1983 06 21
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REGULAR CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL MEETING JUNE 21, 1983
Mayor Hamilton called the meeting to order with the following members present:
Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. Councilman Horn was absent.
The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilman Geving moved to approve the agenda with the
following-'nclusions: Sale of Bonds, Clean up around Colonial Center,
Semi-Trailers. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Swenson. The following voted in
favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No
negative votes. Motion carried.
CONSENT AGENDA: Item (d) was removed from the Consent Agenda to be discussed
separately. Councilwoman Watson moved to approve the following Consent Agenda
items pursuant to the City Manager's recommendations:
a. Minnewashta Manor Homeowner's Association Maintenance Proposal,
Sandpiper Trail.
b. Construction Plans and Specifications, Phase I, Near Mountain.
c. Control Panel and Electrical Maintenance Agreement, City Well System.
e. Cable Service Territory Application, Minnesota Cable Communications
Board.
Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative
votes. Motion carried.
SALE OF BONDS: Andy Merry, Juran and Moody, discussed the pending sale of bonds
during-the month of July.
RESOLUTION #83-29A, B & C: Councilman Geving moved the adoption of Resolution
83-29A requesting the extension of the qualification period of MBIA insurance
coverage for the not to exceed $5,185,000 General Obligation Tax Increment
Refunding Bonds of 1983 and the not to exceed $4,350,000 General Obligation
Improvement Refunding Bonds of 1983; Resolution 83-29B Authorizing the Sale of
$5,185,000 General Obligation Refunding Tax Increment Bonds of 1983; and
Resolution 83-29C Authorizing the Sale of $4,345,000 General Obligation
Refunding Improvement Bonds of 1983. Resolutions seconded by Councilwoman
Watson. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and
Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative votes. Motion carried.
MAPLE LEAF AWARD: Bill Gullickson, former HRA Chairman, was presented with a
Maple Leaf Award for his outstanding work and dedication to the City.
MINUTES: Councilwoman Watson moved to note the May 25, 1983, Public Safety
Commission minutes. Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton. The following voted in
favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No
negative votes. Motion carried.
Councilwoman Watson moved to note the June 7, 1983, Park and Recreation
Commission minutes. Motion seconded by Councilman Geving. The following voted
in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving.
No negative votes. Motion carried.
BILLS: Councilman Geving moved to approve the bills as presented: Checks
#14587 through 14661 in the amount of $2,788,281.63 and checks #18965 through
#19073 in the amount of $428,813.85. Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton. The
following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson,
Councilman Geving. No negative votes. Motion carried.
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FINAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN AMENDMENT, NEAR MOUNTAIN: Dennis Mulvey, representing
Lundgren Brothers, was present seeking final development plan amendment approval
in order to construct 31 single familly homes on 7.8 acres located at the
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southwest corner of Town Line Road and Chanhassen Road. The Planning
Commission recommended approval with the following conditions:
1. That the roadways be constructed to City standards.
2. That the model unit to be constructed not be occupied until prOV1Slon
of full public improvements to the site have been initiated.
3. That proposed covenants and restrictions are subject to City Attorney
approval.
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Mayor Hamilton moved to approve a final development plan amendment for Near
Mountain PRO, Planning Case 79-2 P.U.D., with the stipulations that the
roadways be constructed to City standards, that the model unit be
constructed and not be occupied until provision of full public improvements
to the site have been initiated, that proposed covenants and restrictions
are subject to City Attorney approval, and including the City Engineer's
memorandum of June 6, 1983. Motion seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The
following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson,
Councilman Geving. No negative votes. Motion carried.
REPLAT OF OUTLOTS H AND I, CHANHASSEN LAKES BUSINESS PARK: Opus
Corporatlon is proposing~he replat Outlots H and I into three building
sites and three outlots.
Councilwoman Swenson moved to approve the replat of Lots H and I,
Chanhassen Lakes Business Park for Opus Corporation with the conditions
that:
1. The applicant dedicate all drainage and ponding easements as required
by the City Engineer.
2. That individual lots within the plat are not eligible for development I
until such time as extension of full sewer, water, and street improveme s
have been initiated.
3. No change in the wetlands be permitted until such time as approved by
the City Council.
Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative
votes. Motion carried.
ZONING ORDINANCE AMENDMENT TO ALLOW ADAPTIVE REUSE OF VACANT SCHOOL
BUILDINGS FOR NON-EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES: Mr. Wallace-McKay, Minnetonka
School District, was present. Councilwoman Swenson moved to place on first
reading an ordinance amending Section 7.04 of Ordinance 47. Motion
seconded by Councilwoman Watson. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative
votes. Motion carried.
REAR YARD SETBACK VARIANCE, 6230 FIR TREE: Mr. Martin Beukhof is seeking a
3~ fo~ear yard setback variance-to-construct a porch and deck onto his
residence. The Board of Adjustments and Appeals recommended approval of
the request.
