1984 01 09
I
I
I
REGULAR CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL MEETING
JANUARY 9, 1984
Mayor Hamilton called the meeting to order. The meeting was opened with
the Pledge to the Flag.
Members Present
Councilman Horn, Councilwomen Watson and Swenson
Members Absent
Councilman Geving
Staff Present
Don Ashworth, Bill Monk, Bob Waibel
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilman Horn moved to approve the agenda as pre-
sented inCluding an update on the City Hall water damage. Motion seconded
by Councilwoman Watson. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes.
Motion carried.
RULES OF PROCEDURE: Councilman Horn moved to adopt the Rules of Procedure
for the-conduct of City Council Business. Motion seconded by Mayor
Hamilton. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen
Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion
carried.
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER: Councilman Horn moved to designate the Carver County
Herald as the official city newspaper. Motion seconded by Councilwoman
Swenson. The following voted in favor: Councilwomen Swenson and Watson,
Councilman Horn. Mayor Hamilton voted no. Motion carried.
OFFICIAL DEPOSITORY: Councilwoman Swenson moved to designate the State
Bank of Chanhassen as the official depository of the City and authorize the
Mayor and Treasurer or Manager as authorized signatures for all city checks
and the following persons be authorized to enter the safe deposit box:
Mayor or Treasurer or Manager. The Mayor's facsimile signature be used on
all city checks. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The following
voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and
Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion carried.
CITY ATTORNEY: Mayor Hamilton moved to appoint the firm of Grannis,
Grannis, Campbell, & Farrell as the City Attorney. Motion seconded by
Councilman Horn. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes.
Motion carried.
BOND CONSULTANT: Mayor Hamilton moved to appoint the firm of Juran and
Moody as the financial consultant for the City. Motion seconded by
Councilwoman Swenson. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes.
Motion carried.
ACTING MAYOR: Councilwoman Swenson moved that Councilman Geving be
appointed Acting Mayor to serve in the absence of the elected Mayor.
Motion seconded by Councilman Horn. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No nega-
tive votes. Motion carried.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-2-
FIRE MARSHAL: Mayor
tion of Fire Marshal
Councilwoman Watson.
Councilwomen Swenson
Motion carried.
Hamilton moved to appoint Jim Castleberry to the posi-
for the City of Chanhassen. Motion seconded by
The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes.
WEED INSPECTOR: Councilman Horn moved to appoint Mayor Hamilton as Weed
Inspector and Bill Monk, Public Works Director, as Deputy Weed Inspector.
Motion seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The following voted in favor:
Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No
negative votes. Motion carried.
FIRE CHIEF: Councilman Horn moved
Department and appoint Jack Kreger
Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton.
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and
tive votes. Motion carried.
to accept the recommendation of the Fire
as Fire Chief for a two year term.
The following voted in favor: Mayor
Watson, and Councilman Horn. No nega-
HEALTH OFFICER: Councilman Horn moved to appoint Dr. David McCollum as the
City's Health Officer at a fee of $1.00. Motion seconded by Councilwoman
Watson. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen
Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion
carried.
CITY AUDITOR: Councilwoman Swenson moved to contract with Voto, Tautges,
Reardon as auditors for the City. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Watson.
The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and
Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion carried.
MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT: Councilwoman Swenson moved to accept the Manager's
recommendation and set mileage reimbursement at 23~ per mile. Motion
seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No
negative votes. Motion carried.
MINUTES: Mayor Hamilton moved to approve the December 19, 1983, Council
minutes. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Swenson. The following voted in
favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and Councilman
Horn. No negative votes. Motion carried.
Councilwoman Swenson moved to note the December 7, 1983, Public Safety
Commission minutes. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The following
voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, and
Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion carried.
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS AND APPEALS, ORDINANCE AMENDMENT:
Councilman Horn - I kind of like Don's suggestion on final review powers.
Don Ashworth - There were three questions presented. Do you want to use
alternate to allow for that and really the final review powers, that deals
then with a quorum. If you were going to give them extra powers you wanted
to assure that at least three people were voting on an issue.
