2f. Park and Rec Commission June 28, 1994.CHANHASSEN PARK AND
RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 28, 1994
Chairman Andrews called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Andrews, Ron Roeser, Jim Manders, Jane Megers, and Dave
Huffman. Jan Lash arrived during discussion on item number 2.
' MEMBERS ABSENT: Fred Berg
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Coordinator; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation
Supervisor; and Dawn Lemme, Recreation Supervisor
Andrews: Before we g
et into the agenda I wanted to point out that we have a very long
$
agenda tonight with a number of issues that will probably have comment from the audience.
' When you do come up to the podium, please state your name and .address and try to limit
your comments if possible. If you are stepping forward to state agreement with another
person, I guess I'd appreciate it if you'd just state the agreement and sit down rather than
' restate the whole argument over and over again. Also, if you are making a new statement, I
guess I'd try, you know try to limit it to less than 5 minutes if possible. We'd appreciate that
so. With that being said, let's move on to item number 1 on our agenda.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
' PAULA AND LOREN VELTKAMP, 6724 LOTUS TRAIL RE: CARVER BEACH
PARK.
Public Present:
' Name Address
Paula & Loren Veltkamp 6724 Lotus Trail
' Keith & Pat Gunderson 6660 Lotus Trail
Chris & Cindy Anderson 6680 Lotus Trail
Joanne & Stan Cronister 6730 Lotus Trail
Debbie & Pat McRaith 6900 Lotus Trail
Susan Albee 6871 Nez Perce Drive
Betsy Discher 6728 Lotus Trail
Paula Veltkam P : M name is Paula and Loren Veltkamp, 6724 Lotus Trail. We'd
Y Veltkam P
like to present several proposals for eliminating park parking on Lotus Trail at the mini beach
area, removal of the dock and raft, and imposing a fine for littering. First of all we have a
petition of all the residents on Lotus Trail. Can I just bring it forward?
Andrews: Yes, please.
' h issues, the reasons why for eliminating the parking
Paula Veltkamp: And then I also have the ues, y g p g
and...
Loren Veltkamp: I think the petition tonight is unanimous with everybody within about 500
' feet of this parking. I could have gotten more but... Everybody who is around it is against it.
Andrews: Okay.
' Paula Veltkamp: The reasons for eliminating the parking, I put down as over crowding,
limiting of cars, parking not enforced, noise from the cars, noise from the people, city has
' liability for... We have 30 to 40 children down there... Sanitation. We have all those people
down there with no bathroom facilities. People are violating the ... safety laws. I've seen
several times where people bring down their children in the trunk of their car. They're in the
trunk. Regular trunk of a sedan. They pack their kids in the back plus people in the seats so
they can get as many people onto the beach as possible. ...littering. Safety of the residents.
We've seen people down there drinking and doing dope and that brings up the issue of my
' safety and all the neighbors safety. Pollution with different-detergent and they were like
liquid detergent and what they do is I guess they play Mr. Bubbles with their kids in the
beach. And there are other parking areas. I believe we have other facilities. On the next
' page I have some statistics about Lake Ann Park. It has a lot more acres and there are 2
people per acre for parking just for the beach area. It's a lot larger than the Carver mini
beach and the last issue is, why us? ...Greenwood Shores from Lake Ann. They're a smaller
beach. They have a larger surrounding beach area and they have no parking and from my
understanding it's probably a better site to swim on because there are no motor vehicles on it.
' Loren Veltkamp: They don't have parking on Lake Ann, I guess that's our point. They
don't allow parking there but on our beach they have parking so we didn't think that that was
' fair.
Paula Veltkamp: The last issue is parking and then we have ... We'd like to eliminate the raft
and buoys and move them to the larger Carver Beach area because we have problems with
r kids yelling obscenities of this and of that all day long. ...kids screaming at their friends on
shore. Screaming kids pushing themselves off the raft. And as the city expands, the
problem's just going to get worse and worse and, as far as the buoys.
Loren Veltkamp: The buoys. We can't look out at the lake at night anymore because the
' buoys reflect a light from our house back into our eyes so now we don't have a view of the
lake like we used to have. This raft has become very, very noisy. Just not during the day.
Older kids in the afternoon and this is about, well the beach is approximately 30 feet from
2
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
our kitchen and living room. And the raft is 30 feet out in the water so that's about 60 feet.
So I can hear people talking in normal voices out on this raft and we have to listen to this all
day long. Daycare in the mornings and afternoon and then the older kids come down and it's
just too darn noisy for regular living and we feel that it's affecting our property value, which
is one of our chief concerns here. My wife and I bought the house as an investment and we
feel that this is being compromised by the parking and the number of people that can gain
access to this beach. We can have 30 -40 people on this beach at any time and there's no
lifeguard. There's no one to keep them quiet so this is definitely going to compromise our,
the value of our house because you have to sit across from somebody and disclose what the
park is like. And I have to tell them, yes the park is noisy as heck and it makes me mad
every day. If I say this to somebody, that's $25,000.00 off the price of the house minimum.
I figure. So we're in a situation now where our taxes go up routinely every year but because
of this park, and particularly the parking policies, the value of our property is probably going
down at this point because the level of activity at this park has probably doubled in the last
year and you can talk to other people here but it's going up and it's going up real fast and we
don't know what the reason is but we think it's a part of, they put that parking in there last
year against everybody's I think except one person was for it but they don't even live there
anymore. But anyway, that's the problem that we have. There's other factors involved.
Paula Veltkamp: I guess the last thing, I had a ... I've gone down there and picked up, I bring
down a garbage bag and I just fill it up with garbage from, if there's a busy Saturday or
Sunday and that's just for the morning and in the afternoon I do the same thing. I know I'm
not the only one that's doing that. I've talked to other people on the street that they pick up
garbage and it's even worse during the fishing season. When I take the dog for a walk and
I'll take a garbage bag or two and I'll just spend 5 minutes on the lake and I'll fill up both
those garbage bags in a 5 minute timeframe so we feel that littering is really an issue. For us
as well as for the lake because then all that debris is going into the lake and I can pick up
debris but I can't pick up piles of cigarette butts and there's a limit.
Loren Veltkamp: That's about it for us. I have a list of things that I would like to see done
with the park. There's 12 items here that I would submit to you to look them over. And
then let some of these other people speak if they want to. I think they have different issues.
Andrews: When did you buy your house?
Loren Veltkamp: In November.
Andrews: W.
M
0
0
I
J
L I
[1
.I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' Loren Veltkamp: Of last year. And when we purchased it we inquired about the park
extensively because that's a standard real estate question. Is there any noise? ...and the
answers to these questions were no. You know hardly anybody visits the park. You know
it's almost always quiet and this has been anything but the case. Now I could go back and
complain to the owners but see it's changed so much in the last year since they put that
' parking in that I don't really think that they lied to me. They were there for 13 years or
something, you know and I don't think it was a problem back then. I think that this parking
thing now has allowed so many people to come down that you can't have a moment's peace
' from 9:00 to 11:00 at night. And then when the fishing opener comes around, you have
people down there at 3:00 in the morning you know drinking beer and fishing and stuff like
that. The cops don't come down and deal with it like they should. Should I talk about the
' tickets thing?
Paula Veltkamp: ...parking being enforced or not enforced. I asked Todd Hoffman to send
' me a list of calls that were made, actually tickets that were issued in the last year and a half
and he sent me a list of calls that there made in that timeframe between January, 1993 and
June of this year. And out of those he marked 17 that actually looked like they dealt with the
' whole Lotus Trail/Carver Beach area and a couple of those did have citations issued and we
noticed that there were none of those on the list were from our residents and I know that
we've called at least 8 times. So that indicates to us that not all the phone calls are being
' recorded.
Loren Veltkamp: Which means you don't have access to all the problems that are going on
' down there. There's not a record of it. So there's no way for you guys to look at the record
and see what the record is. See how bad it really is. I don't know how else you would
come. So there's some kind of a problem there and I don't know where it is but there's a lot
' more calls about these problems than are getting into these reports as far as we know.
Huffman: So you want to get rid of the parking?
Loren Veltkamp: Yeah. But there's some other things I also want that I wrote on here.
Should I go through these or do you want us to just read it?
Huffman: Can they just read it?
Andrews: It's 12 items?
' Loren Veltkamp: I can go through them quickly.
Andrews: Yeah, please.
4
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Loren Veltkamp: We want you to remove non - handicap parking. Not the handicap parking '
because we understand there's some handicap people in the neighborhood and that's not the
problem. But it's just the non- handicap parking. I would personally like to remove the raft
and buoys to the south beach where there's more space and they can put up with more noise
but I don't know about the other people down there. They should have a say about that
Also my understanding is that the owner of our house previously built a raft and that if we
bought his house then this raft could be mine. And I don't know about this but I would like '
to pursue this. Does anybody know?
Resident: Yes it is. '
Huffman: What do you know?
Loren Veltkamp: What do you know?
Resident: That raft was built by Michael Wegler. '
Huffman: Is it city property now? Is it his or what? I
Resident: The city does own the raft.
'
Hoffman: It's city property.
Huffman: So it's city property now.
'
Loren Veltkamp: Where is the receipt for the purchase.
'
Hoffman: I have that logged.
Loren Veltkamp: Can I have that to verify that?
'
Hoffman: Sure, absolutely.
Huffman: So that's ours now.
Loren Veltkamp: Alright. I would still like the raft moved but other people ... about that. I
,
would definitely like to post no screaming rules in this park immediately because people are
screaming after their dogs. They're screaming after their kids. And kids are screaming at
each other and just to give you an example of what a kid screamed at somebody today, he
was in a fight with another young boy down there. These are teenagers and he said, I'm
5
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
going to hire some niggers to wreck your Ping car. You know this is the kind of talk that we
hear going on down the street And yesterday there was a girl from Fox Chase down there
and she asked these same boys what time is it and the kid says, pull down your pants and I'll
' tell you. Now this is the kind of stuff that we hear from the kids in this park and we don't
think they deserve a park, to be honest. And I've heard this from a number of people up and
down the road as we walk our dog, we meet people and you know they all complain about
' this. The people at the south end of the park have these kids drinking in the woods late at
night and you tell them to be quiet and they say, f you. This is public property. You know
you can't tell me what to do. Only the police can. So you call the police and the police
' cruise up and down the road but they don't go in the woods. So then they never get anybody
and you have the same problem next week or the week after that. So there's no solution here
and that doesn't involve the parking but we just want to relay some of the problems that
we're having with just having a lot of people down there who are not neighborhood people.
The original agreement with this property, when the city took it over is that it would stay a
' neighborhood beach and that is what we want. A neighborhood beach where we can leave
our stuff down at the beach. We don't have to worry about it getting stolen. We don't have
to worry about people coming in and you know abusing this or that or littering. You know
' when you get people from out of the neighborhood on this 30 foot strip of land, they don't
care you know. We have to pick up after them. We have to do all this stuff so I would like
to see the no screaming rule imposed. We would like to see litter baskets along the trail
because there's a lot of litter. I'd like to post and enforce substantial littering fines because I
don't see any penalty for littering so everybody just does it. We would personally like to see
mooring of boats along there for the put out residents along Lotus Trail. And I thought this
' was fair because we have to put up with the noise and stuff and originally the agreement, as
it's been relayed to me by people in the street, was that the city allowed people to moor their
boats there like on weekends and stuff but then they just stopped doing that. But that was
part of the original agreement for landowners who turned over the beach to the city
originally. So I would like to see that again. I don't know about other people but it seems to
me that it would be fair to allow that. I'd like to see the city park sign removed and post a
neighborhood beach sign instead because if you advertise it as a city park, then people from,
it becomes an inner city park. You have people from Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis and
anybody coming down there and it's only a 30 foot strip of land. There's hardly enough
' room for everybody. I would like to see installed a removable, knee high posts that prohibit
parking along the north beach and those little posts like you see in other parks you know so
people can't pull up to the beach and dump off all their stuff and then go park, which is what
' people do. You know they come down with their coolers and floatation devices and they
park in front of the beach where it says no parking, unload all their kids, slam their doors.
' You know yell at everybody. Did you bring this? Did you bring this? You didn't bring this
you jerk. You know what's the matter with you and we have to put up with all this noise
6
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
which is, they do have, that's 20 feet from our deck. Now if you're sitting on your deck I
mean this is just the endless parade and it goes on right under our nose.
Paula Veltkamp: And we know that the neighbors down the street have complained. Not just
us but other people have complained about the noise. They have to shut their windows and
turn on the air conditioning because they can't stand the noise too so it's not just because we
have such a close proximity to the beach.
Loren Veltkamp: And we've done that and we can still hear it so. We would like to hear
from the Board tonight that they have an intention of keeping our property values on the up
and up. I'd like to hear that from you guys tonight because I don't know that the Board is
committed to our property values. For all I know the Board is only committed to giving as
much parking and people down there as possible. I don't know where the Board stands on
this.
Roeser: How many parking spaces are there Todd?
Hoffman: Four, one being handicapped.
Roeser: Four including a handicapped?
Hoffman: Four including a handicapped, correct.
Paula Veltkamp: But there's been as many as 6 or 7 cars parked down there. One of the
safety patrol cars, when I called one, he told the people on the beach they were illegally
parked. Just io shove their cars in more so they could all fit there. So there are, I would say
there are at least 6 parking spaces there.
Loren Veltkamp: And this is a minor thing but you need a sign that says no picking of
flowers along that trail because this spring, after waiting all winter for the flowers to bloom,
these little girls came down and they walked out with armfulls and they were all gone.
Roeser: These were neighborhood girls?
Loren Veltkamp: Yeah. I mean it's the cutest thing. We didn't say anything to them but
you know, all the flowers. I mean they got them all... Finally, enforce parking after hours
and... within a reasonable period of time. We've called the police complaining and then they
come down a half hour later and the people are gone. The situation's different you know.
So the police have also told us that they really have better things to do than chase people
around on this park and I don't blame them. The last time I called somebody down they
7
i '
u,
C
I
I�
' Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
said, we have an emergency on the other side of town where a little boy's life is actually in
danger. Now we're down here servicing this call you know. Well what am I supposed to
do? I don't know. You know this is the kind of feedback I get from the police you know
' and it's fair but you know, they really, the city's not in a position to police this park the way
it needs to be policed. This is the weird problem that you guys are in now. So I don't have
' your solution for you but I'm just telling you our point. That's my 12 things. I'll leave this
with you.
' Andrews: Thank you. Is there anybody else from the neighborhood that wishes to speak
about this issue? Please step forward. State your name and address for the record please.
Thank you.
' Susan Albee: Mr. Chairman. Members of the commission. Members of the staff. Susan
Albee, 6871 Nez Perce Drive. I've lived in this area for 14 years and there's nothing like
' beating a dead horse. As you all know this has come up. It's now a city owned piece of
property. I had engaged in a conversation with Loren approximately 2 weeks ago. I ... quite
disappointed in someone that comes in in 6 months and says, no picking of flowers signs.
' No screaming signs. My children play on the beach. They splash. They scream. They have
a good time. The raft is city property. It's been moved on several occasions. It's been
moved out farther again. I feel waterskiers might hit it. We're going to have an accident.
' Property values in 6 to 7 months don't depreciate $25,000.00. When you purchase a piece of
property across from a public park, you can anticipate some noise. As far as the litter in that
park, it is the city's responsibility to pick up litter. There are trash barrels there. I go down
there myself frequently. I don't find it anything close to what he just described. As a matter
of fact it's quite an improvement. Carver County does an excellent job in this community
and they do have more to do than take care of one resident. The solution may be solvable if
' one doesn't choose to live that close to the park. I think that the children in this community
have a right to use the lake. I frequent both parks myself and found them to be maintained in
very good condition compared to a lot of municipalities. As a matter of fact I'm very pleased
' with what I see. I question staff's time that they tend to waste on this issue because I'm
starting to feel we really are beating a dead horse. Thank you.
' Andrews: Thank you. Anybody else please?
Keith Gunderson: I'm Keith Gunderson. My wife Pat. We live at 6660 Lotus Trail. Sit
' here about 2 years ago and we offered a lot of alternatives to the plans of this park board to
put docks, canoes, canoe racks and parking that would ... North Lotus Beach. In the past 2
years we have been subjected to a dramatic increase of traffic. Illegal parking on parkland.
Parking on private property. Actually in front of my home. Constantly turning around in our
driveways in the middle of the night. Turning around in my front yard. Waking up at 1:00,
8
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
2:00, 3:00 in the morning and the banging of canoes off loading from the canoe racks. On
top of cars. Again, both in front of my home. There are cars ripping up the park grass when
they go to turn around and I'm talking about in the middle of the night, spinning of tires and
actually spinning around in circles. We have dead fish thrown on the park ground and left to
rot and smell. Is it also ... at the park? We have loud, noisy drinking. Broken glass. Garbage.
Litter and the reason that this park looks good in this area is because we have concerned
neighbors that walk this road, walk this area on a continuous basis and all the time picking
stuff up. There are garbage cans in the area and we do thank the park board for that. But
this is what we are subjected to every day. My wife and I walk our dog every morning and
night. We see cars parked in this little parking area at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 in the morning. No
lights in the area and in this day and age, that's a little scary. That's the way I feel. All these
concerns. All these problems that we addressed at the meeting 2 years ago. We talked to the
Mayor. The board members. Mr. Hoffman. Everybody promised that there would be no
problems down there. If there were, they'd be taken care of. None of this has happened. In
the past 2 years again, we have called in numerous times to the city of Chanhassen to try to
take care of the park. To keep it clean. Again, we have tried to pick the litter up all that we
can. The weeds have just now been cut down I believe last weekend, otherwise they were
getting up to 3 to 4 foot tall. They're noxious weeds in this area of the lake... They should
be kept up ... as much as possible. We've also called Carver County for cars illegally parked
on the park. On my front yard. Sometimes they come. Sometimes they don't. You know
again, they might have a call someplace else. We have called a number of times. When they
do comedown, we've never seen anybody write a ticket and all that does is promote the
people to come back and park again. So tickets have to be written. If it's a problem with
signage, different signs. Again, 3 years ago there was only about 2 people in the area that
actually wanted all this stuff down at the park that I can remember wanting to get the canoe
rack, the picnic table, everything down there and these people have moved away. They're
gone... We have two new homeowners in the area now that live right in front of the area and
they don't want the problem either... Neither does the rest of the neighborhood. I pay the
interest of the taxpaying homeowners in the area, we would like to see the canoe rack, the
dock, and the parking all removed and restored to it's original condition and reinforce the
signs and make it a safer neighborhood. And I think that's not unreasonable because there
are so many parks in the area and I'm here tonight to reinforce this. I want to get it on
record because I know they're going to be ... the Lotus Trail neighborhood one of these years
and once that parking gets in, it's done. We're going to have to suffer with this for a long
time. Right now there has been some said about the handicap parking. The handicap dock.
