CC 2004 02 23CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
FEBRUARY 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong called the work session to order at 5:40 p.m.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Ayotte, Councilman
Labatt, and Councilman Lundquist
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Peterson
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Justin Miller, Todd Hoffman, Kate
Aanenson, Bob Generous, and Paul Oehme
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Janet & Jerry Paulsen
7305 Laredo Drive
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Labatt
seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City
Manager's recommendations:
Approval of Minutes:
-City Council Work Session Minutes dated February 9, 2004
-City Council Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated February 9, 2004
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated January 20, 2004
-Planning Commission Summary & Verbatim Minutes dated February 3, 2004
-Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated January 27, 2004
Vasserman Ridge 3rd Addition:
1) Approval of Final Plat
2) Approval of Plans and Specifications and Development Contract
c. Approval of Cost Benefit Analysis for Financial Software.
d. Approve Certificate of Compliance, Bogema Addition.
Resolution #2004-08: Approval of Resolution Authorizing Membership in the
Hennepin County Chief' s Association and Approving an Agreement for Joint and
Cooperative Use of Fire Personnel and Equipment.
f. Accept Quote for 2004 Boulevard Tree Planting.
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Jerry Paulsen: Good evening, Jerry Paulsen. I live at 7305 Laredo Drive, Chanhassen.
I'd like to make some comments on item 5 which is the Chapter 18 amendments. Is it
more appropriate to wait to that comes up on the agenda later?
Mayor Furlong: If there's, ! know you sent us an e-mail today Mr. Paulsen. If you'd like
to address it now and maybe we can make sure that we address, because there are, ! think
there were 3 or 4 items on your e-mail. If those are the same ones.
Jerry Paulsen: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Maybe you could address those now. We'll make a note of it and be
sure to bring it up in conversation. If there's follow-up questions, we can deal with it at
that time. If that would be alright.
Jerry Paulsen: Thank you, I'll do it right now.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jerry Paulsen: There's two items in Chapter 18, proposed amendments to City Code that
we'd like to raise an issue with. Some of which information came up since Planning
Commission passed this partially at their last meeting. One of which is on Section 18-37
which are called exemptions from platting procedures. If! understand it right the City is
proposing that this falls under a category of what we call administrative subdivisions or
minor subdivisions as other cities call it. And what it does is allow property owners to
exchange property lines without going through any formal procedure like a public
hearing or Planning Commission review or like that. And we're questioning whether it's
appropriate to not have any conditions attached to it, as some other cities do. We found
that both Plymouth and Eden Prairie have conditions attached to that and the city is
taking the approach that state statute prohibits them from putting restrictions on and !
guess the question is, does state statute really prohibit our city from putting some kind of
filter or conditions on these subdivisions, so that's what I'd like to ask that question.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Jerry Paulsen: The other issue is with Section 18-61 which is under landscaping and tree
preservation. And this is basically what you refer to as a 60 by 60 pad, which is a
requirement to prove that the lot is large enough to accommodate a house, including
setbacks and deck and so forth. We'd like to see that stay in the code. The city is
proposing to strike that and replace it with a different set of circumstances. The 60 by 60
pad doesn't mean the house is going to be that big, but it's under design standards which
is a general category in the code and it does help preserve trees but that's not the only
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
reason. We see it as a way of making sure the lot is big enough. That the lot lines aren't
irregular, as some lots end up being 6 or 7 different sides, which can be kind of messy.
So the wetlands part of the code already has, or they have a 60 by 60 in there and ! think
it'd be appropriate to leave the 60 by 60 as such in the other part of the code. So with
that in mind I'd like to see a discussion or maybe going back to the Planning Commission
wasn't, some of the members weren't sold on this idea either so. ! think that's all.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. We're still within visitor presentations, if anybody
would like to speak on that issue or any other issues, this would be the time to come
forward. If there are none, then we'll go ahead and close our visitor presentations and
move on with our other agenda items.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: Tonight we will receive updates from both law enforcement and fire
department. Sergeant Jim Olson with Carver County Sheriff' s Department is here. Good
evening.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Good evening, thank you. I'd like to introduce Deputy Ken Brooks to
the City Council. Deputy works in the city of Chanhassen and he works our p.m. shift
which is from quarter to 4:00 to 2:00 in the morning. Ken has been with Carver County
Sheriff's Office since 1991, and has been in law enforcement since 1988. Prior to
coming here he worked in the City of Pequot Lakes and was a sergeant there. Ken
actually had a canine and it was one of the few bloodhound handlers in the state of
Minnesota and was running a bloodhound up in Pequot for a number of years and retired
the dog ! think prior to coming here or was it coming here.
Ken Brooks: He was active until ! came here.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Okay. Active until coming here, so Ken has quite a bit of experience.
I've had a number of calls and some good feedback on Ken in reference to his customer
service and follow-up's to calls and we're glad to have him. ! just want to introduce Ken
to the City Council this evening so.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Thank you.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Thank you Ken. For the City Council ! have our office area report for
the month of January. The area citation list. A copy of crime alert put out by Crime
Prevention Officer Beth Hoiseth, and also community service officer report that ! have.
For monthly numbers we were pretty static from this compared to last year. Our total
calls for service were up about 20 for the month. Our DWI's were up from 5 to 13 so we
had a few more of those. Both our theft and our property, or damage to property were
down last year. This month compared to last year. Or this year compared to last year !
should say. Theft was down quite a bit from 36 to 28 so that was a good thing. Our
accidents were up from 68 to 63. Our property damage accidents but our personal injury
accidents were down from 4 to 14. And you know driving was not real good in the
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
month of January, so the only thing I can think of is speeds were down quite a bit so we
had more accidents, however the injuries themselves were reduced because of the speeds.
You might also notice that our miscellaneous traffic was up from 65 to 85 and ! attribute
that to more cars in the ditch, because of the weather again. Miscellaneous traffic,
vehicles in the ditch is covered under that. Our alarms were up from 69 to 85. Traffic
stops were down a little bit from 168 to 144. Again, traffic driving was hampered last
month by the weather. Citations were about static for the month. 170 this year compared
to 172 for last year, so any questions on the monthly report?
Councilman Lundquist: Sergeant Olson, the DWI' s, 13 to 5, was that an intentional
activity that the sheriff' s office had out in play you know on a Friday night type thing or
is that just randomly how it happened?
Sgt. Jim Olson: I think there was one Safe and Sober project that the county did in the
month of January. There might have been one or two out that in the city of Chanhassen
itself. Some of that also is cars in the ditch and so on where people will go in the ditch
and you'll see some, an increase from that. And just.
Councilman Lundquist: So you're driving by to help them out of the ditch and then the
deputy discovers through that process that maybe there was some alcohol involved.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Correct, yes.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. And then suspicious activity, attribute that to a lot of the
alerts. ! know that both yourself and Beth work hard on getting those emails and those
types of alerts and things out. Is that, do you have any reason to believe that has just, the
level of awareness is leading to that, to those reports or again, just an anomaly?
Sgt. Jim Olson: You know that's something that Beth and I both push pretty hard as far
as if you see something that looks out of place, give us a call. That's not tracked from a
dispatch standpoint as far as what causes them to give us a call or anything but then !
would think that that would certainly have some type of an impact because we push it in
the papers. We push it at council meetings. These crime alerts, we do push that very
hard, and that was up from 71 to 100.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Ayotte.
Councilman Ayotte: ... about DWI's. I recall you talking about the time it takes to
process DUI, DWI. It used to be ! want to say 3 or 4 hours. Something along that line,
and ! understood that that was shortening. There was, something has happened to reduce
that time.
Sgt. Jim Olson: You know if we have a CSO that's on at the time of the.
Councilman Ayotte: I'm talking about legislation that's helped us shorten that process.
Has that occurred yet?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Sgt. Jim Olson: No.
Councilman Ayotte: There is something in the cue though to.
Sgt. Jim Olson: I know that they're looking at lowering it to a .08 but I don't know of
anything to shorten the time required to process one.
Councilman Ayotte: Would you mind checking it out. ! thought there was something on
the horizon.
Sgt. Jim Olson: I'll do some checking. I've not heard councilman. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Sergeant, as we see these numbers fluctuate from one year to the next in
the same month, ! guess one of the questions that ! have is, are you seeing any emerging
trends that we need to be aware of or that the residents and citizens need to be aware of as
we see some of these fluctuations. You know it sounds like snow and weather had a big
effect in terms of some of these January numbers, and if memory serves well, a year ago
January was pretty mild weather compared to this year. So is it that type of thing that it
can be, that what we're seeing here are more just the change in the weather as opposed to
some emerging trend and whether it's DUI's or other types of activities, or do you have
any sense there?
Sgt. Jim Olson: You know some of the real trends that ! have seen overall going up is
certainly medicals, alarm calls, you know accidents are going up progressively higher.
Generally a rate over the past 10 years so with the increase in the population and the
increases, you know not only population here but also west of here with people
commuting back and forth. ! think we will continue to see a general upswing in some of
those kinds of things.
Mayor Furlong: And more from a population and growth and development standpoint
those over the long term.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you.
Sgt. Jim Olson: A couple other things that I wanted to go over tonight. Winter parking.
I talked a little bit about winter parking last month and I just wanted to reiterate that
winter parking is in effect until April lst, so just because it quits snowing or snow starts
slowing down, you still need to abide by those winter parking rules until April lst of this
year so ! just wanted to make sure that everybody understood that, and that' s no parking
between 1:00 in the morning and 7:00 in the morning again, and if, or if there's 2 inches
or more of snow on the street. Until it' s plowed curb to curb. ! also want to talk with
you about solicitors. As it starts warming up a bit we start getting some solicitor
complaints. Solicitors should have a permit, a city issued permit with them if they are
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
authorized to sell things in the city and that does not mean that the city endorses them.
That just gives them the authority to sell items in the city. And Kate, maybe you can help
me out a little bit with this, but we will be the city has purchased an ID card, or an ID
maker that the solicitors will be issued and ! think that should be up and running a couple
months, somewhere in there.
