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CC 2011 05 09 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MAY 9, 2011 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilman Laufenburger, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman, Jill Sinclair, and Roger Knutson PUBLIC PRESENT: Bill Jensen Mediacom Todd Neils 90 Saddlebrook Curve Jeff Olson Buy Chanhassen Russ Rosa RAG, Inc., St. Paul David Christianson Environmental Commission Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everyone here in the council chambers this evening as well as those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us. I’d like to start by asking members of the council if there are any changes or proposed changes to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: I’d like to start with a couple public presentations so I’m going to go down in front and we’ll go from there and David Christianson with the Environmental Commission, if you’d like to come up and join me. I’d like to start this evening, if I could have Tiana Connelly come up and join us. How are you this evening? Tiana Connelly: Good. Mayor Furlong: Good. Tiana is the grand prize winner for our City’s Arbor Day Poster Contest and here’s a framed picture of her picture. The City Council and the Environmental Commission each year, and for the last 12 years has sponsored an Arbor Day Poster Contest. This is, the contest is includes, or is fifth graders from around the city are included. This year there were 94 entries. Total entries for fifth graders from St. Hubert’s School, Bluff Creek Elementary and Excelsior Elementary schools. All their drawings were wondering. At our meeting 2 weeks ago we had a number of the runners up here. Tiana wasn’t able to make it so we invited her back this evening to give her her prize and recognition. This year’s contest, the theme for this year’s contest was Trees are Terrific in All Shapes and Sizes and you can see Tiana’s picture right there. Lotus Lawn and Garden, would like to thank them for their generous donation. Tiana will receive a potted tree of her choice and last year the, or a couple weeks ago the runners up Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 received potted plants as well so, Tiana on behalf of the City and the Environmental Commission I’d like to present you with this certificate and your grand prize award and congratulate you for your pretty picture. Tiana Connelly: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: You’re welcome. You’re welcome. And if J.R. Relick is here. Good evening. Tonight I’d like to present J.R. with this Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Chanhassen. J.R. was appointed to the Environmental Commission in 2008 and served 3 years on the commission. During that time he brought creativity and passion and commitment to the commission and all their activities. While serving on the commission he contributed to many activities and accomplishments of the commission including environmental stewardship within our city with an Environmental Excellence Award program and other activities, promoting the Arbor Day Poster Contest. We just saw this year’s recipient among fifth graders. Revitalizing Arbor Day, which we just celebrated in our city here this last Saturday with the spirit of the day rd and planting trees and donated much of his time and talent for public education on July 3 and th July 4 events. So J.R. on behalf of the City Council and all the residents, thank you for your service. CONSENT AGENDA:Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approves the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated April 25, 2011 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated April 25, 2011 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated April 19, 2011 Resolution#2011-26: b. 2011 Street Improvement Project 11-01: Approve Change Order No. 1 Concerning Tree Removal and Landscaping. c. Powers Crossing Professional Center: Approve One-Year Extension of Preliminary Plat, Tim Erhart. d. Liberty at Creekside: Approve One-Year Extension of Preliminary Plat, B. Elmer Farms, LLC (Bruce Jeurissen). Resolution#2011-27: e. Chanhassen Village Apartments Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project Nos. 11-02-1 and 11-02-2: Approve Quotes. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. 2 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: I think we have one group. Mr. Neils and Mr. Olson. Todd Neils: Thank you Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Todd Neils: Good evening. My name is Todd Neils. I’m here as the current District and City Liaison for the newly formed Storm Dugout Club. The club was originally formed to support the maintenance at our favorite team complex at Chanhassen High School and to protect the community’s investment. Since it’s inception in early March the members made up of passionate Diamond Sports supporters from the high school, Red Birds, Post 580 Legion and Junior Legion and CAA baseball and softball, have expanded our vision to include community development projects within the boundaries of Chanhassen High School. In April I had the opportunity to make a presentation to the Park and Rec which resulted in an approval, approved motion to present to the council this evening. Initially our focus will be on Chanhassen High School stadium complex. In order to make sure this remains the first class facility which we paid for, a significant investment by school district, community and user groups will need to be made. The stadium complex is sorely lacking necessary equipment, materials and even labor to satisfactorily protect our significant investment. Over the course of the next year and possibly as early as this year, a portion of the money raised will be directed at the improvement of fields within our member communities. The Storm Dugout Club is committed to making a difference throughout our member communities but it will take funding. We envision partnering with the City at city fields to make improvements as our membership and finances, financial base grows. Some of these projects include electronic scoreboards, dugouts and lighting which will only enhance and expand playability. Since we are a T-ball to Town Ball concept we expect the member communities which support Storm Diamond Sports to join and contribute. The CAA softball and baseball programs, which have over 1,300 participants this year, spanning Chanhassen, Victoria, Carver and East Union. The sheer numbers alone serve the testament to the importance that this community and many of your constituents place on this sport one of America’s favorite past times. We’ll also be seeking corporate and business sponsorships. This effort cannot only be funded on the backs of community members throughout membership. We need to get businesses involved. It is important to offer reciprocation to any business no matter who grounded in the community. While we believe that businesses in our community will be supportive, it will be helpful in attracting business sponsors if we’re able to offer them some reasonable accommodation, including temporary signage at ballfields that we support in this case, Lake Susan Park. Our request this evening is as follows. We are here to request that the City Council amend the ordinance to allow temporary signage during the diamond sports season from April through July. We will make the following pledge to an amended sign ordinance. Signage will be temporary, affixed to field fences at Lake Susan Park only. We will work with city staff to insure continued protection of fencing and be responsible for any damage that may be incurred. All signage will only be affixed during the diamond sport season of April through July. Signage would be covering tennis courts and industrial park, which is different from our previous recommendation in 2005 at Lake Ann Park. Selling, installing and removal of signage on field fences and at ball parks would be the sole responsibility of the Storm Dugout Club. 3 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Other communities surrounding us also use signage for funding including Chaska’s Athletic Park, Minnetonka’s Veterans Field, and Minnetonka’s Freeman Field. Fortunately we have a great start with passionate members of the community but passion simply will not support facilities. We do want to see our facilities, we do not want to see our facilities deteriorate quickly from lack of attention and maintenance and hope that the council will consider this amendment. Are there any questions? Mayor Furlong: Okay, any questions for Mr. Neils? Sorry for my earlier mispronunciation. Councilman Laufenburger: I did have one. Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Neils, what budget have you been asked to raise? The Dugout Club is under the auspices of the school district, is that correct? Todd Neils: It is not. It’s a separately run Dugout Club. It was originally formed at request of the Athletic Director Dick Unger. However as we’ve expanded our scope we’ve also taken the surrounding communities into account and so it’s not directly under the school. It’s not part of the current booster club. It’s a separate club or separate fund raising mechanism. