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11-13-12-cc CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag which was led by Will Carlson from Boy Scout Troop 409. 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: Thank you Will. I think they’re here for their communications merit badge, is that correct? Will Carlson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Great, thank you. Boy Scout Troop 409 out of Excelsior so welcome. And welcome to everybody else here in the council chambers as well as those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. We ask at this time of members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: I’d like to start with a public announcement this evening. The announcement was th intended to invite people to ChanJam 2012 this coming November 16 but unfortunately it’s been cancelled so for those that were planning to attend we apologize but due to insufficient number of bands registering for the competition, this year’s event will be cancelled so city staff was committed to working with local high schools to try to recruit additional bands for next year. If you do have a band with some of your friends and you’d like to participate in the ChanJam, please contact our Park and Rec’s department, Mitch Johnson and he’d be happy to give you more information about this. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated October 16, 2012 b. Approve Letter of Support for Shared Services Grant Application to State Fire Marshal’s Office. c. Approval of Consent to Assignment of Interest in Limited Revenue Tax Increment Note as Related to TIF #5, North Bay/Rottlund Homes. d. Highway 101, Lyman Boulevard to Pioneer Trail: Resolution #2012-61: 1) Approve Resolution for Advancement of MSAS Funds. Resolution #2012-62: 2) Approve No Parking Resolution. 3) Bandimere Park: Approve Quit Claim Deed for TH 101 Right-of-Way. Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 e. Approval of Findings of Fact, Appeal of Administrative Decision, Naomi Carlson. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. WYNSONG; LOCATED AT 7042 GALPIN BOULEVARD, LOT 1, BLOCK 1, SONG ADDITION; APPLICANT: STEVE KROISS, GALPIN BOULEVARD PARTNERS, LLC; OWNER: CHARLES SONG: A. CONSIDER APPROVAL OF PRELIMINARY PLAT TO SUBDIVIDE 9.37 ACRES INTO 4 LOTS WITH A VARIANCE FOR A PRIVATE STREET. B. PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER APPROVAL OF VACATION OF DRAINAGE AND UTILITY EASEMENTS. Mayor Furlong: There will be a public hearing, is that correct Ms. Aanenson with regard to the drainage and utility easement? Kate Aanenson: Yes there will. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Public hearing did take place for the preliminary plat at the Planning Commission if I recall correctly. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: So we will have a public hearing with regard to the utility easements, drainage easements in due course. Let’s start with the staff report please and that will be followed by the applicant and questions from council. Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. As you indicated this item did appear th before the Planning Commission at their October 16 meeting. The Planning Commission did hold a public hearing and voted 5 to 0 to recommend approval of the plat with the vacation. And then the additional item, as you indicated on this would be vacation of drainage and utility easement. The subject site is located on Galpin Boulevard. The Song property. Again this is the site itself. There’s an existing one home that access via Galpin Boulevard. One large lot. This property was actually part of the, was the original property that included the Big Woods and that property was subdivided back in ’93-’94 so this is the large estate that was left as a remnant piece that is now coming before you for subdivision. The proposal includes 4 large estate lots so the 9 acres, just short of 9 1/2 acres be platted into 4 lots so 3 new lots which the existing homestead. The city ordinance does allow for a private street if it can be demonstrated that it’s used to be preserve natural features. In your staff report a private street criteria was reviewed in there. In looking at the prevailing development pattern does it make sense. Again there’s 4 large lots. Significant amount of natural features including wetlands, trees, some slopes so looking at that we believe that the use of a private street would enhance the natural features in the area so with that we do believe it meets the criteria for the variance and are recommending approval of that. As did the Planning Commission. There’s a significant amount of trees on this property so on this slide we’re showing the homes. We do request that these, because they are being custom graded so as those projects come in they will show which trees will be removed but we do require that they show at least a pad of 60 by 60 to give some indication of where those trees will be removed. In your packet from the staff in your report we did include the neighbors to the south located in this area here that did have some concerns regarding tree loss 2 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 and wanted some additional trees preserved in that area, particularly in this area here which the applicant has demonstrated, indicated that those trees probably would be removed. The Planning Commission did not consider at this time adding additional preservation for those trees at this time but I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of the fact that they were concerned about some of that trees loss so they had identified those in trees and number and those are kind of illustratively shown with a picture and a number at the beginning of your staff report. So there are existing easements on this property. When, again as I indicated in ’93-’94 when the Big Woods plat was put in place there was easements put on, on the wetlands at that time and those were, at the time that they were put in place there were actually conservation easements. So the manages, with this proposal and looking at the storm water and this is on page 5 of 16 in your staff report, where the Water Resources Coordinator spent some time going through talking about the size of the, because of the scale of the project’s relative small that they recognize that treatment options, of pre-treating it before it goes into the wetlands and Lake Harrison would be more difficult that they thought that preservation of some of these more wooded areas, indicated here on the slide and then this area here would also provide in some of that rate reduction before it would go into the wetlands. So you can see where, and this area here. So this would hold some of that water before it go into this wetland so we’re