CC Minutes 2002 10 28CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Jansen, Councilman Labatt, Councilman Boyle,
Councilman Ayotte, and Councilman Peterson
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Teresa Burgess, Bruce DeJong, Justin
Miller, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, and Kelley Janes
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Chase Carroll
Bryant Johnson
Pam Latanision
Bob & Jan Crees
Dan & Dave Marsh
Steven Lillehaug
Janet Paulsen
8801 Wedgemere Drive, Victoria
2051 Timberwood Drive
7656 South Shore Drive
890 Nez Perce Court
Planning Commission
7305 Laredo Drive
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Jansen: Good evening. Thank you for joining us this evening. We ran a little bit late this,
coming down. Our apologies. We were working on our capital improvement plan with some
additional staff that had come in to work specifically with us on that so we wanted to take
advantage of that time the best we could. Let's see, we have no public announcements. Though
with I guess the heavy weight of what did occur in the State last week, I feel as though it may be
appropriate to just mention our sympathies for what occurred with the Wellstone's and what the
state is now going through. Certainly it has added a heavy weight to the elections and we
certainly feel for the families and it, I think we're in an interesting time to actually see how the
process plays through as to how they go about replacing him but, I believe there's a memorial
tomorrow. A memorial service but I don't have the specifics of that but thought it was certainly
appropriate to.
Councilman Labatt: William's Arena, University of Minnesota campus.
Todd Gerhardt: 6:30.
Councilman Labatt: 6:30.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Okay, so then moving on.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Labatt seconded to approve
the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager's recommendations:
Adopt the 2001 Minnesota Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices as the Standard
for All Traffic Control in the City of Chanhassen.
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Approve Amendment to the Development Contract for Knob Hill 2nd Addition, Project
02-06.
Resolution #2002-93: Approval of a Resolution for the Final Plat of the Villages on the
Ponds 8th Addition, VOPI, LLC.
Approve Modification to the Personnel Policy Concerning Family and Medical Leave
Act.
Approval of Purchase Agreement Extension, Infinity of Chanhassen, Lots 2 & 3, Block 1,
Crossroads Plaza 3rd Addition.
h. Approval of Bills.
Approval of Minutes:
- City Council Work Session Minutes dated October 14, 2002
- City Council Minutes dated October 14, 2002
Receive Commission Minutes:
- Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated September 24, 2002
Resolution #2002-94: Authorize Preparation of Feasibility Study to Consider
Construction of a Cul-de-sac at Kiowa Trail.
k. Resolution #2002-95: Approval of Change Order No. 3, Chanhassen Library Project.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: UPDATE ON COUNTY FUNDING FOR THE
CHANHASSEN LIBRARY, COMMISSIONER JOHN SIEGFRIED.
Mayor Jansen: Moving on under visitor presentations, we have one scheduled presentation. Is an
update on County funding for the Chanhassen Library. We have Commissioner John Siegfried
with us here this evening. Welcome John.
John Siegfried: Well welcome Madam Mayor and members of the Council. I thought it was
appropriate for me to just come before the Chanhassen City Council and get the first person
perspective on the issue as it relates to funding for the Chanhassen library. There has been a lot
of rhetoric from various sources saying this and that and wanting to make the issue into a more
complex situation than it actually has to, but to simplify it. Yes, the County Board of
Commissioners will support full funding for the Chanhassen library and it will be along the lines
of committing to staffing for X number of hours. I believe it's 60 hours and then outfitting the
building appropriately and so forth, and hopefully everybody realizes that that equipping and
outfitting doesn't mean that every bookshelf that will be in that facility for the anticipated 20 year
need will be in there from day one. But we'll make every effort to equip and have as good of a
collection of materials as we possibly can. The process is not very well understood by a lot of
people as to how the County goes about it's business as far as determining what the appropriate
expenditures are, but what we do of course is initially have budget hearings. Those occur in
summer, July, June timeframe. Different department heads talk to two commissioners that are
assigned to that particular department. Various...back and forth occurs. The County
Administrator listens, determines which areas are completely supported. Which ones maybe need
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
to be modified and so forth ultimately makes your recommendation to the County Board for
consideration for our adoption of the preliminary levy, and that occurs in September. And that
preliminary levy of course is maximum amount of dollars that will be levied for taxes payable in
'03, and the whole situation started getting somewhat complex at that point based on the fact that
there was a strong insistence on having a guarantee of full funding for the Chanhassen library
during that process of setting that preliminary levy. And ultimately the maximum levy that was
supported basically was the same levy that was moved numerous times to provide the funding for
the entire county's needs next year with the deletion of the specific reference to the Chanhassen
library, and logic behind that of course is that there wasn't majority agreement to give any
specific preferential treatment or funding guarantee to any specific department. That basically
was premature and not appropriate to single out any one department, even one that is fully
supported by the citizens of Chanhassen and I'm fully aware of the referendum and the wide
amount of support that the Chanhassen library has received through funding referendum from the
citizens of Chanhassen. However, after the preliminary levy is set, then the administrator tries to
determine, because typically that preliminary levy is significantly less than what his
recommendation is, so he has to try to sort it out between what he had hoped the Board would do
for a maximum levy and what actually occurred so then he has to go through another process.
Make determinations as to what his recommendations are for reductions for funding for '03, so
after he went through that task and analysis, and based on a lot of effort from the Friends of the
Library in Chanhassen and a lot of support from different individuals that really were concerned
about the funding for the Chanhassen library, the administrator did ultimately recommend that
full funding occur. And that decision was right in the same, or his recommendation was right in
the same timeframe basically that we had a County Board candidate forum and at that time I gave
my assurance, that was my intent anyway that Chan library would have full funding, but some
took that to mean that if I didn't just say the words I fully guarantee that the Chanhassen library
will have every dollar that the library board would appreciate having, that meant that my support
was suspect and questioned so. And there were some other information pieces that came out.
One editorial in the local paper that was very inaccurate as far as the conclusions that the writer
did arrive at, and also there was some inaccurate information that was published in an article
specifically on the Chanhassen library so with that said, the funding will be available for the
facility when you do have it up and completed and I just looked at it a little bit tonight. I see it is
coming along nicely, but it has quite a way to go so as far as completion I'm sure it's still
probably a late spring of next year project would be my guess. So there will be an article
commentary coming out by me presumably in Chaska and Chanhassen papers this week.
Presumably there will be a letter that will be from the Chaska Library Friends of the Chanhassen
Library, or I mean the Carver County Library Board, Friends of the Chanhassen Library that will
give some additional clarification of this issue and with my letter hopefully, and with me
appearing before you, you will, the word will be out that yes, there will be funding, full funding
for this Chanhassen library. And just because a full guarantee isn't given for something, but still
adequate support based on financial considerations is the promise that, if you don't utter the
words full funding guarantee, that still does not mean that, or that does not mean that you're
renigging on promises that were made so. Therefore, go forward with the anticipation that Carver
County Board of Commissioners will provide the resources to adequately get the operation of
your library underway when you get the facility completed so, those are the extent of my remarks
Madam Mayor.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you. Appreciate your coming and sharing with us that information.
I guess I just have one question. When you're saying full funding, I'm assuming that that is
indicating that you're approving the funding that was requested by the Library Board. Is that
what you're referring to as full funding, is funding their request?
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
John Siegfried: That is correct, yes.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Okay, just so we, I think we all have the same understanding then which is
terrific. So you're anticipating that there will be no changes as you move forward and get into
your final approvals, which we all understand of course is in December once you get to your final
approvals of your budgets.
John Siegfried: Well again, based on the administrator's recommendation, looking at all the
various county departments and doing his magic, his recommending full funding as requested by
the Library Board for the Chanhassen Library. So that is my story and I'm sticking to it.
Mayor Jansen: I appreciate it. Any questions or comments for John?
Councilman Boyle: No, that was the only question I had so, that's good.
Mayor Jansen: Alright. And we're anticipating the construction being complete late spring,
correct? Or early summer.
Todd Gerhardt: End of May, June. In there, depending on weather.
Mayor Jansen: We've had a few rain delays, as you can imagine, unfortunately.
John Siegfried: I saw that you had one change order for de-watering and a few things like that so.
Mayor Jansen: Few complications.
John Siegfried: Tough construction season, no doubt about it. We've had the same issues with
some of our road projects so.
Mayor Jansen: You can understand.
John Siegfried: We have empathy for you.
Mayor Jansen: Well thanks for coming this evening. We appreciate it.
John Siegfried: You're welcome. Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Thanks. Moving on with visitor presentations. If there is anyone in the audience
that has an issue of city business that you'd like to bring to the council's attention at this time,
you're welcome to approach the podium and address the council. Seeing no one, I will close
visitor presentations and we'll move on to our next agenda item.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Jansen: Sergeant Dave Potts. Oh, John Wolff is going to go first. Our Fire Department.
John Wolff: We did a little switch.
Mayor Jansen: Good evening Chief.
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
John Wolff: Good evening. It's great to be here. Just wanted to give you a brief report on Fire
Prevention Week. It was October 6th through the 13th. This is a kind of an annual focus that we
put on fire prevention and we primarily address our programs towards the school children that go
to school here in Chanhassen. We reached 1,900 students during that week. About 1,200
actually in person, and another 700 through some programs that we do. We have a coloring
contest and a poster contest, but addressing kindergarten through fifth grade. We reached 1,900
students. It was approximately 225 man hours, or person hours. And we had about 35 volunteer
members from the fire department that took time off that week to do the fire ed program so we're
very pleased with the continued support we get from our membership during this important week.
We culminated the week with our Open House, which I saw many of you also attend and
appreciate your attendance there. We had approximately 2,000 residents from our city attend that
day and that was about a 4 hour session on Sunday, the 13th so a very successful week for the, for
Fire Prevention Week. Just a couple of other items just wanted to update you on. The 800
megahertz conversion for the fire department radios is underway. We've purchased our radios,
and all the fire departments in the county have purchased their radios and we're currently
programming the radios for the new system, and we're in also going to start rolling out a training
program so that when either at the end of this year, or early next year when we roll over from the
VHF system to the 800 system, we'll be ready for that. And so we're kind of busy with that at
this point and kind of working out the training and programming. Calls continue to be down this
year relative to last year. We're down approximately 15 percent. This is primarily driven by a
very, very slow or low first quarter activity. We've been pretty much on target since the first
quarter, but year to date approximately 15 percent down. And we've lost approximately 5 fire
fighters over the past 3 months resulting from retirements. We lost 2 fire fighters. One to another
fire department. A full time fire department, and one to a full time paramedic position which
we're kind of out of the area and we had one other transfer so. We kind of had enjoyed about an
18 month period without a lot of turnover. Normally we see this kind of turnover, approximately
5 to 10 a year on our 45 person squad, so we're anticipating the need for a class in the following
year, so that's something we'll start gearing up for shortly so. I'll take any questions if there are
any.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you. Council, any questions for John?
Councilman Ayotte: Hi John. On the 800 system that we have, that will give us commonality,
we can interface with Hennepin County and so on. Which ones can we not, through our joint
powers agreement communicate with? Do we have anybody that, even with the 800 system we
cannot communicate with through our joint powers agreement?
John Wolff: Well you have to almost look at where we are currently, and today we have a system
that allows us to communicate with fire departments in the county, and we have the ability to
communicate with any fire department through the statewide fire channel, which is also currently
in the VHF block. We're going to a system which will continue to have the statewide band,
which is a mutual aid channel that all fire departments in the state have access to, but in addition
to that we're picking up probably a dozen other mutual aid channels which allows you to kind of
target which departments will work on which channel, if you have a multiple unit operation. We
need to work out connectivity with Eden Prairie because they have a unique system. We need to
work out connectivity with Bloomington. We're going to have connectivity with almost every
other fire department with this new system. Everyone's kind of anticipated that there will be
some unique situations so there's a lot of planning that's gone into place.
Councilman Ayotte: How about Minnetonka?
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
John Wolff: To set up the connectivities, and that's another department that chose not to go on
the 800 so we'll have to, we'll pick them up on statewide but we may also choose to find another
channel.