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, and have you established a budget for the coming year? Jeff Olson: That’s an ongoing process. We’re still trying to assess the needs at some of the facilities. It’s my understanding last year, once we hit June there was very little maintenance done. There was no staff and so we’re trying to assess that. For example looking at equipment needs and we’ve looked at what the cost of a mower that can be used on some of these fields at Chan High School. New they’re $30,000. Lease returns are around 15. You know if you get a used one that you’re going to have to maintain, probably $4,000 or $5,000 so that and looking at field conditions, bringing some experts in to look at some of the conditions and the turf issues. I meant to bring some pictures and photos along for you to show you some of the examples of like the turf conditions out there but we, this is my son back here. We had a game up in upper Tonka tonight so I didn’t get a chance to run home and get those. Councilman Laufenburger: Did you win? I mean did he win? It was a good game though right? Audience: It was. Jeff Olson: It was but they had fewer runs at the end than the other team so, but just we tried to coordinate our comments into one presentation. I might add that we were just, my son and I were just up at upper Tonka and they do have banners on their outfield as a fund raising mechanism there as well. Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Any, Mr. McDonald. 4 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilman McDonald: Yeah I’m a little confused because you’ve mentioned a couple of things here. When you talk about the ballfield, you including the high school as part of this Storm stadium that we use for Town Ball? Todd Neils: In what regard? Whether we’re going to post signs there or whether we’re going to make improvements there? Councilman McDonald: Improvements. Signage. All of these things. Todd Neils: Well the answer to the question is yes. We have approached the athletic director Dick Unger who has spoken to the Superintendent about our proposal. Initially it has been rejected. However we hope to have further conversations with both the school board and the superintendent to help them along. Jeff Olson: As to signage. Todd Neils: As to signage. In terms of maintenance, again our primary goal is the protection of the investment that the people of Chanhassen put into the Chanhassen High School stadium complex. However, the long term goal and as I said, even as early as this year we’d like to go into our member communities and also put some of that money that we raise to work. Councilman McDonald: Okay because my understanding of the agreement, when we put it together was that the school district would be taking care of maintenance. That was not going to be a responsibility of the City. Todd Neils: I agree with you. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Then the other thing I’m confused about, if we now talk about the other ball fields at Lake Ann and everything, what’s the City’s role in there? I thought we were taking care of maintenance there so when you start talking about buying another lawn mower, what’s that for? Is this to go over and above what the City already does? And if you’re going to do that, then why would the City continue to do any maintenance? How does all this kind of mesh together with what the City currently provides? Todd Neils: The proposal is not to buy a lawn mower for city properties per se. The proposal is to enhance the current ballfields through additional dugouts. Through lighting at Lake Susan. Fence movement. Scoreboards. Things like that. We obviously as citizens completely, or appreciate the amount of work that the City currently puts into the parks. However there are additional things that might not be within budget for the city to put in. We feel it is important as a diamond sport supporter. Councilman McDonald: Okay and you say that you had approached the Park and Rec committee but have you talked with city staff? Is there a report coming back from there as to you know what are the costs? What’s our responsibilities? What are you going to do? What’s the plans you know capital improvements? Where’s all of that? 5 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Todd Neils: We have not spoken to staff. Happy to do so at any time. Again the fund raising that we’ll be doing will be above and beyond any amenities that the city already offers. To enhance the ballfields. Councilman McDonald: Okay well I guess if you’re asking us to consider ordinances and everything, it may be premature because I think without the City kind of giving their input as to are we going to be stepping on each others toes or are there things we can do here, I’d like to see how’s the coordination set up because the City is ultimately responsible for those properties. And in order to make sure that it’s done I would just like to see the City be involved in an integrated plan so I can fully understand how do you fit in. You know what’s your piece of the puzzle? Todd Neils: Well I would say that I, having run the Chanhassen Baseball and Softball Association for 5 years, I have developed a working relationship with the park and rec staff, as well as park and rec commission and have never done anything within the city without further discussion with Mr. Hoffman, with the park and rec staff. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Well it’s just you do understand that the park and rec is an advisatory commission to the council and at this point I’m not getting anything from the City side as to what they would recommend or what the impacts are. You know what’s this going to cost the City and until I actually see that I guess yeah, I wouldn’t be in favor of moving forward with any kind of proposal at this time. I’m willing to accept something but I would want the City to sit down and I would want to see how do these two organizations work together? How are we complimentary to one another and again you’re doing things independently from what the City would do. An example is definitely the high school. I can understand why they would turn you down. They’re very fiercely independent of that field and again our deal with them was strictly access and usage. It was not to do any maintenance or repairs. That was strictly their prerogative and a couple of times with the Red Birds they have stepped in and said you’re not going to play because you’re going to damage our field and they have that right so yeah it’s a unique relationship between us and the school with those athletic fields. So that’s what I think needs to be discussed and put together and that’s why I would like to see something come up from city staff with some recommendations. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. I support the Dugout Club in their efforts and what they’re proposing tonight. I think that we need to take one step back. Sit down with staff. Bring Superintendent Bakke in. Sit down with him and do a cohesive analysis on this and bring it back through the park and rec commission. Back to the City Council for your consideration. This is what we need to do. We just don’t have the resources anymore as a city to maintain all the facilities we have. We’ve got to work with groups of CAA, the Dugout group, the school district, even the other cities that may want to participate in this and I think I give credit for these two gentlemen to come before you and to the park and rec commission, that they’re looking down the road and that’s kind of what our vision is too. That the facility looks nice and beautiful. We just want to keep it that way just like Chaska does with Cub Fields and a reel to 6 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 reel mower is perfect for that type of field and you know if we can get some benefit at Lake Susan and Lake Ann in utilizing the youth as they grow into that field, it’s a perfect scenario but I think we need to do some additional due diligence to have the mayor and council feel comfortable with what they’re proposing tonight. Councilman McDonald: Well I’m not against any of this. It’s just I want to see all that happen, and plus as you’ve already determined for you to approach the school by yourself is not going to be the best solution. You need the City to help you with that because we do have some leverage and that’s why I would like to see more of a coordinated effort between the two groups and I believe the City should be leading some of those things. Especially if we’re talking about what we’re going to be doing for maintenance. What we’re going to be doing for improvements and any help you would need as far as getting on board as a well Red Birds Storm stadium or anything along those lines because I think yeah, you’re going to need some help there. That’s all I’m suggesting at this point. Mayor Furlong: Yeah. I mean I guess just, my thoughts real quickly and if we need to keep talking about this we can but we have other items that we need to move onto as well. I agree with you Mr. Gerhardt in terms of taking a step or two back and re-looking at this. Getting staff involved from two aspects. One is, you’ve identified the needs. You’ve come up with a potential solution. I don’t know that your potential solution really is going to be a final solution or one that we actually support but we know what the needs are. Let’s see what we can find out in terms of what makes sense. How we can try to do this because I think as you even mentioned Mr. Neils, you know we looked at signage at our parks a few years ago and it was a decision not to do that as a form of raising funds for, at that time I think it was CAA but, and whatever the organization was, I mean it was. Todd Neils: It was to support lighting at Lake Ann Park. Mayor Furlong: Okay, but there are reasons that we didn’t do that beyond just what the specific need was and where the funding was so I think we need to step back and look at what are we trying to accomplish. I agree with you that having groups such as the Dugout Club involved makes a lot of sense going forward but it needs, we need to go through and figure out what problems are we trying to solve. What are the pros and cons? You’re asking us to change public policy. What are the pros and cons to doing that and look at those. So it’s, you’re here too soon I guess is my point. It needs to, Mr. McDonald I think is right. You know we haven’t integrated staff in the process. It went to visitor presentations with the park and rec and then straight here so I think we’re jumping ahead pretty quickly. And I realize that maybe the reason for that is we’ve got a season coming up right now and you wanted to do something. Todd Neils: We’re in the season. Mayor Furlong: Yeah so, but and maybe we might move a little too slow or you know for this season but I think whatever we do we have to make sure we do it right. Is everybody comfortable with that? Okay. Great. 