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CC 2008 08 11 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 11, 2008 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Litsey, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, and Todd Hoffman PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. CONSENT AGENDA:Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated July 28, 2008 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated July 28, 2008 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated July 15, 2008 -Park and Recreation Commission Summary Minutes dated May 28, 2008 c. Approval of Amendments to Chapter 20 of the City Code Concerning Signs. Resolution #2008-44: d. Approval of Resolution Ordering Abatement of Hazardous Buildings. Resolution #2008-45: e. Approval of Resolution Appointing Election Judges. th g. Approve Contract for Arboretum Business Park 7 Addition, Phase II Trail Construction. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. 1B. APPROVE ENGINEERING CONSULTANT CONTRACT FOR DOWNTOWN TRANSIT STATION SITE IMPROVEMENTS. Councilwoman Ernst: I’d actually like to table this item just because it’s a very complex project and based on the information that I read in the packet, plus all the questions that I’ve asked Todd, I just want to make sure that I understand the complexities of this project. And I know that the request is to approve 22.5 I believe for the feasibility study, and I just, I want to understand what City Council Meeting - August 11, 2008 our vision is. What is the development that we’re looking for and justifying the money that we’re spending. Mayor Furlong: Alright. Well maybe, if we can just allow staff to expand upon the staff report at this point. Mr. Gerhardt, do you want to, we talked about this at our work session. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. Really the first phase is to do the feasibility study and at our last City Council work session staff proposed a redevelopment plan that would basically incorporate building a road to access park and ride facility, but we gave some really rough estimates and for us to really know the true cost of that, we need to do a feasibility study. And that’s kind of what we’re back asking for today and I know it’s a contract for basically $180,000 but really the next steps in that 180 cannot be accomplished until you do the feasibility study and accept it and direct staff to go ahead and prepare plans and specs. When you get into the plans and specs stage, that’s where you’re going to need all the special services such as bidding services, assessment roll preparation, survey work, geotechnical exploration. Establishing right-of-ways and easements. Material testing. You know those things are basically going to run your larger dollar amounts. What we’re asking for tonight is to do what is called a feasibility study stage, and that’s to come in and really evaluate the site. Where are the sewer and water lines? Where will the future sewer and water lines be? Where is the best spot to put that road alignment? And then the engineers will use today’s construction dollars to determine a budget. 2 weeks ago I gave you kind of off of cuff budget and I think I put an asterisk by that, depending on how the feasibility study comes out, you know these numbers may change. So if you would like to have more of a conceptual discussion regarding the project itself, if it’s something you still want to do or not do, you know we can go back through that again and put that on a work session. Councilwoman Ernst: Well I think we had roughly what, 20 minutes, a half an hour to spend that we actually did stuff. For me personally I’d just like to have more time because like I said, I mean it’s over, in excess of a one million dollar project. Todd Gerhardt: Correct. Councilwoman Ernst: I mean if we’re going to, if we are serving as a, if the city is serving as basically a bank, lenders to, lend us money and we’re expecting to collect it back in assessments over a 10 year period of time, I mean this just sounds very complex. I mean we’re talking about creating TIF’s and that sort of thing and I just I want to understand. Mayor Furlong: Yeah, I think we did talk about it in a work session, the concept of this development and for those watching at home, what this is relating to is the proposed expansion of the downtown park and ride facility to include, from the current 120 stalls that are available through Southwest Transit, to include a 450 staff parking ramp. It is a project that has been coordinated really, the City’s acting as a facilitator here to help with the property owners, Southwest Transit as well as Bloomberg Companies in the area, really to capture a $7 million federal investment into transit into Chanhassen. Obviously the expansion of transit opportunities for our residents and others, especially in this time of rising fuel costs and gas prices, I think demand on transit we know is going up. It’s also going to promote the economic development of downtown so from a conceptual standpoint there are a lot of good factors here. And again the 2 City Council Meeting - August 11, 2008 City’s role, as we discussed and I fully expect there will be a number of opportunities as this project moves forward for us to talk at work sessions, as well as there will be items before us periodically at the council meetings standpoint to make decisions on, but it’s something that we need to start moving forward and typical with these types of projects, you want to get some good estimates of what the costs are going to be so that the parties involved know what the costs are. So the City knows what the costs are and this is kind of the next step to move forward. I think we all agreed that this was, from a concept standpoint, a good investment for a variety of standpoints in the city and our role as facilitators is to start moving that along so. I understand the questions in terms of there are more questions to be discussed and asked, and such but I think we should move along this process and get it started because there are, there are timeframes that the parties are working under that we need to be aware of as well and so I think it makes sense to go forward tonight with this portion of the investment. To start that feasibility study. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to talk about the feasibility study when that comes back. That’s, that and other factors are going to be back on a work session agendas as well as council agendas in the future so. I don’t know if that helps you tonight or not but I understand your point but I think, and I hear what you’re saying to make sure that we have enough time to talk about all the options and why we’re using some of the tools in our toolbox as a city to help facilitate this, and that’s really our role that we’re playing here. It’s a major investment in our downtown. It’s going to expand transit. Promote economic development so I think it’s worthwhile for us to keep moving forward at this point. So I don’t know if there’s other discussion on this at this point. Councilman Litsey: I agree. Mayor Furlong: Would somebody like to move forward with a motion? Councilman Litsey: Yeah, no I agree. I think we need this feasibility study. It’s necessary to take that next step. I can’t really make a whole lot more decisions about the project until we get some costs and some, move to that next step so I’m happy to move forward. Mayor Furlong: You want to make a motion to adopt the recommendation? Councilman Litsey: Sure, yeah. No, I’d be happy to make a motion to approve a consultant contract with Kimberly-Horn and Associates Incorporated for the downtown Southwest Transit Park and Ride facility site improvements. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other discussion? Councilman Litsey moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council approve the Engineering Consultant contract with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. for the downtown Southwest Transit Park and Ride facility site improvements. All voted in favor, except Councilwoman Ernst who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. 