1993 03 22CHANILqSSEN CTTY C~TL
REGIJLAR HEETII4G
MARQ4 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. The meeting was opened
with the Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL HEHBERS PRE:SE:MT: Mayor Chmiel, Councilman Wing, Councilwoman
Dockendorf, Councilman Mason and Councilman Senn
STP~F pRESENT: Don Ashworth, Roger Knutson, Charles Folch, Sharmin Al-Jaff,
Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman and Todd Gerhardt
AP~AL OF i~iENEW%: Councilman Mason moved, Councilwoman Dockendorf seconded to
approve the agenda as amended by Councilman Wing who wanted to comment on the
letter from Peter Olin under Council Presentations. A11 voted in favor and the
motion carried.
PUBL~ ~NNOUNCDENTS:
Mayor Chmiel: We have a public announcement at this time and I'll entertain any
additional public announcements that may be within the audience. If someone
wishes to do that. The proclamation for April 18th thru the 24th as Minnesota
Volunteer Recognition Week. Just alone within our community we have a lot of
volunteers, and ! mean a lot of volunteers and this is always the time that we
show this recognition to those people and say thank you for what you're doing
and providing their valuable time into the needs of the city. I'm not going to
go through the proclamation per se but I do want you to know that we are
adopting that and proclaiming April 18th thru the 24th as the Minnesota
Volunteer Recognition Week. If there's anyone here that would like to address
that at this time, I'd entertain that. Zf not, is there anyone else that has a
public announcement?
Resolution ~3-21: Mayor ChmIel moved, Councilwoman D~kendorf seconded
proclaiming the ~eek of Rprtl 18-24, 1993 as. Hinnesota Uolunteer Recognition
~eek. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
· .
CONSENT AGENO~: Councilwoman Oockendorf ~m' Councilman ~ason seconded to
approve the following Consent Agenda itea~ pursuant to the City Hanager's
recommendations:
a. Resolution ~-22: Approve Plans and Specifications for Trunk Highway 101
North Leg Railroad Crossing; Authorize Advertising for Bids, Project
88-22B-1.
d. City Code Amendment Allowing Animal Control Personnel to Euthantze Animals,
Final Reading.
h. City Council Minutes dated February 22, 1993
Planning Commission Minutes dated March 3, 1993
Public Safety Commission Minutes dated March 1Z, 1993
All voted In favor and the motion carried unanimously.
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
B. APPROVE ~REEHENT PROU~OING UTILITY AND ~TREET SERVICES TO PROPOSED.
SUBDIVISION (DEER RIDGE) -IN T. HE (~ITY OF SHORE~K~)D. PRO~ECT 92-10.
Mayor Chmiel: The only thing I would like to see done with item 2(b), and this
is where we're making an approval agreement providing utility and street
servlces to the proposed subdivision called Deer Ridge in the clty of Shoreuood.
It's project 92-18. I would like to move the adoption of this but with a
condition as well. And that condition belng that we, the Clty, get something
out of thls. What we're looking for is at least one residence within the
Hennepin County/Shorewood properties and that, by doing and requesting that we
at least have a minimum of one lot, ut11 give us the opportunity to be able to
acqulre the CBDG funds through Hennepin County. And although we're still
working at that legislatively uith the Federal government in adoption of that
and through HUD as well, we're just trying to get a back-up for those additional
funds and that amounts anywhere from $30,000.00 to $40,000.00.
Councilman Wing: So you're approving the recommendation but changlng that
approval of this annexation occur?
Mayor Chmiel: An approval of a frlendly annexation. De-annexation agreement
for one of the particular lots.
Councilman Wing: I'll so second that.
Don Ashworth: Hay I make a clarification, if I may?
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Don Ashworth: I liked how the Mayor phrased that in terms of at least one. When
we make that presentation I will attempt to convince the Shorewood Council that
it should be 2 or potentially 3 homes and the reason is that that uill become a
separate precinct and so for voting purposes, their hypothetically one vote or
if lt's a single person home, where two votes uill be known. The seoreoacy of
the ballot ts. The other part would be, I'm assumlng that this means that lt's
dependent on Shoreuood agreeing to the friendly annexation. Shoreuood ls
probably not going to be the one who stops this from going through. Municipal
Annexation Board wlll assuredly give us a problem because it ts not a contiguous
border. A lot of the things that they look at. Hennepin County will have a
lot of concerns on lt. Emergency response. 911. You have a situation where a
South Shore police officer would be going to the residence. He has no
jurisdiction in Chanhassen. So you've got some issues that you've got to work
through and so I like the way you've worded this.
Councilman Senn: Don, a clarification. I guess what I had in my notes was
language contingent upon. Are we saying the same thing?
Mayor Chmtel: Yeah basically.
Councilman Senn: Okay, so I mean basically your motion.
Mayor Chmiel: As an additional condition.
Councilman Senn: That we approve this contingent upon.
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Rlght.
Councilman Wing: That's how I read this too is that rather than be iffy, we do
ti, if then. You bring up these other ideas and why do we want to get into
multiple jurisdictions and 911 issues and why even start? There's got to be a
way to avoid. I think those are some real pitfalls you brought up and some of
them insurmountable. Maybe we don't want to be lnvolved tn those situations.
Councilman Mason: But then that would assure us, if we do get an annexation
there, that wlll assure us of those community development grants. $o I
certainly think it's worth taking a look at.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: And haven't we dealt with these same issues in other
annexations?
Don Ashworth: Maybe not in annexations. We have faced the same tssue let's say
with CPT. That lies in Hennepin County. Questions as to jurisdictions, Carver
County Sheriff's and we overcame some of those problems. Z'm just saying that
it's not as easy as it looks.
Councilman Senn= But basically if this proceeds tonight, it's contingent upon
that. If it doesn't happen, then it can come back in another form for
discussion but that basically gives the...
Mayor Chmiel: ...there's a motion on the floor with a second.
Councilman Mason= I think someone would like.
Mayor Chmiel: Oh yes sir. Would you. like to come forward to the m£c and please
state your name and your address?
Jeff Williams: Yes, I'm Jeff Williams. My address is 1700 Teal Circle,
Chanhassen. I'm the developer or hoping to develop this piece of land. We came
forward, Rick Sathre and I, the engineer on the property at a City Council
meeting December 14th, 1992 and before Shoreuood would put this on their agenda,
we had to be assured by the City of Chanhassen before they would proceed with
their preliminary plat approval. And we were assured on that ntght of December
14th and we were also, when we talked to Shorewood we gave them the results and
we were told that it would not be contingent at that point on annexation because
we don't know if they're going to approve it. or not.- And so at this point, I
spent a lot a lot.of money developing it. I came up after the meeting and I was
told, and another person with me, that it was not contingent upon them approving
that, or getting that lot annexed. So I have a real problem now that you're
saying that it's contingent upon it because I've been totally misinformed and
I've spent a lot a lot time and a lot a lot of money bringtng it to this point.
We're currently on Shorewood's final plat approval set up for April 22nd but
both the preliminary plat has been approved at the City of Shorewood, just as it
was adopted here on December 14th. So are there any questions?
Mayor Chmiel: No, other than the fact of saying that you were.assured that this
was gotng to go through. That had not yet come to Council, My only concern is
we're really in the bustness to provide sewer and water to our own residences
within our own community. I do have concerns when we're not dotng that. But
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
I'm also looking for something, hopefully that the City may agree with and you
may or may not have a given problem with that. But we have to have something in
return. At least in my opinion and I think it's Council's opinion right now.
Jeff Williams: Right, but when we discussed this with we, Don can confirm this.
We had a meeting with Shorewood and Chanhassen. At that time the biggest
concern that they had was the residence in Chanhassen. Increasing the lots from
3 to 5 because of the traffic concerns or whatever and I was told that we were
supposed to address all the home buyers or the property owners within 500 feet
and especially on Koehnen Circle, which we did. And there was no opposition.
Ail the letters were done. We did I thought, I even talked to Dave Hempel today
about it and unfortunately he's not here but I mean I've really, really been, if
this is the case, I've been, I feel I've really been misled. And I have a lot
of bllls to show that. If it's contingent upon thls, and maybe they'll go wlth
it but I have a feeling that they won't. I mean I don't know. If I would have
known at that point, December 14th, that it was contingent, I would not have
spent the money that I have and I was told by more than one individual that it
was not going to be a contingency. I understood that that Clty Council meettng
determined that it was going to go or not. And now this City Council meeting I
thought was to lay out the exact agreement between both cities. But not the
contingency in there. So am I wrong in my assessments of these things? Or have
I been misinformed7
Mayor Chmiel: Don, would you like to answer that?
Don Ashworth: This item did appear on the December, as a part of our December
14th I believe regular City Council item. And at that tlme, Jeff is correct.
That the contingency was not In there. The Counctl had approved the extension
of sewer and water contingent upon developing the specific conditions, etc. and
it was our assumption that that would come back to City Council so when Dave
Hempel received the final draft from the Attorney, we did put it onto this
agenda. It was approved though in mid-December without that contingency on
there. At that point in time it was approved very similar to my draft, how I
wrote this one up thls tlme around. I apologize to the Councll for not
including the Minutes from December 14th and the draft from that point in time.
That's not to say that City Council does have the rlght to examine facts as they
become available to you and I don't know if on December 14th we knew all of the
facts as it dealt wlth the Community Development Block Grant program.
Councilman Wing: Is it good business to feed sewer and water to a neighboring
community, just for the fun of it if you wl117 When we already have flow
problems of our own. And I guess Shorewood is not, I've never felt been real
generous our direction on lssues. Whether it's been anlmal control or anythlng
else.
Don Ashworth: Along the entire northern boundary we have a number of instances
when some of our residences may have Shorewood sewer. We provide water in some
instances. A good portlon of the flow from the whole Koehnen Addition area goes
up through Shorewood.
Councilman Wing: So it's good business to go back and forth?
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Don Ashworth: We have acted to cooperate over the years and I'd say that goes
back 20 years. Before my time.
Councilman Mason: With what's just come up here, ! wonder if we can't reword
this somehow because [ certainly would, ['m not, don't get me wrong. I'm not
doubting a thing you're saying here but I'd certainly, if those things were
said, I would have, at this point, personally, I'd have a little trouble putting
a contingency on this. What I would like to do however would be to pass some
sort of resolution hoping that the City of Chanhassen and the City of Shorewood
can work something out here. Because as has been stated, we, with those Block
Grant funds do support some activities that are going on in Shorewood and I
would hope that they would understand that if they chose not to help us out in
this, if we don't get the money, they certainly don't get any of those funds.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, that's a good point, because we do contribute about
$4,000.00 to that from these CDBG funds.
Councilman Mason: Right, and so with that, I mean I have, knowing with what
Jeff has just said here, I guess I have a little trouble putting a contingency
on it but I don't have any trouble passing some sort of resolution hoping that
they'Ll work something out with us.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: But is Shorewood the obstacle? Or is it going to be
the other two major obstacles that you said?
Don Ashworth: I think it will be the Annexation Board personally, but I can't
guarantee you that Shorewood will respond. I'm hoping that the Mayor will join'
me. We've had the opportunity over the last 3-4 years of attend£ng the South
Shore Center on a Saturday morning and having breakfast with the CounciLmembers
from Shorewood. I think we've got a good working relationship with them and I
would hope that we can draw on that to convince them as to the need for this
approval. But again, ! don't think that they're going to be the major stumbling
block. I think the Annexation Board will be.
Councilman Senn: Don, I wasn't here in December so it's a little hard to I
guess speak about that but I would really like to see the motion stand as the
way it is. But at the same time say to Mr. Williams that if for some reason
this doesn't proceed, that doesn't really necessarily close it off and (b), I
think we could have an open ear to talk with you. ! mean the intent here is not
to damage you I don't think, and it's not to cause you unnecessary expense or
anything else. But at the same time, as one goes through these negotiations...
have to kind of have some basis to work from. So I'd really Like to see your
motion stand and again just keep an open ear to Mr. Wtlliams if this thing runs
into obstacles.
Mayor Chmiel: Roger.
Roger Knutson: Just a comment. We may have trouble with the Municipal Board
but I'm fairly optimistic that we wouldn't in the sense that we're providing
something here to that lot. Providing sewer and water. It isn't just like for
no reason at all we have to say we want to pick-up the lot in the city of
Shorewood. There's some reasonable reasons we can put forward to them and if
Shorewood goes along. If Shorewood said no, and we had to fight it, is a
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
contested hearlng, then yeah, I'd have a heck of a problem. But with their
concurrence, I think we have a much better than even chance of getting it
approved by the Board.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, I like that.
Councilman Wing: I think gll can be 8witched over to that house specific can't
lt, or does the border cut it off? Do you know Don?
Don Ashworth: I really don't know. I would hope that, well I would think that
in the case of paramedic service, that you would leave that wlth Henneptn County
and the same way wlth South Shore. The only issue is really one of jurisdiction
on calls.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, the only thing that could be involved in thls too is that
Metropolitan Council is looking to have one specific area as a call area that's
golng to contaln all 7 countles lnto one statlon. And that then could be
delegated from one to the other. In other words, they know where it's at by
that particular address. They would take care of that.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: Mr. Mayor7
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Is your motion contingent upon the City of Shorewood
approving the annexation or the annexation being approved by all parties?
Mayor Chmlel: No, I thlnk that that ls to have a frlendly annexation?
deannexation agreement wtth them.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: With the City as opposed to the annexation being
approved by all parties?
Mayor Chmiel: Right.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: Is that how it's put then?
Councilman Wing: Well the annexation would have to occur, Shorewood would have
to approve it but it has to go through the process. So it'd be all parties
involved.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, sure. It is.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Oh, all parties.
Mayor Chmiel: But it's still.
Roger Knutson: So you're aware of the timing, so no one. The simplest
annexation you know, it can't be done in 48 hours. It probably, assuming
Chanhassen says yes tonight and Shorewood says yes tonlght. It's got to go, the
paperwork has got to be put together and it's got to go to the Municipal Board
and it will take them 30 to 60 days to approve lt. So just so you know, it wlll
take some time even if there's agreement with everyone.
City Council Meeting - March 22, ~993
Don Ashworth: That's why I was hoping that by making it as a contingency, I
would just as soon that it probably wouldn't be, but then 3eff would know when
it went to the Shorewood City Council, that it was going up or going down.
mean if there were later problems with the Annexation Board. With paramedic or
whatever, in my mind the issue would then be dead. ! mean we would be providing
sewer and water and he could proceed under that basis. We simply will have
failed in getting that lot into Chanhassen but we will not have forced him into
waiting 60 days for Annexation Board, 90 days for somebody else. '~90 days for
somebody else. ! mean his project could be put on hold for a year if this is
contingency to approval by all of these other agencies.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes. Well I still would probably, in fact ! was still going to
stay with the same motion as I did have.
Don Ashworth: But I thought in my clarification.
Mayor Chmiel: But with that as you had indicated previously, right.
Don Ashworth= Right, so this is subject only to approval by Shorewood. So !
mean if it's not approved by some other agency that has jurisdiction, then we
have simply failed in our attempt and he knows that he can have the sewer and
water and is under all these other conditions.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: That's what my question was.
Councilman Mason: Would that take a friendly amendment then to get it back on
Council immediately after Shorewood agrees or disagrees or is it just assumed
that it happens regardless?
Mayor Chmiel: Probably a friendly amendment would be in order. [f you'd so
desire to do that.
Councilman Mason= Okay. I'll go along with, I would vote in the affirmative
for this knowing that Mr. Williams knows that if for some reason Shorewood
disproves of this, it comes immediately back to us and we work out any remaining
problems so we can continue. So I guess my friendly amendment is, if the City
of Shorewood denies annexation, this ls put on the agenda at the earliest
possible date so as not to delay Mr. Williams anymore.
Mayor Chmlel: But yet would the City of Shorewood just automatically say forget
it and we'd still, one way or the other, I mean there's no leverage there
whatsoever.
Councilman Mason: Well, that's true. I guess what I'm hearlng from the City
Manager is that he thinks our relationship is good enough...
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, and I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that.
Councilman Mason: ...I guess is my concern.
Mayor Chmlel: As a motlonee, I would accept that frtendly amendment wlth that.
Councilman Mason: That it would come back on the agenda?
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Right. Would the second accept that?
Councilman Wing: I'm starting to feel the City Manager could probably handle
this and if it dldn't go our way, he'd immediately put a stop to it and put it
on the Council docket for formal action.
Mayor Chmiel: Right.
Councilman Wing: This might be the easier way to go. I mean if you feel you
can accomplish this based on our comments tonight, and then if in fact it
doesn't go and there's a need to put a stop to thls, that would be easy to do.
Mayor Chmiel: Well I think if we can meet with the Shoreuood City Council, when
ls their next meeting? Do you have any ldea?
Don Ashworth: No. Surely they have one before the 22nd because they're on a
similar schedule. In all likelihood it would be the 8th. I just subtracted 14
days.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, right. Okay. Is that accepted by the second?
Councilman Wing: As long as this thing rolls along, sure.
Jeff Williams: Could I just interrupt? I do have the Mlnutes from December
14th that weren't attached but the only thing I can say is, I'm not sure when we
went through Clty Councll December 14th, I thought the process works according
to December 14th. It seems to me 11ke we're basically, I'm doing it over
exactly what was approved December 14th. £verything that we're dolng, how I
proceed on this whole thing is with the agreement that it didn't matter if it
was. I mean I can see your polnt why we want that lot in Chanhassen. I'd be in
total agreement with it but if I knew it was going to be this type of procedure,
I don't see what the December 14th meetlng was really about except we're
basically back where I was December 14th. According to this letter it said
that, or the Mlnutes. That the City Manager would go before the City Counc11,
Shorewood City Council with an appeal to acqulre just one lot for the five to
quallfy for thls CDBG funds and the motlon was all voted in favor and the motion
carried and it was not contingent upon this. I'm not sure that the process here
it was approved and now it's not approved. I'm not sure, can you explain that
procedure? It's the first time I've developed a plece of land but I thought
that's what I've been, I've done everything exactly according to plan. Now I
have Sathre-Berquist, I've spent about $8,000.00 since the Oecember 14th to this
polnt and as of Thursday I'm submitting all my materials to Clty of Shorewood
for final plat because both, since December 14th I have received preliminary
plat approval through both Counclls and now basically you're telllng me I can't
proceed with my final plat. I feel like there's been a real injustice and I
would 11kw, I thlnk some explanation or some reason how they can do thls. If
this is how it works, I'll just sit down and go through the process but when the
City Counc11 approved it December 14th, and ! was told and also my, and excuse
me he's not here to verify it but my englneer was also told that it meant that
it was not contingent and we could go ahead with the development. I mean I just
can't understand it at all and if you could answer that. I mean I don't have
any, I mean if you could answer, I mean is this normal? You go to two Clty
City Council Meeting - March 22, [993
Councils for the same thing. That's what I'm asking ! guess? [s this normal
procedure?
Roger Knutson: .Rs ~'m sitting here Z don't recall the December [4th meeting or
whether I was even there to be honest with you.
Jeff Williams: Okay, well I do have the Minutes if you'd like to see them.
Roger Knutson: If you could just show them to me a second.
Jeff Williams: Sure.
Roger Knutson: My impression is they approved the concept that they're
finalizing tonight.
Mayor Chmiel: Was it a concept previously and not the final decision as is
tonight?
Don ashworth: Well I don't see that it's unusual. I mean we've presented let's
say concept here as how a particular program would look and what not and the
Council will say yes or no. If they .say yes, then we'll have the specific
document drawn up that parallels that concept. And at that point in time, the
concept did not include the contingency on it. The agreement parallels the
concepts that have been presented on December [4th but ! don't know of any time
where the specific document itself, once it was drafted, has not been
re-presented to a City Council for final approval.
Roger Knutson: If I could just comment. It would have to be. No one has the
right to, other than you, to enter into this kind of agreements and you've never
seen this agreement before tonight. Obviously we couldn't just have the Mayor
and the Clerk sign it and be done with it. It had to come back to you for final
approval. For real approval if you will.
Councilman Wing: Mr. Mayor, I think that your motion can stand because a
friendly amendment is clearly made that we intended to assist this gentleman and
see that it gets pursued and if there becomes hang-ups, it will be I think found
in his favor. But on the other hand, we need the negotiation power to get off
dead center here. I'd like to call the question.
Jeff Williams: Can I just say one more thing?
Mayor Chmiel: One more.
Jeff Williams: Okay. I did talk to the City Planner from Shorewood before this
meeting and he was also told verbally and he thinks he has It in writing, too
that he understood that because they wouldn't proceed on their agenda until we
had something in writing and they do supposedly have something in writing saying
that everything was agreed upon and that annexation was not required. So that's
all I know and they were told the same thing as I was told. ·
Mayor Chmiel: You may have something in writing but it hasn't passed by
Council. That's where the little hang-up comes but I think from what we've
discussed here, and the points that have been brought forward, I think, those
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
issues will get addressed. So I think that with that I'd like to call the
question on this.
Hayor Chmiel moved, Councilman Wing seconded to approve the agreement to provide
utility and street services to the proposed subdivision (Deer Ridge) in the City
of Shorewood, Project 92-18, with the condition that staff be instructed to
approach the Shorewood City Council and request their consideration of a
friendly deannexation/annexation process 'for at least one lot in Hennepin
County. If Shorewood does not approve this annexation, that the matter be
brought back to the Chanhassen City Counci! for immediately consideration. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
E. APPROVAL OF 1993 LIOUOR LICENSE APPLICATIONS.
Councilman Senn: I asked item (e) to be pulled because I guess I'd like to ask
staff what, it references background checks and thls, that and the other thing.
What is entailed in that process and what is the criteria that they're supposed
to meet to come through this process for approval?
Don Ashworth: It goes back to Carver County Sheriff's Department who then
actually runs it through FBZ as well. It lncludes all of the corporate owners
that are shown on the application and if there are any crimlnal violations, they
are noted. They do not pick up speedlng tickets, etc. Help me Roger in terms
of what other type of felonies or whatnot would trigger a review by the City
Counc11.
Roger Knutson: Well you do periodic reviews. Annual reviews to make sure that
the normal liquor law violations. Any felonies. Anything. Drug arrests. What
have you. Anythlng that goes on the establishment. Do crlmlnal histories on
that. And then Scott also looks to see if there's been any complaints against
the establishments that haven't been resolved. And if an issue appears, then
it's brought to your attention.
Mayor Chmiel: Or under age drinking and so on.
Roger Knutson: And you had one, was it last year Mr. Mayor, where you brought
someone ln.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Roger Knutson: Because there had been under age drinking problem. 3 of them?
Mayor Chmiel: That's correct.
Roger Knutson: You brought them all in here and you had a chat about how
serious you took that issue and got it resolved and gave them thelr license.
Councilman Senn: Okay but, as I understand it, those complaints haven't stopped
at least on one of the operators. In fact it was my understanding that those
complaints were alred agaln as little as a week ago.
Roger Knutson: I haven't heard them.
10
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Don Ashworth: Scott's investigations found no complaints.
Councilman Senn: No complaints from other businesses around any of these
operators or anything?
