7. CUP for Eckankar 7,
'71 . C I T Y F
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AN EN
690 COULTER DRIVE • P.O. BOX 147 • CHANHASSEN, MINNESOTA 55317
-14` (612) 937-1900
MEMORANDUM Note: Please bring your
II packet from the last meeting.
TO: Don Ashworth, City Manager If you cannot locate your
copy, please contact City
IIFROM: Stephen Hanson, Planning Director Hall.
DATE: April 20, 1989
IISUBJ: Eckankar Conditional Use Permit #89-1 - Update
The City Council tabled this item at the April 10, 1989, meeting
I in order to further review comments presented at the meeting,
the application, documents of record, and issues concerning this
request. In order to facilitate this review, I will attempt to
Istate the issues below and provide a response to each.
A. PUBLIC COMMENTS
liftvl ,_/ n-fm-tni:;t2ifif
1. The proposed use is a misuse of property.
While it may be argued that other uses may provide more
47._. , P14,: intense use, higher tax revenue or a public use, the pro-
- - --- - posed use complies with city codes and zoning require-
-- -"- - -� - meets for the property. If the use is inappropriate for
?`___"2.0-'4 j.,- the site but meets zoning requirements, then it would
seem the zoning is in error and the codes should be
__ _ revised to preclude the use for future applications.
to .. :i to t,c- 1
yfL-g 2 . The church should use only a portion of the property.
Again, the application complies with city codes and there
I is no basis for limiting the use to a portion of the
site, under present city codes. If it is the desire of
the city to limit the size of parcels for various uses,
I the codes need to be revised. These changes would apply
to future applications .
3 . Make sure they comply with regulations others have had to
I meet.
The application submitted has been reviewed by staff and
Ifound to be complete.
Specific issues raised at the meeting on April 10, 1989
were secondary access , elevator, parking and sprinklers.
I
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me
II
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20, 1989 1
Page 2
The building will be sprinklered, parking meets code, and '
the building will have an elevator. The access for
Eckankar operates as a cul-de-sac and allows adequate
width for emergency vehicles as well as access around the
entire facility. Staff' s opinion is the proposed access
is sufficient and that a secondary access was not
warranted. '
4 . Who do they serve?
There is no criteria or standard for requiring a '
demonstrated local need or membership standard. None has
been requested for other churches in the City.
5 . Negative impact on property values .
There has not been a demonstrated impact on surrounding
property values, based on the opinions of appraisers.
6 . What is the process for a referendum?
The City Council may order a special election on an issue
such as "Shall the City be authorized to sell bonds for
the acquisition of property. . . " The election could be 1
held in approximately six weeks. The cost of the elec-
tion would be approximately $9, 000.
7 . Will Eckankar serve the people of Chanhassen? Are there '
local members in Chanhassen?
There are local members. There is no limitation on
churches serving only local people. Based on comments
from other communities where Eckankar has been active,
they have been good neighbors and citizens. '
8 . What about lakeshore property?
The property along the lake is owned by the City. ,
9. Traffic on TH 5 and Powers Blvd.
The applicant submitted traffic impacts in their submit-
tal documents . These have been evaluated by staff and no
significant impacts have been identified. ,
10. View in winter and evening.
The applicants , at the April 10, 1989 meeting, agreed to '
submit these.
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Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20, 1989
Page 3
11. Is the conditional use permit a yearly permit or reviewed?
The conditional use permit is an approval that runs with
land and may only be voided if the applicant fails to
comply with the conditions of the permit. The City could
require a yearly review for compliance with the con-
ditional use permit.
12 . What is the future use of the property?
It would be beneficial if there was a concept plan for
the entire parcel; however, the applicants have a single
legal parcel on which they are applying for a principle
use for the parcel, in compliance with city requirements.
They are only permitted one principle use per parcel.
If the aplicants want to do anything further on the prop-
, erty, they will need to come back before the Planning
Commission and City Council. This would apply to any
change to the conditional use permit. In addition, if
they wanted to provide an additional use, they would need
to subdivide the property to create a buildable parcel
which would require review and approval by Planning
Commission and City Council.
13 . If the property is purchased, what can be done to prevent
the same thing from happening?
' This is not a simple question. Obviously the applicant
could purchase other property. The city could revise
zoning codes to limit the districts where churches are
allowed. Maximum parcel sizes could be established for
churches , however, that would not prohibit a church from
owning several parcels and constructing a church on one
parcel and retaining the other parcels for open space or
future use.
' 14. If purchased, where will the money come from?
The City would sell bonds to raise the funds for acquisi-
tion and then the bonds would be paid off by an increase
in property taxes . The City' s unofficial balloting may
give an indication as to whether the referendum would be
supported by a majority of voters . Counting will be
' completed prior to Monday evening.
15. How would this purchase affect other city projects?
' If the full bonding capacity were utilized to purchase
the property, the City would not have any bonding capacity
for other projects .
' II
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20 , 1989
Page 4
16. Does the projected revenue for purchase consider new
housing that would be developed in the next 14 years?
No, it is based on the present housing. I
17 . Is the increased tax on the survey card annual?
Yes .
18. What other sites for public facilities are available and
what costs are associated with them?
The City looked at other sites as part of the recent
referendum for a community center. The costs for
acquisition and development ranged from $600 ,000 to
$800, 000.
19 . If the church is built, will the entire parcel be tax
exempt or only the portion used for the church?
This will be determined by the Carver County Assessor
when the property is assessed after construction of the
church. The Assistant County Attorney has advised the
City that the County Assessor would look carefully at
whether the entire parcel should or should not be given
tax exempt status. Final determination would be up to
the tax courts if the decision of the county is appealed. '
B. CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS
Bill Boyt ,
1. All citizen concerns should be researched.
Staff has attempted to address the concerns that have
been raised at the Planning Commission, City Council, and
in letters and phone calls. '
2. The City is responsible to protect our safety.
The Public Safety Department has thoroughly researched '
Eckankar and found nothing to indicate they are a threat
to the community and citizens .
3 . Treat this church like any other church.
This is what staff has attempted to do in processing this
application.
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Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20, 1989
Page 5
4 . Suggested the following additional conditions :
' a. Traffic control be provided for any meetings of more
than 200 people or at least provide when determined
by Public Safety Department to be necessary.
b . Replant disturbed area with native prairie grasses
and flowers .
c. Require full payment of costs reasonably associated
with providing services to the proposed church
facility.
' Ursula Dimler
' 1 . No rallies , international or national conferences be con-
ducted at the site.
Agreed to by applicant at meeting.
2 . Ordinance restricting acreage of tax exempt entities .
Staff can prepare an ordinance at the City Council' s
direction.
3 . Why can ' t negotiations or purchase of property move ahead?
' This needs to be addressed by the applicant. The City
has pursued this at Council direction.
' 4 . Eckankar should focus on future desires for the use of
the land in the spirit of open communication and citizen
' concern.
This needs to be addressed by the applicant.
' Jay Johnson
1. Provide computer image of facility at night with lighting
' and in the winter.
The applicants have agreed to provide this information.
Tom Workman
1. Request financial statement records of the church.
Staff has requested Peter Beck to respond to this. Our
understanding is that charitable organizations are
required to make their income tax forms public, however,
churches are specifically excluded from this section.
II
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20, 1989
Page 6
2 . Need further information regarding the benefits of this ,
project to our community to make a sound and wise
decision.
This should be addressed by the applicant. '
Don Chmiel
1 . Feel that issues discussed have not really been fully
addressed.
Staff has attempted to address the issues above and
expect the applicant to submit further information for
the April 24 , 1989 Council meeting. '
2 . Doesn't understand the need for 20 staff people to serve
a congregation of 800.
The applicant should address this. One point of clarifi-
cation, the facility seats 300 people which could handle
a much larger congregation. At a ratio of one person per
100 members , which compares with the examples noted, the
20 people translates to 2000 members.
C. OTHER '
1. SURVEY RESULTS: The City mailed survey cards to all resi-
dents in Chanhassen on April 7 , 1989. The survey asked resi-
dents whether they would favor an increase in property taxes ,
in order to purchase the subject property. The results of
the survey as of April 20 , 1989, are 664 ( 45% ) in favor and ,
780 ( 54% ) opposed to an increase in property taxes to
purchase the property. Eleven ( 11) ballots were invalid due to
marking both boxes or neither. The total forms returned ( 1455) 11 represents a 34% return.
2. EAW/EIS : Staff was asked by the Mayor to evaluate the poten-
tial need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) on the ,
property. The applicant voluntarily submitted an EAW
(Environmental Assessment Worksheet) . The applicants sub-
mitted this document to demonstrate that no significant
environmental impacts exist. But for the voluntary sub-
mission, the proposed project would be exempt from the EAW
and EIS process. The City Attorney has advised staff that
because the EAW was voluntarily submitted to the City, the
Council may submit the EAW to the EQB Monitor for publica-
tion. After publication, interested persons have 30 days to
make written comment. Thereafter, the RGU officially decides
the project "has the potential for significant environmental
effects" . If their findings are yes, an EIS must be ordered.
If the EAW is submitted for publication, the City could not
issue the conditional use permit until after the 30 day com-
ment period.
II
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20, 1989
Page 7
Attached for consideration is a copy of a pamphlet on the
Environmental Review Process.
' Staff reviewed the EAW submitted initially and did not feel
there were significant impacts resulting from the project to
recommend the EAW be submitted to the EQB Monitor for
' publication.
RECOMMENDATION
' Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the following
motion:
' "The City Council finds that Conditional Use Permit Case #89-1
for Eckankar Church is consistent with the zoning standards of
the City of Chanhassen and approves the request subject to the
' plans stamped "Received March 22, 1989" and the matters of record
in the Official City Planning File #89-1 Conditional Use Permit
(Eckankar Church) with the following conditions :
1 . Detailed lighting of the exterior of the building be sub-
mitted for review by the city. At staff' s discretion, the
lighting may be presented to the Planning Commission for
review to determine if the lighting is consistent with the
character of the neighborhood.
' 2 . All detailed construction plans and specifications are to
meet city standards .
' 3 . Watershed District permits required prior to construction.
4 . There shall be no outside speaker system on the site.
' 5 . The facility is for the express use as a church and limited
to normal operations and activities associated with a church.
In no case shall national or international rallies , confer-
' ences , or meetings be allowed.
6 . No tents, mobile homes , trailers or similar temporary struc-
tures shall be allowed on the property; except for the use of
temporary construction trailers during the construction of
the facility.
' 7. Parking shall only be allowed in the improved parking areas
as designated on the site plan.
8. No overnight stays shall be permitted including camping or
lodging with the exception of the caretaker.
9 . No use other than that specified in the conditional use per-
mit shall be permitted, unless the applicant applies for and
II
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20 , 1989
Page 8
receives approval of a new conditional use permit pursuant to
the City Code requirements in affect at that time. "
ATTACHMENTS '
1 . City Council minutes dated April 10 , 1989.
2 . Letters submitted since April 10 , 1989 Council meeting. '
3 . Summary of comments made on survey cards.
4 . Environmental review process.
5. Letter from City Attorney dated April 12 , 1989. '
1
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1
�Ci ' Counc; _ Meeting - sprit 11, 1989
IIAWARD OF BIDS: CITY HALL SECURITY SYSTEM. T
Todd Gerhardt: Attached to your packet you will find a bid from Alpha Video and
I Audio for a bid of $12,761.05. The second bi.d was from Southwest Audio Visual
for a bid of $13,389.45. A difference of approximately 6
recommendations that award of bid go to Alpha Video Audio for_0$12,761.05. Also
I included in your packet are the specifications for the installation and the
equipment to be used on the project.
IICouncilman Johnson: I'll move approval of the award of contract to the low
bidder Alpha Video and Audio in the amount of $12,761.05. And I'd like to thank
Southwest also for their bid and also for setting up the audio for tonight's
Ipresentation.
Councilman Workman: I do have one quick comment. Todd graciously called me
II today before he got busy setting up here tonight.
like this, here g My biggest concern when items
$13,000.00 here and $20,000.00 there and $5,000.00 here is that
staff, and this certainly isn't only Todd but that staff place in there maybe a
trail of where this money came from. Where it's coming from and where it was
I designated from. I did find out that the money, the $13,000.00 is from a cable
TV fund. We all pay ever_yti.me we pay our cable TV bill and that puts the
expenditure of $13,000.00 into a different light. But if in the future it will
II probably save us all time a little bit if we could maybe find out where that
money is supposed to be coming from. A couple meetings ago the Lions in the
consent agenda, the Chaska Lions donated $10,200.00 to the City of Chanhassen
II Park and Rec department. Nobody on the Council brought it up. I happened to
office with the past president of Chaska Lions and said, where's this money
coming from and why are we getting it? I found out that was from the pulltabs
here in town but it wasn't in the report so I'd like to know not only how we're
I spending it but how we're getting it a little bit. :Maybe we can get a trail and
save some time.
IResolution #89-56: Councilman Johnson moved, Councilwoman Dimler seconded to
award the contract to the low bidder, Alpha Video and Audio for the City Hall ,
Security System in the amount of $12,761.05. All voted in favor and the motion
Icarried.
CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A CHURCH, 1/4 MILE NORTH OF
HIGHWAY 5 AND WEST OF POWERS BOULEVARD, ECKANKAR CHURCH, PETER BECK.
Public Present:
IIName Address
II Mitch and Janet Weaver_
Dan Mahady 4309 W. 113th Street, Bloomington
1020 Butte Court, Chanhassen
Tom Hickey 6990 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
I Ginger Gross 2703 Ches Mar Farm Road, Chanhassen
Cindy Jones 2739 Chops Mar Farm Road, Chanhassen
Bill and Helen Loebl 7197 Frontier Trail, Chanhassen [7
IIJane Klinkenberg 180 Cascade Court, Chanhassen
12
II
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City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
Name Address I
Edward A. and Marion Ziegler 920 Butte Court, Chanhassen
I
Matt and Laurie Hoffman 931 Saddlebrook Trail, Chanhassen
Chuck and Peggy Becker 7211 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
Douglas and Jane Cook 290 Trappers Pass, Chanhassen
Eric Rivkin 1695 Steller Court, Chanhassen
II
Bill and Karen Gleason 1031 Saddlebrook Trail, Chanhassen
Chris Burns Sailor Newspaper_
Mr. and Mrs. Kubitz 7492 Saratoga, Chanhassen
II
Ike and Helen Pesonen 7257 Pontiac Circle
Curt and R.L. Hausen 6220 Horseshoe Curve, Chanhassen
Herbert J. Kask 115 Pleasant View Road, Chanhassen II Albert and Karen Dorweiler 1565 Bluff Creek Drive, Chanhassen
Sandy Eastling 7285 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
Esther Steller 6311 Steller Circle, Chanhassen
Earl and Ehma St. John 1621 West 63rd Street, Excelsior
II
Lydia E. Porter 7217 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
Mary Johnson 1044 Pontiac Lane, Chanhassen
Patsy Ward 6960 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
I
Susan Johnsrud 7061 Shawnee Lane, Chanhassen
Sharon Koenen 6960 Shawnee Lane, Chanhassen
Georgia Cox 6990 Shawnee Lane, Chanhassen II Jack Atkins 220 West 78th Street, Chanhassen
Joanne Nelson 7290 Cactus Curve, Chanhassen
Robin K. Norby 6801 Redwing Lane, Chanhassen
Dawne Erhart 775 West 96th Street, Chanhassen
II
Bob and Mary Rezac 6970 Shawnee Lane, Chanhassen
Rosi Schlenk 501 Chan View, Chanhassen
Can Koirnian 7615 Kiowa, Chanhassen II LueAnn Wallentine 507 Chan View, Chanhassen
Shirley Kreger 7606 Kiowa, Chanhassen
Tom and Carol Barrett 7051 Redman Lane, Chanhassen
Thomas Lehmann 330 Sinnen Circle, Chanhassen
II
Timothy and Carol Vadnais 8110 81st Street, Victoria
Jim and Bri.tta Pasek 141 Oak Glen Drive, Hopkins
Doug Arnold 400 Deerfoot Trail, Chanhassen
II
Susan Bode 7105 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
Sheryl Mickelson 981 Pontiac Lane, Chanhassen
Dale and Gloria Carlson 6900 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
II
Ross and Deidre McEllhiney 733 Preakness Lane, Chanhassen
Richard Potz 6991 Tecumseh Lane, Chanhassen
Bud Andrus 7078 Red Cedar Cove, Chanhassen
Mat and Sue Strand 7410 Chippewa Trail, Chanhassen
I
M.H. Wi.ttr_sas 6022 Dakota Avenue, Chanhassen
Mark Pahl 8056 Erie Avenue, Chanhassen
Eleanor Widey 7610 Great Plains Blvd. , Chanhassen
II
M. McNutt 410 Chan View, Chanhassen
Ivan and Mildred Underdahl 7502 West 77th Street, Chanhassen
Steve and Dianne Clabots 1021 Pontiac Lane, Chanhassen
Kathy Doeper 8026 Cheyenne Lane, Chanhassen-
II
Trent and Nancy Manaren 7552 Great Plains Blvd., Chanhassen
L-- Chuck Hirt 7007 Cheyenne Trail, Chanhassen
Ken Earhart 6880 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
II
13 1
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11 City Counci L ,1eeting - \prnl 13, 1989
II Name Address _
I Barbara Fransdal
Lois Fiskness 6200 Murray Hill Road, Chanhassen s
8033 Cheyenne Avenue, Chanhassen
Joe Kasid 7013 Sandy Hook Circle, Chanhassen
I Mrs. L.J. DeMarais 6979 Pima Lane, Chanhassen
Stephen Cobb 880 Nez Perce Court, Chanhassen
Don and Solveig Huseth 7332 Frontier Trail, Chanhassen
Judy Colby 7307 Laredo Drive, Chanhassen
II Janet Paulsen
Karl Hinkle 7305 Laredo Drive, Chanhassen
1603 West 161st, Westfield, IN 46074
Alan Leirness 608 2nd Avenue So, Minneapolis
II George Benick 412 West 76th Street, Chanhassen
Jerry Paulsen 7305 Laredo Drive, Chanhassen
Jan Rome 405 Del Rio Drive, Chanhassen
L.J. Anderson 400 Cimarron Circle, Chanhassen
I J.H. Kasper
R.W. Robinett 411 Cimarron Circle, Chanhassen
nett 401 Cinarron Circle, Chanhassen
K.W. Wenaland 8040 Dakota Lane, Chanhassen
II V. Punni.cutt 8051 Cheyenne, Chanhassen
Wayne and Sharon Skoblik 701 Bighorn, Chanhassen
Michael Wangen 420 Chan View, Chanhassen
I Dan Barnett 777 Carver Beach Road, Chanhassen
Lisa Welk 720 Preakness Lane, Chanhassen
Rob Reynolds 760 Santa Vera, Chanhassen
Merlyn Wanous 6231 Church Road, Excelsior I
I William A. Claas
Mark Schblock 791 Belmont, Chanhassen
7100 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen 4
Karen Anderson 6881 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
I Bill and Kathy Engebretson 7120 Utica Lane, Channassen
Kurt J. Weimer_ 6211 Dogwood Avenue, Channassen
Scott Torrey 731 Bighorn Drive, Chanhassen
Monte EAstvold 7051 Pima Lane, Chanhassen
I Doug Hansen 108 Pioneer Trail, Chanhassen
Mike GOr_r_a 1680 Arboretum, Chanhassen
Terry Forbord 935 E. Wayzata Blvd.