3 City Council Meeting - August 11, 2008 Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, I just want to add a couple of points here. Again, there are going to be many check-in points along the way and I will do my darnest to make sure that those all occur and I’m available any time to talk about this project with any of the council members. There’s been numerous meetings with both Southwest Transit and Bloomberg Companies, who are the primary individuals that are going to be assessed 100% of the cost for the project. However, there is a caveat to Bloomberg Companies that we would provide them potentially TIF assistance if, and that’s tax increment financing. Sorry about the acronym. If they would create development in the area, enhance the tax base and those new taxes generated would be used to write down their assessments, so there’s kind of a carrot that is provided as a part of this. So I just wanted to make sure that that comment was made as a part of the overall project. So anybody interested in the public would want to call me and talk about the project, I’m available to do so. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Councilwoman Ernst: I would just like to make a few comments on our National Night Out. It was very successful. I guess we had about 60 residents with our National Night Out, and we had rootbeer floats and the fire engine showed up I believe at about 6:30. Something like that. So it was a very successful event and I thank Beth and everyone for their efforts in making our city successful with our National Night Out. Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any other quick comments? I know Bethany you attended some of the parties as well. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I did. It was fun to get out and hear residents, see what they’re thinking and what I was really pleased about was that they were real pleased about their life in Chanhassen actually. I gave it every talk, every opportunity in the world to tell me something bad and it was just all positive affirmations about what’s going on with their families and their lives in town due to the park systems. Due to the education systems. Due to just everything. I think we are blessed to live in this town of Chanhassen. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I had the opportunity as well to ride with Sergeant Anderley to 5 or 6 parties. We were kind of hitting some that others had already gone to but there were issues and it was a good evening so. Sergeant Anderley’s here in the audience. I want to thank him for taking time with me to answer some of my questions on the ride as well as his time to get out there and meet the residents so it was a good evening. I agree with you. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Did you get to drive the car Mayor? Mayor Furlong: No. 4 City Council Meeting - August 11, 2008 Councilwoman Tjornhom: They didn’t let me drive either. Mayor Furlong: I didn’t even get to put the siren on. Councilman Litsey: Were you in the front or back seat? Mayor Furlong: I was in front. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I actually was in the back seat. Todd Gerhardt: Not that you had to be. Councilwoman Tjornhom: No, I chose, yes. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst, thanks for bringing that up. I think we had 45 parties. Neighborhood parties this year, which is the most we’ve had and attendance at all the parties that we went to, we were told that attendance was higher than they have been in the past so that tells me that not only were there more parties, but more people in attendance at the parties as well so very good comments. Anything else from council presentations? ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Todd Gerhardt: Just one thing to add on the National Night Out. I want to thank Target here locally. They contributed $400 kind of in the last minute to help cover some of the costs for National Night Out so they’ve been a great sponsor for us. And even corporately they kind of th advertise National Night Out as they celebrated their 25 anniversary so big thanks to them for giving back to the community like that. Construction projects, Laredo’s moving along nicely. It’s still our hope to get some blacktop down to the school before school opens and you know the weather has been great to build roads. Also a thank you to the Chanhassen Bank for putting up for the inconvenience with their drive thru. There were some times where we had to close the drive thru lanes down and had to circle around and come back out so a big thanks for them and appreciate their efforts in putting up with our inconveniencing their patrons as they use the drive thru and the cash machine. I think our advertising of the Water Wise program is working well. We’ve been under the 7 million gallon mark per day so last year at this time we were pushing almost 9 million so big thanks to the community for helping out on the Water Wise Program and managing our water system. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Pete yet today but last week we had a pretty quiet week in town. Nothing major going on from a law enforcement standpoint so. I think there was some news on Minneapolis having crime rates down double digits this last year and I think we’re seeing some of that effect out in the suburban areas too so. With that, that’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or staff? Okay, thank you. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. 5 City Council Meeting - August 11, 2008 Mayor Furlong: There’s one comment that I’d like to make. The first letter in the packet is from the city manager of Eden Prairie. Mr. Neal, complimenting or thanking the City of Chanhassen in his letter addressed to our City Manager. Really for our response from our fire department to assist on a rescue. This is part of a mutual aid service agreements that we have with our neighboring cities. I had the occasion to meet with mayors from Chaska and Victoria and Waconia and that came up as part of our discussion. I think all of them, as well as I know this council and staff really appreciate the work that our fire fighters do in responding to calls in our neighboring cities, and there have been occasions I think just a few weeks back when we had a couple lightning strikes. Within a matter of a few minutes in our city, two structure fires in our city and we had other fire departments responding to our city to help us so having these agreements. One, it’s very nice that the City of Eden Prairie sent a thank you, and we do appreciate that. I hope this has been passed on Mr. Gerhardt to our fire department, but having this mutual aid really does create, and the way that the fire departments work in such a cooperative manner, really keeps all of us safer so I just wanted to point that out and thank the fire department and using this occasion to do that. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, I mean their service expanded outside our fire department. Our utility department was also called in and played a key role in this. There was a utility trench that collapsed with a worker inside the trench and they needed our Vac truck to suck the dirt out to try to free him from that trench so we probably had 2 or 3 of our utility operators over there operating our Vac truck. So it’s great when you can save individuals from these types of accidents so that’s why I cc’d Paul Oehme on this one, and Gregg Geske, Chief Geske, because of the utility operators being available and having our Vac truck over there. Mayor Furlong: Neighbors helping neighbors. Thank you. Anything else on the correspondence packet? Discussion? Very good. If there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening. Is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 6