Don Ashworth: They would have to have had put it on file with us. We don't go
out and knock on the door of businesses and say, do you have a complaint against
your neighbor. If they have registered some form of complaint, Scott.would have
notified me of that.
Councilman Senn: ! thought last week some of the abutting property owners were
in complaining again of Filly's at the HRR meeting asking that it'be bought
again because of the happenings that are going on there. ! believe
quoting...
Mayor Chmiel: Those are past happenings that they were discussing. Of some
time ago but it wasn't anything which was most recent.
Councilman Senn: Okay. Then [ guess, okay so none of that was recent.
Don ashworth: There's another issue there and that is that those issues were
really relayed back through another property. In other'words, the hotel people
had not registered that concern. There had been one from the previous year in
whlch the Council was made aware of the lssues associated with that. But the
allegation of, and I think that the way Clayton said was, well you've got. to do
something about this HRA because we continue to take and have them throw beer
bottles through windows, and we have no record of any beer bottles through
wlndows. The owners have never submitted that claim.
Councilman Senn: Then I'm assuming I won't see that referenced in any more
staff reports either then.
Con ~shworth: Huh?
Councilman Senn: I assume I won't see that referenced in any more staff reports
then either. I mean I've seen it referred to now in several staff reports
regarding the purchase of Filly's. That that's a constant problem there and
hearing two different things.
Mayor Chmiel: I'm not sure exactly where you're coming from with that.
Councilman Senn: Well Don Z'm coming from nowhere other than you're saying
let's approve a liquor license here and you're saying let's approve a liquor
license for an establishment that I've heard absolutely nothing but complaints
about referencing back to the purchase discussions over HRA.
Mayor Chmiel: But there are no commitments by the local enforcement agencies
indicating that those situations really did occur.
Councilman Senn: So there's none documented.
Mayor Chmiel: And that's what you have to have is documentation. I think you'd
have a lot of problem trying not to issue that particular license if you don't
ll
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
have the documentation·
Councilman Wing: Those comments were stated as this having happened a year ago
and that they don't like it there because they had an occasion a year ago where
someone threw a beer bottle through a wlndow. That was a year ago and that may
be documented. It could have happened. I'm sure it was reported but lt's
irrelevant to thls report. So far in the future, and that was stated as a past
occurence. Not as a current problem. At the HRA meeting.
Councilman Senn: Second issue is, in relationship to the passage of liquor
licenses. I'm famlliar with several other citles or town boards that have
denled 11quor licenses continually on the basls of the providers being
significantly behind in back taxes. Is that a crtteria that has gone into
looklng at approval of these liquor licenses or not?
Mayor Chmiel: Not to my knowledge.
Councilman Senn: And should we be awarding liquor licenses to establishments
that are significantly behind in taxes?
Don Ashuorth: I would ask the City Attorney to respond to that but in advance
of doing that, I'm sure that Councilman Senn is referring to again the bowling
center who just, Z think they're comlng out of Chapter 11 or whatever. They are
current on this year's taxes and I believe on 1992. They still have outstanding
1990 and 1991 uhlch were both included as a part of the bankruptcy flllngs.
Your position.
Councilman Senn: The property tax data I had done Don was that they were
years behind. I don't know, maybe that's been changed here in the last couple
weeks or so by payment or so but you know to me that's falrly significant.
Roger Knutson: To the best of my knowledge, and I'm not sure of this because I
wasn't prepared for thls issue. I don't thlnk there's anythlng in our Clty
Code, and I'll check, that says non-payment of real estate taxes means you don't
get your 11cense. I have drafted and I work in several citles that have such
provisions. This city does not, to the best of my knowledge. As far as the
effect of the bankruptcy, it ls posslble that would be effected by what the
bankruptcy court has done. I'm not a bankruptcy lawyer but I can find out the
answer to that for you. Whether they're in Chapter 117 137
Don Ashuorth: The project's laying on my desk but it, the settlement agreement
ls before the Court and it u111 be finally heard ulthin the next 15 to 20 days.
It does include the arrear property taxes for I belleve it's, I'm not sure if
'90 and '91
lt's '90, '91, or '89, , ·
Roger Knutson: Irregardless of the effect of the bankruptcy, you don't have
that...
Mayor Chmlel: Yeah, it's nothlng ulthin our ordinance per se. I don't thlnk we
can enforce it from that standpoint. That might be a good point to look at.
Councilman Senn: Pull that one Mark. Just hold that for one meetlng and get an
answer on it. Determine where we want to go on it. If nothing else, we can
12
City Counci! Meeting - March 22, 1993
approve it at least. Maybe you want to make that change to our ordinance in the
future.
Councilman Mason: Well but that might be in the future. I mean we need to vote
on this so.
Councilman Wing: Well we can withhold that one.
Councilman Senn: I guess I'd [ike to, at least from my standpoint, hear a
little bit more about that in terms of our options..
Councilman Mason: Well that's fine. I mean if it's not tn ordinance now, we
can't deny them this year. I mean it might be next year but we can't this year.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, I would agree with that. That position.
Don Ashworth: I would ask that if you would like to see the City Attorney's
office draft a new section to the ordinance that would make that, I think
Councilmember Mason is absolutely correct. That since it's not tn a current
ordinance, I find it difficult in putting it back to the current owner. The-
other point as noted by Karen Engelhardt is any application which is not
received by the department by March 30th, for every .day of delinquency there ts
a good chance that they wi1! not have their license back by the 1st of May.
Which means they'd be out of business then, let's assume we took action on April
12th. There's a good chance that they would be not able to serve for the' first
10 days in May. It requires them 30 days to process the application at the
State level. Maybe we could speed it up.
Councilman Senn: Okay, but when tt goes to the State, the State does withhold
approval based on taxes being in arrears but not property taxes? Isn't that
correct?
Roger Knutson: Not property taxes, no.
Councilman Senn: No. I didn't say property taxes. I said taxes.
Roger Knutson: Sales taxes?
Councilman Senn: Yes.
Roger Knutson: I don't know that they have a...
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah. I would imagine that there would be something there but
what that is, I don't have the foggiest idea.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: So can we move approval on this with the item of
discussion at a future meeting?
Mayor ChmieI: ! think that would be in the proper sequence to go right now. To
have that motion.
Councilman Wing: Did you make that motion?
13
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Yes.
Councilman Wing: And I'll second that again contingent on us reviewing that
ordinance wlth posslbly inclusion of that as other, as mentioned other citles
have that. We may want to include that. I think that should be put forth.
Mayor Chmiel: Correct.
Roger Knutson: Just an editorial comment. I work in some cities where it's
amazing how taxes get paid on December 30th.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. Z'11 call the motlon.
Councilwoman Oockendorf moved, Councilman Wing seconded to approve the 1993
Liquor License Applications with the condition directing the City Attorney to
draft an ordinance regarding delinquent property taxes. All voted in favor and
the motion carried unanimously.
F. SETTLEHENT AGR. EEHENT, R~GHT-OF-WAY ACQUISITION FOR EXPANDED HIGHWAY 5.
(PREVIOUS BURDICK PROP[ERTY).
Councilman Senn: The acquisition, I guess I haven't seen this before so I was
just more curious than anythlng else. What it involves. Not ina lot of detall
attached.
Don Ashworth: We carrled out the purchase of the Burdlck property on Market
Boulevard. That's where the pond is and it was needed for the pond. In the
meantime MnDot started the construction on Highway 5 and as it turned out, we
ended up as the owner by the time they had concluded that process. They then
had to deal wlth us in actually acquiring that property. We felt that by the
condemnation court making an award to Mr. Burdick, that established reasonable
value for that property. We have debated this for the better part of a year,
year and a half with MnDot and I thlnk we're about as far as we're going to get
them and we flnally, the attorneys in talking wlth myself felt there ls no sense
further pursuing this. We've got them to what we thlnk is going to be the best
offer closest to the amount that we had pald for that property from Mr. Burdlck.
Councilman Senn: Okay, and that's the $115,000.007
Don Ashworth: That's correct.
Councilman Senn: And how many square feet of property are involved?
Roger Knutson: It's 30 feet wide. How long is it?
Oon Ashworth: It's partially along Market but primarily along Highway 5 so,
I mean lt's not just 30 feet wide. I'd have to grab the flle. If you'd like to
move on, I hope I can find the file. Karen finds files for me.
Councilman Senn: Well my question Don is I guess coming back to how many square
feet are involved? I mean how does this compare to in effect what we did pay
for the property and what value are we getting for it now through the
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
condemnation? [ mean those are pretty basic questions but none of the
information is here so I'm not.
Roger Knutson: The per square foot cost is somewhat less than we paid for the
whole piece but we're not selling the whole piece. We're selling a strip-and
then when you consider in the cost, it would seem fair. ! did not, the
condemnation lawyer in the office handled this. I don't have the numbers on the
top of my head but we can run upstairs. I can't. I don't know where they are.
Don Ashworth: Again, I could look for that in the file.
Mayor Chmiel: Is this really pertinent to your questions that you're asking?
Councilman Senn: Yeah, it is. I mean I have a little bit of a hard time Just
approving this without understanding the background or the numbers behind it.
Oon Ashworth: I mean this has gone on...
Councilman Senn: But again you can vote without me so you don't need me. I'd
like to see that before I would.
Don Ashworth: If we table this for one meeting, like I said, it's gone on for 4
years. One more meeting probably.
Mayor Chmiel: We might have it here now. We might be able to resolve it rather
quickly.
Don Ashworth: I'd say 1,500 feet by 25 feet. It could be if you want to pass
the map. See if somebody else can.
Councilman Senn: It's how much again? I'm sorry.
Don Ashworth: Approximately 1,S00 by 25. Then there also is a construction
easement in there which generally is less value.
Roger Knutson: So it's about 37,000 square feet. Say 40,000 square feet.
Something less than an acre.
Don Ashworth: I recall the acquisition from Hr. Burdick was $2.80 and I know
this came in at less. I can't remember for sure Mark but I think it was like 20
to 30 cents but fighting this further, attorney fees in my own mind were eating
us up. No offense to Roger's office.
Roger Knutson: You know at something less than an acre and we're getting
$115,000.00 for it. So something less than $3.00 an acre.
Councilman Senn: Just less than.
Don Ashworth: But that's not correct because I know it's under the $2.80 that
was paid to Mr. Burdick but not enough so to be, to further warrant. The next
step on this process is to go into court and I Just could not see that. It just
does not warrant a court process when you're that close.
15
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1992
Councilman Senn: Don, I'm not suggesting that. It's just when I get an action
put in front of me which is agreeing to acquire, I guess I'd just like to see
that kind of basic information that tells me. Geez, here's what we paid for it.
Here's what we're getting out of the condemnation for it. You know, at least
some reasonable comparison of cost.
Don Ashworth: And I apologize because I guess in my own mind, having this been
going on for such a long period of time, I just felt maybe we were kind of at
the end and I should have included those earlier documents, I apologize.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, one of the things I'd like to have done Mark, if you do
have those kind of specific questions, and we know we're not gotng to get them,
get a hold of Don and talk to him prior to the meetlng so we can get that
resolved at that particular time.
Councilman Wing: Or get it pulled off the agenda. ! don't want to get here and
staff putting this much effort into it and then tie up the meeting. We're going
to change the consent agenda later tonight.
Mayor Chmiel: Well hopefully. Consents work very well if you ask your
questions prlor to, and they're not a hlghly controversial klnd of 1rem. What's
your pleasure?
Councilman Wing: Well I've been in on this one so I'll move approval.
Councilman Mason: I'll second it.
Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Nason seconded to approve the Settlement
Agreement of right-of-way acquisition for expanded Highway 5, (previous Burdick
property) as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
G. ~PPROVAL OF ACCOUNTS.
Councilman Senn: I realize you like consent to be consent but on three
occasions now, including in writing I've asked for speciflc breakdowns on
expenditures. We're still not gettlng it.
Mayor Chmiel: Which ones are you concerned with?
Councilman Senn: Well I'm not going to, I've probably got 25 items listed here.
I'm not going to waste the time to go through them tonight. I'm not going to
vote for thls. I would 11kw staff to please start puttlng an explanation behlnd
the expenses as has been requested and not have all these blanks. And real
baslc thlngs like when somebody travels where they're golng and what they're
going for rather than blank.
councilman Wing: Pull it out and be specific will you Mark so I know where
you're going. It would be a better idea of what you want on this. If you've
got one in particular that we can look at.
Councilman Senn: Well, I mean Dick I've been very specific you know with these
on several tlmes nov and especially in wrltlng. Going down, I'm just golng down
some of these items. 51035. Outhouse Graphics. Printing and Publishing,
16
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
$4,400.00 for newsletters. Is that the City newsletter?
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Councilman Senn: Okay. There are several travel and training items on here
relating to, here's one for the Mayor. It just says travel and training. It
doesn't say to what. For what. Anything else here. Here's one for Don
Ashworth, travel and training. I thought we agreed that we were going to start
havlng a location and a purpose.
Councilman Mason: Mr. Mayor, if I could.
Mayor Chmlel: Yeah.
Councilman Mason: I think we were all at the same meeting and I don't recall
that there was an agreement that that would be done. What'I understood was, is
if anyone had any questions at all about any of this, to be sure to check with
Jean, right?
Mayor Chmiel: Yes. Yeah, that was the discussion.
Councilman Mason: And if so desired, those folders could be pulled and checked
as opposed to anyone in the city having to take the time to type every little
thing out that's going on here.
Mayor Chmiel: Or you could even review the expense sheet that indicates where
it's been. Where we've gone. Mine was for, and I can think of it right off
hand, mine was for mileage to St. Paul, two different times at the Hetropolitan
Council. Over to Chaska City Council. School District over at Chaska.
Councilman Senn: Don, I guess that's fine. My understanding is different than
Mr. Mason's. I left that meeting, I thought assured by Don that they were going
to be included. He was going to talk to Jean. If I wanted to, I could follow
up and talk to Jean about my specific requirements. I told Oon that wasn't
necessary because as long as there was a general explanation of what it was and
where it was, I'd be happy. And I thought we had an agreement on that.
Don Ashworth: I still have some problem. For example again I'll go to the
Mayor's or my own but, I mean in both instances I would ¢all them miscellaneous.
In other words there's been 10 meetings of under $10.00 each or $15.00. I mean
would that help if it said G meetings.
Councilman Senn: Miscellaneous mileage. Put miscellaneous mileage. I mean
that's different than an airplane ticket to New York. I mean you know, the
explanation you're giving here which is zero tells you nothing in terms of what
you're approving.
Don Ashworth: I think that Jean has been trying to include additional
information under each one and I think each time we're maybe learning a little
bit more as to what it ls the Council is looklng for under those. So again,
under the travel and training I will ask for if they can put in, if there's &
miscellaneous, than it's 6 miscellaneous, or & under $15.00 or whatever the case
may be.
17
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilman Senn: Yeah. What I specifically requested before was travel,
training, subscriptions, dues. Things like that that we list what they are so
we know.
Don Ashworth: I'm sorry. I was klnd of looking for a 11st and I hadn't heard
it.
Councilman Wing: You know Mark's, I'm supposed to raise my hand.
Mayor Chmiel: Sure, go ahead.
Councilman Wing: I can sort of sense where Mark's coming from except being from
the Fire Department, I've seen Jean hammer us so bad so fast. I mean if there's
a haukeye in this clty, that's where it's at and you don't rent a car for $12.00
if you could have gotten it for $11.00. She won't pay it so you've got your
budget money and she watches those budgets and thelr numbers extremely close. $o
when we get to this point, this ls something that's been scrutinized already by
someone that's a lot more qualified to scrutinize it and knows the numbers
better than we are and I don't know if she has to then transpose all that
scrutlnlzatlon so we can look at it arbitrarily and plck out one or two ltems
that may or may not work. And I guess to go with Mr. Mason. I think if you've
got a problem, a phone call to Jean is golng to get your more information than
you want to hear.
Mayor Chmiel: And she'll be there.
Councilman Wing: And she'll be there. There's no questton about it. They run
an extremely tlght shlp.
Councilman Senn: If that's the way we want to handle them, then that will be
understood.
Councilman Wing: Well I favor more information although there's more
information on here now, and be speciftc on what you want...50 pages here
because then I'm not going to go through
Councilman Senn: Again, I wrote a two page letter explaining that. I guess I'm
not going to, you know go pull it out of the file and read it agaln I guess. I
thought that would have been sufficient to expla£n what I wanted...one question.
Why are we paying the engineer on Mlnnewashta Parkway more money?
Councilman Wing: Which number is it?
Councilman Senn: 050985.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: As long as you bring up the issue. What was resolved
since the last Council meeting with the Parkway.
Councilman Wing: Fixed it.
Mayor Chmiel: We took care of it. Put additional rock. Graded it with a pitch
in the center so it has a slope and a drain off. It's still not the best but
it's the best we can posslbly get as of right now.
18
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilman Senn: Well you know listening to the past comments of Council, !
mean so far this project has turned into about the biggest disaster the City has
ever experienced. Both costwise and cttizen wise, yet every, just about every
month there's another payment here to the guy who caused-the disaster.
Mayor Chmiel: Well I think we've gotten a new Enstght on that. If we can't get
£t completed by September, we're not going to move into October.
Councilman Senn: You mean we keep paying him until September Don? I mean just
a question. I get real confused because I come to these meetings and here these'
very specific comments yet I don't see any follow thru.
Councilman ming: Good. Well I'll help you pick that one out then. That was
which number again? 050?
Mayor Chm£el: What page were you on?
Councilman Senn: That is on page 3. 050985.
Don Ashworth: Charles should respond but this city entered into a contract with
the engineer. That contract is on a percent of work completed by contractor.
i'm confident, well Charles why don't you go ahead.
Charles Folch: as Don was eluding to, ue do have a contract that we've entered
into basically with the consultant engineer which is based on a percentage of
the project cost and therefore as the project construction progresses,.basically
the percent of completions typically mirror the percentage of payment that is
made. Partial payments that .are made to the consultant. Actually we went with
Bill Engelhardt almost 9 months into the project back. Starting back from the
feasibility phase before we actually,.before they actually submitted any payment
invoices from the city so from that standpoint certainly we aren't paying ahead
on anything and this is a typical contract:as with any other consultant engineer
on a project in this city.
Councilman Senn: You know ! guess ['d like to see this item pulled and i'd also
Like some review by the City. Attorney as to whether this company is in company
is in conformance with their contract or not. Or ts in. potential.violation of
it. ['m going back to again a lot of what ['ye heard.
Mayor Chmiel: Let me ask a question before you go that far. So we don't spend
some more money over money that you're concerned about. Oo you have any idea
Charles as to where we are with that contractor in the agreement?
CharLes Folch: The actual percentage numbers right now, without going back and
checking a file, [ couldn't tell you off hand but ! guess-maybe somebody needs
to inform as to what's been failed to be done or why'we wouldn't want to proceed
with paying them for some services that they provided.
..
Councilman Wing: Well I think Mark spelled it out. It's been a disaster. The
grade wasn't done right. There wasn't enough material put on. The neighbors
have ruin their cars. Their clothes. Their driveways. It's--the worst disaster
the City's ever faced as far as it's citizens is concerned and it's been really
embarrassing to me and I think Bill's got egg on his face. I don't think the
19
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
present project got started too late. Z don't think it was done in good faith.
Z didn't believe it uas going to be successful and none of the neighbors did.
Every letter that came out from Bill or you promised things that never occurred
on time tables that never happened and then ue get to this spring and
engineering goes out and says, uell it's flat. Well it should have done this.
It should have been graded. It should have had this on it. So finally after
Council puts the pressure on, somebody goes out and fixes it. Well maybe it
should have been done that way last fall. And if Bill was the engineer, he
should have been responsible. And the buck has to stop someplace and I guess
I'm with Mark. Maybe the buck's got to stop with Bill and we ought to pull this
item and look at the whole project. Although this payment may be from past
work. Maybe we're got to look at where we're going from now on because this
hasn't gone right and it hasn't been good.
Councilman Senn: ...quit getting calls and dry cleaning bills.
Mayor Chmiel: I know. I've been out there several times myself. And I didn't
charge the city for the wash jobs either. But that's probably true. Alright,
can we have an approval of thls payroll check reglster as well as the accounts
payable and to review item 050985 by our engineering department to determine
what has really transpired on that partioular project. And at thls tlme I don't
want to give it to the City Attorney to spend some additional dollars at this
tlme.
Councilman Wlng: I'd like to suggest that that item go to a work session, not a
Council agenda.
Mayor Chmiel: Alright.
Councilman Mason: I move approval of 1rem 2(g) on the Consent Agenda.
Charles Folch: Mr. Mayor, if I might pose a question.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Charles Folch: Is there, ! mean what should we, what's your recommendation
staff do with future bills that come through for this project?
Mayor Chmiel: Well that's a very good question.
Don Ashworth: I thlnk you have it on a work session so let's talk about it at
that polnt in tlme.
Councilman Wing: My intent would be to pay the bills. I want to look at the
process and what's occurred. If there was a problem, it would come out of that
discussion at that work sesslon.
Mayor Chmiel: We're going to have that work sesslon on the 27th. That's what
had down. Dld we change that?
Councilman Mason: The ?th of April is the work session.
Councilman Wing: And goals was on 27th.
2O
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. You're right. 5:30 is the work session.
Don Ashworth: [ had the 7th. I didn't have the 27th.
Mayor Chmiel: 8:00 a.m. In the courtyard.
Councilman Senn: 27th was a goats session was it not and then the work session
was the 7th of April.
Mayor Chmiel: That's correct.
Councilman Wing: I'd like to second the motion.
Councilman Mason moved, Councilman #tn~ seconded to approve the ~ccounts Payable
dated March 22, 1993. Ali voted in favor except Councilman Senn Nho opposed and
the motion carried. --
Councilman Wing: Now does the meeting begin?
Mayor Chmiel: No. I've got to do a ltttle apology here because I didn't know
that Susan Hurm was going to be here to speak on the Minnesota Volunteer
Recognition Week and I extend my apologies and I'd like to have you come forward
at this time to do that.
Susan Hurm: As he did mention, I'm the adult representative for the Youth
Commission and we were bringing the proclamation for Volunteer Week to the
Council to read as a proclamation.- My youth person-is here with me and I'd like
to introduce her. She is a junior at Chaska High School and she is kind of new'
to the Commission also as I am. I am filling the position and will need to be
re-appointed by the.Council again.l And Natalie's going-to tell, Natalie Rostni
is going to tell you what the Youth Commission has. been doing the year that they
have been in existence and then [ wtll assist her. So Natatie.
Natalie Rosini: Okay like Susan said, I'd like to tell you a little bit about
what the Youth Commission has been doing. This past January we sent in an
application to be recognized as a leadership plan and this is to Oarrel Busler
at Mankato University. Eight school districts and four other sites for labs
were selected and Chaska, or District 112 was one of them. And basically it's
to learn how youth and adults work as partners on policy making bodies. And we
send information about what we do and then we get information about other
districts have been doing. It's just trying to pull-it all together and give
other districts ideas. We also have two youth on our commission that are on the
Action for Children Youth Advisory Council which.GovernorArnie Carlson has
started last spring. It's a take off from the Adult Advisory Counctl and I am
one of them and Chris Cerwanka-who's'a senior at Chaska Htgh'School'is'the other
representative. And there's 26 youth from across the state that are on this
Council. 26 were chosen out of 80 applicants so it's been a really rewarding
thlng to be on. Our role ls to create a vislon for Minnesota's children and
families. That's a rod ro11. Some of the things we've been doing'is reviewing
legislation and policy. Right now ue're working.on a medta summit and March
31st and April 2nd, I'm not sure what channel it will be on but there's a
children's summit that we were just interviewed wlth the Adult Advisory Councll
and President Clinton is going to be on there the third day talking about other
21
City Council Meeting - March 22, lgg2
programs throughout the nation and stuff and the Action for Children Youth
Advisory Council was chosen for one of those so that should be pretty excit£ng.
