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8. Zoning regarding Installation of Landscaping Prior to Cert. of Occupancy I CITYOFk - CHANAEN e 0. 0 c, Job. CHANHASSEN „fr -4 --:..mrat '. k - . �ti,, , 690 COULTER DRIVE • P.O. BOX 147 • CHANHASSEN, MINNESOTA 55317 "' '- (612) 937-1900 • FAX (612) 937-5739 Action by City Administrator I — Endorse.” ��g- Modified 1 MEMORANDUM Rejected Date__ —‘, - q 0 TO: Don Ashworth, City Manager Date Submitted to Cummissbti IFROM: Paul Krauss, Planning Director a Date Subm*ted to ColliXt ea—/1-9.0 DATE: May 21, 1990 I SUBJ: An Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Dealing With the Installation of Landscaping Prior to Issuance of 1 Certificates of Occupancy for Single Family Dwellings PURPOSE/SUMMARY IThe City's Subdivision Ordinance has long required that at least one tree be placed in the front yard of each new single family home and that all disturbed areas on the lot be seeded or sodded. The I purpose of the ordinance is two fold, establishing the boulevard tree requirement has an impact on the streetscape and the environmental quality of the neighborhood, while the requirement to I sod or seed a lot also has a visual impact but more importantly will eliminate erosion and sedimentation from the property. While this requirement has been in the ordinance many years, it has only I been enforced on a sporadic basis at best. Since the fall of 1989, staff has tried to address this issue. New Development Contracts have been revised so that the responsibility for installation of these improvements is clearly established. The development I contract is filed against the property so that all future purchasers are fully aware of its conditions. We have also revised our lot release procedure. In the past, when a lot was sold to an I individual, their attorney would typically request that lot be released from all conditions that had been attached by the city. The City Engineering Department had been releasing these conditions when public improvements where installed but unfortunately this did Inot allow for the retention of funds or the application of requirements dealing with lot landscaping. This has been revised by the use of a partial release, whereby only those conditions that I have been satisfied are released while others would remain recorded against the property. Finally, since last fall, builders requesting building permits to build single family homes are I required to sign off on a form that outlines all required conditions pertaining to the lot on which the house is proposed. The landscaping requirement is clearly spelled out. Staff has 1 established a policy whereby a builder is told that the landscaping I II 1 Certificate of Occupancy ZOA May 21, 1990 Page 2 improvements must be installed prior to requesting a certificate of occupancy but that if this is not possible due to weather or other constraints, a $750 escrow will be required to guarantee compliance. Staff undertook considerable research regarding the imposition of such requirements and found that it is commonly done by many other communities, several of which require the deposit of cash guarantees in advance of the building permit. It is our belief that requiring financial guarantees only at the time that certificates of occupancies are requested causes the least disruption to the builders while being easiest to administer. This program was submitted to the City Council for their comment last fall before it was implemented. ' Upon further discussion with the City Attorney, it was determined that a problem existed since the landscaping requirement is established in the subdivision ordinance and the subdivision ' ordinance does not directly regulate building but only the platting of land. Therefore, it was the attorney's opinion that a modification should be inserted into the Zoning Ordinance, Section ' 20-92 which deals with certificates of occupancy, that would outline this requirement in detail. The attached ordinance amendment simply serves to reconfirm the policy that has already been established. This not only provides additional support for the policy, but also would help to put those building and buying new homes on notice. ' The Planning Commission reviewed the proposal at their May 16th meeting and unanimously recommended its approval. STAFF RECOMMENDATION ' Staff recommends that the City Council approve first reading of the amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, Section 20-92, pertaining to ' landscaping requirements prior to issuance of certificates of occupancy for single family dwellings. ' ATTACHMENTS 1. Zoning Ordinance Amendment. 