Councilman Ayotte: Well the only reason why I'm concerned, is that you should be too because
we're on the border of Minnetonka, but so is there a concern where we need to address
connectivity and an order of merit with certain communities to enhance the safety?
John Wolff: That planning process is underway and it has been underway for a period of time. I
don't have any concerns about our ability to communicate, because there already is a band that
sits there or channel that sits there and we look towards having a specific one for the Minnetonka
connection.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay, thanks.
John Wolff: You bet.
Mayor Jansen: Any other questions for John? Okay. Thanks for coming this evening. Appreciate
it. And Sergeant Dave Potts. Good evening.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Good evening Mayor, Council members. I too am not an expert in the 800
megahertz radio system, but you heard me make comments on it before and I would just add to
what John's response was that there are constant upgrades and even though the system is brand
new, they're always looking for ways to increase the connectivity between the surrounding
agencies. We just added a whole other, we have three zones in our system each having 10 or 12
talk groups or channels. We now have a fourth zone, adding about 10 more talk groups or
channels that goes directly with every agency that surrounds Carver County, and I assume they're
looking at all those angles, not just with law enforcement but with fire and emergency medical as
well, and that's one of the pluses to this new system is the ability to connect and to cross patch
with our new system and the old VHF system that some agencies still have, or agencies that have
800 megahertz systems that are not directly linked with our's. They develop links with those
systems for that communication link so, it's pretty incredible and it seems to be always increasing
in it's capacities so, just a comment on that. From my part of it this evening, on my memo to the
council, items 1 through 4 are the usual attachments. The sheriffs office area report. The
citation list. Community Service Officer info and Crime Prevention Specialist info. Any
comments or questions on those items?
Mayor Jansen: Council?
Councilman Labatt: On the area report Dave, a couple things that stuck out for me, just from my
experience. In looking at, how many, first, how many deputies do we have working Chan? How
many, I mean there are 8, 10 or 12 deputies?
Sgt. Dave Potts: There's 10 deputies to cover the Chan contract.
Councilman Labatt: And 11 including you, right?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Correct.
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Labatt: Okay. Just give me a minute. Couple things that have stuck out that I want
to bring to your attention that I'm concerned about is, on the area report, under citations issued.
August and September experienced over a 50 percent drop in productivity.
Sgt. Dave Potts: I noticed that myself and when you look at the summer months, generally we
have a large increase with water patrol and park patrol being out and about in the city, and then
when you get into the winter months you generally have the snow bird parking, or the winter
parking violations that can tend to be a really large increase. What I've noticed over the course of
time is just kind of a, there seems to be an average of roughly 100 citations in a month.
Councilman Labatt: Well I see that the low is 94 in April.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Yeah, and I noticed both August and September.
Councilman Labatt: August is usually a busy month.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Yeah, August and September both being low. I haven't completely checked
into that. What I noticed is there weren't a lot of citations outside of traffic on the list, and that
citation list generally includes all citations, whether it be a citation for theft or a citation for
speeding or you know, any other kind of a crime where an actual citation is issued versus
somebody arrested or formally charged by the County Attorney's office.
Councilman Labatt: Right.
Sgt. Dave Potts: So it led me to wonder, was there perhaps a glitch in the record system in not
capturing some of that, or were the numbers actually down?
Councilman Labatt: You can look into that then and see if, I'll keep going on with my points of
concern here. So that was number one. Number two is looking at the citation listing by beat,
obviously the 200 badge numbers are the part-timers, correct?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Correct.
Councilman Labatt: 763 is our CSO?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Correct.
Councilman Labatt: And the 800 are the deputies assigned to Chan?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Right.
Councilman Labatt: I'm wondering what happened to the other 2 or 3 of them that are on the list
that have no citations listed for their month of September.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Yeah, there would have been, according you know if everything is correct, then
there would have been no citations for the officers not on the list for that month.
Councilman Labatt: Right. For those officers that worked this month, the 11 officers that work,
including yourself, they should all have some sort of productivity over this month of issuing one
ticket maybe, or a dozen. Correct?
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Sgt. Dave Potts: Well we don't have any quotas.
Councilman Labatt: I'm well aware of that but we have, I think as a contract, I have a minimum
expectation of what I expect out of the deputies, and quite frankly to work the full time job for a
month and not issue one ticket I think is wrong.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Well that's an issue that we can discuss further.
Councilman Labatt: And there's for the month of August there are deputies missing from this list
too that I know work Chan, and they're missing again and I'm just wondering what's going on
there is my question. I want to bring it up to you as a city councilor that I have expectations, so
those are my only two points.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Councilman Labatt: I think that something needs to be looked at here, and if it's a computer
glitch, it's a glitch but.
Mayor Jansen: If you could get back to us on that, we'd appreciate it.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Will do.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Any other questions on the reports?
Councilman Ayotte: Remember the, and I don't know if I'm, is it the CrimNet?
Sgt. Dave Potts: CrimNet, correct.
Councilman Ayotte: CrimNet. Is there any way that we could, because we're going to be the
beta site or the test bed for that application, as I understand it right?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Correct. One site.
Councilman Ayotte: Is there anything that we can do to get, as this goes on, an update on what
the status is and the progress of the test bed and whether it's a good thing or not such a good
thing, and it's evolution? I think it's pretty exciting that one, we've been selected. But two, and I
don't want to wait a year to hear more about it. I'd like to hear if there's maybe on a quarterly
basis or something that we could do to get a status report on it's progression.
Sgt. Dave Potts: That's something I can inquire about. I don't know if they have anything
scheduled as far as ongoing releases or how that's going, but it's certainly something I can look
into.
Councilman Ayotte: Thanks.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Anything else on those? Okay. Under miscellaneous items. There was an
attachment titled job well done under there which was simply re-printed from the sheriff's office
internal newsletter that was 3 different letters received from citizens regarding incidents or
personnel related to Chanhassen. The first one was a well known search for a mission woman in
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Chanhassen here, written by family members thanking everyone involved for their efforts in the
recovery there. Had a rather unusual thank you letter from a young girl, or a juvenile female who
was stopped for a traffic violation by Deputy Eric Kittleson in Chanhassen who sent a thank you
letter. Somebody getting stopped for a traffic violation, you don't often see thank you letters but
complimenting him on his professionalism demeanor and she had her car taken away and she was
grounded by her parents after the officer contacted them.
Councilman Ayotte: That was not my daughter incidentally.
Sgt. Dave Potts: And a letter regarding Chanhassen Detective Roger Roach, our primary
Chanhassen investigator who happens also to be our lead arson investigator for the sheriff's
office. Recognized for his assistance at a state arson investigation class, so there's just some nice
things to receive from time to time. Under community events, you have the Chan Fire Open
House. We had the Chan school resource officer Dave Solinsky present up there as well as
representatives from our water patrol there with the water patrol boat and vehicle up there. And
of course Beth Hoiseth with crime prevention information on hand as well. And just this past
Friday the 25th at the first and hopefully annual Chanhassen Senior Citizens Safety Seminar. A
day long event with safety topics for seniors in our community. This was a joint operation
between the City of Chanhassen and the City of Victoria, sponsored in part by Chanhassen
American Legion Post 580 and the Victoria Lions Club. The day started out at 9:00 a.m. Went to
roughly 3:00 p.m., with topics on just a law enforcement overview. How law enforcement works
in Carver County and Chanhassen, as well as some crime prevention information. Chanhassen
Fire did a class and demonstration on fire prevention. Victoria Fire did fire safety and
extinguisher training, allowing the participants to actually use a fire extinguisher in putting out an
actual fire. The Attorney General's office had consumer education administrator Ben Welle talk
about frauds and scams, particularly those affecting senior citizens. We also had Don Banya who
is a mouth artist and inspirational speaker who happens also to be a quadriplegic from a
motorcycle accident many years ago spoke to the group as kind of a side from the safety topics
that we were covering that day. But very well received. Ben Falk, a Ridgeview Medical Center
paramedic talked about emergency medicine and medical calls. The capabilities of paramedics
and emergency rooms in our area. A lot of good comments.., fill out critique forms and got just
overwhelming number of positive comments and people saying they would like to see this happen
on a regular basis, that type of thing so, sounds like we started something good there. Kind of an
outgrowth of the child safety camp that the city hosts every year so be looking to do those
probably on an annual basis.
Mayor Jansen: Great, and Sergeant did you say how many people actually attended?
Sgt. Dave Potts: We had 50 sign up. I think there were a few, about 45 participants altogether so
we felt real good for our first year having a pretty good number of people participate in that.
Mayor Jansen: Sure. Great, great.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Regarding crime, I've been in front of the council before talking about car
prowlers in the city and of course this is not unique to Chanhassen. However I do have some
good news as it relates to theft from parked vehicles and theft from vehicles inside garages.
Recently we had a vehicle stolen from the city of Chanhassen. The car prowlers were looking for
something to steal and found the vehicle keys under the seat, so decided to take the whole
vehicle. That vehicle was recovered later in the morning out near Waconia where another vehicle
was stolen. That vehicle from Waconia later recovered in the city of Waconia. However that
very night deputies responded to a citizen report of some suspicious activity late at night around a
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
parked car in the neighborhood. The only description they had was a red pick-up truck and
deputies responding to the neighborhood found 5 red pick-up trucks parked throughout the
neighborhood, but in this case Deputy Keith Walgrave was the officer responding, noted the
license plate numbers of those parked pick-up trucks and within a short time one of those was
seen leaving the area of that neighborhood. A stop was made on that vehicle which contained 5
young people, along with some property stolen out of a different vehicle in that neighborhood.
One of the occupants also had an automobile key in their pocket that happened to be the key for
the stolen Waconia vehicle, which of course is a link to the Chanhassen stolen which brings it all
right back home here to Chanhassen. In another case, South Lake Police which covers the cities
of Shorewood, Excelsior, and surrounding communities over there, have been experiencing
similar problems with car prowls in their city. One of their officers was out on a stakeout
recently and just by luck or happenstance, a little skill all mixed in together, interrupted kids
breaking into a vehicle. Was able to catch one of them, which in mm resulted in capturing all
three of them. Some further investigation and search warrants recovered $2,000 to $3,000 worth
of property stolen out of probably 100 different vehicles. And that investigation is currently
ongoing but again there was a link with the property that was recovered, a credit card from a
Victoria theft incident and mode of operation of this group very similar to some incidents we've
had in the Chanhassen area so looks like some cooperation between our investigation and South
Lake investigation has apprehended two different groups of car prowlers. May or may not end up
resulting in charges against these people for the crime specific to Chanhassen, depending on what
they're able to come up with but we believe, or firmly believe that it's two of the groups that have
been in the Chanhassen area so real nice to make that nab. But it's commonly the way it goes. A
little piece of citizen input, a little police skill and a little bit of luck, all kind of thrown into the
mix where we get a break on these types of cases and they have been aggravating so it's nice that
we have something along those lines.
Mayor Jansen: That would be some good news, if it helps to curb the activity we've had here in
Chan.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Very good news. And the last item I had for council was just something we
have coming up in November. November 14th doing recognition for our neighborhood watch
coordinators. They're all being invited down to the sheriffs office where Chanhassen Crime
Prevention is going to supply a little dinner and we're going to provide a tour of our new dispatch
center and the sheriffs office crime lab. It's kind of a way to recognize our neighborhood watch
coordinators efforts and involvement with the program, so for any of them who might be
watching the broadcast, get signed up so. But that's all I had for council this evening. Any other
comments or questions?
Mayor Jansen: Great. Any questions or comments for Dave?
Councilman Ayotte: I'll send an e-mail. Somebody had some vandalism in the area. We're
starting to see some, at least neighborhoods I drove through and I'll deal with you one on one on
that. Where vandalism's starting to crop up... mailbox smashing and so.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Anything else?
Councilman Labatt: No more.
Mayor Jansen: Alright, thank you. Appreciate your report.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Thank you.
10
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
PUBLIC HEARING: CERTIFICATION OF DELINQUENT UTILITY ACCOUNTS.