Kate Aanenson: Probably sooner than that. Probably within the month.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, it's in the accounts payable. I've gotten a couple of questions
from council members. The badge machines in on this accounts payable.
Sgt. Jim Olson: But just for the public, once that's up and running, the solicitors should
have an ID tag with a picture of them on it for them to be allowed to solicit in the city of
Chanhassen. You know it's starting to get nicer out and as it starts to get nicer out, we
also see an increase in thefts and burglaries from open garage doors. ! just wanted to ask
people to make sure that their garage doors are closed. That if possible they park their
cars inside the garage. You know if they're parked on the driveway, take your valuables
out of it, and lock them and that' s very important. Hopefully we can help deter some of
those thefts that we start seeing in the spring and as it gets lighter outside. ! also wanted
to talk about the CSO calls for, total calls for service for the month of January. It is up
for this year compared to last year, but this year we also have two CSO's that are on that
are giving a total of 40 hours a week for coverage versus 30 hours last year.
Justin Miller: 60 rather than 40 total.
Sgt. Jim Olson: Oh I'm sorry, 60 rather than 40 for this year. I'm sorry, so, and that
certainly helps us out. They will take some of those calls from the deputies that we
would normally be responding to if somebody was not there so ! think that would reflect
quite a bit on why the numbers are up for the month of January this year compared to last
year. Any other questions or anything for the sheriff' s office from the council?
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you very much. Next on our agenda is report from
our fire department. ! see that Assistant Chief Randy Wahl is here this evening. Good
evening.
Randy Wahl: Mr. Mayor, Mr. City Manager, council members, good evening. My name
is Randy Wahl. ! am the newly elected Second Assistant Chief, replacing Mark Littfin
who has probably decided in his 30 plus years on the department to concentrate a little
more with his family and maybe maintain some larger duties within the city fire
marshal's office but, so I'll be taking over for Mark Littfin. Some of you may already
know me from the Relief Association. For those of you that don't know what that is,
allow me to briefly explain. The Relief Association is a separate entity within the fire
department. It has it's own state statutes. It has it's own by-laws. The only similarities
between the organization, fire department and relief is that it's comprised of members of
the fire department. The Relief Association is primarily responsible for the benefits for
the fire fighters. To the tune that the state probably finances 85 percent of that entity, and
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
with the municipality making up the additional 12 to 15 percent. Having said that, ! don't
know if anybody read yesterday' s paper regarding PERA Police and Fire and what' s been
going on with that. We're nowhere related so hopefully some of you can feel a little at
ease with that. But that is a whole different issue and ! believe the only member within
this department more so maybe with the city would be Mark Littfin. So the city's fire
department is not covered under PERA Police and Fire and hopefully those images don't
reflect us. As far as training goes, the department's still on track with the training
schedule. We've been practicing some of the instant command systems and recently
have done some dive training, and those guys, they've put in some late hours recently
doing some of their ice dive training. So ! commend them. The department is currently
trying to certify our rescue officer into a position that would enable us to recertify
annually our EMT's and first responders in-house. So that way we don't have to out
source it anymore and so we can probably cut down our costs in that regard. The
department also received recently about $700 from the County EMS awards group, and
what that primarily is for is an auto extrication train trainer program. We basically would
facilitate that grant, but open it up to the rest of the department within the county. The
rest of the fire departments, so we're going to be soliciting attendance for that and we'll
be proceeding with that shortly. The department also did receive recently a new radio
from the county, as the county was given a grant. Every department within the county
received a new radio as a result of that. The inspectors position, as you all probably well
know is going forward. ! believe they'll be starting interviews this week with that
process. Trying to get that position filled recently vacated by Greg Hayes. And then !
also recently forward to Mark Littfin another grant application that might fall in line more
with Beth and her department. Some Neighborhood Watch grant programs are out there
as part of the Homeland Security defense so. As far as some of the calls, we are down
about 26 calls year to date. We're at about 112. Figured we'd probably have a little
more given some of those recent weathers but that's probably part and parcel to some of
the priority dispatching that's been taking place and passing along some of the medical
calls onto the sheriff's office, so. As far as some of the recent calls that we've been on,
we did respond to a furnace fire. Dishwasher fire. A bathroom fire down in the
apartment complex. We've been requested for mutual aid by the cities of Eden Prairie
and Victoria for assistance at their stations. And we did respond recently to a bus versus
car P.I. recently on West 78th Street, and we can train for these things all year long but
when that call, when that type of call comes in, it's something that just plays over and
over and over in your head while you're trying to go to the scene. But Greg, or not Greg.
Dale Gregory and Mark Littfin were pretty quick on the scene and pretty much assessed
that it was a minor issue really. All the kids were pretty much evacuated off the bus and
stuff before we got there, so it was not really a big issue for us in that regard. With that,
let me give you a little more background as to who ! am. I'm a 14 year member of the
department. Having held some of the positions, hazmat specialist, 6 years of lieutenant,
11 years SCBA, 8 years ladder company, 6 years engine company, 2 years Carver County
hazmat response team, 14 year member of the relief. 8 as secretary, 6 as the current
president. I've been a resident of Chanhassen for 15 years with my wife and CFO of 17
years. ! have 3 daughters, all attending the Chaska School District. And like the chief!
am also employed by the Wateress Company. Greg is actually my boss during the day.
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Labatt: And at night.
Randy Wahl: The position there, ! am the Central U.S. Canadian Pump Sales Rep. What
can that do for me? It enables me to actually get around to full time departments,
volunteer departments, paid on call departments, all throughout central North America.
Which would enable me to bring back some of their ideas, skills and we may be able to
introduce some of that into our program at the fire department here. Some of the goals
that ! would like to see short term, make sure that this transition is a smooth one, which
has been going pretty well actually. ! can't thank Mark Littfin and his staff enough for
the assistance that they provide us on a daily basis without, without that group ! don't
know where we would begin to give you guys updates or be able to maintain that level of
professionalism that a lot of departments are expecting from us. Some of the long term
goals, ! want to see the review the 5 and 10 year plan. Most of you may already know
that the city is going to probably need a new engine in 2006. With the advent of the new
highway coming in on the south side, and the additional growth that it's going to be
bringing, we'll probably need to start reviewing some facility concepts on the south side
of town so, but that's more long term, 10 year out window than anything, but nonetheless
we'll still need to review that. That and then ! would like to try and get the emphasis
back onto the fact that we are a volunteer department. The only full time member that we
have at this point is Mark Littfin, and he is with the city staff and he holds a position of a
fire marshal. The rest of us are all volunteers. Some of us, or some of the perception out
there is that we are professional, full time fire fighters. We're not. We get interrupted all
throughout the day, all throughout the night, during holidays, birthdays, all kinds of
celebrations and the level of expectation amongst the membership is, is reflecting that but
! would still like to introduce a little level of, ! don't want to say fun, but make sure that
we don't burn anybody out by doing this. So ! would like to maintain that volunteer
status and really emphasize that so. We can maintain that level of professionalism.
We're just going to do it as paid on call volunteers, so with that, ! don't know if anybody
has any comments, questions regard that ! might need to bring back to the department.
Mayor Furlong: Questions? Councilman Ayotte?
Councilman Ayotte: What was the value of the neighborhood watch grant that you?
Randy Wahl: That was an early assessment. No dollar figures were given at that point
other than there are programs out there for that. There were programs for citizen
awareness groups, neighborhood watch programs. They didn't really attach a dollar
figure to it.
Councilman Ayotte: I was just wondering would it be, could we get a status of what
that's all about. Nothing's free but you know...
Randy Wahl: Right. ! did forward the entire memo to Mark in the form of an e-mail to
forward to Beth so.
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah, and I'm sure Mr. Gerhardt could extract that from Beth.
Another question, do you know the cost of the outsourcing? So if we have train to trainer
inside the department, what potential cost avoidance would we realize there? Do you
know?
Randy Wahl: The train the trainer program, from what ! recall is around, about $100.
About $100. To re-certify the entire department, EMT and first responder levels, ! would
venture to say bringing in Ridgeview and all the resources is around $1,500 to a couple
thousand.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. And one last question. ! hear the same thing from Chief
Wolff. He was a little bit more on the periphery than you were on the burnout issue on
volunteerism but do we have a mechanism to gauge whether or not burnout is a QA
viewpoint of it to check it out to see if we do have a potential for burnout on the fire
department?
Todd Gerhardt: Well ! think Randy and Greg have a pretty good handle on their staff
over there. When they realize certain people are pushing the envelope, they have
sabbatical capabilities.
Councilman Ayotte: So there's a procedure in place.
Randy Wahl: Yeah, we've got procedures in place that does allow for personnel to take
off personal time and time required for certain incidences and stuff so. But ! want to get
back to that volunteer status.
Councilman Ayotte: Good report, thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: ! just want to thank the whole volunteer fire department. They do a great
job and under your leadership and Greg's, ! think we're going to still improve over there
every day and thank you for what you do.
Randy Wahl: Great, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely, thanks.
AUTHORIZE PREPARATION OF FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR SEWER~
WATER AND STREET IMPROVEMENTS~ 2005 MUSA AREA.
