Loading...
CC 2010 02 22 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:10 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, Greg Sticha, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, and Paul Oehme PUBLIC PRESENT: Averey Speed Marylee Horstmann Katie Horstmann Nathan Taylor Andrew Larson Elle Foislund PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to those here in the council chamber and those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask the members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. Otherwise without objection we’ll proceed with the overall agenda as published. Okay. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Furlong: If there’s desire for separate discussion, either from people in the audience or from members of the council, I would ask that you let me know at this time so that we can remove them prior to the motion to adopt. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mayor I have an item to be removed. I’m trying to find it right now. Forgive me. I just got my mouse going again. Mayor Furlong: No, that’s okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom: It is the one regarding the grant application. I’m not sure what item that is. Mayor Furlong: Item (g). 1(g). Councilwoman Tjornhom: Item (g), thank you. There it is. Item (g). Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: New business? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes please. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Very good. Any other items on the consent agenda you desire for separate discussion? If not then is there a motion to adopt items 1(a) through (i) excluding (g)? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated February 8, 2010 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated February 8, 2010 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated February 2, 2010 -Park and Recreation Commission Verbatim & Summary Minutes dated January 26, 2010 Resolution #2010-13: b. Well No. 4 Project 09-02: Approve Quotes for Rehabilitation. Resolution #2010-14: c. Approve Resolution Designating Park Road as a MSA Street. Resolution #2010-15: d. Crossroads of Chanhassen: Accept Streets and Utilities. e. Audubon Road Reconstruction Project 10-02: Authorization to Proceed with Temporary Easement Acquisition. f. Approval of 2010 Key Financial Strategies. Resolution #2010-16: h. Approve Resolution Authorizing Interfund Loans for Chanhassen Transit Station Project. Resolution #2010-17: i. Public Works Building, Project 08-03: Approve Change Order. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: BRIAN RECKER, RJM CONSTRUCTION, RECAP OF PUBLIC WORKS BUILDING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. Mayor Furlong: If you’d like to address the council this evening on an item that’s not on our agenda, I invite you to come forward to the podium at this time. No? We do have Brian Recker here with RJM Construction Company that’s going to give a presentation, a short discussion on the public works building, construction project. Good evening. 2 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Brian Recker: Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Thank you for letting me talk with you tonight. It’s certainly my pleasure. What I’d like to do tonight is give a little recap actually to the public works construction project. Where we’re at today and maybe even a little bit of a brief history of how we got here throughout the process and things we did along the way. I’d like to start by saying what a real treat it was to work with the City and with the staff on this project. It really was a rewarding experience and we enjoyed it very much as we worked through it, and just wanted to say thank you for that. When we came on board in November of 2008 as a construction manager for the City we had some goals that we had set in mind for the project that we’d like to obtain and some of those goals were, we wanted to do our best to find a way to facilitate a very competitive bidding process and try to get the best value that we could for the City on bid day for the job. We wanted to complete the project in a slightly more aggressive schedule than what had been set and set for an opening in January of 2010. We wanted to make sure throughout the course of the project that we as your construction manager represented the City in regards to making sure that the project that was constructed was in a quality process and that the quality project at the end of the day was met. We wanted to control the overall budget on the project and make sure that we watch the dollars as if they were our very own and making sure that money was not spent when it didn’t need to be. And again we wanted to provide a rewarding experience for everybody that was involved with the project with RJM Construction. During the bidding process in order to try to find the most competitive number that we could, we worked very hard to find as many bids as we could, both with the public as well as the quote processes and we looked back in our records we found that on the project we received approximately 200 bids. Individual bids on the project for the scope of support that we had. Of those 200 bids that we received about 30 contracts were written for all phases of the work of the project and so those were the number of contracts that RJM Construction managed with the City to have the project completed. On bid day through that work we were able to bring a project in about $470,000 under budget than had been established earlier in the project. Through a lot of bids that we were able to receive and thankfully for the market as well. Another one of the goals we had through the bidding process is to try to bring in some local contractors so that they could work on a local city project and about 15 to 16 percent of the project actually was contracted with local contractors here from Chanhassen. In regards to the schedule, the schedule that we set was for a January opening and we’re pleased to report that the project was opened on schedule and that the City has been using the facility here for quite some time and so we’re very proud of that and that was through a lot of work that we had with the City through that process. In regards to quality, one of the benefits of the construction management process is that the superintendent that’s on site coordinating the activities of the contractors every single day is there representing the City every moment that he’s on that job site because that’s who he’s working for so for every moment on every day that that construction work was happening we had a superintendent on site that was watching not just the materials that were being used to make sure that they were the right materials that were specified for the project, but also to make sure that they’re being put in in a quality manner and sometimes actually taking control of the schedule of the contractors and sometimes showing them a little bit about what they should be doing with what they were looking at, and some of they kind of looked at him a little strange like why are you telling me how to do my job. Well partly because he knew what needed to be done and what you guys were looking for. Control of the budget. On the project we set at the beginning of the job a 5% construction contingency for unforeseen conditions or for items that needed to be added to the 3 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 project to resolve some of those challenges that come up through the project itself. Now of the 5% that we set aside, we finished the project at about 3% of cost for unforeseen conditions and issues that came up. Now nobody likes to hear the word change order. I know that. It’s a dirty word but unfortunately they are very known. It’s inevitable in the construction process so our goal is to try to make sure that we keep that as low as we can and on this project we end up about 3%, which is lower than industry standard of 5% on new, on construction projects like this. So we’re proud of that. We’ll certainly try to continue to find ways to keep from spending that money but we’re happy with that. And again the very end. You know our process here is hopefully to provide a rewarding experience to the people that we’re working with. You know as much as I love construction, some people don’t like it as much as I do and sometimes going through that process can be a bit painful so we try to make it as rewarding as we can and through the help with Paul Oehme and Todd Gerhardt and the staff, it really was a rewarding experience. At least for us and I hope it was for the City here as well. We’re in the process now of, what we call project close out which is assembling all the warranties, completing of the punch list and all the corrective items that we had at the end of the project. We go through a process where the City staff goes through and takes a look at items that need to be corrected. The architect does the same, and quite frankly we do the same and create a list of things that need to be corrected so we’re in the process of finishing up that list called a punch list but also because the City has moved in and started using the facility, we find that there’s some other things that we find that need to be tweaked, adjusted or modified in a certain manner so we’re actually adding those items at this time as well. So anticipate over the next few weeks wrapping up the corrective items and hopefully wrapping up those other items at the same time so. That’s really what I have. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Thank you. Brian Recker: If there’s any questions I can answer. Mayor Furlong: Appreciate your service. Any questions for Mr. Recker? Mr. Oehme, Mr. Gerhardt, any additional thoughts or comments on the project and using the construction manager. This was the first time the City used a construction manager process rather than a general contractor so. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah in the past we’ve used a general contractor approach where basically the architect would put out a set of plans and specs individual, or one general contractor would submit a bid on behalf of all the subcontractors and tradesmen. I’m sold on a construction manager process. Brian and the team that we put together was fantastic, and I’ve been through a few buildings with the water treatment plant, the library, couple additions onto city hall and definitely sold on the construction manager process. Having RJM act as our agent basically with the subs and tradesmen is the way to go and we definitely saw the benefit in this project. We were looking at construction costs up and above $100 a square foot and we came below 100 and just to give you some examples, Richfield built their new public works building at $130 square foot. Couple other cities were in the $110-$120 square foot range. We definitely took advantage of a poor economy, which played into our benefit I think and…on the building permit revenue side but you know this was just a very smooth project. Paul, the building inspectors get a big ovation from me for really watching over the project. They also were another set of eyes and it 4 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 was just a great team and a great process. Paul’s efforts in correcting the soils I think were huge in keeping the project on schedule. Having the soils corrected before any of the trades got on site was a big plus for them to you know day one come in and start putting footings in and having the site corrected was huge for keeping this project on schedule. So thank you Brian and all the members of RJM that played a role in this. You did a great job. Brian Recker: Thank you. Thank you very much. Mayor Furlong: One moment, Councilwoman Ernst. Question? Councilwoman Ernst: I’m curious and just for the public, did you, is this the first, this is obviously the first time we’ve ever done this. Is this the first time you’ve every done this? Brian Recker: As far as the construction management delivery method of a project? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah. Brian Recker: Actually no. We’ve worked with quite a few surrounding cities for delivery of construction management process so we’ve been doing actually this for about 12 years, since our company inception for various cities so. Councilwoman Ernst: And this experience was comparable to the other’s that you’ve been. Brian Recker: Actually I will tell you in all frankness that this ranks up in one of the more smooth projects that I’ve had in the 20 years of construction that I’ve been running jobs. It’s been, you know what’s interesting about this is that through the construction process you enjoy building the building but you also enjoy building the relationships that you make along the way and so at the end of the construction project sometimes on a project like this where you’ve enjoyed it so much, it’s almost kind of, you kind of hate to be done with the job because you’ve actually enjoyed the process so much. I don’t know if Paul maybe says it a little differently. He’s glad I’m out of his hair but I certainly enjoyed coming to the meetings and enjoyed the interactions that we had so yes, as far as how it ranks up there, it ranks at the very top. Councilwoman Ernst: Alright, thank you. Mayor Furlong: To what do you contribute, or attribute the success of the project? Brian Recker: Well you know I think that with construction projects the stronger your team and the more willing your team is to work together and be proactive and work together to solve the challenges that come up I think create a much more harmonious project. With the construction management approach you have the ability to have your designer, your construction manager and your owner all working together as a team rather than sometimes trying to point that finger in another direction, which is not conducive to helping the project move along so when you have a good team that has a good personality that can work well together, enjoys working with each other and keeps that common goals in mind at the very end what they’re trying to work for, I think that really contributes quite a bit to it. 5 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Thank you. Brian Recker: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Appreciate your time this evening and all your service. I’m sorry, Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yeah, you missed me down here. I guess one of the things I had a concern about early on was I was hoping more local businesses would come in and I think we had that discussion because there were a lot of vendors that got on there that seemed to be brand new companies and I was you know, I think you addressed it, you know the quality of the building did not suffer and you know for that I want to thank you for staying on top because that was kind of a concern of mine was that you know are we going to trade off you know low bid for low quality so I’ve been over to the building. Very pleased with it. Looks really good. You guys did a really great job so again I just want to add my gratitude and thanks and also for taking care of the quality because that was a concern you know by going in for the low bidders but it worked out and I think in large part that’s because you oversaw the project so thank you very much. Brian Recker: Well thank you. We appreciate that. My pleasure. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Anyone else? Councilwoman Tjornhom: You know I thought it was interesting when Paul talked about even just the plowing. How much easier it is to have this facility so Paul do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Paul Oehme: Yeah. You know typically our plow schedule for normal snow events would be for the guys that start at about 2:30, sometimes 2:00 in the morning. The facility we used to have we had to cram all of our vehicles into one location and we had to angle parking but then we parked other vehicles in the drive lane because we wanted, needed to have all the vehicles warm or you know in a controlled environment over the night so the trucks would start in the morning so, but in order to do that you have to, you know in the morning when you get there you have to take all the trucks out and get everything organized and fill the trucks with salt and it’s, it became a real challenge for the city staff and the street employees to come out and you know spend half an hour, 45 minutes just getting the vehicles warmed up and organized because they can actually get out on the road and do their job. Now we can just go out to the facility. Unsecure the building. Security system and take out, take our trucks and go. It’s a very smooth, easy process for us to get the trucks out. Now we don’t have to start as early as we had in the past. Now we’re starting at 3:00, little after 3:00 so it saves us in some overtime as well. It’s more efficient and the layout of the building and the guys just are thrilled with it. They have space to put their stuff now in their locker room. They actually have a locker. Each individual employee has a locker whereas before we didn’t so they’re just estatic about that so it’s a very nice building. I just appreciate the council taking on this project this year, or in the past and building it for the city because it is a facility that the City, all of the city residents can be proud 6 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 of. I mean it’s going to be a polling place potentially in the future. I mean there’s a large open area for gatherings too that can be easily used by the public so there’s a lot of, it’s more than just a public works facility. It’s going to be used by the public and the residents for many, many years. Councilwoman Ernst: What I really want to know is if everybody knows what time that door shuts off and they don’t get locked from the inside. I told Todd I wouldn’t let him live that down and I just couldn’t resist it. Councilman Litsey: We’ll have to give you the code. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, that too. We know it works, right? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah, right. Brian Recker: Well that’s a story I haven’t heard yet so maybe we have to have one more site meeting so I can hear about that. Councilman Litsey: No I’d just like to say, you know it’s pretty well been said here but it looked like a really great project from start to finish. Everyone worked together well, which is a testament to how this can work smoothly. You hear all the times projects can go wrong but this really didn’t. All the feedback was positive all along the way which makes us feel better too about the project that we approved, and then touring the facility it just validated what a great project this was for the community now and for in the future as well so there was an eye toward the future which is nice too so thank you all. Brian Recker: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you and Mr. Recker your comment about a team working well together. I think that has been exemplified here and I know there have been comments to that so I won’t repeat them but thank you for your role. To Todd. To Paul. To all the staff and everyone, and to the contractors for providing good quality service and for helping us get a good project completed that’s going to benefit the city for years and years to come so. Brian Recker: Well it was our pleasure. Appreciate the opportunity. Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you very much. LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE. Mayor Furlong: Tonight we receive our monthly updates from our police and fire services. Lieutenant Jim Olson is here, the Carver County Sheriff’s Department. Good evening Lieutenant. Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you and good evening. In the packet this month I have the monthly report for the month of January from the sheriff’s office as well as the area citation list and the 7 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 community service officers report for the month of January. Were there any questions about that at all? Mayor Furlong: Any questions on any of the reports? Lt. Jim Olson: And I’ve got a few other items as well. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Lt. Jim Olson: Yeah, I talked to you last month about a preliminary clearance rate that we had for 2009. We now have the final clearance rate for the City of Chanhassen. That was 72.83% so it was better even than what I had talked about last month. There’s still a couple of details I’m kind of working on to make sure we’re doing it properly but it looks like that should be the final number for the city. We also had an arrest from or at a local business, or stemming from a theft at a local business here in the past month and Detective Ryan Thiel did a very nice job on this and I just want to highlight this for the city. The victim had been swimming and had left their key on their towel that they were using and somebody went and took that key. Went down to the locker room and took the person’s wallet out. Went to another local retail establishment and bought a number of things from there and took off. We were fortunate enough to get some video surveillance from that and there’s a web site that law enforcement uses called Tri County where different detectives put different things on there looking for information on crimes. Putting photos and so on on there. Ryan highlighted this on the Tri County web site and somebody came up and said you know we think it’s so and so. Ryan did some follow-up with that and eventually was able to get a search warrant going involving a number of other agencies from the metro area and that person was arrested and was resting comfortably last I heard in a couple of facilities so Ryan did a very nice job with that. Todd Gerhardt: Not too comfortable. Lt. Jim Olson: Did a very nice job with that and solved a number of cases for a few different jurisdictions with that so kudos to Detective Thiel on that. The other thing, or another thing I want to talk about is with warmer weather coming up, there’s more folks that are out on the roads and walking around the neighborhoods. Walking dogs and so on and I would just encourage parents to talk to new drivers about the importance of going slow through neighborhoods and just being careful with that. It becomes easier as the snow is melting for people to go a little bit faster. Deputies will be in the neighborhoods monitoring traffic and if you do have any questions or concerns about traffic in your neighborhood I would encourage folks to call either myself or Beth Hoiseth who’s the Chanhassen Crime Prevention Officer and her number is 952-227-1610. And it is getting warmer and it is getting nicer. However we still st have chances for snow of course and winter parking remains in effect until April 1 and the winter parking is no parking between 1:00 in the morning and 7:00 in the morning, or when there’s 2 inches or more of snow on the city street and until it’s been plowed from curb to curb so even with it getting warmer it’s still important to remember that. And the last thing I wanted to talk about is we’ve had a couple of calls in the county recently where people have received phone calls saying that they’ve been winners of big prizes. You know that they’ve won contests and they have all this money to them. They’ve been told to call another phone number which 8 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 they said was a major insurance company and they needed to give a little bit of information out to that insurance company. Well phone calls were made and they asked for personal information. Banking information and so on and where they should send the money to. Well the folks called us right away but I just want to make sure that people know, don’t be giving your personal information. Banking information out over the phone. Needless to say this was a scam and people need to be very careful with that. Any other issues or questions at all for the sheriff’s office? Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Lieutenant Olson this evening? Comments. No? Very good, thank you. Lt. Jim Olson: Wonderful, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Fire Chief Roger Smallback is here this evening. Good evening Chief. Chief Roger Smallback: Good evening. The final numbers of calls in January came in at 57 calls. That was a fair amount above average and month to date for February we’re at 46 calls for service and again that’s running well above average. A fair amount of that can be attributed to th weather. The snow. Couple of significant events that fire was involved in. On February 7 at 12:32 a.m. in the morning, it was a Sunday morning, we were called to a home with a car on fire in a garage. This fire resulted in significant damage to the garage. Two vehicles totally destroyed. However we did contain the fire to the garage and there was minimal smoke damage. Minimal water damage to the living quarters in the house. Another call, this happened on th January 26. We were called to a possible medical in a car out on Highway 1. When we got there it turned out to be a full arrest. Through the efforts of the sheriff’s department, fire department and Ridgeview Medical, CPR was performed on the scene and we got the person back. This is, for the fire department we consider this a CPR save. We have 9 fire fighters that st will be getting the CPR save award at our business meeting coming up March 1. Part of our regular training cycle involves what we call light a fire training that we do out at the Edina training center, and this is a training center that has a concrete building with gas power burners and stuff in it and creates a very realistic simulation of structure fires. We recently booked that thth for April 12 and April 19 to do some live fire training there. What we would like to do is extend an invitation to the Mayor, City Council, Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen to come out and either witness this training or if you would like, participate in the training. He extended an invitation to the Mayor, City Council, Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen to come out and either witness this training or if you would like, participate in the training exercise. Again this is a very controlled environment and very safe environment to practice in. It’s certainly nothing you have to decide or commit to this evening. If this is something that you would be interested in, we can provide you with a lot more details and a lot more information on it but it would be an opportunity to see what fire fighters really do. What kind of environment they really work in. So any questions? Mayor Furlong: Questions for the Chief? Just one. Would you put us in the house before you started the fire? Todd Gerhardt: He emphasized the control part. 9 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Yeah there was a lot of that, and I noticed you didn’t answer no real quickly there. What about snow banks and fire hydrants? Any thoughts there for residents that you’d like to share? Chief Roger Smallback: Yeah there was an article that Forrest had, just ran in the paper this last week urging residents to check their fire hydrants in their neighborhood and make sure that they are cleared away. I had been driving around and yes there is significant change in the number of hydrants that are cleared away. What kind of prompted this was the fire that we had a couple weeks ago there where they lost that garage. The way we attacked that fire initially was the use of what they call a deck gun which is a big nozzle mounted on top of the trunk. Puts out about 300 gallons a minute. This, we’ve used this technique on garage fires before and it’s very effective and it, the first due engine will basically dump the tank through the deck on into the garage. Knock the legs out of the fire and then we go in with hand lines and mop up afterwards. With the fire a couple weeks ago we did that. We knocked the fire down significantly with the deck gun and while we were doing that we were making a hydrant connection and fortunately the hydrant for this neighborhood had been cleared away. That enabled us to quickly make the hydrant connection and establish a continuous water supply and contributed greatly to making a good stop on that fire. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. Couple of things. Timing is huge when it comes to our fire department and I just want to highlight the save that they had on Highway 101 north of 5. Those 9 firemen you know have to feel special when you bring somebody back like that and it’s a credit to their training and the leadership over there to provide that type of service so congratulations. Extend my wishes to everybody over there and thank you for everything that you guys do do. That was special. Chief Roger Smallback: Thank you and the people involved in this call as well as everyone else in the fire department are always thrilled when we get a save. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. And towards the hydrants, we do have city crews out clearing out hydrants. We do appreciate the public’s help in helping keep those clear for incidents like the one you mentioned, the garage fire. And so whatever help we can get from the public that’s great. It takes us a while. I know we’ve got, how many hydrants? Paul Oehme: 1,400. Todd Gerhardt: 14? Paul Oehme: Hundred. Todd Gerhardt: 1,400 hydrants throughout the community and so whatever help we get from the public it’s really appreciated but our crews are out there and if you’re unable to clear them, let us know and we’ll get over there and get them cleaned out so thank you. 10 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Thank you Chief. Chief Roger Smallback: Thanks. LOTUS RETAIL CENTER: REQUEST FOR SITE PLAN APPROVAL WITH VARIANCES FOR A 7,992 SQUARE FOOT RETAIL BUILDING AND AMENDMENT TO THE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR LOTUS LAWN AND GARDEN, THTH LOCATED AT 78 WEST 78 STREET AND 19900 WEST 78 STREET. APPLICANT: CENTER COMPANIES, LLC AND LOTUS LAKE GARDEN CENTER, INC. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This request has a couple of different motions to it which I’ll share with you in a minute but first I’ll give you a location. It’s th on West 78 Street. This is a street that was recently resurfaced by the city. The property itself is in two jurisdictions. Part of it’s in Carver County and part of it’s in Hennepin County. All certainly under the jurisdiction of the City of Chanhassen. The two different counties. The Planning Commission asked that, at their meeting just to get a better understanding of some of the surrounding uses so I did a little bit more detail map on this and historically in this area there’s a little bit different type of land uses. There is some highway business in this area. There’s an office building adjacent, immediately to the west of this. Chanhassen Office Building. You’ve got the existing use of this site which is, has been a commercial landscape garden with retail sales. Next to that is an industrial building. Immediately to the north is the railroad tracks, which topographically separates and I’ll give you some topography on that and the apartment buildings in Chanhassen. Eden Prairie is to the north and to the east of this site and then you’ve got the Lyman Lumber yard. The R.R. Donnelly building. Medical office so you have a lot of office use so this is, it is a permitted use in that zoning district but the retails a little bit different component in this area itself. And this is one issue that the Planning Commission wanted to make sure they understood. Then the other issue that the Planning Commission had, what they wanted to understand, what were the sight lines for this and I’ll explain to you how this relates to the project and the site itself, or the layout of the site but the elongated buildings along the railroad tracks are actually the parking garages so there’s a 7 foot difference on the top of the railroad tracks which is providing a visual break and I’ll show you on the parapet wall of the building itself how that provides screening. So this building is visible along the street itself. It also has screening from the office buildings, or the office building or the industrial buildings on either side, and ultimately the piece that will continue to have the garden center will be built on too so that kind of gives you that context of how that’s sitting. So the request then is for an amendment to the conditional use and the conditional use is for the garden center which will stay on a portion of that property in Carver County. Then the site plan approval is for the retail building itself with a parking variance for the front to allow more parking in the front of the building, and I’ll go through those. So again this is the site how it’s being operated today as a garden center. There’s growing, plantings in the ground on the eastern side. The western side also has plantings but the building’s on that side. Those buildings will stay as of today those buildings will be used as, continue to be used as the garden center. So all the plantings that are on the other piece will be moved over and the parking. Both parcels will still share the same driveway so that will continue to be access. Even when ultimate 11 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 development of that property, as you know we try to limit those curb cuts so that will be, continue to be operating that way. So the CUP will be amended as we talked about when we look at these projects we want to amend the underlying CUP so there is a motion for that. To amend the underlying conditional use to change that. So the site plan itself is for 8,000 square feet. It’s a multi-tenant building. We know the one user right now. The Haskell’s liquor store. There’s potential for additional users in there and I will show you that with the site plan. So the parking, 58% is in front so there’s an 8% increase in that and I’ll spend a little bit more time on that in a minute. But there is some shared parking too so the garden center can use some additional parking. This building can also. There’s 3 that kind of swing either way but there’s peak hours on one or the other. They certainly can benefit from that but the parking that was shown on this site is for retail use. If there was a higher use they’d have to demonstrate that they can meet with parking and that may mean that the garden center would have to go away if they needed additional parking, but for right now when it’s all straight retail, it would meet that so what wouldn’t meet it? If it was a restaurant or something that, especially with a restaurant with a liquor store, then that would require additional parking. So again the sidewalk, when the survey was done for the road, this is an old, old plat so the actual property line goes out into the street so we measured from the back of the sidewalk so it meets all the setbacks but I just wanted to point that out for the record. So you can see how the property line between the two counties falls in and how the existing uses work. The parking in front of Lotus Lawn and Garden Center, that elongated piece in the driveway’s kind of their overflow parking there. I just go back to the sidewalk again. The Planning Commission also asked about continuity. That sidewalk is th continuous along that street. West 78. So with the high articulation the Planning Commission again, kind of going back to the siting, what would the surrounding uses, what would they see. There’s the parapet wall in front of the doors is 9 feet. The rest of it’s lower but the building, the HVAC units are in the middle of the building so those should all be screened. Those are spelled out in the staff report too. So that should provide the additional screening. The façade and transparency was another issue that was addressed as far as the principle building. When you’re going down that street you get greater views, or more pronounced views on some of the sight lines there. So the code requires that 50% of the first floor elevation that’s viewed by the public th shall include a transparency so the main street, West 78 Street is the primary entrance, so that’s where it’s got the most transparency and that would be that south elevation so that has the most window space. On the west elevation, well not the primary. It does have a lot of public view so that’s at 45% so that was an interpretation made there. Then the applicant has provided some spanrow glass to enhance this. Then the east elevation on the drive aisles adjacent to the office industrial building is predominantly screened by landscaping so that’s up against that industrial building. A heavy user and part of that too, the thought with that is, the additional landscaping will provide some noise attenuation as there’s a lot of truck movement through there. Then the back of the building there was some discussion on, with the Planning Commission too. This could, this is really kind of a storage area in the back there and you’ve got the railroad tracks again. Kind of that noise and visual barrier so depending on what was to happen in the future, there wasn’t a lot of additional transparency required. While there is some visuals, mostly parking, it’s really pretty much from the public screened. I do have the colors of the buildings too here. On this, if anybody’s interested in those but the colors I think are pretty true if you looked at the other ones there regarding the stucco and the variety of materials. So I’ll just read it for you. It’s brick, block and then EFIS and then maybe I should just go back to this really quick. Combination of the brick, the block, the EFIS incorporated into the design so we’re 12 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 happy with the mix of the materials. Again the higher parapet. The pronounced entrance. Those are all the things that we look at on a retail building. So the lighting and signage, there are the 30 foot poles with, they’re using the LED type lighting on those and then there will be sign bands as you can see on the building itself meeting the requirement and there will also be a message center that will be located on the site and that monument sign will have the message display center. 