pre-treating that and then in this area on Lot 2, excuse me this was Lot 3. Then on Lot 2 again that wooded area would pre-treat before going into that wetland so again that was the goal of that. Now when we looked at the stormwater calculations, those areas that were slated for preservation were not calculated into any of the stormwater fees and again that is detailed in the staff report. A little bit more detail on the lots itself. There is some change in topography. Again meeting the wetland setbacks and the slopes. As indicated there is an existing drainage and utility easements and they will be vacated and creation of new drainage and utility easements will be provided so with that we do request that you hold a public hearing. I don’t know if you wanted to wait til the end Mayor to do that. Want to go through the entire presentation? Mayor Furlong: Why don’t, I guess let’s keep going on the presentation. Kate Aanenson: Okay. Mayor Furlong: At least to the point that we get staff, or council questions. Kate Aanenson: Sure. So on the orange here, the top one would be the drainage and utility easements again that were dedicated with the Woods at Longacres, so the drainage and utility easements dedicated with the Song plat and then finally the drainage and utility easements vacated in 2000, excuse me drainage and utility easements dedicated in 2001 and 2002 so you can see how those play in. Mayor Furlong: Ms. Aanenson, what were the dates of each of these events occurring, do you recall? Kate Aanenson: Well the drainage and utility easements with the Woods would have been probably ’94. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Kate Aanenson: So they’re going in chronological order here. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So the Song plat occurred between Longacres plat and the dedication in 2001- 2002? Kate Aanenson: Yes. I believe that’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. 3 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Kate Aanenson: So this again would show those easement areas but I think I don’t know if Paul wanted to spend some time with a little bit more detail on any of the vacation for the easements or if you had any other questions on that. Other than that we believe it’s the best use of the property creating these larger estate lots because based on the fact that there’s slopes, heavily wooded, significant wetlands, higher quality and one of again natural environment wetland which we have limited of so we believe that this is well suited for this type of estate lots and would recommend approval based on the public hearing and your recommendation on the vacation of the drainage easements. With that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff from council. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Kate, can you tell me based on the public hearing at the Planning Commission, did you get any feedback other than the removal of, the concern for the removal of trees? Kate Aanenson: That was the only person that spoke at the meeting. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. So no other feedback? Kate Aanenson: No. Again the subdivision to the south did have significant trees too. I mean that was called the Woods at Big Acres, the Big, I said that wrong. Big, now I cannot say it. Anyways that subdivision, when that went into place that was controversy at times because we had the Meadows at Longacres on the one side then the Big Woods on the other side and actually you know we worked really hard to save some of the significant trees and that’s when we were refining our tree preservation ordinance so some of those lots, there probably was more significant tree removal done on those lots unfortunately on some of those and it’s always hard for the Planning Commission, the staff when we’re looking at other people’s property when we had already recommended kind of those what we believed were the higher quality trees kind of worked into those sloped areas and also provided the opportunity through the preservation to increase the water quality for stormwater management so we believe that was the appropriate way to go but that was the biggest concern is the loss of that visual barrier there. Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you. Kate Aanenson: And I’m sorry Mayor, I did want to point one other thing too. In the staff report we did use the term conservation easement on those new easements and that would be under a condition. We referenced adoption of the conditions and we would change that word specifically under the condition under environmental resources conditions that we change the word conservation to preservation. Legally they have different tests for them. Mayor Furlong: What’s the, what is the difference between conservation easement and you said preservation easement? Kate Aanenson: I’ll let the City Attorney answer that. Mayor Furlong: Good evening Mr. Knutson. Roger Knutson: Good evening Mr. Mayor. Council. The conservation easement is an easement recognized by statute that has a bunch of rules to it. One of the rules is once it’s created it takes the District Court to vacate it. A normal easement that you’re involved in like a preservation easement or drainage and utility easement, you can vacate that on your own elision but if you want to get rid of a conservation easement you have to go to court and start an action and then it’s quite a complicated process. 4 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, thank you. And I guess the questions I had with regard to the purpose of those, of this preservation easement is for stormwater management? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. What the Water Resources Coordinator did is using the calculations provided through Carver County for best management practices you calculate based on canopy coverage a ratio so that ratio instead of putting a stormwater pond based on the topography, those meetings were held early with the developer to say instead of trying to create a pre-treatment using stormwater and eliminating or grading into the slope or eliminating some of those trees, that we would use a factor of the canopy to help with the extraction of holding back that water before it went into the additional stormwater pond so again with the preservation if there needed to be some tweaking or relocation of trees in the future that the council would then through that terminology have the ability to adjust that in the future. Mayor Furlong: And I guess the question I would have with regard to the preservation easement, is it in terms of putting that in place, is that something that could be managed by staff if there’s a desire by the future property owners to work with that? I don’t want to get into comments