Site Plans For Two Projects In Coon Rapids Approved

Site plans for two projects were approved by the Coon Rapids Planning Commission following public hearings Aug. 18.

One is for Sola Salon Studios to building a 12,296 square-foot store in Riverdale Village Shopping Center and the other is for an 8,170 square-foot addition to Anoka-Hennepin School District 11’s River Trail Learning Center at L.O. Jacob, 1700 Coon Rapids Blvd.

The salon building will be on a vacant 1.8-acre site between Dick’s Sporting Goods and Schneiderman’s Furniture in the 12000 block of Riverdale Boulevard.

City Planner Dakota Crowell said the proposal meets all city development standards except for landscaping where additional trees and shrubs are required and were made a condition of plan approval.

Founded in 2004, Sola Studios, headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, has more than 600 independent business locations across the country, its website states.

The L.O. Jacob building was constructed in 1921 and is the oldest school building still standing in Coon Rapids. It was closed as an elementary school in June 2010 and reopened in September that year as River Trail Learning Center.

River Trail serves K-12 special education students with significant emotional/behavioral needs and a current Individualized Education Plan, the school district website states.

There have been a number of expansions at L.O. Jacob over the years, most recently a 19,340 square-foot classroom addition on the west side of the building and a 1,840 square-foot administrative office on the east side, for which a site plan was approved in November 2019 and construction completed in the fall of 2019, Crowell said.

This newest addition, also on the west side of the building, will comprise four new classrooms and related support space, while a new student drop-off loop will be constructed to serve students in both the 2021 addition and the new one, Crowell wrote in a report to the commission.

The commission also approved an amendment to the conditional use permit because the school is a CUP that is zoned for low-density residential housing.

City Planning and Development Manager Matt Brown said the district hopes to break ground on the project in the fall.

No one spoke at either of the public hearings, Under city policy, site plan approvals by the planning commission are not considered by the Coon Rapids City Council unless appealed.

SOURCE: Hometown Source