7 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Todd Gerhardt: And I didn’t mean to say that the council wasn’t supportive of the idea. You put money towards that facility and you’ve invested in all the other parks and you know I just think it’s great that we have two gentlemen here this evening that are excited about investing into the future and that’s what we’re about and I think I heard the council say the same. Just want to see the details. Mayor Furlong: Okay, great. Thank you. Todd Neils: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Others for visitor presentations. Bill Jensen: Well Mayor Furlong, good evening. I’m Bill Jensen, the Regional Vice President for Mediacom. Our office here for Mediacom in Chanhassen is located at right across from the big weather ball I guess. For those of you that don’t know where we’re at, we’re at 1670 Lake Drive West and I’ve been reading a lot of press reports. I was very happy to meet the reporter from the Chanhassen Villager tonight and I thought I’d swing by and re-acquaint myself. Not just with the folks watching this evening but also the City Council because as I’ve read the stories and spoken to other people here throughout Chanhassen, I know there are some misunderstandings and some things that pretty obvious at Mediacom we need to clear up. Now mingling with I believe close to 500 people at the Chanhassen Rotary Club Tulip Festival this past weekend, nobody put me in a corner and complained too loudly but as a cable guy of 30 years I can assure you that I know things in our industry do break but I can also tell you in the 30 years I’ve been in the industry, if they break we fix them and so I want to talk about a few things here today and we’ll just, I know we don’t have a lot of time but just very quickly the Chanhassen cable system profile. We have 4,000 cable television video customers and that’s really important for the viewers and the council members this evening to discern the difference between a video customer and an internet and a phone customer because at Mediacom, like most cable companies throughout the country, we are what we call a broadband provider or triple play provider. We have not just video. We also have high speed internet and telephone customers and then you can see a roll up there, I don’t need to go through it all for you but 192 video channels, etc, etc and our highest internet speed is equivalent, I always read well, how come you’re not like the big boys and girls like Comcast and Charter? We have an internet speed of 50 megabits per second download speed. That’s what Comcast is offering in the Twin Cities so, we also for a big pike direct fiber connections to businesses throughout our 22 state service area and we also have a few of those customers here at Chanhassen. The next slide, did I screw that up already? There we go. Alright, just to give you a quick idea of what we do over there across from the National Weather Service weather ball, 1670 Lake Drive West. We have 75 employees located at that location. This is what we call a field office. We have a customer service center located there. We have a warehouse. That warehouse serves my cable systems in Minnesota, South Dakota, and northwest Iowa and we have technical operations there so installers, technicians, construction people. We also have a corporate enterprise solutions group that works out of there with engineers. When we take those 75 employees, on average our annual payroll right there up the road here is $2 million dollars. It’s probably more if you start throwing in benefits and things like that. Right here in Chanhassen. When we look at the price of gasoline, and believe me I have over 200 service trucks on the road. 60 of them right here in the city of 8 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Chanhassen that service the Lake Minnetonka communities, along with the city of Chanhassen, we are probably putting $100 worth of gasoline in each of these vans daily, and I would tell you since we’re based in Chan a lot of those fill up’s are happening right here, probably right in Chanhassen so we keep busy right here in the city of Chanhassen. The next slide, page 4. You were all going to ask me about it. What’s going on with the Twins? I need to start playing the lottery because who would have thought that one of those surcharge games would be one of the first no hitters in the Twin’s, in what? 10 years. So the long and short of it, every video provider, cable company, telephone company, satellite dish company, they sign programming deals with video providers. It would be Fox Sports, ESPN, you name it and I can’t due to the contract language get into the specifics. What I can tell you is last fall Mediacom negotiated a 3 year deal with Fox Sports North, Fox Sports. We signed a 3 year deal with FSN. That included all of the Twins games that we used to get. And then 3 months later FSN, and I don’t blame them. It was a great business move. They went out and bought the broadcast package from the Minnesota Twins. Great move. So can you imagine our dismay when Fox Sports came back to Mediacom and said we know you signed a contract in November, but we need more money from you. And we opted as a company, and I realize we’re one of the last companies standing but we’ve taken a big, a very strong stance against sports programming fees. Rights fees. And you know without going into the detail, it’s a tremendous amount of money for us and inevitably our customers. Right now Mediacom and Fox are no longer talking and that’s disappointing. We will continue to try to move beyond to work with them. These surcharge games are not just for this year. They go on for the next 2 years, i.e. a 3 year contract but our company has not agreed to the surcharge games. All I would ask is our customers watching tonight or for the council that you keep in mind that if you, and I know you operate a business and I’m sure many of our viewers do, but we had a contract and they tried to change the contract terms after we signed it and we took offense to it and we can’t agree right now on what we believe is a fair rate. People wonder well how come Comcast and Charter do it? They’re much bigger. Comcast has over 25 million customers and I’m not going to speak on their behalf. Mediacom has a little over a million customers in 23 states so my sense is Comcast and companies like Charter get a much better rate than Mediacom does so my hope is, with about 26 more games remaining that are surcharge games this year, that we get this ironed out but we’re not talking. We’ll try to get that going. Next item, as I’ve read in your local newspaper, I just want to clarify some items here. People think that well, Mediacom’s the only game in town. They’re exclusive. They have no competition. That’s not only wrong, it’s unfair. You can cross the Minnesota River if you like and go over to the cities of Prior Lake and Savage and we’re competing head to head on all 3 services, video, internet and phone with Integra Communications. They went to the cities of Savage, Prior Lake and…and obtained the video franchise. They did it legally. They did it ethically and we’re competing now. As a matter of fact in 33 other communities dating back to the late 1990’s, Mediacom has competed with a number of other phone companies for all 3 services so when people say that there’s no competition, it’s just not correct and it’s wrong. And then we talk about some of the other, I’m referring to wired line competition but there are other types of competitors here. There’s Direct TV and Dish Network for video. Qwest, soon to be Century Link for video. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Spring and of course Qwest Century Link for internet. The franchise agreement that we have with the City of Chanhassen is only for video. There are no franchises anywhere in the United States, to my knowledge, that you get a franchise for internet or phone. In fact the only thing that we do, all companies that are phone companies, have to go through the Minnesota Public Utility Commission and be a certified 9 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 telephone provider. Internet, you can just walk in off the street today and become an internet service provider. Okay? Let’s talk about the franchise because as I’ve read, and as I’ve heard, well you’ve got an exclusive franchise in Chanhassen and again, nonsense. It’s not true. It’s inaccurate. The franchise is non-exclusive as every video franchise is throughout the United States. Okay? Not just with Mediacom. With Comcast and Charter. In fact if you’d like to, and not that you ask my opinion but you could have as many video providers as you’d like to have here in the city of Chanhassen. It’s not an issue with us and we’re not, we don’t shy away from competition. We’ve been doing it with wired line competition since 1998 with a company down in, out of Mankato called Hickory Tech so this isn’t really about competition. They have been able and more than welcome to come to your city and make a presentation and say, we want to provide video services. Occupy your public rights of way and offer service just like Mediacom does. They can do it next week. You don’t have to wait for my permission. They can do it whenever they want so there are no such things as exclusive franchise agreements. Okay? The current franchise with Mediacom expires in 2013 and contrary to what was reported in the newspaper, there’s no requirement for an annual report. If, whenever you’d like the cable company, whether it’s Mediacom or any other provider to come