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CC 2011 06 27 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING JUNE 27, 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, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman, Roger Knutson, Greg Sticha, and Terry Jeffery Mayor Furlong: Thank you and good evening and welcome to those here with us in the council chambers and those watching at home as well. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda from members of the council. 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 announcements this evening. The first is an invitation to our residents, our businesses, families and friends to join my family and others at ththrdth the 4 of July celebration. City of Chanhassen’s 4 of July, July 3, July 4 celebration is our thth biggest community event each year. This will be the 28 year the City of Chanhassen’s July 4 rdth celebration will take place. As I mentioned the celebration is to be held on July 3 and 4 and this year we’ve added a few new pre-celebration activities so it’s becoming a three day event Mr. Hoffman? Todd Hoffman: Correct. thnd Mayor Furlong: Is that the effect? Pretty soon we’ll start on June 4. But July 2 there’ll be a farmers market. There’ll be a family night at the carnival here at City Center Park. The event is being sponsored by the City of Chanhassen, Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Chanhassen Rotary Club. A number of other organizations are involved and over the two day rd event. Three day event now. Activities begin at 3:30 on July 3 with the Business Expo, the Taste of Chanhassen, carnival rides, games, 3 on 3 basketball tournament, which I believe is new this year, camel and pony rides, musical performance and the ever popular Casablanca Orchestra will begin at 7:00 for our annual street dance. Stick around. Have some fun and the, everything rdth wraps up by 11:30 on the 3. On the 4 events start early in the morning with the fishing contest out at Lake Ann at 7:00 a.m. and take place throughout the city all through the day. There’ll be live music under the tent by Trent Romens. Games and carnival rides again. Taste of th Chanhassen on the 4. Classic car show again and the parade sponsored by the Chanhassen Rotary Club in the afternoon. Fireworks in the evening. Be sure to stop by the new Chanhassen High School to check out the Chanhassen Red Birds baseball game at 6:00 p.m. and then the spectacular fireworks over Lake Ann at 10:00 p.m. Family, friends, neighbors, everyone is welcomed. It is a great event. Anyone that’s participated before knows that and if you haven’t, Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 I’ve talked to a few people actually that are planning to come for the first time this year so we know they’re going to have a lot of fun and hope to see everybody there. I would also like to publicly invite and emphasize to Chanhassen city employees and members of our commissions and the fire departments, the sheriff’s department, all the people that help make Chanhassen on a day to day basis a great place for all of us to live. The Chanhassen Red Birds has invited all of th us to join them on this coming Wednesday, June 29 and certainly the gates are open to everybody to come. Chanhassen Red Birds will be playing the St. Peter Saints that evening. Please come. Have fun. Enjoy the Red Birds game. If you haven’t been out there yet this year, it is a great time. They’re doing very well. How did they do against the Cubs last week Mr. Laufenburger? Councilman Laufenburger: The hated Chaska Cubs? Mayor Furlong: I didn’t say hated. But, yes. Councilman Laufenburger: Oh yeah. You mean our border buddies? Mayor Furlong: Yes. Did they do okay? Councilman Laufenburger: Well first of all I’m happy to report that Lieutenant, there was no fight that broke out fortunately so no police officers were necessary. However, Chanhassen Red Birds did prevail 4 to 2. Mayor Furlong: Wonderful. Very good. They came within one out of beating the Cubs last year in their inaugural season so that’s great to see them do that. So in any event 7:30 this th coming Wednesday, June 29. Come early if you want to see me throw out the first pitch, and I’d appreciate it if council members don’t take any side bets on the speed of which the ball crosses the plate so, but it should be a fun time and we thank the Red Birds organization for all that they do, but also for their invitation for us to join them this coming Wednesday. Move now to our next item on our agenda. Mr. Gerhardt, did you want to add something? Todd Gerhardt: I was just wondering if the Acting Mayor was going to be throwing out the pitch or catching but that’s okay. Mayor Furlong: Well if she’s catching that ball might come a little faster. Councilwoman Tjornhom: What? Mayor Furlong: Let’s move on with some serious items here. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated June 13, 2011. 2 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated June 13, 2011 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated June 7, 2011 b. Approve Amendments to Purchasing Policies and Procedures. Resolution#2011-36: d. 2011 CIP Equipment, Utility Skid Loader Replacement: Award Bid. e. Approve Amendments to Chapters 7, 18 and 19 of City Code Concerning Erosion Control; Approval of Summary Ordinance for Publication Purposes. Resolution#2011-37: f. Approve Resolution Accepting $1,000 Grant for Fire Equipment, CenterPoint Energy. Resolution#2011-38: g. Approve Resolution Authorizing Transfers from the General Fund and Park Dedication Fund. h. Approve Amendments to Investment Policy. Resolution#2011-39: i. TH 5 Improvement Project from TH 41 to Victoria Drive (CSAH 11): Resolution Approving Right-of-Way Acquisition. j. Flamingo Drive Drainage Improvement Project-SWMP-19 11-01: Award Contract. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: We do have a presentation this evening from Jessica Miller representing CenterPoint Energy on our council presentations, or consent agenda just a minute ago. The council approved a grant from CenterPoint Energy to our fire department. Our Acting Fire Chief is here tonight too so Ms. Miller, good evening and thank you for coming. Jessica Miller: Thank you. Hi, I’m Jessica Miller with CenterPoint Energy. Our Community Partnership Grant offers an opportunity for CenterPoint Energy to partner with local fire or police departments supporting our shared commitment to safety. Through the grant program we are able to help cities leverage local funds to purchase needed safety equipment or support safety projects that are important to your community. I’m glad to be here today to present a Community Partnership Grant check to the City of Chanhassen for $1,000 that will be used to purchase blitz fire nozzles for the fire department. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. This is not the first time that CenterPoint Energy has made a donation grant to our fire department and they’ve done it over several years and we really appreciate that and are grateful for that. It does help us keep our fire fighters with the equipment 3 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 that they need so on behalf of the City and the fire department, thank you very much for your contribution. Anyone else for visitor presentations this evening? If not, let’s move on to the other items on our agenda. LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE. Mayor Furlong: Lieutenant Jeff Enevold is here with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office. Good evening Lieutenant. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Mr. Mayor, council, good evening. Let’s see, I know you have the May monthly reports there. If you have any questions on that I would be, do my best to answer those thth questions. One item I would like to address tonight though is between May 20 and June 15 of this year we’ve had 8 thefts from vehicles. Some of thee items taken include purses, wallets, GPS, other electronics. So what I’m doing is I’m asking for a citizens help to prevent these crimes. Just a few tips. Keep vehicles locked. Keep your garage doors locked. Especially after dark. Remove your valuables from the vehicles, even if you park it in your own driveway. Take that stuff out of there. It just creates an opportunity for somebody to come and steal those items. If it’s not possible to remove those items, you know hide them from plain view. Stick them under the seat. Put them in the trunk. Put them in the center console. Get those out of sight. And then lastly, please report any suspicious activity by calling 911, and that includes anybody looking in vehicles. Wandering around late at night. You’ve got a group of kids out. Call 911 so we can respond there and catch these kids or prevent a crime. Now I’m confident that if we work together with the citizens we can help reduce or remove these opportunities and reduce the thefts in our community so that’s what I have and one additional thing, I know I’ve been at most th of the planning meetings for the 4 of July celebrations. I’ll be there leading the parade and I’m th confident this is going to be one of the best 4 of July celebrations Chanhassen’s ever had. Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Questions for the Lieutenant. Just a quick question on calling in for suspicious activity. I know that’s one that I’ve heard over the years. When 911 was first instituted it was for emergencies and a lot of the residents that I’ve talked to, many residents have a tough time shifting their mindset over from an emergency call to a get a response call. Can you talk a little bit about that and why 911 is, what the value of 911 is for response but maybe not an emergency. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Right, yeah. I know a lot of people have that thought that it’s only for emergencies. If I’m having a heart attack. If there’s an accident but if you dial 911 it’s not going to tie up our lines. It’s an easy number to remember if you’re, you see anything suspicious that you need an immediate response to, just dial 911. The dispatcher will dispatch it out and we can response quickly and take care of the incident. Mayor Furlong: And a suspicious situation may be nothing at all but at least that will give the deputies the opportunity to determine that. Lt. Jeff Enevold: That’s correct Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you Lieutenant. 4 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Lt. Jeff Enevold: You’re welcome. Mayor Furlong: This evening Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith is here with the Chanhassen Fire Department. Good evening. Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith: Good evening. I’d like to report the fire calls that we’ve had the previous month. We are significantly down on any fire calls over the last year. From last year and over the past month our numbers are still lower than they were last year for that same period of time. Other things that I’d like to bring to the council’s attention is that we have gone through a hiring process to bring on new fire fighters and as of last week we have brought on 5 new fire fighters. Also the fire department is in the process of conducting a special election for the purpose of filling the fire chief’s position. Also in the past month, just in the month of June we’ve had two actual fires that don’t reflect on the fire call sheet because that’s covering from last council to this council but we’ve had a fire on a deck at Lake Susan Apartments. That was minor. There were no injuries to either civilian or fire fighters and the fire was extinguished relatively easy with just hand held extinguishers. And also there was one small fire. It’s classified as a vegetation fire but it was actually mulch that was set down for landscaping and a discarded cigarette over on Lake Drive West. And for the month of June, the training that was conducted is, we call it tanker operations and what that is, it’s to train our engineers, the people that drive and pump the water, how to conduct an operation in an area throughout the city that might not have fire hydrants. So you set up a big tank. You drop water in it and then that vehicle will cycle through to a hydrant. Load up and dump while the other people are pumping water and we’ve done that for two of our training sessions in the month of June and it was well received by everybody. That’s all I have sir. Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Thank you. Any questions for Acting Chief Coppersmith? Councilman Laufenburger: I have one Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Acting Chief Coppersmith, you talk about some new fire fighters that you brought on board. How long does it take you and the training to prepare them to be what you would consider ready? Fire ready. Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith: We allow, or we have what we call the rookie year. The probationary year. The training that they are required to take for Chanhassen Fire Department is Fire Fighter I, Fire Fighter II, Hazardous Material Operations and then a level of medical training. Whether it’s first responder or Emergency Medical Technician. That usually takes one year, their entire first year of training to get to that level. I guess in my eyes I would say it takes at least 2 to 3 years before the person has experienced enough within Chanhassen, because we don’t have buildings fortunately burning down left and right. Councilman Laufenburger: It’s a good thing. 5 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith: Absolutely, so I would say 2 to 3 years before he would be an experienced fire fighter and the good thing with Chanhassen fire department is people just don’t hit 20 years and retire. We’ve got people, we’ve got a dozen over 25 years. Some with 30, 35 and 40 years on the fire department which are just extremely valuable assets. Councilman Laufenburger: And they’re good teachers for the rookies. Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith: Absolutely. Absolutely. Councilman Laufenburger: Thanks Chief. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? No? Very good, good evening. Thank you. Acting Chief Ed Coppersmith: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: We’ll move now to our next items on our agenda. PUBLIC HEARING: NATIONAL POLLUTION DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) ANNUAL REPORT. Mayor Furlong: I think we’ll hear a couple acronyms during this process but. Terry Jeffery: There’ll be a few. Mayor Furlong: That’s fine Mr. Jeffery, how are you this evening? Terry Jeffery: I’m well, thank you Mr. Mayor. Councilmen. I am here before you tonight to talk about or update you on our NPDES MS4 permit. Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. And to request authorization to submit our annual report and as part of the permit requirement accept public comment on our SWPPP, Surface Water Pollution Prevention Plan. As most of you are aware we were first permitted under the NPDES Phase II permit in 2003. It expired and st was renewed in 2006. May 31 of this year the current permit has expired. In November of 2010 I believe you remember you authorized reapplication to the permit which keeps us operating under that 2006 permit. The draft is out for comment right now. We are working with the League of Minnesota Cities to prepare a, or all of the MS4 cities are working together to prepare a collaborative comment letter to the PCA. Overview quickly. There’s three main parts. The permit, we have our storm water pollution prevention plan which is comprised of all our best management practices and this is the day to day what we’ll do within the city to keep our water clean. There’s the non-degradation assessment that’s looking at current pollutant loads, standards compared to 1988. And then the Appendix C requirements which are looking at our special waters, our Seminary Fen, Assumption Creek and then our apparent waters, Bluff Creek, Lake Riley and Lotus Lake and Lake Susan. Really over the last, over the 2010 year where we focused our efforts were on improving our collaboration with other entities. More education outreach. What we’re finding as I was talking to the other cities is there was a lot of redundant effort. Why have these redundancies. Let’s be more efficient. Let’s work together to get something done so we really entered into a number of different partnerships which allows us to 6 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 reach a larger audience through a number of different media outlets, and that provides us with an opportunity to have more training in-house and to the community at large just simply because of the funding limitations or technical expertise that’s now available to us. One example would be through the Metropolitan Watershed Partners, they run something called the Metro Media Campaign. That’s where 60 different entities, public and private have gotten together to do really a seven county metro area wide ad campaign through printed media, all the way down to billboards. In the permit itself there’s a number of, there’s a lot of add on, what Metro Media Campaign believes were contact moments and…unfortunately isn’t quite broken down for what would be Carver County specific or Chan specific but I believe it’s an opportunity we wouldn’t have before. And then there’s the training opportunity. Not only to reach policy makers, which is the West Metro Water Alliance on the right but also through Carver County Water Environment and Natural Resources we’re able to do the stream health evaluation program which is more of a community outreach. It allows people to come in. Study the streams. Very similar to the CAMP program. The Citizen Assisted Monitoring program that we’ve run for the lakes with Metropolitan Council. And then we’re also able to work with more primary agencies. The Metro Children’s Water Festival is an annual event that’s held at the State Fair grounds that Carver County, Chanhassen and it’s 40 schools were represented at this event. And then what I don’t have on here is the in-house training. The salt application. Turf management that we’re able to now give to public works staff that we did not necessarily have the in-house expertise to give before. Then the other aspect of what we’ve been working on in 2010 is, given the amount of infrastructure that we already have and how much is coming online every year, we really kind of focus what resources we have on just maintaining that. There are 189 storm water ponds within the city. This does not include what would have been prior converted wetlands so prior to the Wetland Conservation Act it was very common practice to discharge those. So 189 NURP basins might be a better way to say this. All of those were visually inspected by the end of last year so we are compliant with our permit. Five ponds were dredged in 2010, removing 1,050 yards of material. Cubic yards of material from it. I think what was really nice to see was that in all cases what’s called the SRV, Soil Resource Value was below Level I, which means it’s safe to utilize in any recycling situation. So we are seeing those elevated levels, heavy metals and TAH’s. Granted this is a fairly small sample set but it was nice to see that. But really as we move forward you know with all of these ponds and the converted wetland areas, it really needed to come up with a way that we can be