Councilwoman Swenson - Voting and agreeing, or can it be two against one.
I would think it would be a unanimous opinion.
I
I
I
I
I
I
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-3-
Councilman Horn - If they feel strongly enough about it and vote against it
they can br~it to the Council, either way.
Councilwoman Swenson - I think so often people are not advised that they
can. If we are going to do this then it should be incumbent upon the Board
of Adjustments and Appeals to announce to the applicant that they have the
option of appeal to the City Council.
Councilwoman Watson - Non-controversial is something that everyone voted
one way or the other way on. Anything where there is a divided vote would
be considered controversial.
Councilwoman Swenson - Which is really true. And with the inclusion that
the applicant wishes to carry it on to the City Council they have the
option. That way we leave it open so that people know that they have this
recourse.
Councilwoman Swenson moved to place on first reading an amendment to the
Zoning Ordinance amending Section 22 (Board of Adjustments and Appeals) and
instruct staff to incorporate the alternative form for final review powers.
Motion seconded by Councilman Horn. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Watson and Swenson, Councilman Horn. No negative
votes. Motion carried.
LAKE DRIVE EAST FEASIBILITY STUDY:
~Norton, Orr-Schelen-Mayeron, and Associates, reviewed his report. The
feasibility study includes streets, sanitary sewer, watermain, storm
drains, and intersection improvements for the property south of Highway 5
in Hennepin County. Total estimated cost for the project is $814,000 not
including costs for right-of-way acquisition.
Mayor Hamilton - I guess we have a different understanding of what feasibi-
lity means. It is the same problem that we have had for years with feasi-
bility studies, everything is always feasible no matter what it costs. It
seems to me you can't say it's feasible to do it unless you know the
financing. I think our financing alternative needs to be spelled out very
clearly.
Bill Monk - The project was basically broken in half to have OSM do the
engineering cost data on the improvements while staff would work on the
financing and not bring Orr-Schelen-Mayeron in on the tax increment
financing that had been done largely to date by Don, myself and Juran and
Moody. It should be ready in about three or four weeks at the most. I
don't think there is any question from an engineering standpoint that the
project is feasible and right now it is a matter of working out with CPT
how much is to be assessed.
Mayor Hamilton - You mentioned that the one map showed that there is a new
pond area. Does the existing pond, is that going to be filled or what's
going to happen?
Jim Norton - We are grading a new ponding area.
Mayor Hamilton - Are you going to eliminate the old one?
Jim Norton - No. Unless there is an interest in eliminating the first one
then the second one in the southeast corner would have to be made larger.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-4-
Mayor Hamilton - That intersection with 184th Street, it would seem to me
that I just don't see how we can go ahead with a project if we don't have
Eden Prairie involvement. Do we do half of the street and not do the other
half? It just doesn't make any sense not to have Eden Prairie in the pro-
ject and do that whole intersection at once.
Bill Monk - Basically, the intersection would be all done at once. Eden
Prair~south of the highway, has no desire at this point to see that sec-
tion develop. They do not wish to participate in the construction of 184th
south of the highway. If this project is to proceed we are going to have
to proceed on our own. One of the things that we have been looking into
closely with MnDOT is to see what level of financing they may get involved
in concerning these highway improvements but to date they have not wanted
to commit one way or another because of the timing issue. MnDOT's involve-
ment could range from 10% anywhere up to 90% but I can't get them to commit
at this time to what the actual percentage would be. With the tax incre-
ments generated and with the MSA funds that are now available because this
has been designated as a state aid fund, there is a good possibility that
Chanhassen could do all these improvements and finance them. CPT is aware
of all the research that has gone on with this study.
I
Don Ashworth - That does not stop us from setting an assessment charge
should Eden Prairie ever wish to use the road. Actually making a connec-
tion charge for their share of that road. In fact they did it for us when
the Duck Lake Interceptor was built with capacity for Chanhassen at a cost
of about $70,000.