Councilwoman Swenson moved to approve the 3~ foot rear yard setback
variance request at 6230 Fir Tree as recommended by the Board of
Adjustments and Appeals. Motion seconded by Councilman Geving. The I
following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson,
Councilman Geving. No negative votes. Motion carried.
LOT AREA VARIANCE, LOTS 3177-3182, CARVER BEACH: Mr. Paul Pokorny is
seek~a 3,000 square-foot lot area variance to construct a home at 599
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Broken Arrow Road. The Board of Adjustments and Appeals recommended appro-
val of the request.
Councilman Geving moved to approve a 3,000 square foot lot area variance as
recommended by the Board of Adjustments and Appeals. Motion seconded by
Mayor Hamilton. The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton,
Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative votes.
Motion carried.
LAKE ANN/LAKE VIRGINIA FORCEMAIN:
BTTT Moore - I am an Engineer with the Waste Control Commission. We also
have several other representatives out here tonight and I would like to
introduce them. Bill Moeller from our Operations Department. Ken Bombach
and Ray Ode from our Engineering Department. Bob Schunicht from our con-
sulting engineer and John Barowski from Barr Engineering. The reason that
we are here tonight is to discuss and answer some of the questions that
were raised by the City at the public hearing that the Met Council had on
the amendment to the Water Resources Management Development Guide. You are
aware of that from our last presentation that, that change came as a result
of the commissions re-evaluation of their planning efforts for the southern
Lake Minnetonka interceptor system. That system has some very severe capa-
city problems and it was our intent to resolve those issues by our planning
effort. In order to address the issues raised by the City tonight we are
going to have the alternatives that were investigated in that report pre-
sented to you by our consultant. There are also some issues raised con-
cerning construction of the project and Ken Bombach will address those
construction related issues and some specific questions that were raised at
that public hearing. We would like to be open to any questions you might
have on the project and that's why we brought all these people. With that
I would like to have Mr. Schunicht present the alternatives that were eva-
luated in our report.
Bob Schunicht - I went through this presentation with you last December.
we-talked basically about our primary alternative, the Lake Virginia
Forcemain connecting Lake Virginia Lift Station over to Purgatory Creek
Interceptor and then the Lake Ann Interceptor coming down to Chanhassen
Lift Station and then the forcemain over to Purgatory Creek Interceptor or
over to Riley Creek Interceptor and those were basically the alternatives
that were considered and presented in the report. At the Metropolitan
Council meeting in March we were asked to come back and look at some addi-
tional alternatives and work with Bill Monk to try and see if there was
another cost effective alternative that was different than the one that we
recommended. We provided Bill with detailed cost estimates that we went
through in the report so he has all our worksheets and everything. He sub-
mitted some correspondence to Ken Bombach with his opinion and pretty much
the statement of the City of Chanhassen about the project and I suppose
it's really no surprise to any of you that we still don It agree on what
should be done out there but at least I will let you know what we looked at
and then we will respond to any questions that you may have.
Obviously in looking at a very preliminary look at the report, the first
thing we looked at was a parallel forcemain to the existing route. This is
the Lake Virginia Lift Station here. It comes through the Shorewood
Interceptor to the Excelsior Lift Station and then continues over to
Purgatory Creek Interceptor. That was one of the alternatives that we
looked at during the very preliminary evaluations in this report but, I am
sure you are all familiar with Excelsior and the built-up parts of
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Shorewood and trying to get another facility through there is almost
impossible. It might be possible but it's probably physically to do
because of the built-up condition of the area and to do so would be
exorbitantly expensive so we looked at that, we drove in the field and
said, no, this is just not something that we can do because when you look
at the Lake Virginia Forcemain it's about the same distance and we know,
for the most part, this route is pretty wide open. There are some areas
that are not wide open but for the most part it's pretty wide open. We
looked at paralleling the existing facility. We said, no, it just wouldn1t
work. The other thing that we looked at and I guess I should say that
dealing with all these lakes around here there are only certain corridors
that we can go through to get from this point over to here, go north at
Christmas Lake, you can go between Christmas and Lotus, you can come around
Lake Ann in through here and go back along Highway 5 or you can come down
all the way down to the Minnesota River or you can do something, come
through a corridor around the Red Rock Lake area and we looked at that in
quite a bit more detail than we did this facility up here as a preliminary
evalulation and actually come up with cost estimates and reviewed this
whole thing with the Waste Control Commission and we eliminated the Red
Rock Interceptor from further consideration because first of all it's very,
very expensive to build and secondly, the timing didn't coincide with the
timing or the timing was premature for the area as far as development was
concerned. Really, in looking at a preliminary valuations, we looked at
all the corridors we could find to get from the Lake Virginia Lift Station
over to the Purgatory Creek Interceptor. We eliminated the Red Rock
Interceptor and paralleling the Shorewood Interceptor for, just because
of the costs and the timing of the development and then we looked at the
Lake Virginia Forcemain as opposed to the Lake Ann Interceptor as the two
primary alternatives. We looked at these from three standpoints. First of
all we looked it from cost, an overall system cost which means that the
costs that would be incurred by the City of Chanhassen and the Waste
Control Commission so we want to make sure that the entire system, when
it's done, costs the least for everybody involved. Secondly, we looked at
liability the ability to maintain this thing to make sure that we have a
good reliable system that will last for a long period of time and the third
factor we took into consideration was the environmental considerations.