Where are the regulations for this stuff? Where's the codes? What size is this parking
supposed to be? Every handicapped parking stall area that I've ever been in, that I've ever
seen, they are very, very wide. This road cannot handle this type of traffic. It is dangerous.
It's not very safe and it's just not being.
E
r
E
n
n
n
n
r
J
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' Pat Gunderson: When we brought this up to you originally and asked you about that
handicapped, you said well not all handicapped people are necessarily to that sense but still
there are regulations for handicapped parking. You can't be assured that a wheelchair victim
' is not going to come.
Keith Gunderson: Thank you for your attention.
' Andrews: Thank . ou Anybody else wishes to speak about this? I again ask you to keep
Y Y Y
your comments to 5 minutes or less please.
' Stan Cronister: Good evenin g ...m Y name is Stan Cronister. I live at 6730 Lotus Trail. I've
lived down there about 16 years and I appreciate what the city's done. You've got a very nice
idea having a park down there. My question is, is there a liability for the city to have people
swimming down there without a lifeguard?
' Andrews: I'd refer that to Todd. As far as liability, I don't believe there is with a posted
unguarded beach.
' Hoffman: As far as liability, we have liability in any of our park operations.
' Stan Cronister: Okay. Until the last 2 years it's been used and utilized by many people in
that area. I think they've all been pretty well mannered and I don't know what's in the water
or what's happened in the last couple years but the language has become almost unbearable.
' I live about 300 yards from this area and I can hear them. I know there's probably not a
censor in the city that could go down there and manage this. I don't know what it's going to
take but it's unreasonable and it's illegal. It's... behavior. Boisterous. Loud and foul. Worse
' of all foul. And I've been ... and I've heard a lot of people swear in the service and all that
but ... and I don't think the young kids that are being raised down in that area need to listen to
that. It's a bad example. I don't know what the city could do about it but I wish they'd
' address it. The beach in and of itself I think was started by the fellow that lived there many
years named Rocky and the city for many years tried to get it taken out. They didn't want it
to happen. Now the city's embraced it. I wish the city could look after the property a little
' bit better. As for the parking, it doesn't bother me as much as my neighbors down there but
I'm sure it's a big issue. But if there was just some way we could manage the people who
use the park. I think it's a nice facility and I kind of wish it'd be the best of both worlds.
' The neighbors should have, and myself, a pleasant place to live and youngsters in the
community could utilize it. I know the swimming pools, the public swimming pools they're
not allowed to act in that manner. I don't know why they should be allowed to act like that
at a beach. Thank you.
10
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: Is there anybody else that wishes to speak about this issue?
Betsy Discher: My name's Betsy Discher and I live at 6728 Lotus Trail between Loren and
Stan. A couple of years ago these improvements were proposed at the park. I had a
discussion with Mr. Hoffman regarding some issues with regards to the Americans with
Disabilities Act and I can appreciate the spirit in which I believe some of these improvements
were made. It was represented to me during the course of that conversation that in fact there
would be two handicapped parking spaces made available so that residents or non- residents of
the city with disabilities who wished to use the public spaces—and I can certainly relate to
that particular spirit as it was represented to me. It was also represented, or I think it was a
little questionnaire that came around or whatever, what would you like to see you know.
Here's what we're sort of proposing to do and on that was listed some play equipment and...
would probably be very reasonable extension of the ... just prior to that you had closed the
public access and relocated it to Highway 101 again. Since that time, as everybody has said,
we have seen a dramatic increase in the overall usage of the lake. Obviously when you have
more parking spaces so people can park their boat trailers, you get more boats on the lake. I
don't know if this is good or bad. From a noise standpoint it is certainly increasing the
amount of boat traffic and the danger level on the lake. We have also seen a lot of increase
in traffic and I don't need to reiterate... it's definitely there. We've got pretty large driveways
going up to our house and we've had people parking in our driveway and turning around and
peeling out and the whole thing. My particular issue, you know I'm in agreement with most
of the folks on Lotus Trail that the amount of traffic that the park carries is excessive in—but
I also have an issue that if you're real concerned about accessibility for persons wish
disabilities, you've got a person with a disability living right across the street from the park
who needs assistance to actually get on that beach because the beach is configured with rip
rap rock and slants of the sand. So it would seem more appropriate to me, being directly
adjacent to that beach, that maybe you might want to address some of those concerns since if
there's going to be limited parking, access for parking's going to be primarily on foot. So I'd
like to see the regular parking spaces gone. I think initially it was represented to us on Lotus
Trail that there were only going to be 2 parking spaces. Both designated handicapped and I
think that's what we agreed to. Obviously that's not the case. Thanks.
Andrews: Anybody else?
Debbie McRaith: Just really brief.
Andrews: Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep it brief. We've got a very long agenda.
Debbie McRaith: I'm going to be real brief. I'm Debbie McRaith and we live down on 6900
Lotus Trail, on the other side. On the south end of the beach. On that side and just a lot of
11
J
u
1
n
l
I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
these same concerns are happening down on that end of the beach also. Especially the after
10:00 p.m. people being at the park and that's the hardest I think of all of it to take. People
being down there. We're a little bit farther away. You know the beach is down just a little
bit away but we're, it's coming up a little later. The street light ... still on the other end but I
think it might, down on the one end and we just agree with a lot of the same things and we
want people down there to enjoy it and make it a neighborhood park but it's just gotten out
of control.
Andrews: Thank you. Last call. Anybody else? Okay, very good. Let's just take it down
' the commissioners quickly. Any questions or comments you may have. We'll start with you
Jane.
n
0
Meger: I don't know where to begin. I see a lot of issues tying together that even aren't on
our agenda from the parking. I'm wondering if this beach is maybe accessed a little bit more.
I think we've talked about access to Lake Ann, one of our premiere beaches and are people
avoiding going there because of the cost involved and going to some of these smaller
beaches. I don't know if that's something to look at too. I, unfortunately wasn't able to join
the rest of you this evening when you went and looked at the places so I'm interested in
hearing your comments about the size and the parking access. I've seen a small illustration
on it. It does seem like a fairly small beach for the parking and I guess I wasn't here 2 years
ago when all of the discussion took place so I wasn't aware of the neighborhood input. I
certainly have heard the concerns here today. I don't know what the answers are either. I'm
sure we will need to spend a little bit more time discussing it. I don't know that we're going
to be able to come out with an answer just this evening saying do away with the parking but
maybe looking at some type of an action plan. Some of the things starting with smaller and
working our way up to see what actions will help to eliminate some of these problems.
Huffman: The gentleman who was concerned about his property values and are we going to
be concerned about that. Obviously we're always concerned about that. I speak as an
individual. I will not guarantee your property will go up or down, because that's not our job
because let the buyer beware in anything. If it goes up, that's good. If it goes down, that's
life and we all want it to go up but I'm not prepared to sit here and say we're going to
guarantee the value of your property. That's not our job. We can't guarantee the public
people are going to ticket people. I did hear some concerns in here after 10:00. The
vulgarity. Things of that. Those are concerns that we have as individuals of this board but
also as parents. Those are real issues that we can address. I don't ... take the parking out. I
mean I wasn't here 2 years ago either but it looks like that park is going to be there. Now
what are the things that we can do to help maintain that and make it well where we can all
survive in that situation and there has to be a mutual spirit of working together here. Driving
through that area today, there were also a couple things put up against on the other side of
12
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994 ,
that park that I don't know who the individuals were but we'll have some discussion later ,
with the city officials asking to plant some flowers or whatever and now dint's going to roll
into that beautiful beach area. So I mean there has to be a spirit of working together on all ,
sorts of different ways. The concerns of vulgarity on the beach are unacceptable. Kids
screaming and hollering. I've got a 7 and 4 year old. Not acceptable. Keep calling. That's
one thing you're going to have to do. You don't like it. I don't like it. I live down at Rice '
Marsh Lake. We go down there and we pick up garbage on the floor too because my kids go
down there. Signage about littering and things of that nature, I don't know if we need to do
more of that. I mean some specific things that we can do to help. And that's an excellent '
presentation. An excellent thing of 12 things of some of these things you can do but unless
I'm mistaken, we're not taking the parking out. I mean there's a lot of things that we should
be able to do together and I think what we need to do is concentrate on some of those things ,
that we can do together. But let's go from there.
Andrews: I was on the park board 2 years ago so I guess I'll have to take some of the
,
responsibility for what was decided then. After driving down there tonight, I'm not sure that
that small area can support the activity of 4 fully loaded cars with some kids. So I guess I
would be in favor of reducing the amount of parking that would be available because I don't
,
see this as a drive to destination for 50 people. I don't think that has the capacity to handle
that many people. I do think it should be posted with some sort of a quiet zone or quiet
be important here would be that enforcement has
,
hours and I guess the thing that would most
to be rigorous. If enforcement officials are coming to the area when there are cars illegally
parked and not writing citations, I think that's wrong and I agree with the statement that was
made that if citations are not written, you're encouraging further violations. I'd agree with
,
that because that's human behavior. At the same time I'm very cautious here about saying
we ought to have a park with no access. I think that parks belong to all citizens of the city
and that people ought to have access to parks so I'm against eliminating parking but I do feel
'
that perhaps restraining the capacity here at that edge of the park. There was a comment
made about a prior agreement. I would encourage that if there's serious concern about some
'
agreement being violated, that you consult old Minutes from old meetings and see for
yourself what those agreements were, if any. What I find is that in most real estate
transactions there's a lot of vague agreements that you think you heard or thought existed that
really don't and if it's not on paper, and not legal, it's not going to stand up. And I'm a
victim of that myself so I know what it's like. As far as some of the comments about people
driving their vehicles to the beach, on the sand or on the grass and dumping their things off,
,
there was a suggestion made that perhaps we could put some sort of a post or something
across to prevent access to the beach itself. I think that might be a good idea. I don't think
we need to have any signs about preventing kids. I think kids deserve to be there. Kids
deserve to have fun. Yes, kids will make noise but I would rather have them making noise
and having some fun on the lake than being, sitting around by their house trying to think
M
13
I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' about what other kinds of fun they could create and other kinds of mischief so I think it's
what kids do. So that's where I stand on it. I guess at this point I'd be willing to support a
reduction in parking and more of a rigorous enforcement.
Roeser: That's basically m idea too. I think we're g oing to have to talk to the Public
oese . y y g g
Safety Department about this because there's been an awful lot of accusations hurled at them
' tonight about not showing up. Not writing tickets and I'd like to hear their side. I would
like to sit down with them and maybe hear some suggestions they have for the beach. I don't
' think we can solve the problem tonight. It sounds like it's a little bigger than all of us and I
think if we can get together maybe and have our own little short meeting some night and just
talk about that, and have someone here from Public Safety.
Resident: Are we...?
Roeser: Well, I'm not sure. You'd certainly be informed, yes but we've heard your side of
the story. We haven't heard the public.
1 Resident: How many tickets have been issued down there?
Roeser: We haven't heard from the public safety department ma'am. I would like to hear
' their side because when you just hear one side of the story from angry residents, you don't
get the best picture in the world. I would like to hear both sides.
Resident: And you've got a lot of angry...
Roeser: Yes we do. Yes we do have angry residents but we haven't heard any other side.
' I'd like to hear what, why if these tickets are not being written, why they're not being
written. So I think we're going to have to devote some time just at some meeting to take care
of this. To talk about it and I would like to invite the Public Safety Director here to find out
why these things are going on and what we can do.
Loren Veltkamp: Okay. Is that who you would talk to is the Director? Because when we
talked to the officers that come down there and they say that they don't write the stuff. They
say that it's a problem and they say, they come down here all the time.
' Roeser: Well perhaps they have some suggestions as to what to do about it so I'd like to
hear their side of it.
Resident: And when you do talk, can one of us be present? I mean we live down there.
14
lJ'�
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: We'll respond to this in just a moment here. Let me move on and then we'll have
Todd respond a little bit about how we've handled similar situations in the past when we've
asked for more enforcement.
Manders: I guess my comments are along the lines of what's already been expressed. It
seems to me, from what I'm hearing, is that there is much more traffic than that area can
support. It needs to be looked at. What we can do about it, suggestions about closing the
beach to me are unacceptable.
Residents: Nobody's asking to close the beach.
Andrews: Could you let the commissioner member state his position.
Manders: Other discussions about noise and kids. I'm single. I don't have any kids. I go to
grocery stores. I go a lot of places and I hear this kind of stuff. Well sure you say, well you
can walk away from it. You don't live right next to it but those problems are all over and I
don't know what to do about it. To say kids can't go down there or to minimize the volume.
Maybe that's part of the solution. I don't know. There's a lot of issues there.
Andrews: Todd, could you respond to about the enforcement issues?
Hoffman: The enforcement. We did have a request tonight from the Veltkamps to provide a
record of police calls. I spoke with Scott Harr, Public Safety Director, who requested that list
from Carver County. That they provide the City of Chanhassen's ... You have that
list...Veltkamp's as well as the Rostad's at the other end of the beach. The two requestees or
presenters this evening. As Mrs. Veltkamp eluded to, it goes back to January of 1993
through June 16th of this year. There are some calls and you can read through those.
Commission members have that record which relate directly to Lotus Trail or to either of the
two park sites. Again, this is their complete listing. There were certainly times that they
received calls for that area and they do not respond with a report. They also did not...
Andrews: Well what I propose that we do, and I guess I'll make a motion to take some
action here. I would like to, at this moment request stricter enforcement directly, immediately
to start. I would like to ask Mr. Harr to make himself available to us at our next meeting
because I feel like this is a situation where if we don't come down hard on illegal parkers,
it's never going to get any better. I think that's the level of action that I'd want to take at the
immediate time. As far as reducing the amount of parking that's currently there, I would like
to wait and see if the enforcement helps. If that does not, then I would like to see the
parking reduced. That is my motion at this time.
15
u
C�
. I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Hoffman: Again, any action taken this evening cannot be based off of a visitors presentation.
You would have to formally schedule this item.
Andrews: Okay, then I would move that we would schedule this for a formal hearing on a
future agenda. Is there a second to that?
Huffman: I second.
Andrews: Okay. Is there any discussion? Any comments from the audience, quickly please?
Loren Veltkamp: Could you also bring up the issue of passing the no screaming rule down
there?
Andrews: I don't believe that's within our authority to do that We could recommend that
the City Council consider controlling, what I consider inappropriate behavior and leave it
open at that.
' Loren Veltkamp: You could put it on the sign there to remind people not to scream.
Andrews: Well I mentioned the word Quiet Zone. I think that's probably appropriate being
that the houses are quite close. I think that's about as reasonable as I can make it.
Huffman: Are the kids, may I ask a question. When you notice the kids playing down there,
are they all unsupervised? Are there no adults? There's no form of organization. Is this just
sort of Lord of the Flies type thing?
' Paula Veltkamp: Well there is some... daycare. They bring a van down and ... they can just
jump out of the van and get right on the beach and they'll have like 6 or 7 chairs ... and there
is a drop off on that lake and then kids are screaming. And then there's probably at times
several daycares down there.
Loren Veltkamp: The general situation during the day is you have 2, 3, 4 women in lawn
chairs with a cooler and they're talking amongst themselves and the kids are playing in the
lake you know 20 feet away. The women are kind of talking and the kids are out playing
you know and that kid could slip on the lily pad and float away and I don't know if they'd
' even notice to be honest.
Andrews: There's been, we've got a motion made and seconded. We need to move on to be
' honest.
16
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews moved, Huffman seconded to put the issue of the Carver Beach mini park at a ,
future Park and Recreation Commission meeting. All voted in favor and the motion
carried.
REQUEST FOR LANDSCAPING; RICE MARSH LAKE TRAIL, CONNIE
DEAFENBAUGH, 8115 ERIE CIRCLE.
Todd Hoffman gave the staff presentation on this item. I
Andrews: Is there anybody from the audience that has anything to add to this discussion at
this point? Hearing none, okay. Let's take it from the other end this time. Keep it brief if
possible.
Manders: Okay. It's my observation, just being at that site and I made the comment last
time, or last month when we were discussing this issue, to see the site and the way it looks,
the boundaries and the available trail alignment is obviously close to the fence but the fence
appears to be further over than it should be to the trail. For us to allocate funds for plantings,
my opinion is that if this is that significant an issue that we should, that the individual
homeowner should be willing to contribute to that cause if it's that significant and I wouldn't
be in favor of the city doing that. That's it.
Roeser: We talked about straightening it a little bit so it would angle in a little bit different
behind the house but that's true. If the fence is on city property already or it seems to me ,
that we shouldn't be responsible for blocking that trail. We shouldn't be responsible for
hedging that or anything else. I think if the property was there, it was a trail a long time ago
and I can't see where we should spend that money either. We would be setting a precedent '
that I think we might be sorry for if we did it.
Andrews: I also visited the property tonight. My recommendation would be that we just
attempt to keep a trail improvement as far away from the property owner as possible.
There's an opportunity to cut a corner there a little bit to give us some distance. But I am
also very concerned or cautious that if we offer any improvement here as a site improvement
or a visual improvement, that there's really no way for us to differentiate this request from a
potential 100 others that could come to us for the same reasons so my recommendation would ,
be that we do not provide special landscaping but that we do try to route the trail to have as
little impact as possible on the site.
17
1
F
LJ'
n
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Huffman: This is a neighbor. I live in the neighborhood. I know this family fairly well and
I think at this point I need to abstain from that because I've got a good opinion of the people
so I'll pass.
Meger: I did not attend this evening but I did take the opportunity on a beautiful Saturday
afternoon to ride my bike over at approximately 3:00 in the afternoon. I thought I would try
to get a feel for the traffic and I don't know if it was just a strange day but I only passed one
other individual who was jogging at the time so, I did see Connie sitting out on her deck and
I could have very easily said hello and I'm sure that the trail is, I mean it is right there so I
understand her situation. I would agree I guess with the comments made so far now that this
would not be a precedent that we would want to set. And I would recommend that if the trail
can be made a little bit wider ... as much as possible.
Lash: Did I miss the discussion earlier about rerouting the trail?
Andrews: Yeah I talked about how if there's a junction there or the corner that it takes right
before it hits their property, that we could cut across there a little bit and move the trail
further from her house.
Roeser: Right where it comes in it can be moved over some.
Lash: I visited the site too. Not tonight but I did it individually and I guess I'm going to be
the lone ranger here but, in visiting that, I think it's a somewhat unique situation in a couple
of different ways. Number one, the landscaping or the topography of the lot itself. The other
lots don't seem to be quite, it's not quite as an invasion into their privacy because of the hill
and most of the rest of the lots over there are natural and already landscaped in a way that
it's fairly private. I also think this is a fairly unique situation since this trail is being installed
long after the property owner has lived there. Most of the other trails going in have been on
a trail plan for years and people moving to town have the opportunity to come to City Hall
and see if a trail is platted to be on their property. Connie was not, as far as my
understanding goes, was not given that opportunity unless this trail was slated before she
bought the property. If that's the case, I guess I need to hear that now. Because of those two
situations, the length of time she's lived there and the fact that the trail was not there
originally but was an access road. That was a different usage and because the topography
and the closeness ... to her home, I think it's incumbent upon us to provide some funding. We
can either want to make sure that there were certain conditions attached to that and if that
were to happen, I would discuss the conditions more but I get the feeling that I'll be out
voted here. I'm open to looking at individual situations as they come in and I think we need
to be sensitive to the fact that some trail installations will be seen as an invasion of privacy to
18
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
some people and we need to look at each situation individually and I think this situation falls
into that category. So I would be in favor of providing some financial assistance.
