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CC 2009 05 11 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MAY 11, 2009 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, Greg Sticha and Terry Jeffery PUBLIC PRESENT: Hannah Hauan 9631 LaForet Drive th Nicole Krolikowski 761 West 78 Street Mike Schlangen 8175 Hazeltine Boulevard PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Very good thank you and welcome to those here in the council chambers as well as those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask members of the council if there are any modifications or changes to the agenda. If there are none, then without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. I’d like to start with a public announcement this evening. An invitation and an update on the Chanhassen th Veteran’s Monument dedication. This coming, or two weeks from tonight in fact, May 25. Memorial Day at 5:00 we’ll be holding the dedication of the Chanhassen Veteran’s Monument. This is a monument that just a year ago we broke ground for and the permanent monument will honor all branches of the military and those who served. Those who are serving as well as encouragement for those who will serve in the future. I would ask that those residents, businesses that are in town on Memorial Day make your plans to be with us at City Center Park at 5:00 to participate in this event. There will be a respectful service honoring the brave men and women as part of Memorial Day recognition nation wide. We will also be, as I said, dedicating the monument to them and to those, not only who served and did not come but those who did as well. This is a project that has been privately funded and as such the American Legion has taken a very strong leadership role in funding this project and receiving donations from residents and businesses to make this happen. If you’re interested in making a donation I would encourage you to do so and contact the American Legion Commander Gary Boyle. Their phone number, 934-6677 or I’m sure you can contact them on the web site or other means. As importantly as a donation to this project I would again encourage everyone to join us on Memorial Day. This will be a great event. We had estimates of about 400 people last year. We’re expecting more than double that this year so it will be a great, great way to really honor men and women who have served our country this coming Memorial Day in dedicating the Chanhassen Veterans Monument. I’d like to move now to other items on our agenda. City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendation: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated April 27, 2009 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated April 27, 2009 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated April 21, 2009 b. Kerber Pond Park Landscaping Project: Approve Quotes. Resolution #2009-39: c. 2009 Inflow/Infiltration Project 09-03: Award Contract. e. Approve Agreement with Xcel Energy for Peak Electrical Control at City Hall. f. Award of Contract, Banking Services. g. Approval of Temporary Consumption and Display Permit, May 17, a Celebration of Chanhassen Music and History, Chaska Valley Family Theater. h. Approval of Temporary On-Sale Liquor License, Fourth of July Celebration, Chanhassen Rotary Club. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. PUBLIC HEARING: NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) ANNUAL REPORT. Terry Jeffery: Mr. Mayor, council members, thank you. Yeah I here before you tonight to go through the 2008 Annual Report for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, shorten we’ll it the MS4 Permit. This is a public hearing so any comments made tonight we’ll take and put them into our annual report which we’ll then submit to the PCA for their review. Just a quick rundown again of our MS4 permit. Really the bulk of the permit, the six MCM or six Minimum Control Measures and they are individual areas where focus should benefit clean water. Within each then control measure then you have a number of different best management practices. There’s really nothing out of this. I just wanted you to understand how this is broken out and we’re dealing with these 55 best management practices and how we’ve been implementing them over the last year and then what we’ll be doing moving forward. Minimum Control Measure 1 is the public education and outreach. We have been, we have been compliant with our permit. We are fully implementing, we were fully implementing when Lori left at this time. Really it’s just a matter of continuing and moving forward with what we’re doing. We have had 41 different written media contact with public items, free brochures, 2 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 newspaper articles and Chanhassen newsletter. We also have a web site and the hotline. The web site we changed our web host was it, I think it was October but at any rate we changed our web host. We only have data for the last few months of the year so we aren’t able to fully see the emphasis of that web site but in past years it has been well utilized. Upcoming for 2009 is really continue to do what we’re doing but more to the point find ways to better utilize these resources are the things that we’re doing that really aren’t reaching a larger audience and really is an effective to be doing that way. And conversely are there things that we are doing that we aren’t perhaps utilizing enough that could be more cost effective. Reach a larger audience with a more detailed message. The other thing is to continue collaborating and look for future opportunities. Collaborating with other organizations. Those being, one example we are meeting this Thursday with the Department of Natural Resources, the City of Chaska, the City of Chanhassen, and the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District and one of the topics of discussion will be the Friends of the Fen which is a group that we’re hoping to get started to deal with the Seminary Fen, as well as other fens in the lower Minnesota River watershed district, which would allow us more communication through working with other organizations. I’ve been approached by a citizen advisory committee for the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District who has asked if there are gaps in our educational program where we feel that they could step in and help us with that. Minnehaha Creek Watershed District has also approached us with a similar thing. Similar questions. Minimum Control Measure 2 is really what we’re doing tonight. Public meeting. Take comment. Incorporate them into the report. Submit it to PCA. Not a whole lot more to say on that. Illicit Discharge Detection Elimination. The way the EPA defines it is, as really any discharge through storm sewer system that is not exclusively storm water is an illicit discharge. Currently compliant with our permit. The one ongoing activity would be our storm sewer map. As we get new developments. As things change. We make repairs. We need to continuously update that map so we know the point source. Upcoming for 2009 is just to continue what’s already been implemented. The education code enforcement and then updates. Minimum Control Measure 4 is construction site runoff. This is the one I think people are most familiar with is the silt fence. The erosion control blanket. What do we do with an actively graded site? Over the 2008 year we had 30 active, we’ll call them large scale projects. Road projects. Commercial development. And a number of private residence building permits whether it be for an addition on the house or new structure and of those we only had 2 notices of violation and 1 stop work order and I think this speaks well to the program itself. If you look, and I’m sorry I don’t have the numbers here but if you look at the trend over time, these have continuously declined over the years…that our building inspectors and others, Carver SWCD are doing a good job and that those working on these projects are doing an outstanding job so. Continue the inspections as implemented through 2009. Continue to partner with the Carver Soil and Water Conservation District. Chip Hentges from the SWCD has been doing most of our water site inspections. He’s been doing a fantastic job. He’s done very good at communicating with the owners, the operators and the city what’s going on and keeping the city’s interest in mind throughout all of this. Further we as city staff, Krista Spreiter and myself will inspect smaller home construction sites for compliance and those larger sites when SWCD is not available. The other point is incorporate the new national pollution discharge elimination system construction