We've also worked wlth the Community Education Advlsory Council in Chaska and
they came to us because they wanted a youth member on their board and asked us
to take care of selecting a youth for that so we've been worklng wlth them. And
another thing that the Youth Commission is doing right now is we might
participate in the Minnesota Youth Summlt whlch is brand new this year. It's
of, by and for the youth and lt's a one day deal in April and just discussing
toplcs of, current toplcs Z guess ls what we'll be discussing there. Then the
Youth Volunteer Service Directory, that's another project that we've worked to
create. We put this together. I can't say I because I came in after they put
thls together but basically what they did is went around to the communities and
asked them to put thelr lnput in and glve ldeas of, or went to buslnemses and
asked you know, do you need, do you have room for some volunteers. And ~o then
they came back to us and we put it all together and that's the Youth Servlce
Directory. So if you want, if a student wants to volunteer for ~omething or get
community servlce hours or whatever, they can just go to the book and look it up
and choose what they'd like to do. And ~o that's, we've been distributing that
book throughout the community and that's how Susan I thlnk found out about thls
and came to call the Youth Commission because we were looktng for someone to
f111 the positlon for the Chanhassen representative. Rlght now we are currently
worklng with the League of Women Voters to set up Growing Up Female. That's
thelr program whlch will take place next Monday night. So if any of you would
like to come. We were asked, the Youth Commission was asked to come and talk
and answer quemtlons just on growlng up female. That's thelr topl¢. And also,
the last thing is that we've been working with Tanya Bishman who is the Carver
representative I thlnk wlth the steerlng committee for the Community Learnlng
Center. Have you heard about that? It's a proposal that the 01strict was
offered a grant and we are competing with 22 other sltes around the country for
thls planning grant. It's to set up, it's not a new ~ohool but it's kind of
confusing but lt's a community learnlng center. That'm what lt's golng to be
called. And then also we are thinking about participating in the National
Service Learning Conference but we haven't really de¢lded. That's just too
revitalizing education or renewing communities. So that takes place in April
also. But basically the Youth Commission, we serve as a 11nk between the
community and youth so we're here to help other programs and facilitate other
thlngs.
Mayor Chmiel: Good. Thank you Natalle. Appreciate that.
Susan Hurm: One more thing before we give up the mic. This year we will be
updating thls Youth 01rectory. We'll be doing thls every year and if you look
through here, there isn't a whole lot from Chanhassen for the youth in
Chanhassen to do. So we will be golng around agaln as they did last year
looking for volunteer opportunities for our klds in this community and so we
would certainly 11kc to have your help in locatlng those klnds of things for the
kids to do.
Mayor Chmiel: Great. Thank you very much. It's always a pleasure to see a
younger individual withln thts community take an active role in what you're
dolng and we certainly appreciate it.
Susan Hurm: She did a nice job.
27_
City Council Meeting - Hatch 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Yes, an excellent job.
councilman Wing: What's happening to this book? I mean there's really, just
paging through it, there's some tremendous information here. I didn't know half
these things existed. How 'is this being disseminated? Where is it going? How
many copies are out? It deserves some publicity.
Susan Hurm: Well we have them in the high school. We've got them in the middle
school and I'm taking them over to St. Hubert's. We're just trying to get them
to the youth as best we can. And I know that it's not well know. That this is
available.
Councilman Wing: We have the Chanhassen Villager is our local paper. Maybe
they should get a copy of this just to see what's available.
Susan Hurm: It wouldn't hurt, yeah. We would like to get. a lot more PR and
each one of the youth members, representatives and the adult representatives are
going to the City Councils so they'll be going to Victoria and they'll go to
Carver and so hopefully we'll get more information out to everyone. But they've
morked real hard and they've accomplished, a lot in a year. And they are a good
voice that needs to be heard. And there is now a youth member on the School
Board so they've made some inroads and they do have really strong leadership
skills mhich we are trying to develop..So we-hope that someday maybe they'll be
on your Council.
Mayor Chmiel: The leaders of tomorrow.
Natalie Rosini: You were asklng about when, what was your last question about
if that was being distributed or with the paper?
Councilman Wing: Well just the distribution of thls I think is Important
because there's a lot of information. I've got a, I Just happened to pick one
out here. My daughter ls doing some work, graduate work right now and there's a
couple things in here that just fit right in. I'm going to show-this to her and
she's going to be excited to call-these numbers.
Natalie Rosint: Because there's our President, or our Chairperson, excuse me,
is going to, I think he just mrote up an artlcle to send in to the paper but
that mas kind of a. slow process because we~ve been working with other things.
There's many things.
Councilman Wlng: Well Chanhassen Villager is our local paper and they're right
here in town and sometimes we can, under pressure bend their arm a little bit to
get support for things.
Natalie Rosini: That'd be great.
Mayor Chmiel: And I think we have him sitting here.
Susan Hurm: Well me appreciate anything you can do for us because they are a
good body.
23
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Chmtel: Hark, may I just ask that hopefully you will get through this
without too much problem and hopefully if there's anything that we've discussed
previously, at the last meetlng, I would appreciate that as well. And I'd 11ke
to glve you a shorter period of time this time than you dld the last time.
Hopefully you can wlnd up wlthin 5 or 10 mlnutes at the most.
Mark Halla: I'll do my best. I don't think there will be any problem with that.
Councilman Senn: Excuse me Don. Just a point. Do we have an 1rem under
Visitor Presentation too that's scheduled?
Mayor Chmiel: No, that's item number 3.
Kate Aanenson: That's a visitor presentation item.
Mayor Chmiel: Oh 3, okay. Yes. We'll get to that. It is.
Mark Halla: Thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight. I've basically
written a speech and I'll just read it through and that was in the lnterest of
trying to save as much time as possible. I know my pursuit of this issue has
angered some of you but I appreciate you allowing a political process to
continue nonetheless. I wish to point out that you, the City Council, have the
opportunity to make a declsion that will effect the clty forever. You're
unfortunately in a posltion that pits you either against city or against local
business. You also jeopardize your own political goals if you make an unpopular
decision. I don't envy your position. I hope you consider your decision from
all sides before you finalize lt. This lssue to me has become one of principle
rather than simply economics. I've always agreed with the goals of reforesting
our city but I also belleve you must not do thls at the expense of local
business. The Tree Preservation Board by name is preservation. Not
reforestation. However, reforestation ls obviously a major goal of all of us.
It's also the goal of the federal government. There are federal monies
available that by law must be spent through local business. Not in competition
wlth or against local business. Your decision on this matter should take into
account the actlons by the federal government. To declde to compete wlth local
retailers in any fashion by selling anythlng at any price may have legal
ramifications. You are to use our dollars to lmprove our public land, not our
prlvate. If you want more trees, require more when subdividing. Plant them on
boulevards. Improve landscaping on city property but don't sell them. The use
of our taxes to compete with local retailers or to sell anything for private use
ls confllct of interest. It is wrong, unfalr, probably illegal, contrary to the
standard government practices and should not be done. When we proposed to the
Tree Board that we may be w1111ng to offer a discount to Chanhassen residents,
and that was all three of the local garden centers. If they match that discount
they said, the Clty does not intend to spend any money on this project. That is
not up for discussion. This has been labeled a top priority but there are no
funds available to promote lt? Every slngle day, 3&5 days a year, I spend money
to operate my business. I pay taxes, insurances, utilities, payroll, the list
goes on. I realize that I must sell my product at a hlgher prlce than I pay for
it in order to survive. I risk my livelihood every day. If I don't make money,
I and 20 to 30 other people lose their jobs. As any entrepreneur in buslness
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
for himself or herself would agree, the competition from other retailers is
expected. They have similar cost and overhead and therefore similar pricing.
Competition from a city that does not have these other associated costs is
unexpected, unjust and immoral. The end does not justify the means. The Tree
Preservation Board would be better off seeking local retailers support rather
than alienating them. It was expressed at our meeting last Monday night that
the Arbor Bay celebration itself was an important aspect of this program.
was mentioned that the local retailers could donate trees or possibly even move
one with a tree spade for the city celebration. That would help bring a crowd
and also get us some exposure but they would still sell their trees. Halla
Nursery has in the past donated goods or services'to the city and may do so tn
the future but the incentive to do so would be greatly-reduced if. th~s program
continues. The lack of support in this instance is overwhelming. I'm disgusted
that the city in uhich I operate would even consider selling anything for any
reason to private citizens for their own private use. This program does Just
that and should not continue. The city has'3 garden centers that local
residents can go to for landscaping, trees, shurbs, related products. The
competition between these garden centers will naturally keep pricing fair. You
may believe the prices for these products are too high but that isn't your
concern. Each one of us in this bus£ness is competitive not only w~th each
other but with the general Twin City marketplace for similar goods. We would
not be in this business if we d~dn't strongly support your'end-goal of
reforestation and beautification of our environment. That's the unquestionable
truth. I think ue all agree on that.. Please help:us achieve this goal through
education, city programs that stress the value of. trees, recycling, legislation
to require more trees, otc, but not through selling to the public. As you
already know, the 3 local garden centers have written support of more than 40
local businesses. I believe that was mailed to. each. of-you, In addition I have
here some more signatures bringing the total support against this program
upuards of 50 local businesses. All of these are either owners .or managers.
also have some information on the federal tree planting program. It outlines
the method of promoting reforestation as well as the fact that it can only be
used through small business and on public land:only.- I wish to point out that
I'm representing the viewpoint of-not only myself but over 50 other-business
people. We've used the political process as it was meant to be used and we have
no animosity towards any member of the city or. the Council ~tself, and hope you
feel the same. I know that your decision will be based on what you believe is
best for our communit and I don't fault you for that. I admire you for ~t. This
will be a late night and I know you're all doing the best you can. I thank you
for hearing me out and I have some paperwork that I th~nk mtght help in your
decision. Who would you like me to pass it out to?
Mayor Chmiel: Good, thank you. Why don't you just bring those and give those
up here to the Counc11. Whatever you have. '
Councilman Senn: Don I have a question if I could.
Mayor Chmiel: Sure.
Councilman Senn: Last meeting when this came up ! asked that these guys go back
and meet with the Tree Board.. It sounds like that's occurred but it sounds, if
I'm interpretting the comments correctly,.that it kind of went nowhere or did
nothing?
25
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: No. My understanding is that the other two nurseries or the
other two people who were in business within the city, maybe Todd can answer
that particuIar question.
Todd Hoffman: To answer your question CounciIman Senn. I did carry out the
City Council's directive. Called a special meeting of the Tree Preservation
Board with the retailers. Mr. Halla, Mr. Jay Kronick and Mr. Jim Wilson. As a
result of that meeting the board, boardmember Schroers moved and Eiler seconded
that they made a motion to sponsor as a part of the Arbor Day celebration,
specifically on that day, that Saturday morning, a tree sale offering 50 inch
and one half, balled and burlapped sugar maple trees in observance of the city's
emblem at considerably reduced prices. That would be on a first come, first
serve basis as part of the event. Single tree per person. In addition to that,
that local vendors are invited to participate in the process or the event as
they choose and we suggested that we could distribute sales flyers or
information to the residents and participants of that celebration from each of
the individual businesses. So the tree sale as occurred last year was
dismantled. It was not suggested that that would continue. Upon calling Mr.
Halla, Jay Kronick and Jim Wilson the morning after the Tree Board meeting to
inform them of this position, Mr. Kronick and Mr. Wilson responded favorably to
the process, and at least neutrally if not favorably to the outcome. However
Mr. Halla continued to express his displeasure with the issue.
Councilman Senn: And when does this recommendation from the Tree Board come to
the Council for consideration, or doesn't it?
Todd Hoffman: It was my understanding that the City Council asked that the Tree
Board resolve the issue and this is their resolve.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, and I think that was the direction we had given at that
time.
Councilman Senn: Well I think that we asked that they meet and see if they
could resolve the issue. From what I'm hearing it wasn't resolved.
Councilman Mason: Well no, two of the people involved in the nursery business
at least gave tacit approval to this time around because it was a little too
late to stop lt. Am I correct in assumlng that Todd?
Todd Hoffman: Correct.
Councilman Mason: Now I had a chat with Jay Kronick after that and I suggested
to him maybe after the first of the year ue sit down and see how ue can, for
years previous get all this worked out. And he was amenable. So I believe that
2 of the 3 were, like Todd said, at least in tacit agreement.
Mark Halla: Let me point out.
Councilman Wing: Let's just keep going here.
Mayor Chmlel: We're just having it right here at Council yet. I also had
discussions with Jay and basically what you said is what he said to me as well.
And I thlnk the lntent as we indicated a long tlme ago was the fact, not trylng
26
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
to take business away from existing nurseries or businesses. The intent behind
it ~as to promote the planting of trees wh£ch was the main intent and what we
indicated at that time to be selling the trees for cost, was Just that fact of
putting trees in. To get them planted and hopefully helping the environment as
well in cleaning it. But ! know that the position that we had taken at that
time and clarification that [ had made at that particular meeting was that we
know that they weren't going to be making money on this but hopefully we were
looking at it from the Council standpoint to promote an exposure to those
businesses, or whoever that successful bidder was last year. And that was where
we were really coming from with this whole situation. [ don't think this
Council nor myself would take a position to try to run in competition with any
other businesses in this community. If anything ue do, we support those
businesses and do that rather strongly.
Mark Halla: That's exactly why I got the petition together.
Mayor Chmiel: That's right. That's right.-And many of those people who had
even signed that petition had called me and said, can you tell me really what
I really signed. They still had some concerns.
Mark Halla: I wouldn't know that.
Mayor Chmiel: But nonetheless, I just wanted to make that clarification.
Richard do you.
Councilman Wing: I just might clarify what we did that night because I was
there and I agreed with the business and the retail group that were there. They
had some valid points and I think we listened intently and we listened hard and
[ think that's the reason was called in the first place. What we did was stop a
month long process with a tree sale that went over weeks and weeks and weeks and
tried to sell as many trees as we could and unknown number and I think last year
we sold 60. What we decided to do was just have an Arbor Day and some way to-,
you've got to get people in the door somehow to this Arbor Oay celebration. So
we decided to pick one tree a year. This year it just happened to be a maple
because it's our signature. Limit it to 50 trees t. otal and use those trees to
bring people in on an educational process. I guess our goal here. was urban
reforestation. This is a long term decade after decade type goal. It's not,
the retailers came in and were talking about today and me and I and what's best
for me today and how it's going to effect me today and'I started to shut it out
because there was no talk about the city and it's-future. It's growth and ho~
they might help and present a better program. So as an attempt to compromise in
this environmental issue, we simply cut it do~n to one day, no more than one-
day. 50 trees, which is fewer than...local-community in it's entirety with
brochures, with trucks, set up stands if they want to and give away discount
coupons. Pass out brochures. Whatever they want to but [ see this as
bolstering the local business-community. Not hurting it-. I was, frankly Hark
when you come up here and start talking about being against local business, l
think I'm being supportive of local business. When you start talking to a guy
like me that's heart and soul on this Council, and talk about political goals
and political decisions, you're out of line. That really, if I'm turning red,
I'm glad I'm tan because I'm not a politician and I'm working for the city and
I'm trying to be visionary long term and business is our local community and !
don't agree with your position or your statement at all. And I think if you've
27
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
chosen to get on this band wagon, HaIIa Nursery could have become famous in this
thing. So I just can't agree with what we're going. Now the one question I do
have is the iegaiity. This seems to be areai common thing in a lot of cities.
In our community and certainly out East is where we got this started our idea.
Is this iIlegal for us to have a few trees on a Saturday morning and pick them
up at wholesale and sell them to the community?
Roger Knutson: I don't think so.
Councilman Wing: I don't think so either.
Roger Knutson: The DNR's been selling trees for, forever might be too long but
for a long time.
Councilman Wing: So I don't agree that it's illegal. I think you're wrong.
Vernelle Clayton: I just have a suggestion. It's not original with me. It was
Brad's ldea a long tlme ago and I dldn't follow up on lt. It seems to me that
we have a good thing going here. That the city's trees could be sort of like a
lost leader and Market Square, we manage the shopping center. That's I
understand where the give away is going to be taking place. We would certainly
be happy to lnvlte the nursery folks to come and have a few of their wares to
display as well. Come and get the free trees as a sort of incentive to come out
and then see their pretty thlngs and buy them I think could be a uln-uln all the
way around and you're welcome to come and I'd be happy to invite the others.
Mayor Chmiel: Could you please state your name just for the record.
Vernelle Clayton: Oh, for the record I'm Vernelle Clayton.
Mark Halla: I'd appreciate that opportunity and we'll probably take you up on
that. I've always stressed that I firmly believe in this end goal. For 50 some
years we've been in business dolng this same thing. We've been out here for
nearly 30. And Richard I apologize if I've offended you in any way because I
certainly did not mean that, but I can state the facts for what they are and
there's 50 signatures on that petition stating they believe the program as it
stands ls incorrect. Don in reference to whether they slgned it and then read
it afterwards, I can't say that. I can only say that you or I would probably
read something before we slgned it and each of them seemed to have read it
before they signed lt. As you can see, a lot of them are faxed in. They're all
hand wrltten in thelr own wrltlng so I belleve strongly in the issue and I
pursued it and if I've angered any of you, I apoIogize for that. That wasn't my
intent. It simply was to say I disagree with the process here. To do the best
that I could to change it and if I can't change it, then it's 11ke voting for
President. I'm going to get behlnd the new person or the new program and try to
support it. I thlnk it's wrong. There's no question about it. It is wrong.
You have no business in being in the free market enterprise system. It's not
right.
Don Ashworth: Mr. Mayor, I'd like to bring up one last point because I did have
an opportunity to talk with Mark. I guess I felt happy about the process in
that the City Councll 11stened to the concerns of the retailers. Asked that the
item be submitted back over to the Tree Board, which is represented by 5
28
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
citizens. Each of the retailers were given an opportunity to speak and give
their thoughts. The Tree Board listened and then they voted. I guess that's
what I think government's all about. It's a democracy. It's an opportunity for
people to express their views. You present those to a neutral group and a
decision is made. That Tree Board did not have the latest information which is
now this survey of businesses. [ think where the Council ftnds themself pressed
between a rock ts that at our last meeting, at the meeting at which time we sent
it back to the Tree Board and asked them to reconsider, we knew that we were
running short of time if you were going to have a program for 1993. To now
again come back with additional new Information, I think that wou~d surely kill
the program for '93. ! suggested to Hark that although he did not get all of
the things he was looking at through the Tree Board, I thought that they had
made major concessions towards the retailers. And ! encouraged him to continue
to work through that group and hopefully earlier than we did this year to
potentially make it better for '94, '95. ! mean I do not know why, whatever the
program is this year has to be exactly what we do in '94. This is not the same
as 1992 and again ! would thlnk '94 would even;..further.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes and I just might add a little bit to that. I also talked to
a couple members on the Tree Board and they'd be willlng to'sit down and
re-review what could happen for 1994. I think as they-had put it,-it's sort of
a put and take kind of situation. To hopefully get thts thlng resolved wlthin
that particular commission. So if we can do that,-I think maybe everybody's
going to be happy in the long run. Mark.
Councilman Senn: From all the stuff I've seen I guess going back and forth on
this, [ think given the fact that it's already been'published, etc, ! think what
they've gone back and worked out appears to be a good quick solution for '93.
But beyond that ! guess I'd like to reiterate the comments I made last time and
that is, while I'm not necessarily in full agreement with anyone in specifically
saying, I do think that we should seriously examine our role in this and'I think
our role is really education and promoting the planting of trees and stuff and
not selling them and I think we ought to really take a hard look at that as [t
relates to future years.
Mayor Chmiel: And that is what the discussion will wind up being with the Tree
Board. Come up with a conclusion as we've discussed, right?
Todd Hoffman: Correct.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, thank you..
REQUEST FOR SNALLER AVERAGE L, OT S:TZES ZN ~ PUD Z0Nq: Tip ~I,I, ON.FOR AFFORDM~BLE
HO~I$:]:NG. DOL£3$:]: PROP[RTY NORTH OF LAKE RILEY AND BANDZHERE PflRK. TERRY FORBORD.
I, UNDGREN BROS.
Terry Forbord: Your Honor, members of the Ctty Council. My name is Terry
Forbord with Lundgren Bros, 935 East Wayzata Boulevard in Wayzata. And a point
of clarification. We are not here specifically this evening to be slte specific
about a particular piece of property. It was probably my error. I may have
misinformed staff of that but I am here thls evening to talk about for your
consideration a review of the zoning ordinance relat-ed to lot size and also the
PUD ordinance as recently adopted and it's inflexibility for creativity in the
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
development of neighborhood communities. I have with me this evening John Uban.
We're going to be very brief with a presentation to you regarding this. It was
2 years ago Saturday that I appeared before the Planning Commission at their
request when they were discussing the PUD ordinance. In fact it was a member of
Dahlgren, Shadlow and Uban that participated in that presentation at the
Planning Commission with me and interestingly enough, a different PUD ordinance
was adopted. But we wlll be very brief in thls. We just ask for your
consideration on this matter. At this time I'm just going to let John glve you
an overview.
John Uban: Thank you Terry. John Uban, I'm a planning consultant and both in
the prlvate sector and the public sector and we've been helping Lundgren Bros on
many different projects really in the western suburbs. And what we'd 11ke to
have the clty conslder lsa revlew of the PUD ordinance and so we can have more
flexibility in developing Lundgren type neighborhoods in the community. What
we're findlng ls that you have a PUO but it doesn't quite give the flexibility
that ue thlnk ls needed. We have developed some neighborhoods that have a
certain level of housing but we'd 11ke more diversity. We're looking for more
diversity. There's more pressure because of environmental concerns and so forth
to have a lotting pattern that is more efficient and more cost effective. So
we're really would 11ke to give that cost effective houslng product to the clty
and we want to look at it in different ways. We need to look at trying to get
to some lot slzes, about 9,500 square feet in a way that we can still provlde
all those amenities in the Lundgren Bros style. Buffering busy highways. Adding
other speclal amenities ulthln the neighborhood. Dolng a really good job of
mitigating environmental effects on the property. There are a variety of things
that really speak to havlng a quallty neighborhood developed on every parcel.
Now every parcel in the city is not necessarily subject for smaller lot sizes.