Cost considerations, you have the summary in front of you, we talked to you
about that before. The Lake Virginia Forcemain is the lowest cost ini-
tially and also the lowest cost on an annual basis looking at it over a 20
year period which is what we must do in order to comply with the
Environmental Protection Agency requirements. That really hasn't changed.
We have not come up with a more cost effective alternative than we recom-
mended in the first place. The Lake Virginia Forcemain is still about $4
million cheaper initially and several hundred thousand dollars a year
cheaper on an annual basis over the next 20 years. That really hasn't
changed. We looked at it from a liability standpoint. The Lake Virginia
alternate includes a single lift station and a forcemain directly connected
to Purgatory Creek Interceptor. The Lake Ann Interceptor includes the Lake
Virginia Forcemain, the Lake Virginia Lift Station, Chanhassen Lift
Station, and coming over here to Purgatory Creek Interceptor. Under that
alternative, there are two lift stations, somewhat less reliable because we
have to pump the sewage again, we have got twice as much equipment to main-
tain and worry about breaking down, although we do have about 10,000 more
feet of forcemain on the Lake Virginia Forcemain as opposed to a com-
bination of this forcemain up here and the forcemain going to Purgatory
Creek. When you look at the other alternative of coming down the Riley
Creek Interceptor, we again have a lift station at Lake Virginia and also a
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Council Meeting June 21, 1983
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lift station at Riley Creek and this is a forcemain going all the way over
here so, again, under the Lake Ann Interceptor you have two lift stations
no matter which way you go you have got to pump it twice and you have still
got a considerable length of forcemain with both alternatives. From a
reliability standpoint we feel that the Lake Virginia Forcemain/Lift
Station combination is as reliable or even more reliable than the other
alternatives because of the fact that there is one less lift station, a
little more forcemain but the lift station is where you have most of the
liability problems as far as maintaining a pumping facility.
Environmentally, John Barowski from Barr Engineering walked all these
roµtes and in a report pointed all the details of the environmental con-
cerns that we have had, the places we should be looking at for environmen-
tal concerns. He found that on the Lake Virginia Forcemain, the Lake Ann
Interceptor, the Red Rock Interceptor and the Chanhassen Forcemain there
are no real pressing or real hazardous environmental concern. There are
some sensitive areas and he made recommendations for dealing with those
sensitive areas but he didn't find any real serious environmental problems.
Our recommendation to the board is still that we construct the Lake
Virginia Forcemain. There were some other questions that came up. One of
the questions that came up at the public hearing was dealing with the
Cloquet. Do you know what happened in the Cloquet area? Should I explain
what happened up there? Essentially it's a facility that's similar to what
we are proposing out here, it1s a lift station and forcemain combination
and that forcemain essentially blew up. There was a big hole in the for-
cemain and the reason for that was it's a phenomenon that occurs
hydraulically in both forcemains and watermains called a hydraulic
transient and it essentially means that when you change the movement of
water in this pipeline, you shut off the pump, it's a shock to it and it
sends a pressure wave back and forth through the water and you have to
dissipate this pressure wave somehow in the water and the way that you
dissipate this pressure wave that's running through the forcemain causes a
hydraulic transient and a water hammer is a form of transient although
that's not as serious a transient, water hammer, any pipe, any forcemain,
watermain that you have in town can have a water hammer pressure without a
problem. What happens is when you get a more serious transient when you
get a real severe stoppage of flow or change in direction of flow you can
create a vacuum in the pipe and what happens when this pressure wave from
the pump shutting off or a valve being closed or some change in the system,
when it hits this vacuum it brings these two columns of water together and
creates a pressure and in the instance of the Cloquet forcemain was
something like 450 lbs per square inch which is about three time what you
design the forcemain for and about double it1s bursting strength. What you
do to take care of these things, you do two things, you make sure you have
no sudden stoppages or starting pumps by valving the system properly and
secondly you put on the high points of the system you put a vacuum release
valve that relieves this vacuum out of the pipe before the pressure wave
hits the vacuum so you essentially bring the column of water back together
again by a vacuum release valve. Neither one of those were done in the
case of the Cloquet Forcemain. Either one of them would probably take care
of the transients were done in our preliminary report and included in the
costs that we have in building the Lake Virginia Forcemain. In addition,
Barr Engineering has a computer program that evaluates hydraulic transients
which is something that1s going to be done during final design. We essen-
tially have already taken care of the problem that occurred in Cloquet.