Public Present:
Name Address
Mitch, Jill & Zachary Anderson
2853 Timberview Trail, Chaska
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. This item again for your
consideration is the authorization to prepare a feasibility study and award a contract to a
consultant for the 2005 MUSA area improvements. MUSA area improvements are
shown on this drawing here. They generally are included basically south of Lyman
Boulevard, west of Powers. The new Powers, county road to be constructed in the 212
project. Proposed 212 project. North of Pioneer Trail and east of Audubon. The
contract for, proposed contract for the feasibility study is proposed to be awarded to
Kimley-Horn and Associates in the amount of $42,300. While the city could wait for a
developer to petition.., feasibility staff, the city staff believes that it's in the best interest
to be proactive in this area and to basically get going on our feasibility study as soon as
we can. Basically it gives us a little more time to handle and review some of the costs,
the financing, assessments, to the benefiting property that would potentially be developed
in this area. And improvements that would be necessary prior to the development again
from 2005. Some of the items that would be addressed in the feasibility study would be
the extension of sanitary sewer and water main, the trunk water main. Improvements of
the existing roadway system in this area. Construction of east/west collector roads as
well on drainage. Storm water studies would also be addressed. Provide an estimate
project cost basically for allowing improvements. Provide project scheduling too when
things could, projects would be phased in potentially. Evaluate alternatives to minimize
cost related to proposed improvements and also financing assessment options for
improvements again on Lyman Boulevard and internally in the MUSA area. The contract
that is before you tonight for consideration again is a contract with Kimley-Horn in the
amount of $42,300.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for staff.
Councilman Ayotte: I see the, Matt got the quote on 3 February and the request for quote
or request proposal was prepared and issued when?
Paul Oehme: That was to Kimley-Horn? That was approximately I think about.
Todd Gerhardt: January. Early January.
Councilman Ayotte: Okay. So, and when did you come on board?
Paul Oehme: I came on the 20th of January.
Councilman Ayotte: Have you reviewed the scope?
Paul Oehme: Yes I have.
Councilman Ayotte: And you feel comfortable with it?
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Councilman Ayotte: Alright. That's it.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Lundquist: Paul, ! recognize the difference as you stated in your note that
you feel the differences Kimley-Horn's familiarity. Do you have any reservations that
we might not be getting all of the different opinions and ideas in that area with putting it
all in Kimley-Horn's boat so to speak? ! mean going with Bolton Menk, the other
contractor obviously is more costly but it's kind of a big deal down there for now and the
future between 212 and the MUSA and everything going on. Do you have any thoughts
that maybe bringing in another face and another new set of ideas might not be a bad
thing?
Paul Oehme: Sure, we did consider that. We feel that Kimley-Horn again knows this
area the best of all of our consultants. All of our consultants in the pool. They have, !
feel the most experience in these type of feasibility studies and these type of
development. Again ! think they work well with city staff and ! think it' s a good fit for
this project.
Councilman Lundquist: So you don't have any reservations about making sure that
you're getting everything that you need to get out of that or the city staff will be acting as
that check and balance in that entire area?
Paul Oehme: Right. Yeah obviously we're going to be bringing in the rest of the city
staff on this project to hire developers and ! think from our, from staff' s perspective !
think we'll definitely get a good product.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay. And Todd, what's the funding source? Where are these
dollars coming from?
Todd Gerhardt: We will recoup these dollars as a part of the feasibility study assessment
process, so we will assess it back to benefiting properties.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilman Labatt.
Councilman Labatt: He answered my question on the sensibility.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. ! guess the one question ! have maybe following up on
Councilman Lundquist's question is, as we went out and solicited two bids. ! know we
have more firms in our engineering pool than two. Why just two? Or why these two?
think we understand why Kimley-Horn but why just two?
Paul Oehme: ! think.
Mayor Furlong: And if this was before your time I'll defer the question to the City
Manager.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Todd Gerhardt: Well, Kimley-Horn definitely has the experience in working in the
AUAR area. We had other consultants working on other projects and Bolton Menk had
experience in feasibility studies and MUSA area and we just narrowed it down to two at
this time. Some of the other consultant pools that we're using, one's working on a trail
project. One's working on water treatment so right now we didn't want to double up on
consultants.
Councilman Lundquist: But you would be doubling up with Kimley-Horn though.
Todd Gerhardt: Well, you want to double up on that one so they have the similarities so
they can stay on the same track with 212. Have that knowledge and taking some of the
potential costs that we would be responsible for on 212 and potentially assessing those
back into the 2005-2010 MUSA areas.
Mayor Furlong: And we spoke tonight about, in our work session, or got an update on
the status of the 212 municipal consent process and in there were some assessment
values. Would some of those costs be also included in the feasibility study so if
somebody were to look at the information we got tonight in the feasibility study, could
there be some overlap? Turn lanes or utilities or trails. Those type of things so there
could be some overlap.
Paul Oehme: Absolutely. Trails. Widening of the bridge on Powers. The...projection,
project under 212 for the trail too. That's tied in to this development as well, so there's a
lot of similarities and a lot of continuity that we want to keep between the 212 project and
this feasibility study.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And then the final question ! have, from an awareness
standpoint, and that is the time table or the schedule of events here that are proposed
beginning this project early in March, completing it during the next 3-4 months. One of
the initiatives that as a council we talked about our strategic planning process this month
was to look at land uses within the 2005 MUSA area, as well as 212 corridor and such
like that. And so ! think we'll want to be addressing that early and concurrently here as
they're working on it just to make sure that we don't enter into any inefficiencies or do
things that have to be re-done.
Todd Gerhardt: This is a tentative schedule. We wanted to put it together. ! think Paul
made the point that we have some time on this one. We will definitely dual track it.
We're going to want to know what the land use are going to be in this area as we
determine future assessment practices that we're going to use, so staff is aware of that
and we'll dual track both.
Mayor Furlong: That's all ! had, thank you. Any other questions for staff?. If not, thank
you. Any discussion? Bring it back to council.
Councilman Labatt: No. ! think it certainly makes sense to go with Kimley-Horn.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong: Okay. I think too, you know as I understand sometimes we can wait
until a developer comes forward and generates this, and as something that we talked, this
is really when we approved the AUAR for this area back in, ! think it was December, we
were told the next step is this feasibility study so we're really just...
Kate Aanenson: IfI could just add one point to that.
Mayor Furlong: Certainly.
Kate Aanenson: We've been speaking to a lot of developers down there and one of the
main points of the AUAR was that we might want to consider building that road the
entire segment of that frontage road at once. And the property owners are all aware of
that and they know there's pending assessments and they want to be involved in the
hearing, because that might be the most economical way for that to happen so if
somebody's not ready to develop, somebody else is so...
Mayor Furlong: And that's one of the things that this study's going to be looking at.
Kate Aanenson: Exactly.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. ! think it makes sense. It's for good planning and gives really
the council and staff the road map if you will for this so. Any other discussion on this?
Councilman Labatt: Kate, we can assess back all $43,300, correct?
Kate Aanenson: That was the main point that Paul talked about too. That's what this
study's going to look at. Yeah, and what other assessments you're going to have, right.
Councilman Labatt: Yeah but ! mean, so we control our own destiny.
Kate Aanenson: Just like the AUAR will be assessed back too when they come in for
development, correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright.
Councilman Lundquist: My thoughts. ! threw up the 212 thing. I've been really happy
with the work that Kimley-Horn has done. John seems to be real thorough and does a
nice job for us. ! am still concerned though about having, not having another set of eyes
down there on what's going on, especially considering some of the things we still maybe
have up in the air with the AUAR and ! think it might not be a bad idea to get another set
of eyes on that, although the cost is considerably higher. You know we don't want to
make any mistakes down in the AUAR area either. To get that done, so although ! think
there's a lot of synergies that probably can be gained, this might be one time where we
want to get another set of eyes to take a look at what's going on.
Councilman Ayotte: Can ! ask for a point of clarification on that Mr. Mayor?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong: Certainly.
Councilman Ayotte: Are you saying, having another set of eyes to take a look at what
Kimley-Horn is doing or are you saying, widened these solicitation base?
Councilman Lundquist: I'm saying possibly go back and ask for another one or give the
job to Bolton & Menk for the higher amount.
Mayor Furlong: When you say go back and ask for another one, is that a consultant?
Councilman Lundquist: To another, yeah widen out the pool, and if we've got time to do
that. ! know that we want to get going as fast as we can but just my thoughts on an area
that's that big with as many things as we've still got going on in the AUAR and ! think
there's still a lot of concerns. ! still have some concerns about some of the information
and some of the mitigation things that were in there and you know not getting really
comfortable with those things. It's nothing, no dissatisfaction with Kimley-Horn but just
another set of eyes never hurts in my opinion.
Councilman Ayotte: Question?
Mayor Furlong: Certainly.
Councilman Ayotte: Would, ! mean there's been a certain amount of staff time
associated with getting up to this point and to Brian's point to add, what would the
solicitation process be to add a head to the vendor base to take another look?
Paul Oehme: Sure. We could solicit for another quote to our consultant. Probably you
know about 3 weeks probably to obtain another quote because due to the fact that the
AUAR area is so involved, there's a lot of information that the consultant would have to
digest before he'd give us a quote. A reasonable quote.
Councilman Ayotte: See when ! ask the question of Paul if he reviewed the scope, ! was
kind of getting to that point. He's a new guy on the block and if you started a week prior
to this, so now when you say yes, you're comfortable with it. Now the point that you're
bringing up, I'm wondering if there' s, I'm just worried about your feel for the scope and
what' s involved.
Paul Oehme: Again, I think from what I've seen in the background, of the time allocated,
! think Kimley-Horn has enough time allocated for the project. ! think they covered the
scopes or the items that ! think the city will value in the proposal. In a feasibility study. !
think that just based upon the background that Jon has, Kimley-Horn has with this area, !
think there might be some information that gets lost in translation from one consultant to
another. But like Councilmember Lundquist's point, that to get another eyes on this area,
just due to the fact that it is such an important area for us. Maybe just throw out an idea
that once we get a draft copy of the feasibility study, we have another consultant briefly
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
review it. Come up with some other points that may be, that they would have a chance to
look at. That way we do have another set of eyes looking at this area.
Councilman Ayotte: ! don't like the idea of expanding the vendor base only because if
we did extend that solicitation, and we had another guy come in at.
Councilman Lundquist: One dollar under?
Councilman Ayotte: Yeah, or you just have the same point, so going to your point, to
hire someone to validate that the, what's proposed and what was requested makes sense,
is a...