I Bill Eggert
Dave Sime 800 Preakness Lane, Chanhassen
790 Preakness Lane, Chanhassen
Julie Farmakes 7100 Utica Lane, Chanhassen
I Leneda Rahe 1021 Carver Beach Road, Chanhassen
Al Klingelhutz 8600 Great Plains Blvd. , Chanhassen
Cindy Schallock 7100 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
II Dianne Priedote 7401 Frontier. Trail, Chanhassen
Pat Leiter 7613 Kiowa Avenue, Chanhassen
Daniel Remoz 7560 Chippewa Trail, Chanhassen
Jim Eastling 7285 Pontiac Circle, Chanhassen
I Mike Farkas
Dean Brown 7501 Chippewa, Chanhassen
18737 Clear Drive, Minnetonka
Alan Putnam
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Whitehill
II
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II14
is
City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
Steve Hanson: The Planning Commission at it's regular meeting on March 1, 1989
i
reviewed this particular request and held a public hearing pursuant to your.
regulations. At that time they did recommend approval of Case 89-1, Conditional
Use Permit for Eckankar Church. That vote was a 4 to 1 vote by the Commission
with two of those members absent. The approval was subject to several
conditions. Pri.nci.ply as contained within the staff report delivered to the
Planning Commission. At that time the applicant had agreed to the conditions
that were placed on the application and subsequently have revised their plans in
conformance with the conditions as placed on the application by the Planning
Commission. The Planning Commission also at the time when they did recommend
approval also had a couple items that they wanted the City Council to consider
in your deliberations. There were four of those. The first of those was hiring
an independent consultant to review the proposal as far as the impact on
property values and I believe you have in the packet a copy of that document.
The second item was that additional services that the facility may need should
be re-evaluated by staff. [nom have done that and I'll go over that in a minute.
The third was the status of Eckankar as a church. We have gone back through and
looked through the definitions that we have and'have found that the facility
does qualify as a church under the City Codes. The fourth item was a further
evaluation of conditions 1, 4, 6 and 11 of the general issuance standards for
conditional use permits. Also I would note, I tried to put out copies of the
general issuance conditions for the public. I didn't make 200 copies but I had
before the meeting started, set some of those out on some of the chairs and I
believe some of the folks have them. Also we have a set of those up at the
podium if people want to reference those specific conditions that you have for
evaluating this particular request. Also in the report that you have before
you, I've done a further evaluation of conditions 1, 4, 6 and 11. Briefly I'd
like to go over those. The first of those states that the application will not
be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, comfort, convenience or
general welfare of the neighborhood or the City. Previously staff and the
Planning Commission's report had recouunended that the application did comply
with this criteria and that when we apply the standard we take into
consideration a variety of uses, operations and safety issues. The application
does comply with the zoning requirements and greatly exceeds the setback
requirements. The application also complies with fire and safety
recommendations for the facility. From a land use standpoint, the isolation of
the facility from neighboring uses provides an excessive separation and there
are no identified nuisances that would be detrimental to the public comfort.
The church use presents no endangerment to the general welfare nor has an
investigation conducted by the Public Safety Department noted any problems in
other communities where they have had facilities. The fourth criteria that was
brought up as a concern at the Planning Commission states that the application
will not be hazardous or disturbing to existing or planned neighboring uses. We
have been unable to identify any hazardous materials or hazardous operations
that would be conducted on the property. And further, again, the investigation
done by the Public Safety Department has identified no disturbing uses for the
property or from the Eckankar. Church itself. The sixth criteria states the
applicant will not create excessive requirements for public facilities and
services and will not be detrimental to the economic welfare of the community.
As stated in the staff report to the Planning Commission, this use will have
Lless need for public facilities and services than if the property were developed
residentially pursuant to the existing zoning on the property. Also the
investigation has not turned up any additional requirements for facilities that
the City would have to provide for this particular use. The last item was item
15 1
IICity Council Meeting - io,. i _ L989
1 11 in that the applicant will not depreciate surrounding property values.
Again, I'd refer you to the appraisal information that is included in your r
9 approval regarding that item. The staff is recoumendin a roval of the
' conditional use permit for Case 89-1, for Eckankar Church with several
conditions which are really a modification of the conditions that were approved
by the Planning Commission and recommends that City Council take the following
1 action. That the City Council finds that the Conditional Use Permit Case #89-1
for Eckankar Church is consistent with the zoning standards of the City of
Chanhassen and approves the request subject to the plan stamped "Received March
' 22, 1989" and the matters of record in the official City Planning File ;#89-1,
Conditional Use Permit, Eckankar Church with the following conditions:
1. Detailed lighting of the exterior of the building be submitted for review by
the City. At staff's discretion the lighting may be presented to the
Planning Commission for review to determine if the lighting is consistent
with the character of the neighborhood.
1 2. All detailed construction plans and specifications are to meet city
standards.
1 3. The Watershed District permits required prior to construction.
4. There shall be no outside speaker system on the site.
1 5. The facility is for the express use as a church and limited to normal
operations and activities associated with the church. In no case shall
1 rallies, conferences, meetings or gatherings in excess of the seating
capacity of the proposed facility be allowed.
6. No tents, mobile homes, trailers or si.mi.lar temporary structures shall be
1 allowed on the property.
7. Parking shall only be allowed on the improved parking areas as designated on
1 the site plan.
8. No overnight stay shall be permitted including camping or lodging with the
1 exception of the caretaker.
9. No use other than that specified in the conditional use permit shall be
permitted unless the applicant applies for and receives approval of a new
1 conditional use permit pursuant to the City Code requirements in effect at
that time.
1 That concludes my comments at this time Mr. Mayor unless you have any questions.
Mayor. Chmiel: Are there any questions from Council?
1 Councilman Johnson: I'd like to bounce two things off of you. I think one of
them I talked to you on the phone about. I'm hoping you came up with some
alternate wording for number 5 which is the facility is for the express use as a
1 church limited to normal operations, activates associated with the church. I
have no problem with that sentence. In no case shall rallies, conferences,
meetings or gatherings in excess of the seating capacity of the proposed
[r.
facility be allowed. That we have to put on every church in town. If we're
16
1
City Council :;eeti na - :lori 1 10, 1989
I
going to put it on one church, they all get it which means that we can't put out
folding chairs for Easter services. I've never been to an Easter service, even
in our new facility at Mount Calvary that we just built the new auditorium. At
Easter we had to put out folding chairs already so we exceeded the seating
capacity. That design seating capacity so somehow we have to treat everybody
equal. Now as far as the rallies, conferences, meetings go, I think we should ,
specify there, something of a national or international type thing. This is for
a local church and churches have local rallies and stuff like that but we're not
looking for this to be an international headquarters of any sort and we don't
want any national or international rallies. I think we need to do that. I'm
not exactly sure how to handle the seating capacity. Is the seating capacity
and the occupancy capacity the same as far as fire limits for occupancy
capacity? No, it's two different things. We can't exceed the fire occupancy '
capacity which we're probably closing in on on this roan today. I hope our Fire
Marshall's not here. The other thing is we talk about tents, mobile homes,
trailers, can we add except during construction because all the construction
companies grant to put in their little mobile home construction office. Say
something like except construction offices.
Mayor Chmiel: That's normally accepted. 1
Councilman Johnson: But we're giving them a condition that says you can't put a
construction trailer on there basically. It says no trailers and we didn't say
except during construction.
Mayor Chmiel: I think the intent behind that is that no trailers will be on
• site once the site has been brought up to standards.
Councilman Johnson: Good. That's what I'm saying. Let's say it. Co you have
any problem with that?
Steve Hanson: No. I think that would be beneficial to put that clause in there
so it is clear that they can't have the construction trailers during i
construction. I think right now the way i.t's stated, you could make the
interpretation that it does not allow anything at all, even during construction.
Councilman Johnson: That's all my questions of staff. I do have some general 1
comments later I guess.
Mayor Chmiel: I'd like to just establish a few parameters for this evenings 1
meeting. I would like to have each individual from the group have a spokes
person for it to get up and address the issue. Any other members or any other
people that are here this evening who would like to address this issue, we'd
like to limit that between 5 to 10 minutes at the very most. So with that, I'd
like you to take that into consideration when it's your time to come up to the
podium. When i.t's that time, also indicate your name and your address. Thank
you. Are you presenting it this evening Peter?
Peter Beck: Yes. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, Peter Beck, 7900
Xerxes Avenue South representing Eckankar. I intended to present the project to
the City Council. Of course it would take longer than 5 or. 10 minutes. Was
fi your intent that we proceed to take the time necessary to present the project
and then the further discussion would be. . .
17 1
_ �t
II �i�y Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
IIMayor Chmiel: I think you can give your full presentations basicall y and a. any of —
the people who are going to submit their discussions are limited to that. I
IIPeter Beck: Okay. I'd like to introduce first quickly, the folks that are here i
tonight to answer questions from the Council or fr_a-n the public. They include
I my partners Jim Larkin, who is here now and Bob Hoffman who is at another.
meeting and will be here as soon as he possibly can. Also, the architects for
the project, Ron Krank and Peter Sussman with Korsunsky, Krank and Erickson
Architects. Mr. Krank is the lead architect. His qualifications are set forth
I in a statement that he submitted to the City. Essentially he has 26 years of
experience as an architect with particular experience in Chanhassen including
buildings for the Press, Instant Webb and Redman Products and with considerable
I experience in the design of churches including Mount Olivet Lutheran Church and
being a lay leader in charge of the Temple of Isarel's recent 4 million dollar
addition and remodeling program. Again, Mr. Krank's written statement setting
forth his qualifications and his analysis of the project and it's compliance
Iwith the ordinance of Chanhassen in the record. Also tonight are several
representatives from Barton Aschmann and Associates Inc. who are also
consultants to Eckankar for civil engineering and environmental issues. We have
I submitted statements from four representatives of Barton Aschmann being Dan
Lutenegger, Chuck Ri.ckart, Scott Mi.nnous and Ken Horns addressing separate
issues of traffic, air quality, dust, wetlands, erosion and sedimentation
I control, utilities and landscaping. Barton Aschmann has also prepared a
voluntary Environmental Assessment Worksheet which is a part of the record that
was before the Planning Commission as before the Council tonight. The
conclusion of the statements submitted by Barton Aschmann and the Environmental f
1 Assessment Worksheet is that the church complies with the City's ordinances and
has no potential for any significant environmental effects. In addition to
those development team members, we have also had Eckankar_ retain two independent
I consultants to review the church and the Chanhassen ordinances and to render
their opinions on the compliance of the church with the City's ordinances.
Mr. John Shardlow is a partner in the firm of Dahlgren, Shardlow and Uban. His
professional qualifications are also set forth in a statement submitted to the
1 City and in the record. Essentially he has considerable experience assisting
conmuni.ti.es in the preparation of Comprehensive Plans, zoning ordinances and the
analysis of development projects. We asked Mr. Shardlow to review all of the
I plans for the church and the City's ordinances, Comprehensive Plan and render
his opinion on compliance. His written statement summarizes his conclusions
which are consistent with staff's conclusions that the church as proposed does
I comply with the City's ordinances and other requirements. We have also had Mr.
Shardlow conduct a separate investigation of Eckankar's current locations in New
Hope and Minneapolis to determine whether or not those cities have any negative
experiences with the Eckankar locations in their cities including increased
I calls for services or complaints and the result of that investigation is
summarized in a brief letter that we submitted this evening which is that
neither community had had any complaints or other call for special services due
I to Eckankar facilities in their city. Mr. Shardlow along with the development
team members is here tonight to present this statement in greater detail if the
Council would like or to answer any questions. Finally with us tonight is Al
Leirness, real estate appraiser with the firm of Robert Boblett Associates Inc. .
I Mr. Leirness is an MAI designated appraiser with over 12 years of experience
appraising real estate including specific experience in Chanhassen with the CPT
building, Lyman Lumber Plant and other properties. He was specifically retained =
IIto address the zoning ordinance standard with respect to the impacts on
11 18
City C; :nc i 1 "eet'ng _ ',pri 1 10, 1',29 3 '
surrounding property values. His first ,n-i.tten statement was submitted to the
City at the time of the Planning Commission hearing concluded that the church
will not jepr_eci.ate surrounding property values. Since the Planning Commission
hearing, we have requested that he look into that issue in greater detail and he
has done so and will submit a report tonight which summarizes his detailed look
at specific property sales. The approach he took was to do a detailed analysis
of actual property sales in the areas surrounding Eckankar's properties in New
Hope and Minneapolis. Also in the areas surrounding a church in Southwest
Minneapolis called the Church Universal and Triumphant which was a very
controversial church at the time it wasn't approved. They had to go to the
Supreme Court to establish their right to locate but subsequent to their
location in Minnapolis, Mr. Leirness' findings is that there has been no adverse
impact on any property in proximity, in any kind of reasonably close proximity
to that church. That is also the conclusion that he arrived at after studying
property records and records of property sales in New Hope and Minneapolis. Mr.
Leirness also analyzed the specific residential properties surrounding
Eckankar's property in Chanhassen. The purpose of that was to identify the
types of residential property surrounding the Eckankar property and to get a
better idea of whether any impacts could be reasonably anticipated. His
conclusion was that the types of residential property surrounding Eckankar in
Chanhassen are of the affordable type housing which are in very high demand and
short supply, particularly in this part of the metropolitan area. It is his
opinion that due to that fact, coupled with the actual experience in New Hope
and Minneapolis, that there is no reasonable basis to conclude that there would
be any impact on surrounding property values as a result of the Eckankar church
as proposed in Chanhassen. I'd like to emphasize again that that report which
we will submit this evening is based on his analysis of actual facts from the
property records. The rest of our presentation tonight will be basically a
summary of materials which we have previously submitted to the City. Review of
some graphics showing the project. All of the materials that we'll be
referencing are ..n the record with the City and we'd like to sumnari.ze our
understanding. The record does include our application including cover letter,
plans, Environmental Assessment Worksheet and all the other attachments and 1
materials we submitted with our application as well as the staff report of March
1, 1989 including all of the attachments to that staff report which did include
some follow-up letters from us related to the project. And the record should
also include the staff report of April 4, 1989 also including all attachments.
Specifically our letters to the City Council members with follow up information
with respect to the proposal. Additional materials which we've submitted this
evening I've mentioned. The statement from Scott Minnous with Barton Aschmann
is basically identical to a statement filed earlier. from Barry Warner with
respect to landscaping as Scott and Barry worked together on the landscaping
plan. Barry had a conflict tonight so Scott is here and therefore we submit his '
written statement. This additional letter from John Shardlow on his
investigation in New Hope and Minneapolis. The statement from Mr. Leirness
which I just mentioned as well as a copy of an April 7, 1989 letter which we
addressed to the City Council is not in the packet but I've submitted a separate
copy for the record. We've also submitted a copy of a portion of the April 6,
1989 Chanhassen Villager which we request be made ,A part of the record.
Eckankar is, those of you who were present at the Planning Commission meeting or
have taken opportunity to review those Minutes are aware, is a tax exempt
religious organization under the Federal Internal Revenue Code and has been
designated as a church under the Internal Revenue Code since 1975. We've
provided the City with a copy of the current Internal Revenue Service
19
City Council `?eeting - April 10, 1989
II
determination letter with h respect to Eckankar's status as a church which is
dated 1975 and remains in effect. ..under the laws of the State of Minnesota to j
I solemnize marriages and we have also submitted confirmation of this with our
application. Eckankar has over 190 Eck centers in 92 countries around the world
and has had a local Eck center in the Twin Cities since 1971. This Eck center.