2 . Planning Commission minutes dated May 16, 1990. CAMPBELL, KNUTSON, SCOTT & FUCHS, P.A. Attorneys at Law Thomas J.Campbell Roger N. Knutson Thomas M Scott (612)456-9539 I Gary G.Fuchs Facsimile(612)456-9542 James R. Walston Elliott B. Knetsch Dennis 3. Unger • May 9, 1990 Mr. Paul Krauss Chanhassen City Hall 690 Coulter Drive, Box 147 Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317 RE: Certificates of Occupancy Dear Paul: ' Enclosed please find revised ordinance amending Chapter 20 of the City Code, the Zoning Ordinance, concerning certificates of occupancy. Very truly yours, CAMPBELL, KNUTSON, SCOTT ' & FUCHS, P.A. BY: Roger N. Knutson RNK:srn Enclosure 1 . 1 Yankee Square Office III • Suite 202 • 3460 Washington Drive • Eagan, MN 55122 ' 1 Irf mug 1..11,1f "00.111 IU 7J('r, r'.ELS CITY OF CHANHASSEN CARVER AND HENNEPIN COUNTIES, MINNESOTA ORDINANCE NO. ' AN ORDINANCE AMENDINO CHAPTER 20 'OF THE =MASSEN CITY CODE CONCERNING CERTIFICATES OP OCCUPANCY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHANHASSEN ORDAINS: Section 1. Section 20-92 of the Chanhassen -City Code is . amended by adding subparagraph (c) to read as follows: (c) If the lot on which a certificate of occupancy for ' - a single family dwelling is requested is subject to landscaping requirements set forth in the development contract with the City, a certificate of occupancy shall not be issued unless the landscaping has been completed or unless a $750.00, or such other amount as determined by the City's Planning Director, cash escrow or letter of credit is furnished the City guaranteeing completion within sixty (60) days, weather permitting. Section 2. .Thi ordinance shall be effective immediately upon its passage and publication. ' PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Chanhassen City Council this day of , 1990. ' ATTEST: • a ` , ' Don Ashworth, Clerk/Manager Donald J. .Chil;iel, Mayor (Published in the Chanhassen Villager an It , 2,990.) , • r05/09/90 TOTAL P.03 Planning Commission Meeting May 16 , 1990 - Page 13 a . Reflect the existing sanitary sewer easements over Lots 2 and 3 , Block 1 and Baldur Avenue . b . The applicant shall record an easement that runs in favor of the City over the driveway that services Lot 3, Block 1 for access to the lift station. 3 . Park and trail dedication fees will be required in lieu of land , dedication . 4 . A tree preservation plan must be submitted prior to issuance of a building permit . The plan should illustrate how the driveway and home placement and construction will minimize tree loss . The plan must be approved by staff . Preservation areas shall be adequately marked by a I snow fence prior to construction to avoid damage . Clear cutting of trees 4" in caliper or larger is prohibited . 5. The driveway location for Lot 1 must be approved by the City Engineer I prior to any construction of that driveway . All voted in favor and the motion carried. ' PUBLIC HEARING: ZONING ORDINANCE AMENDMENT TO AMEND SECTION 20-92 REGARDING CERTIFICATES 04' OCCUPANCY BY ADDING PROVISIONS FOR LANDSCAPE REQUIREMENTS. Paul Krauss presented the staff report on this item . Chairman Conrad called the public hearing to order . Resident: I 've got one question . Can you explain exactly what the requirements are for a boulevard tree? How close to the street and all that stuff? Krauss: We require that it be , will deciduous but deciduous or coniferous I tree . 2 1/2 inches in diameter for deciduous , 6 foot in height for coniferous . It has to be in the front yard area . It can't be in the right-of-way boulevard so any part of that property is acceptable and if I there 's existing natural trees there , that requirement is waived . Resident: It doesn 't have to be within so many feet of the street? , Krauss: No . Resident: It 's not a boulevard tree. . . ' Conrad: Any other comments? Emmings moved, Batzli seconded to close the public hearing. All voted in I favor and the motion carried. The public hearing was closed. Ahrens: I have one comment. I think we should make the developer ' guarantee the tree for a year . Really . I mean so what if they put a tree 1 Planning Commission Meeting May 16, 1990 - Page 14 and it 's dead and it doesn't last? - Emmings: A good example is right out here on Kerber Blvd . . There 's a row of pine trees up there along there and they 're all dead . Krauss: You know we 've tried to enforce it in different ways . Having the ' developer do it up front causes a lot of problems . Because