CC 2012 05 29
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 29, 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 Ernst,
and Councilman Laufenburger
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman,
and Roger Knutson
Mayor Furlong: Good evening 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. I’d like to start this evening just to make a
quick announcement and a request. Early this morning Councilwoman Tjornhom’s husband died
unexpectedly and she will obviously not be with us this evening and many of us knew Chris Tjornhom
very well and again given the expected death I would just ask that everybody that knows the Tjornhom’s,
reach out to them as you can but also to keep them, Bethany and Chris but Bethany and her children,
Tommy, Rachel and Sophie in your prayers and thoughts as well. I’d like to move now to other items on
our agenda. The first request I would have of members of the council whether there are any changes or
modifications to the agenda. If not we’ll proceed with the agenda as published.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: INVITATION TO KLEINBANK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES.
Mayor Furlong: I’d like to start with visitor presentations. Excuse me, we have a public announcement
this evening that does move into visitor presentations so maybe we’ll do both of those with KleinBank at
the same time, the summer concert series. Let’s do that. So we’ll defer item 1C to the visitor
presentation time slot.
CONSENT AGENDA:Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst 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 May 14, 2012
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated May 14, 2012
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Summary Minutes dated May 15, 2012
b. Approval of Private Fireworks Display Permit at Lake Minnewashta on July 4, 2012, Americana
Fireworks Display Company.
c. Award of Bid for Banking Services.
d. Amendments to City Code Chapter 20, Zoning Concerning Storage of Recreational Vehicles and
Recreational Facility Light Height.
Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Resolution #2012-33:
e. Approve Resolution Accepting Donation from Primrose School of
Chanhassen for Community Event Sponsorship Program.
f. Approve Summary Ordinances for Publication Purposes for Rezoning the Following Planned
Unit Developments (PUDs): Arboretum Village, Highlands at Bluff Creek, and Liberty on Bluff
Creek.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
PRESENTATION OF GRANT TO PURCHASE THERMAL CAMERAS FOR THE FIRE
DEPARTMENT, CENTERPOINT ENERGY.
Mayor Furlong: We do have a couple presentations this evening. Good evening. It’s Tom Henning, is
that correct?
Tom Henning: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: If you could step to the microphone, at the podium. Right there. Mr. Henning is with
the CenterPoint Energy and is here to make a presentation regarding a grant to our fire department
regarding the purchase of some thermal cameras. Good evening Mr. Henning.
Tom Henning: Good evening. Tom Henning from CenterPoint Energy and I’m here to present a check to
the fire department for $2,300 for fire, for imaging equipment. Heat imaging equipment so.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Very good, thank you. This is Ed Coppersmith who is the Assistant Fire
Chief is here this evening and this is not the first grant from CenterPoint Energy for our department. This
seems to be an annual event and we appreciate it very, very much.
Tom Henning: Correct, this is the first time I’ve presented it so.
Mayor Furlong: I understand. Understand but on behalf of the City Council to your company please
extend to them our thanks and appreciation on behalf of the fire department as well as all businesses.
Tom Henning: Thank you very much.
PRESENTATION OF DONATION FOR SUMMER CONCERT SERIES, KLEINBANK.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Also this evening we have a representative from KleinBank, Mark Giordano
who is here. Vice President of KleinBank. Each summer the residents fill City Center Park to enjoy
outdoor music in our summer concert series. For the last 5 years KleinBank has played a key role as the
title sponsor for this event. Through KleinBank’s generous partnership the City has been able to provide
these free concerts for residents and visitors of all ages to enjoy. On behalf of the City Council we’d like
to thank KleinBank for their continued sponsorship and at this time invite Mark Giordano.
Mark Giordano: Giordano.
Mayor Furlong: Giordano, excuse me to come forward if you would.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Mark Giordano: Got a big check, and we do appreciate, or we enjoy doing this for the City every year so
it’s nice to be able to continue that and I’m a Chanhassen resident myself and it’s great and it’s one of the
few things every year I have everybody that comes there will say thank you for doing this along with the
City so I just want to pass it along as well so thank you all.
Todd Gerhardt: Got to get a picture of the big check.
Mayor Furlong: CenterPoint’s goes through the drive thru.
Mark Giordano: Again pleasure.
Mayor Furlong: With that the Summer Concert Series does start in June, and I’m just trying to find.
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Todd Hoffman: June 14.
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Mayor Furlong: June 14, thank you Mr. Hoffman. Would you, anything you’d like to say.
Todd Hoffman: Mitch, come on up. Introduce the series and tell them who’s coming…
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Mitch Johnson: Good evening Mayor and council members. The concert starts off on June 14,
Thursday evening. You have 8 shows. 6 evening performances and we have 2 daytime performances.
The evening performances start at 7:00 p.m. and the daytime shows start at 11:30. Each performance is
about an hour long. We have one band coming back, or one performer coming back, Tim Mahoney. He
drew a big crowd last year. He’s our second performer of the year. We also have some different genres.