Andrews: Again, is there anybody from the audience that has any comment? Okay, hearing
none, is there a motion for action here?
Roeser: I move we go ahead and not provide any kind of buffer zone between the trail and
the, and try to make that alignment as far away from the property as we can.
Andrews: Is there a second to that?
Manders: I'll second it.
Andrews: Any further discussion?
Roeser moved, Manders seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission that no
financial assistance be given for landscaping along Rice Marsh Lake Trail to Connie
Deafenbaugh at 8115 Erie Circle but that the trail alignment be as far away from the
property as possible. All voted in favor, except Jan Lash who opposed and Dave
Huffman who abstained. The motion carried.
RE UEST FOR ORDINANCE AMENDMENT PROHIBITING SMOKING IN CITY
PARKS, DAN DOENGES AND FAMILY, 6518 GRAY FOX CURVE.
Dan Doenges: Dan Doenges. I guess my wife, Karen and my son, Jack, as well as any
future children. 6518 Gray Fox Curve in Chanhassen. I got this agenda Friday in the mail. I
thought there was going to be a special meeting on it, not a regular meeting so I didn't...
prepare but nothing has changed. I guess I'd like to point out that just the opposite again.
The health concerns. The trash. I know that, I don't necessarily believe this is the right
approach but the impression that it leaves to impressionable children, youth of the smoking,
we ought to try to eliminate that. That's a value statement so I think we're past that in this
values thing. ...clinical facts to point out the risks. You can quantify the facts and cigarette
butts go floating down. It's all there. Like... engineer says that the school district, state law
that they be smoke free. It could be tobacco free, I'm not sure but it's smoke free. That's not
just the buildings, it's the grounds and that's the place where the children are. And I would
think at a minimum, a minimum, that we prohibit smoking in the playgrounds where kids, my
son, they pick them up. They don't know what to do with them. With the cigarette butts that
is. The sandy beaches, those areas where children and families tend to be, at a minimum
make that a smoke free area. I don't think it's, well this may sound ridiculous but if we can
19
I�
I �
AI
I I
.1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' make it so you can't bring your dog into the park, I would think the least we could do is
think about people's health and do something about cigarette smoking. Thank you.
' Andrews: Would anybody else in the audience that wishes to speak about this issue?
Sue Morgan: Good evening. My name is Sue Morgan and I live at 4031 Kings Road. I was
' really disturbed when I heard about this amendment a few weeks ago. I'm not a smoker.
I'm not a proponent of smoking. I dislike smoking immensely but I feel that this is a
violation of people's civil rights and I feel that it's beyond the jurisdiction of the Park
' Commission to even consider making an amendment like this. I went to the Minneapolis
Library today to look up Minnesota Statutes on the powers and the authority of the boards
' and the park commission and what you guys can and cannot do. What your authority is.
And basically my interpretation is that you're suppose to devise plans, establish a system of
public parks, parkways, deal with the buildings, superintendent of regulation... parks,
preservation of trees.
Andrews: I'll concede this is not within our area but it is within our area to make a
recommendation to City Council that they pass an ordinance so that's why it comes to us
first. It was because it originated as a park issue so you're right, we have no ordinance
authority at all.
' Sue Morgan: You have no authority with this at all and I feel that, as I say, I'm not a
proponent of smoking but I'm a proponent people relaxing and enjoying themselves. It seems
' like in the Chanhassen codes or statutes or whatever, that there's no camping, no ... water
pollution, no animals, no fires, no use of vehicles. And it seems like most of those things are
good because they protect the overall well being and general well being of all of us so I think
' that's good but I think as far as smoking is concerned in an open atmosphere, I think
individuals have opportunity to walk away from somebody who's smoking. Just say that's
really annoying and move away or can you change directions. I think that the park might
1 consider redirecting their efforts at limiting non - smoking to structures and enclosures,
buildings.
' Andrews: That's already been done.
Sue Morgan: That sort of thing. So I think in general, open air ... I work in downtown
Minneapolis and I drive the streets of downtown. I see these high rise office buildings. Tons
of people standing outside smoking away on the sidewalks you know and if the city of
Minneapolis has not placed an ordinance or an amendment, I don't think the city of
Chanhassen should be the forerunner... and I don't know who would be here if you want to
deal with all of that but I think people can make choices. That do make choices. If they
' 20
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
don't want their family exposed to that, don't take your family there and I think people have '
an opportunity, should have the opportunity to smoke ... thanks.
Andrews: Very good. Anyone else from the audience wish to speak about this issue? We'll ,
start in the middle this time since we started on both ends. I'm allergic to smoke and I hate
smoke. I can't stand smoking. I don't want to be around anybody that smokes. However I
agree that I feel that this is beyond what's necessary to be reasonable in my opinion. I guess ,
I'll just leave it at that. I also agree that if we try to pass an ordinance, I think we'd be up to
our eyeballs in lawsuits anyway so I think it would be a futile effort. I guess at this point I
feel that if somebody is smoking near me and it bothers me, I'll move up wind or I'll move '
away. I'll just have to deal with it in spite of the fact that it does make me ill. Physically ill.
So that's where I stand. I don't think this requires an ordinance in my opinion. Anybody
else have any comments to add? ,
Manders: My comment on this issue would be the ordinances on top of ordinances on top of
more ordinances and my example is, when you're talking about cigarette butts laying around,
there's ordinances against littering. Now to have an ordinance against smoking so they don't
smoke there would be just as enforceable as the current one against littering. We just got '
done talking about the beach property, littering issues. They aren't suppose to litter so how
do you enforce that? That one is similar to the dogs in the park issue which is one of my
favorites that I don't particularly care for either. How do we enforce the clean-up after dogs? '
It's a tough one. And I can't see this.
Andrews: If there's no other comments, let's have. I don't know if we need a motion... ,
action but at this time Dan I don't think there's support to move ahead on this one for us to
support a motion to make a change so without that support there's no need for any motion
here at all. '
Dan Doenges: Can I ask then, I'm really displeased with the outcome here tonight. Where
can I take it from here then?
Andrews: City Council has a visitor's presentation as well and that's a direct access. To be
honest, it's probably more appropriate in this situation because it would be stronger coming ,
through the Council directly with an approach directly at an ordinance rather than through the
parks. In my opinion.
Lash: And we do not have the authority to make an ordinance. We can always send our
recommendations to the City Council and at this point in time it sounds like we would not
recommend the ordinance. And I believe the City Council will hear what our '
recommendation, or lack of recommendation might be...
21
1
n
0
7
n
I L
11
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: I think you misread what we're saying. I think what we're saying is, we don't
like smoking but we don't feel that outlawing smoking in a public area, outdoor area is
reasonable.
Dan Doenges: What's the difference between outdoor area and indoor area? There's an
existing indoor air ordinance for a building but.
Andrews: I'm not.
Roeser: I don't know if we should get into semantics and that kind of discussion. We've got
18 items here yet tonight.
Dan Doenges: Right, I understand.
Andrews: I guess I would recommend at this point that you approach the Council and see
what response you get there, because that's also going to give you some indication as to what
the potential is for getting an ordinance through at this time. And beyond that, I think with
many other interests that people try to encourage, I'm involved with other issues myself. You
have to create a group of people that have the same interest that have political power. I mean
that's how things get done and I think you're probably one of the first people I've heard
discuss this and I'm sure this is an issue that will build over time. But I just don't think right
now that it's something that I, I don't think there's the support here for it. There may be
individual, and I'll again state that I'm allergic to smoke. It bothers me. It makes me sick
but I don't think I could vote for this. Okay, thank you.
REQUEST FOR STREET LIGHT, RONALD AND BARBARA ROSTAD, 6890 LOTUS
TRAEL.
Public Present:
Name Address
Paula & Loren Veltkamp
Keith & Pat Gunderson
Chris & Cindy Anderson
Joanne & Stan Cronister
Debbie & Pat McRaith
Susan Albee
Betsy Discher
Nadine Lee Patterson
6724 Lotus Trail
6660 Lotus Trail
6680 Lotus Trail
6730 Lotus Trail
6900 Lotus Trail
6871 Nez Perce Drive
6728 Lotus Trail
600 Broken Arrow Drive
22
7
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Todd Hoffman gave a staff presentation on this item.
Andrews: Is there anybody from the audience here that wishes to speak about this? And if '
so, please keep your comments as brief as possible. Thank you.
Nadine Patterson: I'm Nadine Patterson from 600 Broken Arrow. I live just one house up
from the beach. Unlike a lot of people, I've lived there for 24 years and• my family moved '
here with the understanding that, they lived by a beach and ... build the parking. I do believe
there's a parking problem ... I'm going to get a police record and I know not enough tickets are
issued for parking and I don't know what the ordinance would be on bringing boats into the '
beach but I think there's probably more problems during the day than there are at night and if
we put a light there, we're going to be asking for problems at night. They're going to open
up that park for people at night. If the park closes at 10:00, the park should close at 10:00. '
That doesn't mean we should turn on the lights ... I know when I was younger we'd go ... go
hang out and that would cause a problem. We have far more problems during the day
obviously to take care of before we decide to ... a light at night. There are docks down there.
I know there's—How do you clean up after them? They're a danger. Those dogs are not
trained. Those dogs bite. They're annoying. I just don't see a need for putting a light up I
there and adding more problems on top of existing problems we already have.
Andrews: Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak about this issue? Jan, why don't you start I
it off. Let's go through quick.
Lash: I guess I'm really torn on this one because I agree, Eilene? I
Nadine Patterson: Nadine.
Lash: I agree g ree that I think a light a lot of times can attract more business than you want to r
eliminate and sometimes they can correct the problem. I think the problem is enforcing it
and maybe we need to encourage the residents at this time to can any time they see a
violation and get some enforcement for the first item on the agenda. If you get enforcement
and try to eliminate some of the problems through enforcement. And if that doesn't work,
maybe we want to go back to the light and see if that's a possibility. ,
Meger: Yeah, I guess I would agree with what Jan said. I think enforcement is the first step
and then ... and maybe look at the light in the future. '
Huffman: Basically the same thing. Enforcement. This is the same issue everybody's '
having. 10 :00 is when the park's supposed to be shut. If you have a light, it stays on all
23
n
J
17
r
1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
night. It doesn't shut off at 10:00. Then you're going to come back here in 3 months and
ask if that light can be shut off at 11:00 when you're trying to sleep. It never ends.
Andrews: I guess I agree that my concern is if we put a light in, I think it's more likely that
there will be a request probably within a year or two to please come take the light down and
it costs quite a bit of money. We have a fairly limited budget. This comes right out of our
budget and there aren't many areas that have greater need in my opinion .so I guess I would
argue that this would be combinable with the first issue regarding enforcement, which I again
support rigorous enforcement. That's it for me.
Roeser: I have nothing further. I agree with everybody here.
Manders: The only thing I would say is that I don't know that the light really addresses the
issue where all the activity is happening, which evidentally is away from the parking area and
down in the beach or along the lake. So I don't see that the light really addresses the
problem and enforcement really has to be it.
Pat McRaith: Can I say one thing?
Andrews: Let's have a motion then.
Andrews: Yes sir. Could you state your name?
Pat McRaith: Pat McRaith. I live on 6900 Lotus Trail. Enforcement, could we schedule that
a patrol car would come by at 10:30 or something instead of, I think a car comes by at 4:00
a.m. You know 10:30 and try to enforce it that way. Tell people that the park is closed. Is
that a possibility?
Andrews: I think it's a possibility. We have to ask if it might be possible if our public
safety officer could be at our next meeting. I guess that's exactly what I'm intending to ask
is why can't we step it up. It doesn't necessarily mean we have to step it up for 500
consecutive days. Normally if you do it for 30 days or 45 days and just hit it hard, usually
you'll set the example that's required so I guess I would argue that's a reasonable request.
Resident: Will this be in conjunction with that same meeting with the other park? The
public safety thing.
Andrews: I don't see why it wouldn't be. That's more efficient for us and certainly for you
too so. And it's dealing with the same park technically so.
24
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Manders: I would move that we not put in the light and bring this topic up at a future
agenda for enforcement.
Andrews: Is there a second to that? ,
Lash: Second.
Manders moved, Lash seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission deny the
request for a street light by Ronald and Barbara Rostad at 6890 Lotus Trail and to
bring up the item of enforcement as a future agenda item. All voted in favor and the ,
motion carried.
NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING: CATHCART PARK. ,
Public Present: '
Name Address
Merlyn & Betty anous 6231 Church Road, Excelsior
Y
Gary Carlson 3831 West 62nd Street
Todd Hoffman and Bruce Chamberlain, the Shorewood Park Planner, presented the staff '
report on this item.
Andrews: I have one question on that ballfield. Approximately what's the, like from the '
third base spot, how far is it to a street there? Are we within easy ball through the
windshield distance there? '
Bruce Chamberlain: From the street it's approximately 60 feet.
Andrews: That's a pretty good sized foul zone, okay.
Bruce Chamberlain: But it does get closer as it gets to the outfield. ,
Andrews: But fewer balls go that far also.
25
.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Bruce Chamberlain: Yeah, the intent of this field is not as a true Little League field. The
younger kids play on this and the City of Shorewood has...
' Andrews: Like pee wee baseball? Okay, very good.
Manders: How many rows of trees would you expect that the outfield would roll into?
Bruce Chamberlain: It won't roll into any more than 2 rows and it won't take up... We think
' that there's going to be some very selective trees that need to be moved but we're not sure
what the number is but it doesn't encroach on a...
' Andrews: Does the word removed mean destroyed or moved to a new location?
Bruce Chamberlain: No, it means destroyed. The reason is, Todd and I and Jim Hurm from
' the City of Shorewood walked the site. We took a look at quality of the trees and the
possibility of moving them. With the cuts there, they're not the highest quality trees. Soft
maple. There's some ash and the way they were planted, close together and the lack of
' pruning over the years has made them less than desirable trees. I don't feel that they're
worth...
' Huffman: Do you have a timeframe on that temporary warming house because we all know
when you're dealing with the government, there's nothing more permanent than something
that's temporary. Is there a timeframe there? I mean are we talking 3 to 50 years?
Bruce Chamberlain: Definitely. The City of Shorewood does not have in their capital
improvement budget, which goes out 5 years. At this point it actually goes out to 1998. It's
not in their budget for '98. But it is on their more important list.
Huffman: It will be done when 212 is done basically?
Bruce Chamberlain: I hope it's done before that.
' Huffman: Make it a nice temporary warming house would you.
Hoffman: It will have the same warming house at North Lotus Lake Park this year and it's
not in your budget...
' Andrews: Any other questions from the commission? Is there anybody from the audience
that has any comments about this project?
�
26
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Gary Carlson: Good evening. My name is Gary Carlson. I live at 3891 West 62nd Street. I
live in the Cathcart home built in 1886. I've lived there for 25 years so I've gone by the
park, spent quite a bit of time in the park. It's interesting, new members of our Park and
Recreation Commission. You're lucky, lucky dogs. You get to pass on improvements you
don't have to pay for, and we appreciate your time and ... and we appreciate the fact that
you're spending some money in Chanhassen. It is a really nice neighborhood park and the
improvements that Shorewood has done through the years have been very good and a lot of
Chanhassen residents have actually used those improvements. Starting at the beginning, the
key word is capital. They're going to spend some capital. Just like you do, when you have
some money in your budget at home, you try to spend it on the most needed thing first.
Don't you? If you need a new car you, and some capital will become available from
Shorewood to spend again on improvements, which by the way it's about time that
Chanhassen spends some of their capital on this park because there's been a lot of
improvements. I've put in 16 nice home lots and a lot of that area is going up up there and
all that money is pouring into the Chanhassen Park, I mean $400.00 I think for my lot went
into your budget. As soon as you got all the parks improved down here in the city center, we
appreciate it that you would take some interest in our park out there. But in the meantime,
only Shorewood is spending their capital. Let's use it most wisely. What's happened in this
park is because of it's unique nature of being in Chanhassen, Shorewood can do things and
none of the residents ever get notified. This is the first meeting that any of the residents have
ever been asked to come and get some information on the park that's right next to them.
Because Shorewood gets to go in, the city of Chanhassen will do whatever they want. So we
appreciate the fact that finally there's a neighborhood meeting. And by the way, the city of
Shorewood is having a Park and Recreation meeting tonight. Started at 7:00. This very
thing. So while we're meeting down here, they may already be passing something up there.
Right?
Bruce Chamberlain: Mr. Chairman, that's incorrect. They are not approving anything in
regards to Cathcart Park. ...city of Shorewood has yearly neighborhood meetings regarding
the park improvements as well as park...
Gary Carlson: Well we've never been noted of any of those improvement meetings on any
improvements that are coming ... but I can tell you some of the things that have arrived in the
park and none of the Chanhassen residents have ever known. But getting back to the most
important thing is, they're going to spend some capital. Now what's needed at that park?
The first thing that's needed at that park is to remove the NSP, four power poles that are
along West 62nd. The only place that they're along West 62nd is along this park. There's
the new church that went in, it's all underground. All the new services over here are
underground. All of my development is underground and everything along the west side is
underground. So people come in there to fly their kites, kids are in there flying kites quite
27
r
fl
0
J
1
.1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' often, and it's unsightly and there's several power poles along there. That needs to be done.
The park... That's a capital improvement that you can just go ahead and do. You just notify
NSP that hey we'll pay. They have a certain fee per pole to bury. We'll absorb some of it
' and the city will absorb some of it. The next better improvement is that you do with every
picture, if you put a frame around it. This is a beautiful neighborhood park. We have
neighbors here that are adjacent so it's just lawns. You don't need any picture framing there.
Here you have curb and gutter on this side. You have a paved street, no curb and gutter.
This side you have a gravel road. Now some capital is going to be needed to be spent to
have a curb and gutter road. Yes, there's two residents here and I'm the third resident. I
' own another piece of property down here. I've already given the city full right -of -way
with—the assessment but then there's a parkway along here that's only 16 1/2 foot wide. So
someday the park's going to have to give up half and these two residents are going to have to
' give us half. Even if they don't give up half, you need to frame this with something. It's
just a gravel road. It dumps. The improvement here needs to be looked at. The overall park
and start spending the capital a little more wisely. The improvement that's needed, this is a
real good shed area for water. It sheds off of the ball diamond which is mowed lawn. They
mow it every few days. They're going to put in a big parking lot now. The hockey rink
sheds water and the tennis court sheds water. All that water is shed off of there and no one
' can get by with this if you're a developer. If you want to develop a piece of property and
you have to set 5 home sites, you have a holding pond for all your shed water. You can't
just dump it over to Mr. R's property because he happens to be down hill from you. You
' have to hold that and dump it at the same rate that has been dumped at for the last 100 years.