Bruce DeJong: Mayor Jansen and council members. What we do on an annual basis is certify
those delinquent water and sewer bills due the city to the property taxes for the following year.
What we have in town is about 7,000 utility accounts in total and we have about 2 percent of
them that are delinquent for more than 3 months. So what you're seeing is a list of all of those.
All the individuals have been notified. If it is a rental property, the owners have also been
notified that the utility payment has not been paid by the renters and that it will be assessed
against the property tax if not paid in full by December 1st. So that's kind of the timeframe as we
go through and certify right now. And then we make a final certification to Carver County
removing any of those folks who have paid their bills or made some type of a payment
arrangement with us during the course of... I think what you're seeing right now is, we typically
have about this number of delinquent accounts, but the average dollar value is going up. It's
probably an indication of people getting a little bit farther behind on the bills that is probably an
indication of a little bit the economic climate that we're starting to see. So I apologize, I do not
have a resolution in here. I should have had that but I'm not certain if anyone is here tonight to
actually speak at the public hearing. We did offer an opportunity for people on the list to sign up
and present a case. We have not heard back that anyone will, but I recommend that you hold the
public hearing and adopt the certification after this.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff at this time? Then I'll open this up for
the public hearing, if there is anyone who would like to address the council on this agenda item,
step forward to the podium at this time. Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and bring
this back to council. Any discussion or we will craft a motion. I'll call for a motion then.
Councilman Ayotte: I think I'm going to make Bruce make the motion.
Councilman Labatt: I'll move that we certify the delinquent water and sewer accounts and
forward them down to the county for processing.
Councilman Boyle: And do what?
Councilman Labatt: They get assessed onto their.
Bruce DeJong: Yeah we forward them to the.
Councilman Labatt: To the County. They get assessed on their tax bill.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, do I have a second?
Councilman Boyle: Second.
Mayor Jansen: Is that all you need in a motion then Bruce? Okay.
Resolution #2002-96: Councilman Labatt moved, Councilman Boyle seconded that the City
Council adopt the Certification of Delinquent Utility Accounts as presented by staff. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
11
City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
UPDATE ON ROUNDHOUSE RENOVATION PROJECT, DEANNA BUNKELMAN.
Public Present:
Name
Deanna Bunkelman
Ed Kling
Linda Scott
Amy 0' Shea
Mayor Jansen:
Address
4191 Red Oak Lane
4169 Red Oak Lane
4031 Kings Road
7475 Crocus Court
I don't know if we have a staff report or we just go straight to Deanna.
Todd Hoffman: Unless there's any questions on the staff report, I simply prepared a time line of
the city's involvement in Roundhouse Park since it's acquisition. If you want to ask any
questions. Beyond that I think we should go directly to the report.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. We did have several documents that were here at our places when we
came down this evening so we have not had an opportunity to read through these, but why don't
I, if council's comfortable, I'll go ahead and open this up and have Deanna come up and address
this, unless you have any questions for staff at this point.
Councilman Ayotte: Just the one. How much have we expended of the amount that we, I think it
was.
Councilman Peterson: 40.
Councilman Ayotte: So we have, there's been no other expenditure beyond that 40K?
Councilman Peterson: No, we haven't spent 40.
Councilman Ayotte: The allocation was 40K. Has there been any expenditure?
Todd Hoffman: It's right around the $15,000 mark for the professional services that the city has
paid for to date.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. There's nothing been going on.
Todd Hoffman: For 12 to 18 months.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Anything else?
Councilman Ayotte: No ma'am.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Is Deanna here this evening? Hi.
Deanna Bunkelman: Yeah, I apologize for not getting those documents to you sooner. But what
I plan to do is.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: Oh Deanna, just for the record, if you could state your name and address.
Deanna Bunkelman: Oh sorry. Deanna Bunkelman, 4191 Red Oak Lane.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you.
Deanna Bunkelman: What I plan to do, I left everyone with two documents. The round house
renovation planning document, which you first saw in November of 2001, and throughout it
you'll see all of the underlines are updates to that. And then you'll have another document called
round house expenses and donations, and what I plan to do is just give you highlights of what all
of those underscores are throughout the document.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Deanna Bunkelman: So we're here to give you an update on what we've been up to this past year
in regards to the round house. It's been quite a roller coaster of a year. We've had upswings and
down swings and at times we were to the point of almost giving up. In December we received the
contract from the city which had several variations from the conversations that I had with the City
Attorney and Todd Hoffman. Those being the completion date of October, 2002, because our
original plan says dated October, 2003. So I pretty much assumed that was a typo and I made
Todd aware of that. Also there was a new clause that we needed to raise $25,000 of funds or in
kind materials to be raised prior to any work commencing on the site, and those funds needed to
be raised by March, which to us was not really feasible given the mm in the economy. Other
members of the task force were also very concerned about the clause of being held harmless.
That's where we were actually going to be the contractors if we had started a non-profit. At this
point we were still in the process of filing to be a non-profit, but it had not yet been finalized. So
then over the next several months we contacted insurance agents, lawyers, state agencies, and
other non-profit groups to get advice on how to proceed because of that harmless clause, and the
message was pretty unanimous from all of them that it did not make sense for us to set up a non-
profit for a short term project such as this, and that we should pursue other sponsorship. So then
we contacted the Minnesota and Carver County Historical Societies to see if we could gain
sponsorship there. We worked with them for several months in the spring and early summer with
the conclusion that the structure is not historical since it had been moved from it's original place.
We continued looking for ideas for sponsorship and did very limited fund raising at that point.
We were pursuing several large donors, one being a large corporation with history with the
railroads, but once we learned the true history of the structure, we no longer went, pursued that
company any longer, because we were trying to tie the history that we believed about the
structure to the company because the company had a long history with the railroads. But then
Mr. Chuck Lane, who is the son of Ben Lane. He's the one that actually helped put the structure
in place in 1947. He called me over the summer because he was up visiting for, he comes up
every summer and he saw our flyer on the structure and he was actually, he gave me an update
that the structure was actually a suspended water tower for the town of Woodlake, Minnesota
which is west of here. It was never a water tower along the railroad. So we're finally truly
learning the true history of what the structure is about. Chuck plans to send pictures and more
information and he also has an article from the Minneapolis paper which features the buildings,
so we're waiting to receive that information from him. We also started to rethink how the
building should be renovated to lower the cost of the renovation and some of the main decisions
around that are, not to do any plumbing at this point or put a restroom in. That's always
something that can be done at a future state if need be. Not to install the upper row of windows
under the roof line, which I know Todd had brought up a while ago that there's a lot of cost with
that, and there is, and we, to keep this more economical don't feel like that's needed. We also
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
would like to keep the second floor to lower the cost of renovating and also make the building
more usable. At this point community education art classes are being planned and we already
have an instructor who's interested. He was reviewing the building. He was inside and when we
went up to the second level he was quite amazed when he looked out at Lake Minnewashta from
the second floor and he just found how inspiring it could be for art classes. The second floor
would be locked at the bottom of the staircase except for community ed type classes or other pre-
determined needs for safety and supervision reasons because I know there are concerns with a
two story building and having a staircase. Another decision was not to build a basement. It was
re-checked and it's in good, sound condition so would remain and we thought it could be used for
storage such as picnic tables, but it would not be heated. A few other key decisions. The building
would remain locked except when in use as a warming house under supervision or being used for
community ed classes or rented for personal use, and the upper level would be locked as I said,
except for specified classes. We also had some thoughts about starting a tradition called
Roundhouse Days, and would plan that around when Chuck Lane would be in town, just so that
he could be there to talk about the history. And it would also be considered a fund raiser event
with pony rides and games and prizes, food, potentially a silent auction. Our recommendation on
a liability safety plan would be that the city would contract for all the larger, higher risk items
such as the asbestos lead paint removal, which was part of the contract. Roofing, electrical, the
removal and disposal of the roof, the leveling of the first floor and any other items deemed to be
too high risk for volunteers. All volunteers that would be on site we would need to sign a liability
waiver similar to many other volunteer activities such as Habitat for Humanity. At that time the
volunteers, or at the time the volunteers are in place, we would assume a city employee may need
to be present, which could either be volunteer or pay time. And we already have some of that
cost in our expenses if you look at our expenses and donations to date. The expenses and
donations is a document that I gave you, and we'd have to discuss. You can see there's some
pretty wide ranges on some of those costs, so it'd have to be determined how to move forward.
For example the asbestos and lead paint removal. They can actually stabilize the outside of the
building at the lower cost, and what that means is they have special paint that they paint over, and
then you would just paint it the nicer looking color than what they would put on. The higher cost
would be, they would actually remove everything and have the natural wood show. So that's just
an example of what some of the differences and the high end, low end costs are. So depending on
the decisions on some of those ranges. If you look at the donations that we've raised to date,
we've almost raised half the funds for the restoration. And there's also many untapped
opportunities for us to receive more in kind material contributions. We have a lot of those listed
as potential on our expense donations document. And then I just had, if the decision is to
continue our efforts I'd like to suggest that we schedule ongoing updates to the city via bi-
monthly meetings with the city manager and Todd so more timely updates are given. I know
Todd and I have been trying to get an update scheduled and to you guys since July, so it took us
almost 3 months to get on the schedule and give you guys an update. You'll find other
miscellaneous updates like I said through the documents and they're highlighted with underscore
text. And again I apologize for not getting that to you sooner so I have my e-mail address and my
phone number on the document so you can feel free to read that, and update me or ask me any
questions that you need after, you know if you have further questions. And then I also, Ed Kling
and Jan Carlson are here so I don't know if there's an opportunity to, I don't know if they have
any additional things to say but, otherwise I'm open to questions.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Council, any questions for Deanna?
Councilman Ayotte: After you, and you went a little fast for me. I'm hearing impaired so you
may have said this and I may not have heard you. With some of the changes that you're talking
towards, does that reduce the usable square footage?
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Deanna Bunkelman: No. It would actually give us more usable square footage.
Councilman Ayotte: So it would be more usable. So what's.
Deanna Bunkelman: Yeah. Excuse me, the original plans were to remove the second floor and
it's not because it's not structurally sound. What they were planning to do is remove the second
floor and then put the big row of windows around the top to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
So our suggestion is to keep the second floor and you're going to have more usable, yeah.
Councilman Ayotte: So what would be about the cost per square foot then? What's your square
footage going to be based on your plan now? Usable square footage.
Deanna Bunkelman: I guess I didn't calculate it down to the square footage. I was concentrating
more on the different expenses.
Councilman Ayotte: Could you take a guess at that at some point Todd and maybe give us a
heads up down the road. I don't want to tie up people's time but we ought to equate cost per
square foot based on what you're projecting. The other question is, when you say a donation
between $2,500 and $5,000, is that because you've got building material you're not sure of what
the value is but you're putting it between $2,500 and $5,000? Is that?
Deanna Bunkelman: That's because some of the building material will be donation and others
will be at cost, and depending on what building materials we're requesting, they'll either go all
the way up to $5,000 and cap it.
Councilman Ayotte: But you do have the donation in hand?
Deanna Bunkelman: Exactly.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. Is there, and I don't remember because it's been a while, do we have
an environmental base line for this building in place?
Councilman Peterson: What's that mean?
Councilman Ayotte: Well when you have a building, you've got to do an EBS, Environmental
Baseline Survey, so you benchmark where the environmental concerns are. Do we have an EBS
in place and with the time that's gone on, has that been altered and do we have to re-issue another
one?
Todd Gerhardt: Todd, do we have a professional document from Braun or any professional
assessment firm?
Todd Hoffman: We have an assessment of the asbestos and the lead base paint.
Councilman Ayotte: I understand that, and over time if, sometimes they have to be re-certified.
Do we have a concern for that?
Todd Hoffman: I'll check. I don't believe so.
Councilman Ayotte: That's something we should check.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Deanna Bunkelman: Okay. Because I do have that document and I don't know if it's...
Councilman Ayotte: I understand but over time an EBS can go kitty whompus, as a technical
term. Kitty whompus. I don't know how to spell it. And I didn't catch it, is this a historical site
or no? You said something about historical and I didn't.