We’ve got a folk band coming. We’ve got like a cover band coming again to kind of play some of the
popular new tunes so we’re real excited and you know obviously thankful for KleinBank, their continued
sponsorship throughout the year.
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Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. And it starts June 14?
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Mitch Johnson: June 14. It runs through August 2.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. And if people are interested in who’s coming when and the dates and
times of the concerts, how would they find out?
Mitch Johnson: They’re going to find out on the City’s website. We also have promotional magnets and
posters you’re going to find around town.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Thank you.
Mitch Johnson: Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: It’s always nice to start the meeting off with two checks.
Councilman Laufenburger: Can they come more often by the way? Is that possible?
Todd Gerhardt: It doesn’t get any better than this.
Mayor Furlong: Yes it doesn’t. Except when we get into our monthly updates from our fire department
and law enforcement. Now that is always.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Todd Gerhardt: They never bring checks.
Mayor Furlong: No they don’t.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Mr. Mayor, council good evening. Two quick items for you tonight. We looked at the
April monthly report. We see that there’s an increase in thefts again. Thefts year to date for 2011 were
50 and year to date 2012 are 72. I took a look back at the last 3 years and at the stats and working with
Beth Hoiseth and you look at 2009, 32% of all of our thefts were thefts from vehicles. You look at 2010,
29% of all of our thefts were thefts from vehicles. And 2011 40% of all of our thefts were thefts from
vehicles so if we can reduce those numbers and educate our citizens and our visitors to reduce the
opportunities, we could really reduce those numbers and thefts so how do we as law enforcement help
reduce these numbers? We provide extra patrol into the troubles areas into the communities. We work
with Beth Hoiseth. We send our crime alerts. We use the bait car in areas that have been targeted before.
We place reminders on cars and garage doors. Please close your garage doors. This is an opportunity for
a thief. Take opportunities like the City Council meeting here to educate our citizens. How can the
communities help us reduce thefts? Again it’s a crime of opportunity. If we remove the opportunities
we’re going to be much better off so lock your vehicle. Remove valuables. If you’re planning a trip to a
park, plan ahead and if you have valuables throw them in your trunk or hide under a car seat. Don’t leave
them out in the open where the opportunity for thieves is right there in front of them so. Second item I
have for you is I’m pleased to announce the dates for the Citizens Academy. It’s on the website. It’s
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been advertised. It’s an 8 week course and it’s going to begin on September 11. As of today we have 8
completed applications and we’re going to take a total of 15. Who can attend this event or this course?
It’s 18 years or older and if you live or work in the City of Chanhassen you’re available to attend this.
How do you attend it? The website has a link. If you click on the departments and then go into law
enforcement on the left hand side you’ll see citizens academy. Click on there. You can download a
course outline. You can download an application. I’ve placed a flyer and applications in the public safety
area and the front area here of the front entrance to City Hall so you can pick up an application there. Fill
it out. Return it to me. How much does it cost? Zero. It’s absolutely free to participate in. Graduation,
if you graduate you’re going to receive a Certificate of Completion. You’re going to receive a t-shirt that
says I completed the academy and you’re going to receive a sheriff’s office citizen coin. Some of the
highlights of the academy, I’m pretty excited about this. I think it’s going to be a great, a great deal for
our deputies and for our citizens of Chanhassen. We’re going to have a taser demo. We’re going to let
the folks actually take a taser and pop a cartridge into a target to see how that feels.
Mayor Furlong: Not an elected official or anything.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Well if you wanted to volunteer Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Applications just went up.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: We’re going to perform a DWI simulated arrest. We’re going to let the folks arrest
somebody. We’re going to have them administer a PBT field sobriety test. We’re going to have some
crime scene processing. They’re going to lift some fingerprints. We’re going to do some traffic stops.
Actually get them into a behind the wheel of a squad car and have them pull over another car and see
what it’s like for an officer and why we do what we do. We’re going to take them out to our training
facility out in Scott County and they have two simulators out there. One is a driving simulator where you
sit down and you’re in a squad car and you’re following, you see a traffic violation. You get behind it.
You hit your lights and you pull it over and if it decides not to stop then you’ll be in a pursuit. It’s a lot of
fun and it teaches you a lot. We’re going to have a shoot, don’t shoot simulator so we’re going to put
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
them in a situation where they’re given verbal commands to somebody and if he complies that’s all well
and good. If he doesn’t you’re going to have to react accordingly so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun
for the folks who participate in. I’m excited about it. It’s going to strengthen our partnership with the
citizens in our community so I would invite anybody who’s 18 years or older and lives and works in the
city of Chanhassen to complete an application. Get it back to me and we’ll get you started September
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11. If there’s any volunteers up here I’ll look for your applications too. That’s all I have. Any
questions?
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Lieutenant Enevold this evening? No? Very good, thank
you.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Good, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Ed Coppersmith, the Assistant Chief of the Chanhassen Fire Department is here this
evening. Good evening Assistant Chief Coppersmith. How are you?