Bill Monk - This study was to layout the engineering costs involved with I
~project and that's basically what OSM was hired to do. Because staff
could not get the supplementary report done on the financing there is no
problem with tabling this report until that data is available. I wanted
the Council to be aware that this study was out there because a lot of
people had gotten it and I didn't want Council members getting calls from
somebody at CPT asking questions about the study and not having seen the
study. There is nothing wrong with noting the study and tabling acceptance
until the financial data is available.
Mayor Hamilton - I appreciate having it. That intersection still bothers
me. It seems like if we are going to do that, as soon as we get that
intersection done (184th) Frank is going to be sitting in here wanting to
have it done on the other side of the street then we are looking at
upgrading that side of Highway 5. Then I am also thinking as you go west
on Lake Drive East and you open up 184th Street, have we looked at trying
to run that frontage road all the way down to Highway 101 and close off
Dakota or do something to try to improvement the flow of traffic on Highway
5 rather than putting another signalization at that corner.
Bill Monk - The Highway 5 improvements, the channelization and widening,
would~e to be done completely whether the southern approach is done
first or whether the northern approach is done first, so basically, you are
improving that intersection to its full capacity for all turning movements
whether Park One comes in or whether CPT comes in first makes no
difference.
Mayor Hamilton - That will be done completely in Chanhassen. We won't use
the existing 184th Street since part of that is in Eden Prairie.
I
I
I
I
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-5-
Bill Monk - That's right. Basically, the gravel road that is there now
would-not be used and we would even look to talk to Eden Prairie about
putting a turn lane where that dirt street is so that we wouldn't need
additional right-of-way. Either way full Highway 5 improvements are
necessary even if we don't build 184th to its full width. We also have
designated a quasi alignment from Dakota all the way over to Highway 101 as
a MSA road so that can be put in at any point but the City, to date, has
not pushed to have roads put in prior to developers coming in and asking
that they be put in. The designation is there. The City could look at
that but it would have to look at probably having to acquiring right-of-way
and that involves a lot of time and work and expense and to date we have
just waited until people have wanted to plat the road.
Councilman Horn - It seems to me that we are looking at all of these things
in little bits and pieces. We should be looking at our overall transpor-
tation system in that whole area rather than just a piece of this thing at
a time. We are going to get a very different imput it we only look at one
aspect. Another thing is, it seems like a part of highway improvement
programs include channelization in other areas and I don't know that the
City of Chaska picked up the channelization when the state upgraded Highway
212 through there, why is the City have to put in channelization when we
know that Highway 5 is going to be upgraded anyway in the not to distant
future.
Bill Monk - At this juncture we cannot get MnDOT to commit one way or
another. I think it was about three weeks ago we had our first meeting
with MnDOT and that's the first time that anyone had ever said that funding
could even go to the 90% level depending on the timing of improvements but
you have to remember that this report basically came about because of a
request by CPT that we look into the construction of this frontage road
through their property. That was the extent of their request and perhaps I
should have brought back an overall traffic view of the area and state aid
system as it goes through this area but OSM was commissioned to respond to
Mr. Scheff's request for improvements only as CPT would need them.
Councilman Horn - I don't have a problem with taking a segment at a time as
long as we look at the whole picture when we come up with out transpor-
tation plan.
Mayor Hamilton - I agree. I think in all our planning we seem to have
blinders on. We are looking at one little piece of it and Frank is going
to come in here and he is going to ask us to do this and we will have to
look at another piece of it.
Bill Monk - What I would suggest is that staff come back with that type of
an-Dverview and the whole thing be presented with the feasibility study, the
supplemental financing report and the overview of the traffic in the area
at one time.
Councilman Horn - I think one of our prime considerations is we need to get
nice even distances between our stop lights on Highway 5 to get the traffic
moving properly.