the lot 's not developed yet , likely the tree will get killed when they build the house and there 's nobody there to maintain it. Requiring installation when the home is built and the developer may be long gone at that time and the lot ' sold several times . Usually means that there 's a property owner who takes some pride in the property that they just bought and will try to keep that tree alive . It 's not a perfect system but at least we 're getting those improvements or trying to . Ahrens: That 's assuming that the developer puts in a healthy tree to begin ' with . Krauss: Right . ' Ahrens: I think a lot of times that 's not true , Just a suggestion . Conrad: I assume the public hearing 's closed . Joan , your comments? Based ' on what 's in front of us tonight , do you want to make any changes to what you 've seen here? Do you want to look into this guarantee further at some other time? t Ahrens: Do any other cities have anything like this where they guarantee or that they have the developer guarantee that the trees live for a certain period of time? ' Krauss: Well we in fact do that with our new landscaping bond or letter of credit . The trees in landscaping have to survive for a full growing season ' past the date of installation . Frankly again you come up against a tough one to administer . We can go out there and inspect the thing to make sure it 's installed when we give them back their money or when we sign off on the building permit . Then going back out there a year later to make sure it was done properly is a second trip and then you 're dealing with the homeowner and not the developer . Escrow accounts get rather unweildy . The answer is we can but it's difficult. ' Conrad: That 's a tough one . ' Wildermuth: Let 's see how this works for a while . Conrad: Jim , anything on this? Brian anything here? ' Batzli : Well I had a question. I didn't look in the code book . Does this just apply then to people who enter into development contracts? Krauss: Exactly Commissioner Batzli . What we do and development contracts are worded , I mean for every development contract they 've been different up until about 3-4 years ago . The development contract which is recorded Planning Commission Meeting May 16, 1990 - Page 15 against the property will have a condition and it's being written into all I of them today that states that the property owner , future property owners are obligated to install the tree and seed and sod. That condition , the development contract is filed against the property so anybody that does a I title search in the future is going to be made aware of it . Then what we do is when we enforce it at the time the building permit 's pulled which might be 5 years or 5 months after the plat is filed. ' Batzli : I think it 's a great idea. Ellson: I like it too. Better late than never . Emmings: It looks fine to me . The question raised in my mind is do we have any different standards for double frontage lots than we do for single' frontage lots? Krauss: II don 't think we do . Conrad: I have no comments. Resident: When I lived in Richfield , the City installed and maintained the boulevard trees . Trimmed and replaced them when they died . It was a real boulevard tree right next to the street . Krauss: Yeah , Minneapolis did that too but the tree in that case is ' between the sidewalk and the street . Conrad: A little bit different . Anything else? Is there a motion? Batzli : I move that the Planning Commission recommends approval of the amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Section 20-92 pertaining to landscaping I requirements prior to issuance of certificates of occupancy for single family dwellings as set forth in the staff report dated May 9th . Wildermuth: Second. ' Batzli moved, Wildermuth seconded that the Planning Commission recommend approval of the amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, Section 20-92 pertaining' to landscaping requirements prior to issuance of certificate of occupancy for single family dwellings. All voted in favor and the motion carried. 1 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Emmings moved, Ellson seconded to approve the Minutes of the Planning Commission meeting dated May 2, 1990 amended as follows: I Steve Emmings stated that the word "ban" should be changed to "band" when referring to the sign bands . Brian Batzli changed condition 13 of the motion on page 28 to read, "application and receipt" rather than "application or receipt" . All voted in favor of the Minutes as amended and' the motion carried .