Assistant Chief Coppersmith: Fine Mr. Mayor. Council members. Like to report that since the last
council meeting a few things have been going on at the fire station. As far as calls, last year since the last
council meeting we’ve had 47 calls. The same period last year we were at 41. Even though the calls for
this past month have increased, we are still down below what we were year to date from last year by 34
calls. In the past month some of the calls that we went on, two were weather related which was just this
past weekend. We’ve had personal injury accidents. Four mutual aids to other cities. We’ve had 3 fires
in the city other than cooking. I’ll get to those in a second. One of them was a small exterior fire on the
rear of a house that we believe was due to careless disposing of smoking material. We’ve had a tree on
fire. A single tree in the back yard of a residence that was caused by an unattended recreational fire. And
then also we got called to a possible grass fire. It turned out to be a recreational fire that got a little bit out
of control over in Lake Riley Park in Eden Prairie. Since we’ve already had our trucks on the road
checking our side, we sent one truck over there. Extinguished the fire and advised Eden Prairie that we
took care of it so they didn’t have to roll their vehicles out there. Also in the past month we’ve had 3
small cooking fires. Range top incidents, which is par for the course because cooking fires in Minnesota
are the number one cause of fires. With that in mind the fire marshall’s office is working on a fire
prevention campaign where we’re going to demonstrate some of the hazards of cooking fires to bring it to
light to the citizens. We plan on using it at the fire department open house. During the school campaign
and then have periodic things where we might invite a senior organization to walk through the fire
department and see what can happen. Also in the past month we’ve had one firefighter resign bringing
our staffing down to 46 firefighters but we are also in the process of a new hire. Right now we’ve got I
believe it’s approximately 11 applications that are going through the hiring process and by July we’ll
know exactly how many and who we will be bringing on. That’s all I have unless someone has any
questions for me.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Assistant Chief Coppersmith?
Councilman Laufenburger: Please Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Assistant Chief Coppersmith, you mentioned three times the recreational
fires. Can you just remind the council and anybody who may be watching at home, what are some
guidelines regarding recreational fires in the city of Chanhassen?
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Assistant Chief Coppersmith: Absolutely sir. Recreational fire is defined as a fire that is attended,
number one. It should be either in a manufactured fire ring or in a fire pit and the fire should be no larger
than 3 feet by 3 feet and I will say 3 feet high because I have seen people that have stacked wood well
over 6 feet, big teepee style and light it because it’s within a 3 foot ring and it should be no closer than 25
feet from any structure or combustibles.
Councilman Laufenburger: Like a tree.
Assistant Chief Coppersmith: Like a tree or a deck and the key is you should have, should be attended
and you should, as long as you’re having a fire there’s no big deal. You know hook up a garden hose to
the spigot out back and have it stand by you just in case.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Thanks for that reminder.
Assistant Chief Coppersmith: Thank you sir.
Mayor Furlong: Good question. Anything else? Very good. Thank you for the update. Appreciate it.
RESIDENTIAL PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD-R) AMENDMENTS: REQUEST TO
AMEND THE FOLLOWING RESIDENTIAL PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENTS:
CHANHASSEN VISTA, CHAPARRAL, FOX HOLLOW, LAREDO LANE, NEAR MOUNTAIN,
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OAK PONDS, PHEASANT HILL, AND SARATOGA 3 ADDITION, CITY OF CHANHASSEN.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. At your last meeting you approved the
first series of the PUD’s. I just want to again briefly describe kind of the process. We do have a number
of them tonight so we’d like to go through each of them separately but have you make one motion
because each of them has unique characteristics. So again the City’s requesting to amend the PUD’s.
Make sure they incorporate the unique attributes of each PUD as they were established. The City
references an underlying zoning district so that was determined what the appropriate district would be.
The City has prepared these ordinances so those are a part of your attachments that you are approving
tonight and again in researching these PUD’s we discovered that some houses may not meet the standards
of the development and if any structures that are non-conforming, they’re grandfathered in. If someone
was to, we’re not forcing somebody to come into compliance today but if they were wanting to do
something additional then we would work with them at that time but I just want to make sure that that’s
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clear. The Planning Commission did hold a public hearing on May 15. There was one person in
attendance and I will go through that when we get to it. It’s actually the last PUD but the Planning
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Commission did recommend at their meeting on May 15 7 to 0 to recommend to you the approval of
those. Again I just wanted to reiterated with each of the neighborhood groups, we’ve had neighborhood
meetings and those have been very positive so we had approximately 50 people attend with this group and
actually met with somebody again today who attended the meeting so it felt very positive about the
information that was provided and our website too has a lot of information. So with that I’ll go through
each of the PUD’s before you tonight. We tried to break these into groupings. This is kind of we’re
doing it by geographical area so this is kind of it’s a quadrant in here so these are the ones we’ll be going
through. Pheasant Hills, Chaparral, Chan Vista, Fox Hollow, Saratoga, Oak Ponds, Fox Hollow and Near
Mountain. So the first one is the Chan Vista PUD and there’s actually four additions to that and the
subdivision was created or this PUD was created back in 1986. It covers approximately 70 acres. There’s
123 housing units in this development. The smallest lot in that PUD was 11,700 so that then became the
minimum. We also looked at each of the houses on the lot to find the narrowest lot which would be 80
feet and then to establish from that the setback. The 30 foot and the 10 on the sides so with that we did
recommend the zoning ordinance which would be the underlying zoning district would be the residential
RSF but for those unique characteristics which I just described which would be the minimum lot so really
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
nobody has the opportunity to further subdivide. Those are captured in where they are today and again
with the neighborhood meetings we did find that there’s some, you know some things that might be very
close to the property line and they are what they are so it’s not our intent at this time to make any of those
changes but to create those standards going forward.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Aanenson a question for you.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: When you say there are some things close to the property line.