We thlnk this should be carefully considered but should be looked at very
specifically on PUO's that come through and have performance ratings that would
really promote good housing. What we see ls people, typical houslng or a client
or a new resident, income $40,000.00 to $50,000.00 looking at a house in the
range of $100,000.00 to $150,000.00. Coming lnto the community. How can they
afford the best house possible and thls is what we're trying to give them. If
we're klnd of locked lnto a larger lot size, larger lot width, there's a
singular cost associated with that and so they'll always try to maximize the
best house possible on the lot. If we can brlng in smaller lots that are still
excellent lots in the community but smaller with amenities with them, then we
can offer something to them where they can put ina higher quallty house. Maybe
a larger house than they normally would be able to afford. $o lt's that whole
package to bulld quality in the neighborhood that should be looked at. Not have
a singular goal of just larger lots or a certain size lot but to allow
flexibility so there is a method of getting quallty neighborhoods and a quality
house. We think people really want to have an efficient product that speaks
well toward that neighborhood. Sort of the thlng that we want to leave you
wlth, and is thls ldea that this kind of housing project will develop the best
neighborhoods, the best tax base, and the best diversity and flexibility that
the city can really look at to provide all those housing opportunities that you
should have in the clty. We're findlng that this sort of move up from different
styles of houses within a community is an important part of becoming a member of
a clty so that there's lot of different levels of opportunity and we want to
offer that in our types of development. So we would like to have you consider
3O
City Council Heeting - March 22, 1993
this. Have staff look at it. We'd like to participate and hopefully bring this
before you for some consideration.
Terry Forbord: Your Honor, as many of you well know and I think some of you are
participating, there are two legislative items this session regarding these
types of issues. One is the Community Stabilization Rct offered by
Representative Orfield. And another one is offered by Senator Mondale. I'm not
here to judge the merit of every one of those and I'm not, I certainly have my
own personal opinions of both of those and I don't necessarily believe that
they're in the best interest of the community. However I do know, after meeting
with both those people out of curiousity to find out what their motives are.
Some of the things that they do say have some merit. It's the methodology of
how they go about it that probably disturbs most people.- But in my presentation
to the Planning Commission 2 years ago, one of the things that I discovered to
my surprise was the Planning Commission told me that they, number one, had never
allowed a PUD in the city. and number two, they certainly had never allowed lot
sizes smaller in the range certainly below 15,000 square feet. I was very
surprised. At that time I put up an exhibit of the Near Mountain Planned Unit
Development which is developed by Lundgren Bros and is now almost complete.
There are 144 lots in Near Mountain that are under 12,500. square feet. They
range from as low as 8,500 square feet to 12,500 with lot widths as low as 65
feet. Rnd interestingly enough, Chanhassen and this project were selected in a
national award. I'm not here just to toot Lundgren Bros' because this is a
community award and it was on this project and it was in the front page and a
foldout section of Builder Magazine in 1984. So it was almost 9 years ago that
the City of Chanhassen had the vision to provide a diversity in both housing
product and price range. Rnd it's only been in recent memory through the
revision and amendment of the Planning Unit Oevelopment and. Zoning Ordinances
that larger lots became what they are today. What we're telling you is that in
order for us to provide more affordable housing, lot-sizes, have to-get smaller.
What we're also telling you that on certain sites that may be next to highways,
that may be flat as a pancake without a tree on it. In order to take a site
like that and mitigate the impact of the highway, to plant a lot of trees, to
create hills where there are no hills, to put in ponds where there are no ponds,
that costs a lot of money and the only way one can do that is by increasing the
density. The net result is a finer neighborhood community. The density and on
these 144 lots, is 2.2 dwelling units per acre at Near'Mountain. It's already
there. It's been there for almost 10 years. There's a brand new neighborhood
community right adjacent to the Chanhassen boundary in Eden-Prairie' Right off
of Dell Road just south of Highway 5 called Windfield North that we are
developing with the Pemtom Corporation. The-density in'there is 2.7 dwelling
units per acre. All that we're asking for you to do is we merely request that
the City Council direct the staff and the Planning Commission to open public
hearings. To review the existing zoning ordinances related-to lot size and. the
PUD ordinance. Right now you might as well not.have a residential PUD
ordinance. It has virtually no flexibility whatsoever and it,s impossible to
achieve really what I understood the ultimate goal of it to be. So we're just
asking you at this time, being that we will be coming to the city in the near
future with two more requests for Planned'Unit Oevelopments; that'we ask you to
consider reopening those public hearings so we can give you a more elaborate
presentation with more facts and more details hopefully to persuade the city to
allow a greater diversity of housing product within the community. Thank you.
City Council Meeting ,- March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you Terry. Any discussions? Richard.
Councilman Wing: I would, Terry you've been here my two years and you're aware
that we just completed thls process. The Plannlng Commission physically gave up
on lot size and sent them to the Council. And we debated this for at least the
2 years Mike and myself have been here and we just now, we held up a PUD
ordinance for a year and a half on lot slze and we finally decided to stay with
15,000, although some of us wanted to go higher.
Councilman Mason: Some of us wanted to go lower.
Councilman Wing: Some of us wanted to go lower, and we compromised where we
are. I think we went down to 10 or 9,500.
Mayor Chmiel: No, 12.
Kate Aanenson: The lots can go down to 11,000 but they have to average 15,000.
Councilman Wing: 15, right. And so we just got done with that after 2 years of
arguing. My proposal was the same thing I just said. If we're going to really
talk about affordable housing. I mean if we really are concerned about
affordable houslng, our PUD isn't golng to do that and a 15,000 foot subdivision
doesn't do it. And Lakeville has projects that are 50 x 150 foot lots. 7,500
square foot lots and maybe there's some need for that. 8ut I went to the
extreme, I said I want a 22,000 square foot lot size average and in a PUD you
can go down to a 7,000 if you want to. There's some flexibility. But denslty
became the word and nobody could define density and nobody could come up with a
denslty formula so we klnd of stayed where we were. So to open thls up again ls
denylng that we just completed the process. I mean literally within the last 2
months, 3 months we just completed the process. And I hear what you're saylng.
It's not flexible enough.
Councilman Mason: What's moderate priced housing for Lundgren Bros7 No
seriously.
Terry Forbord: Well I think the other, the scope of this, we all need to
understand that the engine that drtves the machine, and I've testified at the
Met Council unt11 I'm blue in the face on this and they wlll never admlt lt.
When you have a restricted urban service area the price of land goes up. It's a
supply and demand. Rlght now land in Chanhassen for residential purposes,
depending on the school district you're in. If you lnclude Minnetonka and
Chaska school district, prices of land are golng to be anywhere from
approximately $18,000.00, $19,000.00 at the very low end to $35,000.00 to
$45,000.00 per acre on the hlgh end. And that would be in the areas in the
Minnetonka School District. So it's almost virtually impossible to provide any
sense of what most people would call affordable houslng when they're on 15,000
square foot lots.
Councilman Mason: But Terry, you're not answering the question. I mean what do
you folks consider. I mean we do have some very, I think important issues and
it's going to come up on the next, for number 5. For what we do with Block
Grant money in providing moderate to low lncome housing and I guess what I want
32
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
to know ls Lundgren Bros serious about providing moderate cost houslng for
people with moderate incomes?
Terry Forbord: Okay, we can provtde as moderate a price of housing as what the
raw land prlce and the lot size will dictate. For example, and I can only use
11vlng example and you don't have to believe me. You can go there yourself.
Eden Prairie. Windfield North. Homes there, the base pr£ce starts at about
$135,000.00 and then it goes up from there.
Councilman Mason: But that's not moderate prtced houstng though.
Terry Forbord: It depends on who you're tatking to.
Councilman Mason: Terry, for people with moderate or low incomes, $135,000.00
is on the high end. Now I think we really need to talk serious in definitions
here. I'm not saying I'm in disagreement with smaller PUD's or anything like
that but I'm hearing some awfully alturistic stuff right now.
Terry Forbord: And I'm not here suggesting that we're providing low income
houslng. Not at all because that's Impossible to do in Chanhassen. It wlll
never happen unless it's subsidized. Impossible.
Councilman Mason: That very well may be.
Terry Forbord: But moderately priced housing certainly is in the range that I'm
telling you.
Councilman Wing: But I don't want to be market driven either. Maybe we don't
want to provide 7,500 square foot lots and Orono is what? Maybe we want to be
in Orono. What do you say to the Orono Council? Oo you try to get them down
from 2 acres to an acre and a half?
Terry Forbord: Orono doesn't have sewer and water so it's a different issue.
Or the majority of it doesn't. And all I'm asking this evening is for
consideration. I reallze you just went through a lot of this and I came here
and volunteered my time, certainly more often than once, and tried to share with
you purely from a plannlng standpoint and from a housing standpoint, of the
problems associated with the proposed amendment to the PUO ordinance. And it
wouldn't work and it doesn't work. Now all I'm suggesting is maybe it should be
reviewed and maybe you can take a proactive stance rather than a non-proactive
stance and say, you know. Bo we want to be a community where $200,000.00 is the
minimum price range, base price'range or do we want to try to get into that
$140,000.00-$135,000.00 range and work up from there? And by allowing smaller
lots, it allows you to do that. And you've already done it and it's already
been very successful. Now if you were to look back of me and say that wasn't
successful, it's a slum and it's in this city and the reason it's a slum is
because they were small lots, then I'll walk away;
Councilman Wing: No but some of the comments on record stating that we don't
particularly like the area, or like the density and the appearance of those
small lots and we have had consistently problems with small lots. The project
was wonderful. Zt won an award. Z don't like it. ! drive down TH 101 and I
go, geez could we cram any more houses in there. So I don't like the small lots
33
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Terry and I've got to be upfront and honest about that. I prefer much less
density and it may rule my kids out buying a house in Chan or I might have to
move out someday.
Councilman Mason: Personally I'd like to hear what's said because I know, and
I thlnk Paul Krauss has talked about this too. The difference between urban
sprawl, or suburban sprawl and denslty and there's a trade-off I think as our
city is growlng by leaps and bounds that we really need to take a look at.
Councilman Wing: I don't think we resolved it with what we did. It was an
effort to compromise and I think affordable housing ls the key word and I agree
wlth Terry. The only way you get that down is land cost by today's standards
and that means smaller lots but not if it gives up density. That's where I get
hung up here.
Mayor Chmiel: And it's that moderately, even reachlng moderately priced. What
is a moderate priced house?
Councilman Mason: And maybe that's something we need to grapple with too.
Councilman Senn: When you did go through the past reuiew in the PUD ordinance,
was any thought glven to a lower denslty but on a rationing type of basls? Llke
for every x lots you develop you're allowed I lot of 7,5000 square feet or you
know that type of thlng. I have ~een that used effectively in some other cities
where in effect it deals with the problem 0ick that you mentioned whlch ls
lettlng the denslty get carrled away but at the same time it does provlde for
and allow for types of situations which Terry's talking about. It controls the
total numbers in relationship to some overall slze or plan so to speak.
Mayor Chmiel: Some of the problem with that being too, of course is what that
footprint's going to be on that existlng proposed lot of whatever lt'$ golng to
be. I think we're runnlng into some difficulties with that wlth people wishlng
and wanting to put decks on thelr homes.
Kate Aanenson: If I could just add to that. What we did is we came up with the
standard home pad size ls because what happened ls we approved those and then we
constantly were innundated with variances on that so we came up with the
standard home slze. A11owlng for deck, front yard, rear yard and then we sald
the minimum and then an average square foot.
Mayor Chmiel: And I too like Richard, have been an advocate of having larger
lot sizes only because of this being a young community. A young community needs
klds off the streets rather than in the streets and in thelr yards. If you have
it too small, there's not that availability for those kids to do what they want
to do and play. Whether it be football or softball or whatever. But I just,
I've taken that position of saying that 15,000, I too had that in mind at the
tlme and wanted to see that brought 1nrc the clty because of those concerns.
I too look at some of those, the areas in Near Mountain. I think those houses
are very close to each other as well. I'm not exceptionally excited about it
but I would take still, yet the posltion of saying that if were to bring these
down to what you're looklng for, I guess I'm still where I'm at wlth the 15,000
and having that adjusted for the PUD.
34
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Terry Forbord= Your Honor, the interesting thing, ! was going to prepare this
exhibit for the benefit of the Council and I didn't get it done but I can, I
think I can graphically represent it to you verbally. What the current
ordinance prefers me to do would be to take a piece of property. I have right
now a piece of property in Chanhassen that's about 77 acres. There's no trees.
There's no hills. There's no wetlands. What it encourages me to do is to grid
it out. It encourages me not to do any landscaping. It encourages me not to do
any ponding. It encourages me not to do any buffering. It tells me to put in
the straightest streets as I can because they're the cheapest. Make all the
lots 90 feet wide and make them 15,000 square feet and meet the letter of the
ordinance and make it a vanilla subdivision. 3ust like all the other uncreative
subdivisions in the United States that have been done. That's what the
ordinance is telling me that Chanhassen wants. Now I know each one of you
enough and I've worked with you enough that you're going to say geez, that isn't
really what we want for Chanhassen. And what I'm saying to you is that you put
in the pressure on the developer to give you nothing more than what I've
described to you. The PUO ordinance, in using your words during the public
hearing, it should be a carrot and stick. And if we're willing to take unusual
situations and bring something in creative. Remember you throw out the ordinance
book with the PUD and everything's up to you. You have the authority to approve
it or deny it. And so we bring in something to you and we say we're going to
take a cow's ear and make it into a silk purse. Let's work together. Let's try
to do that and it gives the city the ability to do that where right now when you
say that you can be as small as 11,000 square feet but they all must average
15,000 square feet and they all must be 90 foot wide at the setback, you've just
thrown away any creativity that one can do.
Mayor Chmiel: I guess this really has come into the fact that this has been a
request that has been brought forward and I think it's going into a debate more
than it is a request. And I think that I feel that whatever, do you have any
specific concerns Colleen?
Councilwoman Oockendorf: Well I think we're all grappling with the same issue
which is...diverse community and yet we want a lot of open space and they're
working against each other. I'm not sure what the solutton is and I tend to sit
on the side of larger lots but how do you accomplish that. Either you've got
single family homes in the $200,000.00 range and apartments and there's no
inbetween. Or you've got suburban sprawZ so I guess all I want to say is I
don't know. ! think we're all struggling with the same issue.
Mayor Chmiel: I don't think we're going to take a position on this this
evening. Maybe we should discuss this too at our workshop.
Councilwoman Oockendorf: Zt's a good time to talk about it.
Mayor Chmiel: And see that if we can come up with some conclusions on it either
yes or no. Or at least see what it is and what it looks like. Mark, did you
have anything more? Okay. Thank you.
35
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
pUBLIC HEARING: METES AND BOUNOS SUBDIVISION OF A 40,823 SO. FT. PARCEL INTO
TWO PARCELS. 1950 CRESTVIEW CIRCLE, WAYNE POPPE.
Public Present:
Naee Address
Wayne Poppe
Julie Thorndycraft
Daniel Delaleese
1950 Crestview Circle
1940 Whitetail Ridge Court
1940 Whitetail Ridge Court
Mayor Chmiel: My understanding the two lots would consistent of 19,535 square
feet and 21,888 square feet.
Kate Aanenson: That's pretty much the staff report. I'll just add that one
issue that we did look at was, we need additional right-of-way on Galpin so the
part of the condition of this will be requesting that the additional 17 feet of
right-of-way be granted. The other issue is the Crestview Drive itself.
Normally ue only allowed 4 homes off that. The engineering departmenting in
looking at it felt that under the circumstances, that 5 homes would be okay and
that improvement of the street is not necessary at this point. There is sewer
available. Sewer and water available for both lots. The existing home will
meet the setback requirements except that it already is in non-compliance to the
front setback off of Crestview Drive. By splitting it in no way changes that
setback requirement. So with the condition of the additional right-of-way,
staff would recommend approval.
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you. We were just having a short discussion here regarding
some of the things we were talklng about.
Councilwoman Dockendorf= I'd just like to clarify one thing which Mike did
answer for me but I wanted to put on the record. I thought a couple of months
ago we had said no more metes and bounds descriptions would be. And this was in
the hopper before that decision was made and that's why we've got a metes and
bounds description?
Mayor Chmiel: Kate?
Kate Aanenson: That's a good question. I raised that same issue. Because it
was my understanding that we weren't allowing those either. We can allow for a
simple lot split when it's straight forward. Clean as far as the legal
description when it goes from metes and bounds to another metes and bounds. I'm
assuming Jo Ann worked with Roger on the interpretation of that and it just goes
to City Council.
Roger Knutson: I discuss lots of planning requests every day and this one
doesn't stand out in my mind but I assume what they're doing. There's a
procedure under your ordinance, not for clty staff to approve a metes and bounds
subdivision. There are two procedures. First, in a limlted way the city can
approve, clty staff can approve administratively certain slmple subdivisions of
property. There are only 2 or 3 of them that you allow and city staff can do
that wlthout ever brlnging it here. It's rlght in the Code. What was being
36
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
proposed for change, and the ordinance you rejected, would have opened that up
from 2 or 3 to a lot.
Kate Aanenson: I can reference the section of the Code. It's under Chapter,
Subdivision Chapter 18. What it allows is dtvtding a simple metes and bounds.
What it exempts them from ls the platttng process. They're st111 coming before
you for the subdivision. What they're exempting though is what we were looking
at too ls the expense of golng through the whole plattlng and all that so.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: So you can still have metes and bounds because £t's
straight.
Kate Aanenson: One lot split. Right, stralght forward. Simple. Without going
through the platting...
Roger Knutson: That ls rlght in the Code today. But that's what city staff can
do and if that's what were happening here you wouldn't see this. But there's
also a provision in the clty code that allows you to watve the procedural
requirements of platting...then approve as a metes and bounds subdivision.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: So should part of this be to watve that?
Councilman Senn: Kate, just point of clarification though. I thought when we
took that action we were directing staff to change that so that there was no
administrative ability to do metes and bounds. Everything was now going to be
platted.
Roger Knutson: No, as I understand. Excuse me, maybe I misunderstood but an
ordinance memo was brought to you to amend what we currently have to open it up.
To allow.
Councilman Senn: Rlght, whlch we denied.
Roger Knutson: Which you denied.
Councilman Senn: And I thought then we directed, maybe I'll go pul! up the
Minutes but I thought we directed staff at that point to simply get rid of metes
and bounds spllts. Period. I may be wrong but agaln, that's my memory.
Roger Knutson: I don't recall that but I think there's some stmple things you
could see.
Councilman Senn: ! remember staff arguing that but I remember the Councll going
the other way on it is my memory.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Z don't have the same recollection.
Councilman Senn: Well maybe we should follow up on it.
Roger Knutson: Sometimes a nelghbor is selling 10 feet to a neighbor. Not
creating any new lots.
Councilman Senn: That was brought up and discussed. I remember.
37
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Roger Knutson: And that's in the City Code and allowed.
Councilman Wing: The City Manager's recommendation was that we send this to the
moon. The metes and bounds.
Councilman Senn: Because his recommendation was different though.
Councilman Wing: And I think we nuked it.
Roger Knutson: You nuked the new ordinance.
Councilman Wing: Why would we not simply have this surveyed? Why stay with the
metes and bounds? Why not just approve this but do it on a survey so it's?
Councilman Mason: There is a survey.
Councilman Wing: But a metes and bounds description.
Mayor Chmlel: Yeah, this is done rlght here by a registered surveyor.
Councilman Wing: But it's thls 3 page thing that goes from generation to
generation versus one paragraph with a few numbers. Right?
Mayor Chmiel: Right.
Don Ashuorth: What I would suggest, I agree with the Attorney's interpretation
in that you denied the ordinance that would have loosen it up. If you would
11ke staff to brlng back what currently ls allowed for you to examlne whether or
not we want to continue to allow let's say staff to do a what we call a simple
subdivision. We can do that.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Basically, I mean you guys work with this. You know
you want the simplest way to define lots. I don't feel the need to move on
that.
Don Ashworth: I think that this one is well enough along that I would feel very
uncomfortable denying the applicant because I'm sure that they did visit with
staff. This type of description I $t111 thlnk ls pretty unwelldy and I guess I
would 11ke to meet with our staff in terms of how do we stop this in the future.
Councilman Wlng: I thought we declded that.
Councilman Senn: Yeah, I thought we decided that and I guess I don't think we
cut off the abllity of the.staff to do simple subdivisions. I thought ue just
sald they had to be platted. I mean they could still do the small ones, and I
thought that was discussed. If there was a 2 or 3 or something they could still
do lt.
Roger Knutson: City staff can't approve plats. There's no possibility of that.
Councilman Senn: Okay, so they would have to come back in here then?
38
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Roger Knutson: Absolutely. There's no such thing as a minor plat. A plat has
to go to the Planning Commission. it's got to come here. Staff can't approve
plats.
Councilman Senn: is that by our ordinance?
Roger Knutson= [t's by ordinance and State law.
Councilman Senn: By State law outside or superceding our's?
Don Ashworth: But there is a minor subdivision.
Roger Knutson: Yes. There's a difference between a subdivision and a plat.
Councilman Mason: And this is a minor subdivision.
Don Ashworth: So for example, a person wanted to sell the east 10 feet of Lot
1, Block 2, Western Hills, you could do that without having to come back before
the City Council.
Roger Knutson: If you were adjoining it to your neighbor.
Don Ashworth: Right. And he met then all the ordinances. They can't create
non-conforming uses and all those things. And I don't have a problem with
those. It's the longer descriptions.
Councilman Senn: But doesn't that Don create a lot of longer descriptions?
mean that 10 feet can start meandering all over the place depending on the line.
Don ~shworth: It has to parallel the. line. So I mean just in my example, the
east 10 feet of Lot 1. It can't be starting at the corner of Lot 1 and
meandering over to the tree and then back again. It's got to be 10 feet of Lot
Councilman Wing: I still agree with Mark that we want to avoid these and I'll
move approval of this one but I want a clarification on what we decided and
where we ought to go because I think we want to avold these. I think that was
the Council's overall decision that night. To avoid metes and bounds as much as
possible.
Mayor Chmlel: Okay. Is the applicant here?
Wayne Poppe: Right here.
Mayor Chmiel: Is there anything you wish-to add to the discussion that we've
had already?
Councilman Senn: You made a motlon didn't you? I'll second it just to.
Mayor Chmiel: For discussion. But we have to close the public hearing before
we take a vote.
Councilman Wing: Sorry, I was out of order.
39
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Wayne Poppe: Well then, for the record my name is Wayne Poppe. I live at 1950
Crestvieu Circle. We've got a little bit less than an acre lot there and my
wife and I would like to split it and build a new home there at some point in
time. It's as simple as that and metes and bounds and surveys all aslde, I hope
you got the paperwork you need.
Mayor Chmiel: Very well put. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to
address thls at thls tlme?
Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Mason seconded to close the public hearing.
All voted in favor and the motion carried. The public hearing was closed.
Mayor Chmiel: Now if you'd like to make your motion, I'd be more than happy to
accept it.
Councilman Wing: We got off on discussion before we asked for the public input.
I'd move approval of item number 4, subdivision.
Councilman Senn: Second.
Mayor Chmiel: It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion?
Resolution ~3-22A: Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Senn seconded to approve
Request $93-6 Metes and Bounds subdivision as shown on the plans dated February
16, 1993, ulth the following conditions:
1. The applicant shall pay park and trail fees at time of building permit
application.