You have to retain your 100 year rain. There's no talk in, that is a capital question that has
to take some capital funds and find out what they're going to do with this water. It can't run
uphill. This is uphill on West 62nd. They've been dumping back down here and these
residents are all...that amount of water. Right now ... do with that water. That additional shed
water that's going to come from that parking lot. Now that's all part of the problem on this
' west side that's just a gravel road. And if you're going to do capital improvements, let's
picture frame the park and put a decent curb and gutter along this so it has, you can say this
' is the park. When you put that gravel road along the west side ... and no one knows what to
do with it. The Park Commission doesn't know what to do with it ... think about it because
they're going to spend some capital funds. I can tell you a little bit about why it's going to
' be a parking lot. Because the whole Shorewood Planning and Park Commission is all ladies
of child bearing age. The first thing a lady wants to do is where can I park my car when I go
to the park. Where can I park my car when I'm going downtown or going to the mall.
' Where do I park my car? So that's why suddenly we're getting a parking lot. By the way,
this is a small park. It's a continuous little park. It's about 5, 4 1/2 or 5 acres. Now
suddenly we're going to rush and enclose to a third of it and throw in a big parking lot. It's
' a neighborhood park so is this the right answer for parking. Is this the right answer for
parking? And in order to answer that, I would say yes, we do need parking but there are
' 28
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
some other alternatives and I can tell you what they are. And again, they would come from
improving the western picture frame boundary. You could do a phase 1 and phase 2. They
come from West 62nd Road. You'd have pull in parking. You see what I'm saying? Pull in
parking. You wouldn't have to move trees. You wouldn't have to move ball diamonds. You
wouldn't have to go to all this much capital improvement here. Just pull in parking. Every
main street in every small town has pull in parking. People back out from the pull out
parking into the main street of their town day in and every day. All those people and it's not
a safety problem for every small town. ...the amount of traffic on some of these roads. They
can do pull in parking there very easy. Plus it would picture frame. It'd be all the cars and
all the related accidents that can happen to cars out in the street near the trees ... middle of the
park. And kids still cross in here on bikes and walks. I've been there for 25 years and they
pull in. This morning there was at least 12 cars pulled in here parking because of the tennis
courts down here. I'm sorry I'm long but you've got to realize that in 25 years and never
being asked what to do with my park, it's kind of nice to get it off my chest. But they're
pulling in parking right now. They pulled in ... 12 cars to go to the tennis court.
Andrews: Mr. Carlson.
Gary Carlson: Nobody's parking, if you put it up here, they're still going to pull in down
here to go into the park.
Andrews: Mr. Carlson, can you move. We've got 11 more agenda items. Can you move
onto your other points please if you could.
Gary Carlson: Okay, so I would suggest that the best use of the capital improvement for
parking would be pull in parking. Number one, it's safer and easier to park. You just go in
and swing wide...
Andrews: Can you talk about other issues other than the parking?
Gary Carlson: And the third reason is the church is right here and they can use the parking
after their expansion. I just would like you to further pass onto the city that you would like
to have those capital improvements to...
Andrews: Thank you.
Gary Carlson: That there are other alternatives to spending that money.
Andrews: Is there anybody else from the audience who wishes to speak about this park?
II
D
I
n
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
.
' Merlyn Wanous: Good evening. My name is Merlyn Wanous and I live directly west of this
park. I've been there since 1960. The park in fact, when those trees were planted, I provided
the string and the water for the Girl Scouts to plant them. Mr. Keeler... Okay, like Mr.
' Carlson states, what I see as a solution for this parking is like he suggests. This drive in
parking. The people that are parking... basketball court. I'll bet you that is not used 5 or 10
hours per year. You could have a lot of parking along 'here. There's a swing set and a slide.
' That could be moved over here into the play area. You've got a lot of area here where you
could park. They park by the tennis courts. They park along the hockey rink. We'd have
ease of removing the snow. If you would have the parking lot over here, you wouldn't have
to have the cost of moving any of the baseball items or associated with the baseball. The
field would be left as is. The people are parking there now anyway. You know they're
driving off of, this is soft and if it was improved to a certain extent, there could be a lot of
parking here and right along here. Instead of taking this valuable land and as far as these
trees are concerned, they're nice but nobody's going to be able to move them. They're at
least 10 inches or more. They're about 30 feet tall. That ... it's going to have to be bulldozed.
Some of them should be removed anyway to make a nicer park but this would be a real nice
play area and I do, I think the trees along the south end ... but I see a lot of valuable land and
a lot of expense in my opinion for parking. And the church does have parking. I understand
' there's concern that kids are running across the street. Now we live right along here. Now
there's no parking here and they've been parking along there for how long. In fact we talked
to the man in the city and they're going to put some no parking signs there. But the kids,
there's a fence all along this area that prevents them, but still the cars are parking here. But I
think the training and this is, a lot of money, in my opinion. In my humble opinion, is being
' spent and taking up valuable space so I would think you'd start considering the west end. I
don't know if you need all the road improvements like Mr. Carlson suggests but it would be
nice. I know it's a cartway. I've been before the Council for many years. In fact Mr. Griese
' who lived down here, I went before the Council and tried to get them to accept the road
probably 30 years ago and they never did and it's still a cartway. That's all I've got to say.
Thank you.
Andrews: Thank you Mr. Wanous. Anybody else from the audience wish to speak about
this? No one else? Did the City of Shorewood consider pull in parking in their plan?
Bruce Chamberlain: We did talk about that in preparation of the master plan and it was
never considered as a viable option because of the safety concerns..
Andrews: I have another uestion. That would be, there are some la areas on the property
4 play P P rtY
currently. Are those play areas likely to ever be improved where we would need to provide
' ADA access? And are we going to have our parking area anywhere near those proposed play
areas if ADA access is going to be provided in the future?
1 30
1]
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
1
Bruce Chamberlain: There will be play area improvements and we'll be providing a trail that
will be at no more than 5% grade to the play area.
Andrews: Okay. And the planned play area is located where on the map?
Bruce Chamberlain: Right here.
Andrews: Okay. So it's a long way from reap an proposed parking area then? ,
Y g Y Y YP P P g
Bruce Chamberlain: Correct. '
Huffman: What would people be backing out of? If we do pull in parking out there, what
are they backing out into? It's one thing to pull out of quaint little town. It's another thing
to pull into a 4 lane highway. What are you pulling out into?
Hoffman: For the information for the commission and the audience, members of the '
audience, they need to be aware that West 62nd. Street is within the city of Chanhassen and
the City of Chanhassen would not be in favor of approving pull in parking off of that street
and backing up into that street. It is a residential thoroughfare. It narrows down to a curve '
and then a narrow intersection would be a trail ... so both the streets that are being discussed
this evening are within the city of Chanhassen and they would be addressed, any '
improvements to those streets would be addressed under a separate issue.
Andrews: Okay. How about the drainage issue? Is that something that's talked about before
a project like this goes ahead? I �
Bruce Chamberlain: The City Engineer for the City of Shorewood is the organization that's ,
preparing the plans and specifications for the parking lot portion of this project. And the
street, West 62nd will be improved in the next few years and along with that, drainage issues
are going to be addressed as there is a drainage problem in this area. The parking lot will be
draining towards 62nd. Not into the park.
Andrews: So the intention would be that there'd be some sort of a storm water collection
system put in later?
Bruce Chamberlain: I'm not, on the park I don't foresee that, no.
Andrews: Okay.
31 '
fl
1
F- 1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Huffman: A question. Power poles going across the top then. Is it possible to bury those?
Is it possible to just get rid of them and put them underground?
Bruce Chamberlain: That will be done along with the street improvement.
Andrews: Okay.
Huffman: Drainage. Parking. Power poles. Gravel road. Anything else?
Gary Carlson: No. I appreciate that.
Andrews: Well the gravel road issue, I mean speaking from my viewpoint, I don't see how
that benefits the park to be honest.
Lash: Well it has nothing, I mean we have no, there's nothing we can do about that. That
would be a street improvement.
Gary Carlson: It would have been a paved road here sooner but Shorewood has always in
the position of always been we don't want to accept any more assessments. We feel that the
park has got a road. In other words, if there was one road going to that park, and if that road
was adequate enough to service that park, Shorewood wouldn't care what you did with the
other roads because they didn't want to pay for any more improvements on the roads.
Shorewood's position has always been along that west side is, we don't want to pay for any
improvements. But now I see the new joint venture. They don't have to assess each other so
if Shorewood were to change their position over the next 2, 3 months, I wouldn't be surprised
because now they don't have to pay for the improvements...
Andrews: That's really a separate issue. It really is.
Lash: I see in the memo that we have that in the agreement, the authority and responsibility
to improve this park in accordance with capital improvements ... Shorewood. I mean do the
maintenance and that's all we do. So that's the agreement. There really isn't.
Gary Carlson: If this is the best improvement, then for sure we don't want to lose an
improvement, you know.
Andrews: Okay, let's get a motion on this and move ahead.
Roeser: What do we need a motion for?
32
[ I I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: I think we need a motion or a resolution of support here I guess is what we really
need here.
Huffman: With ongoing discussion involving... community people who have never had a
chance to voice before.
Lash: I can't imagine that Shorewood wouldn't have a similar policy as Chanhassen that
anyone affected by things like this, are notified. So if you're not being notified, I'd call the
Shorewood City Hall and ask to be notified of any future.
Gary Carlson: I have been there.
Andrews: I guess I'd send them a certified letter and if they didn't notify you of a meeting
pertaining to that park after receiving a certified letter, I guess I'd argue they'd probably be in
violation of some law. Because I know that when developers own property here and there's
any action going on with it, we have to send them notices that we're discussing the land so.
I think it's unanimous here that we would support the City of Shorewood improving a park
that we get to use so I don't think we need a formal motion do we Todd to move ahead on
this, or would you like a motion of support? Let's have a motion of support then please.
Roeser: I move we support Shorewood's plan for improvement of Cathcart Park.
Andrews: Second?
Lash: Second.
Roeser moved, Lash seconded that the Chanhassen Park and Recreation Commission
support Shorewood's plans for improvements to Cathcart Park. All voted in favor and
the motion carried.
PUBLIC HEARING: SOUTHWEST REGIONAL LRT TRAIL. REVIEW REOUEST
OF SOUTHWEST METRO TRAIL ASSOCIATION TO UTILIZE CORRIDOR FOR
SNOWMOBILES.
Public Present:
Name Address
Daniel & Kathy Smith 1020 Hesse Farm Road
Bob Steffes 1350 Hesse Farm Road
33
II
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
'
Karen Dee
Georgia Kandiko
Lee K. Anderson
'
Willard Halver
Todd Kurtz
1
John Heerdt
Cheryl Marszalek
Allen Koenig
Mark Briol
LeRoy Biteler
Bill Roberts
Bill Kullberg
1201 Hesse Farm Circle
10421 Bluff Circle, Chaska
10441 Bluff Circle, Chaska
470 Flying Cloud Drive
5215 Polk Avenue, Mayer
Rt. 1, Box 40, Mayer
10360 Heidi Lane
12610 98th St, Cologne
10377 Heidi Lane
910 Penamint Court
880 Lake Drive
P.O. 34, Navarre
Brad Blomquist 7141 Derby Drive
Jeff & Brenda Meredith 1050 Butte Court
Jussi Leliti 8200 West Lake Court
Todd Hoffman presented the staff report on this item.
Mark Briol: I don't think many people who have adjacent land to that track got
notification of this meeting. I got notification yesterday and my back yard...
' Andrews: Sir, I'm going to invite comments from all members of the audience here very
soon so, in fact I'll do that at this time. Anybody wishing to speak about this issue from the
' audience, please step to the mic. State your name and address please.
Willard Halver: My name is Willard Halver. I live at 470 Flying Cloud Drive. That's just
' close to the line. Oh about half a block or 3/4 of a block between the old, where the TH 101
railroad bridge was. I've lived there 37 years and it seems as though it's been a little bit of
an ongoing problem for me and I've lived with it. My house is about 250 feet down the side
' here and it wasn't so bad when the railroad was in there. Certainly the trains coming through
kind of kept the things in order but this past spring now, we've had 3 wheel all terrain
vehicles up on there. 250. Unlicensed. Tearing up and down the bluff area. Up behind
' Sorenson's buildings to the railroad, the old railroad right -of -way. Past my place. Up
through where Dr. Monroe and the other people live on the bluff. They've got regular trails
in there and they're running... evening or not. If you went back far enough from my place
' you would see it.
' Andrews: We rode all the way through there tonight and we.
' 34
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Willard Halver: ...and back up and make a run ... anyhow, what the climax to the whole thing,
'
I've kind of overlooked this. We were gone for the winter and we came back last April and I
knew this was going on and I just let it ride. 10th of June my wife and I usually take a little
nap in the afternoon at oh, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00. And the dog barked and something funny was
,
hitting the house. And I was kind of half asleep and she was kind of half asleep and the...
we didn't think too much of it and then finally the third piece hit the house. So I got up and
looked around and I couldn't see anything and I went outside and here I started picking up a
rock here, a rock there. Four pieces of rocks. Now this is this crushed stuff off the edge of
this railroad bed. So I take it upon myself to go up and find out where and what was going
on. I just missed the culprit. He got back on on the all terrain vehicle and was down the
,
road when I was up there. You could see in the weeds where he had parked. And he has to
get over about 250, or maybe 300 feet so that's an awful arms throw. You've got to be
better than Kirby Puckett in order to throw that far. Now it was only ... 4 to 6 rocks that I
picked up in my yard. And I called Scott Han. I had to go through the iron curtain to get
ahold of Scott Harr. I could get ahold of Scott Harr. Then finally he took my call and made
a report out on it. I was told to call the Chaska Sheriff's Department, which I did. Well
,
gosh Mr. Halver, they're out on an emergency right now. It's going to be some time before
they come. I went back up the hill. Here comes this ATV, just going ... at that point I had to
'
hide behind the trees. The wife looks out the kitchen window and here is Mr. Culprit looking
and he saw her. He tore on the all terrain vehicle. It did come over the scanner and the
owner of this business, of the Sorenson building and the guy that did the dirty work, took off
'
out there and we never saw them for 2 more days. This is why I called Scott Harr and I sent
a letter to him 2 weeks ago and I haven't got an answer. I said what's going on down there.
So public safety to me is a sh word. We don't get the support we need. So I am against
,
until, ...until we get some law enforcement on that trail. There's been tires dumped out there
on that trail. Hennepin County's got it posted now so it's ... but there's a garbage dump out
there because I go out there every once in a while and walk and I used to walk when the
,
railroad was there. I've lived there for 37 years. But until we get some law enforcement
there, I'm against it 100 %. And like I say, there's nothing from preventing these 3 wheel all
terrain vehicles from putting a ski on in the wintertime and using them as a snowmobile. So
,
the minute this permit is granted for snowmobiles, how many other types of, they can roll on
them with tires. How many other types of vehicles can use it snowmobiles. Thank you.
Andrews: Thank you sir.
Mark Briol: Members of the panel, I appreciate your patience. I did not get notice of this
'
hearing, nor have I gotten notice of any other hearings before this panel relating to what
constitutes basically my back yard.
'
Andrews: Could you state your name and address.
35
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' Mark Briol: My name is Mark Briol your honor. I got notice yesterday when the neighbor
stuck a notice in my box. This was my response today. I had no idea that this was going to
used as a bike trail, much less a snowmobile trail. Snowmobile trail or anything else. I
' contacted the Minnesota Attorney General's office and the Environmental Quality Board and
they're generally wondering whether or not there's a mandatory environmental assessment
statement that needs to filed. And if not, whether the petitioning process can take place.
' Second of all, I want this Board to know about the safety concerns I have of anything taking
place back there. I've called 911 on more than one occasion to complain about people
shooting in my back yard. They go back there and they hunt deer and they hunt everything
' else. I don't know what's going to happen now with respect to the hunting regulations in my
back yard but people are shooting in my back yard, which is right by where those railroad
path is going to be. I have some serious concerns. I go back there once or twice a year to
t see what my back yard is like. I walk down the trail. I pick up pop cans. I pick up shotgun
shells. I pick up garbage. Who's going to take care of the littering? In terms of safety
concerns for people along the path, if you walk the path today, if you went down there, you'll
see as you go down there that there's a significant drop off on the incline. It can go down 10
or more feet and they go down in the marsh and things like that. Well who's going to pick
up the garbage down there, number one. Number two, if there's going to be snowmobiles in
there or if there are going to be people on that trail, there should be guardrails. There should
be something to keep people from falling off that path and getting injured. Second of all
with respect to physical safety, I agree with what this gentleman has said. There's no police
protection out where I am. I've got to call 911. I have never, in the 5 years I've been there,
seen a police car out in Hesse Farm, or anywhere near Hesse Farm. Not even to pick up
' speeders. The only way I get a police car out there is if I call them. And I pay a significant
amount of property taxes. Fire hazards. Now if there's going to be increased traffic back
there in the, I don't want my back yard to turn into a Los Angeles. It gets very dry back
' there on occasions. If there's going to be increased traffic, and people are going to be tossing
out cigarette butts, I'd as soon not see any cigarette smoking on that trail. I don't want
somebody to toss a cigarette butt off and have my whole back yard torched. And if you
know the way the development is put together, the woods go all the way up the hill and they
surround the houses. I mean if that place gets torched, everybody's house gets torched
because I don't see any fire hydrants out there. I don't see where anybody could come out
1 there and make any kind of reasonable approach to public safety to save the environment if
the place goes up. Second of all with respect to snowmobiles. I've got to tell you this. Last
year I was walking with my daughter down one of the paths on the east side. A snowmobile
came buzzing by us. They came up behind a horse. Now the horse couldn't move aside.
Either he was, the path just wasn't wide enough. So the horse rears up and bucks and the
snowmobiles continue to follow it down the path until finally they get to a place where the
' horse can go aside. I'm not sure the paths are wide enough to be able to sustain either
snowmobiles passing each other or people walking on it at the same time snowmobiles are on
' 36
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
there. It just is, I'm concerned I've never gotten notice before. I responded in a timely
manner and I hope that you consider both, whether or not you're going to make a path and
two, what you're going to use it for. Thanks.
Andrews: Thank you.
Dan Smith: Members, good evening. My name is Dan Smith. I live at 1020 Hesse Farm
Road in Chaska. I say Chaska because that's our mailing address but we're in Chanhassen.
We're down in that little part of the city where we get no services until things like this occur.
The easiest thing to do is just say no. You know, don't do it. Snowmobiles, absolutely not.