permit requirements into our overall plan. The most significant change has been now the PCA is requiring the first hazmet should be kept on site. Something really that we’re mostly doing at this point now, but it might have a bearing on our permit in the future so I just wanted to bring that to your attention and keep that in mind as we move forward. Minimum 3 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Control Measure 5 is post construction. These are the ponds on the site. These are the vegetative buffers. These are the rain gardens. These are the tree plantings and everything else. Again we’re currently compliant with the permit. An ordinance review was completed in 2007. We will need to revisit this in the future, as I said with PCA rules changing we’ll have to see how that affects our code. I suspect we’ll be compliant but there may be minor changes we’ll need to incorporate. The one area we are not completely compliant with our permit at this time is our pond inspections and outflow inspections. We were required every year to inspect 20% of our outflows and 20% of our ponds. I would like to say that in 2005 when we did the Surface Water Management Plan update, 100% of the outflows and ponds were inspected at that time, so we have until 2011 to do the 100% completion. Last year we inspected about 14% of the ponds. The year before that it was only about 4% of the ponds. What I’d like to do coming up is to hire an intern to help us meet these requirements in the plan. And then the other part of this, and I’ll talk about it a little bit more is to react to plan rule changes. Be it the PCA but also all four of our watershed districts right now are in the process of redoing their surface water management plan. What that will mean for us we won’t know until they’re completed. Only 2 of them are looking at rule changes. The rest of them it’s just the body of the plan itself. Minimum Control Measure 6. Pollution prevention and good housekeeping. This is what the city does with their city managed facilities. Streets. Public works. And city hall. I’d like to take a moment here to commend Mike Wegler, Street Superintendent. He has done an outstanding job since I’ve been here and I would assume beforehand of street, getting all of the street swept. Last year he was able to get to all the structural control, all the sump manholes. Inspect them and vacuum those out as required by our permit. Over the last year we’ve been in the process of developing the in- house training which will need to be moved forward. This year we’ll need to train all parts of public works and building inspector staff on the PCA requirements. And again behind other pond inspections we have until 2011 to get 100% compliance with that. I don’t see a reason we can’t, but I did want to make that clear to everyone. Just continue our inspections. With additional help to get those inspections completed. Begin the training of everyone and lastly with the construction of the new public works facility we are going to have to look at our operations, maintenance manual for materials handling at that site. We already have one for the existing public works. Probably going to be just minor changes to the new public works and facilities that are there, but that will need to be updated and put into our surface water management plan, or excuse me our SWPP. Additionally information, I just wanted to talk briefly. There are things that we do that we don’t put in the permit, and the reason that they aren’t in the permit is if opportunities don’t arise that we are unable to do them, that would make us non-compliant with our permit so we deal with them outside of that in just our surface water management. Two of these that are going on right now, West Central Lotus Lake project which I do want to make note of. Construction on that will begin this week. Just so you are aware and the Kerber Pond project where the tree planting will be going on this week. All the landscaping planting will be going on this week. Item 2 on that list is awaiting the audit schedule. The PCA has said that they will audit 40, and that’s 4 cities. 40 municipal septic storm sewer systems. We don’t know that we will be a selected city on that list but I think it would be imprudent not to assume that we will be. I have been to a couple of trainings. I’ve met with a couple of cities that have already experienced the audit and really it’s primarily do you have the records to back up your permit. To show that you are doing these things you’re stating so we’ll just go through and make sure we have all those and it shouldn’t be an issue. Item 3. Non-degradation. Appendix C is part of our NPDES permit as well and that deals with non-degradation, impaired waters and 4 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 special waters such as the Seminary Fen. We received the generic letter from the Pollution Control Agency that they send to all non-degradation cities stating we received it. It looks to be complete. Please anticipate a specific letter from us in the near future. That was 4 weeks ago so we should be getting a letter from the PCA fairly soon talking about what this will mean specifically to our SWPP. Bluff Creek TMDL. We’ve collected all of the data at this time. There’s a few discrepancies we’re trying to account for and then we’ll bring the stakeholders together and start writing the rest of that implementation plan but we do have the data acquired. And then lastly, as I said, all four of our watershed districts are either doing minor or complete re-write of their surface water management plan. Two of them, Minnehaha Creek and Carver County are actually making rule changes at this time and we’ll have to await those changes and see what it means to our NPDES permit and changes that will be necessary because of that. That’s it. I just wanted to briefly go through the last year’s activity without just giving you a litany of numbers. If there are any questions at this time I’d be happy to answer them. Mayor Furlong: Questions at this time? No? Councilman Litsey: Good job. Mayor Furlong: Okay. At this point we need to open the public hearing is that correct? Terry Jeffery: That is correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So we will as scheduled have a public hearing on this. I would invite any interested party to come forward to the podium. State your name and address and address the council on this matter. Okay. Seeing no one, then we’ll without objection we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Is there action required of the council this evening? Terry Jeffery: Yes there is Mayor. The motion has been written in, where is it? We need to authorize that the Mayor sign the annual report. Mayor Furlong: So we need to receive public comments, which we’ve done and then authorize. Terry Jeffery: Correct. Mayor Furlong: The submittal. Okay. Any questions of staff? Any comments? Councilman McDonald: I have one question. You had it within your report. What’s your interaction with the watershed districts? You mentioned two of them but what exactly, you know what’s the interaction between the city and the watershed districts? Terry Jeffery: Mayor Furlong, Councilman McDonald. I sit on the Technical Advisory Committee for all four watershed districts so I’m able to participate in their drafting of their plan and their rules and comment at that time. I have also been trying to attend their meetings, just their regularly scheduled meetings when time permits so I have been involved with the planning so the city has had a face at the table throughout this process. 5 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Councilman McDonald: Is there any opportunity for sharing of resources between the watershed districts and the city? Terry Jeffery: Yes I believe there are. I believe there are quite a few. One that we talked about was the education. I think, especially looking at the watershed as something that bridges several communities, we’re doing this. Eden Prairie’s doing this. Chaska’s doing this. Minnetonka’s doing it as well. Perhaps there is redundancies. There’s things that are being repeated that the watershed’s in a good position to see what’s going on. The other thing is, several watershed districts do their own modeling of areas which would, when they’re completed would give us access to that data. To that model that they’ve completed. To reciprocate, the city has provided for them all infrastructure data that we have so that they can build and calibrate those models. So I think the opportunities are there. I certainly think more can be done so that, so we’re more efficient. That we are working more cooperatively between cities and between watersheds. Councilman McDonald: Well I would certainly encourage that. In fact I’d probably like to see a little bit more of it as far as interaction because we are doing a lot of water quality type projects and everything and I know that there’s got to be some overlap and there’s got to be some sharing of resources so yeah, I would encourage you to continue to do that and to get back to Mr. Gerhardt about that. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members if I can just add a point here. I’ve had communication with the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District and to their credit they did an analysis on our West Lotus Lake project and I was impressed with their analysis. I mean the went through our proposed project and looked at what would really, in that project would increase the lake quality of Lotus Lake with the improvements that we’re doing. Not just so much well we’re responsible for storm water management but what in that project would qualify for lake quality improvements so their engineers have done that analysis. They haven’t committed to assist with us yet on that but they have done their due diligence to see what benefits there may be back to the watershed district and partnering with us. I believe down the line Terry, Paul and myself will continue to work with them and encourage a partnership on that project. Terry Jeffery: And if I may Mayor, one more thing. I have been, the Crane’s Vineyard Creek project and potential 2010 road reconstruction projects, I’ve been in contact with, it was Michael Wyatt with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. Unfortunately, fortunately for him, unfortunately for me he has accepted a position with the Corps of Engineers, but talked to him about both projects and the possibility of working with the watershed district, Minnehaha Creek on that. Regarding Crane’s Vineyard, they said they actually have a portion of their CIP dedicated to, for cities to come forward to them and say look, we have this drainage problem and they’ll partner with that. And the road project, they would like to definitely look at that and see if there’s benefit. I’ve also been in discussion with the Carver County’s SWCD about Bluff Creek above Bluff Creek Boulevard. Above the fen there. And the possibility of getting some engineering funding out of them which they were receptive to, so I think they’re there and you’re right. I think I need to pursue them more and make sure that we don’t miss out on opportunities that might have been there and once we get past them they’re gone. Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you. 6 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions? Comments. If not there’s been a request for a couple actions here this evening. Would somebody like to make a motion? Councilman Litsey: I’m going to make the motion. I make a motion that the City Council authorizes the Mayor to sign the City’s National, should that be pollution or pollutant? Terry Jeffery: Pollution. Councilman Litsey: Pollution? Okay. Discharge elimination system, Phase II annual report as attached to this report and authorizes the distribution of the annual report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Ernst: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion? Councilman Litsey moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the Chanhassen City Council authorizes the Mayor to sign the City’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II Annual Report, as attached to this report, and authorizes the distribution of the Annual Report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. AWARD OF SALE, 2009A GENERAL OBLIGATION REFUNDING IMPROVEMENT BONDS. Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and council members. As stated by the Mayor, the evening we are here to award bid on a refunding of two bond issues. Before we get to the actual bids that we received today I just want to give a quick background on the process that we went through. First of all to discuss the previous bonds that we are refunding here. There are actually two issues. The 2005 MnDOT loan and the 2006A MUSA area improvement bonds that we are refunding with this particular bond. Just a kind of a quick background on those two bonds. Those bonds were authorized to pay for improvements related to the improvements to the MUSA area. The 2005 MnDOT loan was a loan directly to the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Finance Department to finance the improvements in the 212 area portion of the MUSA area. Those improvements were financed by special assessments primarily and those special assessments, in the most part, for the most part were green acre properties that are related to the area. Just to kind of give a brief definition of what a green acre property is, to those in the audience who might not understand that. A green acre property is a property that is, can maintain a deferral status on any assessments until the property actually develops. You can maintain that for certain types of property, agriculture being one of them, and those properties can defer any special assessments or payments on them until the properties come in for a, I believe it’s a site plan or for development in the future. A number of the properties for both these bond issues are in green acre status and the properties have not yet 7 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 been developed. So the purpose of this refunding is actually two fold. One to gain some interest rate savings, because rates are much lower than they were a number of years ago in 2005 and 2006 when we issued the bonds. The second purpose of the refunding is to push back the principle on both loans to a date farther into the future to allow for the development of these properties and the eventual payment of the special assessments related to the green acre th properties. Those were the reasons behind the refunding and on April 13 we met with council to discuss the rationale and reasons for the refunding and at that time council went ahead and called the sale for the bonds. Since then we’ve been busy working on a number of things related to the issue. One of the processes that you go through anytime you issue bonds is a review by your rating agency. We underwent that process this last week and as council is aware, and let the audience be aware tonight that as part of that rating process we did receive a bond upgrade to a AAA bond rating afforded to the City of Chanhassen. A AAA bond rating is the highest bond rating that a city can achieve. Either in Standard and Poors or with Moody’s. There are currently 12 cities that have a AAA bond rating in the State of Minnesota so it’s something that the City Council and as residents should be very proud of to have obtained over the past few years. Getting to the actual award of bid portion, which is what we’re here for this evening, there were 6 bidders on today’s issue. The low bid came in with a true interest cost of 2.26% from Morgan Keegan. They paid a premium on the bonds which is going to affect the proposed motion you see in front of you. The actual total principle on it will now be $6,020,000 rather than $6,265,000. Just to kind of give you a heads up on that. The refunding is affording the city a net present value savings percentage wise of 4.2% net present value savings and $376,000 over the life of the bonds. $376,000. All great things. We certainly were very appreciative of the upgrade from Standard and Poors. If you recall last fall we did receive a double upgrade from AA- to AA+. This was the final upgrade from AA+ to a AAA rating so we were very pleased to receive that information last Wednesday and at this point I will turn it back to council. We have Mark Ruff from Ehlers and Associates who is here tonight to answer any of your questions about the bond sale. Or the bond rating, if you have questions on that. Or about the refunding of the previous two debt issues. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions? For staff. Mr. Ruff. Councilman McDonald: I’ve got a question. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Okay so what is the significance of getting a AAA bond rating? What exactly does that mean to the City? Greg Sticha: Well essentially the higher the bond rating, the lower the borrowing cost that’s involved with borrowing the funds. Similar to your credit rating if you were to go out and get a home loan. It’s very similar to what we would go through for our loaning situation. The better the rating by the rating agency, typically the lower borrowing cost. Councilman McDonald: Okay so to the residents of the city, what affect are they going to see with all of this? 8 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Greg Sticha: Well maybe Mark can address this in a little more detail than I can. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Bragging rights. Greg Sticha: It’s hard to substantiate I guess dollar wise what the difference between our previous rating and our current rating would have gained us here. Certainly there was a lower interest rate involved because of it, probably to some extent, and maybe Mark can comment on what he thinks. Mark Ruff: Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I’m Mark Ruff with Ehlers, the financial advisor for the city. Councilmember McDonald, to answer your question I think we were talking a little bit before the meeting that a little over a decade ago the City of Chanhassen had a bond rating of BA1 okay so, if we were all back in high school, a AAA rating is like an A+ on your grades, right. A BAA1 is a little bit like a D- and there was issues about how the city was investing at that time that the rating agency didn’t really appreciate. Debt levels were about, somewhere in the neighborhood of about 6 times higher than they were today, so the interest rate differential between that D- and the A+ in today’s market is probably 2 to 2.5%. So what does that mean to the residents? It means that if you were to add up all of the increased taxes that you had to pay to pay interest costs, that could amount to a couple hundred thousand dollars a year more interest costs that you would have to add to your levy. So what does it really mean? It means lower interest rate savings and it also means a bigger market of people that will buy your bonds. If you look across those six bids, they come from all over the country. Chicago, New York, Kansas, so you broaden that market to keep, because people today, as we’ve talked with council before, are looking to credit quality. And another thing that I really want to just highlight in terms of the reason that you got a AAA is because I would say that we as staff and consultants we’re not lobbying for it. In fact we thought that this quickly after an upgrade we didn’t really expect another upgrade, but if you look at the rating report you will see that in addition to the AAA upgrade, you also received an upgrade in your management rating. Standard and Poors has a four step management rating and you moved to the highest management rating and I think that more than anything else is one of the reasons that you moved to the highest level possible is that you as a council and your staff have done good things over a number of years including things that are like the key financial strategies process. The long term financial planning, as well as some of the more mundane things like the time we went over the debt policy, but all of those things are mentioned and so I think it’s important. What does it mean to residents? It means not just lower interest costs but it means some assurance that you’re a well managed city. That good things are happening here and somebody like Standard and Poors who really doesn’t have any invested interest on the city whatsoever. They’re looking out for the bond holders, are looking at you as a management team, both you as a council and your staff and saying good things are happening so I think those are the two things that you can bring back to your residents. Councilman McDonald: Thank you very much. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other questions? Councilwoman Ernst. 9 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Councilwoman Ernst: I don’t really have a question. I just want to say congratulations Greg and your staff and Todd, and great work. It’s, I know I sure hadn’t expected to see such an increase in the rating shortly after we received the AA+. So congratulations. Todd Gerhardt: Thank you. Councilman Litsey: Yeah, just the same thing. Great job. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? Other comments? Thoughts. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just have a quick thought. Greg, what are you going to do with your time now? Now that you have a AAA. Your job is done. Greg Sticha: Well we still have to maintain this rating. All the policies and procedures that Mark talked about, we have to update those on an annual basis and update our schedules and our long term financial planning doesn’t stop. If we stop doing those documents and stop implementing those policies you know this certainly could be taken away from us so. Councilman Litsey: I was going to say the pressure’s really on now right? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah right. Councilwoman Tjornhom: You know I think this is just you know one more thing City Hall is trying to do to benefit the taxpayers by keeping an eye on these bonds and the interest rates and keeping our financial, our stability I guess as most cities are having and struggling with these issues, it’s kind of nice to smile and have some bragging rights and so I think that is largely a part, I mean it’s due to Todd and Greg obviously for your insight and your keeping an eye on things and advising us on what to do and so I don’t think we’d be here if it wasn’t for staff and our city manager so thank you for everything you guys have done. Todd Gerhardt: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other comments? Mr. McDonald, anything? Councilman McDonald: No, I’m done. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Yeah, I’d like to extend thanks and appreciation to everybody involved and not only at city hall, we’ve expressed that as a council. I think it’s been expressed but to Mr. Ruff and his association. His firm’s association with our city over the years. You mentioned key financial strategies and I know that was a program that we were completing when I joined the council and that process of looking long term, when we talk about as a city it’s our city of Chanhassen’s a community for life, providing for today. Planning for tomorrow. It’s that planning for tomorrow. Everybody can react to today. A lot of cities do that but it’s the planning for tomorrow that keeps us on track so that as we make decisions today we’re looking long term. Cities are forever and looking long term, not only, especially from a financial standpoint what the key financial strategies do but as that permeates throughout city hall and at 10 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 our council meetings and work sessions as a way of thinking, I think these are, this is just another, another symbol if you will that things are going well. I agree with you Mark and you know this along with some other recognitions that we’ve received, we haven’t been out looking for these. We’re doing the things that we think are important to run the city well but it sure is nice to be recognized from, as Mr. Ruff said, from an objective outside authority who has no interest really in the city other than saying to their, to the lenders, this is a good organization. A good place for you to lend your money from a risk standpoint and from a, from what they’re doing so to everyone involved, council, staff and our advisors, thank you very much for all working together to get this done. When I presented at the Chamber of Commerce kind of an update on the city a few weeks ago, a number of members of the council were there and one of the members of the group stood up and criticized me for not emphasizing enough the AA+ upgrade that we received. I guess my mother would be proud of my humility but it will be nice to share this now that clearly we have stepped up even beyond what was expressed at that meeting. And was well received by this community. They got it. They got it. They knew what it meant so very good to see and it will be nice to see this announcement published as well because I think that will just be a reaffirmation of what they heard before. Todd Gerhardt: I’ll be sending Joan a press release so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Maybe a personal note too. If we could write something in the margin. Very good. We do have an issue before us and I just want to clarify that the motion, that the amount of the motion should read $6,020,000. Greg Sticha: That is correct. Mayor Furlong: Is that correct? Greg Sticha: Mark is that correct number $6,020,000? Mark Ruff: Correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. And do we have to fill in there the name of the bidder? Greg Sticha: Yeah. The bidder, the low bidder was Morgan Keegan. Mayor Furlong: And show do you spell that? Greg Sticha: Morgan and then Keegan is K-e-e-g-a-n. Mayor Furlong: Just Morgan Keegan? Greg Sticha: Yep. Name of the firm. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, would somebody like to make a motion? Councilman McDonald: I’ll give it a shot. 11 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I propose that the City Council awards the bid for the issuance of $6,020,000 General Obligation Improvement Refunding Bonds, Series 2009A to the low bidder Morgan Keegan. Mayor Furlong: Is that sufficient? Greg Sticha: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman Litsey: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote. Resolution #2009-40: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the City Council awards the bid for the issuance of $6,020,000 General Obligation Improvement Refunding Bonds, Series 2009A to the low bidder Morgan Keegan. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Mayor Furlong: Do we want to move now to the next item or do we. Usually he’s jumping up here for me to sign things so. Todd Gerhardt: I think Mark Ruff would like to make a short presentation and after Mark’s presentation if we could take a small recess. We’d like to take a photo opportunity. We also have some cake to celebrate this event and to document it for history so and share it with the public. Kate Aanenson: Can’t we let this guy go first or? Mayor Furlong: Yeah, let’s. Todd Gerhardt: I thought Mike would love some cake so. Kate Aanenson: Whatever. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Ruff. Mark Ruff: Mr. Mayor, you as a council are getting familiar with our certificates that we present with upgrades here recently but I do want to just emphasize that this is a big deal and sometimes as you said it’s easy to be humble but you are certainly joining a rather elite group, not just in Minnesota but really across the nation of places that have this AAA rating. It is something that is very much sought after for a number of cities so we have a certificate that we would like to present to you. It looks like a bond that someone would actually buy but it says this rating 12 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 upgrade reflects Standards and Poors recognition of the City’s superior financial and debt management practices and policies. Very healthy reserve levels. It also reflects the City’s participation in the Twin Cities economic based, this growing and diverse employment base. It’s above average wealth and income levels and it’s expectations that the City will be able to manage it’s debt levels and sustain it’s strong financial reserves. So it’s almost as good as Lake Wobegon in terms of the things that they’re saying about you but I’d like to just offer this over as a recognition. Mayor Furlong: Thank you very much. Mark Ruff: Congratulations. Mayor Furlong: Do you want to take pictures at this point or? Todd Gerhardt: Yeah if we could. Let’s take a picture and we can have cake afterwards and then we can get Mike done here so he can get off the pins and needles here seeing if he’s going to get a sign or not. The council took a short recess at this point to take a photograph commemorating this event. ARBORETUM TIRE AND AUTO: CONSIDER APPROVAL OF A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT TO ALLOW AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGE CENTER ON A MONUMENT SIGN AND RECOMMENDATION TO DENY A SIGN VARIANCE FROM THE INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION LETTERING; LOCATED AT 8175 HAZELTINE BOULEVARD. APPLICANT/OWNER: MICHAEL SCHLANGEN. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the council. As was indicated there’s two applications before you tonight. One is for a conditional use for an electronic message center and the second is a request for a variance from the standards of the sign permit itself. The st Planning Commission held a public hearing on April 21 and voted 4 to 0 to approve the recommended for, approval for the conditional use but denial of the sign variance. This site itself is located on 41 across from the Landscape Arboretum. This site itself was put into a PUD for the Arboretum Business Park. It does meet the standards of the current sign as shown on the location here. On Highway 41. It does meet the sign ordinance except for in 2006 we have required dimensional letters but when this was put in place it was put in with a flat face. In 2006, we’ve always said dimensional letters. There’s a lot of, there was some ambiguity of what exactly dimensional letters were so we clarified that in 2006 and said the half inch and that’s what’s being requested tonight. Not to do the half inch proposal. So currently this sign is out there. Again the request is to do the electronic message center. Looking like this. So you’ve got the reader message area which to scales on the red there, and that meets our current ordinance. And then the rest of the sign meets our ordinance. It does meet the standards as far as the architectural compatibility. There was some discussion about color coordination but really the ordinance addresses the compatibility regarding the structure of the sign. The building itself, let me see if I can go to that. The building itself has the metal trim around the windows and that’s what this is pulling off that character so in our minds it does meet that intent so really then the 13 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Planning Commission did spend some time talking about whether the Arboretum Tires needs to be red or not but that’s really a proprietary issue. It’s up to how the business owner wants to do it. It’s really talking about the standards itself. So if you go back to the variance for the dimensional letters, it’s really to advertise the name of the business itself and just add some individual interest. If you drove around the city there’s a lot of different application of how this is being done. Some of it’s done going through relief, embossing. Some of it’s actually punched out. There’s a lot of different applications of the half inch relief. So this compliance table then would show you the requirements of the sign and the proposed monument, so you can see in all the requests that are being put forward today, the only portion that doesn’t meet it is the one half inch. Otherwise it is in full compliance. So I’m just going to leave it on that slide there. So if you have any questions I’d be happy to answer those. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff at this time. The one question I had Ms. Aanenson, and I think you mentioned it so I’m glad you brought it up because I saw it brought up in the Planning Commission minutes and that is the current monument sign. This is a replacement of a current monument sign, correct? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: And the current monument sign has the name of the business. I don’t know if you have a picture of the current. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, …to the current. Mayor Furlong: There it is okay. So it’s the name of the business and hours and then a manual message in terms of services. Kate Aanenson: Correct. Mayor Furlong: And they’re looking to replace that with the electronic. Kate Aanenson: Correct. Mayor Furlong: But the Arboretum Tire and Auto, the name of the business, that currently is a flat panel. Kate Aanenson: That is correct and it’s currently flat. Mayor Furlong: He’s requesting a similar type of sign as what he currently has. Kate Aanenson: Correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Yeah. So it’s consistent with what’s out there today. The flat part of it and it is a changeable copy but today’s changeable copy is probably now considered LED. 14 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Right. Right, okay. Kate Aanenson: It’s still, back then that was called a state of the art changeable copy. You just had to manually change it. Mayor Furlong: It’s amazing how art has changed. Kate Aanenson: Yes, there you go. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Okay, thank you. Any other questions of staff at this time? Okay. Mr. Schlangen, you’re here. Would you like to address the council as the applicant? Mike Schlangen: Mayor, council members. Hi, my name is Mike Schlangen and what we’re trying to do is just replace this sign with what we have. Try to keep it real similar to what we have and try to keep it looking aesthetically pleasing and easy to clean and just nice and appealing to our customers. Mayor Furlong: Okay. The question I think you mentioned at again the Planning Commission, why not more emphasis on the sign, the name of the business versus the message or the services that you’re trying to advertise. Mike Schlangen: Well we’re not a chain store. We’re not a huge box store or anything else and so our message of services and stuff that we do are very important because people are not going to recognize our name as quickly as they would some of our competitors and it’s really important for us to get our message out as far as what we do for services so they’ll stop in and give us a chance. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Schlangen? Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I have a question. What I read in the report is that I guess your feeling is that you did not want the emphasis to the name. You want the emphasis to the services and what you’re looking at is that without the emphasis to the services you feel your business is not going to be what it could be. What exactly do you base that upon? Mike Schlangen: Well I feel that if people see what kind of services that we do, just to give you an example. Somebody would come in for you know have a propane filled 4 or 5 times and they’ll look around and we must have 20-30 stacks of tires sitting there and people will look around and say you sell tires here? People don’t correlate Arboretum Tire and Auto necessarily with all the different services that we do from major mechanical to minor mechanical and all the different things that we’re involved in so with having those messages out there about the different services that we’d offer or hours of operation, those types of things, we’d encourage people to come in and once they come in, we hopefully will be able to maintain their business. Right now probably 90-95 percent of our business is repeat business and we’d hope to 15 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 encourage people to come in from those 20,000 cars a day that go by on 41. Did I answer your question? Councilman McDonald: Yes I believe so. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other questions. Councilman Litsey: So your emphasis you said is more on the special that you’re running more or less than it is on just the name recognition. Mike Schlangen: Yes, special services. Hours of operation. Different things that would encourage them to come in and that type of thing. Councilman Litsey: Okay. Mike Schlangen: I think that’s really important for our small business. Councilman Litsey: And you don’t, you’ve got not any, you’re basing it on? I guess too I’m struggling a little bit with the data to support what you’re saying. I trust you believe what you’re saying but I just, I don’t know how you would gather that I guess outside of doing surveys or something to say what caught your eye and what are you looking at so. Mike Schlangen: Well just to give you another example. We probably get 1 or 2 calls a week, you know what kind of trees should I plant with you know this type of thing and. Councilman Litsey: Oh. Have you thought of expanding? Mike Schlangen: That’s a good idea. Mayor Furlong: Arboretum Tire, Auto and Forestry Service. Councilman Litsey: So yeah, the Arboretum is more connected to the actual Arboretum. Mike Schlangen: And we did that for a couple of reasons. Number one, where it would fall in the yellow pages type of thing where we got going. And number two, it’s in the Arboretum Business Park but I really believe that for us the emphasis is more important on the different services that we have, to encourage people to come in and you know, like I said, once we get them in you know then hopefully we can maintain that. Councilman Litsey: Thanks. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Schlangen? Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, I think I have a couple questions. Obviously you need the sign that you’re putting in, it’s the future. It’s what most businesses are going to have. I think it’s 16 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 going to look attractive to be honest with you compared to what is along there now and it will look far more attractive, Holiday don’t listen to what I’m saying but compared to what the Holiday sign looks like, which is right next to you. You know I think you’re adding to the signage on the street and the looks of it all but tell me, or tell the council how it is, or if it over burdensome regarding the lettering requirement. And you know can you go into that a little bit more detail for me about that. Mike Schlangen: I think burdensome, if burdensome, it’s a couple things. Number one is cost. When you make a special sign like that, if you’re a chain store you make one mold and you pay for that mold and you can make 1,000 signs or you can make 1 sign. A big part of that cost is your initial mold to make the sign and that’s a you know, part of the cost. Part of it. The other thing is the cleanliness of it. The cleaning. I think it looks more aesthetically appealing if you can go out there a couple times a year and clean up. Get it nice and clean instead of you know having the indentations, because from what I understood from the planning commission is that you, we could indent the letters as well as have them out, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mike Schlangen: And so to me it looks, it doesn’t look as good with the dirt and grime and stuff that builds up over time. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And indenting would probably be just as costly as raised letters? Mike Schlangen: Exactly. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Compared to flat. Mike Schlangen: Exactly. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I think for now, I’ll probably have some more questions or thoughts later. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom: But, and I guess this is for Kate. I always do this, they come up and talk and then I ask Kate questions but how strict is our ordinance right now when it comes to raised or letters and lettering? Kate Aanenson: Sure. As I indicated we had before, there needed to be relief and as the city attorney tell us you’re not specific and so we had, was hard to articulate. Sometimes it was, I know I was asked if all the businesses down there in the Arboretum Business Park have it. Yes. Some of it’s probably less than a quarter of an inch, but if you look in the downtown core there’s all different variations of, if you look at the Goddard School. Chapel Hill Academy. Even the Legion site. Some of those are embossed, imbedded into the sign and I think it makes it really nice. I think the goal here is just to have, to make it appealing and in this circumstance because it’s over the top of a, the lit part of it, and you know, but having said that. If you look at Chapel 17 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Hills as a really nice indented relief so whether it’s embossed or it does look very nice. It’s an aesthetic quality but their’s is a little bit smaller just as Chapel Hill, this has a little bit more language on there and visual character with the tire. Just make sure you don’t get tree calls so. So that’s another goal you know. Really it’s just an architectural feature, and the Planning Commission has discussed this and you’ll be seeing some of that as we move forward too but if you look at 1 percent of the sign that is, again even the Goddard School their logo is kind of, it’s embossed so just all different types of applications. So what we were trying to clarify in 2006 is just to say it needs to be at least a half inch because it’s sometimes it appeared like there wasn’t any relief to it at all. And Holiday does have some relief. It’s out there. We went back and checked all those so there are older signs in town that don’t meet the standards at all. Those are all prior to the ordinance, prior to 2000. So we do try to work with them and see what meets their needs and I guess that’s the goal too. How they see their logo and their trademark. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And I think that’s important that you brought up that Chapel Hill has you know a very nice sign. But they are located in a residential neighborhood you know and I think this business is located along Highway 41 and so it’s not necessarily as residential as other places where signs aren’t going to be displayed are so I think that needs to be considered also. It’s location and the business I guess too and I think it is a marked improvement. I mean I think it’s a beautiful sign so you know I don’t know if it’s reasonable always to add on extra costs or burden for a raised letter if the sign is aesthetically pleasing and in the right location for such a sign. Councilman McDonald: If I could just kind of add onto that a little bit. When we did the Holiday sign I did go out to the area and so I am familiar with it and you had it within your I think application about the time that people have to actually see the sign and focus on stuff so what got me was, you’re right. You need, if you want to sell service, you have to draw attention to what it is you want to sell and you’ve made the decision you want to sell services, and again in passing down 41, either going north or south because of the topography, there is a very limited time window I think for anyone driving on that road to focus on something and if what you’re telling us is you want them to focus on the services, then your argument carries a little bit more weight with me and I guess what I’m wrestling with is again the ordinance. I understand the purpose of it but I also you know again looking at this particular situation of where you’re at, I can see that well yeah, you maybe don’t want them to focus so much. You don’t want their attention drawn to your name which is what we’re trying to do by our ordinance. You do want it drawn to whatever service you’re trying to sell so that’s what I’m struggling with in all of this is that yes, in this location I think he is right as far as how much time you have to see the sign because as you come over the hill or you’re going up the hill, there’s very little time to focus and the speed limit up there is 55 at that point so people are going fairly quickly. So I think that also adds a little bit of weight to your argument but I’ll wait to hear what the rest of the council has to say on this but as I stated earlier tonight, I’m open. I’m really struggling with this. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Schlangen at this point? Councilwoman Ernst: Kate. Mayor Furlong: Oh, I’m sorry. 18 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Councilwoman Ernst: Kate, when we’re talking about the sign the emphasis really has been for the most part for these variances that have come before City Council, have usually been on the sign itself. The color of the sign. The location of the sign and I know that he’s asking, it’s like our emphasis has been on the sign, not so much the lettering. But in this case when we’re talking, I agree with some of the comments that have been made where his emphasis is really on the service. The lettering on the sign and just to speak to your, and just so I understand what you’re saying. So you’re saying that there are variations in the city today to lettering correct? Kate Aanenson: Right. I mean the older, well we’ve always had relief. That’s always been a requirement. And in 2006 we clarified the definition of relief meant at least a half inch and so we, so there are some with less relief. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Than a half inch. So the goal is just to provide for articulation and enhance quality of just a straight, just for example the same reason we moved away from putting box panels on walls. We go to individual channels. A little bit nicer look. Architectural and same reason we kind of moved to a different grade, and that was really the intent of that. A little bit higher architecture. Councilwoman Ernst: So has there ever been, I guess this is the first time I’ve ever heard this where we talk about the cleanliness of the sign. Is that something that we’ve looked at? Is there really any factors that are built into that? I guess it’s the first time I’ve heard this. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and we’ve got other signs along highways. Highway 5 for example we have quite a few. U.S. Bank. Some of those along Highway 5 so I’m assuming that most, we haven’t had complaints if that’s, yeah. So I can see that might be you know an issue for somebody but we don’t get complaints on that. That it’s onerous on that regard. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Mike Schlangen: More of an aesthetic appeal and some people like a Chevy. Some people like a Ford but you know it’s more of what you like you know as far as that’s concerned. And I want the sign to look nice. I want the building to look nice. I think you know hearing some of these things tonight that I heard living in Chanhassen and having a business in Chanhassen, it’s pretty cool to realize that our financial shape is really good and our water quality is really good and everybody’s taking care of that and the same thing with the small business. You take care of it. You want to make it look as good as possible. I don’t want to put up a sign that isn’t good for me or isn’t good for the city as well. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anything else Mr. Schlangen? Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Any follow up questions? For staff. I guess one that I have. Maybe it’ll come out in discussion but again it gets back to the issue of the current sign is a. 19 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Kate Aanenson: Yep. Yes. Mayor Furlong: He’s asking for basically in terms of the sign make-up, there’s a changeable message and then there’s the name of the business. And it’s the same material, same design. Kate Aanenson: Right, and I guess if you were leaning towards a variance, my recommendation is, because the Planning Commission is studying this right now. Not to say, it kind of goes back to that consistency model that we’ve talked about is if your rational basis is to say that he’s had a flat sign for a number of years. He’s been out there for a number of years, that’s kind of been his design standard. That he stay within that as opposed to, and making it specific to this site as opposed to saying, giving the variance for flat signs overall because I think you’re going to be seeing some additional information on that as we bring that forward to you. So maybe make it a specifically for this project because he has a flat sign. Mayor Furlong: My thought is I would agree with that. That we’re dealing with this specific issue. This specific request and not, not necessarily, because the overall signage issues, we make changes to that on a periodic basis. You mentioned 2006. We made some I think this last year. But those go through the process and it’s a culmination of a lot of effort and information so I wouldn’t necessarily be saying, you know looking at a recommendation as a broad recommendation but it’s more considering the specifics in this case as we understand it and I would agree with that from a process standpoint. Great. Let’s bring it back to council then for thoughts and discussion. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: You know I guess I’m kind of trying to keep this simple because I think it is a simple issue, instead of making it more complex than it needs to be. I think Arboretum Tire is trying to just change the way they relay their message to the public as they drive by. The sign’s already there. It’s been there. It was approved and so I think they’re just trying to relay their message probably in a cleaner way. A cleaner, neater, more uniformed way and I think more aesthetically pleasing to the public as they drive by and so I don’t know if it is in, if I feel it’s fair to be over burdensome by adding extra cost onto a sign that already fits in with the area and location and the businesses that are around it and so I am more than willing to go ahead and approve the sign and the variance to allow the sign to, or to allow the lettering to be flat and not have to be raised for his name and business. Service. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Other thoughts. Comments. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Well in hearing both sides I really, based on what I’ve heard, I mean I agree. I think that he just, the sign is very attractive and I think with some of the things that you want to do with the lettering really are, even make it more attractive and I agree with Councilwoman Tjornhom. I think that you know to add cost for revising the lettering based on what he’s proposing I think is, I guess I would say, I wouldn’t call it unreasonable but I think it would be just more satisfactory I guess to really go with the lettering as he’s proposed so I would be in favor of supporting the lettering as well with the sign. With the variance. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilman Litsey. 20 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Councilman Litsey: It’s already been said. I mean I think we can keep this fairly simple and specific to the sign in terms of, I look at it as kind of an upgrade of this sign with current technology in terms of the electronic messaging there. It’s not deviating from what was already there. It’s just upgrading or updating or whatever you want to call it so I think if I just keep it within that context I’m comfortable with granting it. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Well I’ll tell you what, you mentioned something and it triggered a memory. Last year we had another company that came in here and they got the signs that they wanted at the time because they were older signs. The storage, Nick’s Storage World I guess. And that was to that location. That was not a blanket variance that would have affected anything else. Since this sign has been here and we all agree, it is an upgrade over what’s currently there so it does improve I think the vision and everything. I mean based upon that and the fact that we don’t have to say that this is a blanket variance across any electronic signs or anything, I’d be in favor of allowing both the variance and the other part too so. Mayor Furlong: Conditional use permit. Councilman McDonald: Conditional use permit. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Thank you. Kate Aanenson: Mayor if I may. Mayor Furlong: Yep. Kate Aanenson: Anticipating that you may have a different motion I did prepare revised Findings of Fact and also reflected your rationale basis for that on page 4 that would say that because the sign’s existing. Mayor Furlong: It’s an upgrade of an existing sign. Kate Aanenson: Yeah. And it’s the fact that the sign was flat panel, it’s going to remain flat panel so I did change those. Mayor Furlong: Very good. My sentiments are very similar and focusing on the simple issue that we are, as was just mentioned, we’re upgrading an existing sign in terms of elements of it. In terms of the message. Even the panel that we’re discussing. That’s a variance request. I think I agree is an upgrade as well and you know especially in this economy to see a local business owner reinvesting back into their business and trying to increase their service levels and service offerings is something that I think the council should support and so I’m very much in favor of approving the conditional use permit with the changes as well as granting the variance for this specific issue based upon the comments made and the Findings of Fact that have been described. 21 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Kate Aanenson: There is a motion on page 5. A revised motion. Mayor Furlong: Okay. On page 5 of the what you just distributed? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is that for the entire. Kate Aanenson: That’s for the entire. Mayor Furlong: That’s the vote, okay. Thank you. Would somebody like to make a motion if there’s no further discussion? Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that we approve Planning Case 09-04 for a conditional use permit for an electronic message center and approval of the sign variance request. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: I’ll second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on that motion? Councilman McDonald: I have one question. We are going to make this unique to this particular area. Does this motion I guess convey that? Kate Aanenson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: And I’d defer to staff. Kate Aanenson: If I may. Yeah, if I may. On page 4 on the Findings of Fact it specifically states that because this is along Highway 41 and that the existing panel is flat panel so that would be the basis for that. It’s specific to this site. Councilman Litsey: Under number 5(a)? Kate Aanenson: Yeah, 5(a). And then under the finding. Councilman Litsey: And in the finding. Kate Aanenson: You have to read the finding that goes with it. Councilwoman Ernst: So it’s actually covered in the motion then. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. In the findings. Because you’re adopting the findings with the motion. 22 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Based upon the Findings of Fact. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. This refers to the Planning Commission so Councilwoman Ernst’s motion is fine but we’re going to have to word smith this, switching from Planning Commission to City Council. Kate Aanenson: Oh I’m sorry. I thought I had covered that. I thought I made the changes. Todd Gerhardt: So if you go to the signature page, it says Planning Commission. Mayor Furlong: We will modify that appropriately. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. Have the minutes note that this will, the original will be changed to read City Council. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you. Any other discussion? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve Planning Case 09-04 for a conditional use permit for an electronic message center and approval of the sign variance request and adopt the revised Findings of Fact. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Councilman McDonald: I have something. I, you know was asking questions earlier about the watershed district. The reason why is that I did attend the watershed district meeting last week and I guess I have to say that I learned quite a bit and they are approaching the issue of clean water differently from what we as a council are doing. Again they’re looking at more the scientific reasons of what causes the problems within our water and the answer is carp, which we’ve had a couple of harvests for and everything but I learned quite a bit about the migration of carp between Lake Riley, through the watershed. All of this and that it’s a very scientific reasoning to go into but I found it very interesting and during a break I had a lot of residents come up to me because I was wearing my little City Council name tag and they are very concerned about all of this so it is a big issue with the residents of our city and that’s part of the reason I was asking the questions because what I took away from that was that the residents feel that yes, we do need to have clean water and clear lakes and I think that since the watershed district does quite a bit of this from an area that maybe we don’t approach, I think there should be more coordination and I did get the feeling from the watershed district they would like to do a little bit more of that too so I just wanted to bring that message you know back to the council that they are doing some very interesting work you know to address the issues of clarity within the water that really have nothing to do with runoff. It has to do with the natural environment within the lake itself, so I think it is a combination of things that clean our waters within the city and we can use all the help that we can get, just as I’m sure they can use all the help that they can get so I would encourage both governmental bodies to probably work a little bit closer together. I’m not quite sure what that mechanism is. I’m glad that Terry sits on the board and at least we have 23 City Council Meeting - May 11, 2009 some representation there but at least from a political standpoint I think they need to get the message that we do want to help them and I would hope that they would reciprocate by offering their hand back to us to help us in some of our projects. Especially Lotus Lake. That is one of the keys to what they’re trying to clear up so I just wanted to make the council aware of that. It was a very interesting meeting and would encourage everyone to go to the next one when they hold it so thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other council presentations? Councilman Litsey: I just wanted to make note of I guess compliment Mayor Furlong on the great job. I guess it’s still called the State of the City address or something similar to that now so no, I thought you did an excellent job representing the city and showcasing what’s been done in a very humble format but nevertheless the best. Mayor Furlong: I was trying to brag… Councilman Litsey: Nevertheless the message was clear. Things are going well in Chanhassen so thank you for conveying that on behalf of the council. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other thoughts and comments. Very good. Mr. Gerhardt. ADMININSTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Todd Gerhardt: We’re almost done with the footings on the new public works facility and, so that’s exciting. A little bit more soil correction going on in the parking lots. We have Braun Intertec out there doing constant testing to make sure we do it right so that’s always good. Arbor Day went well. We talked about that during our work session. And Paul is also starting mill and overlays this week so you might see some construction in the Redwing area. Down in Lakota. Mandan. On the curb and gutter and then milling probably starting next week. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Councilman Litsey: I actually saw Paul out there today… Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? No? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the City Council meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 24