Kate Aanenson: Maybe a deck. Maybe an accessory structure that wouldn’t meet the current setbacks.
Again when these were put in place back in 1986, maybe a yard barn wasn’t checked for a setback or
someone put a deck on in the weekend and maybe didn’t get a permit and those are all legal non-
conforming at this point but if someone was to come in and try to screen it in we might check at that
point.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and I guess that’s my question. They’re legal non-conforming so they’re
effectively grandfathered in with any changes here.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: These changes won’t necessarily require a change in the structure just by making this,
the changes to the ordinance.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: But if somebody’s looking to expand a deck or change it or relocate or something then
these standards that we’re looking at tonight would come into play.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. So the minimum lot width as opposed to what would be a 90 foot for
RSF, they get the, because they’re all smaller, and the lot depth would be similar to what we already have
in the Residential Single Family so with this then you go back to the residential single family zoning
district for the setbacks for an accessory structure. Anything else like that would speak to that so these
are the unique attributes and then the ordinance would cite, as is attached in here, the underlying zoning
district would then be the Residential Single Family and that’s what’s attached here. Your ordinance.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Any questions on that one? Okay. And then Chaparral. There’s actually two additions.
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Chaparral 2. Excuse me, three additions and the third and this was done in 1978. And I want you to
know in some of these neighborhood meetings we did find original owners and spoke with them so that
was very interesting to get history of the city and how they’ve enjoyed living in their home and seeing all
the changes so. So the Chaparral again is 106 acres. The entire. There was a park dedication with this.
That Meadow Green Park was a dedication with this project so the residential acreage is actually 64 and
they also dedicated some right-of-way and some additional for Kerber Boulevard so the total number of
units in that is 423. And this is a little unique because there’s actually three different types of products in
there. You have some single family. You have some duplexes and you have some fourplexes in there so
with that we had to come up with different standards for each of those developments so it’s a little easier
maybe to see on here where you can see the attached product. The fourplexes and the like so we had to
come up with different standards for each of these. So the minimum lot size for each type of product is
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
identified in there. Again for the single it’s 10,000 and then this would be the lot size. The duplex would
be 4,300 and the quad would be 3,400 and that’s for their lot. Now again, maybe I say this too many
times but the least flexible product you have is an attached product. Most of the times those aren’t
changed. We did a number of years ago give a blanket variance for people to screen in their porches on
these but we did that as a PUD amendment and that would be a way to accomplish that but the single
family home is more where you have the most changes because some people’s lifestyle change. They
may not want to move. They may want to add on. They may want to put a yard but most people living in
a fourplex or a twin home there’s not as much change. People may move out of that type of a unit but
we’ve established all the minimum lot widths and lot depths for all of these. Again the underlying zoning
district then would be, it’s an R district. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. R-4 and.
Laurie Hokkanen: R-8.
Kate Aanenson: R-8 so that would be our attached. R-4 you can have a 10,000 square foot lot minimum
and then the R-8 is for the attached projects so again those would be the supplemental or the underlying
zoning districts. Any questions on that one?
Mayor Furlong: Questions? Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: Okay, Fox Hollow. Fox Hollow is four additions and this was done in 1984 and this one
had a wetland and also has a park adjacent to it. The park wasn’t taken with this one but at a different
date but this one does have wetland setbacks and there were specific contour line established with this.
Now as we’ve moved through the history of the city we’ve changed how we look at wetland setback and
wetland buffer so what we did is we didn’t change what was originally in the development contract. We
left what they were built with in place so people that had an existing setback based on a contour line, we
left that in place. It would be very difficult to say you know if a house was set at a certain point to say
now you can go to within the wetland setback so I think we’ve tried to make that clear. We’ve had some
cases where we’ve had people ask to have their property rezoned. It’s not our intent. It’s really just to
clarify what the underlying zoning district is on that. So this one it’s all single family. The average lot
size in this area was 12,100 but the smallest lot was actually 7,400 so there was some, a few smaller lots
in there. At that time the zoning was P1. Because it is close to the lake it does have the 25% hard cover
on there but they’re also averaged out, some of those with the park. So the 95 single family lots have the
minimum, the smallest lot is 7,400 with a minimum lot of 67 feet and a minimum lot depth of 100. Again
it’d be very difficult for anybody in these subdivisions to subdivide but some people have the flexibility
to add on, which is what people do over time which we like when people reinvest in their homes. So the
front setbacks, again because of the lot sizes are 20 feet and that’s pretty standard and 10 and 5 which I
know we, that’s how we do it now but there were a lot of subdivisions built back then that also had the 10
and the 5 and I think you may not notice it as much in that neighborhood when you have maturation of
the homes and the landscaping over time, you know it becomes less obvious so they do have a setback of
75 feet which is kind of our old standard, or there’s a perpetual easement there below that elevation which
is along that wetland there, and that was also to exclude people from putting structures out there like
docks. So what helps us on these if someone calls in and says can I put a dock out there, we’ve got that
codified into the code what you can and cannot do. That’s some of the simplicity. And we did have a
few people from that neighborhood show up to the open house too.