It's not a good spot for it. People who are affected, you know are the ones who are going to
put up with this garbage. We also did not get notification and I appreciate my neighbors
getting me to this meeting because it's a tremendous annoyance if something like this occurs.
You've got the opportunity here. Eden Prairie's already saying no. Chaska's going to make
up their mind in a few years but just stop it right now.
Andrews: Anybody else from the audience?
Resident: I don't need to state...
Andrews: Thank you. Anybody else feels the same?
Resident: Well I too live on high ... and the snowmobile traffic that already illegally uses that
trail makes a terrible noise. It's something that wakes up somebody from sound asleep. If
it's a sanctioned snowmobile trail, I'm concerned that the use will be continuous all night and
all day.
Andrews: Anybody else have any comments or more than a few seconds, please do step up
and state your name and address. Not only is it good that you get on the record but the
Council does get copies of the Minutes. It may be important.. It also might make it easier for
us to notify you if there's future hearings.
Resident: Would you like our names and addresses?
Andrews: Well there will be a sheet that goes around. Why don't you make sure you get, if
you're not.
Lash: And if you are not on ... chances are you're not going to be picked up for the record.
37
1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' Bob Steffes: My name is Bob Steffes. I live at 1350 Hesse Farm Road. I'm the
neighborhood president for the east association. I've been getting mailings regularly on any
action for the neighborhood yet on this one we did not receive a mailing. Is there any reason
' why this one?
Huffman: There's a conspiracy.
Roeser: Todd is this an official public h
al pub c earmg .
' Hoffman: No, it is not. Mr. Steffes is on the mailing list that was prepared for this. Daniel
Smith, 1020 Hesse Farm Road is on the list.
Dan Smith: Are you mailing it to Chanhassen because we don't get mail if it says
Chanhassen.
Hoffman: The addresses are Chaska, Minnesota 55318. And then again your letter... 1025
Hesse Farm Road was on this and... If they did truly not get their's ... we'll find out. As far
' as ... computer generated and if that street is not listed on that search so that was an error and
that will be corrected.
Andrews: I'd like to ask the people that did not receive mailing today, or by today, if they
do receive them late, that they contact the city office and note how many days it took them
to get their mail so in future hearings that an appropriate amount of mailing time could be
used.
Resident: Only one person in the neighborhood received a mailing and that was Howard
' Noziska, if I'm not mistaken. Howard was a past member of I believe the Planning
Commission. Maybe that's why he was notified but in the past we...
' Andrews: Yeah we do but I have to also point out that occasionally on city mailings that I've
gotten them the day of a meeting and that's cutting it awful close.
' Resident: Who maintains the trail? There's just some general questions about who will
maintain this trail once it's constructed.
Huffman: Do you want to start at the beginning and just explain where the trail is too? I
mean it's the railroad bed we're talking about. We're not talking about your neighborhoods
and streets and things of that nature. Okay, we're talking about the railroad bed.
�
38
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Resident: Right. There's a trail there existing already on the south edge of the Hesse Farm
property.
Huffman: Correct.
Resident: Right, absolutely. And who's going to maintain that once it's constructed? It's
finished now...
Hoffman: As everyone knows, it's owned by the Hennepin County Regional ... at least as the
commission is aware. Hennepin Parks has an agreement with the HCIA to utilize that trail
and that corridor as a trail. Hennepin Parks is the governmental jurisdiction in charge of it,
thus they will be maintaining it. Unless they make some agreements otherwise...
Resident: So it will be maintained if it's damaged by snowmobiles or other forms activity?
Hoffman: That's correct.
Andrews: Could I ask Todd to clarify too. The jurisdictional control of uses. How that's
determined so everybody is aware how that's working.
Hoffman: Hennepin Parks obviously they have the agreement with people on that property.
However they have to look to each individual municipality to take the initiative to find out
what the residents, the user groups of the individual communities would like to see take place
on that trail. Thus they have given the individual communities the liberty to hold these type
of neighborhood informational meetings. This commission has held these, on this speck
trail dealing with horses. The horse groups. The snowmobile groups. The commission has
looked at 2 years ago at taking this project upon themselves. The commission was not—to it.
You've taken a look at a variety of things over the years. But for everyone's information,
Hennepin County's jurisdiction stops at Bluff Creek. The City of Chaska then ... to the city of
Chanhassen has maintained the segment from Bluff Creek Drive to the Highway 212.
Resident: So the present trail is off limits to all motorized vehicles, is that correct?
Hoffman: The operations policy has not been established.
Resident: I thought that had.
Hoffman: The Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority has notified properties that no
motorized vehicles. Hennepin Parks has not...
39
[I
il
i�
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: And that's why we're here tonight.
Resident: The Southwest Trail Association was mentioned in the letter.
Hoffman: They have spokespeople here this evening...
Resident: Okay. The only other thing I'd like to mention is that the use of snowmobiles on
that trail will ruin the use of the trails for other things such as cross country skiing and other
activities. I don't think they will mix very well. Thank you very much.
Huffman: Real quick, Mr. Briol? You talked about the public safety never has been around.
You've never been to a Jim Huff's birthday party then in your neighborhood?
Mark Briol: Ah no.
Huffman: Okay.
Georgia Kandiko: I'm Georgia Kandiko and I do wish to go on record as being opposed to
opening this trail for snowmobiles. I live at 10421 Bluff Circle. I did receive notification,
thank you very much and this one is at my back yard also. It is a noisy problem already.
When it is established as a snowmobiles are allowed to use this. They already are using this
trail ... so I'm adamantly opposed to this ... thank you.
Andrews: I'd ask to indulge the commission with brief comments. We've got a whole bunch
more to go yet tonight so, alright. Thank you.
Resident: ...I just have one question with regards to maintenance of the trails by Hennepin
County. Does that include trash pick -up?
Hoffman: Yes it does as far as I understand. They had sent out a mailing that they would be
holding a meeting in this regard to the municipalities I believe on July 17th at their
headquarters at French Regional Park. That was one of the items on there...
Resident: I would just state that I also am opposed to snowmobiles...
Karen Dee: My name is Karen Dee at 1201 Hesse Farm Circle. This also is part of my back
yard. I did not receive notice. I'd like to go on record as stating I'm very opposed. In
addition to the safety and environmental concerns... integrity. We've made several inquiries
and have always been told there was no motorized vehicles. I would hope they live up to
that.
.f
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Roeser: I can tell you this about all Hennepin County trails. They don't go out on motorized
vehicles on their trails but see we've been given the authority to decide that in Chanhassen.
Karen Dee: ...go through Hennepin County and Carver County ... that there would be no
motorized vehicles.
Roeser: Yeah. I ride their bike trails a lot and they don't.
Andrews: Is there anybody here from that snowmobile association that wish to make any
comments tonight?
Leroy Biteler: Good evening. My name is Leroy Biteler and I am a member of the
Chanhassen Snowmobile Club. A member of the Southwest Trail Association. I guess to
start off with, I was happy to see on some of these letters that were sent in that there was at
least one that had a positive note to our trail system being allowed on railroad beds. In
comments from some of the things that have been said, snowmobilers in the past in our
community have encouraged and brought on through law enforcement to our trail system.
Not only has the DNR been on our trail system, patrolling the trail system. We, as a club,
have encouraged and called and arranged with Carver County... somehow on our trail system
with some of our own personnel and patrolled the trail. What I'm saying here is that we
have assisted and will continue to assist in helping patrol any trails we have in our trail
system. We would like to get even more involved in that standpoint but that may not be as
easily done as what we would like it to. It's not unusual for railroad lines to be converted to
trail systems to have motorized vehicles with skis. Such as the county. We have a trail
system that runs through Shorewood and out to Victoria which has gone from rail to trails
and allowed snowmobiles.
Andrews: Is that the Luce Line?
Leroy Biteler: The Luce Line is one. What is the name of the one in Shorewood? Is that
the Luce Line or is there a name for that?
Roeser: The Luce Line's in Wayzata.
Resident: The Luce Line goes out through Orono and out...
Leroy Biteler: And the one in Shorewood going to Victoria.
Resident: It has not an official name right now but it has been taken over by Hennepin
Parks.
41
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Leroy Biteler: Okay. As far as an environmental issue, I really don't think that is an issue
on a railroad bed that is now going to be a gravel bed. There has been, we have done with
respect to decibels with snowmobiles and sound, how far, how far they will transmit the
1 sound and we have been documenting some information here. One of the gentleman that
actually was involved with doing those tests on one of the railroad beds that at one time was
a problem. He may speak later. As far as the width of the trail, Todd do you know how
wide this trail is going to be?
Hoffman: The trail would be 10 feet from the shoulders.
'
Leroy iteler: 10 feet is plenty wide enough for Y p ty oug ... o snowmobiles to pass.
Resident: Oh no...
Andrews: I'd have to state that we drove this in a Chevy Suburban tonight and it was amply
wide for that to drive the trail, and a Chevy Suburban's at least 8 feet wide. About 8 feet
wide. We had plenty.
Hoffman: The specifications on the trail are 10 feet wide which...
r 1 l
Resident: The sign says no motorized vehicles tonight.
Huffman: I was pushing.
Leroy Biteler: That being the case, it is most definitely wide enough for snowmobiles to
pass. Our trails, our Southwest Trails groom the trail systems so that that will maintain a
width of 8 to 10 feet because we'll be able to groom that both ways. As opposed to just
having one track run down with a snowmobile. As far as Eden Prairie. Eden Prairie has not
had the trail system for some time. It's no surprise that they do not want us to coming
towards that Eden Prairie direction. As far as Chaska, I believe there's someone here from
Chaska... basically looking at the snowmobiling in their community and seeing where it's
going to go. It's not been ... deal as to whether they will or will not have snowmobiles in
Chaska. This trail will be a benefit to Chaska as well as to us as to make it a safer trail and
easily accessed to get away from making it a real close resident. As far as cross country
skiing. The snowmobile will not bruise the trail. Generally speaking a cross country skier
would generally prefer to run on a packed trail, whether it happens to be packed by a
snowmobile groomer tractor or a snowmobile.
Andrews: I'd ask that members of the audience to please hold your comments down. We do
invite everybody to speak without being interrupted. Thank you.
42
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Leroy Biteler: As a matter of fact the cross country skiers have a grooming system which '
they groom and compact a place for the skis to run so we will not be ruining that trail. As
long as the snowmobiling is allowed in Chanhassen, I'd like to basically keep it as safe and
proper as possible and that is one of the objectives that this trail will do for us. I'd also like
to maintain a safe recreational activity in Chanhassen as long as possible. Our local club as
approximately 73 members. We've been very, very active in the community. Trying to
patrol our trail system and the community...
Meger: Mr. Biteler, can you speak a little bit more ... about the safety aspects. I believe when ,
you addressed us earlier you talked about how this trail would eliminate a lot of the ditch
riding and some of the...
Leroy Biteler: Right now our trail system goes down CR 17 to the south to Lyman Blvd and
then go to the west, which all of that area right now is ridden in the ditch line. When we get
on Lyman Blvd and go to the west, we have to get up onto the shoulder of the road, which is
directly at traffic. Our lights must shine directly into the automobiles windshields at night
and that is unsafe for both the automobile and the snowmobiler. This route right now would
take us, once we get Lyman Blvd from CR 17, we would then go east on Lyman Blvd until
we hit the lake. Lake Riley and from that point we can access the railroad bed virtually
eliminating the having to run in ditch lines and—with a number of things and automobiles,
we're eliminating that automobiles are a problem with meeting one another. And really it ,
appears to me that there are very few homes that are really very, very close to that railroad
bed. In my mind I see a couple of homes, having to drive down that railroad bed, that are
close to that railroad bed. '
Lash: What do you mean by close?
Leroy Biteler: I can only see two homes.
Lash: Are they right next to it or is it 200 feet away or?
Leroy Biteler: One of them is probably 125 feet away. The other one happens to be the '
house which is right on the edge of Lake Riley that has some horses in a fenced in area.
That is probably 200 to 300 foot. We actually don't cross their properties... that part of the
railroad bed. It's closer to the Eden Prairie side.
Hoffman: Chairman Andrews, this overhead references what Leroy was discussing. I should
inform the audience that the dashed line represents the trail which is marked on their plan. ,
This dark line here is not a part of their plan. I just showed it for illustration purposes to
show what they're asking for this evening.
43
C
rJ
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: Anyone else from the audience. Pardon me, are you done Mr. Biteler?
Leroy Biteler: No, I'm done.
Andrews: Okay. Anyone else with comments, I would again beg that you keep them brief.
We have a very long agenda tonight and we need to get through as much as we can.
Dick Putnam: Mr. Chairman, my name is Dick Putnam I don't live here but in just
listening and we have a bit of experience.
Huffman: Where are you from?
Dick Putnam: Wayzata. I have the next item on the agenda, if it helps. A couple things.
We have leased land in Eden Prairie to the Southwest Trails Association for probably, I don't
know 10 years I suppose. Throughout Eden Prairie connecting to Chanhassen for a dollar a
year or something like that. And I'll give them a lot of credit. We've never had one single
problem with them doing that. As the land has developed however, their trails have just gone
away and we've not had any requests for the last two years. Secondly, we're developing a
project on the Luce Line up in Orono which is 46 single family lots. We've got about oh
maybe a third of a mile frontage on the Luce Line. I would recommend that the staff
probably talk to the city of Orono and the other communities, Plymouth, Wayzata on out.
There are different restrictions on what can be used on the Luce Line depending upon where
you are. As it stays further out, the further west you go, the more activity is allowed. So
snowmobiles are only allowed as you get to the far end of it. I think you would probably be
well...to look at the requirements that those cities have along the Luce Line...in Eden Prairie,
we have a development on either side of this same trail and probably a half a mile of
property... We have looked at that trail as an asset. Not as a light rail corridor but as ... same
thing is true with the Luce Line. Those folks I know were very concerned about having a
trail in their back yard but if it's maintained properly and developed properly, from a
developers standpoint...
Andrews: Any other comments from the audience?
Bill Kullberg: My name is Bill Kullberg. I'm the Trail Coordinator for the Southwest Trails
Association and I live at P.O. Box 34, Navarre, Minnesota 55392. I'd just like to discuss a
few things when we were talking about a railroad corridor. Even if Chanhassen does... non-
profit corporation. We were organized by 8 clubs in the southwest area at this time and... We
have the funding available to make this a multi- purpose trail so everyone gets to use it.
Whether you're a cross country skier or hiker or biker, horseback riding and so forth. We put
up stop signs. We have the availability of doing any of the landscaping and correcting of any
44
1�
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
of the steep slopes ... In the city of Shorewood, it's a highly dense populated area. There's a
lot of traffic coming off of Lake Minnetonka feeding into our trail system and we've been
working with that city very diligently since about 1985. We still have a trail in a highly
populated area. We have a curfew there at 11:00. There's no motorized—there's a 20 mph
speed limit. For the last couple years now there have been more than a couple of complaints
per year now and the cops are down there with radar so there is ability to take care of these
kinds of problems. We do not allow 3 wheel vehicles or ATV on our trails. I believe the
Carver County Sheriff's Department has a special unit now. They have two snowmobiles and
they have ... in fact they ask us for different activities that they can participate or trail
patrolling and so forth. They have two Polaris snowmobiles and seeing that this trail goes
right into Chaska along TH 212, and their Sheriff's office is just about a stone's throw away
from the trail up in Chaska... We also have a conservation officer... Thank you.
Andrews: Anyone else?
Resident: I'll be brief. My name is...regarding cross country skiers concerning the packed
trails by snowmobiles... And the other one is the...
Andrews: Thank you. I'm going to cut off any more comments at this time. We've got to
take action or we'll be here until tomorrow morning. Any comments from the commission
members about this?
Manders: I guess initially I had, after reading the material, I was contemplating something
along the lines of some type of yearly review of motorized vehicles but from what I'm
hearing, I'm prone to vote against any kind of motorized activity on this trail.
Roeser: I guess I really kind of, my heart goes out to the snowmobilers. It's a legal activity
and those people do hold licenses. They do pay fees to ride those things and I supposed it's
the same old thing. There's a few people that screw everything up for you guys and that's
kind of sad. I noticed over the last couple years that they've gotten quieter. You know you
don't hear the roaring. I cross country ski and I don't think we can, I think we'd have a real
problem with cross country skiers and snowmobilers on that trail. Especially when you get...
there is some danger there so I don't know if you'd be willing to accept speed limits on a
trail like that. I really have a, I really can't make up my mind when I think about it. I don't
see the snowmobilers as the villains that all these people do. I don't see them as, you know
they irritate me a little bit out in the woods too because I can smell the gas you know, but
golly it's a legal thing and it's something we sell. It's an economic thing. I guess I would
like to look at it a little more. I can't decide right now whether I would want them or not.
W
r
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: I'll be brief because I want to get home before tomorrow morning. I do not
support motorized vehicles on this trail at all, in any form. That's it for me.
' Huffman: No motorized vehicles during the summer at all. There shouldn't be motorcycles,
3 wheels hanging around there. I like snowmobiling. I make no bones about it. You're in
the winter. Your houses are closed. It's the doppler effect. It goes ... go by. Or we also have
' a right to have other people in your neighborhood hear about that so if we do anything else
I'd recommend that we move to put this forward so that other people can talk about. The
Hennepin County corridor here it says, in their minds we've got ... but however it should not
1 be construed that cross country skiing will not be allowed and I cannot consciously think that
even if you're 20 mph, somebody on a pair of skis loses to somebody on a sled. And I love
snowmobiling as much as anybody and I cannot in my mind allow that to happen. If there's
t people walking about or potentially walking about, you can't have a sled there.
11
Meger: I agree that there be no motorized vehicles in the summer. I guess I lean a little bit
more towards allowing snowmobiling on this trail. I'm not a snowmobiler. I'm a cross
country skier and from what I know of the area, there seems to be a lot of nice trails for
cross country skiing and the snowmobilers continue to be shut out and I have concerns about
their riding in the ditches. Lights shining into my eyes as I'm driving so I would prefer to
have something on a trail. I would definitely go for a curfew. I would probably move it
even to maybe 10:00 and definitely a speed limit as well.
Lash: I want to try to remember that our responsibility here is to provide recreational
opportunities for the citizens of Chanhassen and that is currently an allowed activity and it is
really feeling the squeeze from development. The more the city develops, the fewer spots
there are for snowmobilers to go. And unless we would decide to ban snowmobiling totally
from the city, I think it's part of our responsibility to allow a safe place for them to do this.
Now I have concern with cross country skiers too but as Jane said, I think that there are more
opportunities for cross country skiers so I would support the snowmobiling on the trail. I
would not support summer activity because I would like the summer activity to remain the
walkers and bikers and joggers. And I would definitely want it to be defined with hours and
speed limit and I would want it to open for review.
Andrews: Why don't you make a motion and see if it will fly.
Lash: I would move that we allow snowmobiling as the only motorized activity on this trail
with the conditions that the snowmobile club would sign it and that there would be
enforcement of the speed limit and that there would be a curfew and that we would review
this item yearly.