1 was located in St. Paul at 1879 University Avenue from 1973 until 1975 and then
in Minneapolis at 807 SE 4th Street from 1975 to 1986 and at 2526 South 25th
Street from 1986 to the present. Eckankar purchased the property at the
I intersection of TH 5 and CR 17 in 1986 for the purpose of relocating it's
international headquarters from Menlo Park, California and establishing an
international adminstrative headquarters or campus in Chanhassen. The property
was purchased from the First National Bank of St. Paul which had acquired it in
Ia foreclosure proceeding following a failed proposal for a planned residential
development. The entire property was then and remains today a single parcel of
property legally described as Tract B, Registered Land Survey 88. Eckankar
I purchased the entire 174 acres because the bank was selling it as a parcel.
There wasn't an option to purchase a portion of it. It was purchased for a
number of reasons including the fact that the central portion was at that time
and remains to date, designated by the City's Comprehensive Plan for campus
I business purposes. This was consistent with Eckankar's proposal and their
thought of building an international admi.nstr_ati.ve campus in Chanhassen. The
concept plan for the first phase of that campus included an admi.nstrative office
I building and a design graphic, audio visual and publishing facility. Eckankar
has since discontinued publishing in house and contracts for most of that work
but at the time they were performing those sorts of functions themselves and
were proposing separate buildings for that. This concept plan was approved by
I the Planning Commission and the City Council in 1985. Eckankar subsequently
withdrew the request before public hearing before the Planning Commission and
located it's international headquarters in New Hope, Minnesota. This is where
Ithe international headquarters is presently and this is where it will continue
to be located. The Chanhassen property is proposed only for a church. The City
subsequently rezoned Eckankar's property from planned residential to single
I family, medium and high density residential. Specifically the RSF, R-4 and R-12
zoning districts. Since churches are allowed as a conditional use in all three
of those zoning districts, Eckankar has decided to use it's property for a
church. The church, as we've stated in our application materials, will be a
I building consecrated to religious worship where people will join together in
public worship under the direction of a person authorized under the laws of the
II State of Minnesota to solemnize marriages. The church will include an 800 seat
sanctuary, a care takers residence, classroom facility and other areas as
detailed on the plans submitted which I'll review in a minute and all is
permitted by the Zoning Ordinance. The church will not include any uses not
II allowed b y the zoning ordinance definition of a church. Office space will be
provided to serve administrative staff of the church only. As I mentioned,
international headqua.rter_s is and will remain in New Hope. I'd like Bob, maybe
we' ll go through the slides fairly quickly. Hopefully everybody can see them.
IThis is a computer generated graphic of the Eckankar property and it also shows
Lake Ann Park there to the west or left of the graphic. North would be up on
this graphic. The church is shown in yellow about in the middle. Parking area
I is the darker area right below or to the south of the church. To the west you
see the access road to Lake Ann Park. The church as you can see is located
virtually in the center of the property. I think Bob, let's try the next slide.
L'72
I believe it's the site plan. This is, it's not as pretty but I think it will
I
give you a little better idea of the relationships here. This is the Eckankar.
II 20
mi
City Co . ici 1 ,'aet ag - \pri 1 77, 1`980 ✓� '
— pr_opert Y. Again, you see the
II
Y t.�� church in th._ center. „n c�ar:ci rg area
itamedi.ately to the south. The gross floor area of the building will be 43,000
square eat. The percent of entire property covered by the building is .4% or
II
.7 acres. The percent of the site, entire property covered by impervious
surface !s 3.33 or. 5.7 acres and the percent of site covered by parking area is
1.3% or .2.3 acres. The church is designed to accommodate approximately 20
employees. The sanctuary as I mentioned will have 800 seats. The number of II
parking 'spaces requi.r_ed is 276 and the plan provides 290 including handicap
spaces. The building is 36 feet in height as measured under the zoning
ordinance due to the hipped roof. Probably a more accurate way to think of it
though is that it's height from the ground level in front of the building to the II
highest -point would be approximately 50 feet and from the ground level at the
rear or walkout level of the building will be approximately 65 feet. This
height compares to an allowable height under the zoning ordinance, given the II
setbacks proposed of something in the neighborhood of 2,000 feet. Setbacks are
820 feet from the east, 930 feet from the west, 1,960 feet from the south and
1,980 from the north. Those are setbacks from property lines. Access will be
II
off of CR 17 via a driveway aligned with existing Saddlebrook Curve to the east.
You can see for reference later, in addition to the setback lines which you see
on this slide, there are also four lines designating sight sections or sight
I
line studies that we'll look at in a second. The sight line studies are taken
from the north, where it's approximately 2,000 feet the nearest residence and
coupled to the northeast there, and then we're taking one directly to the east.
Then there's one, as you can see it goes off to the north, kind of west, II
northwest. Take a look at what would be visible from Lake Ann. Here are the
sight line studies. At the top che see sight line study of the 2,000 foot
distance from the closest home to the north. Across, there's some existing
II
vegetation that will be between most of those homes and the church and then the
church building would be down to the south. The second study is from
approximately 1,000 feet away from a residential area to the northeast. Again II shows with the home to the northeast on the right there and the church Co the
left. The third one down is directly from the east and shows some of the
landscaping that will be installed as part of the project and the relationship
of that landscaping to sight lines directly from the east. Then the fourth at
I
the bottom is the sight line study from Lake Ann and the church will not be
visible from Lake Ann given the intervening grades and the vegetation along that
eastern shore of Lake Ann. In addition to this sight line stud II r.
again some compute assisted diagrams that give views from different,locations.
This is a view from the south and west at the entrance to Lake Ann Park. That's
the entrance road to the Park. Highway 5 going across the front and the church
is about in the center of the- slide. It's difficult to see from this distance II
but it appears as a slight structure to the left of the second tree. This slide
is from the intersection of TH 5 and CR 17. Again you see the intervening
grades screen all of the parking areas for the church and you can just see a
II
portion of the church about in the center of the slide. This slide is from the
southeast at the top of the TH 5 overpass. Over the railroad tracks. From the
top of that overpass, you will be able to see the church although it will be
several thousand feet away and there's a considerable amount of green area, of II
course about 2,000 feet between the highway and the church. This is a view
looking from the east directly at the entrance of the church showing what will
be visible. The entrance road does curve around to the south and of course I
there's landscaping which will be installed inbet,aeen. This is a view from the
north over to the east side of north where the existing vegetation for the one
or two houses where existing trees will not intervene between the houses and the
II
21
II
l _
II ' City Council Meeting - \ori l LI, 198_1
Ichurch showing what those, we think it's 2 or 3 houses to the east and Greenwo od
Shores would see the church. This i.s detailed site plan. Again, we probably 1
II should have shown it a little earlier_ of the central portion of the Eckankar_ a
property. The site for the church, showing the entrance road off of CR 17. The 1
parking area. The two service drives on the northeast and southwest. These
are some additional sight sections prepared to comply with city ordinances which
I give essentially landscaping and berming details to demonstrate the techniques
that will be used to screen the parking areas from public roadways and from
II other surrounding areas. This is another CAD slide. This slide is from the I
believe it's the south. It's from on the Eckankar property about 1,000 feet
away. We picked a few slides that are actually from the property itself just to
give an idea of what the computer says anyhow the church will look like from
I closer up. This i.s from about halfway up the entrance drive before the drive
curves to the south. This is a little bit closer down the entrance drive
showing the proposed landscaping as well as the church. This is the artist
rendering of the proposal which is to scale and does show proposed landscaping.
I In other words, those trees aren't just put there for show. They are consistent
with the landscaping plan. You can see the church is built of attractive
materials, high quality materials. The lighting has been designed to comply
I with City Code and the recommendations of staff. As staff report indicates,
final lighting of the building itself will be reviewed with city staff and fine
tuned as the building goes into final design. The landscaping is in excess of
II city requi.r_ements. Will include a variety of shrubery and different tree
varieties. The objective of both the landscaping and grading plan has been to
compliment the existing natural site conditions while meeting and in fact
exceeding the code requirements. Landscape will include a variety of deciduous 1
11 and coniferous trees as well as shrubery and flowers. The parking lots, as I
mentioned, will be bermed from all directions with landscaping on top of the
berms so the parking area and cars will not be visible from public rights-of-
wII ay. Service areas are, you can see the one service road curving off to the
right in this slide. Go down to the lower walkout level of the church and will
also be screened with berms and landscaping. The balance of the site will be, a
portion of it closest to the building will be sodded. The balance will be seeded
I in prairie grasses and maintained in that state. This is a floor plan of the
main floor which has been submitted to illustrate the relationships. As I
mentioned, it's a 48,000 square foot building. The main worship area is on the
1 right in this slide. As I said, it has 800 seats surrounded by some classrooms,
chapels, ore-function areas and other mall meetings rooms. To the left is the
adminstrative wing which will include offices for it's church staff, reading
room, coats, storage, that sort of thing. The church as I mentioned will not
I house any publishing facilities. Any theological seminary. Daycare center nor
any other use not allowed by the City Code. Public access to the main floor
II will be through the front entrance which you can see between the two wings
there. From there into the sanctuary or the administrative offices or down the
steps or the elevator to the fellowship hall. This is the lower level floor
plan which will include a fellowship hall which is on the right underneath the
II sanctuary area. Kitchen. Caretakers apartment as well as some additional
classrooms and storage. I think that's it for the slides. We can go back to
them if there are any questions specifically about the slides. In our
application materials and the subsequent letters and other materials which we've
IIsubmitted, we've set forth in considerable detail the compliance of the church
with all of the standards and requi.r_ements of the zoning and other ordinances of
the city. Your planning staff has also reviewed the plans and prepared two [7
IIreports analyzing the project in detail against the standards of the zoning
II 22
IN
City Coudi l "eating - \pri l 10r 1939 y '
ordinance. ' e've also submitted the statements of our development team and the
two independent experts that I mentioned earlier addressing specifically
compliance with the standards of the zoning ordinance. All of these materials
are in the record. We didn't plan to present them in detail tonight but we can
do that course at the request of the Council. The planning staff and
Planning Commission have recommended approval subject to a number of conditions.
We have submitted letters to the City setting forth our agreement which each of
these conditions that were in the original staff report and in addition we'd
like to put into the record tonight, we haven't had the opportunity to put this
in writing but will if requested, that we are in agreement with the 9 new
conditions recommended by staff and listed during staff's presentation this
evening. Tje also had some questions about a few details in those conditions
including the ones that Councilman Johnson mentioned but it was our feeling that
the conditions were close enough, that we understood the intent and we can work
with the City and with those conditions. I'd like to continue for a few moments
and address some additional issues that we didn't talk about at the Planning
Commission which we did touch on in our April 7th letter to the Council members
but which I'd like to dwell on a little bit further this evening. They go to
the inaccurate statements that have come to our, attenti.on about the Eckankar
church. Also to specifically address in a little more detail the issue of
surrounding property values. Finally to address the suggestion that the City
acquire the entire Eckankar property. A number of statements about Eckankar
have come to our attention. Have been made in various public forums and 11 publications over. the past month. We'd like to address those which we feel are
relevent to the issues, land use issues before the Council tonight. First I'd
like to advise the Council that Prince is not a member of Eckankar. Has no ties
to Eckankar and is not related in any way to Eckankar's purchase of it's
property or to the proposed church. Second, Eckankar as I said, is a tax exempt
religious organization. Has been since 1971 and has been a tax exempt church
under the Internal Revenue Code since 1975. Eckankar's former international
headquarters building in Menlo Park was owned by Eckankar and was tax exempt as
is it's current international headquarters building in New Hope, Minnesota.
Eckankar has been paying property taxes on it's land in Chanhassen to date
because the land has not yet been put to use for church purposes. It was our
advice to Eckankar that, in that circumstances, there was enough authority for
the proposition that they owed the taxes, we felt they should go ahead and pay
them until they put the property to active use. Third, and I've mentioned this
a number of times already in the presentation but I do want it to be very clear
that their world headquarters are presently located in New Hope and that's where
they will remain. The proposal is for an Eckankar church. Not to relocate
their headquarters onto this property. Onto the Chanhassen property. And as
I've stated a couple times tonight and we've set forth in our submission
materials as well, Eckankar will only use it's property in Chanhassen for
purposes allowed by the lawfully adopted zoning and other ordinances of the
City. Fourth, Eckankar will not host any large scale national or international
conventions, seminars or camp outs on it's Chanhassen property. Eckankar does
sponsor several seminars annually. These seminars do involve several thousand
participants but they are all held at large convention centers throughout the
world which offer adequate facilities to accommodate participants. In fact we
have submitted for the record letters which Eckankar has received from locations
where these seminars have been held. Including Connecticut and Idaho to name
the ones I can think right off the top of my head. It has never been the intent
of Eckankar to have such a gathering at the Eckankar church and as I just said,
we agreed to the 9 new conditions set forth by staff tonight which would '
23 ,
-c>✓t'y Counc I L Meeting - April 10, L989
prohibit any such use of the property as we understand the conditions. Fifth is
that the plans which I just showed do provide for a caretakers residence in the
walkout level of the church as allowed by the zoning ordinance but there would
' not be any other residency within the church or on the property by any member of
Eckankar. Eckankar is not a communal religion. Encourages it's member to live
throughout and within the community and there are no communal residences for
' Eckankar members anywhere in the world and no intention on the part of Eckankar
or any of it's members to do so in Chanhassen. I'd like to spend now a few
minutes on the issue of surrounding property values. There are a couple issues
tied up in this general discussion and I'll try to call those out as I go. As I
mentioned a little bit earlier, we have commissioned Robert Boblett and
Associates, including Al Leirness to conduct two studies addressed to the issue
of whether. the Eckankar church will adversely affect surrounding property
1 values. Both of these studies concluded that it would not based on facts which
he gleaned from property records, property sales surrounding other Eckankar
properties as well as from his research regarding the surrounding residential
area to the Eckankar property in Chanhassen and the supply and demand for that
type of residential property. The City has also addressed this issue. Staff
has concluded on a couple of occasions that they saw no facts that would
adversely impact surrounding property values. That the City also commissioned a
' study by Andrus Agency Inc. on this issue. This study is quite long but if you
bear with it you will glean from it that Mr. Andrus also found no evidence
following his extensive investigation that Eckankar or any Eckankar facility
' anywhere in the country has ever caused or been in any way related with a single
penny's worth of devaluation in surrounding property values. In fact Mr. Andrus
found just what city staff has found. What Councilmember Johnson has found and
which everybody to our knowledge who has looked into Eckankar's properties in
' other parts of the country and other parts of the world, have found that their
neighbors in all locations support them and find them to be a good neighbor.
Mr. Andrus goes on however from that point to say that there may be a slight and
1 in all probability short lived dimunition in property values as a result of
doubts and perceptions in the minds of the community. This statement is
supported in his report exclusively by opinion. His opinion and the opinion of
1 some of a number of anonymous real estate brokers that he apparently canvased.
We urge the Council to contrast those conclusions and the basis for them to Mr.
Leirness' study which looked at the facts. Looked at property values in areas
surrounding existing Eckankar facilities. Looked at the nature of the property
' surrounding Eckankar. in Chanhassen. The supply and demand for that type of
property and concluded that all things considered, there will be no adverse
impacts on surrounding property values. That's looking at it, comparing apples
' to apples if you will but we think there's a more important issue here which is
the fact that Mr. Andrus' conclusion that any di.muni.tion in value at all,
however slight or temporary, would be the result of doubts and perceptions about
Eckankar as a religion rather than the use of Eckankar's property for a church.
The issue before the City Council is whether the use of the Eckankar property
for a church meets the standards of the zoning ordinance without reference to
the religion which will occupy the church. The issue is land use, not religion.