Deanna Bunkelman: The Minnesota Historical Society does not consider it a historical site as far
as, because it's been moved from it's original structure. As we're learning more about the current
history, I don't know what, our History Chair isn't here tonight so I'm not sure. As we learn
more if it will.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. So my only concern is that we're around the same cost per square
foot discussions we were earlier. It sounds like you're to the better probably now since you've
got more square footage, and whether or not we have an EBS issue and that the donations are
solid. It's just that they're dependent on which direction we go.
Deanna Bunkelman: Right.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Any other questions for Deanna? No? Okay. Thank you. Do you want to hear
from the other project volunteers? Do you have anything you'd like to share, you're welcome to
come forward to the podium.
Ed Kling: Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Good evening.
Ed Kling: Good evening Mayor Jansen and Council members. My name's Ed Kling. I live at
4169 Red Oak Lane. I guess Deanna did a really good job of explaining where we've been with
the project over the last year and probably the biggest thing that I can see as just looking at the
project and what has transpired over the last year. We've had probably the most eventful year
that any of us have experienced in our lives, at least for myself. Undoubtedly. You know and
with the economic changes, we've had to re-evaluate the program or project and adapt to that so
that's why we've eliminated some of the different elements to the project. The windows on the
top and over the year we've noticed that through these economic downturns and hard times, there
have been, there is still quite a bit of positive attitude towards the round house and through the
year we were looking at, you know adapting to the different changes that we had to, with some of
the considerations for building and some of the considerations for the city. And one of the things
that we were looking at was raising money, and so we focused on getting like kind materials
raised, but we didn't really focus a lot of cash because the economic, you know when we're going
to go out and look for cash, we're going to look for cash. We're going to ask for donations, and
that's the type of thing, I've been in sales all my life. It's the kind of deal where it's a one call
close. You go and you ask for cash and you get the cash. If you ask 2-3 times, you know it's not
going to work. So that's one thing we haven't really focused on is that is getting money raised.
We will look at like kind materials and we've been able to accommodate the $25,000 minimum
that the city is looking for. Since this time over the last year we've had probably 5 or 6 families
move in to this White Oak, I think it's an extension of White Oak Lane which is just adjacent to
the park. It's on the other side of the park. Actually it's right on the north side of the park, and a
lot of these families that have moved in have asked about the, you know they've seen the building
and they've wondered what is happening with the building and we've told them and these are
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
through neighborhood block parties and these types of functions. And these people have said that
they're very interested in the project and that they would, you know we kind of joke about it.
Would you like to donate some cash towards it and they said that they have. So that's one more
option that we have, and starting from the baseline of the like kind of $25,000 contributions in
materials and labor, we still have a very optimistic outlook towards the project and that would be
to get cash to help drive the project forward so looking at it from that aspect, we're very
optimistic as to the completion of the project, and I guess that's all I had to add.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Any questions for Ed? Okay.
Councilman Peterson: I think this may be the only question that we've talked about at the last
council meeting is, is this has extended longer than any of us, yourselves and ourselves included,
than we would have wanted it to. I mean would you guys feel comfortable with us setting a
deadline that if it's, if you don't have substantial completion done by X date that we all walk
away friends? I mean there's a point where we're going to have to say we have to do something
and make a decision. I don't know whether that's tonight or not but.
Ed Kling: Right. Well we want to see the project move forward. Obviously if we're going to be
involved in it we don't want to, you know we've got our lives to live too and we want to see this
thing be completed. I think the thing that we're looking at is, is it a doable project? What do we
need to do the project? The city has been really good as far as helping us outline and helping us
with being motivated to have a plan and getting a plan in place and we've done that and we've
done a very good job I feel as far as where we're at. The last year has thrown us a tremendous
curve ball, and we're still coming out with a lot of interest and what we want to do is we want to
see the project get completed. I think what we need to do is continue on with what we're doing
as far as getting the steps that we need to get in place and we've got a lot of things in place right
now. I don't think there's anything stopping us with getting this project completed. Giving us a
deadline, can we get it done? Anybody that's been involved with construction knows that
deadlines are very tough to meet. When I had my house built in Chanhassen they said they'd
have it done in 3 months. We had it done in 6 months and we spent 6 months with my wife's
parents. It was a long 6 months. But we got it done and we're in and we're glad that we're here.
And so that's what I'm saying. We can get the project done and we're much more optimistic now
than we were because we scaled the project back. It's going to take less time because we have
less construction to do on the project. We're basically going to just renovate what we have and
we're not going into any elaborate renovation so that's going to help us get the project done
sooner so as far as getting the project done by a specific date, I don't know if that's going to
really accomplish anything other than allowing us to be, allowing that to be a pre-cursor to even
going ahead with the project. I know we can get the project done because it's been pared back
and it's much more manageable at this point. And we can do the project so without any other
encumbrances, you know I say that we go ahead with the project and that we will get it done.
Mayor Jansen: Anything else?
Councilman Ayotte: Just something that you said that triggered another thought and going back
to something, Deanna's comments. No plumbing is what's been decided.
Ed Kling: Right.
Councilman Ayotte: Will the change in the team, the committee view of things require us to do
something in addition at that site? Additional latrines, restrooms, whatever, on site. Does that
cause us to go by the change then? Okay, I just wanted to ask.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Ed Kling: That doesn't mean that we wouldn't want to at some point try to raise funds for that,
and that's I think something that I think we would like to see. But we're doing what we can to
make the project work right now so we're being realistic. At this point. Thank you very much.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to comment on this issue?
Mayor Jansen: I actually was out in this neighborhood this weekend and the solid message that is
being communicated by everyone who has to look at this, every time they drive in and out of the
neighborhood is do something. They've been waiting for, you know I'm being quoted 6 years.
We've certainly been evaluating it this time through what has become almost 2 years. So I guess
what I am looking for throughout, through this process here tonight is a drop dead date where
something has to occur at least to the exterior of this building so that it's not sitting there as an
eyesore for all of these residents to have to have the reminder that we've yet to do anything and if
anything it's representing to them a lack of concern and appreciation for their quality of life in
the, you know they're seeing it as de-valuing their homes, having this sitting there untouched. So
as we go through our discussions, wherever we're going to end up here tonight, I am assuming
we are way too late to try to address the exterior of this building this year, but we need a definite
date early spring I would say that the exterior of the building would need to have something done
for the sake of the residents. I think we are being remiss to let it sit there any longer the way that
it looks and compromising their appreciation of the city and what we can do for them. But with
that I'll look to council then for comments on where we are currently. We obviously have a
change in the scope of the project. Oh, let me ask. Todd, did you have an opportunity to take a
look at the planning document and the changes then?
Todd Gerhardt: This is the first chance I've had to look at the document. Roger hasn't seen it. I
think she just handed this out tonight so we've not seen it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. So you would need an opportunity to then go through this as well as our
conversations around the contract signing, correct? Were we waiting for something back?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, I think Deanna has outlined in her planning document here some of the
modifications she'd want to see in the renovation contracts, and Todd, Roger and myself need to
go through that and make a recommendation to the council for modifying it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. So keep that in mind as we're having our conversations. Council,
comments.
Councilman Ayotte: The exterior.
Mayor Jansen: If you wouldn't mind for the sake of the audience.
Councilman Ayotte: I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm tired. The exterior does have a potential safety
issue because of the asbestos so the capsulation is something not only from the aesthetic
standpoint but also I would suspect safety wise, but since we don't have the EBS close in and
we're not tracking it, which concerns me, we should be aware of whether or not there'd further
degradation. I'd agree with the Mayor that we probably need to put a suspense date on the
exterior just from a standpoint of not only the aesthetics but also the safety so I'd go with that. I
don't, I would look for staff recommendation and input after I've had a chance to take a look see
as to whether or not there is in fact a safety issue, and if there is in fact a safety issue that would
accelerate the need to address the exterior in due course. The good news is is that if we make it
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
aesthetically pleasing and curb any health and welfare issue, and it does buy time to deal with the
balance of what has to happen so maybe it could be looked at as a two phase program, but again I
think the thing that drives it is whether or not we do have a further degradation of the paint chips
and you know if they're airborne, it's a bigger concern so we have to do something about it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. Just one point of clarification on that. If we do go
ahead and try to shore up the painting of this facility, we're basically going to end up spending
approximately $25,000 and I think if you make that kind of investment, you're going to have to
remove the lead paint and capture it and then paint the facility. Secure some kind of roof on the
structure so you don't see the rain or anything impede the paint. We're going to spend that
money and the question would be demolition would probably be out of the question then after
making that kind of investment in it.
Councilman Ayotte: That's why we need the staff to take a look see at it. What's in that
expense? You've got 6 to 10K then on the asbestos lead paint removal. Oh that's not paint,
that's just removing it. Right?
Mayor Jansen: Correct, and didn't I understand that you can in fact paint over it to seal it? Is that
what you're quoting?
Todd Gerhardt: That is one option that is available. Not reading the report to see in detail what
their recommendation was, but that worked on another project that we had.
Councilman Boyle: And is that where you're getting a figure of $25,000 Todd?
Todd Gerhardt: I'm going off the contract, which is the balance of the $25,000 after payment of
asbestos and lead paint removal will be paid to the contractor so I was assuming painting, lead
removal, asbestos removal was in the figure of about $25,000.
Councilman Ayotte: There's a Chanhassen salute you know. We've got to find out what the
facts are before we can even go forward on it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, Councilman Peterson.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah this is tough. I mean we've sat here, like you said, almost for 2
years. We set deadlines for ourselves to tear it down or build it up and I think we've been
creative and we've asked the citizens for help and they've done a diligent job but yet nothing is
still been done. And it doesn't look like it will be done until at the earliest spring, probable
summer-fall of next year so you've got another year of potential waiting and without any ability
to get a guarantee out of it. So as much as I hate to say it, I think last time I sat here I said let's, I
need to see progress and I've seen progress on paper, but that's it and I guess my intent was to see
physical building progress by now so I'll throw out the first tough point of saying I think it's time
we put it to bed and use the funds for other areas of the park. Whether it's a shelter or whatever,
but let's get the park and the whole neighborhood a park that they can use you know in the spring
and I'd recommend we demolish it now.
Councilman Ayotte: I disagree with Craig on this point. I think we need to get more deliberate
information on whether or not we have a contamination issue. The asbestos. It's been so long.
You know we have a time line that we don't recognize it. I see this as a potential for building
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
community, because as the gentleman pointed out. I forgot your name, I'm sorry. In light of a
very bad year for a number of folks you guys have still come up with some donations in kind, and
have made an effort. I would prefer to go with the mayor's approach of putting a mark in the
sand saying if we don't have something progressive and substantive by a certain date, that then
we go ahead with it, but put the date in mind. Say by this date if we don't see something, given
the good faith effort that everyone's done, then we make the hard decision. But I still would like
to see from staff some detail on where we stand with the asbestos and some actual costs. I've
heard a couple different cost points. We're still not certain what those are right now because it's
been so long, but put a date down. Put a date down.
Councilman Peterson: With that comment, are you stating that, or at least inferring that the city
should expel any money to see progress or not?
Councilman Ayotte: No. No, what I'm saying is, we put a date down as to when we see progress
with respect to the project and have enough information to be able to decide whether or not we
can encapsulate the exterior of the building which would give the stability of the exterior for
safety purposes so that the balance of the project could continue and that there would be dates
established for the continuation and completion of those projects. So what I'm envisioning is a
drop dead date for encapsulation, should encapsulation be a position and reasonable approach, to
curb any concern for, to the environment. Number two, a follow-up date for the completion of
Phase II. And that would be based on staff recommendation that's a reasonable approach. If it is
not a reasonable approach, then we've got to revisit it.
Councilman Peterson: So just to clarify then. You're saying that you would like to see tangible
change in that building structure without expending any additional city funds.
Councilman Ayotte: Correct. And the tangible change would be the aesthetics, as the Mayor has
pointed out, and also an assurance from the staff that whatever action is taken would encapsulate
any environmental concern.
