At the Wednesday night planning and zoning commission meeting, representatives with the developer, Ryan Cos., along with the un-named company, presented plans and answered questions from the commission members. The city recently signed a non-disclosure agreement with the company and therefore will only refer to it as “Project Banjo.”
The proposal calls for a warehouse ringed by parking and unloading for tractor-trailers on the west side, parking for 300 employee cars on the east side, and parking immediately to the south for 600 deliverY-style vans. The 40-acre parcel is between 20th and 21st Avenues and Fairview Drive and Commerce Street. The company claims it would employ up to 600 people at the site, with the goal of being open and operational by mid-2023.
“The big issue on the site, at least in my mind, is traffic,” said planning and zoning consultant Phil Carson of Stantec, who spoke at the planning commission meeting. “The assumptions in the traffic study did not assume development in the other parcels north of Main Street, which we know are coming in with known projects and with potential future projects that could potentially increase traffic.”
Many of the questions from commission members involved the potential traffic impacts, assuming that most of the delivery vans would access Interstate 35E at the nearby interchange between Lino Lakes and Hugo.
Ultimately, the commission voted to accept the proposal if the company can submit it as a planned-use development. They want to have a public hearing about the project at the May 3 planning and zoning commission meeting, with the project possibly coming before Centerville City Council as early as the end of May.
“Now’s your chance for the public to give input because there’s a lot of good things here,” said City Council Member Russ Koski. I want to make sure we’re not just looking at what it looks like today, but what it’s going to look like in the future.”