Provide required drainage and utility easements for Parcels 4 and B.
3. Oedicate 17' of right-of-way along the westerly lot line of Parcel 4.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Councilman Wing: And one clarification on that. Staff will give us a laymen's
review of what we did and where we're going.
PUBLIC HEARING: CONSIDER THE ALLOCATION OF YEAR XIX FUNDS FOR THE URBAN
HENNEPIN COUNTY COMMUNITY. DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM, FUNDED UNDER TITLE I
OF THE HOUSING AND COHMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1974 AS AMENDED.
Public Present:
Name Address
Esther Steller
Emma St. John
Sally Hebson
6311Steller Circle
1621 West 63rd Street
Sojourn, 4151 Hwy 7, Excelsior
Mayor Chmiel: Paul being not here, who will address this? Sharmln.
40
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Sharmin Al-Jaff: CDBG funds normally are used for programs of benefit to low
and moderate income households, hand£capped individuals, and senior citizens.
This year we received $43,792.00. The City Council would have to allocate these
monies. South Shore Senior Center has requested some funding. Many of, or a
number of our senior citizens still attend the South Shore Senior Center and we
have been funding that center. Sojourn Adult Oaycare Center is requesting to
purchase a van and requested some funding. Oawm Lemme's salary, a portion of it
to work with the seniors, coordinating the Senior Center is also funded by the
CDBG fund. And the rest of the money is proposed to fund handicapped facilities
at Lake Ann and Lake Susan Park. We are recommending that the City Council
approve a resolution allocating these funds as outlined in staff's report.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, thank you. As I had mentioned, this is a publtc hearing.
Is there anyone wishlng to address this at thls time? Please state your name
and your address.
Sally Hebson: I'm Sally Hebson and I live at 4270 Circle Road in Excelsior. My
business is the Sojourn Adult Bay Program and Sojourn Early Learning Center,
which is located at 4151 Highway 7. Has an Excelsior mailing address and I
think it's in the Chanhassen city township. I've been told that and then I've
also been told that doesn't exist so I'm not exactly sure where we are. But we
are in Carver County and in Chanhassen in some way. I'd first like to thank the
City of Chanhassen for their very generous donation toward the Sojourn Bay
Program in the last 2 years of the Community Bevelopment Block Grant montes for
several items. I did send a letter to each one of the Council-members outlining
our request for the 20~ match on the small bus that we wrote a grant proposal
for through the Minnesota Department of Transportation. I think each one of the
Council members received that. At least I hope you did. What we're asktng for
is a donation from the City of Chanhassen. for a portion of the 20~ matching part
which is our local contribution and that's $6,000.00. This small bus will be
used for the participants in the Adult Bay Program, for the children in the
Early Learning Center and also as part of this grant application process, we
needed to show coordinated efforts with other community agencies and have this
vehicle available for church groups, youth organizations, and whomever wanted to
use it in this community and the other communities that we serve.
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you.
Sally Hebson: Thank you.
Mayor Chmlel: Is there anyone else at thls time? Yes, please come forward and
state your name and address please.
Emma St. John: I'm Emma St. John. I live in Chanhassen at 1621 West G3rd
Street. I have an Excelsior address. One of those that didn't want to change.
Esther Steller is with me here and she also lives in that same area. We want to
thank the Chanhassen city for supporting the South Shore Senior Center which has
been going now for 10 years. We were in it when it was started and appreciate
all the help that they have given us. And we will hope that we will be getting,
according to Paul Krauss there was a figure of $4,000.00 something that we would
be getting from them this year and we want to thank you for that too.
41
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Good. Thank you Emma. Maybe I might just like to impose a
question to you in regard to the prior discussions that we had regarding the
CDBG funds. Maybe have you accompany us to the City of Shorewood to just say
exactly what you said to us right now. Give us a what for reason. Would you
like to do that?
Emma St. John: Sure.
Mayor Chmiel: Great. Appreciate it. Is there anyone else? Can I have a
motion to close.
Councilman Mason moved, Councilman Wing seconded to close the public hearing.
All voted in favor and the motion carried. The public hearing was closed.
Mayor Chmiel: Can I have a motion for discussion7 Mark.
Councilman Senn: Just a couple of questions. I guess nothing on the South
Shore Senior Center. As far as the van goes and the contribution then is,
that's just for the capital purchase of the van? Okay, so basically we don't
contribute in effect to the ongoing costs or anything?
Sharmin Al-Jaff: No.
Councilman Senn: Why is the portion going to Dawn's salary going from $8,000.00
to $17,000.007 Does that reflect that more of her time is going to senior
activities?
Sharmin Al-Jaff: I believe we funded her for half a year at the beginning.
This year it will be a full year and then she was part-time and now she is full
time. So all of this was adjusted and the number reflects what she gets paid
now.
Councilman Senn: Okay, so essentially a half time to a full time?
Sharmin Al-Jarl: Correct.
Councilman Senn: Alrighty. And then one last question. On the handicap
facilities at Lake Ann and Lake Susan. I saw we had $8,000.00 in last year. To
that now we're addlng $18,000.00 more. Is that an extension of those programs
or I mean is our handicapped access bill going to keep going up on this? You
know whlch looks 11ke lt's now $26,000.00 and runnlng or?
Sharmin A1-Jaff: There will be additional work done at different places in the
park. Not all of the work was completed with last year's funds. So additional
work will be done this year and that's the amount that would be requtred to
complete that work.
Councilman Senn: Todd, could you help me out and just tell me a llttle about
what that
Todd Gerhardt: I don't know the details of what Todd's work is but we're
starting a survey now on the handicapped accessibility throughout the city. ADA
requirements and I know Todd has been worklng each year in trylng to upgrade all
42
City Council Meeting - March
his park facilities to meet ADA requirements. But I can't tell you what
specifically he has...
Mayor Chmiel: And he has left.
Councilman Senn: That's it.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, Michael.
Councilman Mason: I'm certainly in favor of the funding proposals that stand.
At the last HRA meeting we talked extensively about the need for perhaps not low
income but certainly moderate income housing in the city of Chanhassen and Z do
know that that's part of the, one of the reasons for the CDBG grant. I'm
certainly not going to stand in the way of anything here because obviously I
think they're very good causes but I do think that if we get this grant again,
regardless of whether we get this grant again, I think we need to start taking a
look at that and certainly using these grant monies could be a way of going at
that.
Mayor Chmtel: Good. Thank you. Colleen.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Well, Mark asked most of my questions. I have an
additional one and that's about the HOME program. I don't know exactly to whom
I should address this but I understand what it is but why don't we'need anymore
funds and aren't we belng actlve in that program?
Sharmin Al-Jaff: We have $5,000.00 left in that fund from last year. We
haven't used up all that money.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Is that because of programming isn't very active or
lt's just deficient or?
Sharmln Al-Jarl: It's been, there are months were there is a lot of demand and
then all of a sudden it slows down. So for some reason they haven't used up all
that money.
Mayor Chmlel: And then stops sometimes. Okay. Did you have your questions
answered?
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Yes.
Councilman Wing: Well only one place I got stuck here was on the 20~ match for
Sojourn. Oon have we got.
Mayor Chmiel: It would be $6,000.00.
Councilman Wing: And that's an additional request?
Mayor Chmiel: Right.
Councilman Wing: I sat through the Park and Rec discussions of playground and
handicapped and AOA requirements and so on and so forth. I can't debate or
argue that but I asked what percent of our community actually uses that
43
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
equipment and while this $18,000.00 was going to support what percentage of the
community. It was so lnflntlslmal I just kind of withdrew you know.with all due
respect. Sojourn happens to be in my neighborhood and accordingly I get in the
door and Sojourn is the seniors senior center. I mean when the seniors can no
longer get to the senlor center, Sojourn steps in. And I would say the majorlty
of their people are perhaps not ambulatory and they're really providing an
incredibly critlcal servlce to the elderly elderly if you wi11. And so because
I've seen thelr operation, some we've been real good to our seniors here in the
downtown area and so when they come to me on this grant and say they could use
$6,000.00 for a van, it maybe is going to cut down on the use of taxicabs
runnlng back and forth and so on and so forth and move some of these people
around that need some very, very intense personal care. And if I ever am old,
I hope this program's in effect because they're really balling some people out
of some troubles. And as long as I'm ambulatory, it wouldn't matter to me but
thls group goes beyond. So I would 11ke to conslder letting ADA klnd of rlde
another year and follow through Park and Rec's budget and pull that money out of
that $18,000.00 and glve Sojourn the match. That would be my preference. 01vlde
thls money up but we're st111 golng to be able to move ahead on some of the park
projects but if we're going to.
Councilman Senn: Dick, just a clarification. I thought we were already doing
that in this proposal. I thought your lncrease here from $2,700.00 to $4,000.00
covered all...of the van. Am I misinterpretting that? You're going from
$2,700.00 to $4,000.00. I thought you were just clting the $6,000.00 figure as
a balance which needs to be plcked up from the other communities. Isn't that
correct?
Sharmin Al-Jaff: Correct. The $6,000.00 will be picked up from other
communities.
Councilman Wing: Is that correct?
Councilman Senn: Yeah, see we're paying $2,000.00 towards the van in the
proposal.
Sharmln Al-Jarl: We"re paylng $4,000.00.
Councilman Wing: Oh I stand corrected. I misunderstood. I thought that the
proposal from Sojourn then sald they need an additional 20~ match. That's an
error.
Sally Hebson: The local 20~ match is $6,195.00. We serve the whole south shore
area of Lake Minnetonka as well as the city of Chanhassen and so we have
requested funds from other cltles also. And as much as I appreciate your
generous offer, we don't want to get more money than we need or we'd really be
in blg trouble. So I think when I talked wlth Mr. Krauss, he felt that
$4,000.00 from the City of Chanhassen and then monies from other cities that
have been promlsed and have been worklng wlth Larry 81ackstad on this also. I
appreciate that generous offer but I think we would mess things up.
Councilman Wing: I stand corrected and I appreciate your...
Sally Hebson: And belleve me it breaks my heart to turn down money.
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you. I think everything's been said. I would entertain a
motion.
Councilman Wing: I'll move approval.
Councilman Mason: Second.
Mayor Chmiel: It's been moved and seconded. Additional discussion.
Councilman Senn: Just to follow up on Dick's point though. I guess I'm really
all for the accessibility to the parks and stuff but I mean, this looks like
it's becoming fairly significant dollars and growing. I guess I'd like to see
staff at least give us a little better understanding. Since that can't be
answered tonight as to what's really required by AOA as it relates to the park.
You know are we meetlng the minimum requirements? Are we going overboard? I
mean what are we doing?
Mayor Chmlel: Some of the requirements we haven't met. One speciflc one I'm
aware of is Lake Ann Park. We had a f£shing pier put in by the DNR that is not
handloapped accessibility.
Councilman Senn: Well tell the DNR to come back.
Mayor Chmlel: Well we should on that but we didn't ask them. But anyway, what
we had to do was get a path from the point of the park...path to it so those
people could get out there and get that fishing done. And we dld do that.
Councilman Senn: I'd just like to see again a full answer or at least
explanation to that question earlier if we could.
Mayor Chmlel: Sure. That I think we can find.
Resolution ~93-23: Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Hason seconded to approve
the resolution allocating Year XlX funding as follows:
1. South Shore Senior Center - $4,160.00
2. Sojourn Adult Day Care - $4,000.00
3. Chanhassen Senior Coordinator - $17,000.00
4. Handicapped Facility at Lake Ann and Lake Susan Parks - $18,632.00
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Councilman Wing: Mr. Mayor, I'd like to just request that Item number 6 be
switched with item number 7 because I've got some questions on it and I think
it'd be fair if we get these people in the audience out of here.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. I might add too that this is not a public hearing on 6 as
so indicated. It was brought to my attention that this is not a requirement for
public hearing. So if Councll agrees to move to item number 7 flrst before we
get to item number 6, I would be more than happy to make, ask for a motion.
45
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Mason seconded to amend the agenda switching
items 6 and 7. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT AND SITE PLAN FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AB~ FACILITY,
LOCATED SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 5, NORTH OF LAKE DRIVE EAST, AND EAST OF THE CHANHASSEN
EHISSION CONTROL STATION.
Public Present:
Name Address
Bill Griffith
Vernelle Clayton
Jim Benson
Don Hagen
A1Beisner
Tom Kotsonas
Gerard & Lindsay Amadeo
1500 NFC Tower, Bloomington
422 Santa Fe Circle
15036 Cherry Lane, Zinnetonka
1589 Highway 7, Suite 203,
7549 Mariner Point, Haple Grove
Chart Estates
Chan Estates
Sharmin Al~3aff: The Abra site plan appeared in front of the Planning
Commission 3 months ago. They approved it and recommended that before it
appears in front of the City Council, the architectural design of the building
be redesigned, and that's what the applicant has done. The materials of the
building are decorative integra! color concrete block. The west, north and
south elevat£ons have a pitched element to them. The garage on the north
elevation facing Highway 5 is recessed behind the pitched element. All services
will be conducted entirety inside the building. At the last meeting when you
approved the 6oodyear facility you recommended that brick be used on the
exterior of the building and we believe that based upon that action, that the
Abra facility should have brick exterior as well. We're also recommending that
additional landscaping be provided on the Abra site. And those conditions are
reflected in the site plan conditions. With that ue are recommending approval
with conditions outlined in the report.
Mayor Chmiel: Does the applicant wish to make his proposal once again to us?
Mith revisions if they're there. Okay, go ahead.
A1 Beisner: I'm A1 Beisner. I'm the developer, 7549 Mariner Point in Haple
Grove. I feel like I've been here a long time. We are in agreement.
Mayor Chmiel: Would you like to move here?
A1 Beisner: Well, I don't know. Only if I can have a small lot or a blg lot.
If I have to put brick on my house, I don't know but. No, we think we've
revlsed everything. We are in agreement with the staff recommendation. I have
a representative from Abra here. If you have any questions of their buslness or
their operations, what's going on, he'd be more than happy to answer them for
you. Otherwise I'm open to questions. Thls ls our number 8 design that we've
been through and we will put brick on it.
Councilman Wing: What did you say?
4G
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
A1 Beisner: I said we will. I said this is our eighth design and we will put
brick on this. Is that okay?
Councilman Mason: Just about a cardiac arrest back here.
Councilman Wing: No, I misunderstood where they were going.
Councilman Senn: Did I misunderstand Sharmin though that that was the
recommendation?
Mayor Chmiel: That's correct.
A1 Beisner: That was their recommendation and we are in concurrence with that.
Councilman Senn: It will be all brick or what?
Sharmin A1-Jaff: Yeah. It will be all brick.
Mayor Chmiel: Is there anyone at this time wishing to make any statement to
us? And if there's something that we've said before, we have, believe me all
the notes and all the statements that have been made so if there's something
new, we'd be more than happy to listen to it at this time. Okay, thank you.
Mark.
Councilman Senn: If this is going to go ahead I guess I would ask or like to
see a couple of additional conditions put on it. Which are essentially the same
ones I thlnk we put on the Goodyear whlch related to no outside banners or
temporary signage. And then the hours I believe was from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
If I remember rlght. I'm going by memory here but I think those were the two.
Councilman Mason: The hours are in here.
Councilman Senn: Are they? I don't know. Beyond that, I guess I'm not sure
I'm in concurrence with the general issue of standards because I find myself
readlng through these and havlng a hard time allowing that this w111 not be
detrimental or endanger the neighborhood. I also find it hard to believe that
it will not be hazardous or disturbing to the existing neighbors or
neighborhood. I guess I could kind of go on and on but I guess I've said my
plece enough that we have enough of these uses out on the east end and I have a
hard time supporting any more of them.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, thank you. Michael.
Councilman Mason: It's been a very long and involved process and I kind of feel
we mlght have a vote tonight, one way or the other. I think the new deslgn I
think looks good. I think with brick it will look even better. I'm glad that
staff added landscaping and I know that this ls not the lot closest to the
neighborhood. My concern is, and I think it does tie tn with this, is what kind
of buffering do we need. Wlll there be. Should there be additional buffering
when that third site comes in along the south side there. More trees. A berm.
A blg h111, whatever. Is that being looked lnto now? Or w111 it be?
Sharmin A1-Jaff: It will be.
47
City Council Meeting -, March 22, 1993
Councilman Senn: Yeah because those will be in probabIy next month.
Councilman Mason: And that's why I want people to know that right now I guess.
Sharmin A1-Jaff: There is a buffer right now between Lake Drive and the
residential.
Mayor Chmiel: But there's not enough.
Councilman Mason: There is not enough there, I agree with that and I think
personally, you know well. We need more of a buffer there but I thlnk-, I mean
said my piece on that and I guess maybe that's a battle we'll be flghtlng when
the next site is used up.
Mayor Chmiel: The only reason I remember that is we as a Council had gone out
to do a litter plck-up all through that area. All the way up and down that
servlce road and some of those speclflc areas where thls ls addressed, there
needs additional kind of buffering. For whoever or whatever goes in there.
Sharmln.
Sharmln Al-Jarl: When we approved the, when you approved the.
Mayor Chmiel: What's this we business?
Councilman Senn: Well let's give it to her.
Sharmin A1-Jaff: When you approved the emission control station, one of the
requirements was that they bulld a buffer and then they add landscaping between
Lake Orive and the residence and that's what they did. It was a condition of
approval, correct.
Councilman Wing: See that's where we get trapped because by definition they
build a buffer. Baloney. That's not buffered. Sitting out in an open field.
It's not landscaped. Aye
Councilman Mason: And you know I don't think, maybe that's a discussion not to
be.
Councilman Wing: Excuse me Michael.
Councilman Mason: No, I just want to get this one over and done with to tell
you the truth. But I do, I mean it lsa conditional use permit. They're meeting
the requirements whether we like it or not. I guess I've been saying that all
along and I'm hoplng that this will work out for everyone, particularly if the
clty or the applicant for site number 3 or whoever, does some serious looking at
the buffering and berming for the neighborhood there. But let's move on lt.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, Colleen.
Councilwoman Dockendorf' Yeah, we've discussed this ad nauseum. Just a couple
comments. I was really happy with the hours. They look great. And I apologize
for belng gone but it looks like lt's brlck now? And would that include the
trash enclosure? 8ut it's still a chalnlink fence? At the gate.
48
City Council Meeting - March
Sharmin A1-Jaff: Yes it is.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Well I'm not going to hold it up for that reason but I
don't... The trees on Lot 3 will be left for now. Right?
Sharmin Al-Jarl: Correct.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: And the signage, is it agreed that the signage will be
on one monument?
Sharmin Al-Jarl: Correct. For all three parcels.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Alright, nothing further.
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you. Richard.
Councilman Wing: The last time we looked at this I asked that we have a
landscape plan that we could look at and with all due fatth and I trust Sharmln,
I think she's done her best. Mark said everything I wanted to say about this
really lsn't in my our best lnterest and Mlke, you've got it down and the
comments have all been made. Key words. That rear lot is going to be a big
lssue and buffering is going to be a new word in this clty and Z'm hopeful that
the new ordinances and our land use review and our zoning review, the
comprehensive plan review ls going to be at least paralleling that lot and maybe
making some headway on this issue on what we're going to allow in there. So as
soon as you've made your comments Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Chmiel: I guess the only thing that I really would have to say in regard
to thls. There was a letter to the edltor and I think it was sort of self
explanatory with the newspaper making a comment. That he did as such and I
would 11ke that person to know that this Mayor is concerned what happens to it's
residents, but he's also concerned as to how it's going to affect the city if we
were to deny a situation as such. Whlch would mean that there'd be litigation
between the city and I don't want to do that nor do I want to cost the residents
of thls community additional dollars. But I know what their-lfeeling might be.
At'one time I lived very closely to Htghway 100 in Golden Valley. Unbeknownst
sometimes Z thlnk it's buyers beware when you're purchasing property to see
what's going to be developing in and adjacent to your proposed purchase of a new
home or to bulld a home or purchasing an exlsting home that's there. These
things do come up and it's something that we have to act upon and I believe
that's what we're going to be doing this evenlng.
Councilman Wing: Could I just be a little supportive on that. I thought the
editorial and your comment as quoted was out of context and unfair. But I think
it's also fair to state that any member of this Council or anybody in the city
has the right to say ii want that buslness there. I think it's going to be a
good business. I happen to like it with brick. I think we should put an
automotive center there and I think as a Mayor, if that was your feeling, you
had a right to make that statement without being faultered and I guess that's
another viewpoint.
Mayor Chmiel: I think I've really said enough. So with that ! would look for a
motion to accept the conditional use as well as the site plan review.
49
City Council Meeting - Hatch 22, 1993
Councilman Mason: Does it make any difference which one we do first?
Mayor Chmiel: Well we have on the list as the conditional use but it doesn't
really matter. It can be either or.
Councilman Hason: Okay, I'll move approval of Conditional Use Permit to allow
an auto service facility in the BH district.
Councilman Wing: Second.
Mayor Chmiel: It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion?
Councilman Mason moved, Councilman Wing seconded to approve the Conditional Use
Permit for Abra Auto Service Facility on Lot 2, Block 1, Chan Haven Plaza 3rd
Addition subject to the follouing conditions:
1. No public address systems are permitted.
2. No outdoor repairs to be performed or gas sold at the site. Garage doors
are to be kept closed except to allow vehicles to enter or depart.
3. No parking or stacking is allowed in fire lanes, drive aisles, access
drives or public rights-of-way.
4. No damaged or inoperable vehicles shall be stored outside overnight on the
Abra site.
5. No outdoor storage of materials shall be permitted at the Abra site.
G. Noise level shall not exceed OSHA requirements or Minnesota Pollution
Control agency guidelines at the property line. Doors will be kept closed
or no more than a 12" opening.
7. Environmental protection shall meet standards set by the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency.
8. Compliance with conditions of approval for Site Plan Review ~92-3 and
Subdivision ~90-17.
All voted in favor except Councilman Senn uho opposed and the motion carried
uith a vote of 4 to 1.
Mayor Chmiel: I think you probably have clarified that enough. The second part
we have to act upon is the Site Plan Review. Can I have a motion for that?
Councilman Mason: I'll move approval of Site Plan Review for an Abra Auto
Service Center, 6,494 square feet. With conditions as stated in the staff
report.
Mayor Chmiel: Approval of Site Plan Revieu ~92-3 dated November 30th?
Councilman Mason: Yeah.
5O
City Council Meeting - March
Councilman Senn: Would you accept that thlng on the banners?
Councilman Mason: Oh sure.
Councilman Senn: Banners and temporary signage.
Councilman Mason: Sure.
Mayor Chmlel: Okay, in additlon to that ltems, lt'd be 14 and 15. One being
banners and the other Mark.
Sharmln A1-Jaff: Hours of operation.
Councilman Senn: Was that in your conditions already though?
Mayor Chmiel: No.
Councilman Mason: That's fine. Z don't have any trouble with 14 and 15 added.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. Is there a second to that?
Councilman Wing: Second.
Councilman Mason moved, Councilman #~ng seconded to approve Site Plan Review
~1~)2-3 as shown on the site plan dated November 30, 1992, subject to the
following conditions=
1. Obtain a slgn plan approved by the Planning Commission and City Council.
2. The applicant shall provide staff with a detatled cost estimate of
landscaping to be used in calculating the requlred financial guarantees.