Councilman Geving - Do you think that the Lake Ann Interceptor portion will
ever be built?
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Bob Schunicht - There would be a Lake Ann facility built coming north from
Highway 5~ a local trunk some day when the Council elected to put it in
and the people out there could afford to pay for it.
Councilman Geving - This really provides nothing for the City of Chanhassen
in terms of either the immediate or short range future for Chanhassen
development.
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Bob Schunicht - There is nothing that you can hook up to, yes. You have
already got your facilities in place to last you until the year 2000. It's
taking the waste water from the western part of Lake Minnetonka.
Councilman Geving - Even with the anticipated growth that's been projected
for Chanhassen, the portion of Chanhassen east to Purgatory Creek
Interceptor, what's the status of that forcemain?
Bob Schunicht - For about the next 15 years the combination of capacity,
the existing capacity of this lift station and the ability to temporary
storage of really high peaks, Chanhassen has a lot of inflow/infiltration
in the system to get really high peaks, not a large of volume of water but
it's a real high rate, so you can efficiently store this in there for a
short period of time and pump it out at a lower rate so for about the next
15 years you will be able to work that system by pumping it over to
Purgatory Creek Interceptor then in about 15 years you can increase the
capacity of that lift station by about 1/3 again and use the same system
forcemain to get it over to the Purgatory Creek Interceptor. You are good
with this system based on projections of your comprehensive plan until
about the year 2000.
Councilman Geving - What impact financially will this have on the City of
Chanhassen?------
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Bob Schunicht - If you were to build a trunk system to serve this area
right here, it's about $1.7 million.
Councilman Geving - I understand that we are part of a district and you are
increasing the construction costs by puting in this forcemain through
Chanhassen, some how or another those are going to come back to this
district, who is going to pay for it?
Ray Ode - The normal manner in which the commission allocates costs back to
a-community is, of course, through the user charge based on volume and
through a service availability charge. Debt service that we incur when we
make improvements, what we do is we put our capital improvements into the
seven pools that we have and six service area pools. The capital invest-
ment that we make in this facility would be a service area four pool as a
capital investment increasing the capitalized investment for that area.
Councilman Geving - Have you given us any benefit as a result of doing
that? Itls going to be billed back to debt service for District Four and
Chanhassen is a part of that. It was stated earlier that that Lake
Virginia Forcemain is going to go through Chanhassen. It1s not going to I
benefit in any way. We can't hook up to it. You are going to make a capi-
tal investment thatls going to be billed back to us. Really the people to
the west of us and to the north of us really are the only ones who will
benefit from this whole District.
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Ray Ode - Well, that's true. What we are developing is a system what we
call-regional service and payment is made based on the use of the system.
Chanhassen is perhaps 5% of the whole system. They incur about 5% of the
operating maintenance costs for the Service Area Four system and they incur
about 5% of the debt service costs. Keep in mind when we take debt service
capitalized investment in the interceptor system we have out here is about
30% used, 70% of the debt service goes into the reserve capacity which will
be paid by future users.
Councilman Geving - The largest single billing that we get in this City for
anyone thing is the Metropolitan Waste Commission's costs which we have no
control over. It's one of the biggest problems that we have and the City
Manager is trying to keep that cost down and we have no control over it.
If this thing goes through we are going to suddenly see another increase
that we will also have no control over and no benefit. You have got to
understand these cities, like Chanhassen, are getting stuck with a lot of
problems. You talk about service, I don't see any service here. We did
get service when we Riley/Purgatory went in because we benefitted from
that. You are going across our land. We are going to have a lot of
homeowners objecting to this.
Ray Ode - Admittedly the kind of system that became necessary to serve the
system of lakes and wide spread water drainage areas with a limited number
of people here has become very expensive. The charges are higher in
Service Area 4 than they are in any other service area.
Councilman Geving - That was the statement that I was trying to get from
you that we are probably paying higher charge for our district than any
other district.
Ray Ode - You have the most complex system of, in effect, moving the waste
from drainage area and bringing it to another drainage area. That was a
requirement that the commission was faced with by virtue of the policy that
was adopted for Lake Minnetonka. It's no secret that this area has a
substantially higher flow per residential equivalent connection. That
translates into dollars, more flow, more bucks and I feel you can do
something about it. You can reduce inflow and infiltration. That is cer-
tainly a possibility. The flows here are probably 40% higher than they are
in St. Louis Park.
Councilman Geving - We have got a dozen lakes in this community and we have
24 square miles of territory. We are a big community. We are spread out
and we are sparcely populated.
Ray Ode - I agree that this particular doesn't in itself render any direct
benefit to the City of Chanhassen. In fact the only reason that we really
have a need to do this is to relieve a system that was constructed ten or
12 years ago with really only a ten year life. This was a system that the
district actually already developed when we took over.