46
d
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: Is there a second to that motion? '
Meger: Second.
Hoffman: And the clarification of Commissioner Huffman—whether or not it would be cross
country skiing or snowmobiling. Hennepin Parks ... and maintain this for cross country skiing
in their operation because they do that at many of their regional park facilities. Thus they do '
not want to do that. If the city of Chanhassen is going to ... if you would like to designate it
as a snowmobile route, and then appeal to the other cities, obviously you have to consider the
city of Eden Prairie if you want to make this route occur and then you have to have it
approved by the Hennepin Parks Board. You can do that as well...
Andrews: I don't think Jan intended to exclude cross country skiers. 1
Lash: I don't look at it as a compatible use. I
Andrews: You would like to see this as a snowmobile trail, designated trail, okay.
Resident: So I just need a little clarification here. You say in the winter time you only want
that to be available for the snowmobilers?
Lash: Well I guess I don't look at it as compatible with cross country skiing but if people '
want to cross country ski, I guess I wouldn't personally have a problem with that.
Resident: Assuming they don't get killed, right? M
Lash: Right, and that's my fear. What's why I'm saying personally I don't think it's
compatible. I would worry about the cross country skier and snowmobiling...
Resident: So let me ... you're voting to make it a snowmobile trail during the winter—is a '
form of recreation. Do you think there's more snowmobilers than cross country skiers?
Lash: I said there are a lot of other opportunities for cross country skiers.
Resident: Where? ...in Chanhassen.
Andrews: Please, order here. It's late and it's going to get real late here if we don't control
this.
Resident: Just clarification. I understand what you're voting on.
47
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
1 Resident: Obviously the citizens of Chanhassen who own property don't matter.
Huffman: Absolutely.
' Lash: There is a motion.
' Andrews: We have a motion and I think we're all free here to state our opinions as we wish
and I think you're jumping to a conclusion here that we have certain opinions here so let's
wait and see what the discussion is. Could you restate the motion please.
'
Lash: Okay, the motion is that we would allow snowmobiling with the conditions that the
snowmobile club would post it, sign it. There would be enforcement of speed limit and a
' curfew and there will be no other recreational vehicles allowed on this trail in the summer.
Andrews: No motorized vehicles other than snowmobiles in the winter time only.
Lash: Other than snowmobiles.
' Andrews: And I believe what you're saying is that this trail would be designated a
snowmobile trail but cross country skiers would not be prohibited but they would not be
' recommended.
Lash: Right.
' Andrews: Okay. That's I think what we're getting at here. Is there any further discussion
from the commission?
Huffman: I would almost like to see this moved forward so the neighbors could, you know
we've got a group of people here tonight who, I mean the association is well organized. I
mean they're documented. They have done an outstanding job in the community. They do a
' phenomenal job with their trail system and everything. We also have a neighborhood over
here who feels like they have been almost railroaded into this meeting and ... but I would
almost like it to move forward for another time so they can sit back a little bit and maybe
' have the people do care a little bit, and have an opportunity to...
' Andrews: Our action tonight is not formal action. It would then be moved up to Council I
believe, correct for formal recommendation to the Hennepin County Road?
Hoffman: Yes.
1
48
1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: Okay. So there'd be another opportunity even if we vote, not in the way you
would prefer us to vote if it's your... Any more discussion?
Lash moved, Meger seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission would
recommend to allow snowmobiling as the only motorized activity on the Southwest
Regional LRT trail with the conditions that the snowmobile club would sign the trail,
there would be enforcement of the speed limit and curfew and that the Park and
Recreation Commission would review this item yearly. The motion was tied with a 3 to
3 vote. The motion failed.
Andrews: Does that mean it carries Todd, or fails? Motion fails. Okay, so that motion
failed. Can we have another motion? I think it probably could split here, which would be no
recommendation at all, which is acceptable. I guess I'll make a motion that motorized
vehicles be prohibited for the trail. Is there a second to that?
Manders: I'll second that.
Andrews: Any discussion to that?
Andrews moved, Manders seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission would
recommend to prohibit snowmobiling on the Southwest Regional LRT trail. The motion
was tied with a 3 to 3 vote. The motion failed.
Andrews: Okay, I guess then I'll say it right now. We have no recommendation to be made.
We'll have to pass this up to the Council and say that the Park Board is split. We're not
going to get any farther tonight by beating this to death so, thank you.
LAND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL: PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT FOR
PROPERTIES ZONED RSF TO PUD (46.56 ACRES); PRELIMINARY PLAT FOR 74
LOTS OF MIXED HIGH DENSITY (186 DWELLING UNITS), 15 SINGLE FAMILY
LOTS AND AN OUTLOT WHICH WILL CONTAIN DWELLING UNITS; AND
VACATION OF A PORTION OF WEST 86TH STREET. THE PROPERTY IS
LOCATED EAST OF HIGHWAY 101 AT WEST 86TH STREET, MISSION HILLS,
TANDEM PROPERTIES.
Todd Hoffman presented the staff report on this item.
Andrews: Mr. Putnam, if you'd like to address the commission. Again I would ask, and I'm
sure you will, keep your remarks brief.
w
D
L
11
L
L�
n
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Dick Putnam: Well I guess at this point Mr. Chairman, I would ask, let me just quickly...
There was one other issue that was discussed at the last meeting, which was almost a year
ago. Hopefully you can all see this. This is the proposed TH 212 corridor. Here's the
proposed park on the south end of Rice Marsh Lake with TH 212 to the south. And our
project sits in here just to the east of TH 101 and the TH 212 freeway on the south. Another
area that was discussed was this parcel, or actually two parcels south of the extension of 86th.
It's currently an open field with kind of gently rolling and there's a little drainageway that
goes through here and then down into lake and a marsh that we share on our property. The
discussion was whether or not that property if combined with the wooded portion makes
' sense as a future park, particularly with the highway department purchasing this land as it
conceivably could purchase it all the way up so they didn't have to sever the Klingelhutz
property to the south. And that was a discussion that the city was going to look at, whether
or not they would do it. Whether the highway department would be doing it to provide some
green field recreation space. I'll let Todd respond to that. I don't think there's any definite
answer that we have because TH 212 is, lord knows what's going to happen with it. That
was one of the issues that was discussed in dealing with the open play field space. This is a
plan that we discussed with the City Council last night. Basically a couple things to respond
to the staff's concerns relative to the amount of playfield space or open space. What we
looked at is a temporary pond that's being built here that's about a half acre in size that will
eventually go away and that water will be taken down to a major pond the city's going to be
' building along TH 101. Also an area right through here that's about a .8 of an acre adjacent
to the wetland in the southeast corner of the site that has a hill and then some open field
space on the top and a nice pretty area along the marsh. Also there's a field space here,
' about a .4 of an acre of so that we had proposed as berming but we'll develop this just a
grass field area at this point with plantings around the edge as well as a developed totlot. We
have a concrete sidewalk that runs on Street A, north/south. There's a trail system along the
south side of the street. Whether it's bituminous or concrete, I guess that's your choice or the
city's. We'll be doing an asphalt trail system here as opposed to wood chip and we'll also do
either limestone or wood chip trail system here and connecting in a loop. It also will connect
to this site as it turns into a park. I guess with that Mr. Chairman I'd be happy to answer any
questions. The plan is really the same as what was proposed previously with the addition of
those areas.
' Andrews: Any comments?
Lash: I would like to hear the comments from the City Council last night.
Hoffman: On behalf of both the Planning Commission who reviewed this at the preliminary
stage, the preliminary plat and the City Council, it would be fair to say that they were
50
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
uncomfortable with the size of the totlot play area, and that is the reason they referred it back
to the commission for review.
Andrews: Any more comments? My comment is that, to talk about a play area being a pond
and not really having any definite time of when it may or may not cease to be a pond, to me
is the definition of blue sky in my opinion. Also we've, I've been on this board I don't know
how many years, but I think it's 5 I think. One less than Jan I think but every time we get
into a density project like this where we don't take adequate land at the time the project is
conceived, and we rely on adjacent potential developments to provide spaces for our needs, it
always comes back and bites. We have no idea when those other properties could, might,
'
will develop and I personally feel it's, a project of this density, to rely on a third of an acre to
provide a play area is not adequate. To call a field, a playfield something that's something
roughly about 10,000 square feet. I lived on a lot of about that size and it wasn't wide
enough for me to throw a frisbee. So that's a small area.
Dick Putnam: I guess I went and reviewed the Minutes from the last meeting and we had
that discussion and I asked I guess what the city park fees were for and what you were
looking for. The intention on this project is not to develop a 4 or 5 acre neighborhood park.
Andrews: That would be about 10 times larger than you're providing. I don't think we're
asking for that. I
Dick Putnam: Well I guess my question is, what are you asking? In Todd's report he asked
for an acre and a half park, is that correct Todd?
Hoffman: Recommended, yes. On the...
Dick Putnam: An acre and a half park is almost the size of the field they just played the
World Cup Soccer game on. That's 1.7 acres in the Rose Bowl. A football field is about an
acre and a half. I don't have any problem with that except that we're at the final meeting on '
a project that hopes to start in a couple weeks and we've reviewed all of the Minutes and all
of what was approved. A plan that, at your last meeting, a plan that we brought in and that
was approved is this one and it's, I guess as identical as we can make it with the exception of '
increasing some areas. We were led to believe in your Minutes and Planning Commission
and staff, that what you were looking for was a basketball court, benches, a place for, since
these are retirement type units. One level, geared towards retired folks frankly. Empty
nesters moving out of existing single family homes. These units are catering to newly
married couples. Single people. If they do have children, they're very small children. So
the totlot makes a lot of sense. Those were the type of things that we were trying to provide.
We have Rice Lake Marsh Park about a quarter of a mile away to the north from our
51
I
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
.
' boundary. A park to the south and some future development. At no point were we led to
believe we needed to provide a football sized gamefield space in the middle of the project,
and frankly it's impossible to do it at this point without frankly having a long area where we
take out 16 units or down here and you'd be taking out 16 units also and I guess to be honest
I don't feel that it's very fair that at this point in time, at the very end of the project, I guess
you'd contradict what you had told us.
Andrews: I'm trying to read the Minutes here from August of 1993. I do see the motion
which states in a vague sense that we ask for more space. I'm trying to locate where in that
' discussion did we make any reference to how much additional space. It would take me a
while to read through it.
1
r
1
1
Dick Putnam: Let me put it up on the board there.
Lash: At one point it says.
Dick Putnam: This is from the August 24 staff report. I think it's, I can't tell you what page
it is in there but, if you read the shaded in paragraph. This is from Todd's report. The total
area of Lot 6, Block 1 is quite small. However, in the range of 1 1/2 acre. Staff is proposing
this amenity be private or association. Components of the facility to be at the discretion of
the applicant that typically include a landscaped grassy area, picnic table, benches, play
apparatus, tennis and basketball courts, etc. What we discussed at your meeting was this plan
and I guess if I had come back with, oops, excuse me. The plan that we originally had which
wasn't as good, and which the staff and you had suggested to take out the buildings here.
That's that Lot 6 which you're talking about, and change the site plan accordingly, that's
what we did. We changed it and I guess we get down to quite frankly we received this staff
report Friday and the game had changed a little bit and I guess we're in a bit of a dilemma to
try to do that. It has a dramatic impact of 16 units on 186 units or 190 units. That's a pretty
significant reduction. The other problem that it is to do that, we end up with over 400 feet of
street that has no use. I mean we end up paying for it to border a park and the play station is
a private association space, which doesn't make any economic sense nor is it necessarily a
good—to that kind of space. We're also, I guess I might say when you say that the ponding
area will go away. It's our understanding from the city that the TH 101 project is going to
go ahead in the very near term future and the ponding and storm sewer business goes with
that hand in hand. I'll be the first to admit that what happens with 212 is anybody's guess.
And we all understand that.
Andrews: Yeah, I'm trying to read through the Minutes here. I don't see reference to a
specific acreage but there's many references to additional acreage and there is some notes
52
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
here about you making a comment that with this additional space requirement, that you may
lose density and therefore increase pricing but it doesn't give specifics.
Lash: Well on page 41 of the Minutes, I'll start with my comments. Because we've got
potentially 400 people there and obviously a half acre just isn't going to cut it. We have to
set some guidelines that we usually use. Todd went on to say that it's typically 1 acre per 75
people. And then I said, I guess it would be probably beneficial for the applicant to hear
from the Park and Rec Director what our normal guidelines are so at least they have an idea
so they don't come in with something that we'll still find unacceptable.
Dick Putnam: May I ask a question?
Andrews: Yes.
Dick Putnam: We heard this guideline of 1 acre per, how many people?
Lash: 75.
Dick Putnam: 75 people. Does that apply across the board to private development or is that
for public parkland purposes?
Hoffman: For public parks.
Dick Putnam: Okay. So what impact does that have on a private association or our project
Trotters Ridge? We have 33 homes x 4 is probably 200 people. There was no requirement
to provide that kind of play space.
Hoffman: In this instance it's used as a guideline. In the case of Trotters Ridge, we acquired
4 acres of property on that plat and there will be a much larger expanse of park property just
to the north. For the information of the commission, in reviewing this, we talked about Lot
6, Block 1. That area as represented on the original plans is about .63 acres. An acre and a
half would be represented on this plan by Blocks 5 and 6. ...to state the or to quote directly
from the Minutes of the Planning Commission meeting held on June 1st, this past June 1st.
The size of the totlot was discussed at length at the June 1st Planning Commission The
commission felt that the size of the totlot should be increased by an acre. It then goes on to
state, on behalf of the City Council, that the Park Commission agree...
I �
I �
C
OU
Huffman: So the Planning Commission at some point said the totlot should be increased by
an acre?
53 1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Hoffman: Correct.
Roeser: Is that what the Council felt the same way? Or hasn't the Council discussed it?
' Hoffman: The Council talked about it last night. The were uncomfortable but the did not
g Y Y
make any specific recommendations other than to...
' Dick Putnam: Todd, could ou lease to us what the Planning Commission y p g recommendation
was. It's kind of like when you pick out Minutes, just like on the discussion with the
' snowmobiles. What the discussion is isn't necessarily the motion that comes out of your body
and I ask that you all remember that. Simply because one person objects to something,
' doesn't mean that's the opinion of the whole commission. And that's exactly what happened
at the Planning Commission. They did not recommend, Todd, that it be an acre totlot
whatsoever. I'll go grab the Minutes but I read it pretty carefully. They deferred the
decision to you folks because they didn't want to step on your responsibilities.
Lash: In our recommendation in August, it says since this is only a, this is directly, this is
the motion coming out of the commission hearing... Since this is only a conceptual approval,
I think our motion can be somewhat more vague than our other motions. My motion would
be that we would recommend the applicant provide additional park space than what has been
proposed and then it goes on to the other conditions. And I seconded that. So at that point in
time I guess we were thinking, I'm going to assume this was what we were thinking, that this
was conceptual and you were going to come back to us again and if we found it acceptable,
fine. If we didn't, you'd go back and fix it again and I don't know that we had any kind of
understanding that we were under any kind of a time line that was going to infringe on your
rights as a developer here to, you know I understand you only have 2 weeks left to redo this.
' In August we thought conceptually had a lot of time. And it's been almost a year, it is a lot
of time but I'm kind of wondering, you're on a time line, why didn't you come back sooner?
Andrews: I think what we expected was to come back with okay, here's our response to the
commission. Is this closer to what you wanted and now it seems like what you're saying is
the bulldozers are already started and I've got to get moving. And I don't think that's the
way we responded to you. We were asking for a time frame that would provide you with the
time that you needed. This is our first chance to see this. I don't know if it's been a
situation where you've been unable to get through city channels or have just had your own
projects that you've been too busy with.
Dick Putnam: I was pulled off your last agenda I believe it was by Kate from the Planning
Department because the DNR objected to something and their objection was completely
wrong and the staff here said, DNR you're wrong but otherwise we would have been there. I
54
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
guess what I'm appealing to is the fact that these two plans, the one from a year ago that we '
brought to the meeting and we discussed the change and took out the buildings, was what was
approved and what's been discussed with the staff, with Planning Commission for this past
year. '
Andrews: Sir, it was not approved by the Park Board. Our motion, you know verbatim says
that we were asking you to provide additional space so we did not approve the plan as it was ,
proposed. We asked you to take it back.
Dick Putnam: Maybe I'm reading from the wrong one but the applicant shall provide a ,
recreational amenity in the vicinity of Lot 6, Block 1. This facility includes typical park
amenities.
Hoffman: Dick, you're reading our recommendation. Not the motion by the Park
Commission.
Lash: The first part of the motion says the applicant shall provide additional park space than
what has been proposed to accommodate the future use of the residents in this development
and then it goes on to... ,
Dick Putnam: Could I ask a question? What more would you like proposed? And if so, can '
we just simply set aside an area and use the $110,000.00 or $115,000.00 in park fees to
acquire it and develop what you want? It sounds like what you want are public recreation
facilities as opposed to private association facilities and I guess our understanding was that '
you have the cash park fee at $500.00 a unit to cover that.
Lash: Well I'm looking at the recommendation from staff and you're saying a minimum of I
1.5 acres is what we're looking at.
Dick Putnam: I know what the staff is saying now. The staff also told us that this was a 1.3 '
acre park and they misread the plan, okay. Is that correct? I'll bring the plan out. There are
parenthesis around the .3 and they misread it and that's how it got in the report as 1.3 acres.
And we said, where did you come up with 1.3 and they said, well that's what the plan says. '
We said no, it doesn't. And then they looked and they said, oh my.
Roeser: But that doesn't make it right or wrong and the fact that they misread it.
Dick Putnam: I know but the question comes up, 1 1/2 acres, I don't know where it came
from. It was a complete shock to us when Todd's report came out with 1 1/2 acres in it
Friday. That's pure and simple and when I read that it's based on a 1 acre per 75 people,
55
�l
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
i
' and then I see there's about 400 people here, to me that's a 5 acre park. It's not a 1 1/2 acre
park. And I'm real confused because at one point the standard is used to say you need to
have a World Cup Soccer field basically as a recreation area and then I turn around and I see
the cash park fee which we're glad to pay you know to build those kind of facilities where
they belong. Not in a retirement and young working people, young family kind of
development. So that's where our confusion is and if I appear a little bit stressed, it's
t because it's coming up at the end of the program. Not at the beginning which was over a
year.
' Hoffman: Chairman Andrews, may I respond?
Andrews: Please.
Hoffman: First off I wish to stand corrected by Mr. Putnam. What I read out of the last
night's staff report prepared for the City Council was not verbatim Minutes. This was a
portion of the item, the information presented to the City Council. The issues as it ... totlots,
park and trail facilities and again the size of the todot was believed to be 1.3 acres. That was
an error presented in the staff report by the planning staff, which they apologized to the City
Council and the applicant more last evening at the Council meeting. The Planning
Commission recommended the size of the todot be increased. In regards, so that addresses
those two issues. In regards to the 1 acre per 75, again that's just a standard which the city
maintains for public open space throughout the entirety of the city's park system. That is not
what the 1.5 acre was based on. That number is purely arbitrary. It's picked out of a hat.