before you, all you have to do is call. Okay? And we’re here. And I’ve done this a few other times in the past so all you have to do is call. As I’m sure Todd Gerhardt, the City Manager will tell you, Mediacom and the City literally communicate daily. The major communications are primarily drop area permits. We stop by. Any time we want to dig dirt and bury a cable television drop wire, we need a permit and we pay for that. Most of them right Todd? Okay. But yes, there are occasionally the City Manager will call us when there are customer complaints and we do our best to take care of those. Most of those resolutions favor the customer but sometimes you need to get the whole loaf of bread before you can decide who’s right and who’s wrong. We value our customers. It’s important and our business has grown here. I would also tell you that we do this show called Ask the Manager, and although we don’t do it live, people say well how can we get in touch with you? Well, I live in Prior Lake. I’m listed in the phone book. Not many people call me but that has happened in the past. We have this TV show that people email us and we answer. We ask their questions on the air, have a little fun with that. You can go to our website mediacomcable.com and you can file a complaint there. And I’m listed, my email address, the presentation that’s before you. I can assure you that I probably won’t be able to handle or resolve all of the questions or complaints, hopefully there aren’t many, but I can make sure the right people do resolve them so again I am more than happy to come back on a regular basis. I know that the City Council has other things before you but I know it’s been a topic and so therefore it’s important so Mr. Mayor, that’s, and council members, that’s all I have for you. I’d can turn it back over to you Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Thank you very much Mr. Jensen. Any questions for Mr. Jensen? Councilwoman Ernst: I have one question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Jensen, I know you’ve done this before and I’m not going to direct because I don’t think it’s the City’s role to do this but I know at one time you had held like a public forum. 10 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Bill Jensen: Yes. Councilwoman Ernst: And not too many turned out. Bill Jensen: Right. Councilwoman Ernst: However I was wondering if it is something that you have considered doing in the future? Bill Jensen: It’s a great point, thank you. We, the last time we did it, I think it was back in 2002 or 2003, the City Manager came after us a few days later because we left him with a bunch of cookies that we had bought. There weren’t too many people that arrived and we tried to do two different day parts. The early afternoon and then the early evening. At that time we did not have an office in Chanhassen so we’re looking, we don’t have a set date but an open house up at our facility here in Chanhassen. Certainly we’ll do the full Monty with the hotdogs and tours and things like that. It’s a nice facility. We occupy the bulk of that facility and we’d like to one day buy that facility so I believe, and we will let the council know, but you’re looking at probably in mid-June when we will have an open house up there. I invite the City Council to join us and all of the folks that are watching tonight because it is a nice facility and we’re proud to be here in Chanhassen so. Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I have just one question because I’m a little bit confused. I understand the City has the franchise and we gave you the franchise to put cable in, but who owns the cable? Isn’t the cable your’s? So it’s not as though Comcast or anybody else could come in and just start on your cable. They have to do their own cable too. Bill Jensen: Great question. The cable that was installed here probably back in the late 90’s was, or mid 90’s or whenever it was probably constructed by Triax Communications. I didn’t arrive here until the Fall of 2000. The general footprint is if one cable company or practices, if one cable operator sells to another cable operator, it’s like selling real estate. They take over our cable plant. Okay? If another competitor wants to come in, and the cable operator doesn’t want to sell to that competitor, and as a rule, matter of practice we don’t at Mediacom, then they do the construction. And years ago a lot of that happened. Back in the late 90’s into 2000 and 01 and 02 but more recently it’s slowed down but I can tell you that companies like Integra just in the past year built cable to include a fiber to the premise cable system. They built where our cable was so it’s not unheard of. In northern Minnesota the same thing. There’s a phone company up there called Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative and they built fiber right into the customers homes so when there’s a competitive environment and another operator wants to dig dirt, they do it. 11 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilman McDonald: Okay, I just wanted to make sure that’s clearly understood because a lot of the complaints and emails I get are why can’t we just put another cable provider on their and that’s, it’s not that simple. While we have the franchise, we do not own the cable. Bill Jensen: Right. Right. The incumbent, at least on, with our wire at Mediacom, we own that cable. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor? Mayor Furlong: Yes, Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Jensen, thank you for coming here tonight. I hope that your information has helped clarify for a number of citizens. I do have a couple questions. Bill Jensen: Sure. Councilman Laufenburger: First of all as you observe technology and how things are moving in the area of video providing, do you see anything in the way of wireless that might make construction easier in the future? Not only for Mediacom but for other video provides. Bill Jensen: Well it’s a great question because it’s already happening in the industry. Ironically where on the one side our video platform might be seeing customer turn because people with an IPad and Verizon or AT&T service are now streaming video through various services on their portable or mobile devices, and other people at home, thankfully using their Mediacom high speed internet connection, are streaming video from the other websites so it’s kind of interesting. There is a movement afoot, a lot of the programmers are beginning to protect their programming. Whether it’s ESPN, HBO. HBO just launched a new product called HBO On The Go. You don’t need to be a cable customer to get that. You get a benefit if you do but for a lot of those video services that you can get through your satellite provider, your cable operator or your phone company, you can now get those streamed to your portable device for at home but slowly but surely they’re charging a fee for that so, do I see any type of wireless transmitters type like that? No, I don’t see that right now but it is moving very fast. I mean who would have thought on a little 4 inch by 4 inch Blackberry screen that you’d want to watch the top 10 plays of the day from ESPN? I mean it’s not too rewarding to me to do that but people do it. So our customer choices, they’re changing. Their preferences are changing and we have to change with them so, and I might add, and it’s a great question. I might add that years ago we were just a video provider. Maybe we offered 50 channels. And then we got into the internet business. And then the phone company got into the video business and we said well if we don’t get into the phone business they’re going to get us out of business so this industry, the whole telecom industry is just, it continues to just grow rapidly with new innovations. Councilman Laufenburger: Just have one other question Mr. Jensen. I think the agreement stipulates that you provide in ground coverage wherever customers want it. Is that correct? 12 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Bill Jensen: (Yes). Councilman Laufenburger: Is there any area in Chanhassen, city of Chanhassen right now where people are asking for cable that you are working to deliver it to them? Bill Jensen: Yes. There’s, and I forget the name of the development but it’s in an area, we have a density requirement and generally when you have a franchise in a city, you’re usually able to cover the entire city. But in this one particular area, and Todd is it Homestead? Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. It’s Homestead. Bill Jensen: Homestead. They’re a little bit further. There aren’t enough homes for us to internally justify the construction so we’re still trying to work that out because we want to, even though we might not be required to extend out there, we want to do the right thing in the city of Chanhassen and I’d like to come back and maybe one day get a plaque because we extended out to the Homestead area, you know. So I believe that’s the only area, that Homestead area and it’s just too sparse right now but we’re looking at it very seriously to do it without a customer contribution. Councilman Laufenburger: And just as a follow up to that, there are some new developments in Chanhassen. I’m assuming you’re working with those new developments? Bill Jensen: Absolutely. Absolutely. We try to get into all of these developments when the first trench is opened so, and we go to all of the pre-construction meetings and so it’s important for us to be in those developments. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright, thank you Mr. Jensen. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Anything else? Mr. Jensen, thank you for coming this evening. Bill Jensen: Thank you for having me. That you very much. Mayor Furlong: Very well, thank you. Let’s move on now to items under new business. CHANHASSEN BP, 7905 GREAT PLAINS BOULEVARD: REQUEST FOR A SITE PLAN PERMIT AND CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT TO REDEVELOP THE EXISTING CHANHASSEN BP CONVENIENCE STORE, CAR WASH AND GAS PUMP/CANOPY, APPLICANT: KHALED ALOUL. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. As you stated this is located on Great Plains Boulevard. Kind of showed you the context there. Just in the core of downtown and then the triangle on Great Plains and also two fronted along Highway 5. Want to show you some of the neighboring uses around there. You can see there is a gas station across the street, the Holiday which rebuilt a number of years ago and then the Valvoline and the car wash, which did have some concerns about this project which I’ll talk about in a minute. The Brown’s 13 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Automotive which also is kind of closer to the Highway 5 which screens it coming from the east. Our water treatment plant and some retail buildings around the site, and then of course the new th medical office building. This item did appear before the Planning Commission on April 19. Was voted 6-0 to recommend approval. Again the use is for site plan approval for 3,912 square feet and then a double car wash for 1,500 square feet and then the gas canopy and a conditional use permit, and I’ll go through those details in a minute but I just wanted to talk a little bit about the Planning Commission because there was some concerns again about the sight line, which I’ll discuss in a little bit further detail but they did kind of go through some of those slides and spend more time looking at the perspective and reviewing the impact of that development. And additionally since it did go before the Planning Commission, we did receive some comments from MnDOT regarding access so those conditions have been incorporated into the conditions of approval, and then also just some engineering issues regarding elimination of two existing copper services that they did…so with that the Planning Commission’s conditions and those were incorporated into your conditions for recommendation for tonight. So with that the conditional use permit is for gas pumps. When this project was originally approved, a conditional use permit was not required so in cleaning this up we’re looking at a conditional use permit. Also to allow two uses on one, two buildings on one site plan and then again a site plan approval for the gas station, car wash and the canopy itself. So the existing conditions as the site plan is shown here. The majority of the site then to the east of the property is green. This would be if you looked at, remember looking at the first slide and then behind it, or to the north of this would be the Valvoline and then the car wash and those are the two property owners that have the most concern about the change in use and the visibility. Staff did evaluate where the Valvoline sits up higher but because this building in this location, about 4 feet of the top of that building will be shown, and I’ll talk about that in a little bit more detail. One of the other issues is the setback between the existing buried tanks. Holiday did apply for a variance when this came in. We weren’t allowed to give variances. They’re not changing the separation between the two existing so the variance given to the Holiday gas station regarding separation of the gas tanks was applied to BP so they were actually benefitting because they’re not moving their tanks so it’s an existing non-conforming situation. Mayor Furlong: But excuse me, non-conforming because the neighboring property received a variance? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Right. But they’re not changing the location of the tanks so the separation remains consistent. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: So there’s no change. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Kate Aanenson: For the conditional use then, as I mentioned, so it would be for the principle building and the car wash…as our code say in the Business Highway that it would be ancillary and then the pumps. There are 6 pumps there currently so they’re being slightly reconfigured. In your staff report on page 4 then we did go through kind of the standards that we have in our 14 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 City Code regarding the conditional use permit and most of those relate to, we don’t want to have cars stored out there that are in disrepair, and then that there’s not a lot of stacking inbetween the gas pumps or to reprise circulation. This site is a little tight regarding that but we want to make sure that they do follow those conditions that are required for the conditional use permit, and those are in the findings. So again you’re looking at the two different site plans there. The existing one with the canopy over it. The smaller building with the single bay so it’d be adding a second bay on the picture, on the second picture and then putting the convenience store to the back of the site. So some of the issues there regarded circulation to make sure you could get around the gas pumps and then to get to the car wash, so the challenge there was that internally the engineering department worked on was to get the circulation to go actually behind the store itself to get to the car wash because it’s a little bit tighter there. And so then the main entrance, the canopy needs to move just a little bit to make it work, but it will be able to be moved and meet the City Code requirements so it does meet all the setbacks and again this would be a one way drive. We’ve talked with the owner about some sort of queuing so you don’t get into the drive lane, if there’s 6 or 8 cars, there might be a wait, to let you know that there’s a lot of people already waiting to go through and around for the car wash. Otherwise there is a convenient way then between the car wash and the canopy, in this area here then to come in to go to the convenience store so you’d come in through here to park to go to the convenience store, or you’d go around then here to go to the car wash and it’s a one way drive. And then the trash is east of the site. So to kind of clarify that, when we overlaid the new site plan on the existing site plan, so the canopy shifts a little bit to provide that drive aisle, to get into the convenience store, and then you’d go around then so you can see where the existing vegetation’s going to be removed and then this will be replaced with the new landscaping plan so some of the concerns would be for the car wash and for Valvoline who we have spoke to where the sight lines. So some of the sight lines as I mentioned coming east, there’s a stand of trees here on the Hanus building and their sign that’s actually kind of screening the Valvoline site itself and they were concerned about some of the additional landscaping being placed on this site. We do have the trash on the eastern side so we did want to screen that so we’re working through those issues regarding the specific landscape plan. The building itself meets all the design standards. It’s a highly articulated building for the gas station. Roof top equipment so there is a parapet wall which does add a little bit more to the height of that but it is along Highway 5 so we did want to screen it and that’s kind of the prep area where the coolers would be on the top so, and the height requirement, there’s 4 feet would be the least amount of you could see of Valvoline but there’s areas you would actually see closer to 7 feet. So this is the building itself. Again very articulated, well designed building. …as showing you those trees that would be removed and those are where the dumpster would be in that location and so we’re looking at on that A and B some additional articulation and some screening on that side. Another issue is then the canopy for the gas station and the car wash, so the canopy itself, we don’t allow the logo. The raised logo so it will be in conformance with the City ordinance as a condition of approval. Lighting. Recessed lighting underneath the canopy and then they do have a non-conforming sign which is shown there on the right and the way our sign ordinance reads is that you can have a 20 foot high sign if you’re in the Highway 5 district but it has to be over 50,000 square feet. Because this building is smaller, it’s less than 50,000 square feet, they are in compliance with this 64, 16 foot tall sign. Typically if that was to come in today we’d actually have them put a monument, a similar block on the base of that to match the building and hopefully they will consider that and kind of make that look a little bit nicer there to bring it into 15 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 conformance. It’s a little bit too close also to the right-of-way as of today’s standards. I think when additional right-of-way was taken for that Great Plains so they don’t want to lose that non- conforming right so they’re going to keep that sign where it’s located today. Mayor Furlong: And I’m sorry, could you explain again Ms. Aanenson why it’s non- conforming. Kate Aanenson: It’s a little too close to the street. And the other issue is… Mayor Furlong: Okay, so the location of the sign? Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and then today we actually asked them to be consistent with the architecture of the building so today we would have them probably put something here, some block that would match the building itself. Mayor Furlong: But the physical, the size and the area. Kate Aanenson: It is consistent. Mayor Furlong: Is consistent with our ordinance. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct so it’s just the location and then a little bit in the design. And I just want to mention too for the Valvoline, you recently, I think within the last year gave Valvoline redid their store front so they came in and they had a non-conforming sign because it’s actually about 18 feet high and it does not have Highway 5 frontage. It was a non-conforming sign. That was back when we could do variances so we allowed them, because they reduced the non-conformity of that sign and actually made it look nicer so they do have a tall sign for their visibility so we also pointed that out to the Planning Commission as a part of their concern about the visibility factor. So I did, I just want to show you a little bit about the landscaping and this was some of the issue about the size and how that would look and what that would do for screening but again the staff’s concern is, or point is that I think there’s more on the Hanus building regarding screening than this would be based on it’s height because those, that landscaping’s taller and sitting up closer to the building so they have provided for the trash circulation. So again parking meets all the standards. They just have to move the handicapped site itself so that that meets the parking stalls. There is a sidewalk that goes along Highway 5. There’s also access to get in the convenience. They are at the maximum for the hard surface coverage. Otherwise they would probably put a sidewalk along this segment here but because their right-of-way goes right to that point, they didn’t have any additional hard surface to give up. So with that there is a landscaping plan. Again very nice. Nice building. Nice landscaping plan. A nice asset to kind of warming up that corner of the downtown. A gateway to the city. So with that the staff is recommending approval of the conditions outlined in the staff report for the conditional use and for the site plan and adoption of the Findings of Fact and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions of staff. Councilwoman Tjornhom. 16 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah you just touched on it but I still want to understand. When I was looking at this about the handicap parking spot, just seemed not making sense where it was. Kate Aanenson: It needs to be closer to the door. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, like I say I didn’t understand why it was so far back from the front door. And how come there’s only one? Kate Aanenson: I believe based on the square footage that’s what, all they’re required. Of the building. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Other questions for staff? Councilwoman Tjornhom, did you have any more at this time? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Not at this time. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Where will they be filling the tanks below when the trucks come in to put the gas in the tanks? Do you know where that is? Kate Aanenson: I believe, I’m not positive if it’s in the green area. The applicant’s here, I believe the architect’s here so maybe they can address that. Todd Gerhardt: Those little circles. Kate Aanenson: That’s what I think they were these little circles. Todd Gerhardt: Yep. Kate Aanenson: That’s what I thought. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Those circles by where the parking spots are? Kate Aanenson: I don’t know if you can see that or not. Can I have the architect answer that question. Mayor Furlong: Okay, good evening sir. Why don’t you just come forward and you’re next anyway. Russ Rosa: Russ Rosa. I’m the architect working for the owner on the BP design here. Currently where you see the circles, where she’s pointing at, that is the general location of the existing underground tanks. We’re going to do a remote fill from those tanks. I’m not sure 17 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 exactly where we’re going to spot those yet but they’re going to be pulled away from those parking stalls. Councilwoman Tjornhom: So there won’t be a truck parked right there and people not being able to back up because. Russ Rosa: You know I can’t tell you where the truck is going to park. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. Russ Rosa: But I’m sure the owner is going to you know have the truck come at a convenient time of the day when there isn’t a lot of parking there. Mayor Furlong: But I’m sorry, the circles that are there now, that’s where the current. Russ Rosa: That’s where the current fill locations. Mayor Furlong: Fill locations are but as part of your plans you will be working on. Russ Rosa: We’re going to relocate the actual fill location. The tanks are going to stay where they are. Mayor Furlong: Right. Okay. But at this point you don’t know where you’re relocating. Russ Rosa: They’re working through that with the gasoline supplier. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And as you come in from, not 5. Is it? Kate Aanenson: Great Plains. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Great Plains, thank you. I see there’s like Lots 1 and parking spots 1 and 2. Is that correct? Are those parking spots? Kate Aanenson: Yes. There’s some parallel spots there. Yes, and then along here, yes. Those can be overflow or even here it might be for employees. Mayor Furlong: I guess to follow up on the fill locations. Is there anything in our ordinance that speaks to location of the fill location relative to the building? Kate Aanenson: No. Yeah, it’s more as a operator issue. They want to make sure that they’re not blocking their store and convenience and so, I’m sure the State regulates that more than we would. Mayor Furlong: Okay. 18 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah because right now where those circles are, that would certainly block everybody if it was busy or you know park there so. And explain once again how you’re going to let people know that there are like 10 cars stacked waiting to wash their cars. Russ Rosa: Well we had some discussion with the Planning Commission about that. Actually I think city staff and right where it shows the striped area right now, where we were going to have the handicap stall, actually probably up. Someplace on either side. We’re thinking of having some kind of a small electronic notification sign that says currently there’s 5 cars queued or. Councilwoman Tjornhom: How many minutes you have to wait or. Russ Rosa: Or there’s a 5 minute wait or whatever. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Because once you get in there it looks like you won’t be able to get out. Kate Aanenson: You’re committed. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, so once you’re in… Russ Rosa: That’s right. You’re committed to going around. Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Why don’t we go ahead and allow you to present anything you want and then that may follow up on questions as long as you’re here so, is there anything you’d like to present to the council this evening sir? Russ Rosa: Only that the owner is excited about improving his property there and re-building and expanding and creating a nice business for town. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any concerns about the comments or issues brought up at the Planning Commission? Russ Rosa: No. I think he’s on board with all of the recommendations. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. With regard to the issue of landscaping on the northeastern portion of the property and Ms. Aanenson what you were describing was concerns from the neighboring property owners. What’s the fall off there, the topography at that site? Does it fall off fairly quickly? Kate Aanenson: Yeah you can see there’s a slope going up. This would be the Hanus building that you’re looking at. This is where the most of the trees are. Actually at that, let me just see. I showed the Planning Commission. Actually Angie Auseth who worked on this actually went out, took some slides. Here we go. Kind of some different perspectives so we labeled those. So this is probably the best view you have right now and that’s when you’re right in front of it for Valvoline. When you’re looking down the long stretch there’s plenty of walking… 19 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Mayor Furlong: And that’s where the building will be. Kate Aanenson: Right, so this is another perspective right now where you can see, what you’ll still see kind of that top portion of it and you’ll see the Valvoline back here. Mayor Furlong: Oh the canopy. Kate Aanenson: Right, and that’s still probably what you’re going to see so that hadn’t changed too much. So I think that’s what we kind of. Mayor Furlong: What’s the height of the building relative to the height of the canopy? Kate Aanenson: Well again it’s got that parapet so the smallest portion you’ll see is at least 4 feet and up to 7 feet of the Valvoline building. Actually Alyson Fauske in engineering looked at that so the elevations you know, again the 4 feet with the parapet and without the parapet about 7 ½ feet is what. Mayor Furlong: Above the canopy? I’m confused. Kate Aanenson: I’m sorry. I’m looking at the bottom of the footprint of the elevation so from the elevation up, you know the difference would be, that would be the. Mayor Furlong: Given the elevation, given the design of the building, what’s the highest point of the building going to be relative to the canopy? Or the highest point of the canopy. Is it about the same? Kate Aanenson: Yeah, BP is 21 feet and the Valvoline’s 15 but you have to remember that they’re sitting, Valvoline’s sitting up quite a bit higher so that’s why I was using the lowest floor elevation. So there’s a 10 foot elevation change so. Mayor Furlong: So is the new BP building above, the height of that about the same as the height of their canopy? Kate Aanenson: Correct. Yeah you can see, well except for the parapet. Mayor Furlong: And the parapet is just that segment… Kate Aanenson: That one segment with the refrigeration on the one side. You’ll see 4 feet there. Then coming from a different perspective you’ll see closer to 7 ½ feet. So you can see where the Valvoline sign is right now and that’s your window. You can see that’s higher, or taller than. Because it doesn’t have Highway 5 frontage, that’s the legal non-conforming part and they changed their marketing of their brand. How they displayed it so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. 