25% as we amended in that code so they will also have that too and that gives them an opportunity if there are sales and those sort of things, to provide that, that messaging. Kind of that flexibility that we just most recently built in. The loading and refuse area. This came up as an issue for the Planning Commission. They wanted to make sure that when they were unloading for the store, for the liquor store itself that they could make the turn movements so you can go behind there with the loading, where the trash is and provide that hammer head turn around back there so it does work. The Planning Commission wanted to make sure that that was consistent with the, with these overall site plan including what would be at the garden center itself. So one of the issues we did also point out was the parking where you put, allowed more parking in the front of the building. You can see to the back of the building is where the storm water is. If you recall the watershed district evaluated those stormwater ponds a while ago so these would be treatment, swale basins in front of that with landscaping and berming so in order to provide more parking in front where the primary entrances are, instead of the back, we felt that this made some sense to put the variances in and again if you look at that sight line along the street it makes, I think it makes it friendlier to be out front so we did support that 8% variance to accommodate the parking use and the future use of those instead of maybe the employees being to the back and that sort of thing so we felt that that made a lot of sense to have that because the primary entrances are all in the front. So there is a slight variance there which is part of your motion too. I did just briefly mention the drainage so it meets all the water quality. This in itself is a bio-retention project on the back to maximize that site. Currently how this property is being used, there is no pre-treatment so this is an improvement to the current site. So with that, the recommendation we have for you is to approve the amendment to the conditional use, which would now take away from the retail center, garden center. Approve the site plan and then also provide the parking variance with the conditions in the staff report and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have. Mayor Furlong: Any questions for staff at this time? Councilwoman Ernst: I have a couple questions. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Kate can you speak a little bit more to the lighting on the eastern property line? So it sounds like it exceeds the one half foot candle requirement. Can we talk a little bit more to that? Where you’re asking them to revise the light plan. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, they gave us a photometrics and so if it’s over lit on the, I’m trying to see. Go back to the entire site here. Sorry. If you go back to the entire site. So just to make sure we’re not over lighting it, they gave us a plan that it can’t exceed the half foot candle, and that might be through the landscape. It might provide that screening so we just want to re- evaluate that. Maybe re-adjust where the posts are. Maybe eliminate one of the posts. Put them 13 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 in the right spot. These will also have lights on the building itself so just kind of re-evaluating that it’s not over lit. We certainly want the security in the back of the building but just to make sure that it meets those requirements. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this time? Mr. McDonald then Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilman McDonald: Do we know who the other retail businesses are going to be besides Haskell’s? Kate Aanenson: No, we do not. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Again the parking was based on retail so if they want to do something else, then we’d have to kind of re-visit the parking. If they wanted to do a restaurant, especially a restaurant with liquor, that does require more parking. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Is that issue spelled out in the conditions at this time? Kate Aanenson: Yeah we put it in the staff report. That the parking, let me just make sure it’s in the conditions of approval. Councilman McDonald: Is it part of conditions 1 through 5? Mayor Furlong: Is there a part in the staff report that we can just incorporate as? Kate Aanenson: Yeah. We might, if you want to be clear on that. All parking should be, I’m sorry. 1(d). All parking areas shall be provided with accessible…that wouldn’t be it. I think it’s probably best that we probably clarify that because in the staff report, we can just take that same language that says. Councilman Litsey: Page 11? Kate Aanenson: The parking requirements are predicated on the retail use. There’s approximately 3,044 square feet. If it was converted to a restaurant an additional 17 parking stalls would be required. I’m on page 11 of our staff report so if you wanted to make that. And you can just make it as simple as, if there was, if any of those spaces were converted to something non-retail, proof of parking is required. Mayor Furlong: Okay. And that would be in the. 14 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Kate Aanenson: Site plan. Which would be. Mayor Furlong: Engineering? Kate Aanenson: Yeah. Yeah, you can put that in. Mayor Furlong: Engineering group? Kate Aanenson: Sure. Mayor Furlong: Would that be the right, probably 4(j). Mr. Oehme, does that make sense to you? Paul Oehme: That’s fine. Kate Aanenson: That’s fine. That’s fine. Mayor Furlong: Or is there a better spot? Kate Aanenson: No, that’s fine. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Why don’t you work up some quick language just for clarification. Kate Aanenson: Sure, I’ll do that right now. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom, you had a question? Councilwoman Tjornhom: My questions were kind of on the same line as Councilman McDonald’s when it came to additional tenants and what was allowed in the BH district and what wasn’t. You know I guess I kind of had a bad experience a while ago with allowing something new and I didn’t necessarily get what I had thought I was planning on. Tell me a little bit about this, what kind of control we have over it. What kind of control we don’t have over it. Kate Aanenson: Well the zoning itself would be pretty similar to any other highway business orientated thing. It couldn’t be any restaurant because that would require more parking so. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. No drive thru’s or? Kate Aanenson: No. No. The circulation doesn’t work for that on this right now because that would require a modification to that. There’s no window, no driveway put in place. If we were to look at that site plan, that’s not put in place on this. Go the other way here. There’s no driveway accommodations on that building. If there was a modification to that, we would bring that back to you. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. 15 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Okay? Kate Aanenson: We’d be in that buffer between this and the Berquist building to the east. So it would not fit. Todd Gerhardt: But drive thru’s are permitted in the BH district. Kate Aanenson: They are but not at this location. It’s not approved as part of this site plan. Mayor Furlong: So it would be a change in the site plan. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. The site plan agreement. Mayor Furlong: Requirement and that’s why it would come back to the council. Kate Aanenson: That’s is correct. Mayor Furlong: Alright. If there’s a change in use or an additional use, would that just be handled at administrative? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. They would just, if it’s unfinished tenant space then typically they would apply for a building permit. The planning department would verify that it meets the conditions of the parking standards and if it didn’t then it would stop there and we’d make a decision on whether or not we wanted to bring it back to the City Council or they would not go forward with that use. Mayor Furlong: Okay. But if they were able to provide the proof of the parking with a use that was permitted with the zoning district then it would be. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Then it, staff would likely approve it. Everything else...okay. Alright. Any other questions for staff at this time? The applicant is here. Good evening. If you’d like to come up and address the council or. Mr. Merriman, how are you? Ben Merriman: Very good, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Good. Ben Merriman: My name is Ben Merriman. I’m with Center Companies and we’re the developer of the site. Just quickly to go through the site. It’s a bit of a tricky site as you can see from the beginning as Kate outlined. The property lines are extended through the service road and actually into the highway right-of-way and so there was some accommodations made on both sides and working with staff to try and get the plan to kind of fit into this site. There is also a number of easements that run right through the middle of the property. It’s quite a large easement and it’s for utilities. Unfortunately not all the utilities made it into the easement so we 16 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 had to deal with that as well and that kind of came up at the last minute so we have been adjusting the building, the size, the parking. Everything to try and accommodate all these variations that came up as we were trying to develop the site and I think what we came up with was something that lays out quite well. It functions quite smoothly. We do have a couple of extra spaces in the front but that’s due to how we kind of made all these adjustments to try to make everything work. We have taken a look at the loading. Haskell’s will go through a tremendous amount of product and we didn’t want to try and have trucks just parked in the driveway so we made accommodations on the west side so that the truck can come in. It can turn around and then back into the situation we have a loading access point for the liquor store at the back of the building versus having it park right out in the middle of the driveway so we think we’ve got a design that functions quite well and I think our architect did a very nice job in designing a building that looks quite nice. From that I think staff’s outlined everything about the building quite well but if you have any questions I could be more than happy to answer them. Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Questions for the applicant. One of the questions that came up that I wanted to address a little bit and that was in the back of the building, especially security issues. The lighting came up and more light’s better but at some point it spills out and so we’ve got to you know be careful about it intruding. At the same time security’s an issue and so my question to you is what plan is in place from a security standpoint around the building. Ben Merriman: It is a tricky issue and it happens around every building. I mean if you try to put too much light to have the security and that takes care of the security part but then you’re spilling over into neighbors and so it does become a little bit tricky. It’s also hard to, from a photometrics standpoint to stop light. I think Kate made an observation that’s true. We have wall packs that we attach to the building and we can put those in certain areas and angle them to a degree to highlight certain spots. We also have pole lighting which is also very effective but also can spill out more into neighborhoods. So I think that some of this is going to be a little bit on site to a certain degree. We may get on site and take a look at it and say okay, with this landscaping we may change. We may add a wall pack here. We may move a light pole so there’ll be some adjustments I think made in the field to this and I think those adjustments also spill over a little bit into the landscaping on the east side of the property. There’s a long line of mature trees there and we happen to have an expert with, as part of the project. Mayor Furlong: Landscaping’s taken care of. Ben Merriman: Along with Jill that can, they can work through that process but we’ll probably make some adjustments in the landscaping on site as well as to the type of trees and shrubs that will be planted along that way. We’ve got a very large rain garden in the back that we think will actually work quite well for filtration so we’re kind of excited about that. So that it can look good and it’s very functional. Todd Gerhardt: Sounds like change order number 1 already. Mayor Furlong: I hear those happen. Very good, thank you for the applicant? Yes, please. 17 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Jay Kronick: If I might just have the opportunity. Jay Kronick with Lotus Lawn and Garden, property owner. Just more, just general reflection. I remember over 20 years ago coming in and standing in this same room with this far fetched hair brain idea to start a garden center on a piece of what was essentially swampland and Todd’s probably the only other person in the room that was here at the time and he probably had some similar thoughts about how crazy this guy was. Todd Gerhardt: No. Jay Kronick: But it’s been just kind of fun to be part of the community. Rewarding. The City’s always been good to work with. I want to say thank you for that and look forward to this redevelopment and just kind of bringing another service and opportunity to… Thanks. Councilman McDonald: Could I ask you a question? You’re not going away are you? Jay Kronick: No. The garden center’s still there. That’s why we’ve got to revamped the CUP to make it work. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Okay, good. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. We’ll bring it back to council then for comments, discussion. Any thoughts or comments? Or any follow up questions. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll jump right in there. Yeah I just think it’s going to be a great addition to Highway 5. When you drive into town I think it’s a nice looking building and I just want to thank the applicant for, for what they’ve done to make sure that they’ve provided a good product for our town and I welcome you to our city and I want to thank staff and the Planning Commission for everything they did to get it to this point and congratulations. I hope it’s, I hope it’s successful. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Other thoughts and comments? Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Well actually I think they’ve addressed, as I was reading through the documentation, the points of interest that I had were really the parking, the lighting, the traffic. The trucks kind of bothered me but it sounds really like all that’s been addressed and so, and I love the design of the building so I like it. Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Councilman Litsey. Councilman Litsey: I’ll echo a lot of the same comments that have already been made about the time and effort that’s gone into this by everyone involved to make it work. I know it was very trying at times to try to get everything to work out just right but, and I know there’ll be some things in the future that we’ll have to provide some flexibility on too but architecturally I think it’s very appealing and as it’s already been stated coming into the community, it’s going to be a nice addition along Highway 5 so thanks for all the hard work. And I’m glad the nursery is going to be staying so. 18 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Mr. McDonald, anything else? Councilman McDonald: I’ll just echo the same comments. I mean yeah, it is a good plan. I’m glad the nursery’s staying. It’s good for that area. It will help us because that’s the first place you hit when you come into Chanhassen so this will be good. It starts to put something I think out there for the town to be so I’m pleased with it. Mayor Furlong: Comments well said. I don’t have anything to add. It’s, appreciate the work and effort and I think it makes sense to go forward here and it’s nice to, it’s nice that people are making an investment in Chanhassen, especially in these economic times so glad it’s working out and we wish you every success and look forward to seeing this building be constructed here in the coming weeks and months so thank you. I certainly stand for someone to make a motion at this time. Councilman McDonald: Before we do that, did you want to add a finding of 4(j)? Mayor Furlong: For a condition? Yeah do you have specific. Councilman McDonald: Well I’ve got some language if you don’t. What I have is for 4(j), current parking is approved for retail use with 64 parking stalls. Should future use include a restaurant, 34 additional parking stalls would need to be added. Kate Aanenson: Or you could just say for the record, I would say that too or you could say any use that goes into the site must be, meet the parking, follow city ordinance for parking standards. Then it’s more generic just in case something else was to come in. Mayor Furlong: It’s not just restaurant. Kate Aanenson: Yep. Mayor Furlong: Okay, is that? Kate Aanenson: Exactly, not just a restaurant. Just in case we have something that demanded more. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald, would you like to make… Councilman McDonald: Okay I would make the following motion. The Chanhassen City Council approves an amendment to Conditional Use Permit #88-13 to eliminate the Hennepin County parcel for a garden center and to relocate the storage bins to the Carver County parcel. And the Chanhassen City Council approves the Site Plan for an 8,000 square foot, one-story retail building, plans prepared by SEH dated 12/30/2009 with an 8% parking variance to permit 19 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 58% of the parking between the front façade and the primary street for property located at 19900 th West 78 Street, subject to conditions 1 through 5 with the inclusion of 4(j) and the Chanhassen City Council adopts the Planning Commission Findings of Fact. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Councilwoman Ernst: Second. Mayor Furlong: And the race goes to. We’ll let the minutes record who beat the second there. Unless you want to arm wrestle. That’s fine. Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves an amendment to Conditional Use Permit #88-13 to eliminate the Hennepin County parcel for a garden center and to relocate the storage bins to the Carver County parcel. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the Site Plan for an 8,000 square foot, one-story retail building, plans prepared by SEH dated 12/30/2009 with an 8% parking variance to permit 58% of the parking between the front façade and the primary street for property located at 19900 th West 78 Street, subject to the following conditions: Building Official 1. a. The buildings are required to have an automatic fire extinguishing system. b. The plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State of Minnesota. c. Accessible routes must be provided to commercial buildings. d. All parking areas must be provided with accessible parking spaces. As submitted the retail building must have a minimum of 2 accessible parking spaces, one of which must have an 8 foot access aisle. e. The owner and/or their representative shall meet with the Inspections Division as soon as possible to discuss plan review and permit. Forester 2. a. This parcel is within the Emerald Ash Borer Quarantine area. All ash trees removed on site must be disposed of at an MDA approved ash tree disposal site. b. The Black Hills spruce proposed at the northwest corner of the building must be replaced with a deciduous selection in order to avoid future sight line conflicts. 