Mayor Furlong: ! guess one of the questions ! have, just so ! understand what you're
concerned about. ! didn't, you know a lot of things that the AUAR covered is not what,
this isn't going to be revisiting, as ! understand it, and Kate jump in. We're not going to
be revisiting the same issues. What we're doing is taking it, given where the AUAR is,
here's a plan, the feasibility to start to implement from the streets and utilities and such
like that so would the feasibility study look at for example the location of that east/west
connector and say is that a good place for it to be, or should it go some place else. Is it
going to be that type of level or is it just?
Paul Oehme: Yeah, the lines of the road ! think are going to be addressed more in depth.
Kate Aanenson: Speed, curvature.
Paul Oehme: Yep. We're actually in the feasibility study be identifying more or less the
infrastructure too. You know the pipe sizes and the grades that we think will be
necessary for the roadway project out there. More of the detail.
Mayor Furlong: It's the detail but we're not going to, would they be looking at and
saying, you know what we really don't need an east/west connector. We need a
north/south and so start changing that. That's not part of this?
Kate Aanenson: Some of the decisions that were left is, you know we talked about is,
how much development can occur. And just, if we can go back to Bob's question. How
did this feasibility, Matt started the feasibility. Planning staff looked at and when Paul
came on board we kind of went through it again so that everybody's up to speed so it
wasn't done with one person looking at it. Kind of in staff meeting kind of talking about
what are some of the issues out there that we want to make sure that are based on that
AUAR. One of the things that we talked about is what development can occur? What if
this development goes in place? What's the minimum threshold that needs to happen?
How are we going to pay for sewer extension so we've kind of all looked at it. It's like
you said, it's taking it to that next level. We kind of said these are the framework issues.
Now how do we make that happen? Who can go first? How can it get paid for? Who
can be assessed? What are the roads, if the county does, you know are these depending
on the county to put some of these improvements in? What we talked about on Lyman
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
and Audubon. There may be some widening. How do those get paid for so it's really
fine tuning it. We're not going to decide the road's not going in. That's a given as far as
the study. It says it has to go in there. What's the curvature going to be and all that stuff.
The speed design.
Paul Oehme: More of the engineering function.
Councilman Lundquist: They'll be taking that AUAR as the basis for it though, right?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Councilman Lundquist: So essentially that becomes their guide book on how to develop
the things?
Kate Aanenson: Correct. Yep.
Councilman Lundquist: So they will be looking at some of those mitigation things and
trying to put those into play?
Kate Aanenson: Exactly. That's exactly it. Right. So that's why going with Kimley-
Horn, because they were so grounded in it, and just kind of taking it to the next level.
More detail. More specific.
Councilman Lundquist: But that's exactly my thoughts on why we might want to have
another set of eyes because you know we might find some other thoughts and plans
around ways to mitigate things or different things. Different things that still feel are kind
of up in the air on the AUAR. We've accepted it. We've gone through it.
Kate Aanenson: We can do that but we've accepted the AUAR as a premise. If you're
going to amend the AUAR, then we have to go back through another process because that
is your framework. You can't deviate too much from that because we set that in place.
There's tweaking within that.
Councilman Lundquist: But as ! recall when we went through the AUAR acceptance
process, ! know myself ! specifically asked a question, you know what does this lock us
into. What are we agreeing to? What are we not agreeing to, and ! guess my
understanding was that, it's a guide to help. If what you're telling me now is our hands
are tied and we have to implement all those mitigation strategies as part of this, then !
guess then maybe we do need to go back at the AUAR because ! still have some, I've
been waiting for the feasibility study to come out and get more detail on some of those
things, and if what I'm understanding you're telling me is that we're locked into those
mitigation strategies and those things that came out of that, then I've got some real issues
and problems that we need to address as a whole in that area, because that wasn't my
understanding.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Kate Aanenson: The question when you ask about flexibility on land uses, and we said
as long as we stay within that threshold that we studied, that number is a fix. As long as
we stay within those traffic things. The mitigation strategies, again what we're talking up
here tonight is engineering issues, so if there's a broader brush. But the mitigation
strategies were noise. What was the biggest? Traffic. And that's kind of what this is
speaking to. Specifically what traffic things, what design speeds. Those sort of things so
that's what this study is going to look at more specifically.
Councilman Ayotte: So that feasibility study determines that what we thought to be a
part of the boundary for what we originally agreed to, needs to be altered, or the
feasibility study say that?
Kate Aanenson: I'm not sure I'm following that.
Paul Oehme: Can you repeat?
Councilman Ayotte: Well to Brian's point. If the feasibility study says this parameter
that we talked towards and we gave the nod, and it has to change, if the feasibility study
says from an engineering standpoint that traffic rate is way off. What latitude do we
have?
Paul Oehme: Well in terms of traffic, you know ! think there shouldn't be that much
deviation from what was projected in the AUAR. We know exactly, we know
approximately how many units would be potentially developed in this area. ! can't
foresee any significant traffic implications and that would be...
Councilman Ayotte: ! just grabbed traffic.
Paul Oehme: Exactly. Traffic or even wetlands. They're something that definitely
there's different techniques that we could look at, that maybe are outside the AUAR area
that maybe haven't been addressed but again, getting back to Lundquist's point, maybe if
we had a second consultant come in after and just give a different review of the feasibility
study, maybe that's a compromise that we could.
Councilman Lundquist: But what I'm hearing now ! guess makes me even more inclined
to push it another way and get another set of eyes. ! mean there's a lot of things, you
know the primary AUAR we had, you know we were talking about a school in one
corner. There was a lot of talk about worst case scenario on development and there's a
lot of things that are still up in the air on what's going on out there, and ! was looking at
this feasibility study as really getting into the details of what's going to happen. And by
taking the AUAR and saying assuming, ! mean we have some residents from Chaska here
that have voiced their concerns over the traffic several times. If you know, whoever this
engineering company is, is just going to take that AUAR and say well here' s where the
streets are. Now let's figure out how wide they've got to be. What the curvature is. All
of that. ! mean I'm still looking at somebody to say, are we sure that this is where the
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
streets all go and you know based on the feasibility of getting into the details, maybe the
soils don't work or whatever detail they're going to get into.
Paul Oehme: I think that's more or less staff's responsibility too to dive in and ask those
questions that you just raised in terms of traffic again. What school is not included, or
the school's not going to be included in the AUAR area, but obviously there's going to be
different traffic patterns. Traffic loadings on those streets. Obviously we'll be
addressing each of those, every one of those issues making sure that the consultant is
giving us correct data and a reasonable approach to how he's potentially going to address
those issues. So ! think from a traffic standpoint it's something that we'll take a look at.
We can mitigate, you know there's several traffic calming items that we can implement
in the design, you know if it warrants it. We can look at sending a letter techniques to
address those concerns that you guys have raised, but in terms of the entire scope of the
project, you know again ! think from my perspective, ! think it's something that the city
should focus in on is getting the best consultant on board that we can who has the most
knowledge of these particular projects and so we can try to put the best product out there.
Councilman Lundquist: And certainly, now ! guess as ! get a deeper understanding, it
makes sense why Kimley-Horn's bid would be so much lower because, ! mean ! would
assume what they're going to do is take all the work that they've already done and just
apply that. So ! guess it makes sense, and you know maybe this is a lot of my
misunderstanding on what the purpose of the AUAR is and what we agreed to then, and
so maybe I'm mixing up my issues here.
Kate Aanenson: Just to be clear. We modeled it with the worst case scenario, so whether
the school or industrial, the traffic would be at the max. No matter which way. It is for
both ways, so that doesn't change. And that road around there would service whether it's
industrial or the school. If it was a school, it' s probably be a private street. If it was an
industrial, it's probably be a public street so the trips would be the same. It's just
whether it's public or private. So I'm not sure there's as many variables as maybe we
think there might be.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: ! guess the question that ! would have, following up on Councilman
Lundquist's concern here. In terms of the scope of work, not necessarily the time
involved and therefore the fees from either of these consultant firms, but the scope of
work and the output, would you, is it going to be necessarily different between the two
firms, even though the fees being quoted are significantly different.
Paul Oehme: The output or the final product should be virtually the same. With the
existing data that we have, or will be collecting, they should be able to come up with the
same type of scenario or design that any other consultant would have.
Mayor Furlong: So the second set of eyes at this point, maybe it's getting back to you
know what, where you want that second set of eyes, and ! don't know that we need to go
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
back and re-open, but if we're getting about the same output, obviously or apparently
Kimley-Horn here is indeed building upon it's experience. It's already got the file. It
was intimately involved and so it doesn't have the learning curve that the other consultant
has. So that's why ! guess ! look at the output and if it's the same, unless we know that
there are some things that would benefit, and then ! guess I'd like to understand what
those benefits might be relative to the cost. But my sense is it's just more of a concern.
Councilman Lundquist: Well let me go back just for one more clarification, and humor
me if I've asked this question 3 times already, but this feasibility study we're required, no
matter who the consultant is, either one of these two, we are required to take the AUAR
and use that as the guide. Where do the streets go? Where do the sewer lines go? Where
everything goes, we have no recourse to go back and do anything but where all that stuff
is already drawn. Now we're just trying to figure out how wide the road has to be, and
all of that?
Kate Aanenson: Right. Again, there's other jurisdictions that commented on the AUAR.
The county says it has to touch down here. MnDot said it had to touch down here. So
what Kimley-Horn did is as part of this is, approximately this is the narrowest part of the
creek. This is probably where it's going to go, but they're going to fine tune that
alignment, but basically the touch down on either end is a fixed place because that's been
approved by two other agencies. So what Paul's saying is we'll be working with them to
figure out the curvature and exactly how it's going to cross the creek and those cross and
those sort of things. But there's a lot of fixed because other governmental agencies have
said they were fixed. On the storm water, we talked about regional ponding. We'll get
more specific input on some of that sort of thing too. And we've identified the wetlands
as a part of the AUAR. The ones we want to preserve and some of those sort of things
so, yeah.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other discussion? Comments?
Councilman Labatt: No. I just think the combination of our professional city staff and
Kimley-Horn and Associates, we can certainly utilize the savings of over $46,000.