20 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Kate Aanenson: So that you’ll still see. Again this is looking from the other concern was the car wash that’s immediately to the north of this site so again that shouldn’t change too much. There will be some additional landscaping in that back area but that will be lower and again that’s got a much taller roof so you’ll still see that portion. This is a better perspective of the sign actually closer to the frontage. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Let’s see what else I’ve got here. We looked at that one. Councilman Laufenburger: Could you go back one? Kate Aanenson: Yep. Councilman Laufenburger: Right there. Is that, now that’s the entrance and the exit. Is that going to remain exactly as it is? Kate Aanenson: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: It is? Kate Aanenson: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: So then here’s another perspective of that and that’s the existing car wash that will still remain approximately the same height so that you would still see and that’s, but that’s coming out of kind of the Holiday. Councilman Laufenburger: Yep. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Lighting, there was a portion of the staff report dealing with lighting and shielding of lighting. Is lighting here comparable to the Holiday lighting or is it brighter? Less? Kate Aanenson: Yeah, we always check. Mayor Furlong: Same. Kate Aanenson: We always check to make sure it’s recessed into the canopy and then the rest of it’s all downcast so it shouldn’t be any brighter. Mayor Furlong: And I guess my question is, is not only is it not any brighter but is it the same illumination or is Holiday operating under an old set of rules? Kate Aanenson: Nope. It could be the similar, yeah. Mayor Furlong: Alright. And overall with regard to the conditional use permit site plan based upon the conditions, everything is in conformity with our ordinances? 21 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. It’s variance free. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: There’s some non-conforming uses that they were able to work into their site plan. Mayor Furlong: To reduce or eliminate? Kate Aanenson: Well. Mayor Furlong: The non-conforming, well for example the sign. Kate Aanenson: The sign and the separation of the gas tanks. Those are all able to work into their site plan. Mayor Furlong: Yep. Kate Aanenson: So I think it was a challenging site. They wanted to maximize that triangle piece, which actually is a good thing. Let me just go back to that site plan real quick. So I think in that respect they laid it out very nicely. Go back to the site plan here real quick. Sorry. So if you look at you know taking advantage of the triangle shape, so because you had that and trying to get the circulation. You have the existing location of the gas tanks that they were trying to fill. The existing opening so there was some challenges so I think the architect working with the input from the planning staff and engineering staff did a really good job responding to all those concerns and making it work. And making it a very attractive building on top of that. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any other questions? Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Do you see foresee any problems with traffic on Great Plains Boulevard during the demo or during the building process? Kate Aanenson: I don’t think so. The turning moving there on, coming out is I think more problematic in the winter when there’s snow up on the. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, there’s that bank… Kate Aanenson: Bank of snow that there’s problems to turning that way but I think during the construction season that it should be fine but we can certainly check on that during construction and make sure that we’re not, it’s not causing problems. Mayor Furlong: Alright. If there are no other questions, there was a public hearing held at the Planning Commission, correct? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. 22 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Mayor Furlong: I don’t know, is there anybody here that would like to provide public comment this evening? If not, bring it to council then for thoughts and comments and a motion. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just want to say it’s a great looking building. I mean I think it’s going to look really nice on Highway 5 when people are driving by and I’m just thrilled they’re doing it so I wish them luck and thank you. Mayor Furlong: Good. Other thoughts, comments? Councilman Laufenburger: I really appreciated the work the Planning Commission did in examining all the questions. All of the sight lines and it sounds like based on the architect that the owner is ready to you know make adjustments as necessary so good cooperation with, between staff and applicant and Planning Commission. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I just want to say I think it’s a great improvement and I look forward to driving by it. I think it’s a great addition. Mayor Furlong: Maybe stopping in and filling up a tank once in a while. That’s why they’re doing it. Councilwoman Ernst Just for me…right. No, you did a great job. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I would concur. I think it’s nice to see a good project coming forward. It’s nice as comments were made, the cooperation with staff and working with staff up front and through the process to come up with a really good, good new project. A good new site plan and fully utilizing the site and all the other reasons and to see businesses investing in Chanhassen is also a positive statement that’s being made here and for that we’re grateful and humbled and we appreciate the effort that’s going forward on the part of the property owner and all involved so thank you to everyone that was involved from the staff, the applicant and the Planning Commission and others as well. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Maybe that big construction crane is making people think. Mayor Furlong: There you go. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Starting a trend. Mayor Furlong: We’re open for business. Would somebody like to make a motion? Councilman McDonald: Sure I’ll go ahead and do it. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. 23 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilman McDonald: Chanhassen City Council approves a conditional use permit for a convenience store with gas pumps and to permit multiple buildings on a single lot, plans prepared by Rosa Architects dated received March 21, 2011 for property zoned Highway and Business Services District (BH), located at 7905 Great Plains Boulevard subject to conditions 1 through 6. And then the second part of that would be the Chanhassen City Council approves a site plan for a 3,915 square foot one story convenience store, 1,503 square foot double car wash and a 32 foot by 74 foot 8 inch gas canopy, plans prepared by Rosa Architects dated received March 21, 2011 for property zoned Highway and Business Services District (BH), located at 7905 Great Plains Boulevard subject to conditions 1 through 4. And number 3, adopt the Findings of Fact and recommendations. Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approve a Conditional Use Permit for a convenience store with gas pumps and to permit multiple buildings on a single lot, plans prepared by Rosa Architects dated received 3/21/2011, for property zoned Highway and Business Services District (BH), located at 7905 Great Plains Boulevard subject to the following conditions: 1.No unlicensed or inoperable vehicles shall be stored on premises. 2.No repair, assembly, disassembly of vehicles. 3.No outside speaker system shall be allowed without approval from the City Council. 4.No sales, storage or display of used automobiles or other vehicles such as motorcycles, snowmobiles, or all-terrain vehicles shall be permitted. 5.Facilities for the collection of waste oil must be provided. 6.A minimum separation of 213 feet is required between the nearest gas pumps on the subject site and Holiday Station located across Great Plains Boulevard. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approvethe Site Plan for a 3,915 square-foot, one-story convenience store, 1,503 square-foot double car wash, and a 32-foot by 74-foot 8-inch gas canopy, plans prepared by Rosa Architects dated received 3/21/2011, for property located at 7905 Great Plains Boulevard subject to the following conditions: 1.Building Official 24 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 a.The proposed structures (if area exceeds 2000 square feet) are required to have automatic fire extinguishing systems (MN Rule 1306). b.All plans must be prepared and signed by design professionals licensed in the State of Minnesota. Geotechnical (soil evaluation) report required. c.The canopy over the pumps must be constructed of non-combustible materials or materials equivalent to one-hour fire-resistive construction. d.Detailed building code related requirements have not been reviewed; this will take place when complete structural/architectural plans are submitted. e.The proposed accessible parking space must be relocated to be “on the shortest accessible route of travel” (MSBC 1341.1106.6) to an accessible building entrance (suggested alternative would be parking space 10 or 11 with adjacent 8-foot access aisle). f. A separate demolition permit will be required if demolition is intended prior to building permit issuance. g. The owner and/or their representative shall meet with the Inspections Division as soon as possible to discuss plan review and permit procedures. 