but vacation of a preservation easement or something like that would certainly. Councilman Laufenburger: Or modification. Mayor Furlong: Or modification may require council action but I would believe. Roger Knutson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: The administration of that and how, what’s allowed, we allow people to do things in drainage and utility easements periodically with agreement and I would assume that a preservation easement would fall into a similar type of management. Roger Knutson: That’s correct, yes. Mayor Furlong: Administration as well. Okay. Alright, thank you. That’s good information. Any other questions for council or for staff at this time? And I guess. Councilman Laufenburger: I do have, yeah please. Mayor Furlong: Please. Councilman Laufenburger: Kate would you just, would you go back one screen to there, multi colored. So if I read this correctly the portion on the, call it on the right side of these 3 diagrams. The orange, the blue and the green, all of those are, you’re asking that those all be vacated, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: I’ll let the City Engineer speak to those. What those drainage easements were for. Paul Oehme: Councilman Laufenburger, council, we are asking for those easements to be vacated at this time but when the final plat comes in those easements over the existing utility lines would be dedicated at that time so there would be no loss of maintenance or access to that infrastructure. At the final plat time. Councilman Laufenburger: So these easements will be vacated but they will be replaced by easements that serve the 4 lots, is that correct? Paul Oehme: That serve the existing utilities. 5 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: The existing, okay. Look at the blue one. That large triangle, actually it looks more like a ballfield but on the upper right, I’m looking at the screen now. Is that in fact a utility and drainage easement or is that the conservation easement? Kate Aanenson: That’s actually a conservation easement. That’s the wetland one and I apologize on that. If you look on, can I just go to. Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, show up the page. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, that’s actually part of that is, I believe in this area here where there’s a wetland and this area shaded around here is the buffer. That’s in a conservation easement right now. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So if it were possible to overlay the utility easements on this, could you go back to that colored slide again. Is it possible for you to show with an arrow where the driveway is? The private drive. Kate Aanenson: I’m not sure I can on this one. Let me just see. Councilman Laufenburger: Oh wait, okay. Kate Aanenson: It’s this one coming further south. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, right there, okay. Alright, so the request is to vacate these easements at this time but there will be dedicated easements on top of the utilities that exist, is that right? Paul Oehme: Correct. The vacation would be contingent on the final plat being approved and those new easements dedicated. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Paul Oehme: It’s a lot easier for platting to vacate the easements instead of describing it and then replatting so there’s some nuances there. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, and I just want to be clear we’re only vacating drainage and utility easements. We’re not vacating conservation easement and I’m not sure that that’s worded in the motion correctly but it does say drainage and utility easement. We’re not vacating a conservation easement and I think that’s, misrepresented on this illustration. Councilman Laufenburger: Can you go back two slides? There. Where is, there’s a culvert on the property right now that goes under the driveway. Is that the yellow line that goes kind of in a, from a southwest to a northeast direction? No. Farther, between Lots 2 and 4, yeah. Right there. Kate Aanenson: Yeah. Councilman Laufenburger: Do I read correctly that that culvert will be replaced or is it a dual? Kate Aanenson: Yeah, it’s going to be a culvert there. That’s kind of what we’re talking about. 6 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: So that facilitates water movement from Lot 2 under the drive, under the new private street to that wetland area which is in a conservation easement, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: Correct, and we’re adding a preservation area around that conservation easement to add additional tree preservation for the ability to slow down the rate of the water before it goes into the wetland here. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Okay, I understand that. Now would you go to the, there was an area where you showed a concern at the public hearing regarding trees in Lot 3. Could you go to that? I guess that’s it right there. Kate Aanenson: Yeah. Councilman Laufenburger: So what was expressed by the, at the public hearing about these trees? Kate Aanenson: The neighbor to the south actually got up and we included in your packet illustratively enumerated trees that they would like to see saved that they would see out their, out their deck. Councilman Laufenburger: What was their argument for that? Just that they wanted a better view? Kate Aanenson: That they wanted to continue to preserve that view, right. Councilman Laufenburger: Does that property owner have any trees of their own on their own property, do you know? Kate Aanenson: I’m not sure in that area if you look on the photo from their back yard looking out their deck, it doesn’t appear to be too many. Councilman Laufenburger: Is there any restriction that the City has on how many trees somebody can put in their yard? Kate Aanenson: Put in their yard? No. No. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay good, thank you. Those are my questions Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Other questions for staff at this time? Let’s, since we’ve talked about the utility, drainage and utility easements and there have been questions. Let’s go ahead, well let’s go with the applicant first and we’ll get all the information on the table and then we’ll have our public hearing with regard to the drainage and utility easements only. Is there a representative, or is the applicant here or their representative that would like to address council? Good evening. Todd Simnig: Good evening council. Todd Simnig. Kroiss Development, 2051 Pioneers Drive in Chanhassen, 55317. I thought Kate did a very good job of describing the project so if you guys have additional questions for me I’d be happy to answer otherwise it’s I think fairly self explanatory in what the project is. Mayor Furlong: Okay, any questions? Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Simnig, is that correct? Todd Simnig: Yes. 7 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: I’m looking at the drawing that shows the 60 by 60 foot squares or pads on which the homes are intended to be built. Are you comfortable with that? Mayor Furlong: Excuse me, these are the ones on the screen right now that you’re talking about? Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, the ones on the screen right now. Todd Simnig: The ones on the screen right now we’re very comfortable with where the houses will be placed, yes. Councilman Laufenburger: And you’re also comfortable with the trees that would likely remain and the trees that would be removed? Todd Simnig: Yes. You know with the, we worked with staff actually quite a bit with the two conservation/preservation easements. Councilman Laufenburger: Preservation easements. Todd Simnig: And our only, our only real concern was Lot number 4 and we were trying to get a walkout lot out of that one and because of, actually and I have to admit that I thought staff did a really good job with us in working the line. We really wanted to get a walkout lot out of that one. Councilman Laufenburger: Walking out towards the wetland? Todd Simnig: Yes. We weren’t able to. We got a lookout and so we were fine with that and so everything that we showed on there as far as trees to be removed and pad wise worked out for us as well. And you know a lot of developments somebody might go in and develop and sell the lots off and somebody else build. My partner and myself, Steve Kroiss will actually be building the houses in this development so. Councilman Laufenburger: Good, thank you Todd. Todd Simnig: You’re welcome. Mayor Furlong: Just a follow up question with regard to the house pads delineated here. The drawing actually shows 100 by 100 and I thought Kate our ordinance requires 60 by 60, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: Yeah. I’ll just comment on it a little bit because these are executive homes. They’re not going to be in a perfect box. You’re going to have a buyer that has specific needs and getting that lookout or that walkout, potentially a pool so I think what we wanted to do is have a rough estimate. I know the neighbors wanted to know exactly where the houses are going to go. Part of the challenge for engineering too is to make sure that we follow the lowest floor elevation and each lot falls within that certain range but you give flexibility to the builder who is trying to meet a buyer’s need so what we try to do is approximate what we think you know the shape is not going to be a square more than likely but that we try to estimate what we think is going to be the tree loss and that’s really to the neighbors so we don’t increase or decrease expectations. We try to be realistic in what we think will happen based on past practices of a typical executive home. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright, and other questions for the applicant at this point? With regard to the grading plan, that’s going to be a custom grade as opposed to a mass grade? 8 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Todd Simnig: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Could you explain that a little bit for people who may not understand the difference. Todd Simnig: You know we’ll actually, we’ll actually grade the private street coming in. We’ll put the private street in there but as we design each individual house, depending on whether it’s a two story, whether it’s a rambler, you know size, that’s one of the reasons why we showed a 100 by 100 pad. It’s always best to I guess over emphasize it and then tone it down versus giving a smaller pad and then saying oh boy, we need more. And so in this case they’re 1 to 2 acre lots and we really wanted to give everybody the opportunity to decide whether they wanted a rambler, two story, a walkout, or whatever and so at the time of every house that we design we’ll actually come up with a custom grading plan. Submit that to the City. The City will actually look back and review it over and give us the okay, whether it’s, here’s the trees that can go. Here’s the ones that can’t and here’s where the walkout will be and here’s where it won’t and so once we actually dig the foundation we’ll actually grade it out per that individual house. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Todd Simnig: And so our hope is to save as many trees, and that’s the interesting thing about this you know unique site is that there’s so many nice trees on it. We’re hoping to be able to save some of the bigger trees depending on the home design and hopefully we can encourage people, as we’re designing to say hey, there’s trees on this side over here. Let’s move the house over here a little bit and here’s what we can do with it and then we’ll go ahead and take down the trees that need to be and grade that out so that’s how the process would work. Mayor Furlong: Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Simnig, thank you. Todd Simnig: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Appreciate the comments this evening. Let’s go ahead and open up a public hearing with regard to the vacation of the drainage and utility easements and I would invite all interested parties to come forward with regard to that matter and address the council at this time. No? Okay. Thank you. Without objection we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to council for comments. Thoughts. Comments, thoughts, observations. Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Just I was, I went into the property earlier today and it’s kind of, I’m very excited to see the possibility of 3 new homes coming into Chanhassen obviously but I think it’s just a beautiful area and I think the developer is going to have a, they may have a hard time fighting people off from finding space there. Mayor Furlong: Such a problem. Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, such a problem and I just think that it’s, I think it’s a good addition for Chanhassen and I would support the, both the subdivision as well as the vacation of the utilities, or the easements. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other comments? Discussion. Councilwoman Ernst. 9 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilwoman Ernst: No, and I agree. I think the developer has done a great job of trying to accommodate the development and trying to save trees and I think it’s going to be a great area. Beautiful area so I would support it. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Mr. McDonald, any comments? Councilman McDonald: No comments. I’d say that again everybody’s done a real good job and I appreciate the fact that what he’s trying to do is custom build these within the lots so that there is a minimal damage to the landscape and such and so I look forward to it also. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. I think it’s a nice development. It’s a beautiful piece of property and will make very nice, nice spots for some new homes. I do also want to thank Ms. Aanenson, city staff for their recommendation with regard to the elimination of a conservation easements being placed on, new ones and moving it over to a preservation area and again, the reason we’re looking at this and I think credit is deserved as well for staff for saying that sometimes the one size fits all process doesn’t work. The whole reason we’re looking at these preservation areas is because anytime there’s a development we have to deal with the storm water runoff and there are some pretty nice natural features around this property that we want to try to minimize any effects from the development and one way to do that is to put in a stormwater pond, which we see all across our city. This particular site doesn’t really lend itself to that and so by looking for some other alternatives such as recognizing the heavily forested areas in some parts of this property and that the simple facts that plants absorb water and reduce runoff, reduce erosion themselves and utilize that I think makes a whole lot of sense so thank you for doing that. I think that’s absolutely the right way to go and I think by moving the, by looking at a preservation area and treating them similar to how we look at drainage and utility easements, that will also, one of our concerns always is to make sure we’re balancing public interest with private property rights. Each of these lots will be owned by someone and someone who wants to develop their property as they think is best for them and we want to try to encourage that but keep that balance there against the public interest of stormwater runoff and such and so I would encourage staff as the property owners, the new residents that move into these homes want to try to do some things perhaps in these preservation areas that we look to work with them flexibly so they can achieve their goals of home ownership and at the same time make sure that we’re looking out for the natural resources and so it’s, you know when applying best practices is good and that’s what we try to do all the time but we also recognize that there are, there are qualitative factors that are included in that quantitative process of identifying the areas and so I think there, to the extent that we can approach with some flexibility if requested by the property owners I think that would certainly be the right way to go and I think by establishing preservation areas I think that that’s appropriate. I did notice there was some, one of the conditions here under environmental, I think number 5 talks about some signage being put up. I assume that we don’t need to be doing that. I can’t imagine having signs in the back of my yard or someone else at the edge of an easement so if it’s a temporary sign and such for construction purposes, that would certainly make sense but if that’s something that we can remove as a condition or however you think. It’s number 5 under the Environmental Resource, if you see that. Kate Aanenson: Yep. Mayor Furlong: And again since this isn’t a conservation easement we obviously don’t need signage outlining such. But with that I commend staff and the developer and the property owner for working so well together. I think that the people that are going to be buying these lots are going to be buying wooded lots and that’s what they want to buy and so there’s going to be a natural hesitancy to be cutting down a bunch of trees, especially the significant ones and so by moving forward with the process that’s been laid out here with the custom grading and the permits on, when the site’s designed and as the, as Mr. Simnig said, you know work to preserve trees, I think that’s going to be everybody’s interest so I thank everybody for all their involvement in that. With that, this is a preliminary plat recommendation, correct? 10 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Kate Aanenson: Correct. Mayor Furlong: For preliminary and so this will come back to us with final. Is that the point, if we do a motion tonight eliminating references to conservation easements and replacing them with preservation areas, is that, can that language be incorporated in the final? Kate Aanenson: Yep. Yes Mayor, typically those. Mayor Furlong: Without us having to go through tonight. Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Typically we would make those changes as they come back on your consent typically agenda. Mayor Furlong: And that would be fine. That would be fine. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, would somebody like to make a motion? Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council, before you motion. I just wanted to emphasize the Mayor’s point. Typically we’ll sign anywhere from 50 to 60 encroachment agreements per year allowing residents to encroach into encroach into drainage and utility areas or setback areas so you know the same would hold to this development. If somebody would want to encroach in an area, our engineering department, Paul Oehme’s staff reviews those and works with Roger’s office to draft the necessary agreement. And then lastly the Mayor signs it and reviews it and. Mayor Furlong: Sometimes asks questions. Todd Gerhardt: Sometimes. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Would somebody like to make a motion? Councilwoman Ernst: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: So do we want to make the modification in here too with replacing the word. Mayor Furlong: Including the change in language from conservation to preservation? Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah. We just add that in. Mayor Furlong: Why don’t you add that in. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. I make a motion we approve the vacation of the drainage and utility easement and the preliminary plat creating 4 lots with a variance for the use of a private street subject to the conditions of the staff report and adoption of the Findings of Fact and replacing the word conservation with the word preservation. Mayor Furlong: Preservation areas. Todd Gerhardt: Eliminate item 5? 11 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Mayor Furlong: And eliminate item 5. Councilwoman Ernst: And eliminate number 5. Mayor Furlong: Under Environmental Resources. Councilwoman Ernst: Under Environmental Resources. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there a second for the motion? Councilman Laufenburger: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote. Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the City Council approve the preliminary plat creating four lots, plans prepared by Otto Associates dated 09/10/12, with a variance for the use of a private street, subject to the following conditions and adoption of the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation: Building Official Conditions: 1. The developer’s proposed street name, Wynsong Lane, is acceptable and shall be shown on the final plat of the property. 2. Demolition permits must be obtained before demolishing any structures on the site. 3. A final grading plan and soils report must be submitted to the Inspections Division before permits can be issued. 4. Retaining walls over four feet high require a permit and must be designed by a professional engineer. 5. Each lot must be provided with separate sewer and water services. Engineering Conditions: 1.The private road must be within a 30-foot wide access and maintenance easement recorded against all four properties. 2.At the end of the project, the developer must submit documentation stating that the private road meets a 7-ton design. 3.The developer shall work with the existing homeowner to minimize service disruption during construction. 4.Lot 1 has paid the sanitary sewer hook-up charge. 12 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 5.The sanitary sewer hook-up fees for Lots 2, 3 and 4 will be collected as set forth in the City Code at the rate in effect at the time. 6.No water hook-up charges are due with this plat. 7.The existing 12-inch drain tile and the proposed 4-inch drain tiles shall be privately owned and maintained. 8.Should the gas service to the existing home be relocated with this project, the existing service via Lake Harrison Circle must be cut according to CenterPoint Energy's requirements. 9.Staff will work with the developer's engineer to either realign the wall so that it lies entirely on one property, or draft an encroachment agreement for the wall, which would be recorded against both properties. Environmental Resource Specialist Conditions: 1.The applicant shall custom grade lots and work with staff to try to preserve any of the following trees currently proposed for removal: Lot 2: #78, #86, #97, #70 Lot 3: #49, #59, #63, #64, #66 Lot 4: #133, #134, #137, #138, #142, #143 2.Prior to grading, each lot shall install tree protection fencing at the edge of grading limits. 3.Building permit surveys for each lot shall be required to show all inventoried trees within the grading limits and 10 feet beyond and their removal or preservation status. Tree removal for each lot shall be approved by the city. 4.The applicant shall work with staff to develop conservation easements to preserve existing wooded areas on Lots 1, 3 and 4. Fire Marshal Conditions: 1. A three (3) foot clear space shall be maintained around the circumference of the fire hydrant per MSFC Section 508.5.5. 2. Nothing shall be placed in a manner that would prevent or hinder operation of the fire hydrant by firefighters per MSFC Section 508.5.4. 3. A street sign shall be installed at the street intersection prior to any new home construction per MSFC Section 505.2. 4. “ No Parking Fire Lane” signs shall be installed in the hammerhead turnaround. Contact Chanhassen Fire Marshal for location of signs . 13 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Parks & Recreation Conditions: 1.The developer shall pay park dedication fees at the rate in effect at the time of final plat approval concurrent with or prior to recording the final plat in lieu of parkland dedication or donation. Planning Conditions: 1.Revise the front lot line of Lot 1 to meet the 125-foot minimum lot width. Water Resources Coordinator Conditions: Surface Water Drainage and Treatment 1.Alternate stormwater management techniques will be allowed for the site. The proposal is to use enhanced buffers and tree preservation for volume reduction and stormwater management. Tree preservation areas must be contained within a legally recorded conservation easement before release of the final plat. The wetland buffer must be included within a drainage and utility easement or conservation easement. 2.Appropriate signage demarcating the boundary of the conservation easement must be placed by the applicant before release of the final plat. The signage must be at any point the easement boundary intersects with a property line, either existing or proposed, and any point of deflection greater than 10 degrees. At no point may the distance between signs be greater than 200 feet. Sign placement must be shown on a plan sheet. 3.Stormwater efficacy calculations shall be based upon Carver County Rules Calculator Version 1.1 or the Minnesota MIDS Calculator Worksheet. This worksheet shall be updated to reflect the conservation easement area and must exclude any wetland within the easement. 4.The eastern limit of the conservation easement on proposed Lot 4 shall be as shown in figure 2, protecting a wooded buffer at least 50 feet in width from the eastern wetland boundary and preserving trees 133, 134, 136 and 140. Natural Resource Protection 1.All wetland buffers shall meet the requirement codified in Sections 20-411 and 20-412 of city code. 2.Buffers not meeting the minimum requirements for native vegetation as required by code or being considered for enhanced buffers for stormwater management will require a vegetation management plan. 3.Appropriate signage demarcating the boundary of the wetland buffer must be placed by the applicant before release of the final plat. The signage must be at any point the buffer boundary intersects with a property line, either existing or proposed, and any point of 14 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 deflection greater than 10 degrees. At no point may the distance between signs be greater than 200 feet. Sign placement must be shown on a plan sheet. 4.Setbacks shall be labeled on the plan set as to if they are setbacks from the OHW of a Public Water or setbacks from a wetland buffer. 5.All tree protection fencing shall employee metal T-posts. Erosion and Sediment Control 1.All silt fences shall be machine sliced or heavy duty as defined in part 3886 of the MnDOT Standard Specifications for Construction 2005 Edition. 2.Those areas to be protected from grading, construction traffic, material stockpiling or other disturbance shall be clearly labeled on the plans and adequate protection in the form of fencing with metal T-posts shall be shown on the plans and installed prior to any earth- disturbing activities. This shall be included as part of the SWPPP. 