20 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 c. On the north property line the applicant is short over- and understory trees. Staff recommends that the applicant meet minimum requirements for buffer yard plantings on the east side. d. On the east property line the applicant is short over- and understory trees. Staff recommends that the applicant meet minimum requirements for buffer yard plantings on the east side. e. A line of shrubs must be planted along the parking lot on the south property line. The shrubs must have a minimum height of three feet at maturity. City approval of the shrubs species and planting spacing is required before installation. Water Resources 3. a. The following Standard City Plates shall be included in the submittal set: 1) Plate No. 5300 – Silt Fence (wooden posts are not to be used) 2) Plate No. 5301 – Rock Construction Entrance 3) Plate No. 6302A – Catch Basin Sediment Trap b. Sheet C1 of C5 calls out 8” PVC while sheet C5 of C5 indicates 8” PVC for the standpipes and 6” for the remaining perforated PVC. This discrepancy must be clarified. The Minnesota Stormwater Manual recommends an 8” draintile to reduce the potential for freeze up. c. No sock should be used around the under drain in the bio-retention areas. d. This will primarily be a Filtration Facility with Partial Recharge as described in the 2005 Minnesota Stormwater Manual. As such, the filter fabric over the gravel bed area but not extending to the side walls is adequate as shown. If insufficient separation is discovered between the bottom of the facility and the ground water, the fabric should be extended to the sidewalls as shown in Figure 12.BIO.4 of Chapter 12 in the 2005 Minnesota Stormwater Manual. e. Rock specifications are required for the draintile bedding in the bio-retention area. This rock must be clean, washed and may not include crushed limestone. f. No soil mixture is specified for the bio-retention area. Sheet L200 calls out a soil mixture for all areas to be planted with groundcover, perennials or annuals. This mixture is not suitable for the bio-retention area. The mixture may include not less than 40% sand by volume and may not incorporate any in situ soil materials. g. Measures must be taken to address the drain tile and curb cut discharge points into the bio0retention area to assure that they do not scour over time or fill up with debris. h. The invert elevations of the drain tiles where they enter the bio-filtration area must be called out on the plans. i. The applicant shall apply for and obtain permits from the appropriate regulatory agencies and comply with their conditions of approval. j. The existing grades are not legible on the civil plans. These must be clarified. k. The bio-retention area must be protected from heavy equipment traffic; this must be shown on the grading and utility plan sheets. l. The total disturbed area should be quantified and reported on the grading plan. If this is equal to one acre or more an NPDES permit and SWPPP will be required. 21 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 m. The developer shall comply with the requirements of the Carver Soil & Water Conservation District as specified in the letter to Robert Generous dated January 20, 2010. Engineering 4. a. A cross-access and parking agreement must be executed and recorded. b. The developer must provide a trucking route to the Engineering Department for review and approval. c. The grading plan must be changed so that the bio-retention basin will not be over the existing trunk watermain and sanitary sewer easement area. d. The developer shall replace the trunk watermain and will be reimbursed for the cost to replace the trunk watermain, install two gate valves, replace a fire hydrant and produce engineering as-built drawings. The reimbursement will be based on the actual cost to complete this work and shall not exceed $25,000. e. The new watermain shall meet the minimum City requirements, including stainless steel hardware on the valves and hydrant. f. A snake pit for the tracer wire shall be installed at each end. g. The sanitary sewer will be televised to determine its condition. The City will work with the developer to include maintenance or repair work if needed. h. The developer’s engineer must submit cross sections at the proposed utility crossings for review and approval. i. All civil sheets must be signed by an engineer registered in the State of Minnesota. j. Any use that goes into the site must follow city ordinance for parking standards. General 5. a. In locations where the sidewalk crosses the curb, a pedestrian ramp shall be provided. b. The applicant shall review the light plan to meet the requirement for 1/2 foot candle illumination at the property line. A revised photometric plan shall be submitted with the building permit to verify compliance with City Code. c. All signage shall comply with City Code and requires a separate sign permit application. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council adopts the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. CONSENT AGENDA: (G). APPROVE RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT TO APPLY FOR EAID GRANT MONEY TO INSTALL HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE AUTOMATIC DOORS ON TWO POLLING PLACES. 22 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Councilwoman Tjornhom: Thank you Mayor. Item 1(g) is regarding a grant the City wanted to apply for for some additional. Todd Gerhardt: Automatic door openers. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Thank you. I don’t know why I can’t find it. I’m going to give up pretty soon. There it is, thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Power assisted doors. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes, thank you. And while it seems that there should be no objection to it, I think in today’s times when we are seeing more and more money just becoming available for everything, I think sometimes it’s good opportunity to take a good look at it and say would I personally write a check for this or as a City would we personally write the taxpayer’s check for this because by applying for the grant and accepting it we are accepting money from taxpayers and I mean is it wise money? Is it spent wisely? Is this something that the council we like doing? I mean is this the right direction we want to send or the right message you want to send as to what we feel is important when it comes to spending tax dollars? Mayor Furlong: I guess my thoughts are similar and just for some information points. The point here is that the City went out and received some bids for about $4,000 to $5,000 each to install some automatic door openers at a couple of our polling places that currently don’t have them. I look at it really from an economic standpoint for $4,000 to $5,000 we can have a volunteer or an election judge at $100 per election to stand there and open the door and greet voters coming in much more effectively. Just from a payback period of about 40 to 50 years, if I’m doing my math right so it’s not big dollars. $10,000 as an overall project is not big dollars. It wouldn’t break the bank of the City or the source of funds here. I think this is a federal grant being solicited through the Secretary of State’s office. Todd Gerhardt: Correct. Mayor Furlong: Through the State. I looked at it and I agree Councilwoman Tjornhom. I mean at some point you’ve got to say just because the money’s available doesn’t mean we should spend it now. I don’t want to criticize staff for bringing the opportunity up to the council. We need to be aware of these opportunities but I think in this case if it’s not something the City would spend their money on. If it doesn’t make economic sense for the City then I don’t think we should be seeking grant opportunities for that as well so. Other thoughts on this Councilwoman Ernst? Councilwoman Ernst: Just a quick question. So this isn’t an ADA requirement, right? It’s not a code requirement? Todd Gerhardt: No. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. 