' The Council's obligation is to weigh the facts before it and I emphasize facts
rather than opinions from anonymous realtors and the others, people canvased in
Mr. Andrus' report. The facts as compiled by City staff and by it's own
consultant, Mr. Andrus, Counci.lmember. Johnson and others is that Eckankar is a
good neighbor everywhere in the country and has never had a negative impact on
surrounding property values at any location. We're unaware of any fact contrary
to that. Finally, I'd like to spend a few minutes on the suggestion that the
24
City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
II
City acquire Eckankar's entire property. It's our understanding that this
suggestion has been made to the Council. That the Council is sponsoring a
II
survey to determine whether there's public support for. purchasing Eckankar's
property for school, community center and park uses. We want to state most
emphatically at the outset of this discussion, as we did in our March 10th
letter to the City Manager, that the property is not for sale. Eckankar has
II
invested substantial amounts of time and money in preparing and planning for
it's church. Has paid property taxes for several years and has paid substantial
amounts in special assessments and will not abandon it's effort to build it's
church on this property under any circumstances. We also see no circumstances
under which the City could justify an attempt to condemn the property. The City
has evaluated it's park needs on a number of occasions over the years and no
plan that we're aware of, including the City's duly adopted Comprehensive Plan, t
park plan, has ever identified a need for parkland in addition to the 40 acres
which were obtained by the City. Were originally part of the parcel that is now
the Eckankar property several years ago let alone the need for 174 additional
II
acres. The suggestion that Eckankar's property could be condemned and rezoned
for a higher use and then resold or developed by the City at a profit is far
beyond the limitations of the City's eminent domain authority. Furthermore,
it's our understanding that even if the City did have the right, the ability to II
condemn the property, it does not have the funds to do so. The cost of such an
acquisition would be substantially in excess of 5 million dollars. Again, it's
our understanding, the City currently doesn't have the debt capacity to bond for II.
this amount even if the citizens of Chanhassen would authorize it. . .increases
in residential property values which were included in the survey questionaire
that went to, as I understand it, to all Eckankar residences but we urge you
also to consider the increase which such a proposal or bonding to fund the debt II
to acquire the property would have on commercial and industrial taxes. It's our
analysis from information that we have available, that virtually every
commercial and industrial property would incur several thousand dollars a year
II
in increased taxes to fund such a bond issue and many would incur many thousands
of dollars in increased property taxes. Of course, if the debt capacity were
filled up to acquire the property, it would leave the City without the ability
II
to generate any additional funds to improve it. To build a community center.
To build a trail system or for that matter to do anything else. So we see, we
think it is very difficult to see how a scenario like this which would raise
residential as well as commercial and industrial taxes, and limit the City's II
ability to provide additional services as opposed to land for it's residence,
would be in the best interest of the community. As I mentioned, Eckankar has
been paying property taxes and has paid and is continuing to pay special
assessments for trunk water and sanitary sewer projects. The City has received
and will continue to receive over roughly a 15 year period beginning with
Eckankar's acquisition of the property, something in excess of $50O,000.00 in
II
taxes and special assessment payments from Eckankar. Acquisition of the
property on the other hand will cost the City over. a 15 year period well in
excess of 9 million dollars. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 to 15
million dollars in acquisition costs, principle and interest payments,
II
management and maintenance expenses, etc. to say nothing of loss economic
benefit to the community as a whole as a result of the construction of the
d church and the fact that that property will, with the church constructed, be I
generating activity and spending in the city. We have prepared a diagram that
I illustrates that. Perhaps we can get it out in a minute if there are questions.
I'll conclude now just by saying that the Chanhassen zoning ordinance does
IIdefine church. Makes churches as conditional use in residential zoning
25
II
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II _Ct y Counc; _ gating - \pr_ii 10, 158x7
districts and set forth standards for the issuance of conditional use permits.
The Eckankar church falls within the definition of church. Meets all the
standards for the issuance of a conditional use permit. These facts are
conclusively shown in the materials which we've submitted as well as the staff
reports and other analyses that have been performed and submitted for the
record. The church will be an attractive, high quality addition to it's
neighbor and to the City. We request that the City Council approve the
Conditional Use Permit without any further delay. We believe the City Council
has all the information needed to make a land use decision which is the issue
before the Council. Further delays will cause Eckankar damages, particularly if
the 1989 construction season is lost. The proposal has been presented and
process by Eckankar with the intent of being under construction and completed in
1989 in order to serve their members. So we urge you to consider the issue and
1 to decide it and to approve the conditional use permit this evening. With that,
I'll conclude. I'm available of course to answer questions as are all members
of the development team and the two consultants that we have retained. All of
whom are here to answer whatever questions the Council or the public may have.
We appreciate your time.
Mayor. Chmiel: Is there anyone else wishing to address this proposal? If not,
' those who wish to present their sides of their proposals would please come LID_
and indicate their names and addresses and who they also represent.
' Councilman Johnson: Mr. Mayor, I think with the vi.si.ti.ng. ..to hear a short few
words from each member of the Council as to where they sit on it at this Point
so they know where we're coming from. So they can be more precise in their
presentation.
11
Mayor Chmi.el: I would just as soon i
J proceed with the position that I had 4
indicated and we'll indicate that afterwards.
' Tom Hickey: Honorable Mayor, members of the Council and fellow citizens
name is Tom Hickey and I reside at 6990 Utica Lane. I've been a member of this
community for 17 years. For the past 30 years I have been in the commercial
real estate business and I've seen this community grow from a sleepy hollow to
it's present status. As a member of the Concerned Citizens for Chanhassen and
' also one of their workers, they've asked me to be their spokesman this evening.
The Concerned Citizens for the Future of Chanhassen was formed as a result of
the March 1st Planning Commission recommendation for the citizens of Chanhassen
to improve communications between the citizens and the City. Our only concern
is the gross misuse of the 174 acres of prime lakeside land in the heart of our
community. We also need to determine if this concern was shared by other
members of our community. In order to determine if there was support for our
' views of this issue, we held informal meetings with neighbors. Met with the
local city officials. Performed phone surveys. Mailed out petitions.
Conducted door to door petitioning and ran ads in the local paper. As a result
of these efforts, 2,576 citizens of Chanhassen signed our petition in favor of
' supporting the City acqui.r_i.ng the 174 acres of tax exempt Eckankar property for
public use. At this time Mr. Mayor_ we would like to present to you and your
Council 2,576 signatures. At this time I would like you to bring the petition
forward. I would like to invite all of those in attendance here tonight who
support this petition to stand at this time. As concerned citizens for the
future of Chanhassen, we would like to lend our support and direction to the
City Council and to help you in making the tough decisions that lie ahead for
26
City Council Meeting - \pri 1 10, 1n89
the future betterment of this community. Thank you.
•
Dean Brown: '':y name is Dean Brown. I'm building chairman of the Family of
Christ Lutheran Church which was the last religious organization that built a
church in this town. :'inat I'm here to do is two things. First of all, as a
member of the building committee, that I would like to make sure that the
Council and the Planning Commission do the same thing to Eckankar as they did to
us and that is make sure they comply with every ordinance that we had to comply
with. To give you a background, we sat with the city in January of 1988 to
begin the process of a building permit and we actually received that building
permit in June of 1988 so consequently it took us 6 months to get a building
permit and I hope that that same consideration is given to Eckankar. Second of
all, we would like to note that due to all of the ordinances for our church, we
had an additional $150,000.00 added to our program which originally only
$400,000.00 so the percentage is quite substantial. So I want to make sure that
as a council, that you consider the same thing for this religious organization
as you did for us. As I looked at his slides, I did not see a secondary access
for fire which for us was an additional $8,000.00. We had originally asked that
the City Council and City Planning Commission for a balcony and we were required
to put in an elevator due to the State requirements for handicap access to all
areas. I did not see that in this particular church. Currently our lot is
about 4 acres. We are developing on 2 acres of that lot right now and to meet
the minimum requirements of the landscaping requirements for the City of
Chanhassen, we're spending $56,000.00 and we hope that that same consideration
and requirements are also given to Eckankar for their 174 acres. We had to
provide one parking space for every 2 to 2 1/2 people in our congregation.
I hope that those same requirements are imposed upon Eckankar. We had to pave
and also curb our entire parking lot and have been warned we will never be aole
to park on the street so we hope those same considerations are also given to
Eckankar. For your information, paving and curbing our parking lot for 93
spaces was an additional cost of almost $66,000.00. We had to sprinkle our
building. We hope that same consideration is also done for Eckankar. Last, I
would like to appeal to Eckankar in terms of as a resident of the nearby area. I
think it's important to realize that you're a neighbor here and that the
neighbors behind you are giving you a statement in terms of what they think of
your organization. When we built our religious organization, our concern was
that we were expecting to get from the immediate neighborhood and I hope that as
a Council, that you also consider that. What is good for the City of
Chanhassen? Is Eckankar going to provide for the city residents or is it going
to provide for someone else?
Mayor. Chmi.el: Dean, for the record, could we have your address please?
Dean Brown: 18737 Clearview Drive, Minnetonka. ,
Alan Putnam: My name is Alan Putnam. I live at 6285 Chaska Road. I have two
things. One is since the church will require very little, a mall percentage of
the land that is there, one alternative might be to allow the church to be built
and use approximately 20 acres and perhaps the city buy the rest of the land
from them. Another thought that I wanted to give is that most of the churches
that have been built in the community have been churches that have been built to
meet the needs of the residents of Chanhassen and I guess I'd like to know, how
many members of the Eckankar organization live in Chanhassen now?
27 1
:i ty Council Meeting - April 10, 1089
David Schupe: My name is David Schupe. I'm a fellow Minnesotan. I live at
1353 Stowe .Avenue in Arden Hills. Next month on this day I will be flying to
Warsaw, Poland and I' ll be a participant in the Second International Conference
' on ways to promote the 1981 United Nations Declaration on the elimination of all
forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief and it is in
that capacity that I'm here to observe these proceedings and your decision.
Walter Whitehill: Good evening. I'm Walter Whitehill. I reside at 7250
Hazeltine Blvd.. I noticed how artfully the representative speaking for
Eckankar told the Council how it must conduct it's business. They told the
Council what it could and what it could not consider. As a member of this
community I object to that quite strongly and I would think that the Council
would too. They told us that the religious belief and teaching were of no
'
importance. That they could not be considered and to the Council and to my
friends here, I believe that this is wrong. Now I want to ask whichever
representative for Eckankar would choose to answer, who is the head of the
11 Eckankar church? Is it a mortal or is it the same god that's recognized and
worshipped by the Christian Judeo community of the world? Is there an answer?
Come gentlemen, let's not be so bashful. I did address it to you. You did say
you were here to answer questions did you not? From the community, that was
part of your opening statement.
Peter Beck could not be heard on the audio tape.
Walter Whitehill: No way. He said that he was here to answer questions from
the community. I am representing at least two from the community and I'm asking
' that question now.
1
Peter Beck: Am I to understand that the Council is directing that question?
I Walter Whitehill: No sir, I am directing it to you. You requested questions
from the community. Do you not have the answer?
Mayor Chmiel: So we don't basically get into a debate. If you could just
proceed with the balance of what you have to say, I'd appreciate it.
' Walter Whitehill: Mr. Mayor, I am complying with the opening statement of this
representative and I'm asking for an answer to my question. I don' t want to
take up any more time. Time is being taken up here.
Mayor Chmiel: We could address that question as we proceed and maybe Mr. Beck
could. ..
Walter_ Whitehill: Then the Council is changing the rules of the deck by saying
that you will not allow this question to be answered at this time?
Mayor_ Chmiel: I guess that's basically what I'm saying, yes.
Walter Whitehill: Does the entire Council side with the Mayor on this?
' Councilman Johnson: Mr. Mayor, I do not believe the lawyers for. Eckankar can
speak on the religious beliefs of Eckankar. I don't know if the religious
leaders of Eckankar are here due to the treatment they were given 5 years ago
when they were here and did try to answer these questions.
28
City Council �ieetir. - 10, `r7—,
Meeting 'vpri 1 1 , 1989
I
Walter Uhi.tehill: That's a sad state of affairs.
Councilman Johnson: tell Now I can you what m
Now `° my research has shown. I'm not a
member of Eckankar but I can tell you what all reading various books and talking
to various people that the answer to your question, if you'd like it from
somebody who's not a member of Eckankar Church. They believe in one god. They
believe there is only one god.
Walter Whitehill: That god being whom?
Councilman Johnson: If there's only one, it's the same one that you and
I believe in.
Walter. Whitehill: No way. That's not what I understand and that's why I
addressed the question. I'm going to close in this way. I believe that the
religious aspect of this is the most important issue before the Council and
before the community.
Councilman Johnson: Can you give me the basis that you do not believe that the 11
god that Eckankar believes in is the same god you believe in?
Walter Whitehill: Well I didn't ask the Council you see. I asked U
representatives of Eckankar.
Councilman Johnson: Ah, but you won't answer the question either.
Walter Whitehill: Certainly I will. The books that I have read and the people
that I have talked to are contrary to what you state.
Mayor Chmiel: Let me redirect something here if I can. I would like to ask Mr.
Beck if he would like to address that. If he does not, he does not have to
answer. I
Peter Beck: Mt. Mayor, we are here as representatives of Eckankar to answer any
questions that the Council might have with respect to the issues before it. Th2
land use issues. We are not here to debate or defend Eckankar as a religion.
Walter Whitehill: I'll have to let that answer suffice for now. So I leave
appealing to the Council that by god it's time to stand up on your own hind legs
and declare where you stand from a religious standpoint. No way should this
country, down to the individual communities, be so weaken that we are afraid to
stand up and say no to anyone who will propose an organization that has a belief
that is counter to the religious background that this country was founded upon
and that which we believe in. Thank you.
Matthew Hoffman: My name is Matthew Hoffman. I reside at 931 Saddlebrook Trail 11
in Chanhassen. I've been a resident here for approximately a month and a half.
I have a direct view out my patio door looking right up the driveway of the
proposed Eckankar site. I do know a little bit about plant material. I have a
couple of estions regarding egarding the site plan. Would you be willing to answer
those?
Mayor Chmiel: Would you address that particular issue? I
29 1
IICity Council Meting - April 10, 1989
Matthew Hoffman: Yes I would. I guess first off, I would like to know on your
CAD drawings. Are they projected, your plant material size to me looks like it
is mature height.
Peter Beck: Mr. Chairman, the architects advise me that the landscaping as
shown on the CAD drawings was at time of planting but they also showed existing
vegetation which will not be disturbed.
Matthew Hoffman: I thought he said 5 years.
Peter Beck: I said 5 years. I was wrong. 5 years is kind of an industry
standard. In this case, they wanted to show time of planting.
Matthew Hoffman: And I'm to understand that most of the views are an average of
' 50 to 60 feet tall on the building from the east?
Peter. Beck: Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, the height from the front door
to the top is 50 feet. Okay, that's not the way they define it in the zoning
ordinance but that's the way you and I call 50 feet. Then from the back, it
would be roughly 65 feet. Actually it's closer to 60 feet. But views depend on
where you are in relationship to grades. In many instances, intervening grades
' will screen a portion or substantial portions of the church.
Matthew Hoffman: I guess with your site plan there must be a planting list of
' some kind. I'd like to make the Council aware I guess to take a close look at
that from planting size. It takes a long time to get trees to mature size and I
just want the Council to be aware of this. I know from a fact that I have a
view that is not going to shield, no matter how many trees they plant, it's not
' going to shield a 60 foot tall copper or whatever plated roof from my view and
my neighborhood's view no matter what kind of trees you plant. And if you're
planning on moving large caliper trees into that area, I hope you have a big
' budget and coincidentally, what would be the landscape budget for a job of this
magnitude?
Peter Beck: There is a detailed landscape plan that has been submitted and
reviewed by the City and it's consistency with City requirements has been
documented. You're quite right, portions of the church will be visible from
surrounding properties and I have no reason to believe yours wouldn't be one.
The plantings will be at an average of 2 1/2 caliper inches and I do not know
whether or not a budget for the landscaping has been arrived at. If it has, I
don't know what it is.
Matthew Hoffman: For the Council's information, a 2 1/2 inch caliper ash tree,
which is a standard shade tree planted in a lot of plantings these days,
approximately 20 to 25 feet tall maximum at 2 1/2 inches. I guess that's all.
' If they don't have a landscape budget, I wish them luck. It's going to cost
them a pile of money.
' Janet Weaver: My name is Janet Weaver. I'm a future homeowner in Chanhassen.
My current address is 4309 West 113th Street in Bloomington, Minnesota. Since
Councilman Jay Johnson made statements as to the one true god, I felt it was my `„"
obligation to address his statement for the record. And to address that
' comment, on the one same god, I'm compelled to note for the record that after an
1 30
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•1
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City Council Meeting - •,pr_il 10, 1939
1
extensive doctrinal discussion with an Eckankar member this past week, our
doctrinal differences are vastly different and Eckankar doctrinally stands,
their doctrinal stands do not align with or stand in harmony with the god I ,
serve, namely the god of the Bible. Jehovah God and his expression of himself
in Jesus Christ.
Susan Johnsrud: My name is Susan Johnsrud. I live at 7061 Shawnee Lane in II
Greenwood Shores. I'd like to add to the previous speaker's statement on a book
entitled Eckankar from the Spiritual Conterfeits Project in Berkley, California.
II
It states the Bible, the entire structure of it's moral teaching and Jesus
Christ himself are identified with the evil power of the cosmos. In a word,
with the devil. If this is not a put down of another religion, then it is hard
to imagine what is or could be. In actual fact, Eckankar's commonly made claim II
that we do not put down any other religion. It is not so much false as it is
incomplete. It should really read, we do not put down any other religion to
it's face. I would also like to read from this book, something written by Paul
Twi.tchell himself in 1967. There is too much dishonesty among those who try to
get tax shelters because they claim to be religious groups. God didn't
establish non-taxable foundations so why should I try to get under such claims.
II
If Eck can not take care of itself, then it can be of little value to anyone
else. It also states that Eckankar has been given tax exemption from Federal
Income Tax. It states the identification number and the Chairman of the Board
of Directors, W. Elmo DeWitt and this is dated 1973. So it is definitely a
II
conflict of interest hare between Paul Twitcheli's teachings. My husband and I
and our 3 boys moved here last August and little did we know what we were
getting into. :°de purchased the original Kerber farm in Greenwood Shores. I
II
would like to know if Eckankar would eventually have a negative impact on
property values, who would be responsible for the purchase of our home if we
decide to sell it? We had planned on spending the rest of our lives in
Chanhassen and at this point, we do not feel that we know if we are going to 11
stay. Thank you.