These guarantees must be posted prior to buildtng permit issuance.
3. The applicant shall enter into a development contract with the clty and
provide the necessary financial securities as required.
4. The applicant shall provlde a flammable waste separator as required by
Building Code.
5. Provlde a complete, flnal set of civ11 engineering documentation to staff
for review and approval.
Meet all conditions outlined in the Fire Marshal's memorandum dated October
8, 1992.
7. The applicant shall post 'No Parklng - Fire Lane" signs along the south
curb line on Lots 1 and 2, Block 1. Signs shall be placed at 100 foot
intervals and the curb painted yellow.
8. Concurrent ~ith the building permit, a lighting plan meeting city standards
shall be submitted.
51
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
9. The applicant shall pay $7,580. into the Surface Water Management Program
fund for water quality treatment downstream of the site. This fee will
cover Lots 1 and 2 only.
10. No signage will be allowed until sign plan approval is obtained from the
Planning Commission and City Council.
11. The applicant shall provide eight additional Black Hills evergreens along
the east and four along the south side of Lot 2, Block 1, Chan Haven Plaza
3rd Addition.
12. Brick shall be used on the exterior of the Abra building. Plans shall be
developed to staff approval. The brick shall be designed to incorporate
highlighting treatments slmilar to or better than the current proposal.
Also, the applicant shall introduce architectural elements such as dormers
along the eastern roof line to break the long mass of wall along the east
elevation.
13. Compliance with conditions of Subdivision $90-17 and Conditional Use Permit
$92-2.
14. No outdoor banners or temporary signage will be permitted.
15. Hours of operation will be from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m..
All voted in favor except Councilman Senn who opposed and the motion carried
with a vote of 4 to 1.
WEST 78TH STREET DETACHHENT PROJECT 92-3:
A. APPROVE PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS; AND AUTHORIZE ADVERTISING FOR BIDS.
B. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF EASEMENTS AND/OR QUICK TAKE.
Don Ashworth: Mr. Mayor, if I may. The reason that we had shown this under
public hearing ls there was a concern as to whether or not we had in fact
notified all of the owners as a part of the original hearing and that's the
reason it ls shown under publlc hearlng. Those areas of concern have been met
as far as contacting owners. So this would lnclude the two ltems shown as well
as actually the authorization for the project ltself. So somewhere in the
process I would suggest that you do officially open the public hearing for
comments. Probably in advance of that we should have the engineers provlde a
report on the two items.
Hayor Chmiel: Okay. Charles, would you like to do that now?
Charles Folch: Hr. Mayor, members of the Council, our project engineer Mr. Jim
Dvorak of Strgar-Roscoe-Fausch ls here tonlght to give a presentation reviewing
what the project elements are.
Mayor Chmiel: Good, thank yOU.
Jim Dvorak: Thank you Charles. I'll try to be brief...This project has gone
through many changes since we started looking at it about a year ago. And what
52
City Council Meeting - March
I've done is Z've tried to mount representative plan sheets that kind of show
you the entire plan. Just shows the basic elements of the project, so starting
with this one, this is the plan sheet that shows the West 78th alignment is
right here. West 78th here, Powers at this point and then we are proposing to
construct a water quality treatment pond in the, it would be the southwest
quadrant of Powers and West 78th to treat the water that comes from this area
prior to entering the DNR wetland that's on the Eckankar site. As you can also
see, we're showing a trail connection being made along Powers from West 78th and
~n addition, there is some problems with the existing traJ! that goes to the,
I believe it's Lake Ann Park to the west. We are also proposing to do some
maintenance and overlay on that trail all the way to the entrance of the park.
That's why that is highlighted here. That's an existing tra~l that we're just
going to upgrade a little bit and do maintenance work on. This ~s a copy of the
landscape plan for the West 78th. Starting at the west side, here again
is Powers. At th~s locatlon we've h~ghl~ghted the trees and shurbs as proposed.
As most of you are aware, we have landscaping. We have lanes. We've added an
irrigation system to maintain this in addition to the roadway, utility and
signal system improvements. The trees are relatively well spaced to.provide a
somewhat more open feellng than we have at the other end of town. We've also
taken into account that the Target site landscaping,.which would be in this
area, they've proposed a walk kind of outside of the right-of-way. We've
matched basically what we've done there with what the Target folks have
proposed. We have street 11ghtlng to illuminate the roadway and sidewalks. And
we've also proposed some brick paving treatment at the noses of the medians to
kind of dress that area up a little and have a low maintenance effect 'also.
Then continuing down here, this would be the main entrance into Target. The
buildlng would sit down at thls location. There's another entrance being
proposed here to the north. And then Kerber, there's another thing ii guess
I should point out that there's a signal belng proposed here and at Powers and
West 78th. And again here at the main entrance to the area to the south. One
of those tenants being Target, or the butlding that's under construction. We
also have a signal proposed here at Kerber. West.of Kerber then, in the
existing area, we worked qulte a bit with staff trying to-coordinate what we
need to do, where we need to do it with the uideninglto create some additional
lane width in areas that are perceived as needed. One of these-areas'is along
Kerber on the north side. Where anywhere you see the red. curb highlighted is a
new curb 11ne where we're widening out to two thru lanes, instead of the one thru
lane that is out there today, or one wide thru lane. In this area where we're
doing the widening, any of the existing landscaping that we're disturbing will
be replaced. As the curb gets pushed back in the s£dewalk then~.we would redo
that landscaping there also. And then at the very east endlof town, continuing
on we have much the same situation where we have widening.tn this area and this
area wlth that widening golng where the exlstlng landscaping ls. We will-
replace that behlnd the sidewalk and new curb line. In'addition we are
proposing to do a little bit of work at the median noses to.facilitate some left
turn movements and some new turns. When we do that we are alSolproposIng them
brlck paving treatment at the nose so that we get in effect some continuity
throughout the roadway. Continuing on then there's a little bit of work at the
west end...east end of town and then at the Great Plalns intersection we are
proposing to lengthen out th£s median and do a little geometrics working of that
intersection in conjunction wlth the new signal whlch ls proposed there. And
then because the median gets qu£te narrow and is actually too narrow to plant,
ue would then again continue to...pavlng scheme throughout.these medtans as
53
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
well. The project also has been expanded sllghtly on Trunk Highway 5 to
incorporate an emergency 3M vehicle system so that for...fire, ambulance, police
can trip the signal and proceed on through lnstead of waitlng at the red 11ght.
Our project estimate at the feasibility stage was approximately $3.1 million.
I believe that Charles lncluded my latest letter to him in your Council packet
that showed the latest total project cost at about $3.3 mllllon. There are a
number of things added to the project as it developed. One of the things was
the maintenance of the trail to Lake Ann. We had it overlaying of old Monterey
or Kerber to the south of West ?8th and then we added an irrigation system.
That is the reason that the project costs have gone up approximately
$200,000.00. That's all I have with that. I'd be happy to answer any questions
that the Councll has or anyone in tire audience.
Mayor Chmlel: Maybe what we can do is we'll come back to you in regard to
questions that we may have. Rlght now I would like to see if there's anyone who
would 11ke to address thls at this tlme thls evenlng. If there's any real
concerns or whatever their concerns mlght be. If you would just please state
your name and address one more tlme.
Charlie James: I'm Charlie James with the T.F. James Company. I'd like to make
three polnts tonight. I guess number one, I'd 11ke to, I guess all thls is a
repetition of what points I've made in the past but number one. I think this
project ls very welcomed and long overdue but it would be an impossible burden
without the TIF dLstrlct and so in our acqulessence to this project I guess
we're really countlng on TZF being there when we need it. When the time comes.
Second point is that there was some discussions in the past about addressing
issues relatlng to the impact of thls project to my property with regard to
grades and there hasn't been any further discussion about that and I spent the
better part of the morning wlth my engineers, Jim Hill, trylng to review this
matter and we do have some lssues. There's nothing that's going to get solved
here tonight but there are some lmpacts there and I would hope that there would
still be time in this process here to look at some minor design changes that
mlght facilitate the grade transitions on our slde of the street. As you all
know the street was lowered from what was originally designed to accommodate
Target to lower the grades into thelr drlveway and that had the effect of
raising the grades on our property. Steepening the grades so if there's
anythlng that can be done before thls whole thing's set in cement to help
alleviate that situation, we'd appreciate that. And the third and last polnt
ls, thls probably lsn't the tlme or lsn't the place but I guess it ls the tlme
and tire place. Z guess I'd like to ask the Council one more time to consider
the effects of closlng our access polnt. I belleve that thls decislon in the
past was more of a political decision than an engineering decision and what
we're flnding is that in attempting to come up with some sort of format and some
sort of scheme so that ue can begin to market our property out there, we've had
to conslder numerous plans for frontage roads to connect our full access point
back to the corner and it's a mess and I'm not just posturing. We have got a
multitude of problems out there and this frontage road is golng to be a
necessity out there. Even with the replat so that's very much of a detriment
and impact to us and I don't know if there's st111 time to consider making that
opening or not. Z think that Jim has testified in tire past that engineering
wlse it could be made to work but there were other, as I say, I don't know if
that's a proper word but Z'11 say political consideration. But now that the
clty's closed on that land and is the owner of the land that they have acqulred
54
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
from Mr. Burdick, maybe we could revisit that issue. I don't know but and
realize we're not going to solve that tonight but I just wanted to be here
tonight and express my concerns. Thank you.
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you. Is there anyone else? If not, Charles do you have
any respective answers to Mr. James in regard to item number 3 that he had
brought up.
Charles Folch: Related to the access tssue? We11, as we've been through a
number of meetings on this before, I think we've kind of beat that one to a dead
horse but staff continues to support the posltlon that there should be no
intermediate full access between the proposed signalized intersection
immediately east of County Road 17 and County Road 17. I think Strgar's
engineers have also spoken to the safety issues and some of.the problems that
may be lnvolved in opening up a full access there. So we continue to support
the position.
Mayor Chmiel: Thank you. It's our turn...
Councilman Senn: To start with I guess, could Don or somebody run through these
numbers in terms of, you know there's an estimated cost of roughly $3.3 mlllion.
Is that correct?
Mayor Chmiel: It was $3.1 and it's now $3.3.
Councilman Senn: $3.3. Okay, so there's $3.3 million in total costs and I go
back to the breakdown on what ls belng assessed and what lsn't being assessed
and the total is $2,324,800.00? It shows that $884,000.00 is being assessed and
$1,440,000.00 isn't? Okay. Where is the remaining bucks?
Don Ashworth: Tax increment. The rate of the assessment was established at the
same level that all of the downtown improvements, or I should say that first two
phases of downtown were assessed at. And generally we assessed the cost of road
improvements and that was to, I can't recall, 48 foot street or 52, sewer and
water. Other items such as sidewalk cost, landscaping, lighting, storm sewer
was a 50~ rate. And those were felt to be reasonable costs to be patd by tax
Increment and so again to treat this portion of the project equal wtth the first
half, we assigned the same assessment rate for that portion of the project as
was established for this part of the project. So whatever you see as a
differential between assessments on this end, it was the same differential on
the east end.
Councilman Senn: So a mllllon bucks is TIF and that's covering only that
portion in effect west of Kerber Boulevard then? Am I tnterpretting that
correctly?
Mayor Chmiel: You're saying everything west on 78th Street from Kerber to
Powers Boulevard?
Councilman Senn: Yeah. I mean you telI me everything else down here was
treated this way and now we're going this way so we're treating it the same way.
Is that a correct statement? So a million dollars of TIF is going to cover the
area from Powers to Kerber?
55
City Council Meeting - Harch 22, 1993
Jim Dvorak: Yeah. The assessments that are proposed only cover that portion of
West 78th between Powers and Kerber.
Councilman Senn: That's the 884?
Jim Dvorak: That is what is proposed to be assessed.
Councilman Senn: Correct.
Jim Dvorak: Okay. The balance of the project, as I understand it is going to
be funded through TIF monies. Now I think the reason that you're confused,
when you look at the feasibility report versus what's shown in the plan. As I
stated before, the project has gone through several lderations and changes.
Initially when we started the project it was only golng to be Powers Boulevard
and West 78th between Powers and Kerber. Those are the numbers, that's the $2.3
m1111on that you see in the feasibility update, or in that table. If you notice
at the bottom of our revised cost estimate, there's a little caveat if you will
about the cost of roadway and slgnal improvements between Kerber and Great
Plains of $784,000.00. That is that differential. That is what was added to
the project as thlngs evolved and we thought it would be clearer to just kind of
separate that out from that segment of the project that was getting assessed.
Councilman Senn: That's that $1.58 million? Am I on the right?
Jim Dvorak: I guess I'm not sure.
Councilman Senn: This has cost estimate segment.
Jim Dvorak: Okay. That 3.3 is the total project. That's just the segment's
broken up. In other words, Powers ls SgO0,O00.O0. Powers to Kerber ls $1.3
million and then that extra million ls west of Kerber to Great Plains.
Councilman Senn: So $1.58 million is the portlon from Kerber to Great Plains
then?
Jim Dvorak: Correct.
Councilman Senn: Not the $700,000.00?
Jim Dvorak: Right. The $784,000.00 was that amount in the feasibility report.
This is where most of the extra work is taking place.
Councilman Senn: Am I correct in assuming, by reading this that the funding
sources for this project are $884,000.00 where 25% are coming from direct
assessment. $1,441,000.00, I'm uslng round numbers here, is comlng from general
obligation bonds.
Jim Dvorak: Not to my knowledge. I guess I wasn't aware that there were any
general obligation funds in there. I thought it was all tax increment beyond
the assessed amount.
Councilman Senn: Well then I flip the questlon over to Don. Why does it say on
here general obligation amounts on both of, on both of the project summaries?
56
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Don Ashworth: What page?
Councilman Senn: Well there are no page numbers so I can't help you. It's the
two project summaries. City Project ~2-3 and ~2-3, basically the same thing
where the first column says, if you go to the second page of that or the back
side of it, it breaks down assessable amount versus general obligation amount
and it says assessable amount $884,000.00 and then it says general obligation
amount $1,441,000.00. Not it's the first time I've ever seen general obligation
money belng.
Jim Dvorak: If I could answer that Don. We are the ones that prepared that
table and we were not aware at the time that it was prepared that this was going
to be flnanced through tax increment. I believe that the Mayor, in my inltial
presentation corrected me when I had mentioned general obligation. That the
funds that were belng used for thls are indeed tax increment and not genera[
obligation funds. I guess you could consider that a typo, tf you wtll.
Councilman Senn: Okay, well that's what I'm just trying to get to understand.
So 884 is being assessed and 2 millton 440 roughly ts comlng from TIF.
Don Ashworth: Is coming from TIF. Part of the misunderstanding is all of the
projects in the downtown have been completed as 429 public improvement projects
and technically have been referred to as general obligation funds. The
underlying source of funding, other than the special assessments has been TIF.
So TIF has come in and paid what would be the general obligation portton but
they were still sold as general obligation bonds.
Councilman Senn: So TIF doesn't pay them'. The taxpayers are responsible for
general obligation bonds?
Don Ashworth: That's true in literally any type of bond that you would sell.
An exception would be...
Councilman Senn: And so the TIF portlon of thls project. Okay, if you look at
the assessment ro11, the assessment roll only deals with the end of the project
from Powers to Kerber. Rlght?
Don Ashworth: The assessment, that's correct.
Councilman Senn: The assessment is, okay. So taking that assessment portion
out of the other $2.4 million, okay. Part of that's going towards, of course
that segment and part of it's going to the rest. Now didn't we already use
on the other portion and for the other projects once already?
Don Ashworth: Yes.
Councilman Senn: In downtown. So we're going back and doing it again?
Don Ashworth: To the extent that you're adding signals. Carrying out widening
from Kerber back to Great Plalns and. what other type.
Councilman Senn: Well all the proposed improvements is what we're talking
about. Because I mean I'm not hearing any other funding source. Okay, so TIF
57
City Council Meeting - Hatch 22, 1993
is going to be spent a second time then to basically redo that area where it's
already been spent once?
Don Ashworth: Yes.
Councilman Senn: Okay, and so I don't understand the comment that was made
earlier as it relates to how we're using TIF on this end because it equals out
wlth TZF on the other end. You lose me there because we've used TZF twlce now
to put in the same improvements on this end and we're putting them on this end
once. How does that equal out?
Don Ashuorth: What I was trylng to say is, the business owners on the east side
were assessed at exactly the same rate as we're proposing to assess the property
owners on the west side. To the extent that we are going back today and maklng
lanes wider that should have been maybe been made wider to begin with, we are
not charging that cost back to that owner on the east nor to that owner on the
west.
Councilman Senn: So, okay. And so what you're saying is, if you take Powers,
let's say if you take Kerber east. Okay. There you're in effect charging,
you're not charging people anything?
Don Ashworth: That's correct.
Councilman Senn: Okay. And on the area from Kerbers to Powers, you're charging
the people what you charged the people on the other end to put in the single
lane?
Don Ashuorth: That was still based on the equivalent of a 48 foot street. It
did not have a center island. So I mean what we assessed for on the east side
we're assessing really the same cost on the west side.
Councilman Senn: Okay well, I understand, I think I understand the concept of
what you're looking for as it relates to let's call it the east side. Because I
mean there you've already put road improvements in and you've assessed the
people for them. They have not produced trafflc uhlch in effect requires you to
upgrade those roads. I assume that's correct. Because the road was designed to
meet what was there in the first place and that's what ls there. Okay, now
you're designing a much bigger road to follow these improvements down to the
west with the Target and stuff but you're not proportionately assessing you know
the need and demand. Are you?
Mayor Chmiel: No. No.
Councilman Mason: I don't think the changes from east of Kerber are due in
total to Target and I might add nobody that's sltting behind this area right now
was present when the lnltial plan went through for downtown. I think there have
been some ongoing problems with downtown ever since the doggone thing was put in
and we're looklng to change that. I don't know that that part of downtown is
being changed because Target's coming in.
Councilman Senn: No, I didn't say that Mike. The question I asked was, why are
we only assessing the west end though for a single lane road, whlch is
58
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
equivalent to what you said is already installed downtown. In the rest of
downtown. Why aren't we assessing the west end for really the full cost of
those improvements and then going down and charging the east end on1¥ the
difference to what they've already been assessed? I mean T don't understand the
rationale to carry it all the way back to Powers.
Don Ashworth: I asked the Jim, and I'll make the statement first and then he'll
come back and say, no Don. You're wrong. But my recollection was is we were
assessing the west end for what would be the equivalent of a 48 or 52 foot wide
street, which is really for a 4 lane.
Jim Dvorak: That's correct Don. I guess I don't remember exactly how wide it
ls but the assessment is based on some standard width roadway that would serve a
commercial/industrial area. The traffic that is gotng to be using West 78th is
not totally generated by the businesses that abut the road but there's also
quite a bit of thru movement also.I The turn lanes and all the amenities that
are lnto the cost of the project, whether that would be appropriate to assess
back to the abutting properties or not, I guess that's more a policy decision.
But the rationale behlnd the assessments was some type of 9 ton collector type
roadway, whether it be 36, 48 or whatever we use, I guess I don't recall that at
this time. But in checklng this assessment that's proposed here, as Don has
pointed out, it matches very closely to what was previously assessed to the
folks to the east.
Councilman Wing: My mind was so clear on this. We've got the west end of town.
It's a whole new project. It's a new world. The sun is shining land we're
assessing it. It's just simple. It's just a basic simple assessmentI I don't
have any problem with that. The east end, in our 2 years Mike, and I won't
speak for you, it's clearly a screw-up. It's a disaster. It hasn't worked and
we're fixing it. Am I wrong in separating these two projects out? To my way
it's Kerber to Powers and we're handling that with an assessment.. To the east
we're going to fix the problem that should have been fixed 10 years ago and it's
going to be done with tax increment money. Bo I have to go any further on that?
Is that too narrow or is that a reasonable way to approach this?
Councilman Senn: Dick, that's too narrow. Because if you look at the numbers
here, that's not what they say. You can't say that $884,000.00 of assessments
is covering almost $2,200,000.00 in costs for the west end.
Councilman Mason: No, it's not $2,200,000.00.
Councilman Senn: Well that's what it says here. Powers Boulevard, West 78th,
Powers to Kerber. That tells me there's $2,200,000.00.
Mayor Chmiel: No.
Don Ashworth: $1,376,000.00. I don't think it's fair to add the $864,000.00
for Powers as though it's a cost of 78th Street.
Councilman Senn: Well then let's separate it into three segments but Dick was
Just separating into two and what I'm saying is, when you separate into two,
that's what it comes back and tells me. Because you're assessing $884,000.00
but that end of the project is cost $2.2 million.
59
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Don Ashworth: Well, and Roger might want to comment here but I think if we were
to go about assessing County 17, Powers Boulevard in that section, especially
with what we're attempting to do, I don't think we'd sustain that assessment.
I mean we're assessing that portion that we reasonably can assess which is West
78th Street detachment which means we're assessing $860,000.00 out of $1.3
million. Which is approximately, is the same ratio that occurred in the
downtown. So if the assessments there were $800,000.00, the cost of the project
was $1.3 million.
Roger Knutson: Take a stab at it.
Mayor Chmiel: One more time. Go ahead.
Roger Knutson: The basic rule of assessments, which I think you all know is you
can't assess more than the amount more than the project causes the market value
of that property to increase in value. And what's been done here, as I
understand it, is ue looked at what you call a commercial equivalent. How much
street sense does this project really need and how much is created by being part
of a bigger road network and that was the number that he came up with. Taking
those two things into consideration.
Councilman Senn: Okay but then the $2.2 million that you're talking about plus
interest, in effect, or I guess it's not really $2.2 million. The $2.4 million
that you're talking about in effect being the TIF money plus interest becomes
then in effect a public subsidy that's going back to the taxpayers because
rather than that money going on the tax rolls to control taxes, that money is
going to be going to pay this roadway back there. Correct?
Roger Knutson: That's correct.
Councilman Wing: Why do we create a TIF district? I thought that's why TIF vas
created.
Roger Knutson: You can see in a lot of communities that don't have this kind of
TIF money available, I'll tell you what happens because I work In some of those
communities. The roads just don't get built. Because you can't assess it.
Councilman Senn: Yeah and this is only a fraction of the TIF cost though going
lnto that overall area of the project. Mr. James came up here earller and sald,
he hopes he can rely very heavily on TIF when he builds his project. Target,
the outlots, everything else, they were already gettlng heavy TIF subsidies. The
roadway here is an additional issue relating to the area. You cannot tie it
back into any of those TIF deals correct?
Don Ashworth: Say that again?
Councilman Senn: The road, this roadway issue that we're dealing with here,
which lsa $3.3 million has absolutely nothing to do ulth TIF subsidies that are
already being glven to Target, the outlot or Mr. James expects or whatever?
Those are going to be separate TIF deals other than the road deal?