Councilman Boyle: I don't think that's possible Bob. We'd have to invest that $25,000, if I'm
not mistaken.
Councilman Ayotte: I don't know that because he wasn't sure what that 25K was.
Councilman Boyle: Well, excuse me. Are you done? I also agree on a date. I don't know if we
need to bite the bullet and make the decision for demolishing tonight. However, I think that
decision should be made within the next 60 days and once we get the report back from you Todd,
we have enough information I think to make the decision. And I do not agree to investing a
penny on it until we get to that point.
Mayor Jansen: So just so I'm clear, the information that we're looking for from Mr. Gerhardt is
the cost of doing the encapsulation, is that what you're looking for? I just.
Todd Gerhardt: Well encapsulation is only if needed in the environmental assessment.
Todd Hoffman: It's needed. It's either remove it or encapsulate it, one of the two. If you paint
on the exterior. And then remove the, there's minor areas of asbestos in the tile in the interior.
It's not a major deal. It's the exterior paint, which is a lead based product, which to date has not
degraded to a point there's environmental concern, but it still needs to be encapsulated or
removed.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Ayotte: Make it pretty and safe.
Todd Hoffman: Correct.
Councilman Peterson: So we're going to spend money to get that pretty and safe again though.
Councilman Ayotte: No. They're going to spend it.
Councilman Peterson: No. If.
Todd Gerhardt: It's on our side of the ledger in the agreement.
Councilman Ayotte: It is?
Todd Gerhardt: That was my point is that you may spend up to $25,000 with the potential of this
building coming down if improvements aren't made. Or it would just stay, you know painted
with the roof structure.
Councilman Ayotte: So the question still remains, what's a fair and reasonable price to make it
pretty and safe.
Councilman Peterson: And we have that.
Mayor Jansen: It's potentially.
Todd Gerhardt: Somewhere under $25,000.
Mayor Jansen: Right, and we've already spent 15 so we'd be butting up against the $40,000 that
was budgeted for the project, and I guess what I'm going to throw out one more alternative for
council. If we were to use the city funds to ensure that exterior is no longer an eyesore, which is
what I'm hearing from the neighbors. They just don't want to have to look at this any longer, but
if we, so if we take care of that. And the roof would need to be addressed to make sure that it's
no longer leaking into the building. If our funds go to that, we set the date. We've got control
over what actually happens to the exterior of the building. Then it's turned over to the volunteers
for everything.
Councilman Ayotte: The balance.
Mayor Jansen: Yeah, the balance of it. Interior. Upgrades. Any of the, I think I saw steps and
landscaping and benches and all of those things, but we're addressing the exterior of the building
and at least saying to the neighborhood, that part we're addressing. We're guaranteeing. We're
going to get it done and we've then got control over the date. I'm just throwing that out as
another option.
Councilman Ayotte: At what value now, because I'm confused. How much.
Mayor Jansen: That's what we have to find out.
Councilman Peterson: I don't think you can do the roof and the exterior for the amount we're
talking about.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: Well that's where it was here, estimates have ranged from a low of 10 or 20,000
to paint and roof the exterior. But those were just estimates.
Todd Hoffman: Board up the windows. Obviously there are variances in what people will
accept. A painted building with boarded up windows and a roof, new roof, may not be pleasing
to all residents. They may say you've invested your city's money and we still don't like what
we're looking at. Therein lies, there's something I've said all the way along is this is one of those
projects that is either all or nothing, and the all has come down. The committee has said we're
not going to do the windows at the roof line. We're not going to do some of those other things,
but it still takes windows and a usable product I think you have to have a sense of pride that the
community is going to enjoy.
Mayor Jansen: Well I'm looking at the donation list and windows were one of the issues that
they do have addressed under donations, correct Deanna?
Councilman Ayotte: Except for the top.
Deanna Bunkelman: For the stainglass. I know that the other windows are.., do have a cost of
those from 2 to 7,000...
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Todd Hoffman: And there's a time line in the larger packet on pages 7 and 8 that has been
proposed.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Take a crack at it Steve.
Councilman Labatt: Well, I'm just going to ask a few questions. Todd, shoot me a ballpark price
on a park shelter which is open sided on posts with a roof. Approximately 30 by 60 feet. On a
concrete slab.
Todd Hoffman: The last 3 we've built were at Power Hill, Meadow Green and North Lotus.
They range from 25 to 45,000 each.
Councilman Labatt: So if we took the money we have on hand right now, demolish the building
and put one of those up, would we be better serving the patrons of that park?
Todd Hoffman: Not for me to say.
Mayor Jansen: That was one of the conversations that we had.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, we've been down that path before.
Councilman Labatt: Well I know and I was just relaying the concerns from the comments I've
heard from some neighbors over there that why don't you just build a shelter. I mean you know.
Maybe we don't need to go that big but.
Mayor Jansen: And that's do you re-name the park once you no longer have a round house?
Councilman Labatt: No, you just make it round.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, you make the shelter round.
Mayor Jansen: You make the pavilion round.
Councilman Peterson: And again I've seen those. I mean those are.
Councilman Labatt: They have one over at Lone Lake Park I think in Minnetonka. They have a
round one. I'm hearing you Bob and Gary on your points but I'm also hearing Craig, believe it or
not. I just wonder if the family wants to go to the park on a Sunday afternoon, you know put
together a quick spare of the moment 3 or 4 family outing, they wouldn't be able to get into that
building to use it. But if you had an open sided one with some grills they would so.
Councilman Ayotte: But even with the issue of cost, I'm still not certain that we have, I'm
always leery of a demolition cost when you have any sort of asbestos inside. So you know.
Mayor Jansen: There will be costs involved with the demolition definitely. Yeah.
Councilman Ayotte: And painting it, and what you're suggesting with, maybe we can talk them
into building one of those things.., with the round house, but this is building community a little
bit. You know we've got folks that are getting together, and I understand it's an eyesore. I
understand there's people that want it down, but you do have members in that community that are
pushing forward. Taking too damn long, but they've got donations. They've in good faith have
done it as volunteers.
Councilman Labatt: Well I'm just throwing it out.
Councilman Boyle: Well it would definitely cost us more I think to demolish than build a shelter.
It'd be more than $40,000 I'm sure.
Todd Hoffman: Demolition costs are, the demolition cost of the, taking it to the landfill because
it is a hazardous product so costs there.
Councilman Boyle: It'd be expensive right?
Mayor Jansen: This is again, it's been one of our more difficult issues to actually kick around,
and I agree that had we managed to get something accomplished by now. Had we been able to
get the exterior taken care of, I don't think I would feel the sense of urgency that I am on behalf
of the neighbors in the area. They need to see something happen and they need something
definite committed to. I think tonight if we just say we're going to do some more review and in
60 days come back and talk about this again, it's what they've continuously heard all along. I
guess I don't have a problem with trying to at least maintain the exterior to have it stand there as,
I don't know if it's necessarily historic. You can't really call it historic but I think it does have
some value. Some value in the community. I don't want to make the significant investment that
we need to make to really bring it up to what these neighbors would like to have it function as,
but I'm feeling willing to give them that opportunity if at the same time we can address the
exterior and make sure that we at least get that taken care of. I'm hearing they're being
committed. That the windows would in fact be addressed. If we're painting the outside at the
same time they're moving forward with the windows and all of their work and I'd like to see
some heads nodding if you think that would work. To be able to coordinate the two efforts. If
what we're trying to do is accomplish making it less of an eyesore, and you're with us on that, it
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
seems like we can come up with a win/win. If we're painting as you're doing windows as an
example.
Councilman Peterson: You know I don't disagree with that thought process but if you recall one
of the last times we had a conversation about it, those, the windows at the top of the building
were a pretty substantial part of the design to make that building more inviting to go into.
Because without that you've got a small building that is going to be very dark inside. It's not
going to be very inviting so what we've got presented tonight, that was one of the reasons that
I've kind of changed my mind saying let's act on this is because they've taken out those windows
for cost reasons. They haven't been able to fund them. Now you take those windows out of
there, that's not a very inviting building. It's not going to be because there's not going to be a lot
of windows and a lot of brightness in there. In the summer time, to Steve's point, nobody's going
to want to go in there. And if we use it as a warming house, the cost of heating a two story
warming house is going to be large. Very large. So the utility value in the winter time is
mitigated and now you're mitigating the utility value in the summer time. So now you've got a
building that looks good from the outside without any practical value inside. My other two cents
worth.
Councilman Ayotte: I know how I'm going to vote. I want to paint it and roof it. And then I
want to put a date on you guys.
Mayor Jansen: If you want to take a crack at a motion we can see if we have any kind of a
consensus.
Councilman Ayotte: Contingent upon staff's input and a determination on the environmental
condition of the building I move that we authorize staff to paint the exterior of the building and
roof that building and integrate into that project the proper integration of windows as donated by
the committee.
Councilman Boyle: Do you want to put a time line on that?
Councilman Ayotte: With initiation of the work beginning, based on seasonal opportunity, as
early as we can in the springtime, with the completion date for the exterior of the building and the
windows, mid-summer. September.
Councilman Peterson: The other way.
Councilman Ayotte: Well then go this way for crying out loud.
Mayor Jansen: If you can paint it by May.
Councilman Ayotte: Fine, May.
Councilman Boyle: June 1st.
Mayor Jansen: So then June 1st as a deadline on it.
Councilman Boyle: Is that okay?
Councilman Ayotte: Alright, alright. Yeah, fine.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Boyle: Good.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, do I have a second. Then we can discuss the motion.
Councilman Boyle: I'll second that.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Discussion of the motion.
Councilman Peterson: I don't understand the window concept. I mean they've said that they've
taken out the upper windows because they couldn't fund it. So you're saying as a requirement, or
not relevant?
Councilman Ayotte: No, no. I'm saying that the windows that they want to introduce, what has
to be integrated with the paint project because you've got to address the windows.
Mayor Jansen: The regular windows that are there now versus boarding them up.
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah. Yeah.
Mayor Jansen: So they would be replacing those.
Councilman Ayotte: Replacing those windows.
Councilman Peterson: And how do you react to my comment that the utility value of the building
is being mitigated.
Councilman Ayotte: I think it is. I agree with that. I think.
Councilman Peterson: Then why would we want to spend money on it if we know that the utility
value is being marginal on it?
Councilman Ayotte: Because I think there's also additional gain in terms of building community
and I think it's a start point and I think it's a good thing for people to give to the community. I
think there's intrinsic value of what's going on and I'm hoping to see other projects like this
percolate up from this activity. This is a learning experience and maybe some other things can
emanate from this thing so I'm not looking at just the tower. I'm looking at opportunities beyond
just the tower, and this is a start point. So I see intrinsic value in this beyond simply the tower.
I'm not downplaying your tower, but this is building community as far as I'm concerned because
eventually I'm going to be talking about auxiliary police departments and volunteer police and
other things too, so this is just the start point for other bigger and better things to emanate from
such a project.
Mayor Jansen: I don't remember exactly how you worded it, but you made this contingent upon
an environmental review by staff of some sort. Are they coming back to us then with some costs
involved in actually.
Councilman Ayotte: No, no. Just make sure that what we're doing is environmentally correct.
That there is an encapsulation gain as a result of what we're doing. To make sure that whatever
we are doing is within the constraints and parameters established by the environmental baseline
survey. Make sure we're not doing something inappropriate, that's all.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: And would you be willing to maybe state that if it does go considerably beyond,
if it goes beyond our budget, that that comes back to us, for us to take a look at. Just, and I'm
thinking over the next short period.
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah.
Mayor Jansen: Not next spring.
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah, so if we see an unforeseen cost, we'd better visit it, yes.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Just so we're re-revisiting it.
Councilman Labatt: What in your motion takes care of the inside tile that contains asbestos? Or
are we just dealing with the outside for now? We're not going to worry about the inside?
Councilman Ayotte: I'm not worrying about the inside at this point. We're buying time to deal
with the exterior and to stop the further degradation, take care of the roof and so forth, and let
Phase II deal with the interior which is I would suspect the committee's actions to take care of.