Doug Cook: My name is Doug Cook and I live at 290 Trappers Pass. I don't have I
a prepared statement but I'm absolutely amazed at what I'm hearing here.
There's a litness test on moving into Chanhassen I understand. You must be
Christian. That's a sad status of affairs. Back in the 30's in Germany, they
II
had a crew they got together and if you were Jewish, you didn't have a long life
span. There were 6 million people that were killed because of religious
intolerance. That's what I've been hearing here. Think about the discussions
that have been going on. I'm here because I'm upset about the increased taxes.
II
I'm here because I can not see the value of buying
we're lucky and then we have to develop that y g property will 5 cost if
p propert which will cost additional
money. We have to pay the note. I don' t know where the money's going to come
from but the religious intolerance thing, that's a sad state of affairs for
everybody here in Chanhassen. Listen to what has been said. You've had an
individual stand up here and demand of another individual in this room what his
religious beliefs are. That is nobody's business but the individual person. We
took a pledge of allegiance when this thing started. One nation under Gad. It
didn' t say your god or your god. Didn' t it say one nation under. God,
indivisible, with liberty. Liberty means the freedom to practice religion. And
II
Justice for. all. If these people after complying with all of the requirements
of staff, are not awarded or given the ability to build their church, there is
something inherently wrong with Chanhassen and some 170 acres of land if they
II
get it, will not solve that problem.
31 I
City Council Meeting - A pril 10, 19`39
II
Leneda Rahe: Hello. My name is Leneda Rahe and I reside at 1021 Carver Beach
II Road in Chanhassen. I was wondering with the results of the petitions, would it '
be possible for a referendum to be taken to see how many people are in support
of the City acquiring the property for public use? I'd like to know, just
because I don't understand what would prompt a referendum and how you go about
Ithat. Could someone from the Council or the Mayor?
Don Ashworth: The City Council has the ability to establish a referendum. It's
I my understanding that the City Council, we have again sent out the survey and
it's my understanding that the Council wants to look at the results of that
survey before making any determination as to whether or not to conduct a
referendum.
IILeneda Rahe: Okay, thank you.
II Mary Lang: Good evening. My name is Mary Lang and I live at 1000 Butte Court
right across the street from the proposed building site. Up until a few minutes
ago, until that last gentleman spoke, I was very much ashamed that we had chosen
II to live in Chanhassen. I came because I had one of my distant cousins had a
very poor experience with the Eckankar religion so I was very skeptical when I
read in the paper of their proposed building of a church. I have a 5 year old
daughter who's going to be waiting out for the bus right out on CR 17 and I can
1 honestly say I'm going to go home tonight a lot more worried about the prejudice
of the general public than I am what I have heard about the Eckankar church. So
I hope all those people with young children who spoke up tonight and applauded
IIthe prejudice can go home and take a close, hard look at themselves. Thank you.
Sandy Eastling: My name is Sandy Eastling. I reside at 7285 Pontiac Circle.
When I carne it was not my intention to speak whatsoever. However, I feel mat
IIit is important that I state that even though some of us may have our own
personal beliefs regarding the religious stature of Eckankar, I personally do
believe in personal religious freedom. However, I feel that it is important for
II us to look at some of the elements that have been listed and even though one
person may get up and speak, it does not necessarily mean that while some of us
are opposed to the use of the land as outlined by Eckankar, we may not
II necessarily advocate religious intolerance. I personally don't feel that that
is the general consensus of the people who at one time did stand up in support
of other use of the land. I would encourage the City Council to take into
perspective that when one person gets up here and speaks, they do speak for one.
11 They may speak for more than one. I also agree that we should not be intolerant
of religion. However, we must look at what is the best use of the land for
Chanhassen. Will Eckankar serve the people of Chanhassen? Are there members
II within Chanhassen who have requested that this church be located here? Or is
this the will of a church who does not necessarily have a community interest
coming in. Thank you.
Ken Walter: My name is Ken Walter. I reside at 341 Deer_foot Trail. I do not
know a lot about the Eckankar religion. My question primarily is the tax
concerns and I guess basically my question would be, if we do do this purchase
I option, what solution can be presented in the future to prevent the same thing
from happening again? Chanhassen only has so much money to spend and the card
that came out and the information that I read about at the time was mentioning 3 77
II 1/2 to 5 million dollars. You're looking at a 9 million to 15 million dollar
investment, if those numbers are right. I don't know what the exact dollars
1 32
City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
I
are. My concern is where is this money going to come from? What other uses or
bettermen for the next 14 to 15 years could this money be put forward to? It's
my money. It's all of our taxpayer's money and that's my concern. Thank you.
Doris Hanson: My name is Doris Hanson. I live at 6210 Cypress Drive. My main
concern is, what about all that lakeshore property? I understand from the I
slides the church was not going to have a view of the lake so what's going to
happen to all this lakeshore? I feel that our lakes are so precious to us and
should be protected. I live around Lake Minnewashta and I moved there primarily
for the use of the lake and I really worry about protecting our lakeshores.
Also, what about the use of the highways? Right now TH 5 is so underdeveloped
and there's no money appropriated at this time so what about all the heavy
traffic that's going to be coming in? Thank you.
Councilman Johnson: I think because of what she asked there, there's a little
misconception there. The City owns parkland all the way around the lakeshore so
between the Eckankar property and the lake is parkland owned by the City. So
they do not have any lakeshore property whatsoever. I'm not sure about the
highway question.
Mayor. Chmiel: Highway 5 is in the process of hopefully getting started sometime 11
this year and will be completed by 1991. That will be a four lane highway.
Mary Johnson: I'm Mary Johnson. I reside at 1044 Pontiac Lane in Chanhassen
and I was interested in the slides that you show but I'd like to know what it
would look like in the wintertime since we in Minnesota have winter most of the
year. Also, I am a Christian but even if my church wanted 174 acres of tax
exempt land, I would be against that and I don't know why you need 174 acres of
tax exempt land and what the future is for that land. Your church site takes a
small portion of that land. What is the future?
Robin Nordby: My name is Robin Nordby and I live at 6801 Redwing Lane in
Chanhassen. I would like to address the mailing that the Council sent out last
week, the little green card with the estimation of what you pay for taxes now
and what the proposed increase could be if referendum. The estimated increases
in taxes to acquire the land, do they contemplate new homes? Chanhassen is
growing enormously and do they contemplate the increase in revenue that this
city is going to have for 1989 and forward? The increase that was shown, was
that annual? That was an annual increase and I think at the $100,000.00 level,
it was about $103.00 annually which you split that in 12 months and that's a 12
month figure. Because of the overcrowding of this school, I was in the spring
program and it was ridiculous. All the parents could not get into the building.
What are the proposed or the plans of the City Council for the proposed
facilities for the school, for the community center and what other sites have
you thought of for these facilities and what is going to be the actual
difference in tax dollars, is my question? How much will the other sites
increase our taxes? We know this is going to increase. We know that taxes are '
going to be increased no matter where the facility is. The appraisals of the
properties, I just have one comment on that. About the poll given in the St.
Paul Pioneer Press. There was an overwhelming response that people would not
purchase land next to an organization such as this and that's I think a big
concern. Thank you.
I
33
City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
IIMark Johnson: My name is Mark Johnson. I live at 1010 Butte Court, Chanhassen.
I guess I'm here as a real confused citizen to begin with. There's been a lot 4
11 of misinformation that's been thrown around this thing it seems for the last
month, two months. I guess I'm confused at some of the things I've heard from s
the people of our community. Some of the religious beliefs and the things that
go on there. But I'm really confused at, if we have a church that's moving into
I our community, why do we have 14 blue suits sitting here instead of 1 individual
from their congregation that can give us some information just basically on who
they are. I would feel a lot better as a citizen if, I don't care if it's a
II Lutheran church. If it's a Jewish church. Whoever, if they're open enough to
come and sit and talk to me and say well this is what our plans are instead of
bringing the 5th Fleet in here and trying to get everything done that way.
IIDawn Opitz: My name is Dawn Opitz and I live at 870 Nez Perce Court. I guess
just to be really honest, I wasn't really involved in what was going on in the
II community before this and this, if anything else, it's just helped me to be
aware of what goes on and it has caused me to be concerned and take part. But
as the woman who spoke before said, when I really started being interested in
this was when I went to the first and second grade. spri.ng concert here at
I Chanhassen and she's absolutely right. That was for first and second graders
and not even all the parents could fit into the auditorium to watch your
children. I also have a fourth grader who's in a class that has well over 30
I children and this is the main concern to me. My concern is school and I'd love
for my kids to be in school around here, to stay around here. I'm with the
other woman I guess. I'd like to know what are my other options then as far as
II my children's schooling goes because I just don' t think that it's fair to the I
kids or the children. What we have right now. It may be selfish on my part to
obtain Eckankar's land, but this is for best interest of the most people in i
Chanhassen and that's when I started being concerned.
IIBobbie Kussard: My name is Bobbie Kussard. I live at 7604 South Shore Drive.
Eckankar isn' t in the community yet. Their church isn't here. It will seat 800
people so I would assume, I would like to be near my church so they will start
Imoving into our community. I don't have a problem with that but back to the
school issue, I was at the program. There wasn' t room for the parents we have.
We are growing leaps and bounds. Let than go someplace else. Let's take care
Iof us for now.
Councilman Boyt: I'd like to respond to that situation. Before you speak,
I those of you who are interested in the school issue, I hope you recognize c� Y ognize the
City Council doesn't have impact on the school district. If you would take your
concerns to the school district, you'd find that they have a method of funding
their schools that says let's wait until the doors break out and then we'll put
I a referendum in front of the people and see if they pass it. I suggest that if
you think these schools are crowded, you let the school district know that and
maybe you'll get some action. They plan to build another elementary school but
II they're still busing kids from Chaska into this elementary school. I think you
should let them know if you're concerned about that.
Jo Ann Nelson: My name is Jo Ann Nelson and I reside at 7290 Catcus Curve. My
IIview is facing right that line. I supposed you couldn' t get any closer as a
homeowner. I don't know much about the religious organization so I can't judge
L.72
them in any way and I have no problem with that. I'm concerned about the land
IIuse. I'm concerned about the 800 people or however many and how many days out
II34
mi
....i Ly Cou ..;1 1 - 1J, 1999 _,J•
of the -._ek do they worship. I'd like to find that out. Is there anybody who
could answer that? Are you going to coning every day out of the week or on
Sunday?
Peter Peck: The church will of course be open every and e
:� y :}ay of the week nd th�r_�
will be employees working there during the day and there will be small
meetings in the evenings to accommodate up to 30 or 40 participants and then the
main meetings would be on Sundays. That is the scenario that was analyzed in
the Environment Impact Statement in terms of impacts on traffic and that sort of
thing.
11
Joan Spalding: My name is Joan Spalding and I live at 7520 Chippewa Trail, just
right behind here in Chanhassen. I would just like to pose the same question to
them as you did to the Empak people and since they've got all that extra land,
if they'd want to build some softball fields and stuff like that and take that
into consideration.
Councilman Johnson: I actually drew some in on my diagrams.
Peter Beck: We have advised the Council on a couple of occasions when inquiries
have been made about the availability of land for a community center and then
for a possible community center and middle school that Eckankar would make land
available, reasonable amounts of land available for those types of uses at a
fair_ and reasonable cost and I assume, however we did suggest that all those
discussions cease until the issue of the church was resolved and I suggest that
we treat this suggestion in the same manner. I'm sure that Eckankar would be
open to looking at the site plan but perhaps it's something that should await
• resolution of the fundamental issues.
Linda _Cullman: My name is Linda _Cullman and I live at 1015 Pontiac Court. I've
been sitting around just like everybody else here listening to what's been said
on both sides. I have a real concern. My property is very close to the
property that I'll be looking at the church. Obviously I have some concerns
about that but the biggest concern that I have is that I don't understand why we
have to wait to talk about future. What I'm concerned about is not the church.
How it's going to affect our property taxes. How it's going to affect the whole
environment and for someone to say, well we'll talk about that later, I really
think it's much better for you and for the community to sit down and really talk
this out first rather than hold back. I just have a personal thing where I'm
afraid that you're holding something back and once you have control over that
land, I'm not going to have anything to say about it. I
Councilman Johnson: Could we get Peter to address his reasoning for not
discussing the future? I
Peter. Beck: Mt. Mayor, members of the Council, the intent of the application
and all the materials that have been submitted in support of it is to set forth
a very narrow issue for the City Council to consider and to decide. As the
Council may know, in 1985 with the concept plan for the ac7mi.nstrative campus
showed in concept potential residential development to the north of the campus
and roughly the northern 1/3 of the Eckankar property and potential future
commercial development on roughly the southern 1/3 of the property because at
that time portions of the southern 1/3 were already designated, if not zoned for
commercial use and the City requested in connection with that rezoning and
35
mm
I
'City Council Yeeting - '.Pra.l 17, 1939
platting proceeding, that concept plans for the north and south be provided.
was our opinion that in connection with this conditional use permit procedure,
It
getting into those issues would unnecessarily and unduly complicate the single
issue before the Council which is a conditional use permit for
what you have before you is an application for a condi.ti.onaluse hpermitcon what
is now one single parcel of property and that's what you should be evaluating.
11 We just don' t believe that clouding the issue with discussions about prices for
land for schools or community centers or whatever is going to the issues before
you. That's why we've suggested that those discussions await resolution of the
issue on the conditional use permit. That's why we haven't shown any conceptual
plans or other thoughts for other parts of the property. And also, quite
frankly, Eckankar has not devoted any internal time towards a lot of thought
about the rest of the property. They are focused on this church project. They
put a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of money into it and that's where
they're focusing their efforts and I guess that's where we ask the Council to
direct their attention.
Dan Mahady: 'qty name is Dan Mahady. I live at 1020 Butte Court. I'd just like
to say that if there's going to be 174 acres of tax exempt land, I think it best
be served by the whole community and not a private tax-exempt organization
which, from what I'm hearing so far, is offering nothing back to the community.
Councilman Johnson: Mr. Mayor, can I ask Peter a question on that? Peter, as
11 you understand the zoning, assessment tax rules, it can only be tax exempt if
it's used for church purposes. Are you aware of any other places where a large,
only a small portion of this property is actually going to be used for church
purposes. Are you aware whether the remainder of the Property, whether our tax
assessor can determine if the remainder of the property is or is not tax exempt?
I would believe from my layman understanding of tax law, which I don't think
anybody really understands tax laws, that you're not going to utilize the whole
' 174 acres so the whole 174 should not be tax exempt. Dnly that portion utilized
for actual active church purposes.
' Peter Beck: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Johnson, I think I would ask that the bulk
of that question be directed to the City Attorney for a number of reasons but it
is, if the church is constructed on this property, Eckankar will apply to Carver
' County for tax exemption. It's a single tax parcel so that will be the way the
application will go in. It will be the Carver County Assessor's responsibility
to determine whether all or a portion of it will be tax exempt. Quite frankly,
I don't know, I have not researched that issue for Eckankar. If I had of
course, it probably wouldn't be something that I would, the results of the
research probably wouldn't be something that I would set forth in a public
meeting. I am aware though, from representing some other clients, that there is
some case law where a church owned separate parcels of property, separate tax
parcels, separate legally described parcels, that tax exemption on parcels that
were adjacent to the, I can't remember right now whether they're adjacent or in
' close proximity to their parcel they were using, was denied on the grounds that
it wasn't used for church purposes. Whether that rule of law would apply in
this situation with a single tax parcel, I do not know. I think again, those
are issues that will be resolved by the Carver County Assessor and also perhaps
' maybe the City Attorney is more up to date on that issue and could give you a
more definitive answer.
' 36
211 City Council ?` ctina - ',pri.l 10, 1089
Councilman Johnson: Actually he gave me about the same answer. I was honing
you had ore information.
g
_l
Gloria Cox: Mayor, councilpeople, my name is Gloria Cox. I reside at 6990
Shawnee Lane in Chanhassen. I've been here since 1977 with my husband and my
family. First of all, I'd like to comment on the fact that here in Chanhassen
everyone who turned out for the meeting tonight should be complimented for the
time and the effort that they have put into this very important meeting. After
all, we' re not getting paid but they are. It sounds like they've done a very,
very good job. You should be commended but on the other hand, our dream is ,
alive and well. Most of the people that I have talked to here in Chanhassen are
very involved in their community and yes, number 1 priority to the people I've
talked to is religious rights. So it's not the religious right issue as much as
it is that this 174 acres of land was supposed to be development of housings for
family, for young children to grow up in a good, healthy environment. Also, it
would mean tax paying. Educational opportunities for our young people and if
we, right now, and I don't know...the heavens and earth of this world. Thank
you.
William Olson: My name is William Olson and I reside at 1060 View Court. My
question to the Council is, due to the given traffic that will be added to
CR 17, will the speed laws be the same or will that be changed or is that taken
under advisement? I
Jim Chaffee: As far as I know the speed laws will stay the same. Enforcement,
as you all know, is attempting to be picked up right now by the Carver County
Sheriff's Department. I think they're doing a pretty good job of it. The speed ,
limit will, to my knowledge, stay the same.