Don Ashuorth: No. You calculate the full amount of dollars that a project is
eligible to receive. In this caes Target was roughly $1 million. You subtract
6O
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
off of that any public improvement costs that are proposed to be carried out,
the streets, etc and that's exactly what we did with Rosemount and Target. The
remaining amount of what would be up to 3 years of taxes can be used for a land
writedown, which was the case with Rosemount. Or in this case, we had
additional costs of preserving the trees, insuring that we had the additional
landscaping, and all the rest of that stuff as it was associated with Target. $o
included in that, and I think it was $986,000.00, the first thing subtracted out
of there was the amount out of this assessment roll which is proposed to go
against Target. Which I agree is a minor amount. $100 and do you know off hand
Jim the amount that's proposed to be assessed to Target?
Jim Dvorak: About $180,000.00.
Don Ashworth: I was going to guess 160.
Councilman Senn: So the $800,000.00 assessment number is truly then basically
an adding up of the numbers you expect to have remaining out of that TIF money
to go back and pay for the assessments?
Don Ashworth: As all of the properties in that area would develop, you would
anticipate that they would be able to achieve a writedown in the special
assessments against them. I think that Mr. James may be one of the first ones
to the microphone saying, you know he participated in a conversation regarding
trunk water assessments against his property and he liked this conversation
about potentially reduclng bls costs because of development that could be
eligible. The problem was, it really didn't come in the timeframe that he was
hoplng it would come and he has ended up paylng those principal and interest
payments himself. Not been able to fully take advantage of that program. I'm
sure he would hope to be able to fully take advantage of it as it deals with
this $864,000.00 assessment, not all of which would go against him. But a
portion, $300.
Councilman Senn: So if I'm understanding you, I thlnk I just got what you said.
The $884,000.00, or whatever it is, is a total of what you would expect to get
in off of that TIF formula for the abutting properties.
Don Ashworth: If they can bring development to the table and we enter tnto
development contract whereby then the HRA would take over that $884,000.00
because of the new development that they're bringing into the community.
Councilman Senn: Zf they don't they have to pay tt themselves?
Don Ashworth: That's correct.
Councilman Senn: So we're telling them they'd better get in here with a project
and ask for more TIF dollars so we can pay them back for the public improvements
with our TIF dollars?
Don Ashworth: Well, if they don't bring a project to the table, they eat the
costs.
Mayor Chmiel: Any other questions Hark?
City Council Heeting - March 22, 1993
Councilman Senn: That's it for questions.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. Michael.
Councilman Mason: No. I've been privy to all this stuff for the last couple
years.
Mayor Chmiel: Colleen.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Well I haven't been privy to all of this for the last
couple of years and I kind of feel 11ke I'm coming in on the bottom of the 9th.
These plctures in here aren't shoulng me clearly what's happening. You know,
probably out of my own ignorance and fault Z haven't looked into this enough but
I'd 11ke, particularly where the, I'd like to see where the semlfores are golng.
Hayor Chmiel: You're more concerned with the semifores...
Councilwoman Dockendorf: I understood on the left we've got one at Powers and
at the Target entrance and then the next one is Kerber.
Jim Dvorak: This would be Powers at this point. Okay, and then here's the main
entrance into the Target site.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: And you're got 2 lanes there plus a left turn?
Jim Dvorak: Actually there's a left turn, 2 thrus and a right...
Councilwoman Dockendorf: While you're on that. Is right now the way CR 17 has
been done, it's really bad when you're taking a left turn. You can't see
anything. Is that golng be graded so the slght 11nes u111 be better?
Jim Dvorak: Yeah, some of that will be, sight lines will be taken care of...
Councilwoman Dockendorf: And again we've got 2 lanes plus a couple left turns
or what do we have there?
Jim Dvorak: When we're at Kerber, we're into the, on the east slde we're lnto
the existing area. One of the problems that we have ts...again at Market and
another...uldenlng at this polnt. Here we've added another left turn movement
south of Market. Then down at Laredo is another slgnal proposed. Here again
some uldenlng at this polnt and then continuing on and get to thls area.
Basically in front of the Medlcal Arts businesses, there will be a widening...
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Okay. I hate this. I realize it's necessary but I
just, it reminds me of what I conslder the mistake that was made on Highway 5
whlch ls stoplight after stoplight after stoplight and it certainly doesn't give
me the feel of a boulevard which is what we're trying to do with that Highway 5
corridor study. But I understand the trafflc concerns. Are we dolng anything
interesting wlth the semifores to make them unique?
Jim Dvorak: Interesting?
62
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilwoman Oockendorf: I have no idea what I have in mind but are they going
to be, I mean they're not going to be posted on the size. They're going to
be...
Jim Dvorak: They'll be basically a standard signal with a mast arm that's in
the corner, comes up. There's a light on top of the mast arm and then it arches
over and supports...
Mayor Chmiel: You're looking for a more unique kind of a fixture?
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Yes. I'm looking at something that coordinates with
our street lights.
Charles Folch: I might add that, we are intending to the finish and the
coloring for these signal poles and mast arms are, we're intending to have them
look and be compatible with the corten steel lighting that will be going out
there. So they'll be kind of a brown tint to dark corten color. They won't be
like your standard MnDot green base with a yellow pole and aluminum, brushed
aluminum mast arm. They'll be all like a dark corten light,
Councilwoman Dockendorf: And ue have to have the standard red, green, yellow?
Mayor Chmiel: All we need is a skyhook so they can...
Councilwoman Dockendorf: Well, there's nothing I can do about it. Thank you.
Mayor Chmtel: Okay, thank you. Richard.
Councilman Wlng: Engineers wear pins Colleen that say stop 11ghts are your
friends. We'll just time them. But good Councilmembers have a pin that says
lt's the lights stupld, and they are a problem. Don, I'd. llke to talk about
just this east end. Specifically the east end. I don't want to talk about tax
increment or anything else. I want to talk about the east end. We all know
that, those that have been on the Council, that there's been an incredible
number of complaints and traffic's comlng to a standstill and cars can't pass
and emergency vehicles, they're having problems and the stop lights were
requested by the neighborhoods that exist. What we've had 1, 2, 3 requests for
stop lights specifically plus whatever development has brought in. So they're
here. But my concern is, is that this ls becoming our Lake Street and our
future has nothing but growth and development. It's not going anyplace but up
sky hlgh and more people are coming in and who knows what surprises Mr. 3ames
has for us in his development but maybe it's gotng to be a Mtlls Fleet Farm and
a Wa1 Mart both rlght across from Target. What I'm getting-at here is we're
golng to be drawing into this communit-y more and more and more and are ue~ this
was poorly done. Zt was done wrong. We know it was done wrong. We-know it's
been a problem. We know cars can't pass. We know traffic can't flow, etc, etc,
etc. We can't run two lanes of traffic. Flre equipment can't pass cars when
they pull over the way they're supposed to. And I.hate to have staff turn to me
and say, wlll he never be satisfied. But I've got to ask the question because
my concern is, ts that if I want to be visionary and look to what the ctty is
going to be in 10 years, 15 years, even though tt's costing a million dollars to
fix what we should have never done in the first place, andltO take out stuff
that probably should never have been put in in the first place, and widen lanes
63
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
that should have been wider in the first place and those engineers don't work in
the clty anymore, wherever they are. Is this a bandaid just to cut down public
opinon? Is thls a short term flx ulth no hope for the future? And ls this a
long term disaster? This one's on my shift now so it starts to bother me a
little blt. We can add a little turn lane here and a tlny bit of curb cut here
so the aerial truck can actually make the turn, and ulden this area so that if
the signs are rlght, the truck can squeeze by the car that pulls over. But when
we start looking at our city develop, is this going to be another impassable
road that ue're going to have to in 10 years say, this is hopeless. We can't
move traffic on West ?8th Street. It's got to be a 4 lane road or we simply
need an 18 foot lane. Is thls the tlme to buy the land, widen the thlng out,
admit that maybe we can't fit some of the landscaping in. Maybe we can't take
that...trafflc studles 10-15 years from now and never deal with thls agaln. Or
are we golng to bandaid it and ls thls in fact a bandald and is it on our shift?
Are we golng to be looked back on the guys that dldn't have the foresight to
move traffic down West ?8th Street?
Don Ashworth: Jim should respond but I would like to go through my
recollection. That was the flrst step we took was to employ Strgar. Take a
look at the projections and flow for thls road. To deslgn what would be the
ultimate roadway through the community. One in which they felt would
comfortably handle the trafflc as far as they could reasonably foresee lnto the
future. Then as far as particular improvements we said, yes. We are going to
go back and do the whole thlng to lnsure that trucks leavlng the statlon,
turning at Laredo and heading west have the full lane configuration. They've
got the ultlmate deslgn now. As it dealt wlth that segment to the east, we sald
alright. Yes you may come back in some of these sections such as right in front
of the furniture store. And go lnto their exlsting parking, eliminate that
entire row of parking stalls but is that necessary for today's traffic needs?
And so the deslgn in front of you ls not going to be one in whlch we go back and
we tear everything out. There are small parts of it that we maybe move further
back such as right in front of the hotel. That's a problem because we've got
the retaining wall. 31m, have I properly paraphrased all of the work efforts?
Jim Dvorak: Yeah, I think so Don. I guess I'd just like to add a thing or two
here. Roadways have a certain life and as engineers we design for basically a
20 year 11fespan. We try and use trafflc projections that wlll take us through
that 20 years. Hopefully you'll get more than 20 years out of your roads. Maybe
you'll get 30. Here you have a road that was recently bullt. I guess I'm not
even sure when it was constructed but in our mind it doesn't make any sense to
take and remove those thlngs that you've already had bullt and have paid for
unless it's absolutely necessary. We think we should get a little use out of
that roadway and then when the problem ls becoming apparent, then make the full
improvements as Don said. You know use what you have. Use what you've paid for
and then plan for in the future and we have, as Don polnted out, have an
ultlmate plan through the area and all of these things that we're doing are kind
of part of the plan. You're rlght there wlll probably need to be other things
done in the future but we think you should use what you've already pald for, for
as long as possible.
Councilman Wing' But Jim my problem is, I have no problem with what you're
saying at all and I agree with that and the 20 year life, but I think I've been
on some heated discussions here in the last 2 years where it's been determined,
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
at least the Council at that time, that the project was a poor one to begin with
and it simply didn't meet the city needs and it didn't allow for traffic flow.
And so even though we've got some minor flxes coming in, and forget the fire
department. If a city sweeper is going down the street, I guess I still see
traffic held up. If a city truck is parked, cleaning trees or doing whatever
they're going to do, or fixing the road, we've got lane closure. I mean West
?Sth Street ls shut down. We don't have traffic flow on West 78th Street. So I
admit, we can use what we built and then in 10 or 12 or 15 years still have to
condemn the property, rip out the parking lots, at a much greater cost, maybe
today is the time you maybe ought to look at the road for it's entirety and just
say we made a mistake. Why don't we fix it right once and for all. I mean I'm
going to have a hard time going along with this because there's little bandaids.
A little corner here and a little width here. We've still got this narrow
little road that's our main east/west Lake Street-and it's certainly not, if you
need it 4 lane to the west, you're probably going to need it 4 lane to the east.
Maybe, I'm just suggesting and I'm not, this isn't an ax I'm carrying other than
saying maybe nou's the time to be looking at doing this project upfront once and
for all and meeting the future needs once and for all and building for the
future. Not putting a few bandalds on just because we did it wrong a while ago.
That's my only comments. I think we're short sighted in what we're doing and
I'm not so sure ue shouldn't be going all the way east to west. Dolng the whole
road right now. It's going to be harder to move it. Harder to condemn it.
Parking is going to become more accustomed. Walls are-going to be built.
Businesses are going to be established. Then we're going to come roaring down
there with bulldozers to make a road that's mandatory so, those are just my
comments and thoughts.
Councilman Senn: Dlck are you talklng about, I mean the whole length or really
where the bottleneck so to speak occurs to the east?
Councilman Wlng: Kerber east.
Councilman Senn: So really the eastern bottleneck.
Councilman Wing: Just the eastern bottleneck. Just the part that was done that
hasn't worked.
Councilman Senn: Which is being redone but you stlll have the bottleneck down
to the east.
Councilman Wlng: Yeah, they're trying to open up the bottleneck with some of
the little turn lanes and some widening here and there so at least tfa car
stops, another car can get by and it doesn't have to be a firetruck. It could
be anybody. If a street sweeper breaks down, can we get by? Well, I think what
you're saying is there's enough wldth occurring that we're going to have a,
we're going to be able to pass two trucks now?
Jlm Dvorak: In quite a few areas we've attempted to give some additional wldth
so that you do have two lanes but you are correct in stating that there are
still some areas that only have what is exlsting today wlth this plan.
Councilman Wing: Alright, so then in fact, then i'll bring up the fire
department. So the flre department wlll st111 in effect then, ifa car pulls
65
City Council Hooting - Hatch 22, 1993
over and stops like it's supposed to, and they do. We're still then going to
have a bottleneck for that piece of equipment. A truck, no matter what the stop
lights say, a car pulls over and stops by State law, and they do on West ?8th
Street, whenever all emergency vehicle approaches, and that's our main
thoroughfare east and westbound, so the fire department has the same problem, at
least going eastbound that they're going to bottleneck up then. And have to
come to a halt or drive up on curbs to get through cars. We're not fixing the
problem. We're only bandaiding some specific areas.
Jim Dvorak: There are areas that are remaining the same, that's correct.
Oon Ashuorth: I don't know if I would totally agree with that, if I may. First
of all remember that we're still proceeding with the idea of the firemen being
able to activate the button. Basically it's going to turn this signal green for
them and stop any further traffic from coming through.
Councilman Wing: Don, I don't want to aggravate you here. Let's leave the fire
department out of it. Let's just work with x vehicles but wide sized vehicles
that might be stalled or trying to pass.
Don Ashuorth: Through this segment in here, we're bringing the curb back to
have sufficient distance to pass a plow, whatever the case may be. As you pull
1nfo this segment, you notlce thls ls the turn over toward the Rlverla. So this
curb...so you still maintaln that passing COrlditlon down through this segment
and one area that's a real problem is right in here. But thls ls the area rlght
in front of the Olnner Theatre and to take out that entire row of parklng, I
mean yes. If there's a stalled vehicle there, and a stalled sweeper, you've got
a problem. Dui if you're simply following that sweeper, that small, I mean it's
not as though you're having to follow it all the way through the downtown. You
follow it for 200 feet before it opens back up again. And lt's not an lssue, l
mean at some tlme yes, we will take and bring this one back out. But I don't
know that it warrants the expense at this tlme and the removal of a lot of
landscaping in that process mlght...and I thlnk there were certaln compromises
that were being made in terms of the loss of landscaping in comparison to
lnsuring that you have that 2 lane condition.
Councilman Wing: That clarifies my question Oon, thank you.
Mayor Chmiel: Any other questions? I think it would have been simplified more
if we could have had the exact widths on the north and south side of those roads
as well as extending from east to west to have alleviated some of the concerns
that we're talking about. That was some of the questions that I had as to what
the wldths were and I don't thlnk I'm golng to pursue that now because some of
that's been explained even though I don't know what those widths basically are.
One of the other questions that I had is regarding the Department of
Transportation Carver County. Have they reviewed this and come up with an
approval for the areas that are going to lnvolve them?
Jim Dvorak: We have received comments from Carver County and have incorporated
those comments 1nfo the plan. We do not anticipate any further major changes
from Carver County. State Aid is basically reviewing the plan because Carver
County wants to keep this on their system and receive some type of funding for
it. They may have some things to do with content and format of the plan but the
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
basic design I do not believe they will have much to say about. We cannot get
their final approval until the city approves the plans and Charles signs the
plans and Carver County engineer signs the plans and then we send it back to
them for their final approval. They have a draft set that they are reviewing at
this time.
Mayor Chmlel: Okay. Some of the other things that I had regarding the
easements. Some of these, some of the easements are temporary. Some are
perpetual. Some are outrlght acquiesce. On each of these parcels that we have,
have we started any negotiations with any of the parcels at this time? Or have
none of these been approached yet?
Don Ashworth: I guess I would leave that back over to, do you feel comfortable
answering that Charles?
Mayor Chmiel: And let me just add a little bit more to it. Some of these
temporary easements that we're getttng. Should they be a permanent easement
rather than just that temporary in some of these specific parcels?
Roger Knutson: Well the temporaries are to be used for construction purposes.
Mayor Chmlel: Right.
Roger Knutson: And to this date we get our descriptions from an engineering
firm and I see no need for it.
Mayor Chmiel: Alright. Okay. Next time what I'd like to see, if and when we
go through the process again, I'd like to see who the actual parcel owners are
on each of these parcels rather than just showing the perpetual easement of the
roadway for such and such.
Roger Knutson: ...that information is available and we can share that with you.
Mayor Chmiel: Alright. That was the other question I had.
Councilman Senn: Don? I'm sorry, I didn't know we were asking questions on B.
I had just one there. Is the action then that we're taking, I mean if I
understand the actlon, we are actually authorizing the acquisition of the
easements and the quick takes. To me to do that I think we need the list
exactly that you asked for of the property owners and the amounts of money that
we're offering.
Mayor Chmiel: I guess this is ali part of the total dollar package. Is that
correct Jim?
Jim Dvorak: The easements that are required.
Mayor Chmiel: Or is that in addition to it?
Jim Dvorak: The costs were not reflected in the dollars shown in my letter for
easements. So those would be additional.
67
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Roger Knutson: But to point out the obvious. That ue do is obtain an appraiser
and the appraiser gives us the numbers. We offer the appraised amount. But any
approval of a settlement, you know if we come back and someone wants $5.00 or
$500,000.00 and whatever we agree to has to come back for your approval. Nothing
is done without your approval.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, right.
Councilman Senn: In concept I don't understand why we're going out and buying
temporary construction easements and why we're not getting them free when we're
turning around and suggesting that we're paying all of these people's assessment
costs.
Mayor Chmiel: Well maybe we could be getting them free on some of them.
Councilman Senn: Well and I guess, but that's what I'm saying. I mean when
we're authorizing this to proceed, I think we should know what we're authorizing
versus this kind of blank check approach that says go out and negotiate the
fields. I think our policy should be that if we're paying their assessments for
them, then we should be getting at least the temporary construction easements
for nothing. And I think that should even maybe even looked further into
permanent easements depending on what the situation is. I mean we're talking
about spending big bucks for these property owners. Our residents probably wish
they could achieve the same when their streets go in.
Roger Knutson: In a lot of these cases, like in the case of Mr. James'
property, if we're going to pay the assessments, Mr. James, that depends upon
what Mr. James builds and when he builds it. You may or may not pay his
assessments. And our experience in the past is most people want to get paid.
I've never.
Councilman Senn: Well then let's assess him too. Assess him the full value of
the improvements. Let's assess the east end the value of their improvements.
If we're going to turn around and pay him for the temporary easements and the
easements.
Don Ashworth: The only way that I could see that working, and Roger is correct.
I mean we've got to do the project which means we've got to get the easement.
You've got to pay compensation to obtain that. Now in a subsequent action, if
the property is developed and they come back and look to an incentive package
because they have brought whoever to the plate, you may want to see the
incentive package show that one of the things we'll get back first will be any
monies that ue spent for easement acquisition.
Mayor Chmiel: That's a good point.
Councilman Senn: That's a good point but I don't see that included in here at
ail and Z guess I'd like to see it as a matter of policy included.
Don Ashworth: Right but where it would need to be included would be in the
HRA's redevelopment plan because it's the HR~'s redevelopment plan that spells
out what form of assistance you're going to provide to the individual owners.
The other problem may be, and I haven't thought the whole thing through, is
68
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
you've got an existing owner. Let's say the people that own the property here
in front. The Mithune's. Well if we pay Mlthune's for the acquisition of that
right-of-way, they end up selling it and lt's ABC Companies, is it really right
that we're going to reduce the incentive offer to ABC Companies simply because
they bought the property from Mithune.
Councilman Senn: No. Normally when you sell a piece of property, especially
commercial, you have to pay those assessments before it goes forward. If
there's any outstanding assessments. I mean that's pretty standard policy on
commercial property.
Don Ashworth: Okay.
Councilman Senn: I mean I'd rather see you go back and at least as getting
maybe a motion halfway there, have the HR~ adopt that ktnd of a policy before
you come back and have us adopt assessments.
Mayor Chmiel: That could be a recommendation from Council to HRA to do that
when it comes to their particular part of lt.
Councilman Senn: Well Don, I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather see that
policy before I agree, or at least as one person sitting up here agree to go
spend money to buy these easements.
Mayor Chmlel: Well in order to make the improvements you have to 9o out and
purchase those easement rtghts and spend those dollars accordingly.
Councilman Senn: I understand that.
Mayor Chmiel: So if we take a position right now and say that we would like HR~
to reconsider some of the previous thtngs that they have done before, but to
include into this those easement portions into that agreement, I think that
would take care of your concerns.
Councilman Senn: No it wouldn't because I'd like to see.
Mayor Chmlel: Well it would mlne.
Councilman Senn: I'm just saying from my perspective I'd like to see the policy
in place from the HRA in place before we take an action, saying we're going to
go buy these easements.
Don Ashworth: If I may Mr. Mayor. Let's assume that the Council tonight made a
motion saying that you would like to take and see the HRA modify it's
redevelopment plan to lnclude a new policy whereby any payments made to property
owners for easement acquisitions would be a first reduction out of any subsidy
offered to them. Okay. You're talking about modifying the plan itself, so I
mean you're talking, the draft work necessary to actually carry that out. The
formal notices back over to the School Distrlct and the County, back to the HRA.
I mean what is a typical process Todd? That's 6, 8, 10 weeks?
Todd Gerhardt: The notice part is 30 days...School Board, County Board, and the
public hearings through the HR~, Planning Commission back to the Council.
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Don Ashuorth: You delay this 2 months and this project will not open when
Target opens. If this project, including the lights are not opened when they
open, I think we're in big trouble.
Councilman Senn: So your answer is is we should go spend both amounts of money?
Don Ashworth: I see nothing wrong with the Mayor's suggestion that you direct
the HRA to make that plan modification under the premise that they in fact will
comply with what it is you ask them to do.
councilman Senn: But all these will be in the hopper before you do that which
means you're going to come back with the next argument which is, ue can't effect
the properties that were already in the hopper. Well I mean that's what we keep
coming back to all the time on these deals.
Don ~shuorth: If this were to be applied back to Target, I might agree with you
but we've already taken the additional lands that we need for Target. If
somebody walked in the door tomorrow, I just don't see anyway in which you're
going to have a owner be paid today and not subject him to what would be this
new policy in 60 or 90 days.
Councilman Senn: Well you could. I mean the way you could do that is you can
give them in effect the purchase price or whatever of the easement or whatever
but you can say urlte back lnto the assessment agreement that gee, if we don't
get credit for that, you get assessed for it because ue also have the right to
assess them for lt. We don't have to forgive the assessment and use publlc
subsidy to pay their assessments. You know Don, I'm no wonderful genlus on this
stuff. Z don't know why it wasn't really thrown out before but I look at this
thlng and it's just 11ke a bottomless pit of money. Everything I look in here
ls just the money going out, out, out, out.
Councilman Mason: First of all, I think once again we're getting mucked down in
the mlre here and I'm not qulte sure why. Thls stuff about bottomless plt Don,
I believe I heard you say not too long ago that 1992 put Chanhassen in the best
financial posltlon lt's ever been in.