Councilman Boyle: Todd, do you think it would be wise to take care of the asbestos at the same
time we're doing the paint? The lead paint or getting rid of the lead paint.
Mayor Jansen: The interior.
Councilman Boyle: The interior portion of the asbestos.
Todd Hoffman: It's removal of some tile and two different contracts.
Councilman Boyle: Okay. So it could be a Phase II situation?
Todd Hoffman: Yeah, and it's a minor, minor issue on the interior. I could take them up
tomorrow without license and, but it's simply a.
Councilman Ayotte: Don't say that in front of everybody.
Todd Hoffman: I won't, but you could.
Councilman Labatt: So we have 40 budgeted. We're already spent 15, right? We have 25 left.
Mayor Jansen: Correct.
Councilman Labatt: And what if Bob's motion exceeds 25 ?
Mayor Jansen: That's what we just added.
Councilman Ayotte: They bring back to council and we have to re-visit it.
Mayor Jansen: That's what we were just talk about. That they need to bring it back. If it ends up
being more than that.
Councilman Ayotte: You're still update over the police report, aren't you?
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Labatt: Steamed, yeah. Boy you know, I just, I go back to Craig's comments. The
utility of this and okay.
Mayor Jansen: And I don't know that I'm necessarily focused on trying to get the maximum
utility that we had originally talked about. That's where I'm at the point of, if we're leaving this
standing in the neighborhood, and the exterior is appealing, and we've got the volunteers working
on the interior, they're going to get that to the level that they can. I don't know that I necessarily
think that this is ever going to be a warming house. I see it more maybe for these art classes and
not a functional building in the winter. If only because of the cost of the utilities that would be
involved but I mean they're not doing the plumbing any longer. Base board heating was on here.
Councilman Labatt: I just look at.
Councilman Peterson: They won't have any classes in there in July or August on the second
floor, I'll tell you that too.
Councilman Labatt: I just look at the recurring expense. You know we're, Bob?
Councilman Ayotte: Don't start with me Labatt.
Councilman Labatt: You're always worrying about.
Councilman Ayotte: You got your damn Christmas tree lights, now let's deal with this thing
okay.
Councilman Labatt: Oh okay.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Councilman Boyle: You just made another good point. You're right, they wouldn't be on the
second floor because there's not going to be any windows on the second floor. Correct?
Todd Hoffman: There's windows on the second floor. The existing windows are boarded up,
that would be replaced.
Councilman Boyle: Oh, it will be replaced. So okay.
Mayor Jansen: Yeah, it's the regular windows. It just won't have the sky light windows. I don't
remember where that picture was.
Councilman Ayotte: This is going to be a challenge for the community to take what we've done
and bring it to a standard that will make it functional. Give them a chance. What we're doing is
we're curbing the issues on the outside and making it pretty and safe. And there's going to be
other gains that we're going to have after this is done. This is the first of many windows.
Mayor Jansen: Okay Deanna and Ed, you've heard how we've crafted the motion. Are you
feeling comfortable that you're volunteer group would be able to coordinate.., prepared to come
in and start addressing the windows and moving your project forward. Because I would say
that's part of it.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Deanna Bunkelman: Yeah, can I just add some clarification?
Mayor Jansen: Certainly, please. Come on up to the microphone. Thanks.
Deanna Bunkelman: Man it's hard to sit back there when there's so much information flying
around, I just want to make sure it's all factual. The reason nothing has been done to the building
is because the contract had stated that we cannot do anything, no work should commence on the
site until we've raised $25,000. And you can see that we haven't raised quite $25,000 so nothing
can start on the site. Also, it had stated until we raise the $25,000, again nothing can start, but
once that's done the city would contract to have the lead in the asbestos paint removed. And the
reason that there's that $25,000 cap for the city is like Todd said. There's $40,000. $15,000 was
spent on Locus Architecture firm for coming up with the plan so there's $25,000 left. That
$25,000 was not just earmarked for the lead and the asbestos. That was just earmarked as that's
what's left from the city to contribute towards the project, and that's how you can see that with
our budget there, we're saying that with us raising 25 and you contributing 25, we could still
potentially be, we'd still be under $50,000. So I just want to be sure people are clear that that's
why you haven't seen anything physically happen is because we're not allowed to physically do
anything yet, and with the lead and asbestos paint there, it wouldn't make sense for us to. Until
that's been removed. Does that make sense?
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, but to your point though, there would have been stuff done if you
would have raised $25,000 so I don't want to.
Deanna Bunkelman: Oh exactly, right. Yeah, I don't want to dwell on that but I just wanted to
make sure you're clear that we haven't, yeah.
Councilman Peterson: Oh absolutely.
Deanna Bunkelman: And then as far as the utility of the building. I think you're going to get
more utility out of the building as it stands instead of grazing it and putting a, just shelter there. A
shelter's not going to be really, you know an open shelter. That's not really used during the
winter months. It's pretty much just the summer months and our park already has a bunch of
picnic tables that are utilized now and then. But I think we're just going to get more use out of
the building standing as is. Heating costs, I don't think they're going to be as bad as what you
think. If you look at base board heaters, which is what we're planning. We're not planning to put
a furnace in, because keeping the second level, you can put the, I don't know if you know much
about base board heaters but if you've looked at any base board heaters lately, at a very cost
effective manner, they put out a lot of heat and they don't cost that much to run so that's what our
plan was to go down those lines.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Deanna Bunkelman: Any other clarification that you need?
Mayor Jansen: Anything else from Deanna. Alright, thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, so I'm
hearing that our volunteer group is with us on this. And we just need to get something
communicated then into the neighborhood as we're addressing this. So we've got a motion and a
second.
Councilman Boyle: And an amendment.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: And an amendment. Did we approve and formalize your friendly amendment that
it get back to us if it in fact goes over our $25,000 budget?
Councilman Ayotte: I'm okay with it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. So you've accepted that as a friendly amendment to your motion. Okay.
And did the second also accept the friendly amendment?
Councilman Boyle: Oh sure did.
Councilman Ayotte moved, Councilman Boyle seconded that the City Council approve
contingent upon staff's input and a determination on the environmental condition of the
building, to authorize staff to paint and roof the exterior of the building, integrating into
that project the proper integration of windows as donated by the committee with
completion by June 1, 2003. Also, if the cost to paint and roof exceeds the $25,000, that the
item be brought back to the City Council for consideration. Councilman Peterson,
Councilman Boyle and Mayor Jansen voted in favor of the motion. Councilman Peterson
and Councilman Labatt voted in opposition to the motion. The motion carried with a vote
of 3 to 2.
Mayor Jansen: And the motion carries 3-2. And let's, staff if you could look into what those
costs are involved and get back to us expeditiously so it just, if anything to confirm that we're
within the budget so we can make sure this is finalized. And let's do what we can to get this
communicated to the neighbors so that they know we're at least proceeding with these
discussions and that the volunteers have in fact made some progress because what I was finding is
that the concerned neighbors, and of course as you know, your neighborhood was split 50/50 for
and against. Those that would have preferred to have seen it get bulldozed, need to hear that the
volunteers have moved forward with a project and that your plans are progressing because that's
really what they're saying to us is you know, we haven't heard anything in over a year and it's
still sitting there in the shape that it's in so we do somehow need to communicate to everyone that
there is a plan in place and there are people who have made a concerted effort because I don't
think they would appreciate the city pulling the plug on a group of residents that's put at least
some effort into trying to pull the project together. I think there'd be a level of appreciation, at
least around that to the time that they've committed to this, and that's what we're trying to be
sensitive to in moving the project forward. So thank you and we appreciate your coming in with
the update Deanna and Ed and thanks for sticking with your project and hopefully we'll see this
progress next spring and we'll all feel more positive about what we've just done. So thanks.
CONCEPTUAL PUD CONSIDERATION FOR 540 RESIDENTIAL DWELLING UNITS
ON PROPERTY CURRENTLY ZONED A-2, AGRICULTURAL ESTATE; LOCATED
ON THE EAST SIDE OF AUDUBON ROAD, SOUTH OF LYMAN BOULEVARD AND
NORTH OF PIONEER TRAIL.
Public Present:
Name Address
Richard Palmiter
Mitch & Jill Anderson
Town & Country Homes
2853 Timberview Trail, Chaska
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: Why is it I think that this more complicated project's going to be easier to review
than the round house.
Kate Aanenson: I'm going to try and make it so.
Mayor Jansen: Staff report please.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. Just a brief summary of the request. Town and Country Homes is
requesting to rezone the subject site, 88 acres of property into 540 dwelling units. The property is
guided in the 2005 MUSA area as either industrial or medium density. They're requesting a
medium density which is consistent with the comprehensive plan. Just for your knowledge, the
applicant has given an extended review date which expires on October 30th, two days from now
so the council does need to make a decision or ask for an extension. To kind of frame up how we
got to this point. In looking at this larger area, can I just have you back that out just a little bit
Nann. The entire subject property of the 2005 MUSA area is a little bit hard to see 212 in here.
It's approximately 800 acres. In looking at this project you have to look at the larger pieces of the
project, of that MUSA area. Again, just to kind of go through when we did the comprehensive
plan and as it was adopted, we included in there in the capital improvement plan, a staging area
and the way to be fiscally responsible to how we're going to provide municipal services to each
area in increments and how fast the city could absorb that. This area in blue was the 2000 area
which is pretty much complete with the Puke Homes, Vasserman Ridge, Westwood Church and
then the greater area which would be the Carver Park and the Arboretum so most of that's been
developed. Just a few parcels left. So this would be the next area that we'd be concentrating.
Again going back and looking at the 2005, or the 2000 MUSA area, we began a lot of the
environmental study on that, specifically the frontage road which we undertook the study of with
MnDot, 3 to 4 years, actually 5 years ahead of the advancing of that project, so we anticipate the
same sort of things happening on this. There seemed to be some concern from the Planning
Commission and some of the neighbors about timing. We did hold a neighborhood meeting with
the property owners back on June 26th to inform them of the process. The City Engineer and
myself held that meeting to talk about what's going to happen as this project moves forward, in
assessments and the like. So with that, I want to talk a little bit more specifically about the
MUSA, the guiding of the property itself. In looking at this property, when we did the Bluff
Creek Overlay District and adopted that standards, we looked at the Bluff Creek itself. Looked at
it a couple different ways which we could acquire that property. One was to actually do an
outright acquisition, which we looked at with the park and trail referendum, and tried to look at
some different costs. At that time it was determined that probably the best way to acquire that
property was on a case by case basis as they came in. Make the evaluation. Which parts we
wanted to acquire and do that through a negotiation which we have been successful on numerous
parcels up and down the creek so far. Most recently the Puke Home project. Even Vasserman
Ridge or Kwik Trip, which we got some property adjacent to the creek. So we anticipate that
same sort of process with this. So the tool that we need to make that happen is the PUD where
you can do density transfers. So that was the recommendation from the staff. Again, looking
specifically at the Puke piece which is right here, the PUD. There's a real nice wooded area to
the north and the south of that that we want to maintain. We had walked the property back in
June with the applicant. With that, in order to service this property we need again to look at the
entire area. The city does have a lift station up here. We need to look at doing, providing
municipal service and then road access. With the creek running through the project, it's
imperative that we study the minimum creek crossings and the expense of those services. So part
of the issue that the Planning Commission and the council needs to address is the development of
the PUD and then the assessment. This project itself is required to do an Environmental
Assessment Worksheet based on the number of units, but the staff is recommending, as did the
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Planning Commission, that we do an Area Wide Assessment, which would include the whole 800
acres. And the property owners are aware of that so we would look at the entire piece and we
think that makes the most sense. With that, I'll talk a little bit specifically about the project itself.