Mayor Furlong: And what was their, if I can ask a question, what was their comments and concerns?
Kate Aanenson: I think some people were concerned if they were non-conforming what would be their
circumstances and I think that we resolved that issue and clarified our position on that. This is just what
was prohibited in the easement. We carried that forward. That was the original contract with the
development. It’s alteration of vegetation which I think is pretty standard how we do it now. So with that
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
I’ll move onto the Laredo. The Laredo actually had 21 single family lots and it’s just a little small
subdivision. We learned in this part of town there was, they came in with a large preliminary plat and it
was broken down into, depending on what was left on that piece, how they subdivided it up so the
average lot size was 11,200 but you can see in this area right in here that these lots are 6,000 square feet.
Those are some of the smallest single family lots we found in the city in that timeframe. So again the 21
lots. We did reference the underlying residential single family district and the minimum lot size, we went
with the 6,000 because that’s the smallest one there. Again the way the houses are placed on the lot they
really are unable to further subdivide so they had the 50 at the building setback line and the minimum
depth of 90. Again because of the lot size, the front setback was shorter. 30 is standard and they also had
the 5 and the 10. The 15 and then they got the 30% hard coverage because of the small lots. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Question on the lot size. Since the average is 11,200 with a minimum being stated here
now at 6,000. I’m assuming that there are some lots that are greater than 12,000 in this development.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and so you said because of the placement of the house but if somebody wanted to
raze the house, would they be able to subdivide with two lots 6,000 or more?
Kate Aanenson: I don’t think so because they’d still have to meet the 50 and the 90 so there isn’t, you
have to meet the 50 and the 90. Not one or the other.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. I guess let me rephrase. Have you looked through with any of these requirements
specifically looked at these properties.
Kate Aanenson: Yes we did.
Mayor Furlong: And determined whether or not anybody would be able to subdivide based upon the
criteria.
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Now if somebody was to assemble, buy 3 lots and maybe try to get 2 additional
ones out that potentially could happen but it would be difficult again to meet the 50 and the 90 because.
Mayor Furlong: It would require some assemblage of existing.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Does that concern you at all from a planning perspective?
Kate Aanenson: No, I think if you look at, if you go back at how these were laid out, if you look at off of
Laredo Lane, those houses in there and even on these, it would be very difficult to, because they’re at the
minimum 50 so you couldn’t get a, or maybe some of those are at 60 so you would take quite a few lots to
get to the minimums.
Todd Gerhardt: Nobody has 100.
Kate Aanenson: No. No. They’re all pretty small and you know if you go up.
Mayor Furlong: At 100 you’re saying 100 feet.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Kate Aanenson: At the building setback, yeah. Yeah, and even if you go up at the other end of the
Laredo Lane up in this area here, you just don’t have that much frontage to make that and typically now if
you look at, trying to do at least a 2 car garage you are you know, it would be difficult. And some of the
other lots, back to your point mayor, most of those narrow lots are maybe deeper. If you were to go over
off of some of the other ones coming forward, they’re still very narrow but they’re deeper to get the
acreage.
Mayor Furlong: Sure.
Kate Aanenson: So I think to the City Manager’s point, when you look at that narrowness it’s difficult to
try to assemble that to get additional lot yield.
Mayor Furlong: How are corner lots treated with these requirements?
Kate Aanenson: They would have the two fronts. That was the one place we did note that there was
some, they didn’t meet a standard of the you know the 30/30. They may have been treated with a 20/20
so we wouldn’t allow someone to continue to add on on that side and that’s where, in our meeting with
the neighbors, if you’re not conforming on one side but you still have room under the hard cover and you
can meet the requirements on the back side and you meet all the setbacks, then you would be able to
proceed based on that and.
Mayor Furlong: To expand there.
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: And certainly at any point someone always has a right to apply for a variance and we
look at the reasonableness of that and the circumstances.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Would a corner lot be able to subdivide and claim two.
Kate Aanenson: I don’t think they have, I just don’t think they have enough to make it work, yeah.
There’s not in this circumstance. Both of those are the smaller ones, at least on this Laredo one.
Mayor Furlong: I’m looking off Del Rio.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah.
Todd Gerhardt: Del Rio and Laredo.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Gerhardt: But by the time you got the 30 foot setback in the front and the side.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, actually I believe this map is slightly off because this is, this should be right
through here. This is part of a different subdivision which has a little bit different standards and I
apologize for that.