William Olson: Given to tie amount of traffic that is going to be taken along ,
that road, being at 1060 View Court, my driveway is no more than 200 feet off of
CR 17. I do have an 8 year old son. I do worry very much about the added
traffic that will be along that road and along for our community. I hope it's
taken into advisement more than it is. 11
Councilman Johnson: Jim, that also is a county road, the County has
jurisdiction on the speed limits? We' re only advisory towards them? I
Jim Chaffee: That is correct.
Bill Eggert: My name is Bill Eggert and I reside at 800 Preakness Lane. I'm
somewhat confused and I just have one question to direct towards the Eckankar
representatives. Earlier it was stated that if the construction of the church
was not approved, that the acqui.si.ti.on of this land would be very costly.
Somewhere in the area of 9 to perhaps 15 million dollars. Then later I heard
that if it was approved, that there would be a fair and reasonable cost for
acquiring some of the remaining property. My question probably leans towards,
is the fair and equitable purchase for the remaining property contingent upon
the approval of construction of the church?
Peter Beck: Mr.. Mayor, members of the Council, what we have said is that we I
suggest that entire issue be deferred until the issue before the Council is
resolved. We haven' t said anything- about contingencies. We just think that is
an issue in terms of acquisition and costs that should be considered after the
37
rea
IICity Counci L M•oti nom, - \ori _ __.3, l:` )
current issue is resolved.
11 Bill Eggert: My statement would be that if 9 to 15 million dollars represents a
fair and equitable purchase, if the church is not approved, if the church were
approved and we were to acqui.r_e say half of the remaining property, would we be
looking at a cost of anywhere from 4 1/2 million to 7 1/2 million and would the
residents in Chanhassen be willing to pay that price to acquire that land? I
think that the citizens might want to be heard on that.
Linda Kullman: I have one question, and maybe you can kind of clarify something
for me. Do I understand this correctly? Right now that land, the City of
Chanhassen now that it's owned by this company or this church, we will not as a
city ever get any kind of tax from that land period from now until doomsday? Am
I understanding this correctly?
Mayor_ Chmi.el: As you just mentioned, that's a portion of it but it's not been
decided until the Carver County reviews that status of that land and determines
whether or not all of that 174 acres will be tax free or will not be tax free.
Linda Kullman: Do we have to make a decision or does the decision have to be
made before that decision by Carver County is made?
Councilman Johnson: I would say that if for some reason we turned down the
church, then the land would stay on the tax rolls as it is now and has been ever
since they owned it. If the church is approved, then it goes to Carver County
to determine the change of it's status. Is that a more clear answer?
Linda Kullman: Yes it is. I just want to make sure that I understand exactly
what our options are as a community and if we do have any options. y
' Councilman Johnson: I think we will be making some suggestions to Carver County
Assessor's Office on what we would like to see him do with it.
Linda Kullman: Is there a way that as a community we can find out whether or
not we have to make a decision or if the decision has to be made before the
Carver County Assessment? To me that's real important because if we just turn
' over that whole entire parcel of land now, we are never going to get any kind of
tax revenue off of that ever.
Don Ashworth: I did talk to Jean Shi.vley. She's the Assistant County Attorney.
It's their office's responsibility to settle any type of tax related issues so
if there's any court proceedings, it will go back through their office. After
the number of articles that had appeared in the newspaper, Jean had called me to
' try to correct those statements and to tell me that in her opinion that she
would do everything within her power to insure that that full 174 acres did not
go tax exempt and that only the acreage associated with the church would receive
that tax exempt status. Again, that is Jean's position. The only cautionary
that I would make is that issues like that are resolved in tax court so even
though Jean can present that position, we are not assured until the issue goes
through a tax court whether her position would be sustained or not. I would
' also make the position that Eckankar would fight that position. I'm not sure
that that's the case either.
Linda Kullman: I'm sure it would be. Right? I mean let's just say how it is.
38
City Council '.eating - ,pr' 1 1r; L 39
Councilx.an Johnson.: The option of purchasing this land by the City would also
.hake it tax `xemot forever.
Linda _ullman: Right. However, there would be facilities on that land that
would benefit the community and I think that's what we're basically talking
about.
Councilman Johnson: 9 to 15 million dollars worth of benefit? We have to
decide that too. I
Linda Kullman: Right, but I think as a member of this community I would ask you
to allow us to have as many options available as possible. Not only right now
but down the road.
Wayne Skoblik: My name is Wayne Skoblik from 701 Bighorn Drive. Now I've
watched all you guys up here and Bill's come to my house when he was looking for
a vote and said vote for me. Mr. Johnson, I read some of your editorials you
know and even on the building issues, when people come up here, do you always
give your permits and then find out your facts after that on what they're going
to do? I mean a hazardous waste issue, why don't you get a list of hazardous
materials that they'll be using on site instead of asking them now so he can
present it?
Councilman Johnson: The hazardous waste issue was brought up at Planning
Commission and they said there were no hazardous wastes but I never believe that
so I always ask the question again. But staff has looked into it. I
Wayne Skoblik: Did they give you documentation to that? Do you see something
on it?
Councilman Johnson: Now that they've told me what their process is, I know the
process and there is very little need Eor hazardous waste in that process.
Wayne Skoblik: Everybody's an expert.
Councilman Johnson: I'm an environmental engineer. I work with this everyday.
Yes, I am an expert in that field.
Wayne Skoblik: Well good. I'm glad we have somebody who knows what's going on
then right? Is there a law against how much tax exempt land can be acquired in ,
Chanhassen?
Councilman Johnson: Not yet. I
Councilman Workman: In talking to the Assistant Assessor, basically the process
is, they' re not going to get tax exempt until the church is built at which time
they file this application and it's look at. It's very liberal and very much in
the favor of a church to get the tax exempt status in that just about any use. ..
Wayne Skoblik: And you knew that before? You knew all this was going to be ,
tax exempt when you okayed the site plan and all that stuff?
Councilman Workman: No site plan has been.. .
39
II ;.7rE Counci 1 Meeting - April 10, 1989
I/ Wayne Skoblik: Well whatever you okayed.
Councilman Workman: ,e haven' t okayed anything yet. '
I
Wayne Skoblik: So it's still up for grabs then? You're going to let these guys 3
intimidate you. Good luck.
IBob Hanson: Good evening. My name is Bob Hanson. I live at 6620 Horseshoe
Curve. It wasn't my intention to say anything and in fact most of the things
II that I've been interested in, somebody else has mentioned. Aside from one fact
and that is, I have never seen anybody come before a City Council before so
preoar_ed to be turned down and that brings question to me. why would you be so
prepared to be turned down if there wasn't something wrong with what you're
Itrying to do? The other observation, one last observation and that is, I have
never seen such a turnout for a Council meeting before. Apparently we've got a
lot of people here that are fairly concerned about this issue. I think it would
I behoove all you people on the Council to take heed to that and try and put this
through as a referendum so that the people can be heard. Thank you.
I Patsy Ward: Honorable Mayor, members of the Council and citizens of
Channassen. We had a chance to have a community center a little while ago. We
had a referendum. It was defeated because we didn't like the location. We love
this location. Let's go for it.
IIJan Lash: My name is Jan Lash. I live at 6850 Utica Lane. I guess my main
concern with this property is the land use. People have talked about the
{
II concerns for the school and I know that the school district has talked of a
middle school as near as 1995 which is 5 1/2 years away. We have a task force i
that's been looking at this site as a possible site for a community center and
so, I think with these amount of people looking at this property, to benefit the
II City, it's that t's time for the City to look to the future to address these needs
and I'm afraid if we wait until 1995 to start looking for a site for a school,
we aren' t going to find a prime location that would be adjacent to town.
I Adjacent to the elementary school. If we're looking at a middle school by 1995,
you're looking at a high school probably 3 years after that. As much as people
hate the thought of raising their taxes and they hate the thought of having to
I pay for schools, the thing is we're all going to have to bite the bullet and do
it anyway so why not get the best piece of property we can if the City is
capable of doing it. This would then serve the needs of all the community.
Thank you.
IICouncilman Johnson: Mr. Mayor, before we have too many more people leave, I'd
like to ask for some hand votes here. Or not votes but show of hands of how
I many people here would support buying the southerly third of this property for a
middle school and community center? Southerly third.
IIPublic: How about the whole thing?
Councilman Johnson: The whole thing's not for sale.
IPublic: ',Either is the southerly third.
Councilman Johnson: Not many people want to pay their taxes to buy a school
[7
site.
II 40
City Cc.mci 1 •'eeti.ng - _,oril 19 1989 v '
;yi.11iam Olson: How many people know exactly what land is available until
they've got their hand in your heart until they get the decision of yes, they i
get the church. Then they'll start di.vying up. I might give you this Property
and I might give you this. I haven't heard any type of working relationship at
all...
Leneda Rahe: My name is Leneda Rahe again. I live at 1021 Carver Beach Road
and I know that we need also to have a housing for senior citizens. A senior
citizen center would also, we need to have housing for the senior citizens in
this community which we don't have. That would also be another prime site
becaues of the adjacent to the lakeshore and close proximity to the shopping
malls and to the medical centers.
Monty Eastvold: My name is Monty Eastvold and I reside at 7051 Pinacle Lane.
I just had a question regarding the actual conditional use permit and maybe a
clarification on that. Is that an annual permit and if so, it's not? Okay.
So is there any time when if some of the conditions are not adhered to that it's
reviewed and amended or whatever?
Mayor_ Chmiel: At sometime when the conditional use has been provided to that
respected individual, they have to comply with all the requirements that you
have contained within that conditional use. If they so desire to expand beyond
that conditional use, a hearing is held again to review that particular
proposal.
Councilman Johnson: To further address and I think you missed part of the 11
point. We do not have a set schedule at this time, even thougn I've proposed
one, for conditional use permits for an inspector to go out and look at those
conditional uses. We have literally hundreds of conditional use permits in our
city right now. Last year I proposed and hopefully staff is still working on my
proposal, of making a schedule by which we will review conditional uses. If
somebody is not in compliance with the conditional use permit, we can go and ,
pull the conditional use permit. Right now that's at any time. We have
challenged some users of conditional use permits to come in to us and prove that
they are still in compliance with it. Unfortunately my position is, our
enforcement of that is not stringent enough as of yet.
Mayor Chmiel: Any further comments? If not, I would suggest that we close this
portion of it and very possibly to continue this hearing, probably to our next
council meeting. The reason I say that is that there are many facts that have
come before us. A lot of the proposals as we had sent out to the residents are
still not in so therefore I would move to table this discussion to our date of ,
April the 24th. I would like to make that into a motion at this particular
time.
Councilman Boyt: I object. I think you've got 500 people here, 200 people who 1
want to know how you stand and I think it's a big mistake to table this before
the Council has responded to what they've heard tonight.
Councilman Johnson: I agree.
Mayor Chmiel: Okay. With that position Bill, why don' t you go ahead and start.
41 1
City Counc i 1 Meeting - April 10, 1989
I/ Councilman Boyt: I guess I deserve that. First, it is impressive to see the —
number of people that have turned up and I'm glad that that many people are
II interested in an issue in front of the City. I'd like to say to the concerned
citizens that you've certainly put in a lot of time and energy and a great deal
of money I would guess. There have been other issues when we've had quite a few
citizens in recently. The rerouting of TH 101 would be one of them. The Lake
I Lucy trail issue is another one but this certainly is the biggest turnout I've
seen in 2 1/2 years. I guess I have a question and a concern. Do we have any
II of the, I guess you don't have to show your hands but it's sort of a rhetorical
question. Where is the clergy of the community? I hope that they've discussed
this issue where it really needs to be discussed which is in their churches and
I've only in the course of the month and a half or so that this issue has been
II sort= of a hot one in the community, I've only had one member of the local clergy
talk to me about it or write to me about it. I've got to tell you that I'm
disappointed about that. I think it's awfully important for them, since this
II impacts on them, to take a stand. Then I guess I have a note for the attorneys
representing Eckankar. You've certainly presented the facts well. I think
you've addressed the concerns of the staff and Planning Commission and you've
made it real clear through your mailings to us and to staff that you consider
I that there's very few options here for the City. But I think you've missed the
point in that you may well win the legal battle to build while losing the war
for acceptance. I guess I respect a lot of the people out here tonight who've
II challenged your proposal. I think both you and the City have attempted to
gather the facts to answer many of the concerns, if not all of the concerns.
The staff report pointed out any number of things that have been cleared up
I think or at least addressed since the Planning Commission meeting. The '
I newspaper_ has made, both newspapers that cover this city rather extensively have i
interviewed Eckankar people. Have interviewed many of the people in the
concerned citizens. Have interviewed those of us on the Council. I think
II they've made every effort to get the issue out to you. I think Jay's letter to
the Editor_ that appeared in the Villager this last week demonstrated tnat he and
staff have certainly done a great deal of research. "Dwo weeks ago the Council
moved to put out a piece of information to you and ask for your response about a
I referendum. I see several of you that have yes signs. I'm not exactly sure
what that means but I'll take it to mean that maybe you're in support of that
effort. But we all need to know that the referendum to buy this property does
I not remove Eckankar from our community and it shouldn't be seen that way. It
simply gives them 5 million or 7 million or whatever to go across the road and
buy more property and do it again. What I would say to the attorneys and
I concerned citizens i.s that the process we go through takes some time. I got
your lightly veiled threat that you better not miss any of the building season
but I would suggest to you that there's more to this than simply getting your
building in the ground. I believe that as the facts come to light, the decision
I about your proposal will become much easier to make. We've already received a
lot of facts. I'm more concerned about the climate of fear that's been
generated in our community. Over the last month I've received several letters,
I most of them against the proposal. Some for the proposal. And I will admit to
having wondered myself how this was going to resolve itself. But I received a
letter this last week that for me identified what's become the important issue.
II That important issue came from a person who has appeared in front of the Council
over the last year I'd say 4 or 5 times maybe representing his neighbors on
issues in front of the Council. I think that if you knew who he was, many of
you would say that that's a person you hold in fairly high respect. I've not '
IIalways agreed with this individual and he wrote to tell me that he feared for
II42
NEI
City C.:u lci 1 ,{`etinq - ',pri1 13, 1989 u!�'
I
his children and his wife and you know he wasn' t afraid of Eckankar. He
afraid af us. He thought that if people in this community knew that he wassa
1 } dT
_
member of Eckankar, that his family wouldn't be safe.
desoar_ate situation whichever side of the coin you're on.wo or say it's that's a
climate that needs to be diffused or our loss will be much greater than whether
or not this church comes into our town. I've always assumed that Eckankar could
I
make a strong legal case for building this church. Part of being on the Council
I guess is being willing to take a clear position on the issues and I may not be
here when the vote takes place so from what I know right now, I'd like to tell
II
you what my position is. First thing. I think that all citizens concerned
should be researched. I've sometimes fought the City spending the money to
resear_cn some of than that I thought would come to naught but I nevertheless
agree that the City is right in answering your questions and those should be II
answered. The second thing is that I believe the City is responsible to protect
our safety and the well being to it's best ability. The third thing is I
believe that we should treat this church like we treat any other church, as the ,
gentleman earlier today said and I guess the thing that I've learned out of the
last 5 weeks is I'm amazed at how fragile our basic rights are. Your rights to
know. To pursue. To debate. Someone elses rights for religious freedom
possibly. I think we have to answer the question would we be here if this was a II
Catholic, Lutheran, a Mormon, a Muslim and so on down through- the list? I don't
know. I can't answer that question for anybody but I can say that religious
freedom has never been the issue for me. The key issue has been can we find the II
best use for the land. I think we're going to find out what people think about
that when they return the survey that the City has sent out. That survey by the
day means that you'd be spending $8,0470.471 of our tax money to conduct a
II
referendum so don't take it lightly when you respond to it. But maybe that's
what ;7e should do with the issue. I think that the second key issue is how do
we eliminate the climate of fear that I certainly heard when I attended toe
Planning Commission meeting. I didn't hear quite so much of it tonight. :Maybe II
as this evolves, if the City is given some time, we can resolve that particular
issue. I think that we need to take that time and we need to have patience on
all sides and we need to work to get this resolved the best way we can. That's
II
all I've got. I've got some comments I'd like to make about conditions. I
would suggest that the conditions recommended by staff and Planning Cormii ssion
be amended and I have 3 additional conditions. The first one, I think that
traffic control should be in place for any meetings of more than 200 people or II
at least that Eckankar should agree to install traffic control if and when
public safety would determine it necessary. Second, you're going to have a
great deal of land that you're going to be grading and then replanting as I
II
understand it. If I have that correct. I would encourage you to replant with
native prairie flowers and grasses. It's about time we had some native prairie
around here. The next condition I would add is, if you'll note, one of your
II
consultants John Shardlow, are you here? Okay John, on page 5 of your report
and item 9, you state an interesting situation that I think the City should
pursue and maybe you're indicating by your report being part of Eckankar's
package, that the church generally agrees with this. It says through the II
conditional use permit process provides the City with a mechanism to require the
full payment of any costs reasonably associated with providing services to the
proposed church facility. I'm not exactly sure what that means but it may mean
II
that you're willing to
pay the tax burden that you incur to the City.
