October 8,2025 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes

Call to order:

 The Randolph Planning Commission meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Mayor Marie Jacob.

Roll Call:

 Present were planning commission members - Mayor Marie Jacob, Council Members Tony Price, and Keith Sande, Clerk Mary Haro and Treasurer Sandra Nicolai. Randy Ferguson joined the meeting at 6:35.

Also, in attendance was Bolton & Menk engineer, Matt Blazer and planner T.J. Hofer and legal counsel, Greta Bjerkness.

Approval of Agenda:

 Motion to approve the agenda was made by Jacob, seconded by Price.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

New Business

North Pro Rail Land Use Application

T.J. Hofer gave a summary on the application that the city received from North Pro Rail regarding an amendment to Chapter 152 of our zoning ordinance. He indicated we have a wide amount of discretion when reviewing and considering ordinance amendments, second only to the Comprehensive Plan. The zoning ordinance should reflect the goals of the comprehensive plan and protect the well being of the city and citizens. He believes that allowing the transloading use as a permitted use is not appropriate based on the risk related to undue adverse impact on governmental facilities, utilities, services, existing or proposed improvements and undue adverse impact on the public health, safety and welfare. Due to the change of undue and unknown adverse impacts, they recommend that the application be denied as a permitted use. They identified concerns related to, but not limited to, access, drainage, screening, exterior lighting, noise, traffic, hours of operation, types of materials to be store, potential for emergency response plans, pollutant prevention and response, security, and future uses of the site. Even though the use would create jobs and a higher tax base for the city, he believes the use is inconsistent with all three Commercial and Industrial Policies established in the Comprehensive Plan. Currently the zoning ordinance allows for outside storage as an accessory use if it is screened from the general public view. Their proposed use is approximately 14 acres of outdoor storage and shipping as a principal use with no screening proposed. In the October 3, 2025 Memorandum prepared by applicant’s counsel, they indicate their request is for a conditional use, which contradicts the application itself which requests that transloading activities be considered a permitted use. Conditional use permits (CUP) run with the land and the site could be used for transloading activities in perpetuity unless the conditions are breached which repealing a CUP involves a lengthy legal process if required. He recommends that if we do consider the land use to be allowed in any way, that it should be through an interim use permit (IUP). They are similar to CUPs but they allow for termination of standards such as a set period of time, when a use ceases operation, or when a use or business is no longer owned by the specific entity. They also are more easily terminated. He also recommend that the project should be consider for discretionary Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) and it may be ordered by a governmental unit when it determines that because of the nature or location of the proposed project the project may have the potential for significant environmental effects and the project is not exempted pursuant to statute.

The Planning Commission can do one of the following: 1. Recommend approval of the resolution, with or without conditions. 2. Recommend denial of the resolution with findings. 3. Table the request for further review or study. Greg Dumke had Mark Ostlund, their legal counsel, addressed the council. He indicated that the development revolves around a site that has Progressive Rail and a county road near it and that transloading has been going on for some time and multiple users have been transloading. They had originally asked for it to be a permitted use and think that a conditional use is more appropriate so that it runs perpetual with the land and would provide the use that they need. Bryce Huemiller discussed the different ways to identify the uses in a zoning ordinance – it could be a permitted use which is a perpetual use with limited conditions other than what is stated in the ordinance. A conditional use permit and interim use permit would allow the council to have discretion to govern the uses, and also an interim use is temporary. They are asking for transloading of moving from rail to truck. They are asking for creating an industrial zone that allows industrial activities to take place. Industrial activities requires movement of product so if we want to regulate that we can use the conditional use process where we state what is allowed and is not allowed. We do have in our Ordinance 152.54 that you can have outside storage as an accessory use but it has to be screened from the general public. It was noted that if we change the ordinance, that is changes it for the whole industrial area.

The public hearing was open for questions or comments at 6:58. It was asked if the trucks will be allowed on the city streets. We can ask that the company tell the drivers not to come through the city and that they should travel on County Road 83 to 86 but we cannot enforce it. The public hearing is now closed at 7:03 pm Greta discussed that the application was to amend the zoning ordinance to allow transloading as a permitted use. Her recommendation is that the application be denied. The applicant can resubmit a new application for a zoning amendment for transloading to be a conditional use. We could discuss an interim use also. Counsel for the applicant said their preference would be if the process could be tabled and have a discussion so they do not have to start the process over. It was noted to them that they would have to present a new application for a conditional use permit. They cannot file an amended application – it would need to be a new application. Mayor Jacob made a motion for a recommendation to the Council that the Planning Commission deny the North Pro Rail application for the zoning amendment, seconded by Price.

All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Jacob, seconded by Sande, the meeting was adjourned at 7:08 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.