Mayor Furlong: Oh okay. So the home.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Kate Aanenson: This is the actual subdivision.
Mayor Furlong: That’s actual.
Kate Aanenson: Yep, so this was done as another subdivision and their standards are a little bit bigger.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: They’re a little closer to the traditional.
Mayor Furlong: That answers the question, thank you.
Kate Aanenson: You’re welcome. Near Mountain. Near Mountain has a lot of phases in it and
interesting to note, when we pulled out the original plans, in one of the phases it was actually intended to
be condos. Actually the last phase so I’m not going to read through all the different phases but in putting
this together, in order to, because there’s different standards in there, we actually created kind of, you can
see the smaller lots here on the eastern side and the western side’s where they get the largest but what we
had to do in order to make this work is to go to AA, A, B and C and with each of those, if you look at
your zoning ordinance there’s different standards. So if you look at, let me just give you the total number
of lots that were put in here. So in 1979 they were actually looking at 120 condominiums, 144 single
family, 36 quadraminiums. I’m not sure that terminology’s still used, and for a total of 300 units. Okay.
So obviously it was changed quite a bit from that so when they came back for a revised plan the lots in A
were the larger lots. Kind of almost like an acre lot. Now if you go back in time and look at this we
included wetland acreage in lots, which we don’t do anymore. We only count the upland so these lots,
while they show larger acreage, some of that is also encumbered with a wetland so the upland area isn’t
actually quite that big. So for the AA standard, which is the Near Mountain and the Summit at Near
Mountain, which is this area here, those lots are all, there’s 42 and those are at 20,000 so those are the
biggest lots and that was actually the last phase where they were looking at doing the condominiums. So
those are 150 foot in depth. 115 in width so again those wouldn’t be split and the topography’s a little bit
challenging up there too. Then in area A there’s 51 units and the minimum lot size there is 17,200.
Again a standard RSF would be the 15,000 so those are slightly larger and those come closer to our
standard 90 and this is 100 by 125 which is RSF standard. They also are encumbered by the shoreland
and so there’s wetland also in there. So then B right here is the 46 units, and those are a little smaller at
10,900. When I says smaller again I don’t want to, some of that is included in the wetlands. While the
other ones may appear larger they may also have a significant amount of wetland, and again 75 by 125.
That’s pretty close to a standard RSF. And then C has a couple different areas of lot sizes. 57 at 9,730
and 40 at 7,400 so there’s two different lot sizes within there. And with that we are using the RSF district
as the underlying zoning district in that again looking at that, because of the wetlands and the setbacks,
it’d be very difficult for somebody to, you’d have to really assemble quite a few to make it work to
further subdivide. Again at the time that these were put in place we’ve looked at wetlands a lot different
than was done at that time. So with that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have on the
Near Mountain so here’s the chart that we went through.
Mayor Furlong: Any questions on this?
Councilman Laufenburger: None here.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Kate Aanenson: Alright. Then Oak Ponds, this actually had four additions. Oak Ponds as you may be
aware is where we have the senior housing project and this one also came in with a couple different types
of product so within that, we just codified.
Councilman Laufenburger: Kate.
Kate Aanenson: Yep.
Councilman Laufenburger: You said the senior housing. That’s Centennial, is that right?
Kate Aanenson: Centennial, I’m sorry. Thank you. We do have a couple senior housing. Centennial
Hills. Our first senior housing project. So with that what we did is just put the standards, codified them
and that was really just the minimum lot sizes for each of those product. They all share common open
spaces between the Oak Ponds development so that one is actually pretty straight forward as far as the
underlying zoning district which is R12 which is our high density zoning district and that’s what that is.
That is the units per acre. I’m not sure if I have the total number. It’s 27 acres and 211 units total in that
whole PUD. So here’s our senior housing and then we’ve got the townhouses and then the attached.
Alright. Any questions on that?
Mayor Furlong: No.
Kate Aanenson: Okay. And then Pheasant Hills is four additions done in 1983. Consists of 33 lots.
Again some of these are encumbered by wetlands in the back so while the average may be slightly
skewed because that’s how it was calculated at the time so the 38 single family lots, minimum lot size of
10,000 square feet. Minimum lot width at the front yard is 30 and the setback is 70. Then the minimum
depth 105 feet so again we would go with the 30% hard surface coverage and the underlying zoning
district would be the RSF. Question on that one? And then finally Saratoga. This is right behind City
Hall here and that one has a lengthy history. There’s 18 units built there and the zoning on that allows for
46. At this hearing Mr. Hansen, who owns the property did show up and spoke with the Planning
Commission regarding pursuing his plan that had some entitlements so the Planning Commission did a
good job explaining to him at this time it is not our intent to give any standing to any plans that maybe
have. That would be a separate process to go through. He actually wanted to get a density bonus on that
and this isn’t the process. They’d have to submit a plan and then for the staff and the Planning
Commission to hold the public hearing on and weigh those merits and then give a recommendation to the
City Council so with that we did recommend that he pursue that in a different option so we are
recommending the R12 as the underlying zoning district. Again this one had a little bit, you can see how
much of that is built. The City did purchase some of that for some additional ballfields but this is the
property here off of Santa Vera.