Bill Monk - There is the half mile spacing and MnDOT noted no problems with
~spacing with the intersection at Dakota. The lights are never set up
to incorporate turning movements. If you turn onto a highway you can
expect to have to stop.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-6-
Councilwoman Swenson - I am not entirely sure from reading this report
exactly how it recommends that this intersection come up to 184th. I read
that we are going to have a deceleration lane, an acceleration lane, a
westbound left turn light and when I read that the lights went off because I
without some form of control I can see a repeat of the problems that we had
at 17 and 5. We have right in and out, that's one thing, if you would have
people coming out of there and making a left hand turn going west on
Highway 5 or coming west on 5 and turning onto 184th Street, I can see
trouble plus the fact I have never been able to quite determine why 184th
Street should be considered as a major collector for Chanhassen. It is the
exterior line of the City on the north side of the City. It probably
extends maybe less than 1,000 feet before it hits a railroad track so it's
not going to go any farther than that. We have nothing to the south. How
can it conceivably be a collector street for the City of Chanhassen?
Bill Monk - It is not going to really be a collector for the City of
Chanhassen but it may turn into a major road because Eden Prairie's Dell
Road is a major collector through Eden Prairie. It would become a heavily
used road, I think, for Chanhassen when 212 is built because I think Dell
Road or 184th Street would be a major connection between 5 and 212.
Councilwoman Swenson - I think that the idea of putting in another road in
addition to Highway 101 is a complete waste of taxpayers money and beside
which is certainly not environmentally intelligent. We are eventually
going to have a four lane road there, now why should we have to bear this
if it's going to serve Eden Prairie. I have real problems with this road.
Bill Monk - The City of Chanhassen would only be involved with constructing I
this road as is necessary to serve Chanhassen. It is proposed that the
road at this point be 36 foot wide because that's the width of the street
that we put in industrial parks. We are not trying to turn this thing into
a collector but at the same time we are trying to at least be aware of what
Eden Prairie is planning along this same alignment and to work with them to
come up with a good intersection and good planning for both cities.
Chanhassen is not going to be involved with extending this road down to 212
or extending it up above the railroad tracks into Eden Prairie.
Councilwoman Swenson - I have never had a satisfactory answer, still, for
the extension of that road. What is the overall intention when they hit
that railroad embankment? Are they going to dig a tunnel underneath it?
Bill Monk - Right now the talk is for an at-grade crossing. There has been
some talk of Eden Prairie going under the railroad and connecting Dell Road
through there. That's beyond where Chanhassen wants to be involved because
we have no property to serve up there.
Councilman Horn - But I think we have an interest. Right now the only
north/south-,nterconnect we have between 5 and 7 is 101 and how is Dell
Road going to get up to Highway 7? There is going to be pressure to get
from Highway 5 to Highway 7 and it seems like with all this other planning
going on in Eden Prairie there is an emphasis to de-emphasize 101. The
state is trying to get rid of it and every body is trying to shuffle it off I
and they are building all kinds of driveways into it to make it unusable.
What is going to replace Highway 101? I don't think Dell Road is going to
do it.
I
I
I
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-7-
Councilwoman Swenson - Why are we permitting this dedesignation of 101.
It's already there. We have a plan here to try to make the proper align-
ment with 5 and I have to go back to what the Mayor and Clark have already
said and that is I recognize the need for this for the purpose of alle-
viating traffic on Dakota at this particular time but I have problems with,
when the consultants say that this is a collector for Eden Prairie and
Chanhassen which I am not going to agree with. I think before I am willing
to accept that theory I would have to find a great deal more about what
Eden Prairie's plans are. Are we going to replace 101 with 184th Street
and what is that going to do subsequently to the citizens of Chanhassen. I
am very happy to coordinate as much as we can with Eden Prairie but I am
not entirely sure that this study is taking us in the direction that I feel
we ought to go.
~ Monk - I think that instead of trying to explain each piece it would
be better if I came back with a supplement going over the overall traffic
showing the frontage road as it would go west, show the roads as they would
go north and as Dell Road exists now and as Eden Prairie is thinking it
will exist. Where the latest 212 alignment is, how the road will funnel
down to that and how the whole picture will come together. I was just
trying to introduce the Council to this study and it does seem that you
caught me slightly unprepared.
Mayor Hamilton - CPT is looking at adding a heck of a building or two to
their complex.
Bill Monk - There is a letter in here from the President of CPT and it was
that letter that basically is why you decided to move ahead.