115 feet square, which is 23 acres, this hardly seems adequate for a private or an association
area. I heard from the Park Commission last August that you would like to see it increased.
I heard from the Planning Commission that they would like to see it increased and I heard
from the Council that they would like to see it increased. In regard to pulling the rug out
from the applicant at the last minute, we traded phone calls for the past couple of weeks. We
certainly could have had the opportunity to discuss this earlier but that did not happen. This
is the formal review process presented to the commission. This is your opportunity to look at
this as a preliminary plat. We have not misled the process in any way, shape or fashion and
those are my comments.
Lash: The play area from the original plan to this plan, has it been changed at all?
Dick Putnam: No, not really. I mean this is the modified plan that we discussed at the last
meeting right here and this is the hard line version right there. It hasn't changed in terms of
other than what you color green I guess. That's it. We were trying to put in the things that
made some sense. The basketball hoops. The benches. The trails. That kind of thing
around the wetland. The totlot. Landscape it from the surrounding units. We were not
56
11
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
trying to build a ballfield or anything. It just isn't appropriate in this kind of site. We've got ,
about 2 1/2 acres of open space right here which happens to be pond and marsh which I think
you saw this evening which is real pretty. And it's, for the folks that are living here, the
things that they're going to be using are much more passive. They are not going to be
looking at playing softball or soccer in the neighborhood in an acre and a half park.
Huffman: But there's nothing wrong with taking that acre and a half and splitting it up into
the land be gardens or areas that would be more beneficial to people who would enjoy that
sort of thing.
Dick Putnam: Well I guess after talking to Todd, we said alright. If that's the interest, let's '
take a look at what we can do with some of the open spaces in the site and instead of
berming and landscaping them, let's put them into grass field area. More this kind of an area
here. This area here that will go away is another open grassy area. That was a way of
responding to that, which people 1.7 or 2 acres of space between these spaces. It's not all
consolidated together. '
Andrews: See my problem with this is, you know I live on a lot that's about 3/4 of an acre '
roughly, and I can't imagine 450 residents trying to pile into an area twice that size and what
we're talking about is an area half the size of my yard. And I just can't imagine that the
needs of, and I'm not, you know it's intended to be retirement. I understand that and empty
nesters but people move in. They move out. They have kids. They don't have kids. Or
whatever. It just concerns me that we're providing an area so small that really in my opinion
it provides almost no uses and I just feel like we need to have at least one area large enough
where if a kid wants to hit a baseball, he can hit it without crashing into one of those '
buildings. And right now, under this plan, that just can't happen.
Dick Putnam: You're right. This is not set up as a ballfield space.
Lash: Well and I think what's Todd saying, 1 1/2 acres, that's ... no. It's not going to be a '
baseball field like we may put in most of the neighborhood parks. So I think by not
requiring the full amount that we normally would, we're saying to you, we know this is not
going to have the typical use of a neighborhood park. That's why we only think it needs to
be 1 1/2 acres. That will provide the base for people who live there and empty nesters have
children. Not children living there but they have adult children and those children have
children and they come to visit and they need a place to go and I just feel like the .3 acres is ,
not going to do it and I think we've communicated that last time.
Dick Putnam: How about if we look at, and we had this discussion the last time. Evidentally
Lundgren Bros was here before us and were talking about selling you land at more than they
57 1 �
.1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
. 1
bought it for. We made the statement at the last meeting, if the city wants a 4 or 5 or 6 acre
neighborhood, it's your's. You can assume our contract with Al Klingelhutz and purchase
those 5 acres or whatever it might be and we'll just take out the units and adjust our park fee
' and we'll probably pay for it. If that's what you want to do. We don't believe it's our
business to get into providing ballfield space, I'll be honest with you.
' Andrews: Well you are credited. I mean that's an exchange of values.
Dick Putnam: We aren't credited, we're paying the full cash park fees.
Andrews: Oh I'm sorry. I apologize.
Lash: This is a PUD so he won't be getting credit for this space.
Dick Putnam: No, and I don't object to that. I guess what I do object to is, on one hand
' saying pay the cash park fee, which is intended for you as the city to put the parks where you
want them rather than to get a bunch of 4 acre chunks from all the developers around.
They're impossible to maintain. I understand why you're doing it. But then do it. Don't
turn around to me and say, now by the way, our 75 per 1 acre standard, we'd like you to also
throw in that kind of space in your development as well as pay a cash park fee. The
comment to you was, let's do one or the other. If you wish to locate a park here, we'll be
happy to just, you can assume our contract on that acreage. But I think it's really unfair to
try to do both to us. I really do. Especially when, I guess what we tried. to accommodate
was what we envisioned and what we thought you wanted, which were not the baseball fields,
based by your own Minutes and everybody. And that's, you know we don't need to beat this
to death. That's kind of our position.
Manders: Well it's getting close to be, it's close to that but I had a couple questions. Just
my guesstimate of this is that the one half is going to be retirement and the other half is
' going to mixed. Kind of like that so about half and half. So you figure where that play lot
is, you're going to have the families, kids and that stuff in there. What kind of numbers do
you expect in terms of kids?
' Dick Putnam: Well, probably the closest project to this is in Eden Prairie on Jamestown
which is on property that we had that Rottlund built. A very similar unit to these buildings.
' I think there are 100 units on that site and at the last count there were maybe 7 or 8 kids.
There is no totlot. There is no play space in that project. There are very few children. The
children that are there are by and large very young. They're a couple that may just have had
a very small children. The units are not set up as family housing, I'll be honest. I mean
that's not their design.
58
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Manders: The point is they sell and things turn over and there's going to be numbers there.
If I recollect from last year, the other concern that hasn't been brought up is the other
bordering lots and the density of this unit being such that you know where else are they going
to go if they want to do something other than out in the street. And if you've got such a
small area, that's really the only place within that development for them to do anything is
either bordering some of these other single family residents and the recommendation ... that we
want some more space. Now whether it has to be an acre and a half, it just seems that that .3
is just too small.
Andrews: Can you put that back up again?
Roeser: That's a tiny little park.
Dick Putnam: And then the park to the south along there.
Hoffman: Bandimere.
Roeser: That again is another little neighborhood park.
Andrews: Mr. Putnam, can you tell me approximately where that park—that's shown there,
about how much distance is there from the roadway to the edge of the usable land near the
wetland? From the proposed roadway, yeah.
Dick Putnam: From here to here?
Andrews: Yes.
Dick Putnam: About I think maybe there's 140 or 150 feet. About half as wide as a football
field.
Andrews: Okay, and that current lot is about 110 feet wide? Roughly.
Dick Putnam: This one right here?
Andrews: Yes.
Dick Putnam: It's wider than that back here and it's probably 95 -100 feet wide.
Andrews: I'm just trying to envision in my own mind about how much space does a kid
need to throw a football, and I know this is not tend to be lots of kids but I agree with what
59
L�
u
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Jim said. Kids need to be able to go someplace to have fun or they will get in trouble.
They'll play on the street. They'll throw rocks or whatever but give them a place to throw a
football or hit a ball. Not necessarily in an organized field but just a place to play catch or
something. I guess thinking in my own childhood, I think you need an area about 200 feet in
order to have enough room to run around. And I guess I'm looking at the depth of the lot I
think is adequate. Is there enough width there to get us about 80 more feet without critically
damaging your project
Dick Putnam: To get another 80 feet, 80 to 100 feet this way?
Andrews: Roughly, yeah.
Dick Putnam: Well it would take one of these two buildings out.
Lash: Is the lot to the right, is that Lot 6?
Dick Putnam: That's Lot 16. This is 15.
Lash: Okay, so most of those are the old numbers.
Dick Putnam: Lot 6 referred to the original plan that you see here and that was...
Lash: But I didn't see any from suggestions from the Planning Commission way, way back.
They didn't say in the vicinity of Lot 6. It said all of it.
Dick Putnam: That was Lot 6 back then. Those squares.
Andrews: Is there anyone from the audience here that can help us find our way out of this,
we'd appreciate it.
Sharon Nickolay: My name is Sharon Nickolay. I live at 8500 Tigua in Chanhassen and I
live about right here. In this cul -de -sac. And we were very concerned about this...
development and some of the neighbors were concerned about it going in. And we're getting
used to the idea but we're very concerned now and we have been to several of the meetings.
Your's and the Planning Commission, the City Council and others and I'll echo what you had
said. Mr. Putnam refers time and time again ... I think you have about 200 units here. Lots of
concrete. Lots of buildings. No green grass. Very little green grass. He says that these are
garden homes and retired people are going to live there. There's no law that says a young
couple with kids can't live there. I would bet there's going to be kids up here. There may
be kids down there. For 200 units, if there's only 3 people in each unit, that would be 600
.1
P
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
people. And I think .3 of an acre is an insult. I think even if they're retired people they're ,
going to need a place to sit. A place to watch the birds or feed the birds. Go watch the kids
play. I think this little grass here on the ends is kind of an insult. We're in a park deficient
area. My kids cannot get to a park except by automobile. There's no path. They have to go ,
down TH 101. And you could put 600 more kids here. 600 people. And it's not—park. I
need a park to play volleyball or softball and throw a frisbee with my dog or whatever and
those ... Adding up all these little ... is still less than 2 acres and it's ... I just think you know,
apparently the vision 2000, there's going to maybe a park along 212, if that ever happens.
Well it's a nice vision but we had a vision of 212 and 101, we've had lots of visions in our
area and nothing has happened. If we're going to put people here now, or within the next '
year or two, we have to put park there now too. And I'm not saying it has to look like Rice
Marsh Lake or it has to look like Meadow Green or whatever but I think we need something
that's adequate for kids to play a pick -up game of ball. Or to have a picnic or to do '
whatever. Where are these kids going to go? I don't want them biking down TH 101 to
another park. And I don't want them in my yard. So I guess that is all I had to say. I guess
I'm hearing Mr. Putnam over and over that ... well Mr. Putnam will take his money and be out '
of there but I will live here for a few more years with those 200+ families and so will you
and this is the first time I think that we've had such a high density proposal for development
in Chanhassen. Please be careful what you do with it. If people may be ... people. They may
be social security people with very little money that they still need, they still need some land
in front. And I think that's it. Thank you. I
Andrews: Thank you very much. Any other comments, otherwise let's move along on this
one. Jim, anything to add? Ron, anything to add?
Roeser: No.
Andrews: David.
Huffman: No. I
Andrews: Jane? I'll put a motion on here because I just want to get home as quick as I can.
A PUD provides a developer with a lot of flexibility in development, including high density '
developments. Yes, it does put him in a position where he's not getting credit for his
parkland but at the same time it allows him to develop a project of much higher density than
would normally be allowed so I think there's an exchange of value already provided. I feel ,
that we must provide an adequate open space here for potential different types of residents
that may occupy this over a very long period of time. So I would submit again that this
project not be allowed to proceed without an area of 1.5 acres in one contiguous site. I think
to provide acreage spread out all over the project does not provide really what we're after
61 1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' which is an area that does provide a multi-use type of an opportunity. That's my
recommendation.
Lash: Are you going to attach any of the other items?
Andrews: The other recommendations. Where are they, page what? From the old minutes.
' They don't need to be changed in any way, do they? Jan, if you'd like to add those for me if
you've got them because I don't have my page flipped to that.
Lash: Okay. That West 86th Street ...in concrete on, concrete sidewalk along Street A from
West 86th Street north to the street's terminus. And that a concrete or bituminous material
instead of woodchips and full park and trail fees will be collected per city ordinance.
Meger: I'll second.
Andrews moved, Meger seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
approval for the PUD for Mission Hills subject to the following conditions:
1. The applicant shall provide an additional 1.5 acres of contiguous parkland to
accommodate future needs of the residents in this development.
2. Concrete sidewalks be constructed on the south side of West 86th Street from Highway
101 east to the project's terminus and on Street A from West 86th Street north to the
street's terminus to accommodate a future trail extension looping back to Trunk Highway
101.
3. A bituminous walk be constructed encircling Wetland No. 15 connecting the sidewalk
system to the park site. In consideration for the construction of said trail, the applicant
shall receive trail fee credit equal to the cost of construction, said cost to be determined
by the applicant for presentation to the city with documentation for verification.
4. Full park and trail fees shall be collected at the time of building permit application per
city ordinance.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
62
L
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
LAND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL: HARSTAD COMPANIES TO SUBDIVIDE ,
2e o2 A wVc nV nvnnT, iNTn 29 cTVV-T 1`i TiAIUTT V T .nTC AVn A PARK
LOCATED NORTH OF KINGS ROAD AND WEST OF MINNEWASHTA
,
PARKWAY, THE OAKS AT MINNEWASHTA, HARSTAD COMPANIES.
Public Present:
'
Name
Address
Sue Morgan
4031 Kings Road
Ellen Joy McDonald
7096 Red Cedar Cove
r
Pat and Ralph Karzewski
7054 Red Cedar Cove
Judy Royer
7074 Red Cedar Cove
Sarah & John Maney
7078 Red Cedar Cove
Linda Scott
4031 Kings Road
Harvey & Suzanne Sobel
7024 Red Cedar Cove
Harold Taylor
3861 Stratford Ridge
,
Todd Hoffman presented the staff report on this item. '
Andrews: Is there anybody from the audience that wishes to speak about this issue? And if
so, please state your name and address and we'd appreciate it if you'd keep your remarks as I
brief as possible. Thank you.
Sue Morgan: My name is Sue Morgan. I live at 4031 Kings Road. Just south of, off of the ,
park. I just have one question. Is there going to be an entrance from the sidewalk off of
Kings Road into the park prior to Minnewashta Parkway, or has that not been decided?
Andrews: We have not even decided that Y et. No design at all yet. Is that correct Todd? '
Hoffman: Entrance from Kings Road?
Sue Morgan: Into the park prior to getting to Minnewashta Parkway.
Y man just ,
Lash You e � by foot.
Sue Morgan: Just by foot. ,
�
6>
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' Hoffman: At least on the conceptual plan the entry point would be down in this location.
Lash: But there's a sidewalk going all the way along Kings Road. Is there something that
' would prevent people from entering the park from this side?
Hoffman: No.
' Andrews: Any other comments from the audience? Does the developer have anything, oh
P Y�g
pardon me.
John Maney: M name is John Maney. I live at 7078 Red Cedar Cove. M is more of an
Y Y Y Y
' informational issue. On the lake side of Minnewashta Parkway it's just designated as park.
Is there a beach planned in this area for public use?
' Andrews: We have made no decisions. I would say, and I hope I'm not out of line here but
I believe at this time we have no intention of making that a public beach.
' Lash: But we have made no decision.
Andrews: Nothing official's been decided.
John Maney: Where would the decision process start?
' Andrews: It would be the same as any other thing. It would be a recommendation from the
park board and then the Council would have to approve it.
Hoffman: And that process would start once we acquire the property.
John Maney: And this would happen as the Council approves the final plat?
Hoffman: Correct.
' Lash: So after the City acquires the property, then we would start the planning process of
what facilities we would put into the park.
' Huffman: Quickly, what are your thoughts on that?
John Maney: I guess we have some concern, as close as it is and as narrow as it is, for a
public beach. And you probably are aware that Lake Waconia had a similar site that now
they are talking about stopping the crossing of a major thoroughfare.
' 64
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: We're aware of those concerns and that's why we're, I would say it's extremely
unlikely we'd do anything. I mean it would take a lot of convincing to show me how that
could be a usable and safe beach.
John Maney: And we have a number of other issues... contiguous to the site.
Andrews: As far as the actual park development itself, that would be, as.Jan said, after the
parkland is acquired. Then normal process would be to solicit input from the neighborhoods
as to what uses they're interested in or what uses they're definitely not interested in. And we
would take that back and go through a design process and more hearings so we're looking at
a lengthy project. I don't want anybody here to have an expectation that like a year from
now there's going to be a park here that everybody will be able to use. That's not going to
happen. It will be years away before this thing will be completed. So it's a slow process
with a number of opportunities for input.
John Maney: I guess we want to just express, there are a number of people belonging to the
association contiguous who have serious concerns...
Andrews: Sure. Is there a separate association for the Red Cedar Point area? Separate
homeowners association. Okay. I would encourage if there are any organized groups like
associations, that you give your name and address to the city if you're interested in being
notified. Just to make sure that you are notified of any hearings.
John Maney: Our's is the Red Cedar Cove Townhome Association.
Andrews: Okay, very good.
Harold Taylor: My name is Harold Taylor. I'm at 3861 Stratford Ridge which is just to the
north of this and our association has 550 feet of Lakeshore just to the north of this. I think
there's one individual who's not here and we're also concerned with the development of the
park and that we're involved in the decision process... We've had some problems, actually in
our own association... and things like that so we just want to make sure that I guess we don't
get carried away with 7 acres as to what type of facility that it can be with this very narrow
strip of beach access to the lake which basically...
Andrews: I think it would be fair to say the Park Board's interest was more in just that we
needed a piece of land somewhere west of the lake, not specifically that it was actually on the
lake. In fact we looked at a number of parcels in other areas too so I mean we like having
the lake.
k
i
'1
n
n
u
65
1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Harold Taylor: This will make a great park.
Andrews: Yeah, we like having lakeshore but we needed park space there desperately. Thank
' you. Any other comments from the audience? Does the developer have anything to add to
this discussion?
' Developer: Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. I really have very little to add
except that as Todd had mentioned, this reconfiguration is at the request of staff. We ... to
have a pond as shown on the park area which frankly was ... ended up compensating us more
for what you're getting already. So it's a smaller park area. About 8 acres but that was
again at the recommendation of staff. I hope you... I'll answer any questions.
Andrews: Todd, it's your opinion that this is a positive move here for us as a park?
Hoffman: It's a middle of the road approach. Again, I'd like to clarify it was not the
specific recommendation of staff to eliminate the 2 acres from the park. But simply to get
the pond out of the park.
' Andrews: Okay, very good.
Lash: Do you need action on this?
Andrews: Yes.
Lash: Okay, I would move that we approve the plat as shown with 7.9 acres of park
property. Anything more than that?
Hoffman: Approximately 8 I guess...
Lash: Is that enough? Okay.
Andrews: Is there a second?
Manders: I second.
Lash moved, Manders seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
to approve the plat for the Oaks at Minnewashta as shown with approximately 8 acres
of park property. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
..
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
LAND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL: PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT TO
REZONE 89.59 ACRES OF PROPERTY ZONED A2, AGRICULTURAL ESTATE TO
PUD FOR A 166 UNIT RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT COMPRISED OF 34
BUILDINGS OF EITHER 2.3.4.6 OR 8 UNITS EACH. THE UNITS ARE TWO
STORY SLAB ON GRADE CONSTRUCTION WITH ATTACHED ONE OR TWO
CAR GARAGES. THE PROPERTY IS LOCATED IN THE SOUTHWEST CORNER
OF THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 5 AND GALPIN BOULEVARD, AUTUMN
RIDGE, GOOD VALUE HOMES, INC. (BETTY O'SHAUGHNESSY).