Mayor Furlong: So there is more development out there?
Kate Aanenson: There is more development opportunities, yes. He explained to the Planning
Commission he’d like to maintain what he thought he had approval on. He never presented anything but
he has been busy and wasn’t able to pursue those plans and so he would really need to start over with
pursuing a development proposal. I think he understood that and then the Planning Commission did a
good job explaining that. So with that you know you could have a total of 46 and I explained there’s
already 16 on there so this is what with the underlying zoning district put in place. Again it’s not an R at
this time too. This is what the development contract said. No townhouses. No detached townhomes. No
detached townhomes and no detached single family homes. They wanted apartments so that’s how we
left it. If they wanted to change for that he could come forward, or any owner of the property could come
through and request a change at that time and amend the PUD but we didn’t want to start doing that with
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
each of these because then we’d be negotiating all of them and our goal at this time is really just to codify
them.
Mayor Furlong: As they exist today.
Kate Aanenson: Yes because you’ll see there’s some that are getting more complex that if people want
changes then it would become a slippery slope to kind of go through that process. Our goal is to put
everything into the development contract that was approved with the council minutes to the best of our
understanding is to codify what was the intent at that time. Certainly you could revisit those issues under
an application but I think it’s important to have an application in front of you to decide whether or not that
would be the appropriate use.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any questions on that? No?
Todd Gerhardt: Park and Rec Director promised him 16 more units if he sold him a baseball field.
Kate Aanenson: Well I think too if you were to say you could have the townhomes but there was an
expectation that you could still get 40, they might not fit on there so I think you have to look at that on a
project or a case application as opposed to just you know going ahead and waiving your authority on that.
So with that we gave the setbacks. Again this would be standard with the PUD. The hard cover, surface
coverage gives them a lot of leeway on that but I think when you look at the product type, you know
when you need to provide so much parking it does require to go more vertical so if there’s a expectation
of so many units, you’d have to weigh that on how many they could get on the site. There’s also specifics
regarding architecture which we also included. Again they’re willing to look at that at the time an
application was submitted but for now we’re just codifying it. So with that we recommend that the City
Council approve the following attached ordinance and adopt the Findings of Fact and I’d be happy to
answer any of the questions that you have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Aanenson. Very comprehensive analysis and
recommendation and thank you for that and your staff, please extend our thanks to them and to the
Planning Commission and certainly for all the residents that have been involved, appreciate your outreach
there as well to, not only do you get the chance to meet some people that have been here a long time,
which is kind of fun, but you get to answer their questions and make sure that they understand what the
process is too so we appreciate that. If there are no other questions there is a motion that has been
recommended. Would somebody like to make a motion?
Councilman Laufenburger: I’ll do so Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: I move that the Chanhassen City Council approves the attached ordinances
rezoning the following Planned Unit Developments: Chanhassen Vista, Chaparral, Fox Hollow, Laredo
rd
Lane, Near Mountain, Oak Ponds, Pheasant Hill, Saratoga 3 Addition and adopt the Planning
Commission Findings of Fact.
Councilwoman Ernst: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on that motion?
Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council approves the attached ordinances rezoning the following Planned Unit Developments:
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
Chanhassen Vista, Chaparral, Fox Hollow, Laredo Lane, Near Mountain, Oak Ponds, Pheasant
rd
Hill, Saratoga 3 Addition and adopt the Planning Commission Findings of Fact. All voted in favor
and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and thank you again. I think there are some more of these coming forward as
well.
Kate Aanenson: You’ll be seeing a few. We’ll be sprinkling them in.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, that sounds good. Thank you. Appreciate your good work.
APPOINTMENT TO THE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION.
Mayor Furlong: Earlier this year we made appointments to all four of our commissions that serve the
City Council. The Park and Rec, the Planning Commission, Senior Commission and Environmental
Commission. Because of the number of applicants and for other reasons there was one opening that
remained on the Park and Rec Commission. Earlier this evening the City Council interviewed two
applicants. Two candidates for the opening on the Park and Rec Commission. Jeff.
Councilman Laufenburger: Boettcher.
Mayor Furlong: Boettcher, thank you.
Councilman Laufenburger: Jim, excuse me.
Mayor Furlong: It’s Jim.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah Jim.
Mayor Furlong: And Todd Neils. Both candidates were certainly qualified and bring different skills and
abilities and were both showed definite passion towards improving our park and recreation programs and
system here in the city and we appreciate that. It’s the council this evening I believe, and I would
certainly place in nomination Jim Boettcher’s name for the appointment to the Park and Rec Commission
and ask for a second.
Councilwoman Ernst: I’ll second that.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. As I said, as with always the case if we had 2 positions we’d be appointing
both this evening I believe. Both were very qualified candidates. As it is there’s one position so we have
to make a choice but we certainly appreciate all the work that Todd has done with the City and the CAA
over the years and know that he’ll continue to be involved and will continue to work with our staff and
the Park and Rec Commission for issues as he discussed. With that is there any other discussion or
comments? If not, as there’s been a motion to appoint Jim Boettcher to the Park and Rec Commission.