The Planning Commission was a little concerned about the concept itself. I laid out in the staff
report what's required for concept but you have to keep in mind that we need to frame up some
issues first. Where the roads are going to go. Where the sewer's going to go and with that will
evolve the trails, the buffer and transition so we tried to incorporate that into the project itself. So
as I indicated, on June 26th we had a neighborhood meeting with the property owners to kind of
explain to them what was happening in this area, and then on June 23rd the park commission did
look at this specific site and they kind of took a bigger approach and said we need, we're park
deficient in this 2005 MUSA area and they want to study that. That would be something that we
would include in the area wide review. It may end up on this parcel. It may end up on another
parcel in that larger MUSA area and that again would be studied. Then on August 6th the
Planning Commission held a meeting, public hearing on this project and tabled it for a number of
requests that they had. Between that August 6th and the October 15th meeting the staff held two
work sessions, so first one was to discuss the comprehensive plan and kind of step back. How do
we get to these land use recommendations. There was concern about tax capacity and some of
those issues. And the second meeting we actually took a tour, we looked at some of Town and
Country's other projects in the southwest metro, and then we also looked at just other multi use,
bigger projects in Chaska and how they manage those. Again, the staff has worked on this scale
projects before. Lake Susan, and this is the same sort of process. Villages on the Pond that we're
taking through the environmental process. So really the two actions tonight that we're looking
for is to give the conceptual PUD would also require the area wide assessment, so I'd like to just
take a minute and kind of walk through. The Planning Commission I included in here a list of
conditions, or concerns they felt that may have not been addressed. Specifically the school site.
Notification of the Chaska residents. There's some here tonight. We did notify them. They have
been included on the list. As a general rule we don't re-notice of a City Council meeting. We
always do at the Planning Commission they were notified of this meeting on the 28th at that
Planning Commission meeting. But I believe most of those have been addressed. Certainly we
know the school district is looking at a site. The applicants know the school district's looking at a
site. That's all part of the mix. And if you look specifically on page 2, on the executive summary
of the staff report, we kind of broke down things that go into the area wide scoping and things
that would go into the PUD. So if we take a minute and just kind of look at the area wide, we
know this area, public facility, school, parks, utilities, and possibly a fire station. We need to
look at this again the greater 800 acres. Environmental features need to be looked at and
specifically Bluff Creek. The wetlands buffer and the Planning Commission again wanted to be
specific and talk about open space and trees. And the transportation system, traffic and the
ongoing consideration studies in the report specifically the design and construction of 312 and
Powers Boulevard and how that all ties in. Traffic is an issue of the residents specifically in the
Chaska area and the upgrade of Audubon. Again utilities, sewer and water and storm sewer. In
addition the area wide needs to look at potential for the school site was mentioned, fire station,
water tower, creek crossing, collector road systems, and then the Planning Commission asked,
added the fiscal impact study. Now the staff had addressed that previously and included in the
different reports. The staff's opinion, that's been addressed and there's a note on that and I'll
leave it up to you if you want to discuss that further. So that's the one area that needs to be
scoped. The area wide. Again the property owners are aware of that. And the second component
that you're giving a consideration to tonight is the concept PUD, and this is really the marching
orders. While it has no standings, for them to come back and specifically address their project.
Now they've indicated in these green areas, if we can go to that for a second. That these will be
the open space and that's where the staff concurred there's some beautiful wetlands, slopes, steep
areas with some significant stands of trees. The Planning Commission was concerned about the
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
density. It is guided for 8 units an acre, and how it's going to fit on there is a lot of it's product
driven. The applicants have stated that it will be all owner occupied, and we've asked them
specifically to look at some product. They've talked, named some products out here. It may
change over time but we've asked them to specifically come back with a specific housing plan
that the Planning Commission and the council working with the staff can look at. Again, looking
at some of the needs that may not be met in this community already. And I think there's
concurrence on that. The Planning Commission also wanted to make sure that the following
items were addressed, landscaping, entrance, streetscape, buffering transitions between existing
uses and proposed uses in the future, and natural areas. Also, possibly considering some support
commercial in this area. Again the staff indicated that that may be something that we'd look at in
that greater 200 acres, looking at where it may be most appropriate based on collector streets and
the like. Connecting neighborhoods, sidewalks and trails, again looking again, not just to this
project but connecting those to the rest of the area. Mass transit, how that plays into this.
Architecture detail, design standards, and then preservation of the natural features, and then again
the housing plan, and I touched on that in the staff report itself. What our city goals are and
looking at, not only affordability, but again the diversity and the housing types and styles. Again,
the process that we see, if the City Council was to give conceptual approval, while that has no
standing is that we would begin a process to go out in RFP to get the area wide review. Meet
with those neighbors, the property owners in this 2005 MUSA area because there will be pending
assessments based on that. The applicants themselves will also have to pay for that
environmental document, and then work through that process and this entire planning process is
going to take a couple years. There's no intent to advance the 2005 MUSA area but the intent is
to do the study work so that is in place because we also are tying that into our capital
improvements plan too. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you. Any questions for Kate at this time?
Councilman Peterson: Kate, my biggest concern is you're losing 40 acres of industrial, and I
know the Planning Commission discussed that and you kind of brought it up in the fiscal impact
but, you know one of the things that, and you've always kind of taught me is if we're going to
rezone it, we've got to replace it. Have you thought about where we can get those 40 acres back?
Or if we could.
Kate Aanenson: Well I'll speak to that in the, what we put in the comprehensive plan. We look
at this area, this 80 acres, we looked at the threshold that it could be used as either 40 acres
residential or 40 acres industrial. I think the harder one to address is when it's already in the
MUSA and when there's development around it. It makes it more difficult because it's not as
palatable to put it somewhere else. And I did give you a percentage breakdown of what that
percentage was, and I think too in looking at this area, as it shakes out, you know it's going to
help us bring where the best areas for some of these uses are. We did, when we put this land use
together we did meet with all the neighborhoods. Again going back in time when this was all
unguided. We did meet with the neighbors as part of the Bluff Creek to kind of come up with a
plan as I talked about in the work session. Some plans were advanced that were pretty well
defined but we said they were maybe too refined at that point for us to get a handle on so we're
kind of stepping back and I think in the fact that, with the area wide assessment we have an
opportunity to maybe make some other decisions. The conceptual review, while we want to take
a good faith effort that we're moving down the same path with the applicant, if something is
disclosed that gives us reason to reconsider, I think we certainly have that opportunity. If
something significant that comes up that says you know we really need to reconsider that thought
and move some things around, then that's the way it's going to be. I think we're all moving in
this process in good faith. That we're trying to make good planning decisions.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Peterson: One of the things that, I'm kind of like a broken record when I talk any
kind of rezoning I talk about a compelling reason to do that. In not having, you know this is
conceptual obviously but not having seen the type and uniqueness of the structures going in, you
know and it's kind of hard to do that in conceptual but that's going to be one of the, when we
ultimately make a decision on rezoning, if we're going to rezone, then you want those buildings
to be very architecturally interesting and different. What our community doesn't already have.
And I assume you went through that with the applicant and.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, that's a good question. Actually that's why we did the tour. We looked
at some of their other product. I think it was communicated back to them what the expectation
level for the City of Chanhassen. I think they have a clear understanding that we're looking for
something different. And it's kind of a chicken and egg. I think if we said this is what we want
now, we're waiting as we move forward, as we get closer to those dates and look at the landforms
to say what's the responsible land use and the clustering and the buffering and the transition, then
kind of put those framework issues and then come back with a product. I think just for
everybody's edification, the one thing we did want to do is walk the property and say, what are
the sensitive areas and what's unique about this property right here. But certainly where are the
collector roads going to go? What are those transitions going to be? Where does the park come
in? What if the school looks at something? There's a lot of question marks out there but we're
saying might change the whole dynamics and they're aware that it's kind of a fluid thing for the
next little bit.
Mayor Jansen: And Roger, if you might address the issue of our level of discretion. Of course
Councilman Peterson is using a term rezoning and this property, it's my understanding is guided
as medium density or industrial, correct?
Roger Knutson: That's office/industrial, residential medium density and park and open space.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Roger Knutson: You're not being asked obviously to rezone any property tonight. This is not
like a preliminary plat where to take the first step you know you've got to take the second step,
you're already committed. This doesn't really commit you to take the second step. What this
does is says, does it make sense to go forward and explore this? For the developer and from our
perspective, the staff spends a lot of time, potentially several years of time exploring this and
working it. If the council says no, this PUD concept for this property just doesn't make sense. If
you already know that, then it's best to say it now and be done with it so no one, the developer
doesn't waste his time and the planning staff doesn't waste it's time, but this is not a
commitment. You have tremendous discretion.
Mayor Jansen: And were we to not go forward with the PUD, and this exact same proposal were
to come in for this project, what would our level of discretion be to decline it?
Roger Knutson: Well you're required to make your comp plan and your zoning ordinance
consistent, and at some point if they brought this, and I haven't examined these plans. If they
brought it in under a conventional zoning, I don't know if you could do that. Or close to it. And
they met all the requirements, then you don't, you lose some discretion. Again I've not analyzed
this, I don't know how close this is to a conventional zoning district to have or not have. I guess
Kate can answer that.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Kate Aanenson: Well there's a couple complexities. One, there's no municipal services to the
site yet, and we need to look through that. The area wide assessment. If that was available and
they came in under the straight zoning, then we lose the opportunity to preserve some of the
values that we've attributed with the Bluff Creek and the density transfers and architectural
standards, which you can put in the PUD zone, which is more specific as design and product type.
Whereas the straight residential medium density district wouldn't provide that. So I think that's
where the Planning Commission felt that the PUD was probably the better way to go. Another
question that came up is because it did show the parks and open space on some of that property.
We have to compensate for that. That was shown as an area that we would like to acquire but we
either have to buy it or do a density transfer to acquire it. We're not just taking it.
Roger Knutson: You'd like dedication I think.
Mayor Jansen: All very similar to what we did on the Pulte project.
Kate Aanenson: Correct, yes.
Mayor Jansen: And this is exactly the type, well other than the fact that it is looser because there
hasn't been a study done in that area. We're getting involved even earlier in the look see at this
and even earlier in the guiding of it, but I wonder if to the point that Mr. Peterson was addressing,
if we're looking to potentially recoup these industrial acres, if that isn't something that we do
prior to an application coming in for potentially some of the other property within the 2005
MUSA. Is that an option? To address that concern.
Kate Aanenson: Well, that's an interesting question and I think that's what the Planning
Commission struggled with too and all the property owners are not going to go forward until
someone takes that first leap of faith and says I'm ready to go. And so once that process starts,
and everybody else is on board, so if this project goes away, then we wait for somebody else to
kind of initiate that as we start our process because in this situation, you've got to have somebody
that's motivated to start the process. We're kind of leveraging some of our dollars and the
assessments back on the assessment documents which is pretty detailed when we start looking at
all those occurrence of expenses of sewer and water. When you've got somebody that's ready to
go, it makes it more palatable for everybody else to kind of start making some decisions, and
2005 is in planning sense, where we're looking at all of this, is a short window.
Mayor Jansen: Sure. But as a part of that area wide review we could potentially come up with
where we could pick up, actually be an area that becomes.
Kate Aanenson: And we may discover some other uses, exactly. Whether it's public works or a
school site or all those things, that's why I was trying to say to Craig too is what comes into the
mix and we kind of re-examine some of those earlier decisions as things solidify because there's a
lot of things out there that are floating right now and as those start to land, you're right. Exactly.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Because right now on this property it's an either/or. We might want to
eliminate the or on another piece if that's palatable, if we look at it.
Kate Aanenson: Right. Or the school says we're willing to buy the property, they're willing to
sell and something completely different happens. Right. That's a possibility too.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. And then changes in the tax formulas have certainly reduced that benefit
of the industrial over the medium from the study that you included in the report, correct Mr.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Gerhardt? I mean you're showing it to be pretty much a wash if not in favor of the medium
density, as far as the taxes collected. And then it just gets down to the cost of services that I
know in the report you said you can't really quantify those. So it was discussed at length.
Absolutely. And it is something that we should look at. It's been an issue that actually the
government affairs committee has raised as far as the 212 corridor, is should we be looking at
more office zoning down in that corridor, but then you get down to having to do your comp plan
changes and some pretty extensive discussions, but we can certainly go down those avenues.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, I mean the reason why I raised the industrial aspect of it is, you
know as you look at that area, there probably isn't a better area to put industrial than that area
because of the proximity to Chaska's industrial group. Just a lay person, semi-lay person looking
at it and going, where are you going to replace it? You probably could replace it but you couldn't
replace it in a better spot probably.