Jim Norton - Maybe just to share with you some of the conversation we had
with Eden Prairie, I know that they were approached and the question from
MnDOT was, gee, we would like to make 101 follow Dell Road and get rid of
it. Well, Eden Prairie didn't seem to be to happy with that. What they
are proposing and certainly I think it requires more study is to show how
the connection is made. Eden Prairie shows 5 being connected to 7 by Dell
Road and Dell Road would connect to 101 right near the point where it turns
from southbound to southwest. That's where they would like to have that
intersection. They don't want to make Dell Road a new 101. MnDOT would
like to see it go in. Certainly there is a lot more imput that's required.
That1s some of the discussion that we had with MnDOT.
Councilman Horn - If Eden Prairie doesn't want to make Dell Road into a
101, then why are they doing what they are doing to 101 which is making it
into a street that really can't handle the traffic. They have got to
recognize that there is a larger transportation picture to get traffic bet-
ween 5 and 7 and it seems to me that they really haven't addressed that
issue.
~ Monk - Eden Prairie does not agree with your assessment.
Councilman Horn - What is their plan to get between 5 and 7?
Bill Monk - Basically, to use 101 just having the IISII curve straightened
~a~ell Road comes into it as a collector street but comes in and
stops as 101 continues.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-8-
Councilman Horn - In other words the major flow would come from Dell Road
into 101.
Bill Monk - 101 would continue to be used.
I
Councilman Horn - I guess all I am saying is the development pressure in
Eden Prairie-T5 going to force the need for putting north/south traffic
onto Dell Road because of what they are doing to 101.
Councilwoman Swenson - I note in your letter to Mr. Engler you are leaving
to decision to proceed solely with CPT, why, and then the additional sewer
lateral, the two acres of land south of Highway 5 owned by private resi-
dents, how are they going to be affected by the assessment?
Bill Monk - It was my understanding that basically the reason that we pro-
ceede~th this report as we did was because of a request from CPT and
that as we go over the financing with them that if they are not prepared to
pick up whatever the assessment percentage breaks down to the Council would
not be prepared to to proceed with the project. Now, that is a big assump-
tion on my part but what I am trying to do here is to get CPT very closely
involved with what's going on with this project. As far as the other pro-
perty goes, it's also my assumption that basically utilities and access
would be worked out with the City as the middle man between the owners of
those two acres and CPT on an easement type basis. We did look at the
possibility of putting the road so it would abut those two acres but it
introduces so many curves into the alignment that it was seen as basically
not the way to proceed. We would work with the owners of that property and
CPT to make sure easement arrangements are made so that Highway 5 does not I
have to be the only access to those two acres.
Councilwoman Swenson - Have the owners of that property been alerted to the
fact that this is a subject here and they may be subject to assessments?
Bill Monk - I haven't gone to assessments as such because in the easement
arrangement they would be extending their own access and their own utili-
ties from the road as it goes through the CPT property. I believe they are
aware of what is going on.
Councilman Horn - I guess I was a little disturbed that the road that we
just put in would have to be redesigned because it didn't meet 30 MPH curve
standards. Why weren't those put in that way in the first place? This was
Schoe11 and Madson.
Bill Monk - I think the alignment had a lot to do with MTS who was the ori-
ginal owner of that property. I have never figured out exactly why that
road was built as it was.
Councilman Horn - I don't want anybody to get the impression I am not for
this project. I just want to make sure we don't run into any surprises
five years from now when we have to redo the road again because we don't
have a 40 MPH curve or it doesn't match with what we are doing on the north
side.
Mayor Hamilton - I want to see the whole thing tied together.
I
I
I
I
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-9-
SITE PLAN REVIEW, 18 UNIT APARTMENT COMPLEX, CHANHASSEN MEADOWS:
MaYOr~ilton - Don rs-recommending that this item be tabled for at least
30 days.
Councilman Horn - Before we table this I would like to have Bill work this
into an overall transportation plan. As far as I was concerned none of
these alignment studies really made a lot of sense. I think Bill could come
up with something that makes a lot more sense
Mayor Hamilton - If I remember right, when we first reviewed this, those
were our feelings then.