It’s been seconded. We’ll proceed with the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to appoint Jim Boettcher to a 3 year term
beginning April 1, 2012 to the Park and Recreation Commission. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
st
Mayor Furlong: And that was for I believe the remainder of a 3 year term that started April 1, is that
correct Todd? Yeah, okay so, and that will be clarified as well. That was a full 3 year position if I wasn’t
mistaken on that. That completes our items of new business.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: I’d like to start by thanking Mitch Johnson and Todd Hoffman and the other members of
our Park and Rec staff for their help with the Memorial Day celebration yesterday. Certainly our thanks,
appreciation goes out to the American Legion, the American Legion Auxiliary, the fire department was
involved and they’re available. The Boy Scouts, Chanhassen High School Band and the vocalists were
there too. It was a great celebration. Very well attended. Mr. Gerhardt gets credit for the weather this
time because it was good weather and I’ll give you that one, especially considering he was here late the
night before in anticipation of perhaps some weather damage so, it was a great event and all members of
the council were there. It was good to see everybody there. We had county commissioners as well and
just a lot of people came out. A lot of good friends, neighbors were there and it was fun to see and again
for the work that the American Legion and their group does putting that together, we really appreciate it.
That’s become an annual event for many people and so it was just a great time so thank you to everyone
that was involved in doing that. Other comments, council presentations?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah I’d just like to make a comment about the memorial event as well. I’d like to
thank you Mayor for your presentation that you did. I learned a lot about the history of Chanhassen and
why we have so many Indian streets in our neighborhoods so yeah, it was very interesting. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. You’re welcome. Any other comments on Memorial Day or other topics as
well?
Councilman Laufenburger: Just one Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Laufenburger: I know there’s lot of people out there that are wondering what they should be
doing on a Wednesday night or a Thursday night and it just so happens the Chanhassen Red Birds, the
local town baseball team is playing both night, weather permitting, 7:30 on Wednesday we play the St.
Benedict Saints. The dauted St. Benedict Saints that we should beat. And then the following night,
Thursday at 7:30 we will try to get in a game that has been postponed not once but twice because of rain
against the Shakopee Indians, speaking of Indians Councilwoman Ernst. The Shakopee Indians will cross
the river, because 101 is open and they will play us at 7:30 on Thursday night weather permitting so Red
Birds. 3 and 1 in the season so far. Off to a healthy start and ready to challenge for the State Tournament
bid from this region. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any other presentations this evening? Mr. Gerhardt.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Just a couple of things. Update the public on the sirens that went off on Sunday evening.
It was not because of a sighting of a tornado or a tornado in the area. It was with the anticipation of gusts
of winds over 70 miles an hour is why the County made that decision to set the sirens off. Eden Prairie
followed suit along with Excelsior so we did have a few trees down but luckily no other damage than the
trees going down and nobody was hurt so that’s always a positive. And I would like to just, I know the
Chanhassen Villager did a great job of recognizing Bob Meuwissen for his 60 years of service with the
American Legion and also the Honor Guard. Bob is also a volunteer, retired volunteer fireman and had
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Chanhassen City Council – May 29, 2012
20 plus years as a volunteer fireman and also recognized as Chanhassen Distinguished Award winner here
in Chanhassen so Bob is always giving of his time and will be the last person around to ask for any type
of recognition so it’s always nice to give those people recognition when they’re not looking for it so. So
congratulations to Bob and his family and well deserved.
Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? Okay.
CORRESPONDENCE PACKET.
Mayor Furlong: Is there any discussion on the correspondence packet this evening? There’s a comment
there, a letter about the street project that’s going on up in the north side of Lake Minnewashta so that’s
moving along and appreciate the communication with the residents as well in that. Making sure they
know what’s happening.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, lots of construction projects going on and Gordy’s done a great job of working
with the neighborhood. The temporary water lines have been laid out. I’m not sure if they’ve been
connected to or not yet but we’re well underway there and Highway 5 construction is moving along.
Mayor Furlong: Great. I believe the signs say it’s closing tomorrow and that’s just one segment within
Victoria if I’m not mistaken. From Steger Lake Road over to, past the bridge but there is still, well the
local traffic you can still get through and I know other businesses are open Victoria and accessible as
well. Is that correct Ms. Hokkanen?
Laurie Hokkanen: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, so if people have, people see the signs that says it’s closed to through traffic,
that’s really truck traffic and over the road truck traffic but it is accessible to all local traffic and to the
businesses there as well so.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah I encourage the public to go to the City’s website and get construction updates.
They change on you know sometimes a daily basis based on weather and conditions and you know they
will also alter their construction schedule to accommodate other activities that might occur so if you go to
our website there’s the most up to date information is on there and so, and there are maps for re-routing
and detouring.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you. If there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening,
is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Ernst: So moved.
Mayor Furlong: Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was
adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt, City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim
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