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CC 2009 10 12 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 12, 2009 Mayor Furlong called the City Council meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Litsey STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, and Greg Sticha PUBLIC PRESENT: Blake Falk 17593 George Moran Drive, Eden Prairie Christian Myers 7421 Windmill Drive Christian Kelley 18141 Valley View Road Jesse Kleve 7307 Laredo Drive Garrett Erickson 16148 Edenwood Drive PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to those here in the council chambers and those watching at home. We’re very glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. I’d like to start this evening with a invitation to our annual Halloween Party. With fall approaching us, or perhaps today winter, the City of Chanhassen in cooperation with our local businesses is proud to announce the fourth and final event that we have during our year long marquee of special events. The annual Halloween Party th will be held on Saturday, October 24. At this time I’d like to invite all residents, families, friends to join us at the Chanhassen Recreation Center for this event. Children ages 10 and under are invited to participate, in costume of course, and the event begins at 5:30 and goes til 7:30 th p.m. on October 24. Activities are family focused. There will be a talent, comedy talent show. Trick or treating. Some scary rooms. Hayrides outside. Children’s games. Refreshments. Pre- rd registration is required by Friday, October 23 or the day before and you can do that at City Hall or the Rec Center. There is a fee of $5.00 per child. Adults are free and a lot of fun will be had by all so I encourage people to attend that event. It’s always a lot of fun. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Furlong: There was a slight modification on item (h) for some update in pricing that was distributed to the council ahead of time. Did everybody on the council receive that? Thank you. Is there a motion then to adopt items 1(a) through (h)? Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council approve the consent agenda pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated September 28, 2009 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated September 28, 2009 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated October 6, 2009 -Park and Recreation Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated September 22, 2009 stndrd Resolution #2009-69: b. Lakeside 1, 2, and 3 Additions: Approve Quotes to Complete Punchlist Items. Resolution #2009-70: c. Lyman Boulevard Improvement Project 06-03: Approve Resolution Requesting a Box Culvert Clearance Variance from MnDOT and Approve Change Order. Resolution #2009-71: d. Well No. 4 Project 09-02: Approve Plans and Specifications and Authorize Advertisement for Bids. e. Lotus Lake Estates Beachlot: Extension of Conditional Use Permit. f. Chanhassen City Code: Approve Amendments to Chapter 20, Zoning, Concerning Bluffs and Signs. g. Approve Assignment, Assumption, and Amendment Agreement for Wells Fargo Brokerage Services. Resolution #2009-72: h. Public Works Building: Approve Quotes for Furnishings, Change Orders and Landscape Quotes as amended to update pricing. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: We do have one invited guest this evening. Sam Schlangen with Troop 409 is working on an Eagle Scout project at the Community Gardens here in Chanhassen and we invited him to come and just give the council and update some information on what he’s doing. Good evening. Sam Schlangen: Good evening. I’m Sam Schlangen. I’m with Troop 409, as he said. In June I started to think about what project I was going to do for my Eagle Scout and I wanted to do something that would help the environment so I got a hold of Jill Sinclair and she suggested working with the City Garden of Chanhassen. I looked into it a little more and what was 2 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 included was, like how re, like furnishing the wood chip paths. Like putting hardware cloth like chicken wire around the fences to like stop some small animals from getting in. And then I was going to build, I’m going to build a tool cabinet which would replace a mailbox. A rusty mailbox. And then the last thing would be re-doing the steps that’s infested with weeds. I want to do this because this is, I think just gardening in general like is a good activity. It like helps, it helps physically. It can help like nurture, nurture relationships between kids and their parents and then it’s just a great activity to do while relaxing and thinking about different things. So far I have gotten it approved by my scout master and the committee members in my troop and then I have also talked to Jill and I just today got it signed by her. Tomorrow I want to, I’m going to meet with Carl Martin. He’s the committee advancement member that I’m working with for this project. And I’m going to meet with him on site at the garden and I just want to get it approved right now so. That’s where I am so do you guys have any questions? Mayor Furlong: Any questions? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I do have a question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Tell me what you thought was the most interesting about the project? Sam Schlangen: I thought, what do you mean? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Well you were working on the city rain garden. What did you learn maybe that you didn’t know before you started the project? Sam Schlangen: At first I originally didn’t know, like I live in Chanhassen but I didn’t know there was a city garden. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yep. Sam Schlangen: Because it’s hidden a little bit. It’s on Kerber Boulevard and it’s just hidden behind the prairie plants. And then also I learned that over like 50 families like rent plots every year so. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Good. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? Thank you for coming. I appreciate that and as I told you at the beginning, we’re not going to approve or deny it here tonight. If Jill Sinclair signed off on it, that’s good enough and as far as the city goes you have our approval to move forward with that so good luck on the project. When are you planning on actually doing the work? Sam Schlangen: I haven’t actually gotten it approved by Carl Martin yet but if all goes as planned I plan on doing it either over MEA or the weekend after. 