Councilwoman Watson - Basically, you said that we are getting it in
Chanhassen because Shorewood has houses and the people that are actually
going to be using the system are too developed and so 'they came down into
Chanhassen because there aren't as many people here.
Bob Schunicht - Shorewood already has their system and this system will
remain intact and will serve Shorewood itself. The Lake Virginia Forcemain
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will serve the people on the western side of Lake Minnetonka. It's more
economical to go where there are fewer houses at the present time than to
go where there are already houses.
Councilwoman 'Watson - We have zero percent of the City of Chanhassen
gaining benefit and when you talk about the costs you are talking about how
we are all paying for everybodys systems, the problem is that nowhere in
these lovely figures that you are able to put down on a piece of paper is
the fact that we get no benefit, we will pay for it and having that thing
going through our city is not necessarily a beautification project. If
there is a break, it is our problem. You don't show the fact that people
here have no use for this thing and are going to suffer the consequences
and the problems.
Bob Schunicht - The benefit to Chanhassen will come in when the Chanhassen
Lift Station capacity is exceeded then you build the Riley Creek
Interceptor and the Red Rock Interceptor or build something else going over
into Eden Prairie so Eden Prairie will take the waste water from
Chanhassen. That happens throughout the whole system, the sewage flows
downstream to the Purgatory Creek Interceptor, that's where everything has
to go and what we are trying to do is come up with a path of least
resistence to that waste water so that we spend the least amount of money
to get the whole overall system in for the whole area surrounding Lake
Minnetonka.
Councilwoman Watson - I have trouble understanding that. You manage to
take the whole thing, dump it in our City and run it out the other side and
you wrote endless pages telling us how this is the only way. I read page
and knew what the conclusion was going to be.
Bob Schunicht - No matter what you do it IS going to have to go through
Chanhassen because there simply isn1t room between Chanhassen and Lake
Minnetonka to get through there.
Councilwoman Watson - I simply can't buy that. I honestly can1t believe
that the only way to do it is to run it down our streets and down our roads
and inconvenience the people in our City for no value and at their expense.
I have read this thing and I knew from page 1 where you were going to end
up and I am no engineer. I can't believe that this is the only way. Sure,
it works out fine. You can run it through there and sure there is nobody
there so you can run it down the street.
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Mayor Hamilton - Part of what might make a sewer system like this more
palatable, if there was more planning involved and not just saying that
this is going to solve somebodys need for the next 15 to 20 years and at
some point when the Chanhassen Lift Station has to be increased and
something done at that point then you are going to have another group of
people saying, why in the heck didn't those people 20 years ago plan ahead
a little bit and instead of spending $6 million spend $14 million as
suggested. Put in a system that1s going to last so you don1t have to come
back to the drawing board every 20 years and look at some alternative to a
problem that we knew existed 20 years ago. You are trying to correct a I
problem that was put in the ground 12 years ago. That1s pretty lousy
planning. You are proposing a system that will last 20 years, that1s only
eight years longer than the one that was put in and doesn't work now. Even
if the Lake Virginia Forcemain were to be the most workable solution, I
can't buy it without a lot of other planning going on here, looking ahead
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into the future and saying, getting agreements from whoever you have to
have them from and saying, the Red Rock Interceptor is going to be built,
they agree to it so that in 20 years or 30 years from now they know that
that interceptor is going to have to be built, you don It have to go back
and fight all these wars again and say, well, we didn't think about that,
we kind of conceptualized that 20 years ago but now we can It do because
there are too many houses in there. I just don It see this as long range
planning. Twenty years, to me, is not long range planning. I don It think
you are solving the problem. You are putting it off onto somebody elses
shoulders and if we are to accept this and buy it, we are just dumping it
onto the next Council and saying, you have got the problem.
Bob Schunicht - The system itself is designed for 40 years. The financing
period that we look at is a 20 year period and that's criteria that's been
setup by EPA and adopted by the waste control commission and the
Metropolitan Council.
Ray Ode - I can appreciate what you are saying that it seems like a short
period of time, I think if you look back in the southwest area study that
was generated by the Southwest Suburban District, prior to the commission,
developed the Purgatory Creek Interceptor routing and also laid out in a
conceptual pattern service through the Bluff Creek Interceptor, Riley Creek
Interceptor with no commitment as to how or which one of these interceptor
systems would be developed. Of course at that time communities like St.
Bonifacius, Victoria, and Waconia were not part of the system either.
Actually the Shorewood system bought what we call ten years of service to
accomodate the needs of St. Bonifacius which needed sewers and would have
discharged into Six Mile Creek and then indirectly into Lake Minnetonka.