Bill Monk - There is a real need, I think, to keep this one separate and to
move swiftly on this because the Council does have a specific request to
put in an apartment complex. The request has been in for 45 days or wha-
teverand staff is trying to process it. There is a real obligation and
responsibility by the City to review this as quickly as possible and if we
are going to seriously think about acquisition I would say we would have to
proceed with this quickly and I could look at both at the same time. I
guess I don't agree with all the alternates either but it basically would
have to be some type of a highbred of #5 to make it work and to be economi-
ca 1 .
Councilman Horn - Could that 90% funding be applied to any of these?
Bill Monk - Highway 101 is termed a temporary state highway. A temporary
state~hway has a very specific definition to MnDOT. They will maintain
it. They will not upgrade, re-align or do any other improvements to that
road. There is a lot of talk right now of turning back 101 to the City.
The state is making a big push all around the state to get rid of a lot of
these temporary highways. I see minor state involvement. My discussions
to date have not exceeded 10%. That is very minor in a project of this
size.
Mayor Hamilton - This was a request on staff's part, right. These gentle-
men are here wanting to have action on this request. Are they aware of
the request to table this item?
Don Ashworth - I am sure the report was sent out. I am also sure that the
notice to the developers was quite late. It was not presented when they
initially walked in the door that we were going to be looking to additional
options for 101. The best I can do is to apologize. Bill, in initially
looking at this felt that there really was not an option for reconnecting
or looking at how that intersection could work and after a second review he
had come back saying, we really should take a good hard look at it before
we foreclose the possibility entirely of redoing that intersection. That's
the basis for the recommendation.
Mayor Hamilton - Is this going to mess up your program too much, a 30 day
delay?
Frank Reese - We have prepared the plans based on the recommendations of
the Planning Commission. The builder has got all his bids together and he
is most anxious to get going.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-10-
Mike Dorn - I am the owner and developer of the Chanhassen Meadows which I
developed in 1972. The piece that we are in to you for the last 18 unit
building is the far southwest corner of the property. Currently, we do
have plans completed. Our engineering is completed. All of our bids have I
been secured. We are just finishing our financing at this time. The 30
day delay is not going to cause any problem if there is a decision made at
the end of 30 days. My problem, like any business, you can't just close
the door and wait for someone to make a decision. We are ready to go. We
do have all the plans completed and thousands of dollars have been spent on
those plans.
Mayor Hamilton - I think we can guarantee you that there will be a decision
made within 30 days.
Councilman Horn - Were you aware of these alignment studies before you went
ahead and spent all that money?
Mike Dorn - We were in in October to obtain fees for obtaining building
permirs-prior to drawing the plans.
Bob Waibel - We had our staff meeting approximately a week before the
Planning Commission meeting and the staff report was written up and out of
that meeting came the discussion about the alternates and we did include
them in the report and did deliver it to the developer the week prior to
the meeting.
Councilman Horn - But when they came in here this was not discussed?
Bob Waibel - I don't recall any specific discussion about the alignment I
alternatives.
Mike Dorn - It was at the Planning Commission meeting but prior to the
Plannrng-Commission meeting we had alredy submitted completed sets of plans
and all the engineering.
Bob Waibel - When I did meet with the developer we were referring to older
plans that had been prepared some time in the past. This identical propo-
sal did come before the Planning Commission in 1975 and there were plans
that were done. It was perhaps an oversight that the alignment alter-
natives were not mentioned until the week before the Planning Commission
meeting. The only new plan that was drawn up was the topography, I
believe, for this particular proposal.
Mike Dorn - The only thing we had drawn was a sketch plan prior to October
or-Ihrs-year. It was a very light sketch plan to make sure that it met all
the R-4 requirements for the number of units.
Councilman Horn - I would like to think that when a developer approaches
the City Starr-he would be assessed of any of the plans that the City is
thinking of when they go through this because they are assuming a big
expense at that point. It isn't going to do any good to go through the
whole thing and then spring the plans on him. That's just not the way to
do things.