' Interesting proposal. I'd certainly like to see that discussed further before
this is resolved. Thank you Mr. Mayor for the opportunity to speak to this
issue. II
43 II
IN
City Council Meeting - April 10, 1989
II
Councilwoman Di.mler: Thank you Mayor Chmi.el: I want to thank the lawyers of
I Eckankar for their well thought out and complete presentation. I want to thank
the citizens of Chanhassen for taking time out of their busy schedules to show
their concerns here tonight. And thank you for all the hard work that went into
I your information for the Council that you did prior to tonight's meeting. I
guess my first concern was that the use of this worship center be only for the
larger metropolitan area and that no rallies, international or national
confernces be conducted here. But in Peter Beck's presentation, that was well
II addressed and he indicated that this condition in writing would not be a problem
for Eckankar. Since he reiterated it several times, I tend to believe him so
that is no longer a concern for me. Secondly, I see a real need to work on an
I ordinance restricting the numbers of acres that any tax exempt entity may
occupy. I think 174 acres of tax exempt land is way too excessive. Just to
compare the other churches in the area. In Chanhassen they have between 3 to 10
acres of tax exempt land. Now we've talked about purchasing some of this
I property from Eckankar for a community center, for schools and other public
purposes. Well I'd like to note that I'm on the community center task force and
that our request to purchase some land from Eckankar was made prior to this
I application for this conditional use permit. I don't know what happened in the
negotiations but we repeatedly asked city staff to get us a price after we were
told that Eckankar would be willing to sell us some acres. We were never given
I a price per acre to my knowledge. But now we are told that further discussions
can not be held until the conditional use permit has been granted. My question
is why. Again, Peter Beck stated that he wanted to narrow our considerations.
I feel a little like I'm between a rock and a hard place. I'd like to have more
I options. I don't believe it would cloud the issue. I think it would clarify
it. And what to do with the balance of the land is a concern for many of us _i
here and I think in fairness, maybe Eckankar should focus on their future
I desires for the land in the spirit of open communication and putting citizen's
concerns at rest. It would seem to me that the fair and good faith negotiations
at this time might be beneficial to all concerned parties. I've received
letters from residents who feel deeply about the excessive tax exempt land issue
I and encourage the Council to consider how to limit the tax exempt land now
before the permit is issued. That's what I heard Linda KulLman to say. I don't
want to treat Eckankar's conditional use permit any worse than other churches
I and neither do I want to treat it any better and I think that's only fair. As
Dean Brown mentioned, just recently the Family of Christ Lutheran Church built a
worship center on 3.5 acres on Lake Drive East. In talking to some of their
1 other members, they went through a long process of jumping through hoops and
members of the church made up the building committee and appeared two times
before the Planning Commission and at least once before the Council. Pastor
Nate Castens also appeared and it was my hope that Peter Skelsky would be here
' this evening. Is Peter here? When Tom and I met with Peter Skelsky and Peter
Beck last week, we expressed our concern that the fear of the unknown breeds
suspicion and that his presence might help to disspell some fears. I think the
II fear of the unknown is a human condition that we all understand and I'm not sure
that we can blame anybody for it. In my opinion, all sides have reacted in
fear. Comments made at the Planning Canui.ssi.on meeting on March 1st may have
II stemmed out of fear of the unknown and fear of public reaction may have kept
Peter Skelsky away from public meetings and this meeting here tonight. But it's
my belief that any change usually requires the involvement of all parties
affected by that change. It is easier to introduce the change if those
Iconditions are met. Surprise is usually reacted to in the negative and I hope
II 44
E
City Council `feet'ng - April 10, 1989 ` � ' ,
that there are no surprises but if there are, I hope that they will be pleasant II
ones. ',astly, I believe that the City is here to serve the best interest of the
citizens and since we just recently sent out a survey giving the citizens of
• Chanhassen some input on how they would like us to proceed for the best use of ,
the land, and unfortunately the results of the survey are not in and have not
been tabulated. I think in the interest of fairness, we should wait for the
results and take them into consideration. Therefore, I recommend tabling this
II
request for tonight. That's all.
Councilman Johnson: I too would like to thank everybody for coming tonight. I
think most people, a lot of people have read my letter to the editor and ,
probably think where I'm coming from. When you get sworn into this office, I
believe you're sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. When I
was sworn in as an officer in the United States Army, I'm sworn to uphold the
II
Constitution of the United States and any threats from within or without. I
believe that unfortunately this issue of land use permit, conditional use permit
has gotten messed up in our First Amendment.- I never had any ideas I'd ever get
up in a Constitutional issue. Now I wish in high school I'd studied the II
Constitution a little better. But just to make it easier for me to kind of go
over for those of you that didn't read my letter to the editor, go over it and
actually add a little bit to it because I cut a lot because I wanted it to get
II
brief, even though it was fairly long. Over the past several-months some
citizens of Chanhassen have been consumed with the fear of the unknown. Rumors
and opinions have been spreading but I have yet to see any evidence of a threat ,
or a basis for fear. However the fear is there in the minds of our citizens and
I have reacted to this fear by performing an independent investigation of
Eckankar. Over the past two months I have researched the Eckankar religion
trying to find any evidence of deceptive recruiting, recruiting of children, II
soliciting for money or any other activity which would lead me to believe that
the Ecki.sts are a threat. I have not been able to find any. I add here that
there's been a lot of talk about children and a threat to children. Everybody
II
I've talked to, I've asked them about children. I have found nothing to
indicate that the Ecki sts are out trying to recruit our children into their
religion. As a matter of fact, most of their recruiting is very, very low key.
II
Some of the things I've done. I've gone to the Minneapolis and Southdale
libraries and our own library here and researched all the books I could find
which referenced Eckankar and there have been some of these that have been very
right wing or very fundamentalists point of view in which Judo and Karate were
II
considered cults. In which Jehovah Witness and Mormons and everybody considered
cults. I look at the entire book, not just one section of it. I contacted a
company here in Minnesota which is called Free Minds Incorporate. They are a
I
cult watch group. They are formed by parents of children that have been
involved in cults and they have been deprogrammed. Free Minds had some
information on Eckankar. However, they had only had in quiries. The y had never II
had anybody come in and say they had a problem with Eckankar. So they were able
to pull some information. They gave me some quotes out of Larson's Book on
Cults. Larson's is one of the group that considers Judo a cult. They also gave
me the article from, parts of the article that somebody read up here from the
II
Religious Conterfeits Group published in the early 80's I believe. After that I
also went and asked my pastors at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church if they would
. look into this for me and they did some inquiries and they have found nothing.
II
i Now it's a standing joke with them. They ask me when I'm joining Eck every time
tI see them. I invited them to go with me to an Eck meeting and they couldn't
—" go. I talked to some of our local clergy here and asked them what they thought
II
45
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ma
II __'°i`..y Council Mooting - ',or i L 10, 1939
I/ of Eckankar. Really I primarily went with the Lutheran because Ruthenbeck's
across the street and I know Nate and then my Lutheran pastors. I tried to get
II a hold of the pastors at the Catholic Church here, St. Hubert's and couldn' t get '
a hold of anybody. But to amend, the Lutheran preachers here were standing up
for the Constitution and religious freedom and they did not fear. That was one
II that they said to me. I have no fear of Eckankar themselves, even though they
have children. Some of them very young. New horns and the like. I went and
talked with our Public Safety Department extensively and they contacted the
Minneapolis Police Cult Unit and the local Federal Burearu of Investigation. I
contacted the New Hope police. They contacted the Villa Park, Illi.noi.s police
for me and the Clayton, Missouri police. Clayton, Missouri is a suburb of
St. Louis and Villa Park is a suburb of Chicago. West and south of O'Hara.
I None of these public safety units could give us any information that would
indicate that there's a threat. The Villa Park Chief of Police didn't even know
they existed. When I went to Villa Park to look at the center there I found the
police department was only a few blocks away from the Eck center. The Eck
I center is on their main street with a sign out in front saying Eckankar. The
Villa Park Chief of Police didn't even know they existed. When I went to Villa
Park, I stopped in at their next door neighbors. ,They're in a commercial
I building. Their next door neighbor is a financial planner. When I went in
there they were doing IRS 1040 forms right and left and they were kind enough to
give me about 10 minutes of their time to discuss what they knew about Eckankar
who was next door, there's just a plaster wall inbetween them. They had two
II ladies there I would say in their mid 40's to early 50's that had gone and
attended one of the Eckankar meetings. They said, that's strange. They said
they have some odd beliefs. I says, well did they try to recruit you? They
rsay, no. They just gave us information. I said, did they try to solicit funds
from you? They said no, they didn't try to get any funds from me. I said, have
they ever come over later and tried to get funds from you? They said no. They
said they've been a very good neighbor. :je rarely ever see then. The people we
II met at the center were very pleasant and seemed well aducated. That's the
basic comment they had. By the Villa Park facility there's a Lutheran church a
block to the east and a Free Evangelical Bible Church, the Harbor Avenue Bible
I Church a block to the west. The Lutheran church was having what appeared to be
an AA meeting at it but no church functions the night I was there so I didn't go
in and talk to anybody there. I went into the Bible Church and as they were
I having their Wednesday night Bible meeting. I went up to the pastor of the
church and asked him what do you know about Eckankar. He said who? I says well
there a religious organization a block away from you. He said I've never heard
II of them. So then I talked to some of their parishioners and I found, I guess
don't know if a free bible church has parishioners but anyway, some of their
members and I found one member who knew of Eckankar. He had met some Eckists at
a County Fair. He and his wife said, yes, they've got some strange beliefs. In
II their opinion their beliefs were strange. So I went through the same questions.
Were there children involved? Did they try to recruit you? Did they try to
solicit funds from you? All the questions and it was all no. No, they're nice.
II The people they met seemed very well educated. Public Safety got a hold of the
Clayton, Missouri which is a suburb of St. Louis police. The Chief of Police
there said that they've operated a center there since 1975 and they have had no
II reason to investigate them. The final actual thing that I did was attend one of
their services. It's nothing I'd be interested, I'd guarantee you that. But
there were about 40 people there. A nice friendly group of people. It was a
little different than a Lutheran or a Church of God or. a Baptist or whatever
IIceremony. They started with a reading from their Bible. The reading that day
II 46
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City Co cil eet ng - ��riI 1.7 1989 - :J:J
._ i.
1
was about ago and the evils of ego. You're having too much ego, put your ego
behind you. Listen to that lawyers. azer_y meeting I've got to give a threat to
the lawyers. Then they ,:ant in and they sang the hue song which is a form of a II
chant .mere they meditate. Then after that they read some more from their
Bible. Again, some additional verses on the ego. That seemed to be the thing
of the day was ego. Then they opened it up for discussion amongst the people.
II
They held a discussion about what their spiritual feelings where for that week.
I don't see a threat from that. I didn't see anything there. Then afterwards
everybody got up and left and somebody asked me what my little lapel pin was and
II
I said it's for Chanhassen and then I introduced myself at that point. Talked
to a doctor who was there and there were some other professional folks there. I
didn't :get what their professions were and talked to some of the members of the
church that actually work up in New Hope. I found them to be friendly people.
II
They didn't know who I was coming in. It wasn't planned. I didn't tell anybody
I was coming. I brought a neighbor with me. I guess there's always, I didn't
want to be alone actually. There's always fear. Fear of the unknown you know I
and I admit it too. What did I find out about them? I found out they are
considered a new age religion. They're fairly new. About 25 years old.
They're based on a lot of different tradition including Hindu. There seems to
IIbe a lot of various sects of Hindu. I've learned more about religion and the
non-Christian religions in the last two months than I ever did. It was really
interesting on a lot of them. They believe everybody has a soul and that soul
is a part of god. Now here's where they get a little beyond me but they believe
II
the soul can travel outside the body into a spiritual realm and they believe in
reincarnation so the soul is always there. I don't see how that's a threat to
me. That somebody believes that their soul, it's not my soul they're talking
II
about. It's theirs. That doesn't seem to be a threat to me. Eckankar teaches
that you have to overcame the 5 passions. Lust, anger, greed, attachment and
vanity and then you can experience wisdom, charity and spiritual freedom.
Overcoming lust, anger, greed, attachment and vanity. We should be scared of
II
that. And they want to have charity and spiritual freedom. I really can't find
anything. They're non-evangelical. while there has been some early references
from another Hindu type religion that blamed plageri.sm against Paul Twi.tchell
II
and they took Paul Twitchell's teachings and one of the main references used by
everybody against Eckankar is a paper written by another Hindu group, another
new age religion who was fighting for membership from the same pacts.
ros II p
I think that's kind of funny at times that you get two non-Christian groups
fighting and then the groups that want to fight them grab their literature and
use that as their evidence. If the other group were coming in here, we'd have
the same people in here so I don't know. Do they go door to door and airports?
II
No. I have no evidence of them going door to door or running around airports or
shopping malls or schools. They advertise in publications. They make their
literature available. If you want to find them, you can find them. I have now
II
met Eckists who live in this town. I don't know a lot of them by name. At the
service I went to I did recognize two people that have participated in youth
sports here in the City of Chanhassen. I've seen them. I participate a lot. A
lot of you all know me from youth sports more than City Council because I worked II
in T-ball, baseball, soccer. Mostly soccer now and I recognized some of the
faces. I didn' t know the name. I go through hundreds and hundreds of names
every year organizing sports. So I do know there are Eckists living in our
II
town. They have the same rights as anybody else. Should we buy the Eckankar.
, property? This little green thing that we sent out I fought against. It is a
very unscientific survey. We may want to use it but I'm not sure if it's going 11 to tell us much. The referendum would tell us that this type of survey, it's
47
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' , l
ICity Council. Meeting - April 10, 1989
I/ not as bad as the other survey that went —
Y out that only gave you the choice of
yes. At least we give you two choices. Yes or no. But we don't give you
II adequate information to make up your mind on this and full mailing is not a
scientific survey. I'm an engineer. I believe in doing things scientifically
with when the results come back, we can defend them. A lot of people will see
I this and not bother. Another thing from the City and throw it away. Another
group of people are going to be looking for. it. I don't know what's going to
happen. But I don't put a lot of faith in this survey. I asked if people would
II be willing to buy one-third of it and only a few people wanted to buy one-third
of it. They want it buy it all or nothing. All or nothing. Why? If we need a
school site, we don' t need 174 acres. The area up by Greenwood Shores is not a
good school site. That's a good residential site. The area down by TH 5 is a
I fairly good school site. I don't think we need 174 acres. I'm going to get off
onto should we limit tax exempt land? If the University of Minnesota came in
here wanted to have 200 acres for a research facility that's going to being
II 1,000 jobs to town, we're going to say no? Because tax exempt facilities can
only have 5 acres in this town. Are we going to tell the Landscape Arboretum,
one of the most beautiful things we have in this city, that they have too much
land. No. I think before we start saying no tax exempt land or limit tax
Iexempt land, we'd better find out what the full impact on all the different
possible tax exempt lands are because another tax exempt land is city parks.
We' re trying to buy 35 or 50 or 100 acres down south right now of tax exempt
I land that we want to take off of the tax rolls and make it into a park so the
people in southern Chanhassen. There's a purpose for tax exempt land. Do I
think, I've said I will bet the Mayor's next month salary that eventually some
II of this land will go back to tax status. Or Don's salary maybe. The City
Manager's. It's a better bet I guess. My wife won't let me bet my own. But I
truly believe that we should not take this land and convert it. I think that 1_
the courts won' t uphold it. I think we' re going to be ridiculed in the press.
I We' re going to be ridiculed by other parts of the town and maybe the country and
maybe in Poland. My time's up. I think all the yes people would like me to get
out of here. Okay. Basically I'd like on condition 1 to get specific. Can
II your computers generate a computer image at night to show the lights? Mr.
Computers? I challenge your computer prograutiiers to give us those slides
showing how it's going to be, when you decide what the lighting's going to be,
how it's going to be lit up. Are we going to have a shining edifice on the
hillside, which is what we don't want to have.
Peter Beck's answer could not be heard on the tape.
IICouncilman Johnson: I see all the engineers over here going like this with
their eyes as the lawyer talks again. Because I think that's part of, yes,
IIwinter view also. The person who mentioned winter view.
Mayor Chmiel: Is that it Jay?
II Councilman Johnson: That's about where I stand. I have not seen anything yet
to tell me that they don't meet the conditions of the conditional use permit or
that the results of this survey are going to change whether we' re going to issue
Ithe permit or not. I don't see a whole lot of reason for tabling.
Councilman Workman: I am a quicker_ speaker. I have a few questions and Jay hit [7
II on the concerns of the unknown. The unknown is a frightening thing. I reached
into my refrigerator the other day. But seriously, why do we fear Eckankar?
1 48
mil
.:j ty C nci.L :!eeti ng - ',pri 1 1'J, 1989 I
Because =qe are not sure quite frankly what they are. Citizens of this
have I believe reasons to be concerned. Eckankar is an unknown religionoletn�ty
alone a 2ult which evokes strong emotion. Eckankar is aware of that. A couple
years back I read the book Miracle at Philadelphia on the day to day process at ,
the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia over 200 years ago. I knew there
was a reason why I did that. Bigger minds and bigger people dealt with this
issue better than I will and I have 200 years of history to fall back on. The
power of the mind is a very strong force. Eckankar's very existence gives proof
that they understand this. Likewise many in the room this evening have
dedicated their lives to their own beliefs. Eckankar is not surprised. ,
Currently wars are being fought around the world over religious reasons.