That was not permissable. Victoria had to have service and phase out their
plant which was indirectly discharging into Lake Minnetonka. We had to
provide a facility to get to Mound and when we added up all these com-
ponents for providing service, we really bought 15 years of good service
from the Shorewood facility. If we really look long range down the line I
suppose you could say it's more consistent to go down and eventually deve-
lop the Riley Creek Interceptor system. I guess Metro Council is saying
that we will not develop interceptor systems to serve the rural areas. Part
of the reason, of course, is that growth hasn't occurred as fast. There
are just planning guides here that to make necessary for us to have an
outlet to the Lake Virginia Lift Station at this time to the Purgatory
Creek Interceptor. Purgatory Creek Interceptor from Town Line Road in
Minnetonka and Eden Prairie boundary, any place below that has capacity
in it to make this accomodation.
Mayor Hamilton - If you look at the letter than Bill Monk has written, that
a system could be built today for $14 million that would take care of the
needs for the next 80 to 100 years rather than spending $6 million to solve
the problem for 20 years. I don't think that your approach is the least
expensive by a long shot. You may end up doing the same that he is pro-
posing some day and it's going to cost you a lot more than $14 million.
I don't see this as the least expensive. Even planning wise, we might
as well just throw out the whole comprehensive plan that all the cities
have worked on over the last four or five years and have been approved by
the Metro Council. Your plan here has definitely nothing to do with that
and goes absolutely opposed to all the planning this City has done. Our
plan was approved and now we are faced with this kind of thing.
Councilwoman Watson - It was approved just prior to the sudden panic to
Council Meeting June 21, 1983
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develop this project. When did your planning on this Lake Virginia
Interceptor begin?
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Bob Schunicht - We started in September 1982.
Councilwoman Watson - You knew when you bought that system from Shorewood
or whoever yoU-bought it from, that you were buying a temporary system 12
years ago, correct? Why did it take this long? Why the panic? It seems
to me that to begin planning something and then somehow think that nine
months later you should be doing something of this magnitude, I am
surprised that if we are so into planning, if we think we are doing
something for 20 years or 40 years and all of a sudden after 12 years.
The Commission started their facility back in 1977 for the
whole metropolitan area. When Bob says they started last September, this
is just a continuation of the planning that was done in 1977. We have re-
evaluated all our planning prior to implementing the design.
Councilwoman Watson - Prior to last September which was only nine months
ago, what did you show to relieve the system? You knew you had a temporary
system 12 years ago, what did you show prior to this report?
The Lake Ann Interceptor.
Bob Schunicht - Last year when our report came out that's when the emphasis
changed from Lake Ann Interceptor to the forcemain. One of the main
reasons was that the original planning that said the Lake Ann Interceptor
should be built was based on a substantial reduction of inflow/infiltration
in Chanhassen and all the rest of the areas going all the way around Lake
Minnetonka. That allowed them to do some temporary pumping in Chanhassen
and delay construction of the Riley Creek Interceptor until about the year
1988. With all the I/I studies that were done, Chanhassen did one, the
people that worked on our report with us are the same people that did the
Chanhassen I/I study so they were very familiar with this area. When they
looked at all that I/I coming down through the system, it changed drasti-
cally the design flows that were used in the report that came up with the
Lake Ann Interceptor which meant that you couldn't do anything temporary
here. We had to find some way of getting all this flow that was coming
from the west side of Lake Minnetonka over to Purgatory Creek Interceptor.
That's the main reason. The Waste Control Commission has not seen a reduc-
tion in I/I that was anticipated. Repair projects have been done and I/I
programs have been initiated but simply have not worked that well and com-
munities have not followed through and there is more flow coming to this
area so we had to do something to get rid of this flow immediately, we
couldn't delay it.
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Councilwoman Watson - It wasn1t long ago that we were told that our lift
station down here was not going to be adequate and in our comprehensive
plan, in our decision about where our MUSA Line was, it was all revolved
around the fact that we had a lift station that just couldn't deal with it
so we had better move our MUSA Line up and curtail our development and now
all of a sudden our lift station has improved. It's difficult to
understand how it got better.
Bob Schunicht - The lift station hasn't changed. The flows to the lift
station haven't changed. The fact that all this waste water that was pro-
posed to be running down through the Lake Ann Interceptor to this lift sta-
tion are going to be diverted.
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Council Meeting June 21, 1983
-11-
Councilwoman Watson - I see, since you changed your mind, our lift station
is good.
Bob Schunicht - Your lift station is fine for Chanhassen.
Councilwoman Watson - Since you changed your mind last September and
decided you didn't want our 12 year Lake Ann Interceptor, now our lift sta-
tion is suddenly adequate because, you see, when we did our comprehensive
plan, I was on the Planning Commission, and it said that that was not good.
That our lift station was not good and that1s why our MUSA Line couldn't be
where it was supposed to be and since last September, when you made this
decision, now it's alright.
Councilwoman Swenson - This means we can move the MUSA Line back where it
was. Are you going to put the MUSA Line back where it was before you made
this error in judgment?