Mike Dorn - We were assured by the Planning Commission that they would
figure-DUt some other way of running 101, probably straight down behind and
would not go through the property. I think it was unanimous by the
Planning Commission that they wouldn't disturb this property.
I
I
I
I
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-11-
Mayor Hamilton - That's not their decision to make.
Councilman Horn - That certainly is my personal preference also.
Unfortunatery-every time we have talked about it we find out that finan-
cially that isn't feasible. I still don't understand why that isn't
feasible to do it. If we have to make a railroad crossing, we have to make
a railroad crossing but that's what we are going to find out from Bill when
we go through this overall transportation plan.
Mayor Hamilton - I would like to see two things brought back if we table
this item. The traffic flow. It wasn't clear on the map to me how the
traffic is to move in and out. Also, in the southwest corner there is a
creek or drainage area, how is this going to affect that?
Mike Dorn - It shows on the map that they are using the same two access
driveways that are currently existing onto 101. There have been easements
that were filed back in 1972 to allow to go from the last piece onto the
other property to access 101 where the current driveways are.
Frank Reese - You had a question about the use of the southwest corner of
the property and that's going to be undisturbed. The natural plantings
will be staying as is.
Bill Monk - One of the questions on this particular item is whether the
Counc~s basically agreeing with some part of alternate #5 or whether
they want more study put into alternate #1 which, I believe, is basically
unfeasible. What stand does the Council wish to pursue at this time. When
the study was originally done the idea was to table it with no further
action at that point and there wasn't a lot of comment as far as which
alignment should be pursued.
Mayor Hamilton - You couldn't do anything because there wasn't any money.
You can come up with the best alternative possible but if there is no funds
to do it you are stuck anyway. That's the position we were in. you are
looking at the best alternative is the most expensive alternative and we
have no way to pay for it. I don't see that the alignment is ever going to
change. I don't think anything is ever going to happen. I certainly don't
want these folks to sit here and start hanging their hat on the possibility
that they are going to be able to build a building and say, well, we are
going to put you off for five years. In five years we still don't know any
more than we know today.
Bill Monk - We would never be able to afford any option so to pursue this
was-basically out of the question and that's the reason that the comments
came out like they did in the planning report. I guess what we are putting
before the Council now is, this study is there, if we wish to set aside the
possibility that any alignment could take place that would look like either
#3, #4 or #5 or any highbred of those, the City would actually have to be
prepared to acquire the site now. Not to just put these people off but to
actually acquire. If there is a concensus on the Council that this is just
never going to go, fine, proceed with the apartment complex. It's a major
issue and if it's not handled now there is a good chance that the road
would not be aligned to come directly down into that intersection and get
around their proposal.
Mayor Hamilton - I would encourage you to work with Mr. Dorn and his archi-
tect. Maybe they have some idea about that intersection also.
Council Meeting January 9, 1984
-12-
Mayor Hamilton moved
Councilwoman Watson.
Councilwomen Swenson
Motion carried.
to table this item to February 6. Motion seconded by
The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
and Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes.
I
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET, PEN INDUSTRIAL CENTER:
Councilwoman Swenson - For the recor~I asked Bob, how do we ascertain
that the recommendations, for instance from the DNR and the Soil and Water
and MnDOT, be incorporated as we go down the path? Bill and the Planning
Department will incorporate these requirements as they are indicated in the
letters that we received back from these various agencies so that down the
road people will know that they have not been skimmed over. They have in
fact been taken into consideration and will be incorporated in the require-
ments.
Councilman Horn moved to approve a negative declaration on the EAW for Pen
Industrial Center. Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton. The following voted
in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwoman Watson, Councilman Horn.
Councilwoman Swenson abstained. Motion carried.
CITY HALL WATER DAMAGE: The City Engineer gave a progress report on the
clean-up-in the City Hall and Library.
Councilwoman Swenson moved to adjourn. Motion seconded by Councilman Horn.
The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and
Watson, and Councilman Horn. No negative votes. Motion carried.
Don Ashworth
City Manager
I
I