Todd Hoffman presented the staff report.
Lash: I would recommend that the City Council negotiate acquisition of Outlot C in it's
entirety through a reduction in park dedication fees or purchases. Furthermore, that the public
trail be constructed by the applicant and any necessary easements for trail purposes be
dedicated to the city. In consideration for trail construction, a lump sum payment equal to the
cost of said construction shall be made by the applicant.
Huffman: Second.
Lash moved, Huffman seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
that the City Council negotiate acquisition of Outlot C in it's entirety through a
reduction in park dedication fees or purchases. Furthermore, that the public trail be
constructed by the applicant and any necessary easements for trail purposes be
dedicated to the city. In consideration for trail construction, a lump sum payment equal
to the cost of said construction shall be made by the applicant. All voted in favor and
the motion carried unanimously.
LAND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL; REZONING OF 17.6 ACRES OF PROPERTY
COMPANY.
Todd Hoffman presented the staff report on this item.
Lash: So moved.
67
0
n
li
�I
L
L�
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: Is there a second?
Huffman: Second.
Andrews: I just want to clarify that the recommendation would be in it's totality as written
by staff and that is the recommendation that we're moving. And seconding.
Lash moved, Huffman seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
that the City Council accept full park and trail dedication fees of the Shadow Ridge
subdivision in lieu of parkland dedication and /or trail construction. One -third of the
park and trail cash contribution shall be made contemporaneously with the filing of the
subdivision plat. The balance, calculated as follows, shall be paid at the time building
permits are issued: rate in effect for residential single family property when a building
permit is issued minus the amount previously paid. Current residential single family
park and trail fee rates are $900.00 and $300.00 per home, respectively. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Andrews: Item 12 is going to be tabled. Is there any objection to that? Okay, item 13.
PROGRAM REPORTS:
A. FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.
Ruegemer: Everybody have their shirts and hats in front of them ... Does anybody have any
questions? ...volunteer opportunities.
Andrews: I would call in the morning, not tonight.
Ruegemer: Does anybody have any specific questions regarding the 4th or any of these
scheduled events?
Huffman: Whoever did the brochure, it was outstanding.
Roeser: Yeah, I did too. I thought the brochure was great.
Huffman: Really, very well done.
Lash: New ideas, that's great.
Andrews: There's a lot of people talking about it so it's going to be big. Bigger than ever.
68
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Lash: And I think primarily volunteers...
Roeser: I won't touch the prize board.
Ruegemer: Keep in mind too we're going to have a table too in the trade fair tent so we
need some volunteers.
Roeser: When is that, Friday night?
Ruegemer: That is Saturday.
Roeser: What time?
Ruegemer: July 2nd. 3:00 to 7:00. We're going to have two different shifts, 3:00 to 5 :00,
5:00 to 7:00.
Roeser: I can work 5:00 to 7:00.
Lash: What time does the prize board start?
Andrews: Can we please, let's do the scheduling after we adjourn. Why don't we agree to
do that, okay because I want to get through the agenda first.
B. LAWN CHAIR LYRICS.
Andrews: What can we add to that?
Lash: And keep it brief.
Lemme: I just wanted to report we had two great bands. The first band I believe was too
early for people to attend. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone for the warm -up band but
the second bands ... we've already booked them for next year 4th of July. They were excellent.
They had people up dancing. Kids everywhere. It was really fun and really a good concert
and we didn't get rained until 9:05 when the band was pulling out of the driveway. I think it
was a good concert. People enjoyed it.
Lash: Booked them for Lake Ann?
Lemme: Yes. For family day next year.
.•
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
C. SUMMER PROGRAMS.
Lemme: This is an update for you on the summer programs are underway. Well underway.
They're going strong. We had a really good attendance. I didn't prepare ... but overall I'd say
almost every program has increased in numbers dramatically.
' Andrews: I'm surprised Lake Ann Camp looks only 6.
Lemme: That was at the time I wrote this. Since that time I'm sure we've had additional
registrations and we'll promote that through the playground program. I don't have... I've had
a lot of calls on it already.
r Huffman: My daughter is down at Rice Marsh Lake. She loves it. She said the kids who
are working there are fantastic. She comes home every Tuesday and Thursday and just thinks
it's great. So I mean she really does. She just thinks it's...so it's going very well from her
perspective and that's what counts.
Lemme: We have a real good staff.
Andrews: When is that cheerleading? When does that happen or did it happen?
Lemme: That started on the 8th...
D. HEALTHY STRIDES, NRPA CONGRESS, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Ruegemer: Thank you Chairman Andrews. Just a basically FYI for you. I've been working
on a national committee as part of the National Recreation Park Association Congress coming
to Minneapolis this coming October. It's kind of a side line of that annual conference itself.
It's just an opportunity for ... Saturday morning and go through Loring Park and also over to
the Walker sculpture ... to get some exercise I believe...I've been working on this committee
since February so we've been meeting regularly and planning everything.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
A. MINNESOTA RECREATION AND PARKS ASSOCIATION AWARD OF
EXCELLENCE, LAKE ANN PARK PICNIC/RECREATION SHELTER.
Hoffman: Item a. We got an excellence award... present that to the Park and Recreation
Commission at your July meeting ... nice big plaque.
70
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
B. GROUP PICNIC RESERVATIONS, INTRODUCTION OF "SCHOOL" RATE. I
Andrews: This is an FYI?
Ruegemer: This is more of a.
Hoffman: We need action. '
Andrews: Okay, we need to approve, okay.
Hoffman: Do you want to do it or not.
Lash: I look at it and it's not proportional to me and I'm a very concrete kind of person. I r
looked at the proportion between the residents and non - residents rental on the next page ...3
times so I just kind of think that maybe it should be 3 times the amount for resident school ,
districts and non - resident school districts so that our...
Andrews: That makes sense. I
Lash: I mean you want our school district to be able to have first crack. And I think that
helps them to have a greater ... so I would move that we adopt a picnic rate for schools per
staff recommendation except by having the other school districts be 3 times the amount of the
resident school districts.
Lash moved, Andrews seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommend
to charge a group picnic rate for schools per the staff report with the non - resident
school districts at 3 times the resident school districts. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously.
C. REQUEST FOR CANOE RACK, GREENWOOD SHORES PARK. I
Hoffman: We received a call from a resident inquiring about a canoe rack in Greenwood
Shores. I said it's not in our 1994 CIP. She asked that I put the question to the commission.
Whether or not you'd like to see one there. If so...
Roeser: We'll see one there when we can park cars. ,
Andrews: That's what I was going to say. When I can park my cars.
Lash: Well they have it at Lake Ann.
71
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
1 Roeser: They've got their own little private park as it is down there.
Hoffman: Okay, no problem there.
' COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
' A. BLUFF CREEK CORRIDOR DESIGN CHARRETTE, COMMISSIONER
HUFFMAN.
' Huffman: Do you want to do this one later? I can give you the 30 second show or you can
go home.
' Andrews: Let's do it. Hit it. Go.
Huffman: Alright. The committee graciously allowed me to join the Bluff Creek charrette,
which was a great honor and I thank you very much for that, Commissioner Andrews. If you
will turn to the first page, here was the agenda. We did the agenda. Second page. Back of
' the first page. Basically our drawings on how to use current designs versus designs taken
through consideration of environment and everything else. The second page on the front
side. When you are looking at the ideas of building parkways, how to bridge the community,
becoming involved in the community using the sense of layout space. If you flip to the back
of the second page. The public building going through the corridor. Obviously as you read
down you can see what things are involved. Traditional parks. Upland habitat. Recreated
' wetlands, etc, etc. The next page it goes on and talks about the prairie waterways,
transforming storm water structures into new viewing areas. How you can take existing areas
and transform them using new technology. The most part or the biggest part of our
discussion, Todd you can step in at any time in the way and correct me but it was on the
back of the third page. What you're looking at, from the top down is the entire Bluff Creek
corridor. University of Minnesota design team has come up with a new concept, they've
' been working on a concept for a long time where you view natural settings as a room. As
Chanhassen is setting it's entrance into the city into three different areas, the oaks, the maples
and the other one. We have three different. And which one?
Hoffman: The wetlands.
' Huffman: The wetlands, okay. You view rooms in this Bluff Creek corridor in exactly the
same way. On the right hand side you will see, okay it says room. Headwaters, upland
meadows. You take and align then, follow the top part. That is viewed as a room. The
features in that area are the headwaters of the two creeks. There are two, the slogan we sort
of came up with was from the Minnewashta to the Minnesota. The creek comes down out of
' 72
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
the Minnewashta, flows down all the way to the Minnesota. The headwaters and the upland
meadows area are most prominent. This is also where the school will be. We talked about
using in that room active use areas also in that room. Things like, with the new elementary
school coming in, a scientific area. Maybe having an outdoor biology science station where
they could study the wetland. Migratory habits of frogs, fish, fowl, whatever. But use that
area. Room 2 became very heavily the wetland chains where you see active swamps and
marshes and all the other areas in there. Big problem with that area right now is
encroachment of development. There was a concern Todd, that you said I think it was the
Heritage project that has already backed away. We'll talk about some of the concerns about
doing this area but using that, narrowing there. The third area room coming down is the
canyon corridor where you actually have many open spaces. You have use of the bluffs.
You come out into an agricultural area. I think where they were saying, you could actually
have just a big open space coming down. The golf course encompasses the back side of that
I believe. And then it comes down into the Minnesota River area. The concept of the Bluff
Creek is then put into rooms. If you can categorize it in those 3 rooms and conceptualize
that. That is how the design team came up and said here are your biggest features. Here are
your biggest advantages. Within each room many designs. Whatever strikes your fancy in
that area. That is the basic and essence of the way they are looking at that full view.
Concerns of this whole charrette area. One is just knowledge of the area. We saw tonight
people are concerned about Carver Beach. They're concerned about things of that nature.
How do we get them to buy into the Minnewashta to the Minnesota? The idea was
somebody said, well the big trees in Eden Prairie. We were talking about that, it was back
yard conversation if I'm not mistaken for an entire year. We're either going to lose it or use
it. And therefore it became ... for discussion. As I've told people before, I've lived here for 6
years. I had no clue this was in existence. How do we make people aware of this? Public
awareness is a huge problem for this. How do you do it? Through pamphlets. Through
newspapers. Through models. Through conversations. This is a year's conversation piece.
Biggest problem with that right now is the acquisition of certain areas in here, especially I
think they said in room 2 in the wetland change there are developments coming out of that
immediately that can squeeze that down into 12 -15 feet corridors already. Because of the
trail systems. Because of potential development. Because of high density housing. There are
some areas of concern already. We're behind the fact of acquiring some of these properties.
Along with that also came out the idea that maybe you want to think of two things. One,
boulevard type corridors as opposed to trails on this system. If I'm not mistaken, we talked
about that. Putting it on the front of roads as opposed to in everybody's back yard because
then you're squeezing certain development areas here. One trail down the middle. Land size
and lot size I know has been a topic of discussion. That was something that we were talking
about. The amount of space put on each individual lot in Chanhassen. You're going to have
to explain that further down the road. Acquisition. Public awareness. The use of this. Do
you use it all for active. Do you take different rooms and have overnight camping? You
73
L
L�
1
0
C
7
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
' mentioned that. Do you put accessible trails in the whole thing? Are there certain areas that
maintain more wildness? It's a really beautiful area when they put the whole thing up on a
sheet of paper. It's really phenomenal. They were saying it is one of the only, in one city,
the University of Minnesota said that it is one of the only areas they have ever seen located
entirely in one city and really a treasure. The problem with this is like everything else.
' You've got Bandimere. You've got neighborhood parks. You've got everything. The amount
of money to acquire some of these areas is going to be a lot. And it's going to require a lot
the public's going to require an incredible amount of public awareness and to me, out of the
entire discussion, that was the one thing that seemed to be most dominant. People don't
' know it's there. They're going to lose it before they're ever aware that it existed and that in
a nutshell was the essence of our 3 hour meeting and there were some really neat people
' there.
Andrews: Thank you.
' Hoffman: Good job Dave. ...commission at a future time... alternative sources of revenue.
Directly through the Watershed District and some other things to look at You all know the
LCMR grant issue failed but we're looking at...
' Andrews: Any other commission member presentations tonight?
r
I I
1
Lash: I had a request for some garbage cans on Lotus. Not Lotus, Carver Beach mini beach.
They said there were no garbage cans down there. And then I guess I want to revert back to
the trail...conversation. I don't know how we generally handle that. I've never had a split
before on a recommendation to go to City Council. So we supply them, I don't want it to
just go with the normal park packet. I think it needs to be pointed out. That it was a divided
vote.
Hoffman: It will be forwarded to the City Council and I'll discuss it with Roger Knutson, the
City Attorney, whether or not at that point ... I'd like to congratulate the commission. You got
through a very difficult packet. You did the right things. We either moved it forward to the
City Council or you tackled it and made a motion. So as you know, if you continue things
that you had to do in one instance. In fact that was a visitor presentation. I would
recommend at any point that you feel that a visitor presentation is going to necessitate a
future action, simply close the presentations and say we'll put this on a future agenda.
You're going to hear the same things... Other than that, super job tonight.
Manders: I only have one comment and that falls along the Carver Beach, and it was a
comment that Jane made that I really liked. And that was the discussion about the beach
front. I think you were eluding to the entry fee to get into Lake Ann to use the lake.
74
n
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Andrews: That was a good one too. I agree.
Manders: That I think needs some serious consideration to drop that entry fee.
Andrews: Every year I'm on this commission I agree more and more to that position that
we're depriving our tax paying citizens of one of our best assets by asking them to pay a fee.
And it's also like you say, there's a, what will a person do in a daycare operation if they have
a choice between free to Carver Beach or pay to go to Lake Ann. They're going to go to
Carver Beach every time. And the Carver Beach is not set up to handle it.
Roeser: I have a feeling about that too though. That the daycare people are actually people
from Carver Beach that are coming down there. I don't believe that they're driving children
in from Excelsior or any other part of town.
Andrews: I don't think so either but they also would have the choice of a guarded beach too
and.
Roeser: Yeah, that's true.
Manders: If it was my kid, I'd sure prefer that they were being taken to a guarded beach.
Huffman: There's also a question of your daycare, you're ... and you're trying to do
everything as ... and $5.00 every time or the ticket to me is just, it's a perception that it does.
Andrews: It is a factor. Any other presentations?
Huffman: Is there anything we can do very quickly about just inundating that whole area
maybe for the next couple weeks with the Sheriff's Department or whatever department,
public safety for those individuals. Just to have them drive by right now.
Hoffman: They're very polarized. The people down there and the public safety and Carver
County. You saw it in your report. They end up with many of these being unfounded.
Roeser: They were saying that the public safety is, actually I think they were accusing them
of lying. Being dishonest and that was irritating for me. I don't know. It bothered me that
they were doing that.
Andrews: We need some drive by's, not some response to calls. We need some public
safety in this area to say we're willing to go in there at 10:00 at night for the next 2 weeks
and ticket anybody or tag people that are parked illegally and just get them.
75
1
J
I �
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Huffman: I mean it's 10:00, go home.
Andrews: Yeah, time to go.
' Hoffman: Their presence down there, I know it's there. I'll ask them if they can coordinate
that 10:00 thing but again, as you can see that's not the only problem.
Andrews: But the ueak wheel gets the
�1 Y g grease.
' Lash: Well you know the direct violation of the park rules are people being there after 10:00.
A lot of the other things are the kind of things that happen when you're by a beach. It's
going to be noisy. There's going to be kids. There's going to be ... and we can't control
behavior of everyone at the beach ... the whole lake here and people are, if it's a public beach,
they're entitled to go there and yeah, there are some certain social guidelines but the direct
' violation of being there after park hours is something that we can tackle and I think we need
to tackle that really hard and try to at least correct that problem.
' Manders: The comment that Dave made about we're not here to guarantee your property
values. That was good. We're not in that business.
' Hoffman: The—has made a request for the record and the most recent complaint that they
responded to again was unfounded, as you saw in your packet. They called at 1:30 in the
afternoon.
' Roeser: At 1:30 in the afternoon for a noisy party.
C
Hoffman: People were participating at the park.
Manders: Where do they reside specifically? Are they the ones with that.
Roeser: With that landscaping.
Manders: That landscaping and that mailbox hanging out there. They're that property.
Lash: So, and I came late and I apologize again but it's basically at the mini beach. This is
where most of the problems are? Is that right?
Hoffman: ...This is the mini beach and that file has documented these same issues for the
past 20 years.
76
0
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Lash: But was it not the residents down there that wanted the raft and wanted the buoys and '
those kind of things. They came and asked us to put those things in and now they're asking
that they be taken out.
residents.
'
Roeser: Different
Hoffman: Well you have certain residents ... and you as a Park Commission are left with the i
authority to approve what you think is prudent. Three parking stalls reduced from your
original recommendation by one by the City Council. The Gundersons and all the neighbors
were heavily involved in those public hearings which were heard before the Commission and '
City Council. And now it's to control the parking so it's posted no parking and people park
there. The residents acknowledge there should be some parking there at least a portion of
them do. '
Lash: Well the buoys, the buoys that's a public safety issue and a liability issue for us with '
the raft. As far as I'm concerned, those residents requested that. If they don't want it any
more, I don't have a problem with taking it out.
Hoffman: Well you're going to have other residents...
Roeser: You're going to have residents that want it though. I think what you have there are
some people that kind of want to control that area totally.
Andrews: Absolutely. Don't forget that people that get their way, aren't the ones that come '
here and ask for things. They've gotten what they've wanted. They stay home and the
people then who want change are the ones who come here so they say we want the raft out.
We want the beach out. 1
Roeser: Listening to them, it sounds like the busiest beach west of the Mississippi. I mean it
sounds like downtown Minneapolis or Hennepin Avenue. I mean it was just wild down there. 1
They're throwing garbage. They're screaming and this goes on what, 24 hours a day. I don't
know.
A n • Are there an changes or corrections to the Minutes? '
Brews. y
Lash: I move we approve.
Roeser: Oh wait a minute. I
•
Park and Rec Commission Meeting - June 28, 1994
Hoffman: Geese will be picked up next week at Minnewashta, Lake Lucy, and Near
Mountain pond... District 112 Advisory Board. District 112 would like a member of our Park
Commission to sit on their Advisory Board ... I'll mail you information on that regard. This is
' one of those efforts to try...
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Lash moved, Manders seconded to approve the Minutes of
' the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated May 24, 1994 as presented. All
voted in favor and the motion carried.
Lash moved, Manders seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the
motion carried. The meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Todd Hoffman
Park and Rec Coordinator
Prepared by Nann Opheim
78