3.Final stabilization must be shown on the grading plan. The graded areas contiguous to wetland 1 and wetland 2 must be stabilized with Method 2, 3 or 4 as defined in part 2575 of the MnDOT Standard Specifications for Construction 2005 Edition. 4.Seed mix or other method of establishing vegetation in disturbed areas shall be called out on the plan set. 5.A method of establishing native vegetation within the disturbed buffer areas shall be called out on the plans. 6.Sediment control best management practices shall be specified on the plan set for both culverts draining to wetlands. Strong preference shall be given to inlet protection. 7.It shall be the responsibility of the applicant to assure compliance with all other pertinent regulations and requirements, including, but not limited to NPDES permit requirements for phased development where the total disturbance associated with the common development exceeds the minimum threshold. 8.All applicable details shall be included within the plan set. The city can make these available to the applicant. Surface Water Management 1.The applicant shall provide the city with an exhibit quantifying those areas within conservation easement, wetland, and wetland buffer areas so that the fees accurately reflect the amount of developable land. 15 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 2. Based upon the information provided, SWMP fees due at Final Plat are estimated to be $33,305.60. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Resolution #2012-63: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the City Council adopt a resolution to vacate the drainage and utility easements on Lot 1, Block 1, Song Addition as shown on the attached exhibits prepared by Otto Associates. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Furlong: Comments or discussion from council. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yep. Well I just wanted to say that as everybody knows there was an election last week and spent a lot of time out campaigning and such and I just want to thank all the residents and everybody who allowed us to come up to their front door and knock on their door and spend some time talking to us. I know that a lot of people kind of get swamped out with all of this stuff but I’m really appreciative of everybody who supported both myself and also speaking for Ms. Tjornhom who’s not here right now but we are very grateful for everyone who would listen to us and we’re very grateful for all the support and the votes that we did receive so thank you Chanhassen and look forward to serving you for another 4 years. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And I think in that regard maybe if there are other comments about the election, earlier this evening the 5 of us sat as the Canvassing Board and approved the election results and voter turnout was very high in Chanhassen. I think we all appreciate that and thank everybody that took the time and effort to, in their day to come out and vote and that’s really, it’s a right that all of us have but it’s also a responsibility to exercise that right to be an informed voter and so we certainly appreciate everyone’s involvement in that. And I’d also like to thank Karen Engelhardt who is our Chief Election Officer in town. All the election judges. What do we have Mr. Gerhardt, about 120? Does that sound right or over 100 election judges many of whom spent their entire day from before 7:00 in the morning til after 8:00 at night at some of the polling places so there were a lot of changes in where people voted this year. It seemed to go fairly smoothly and that’s a credit to the planning ahead of time. The election judges on site and then also to the many partners, the churches and others that open their doors and allowed us in as a city to help us conduct our elections. We appreciate all their support as well. Other comments. Councilwoman Ernst: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I just want to talk a little bit about the Yellow Ribbon. What a great event at the Legion and I want to recognize Laurie because I know Laurie played a big part in that. Mayor Furlong: She did. 16 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilwoman Ernst: So from what I understand it was the largest turnout we’ve ever had and what a way to recognize our veterans. It was a great event so thank you for all the parts that you played in that. Mayor Furlong: Any other comments you’d like to add to that Ms. Hokkanen, as far as Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Committee? Laurie Hokkanen: Sure. Well first I’d like to say Terry Chung did a lot of the work. She was kind of the event co-chair but she did, you know I know she was up late the night before doing the last minute details. We had I think about 170 people that attended. When we started planning the event we hoped for 80 to 100. We thought that would be really great so when 170 came we were just absolutely thrilled. There were people that we had met that we knew had military connections. There were people that we had never met which was great. Our biggest challenge as an organization is trying to find military families. The Mayor said it really well. He said military families, it’s not so much that they need our help but it’s that we want to help them. We want to be able to say thank you. If we can you know take some snow shoveling off their plate, we’d like to do that but nobody wants to step forward and say you know me, me, I need help so we’re just trying to spread the word. It’s not that people need help most of the time but we would really like the opportunity to help and thank them. So yeah, I mean a great event. Thank you for the community support. I don’t want to forget to thank the American Legion. They paid for the breakfast. It’s not cheap to feed 170 people breakfast and I expected it to be you know maybe cinnamon rolls and juice and showed up to find prime rib, French toast, the whole 9 yards. Mayor Furlong: You’re going to get 300 people next year. Laurie Hokkanen: Yeah, it was a great event and thank you. I think you were all there so thank you so much for coming and supporting the organization and the effort. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other discussions, comments? Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Yep. Councilman Laufenburger: Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and of course that moves our council meeting but I had the great privilege of participating in both the Veteran’s Day program at Chaska Middle School West and also at Chapel Hill Academy and I just, my hat goes off to both of those organizations and the manner in which they make it important to teach and to model the behavior of both remembering and respecting the veterans and what the veterans have done to fight for and retain the freedoms that we all enjoy. It was especially meaningful for me as a veteran to see kids loudly cheering and waving a flag, now yes they were coached but, but they did it with such exuberance and such genuine joy that they were part of, they were part of something that, that they know to be important so to both of those organizations, to Chaska Middle School West, Chapel Hill Academy and I know there were others. I know St. Hubert’s had an event as well so I just think that these are the kinds of things, along with Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, tree lighting, Santa breakfast, these are the types of events that really continue to set Chanhassen apart as a community where people really strive to be a part of community events and we’re seeing that in so many different ways so I just, I applaud those organizations that choose to include remembering veterans or remembering holidays. It’s part of the fabric of the community. It’s wonderful. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I think to add to that too, we have a number of businesses in town that really go above and beyond recognizing veterans as well. I know if I start naming some I’m going to leave some out but I will name one and that’s on Saturday evening, or actually throughout the run at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater Bye Bye Birdie they are promoting and honoring veterans and I know the Saturday evening’s 17 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 performance was in honor of a wounded veteran from Waconia and his family and I think it was very well received by all in attendance. One, it’s a great show but two, just to see the reaction of the individuals. You could tell that it’s greatly appreciated when the veterans are honored. We have other businesses in town. I know Northcott received an award from the Department of Defense, did they not, last year recognizing their significant contributions to our veterans so Mr. Laufenburger, you raise a good point. Thank you for saying that and it goes through to our businesses as well in what they do day in and day out in terms of helping those who have served our country so Veteran’s Day is the time to recognize them and it’s nice to be involved in so many different events at that time. Any other public, council presentations? Administrative presentations, Mr. Gerhardt. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council, I’ve got one item. Just want to update you on the 41 trail and the portion from basically Minnetonka Middle School West to Chaska Road. I know, I think some of you were thinking this was going to come back yet this year. Talking with SRF, that project could not be rebid and awarded in a timely manner to try to get the work started yet this year and SRF had reservations in getting a real quality, competitive bid for something that would start in the spring of 2013 by awarding it now. Contractors kind of weigh their risk in what the petroleum price may be between now and spring and so the best time to bid this would probably be the January-February timeframe and staff is also looking at potentially applying for another grant for the crossing arms and working with the school district on that so we need some additional time to review the grant application and some of the criteria needed to submit that grant. But as to the trail segment and the stairs being a bid alternate, we would separate those out and just to see what the true cost of each of those individuals, we could move ahead with that or a combination of all 3 as bid alternates so just wanted to give you an update and make sure you’re aware of where that is in the pecking order here. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? Okay. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. Councilman Laufenburger: Just a question for Ms. Aanenson. Are you taking steps to fully populate the Planning Commission? Kate Aanenson: You know we talked about that but I think it’s probably wise, wisest to wait until we do all the applications. It’s a difficult time of the year to try to replace somebody, just because people are busy and I think it’s best that we stay in our regular calendar. We advised the rest of the commission that we do have 2 more meetings left and that, so I think we’re going to try to sail through to get to the first of the year and then we’ll kind of see where we’re at. We do have a full agenda in January-February. Because of how the holiday falls we actually have one meeting in January but we’re going to try to march through and of course we’ll ask the council that we be selected first when you’re interviewing candidates. But I think it’s best to take a bigger pool instead of just trying to. Councilman Laufenburger: And that timeframe generally is in the March to April timeframe, is that correct? Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Yes, and I think it, one of the Planning Commission members had to resign because they moved out of town and so it created the vacancy and that’s what Mr. Laufenburger’s referring to. 18 Chanhassen City Council – November 13, 2012 Councilman Laufenburger: Right. Mayor Furlong: What I would say as a general comment is every, at the beginning of every calendar year, the first quarter the City accepts applications for our 4 different commissions. Planning Commission, Senior Commission, Park and Rec and Environmental Commission. Those applications are generally received in the January-February timeframe. We conduct interviews in March and then appointments are made usually end of March, early April so I think here we would try to appoint early to the Planning Commission, especially with the vacancy. I’m not sure how many other commission members might have their term expiring but we can look at all of that. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, thank you Mayor. That’s one of the points I was going to bring up. You know there’ll be other people that may want to, may not want to reapply so it’s always a good chance for the council to look at skill set and kind of who’s on there and the mix and the make-up so. Mayor Furlong: But the big message there is for people listening at home, whether you’re interested in serving on a commission or you know somebody that might be, please encourage them to take a look at the City website. There’ll be applications there. There’s also descriptions of what the different commissions do and there may be some interest for them and we’re always looking for good people to be involved so that’s something that sometimes comes up quickly after the first of the year but would encourage people to take a look at that. Thank you for raising that point. Anything else on the correspondence packet? If not, if there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 19