Loading...
CC 2012 02 13 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ernst, and Councilman Laufenburger STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, Greg Sticha, and Roger Knutson PUBLIC PRESENT: Tom Devine 7640 South Shore Drive Mark Metz County Attorney’s Office Linda Nolan Kiowa Trail Mike Domke 9361 Kiowa Trail Laurie Susla 7008 Dakota Avenue Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everybody here in the council chambers as well as those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, we’ll proceed with the agenda as distributed. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Furlong: So at this time I would ask if there are any items 1(a) through (h) that people would care for separate discussion on. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor? Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, I’d like to take 1(b)(1) off the consent agenda. Mayor Furlong: 1(b)(1). Councilman Laufenburger: Correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Mr. Hoffman, is there any reason to keep those two items together? Okay. Alright. Also I’d like to have item (h) pulled off for a couple of questions. Clarifying questions that I’d ask the staff what we’re want to make sure we get the answers, and I think they’re prepared for that so we’ll take 1(h) as well. Let’s pick those up, without objection let’s pick both of those up after visitor presentations. Before the public hearings. Councilman Laufenburger: That’d be fine. Mayor Furlong: If that’s okay. No objections? Alright, with that is there a motion to approve items 1(a) through (g) excluding (b)(1). Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Councilwoman Ernst: So moved. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated January 23, 2012 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated January 23, 2012 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Summary Minutes dated January 17, 2012 -Park and Recreation Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated February 24, 2012 b. TH 41 Trail Extension, At-Grade Pedestrian Crossing and Stairway Connector: Resolution #2012-06: 2) Resolution for MnDOT Limited Use Permit for the purpose of constructing, maintaining and operating a non-motorized recreational trail within the TH 41 right-of-way between Longacres Drive and Minnetonka Middle School West. Resolution #2012-07: Resolution for MnDOT Limited Use Permit for the purpose of constructing, maintaining and operating a non-motorized recreational trail within the TH 41 right-of-way between Minnetonka Middle School West and Chaska Road, including an at-grade pedestrian crossing of TH 41 immediately south of Chaska Road. Resolution #2012-08: c. Intersection of TH 101 and Pioneer Trail: Approve Resolution for Local Road Improvement Grant. d. Approve Snow Plow Agreement with City of Victoria for the Tristan Heights Neighborhood, PW 309. f. Approval of 2012 Key Financial Strategies. g. Approval of Request for Temporary On-Sale Intoxicating Liquor License, Annual Gym Jam Athletic Fundraiser, March 24, St. Hubert’s Catholic Community. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: If there’s anyone that would like to address the council this evening under visitor presentation, I ask you to come forward at this time. Okay, seeing no one. We do have and welcome this evening Carver County Attorney Mark Metz is here this evening. Good evening Mr. Attorney. Please join us. 2 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mark Metz: Thank you. Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. Appreciate the opportunity just to address the council and kind of give an update on the past year and I’d like to come to the various cities and talk about what the County Attorney’s Office is doing and just a really brief background about myself. I don’t know everyone I guess and whoever is watching on TV as well. My wife and I live in Victoria and we’ve been residents of Carver County for about 7 years and I’ve lived in Chanhassen previous to Victoria as well for 6 years and really it is a privilege to serve as the County Attorney in Carver County and it’s been a little over a year since I took office and there’s been a lot of challenges but it’s been a good year and we appreciate serving the citizens of Chanhassen as well. I looked at some of our statistics from 2011 and in criminal cases our office prosecuted 57 felonies. Approximately 57 felonies that were Chanhassen cases and about 149 juvenile delinquency cases in Chanhassen so that’s just Chanhassen alone. Obviously there’s a lot more outside of the county and as you know we prosecute for 10 of 11 cities and Chanhassen contracts with the firm to prosecute your misdemeanors. Our office is made up of 29 really talented, extremely dedicated employees and 15 attorneys and it’s broken up into various different divisions. Criminal, civil, juvenile, law administration, and victim services and we really are dedicated to having a customer service orientation because we understand that we do serve the citizens, even though sometimes it’s in their worst times when they come to court. We are the largest law firm in the county. Essentially it’s a public law firm if you will and as I mentioned we have these different divisions and one of the priorities that I had when I came to office certainly was to protect the safety of the citizens of Carver County and unfortunately we’ve had some more high profile and some difficult cases in the past year and we had an alleged murder and alleged attempted murder in Waconia as well and I am prosecuting both those cases. That’s one of the things that I talked about before being elected is that I was going to prosecute cases so in March we’re going to start the trial on the alleged murder that happened in Chaska. We certainly would invite citizens or the council members, if you’re at the courthouse, to come up. Take a tour of our office. Take a tour of our facilities and that’s part of reaching out to the citizens as well so. And then finally I wanted to just talk about some of our goals in this year and one of the things that we’re working on is having a veterans diversion program that would go through the Carver County Attorney’s Office and I have talked with your City Attorney about this as well and I went to a press conference in Washington County and Washington County Attorney Peter Orput had just started initiating a program and fortunately he’s given me the materials and indicated that I could piggyback on what he’s doing so I’ve been meeting with various groups in Chanhassen. The Yellow Ribbon group as well and the veterans to establish this program so hopefully by the end of this year we’ll have this veterans diversion program and what it is, it’s not a veterans diversion court. So it doesn’t go to court. It actually goes through our office and we’ve had very strict criteria for people that qualify in lower level, non-violent crimes essentially that we can give veterans that get caught up in the criminal justice system a chance. Still have accountability but to give them the help that they need and it’s in close coordination with the veterans group and the great thing is we have this collaboration with everybody who wants to help so we’re excited about that and I don’t know how many people it would be. We already have a form of that anyway that we give, we give attention to the specific facts and people’s circumstances and obviously as you know, there’s a fair amount of people, veterans that suffer from post traumatic stress disorder that have DUI’s or other lower level criminal misconduct that we hope to deal with internally so when they have a criminal record that we can work with mentors to get them the help they need. That’s really all I had tonight but I appreciate the opportunity to say hi and to kind of give you an update and I’m here for any questions if you want. Otherwise again it is a privilege to serve you and to serve the citizens. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Attorney? No? Very good, well thank you for your service. We appreciate it and appreciate you coming here this evening. Mark Metz: Thank you Mr. Mayor, council members. 3 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 CONSENT AGENDA: TH 41 TRAIL EXTENSION, AT-GRADE PEDESTRIAN CROSSING AND STAIRWAY CONNECTOR: APPROVE PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS. Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. My question really is related to the stairway connector and I wonder if we could just have a little background from Mr. Hoffman, if you wouldn’t mind just to kind of catch us up to speed on this. Todd Hoffman: My pleasure. Mr. Mayor, members of the council. The project that is before you tonight is split into really three parts. The stairway connector, the trailway extension from the Middle School driveway to Chaska Road and then the pedestrian crossing that we’re talking about at Highway 41, crossing just south of Chaska Road. The stairway connection, there was an outlot that was platted as a part of the Highover Addition and so when the Highover Addition was platted, we go through the standard public planning process. Park and Recreation Commission review. Planning Commission review. City Council review. It was known at that time that the Highway 41 trail would eventually be in the right-of-way of Highway 41 and so we took a look at the connection points in that vicinity to that trailway connection and Highway 41. Those being Lake Lucy Road and then Longacres Drive and so at that time it was thought that a middle connection, because that’s quite some distance between there, about a mile between Longacres Drive and Lake Lucy Lane, that that would be nice to have a middle stairway or a trailway connection at that particular location so the outlot was taken as a part of the platting process. And then here we have an opportunity with a larger project to go ahead and build that connection. Councilman Laufenburger: Is the outlot Chanhassen property or is it owned, is it the right-of-way that we have? Todd Hoffman: The outlot is Chanhassen property. Councilman Laufenburger: So, and what are the dimensions of that outlot? Todd Hoffman: Approximately 20 feet wide. Councilman Laufenburger: 20 feet wide and what’s the length, do you know? Todd Hoffman: Depth of a lot. I’m not sure what it is. Councilman Laufenburger: 150-200 feet, something like that? Todd Hoffman: Couple hundred feet, yeah. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. And the plans call for a stairway to be built. This is quite steep terrain there going from the road level of Highover down to the, not only the road level of 41 but an additional about probably 12 or 15 feet to get down to the roadway for the trail, right? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: So the plan is to have a stairway in place, right? So what’s your estimate, I mean you’re asking in this particular motion you’re asking for authorization to advertise for bids. What’s your estimate on what’s the cost going to be? Did you have some consultants give you an indication of that? 4 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Todd Hoffman: For the stairway itself? Councilman Laufenburger: Stairway itself, yeah. Todd Hoffman: I believe the number is $66,000 for the stairway. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, so let’s call it $65,000. And approximately how many houses do you think would take advantage of this stairway? Todd Hoffman: In this particular neighborhood there’s approximately 75 to 100 households that would make direct or immediate use. And then outside of that vicinity anyone that would visit the area. It’s kind of a unique neighborhood. Highover only has one street which accesses, would access this one roadway but there are three trailway connections which access that neighborhood that then could lead other residents from outside the area to that stairway connector as well. Councilman Laufenburger: And one of those trailways is Longacres, is that right? Todd Hoffman: Yep. Councilman Laufenburger: But there’s a point at which people in Longacres would have to decide is it shorter for me to go on the trail to Highway and down the steps or go directly out to Longacres to the 41 trail to get to Minnewashta, right? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. And the same thing would be true north of where the stairway is planned. They could go to Lake Lucy Road, right? Okay. So right now as a stairway it would not be identifiable or certifiable as to support wheelchairs for example, is that correct? Todd Hoffman: No, it would not. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. How about strollers Mr. Hoffman? Todd Hoffman: Not unless you remove the child and carried it down or up. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. How about bikes? Todd Hoffman: Bikes would be wheeled down along the side I would think. Councilman Laufenburger: Along the side? Could you explain that? How would you do that? That elevation is pretty steep. Are you going to raise the elevation to match the stairway to give a kind of a sloped path? Todd Hoffman: No. Some people might not choose to do it but some would choose to either take them down the stairs or just hold onto their bike from alongside the stairway over the railing and wheel it down. Mayor Furlong: Walk it down. Todd Hoffman: Walk it down. 5 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: Wow. I looked at that this morning. If you’re going to have a gradual stair, a gradual slope of the stairway I would think that the bike, you’d have to have about a 5 foot rope on the bike to walk it down. The elevation is very, very steep there as you know Mr. Hoffman. Todd Hoffman: It is steep. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So, $65,000 to build a stairway that really is functional for walkers and runners to get to Minnewashta. Todd Hoffman: And other destinations, and when we talk about. Councilman Laufenburger: What other destinations would they get to? Todd Hoffman: The Highway 41 trail itself and then north or south. Something. Councilman Laufenburger: But Mr. Hoffman, if they were not going to the park, if they were going say to the Arboretum, they could go through the trail in Longacres and go out the trail to 41 trail and then head south on there, or if they were going to Minnetonka West Middle School they could stay on Highover or the sidewalk and go to Lake Lucy and proceed north that way. Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. What would be the annual expense to maintain this stairwell? Todd Hoffman: Not calculated but it would include snow removal and so it all depends on the amount of snow we get in a season. Councilman Laufenburger: If we did nothing, if we didn’t put a stairway in, what liability would we the City have if someone went head over tea kettle down that right-of-way? Todd Hoffman: Well it wouldn’t be a marked or improved trailway. I’m not sure. Councilman Laufenburger: So there really would be no liability? Todd Hoffman: I don’t know if there would be a liability at all. Roger Knutson: I’m not quite sure I understand physically but if we don’t construct anything and someone decides to cut across something else that’s not improved we shouldn’t have any responsibility. Councilman Laufenburger: Even though it’s our property? Roger Knutson: Yeah. It’s just like having a hill on your property. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Todd Gerhardt: You’d have to have a known liability exists there. A hole or a tree that fell. Something that may have tripped somebody. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. What’s the, what kind of support are you getting from the people in the Highover area about this? You know give me a percentage. How many would like it? How many would not or don’t care? 6 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Todd Hoffman: My feeling is about half probably support it and half don’t but some support it and some don’t. And those that support it feel that it was advertised as a part of the platting of their property. They purchased their home knowing that this future trailway or improvement would be there. Those that don’t want it either don’t think it’s necessary or they don’t want another public access, trailway access coming into their neighborhood. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. And would the, what’s the construction materials of the stairway? Would they need to be replaced over a period of time do you think? Todd Hoffman: Probably about a 50 year construction concrete. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. With a railing. Both sides? Railing on both sides for safety? Todd Hoffman: I believe that’s correct, yes. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Thank you Mr. Hoffman. Mayor Furlong: Other questions for Mr. Hoffman or, Mr. Hoffman quick question. Why was this put into the plan and into the plat originally? Todd Hoffman: The trailway itself? Mayor Furlong: The stairwell. Todd Hoffman: Pedestrian connector? Mayor Furlong: Right. Todd Hoffman: To provide a convenient access for that neighborhood to the Highway 41 trail and then directly into the regional park. Mayor Furlong: Okay. But the questions raised about the distances to Longacres Drive and Lake Lucy Road, where is this in relation to those two roads? Is it about in the middle? Is it towards one? Is it towards the other? Todd Hoffman: It’s about direct, just about in the middle and if, but for the stairway connector, the trail connector that would be built, it’s about a mile walk. If you start at where the trail connector is, you would have to walk a half mile north and then take a short jaunt to the highway and then about a half mile back. If you’re closer to the street north or south, then that route becomes shorter. Mayor Furlong: Okay so you’re saying half mile up, half mile back. Why would you walk back there if you’re going one way or the other? Is this where the connection into the park is going to be? Todd Hoffman: Correct. If you did not build the stairway connector people would have to walk either north or south to get to the trailway connector. Mayor Furlong: Okay, so Highway 41 trail is going in we expect this coming summer construction season. Todd Hoffman: Correct. 7 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: And then there will be an underpass from near this point into Minnewashta Park. Todd Hoffman: Just about directly at the bottom of the stairway, yes there will be the underpass. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So did that proximity have anything to do with having this in that, in this location? Todd Hoffman: Yes it did. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilman Laufenburger: So just to clarify, without a stairway the people would have to walk from that point, either north or south to Lake Lucy or Longacres and then to the 41 trail and then walk to where the trail would be. Todd Hoffman: To the underpass. Councilman Laufenburger: Just like handicap people in wheelchairs. Moms with strollers that want to run with their stroller. They would have to do the same thing, is that correct? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Even if the stairway was present. Okay. Mayor Furlong: The Park Commission considered this? Todd Hoffman: Yes. Mayor Furlong: And they’re recommending it, is that correct? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Mayor Furlong: What was that, the nature of that discussion at the park commission meeting because it wasn’t unanimous, correct? Todd Hoffman: It was not unanimous and they talked about the expense. Should it be an expense for a stairway. The fact that the hillside there, it’s not the most, it’s not a flat connection so you have to put a stairway in. There’s no availability to build a trailway straight down that hillside so it has to be a stairway. We have stairway connectors at other locations in our trail system. They’re not the preferred type of improvement but I think with the commissioners that voted for it, their sense was to preserve that public connection so people would have the choice to use it or not as a way to get to the park. And then other, people on trails utilize trails in different, they might choose to go one way on their trip to the park but they might choose to go back another direction as a form of variety in their trail use. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Hoffman? No? Thank you. With regard to item 1(b)(1), a proposed motion’s here. Would anybody consider making the motion at this time? Councilman Laufenburger: I’d make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Laufenburger. 8 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: I move that the City Council approve the plans and specifications for City Project #PK&T-110 for the Trunk Highway 41 trail extension, at-grade pedestrian crossing, excluding the stairway connector and authorize the advertisement for bids. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there a second? Hearing no second that motion dies for lack of a second. Is there another motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I make a motion City Council approves the plans and specifications for City Project #PK&T-110 for the 41 trail extension, at-grade pedestrian crossing and stairway connector and authorize the advertisement for bids. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote. Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approves the plans and specifications for City Project #PK&T-110 for the TH 41 trail extension, at-grade pedestrian crossing and stairway connector and authorize the advertisement for bids. All voted in favor, except Councilman Laufenburger who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT TO FINANCIAL POLICY FOR NEW GASB PRONOUNCEMENT ON FUND BALANCE. Mayor Furlong: This is one Mr. Sticha I had some questions this afternoon. There’s a change in accounting and it’s causing us to approve a change in our financial policy which is going to be very boring for a lot of people but I just want to understand what we’re approving with some of the classifications and designations so really the question was whether things fall, maybe you could give us a quick background and cliff note summary on what’s before us this evening. Greg Sticha: I’ll try to be very untechnical with a very technical topic. In 2009 the GASB, Government Accounting Standards Board, issued statement number 54 which recommends local governments classify the various types of fund balance into 1 of 4 categories. Committed, restricted, assigned and unassigned. Each of those categories has a specific definition. I’m not going to get into the specific definition, unless there are detailed questions about those. The policy that’s in front of you this evening was set up to classify each of the various types into those categories. When, if you look at item number 4 within the policy, under general fund reserve policies and fund balance spend down policies, we talk about restricted and unrestricted resources are available for use when both are available for use. The first would be to use restricted resources because that would be required. Under unrestricted resources the following order would be used for those resources. Mayor Furlong: And let me interrupt you real quick because one of the questions I had this afternoon was, and there was some back and forth about assigned and unassigned and orders and such like that. You were going to follow up with some questions to our auditor. 9 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Greg Sticha: Yep. Mayor Furlong: Is this policy correct based upon your understanding, their understanding of what we need? Greg Sticha: It is correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Then I’m comfortable with it and I think we can move on. Greg Sticha: Okay. Alright. Mayor Furlong: I just wanted to make sure that those, we were following those. Greg Sticha: Alright. Mayor Furlong: Unless anybody else has any questions on this. I’ll certainly move item 1(h) for approval. Councilman Laufenburger: Second. Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on that? Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the City Council adopts the attached amendment to the City’s financial policy, in order to be in compliance and implement GASB pronouncement No. 54 on Fund Balance. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Mayor Furlong: We’ll move on now to item number 3 under Lakeside Addition, which we’ll have, there are two items here one of which includes a public hearing which involves vacation of drainage and utility easements. The other improves, considers the replatting which is not subject to the public hearing. I’m wondering if we should deal with it. Yes. You have a question? Tom Devine: If you’re done with the consent items, there’s 3 people here that would like to finish under visitor presentations if that would be okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay, I called for visitor presentations before. That’s when the County Attorney was here and I didn’t see anybody that wanted to address the council at that time. Tom Devine: I guess we didn’t understand. We thought you were going to finish the consent items, the items that got pulled off. Mayor Furlong: We had pulled those up. We brought those up after visitor presentations so that’s why we brought them up after visitor presentations. I apologize for the confusion. If there’s somebody that would like to address the council be happy to hear their. Tom Devine: There’s three people that’d just like to take a couple minutes there if we could under visitor presentations. Mayor Furlong: Okay, that’d be great. 10 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Laurie Susla: Thank you for letting us talk with you all tonight. We thought we were going after the representative from Carver County and waited and apparently missed our opportunity but we do appreciate the chance to talk with you. My name is Laurie Susla. I am with the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance and as I did about a couple weeks ago, I’d like to thank you all again for voting AIS as a real high priority for Chanhassen for 2012. As the City moves forward to develop and implement an AIS plan it’s important to keep a few things in mind we feel. One is that the DNR is considering several different methods to protect the waters of the state. Some of these are very complex. A blue lake, red lake system where depending upon the water that you enter you would have a certain code and could go to other lakes. This is going to overly complex. Not implementable on a local level. Another plan the DNR is considering is decontaminating boats that are leaving any infested waters. This is unmanageable at this point. They only have, will have 23 decontamination stations for 2012. When you take a look at the size of our state, a lake like Lake Minnetonka right next to us with 30 launches, there’s no way this can be implemented any time soon. They do have, the DNR does have one straight forward implementable plan which we can do here in Chanhassen and that is the proposal to inspect all boats before they enter non- infested waters. We’re very fortunate here in Chanhassen that none of our waters, as far as we know, have been infested. We’re hoping very much to keep them that way. This plan will be implemented this year at Lake Minnewashta and at Christmas Lake and we would love to see the City implement the same type of plan for all of the city’s lakes so that they can be protected for the future. It’s important to note that the DNR is not going to be acting, able to act in any meaningful way anytime in the near future. They just, they don’t have the resources. They can’t do it so we can’t wait for the knight in shining armor because he’s just not coming. A great example of the way to go forward with something like this is to work with partnerships such as what’s happening with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and Lake Minnewashta. Excuse me, and Carver County for Lake Minnewashta. They’re working with the Lake Minnewashta Preservation Association to develop and implement an effective plan for next year. We hope the City will do the same for us. If we take a look at what’s happened in the past with different plans that the DNR has tried with milfoil back in the 80’s, they thought that some signs and some flyers would handle the problem but we know what happened is that all of the metro lakes got infested and so we know that signs and flyers are not the answer. So we ask that you will, as you consider plans that you’re taking over the next couple weeks that you will look for effective plans and ways to save the lakes. Look for partnerships and do what we know we all can do. Thank you so much. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Mike Domke: My name’s Mike Domke. Talking on the same subject matter. I’m the President of the Lake Riley Improvement Association. I’ve been a board member for the last 8 years on this association. We represent, we have 70 active households in our association as well as another 200 through 4 associations that have communal property on the lake, so we have a pretty big group of people that we support and represent. We also just some of our past involvement has been working with the State of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota on a carp study and carp removal where we successfully removed a majority of the carp in our lake and now we’re working actively with the University of Minnesota and the DNR on improving water quality and effective use of weed control without chemicals so there’s a lot of efforts going on just through our lake association with other agencies so. I’m just here to basically say I appreciate any support you can give us and you have and in the future for AIS control so thank you. Mayor Furlong: Okay Mr. Domke, I’m sorry maybe you mentioned it and I missed it. Did you state, could you state your address please? Mike Domke: I’m 9361 Kiowa Trail. 11 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else? Tom Devine: Mr. Mayor, members of the council. My name is Tom Devine. I live at 7640 South Shore Drive. Very quickly, let me first of all thank each and every one of you for the amount of time and effort that has been devoted to the AIS issue this last year. I know it’s been considerable. I know it’s been burdensome. I know it’s been pleasant. Unpleasant. You know all the various things and I do want to acknowledge the fact that all of us that have been involved in this project are very appreciative of your efforts and the staff’s efforts to address the issue. We understand that on the 27th of this month, at the next City Council meeting there is going to be an agenda item to take up this issue and we’re here tonight just to kind of share those thoughts. Yesterday the people I guess that you might say are the leadership that have been involved with AIS met for 3 1/2 hours and that group came together to really try to draw some conclusions of what we’d like to see happen as a result of your efforts here over the next couple weeks as you formulate your final conclusions. We wanted to make sure that you understood this conclusion. The fact that the homeowners on, homeowners association on Lotus Lake and that clean water organization on Lotus Lake have all acted to move forward with something. To move forward with a plan to take action. Carver County has acted. The Minnehaha Watershed has also acted. Our watershed here in Chanhassen has now acted. The City of Shorewood has acted. Christmas Lake Homeowners Association has now acted. The DNR has acted in part with what they said that they’re going to do during this 2012 year, and then a number of legislative committees of which some of the people here tonight have participated and testified up at the Capitol. And the Lake Minnewashta Homeowners Association and their alliance have all acted. So this meeting that’s coming up here in 2 weeks, at your next City Council meeting is an important one. You’ve got the conclusions to draw from all of those other associations which have, or all those interest groups that have acted this past year. I want to leave with you only one conclusion that was drawn yesterday by all the participants that have been there. We are really only asking right now to stay focused on only one issue. Very simply one issue and that one issue that we’re asking is that you support 100% inspections of all the lakes here in Chanhassen. Now I understand that when I say we ask you to support by motion or resolution or however you feel it’s best to present this in 2 weeks, what we’re asking you to do is to take an action that moves forward with a concept, with an idea, yes or no. Are you supportive of doing and carrying out inspections? I realize that can mean a lot and I realize that there’s a lot of things involved in doing that and I’m sure that we can get through the who, how, what, when, where’s of all those details but first and foremost the signaling that has to come from the City of Chanhassen as to what they’re going to do moving forward is really the key thing that has to happen here in order to move the ball forward in a very positive, constructive, worthwhile way which becomes a situation where we together are solving the problems and the issues that we’re facing here in Chanhassen. I know we don’t like airplane inspections. I know that people aren’t going to all like boat inspections but the issue with this next year is, this next boating season is to really address the issue in an upfront way and do as much as we can until other solutions can be figured out, thought through and carried out in a very organized way. So this is what we’re asking you to act on in 2 weeks. Alright, thank you very much for your time. Any questions? Mayor Furlong: Thank you. For members of the council, my conversations with Mr. Gerhardt, the plan is to bring this to our agenda item. I don’t know if it’s going to be on council agenda or work session th agenda or both at our meeting on the 27 so, there have been a number of discussions and activities and meetings that have gone on over the last several months with various individuals and organizations and th I’ve asked Todd to bring that, Mr. Gerhardt to bring that to us at our meetings on the 27. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor and council, it’s planned to be put on the work session and typically council does not make decisions at a work session level. You do have the authority to add items to your regular agenda if you’d like but right now it is not planned to go on the regular agenda. 12 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Just to be clear then is anyone else from visitor presentations? I don’t want to exclude anybody. No? Okay, thank you everyone. Appreciate that. Sorry for any confusion I caused. Let’s move on then to item number 3. TH LAKESIDE 5 ADDITION: PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER VACATION OF DRAINAGE TH AND UTILITY EASEMENT ON LOT 1, BLOCK 2, AND OUTLOT B, LAKESIDE 4 TH ADDITION; AND CONSIDER APPROVAL OF REPLATTING A PORTION OF LAKESIDE 4 TH ADDITION INTO LAKESIDE 5 ADDITION AND APPROVE AMENDMENT TO THE TH DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT FOR LAKESIDE 4 ADDITION. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. We’ve combined this into one presentation so you can make one motion. Again the subject site is located off of Lyman Boulevard on th the most easterly side of the city. The 4 Addition was recently platted. Was to be on the left hand side th there with the pond. Thank you Paul. And the 5 Addition which is on the other side of this is what th we’re looking at tonight for the final plat. The 4 Addition was given final plat in 2010 and we did send notice on this. North Bay, which is immediately to the west, had some concerns about the vacation of the th drainage easement but most of it relates to the pond so when we explained to what, that this is on the 5 Addition, it shouldn’t affect the drainage per se but I just wanted you to know that we did receive some th comments on that. So this is the 5 Addition of Lakeside. The lots have changed a little bit from when they originally kind of looked at that area, and always kind of looking at what their customers want and th made some minor changes to that, the addition. With this 5 Addition also included in your packet is then a development contract too so besides you’re actually kind of approving the three action items. So this is the sketch plan showing those lots so they actually go a little bit further into that easement and as, this is a private storm sewer and small utilities for this easement so the new drainage easement will be covered. Just slightly modifying it so that’s why the vacation is noticed with this. So here is the actual easement area. If you looked at the plat before you can see it’s mostly the backs of those lots got a little bit bigger so again this is the drainage and utility description so it’s not changing the ultimate capacity to carry stormwater. I think that it’s just the units became a little bit larger. So at this point Mayor before you can recommend approval then of the motion that we have prepared for you would be to open the public hearing on the drainage portion itself and then your motion would be then to approve the final plat for the 6 lots and then also the development contract so with that I’ll let you open the public hearing. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. I will open the public hearing then and invite any interested party to come forward and address the council on this matter. Seeing no one, we’ll without objection then we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to staff for further presentation of their report. Kate Aanenson: So again the resolution for the vacation…utilities, that was the only comment that staff did receive and then with approving of the 6 lots and one outlot and then the development contract…public improvements is attached so with that we are recommending approval for all three of those motions as stated on the slide and with that we’d recommend approval. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. And those motions mirror the motions that are in the staff report. Kate Aanenson: Correct. We just combined them all into one motion for you. Mayor Furlong: That sounds great. Questions for staff by members of the council. Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yeah I’ve got a question. I remember when this thing first came up and at that as I recall most of the drainage was down the middle. Have you got a drawing with the whole thing and can you tell me how things have actually changed because there were 3 big buildings at one time so what’s changed? 13 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Kate Aanenson: Sure, sure. So the buildings on 4 and 5, the two condominium places, two condominium, potential condominium buildings that were on the south side of the project. On the north side of the project. We’re still working to bring forward a plan. We’ve looked at several different things there that had quite a bit of significant density there. We’re trying to maintain some of that in the back. We looked at different projects there. Nothing’s come to fruition yet. Back in there there is also a wetland. There was an issue from the neighbors on the North Bay regarding some of the diseased trees but we’ve kind of tried to held that off until the developer comes forward and kind of works through that and then as I indicated there’s a stormwater pond on the corner of the property. Maybe you could point to that one again. Right, yeah. And that’s the issue that some of the North Bay neighbors had some concern about. Councilman McDonald: Okay because there was water that was going to flow… Kate Aanenson: There’s a drainage through the middle. Councilman McDonald: Yellow line and everything so what’s happening there? Kate Aanenson: We haven’t had any problems with that one per se. Councilman McDonald: Okay. So now the new drainage easement that we’re going to come up with, does it divert water away from that and comes around the edge now to get to the new drainage? Kate Aanenson: It works it’s way back through there. Yeah, it’s just a little bit smaller and a little bit steeper to make those, to allow those units to be a little bit longer so it should still manage the water effectively and then there was also some small utilities in there too but as you can see on, I’m trying to see where the lots are back there. There’s still significant amount of area in that Outlot A behind there to manage all that. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Okay, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Ms. Aanenson, question for you. And if you could go back to the overall, the aerial picture there. The area on the top around the north part of the curve there up, that comes up against 212. Is that where, that was originally Building C I think. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: If I’m not mistaken. Is it still the plan to have a more high density structure there? Residential structure there. Kate Aanenson: Right. The entitlements are there for that so if we take that away it’s always hard to put that density somewhere else and we think getting some of that density will also help some of those commercial pieces. We talked about the Southwest Transit site. They need more rooftops to help put some of that development there and then across the street at Crossroads, you know those market plans were put together with a certain amount of density. Certainly the market changed. The developer wanted to get in there and get out from underneath some of those obligations so we tried to find a good transitional use and Mr. Clark found a good market nitch and they’re selling well up on there so but we still would like to see, you know we’ve had some interesting proposals on that but nothing’s come to fruition yet. It might not be as many units as we thought but somewhere we’d like to keep it higher so. 14 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: And I guess that’s part of my question as Community Development Director that’s your goal and objective. Kate Aanenson: Correct. Mayor Furlong: Your recommendation would still be to, because we have changed and I think some of the higher density structures here have been removed in the plan but it’s still your objective or recommendation to. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. And we’ve seen some other townhouse ones that they’re somewhere in the middle. So you know we’ve got the lower density that we’re seeing now with twins or threes and we’ve seen some more attached projects so we’d like to, you know that’s the minimum somewhere between the 25 and 70 or something in there so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay. Alright, thank you. Any other questions for staff? Is the representative from the applicant here? Is there anything you’d like to address the council on? You don’t have to. I’m just, I want to make sure you have the opportunity. Mike Roebuck: Not unless you have any questions. Mayor Furlong: Okay, any questions for the applicant? The question I’ll have is how are the sales going and? Mike Roebuck: They’re doing good. We’ve got. Mayor Furlong: If I can interrupt you and have you come, so people at home can hear you as well. Thank you. And introduce yourself if you would. Mike Roebuck: Mike Roebuck with Ron Clark. We’ve got three different product types. We’ve got the first 10 that are across the pond. We’ve got 6 of those sold and 2 under construction right now. That would be the northwest corner there. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay. Mike Roebuck: And this, these new last 3 buildings would be our third product type which we’re hoping to put a new one in this spring. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Mike Roebuck: And the bottom 3 we’ve got, all 3 of those buildings built. The two end buildings are both sold out and the two middle units we’ve just finished a model for spring so it’s going well. Mayor Furlong: Well that’s good to hear. Mike Roebuck: It’s a good development. Mayor Furlong: Especially in this market and the recent housing market it’s good to hear a positive story. Mike Roebuck: Yes. It’s a great site. Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you very much. Any other questions for the applicant? Thank you. 15 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mike Roebuck: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Appreciate your time. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor? Mayor Furlong: Yes, Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: If I could just add to the proposed motion, if there could be direction for staff to prepare a resolution stating, if the council should endorse vacating the drainage and utility easement, just a preparation of a resolution stating such. Mayor Furlong: Okay. And in the past, just for question and clarification, those resolutions have also said the vacation occurs when the new drainage and utility easements are provided. Todd Gerhardt: Correct. And that will be stated in the resolution. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So instead of the first resolution where it says approve the resolution, it says authorize staff to prepare a resolution, would that be correct? I’m sorry Mr. Knutson. Roger Knutson: So it doesn’t have to come back you’re also approving that resolution. Mayor Furlong: Approve the resolution prepared by staff? Roger Knutson: Unless you want it to come back. Mayor Furlong: I’ll defer to the council on that. Are people comfortable moving forward with that? Okay. Great. I’ll let somebody make a motion then. Mr. McDonald. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ve got it right here. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilman McDonald: She wrote it down. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Except then City Manager Gerhardt threw me off so now I’m not going to do it right. So is it in this motion I’m supposed to say authorizes? Or the City of Chanhassen, okay so I’m just going to start out and then correct me as I go along, how about that? The Chanhassen City Council th approves the final plat for the Lakeside 5 Addition. Is that what I’m supposed to be on? Todd Gerhardt: No, we’re doing A. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Doing A? Okay. Alright, here we are with A. Okay the City Council is recommending to vacate the drainage and utility. No? Mayor Furlong: Is that right? Roger Knutson: That’s fine. 16 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. To vacate the drainage and utility easement of Outlot B and Lot 1, th Block 2, Lakeside 4 Addition as shown on the attached survey prepared by Pioneer Engineering. Roger Knutson: And further directs the city staff to embody this action in a resolution. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And make a motion to whatever the attorney just said. To include that in the motion. He can say it better than I can. Mayor Furlong: Alright, okay. Should we do the other ones at the same time? Is there any reason not to? Roger Knutson: No, you can do them both. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay, so then I’m going to go to B. Todd Gerhardt: B. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Where I was before. The Chanhassen City Council approves the final plat for thth Lakeside 5 Addition and the first amendment to the development contract for Lakeside 4 Addition. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. That’s a single motion. I’ll ask for a second. Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion or request for clarification? Hearing none, we’ll proceed with the vote. Resolution #2012-09: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approves the vacation of the drainage and utility easements in Outlot B and Lot 1, Block 2, Lakeside Fourth Addition as shown on the attached survey prepared by Pioneer Engineering, and directs staff to embody this action in a resolution. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approves the final plat for Lakeside Fifth Addition and the First Amendment to the Development Contract for Lakeside Fourth Addition. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: Any council presentations? Councilwoman Ernst: Mayor I have. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I move that we return the $625,000 received from Mediacom to the customers that paid the fees through a credit to their bill. I know we need to collaborate with. 17 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: Is that, is this still your motion or? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah, sorry. Mayor Furlong: Okay, are you done with your motion? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah. Mayor Furlong: I’ll ask for a second. Hearing none the motion fails for lack of a second. Councilwoman Ernst: Then I’d like to make a second motion. I move that the $625,000 received from Mediacom be refunded to the City’s taxpayers as a credit to their property tax bill. Mayor Furlong: I’ll ask for a second. Hearing none, the motion dies for lack of a second. Councilwoman Ernst: Last proposed motion. I move that the $625,000 received from Mediacom be used to reduce next year’s property taxes and identified in the general fund as such and not to fund new spending with these dollars. Mayor Furlong: I’ll ask for a second. Motion dies for lack of a second. Any other council presentations? Maybe a couple I’d like to, words of thank you both to the park and rec staff as well as others in the city. The first is to talk about Feb Fest. That was since our last council meeting. It was well attended. First I’d like to thank the city staff for all their hard work preceding that event and being there on time to do that. We also have a number of organizations, the Friends of the Chanhassen Library. The Rotary Club was there. We had local businesses that contributed a significant number of very nice prizes that were given away. There were over 50 prizes for the fishing, for fish caught, even though there were only 48 fish caught so we had to actually draw a raffle on the last 2. I’d like to thank Councilman Laufenburger who was there and did the emceeing. I would not like to thank him for any of his jokes that he told. Councilman Laufenburger: True stories. Just true stories Mayor. Just true stories. They happened to be modestly funny to those listening. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mr. Mayor since we’re talking about, I want to know how many fish you caught and how many fish the city manager caught. Mayor Furlong: I did not catch any fish. Mr. Gerhardt? Todd Gerhardt: All the fish I caught I put back into the lake. I did not want to take away from any of the prizes that were on display. Mayor Furlong: It was a great event and I guess I’d like to open it up for other comments. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I was volunteering that day selling tickets with my dog T-Bone and may I say I’m not sure if it was an ice fishing contest or a bring your dog to the ice fishing contest because there were a lot of creatures running with 4 legs around that so it was just a fun time seeing the kids skating and people just sitting fishing you know. What just a simple wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon and so. The weather was perfect and I’m sorry that everyone in the council up here got skunked I guess. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Hoffman, anything you’d like to add or Mr. Gerhardt? Anybody that I missed that we need to thank and recognize? The fire department was out there. The Carver County Sheriff’s department was out there. 18 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 th Todd Hoffman: Absolutely…all those folks and we’re coming up on our 20 celebration so next year th will be the 20 February Festival and as you all know community festivals are very important and a part of our community. It’s just something for everyone that they share in common…talk about it all year long. In fact they talk about last year’s for 6 months and then they talk about the one coming up for the next 6 months so again thanks to all the groups that helped out. I was in Merlin’s this week and many people walked in and thanked Ken…and their crew for all the wonderful gifts that they contribute, as businesses do the same in Chan. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. I would just refer to your monitor. This community really puts it’s hand out to all the four seasons that we have here in Minnesota and we try to take advantage of the different seasons every year and winter can be tough on some people but there’s also some entertainment that can be a part of it. If it’s ice fishing or skating or skiing or even snowmobiling, you know we embrace those seasons and that’s what makes Minnesota a pretty special place to live. Mayor Furlong: Then I would also like to add and thank the Park and Rec Department, especially Mitch for their work and organizing the Daddy/Daughter Dance, which took place this last Friday and Saturday. I had the opportunity to attend on Saturday night with two of my youngest. Well my two youngest daughters, Mary and Shannon. Shannon’s last time at the Daddy\Daughter Dance. She was emotional about it but it’s a great time. She wants to try to do something else going forward so I may have a Daddy/Daughter Dinner in my future which might not be a bad thing at all. But that is just, it is great to see the dads and their children, the girls and just everybody having a great time. And I’m also thankful that no pictures have been posted of any certain people doing the chicken dance or doing ring around the roni to Barney or many other assorted dances so thank you to the park and rec department for doing that. I know that’s been going on for a number of years. It’s great to see old faces there. Familiar faces as well as new families each and every time so thank you for that. Any other council presentations this evening? Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council I do think we do have videos and pictures of the chicken dance. I don’t know if it included any of the mayor or council members in those but. Mayor Furlong: Well, one shall see. Very good, that’s fine. It was a great time. Great time. Any other council presentations this evening? If not let’s move to Mr. Gerhardt’s administrative presentations. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Todd Gerhardt: Just two items Mayor, council. This past week the Mayor, City Engineer Paul Oehme, myself attended a joint meeting with Scott County, Carver County, MnDOT and representatives from most of those communities on the 101 river crossing. You may have seen the article in the newspaper. The Governor did come to Shakopee and did provide his support for a 4 lane section between Shakopee and Chanhassen and so that was nice to hear his support. Commissioner from MnDOT talked about a 2 lane and Governor interrupted him and said it really needs to be 4 lanes and that he would look for support in his bonding bill to see if we can move ahead with that project. So thank you Mayor and Paul for attending and talked with the Governor afterwards on the importance of making this connection and again it’s just amazing to have that many government bodies all in one spot in agreement and in support of a project so I think the Governor appreciated that and I think the message has been sent. Mayor Furlong: I would concur. It was a great meeting because of the Governor’s support for the project. Again this would be a raised river crossing. A land bridge which would improve the flow of water underneath the roadway. Improve it from what it is now. The DNR Commissioner was there as 19 Chanhassen City Council – February 13, 2012 well. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife all support the project for that reason. The counties, Scott County, Carver County, all the cities along the area, there’s just tremendous support. It’s a well designed project and it’s one that this City Council supported for a number of years and so it was nice to see and to be there and to see the support at the State level as well and I appreciate all the work that Mr. Oehme has done and if this does go forward he’s going to have a lot more work to do but this is really what it is is this is another segment if we think about Highway 101 from Highway 5 south to Shakopee. This is another segment that has a real potential of moving forward in the near term. The first segment was with the 212 project between Highway 5 and 212. We’re in the process right now of improving the segment from Lyman down to Pioneer Trail. This would be the segment from Scott County and really Shakopee to the Scott county line and then the county line up to just south of the old 212. Will be that improvement. As we all know this area flooded 3 times in the last 2 years I think. Hopefully we’re not going to look at flood issues this spring. Certainly not what we’ve had in the last 2 years but nonetheless the frequency of flooding has increased over the recent years and decades so very positive and thank you Mr. Gerhardt, Mr. Oehme for all of your work that you’re doing on that. Todd Gerhardt: And then the last item is I participated in a discussion group with School District 276. They were hosting a group of individuals from Ohio that did a nationwide search to try to emulate a high achieving school district and in their nationwide search they selected Minnetonka so they wanted to meet with local leaders and ask that I attend and having a son that graduated from Minnetonka and working with all the communities in 276 had the opportunity to meet with school board members from Ohio and it’s nice to see that other communities want to copy what we’re doing and especially 276 so it was a fun meeting. Interesting to hear some of the issues that they’re having. It’s a growing community and similar to Chanhassen so it was exciting and nice to see 276 get that recognition. That’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or staff? No? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Mayor Furlong: We will finish our unfinished items from our work session immediately following this meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn. Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 20