2.Forester a.Applicant shall increase bufferyard plantings to meet minimum requirements for the west property line. A revised landscape plan shall be submitted to the City prior to building permit issuance. 3.Engineering and Water Resources a.The main drive aisle to the convenience store must be revised so that it is minimum 26 feet wide. The area under the canopy cannot be included in the drive aisle width. b.The developer must obtain a MnDOT permit for the sidewalk connection to the Highway 5 trail on the south side of the site. c.The developer must ensure that the sidewalk connection does not create a localized low point on the west side of the sidewalk connection. d.The grading near the northeast corner of the proposed building must be revised so that it is minimum 3:1. e.If a retaining wall is installed near the northeast corner of the building, the owner must obtain an encroachment agreement since the wall would be located within the sanitary sewer easement. 25 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 f.Any encroachment into a drainage and utility easement must be approved by the Engineering Department and an encroachment agreement must be obtained. g.The sanitary sewer line must be televised before and after construction to ensure that the grading equipment does not damage the sanitary sewer. h.The new water service must be wet tapped. i.Contact Kevin Crooks at 952-227-1311 a minimum of three working days before the water service and sewer service connection. j.A $7,600 cash escrow must be submitted to ensure that the street is properly patched after the water service connection is made. This escrow will be released if the street patch is in good condition after one freeze-thaw cycle has passed. k.A $500 cash escrow must be submitted to ensure that proper erosion and sediment control is employed. This escrow will be released once final stabilization is achieved per MPCA rules. l.The 6-inch private watermain north of the building must be minimum of 10 feet from the existing 10-inch trunk sanitary sewer. m.City standard detail plate 5300 shall be used on C3. n.Indicate on plan set how filtration area is to be protected from sedimentation and compaction due to heavy equipment traffic. o.Sheet C1 shows the minimum anticipated sediment and erosion control measures. These will need to change if they prove inadequate or if site and/or climatic conditions change. This needs to be indicated on sheet C1 or otherwise communicated with the selected contractor. p.All disturbed soils must be stabilized with 14 days after cessation of grading activities. q.An operations and maintenance manual shall be completed and provided to the city for the infiltration feature. r.The two existing one-inch copper water services must be abandoned at the watermain. s.Access control should be shown on the site plan. MnDOT right-of-way must be clearly labeled. The site plan should identify the B-corners, as shown in Minnesota th Department of Transportation Right-of-Way Plat No. 10-4, dated January 28, 1991. 26 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 t.The right should be shown as the north line of the triangle piece denoted Parcel 209B, as shown in Minnesota Department of Transportation Right-of-Way Plat No. 10-4, th dated January 28, 1991. u.The MnDOT right-of-way line along the west property line must be clearly noted on the plan. v.The developer shall submit a plan showing construction limits and a proposed typical sidewalk pavement section. w.The plan should relocate the section of sidewalk that ties into the TH 5 sidewalk to a position that has the least impacts to the existing trees. The plan should also show the grading impacts and measures taken for tree protection. x.A Storm Water Permit is required by MnDOT. 5. General a.One additional fire hydrant is required to be located northwest of the building between the car wash service road and the proposed building. Contact Chanhassen Fire Marshal Mark Littfin at 952-227-1151 for the exact location. b.All sidewalk connections shall comply with ADA requirements. c.The fenestration on the east elevation shall be increased to meet city code requirements. d.The canopy may contain a one-dimensional stripe only; no other signage or exterior lighting may be on the canopy. e.The lighting within the canopy shall be recessed; no external lighting on the canopy is permitted. f.All signage shall comply with City Code and requires a separate sign permit application.” All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council adopt the Findings of Fact and Recommendation. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: 27 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Todd Gerhardt: Just a thanks to Jill and the Environmental Commission for a great Arbor Day this past Saturday. We had a lot of volunteers out at Lake Ann helping out and I think Mayor Furlong was out there also and recognized a lot of our commission members that were there and just a great event and they did a great job of putting that on so thanks to Jill and her team. Second thing, in the correspondence packet you know we talked about British Petroleum. Long time business owner here in Chanhassen re-investing back into Chanhassen. That’s what our efforts have been to work with our local businesses to get them to expand here in Chanhassen. You know their success has been here and we believe their future’s here. Staff and council were invited to Exlar Corporation’s world headquarters open house here last Monday and just a great job. They put on a little bar-be-que presentation and Tim Erhart, the President of Exlar is just doing a great job. His business is just doing a great job. His business is just flourishing and sales are up and not too many people can say that in this economy and he’s hiring people so it’s exciting to see Tim Erhart and his partners expanding in Chanhassen. And Retail Tech is also taking some space in Exlar’s building so again another business that’s located here and expanding and then in the correspondence packet Campfire USA also talks about a $1.5 million dollar expansion into their facility so, and I think the mayor attended their Centennial this past summer. Mayor Furlong: With you. Todd Gerhardt: Yep. And so it was a great event and one of our long time businesses here is Campfire USA so those are all exciting things that are happening here and we should be very proud of our businesses that are staying here and expanding. That’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Good. Thank you. Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor I’m a little remiss. When you asked for council presentations I kind of zoned out and I apologize but I think we ought to recognize this past week Rotary held their annual Tulip Festival and as part of that it was to recognize what Rotary considers to be their Distinguished Citizen who most kind of personifies what we would like as far as citizens of the community and one of our own from the Planning Commission, Mark Undestad won this year’s award and I think it was well deserved. He was very important in our memorial park that we have out here by the Veterans Memorial Park that we have out by the library and actually if it wasn’t for him it probably wouldn’t have gotten built. We’d probably still be talking about it but it was a very good turnout I think. The other thing of note is that again one of the things Rotary tries to do is to help local charities. This year what we selected was Miracles for Mitch and Rotary gives a $10,000 grant on top of anything we raise and the goal is always to try to at least solicit at least $10,000 from the people in attendance. This year they solicited over $12,000 and I think the number even went up after that so all in all I think the City did itself proud and it was a very good turnout and we helped a lot of good organizations and again you know this is what the community is all about. One of the things that Mark had said to me was, all he was trying to do was just what anybody else in Chanhassen would have done. That’s a good thought but it’s a little bit more than that and I’m glad that Rotary did recognize him for his achievements. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. 28 Chanhassen City Council - May 9, 2011 Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor? Mayor Furlong: Yes. Councilman Laufenburger: Just as a piggy back on that I think this is not only does Rotary do a good job of living their motto, Service Above Self but in addition to Mark there were two other candidates that were also recognized for that Service Above Self award Nadia Jansen and also Eric Weidner. Both elements, I mean members of the community who do a great job and I think the Rotary’s going to have a more difficult time every year picking more and more of these distinguished citizen awards but I’m sure they’ll find the distinguished citizen awards. Mayor Furlong: There are plenty. There are plenty. Councilman Laufenburger: And also related to that, a couple meetings ago I talked about how the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre was soliciting community super stars in line with their Jesus Christ Superstar production and I know that there were some Chanhassen residents that received that community superstar award so. Mayor Furlong: Well I think it was Steve and Becky Chepokas with Miracles of Mitch Foundation were recognized. Councilman Laufenburger: Recognized. Mayor Furlong: As part of that as well so. Yeah, Miracles of Mitch is a great organization. It was fun to be a part of Rotary and being able to support all the work that Miracles for Mitch does so they do a great job and help families of children with cancer across the country and just do a wonderful, wonderful service so thank you. Any other comments? Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt? Any other comments on the correspondence package? If not, if there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 29