Bob Schunicht - I can It do that.
Councilwoman Watson - You can do this. You can take our plan and ignore
the whole thing and put that system in, I am sure you can manage to move
our MUSA Line.
Ray Ode - The issue of the Urban Service Area is really an issue between
the Metro Council and the planning and development of what we call space
for growth. I don't know, you say, who told you that there was not capa-
city? I guess I am not aware of that. I would like to know who.
Councilwoman Watson - We received many communications. Our MUSA Line
could not be where it was because we couldn1t possibly develop that much
ground because our lift station wasn1t any good. It wasn't adequate.
Ray Ode - The system here that affects the Chanhassen lift station and the
interceptor that's upstream of it and, I believe, your trunk sewer are all
sized sufficiently large to take care of your needs through 1990 and
perhaps to 2000.
Councilwoman Swenson - It's unfortunate you were not here last fall when we
were trying to get an extension from the Metropolitan Council for a campus
development. It cost the City a very large industrial development. Every
time we deal with anybody from the council I have a feeling like I am
getting my exercise for the next 60 years because it's an exercise in futi-
lity. We are all sitting here tonight and we know very well what you are
going to do anyway. The only thing that I have to point out is that, I may
not be very bright but one thing I know and that is that you are not going
to save money by putting or spending money to put a channel like this, a
sewer line through an area that will never use it. There will absolutely
never be any future use for that except for what you are doing right now.
You go down and maybe 15 years from now this use is going to be there. You
say, we will put this through, okay, this is regional, but when Chanhassen
has to have the development around Lake Lucy and our turn comes to expand
and these brilliant characters in St. Paul decide that maybe once or twice
we can sell a house, then we are going to have to put in the money, our
citizens are going to have to pay for the trunk line to go up to this
monstrosity that you are going to put in there. It's just not fiscally
responsible to spend the money for something that is only going to be used
to take something from here to here and has no potential for additional
Council Meeting June 21, 1983
- 1 2-
use, other than our spending another $6 million for the privilege of
hooking up to it, when you can do the same cotton-picking thing and come
down here for very little more and have the eventuality for usage. It just
doesn't make sense. How much more is it going to cost in 15 years to put
in this trunk line?
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Bob Schunicht - That's what we did. We took all the facilities that had to
~built by the Waste Control Commission, by Chanhassen, by Eden Prairie
over the next 20 years and we are not saying that this is the most economi-
cal, we are saying that this is the most economical for the whole area.
Councilwoman Swenson - Oh, I believe what you are saying because I have
seen the great~etropolitan Waste Commission spend dollars after dollars
after dollars and you know everything is going broke down there. There is
no more bonding which is why you are trying to economize now. You are
putting a band-aid on a large sore. It just has not been a fiscally respon-
sible program from the beginning. You can ask anybody who has ever had
anything to do with this business.
Mayor Hamilton - I am curious why you felt you needed to jog that forcemain
around through Chanhassen in a residential area and screwing up a couple of
lakes, when you could run the thing down Highway 7 as far as you want to
go.
Bob Schunicht - Once we get into Highway 7 here we just couldn't get
through. You have bridges and existing development right up against the
road. It's just cheaper to come through Chanhassen.
Councilwoman Swenson - Except for Chanhassen.
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Don Ashworth - Understand, from our standpoint that, we looked at the Lake
Ann Interceptor in 1970 it was going to go in. The City went ahead with
that first phase and that was a cost of somewhere between $1 and $2 million.
You are now talking about, we are the smaller portion in Service Area 4,
5%, a major portion of that 70% might come through SAC charges but this
area will collect a good portion of those SAC charges. We are looking to
easily 2,000 units so you are talking in excess of $1 million going into
the metro system for metro sewers that will come from this area that basi-
cally this alternate alignment provides no benefit. Additionally, to
extend it northward is no benefit. That will come totally at local dollar
expense and those people who will be assessed for that trunk, instead of
being an interceptor will now pay for that trunk as well as pay the SAC
units that will pay for the red line. We look at it in terms of our total
costs. We cannot agree with your position that that is cheaper.
Councilwoman Swenson - You are so will ing to take our dollars, an indivi-
dual city1s dollars, for the overall system, what's the difference. You
are talking about a few dollars that are going to come up later on anyhow
but you are saying it's alright for the citizens of Chanhassen to have to
pay this additional money but it's not okay for the whole system. We have
to protect our citizens and I think our citizens are getting the shaft.
Ken Bombach - At the last meeting we had here there was concerns expressed I
about the large trench that would be occurring as a result of this
construction and I brought some pictures along of our most recent project
up in Anoka where we installed a 14 inch forcemain through a residential
area.
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Counci 1 Meeti ng June 21, 1983
- 1 3-
Councilwoman Swenson - How do you propose to protect these citizens when
this is going through as far as traffic is concerned and police service and
fire service?
