.
The board recommended approval with staff conditions plus added site‑specific conditions requiring the phasing plan and the Highway 44 buffer cross section; the motion passed on a voice vote.