Mayor Furlong: Hearing any other discussion, is there a motion?
Councilman Labatt: I'd move approval that we authorize preparation of feasibility study
with Kimley-Horn as the vendor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Ayotte: I'll second.
Mayor Furlong: Been made and seconded. Is there any discussion on the motion?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Lundquist: I would just say that I guess it probably does make sense but still
! guess a little bit disappointed in where we ended up with understanding on what we're
going forward here, but clearly under the circumstances with the majority of the big
decisions being made, it probably makes sense.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion?
Resolution #2004-09: Councilman Labatt moved, Councilman Ayotte seconded to
authorize preparation of a feasibility study for street and utility improvements
within the 2005 MUSA area and to approve a consultant work order with Kimley-
Horn & Associates in the amount of $43,300.00. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 18 OF CITY CODE~
SUBDIVISIONS; AND SUMMARY ORDINANCE FOR PUBLICATION
PURPOSES.
Bob Generous: Thank you Mr. Mayor, Council members. This is a culmination of
approximately a year work of trying to discuss the subdivision ordinance revisions to
make it work better. Revisions to make it more user friendly we hope. To let people
know exactly what they need to submit. The majority of this we believe is administrative
in nature. However, in our cover memo we point out the areas of contention. The first
one is in response to Mr. Paulsen's comment was the deletion of the first two sections of
Section 18-37, exemptions to the subdivision ordinance. These are currently exempted
from city review requirements so taking them out has no effect on them. We requested
that the city attorney look at the state statute requirements and he concurs that the change
of a lot line is not a subdivision by either state statute or by our definition that we've
adopted in the ordinance, so we don't have any formal review procedures taking it to
Planning Commission, City Council and any public notice requirement. That's currently
in place. We're deleting that because it seems to be confusing. Giving people the
impression that we have some type of authority to stop these lot line changes when we
really don't. ! have an example of a neighborhood that if someone were to come in and
request this corner of this property be combined with the property to the north, they'd be
able to do that. They don't have to get city approval for that because it's not a
subdivision. However across the street, this big lot, if they wanted to create two lots out
of the one, that is a subdivision and requires going through a hearing process. Either
Planning Commission and City Council or the metes and bounds approval by the City
Council. So Mr. Paulsen referenced the Eden Prairie ordinance. The minor subdivision
that's discussed in that is the creation of these two lots. Eden Prairie.
Mayor Furlong: Could you show that again?
Bob Generous: Creation of two lots from one lot. That's what they notice the neighbors
about and that could be approved administratively. ! believe the Plymouth ordinance
permits up to a 3 lot subdivision with this notice requirement to be done administratively,
provided that no neighbors object to it of course, so our ordinance is actually more
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
stringent. We don't allow the creation of a separate lot without going through a public
hearing process. Or a public process.
Councilman Labatt: So hypothetically speaking, let's say that Lot 13 gave that corner
triangle to Lot 14. And that new addition is enough to allow Lot 14 to subdivide.
Bob Generous: Then they would have to come in through the hearing process to get
approval for that additional lot.
Councilman Labatt: But are we creating a loophole to allow that? I'm just trying to.
Bob Generous: Well if you will, the loophole's already there.
Councilman Labatt: Okay, the loophole's.
Bob Generous: It's exempted already under our ordinance. We're just taking that, we're
proposing that that language be removed from the ordinance because it just says that
you're exempt from the subdivision requirement.
Councilman Labatt: Okay. Roger.
Mayor Furlong: Roger.
Councilman Ayotte: He brought his book.
Roger Knutson: ! brought a book. Try to make it simple? Our ability to regulate
subdivisions is a creation of statute. The statute say we can regulate subdivisions to the
extent that the city can. The statutes define subdivision, and I'll just read one line. This
is not a subdivision, according to state statutes. The adjustment of a lot line by the
relocation of a common boundary. By state statute is not a subdivision, and is not subject
to our subdivision regulations. That's all we're recognizing. Our current ordinance,
before you amend anything, already recognizes that in the definition of subdivision.
Reference has been made to the Eden Prairie ordinance, which ! just read tonight for the
first time, and the Plymouth ordinance which ! had a hand in writing. And then it also
recognizes, state limitation is, and as Councilman Labatt said, is there a loophole there?
Yeah, maybe you know you could call it that. Could some.., happen because of that
potentially but it's the state law. It's not under state law. It's been around for 30 years or
longer. ! don't remember how long. Since I've been practicing. That's the... You can
move your, adjust the property line and it's not a subdivision. And there's nothing we
can do about it. We can talk, if someone' s upset about it, they can talk to their legislators
and ask them to change the statute, but until that happens, that's the law. And it's not a
change from our current practice or in current application or what our ordinance says
now. Right now we just have something that's a little confusing and we're trying to
eliminate that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Bob Generous: The next one that, and ! had a handout tonight. In reviewing Section 18-
39(c) for the notice requirements. As part of the zoning ordinance we're reviewing what
our notice requirements are and what the statute requirements are, and we're trying to
make, for properties that abut a lake, the current ordinance requires that we notify
everyone around that lake whether or not there's any impacts to that lake. So if there's a
lot that's being subdivided, a corner of the lot's on a lake, we notify everyone on that lake
that they're proposing a subdivision. This tends to be onerous to those properties that
don't have any impacts on the lake, but may have to notice 200 homes. We've had this
recently where the person came in and their notice requirement was over $300 from the
city. And then most of the people don't care and they're not impacted. This language
that we're proposing is from the site plan review portion of the ordinance that says where
there' s impacts on the lake, it' s up to the community development director to determine
that and they, she may expand the notice area. So that was new. That resulted from our
search of the zoning ordinance.
Councilman Labatt: One more question?
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Labatt.
Councilman Labatt: Bob, another question. We'll call it a very parochial issue then.
When Pulte came into town, in with plans. The Longacres neighborhood, which is
beyond the 500 feet requirement, however very visible to this development. So how do
we take into effect when you have a large expansion of land that isn't a body of water, to
apply those same standards for the lakeshore owners to the owners of natural wetlands
that extend.
Kate Aanenson: Just as, the state law requires 300 feet. We do 500 feet. So we already
exceed that. What we try to do in those situations, if there's an association president or
homeowners association, we try to contact them. We can notify at 700 foot and the
person at 800 person will say ! didn't get noticed. It's where you draw the line so you
know, when we... notice and then we know people are talking together and that' s a good
thing. ! think the neighbors are talking, you know. So we do go beyond the statutory
requirement for our notice so, and again, we try to use discretion. If it's on this street,
cover the whole street and we do that all the time. We do that on the school site. We
went well beyond the school district boundaries. What was 500 feet.
Todd Gerhardt: We do it on every application.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, we do it on a lot, but when you've got someone doing a
remodeling on a lake that' s not on the lake side, it' s on the front side and needs the
setback on the front, and we notify the whole lake and they come in for a variance, it's
onerous when it's $400 or $500 extra. So we just want that discretion. If you know
they're putting in additional dock or impacting lakeshore requirements, then we certainly
want to notice, let people know so we're just saying that we think there should be some
flexibility.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Labatt: Good, okay.
Bob Generous: Okay. Now on page 2 of the cover memo, Section 18-57. It's just the
street standards. It's everyone concurred, we're going to recommend that the City adopt
our current detail plate as the requirement pavement width. Originally the Planning
Commission had proposed that we go with a higher standard. To the last go around they
agreed with the engineering department to go down. On page 2, the Section 18-61 (c).
This shows up on page 11 of the strike through and bold format. This is when a
subdivider comes in and begins to, begins the subdivision review process and during that
timeframe he goes out and begins to clear a site of trees and allows the city to help that
process. Require the developer to do a resurvey if you will of the tree canopy coverage
and the tree removal area, and we propose that we penalize for that and make them
replace that and revise their landscaping plan to meet that. Because they've changed the
conditions while the process has been started. We should point out that, normally
residents can remove an individual tree or two on their property. The zoning ordinance
only prohibits the clear cutting of trees on a property and clear cutting is defined as
removing a complete stand of trees on the lot. So Section 18-61(d)(4). This is the
portion that Mr. Paulsen referenced the 60 by 60 building pad. It shows up on page 14 of
the strike through and bold format of the proposed revisions. This section was originally
adopted to determine what the tree removal area of a lot was when we did not have a
specific building plan, because as part of our tree protection ordinance we have to
estimate tree removal. The 60 by 60 pad, the city forester has determined through review
of subdivision that that doesn't actually count the total area that is impacted is as part of a
subdivision review. She suggested and the Planning Commission concurred that maybe
we should look at this front 105 feet of the lot. Now the 105 feet came up from us
looking at the, a typical, or there were ten typical lots that we had. We included the
entire buildable area so squared up the building pad and then we took the average of that,
so that came to the average lot or house depth was 47 feet. In addition you have the front
30 foot setback. We also included a 12 foot deck and that came to 104 feet, and then we
just added the one foot so it was a round number for people to look at. We're saying for
that first 105 feet of the lot, we're estimating as part of the tree removal, that all the trees
in there will be removed. Now, if at the other end of the development project, the
developer is actually able to save those trees, he would be able to count the saved trees
against his required planting requirements. But up front it's a way for us to determine the
tree removal level on the property. We did look at other communities to see whether or
not their ordinances were better and provided more information, and these are examples
of it. Comparing, we took the Burlwood development, because we had the information.