Ken Bombach - There is only a narrow strip of road that is under construc-
tion at anyone time so that you can get in from either side.
Councilman Geving - This road is only 20 feet wide.
Bob Schunicht - We are going to have to box a trench going through there
and we will have to back-cast the material. We won't be able to put it on
the side of the road because that would block the whole road.
Councilwoman Swenson - I have lived in two neighborhoods when sewer has
been installed and I have never lived through two more miserable summers in
my life. The thing is torn up, you have got muck, mud, and mire and when
it rains it is a mess and I think that that going through that magnificant
piece of property up there it just makes me sick. Particularly when there
is a more intelligent alternative.
Councilman Geving - What will Lake Lucy Road look like when you are
finished?
Bob Schunicht - We have talked about a couple of things. We have got to
fix what we tear up naturally. There are some high spots that should come
down and we talked about trying to coordinate it with a small city project.
Councilman Geving - We have tried that project and it has failed. There is
only about eight to ten people out there. The people want it paved but
they don't want to pay for it.
Councilwoman Watson - You have got to understand, these people are going to
watch a sewer go through and you are going to put a road down and say pay
for it and they are going to say, oh yes, when the sewer goes through here
I am going to get to buy myself a second street and they are not going to
be interested. It is of no use to them and so why would they want to buy
the road.
Councilman Geving - That1s going to be a hard sell. I don1t want to be a
part of that one.
Bill Monk - It is plain to see where each side is coming from. I took a
long time putting together my page and a half on what I think of the system
and Chanhassen's position on the system. I am very frustrated. I feel for
the engineer's from metro waste because I see they are trying to address a
certain problem in the best engineering way and find the best and cheapest
solution but I guess I get the feeling that there are things being dictated
to metro waste from metro council that perhaps they don It even have control
over and the biggest one that frustrates me is that if I could write it out
right now what I thought would happen here would be that the Lake Virginia
Forcemain would go through and in about 20 years the Highway 5 forcemain
from Chanhassen will be upgraded to serve Chanhassen and the Lake Riley
Interceptor will be deleted from the plan. Eden Prairie will basically be
told to put in its own trunk because it serves only in Eden Prairie. That
would be my guess. The frustrating thing to me is that we have two things
working here it seems, overall cost and unwritten, perhaps I am being para-
Council Meeting June 21, 1983
- 14-
noid, but some type of overriding control that existing problems are to be
solved but that under no circumstances are extensions to be put in to open
up other areas for IIpremature developmentll. The City cannot argue that I
point. It seems that all of the work on the compo plan may come back and
haunt us and there are the recent met council staff dictate to us that our
MUSA Line now looks like a MUSA Line that will control our destiny until
2005 comes at a strange time. I just get the feeling that I can It punch my
way out of the box. I understand what is being proposed. It is a solution
to a problem. I don1t think it is the solution to the overall problem.
The item, I guess, is going to have to go back to metro council and we will
both be arguing the same things. I don't think the City can continue to
win but I do believe the City would be remiss to stop arguing at this
point.
Mayor Hamilton - I think you are going back knowing that you have a
resounding no from this group. We do not think that's the proper alter-
native.
Bill Moore - I just want to thank you for the opportunity to at least
have this dialogue. We don't want to go around your back. We want to try
and get it straight and tell you what our thoughts are and try to answer
your questions. I guess we appreciate the City's position.
CLEAN UP AROUND COLONIAL CENTER:. Councilman Geving proposed that George
Donnelly be aske~~pect around Kenny's Markets for all the trash and
litter and give them a warning or whatever it takes to get it cleaned up.
Mayor Hamilton noted that the Chamber of Commerce has discussed the possi- I
bility of putting out some trash receptacles.
ZONING ORDINANCE AMENDMENT, HOME OCCUPATION ORDINANCE: Amend the second to
the last sentence in Section-,-Qf proposed Ordinance 47-AG to read: No
accessory buildings, other than existing accessory agricultural structures
on the effective date of this ordinance, shall be used for such home
occupations.
Mayor Hami lton moved to approve Ordinance 47-AG, Home Occupation Ordinance.
Motion seconded by Councilman Geving. The following voted in favor: Mayor
Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative
votes. Motion carried.
SEMI-TRAILERS: Councilwoman Swenson noted that a semi-trailer has been
parked just east of Apple Valley Red-E-Mix for several days. She also
requested that something be done with the hopper that is laying along the
railroad tracks at the Apple Valley Plant. Councilman Geving asked that
staff contact Apple Valley to remove the hopper.
STATUS REPORT TEICH GRADING PERMIT APPLICATION: The City Engineer pre-
sented a report on the status of the grading permit.
Councilman Geving moved to adjourn. Motion seconded by Mayor Hamilton.
The following voted in favor: Mayor Hamilton, Councilwomen Swenson and
Watson, Councilman Geving. No negative votes. Motion carried.
Don Ashworth
City Manager
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