more efficient. How are we going to turn the ponds that are going to get cleaned out. Talking with some other communities and the Metropolitan Waters group, and really what I’m looking at right now is developing something using universal soil loss equation which is a U.S. Department of Agriculture has come up this equation for how much soil loss you can expect to come off a different land use type. Whatever that might be and we can assume that that’s making it to the pond or at least a large portion is. Age of the pond. We know when they were constructed. Usually the older the pond the more likely it is to need maintenance. What is the contributing watershed? Has there been a lot of construction over there? Is there still agricultural land practices? Commercial, etc. And then receiving water status. Is it impaired water? Is it a special water? Is it identified in our Surface Water Management Plan for protected status? What is our connection to that receiving water? Does it go through a storm water pond? Through a wetland or is it just a direct discharge and then of course resident reporting. As much as I’d like to be everywhere I can’t be so I do rely on residents to call me and let me know what’s going on out there and they’ve always been good about that. We have about 1,400 outfalls in Chanhassen. The ones that we’re most concerned 7 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 about are the regulated MS4 outfalls and what these are, under our permit anything that discharges outside of our jurisdiction we’re responsible for. We have to inspect them. Make sure they’re functioning properly and that what we are discharging is what we would expect to be discharging. We have 66 of those. All of them inspected and with just some minor adjustments that have been handled in-house there’s been no issues with those. Structural best management practices and this one actually at the end of this I’ll come back. There are a few changes that I’d like to point out in the annual reporting, this being one of them. Of the nearly 3,000 inlets that we have to our storm sewer system, the catch basins, catch basin manholes and flared end sections, 144 of those are what are called structural best management practices. Those are your sump manholes. Your vortecnic separators or environmental manholes. We like to inspect those at least every 2 years. Clean them out when at no more than 40%. Being full of no more than 40%. Obviously if they’re there and they inspect it and it got the Vactor, they’ll clean it at that time. There’s no point in waiting until it gets to 40 but we’ve been able to stay on top of those. Public Works has done a great job with that. As we move forward with a new permit I guess primarily our biggest focus is going to be carefully reviewing and commenting on the new MS4 language. Seeing what implications that’s going to have for us and then modifying our permit accordingly. I suspect that I’ll be back in front of you fairly shortly to just discuss that in more detail. Continue to look for new efforts to collaborate or to improve our collaborative efforts. I don’t want to just have collaboration for the sake of doing it. If it doesn’t make sense then I don’t want to do it but if we’re getting a net benefit, we’re being more efficient, I’d like to stay and take advantage of that. And then the other part is just to continue to capitalize on the projects we’ve already got going. With the Audubon Road projects in 2010 we were able to take a number, large volume of water that was being directly discharged to Bluff Creek, we were able to take it to the pond actually and back up. When was the Lyman reconstruction project done? Paul Oehme: ’09. Terry Jeffery: ’09 so the 2009 project the pond went in. 2010 when we did Audubon Road we were able to take water to that pond that was previously discharging directly to Bluff Creek so I’d like to continue to look for opportunities like that. And then even ones that are outside of that. Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek has been in contact with the Department of Natural Resources has been awarded a grant to do some shoreline work around here. They have contacted me and discussed the Carver Beach area. Perhaps looking at doing something in there so we are working with them on that to see if something makes sense in that. Before I say thank you and good night I would like to point out in the annual report packet item 4, on page 4 of 5 of the permit, second to the last page. Under minimum control measures. 6, item A where it says total number 58 and number inspected 58 should be changed to 144 and 144. And then item C where it says total number of outfalls receiving numbers, that should read 66. The number inspected should read 66. And then the last part is, either change the motion language to authorize Mr. Gerhardt to sign it or I need to change the permit to read Mayor Furlong’s signature. That is all I have. I’d be happy to entertain any questions you may have and I appreciate your time. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Any questions for Mr. Jeffery? Okay, we will open up a public hearing at this time and invite all interested parties to come forward to comment on this item. Anyone that would like to speak on this this evening? Okay, seeing nobody then we’ll close the 8 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 public hearing without objection and bring it back to the council for discussion. Any comments, thoughts? Councilman McDonald: Yeah Mr. Mayor. You brought something up at the very end. You kind of tried to sneak it in but I caught it. What you’re asking for then, we need to change the proposal, as I understand it, to go from the Mayor to the City Manager? You know an either or. Terry Jeffery: I, Mr. Mayor. Councilman McDonald. Either can occur. In my original motion I had asked for permission from the mayor to sign the submittal last year’s permit which I grabbed this from, yeah had Mr. Gerhardt signing it so we either amend the motion or amend the annual report. Either one is perfectly acceptable. Councilman McDonald: Okay then couldn’t we just amend it to say either or and then whatever’s convenient? Terry Jeffery: Yep. Sure. Mayor Furlong: Any other comments? I guess the one thing I want to say Mr. Jeffery. I know that while this is I think a five page report and power point presentation so it’s nice and concise. There’s a lot of effort that goes on each and every year over the year to have all those ponds inspected. To have all the work done, the verification. There’s a lot of effort going on all the time in the city of Chanhassen, is there not? In terms of our city staff and consultants making sure that the ground water, or that the storm water, the surface water is, and our system there for managing that is working correctly, is that a fair statement? Terry Jeffery: Mr. Mayor that is correct and I appreciate you bringing that up because it also looks like I’m the face of this and that I’m the one doing all this and I’m certainly not. Without Paul Oehme and Mike Wegler and the Public Works staff, this doesn’t get done so there are a lot of people doing a lot of work. Thank you. Appreciate that. Mayor Furlong: Well and I know that we’ve talked about it before the council too but sometimes some of the things that we see or that people see just happening such as sweeping of the streets in the spring or in the fall, while it’s nice to keep it clean, it also has the effect of reducing the amount of pollutants that might go into our storm water ponds and eventually either contaminate the dirt there or go on downstream as well so, some of the things that we do in a normal course, they do have the aesthetic effects of keeping our city pretty but they also have a functional effect as well so. With that, to everybody that’s involved thank you for all the work you do throughout the year and thank you Mr. Jeffery for recognizing that it’s a number of people throughout the city that are doing that on a regular basis so we appreciate that. If there are no other comments, would somebody like to make a motion? Mr. McDonald, would you make a motion? Councilman McDonald: Sure, I’ll make the motion. The Chanhassen City Council authorizes either the Mayor or the City Manager to sign the City’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, also known as NPDES Phase II Annual Report as attached to this report, and authorizes the distribution of the Annual Report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. 9 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the Chanhassen City Council authorizes either the Mayor or the City Manager to sign the City’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, (NPDES) Phase II Annual Report as attached to this report, and authorizes the distribution of the Annual Report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. TH 5 IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FROM TH 41 TO VICTORIA DRIVE (CSAH 11): CONSIDER RESOLUTION GIVING MUNICIPAL CONSENT. Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. Again this is the improvements on Highway 5 that MnDOT is proposing to make next year, 2012 so just a little background. Back in October of 2008 a corridor study was completed and looked at Trunk Highway 5 improvements from 41, which is in the city of Chanhassen all the way out to 212. Trunk Highway 212 in Norwood-Young America. Looked at both short term and long term improvements for the corridor. Using that document MnDOT did look at making some interim improvements to Trunk Highway 5, mainly in the city of Chanhassen and Victoria. With those improvements there has been two neighborhood meetings back in 09 and then June of last year as well to talk about the improvements. Then there was a public hearing held for municipal consent, the specific proposed improvements on Trunk Highway 5 back in April of this year. So just a brief overview again of the project. It’s about a 4 mile improvement project mainly preservation. Very little capacity improvements along the corridor though. Basically it amounts to milling the roadway section from 41 all the way over to County Road 11 just west of city of Victoria. 