If you look at, we looked at Maple Grove and Eden Prairie because their ordinances
looked like they may provide additional enhanced protection. However in comparing
their ordinance against what the city's ordinance was, for Maple Grove there were no
replacement trees required as part of the Burlwood development. And then for Eden
Prairie there were 29 2 inch trees required as replacement. Under the city' s ordinance we
required a 43 tree replacement on the property, so it seemed, it appears that our ordinance
does a better job, at least for the tree protection and tree replacement requirements than
other ordinances. For the Ashling Meadows, the same thing. We looked at Maple
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Grove. Their ordinance would require zero tree replacement. The city of Eden Prairie's
ordinance would require 2 trees to replace it and our ordinance required 19. So we
believe our ordinance has worked and does provide a higher degree of tree preservation
and protection. Section 18-61 (d)(5) is the, it shows up on page 15 of the strike through
and bold format. This deals with once a development has an approved landscaping and
tree protection plan, if the developer, and by inference any of the builders on the property
come in and remove trees that were slated to be saved or protected, then they have to pay
a fine. Originally the Planning Commission wanted $500. They did in the last go around
recommend that there be a $300 per diameter inch fine on that. In addition, the developer
or builder would have to replace those trees on a 2 to 1 basis. The 2 to 1 replacement is
part of the current ordinance. The Planning Commission felt that builders were looking
at this tree requirement as a cost of business and if it made it easier for them to put in a
big home, they'd just ignore the tree protection and so they wanted to give a little teeth to
the ordinance. And then finally on page 18 of the strike through and bold format, Section
18-78(b)(5). We drafted some potential criteria for determining when sidewalks would
be included as part of a development, and basically is if we have existing sidewalks in
adjacent properties, adjacent subdivisions, we want to continue that. If the development
was adjacent to a commercial area, we'd want to provide a sidewalk to get people to that
or to a trail system or a park. We're proposing that these criteria be used to help us in
determining when sidewalks will be included in developments. Staff is recommending
approval of the ordinance amending Chapter 18 with the revision that ! provided tonight,
and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff.
Councilman Labatt: Bob, just one more question. On that sidewalk issue, we're not
locking ourself in a room here with street project, since this is an area, or section (b).
Connected to neighborhoods or adjacent schools, since this is in the school walk zone or
by saying the word sidewalks may be required.
Kate Aanenson: Right, this is the criteria.
Bob Generous: Discretionary on the City Council's part to determine whether or not they
would be required as part of a subdivision.
Councilman Labatt: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Councilman Labatt.
Councilman Labatt: Bob, ! thank you very much for that tree comparison. I've often sat
up here and wondered, you know are we doing the best we can and obviously with what
we have here, that was very informative, thank you. That's all ! have.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, other questions?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Ayotte: Going back to 18-78. Is there, the following criteria shall be used in
determining if sidewalks are to be included in development. To follow that initial
comments, sidewalks may be required. Would it provide that latitude to say sidewalks
may be included in the development, because again, when you take a look at that criteria,
if you don't keep on stressing the word may throughout, you're going to have an issue.
Kate Aanenson: Leave it up to the attorney to word smith that.
Councilman Ayotte: He's looking at his book again.
Kate Aanenson: Page 18.
Todd Gerhardt: Page 187
Councilman Ayotte: 17.
Roger Knutson: If you change the second, the following criteria may be used in
determining.
Councilman Ayotte: Sidewalks may be included in a development.
Roger Knutson: May be required, the following criteria shall be used in determining.
Kate Aanenson: Should that shall be a may? The second one.
Councilman Labatt: Scratch that second shall you mean, you're saying?
Roger Knutson: ! think it'd be good to change that second one to a may would be fine.
Kate Aanenson: The goal is to make it discretionary.
Councilman Ayotte: That's my point.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, right. They just add some criteria.
Councilman Labatt: So does our redevelopment of that street project.
Kate Aanenson: I'd have to ask.
Councilman Labatt: ! mean.
Roger Knutson: This is subdivision ordinance.
Councilman Labatt: This talks about subdivision.
Roger Knutson: If you went in for a subdivision, this doesn't apply to you.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Todd Gerhardt: This places a condition on the subdivision. If you go through a street
reconstruction.
Councilman Labatt: It's another issue.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Other questions? Not at this time. If there are no other
questions, I'll bring it back to council for discussion.
Councilman Lundquist: Thoughts on 18-61. At the risk of offending our members of the
Sierra Club, ! think we're spending a lot of time and effort on trees. Not that trees are a
bad thing, but ! mean ! look at these ordinances and ! think, you know, you have to have
a PhD to figure out what's going on and the one that ! really have an issue with is the
financial penalties. 18-61 (d)(5).
Councilman Ayotte: Say it again?
Councilman Lundquist: 18-61 (d)(5). ! guess ! have an issue with putting penalties, not
only from a, it just seems like, you know we're kind of getting back into the thing like we
talked before. ! understand the Planning Commission wanting to put some teeth into the
ordinance, but when ! picture this, these things out here, ! mean ! picture, you know that
we're worried about a developer sneaking out at night and cutting down a tree so they can
put their house there. Or build a bigger house and you know ! guess, and I'll use Bob's
example of what we've got as far as our existing tree ordinance. It seems like we're,
although that's one of our trademarks is our tree preservation and the things that we do to
maintain that, that we're getting a little bit over the top when it comes to dealing with
some of these things and one of our goals with this council has been to remove the, you
know some of the onerous things that we do and that we put forth for our residents and
our developers in trying to get some of these things through. We use that nasty term that
we all don't like to use, so ! won't say it, but this one is pushing the limit for me to that
so, I'm not comfortable with the penalty phase and a lot of the things that are on. You
know 2 for 1 seems like it's already you know a penalty for the developers. Having that
financial penalty, now we're getting into all kinds of crazy stuff. ! mean who's going to
go out and measure the trees? Is it a 3 inch tree? Is it a 4 inch tree? Is it a 5 inch tree
and you know, it just seems to me like there's a lot of stuff going on there that we're
taking it a little bit over the top. So other than that, I'm comfortable with what's in. !
like the staff' s re-wording of the landscaping and tree preservation piece on 18-61 (c) to
just halt it instead of starting all over. Again, ! think that's a good compromise to making
sure that we're keeping an eye on our developers to do the right thing, but you know
asking them to scrap what they've done and start all over just seems a little bit ridiculous
so ! think that's an example of more along the lines of what I'd be more comfortable with
as far as the rest of the 18-61. Let's take another look at that tree thing and maybe some
of that lot size calculations and all of that type of stuff and take another stab at that. See
if we can't come up with something that's not quite so restrictive and over the top.
26
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Other comments. Councilman Ayotte, anything?
No?
Councilman Labatt: Just to follow up on Brian a little bit and offer another perspective.
Vasserman Ridge. Lundgren Brothers and they came in and developed that. Their plans
include a complete inventory of all trees on the site. So you know whether it' s a 22 inch
oak tree or a 6 inch maple or whatever. That's all done by the developer, right?
Kate Aanenson: That's correct.
Councilman Labatt: Is there benefit in having that done?
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Councilman Labatt: Okay. The problem with, on Lake Minnewashta with Boyer when
they completed what they completed up there. Developers do stuff behind the city's
back. And ! guess it's no different than a fisherman going out there on Lake Minnetonka
and catching 75 crappies. If you get caught, you're going to pay restitution for each
crappie over your limit, per fish. So if you're going to go out there, whether it's the
middle of the night, on a weekend, or you're just going to do it during the week and cut
down trees you shouldn't cut down, by gosh you should get punished if you're caught.
And the ordinance we had in effect when Boyer did their work up there, didn't have a lot
of teeth behind it. We got caught with our pants down so to speak. I'm not going to sit
up here and open up a loophole and allow the developers to come back and in essence cut
down just to maximize their total area so ! strongly support the 300 per diameter inch in
there just as a preventative medicine for them. Just so they know it's there and if you get
caught, you're going to get dinged pretty darn good. What happened on Lake
Minnewashta was a travesty up there, what that developer got away with and we're only
going, by showing leniency in here, it's going to happen again.
Councilman Lundquist: Just for clarification, our current ordinance has a 2 for 1
replacement of protected trees, just not the financial penalty.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: And ! guess for clarification to the issue, was it Boyer that you
mentioned? At what point did they do that? Was that during the process as opposed to
taking trees down after approval? Protected trees.
Bob Generous: Part of.
Mayor Furlong: It was before the approval occurred.
Bob Generous: Before final approval.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Kate Aanenson: We were trying to protect some trees. They chose not to.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And so I think there' s, I understand what you're saying
Councilman Labatt. ! think from, where I'm struggling, first of all I'll go back. On most
of the issues here that we've talked about, ! concur. The ones where I'm struggling is in
the trees and the penalties that are being added at this point, and if we need to do that,
then maybe we need to make sure that we do that right. In addition to, it sounds like
from a tree replacement policy, for the example that we received this evening, we're
demanding more out of developers in this town than other cities are, from the ones that
we're aware of already. And this would be on top of that. Adding more on top of that. !
think, if I'm understanding correctly, the issue that was brought up on Lake
Minnewashta, since that was during the process, that wouldn't even be a function of this
$300 per diameter inch, the way I'm reading this because that would, this $300 is being
proposed this evening to be added on top of the replacement policy is for trees in a
protected area of an already approved development. ! guess ! look at that and in some
cases ! think if it's a travesty, you know $300 may not be enough. If it's not, and ! think
reasonable people can look at a situation and know when somebody did something
wrong. And we can also look at a situation and say you know what, even though it
occurred, are the penalties warranted. ! guess the question ! have is should we be
building some discretion in here for council. Whether that's the 5 of us or future.
Councilman Labatt: ! think that we have that now with our liquor license. Fact of the
matter is, if you sell to an under aged person you lose your license in the first offense for
3 days and you pay a fine. We have the latitude in that liquor license and we've used it
against my judgment but we've waived the 3 day suspension. So anyway, with all
ordinances and penalties there's room for discretion. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: And ! think in a liquor license there is language that talks about just that.