Don 6shuorth: I was talking about all of your funds, yes.
Councilman Mason: All of the funds, so I question the bottomless pit. I do
know my property taxes are still continuing to go down. Not very much but my
city portion is going down so it seems.
Mayor Chmiel: I'm glad you said that.
Councilman Mason: Oh, hey. I mean I think this banter could go on for quite
some time. I'm ready to make a motion to approve this here.
Councilman Wing: The plan modification Mike, I think that in due respect
to Mark's comments, I agree with some of his comments. I'd like to see this
plan modification looked at by staff. Revlewed by staff and a recommendation
made to Council before it goes to the HRA because I'm not convinced that I'm in
agreement with Mark. But Don, I thlnk Mark's comments are well taken. I think
that thls plan modification should be revlewed and a recommendation made from
7O
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
your office prior to going to HRA. I'd llke to see it handled that way and I
will second. Oid you make a motion? I got lost here.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes he did.
Councilman Wing: z'il second that. West 78th Street's got to get roiling.
Mayor Chmlel: You're right and what Oon had said, if we don't start on this, I
probably shudder more than anybody else here when I think of the amount of
dollars that are going to be expedited on this. But I know that we have to have
thls done by the time Target is in or we're going to have people running after
us with whatever those things fasten around the neck and get tight. But I think
that we do have to go with that but I'd like to see all the thlngs that were
discussed and the conditions as such to come up with and I'll call the question
in regard to this. All those in favor of approving the plans and specs for West
78th Street detachment and downtown improvements and authorize for bids
regarding the project 92-3 and West 78th Street Detachment Project resolution
authorizing the acquisition of easements and/or quick take.
Councilman Hason moved, Councilman #ing seconded to approve ResoXgtioq l~3-24,
approving the plans and specifications and authorizing advertising for bids; and
Resolution ~1~3-25, authorizing the acquisition of easements and/or quick takes.
All voted in favor, except Councilman Senn who opposed, and the motion carried
with a vote of 4 to 1.
Don Ashworth: For clarification. So that motion was both A and B?
Mayor Chmiel: That's correct.
Councilman Wing: Can you put in your notes to get us a Hanager's recommendation
on Mark's comments.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, he has that down.
DISCUSSION OF SEASONAL ROAD WEIGHT RESTRICTIONS.
Public Present:
Name Addreas
Nancy Lee
Patrlck Blood
Tom Moline
Shakopee
Shakopee
Woodlake Sanitation Service
Charles Folch: Hr. Mayor, members of the Council. As some of you may be aware
of, each spring the City imposes along with the Minnesota Department of
Transportation and the County Highway Department, seasonal road weight
restrictions during the spring thaw period. This typically lasts about 2 months
or so and each spring the Carver County Sheriff's Department will cite a number
of violators of these road restrictions. Last year some of the violators that
were actually.caught were companies that provide garbage service to the
community. About a month ago 3 of these haulers representing Aagard West,
71
City Council Heeting- Hatch 22, 1993
Chaska Sanitation and Woodlake Sanitary Service, contacted staff and we sat down
and had a meeting to discuss some of the issues surrounding this matter and I've
included some of the discussions, information from that discussion in the staff
report. From what staff's been able to determine, it appears as some of these
heaulers are able to provide service with equipment that meets the weight
)'estrictions in the spring and whereas others have equipment on their fleet that
if loaded in providing a seFvice, they're not able to readily meet the weight
restrictions. As Z've eluded to in the staff report, we're very concerned about
OUF roads in Chanhassen. We deal with the issue of maintaining our streets with
an annual maintenance sealcoating, crack filling, overlay program. From time to
time we're also faced with considering major stFeet reconstruction projects
which are always a very difficult battle for neighborhoods to go through, not
only from an inconvenience during construction standpoint but also potential
cost assessment standpoint. So we're looking to at least develop some sort of
solution to this problem. Being that these weight restrictions is an ordinance,
staff, as I explained to the haulers here, we could not staffwise could not
administratively grant them a permit to run overloaded during this period.
That's something that the Council would have to grant. Z've provided a couple
alternatives that in this short period that we've kind of devised as potential
options to deal with this or investigate further to deal with the solution. A
number of the haulers are also here tonight to provide some information on their
concerns with the problem and how we might potentially arrive at a solution.
Mayor Chmiei: Okay, thank you Charles. Z noticed today I had my pick-up from
WoodIake and I noticed that they did have a much smaIler truck for pick-up on
city streets. But I also think that, or I like the fact that we're Iooking at
maybe potentialIy assigning, I don't know how we'd do this but, and Z don't iike
getting mixed up into somebody else's business but rather than having one truck
go through, or 3 or 4 or 5 trucks go through my particuiar neighborhood, maybe
just having 1 vehicle or 1 company and somehow split these things up but I know
how protective each of those hauIers get with that. I'd like to suggest too
that we involve the Solid Waste Committee that we have on this to at least
funnel some of that information through them and then get back to Council with
it as well. But I do understand the problems that we have with the roads and
I know that the cost of these roads, as you mentioned in here, the investment is
over $60 miIlion in roads and of course those heavier vehicles are the ones who
reaiiy cause most of the problem8 within the city. So with that I will open
discussion.
Councilman Wing: What do other cities do? We've talked about this before. Do
a lot of other' cities limit or contract or is it kind of a free for all overall?
Charles Folch: Well from what we can tell in talking to other communities,
there is quite a few that apparentIy impose the seasonaI weight restriction.
Some of them, even though they put up signs, they may tend to look the other way
for certain types of vehicles such as, well by State iau school buses are exempt
but other vehicIes such as garbage hauiing and such. They may tend to just look
the other way and primarily concentrate on construction veh£cles and things Iike
that.
Councilman Wing: How about the cities Charles that have gone to a contract
system where just one CaFFieF with one truck with 2 or 3, is that real common?
To limit the number.
72
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Charles Folch: Well, actually the only, speaking from my own experience, the
only community that I am familiar with that has, that I've been tnvolved in that
has a cltywide contract for garbage hauling is the city of Hastlngs and they
actually, because of the soil types being real sandy, do not have a problem with
road restrictions in the springtime but there may be other communities out there
that also do a have a citywide program that I'm not aware of.
Councilman Wing: I guess I'd be interested in hearing from some of the haulers.
(At this point the quality of the recording became very poor and was hard to
hear what was being said.)
Mayor Chmlel: ...major concerns that we had back when we originally initiated
this was to, not put anybody out of business but I think we have what totally,
11 haulers?
Charles Folch: 11 licensed haulers currently.
Mayor Chmlel: It'd be nice if they'd be able to work those things out
themselves. That sometimes is not the problem...past business of worklng for
NSP, I know there becomes quite a problem for the haulers... I'd like to, if at
all possible...I don't know. I don't have any real solutions to eliminating,
and I don't like eliminating businesses per se. But Mark do you have something?
Councilman Senn: Yeah, I don't, well Don I agree with you 100~ and I don't
think we need to eliminate business. Our neighborhood has one truck come in
once a week. Gary can speak for hlmself but I thlnk it's a good deal for our
neighborhood and I think he thinks it's a good deal too because he told me up
front, lt's wonderful to be able to come in and pick up 40 houses in just' a
couple blocks. That lowers the rates plus raises his margin. Now to me we
ought to put the garbage haulers...sensible ones versus the non sensible ones
but we ought to keep the senisible ones together with staff...system could be
deslgned out. 01strlctize or whatever, that kind of a system:because at least
from what we've done in our neighborhood, that's what we do. Gary probably
won't 11ke me to say thls but I'd match rates wlth any one of you. So I think
there's beneflts for everybody but again I'd rather see something like this
deslgned by the experts in the industry working with staff and seeing if they
can come up with...that they could both live with and then come back to us with
a recommendation.
Mayor Chmlel: Well I just see a few of these here on the list, commercial and
construction debris. There are three only and they wouldn't have to haul during
that period of tlme so...just automatically take three off there.
Councilman Senn: The big concern becomes the regular...
Mayor Chmlel: Yeah, right. And that's I think...
Councilwoman Oockendorf: Yeah, this whole discussion goes beyond city
roadways...and contrary to what Charles is saying...we don't want that but
there's...
Mayor Chmiel: Michael, do you have something?
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1992
Councilman Mason: I'm just listening. What I'm hearing sounds good so far. I
do have a little trouble with & different haulers going down Woodhill Drive...
but that's a real tough issue. If there's someway the haulers can coordinate. Of
course then you're going to have...one sanitation service for 10 years are going
to be yelling and screaming when they have to change so, it's a can of worms but
I think it's something we need to slowly start dealing with.
Mayor Chmiel: And I think too, if we bring in all these licensed haulers to a
Council meeting, maybe we can get a little better handle on it as well. From
their perspective...
Charles Folch: Mr. Mayor, we do have a couple of haulers out in the audience
tonlght if you'd like to take some testimony from them.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, we're getting close to our bewitching hour but we'd be more
than happy if you sat here this long with us, we could take on a minute or two
to 11sten to you.
Tom Moline: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Council. My name is Tom Moline. I'm
operations manager for Woodlake Sanitation. Just briefly, after our meeting
wlth the clty staff, city englneer and so forth, we explained our posltlon whlch
was actually resources, putting your resources. What resources do you have
where you have them? We took a look at the city's concerns. I felt real good
coming away from there because by, I almost started jockeying things around. We
are trylng to comply totally wlth the road restrictions, even down as far as 4
and 5 ton under this open system we have here and I was under the impression
that all the haulers were going to try and jockey their resources around. It's
also true for us in the private sector here that we have to watch our resources.
These trucks aren't cheap and we can't get them rlght away so it's something
relatively new to the industry and so we're trylng but it takes tlme and it
takes capltal but currently we're worklng in different parts of the clty, only
on 2 days of the week, Monday and Tuesday, with three small trucks and our big
truck we're 11mitlng to the, when it's empty a 7 ton road and then the 9 ton
road. We are not going on any 4 or 5 ton roads. Period.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, that's why I had mentioned your smaller truck made my
plck-up this morning. I noticed that immediately because I had read this prior
to, it was good to see.
Tom Moline: Yeah, so we are trying to work with the city and staff here. Any
other questions?
Mayor Chmiel: I guess not. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Action on this
Charles. You're looking for one of the four optlons that you've indicated.
Charles Folch: Or any other option which you feel merits further investigation.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah, I'd like to get some of that citizen input as well.
Councilman Mason: Yeah, I'm curious Charles. It's great to hear that about
Woodlake. Is anyone else, any of the other haulers trylng to uork with that?
City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Charles Folch: Well I did receive a call today from Gary Lano from Chaska, and
he apologized. He couldn't make it to the meeting tonight but he did state that
you know he is, they're trying to do what they can to stay within the limits but
he's being honest in stating that he's not able to do that in all cases. In
looking at he was, I basically sent a copy of the staff report to all the
haulers and he just wanted to go on record as saying that the only option that
he really opposed was option number 3 I believe which is organizing the city
into districts and such which he felt would really hurt his business, being a
small company. He didn't feel he'd be able to compete on a big city wide
contract basis. Chris Boatright from Aagard West.
Councilman Senn: A clarification. City wide contract.
Charles Foich: Or districting a city wide contract. A large district type
contract. Mr. Chris Boatright of Aagard. West, he's kind of been the spearhead
man from the beginning on this. UnfortunateIy he was going to be here tonight.
I'm not sure why he's not but he is also in a situation where unfortunately bls
fleet, his size of fleet, he does not have the abiiity:evidentally to use
smaller vehicles or free up smaller equipment and increase manpower for the
short period of time to be abIe to meet the weight restrictions on ail streets.
So those are basically the three haulers who we've been working with that have
raised the issues and concerns and have been cooperativeIy working with staff.
Mayor Chmlel: I've seen some of these llttle Cushman plck-ups wlth blns in the
back. They would pick-up maybe 2 or 3 homes and then scoot back out-to the
highway and dump it back in the big truck and come back ln. I've seen that in
several other communities. I know it's an additional cost but so are the roads.
I have concerns wlth those roads as well.
Don Ashworth: BFI picked mine up this morning and they had the smaller truck.
Councilman Senn: ~ would move that we direct staff to pursue option number 3...
back to us with a recommendation.
Charles Folch: Would you also recommend that that involve the Solid Waste
Committee that we have?
Councilman Senn: Yes. I assume that's a tie in thru staff, I'm sorry.
Councilwoman Dockendorf: I would second that.
Councilman Wing: That's one of the recommendations but I think that this, if we
start imposing weight restrictions and enforcing them, it's going to put people
on guard that they simply can't tear the streets up. Even though it's a
necessity and people are contracting for it. Maybe it's going to force some of
the truckers to start looking at that realistic in their planning and thinking
of purchases for the future. Now obviously...if we were to go out and just
enforce it wide open, it'd shut everybody down but Z think that we ought to
start letting them know how bad off they are and it's not acceptable and
something's going to give because of it. I don't think we ought tolignoFe the
enforcement aspect of it.
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City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Charles Folch: No. At this point ue will continue to enforce the restrictions.
Only you have the authority to grant permits or waive that otherwise.
Mayor Chmiel: Yeah. Well ue have a motion on the floor and I'd like to make a
friendly amendment to that to also include citizens within the community come up
with some suggestions that they may have, and offer those suggestions as well.
If that's acceptable to the...and the second.
Councilman Senn: I would assume the Solid Waste...
Mayor Chmiel: Right, and have them go through that process. Okay, any other
discussion?
Councilman Senn moved, Council,oman Dockendorf seconded directing staff to look
into reducing the number of garbage trucks on local streets by establishing city
garbage service districts and bidding out annual or biannual contracts by
meeting with haulers and the Solid Waste Committee with citizen input. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Mayor Chmiel: I'd like to probably go to the next ltem and I'd like to suggest
that we table 12 and maybe if Olck's not going to take too long.
Councilman Wing: I'll wait until next meetlng. I want Paul to be here.
Mayor Chmiel: Good. That'd be Dick's Council Presentation as well. So we'll
go to item number 11.
CITY COUNCIL REOUEST FOR INFORHATION CONCERNING AUTO RELATED USES AND POSSIBLE
OVERLAY DISTRICT ORDINANCE.
Councilman Senn: Can we table that one too?
Mayor Chmiel: We're getting very close to the bewitching hour which is 12:00
and I don't know if this can be done .ulthln 15 minutes or not. Kate, do you
want to give us.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, I'll be very brief. What we're really looking for ls some
further direction from the Council. What Paul did here was kind of based on the
work sesslon that you had. Tried to polnt to you in some direction and that was
one, looklng at the auto related uses. Eliminating them from certain uses from
the zone or adoptlng the PUD overlay distrlct which we had proposed previously.
What we've included in this packet is all the zones along the corridor and what
the uses would be that may be objectionable as far as auto related. To have you
look at those. Paul points out in hls memo that a lot of the vacant property is
belng absorbed and there lsn't a lot of so called hot spots. We do know of one
that was ralsed tonight and we have heard talk of a car wash golng on that site.
The other issue is to, we've had requests for them for downtown too. The other
issue too is if we eliminate them entirely from the city, where is the
appropriate location for these type of uses. We all are users of them. If they
can't go along the so called highway orientation, where should they belong.
Should ue create a special district? So I guess what we see as the alternative
is going through the districts and maybe outlining for you those lots that we
know are vacant and have potential of something happening and giving you the
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City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
options of each of those lots. What could happen. This kind of ties in with
what we're doing with the Highway 5 corridor. Mike was at the last meeting
where we talked about architectural standards. We've kind of got that draft put
together. Beefed up those standards. Next we'll be working on setbacks and as
we look at each of those ordinances we'lI be passlng them through, the task
force w111 be looking at those and then we'll pass them onto Planning
Commission. We're not golng to'wait until they're all one piece. We'd like to
get those into the process as soon as possible so we can react to those.
that ls ongoing too but if you'd like for direction, then going back, if you
want us to pull out some of those vacant lots that may have potential of uses.
We talked about Target, that was an indication that a posslblIlty of two fast
foods going on there. Identifying all those so you can look at specifically
whlch ones you have concern about and then talk about rezoning. So if you want
to glve us direction as far as modification of the zones now or looking at the
PUD overlay. So Z guess what we'd want is further direction from you as to
which way you want to go.
Mayor Chmiel: Yes.
Councilman Wing: But I think that thls, I think this is one of those items
belongs on a work session where we can sit down in a round table with staff and
throw out thls ordinance blt and say, we don't like these items. Let's cross
them off and here, where are we going to put these people with a map in front of
us. So we don't have to go through thls packet trying to put stuff together.
Councilman Mason: I wonder if it wouldn't be helpful to have a list of those
lands before we did anything.
Kate Aanenson: That's what I'm saying. It might.be helpful to show you which
lots are vacant.
Councilman Mason: ...might get a little better handle on it.
Kate Aanenson: What's permitted with each of those vacant sites. Okay. Do you
want that for 11ke a work sesson?
Councilman Senn: ...wonderful starting point but I'd really like to, I think
the ldea of a work sesslon specifically dealing only with this issue and
throwing...got to move this along because next month the next proposal's going
to be ln. I mean by the time we finlsh this, they're all going to be bullt
anyway.
Councilman Wing: At the last minute ask for specific...zoning, land use,
comprehensive plan. This is what we're talking about.
Councilman Senn: Yeah, we take these uses and say okay, now what are we going
to do with them.
Kate Aanenson: So you're telling me the one component you want to see first is
the vacant lands and what potential uses can go on all those?
Councilman Senn: Right. And the existing land...for these type of uses.
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City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Kate Aanenson: Okay. So existing ones too.
Councilman Wing: April ?th, I don't want to discuss it at the Council meeting.
Z don't want to sit here and be bogged down ulth these lssues at a Councll
meeting.
Mayor Chmlel: Okay, is there anythlng in addltion to that that you'd llke to
see? There is no need for any action to be taken on this anyway. It's just
direction that you're looklng for and I thlnk we can go with that direction.
Okay.
8111 Grlfflth: If you'll indulge me for 60 seconds, 1'11 be terribly brief but
I have been sittlng here For several hours.
Mayor Chmiel: Well, if you gave us all that time we'll give you some time.
Bill 6riffith: Okay, thank you sir. Mr. Mayor, Council members. My name is
8ill 6rlfflth. I'm representing the property owners of the Mason parcel which
you approved a pr-oject his evenlng. They asked me to essentially enter their
objections on the record and the basls for this. If this overlay dlstrlct ls
intended to apply to the project area. The remaining parcel 3 let's call it.
The maln r'eason ls because of the long hlstory on this parcel of development
limitations including a 2 1/2 year development moratorium. Two lawsuits. The 6
months process that we just went through and I think a practical limitation ls
that auto related uses have been allowed pursuant to a great deal. of planning
and study on thls property and now the horse ls essentially out of the barn. The
area's developed in auto related uses and essentially the reasonable or only
compatible use of the parcel ls an auto related use. So we will continue to
follow the process closely. I reallze this lsn't a publlc hearlng and continue
to object and posslbly ultimately challenge application to this parcel. Thank
you.
AMENDMENT TO CITY CODE REGARDING PEDDLERS. SOLICITORS. AND TRANSIENT MERCHANTS,
FIRST READING.
Hayor Chmiel: So with that I would like to suggest we table item number 12. Do
have a motlon on that?
Councilman Wing: Except I've read that and this is, okay I just happen to like
it so I'd be happy to approve it.
Councilman Senn: Which one are we on? I thought we were still on 11.
Mayor Chmiel: 11 we just gave direction.
Councilman Senn: I'ln sorry. I misunderstood. Okay, but so on 11 are we going
to.
Kate Aanenson: We're golng to follow up.
Mayor Chmlel: They're going to follow through with what's necessary to do with
what we proposed to her.
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City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
Councilman Senn: Can we do that at our April 7th meeting or not?
Kate Aanenson: That's my question.
Mayor Chmiel: Depending on what time we have and if the time is available, I'd
say...
Kate Aanenson: Paul and myself are both going to be out of town.
Councilman Senn: Our work session is what I'm talking about. I mean we have to
set an agenda for that night Z'm assuming.
Kate Aanenson: Paul and I'll be on vacation. Did you want to have someone else
do it?...
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, next item. Can I have a motion to table item number 127
Councilman Hason moved, Councilman Wing seconded to table the first reading of
the amendment to City Code regarding peddlers, Solicitors and Transient
Herchants until the next meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Councilman Wing: Mr. Mayor, before, we go home tonight, I would like to once
again state my request that we meet at 7:00 prior to Council meetings. Round
table upstalrs specifically on the consent agenda. Review issues, 1dews,
thoughts.
Councilman Senn: Is that a motion?
Councilman Wing: I'm making that a motion.
Councilman Senn: I'll second that.
Councilman Mason: And I will once again say, when I have questions about the
consent agenda, whlch I dld and I made two calls to the clty and I had my
questions answered and that's why I didn't need to pull any items from the
agenda. So I don't, comlng at 7:00 you know, I'll be honest wlth you. I'm
already putting in a lot of time with this job but I can get my homework done on
the phone at City Hall without having to take an hour for a Council meetlng for
consent agendas or taking staff's time at 7:00 to take care of those lssues. I
don't see the need personally.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay, there's a morton on the floor with a second to meet at
7:00. I sort of feel like Mike does, just so you know where I'm comlng from.
Because I do go through that process of getting my questions answered...and I do
get them answered. Z either come in or I call. One of the two. I may even do
that on Friday when I get the packet and I of course have that luxury of all day
to be able to sit and read but we do have a motion on the floor with a second to
meet at 7:00.
Councilman Senn: Don? One point of discussion. I thlnk the rest of you need
to know maybe where I think Dick and I are coming from...and Dick probably has a
similar situation to mine. When I can do that, I do that but I'm flying in and
out all the time just 11ke 0ick's flying in and out all the time. Yeah, I get a
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City Council Meeting - March 22, 1993
packet Thursday night. Sometimes I don't even get a chance to even review the
packet until Monday before the meeting because I'm not home to get it and I'm
not flying until Monday. Well I don't work, excuse me, an 8:00 to 5:00 or a
9:00 to 5:00 job and I'm gone for days at a time and I do everything I can to
come back for these meetings but I can't always figure it out on the basis that
I'm going to get here to get all of that contact time either done on Friday or
Monday.
Councilman Wing: Well and then things come up. I see it as a work session. We
could spend a half hour just on lot size.
Councilman Mason: Look, I don't have an 8:00 to 5:00 job either and I took this
job on knowing that there were some things I had to do outside of the Council
meeting. And that's where I stand on that...
Mayor Chmiel: ...when in my better haydays, I was gone ali the time too, Put 8
hours, 10, 12, 13, 16 hours, blah, blah, blah and there is a motion on the floor
with a second to start at ?:00.
Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Senn seconded that the City Council meet at
7:00 prior to City Council meetings for review of the agenda. Councilman Wing
and Councilman Senn voted in favor. Mayor Chmiel, Councilman Mason and
Councilwoman Dockendorf voted in opposition and the motion failed with a vote of
2 to 3.
Councilman Wing moved, Councilman Mason seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 11:55 p.m.
Submitted by Don Ashworth
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
80