4 inches and resurfacing the entire roadway section. In conjunction with that roadway improvement the bridge in Victoria by Rose Street, by the recreational trail will be removed and reconstructed. The sink hole which is on the east side of Victoria will also be improved, replaced with some better, stable soils there. Along the corridor safety improvements, turn lanes, signal modifications, ADA improvements at intersections and pedestrian crossings will also be made, and then also minor drainage improvements will also be incorporated into the design throughout the corridor. MnDOT is also proposing to add a center lane rumble strip along Highway 5 from Trunk Highway 41 to Commercial Avenue in Victoria and I’ll explain that a little bit more in detail farther in the presentation here. I just wanted to kind of highlight some of the areas, the aspects of the improvements, specifically in the city of Chanhassen. Minnewashta intersection improvements is shown here. Little exhibit. The yellow is shown more or less the new pavement on Highway 5 and Minnewashta. And then also what’s also shown here is shoulder improvements. 8 foot wide shoulder improvements throughout this section of roadway as well to help the traffic and safety along this section of corridor. The bypass lane that is currently at 5 and Minnewashta will be removed and replacing with a designated left turn lane and a through turn lane as shown here. This is definitely going to help safety at this intersection 10 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 as well. And then also right turn lane improvements lengthening out those turn lane improvements on Highway 5 at this intersection is proposed. Dedicated right hand turn lane on Minnewashta to westbound Highway 5 is also included in the project as well. And then a pedestrian underpass connecting city of Chanhassen trail system and to the Arboretum is also proposed at this intersection as well. There is no signal planned for improvements at this time. However, if the Arboretum were to make improvements to their facility and make a main entrance to the Arboretum at this intersection, it is thought that a signal would potentially be warranted in the future if that improvement were to take place so we are monitoring that situation and hopefully sometime in the near future we will be able to put a signal in at this intersection as well so. Moving on, this is just showing the future trail connections in the region here. Again the underpass, proposed underpass on Highway 5 is shown here. Minnewashta is currently right here. The black lines are showing where the existing trail system is currently located. The Arboretum is planning to make future trail improvements throughout, through their campus in the future. They’re currently working on a master plan to try and facilitate those improvements in the near future as well. On the agenda tonight the council is going to be looking at potentially making applications for future trail improvements along Highway 5 here to connect back into our trail system east of Highway 41 so basically this whole network system is made, it would be a loop of trail along Minnewashta and better access to our park system and other facilities in the region as well. So Victoria is also planning on making grant applications for Rolling Acres, a trail extension along Rolling Acres and Highway 5 to connect into the trail system in the city of Chanhassen and also down in a future Bavaria Road as well too so lots of improvements pedestrian wise that are facilitated in conjunction with the improvements here. The improvements, safety improvements along Highway 5 and Lone Cedar Avenue are shown here. Again shoulders. 8 foot wide shoulders along Highway 5 are proposed. This will give a better reaction time for drivers on Highway 5. Better safety. The access to Lone Cedar Lane is proposed to be closed at this time too. That traffic would be redirected back to Minnewashta Parkway and then also local access on Highway 5 is planned to be modified at this time too to go back onto, have that traffic directed onto Lone Cedar Lane as well. The center line rumble stripe that MnDOT is proposing again is shown here. It is an example of what that would potentially look like. Again it would run from Highway 41, or the Landscape Arboretum access to the Commercial Avenue in the city of Victoria. Goal here is again reducing some potential head on collisions. Giving the drivers some fair warning if they’re drifting off past the center line and MnDOT has documented these type of improvements have saved lives and are a needed improvement, safety improvement for this corridor so. With that just a little project cost. MnDOT has indicated that this total project with everything that I just discussed here tonight is estimated at about $7.6 million dollars. Of that the City would be requested to participate in a $180,000 of that. That’s basically for the two grant applications that the City has made. One for the highway safety improvements along Highway 5 and the Lone Cedar Lane in the amount of $70,000. And then for the trail, pedestrian underpass into the Arboretum at Minnewashta Parkway and that’s estimated at $110,000. The safety improvements would come out of pavement management fund, which is budgeted for and then also the pedestrian underpass would come out of park dedication funds so there are indirect costs associated with the project estimated about $30,000. MnDOT is completing the design and construction administration services for the project which is a large cost savings for the City. If the City would go out and bid out these projects separately and take on the construction administration services that would be a substantial, probably about a 20% increase in the cost for this project so. City staff has been 11 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 talking to some other agencies to help participate in some of these costs for the underpass and the safety improvements along 5 and those discussions are ongoing so no formal agreement has been approved yet or agreed to yet but staff is still working on those issues so with that the schedule is basically MnDOT would like to start the project next year. Bid opening is scheduled tentatively th right now, depending on State shutdown, for January 27. Construction in April and then substantial completion in 2012. So with that if there’s any questions I’d be more than happy to try and answer them. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for Mr. Oehme. Councilwoman Ernst: I have one. Mayor Furlong: Okay, Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Paul can you tell me if that $180,000, is that total cost or are there additional engineering costs or anything outside of that dollar amount? Paul Oehme: No, that’s total cost. MnDOT is planning to pay all the engineering associated with this project. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Point of clarification on the resolution itself, the Now Therefore Be It Resolved. It seems like we’re missing a word. Paul Oehme: Yeah, I forgot to hand that out. Mayor Furlong: Is there a modified? Paul Oehme: Yeah there’s a modified resolution here. That the Council does approve the resolution so. Mayor Furlong: That will answer my question. Have there been any material changes in the plan or the funding since the, since the public hearing that we had? Paul Oehme: Yep, that’s a good point. We did have a public hearing in April. Staff has been taking comment up to this time for the improvements and to date there has not been any substantial other concerns or issues that have been you know identified outside of what was already discussed at the public hearing so staff is comfortable with the comments that we’ve had and the information that we received from the property owners and we do recommend that the council does approve the resolution at this point. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions on this? If not Paul or Mr. Oehme could you bring up the picture or the graphic of the overall project that goes from 41 to, yeah that one right there. One of the things, and this doesn’t necessarily affect Chanhassen. I don’t think it affects our council’s review of the municipal consent but if we’re giving a little latitude here. The City 12 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 of Victoria, you can see that the, from that red bar there just east of their downtown. Thank you. To the west over across the bridge, replacement’s going to shut down Highway 5 in the city of Victoria. I know that they have been, their businesses are very concerned about that. Their City has been working with them. The official detour, as I understand it for this project will be 212, I believe from Norwood-Young America to Highway 41 and Highway 5 and 41. So somebody coming west on Highway 5 follows the detour will go south on 41 to new 212 and then west. They’re very concerned about what that’s going to do to the downtown businesses and one of the things that may not be the official detour is you can see it a little bit on this map, is just to the north, Steger Lake Road there. If you can find it Mr. Oehme. Paul Oehme: Right there. Mayor Furlong: Right. Steger Lake Road, they’re actually doing a resurfacing project on that right now. That will provide, that will be open and the point that you can get on Steger Lake Road is east of the settlement area and it’s west of the bridge reconstruction and so traffic will be able to get through Victoria and to Victoria businesses during the construction. As I understand it the Highway 5 will be closed for through traffic from Memorial Day, current plan is from Memorial Day to Labor Day next summer. Not this summer but next summer and obviously for a business in Victoria, if nobody can get there for 3 months that would be significant. Devastating so two comments. One, if you know a lot of people in Victoria patronize our businesses in Chanhassen. You know a lot of our residents patronize their businesses. My message is you’ll still be able to get to the businesses in Victoria if you choose and I would encourage you to continue to do that. The second that I would ask of our city staff is if there’s a, and I know we’re going to do this anyway but I’ll get it on the record. If there’s anything we can do to help in terms of signage in Chanhassen to let people know that businesses in Victoria are open, if we can work with the City of Victoria to help them with that. A number of those businesses are members of the Southwest Chamber of Commerce, as are our businesses and Chaska businesses and I think this is one of those areas where we can work together with our neighbors to the west to help them during this time. I know they’re doing a lot of work. Mr. Gerhardt you probably already had conversations with them about it but I just, this is the opportunity to get it on a public record and I would certainly encourage our staff to work with them. And if it means some signage or if we have to do something to help with any billboards or something to make sure that people know that businesses in Victoria are open and that they can get there, I’d appreciate if you’d do that. Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah Mayor, council. Victoria representatives have been in contact with our community development department about signage. Typically mostly concentrated in that 41 and Highway 5 area. Just to allow people to understand that they are still open and that you can get there by using Steger Road. So we are working with them and thank you for raising the issue. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme, if I may? Mayor Furlong: Yeah, please. 13 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Councilman Laufenburger: The segment from west of downtown Victoria to 5 and 41, will all of that be closed at the same time or will it be a rolling closure? Do you know? Paul Oehme: Well for most of the project the road sections will be open. Like the Mayor had indicated, the bridge will be closed down for the duration of the summer of 2012. Likewise the settlement area where the surcharge going on, that will be completely shut down so this section of Highway 5 through the downtown is going to be very difficult to access. The mill and overlay process, it’s my understanding that Highway 5 will be open throughout the construction process. There might be some intermediate closures if there’s a culvert going in or some other utility work. For example the underpass at Minnewashta, there might be a weekend closing there but for the majority of the project Highway 5 should be open. Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. If there are any other comments, if not we have a revised motion in front of us and proposed motion. Would somebody like to make, I’m sorry. Revised resolution and a proposed motion. Somebody like to make a motion? Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor? Mayor Furlong: Yes, Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: I make a motion that the City Council approves the resolution for layout approval of Trunk Highway 5 improvement project from Trunk Highway 41 to Victoria Drive (CSAH 11) and the attached resolution. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Resolution#2011-40: Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approve a resolution for layout approval of the TH 5 Improvement Project from TH 41 to Victoria Drive (CSAH 11). All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. CONSIDER AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 20 OF CITY CODE CONCERNING VARIANCES. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This amendment is part of the changes that were made by the State Supreme Court in their ruling in June, 2010 regarding the Krummenacher versus City of Minnetonka. As you know at that time they, the Supreme Court made a determination of reasonable use so the assumption was that everybody had reasonable use of their property unless you were a lot of record and then you were under sized and needed to apply for a variance. Otherwise everybody had reasonable use. Therefore we put it out on our 14 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 website and notified residents that we were not accepting variances. And just a note, we did not get a rush of variances that came in. Some people were a little frustrated but lots of times that we work through those issues trying to help people find other ways to get to their solutions so we did not have a big rush or pent up list of people that wanted to get the variance. So as a part of while we were wading through that process the City of Chanhassen, as did other cities kind of took a catalogue and looked at what variances they’ve given, and that’s always an important thing to do as you look through. Over the past 20 years we looked at where our variances fell and to see how that affected, or may affect our ordinances. So the most predominant type of variance request was actually for a front yard. Excuse me, for a setback variance so then we looked at that a little bit closer and broke that down and that was for a front yard. Again with the front yard being the most requested variance it’s important then to go back and look at your ordinance to say is our ordinance matching up with what’s happening out there and so what we found is some of the older homes in the city, prior to 1987 actually were set back a little bit, set a little closer to the street so we built into the ordinance an exemption for that. If it was built prior to 1987 they had a different standard and that eliminated a lot of that request. Again I think it is always important to go back and look at where your variances fall and is it working. Do we need to re-examine the ordinance and you’ve seen that we’ve been working through some of those in the last few years. So this is the front porch variance that we granted again in 2000. It allowed for 5 foot encroachment that you didn’t have to apply for a variance so those houses built prior to 1987 could come in, and again the goal with that was, we do want front porches and architectural features and some of the model homes, as you can see the one on the right would be a kind of typical and may have a front entrance not covering over it which people want to have, or places to sit out and so I think that’s been a very positive and always looking at ways to examine that. So the legislature may this year, the Governor signed a statute permitting variances with the new definition. Practical difficulties and under that the use of the property as determined would be a, the use of the property in a rezone manner that would not be permitted by ordinance would be allowed to kind of proceed to that variance. In circumstances that were unique to the property, not created by the landlord would be another kind of a pathway or granting the variance would not be changing the essential character of the community, and I’ll give you an example of this would be, this would be that 30 foot setback in the past. You can see where the blue is, where the current house is sitting. The red box around that blue would be the setback. In the past where a house is already sitting closer, if someone wanted to build up a second story, in the past we’ve kind of said you know that’s, they’re not increasing the non-conformity but someone that wanted to add on the value of their house to meet their, that would be something that we would look at. So this is the new criteria and I believe our city attorney was part of the group of municipal attorneys that helped craft the legislation here so there’s different kind of word- smithing here under what would constitute undue hardship, now practical difficulty. Keeping with the spirit and intent of the zoning ordinance and in harmony so it’s a little bit of word- smithing. Again the way we see our ordinances, pretty much a similar path to go through those processes. Again when we see if someone wanted to add on, not increasing the non-conformity. If someone didn’t have a garage in Minnesota, that might be a hardship. If someone needed a five-car garage, you know that might be a different type of looking at a hardship so kind of looking at those kind of case by case, or practical difficulty. Those sort of things. So with that th the Planning Commission held a public hearing back in May, excuse me June 7. They just had some concerns about in the past when we did variances sometimes we tried to find some remedy to maybe mediate the impact, especially with a hard surface. A setback. A side yard 15 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 encroachment into a neighbor’s. Maybe they need additional landscaping so they were just wondering about what would be the appropriate remedy or mediation not to make that too onerous on that so I think we’ve been very successful in the past of doing the appropriate, or the Planning Commission recommending the appropriate remedy for that, and again the process is set up, if anybody that’s aggrieved of that decision, whether it’s the property owner or the neighbor has the right to appeal that decision to you to see whether or not it seemed appropriate. So with that, the staff and the Planning Commission is recommending adoption so we can process these variances. We do have a couple that are willing, ready to come forward and with that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff. Councilwoman Ernst: I have one question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Kate can you, I know at the last work session we talked about getting back to those pending variances. Have we contacted all of them at this point or? Kate Aanenson: Yeah. We didn’t really have any. We just had one, and that one is coming forward and that was really just within the last couple months. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you. Kate Aanenson: There was one that was in process when the decision was made and that person made another alteration to their plan and worked around it. Got a permit without securing the variance. Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ve got a question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Since we haven’t been practicing this variance, the hearings and people coming before applying for them, even working more with the residents, do you think that’s probably made you do that more or think differently about how you go about things? Kate Aanenson: That would be the city attorney. I think we do a really good job of trying to try to find other solutions so I think we don’t have, some cities I think may be more willing to give those away, depending on their circumstances based on if you have subdivisions that are maybe first string subdivisions and people want to build bigger homes on those lots. We do have a pretty large lot size requirement at 15,000 for a standard lot so I think we, we feel like we’ve got plenty of room and I think Roger made, the City Attorney made a comment on that. That there’s other cities that you know at times have changed over as they’ve grown. Lot sizes have changed 16 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 so that’s where the rub comes in but we’ve been pretty consistent and we have larger lakeshore lot requirements so we haven’t had that much of a problem. Roger Knutson: In cities that were built up over a long period of time or go back 70-100 years, you have neighborhoods that are developed at one standard. Small lots. Lots get bigger. Lots get smaller. And then when you try to impose standard setback requirements and standard impervious surface requirements to all these lots that were created at various periods of time, it becomes a very difficult thing and need to do. There’s a lot, you know a small lot that was acceptable in 1950 and now you have a setback requirement that everyone needs a 3 car garage today, or wants one, it doesn’t fit without a variance and so it becomes much more difficult. A community that’s relatively new or had standards that are, been pretty constant over the most of it’s course of development doesn’t have as much need or gets you know inundated as many requests for variances. Some places 100 a year. Kate Aanenson: So I think the city attorney’s point is, this, what I was trying to say is that you know, when you look at most of our growth has been in the last 20 years and our lot size has been consistent. We do have smaller lots that are, some of the lakeshore lots are smaller and that’s where we see the most variances. And someone that has a lot of record, that there’s no structure on, certainly has a right to come through because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to build if you didn’t give them some relief. It’s what that reasonable or practical variance would be so I think we do a good job with our residents, and expectation of what’s reasonable or practical on the lot and we’ve had really good success and again I credit that to you know you have planning commissioners that listen to the evidence and make a good recommendation and anybody that’s, you know feels like that might have been too much or too little can appeal that. And you’ve seen some of those. Roger Knutson: The standard that we’ve, we, cities have been following for the last 20 years were established in Rowell versus the City of Moorhead 22 years ago and Krummenacher said Rowell is wrong and we shouldn’t have been following it. And now what the new legislation does, with some minor differences, puts us back to where we were under the Rowell decision. Mayor Furlong: I’m sorry, go ahead. Councilwoman Tjornhom: No, it’s just it’s interesting to me, my history of being on the planning commission and years on the council it seemed to me there used to be a lot more discrepancies so there’d be a variance for docks or for garages or for setbacks and they just, they aren’t as common anymore so. Kate Aanenson: I think there’s a couple things on that. One, we know we originally had a Board of Adjustment and you know it’s difficult for the Board of Adjustment who meets infrequently is not as imbedded in the city ordinance as the Planning Commission may be so we moved to making the planning commission, and we spent a lot of time educating the planning commission and they can actually see the full depth and breadth of all the ordinance and how they relate together and I think we’ve done a really good job educating the Planning Commission and the staff working to educate our residents and I think that’s the goal so I think that’s helped a lot. To see, find out alternatives that may work. And I think too sometimes residents may feel 17 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 that, if their neighbors don’t object to it then it’s a go but there’s a different you know review of how we evaluate those different variances. Again the practical difficulty. Not just that nobody objects in my neighborhood sort of thing so again looking at how it sits on the property and what the unique circumstances of each one of those and looking at a case by case basis but I will credit the planning staff. Particularly Angie Auseth who spends a lot of time, Angie Kairies, excuse me, on educating residents. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And I think even the planning staff, I mean just when a new development comes through now, you know making sure there is enough space for a deck or you know all those little things that make a big difference. Kate Aanenson: Right. Agreed. Thank you for that because I think that’s kind of those trial by errors when we had a lot of that stuff coming through, realizing where those problem areas were and getting a little, asking for more information upfront and anticipating what our residents expect when they get a house. You know am I going to have enough room for potentially a 3 car garage. Do I have enough hard cover to make additional improvements in the back and once the deal is done and the buyer’s there, they’re our resident. Now they come to us for relief and you know the buyers, the builder’s out of the equation and we want to meet their needs. We want them to be happy they made a decision to be here and so trying to get that upfront has been a big learning curve for everybody. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. Mayor Furlong: Yes. Todd Gerhardt: That’s just called good planning and Kate and her department do an excellent job and you know the benefits of having an experienced planning staff is this is another perfect example of that. They’re very creative. Kate has her department constantly thinking outside the box. Looking for every alternative that might be there so credit planning and engineering on you know incorporating some of the encroachment agreements. Allowing retaining walls to go into drainage areas so the homeowner understands that you may have to move that retaining wall if and when we need to get in there and do work so we do spend a lot of time with people coming in with building permits or wanting to put in that fence or retaining wall so they understand that there is a purpose behind these easements and setbacks that we have. Mayor Furlong: Is there any, and Mr. Knutson you kind of mentioned that the new statute gets us back with a couple of exceptions of where we were. I think we all understood where we were, and that was not a black and white situation. There was always some give and take on granting the variance here. The one item, and Ms. Aanenson you had the list up before. The side by side. Maybe you can bring that, there you go. Is there any, other than the words undue hardship, practical difficulties, is it practically the same or are there, we’re dealing with attorneys and words so I know everybody… Roger Knutson: We won’t know for about 30 years. Mayor Furlong: Okay, there you go. 18 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Roger Knutson: But in my judgment, in my judgment item number one, undue hardship versus practical difficulties, that’s essentially what the Rowell decision was. Under Rowell they said we don’t look at what you already have. We look at what you want to put in and is that a reasonable, and that’s reasonable use of the property so it’s very similar. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Roger Knutson: Now you can look at each of the others, some of them, there are little wording differences. The one that’s completely new is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan but your zoning ordinance has to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. I don’t frankly think that adds or subtracts an awful lot but maybe in an individual case it will. Kate Aanenson: I think it does clarify for those people that think they can ask for a use variance. Roger Knutson: The statute is always, it’s specific you cannot have a use variance. Mayor Furlong: And a use variance. Kate Aanenson: Have a residential home and I’d like to have a, turn it into an office. It’s really a. Mayor Furlong: A different land use. Kate Aanenson: Right. Mayor Furlong: As a variance. Roger Knutson: Use variances said you want to use the property for a use that’s not allowed in the zoning district. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. And this would be a factor. Number 3 there would suggest that that’s not permitted. Not that that was permitted before but it’s clear. Roger Knutson: And it’s also, there’s specific language in the statute that says you can’t do it so. Mayor Furlong: Alright. Kate Aanenson: We do get once in a while get requests for that. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: So I think that is nice that it’s clearly spelled out there. Mayor Furlong: And do you see any issues there, or maybe again it’s more clarified now. If our Comprehensive Plan has a guiding for a different use and there’s a variance being requested 19 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 under the current zoning, which may be inconsistent with a future guided zoning, do you see that as? Kate Aanenson: No because you’d have to do a rezoning and typically we wouldn’t do a spot zone in the middle of a neighborhood to convert that to an office so yeah. Mayor Furlong: So it adds clarity I guess is what I’m hearing. Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yeah, that’s what I think. Roger Knutson: One of the nice things now is, with the courts, I’m searching for a word. Got, had a lot of difficulty with in my opinion was the wording of the county statute was different than the city and township statute that we operate under and they were looking back and forth and say well I’ll use this language here and the county statute uses a different language over here and they’re trying to make something of it. Sometimes we can argue whether they did a good job of that or not but now county statute and the city statute have the same. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor the, you know there are some very interpretative, they are words that offer room for interpretation. In harmony. Practical difficulty. Essential character. It was stated earlier, I think when you combine the skill and the expertise of the staff with the planning commission who are acting in their best judgment for the city, there is some room for interpretation and I don’t know that it will take 30 years for us to figure out if this works but over a period of time, maybe it’s several months I think the Planning Commission will get in a, kind of get in a habit of interpreting this consistently, and I think that’s what our citizens are looking for. Consistent interpretation so. Kate Aanenson: I would agree and I think the one issue the Planning Commission spent some time discussing but I have complete confidence in the process. We’ve done it before and we can do it again and that’s the check and balance of it. Mayor Furlong: And the item before us tonight will be to adopt the new, to change the code that adopts the new language consistent with the statute, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: And our choice of not doing that means the old standard. Kate Aanenson: We wouldn’t be able to accept it. Mayor Furlong: Which means no variances allowed, right? Kate Aanenson: Then we’d be challenged for that. Roger Knutson: I don’t think I’ll comment on what the result would be. 20 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Mayor Furlong: Seems to me, and I know we talked about this at a work session, it makes sense going forward. It’s a good education process for all of us and the residents as well so thank you for taking the time tonight to explain it again. Are there other questions for staff? Otherwise, discussion. Would somebody like to make a motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Please, Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I make a motion that the Chanhassen City Council approves the amendment to Chapter 20 of the Chanhassen City Code. Councilwoman Ernst: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the amendment to Chapter 20, Zoning Variances of the Chanhassen City Code. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. APPROVE LETTERS AND RESOLUTIONS OF SUPPORT FOR TRANSPORTATION ENHANCEMENT (TE) APPLICATIONS: A. TH 5 PEDESTRIAN TRAIL AND TH 41 UNDERPASS. B. BLUFF CREEK DRIVE TRAIL EXTENSION. Todd Hoffman: Thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the council. Both of these projects are significant enough in size where we just don’t have the wherewithal within our current budgeting processes to build these trails without these applications. These are both transportation enhancement applications for federal funding and…each of them through this presentation. The TE program or the Transportation Enhancement program is a Metropolitan Council program and it’s the Transportation Advisory Board, the TAB board selects projects for federal funding. Chanhassen’s proposed projects are for the funding year of 2015 and the total funding for both of these applications is $1,229,120 in federal funding. Talk a little bit about our trail plan over the last two decades and even a little longer than that, Chanhassen has made significant investment in public trail infrastructure. We’re now focusing in on filling a few gaps. Approximately a dozen gaps remain in our city’s trail system and I think it’s a blessing that some of these gaps are some of the most important sections that we have left in our community’s trail system because we’ve built out to some very important destinations that people would like to get to. The two gap trails being addressed in these funding applications are for a trail and a pedestrian underpass to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. A destination I think we could all say that would be an important destination for our trail system. And also to the Minnesota River Valley light rail transit or LRT trailhead that is operated by Three Rivers Park District at the bottom or midway down Bluff Creek Drive in our community. This is the Bluff Creek Drive extension. Currently it terminates south of both Highway 212 and Pioneer Trail. The trail just stops in the middle of a grass boulevard at this location so this application is to complete that trail connector or that trail 21 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 gap down to the LRT trailhead. There’s a parking lot. Very nice kiosk. Restroom facilities and other amenities at this location. So this is the gap section that we’re talking about in this application. Project total for that specific section of this trail is $303,900. The federal application is $243,120 and our local match which would be a park fund match is $60,780. That’s three-quarters of a mile of trail and we talked about where it starts and stops. This is a schematic drawing. It starts at the top side. This is the current terminus. Trail stops right there. No extension. The challenging thing about Bluff Creek Drive and pedestrians is that, if you never went up that, if you allow a pedestrian or bike to pretty much taking up a traffic lane and so the motorized traffic has to move out of that lane into the oncoming lane for a period of time to get around the pedestrians. Another reason this is an important link. Travel south going this direction and then continues on. This is the John Klingelhutz driveway. Hesse Farm. Intersection of the two Hesse Farm driveways. Continuing on down the hill on the east side of Bluff Creek Drive until it hits the LRT trailhead at this location. Moving on to the Trunk Highway 5 trail and the Trunk Highway 41 pedestrian underpass. This is the project location for the application for the TE grant. It’s a much larger project. The total project is $1.23 million and the federal amount $986,000. The local match $246,000. It includes construction of a mile and a half of a 10 foot wide trail on the south side of Highway 5 and a grade separated pedestrian crossing underneath Highway 41 and this would be just south of the intersection of 5 and 41. Right in front of Lifetime Fitness. If you’re standing at the corner of Lifetime Fitness and you look just to your left, that’s where the underpass would be. It would wrap around the back side of the new Arboretum sign that they have. The very nice entry monument that they have at that location. It starts all the way on the east at Century Drive. Down near the daycare and extends west to the Arboretum entrance to their existing Arboretum entrance. The schematic plan that was developed in 2010. So again starting at the bottom. This is Century Drive traveling to the west along Highway 5. This is the Lifetime Fitness property and in discussions with both Lifetime Fitness and the Arboretum they’re willing to work with the City on any of the easements necessary to construct these trails. Lifetime Fitness is very excited for a number of reasons and they are allowing us to make two connection points to their property. Their patrons will utilize this trail system for their recreational activities and their workouts. They’ll access the Arboretum and they also have a lot of employees who would like to either walk or bike to work and are coming from destinations to the west. Trail continues picking up on this traffic. This is just west of the intersection of Trunk Highway 5 and 41 and you come right into the Arboretum property. So you can see we’re way off the right-of-way here so having the Arboretum continue to work with the City on the placement of this trail within their property