The ability to evaluate the facts and circumstances. ! don't know, and I'll defer here to
the attorney whether that's there. ! guess as ! look at this this evening, you know I'd like
more work done and gain some more comfort on the two penalty clauses that are being
added with regard to trees. Tree removal, clear cutting obviously is going through and as
! understand, taking all the trees out. Tree removal, if there's one taken down as part of
the process, suddenly everything gets put on hold. If it's one tree versus 100 trees, that's
a different situation. So maybe there should be some discretion there. And from a
replacement policy or if it goes on hold until they recalculate, what ! don't understand is
during the application process, so I'm back on 5(c) here. Without that penalty phase
where it could be beneficial to the developer to do that or not. ! don't, and that's a
function of how those calculations would work. So ! guess what I'm saying right now
that I'm comfortable with going forward and ! think we can do it because both of these
are being added to our ordinances, not necessarily current practices that we're trying to
clean up, which we've been throughout the code. ! would be comfortable going forward
with everything that's been proposed here, including the sidewalks because ! think that
gives us something to work with. But except for these two items under whichever code
we're in, 5(c). 18-61(5)(c) and 18, where am I? Help me here.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Lundquist: 61 (5)(d).
Mayor Furlong: 61-6 that brings in the dollar amount. ! think the memo is off unless I'm
looking at, on page 15 is what I'm looking at. Because we still have, if somebody goes
into a protected area, there's already in place the replacement policy, which we heard this
evening is greater than what other cities are doing. So ! don't want to get into a piling on
here but ! guess ! want to understand that. So just a twist on how I'm looking at all this,
we've got a lot of information. I'm focusing on these two items saying I'd be
comfortable going forward with everything, excluding these two items tonight, and then
if this is something that we need to review or talk about, let's do that and we can always
bring it back in because again, these are items that are being added on top of our current
practices. And the reason we got into all these code reviews was to update the code to
match our current practice.
Councilman Ayotte: With a time line Mayor to bring it back to.
Mayor Furlong: Sure.
Councilman Ayotte: So you're saying that staff work those two more and bring it back to
US.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah. My concern is building in discretion rather than fixed. Here it is,
bang because situations are different. To the extent that that's possible. And just, ! guess
understanding if indeed, if we are already protecting our trees better than all other cities,
do we need to keep protecting them more. From a reasonable standpoint so.
Councilman Labatt: But they're still cutting them down. With the ordinance we have, it
still doesn't.
Mayor Furlong: But in the example, and that's fine. The example that ! want to
understand is, is this going to do what we want it to do and ! guess we're trying to
understand that better.
Kate Aanenson: ! think we can come back with some examples and make sure, the
difference in here is pre-building, once the homeowner's in and show how, some real
cases so you can understand what's happening. I'll give you examples of people that
have done that and what the implications would be. With this new ordinance. Some
different language too.
Mayor Furlong: Good.
Councilman Ayotte: But the intent is, based on, I want to see the contractor's name.., but
what we're trying to do is to have the ability to, on a case by case basis, determine what
the penalty ought to be. Is that?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Mayor Furlong: I'm saying, if this situation which occurred, that's an example. I'm sure
that we have developers that build in this city that wouldn't do that. And accidents
happen and things that are done intentionally also happen. And ! think what we need to
do is build our ordinance to deal with the intentional issues and often times that's a
decision that the 5 people sitting in these chairs, whoever they happen to be, need to deal
with.
Councilman Labatt: So how would you suggest the accidental one happens where a
contractor goes to the wrong lot under construction and clear cuts it?
Councilman Lundquist: You're not necessarily talking clear cutting. You're talking
about.
Councilman Labatt: No, this is what happened to one of my neighbors when it was under
construction. You know which one but, and ! want to use this as an example of when
they go in there and you cut every tree down in the back yard, when they go in there for
the final staking and say this is the position of the house and they realize every tree's
been cut down, how do you then go back and say well, it was a mistake. Yes, it was a
mistake. Officer, ! didn't mean to speed 71 miles an hour in a 65 zone. Mistakes happen.
How do you punish that guy? How, are you just going to say well, ah that's too bad.
Accidents happen. No big deal, or are you going to put some teeth in behind the city
ordinance and say no, you know we realize it's a mistake. You cut down 27 trees. All
between 6 and 12 inches in diameter. Here's your fine amount. Here's your appeal
notice to the City Council.
Councilman Lundquist: Steve, to use your example, you don't get a speeding ticket
every time you go 71 in a 65.
Councilman Labatt: That's why you have the discretion. We, as a governing body here
have discretion, have this guy come in and appeal his violation of the ordinance to us and
we have final decision as a body here of what his penalty's going to be.
Councilman Lundquist: Right, and all we're asking, ! think the mayor and ! is that let's
put that, let's build that discretion in at the start. ! mean the way this thing reads now, the
way ! read it is you know, the damage or removal of protected trees, if you have
somebody out there that is driving their boom truck around delivering shingles and the
guy scraps a large tree and damages it, ! mean we could come up and slap him, you know
we'd be required to slap him with a fine, $300 per diameter inch because the guy cut it a
little close and you know, maybe you do anyway but maybe you don't. So ! think what, !
know what I'm looking for is a little bit of let's put some discretion in here for those
things that don't necessarily fall into the black and white. The egregious type things
where you say, the guy comes in and cuts 25 trees or whatever the amount is, that's, you
know people don't make mistakes like accidentally cutting down 25 trees. Then that's a
little bit different so, ! mean ! want to make sure that we're maintaining our, you know
that's one of our standing points in Chanhassen is our tree preservation and things and
that's a wonderful thing. But this one just seems to be a little bit like we could be getting
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
ourselves into a mess that we don't always want to be in and build in some discretion
ahead of time is probably the prudent thing to do.
Councilman Ayotte: Well, I want to go back to the contractor that we dealt with before.
Sometimes I think you ought to be very, very extreme, even more so than what we were
talking towards. Almost a threshold level that someone who removes an entire stand of
trees, that requires a very stern penalty, and I don't think this provides a stern enough
penalty, to be real honest with you in that case. And I see penalties outside of the fee
issue. You can't do business in Chanhassen for blank period of time. For certain
violations. I see that extreme activity because it's obviously a developer that has only his
own interest in mind, so I don't mind the idea of re-visiting it but I'm interested in having
a very extreme solution for those types of folks that step over the line.
Councilman Lundquist: If you build that discretion in ahead of time, then you can go
there. ! mean make it $10,000 per diameter inch. You know if you build that up to and
including or something like that where, you know if you really want to, if it' s something
that's nasty and you want to get them, then you've got the penalty there. So yeah, ! hear
you. That's certainly another option to have as long as you put that discretion in there
that allows some latitude.
Councilman Ayotte: And this is an important issue for Chanhassen from an
environmental standpoint.
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely.
Councilman Ayotte: And I'd like to hear Craig's view on it too because of that aspect
but if we were to take that approach and make it a wider range of scenarios, I'd like to see
a very extreme scenario. How far can we push the law? Because there are some folks
that ! would like to see not do business in Chanhassen based on what they've done.
Mayor Furlong: And that makes sense, and at the same time not everybody that's a
developer that works in Chanhassen would find themselves in that position, and that's
where ! think we need to build in discretion and we're trying to move back and forth
between so many hundred dollars per diameter inch and maybe Councilman Ayotte what
you're saying is maybe there's some different formulas as well from a, depending on the
facts and circumstances of the particular situation.
Councilman Labatt: Yeah. I mean I think if you use the, similar to what the sheriff' s
office uses for the spring road weight restrictions.
Councilman Ayotte: Say that again.
Councilman Labatt: The spring road weight restrictions on large vehicles. The axle
weight. You know you're allowed up to 3 ton or 4 ton, whatever the road may be, and if
a cement truck gets caught going down the road, and they are 20,000 pounds over weight,
they pay X amount based upon a fee schedule. If they're 80,000 pounds, they're going to
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
pay a huge fine. The heavier you are, the more you pay. So maybe what we come up
with is a scale and you're going to say well okay, you cut down 27 trees for a gross total
of 2,000 inches or whatever, and you have a fine up to and including this. You build in a
zone or an area where for every 1 inch to 50 inch. From 51 inches to 100 inches. From
101 inches to 200. As you go up and the more cutting you do, the bigger penalty you
get. You know and ! agree.
Mayor Furlong: And ! don't know that we're going to come up with that tonight.
Councilman Labatt: And we're not. No, this is for staff to decide but you know for the
guy that wants to put a deck on and goes out there and whacks off one tree, that' s dying
anyway or something. You know we all got a dead tree in our yard or two we'd like to
get rid of, but there is some latitude and leeway that we need to establish and have some
discretion, but for the developer, and ! don't know if you can use the one over on the west
side of Lake Susan, when that was under construction, but there were some, that'd be a
good one to use there too.
Mayor Furlong: It sounds like unfortunately we have some experiences...
Councilman Labatt: We do, and ! think that's why the Planning Commission and these
people.
Kate Aanenson: It's emotional.
Mayor Furlong: That's fine, and it is emotional and, but I think at the same time we
probably have some examples where events occurred that if it was like this, whether it's
accidental. Now clear cutting the wrong lot, that's a big boo boo, but you know there are
other examples.
Councilman Ayotte: Boo boo ! understand. Efficacy ! don't.
Mayor Furlong: I'll bring you along Bob. Stay with me.
Councilman Labatt: Okay, so ifI understand you right, you want to go with everything
else and we'll kind of more or less pull out, or just table it until.
Mayor Furlong: The changes to 18-61.
Roger Knutson: Just 18-61 (d)(5)?
Councilman Labatt: (d)(5)(c)?
Councilman Lundquist: 18-61 is tree and landscaping as a whole.
Mayor Furlong: So just take out all the changes. That way it's clean. Because that
covers both the areas of concern.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Lundquist:
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman Lundquist:
Leave 18-61 alone for now and we'll revisit it.
Can I take that as a motion? Do you want to re-state?
! would move that we approve the changes as recommended by
staff with the exception of Section 18-61.
Roger Knutson: Mayor, does that include the extra may if you will in the sidewalk?
Councilman Lundquist: Correct. The extra may in Section 18-78(b)(5).