Mayor Jansen: Other than maybe elsewhere in that same corridor.
Councilman Peterson: Potentially but that same corridor, again the other parts of it, you're
butting up against Chaska then you're residential right where it is is primarily industrial on the
opposite side of the.
Kate Aanenson: Actually it's residential.
Mayor Jansen: It's residential.
Kate Aanenson: Some of those neighbors were concerned about that that spoke from Chaska.
Councilman Labatt: Right across the road is that Autumn Woods, isn't it?
Kate Aanenson: It's residential.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, so that office industrial is farther north?
Mayor Jansen: It's as you move further north, yep.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. It gets low density in this second phase. It's just the, that's how we came
up with the industrial across from the Degler piece is that this was, so they were concerned about
that transition, and that's something that we'd be looking at too is the area wide. Looking at the
traffic. Where the traffic movement is and it also ties in the timing with 212. I mean how much
capacity can this handle with the infrastructure that's in place and that whole timing so, and that
goes back to what the Mayor was saying. It may be some things move around a little bit as we
look at that more closely.
Mayor Jansen: Any other questions for staff?
Councilman Boyle: I have none.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Now typically we don't repeat the public hearing. I don't know if the
applicant is here this evening. If there's anything new that you would like to add from what was
discussed at the Planning Commission. You're certainly welcome to do that, but normally we
can just go from the minutes that we have. But whatever you're comfortable with.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Richard Palmiter: Good evening. My name is Richard Palmiter with Town and Country Homes
and I always like to speak about favored projects, and this certainly is one of them. I just want to
almost say this is almost like a reversal. Usually we make the presentations and the developer
shows what we would like to have happen in your city. This case it's almost reverse. Where
we're asking the city to say take a look at what we have and give us ideas and staff has done that
very comprehensively in the staff report which we concur with. And so we have now a pretty
good list of things that we know we would have to do in order to perform if we want to come
back to you with a PUD application, and it's very extensive. But it's a good checklist. It's the
thing that we can use in which to come forward with. We know, I've heard very clear
architecture is very solid. It needs to be something that you are looking, and a variety of other
things. The park areas, the open areas, the protection of that, so we know what we need to do to
come back and we'll be back in just like 2 years from now so, but you blink twice and we'll be
back here in that time so. Again, this is different and we really appreciate your time and the
efforts that you and the staff has made to go over our project. So I'm here to answer any
questions for you tonight.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, any questions for Richard?
Councilman Boyle: I have none.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Appreciate all the time that you've spent working with staff and the couple
commission meetings, and I believe you did a neighborhood meeting as well so appreciate your
getting all that input.
Councilman Boyle: I'd like to make a motion.
Mayor Jansen: Hold on.
Councilman Peterson: You got a hot date tonight or what?
Mayor Jansen: I just had a couple of things. And I guess in realizing that now is the time for us
to address any of the big picture issues. One of the things that I noted as I was reading through
the potential for children in this area, potential of 114 school children, one of the things that we
looked at in the Puke project were the totlots within the project and play areas. Some common
areas so that at least the kids have somewhere to go within that complex and we're of course not
the experts on the playgrounds and Park and Rec would be able to come up with that, but I didn't
see that addressed within the PUD look see as far as any specifically common areas or possible
totlots within the complex or playgrounds. And then one term that comes to mind I guess
frequently looking at some of the townhome developments, is monotonous. And if we can avoid
monotony within the project, it of course goes to all the elements that you've put in here within
your design standards as far as materials, architectural details and variety, but just trying to do
some of those more unique things that you can within the complex and not to mean that you just
vary the tone of the brown that's on the outside of the building I guess is one of the things that I
would consider important in coming back with this. And as we go to make a motion, I would
really go with staff's suggestion that we delete the fiscal tax study. I think those numbers were
provided from staff and that Mr. Gerhardt really did a very extensive job of providing some
numbers and a good look at the tax information and we all know that with the legislature making
annual changes at this point to tax rates, that it could be very different, a look see when the
project ends up coming in and that should be probably addressed at that time if it's a
consideration for the council 2 years from now when that comes in. Those would be my only
comments. Council, anything else to add? Any other discussion?
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Councilman Labatt: Nope.
Mayor Jansen: Then I'll call for a motion.
Councilman Boyle: I'd like to make a motion. I was going to hesitate just long enough. That the
City Council approves a concept PUD with the conditions 1 through 8. Linda, you made a
comment on the fiscal tax study, of eliminating it?
Mayor Jansen: Deleting (f). Deleting l(f).
Councilman Boyle: Okay. With deletion of l(f). And adding that common areas and playgrounds
be considered and avoiding any monotony in the aesthetics.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you.
Councilman Boyle: You're welcome. Anything else?
Mayor Jansen: I don't think so.
Councilman Boyle: Okay. There lies my motion.
Mayor Jansen: And ifI could have a second please.
Councilman Ayotte: I'll second that.
Mayor Jansen: All those in favor, or discussion of the motion?
Councilman Peterson: Yeah if we could. I guess I'd still like to, just for the fact that I'd like staff
to have it in the forefront of their mind as to, as we approve this, realizing we're conceptually
approving moving 40 acres out of industrial. I'd like to put an additional condition in there that
as this area, the whole, that MUSA area is rolled in, that we look at replacing that 40 acres with
appropriate industrial space.
Mayor Jansen: That that be reviewed?
Councilman Peterson: Yeah.
Mayor Jansen: Do you accept that friendly amendment?
Councilman Boyle: I accept that friendly amendment?
Mayor Jansen: And does the second, second the friendly amendment?
Councilman Ayotte: Sure.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Any further discussion?
Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded that the City Council approve the
Conceptual PUD of 88.5 acres of property for 540 residential units for Town and Country
Homes, subject to the following conditions:
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
The applicant shall contribute to the preparation of an Alternative Urban Area Wide
Review (AUAR) in lieu of an EAW for the 2005 MUSA area. The AUAR shall study the
following issues:
Public facilities-school, park, utilities, fire station.
Environmental features-Bluff Creek Overlay District, Wetlands/bluffs, Open
space and trees.
Transportation system-traffic/road plan and the ongoing considerations of the
existing studies and reports, the design and construction of Highway 312 and
Powers Boulevard.
Utilities-Sewer, Water, Storm Sewer.
In addition, the AUAR shall address the following issues:
Potential school sites, fire station, water tower, and creek crossing.
Collector road systems as well as traffic, infrastructure requirements:
sewer, water, storm sewer, and natural resources including wetlands, trees,
and slopes.
A medium density PUD shall be created with the following items addressed: landscaping
(entrance, streetscape, and buffering transitions, uses and density), possible support
commercial, neighborhood connections (trails and sidewalks), design standards
(materials, architectural details and variety), transit (slip off lanes), public access to park
areas, preservation of natural features (bluffs, wetland, trees), housing plan (range of
product and price).
The applicant shall petition the City for city services (sewer, water, etc.).
The applicant shall develop a housing diversity plan.
All wetlands on site shall be delineated by a qualified wetland delineator, checked by city
staff and surveyed by a registered land surveyor prior to the development of more detailed
plans for this site.
The applicant shall keep the goals for the Lowlands Region of the Bluff Creek Overlay
District in mind as a plan is developed for the site and work with staff to achieve these
goals for this property:
Preserve and manage the high-quality wetland complexes, riparian areas and oak
woodlands to extend the high quality system of the Gorge Region;
Restore impaired ecosystems to their natural conditions; and
Re-create natural links between major natural features within the Bluff Creek
corridor.
The applicant shall arrange for the Bluff Creek primary and secondary zone boundaries to
be field verified by staff prior to the development of a more detailed plan for this site.
The Building and Fire Marshal comments shall be incorporated into the next level of
review.
Common areas and playgrounds be considered in the PUD.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
10. The developer shall avoid monotony in aesthetics of architecture.
11. As the AUAR for the 2005 study area is done, look at how the city is going to replace the
40 acres of industrial land.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: It is a beautiful area of our community and we certainly look forward to
eventually seeing your project come in, and we appreciate your spending the time that you have
with us to go over some of the points that we would like to see addressed in that area, so good
luck to you and thank you.
Richard Palmiter: Thank you very much.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Jansen: Is there anything from council for reports?
Councilman Boyle: Nothing interesting.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Jansen: Mr. Gerhardt, anything under Administrative Presentations?
Todd Gerhardt: Did you bring your calendar? I'd like to re-schedule that debt study and TIF
update, if we could include that as a part of our special meeting on the 7th. It's going to make for
a long afternoon but.
Mayor Jansen: What time were you needing us all? Didn't we say 1:007
Todd Gerhardt: 1:00 on the 7th.
Councilman Peterson: I thought we said lunch.
Mayor Jansen: I guess noon.
Todd Gerhardt: We can do that.
Councilman Labatt: What's for lunch?
Todd Gerhardt: What do you want? We'll do something for lunch.
Councilman Boyle: 7th is a Thursday, is that correct?
Todd Gerhardt: The 7th is a Thursday.
Councilman Ayotte: Two days after election day.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Mayor Jansen: One of the things that I do want to make sure that we're focused on as we're
going to be doing that debt study and taking a look at it and I don't remember how many council
people were present when we approved the preliminary levy. Were there just 3 of us?
Councilman Labatt: I was gone, I know that.
Councilman Boyle: I think there were 3.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page as to the numbers
that we're trying to crunch before we get down to that final levy approval. And at the work
session and during the council meeting we had discussed taking dollars out of the debt levy in
order to reduce the amount of increase. We removed $200,000 that evening. However, during
our work session conversation what we had targeted was $380,000, so we did still leave the
challenge on the table, and we were hoping that through the debt study we would establish how
much more we would be able to use in cash reserves potentially to reduce the levy that additional
dollar amount, and our target goal then would have been to get our increase down to more like 7
percent. My pie in the sky number that I was looking to see if we could remove, and Mr.
Gerhardt is aware of this as we have one debt issue that is $700,000 for this year's levy, and a
million two for next year's, and my question to staff had been, can we look at retiring those two
chunks this year versus waiting and what would that savings be. So that is part of what that
review is that we'll be getting back on the 7th, just so everyone's prepared to what we're trying to
look at and accomplish. Were we able to do that larger number, it would bring the levy increase
down to a 3 percent for this year.
Councilman Ayotte: From?
Mayor Jansen: From, if we get the additional.
Councilman Peterson: On the limit of 10.
Mayor Jansen: 180 out of there, it pulls out down to 7.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, one of the key things we need to look at is the debt associated with the
general fund, and also the debt associated with the TIF district and so it's pretty significant. I
haven't seen the final numbers on it but should have them to you that Friday before the 7th. Try
to get you the packet out early so you can go through it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Appreciate it. So it is a bit of a challenge as to what they're trying to pull
together as far as these numbers so that we have a good idea of what is going to happen with the
TIF debt.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, and I'd like to come out of there with a game plan on how we're going to
deal with the TIF issues in the future. There's going to be a couple of recommendations in there.
Maybe some special legislation this year and things like that.
Councilman Ayotte: There was some correspondence to that, on that TIF. Are you going to
address that? Correspondence they addressed TIF, I thought.
Councilman Labatt: I think that was last time. That was last week.
Councilman Ayotte: Oh. I thought there was more information on the legislation.
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City Council Meeting - October 28, 2002
Justin Miller: I think it might have been included in the.., priorities for this coming.
Councilman Ayotte: Oh okay. So nothing new.
Justin Miller: No.
Councilman Ayotte: I'm sorry.
Todd Gerhardt: Under legislative policies.
Mayor Jansen: Thanks.
Todd Gerhardt: That's always an issue for them.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, so if there isn't anything else, once we adjourn we are going to go back
into conversations on our capital plan, since we didn't get that completed before the meeting so if
I could have a motion to adjourn.
Councilman Ayotte moved, Councilman Boyle seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted
in favor and the City Council meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
41