is critical. Without that cooperation and partnership this section of trail would not be possible in our community. Continues to travel west and then comes up through the trees. You’ll notice, these are pretty distinguished. As you drive down you’ll see those trees and it will most likely stop right at this location. They’re still studying how they want to bring that trail in but in the original concept this is the gatehouse and leading all the way up to the gatehouse. It may stop back here at the entrance driveway. It may come up to the gatehouse, depending on which plan is finalized. This is an underpass option showing the Lifetime Fitness corner right here of the building. The underpass, proposed underpass location and it wraps around the back side of the sign. And these grades separating crossings are very critical I think to the comfort of pedestrians. Tonight just before the meeting I took a bike ride. Went over the overpass in our community and then came back across at grade at Highway 5 at the AmericInn. It’s a completely different experience and many pedestrians and bicyclists just won’t do that. They won’t take that route without this kind 22 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 of an option so this would be a nice option I think and it’s going to increase your usage of that particular section of trail tremendously. Our recommendation is that the City Council approve a letter of support and resolutions of federal funding for both these applications and the Trunk Highway 5 pedestrian trail and Trunk Highway 41 pedestrian underpass and the Bluff Creek Drive trail extension. These are applications and we’ll hear back if these applications are successful early next year. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Questions for staff. Councilman Laufenburger: I have one Mr. Hoffman. Is the price or the estimate that you have for the Century/41/Arboretum, that includes the underpass, is that correct? Todd Hoffman: Yes. Mayor Furlong: And this is really I know that there was a, talking about that project, one of the maps that was brought up when we were talking about the Highway 5 municipal consent showed that picture of Lake Minnewashta area and the improvements going on along 41. The underpass over at Minnewashta Parkway that we just provided municipal consent for. This is that line that gap that you mentioned to the east of there so. Any other questions? Councilman McDonald: Yeah I’ve got a question. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Hoffman, going back to the one, the Bluff Creek trail with your photograph up there, it shows it going into the northern end I guess into Pioneer Trail. Where does that go from there? Does it cross the street there or is that going to also create a gap? Todd Hoffman: It will not create a gap. We’ll get back to that picture. When it crosses, let’s see where. When it hits Pioneer Trail it crosses and it will go right into the Pioneer Ridge neighborhood. And so the trails are all in place. Both on the north side of Pioneer Trail. It travels east and west. Heading back to the east it goes to Powers Boulevard. Heading west it heads into the Chaska, City of Chaska and their trail system and then the trails that are currently in place coming down off of the new Pioneer Ridge neighborhood. Councilman McDonald: Okay, then the photograph you have here was taken before that intersection was cut through. Mayor Furlong: Correct. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Now I know where you’re at. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Do you have that aerial view? Todd Hoffman: Yeah, we’ll get back to that. So this road is not in here. This is all now developed. The trail system is in place. You can see the green line so that green line shows the 23 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 existing trail system. So this is all connected right up to this point where it currently stops and then the new road, which is Bluff Creek Drive extension, is already in place so that acts as another connector at that location. Mayor Furlong: And won’t that then allow someone to gain access to the trail along Bluff Creek where there’s the underpass at Lyman, the boardwalk and all the way north to 5. Todd Hoffman: Correct. 7 miles of trail. Mayor Furlong: Straight north. Todd Hoffman: Both of these are, you’re reaching out to the extremities of your community and then making those final connections. You’ll be able to go this way right into Bluff Creek and then eventually you’ll be able to come underneath the bridge and come down through this property as well up through the Laurent property. There’s a bridge right here. Jeurissen and Laurent property and you’ll be able to come down that way so. Mayor Furlong: And the regional trail to the west there’s a connection that is being planned for is there not in the Chaska system? Todd Hoffman: To Chaska? Currently it in the ditch line of Highway, old Highway 212. County Road 61 and that will be, it’s approved. It’s already been approved for this same type of application through Carver County so they’ll extend that into the Chaska trail system. Mayor Furlong: Other questions on either of these proposals? No? Any comments or thoughts? Anyone that would like to make a motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll make the motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I make a motion that the City Council approves a letter of support and resolutions in support of federal funding applications for number 1. Highway 5 pedestrian trail and Highway 41 pedestrian underpass. And number 2. Bluff Creek Drive trail extension. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: I’ll second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote. Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves a letter of support and resolutions in support of Federal Funding applications for: 24 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 1. Resolution#2011-41: TH 5 Pedestrian Trail and TH 41 Pedestrian Underpass. 2. Resolution#2011-42: Bluff Creek Drive Trail Extension. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: Council presentations? Councilman Laufenburger: I have one Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: This weekend, this past weekend Chanhassen High School Baseball/Softball complex that we affectionately know at Storm Red Bird Stadium hosted the th 37 Annual Minnesota Lions High School All-Star Baseball Tournament. I had the pleasure of offering a welcome on behalf of the Chanhassen Red Birds and the City of Chanhassen at their banquet in Chaska on Thursday night and it was just a great, great opportunity to welcome 80 all star baseball players from across the state. Their parents, their coaches and friends and it was a wonderful event. The weather cleared on Thursday morning and we were able to have games on Friday and Saturday and I heard many, many comments, not only about the stadium but how wonderful people felt about being in the community of Chanhassen and it just, it’s a great testimony to the can do attitude that the people in Chanhassen have about making things happen so I brought with me a program that I want to present to you Mr. Mayor. That’s from the All- Star series and it was, it was just a great success. And clearly those people that are the organizers of this event annually now have a very good option and maybe a preferred option to Chaska Athletic Park depending upon flooding tendencies in the coming years so thank you Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other presentations. Very good. Mr. Gerhardt. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. th Todd Gerhardt: Just one item. At our next work session, July 11 I’ve invited Mike Erickson, the City Manager from Hugo to kind of present to the City Council and department heads their experience with the Hugo tornado and we’re kind of in the middle of severe weather and staff has gone through some mock training where we initiated and put the emergency command center into operation here about a month and a half ago and the Mayor participated in that event. What I wanted to have Mike come in and talk about their experiences. What role did the mayor and council play in Hugo during and after the event? You know what worked for him. What did they need to improve on and what items do they really think were key to having a successful emergency management plan so Mike has been a friend of mine for many years and I appreciate him taking time out of his day to come down and speak before you so he was gracious enough to th do that. So he’ll be here at 5:30 on July 11. 25 Chanhassen City Council - June 27, 2011 Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any questions? Okay. Very good. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Mayor Furlong: No comments on the Wedding Channel being discontinued from Mediacom? Todd Gerhardt: Wedding Central. Councilman McDonald: It’s just moved over to the WE channel so you’ll still get to see it. Mayor Furlong: Oh good. Thank you for clarifying. Todd Gerhardt: They’re not two separate channels? Councilman McDonald: Well no, they’re two separate. It’s just you’re not going to be losing your wedding fix okay? Councilwoman Tjornhom: You’re going to get me laughing again. Councilman Laufenburger: Can you program my DVR Jerry? Councilman McDonald: Sure. Mayor Furlong How to turn my TV on. Todd Gerhardt: What time does that start? Councilman McDonald: I have no idea. Mayor Furlong: There is nothing else to come before the council this evening. Is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom 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 8:25 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 26