Councilman Labatt: I'll second Brian's motion.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there any discussion? If there's none, ! always ask.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Labatt seconded to approve the
amendments to Chapter 18 of the City Code, Subdivisions, with the exception of
Section 18-61 and adding an extra "may" in Section 18-78(b)(5). All voted in favor
and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: For clarification ! think that would also be a similar motion for the
summary. Or since we had four votes. ! think do you need, the summary motion will be
so amended to match the changes. Or the summary presentation.
Roger Knutson: Well you should move to approve summary publication in that format
with that change.
Mayor Furlong: As amended?
Roger Knutson: As amended.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is there a motion to approve the summary format as amended.
Councilman Lundquist: So moved.
Councilman Labatt: Second.
Mayor Furlong: And Roger will figure out what we just approved.
Roger Knutson: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any discussion on that?
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Labatt seconded to approve the
summary ordinance for publication purposes, amended to exclude Section 18-61
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
and adding an extra "may" in Section 18-78(b)(5). All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF FARMER'S MARKET PROPOSAL IN CITY
CENTER PARK.
Public Present:
Name
Address
David Boorsma
185 Arboretum Boulevard, Chaska
Todd Hoffman: Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. In the name of brevity ! think
I'll start by just going over, council has reviewed this 2 weeks ago at a work session.
There were 11 conditions of approval for the farmer' s market at that time. One has been
modified. Three additional has been added. I'll go over those. Ask any questions of the
council and we also have Mr. Dave Boorsma here this evening representing the farmer's
market proposal. At about this time you're probably thinking about planting out there...
sitting there for a couple hours. Number 11. The city retains the right to close the market
for any reason. With one weeks notice has been changed to for any reason at any time.
And again that just, in case there are any health concerns or other issues with the market.
First item added, condition added is 12. The farmer's market board shall obtain a million
dollar comprehensive general liability insurance policy naming the city of Chanhassen as
additional insured. And this would be the non-profit group that would form and they
would take out the insurance policy. Number 13. The farmer's market shall utilize the
portable restrooms already on site in City Center Park. And those are located on top of
the stairs near the skate park. Where the current warming house is. Then the 14th item,
the farmer's market shall pay a $25 weekly fee to the city, payable in two installments at
$200 payable prior to the first market and the remaining balance due at the conclusion of
the market season. And the reason for the split in the compensation is we just don't know
how many markets they'll hold. There may be some markets that are postponed or
cancelled due to weather so collect the majority up front and collect the remainder at the
end of the month. The recommended action to the council tonight is that the council
approve the farmer's market proposal for the City Center Park with the conditions listed.
Approval required is a simple majority vote. Any questions of the council to staff?.
Mayor Furlong: Questions? No. Okay. Very good, thank you. Mr. Boorsma, anything
you'd like to present or discuss this evening with the council?
David Boorsma: I have nothing to speak of.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Does anybody have any questions at this time? If
not, good. Thank you. I'll bring it back to council then for discussion.
Councilman Ayotte: They did the extra step. ! think we're ready to go.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Lundquist: I think it's a good deal.
Councilman Labatt: ! think the 3 additions and the one correction are very good, and !
support this project.
Mayor Furlong: I concur. This is something that was initially presented to the council in
our work session and it' s a good concept. I think it will be a good addition to the city and
I think we've got a layout here that, with these conditions, even though we're adding a
few conditions, I think it makes it safer for everybody. And I think I commend the staff
for listening at the work session and picking up the items addressed so, with that is there
any other discussion? The first market tentatively planned for the first weekend of May,
is that correct? Or do you have a date at this point?
Todd Hoffman:
Mayor Furlong:
David Boorsma:
Mayor Furlong:
advertising too.
approve.
Towards the end of May.
End of May, June timeframe perhaps.
... second week of May and it's pretty early...
Okay. Look for it when they're there and I'm sure you'll see
With that, is there any other discussion? If not, is there a motion to
Councilman Lundquist: Motion to approve.
Councilman Labatt: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the motion.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Labatt seconded to approve the
Farmer's Market proposal in City Center Park with the following conditions:
1. All vendors shall be restricted to the area depicted on the site map.
2. No vendor shall be allowed within the right-of-way of Market Boulevard.
Each vendor shall comply with all state and local regulations and provide proof of
appropriate liability insurance. These documents or copies thereof shall be posted
in a conspicuous location at each booth.
Products shall be limited to produce and other food products, flowers and outdoor
plant materials.
A member of the farmer's market board shall be on the premises during weekly
set-up, operation and take down of the market.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
The market shall provide it's own barricades to block off both the east and north
access to the vending area parking lot.
7. The market shall provide it's own trash containers and pick-up.
8. Access to the library shall be maintained at all times.
The City of Chanhassen and the Chanhassen Library shall be permitted at various
times to display and sell various items pertinent to their operations.
10.
The farmer's market board shall submit an annual report to the City Council at the
close of each season.
11. The City retains the right to close the market for any reason at any time.
12.
The farmer's market board shall obtain a $1,000,000 Comprehensive General
Liability insurance policy naming the City of Chanhassen as an additional
insured.
13.
The farmer's market shall utilize the portable restrooms already on-site in City
Center Park.
14.
The farmer's market shall pay a $25.00 weekly fee to the City, payable in two
installments. $200 payable prior to the first market day, and the remaining
balance due at the conclusion of the market season.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Councilman Lundquist: I have one, not real presentation I guess, but wanted to publicly
thank Todd Hoffman, your department. Especially Corey and his gang for the Daddy
Daughter Date Night, which myself and my daughter attended, and I thought it was a
great program. That group did a nice job of putting that together. Not the easiest thing to
keep, there must have been 25 young girls under the age of what 9 or 10, or whatever the
age limit is. To keep them involved for that amount of time without any major or minor
accidents is a great thing so pass along our thanks to Corey and hopefully that program
will continue and get bigger and better every year.
Mayor Furlong: And if I could just build on that. I would concur with Councilman
Lundquist. As it turned out, he and ! were there the same evening with our daughters and
I just, I'd like to ask, if you could follow up with Corey because ! think he has a picture
of the two of us doing the chicken dance and I'd like to make sure, with our daughters,
thank you, and I'd like to make sure it doesn't accidentally end up on the web site. For
Councilman Lundquist's benefit of course. It was a wonderful evening and best of all the
girls had such a great time, and that was just clear from all of them there so.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Todd Hoffman: We have two copies of each of those for you.
Councilman Ayotte: I'll pay you.
Councilman Labatt: I'll double it.
Mayor Furlong: Any other council presentations at this time?
Councilman Labatt: Todd and ! attended the Carver County Sheriff' s contract meeting
last Wednesday, and very enlightening long night. The meeting was supposed to last
hour and a half, and it lasted 3. ! think Justin has the new update packet if anybody want
to send out the 5 options to the other councilors on what Bud is proposing to the county
board and ultimately the council board will choose one of the options. On which way
they want to proceed with law enforcement and contracting in Carver County. And then
from there each government subdivision, township, city will decide how they want their,
! mean what avenues they're going to take. So, is there anything else ! can update them
with?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, no big changes really in the plans for us. We contract. We're up
to our hours that we need to be. Some of the other things might be some, they didn't get
into details on the Maximus study that potentially might be impacting us regarding, you
know potentially an investigator may be using a lieutenant versus a sergeant for
supervision. Didn't get into rate of pay so those are some of the other outstanding issues
that we need to talk about one on one with the sheriff.
Councilman Labatt: In our work session we discussed the Chaska/Carver County
Sheriff' s lawsuit and the settlement agreement. At this meeting Bud broached the topic
and he and the county attorney are going to meet with the City of Chaska and their
attorney to try to come up with an addendum to that agreement that there will be no more
agreement. It's causing problems and we know what the problems are and we've talked
about them, so that was something that we had discussed, but he's already taken that step
and they're meeting this week, weren't they or next week?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Justin Miller: I believe it's this week.
Councilman Labatt: It's this week the two are meeting to discuss it and they want, even
Chaska was very open to meeting and discussing and getting rid of it because they've all
kind of lost friends over it so, is the way Bud termed it so.
Councilman Ayotte: Just a question on the contract, the period of performance is going
to be 5 years? Is that true? So there' s no lock in? It's a year to year activity so ! had
heard that there might be some, okay.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Mayor Furlong: Isn't he also, and maybe you spoke about this on Wednesday night...
you talked about a phase in period. Whatever the changes are. Did he talk much about
that?
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Councilman Labatt: 2005. And ! guess, you know with what we contract for, I'll just
give you my opinion, and what we contract for, 48 hours plus Sergeant Olson, there's
other townships and cities that are going to be facing big time dollar decisions and the
stuff that Bud is proposing doesn't really impact us here because we're ahead of the
curve so to speak. Waconia, Victoria, all these townships, they've got big decisions to
make, so.
Councilman Ayotte: Based on those decisions, that will affect us. So once they make a
decision, won't that have an impact on us? If their scope, if they elect to do something
different than what they're doing, could that affect us?
Councilman Labatt: ! don't think so, because he has 18 contract deputies and 16 regular
deputies are his numbers. And you know, the 18 contract deputies are employed because
he has these contracts. And they all fit into the 34 in seniority. So if they were to lose
some of the contracts or pick up more contracts, that number of 18 may fluctuate up or
down, depending on what they pick up, but our scope here, our 48 hours plus Sergeant
Olson, ! don't think will change.
Todd Gerhardt: If people don't sign onto the contracts, you know the county board and
the sheriff have to make a tough decision if they're going to continue providing service or
not to those townships or smaller towns, and if they decide not to provide that service,
then they'll be in the position of laying off officers.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any other council presentations? If not,
administrative presentations. Mr. Gerhardt.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Nothing other than the police contract meeting that we had. Still waiting
on March 11th for the Chiropractic Relocation Claim. We sent a letter to them for Brian,
Steve and Craig that were going to sit on that panel and we haven't heard back from them
so ! think ! put a letter in your bin upstairs to that effect. That's it.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2004
Councilman Ayotte moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to adjourn the
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The City Council meeting was
adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
39