23 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Todd Gerhardt: Buildings for access have to have so many pounds of pressure to open up the door and both of these facilities meet that requirement or can adjust the doors to meet that requirement so it is not code that you have access. Power assisted access, sorry. Councilwoman Ernst: Was there a purpose behind bringing this forward? I’m curious. Todd Gerhardt: My guess is Secretary of State and the federal government had heard you know complaints throughout the US and Minnesota that they’d like to all have all polling places have power assisted doors to access the polling places and so to stimulate that achievement they’ve provided grant opportunities for communities to request those funds. Councilman Litsey: Is part of it people that are in that situation where they need that assistance, it offers them a chance to be more self reliant and independent than having to rely on somebody else? I mean is there a. Todd Gerhardt: That is another one of the factors. Councilman Litsey: I mean is there something where they can do it themselves versus having to have someone do it for them. I think that plays into a little bit of accessibility and self pride and being able to be self sufficient without having others to open a door for them or whatever. That they can just, like everybody else, go through the door and not have to have special assistance which draws attention to their handicap and things like that so I think the motive behind it is good. To provide people that have that situation or handicap to be self reliant and not have to draw attention to it by having someone, oh you need help opening that door kind of thing. Todd Gerhardt: That’s right. That I think is right out of the ADA book. Councilman Litsey: And I didn’t read it from there. It just seems to me that we should try to do our best to, for all citizens, give them access not only at polling booths but also give them that ability to be self reliant and not draw attention to their handicap if at all possible. Councilman McDonald: Well I guess the only comment I’ve got is why are we putting it in Christ Lutheran Church? I can see an argument for maybe the fire station but I can’t see an argument for the church. That’s not a government building. It’s used once a year maybe and then the rest of the year you know they have the advantage of that. That’s not what citizens should be paying their tax dollars for so I guess I have a bigger problem with the church. Yeah, the fire station, I don’t know if it needs it or not. That’s the only problem I would have with it is, yeah what’s the need beyond the polling and is it worth to put it there from the City’s perspective. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. The number of polling places we have in the community, the two that do not have power assisted doors are the fire station and the church. Councilman McDonald: Well but isn’t the church one of those scheduled that you know we built the public works building and isn’t that a potential site for a polling spot there? 24 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Todd Gerhardt: It could be. Until we really sit down and look at reconfiguring our precincts you know I can’t answer that today. Until we get to that point and there’s going to be a variety, sitting through that once before, there’ll be probably a variety of different variations of how you’re going to lay out those precinct boundaries based on new growth that’s occurred and the key thing will be where do we have polling places to accommodate those precincts? That was the big struggle and wherever we have options you know we should look at that. There is the question that should we be providing tax dollars to benefit a private building like a church. That’s one thing you could look at. We appreciate that the church allows us to use their facility as a precinct and this one again goes back to where they want to provide barrier free access for anybody with a disability during an election and is why the grant application is out there. It doesn’t mean everybody’s guaranteed. I don’t even, I’m unsure what the, how much money is out there. My guess, you know every community received this request and so I’m unsure if we’ll even be awarded. Mayor Furlong: I mean I think the issue of potential re-districting and polling places is not something that I thought of at this point but re-districting is going to occur 2 years? Councilwoman Ernst: 2 years. Todd Gerhardt: 2 years. Mayor Furlong: In 2012. Maybe the precincts will be similar. Polling places may be similar. They may not be but I think that’s, especially for, well we certainly appreciate all the, we have a number of churches that open up their doors literally, no pun intended with regard to our voting. I guess we don’t know if that’s going to continue. And I understand that the desire to provide access without somebody being in there, I mean I understand that. I’m not arguing against the idea here. I just think the economics are beyond what’s reasonable. It’s a good idea but as governments, whether it’s at the City, County, State, Federal level, we can’t fund every good idea and this is just one that I think the economics I think miss a little bit for the purpose stated so. And on top of that with the, I’m sorry. Councilman Litsey: No, actually I interrupted you. No I was just going to say that would it be possible to, I had kind of the same concern about the church too in terms of private versus public. Would it be possible to put in an application for just the main fire station? I mean there wouldn’t be anything precluding that. I see that as having a greater benefit in terms of accessibility for other times as well. Or is it all or, all or nothing? Todd Gerhardt: Nope. You know they will look at criteria. In the application we had to submit criteria on the number of seniors that are in that precinct and for the one that the fire station is located, 7% of the number of individuals that vote there are 65 or older and the individuals at the church we have 17% of the people that vote there are 65 and older so. Councilman Litsey: Probably a greater need actually at the church. Todd Gerhardt: The church would probably point out higher than the fire station. 25 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Any other thoughts or comments on this? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Just one more question. Not to belabor the point but have we had a problem with people coming to vote and they haven’t been able to gain access? Todd Gerhardt: No. Councilwoman Tjornhom: To our facilities. Mayor Furlong: Not that I’m aware of. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Well a motion’s been proposed but I don’t know if anybody wants to make a motion or no action is required if that’s the sense of the council as well. Is there any other discussion? I mean we don’t have to, we could make a motion to deny the application or we could just not make a motion to approve the application. I mean the point is, as before us there’s no action required on this if that’s desired. If somebody wants to make a motion I’d certainly entertain that at this point. Councilwoman Ernst: So we need to make a motion to take it out? Mayor Furlong: No. Councilwoman Ernst: We don’t. Mayor Furlong: My point is, my understanding is, I mean it’s on our agenda but we don’t have, we don’t have to take action on it if we don’t want to. Councilwoman Ernst: Oh, okay. Mayor Furlong: Unless, Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’d like to make a motion that we do not take action on this tonight. Councilwoman Ernst: I would second it. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Any other discussion? Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to take no action on item 1(g). Approve Resolution of Support to Apply for EAID Grant Money to Install Handicapped Accessible Automatic Doors on Two Polling Places. All voted in favor, except Councilman Litsey who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: None. 26 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Todd Gerhardt: I attended the 276 Leaders meeting last week and the reason I bring that up, it was a little bit different meeting based on the attendance. We had 276’s entire school board there and they were asking each of the cities that are located in the 276 district, you know what’s working on our relationships with the school district and where can we improve and I talked about our lifeguard contract with them. We talked about Tour de Tonka which Community Ed supports that comes through our community. We also talked about location of wells on the Middle School West property and I think it’s been a positive relationship. We did have some issues with the lifeguard contract but you know they are very responsible in taking corrective action with the issues that we had and so I think it’s been a positive. If there’s anything else that the mayor or council can think about I could pass onto them that you think would be an opportunity to partner or improve on, you know let me know and I can pass that word on. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Todd Gerhardt: That’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Councilman Litsey: So you were subjected to another Litsey? Todd Gerhardt: Yes I was. Councilman Litsey: If one isn’t enough. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. They’re everywhere. Bryan’s brother is on the school board so, and got to meet him for the first time so that was great. Councilman Litsey: He’s a good guy. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. They do a great job. You know had a good meeting. They did give us a tour of the new high school remodel and expansion and just changed that building completely so they’re doing a good job over there. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. Councilman McDonald: I guess the only thing I was going to bring up was the letter from the General Mills employee about our, you know staff helping her out and I really appreciate that because we do try to put forth an effort to the public that we’re here to help and so you know pass along my gratitude. I’m sure the rest of the council’s but, you know for doing that because that’s what we’re here to do is to help serve the community. Todd Gerhardt: Thank you. I’ll pass that on. 27 Chanhassen City Council – February 22, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Any other thoughts, comments, discussion? If not we will be completing our last item, item B on our work session immediately following this meeting in the Fountain Conference Room. The public’s always welcome to those. If there’s nothing else to come before this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 28