3 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Okay. About how many other, now you’re not going to be doing all this work yourself, is that correct? Sam Schlangen: Right. Mayor Furlong: About how many other people are you going to have? Sam Schlangen: It depends how many volunteer and show up. I’m going to ask my troop and just some friends and family to show up. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Very good. Thank you. Sam Schlangen: Alright. Thank you for your time. Mayor Furlong: Anyone else for visitor presentations? No? Very good. Let’s move on with the next items on our agenda. PUBLIC HEARING: THE ARBORS: CONSIDER VACATION OF DRAINAGE AND UTILITY EASEMENTS. Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor and City Council members. Tonight the owner of Lot 5 in the Arboretum development has requested that drainage and utility easements be vacated from their property at the west of Lot 5 and to the east at the outlot. The vacation location on the property th is located in the Arbors again. It’s off of 78 Street on the west side of the city. The lot shown here, the subject properties here is Lot number 5 and the easements proposed to be vacated are shown at this location and over here. The property has been administratively subdivided and the property line east has been relocated to this location. New easements will be dedicated if the vacation of the easements is also is granted. The subdivision to the west, that’s still planned for in the future. But staff has reviewed this application and finds it acceptable. There are no utilities located within the drainage and utility easements as shown here so staff does support the vacation of the drainage and utility easements at this time so. If there’s no other questions I would request that a public hearing be opened. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff? Just for clarification. It looks like this, we’re only dealing with one new lot line this evening, is that correct? And we’ll be dealing with the other one at a future meeting? Paul Oehme: Yeah. Mayor Furlong: Things look familiar and… Paul Oehme: Right, exactly. The subject easement over here in the yellow is. Mayor Furlong: Is the one we’re dealing with tonight? Paul Oehme: Well is the one we’ll be dealing with in the future. 4 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Oh, okay. Paul Oehme: The other ones shown here and the adjacent easement on the left, that’s the easement that we’re talking about tonight. Kate Aanenson: Mayor if I may. Mayor Furlong: Yes. Kate Aanenson: Just for clarification. Mayor Furlong: Please. Kate Aanenson: The ones between Lot 4 and 5 are shown in red. Those haven’t been administratively split yet. While we’re going through the vacation, we just wanted to make sure there’s some of that property is going through foreclosure, sheriff’s sale so it’s just, it’s expediency so what we just want to make a condition on that an easement will be vacated subject to the administrative lot split. So at the end of that motion. Mayor Furlong: Subject to, okay. Kate Aanenson: So we wouldn’t vacate it until they administratively, those deeds are in our office so that will happen, so they can happen simultaneously. We just want to make sure that the administrative lot split happens before we would technically split. Mayor Furlong: And the administrative subdivision at that time, new easements would be placed over the new lot lines? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: So we’re not going, I’m sorry. Mr. Knutson. Roger Knutson: No, I didn’t mean to interrupt. And it’s also subject to getting the easements back. The new easements back. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: And I guess that was my question. Is the administrative subdivision would not occur unless we got new easements on top of new lots? Kate Aanenson: Correct. Paul Oehme: New lot lines. 5 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Is that correct? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So would, what’s being recommended to members of the council, the proposed motion, if we consider it, should be amended so that after the date September 1, 2009 the condition subject to the administrative subdivision would be included in the motion. Is that correct? Roger Knutson: Correct, and receipt of the new boundary line easement. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Can you repeat that? What was just said. Mayor Furlong: I’m writing it down. Let me see if I’ve got, heard correctly. That the motion would be amended, it would read as it is up to the period after the word, after the date September 1, 2009 and the motion would be extended to read, subject to the administrative subdivision and receipt of the new boundary line easements. Roger Knutson: Correct. Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Now you’re jumping ahead of me. Stickler for detail. Any other questions of staff at this point? I do want to have a public hearing here first. Councilman McDonald: Currently then, are these lots both vacant right now? Kate Aanenson: There’s a house on one. On Outlot B was the other split so the first split occurred because the lot was a little narrow so they took some from the outlot where the monument is. If you can point to where that sign is maybe Paul. So the first, they took, Lot 5 took a portion of that outlot. And then to make that lot wider, and then the other lot line pushed it towards Lot 2. So you can see where that’s going to move back over. Mayor Furlong: So the net effect of this is the. Kate Aanenson: Widening of lot. Mayor Furlong: Is the widening of Lot 5 on both sides. Kate Aanenson: Correct. Councilman McDonald: Okay. And that’s so it can meet our ordinances as far as setbacks and… Kate Aanenson: A larger home wanted to go on that lot, yes. 6 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Councilman McDonald: Okay. And then what’s the complication with, it’s going through sheriff’s sale right now. How does that affect everything? Kate Aanenson: Oh. Some of those properties up there are, so that’s our understanding so. Mayor Furlong: I think from our standpoint we’d just be looking at it from property rights and making sure that we have drainage and utility easements on the boundary lines, consistent with what we have with any new development in the future. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other questions at this point? Otherwise if there are questions we can ask them in just a few moments. At this time I would open the public hearing and invite any interested parties to come forward and address the council on this matter. No one this evening? Okay, very good. Without objection we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Any other questions on this? If not, if there’s no questions or comments would somebody like to go ahead and make a motion? Councilman McDonald: You’ve got it written down. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Pointing a finger at me. Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion to vacate the drainage and utility easements on Lots 4 and 5, Block 2, The Arbors as shown on the survey prepared by Otto Associates dated September 1, 2009. Amended subject to the administrative subdivision and. Mayor Furlong: Receipt. Councilwoman Ernst: Receipt of the new. Mayor Furlong: Boundary line. Councilwoman Ernst: Boundary line. Mayor Furlong: Easements. Councilwoman Ernst: Easements. Mayor Furlong: That’s what I thought you said. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? 7 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Resolution #2009-73: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council move approval to vacate the drainage and utility easements on Lots 4 and 5, Block 2, The Arbors as shown on the survey prepared by Otto Associates dated September 1, 2009, subject to the administrative subdivision and receipt of the new boundary line easements. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. PUBLIC HEARING: CONSIDER APPROVAL OF RESOLUTIONS CERTIFYING DELINQUENT UTILITY BILLS AND CODE ENFORCEMENT BILLS. Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and City Council members. On an annual basis, as part of our certification process of delinquent accounts, we hold a public hearing to allow for input in regards to any delinquent water and sewer accounts. Just going to give kind of a brief summary of what the process all entails throughout the year. Throughout the year our residents receive utility bills on a quarterly basis for their water and sewer consumption. They receive quarterly bills so they will receive four bills throughout the year. If for some reason they are unable to pay their bills, we in addition over the summer send letter notifications notifying them that their accounts are delinquent and that in the fall we will be holding a certification process. Over the summer they received two notifications that their accounts were delinquent and then this fall in th September on the 24 in the paper we gave public notice of the intent to hold a public hearing on certification of those accounts, which we will be doing later this evening. For 2009 to be certified for 2010 in regards to water and sewer delinquent accounts we see dollar amounts in the amount of $150,349.20. Since the packet went out we did receive payment of $11,144.23. That dollar amount is now $137,950.46. That amount is slightly higher than last year’s certified delinquent accounts for water and sewer accounts. In addition to certifying the water and sewer accounts we also certify any delinquent code violation accounts. Both certifications are allowed within state statute and within our city ordinance. Again the certified delinquent code violations were given two separate letters notifying them of delinquency in payment for the code violation. th In addition the notice was publicly printed in the paper on September 24 notifying all that there will be a public hearing this evening in regards to those delinquent code enforcement accounts. And I guess at this point I’ll defer a question to Roger. I’m not sure if we have to have a separate public hearing for the water and sewer accounts as well as the code enforcement or do we, can we combine them into one public hearing? Roger Knutson: They’re two different subjects but you can open them up as one hearing. Greg Sticha: Okay. So I guess at that, that would be the extent of the staff report so at this point the process would be to open the public hearings and then after the public hearings have been closed to pass the resolution certifying the delinquent water and sewer accounts and certifying the delinquent code enforcement accounts. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff? Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: On these amounts and everything, I mean I was looking through them and some of them seem quite large. How many of these are due to like sheriff sales, foreclosures, those type? Are you seeing those numbers up from last year? 8 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Greg Sticha: Those numbers are up slightly. I wouldn’t say that they’re up significantly. Some of them are, would be in sheriff’s sale or foreclosure but the majority of these are not so, I don’t think the numbers are any more significant than previous years. We’re at $137,000 total dollars compared to 126 of last year so the total dollar amount is up a little bit and there are a few more accounts that are being certified but not anything that I would consider overly significant of an increase from the previous year. Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Ernst: Greg are these mostly residential? Or are they commercial and? Greg Sticha: They can be both. I don’t have the breakdown of the amount of accounts that are residential versus commercial. My guess is that the majority of them are residential over commercial. But I’m fairly certain there are a number of commercial accounts in there as well. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Sticha do you generally receive, while we’re taking action this evening, the certification occurs sometime later this year, is that correct? st Greg Sticha: Correct. They have until November 1 to pay their delinquent account and to st avoid certification so, and November 1 this year falls on a Sunday I believe so we will receive nd or allow receipt of payment until Monday, November 2. If they wish to do so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So if anybody’s watching at home and they have a question, who should they call? Greg Sticha: They should contact our utility billing department, Katie Reed in the finance department and her extension is 952-227-1144. She can also be contacted on the city’s web site through her email. Mayor Furlong: And was that the same contact information that was included in the letters? Greg Sticha: Yep. The same information is included in all the delinquent letters and on their utility bills. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Can they make payment on these or do they have to pay them in the full amount? Greg Sticha: The accounts really should be paid in full. If they are, were to call with extenuating circumstances that would require the possibility of a payment plan to avoid certification, that’s certainly something we can discuss but from a practice basis we tend to not 9 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 allow that but sometimes occasionally there are extenuating circumstances that may require that to happen. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald you had a question? Councilman McDonald: Yes. Okay, you talked about a letter that went out that I take it informed them of this meeting that we would be looking at this for certification. Does another th letter go out telling them that you know as of December what 15, is that the date when? Or st actually it’s November 1 I think after that does another letter go out telling them they have until that time to pay or it becomes final? Greg Sticha: No. At this point that is the last correspondence and the public hearing is the last correspondence they will have from the city. The first letter notifies them that their account is delinquent. The second letter notifies them that their account has still not been paid and they st have until November 1 to avoid certification. And then we also publicly notice in the paper the public hearing and so this evening is the last formal correspondence from the city that they will st receive. They will not get another letter between now and November 1. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay? Any other questions at this point? Otherwise I’ll go ahead and open up the public hearing and invite any interested party to come forward and address the council on this matter. No? Seeing none, okay without objection then we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to the council for discussion. Any other follow up questions? On this. Or comments. There were two resolutions included in the council packet. One for certification of the delinquent utility accounts to the County Auditor and the other for certification of the delinquent code enforcement accounts to the County Auditor. Would somebody like to make a motion adopting those two resolutions? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll make the motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’d like to make a motion to consider the approval of the resolution certifying delinquent utility accounts and consider approval of the resolution certifying the delinquent code enforcement. No, no, I’m sorry. That was right. Mayor Furlong: That’s correct. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: I’ll second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? 10 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Resolution #2009-74:Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the resolution certifying delinquent utility accounts to the County Auditor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Resolution #2009-75: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the resolution certifying delinquent code enforcement accounts to the County Auditor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: Any council presentations this evening? Councilman McDonald: It’s been a pretty quiet two weeks. Mayor Furlong: It has been. I was, enjoyed attending the fire department open house yesterday. It was well attended, even in spite of the Vikings game happening concurrently but there were, a lot of time and effort was put in over this last week with fire safety and fire prevention seminars by our fire fighters at the elementary schools and talking to Chief Geske and we can talk to him more about this when he comes back at our next meeting. But a number of our fire fighters take vacation time and volunteer to go into our elementary schools. All the elementary schools in the city have a program of some sort or another on fire prevention this last week. Open house was yesterday. It was well attended and had a number of, not only current fire fighters but some of their alumni, former fire fighters that were there serving food and giving rides on fire trucks and talking about safety so it was well attended and we want to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all the fire fighters for their volunteer service this last week, but also their service throughout the year in providing for our citizens needs. Mr. Gerhardt, administrative presentations. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Todd Gerhardt: I just want to thank the Historical Society, a group of volunteers and Karen Engelhardt in her efforts on putting on our first cemetery walk here in Chanhassen this last Saturday. I got to participate and view the program on Thursday at their dress rehearsal and if Saturday turned out as well as the dress rehearsal I think people had a lot of fun. It was cold both days but it was really interesting. They had several actors that played out some of the individuals that are buried in the cemetery and they kind of talked about their life and what life was like in Chanhassen and how they decided to locate here and some of the positive things that went on and also some of the sad things about their family and it was just very enjoyable. The actors did a great job and a lot of fun and hats really go off to the Historical Society and all the volunteers that made that a real successful program. So a lot of fun. We were at the Pioneer Cemetery and also at St. Hubert’s Cemetery so a lot of fun. And that’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? No? Okay. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. 11 Chanhassen City Council – October 12, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the correspondence packet? Some very nice letters there from the Governor and Senator Franken. Governor Pawlenty and Senator Franken recognizing our city’s ranking as the second best place to live in the country by Money Magazine so that was nice to see those as well, and also a bunch of bills that Mr. Sticha paid so. It seems like he’s always paying things. Before we adjourn, I notice there are a number of potential students here in the audience. Thanks for coming. I would encourage you to sign in on the pad of paper there so that you’re recognized as being here in the official minutes and also if you need anybody to sign anything, just ask anyone from city staff or the council, be happy to recognize your being here. Thanks for coming. 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 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 12