Eckankar and their legal counsel are not surprised by Chanhassen's citizens
tonight. while everyone here tonight understands the First Amendment, I doubt
anyone here is exercising the Second Amendment. Are there any guns in the room?
Eckankar has amassed large sums of money in what I would term a relatively short
period of time. To pay for expensive representation, an incredible church
facility, multi.-million dollar land acquisition. It's come to my attention that
as a tax exempt organization we have the right to request financial State
records of the church. It is my understanding that they've denied twice. A
rather unassuming site was not selected in our city but rather a monument which
represents everything that is good in our community. Rolling hills, trees and
lakes. Both here tonight and at the Planning Commission has strong
representation including principles of a large law firm and experts too numerous
to count but no representation fr_an their church. I'm disappointed. while
local churches operate on tight budgets in an effort to fund soup kitchens and
programs for Minnesota's needy, no one from Eckankar is here tonight to tell us
how they will help our community. Rather than simply take up space and attempt
to fade away in our minds, while enjoying tax exempt status on this prime piece
of property, I would have preferred their comments. We are not like
Californians from where this church came or people from India from where this
religion began. This is Lake Wbbegon and we have a pretty good idea wnat a
horse looks like. It doesn't look like a zebra. Likewise we know what a church
looks like. We'r_e not sure that's what this churcn is going to do for our
community. Eckankar is not surprised. Eckankar is asking an awful lot of this
community tonight. Eckankar knows this and this is a tense situation for all
concerned. I am concerned nonetheless about the unknown future use of this site
considering it's large size and choice location. As I've said to both Peter
Skelsky, the Priest and Peter Beck, his legal counsel, they have the property.
Lucky for them. They're very lucky. It's a beautiful site. I would prefer not
to see any denomination church i.a this location using such a large parcel. On
the other hand, I do not feel members of Eckankar will harm us and I pray we do
not harm them. This is a special site in our community, made even more special
by this issue. I knew very little about Eckankar when I ran for office last
fall but win, lose or draw I accept the challenge as does the entire Council I'm
sure. I do need further information regarding the benefits of this project to
our community so that I may make a sound and wise judgment on this subject. I
would approve tabling this item until the next council meeting.
Mayor Cftniel: I guess that leaves me and I don't know if there's too
much
I can say that's already been said basically by the Council. I'd just like ttot
reiterate some of the things that did get touched on. The ones that Tom just
mentioned. I think we have to be concerned as a city and we have to look at
that aspect of the City. Not against the religion part of it but the land
development that we see. Taking that amount of land out of the tax base or if
49
EN
II 21,-_y Council ,,.eeti nq - . ..or. ... 10,
we decide to go to the other options of the schools, community center a
addition to the ballfields. I guess I've and the
seeing what we would derive looked at different things as to
really w at of would from taxes off that existing property and it's
$779,000.00 eal y sort Somewhere up in the neighborhood
II
per year and that's ut of_hthe co of probably about
also feel that some of the issues quite a bit to take out of the community. I
addressed and most of s that we've discussed have not really been
I some of the past information�whenaEckankar ehado requested to go
At that time I was just wondering, 9 through
from what it was before and it was indicated at that time b come in as a campus.
g, the position has taken a much different turn
II members and stated that Eckankar would be willing to local one of the axes.
Now that has changed. I did some this pay local property taxes.
several churches changed. research on this as well. I've talked to
within the area. Specifically to the 201
working at this church. In con r Peoplh who will be
than 13 people, g egations of 1,500, they don't have much more
Congregations of 800 have 8 people. I guess I don't understand
the need for 20 people for 800 people or the 400 as what was indicated.
are some concerns there. So rather than to continue and keep reiterating some
I of the things that has been There
en said, as I made the motion previously, I would like
to see this tabled for the next two weeks and I'll call a question on that.
II Councilwoman Dimler: Second.
I Mayor Chmiel moved, Councilwoman Dimler seconded to
Conditional Use Permit for the o table action on the
the next regular City Council m�tsnruction of a church, Eckankar Church, until
Johnson who opposed a All voted in favor except Councilman
I
pposed arx3 the motion carried.
�
I
REBATE OF INTEREST PAYMENT REQUEST, 1811 LAKE LUCY LANE, MARK RIDDERSON.
IIDon Ashworth: May I ask, is Mr_. _ Ridderson present?
Councilman Boyt: I would move denial.
ICouncilman Johnson: I'll second that.
II Don Ashworth: May I make a point and that is,
this was sent to him. Since we did not get Imd�.d make sure that a copy of
mailed until Fri.da g--t our Thursday usual, it did not get
would be this evening that it heard. on the phone to explain that it
I feels that he would like to be in front of ou But u for whatever reason he
two weeks? you, I could bring the item back in
IMayor miel: Alright. Do you want to clarify that motion Bill or
to incorporate the fact that if he does want to have it within 2 w rescind it
i t?
weeks we can do
ICouncilman Boyt moved, Councilman Johnson seconded to
rebate of interest � the deny the request for
IIappear. before the City Council, may ndo°so�at2 the•next regular applicant wishes to
voted in favor and the motion carried. egular meeting. All
I
50
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1
i
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Bill Boyt, Councilman eof.J.,/
DATE: April 18 , 1989
SUBJ: Eckankar Proposal
Unfortunately, I will be out of the country during the next
' Council meeting on April 24th. I understand that I cannot cast
an absentee ballot. However, I would like to make my intentions
clear.
' It is my understanding that our survey has shown that a majority
of our residents are not in favor of attempting to purchase the
Eckankar property for use by the City. Our own appraisal of the
'
economic impact of the church construction has shown that any
impact would be short term. Our Public Safety Department has
found that Eckankar has a good record in its other locations .
' I think we have carried out our responsibility to answer the
questions and concerns that have been raised to our best ability.
Given no significant new issues , I encourage you to approve the
' Eckankar proposal with the conditions recommended by staff and
the additions I proposed for traffic safety, land restoration and
charge for City services . Were I able to attend the meeting, it
' would be my intention to vote for approval.
IN
I
NI 1
Andrus Agency, Inc.
Minnetonka Business and Professional Center
17809 Hutchins Drive, Minnetonka,MN 55345
Phone 612.474.9443 Fax 612.474.0922
II
April 12, 1989
II
Mr. Don Ashworth II
City Manager
690 Coulter Drive
IChanhassen, MN 55317
Dear Don:
I was in attendance at the Council Meeting last Monday night per II
your request. I was really proud of the Council and staff. It
was obvious that everyone had done their homework in what appears
I
to be a no win situation.
You hired me to render an opinion regarding the proposed church ' s
I
effect on the values of surrounding residences. I thought Peter
Beck made some unfair statements about my assessment of the
situation that evening. I did not race to the podium to do
battle with him because there were a lot of people in the
II
audience who wanted to be heard. Defense of my report at that
time would have served no purpose.
I do want to defend my report to you and the members of the I
Council. I spent a lot of time on this effort. I spent a lot of
money too. Today checks are being sent to four appraisers and II Realtors from other states who helped us with research. I
believe my approach was much more valid than that of their
appraiser who was in that intimidating group of experts in the
front row.
I
He is from Minneapolis . His research all took place in
Minneapolis. He examined the effect of Eckankar 's presence on II their neighbors. They are, as you know, located in business
parks in business facilities. We are talking about their first
church - on a 174 acre site - in a residential area. There ' s
quite a difference.
I
Peter Beck chose to make light of the fact that an important part
of my report included interviews with 10 local Realtors. I think
II
this was a sensible approach. I have lived in Chanhassen for
over 20 years. I 've been in the real estate business in the area
longer than that. I think that these local Realtors and I have a II lot better handle on local attitudes and perceptions than their
appraiser.
Real Estate Services for Business APR 1.4 1989
Individual Membership, Society of Industrial&Office Realtors • Certified Commercial & Investment Membership• National Asso WM Of t�l i��VH/�$S
Minneapolis Commercial Multiple Listing Service • Independent Fee Appraisers Association
Es
1i
1
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 12, 1989
Page 2
1 My conclusion was that there will be an effect on values that
will probably be short lived. I think the Planning Commission
and Council in their list of conditions to be met did a lot to
' quell the anxieties that exist. Since Eckankar has no church
with which we can compare, there will still exist a serious
concern on the part of prospective property purchasers until they
become a proven citizen.
This has nothing to do with my report. In all the churches we
surveyed, none had a 174 acre campus. If conditions are being
' laid down that prevent expansion, international conventions,
camping, trailer parks, and the like; why does the church need
174 acres? Why can 't your rules be amended to grant the
' conditional use permit on only the middle 50 acres of the
property. I believe something like this would hold up in court.
The request for a conditional use permit for the whole parcel is
' not realistic. A requirement that the "church" property be
confined to 50 acres is realistic. It is absolutely ridiculous
for anyone to assume that 174 acres should be set aside for one
building.
1 My best wishes. Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
(a4/g4Q464.■6..,___
Bud Andrus
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CITY OF CHANHASSEN -Pet u
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t.PR 10 1969 r-i-e-si.L o- out_ / /In 45c-A l<JA1
CHANHASSEN PLANNING DEPT. \) U-)4
I LAW OFFICES
GRANNIS, GRANNIS, FARRELL & KNUTSON
DAVID L. GRANNIS- 1874-1961 PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION TELECOPIER.
I DAVID L. GRANNIS,JR. - 1910-1980 POST OFFICE Box 57 (612)455-2359
VANCE B. GRANNIS 403 NOR WEST BANK BUILDING ELLIOTT B. KNETSCH
VANCE B. GRANNIS,JR.* 161 NORTH CONCORD EXCHANGE MICHAEL J MAYER
TIMOTHY J. BERG
' PATRICK A.FARRELL SOUTH ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 55075
DAVID L. GRANNIS,III
ROGER N. KNUTSON TELEPHONE(612)455-1661
DAVID L. HARMEYER
I -Also ADMITTED To April 1 2 , 1989
PRACTICE IN WISCONSIN
I Mr. Don Ashworth
Chanhassen City Hall
690 Coulter Drive, Box 147
Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317
I
RE: Monetary Damage for Denial of a Conditional Use Permit
IDear Don:
In the past I have advised you that I have never heard of a
I Minnesota city being assessed monetary damages for the wrongful denial
of a land use permit. Enclosed is a very recent district court
decision, however, that awards damages of $65, 081 . 33 and attorney ' s
I fees against the City of Rochester for the wrongful denial of a
conditional use permit. I understand the decision will be appealed. If
the decision becomes accepted law in this state, the result could be
very costly.
IThe implications of the court' s decision are very broad. When a
city turns down an application for a conditional use permit, variance,
II etc. , the basis for a court overturning that decision is usually based
upon a finding that the city acted arbitrarily and capriciously. The
district court has held that the arbitrary and capricious denial of a
permit violates substantive due process. Once this conclusion is
Ireached, monetary damages and attorney' s fees follow.
I am currently litigating a land use case in federal court. The
I primary legal issue in that case is the scope of substantive due
process and its application to land use permits. When I receive the
decision I will forward you a copy.
II suggest you circulate a copy of this letter and the decision to
the City Council so that they are aware of the possible change in the
law.
IVery truly ours,
I G"" ► S, GRANNIS, RREli0
& KNU •N, P.A.- p. ".
Y.
IRNK: srn er N. Knutson
Enclosure APR 13 1989
1 cc: Steve Hanson CITY.OF CNANtiH55ttV
Jo Ann Olsen
I
The petition is a process for formally asking a local gov- • Historic, archeological or architectural re- the physical conditions listed previously.Suggestions on
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION ernment unit or state agency to consider carrying out en- sources changes in the project that would reduce the potential en-
vironmental review. The agency or local authority which • Other aesthetic resources (undeveloped vironmental impacts would be especially useful.The peti-
• becomes the RGU (Responsible Government Unit)on a shoreland,scenic views,etc.) tioners may also want to send additional supporting rna-
petition is normally the one which issues the primary per- terial to the RGU or arrange to make a presentation if the
Interested citizens may participate in the environmental • Loss of prime farmlands
review of projects.A section of this brochure explains mils for a proposed project to be built.For most projects petition will be decided on at a meeting.
the RGU is the local government, •An increase In noise levels
how citizens can petition for an EAW when one is not • Odors The completed petition should be sent to the en-
mandatory.A second way for citizens to participate is to If the RGU decides to initiate environmental review,it will vironmental review staff of the EQB at the address
make suggestions for issues to be studied in an EIS dur- prepare an Environmental Assessment Worksheet,a brief Before filing a petition, concerned citizens should also listed below.The petitioners must also notify the project
ing the scoping process.A third way for citizens to par- document that reviews the potential environmental im- give thought to whether any potential impacts on the proposer in writing that they have filed a petition.The EQB
ticipate is to review and comment on EAWs and EISs.By pacts of a project.After reviewing the Environmental As- physical environment are noteworthy.Every development will forward the petition to the designated RGU within five
commenting on the documents,citizens can assure that sessment Worksheet,the RGU may decide to prepare an project has some impacts on environmental conditions. days.The RGU must ordinarily decide whether to prepare
the governmental units responsible for permitting the Environmental Impact Statement,which is a much more However,environmental review is only appropriate where an EAW within 15 working days,although the time period
project are aware of their environmental concerns,and can extensive document or decide that no EIS is necessary.If there may be the potential for significant environmental may be extended an additional 15 working days. Peti-
suggest ways in which potential problems can be resolved. an EIS is ordered,the information gathered is then used in effects. If there is nothing out-of-the ordinary about the tioners are responsible for contacting the RGU concerning
Additionally,citizens can offer their opinions on the need making decisions about whether to issue a permit and project or its setting, it is unlikely that an EAW will be the decision making procedures for the petition.
for an EIS or on its adequacy. what changes to require.Other agencies issuing permits ordered.
Environmental review documents can be reviewed at the will also use the material prepared. .j
offices of the RGU or EQB,at a designated Regional Li- The value of the petition process is that projects with un- The petition must include the following items: FURTHER INFORMATION
brary (in the metropolitan area, this is the Minneapolis expected environmental impacts can be brought to the • A description of the proposed project.
Public Library's ECOL Library)and in some cases at other attention of public agencies.The rules give local govern- • The name and address of the proposer of the
public libraries.A copy of an EAW can be obtained from the ment units and state agencies authority to prepare EAWs
RGU by submitting a written request. irrespective of whether a project falls within a mandatory project. More information about the environmental review pro-
category(except for categories of projects specifically ex- • The name,address,and telephone number of `•1 gram can be obtained by calling the following tele-
empted by the rules).RGUs are not always aware of en- the representative of the petitioners. (The phone numbers:In the Twin Cities metro area:296-8253.
THE EQB MONITOR ., •-- "-`w ----- vironmental risks of a project. Through the petition representative will receive notification of the Outside the metro area: 1-800-652-9747 and ask for
process,concerned citizens can initiate consideration of RGU's decision on the need for an EAW and extension 6-8253.
potential risks. will automatically receive a copy of the EAW
if one is prepared.) Additional questions about petitions and the environ-
EQB distributes a bi-weekly publication,known as the The petition environ-
mental review process can be directed to:
y p p process is not a means for resolving a •A brief description of the potential environ-
EQB Monitor, which provides official notice of disagreement with a local government over whether mental effects which may result from the Environmental Quality Board
public comment periods, public meetings, decisions by a project should be built.If environmental concerns are project. Capitol Square Building,Room 110
governmental units on petitions, EAWs and EISs, and involved,people can use the petition to bring their case to • 'Material evidence'indicating that,because of 550 Cedar Street
other events occurring pursuant to the environmental re- the attention of the RGU,but petitioning does not create the nature or location of the proposed prof• St.Paul,Minnesota 55101
view program. Other environmentally-related govern- an additional source of approval for projects,nor does it ect,there may be a potential for significant
mental actions are also noticed in the Monitor, from bring the state government into the dispute. environmental effects.
time-to-time. A second limitation to petitions is that they are generally
The Monitor is available to any person who wishes to re- ineffective when a land use conflict is the principal issue • Signatures pens and mailing addresses of at least
it.Contact the EQB to be placed on the mailing list. and environmental effects are minor. A decision on quired persons.because the 2g signatures government are agency's
quired because the government agency's
whether an EAW is needed must be based on potential decision should be based on the potential
environmental impacts. for significant environmental impacts.It is
CITIZEN PETITIONS The rules define"environmental"to mean physical condi- not necessary to demonstrate widespread
tions.Examples of physical conditions include: public concern about the project.
• Surface water quality The'material evidence'is the most important part of the
ince only projects in certain categories(based on size, • Air quality petition because the RGU will not want to intitiate en-
4...7 type and location)will automatically receive environ- • Ground water quality vironmental review unless it is persuaded that the review is
mental review.Minnesota Law provides for a public peti- necessary.
lion process as part of the environmental review program. • Wildlife,wildlife habitat or movement of resi-
When 25 citizens are aware of a project which may have dent or migratory animal species
P J Y The material evidence accompanying the petition should
the potential for significant environmental impacts, they • Ecologically sensitive areas or endangered identify the specific potential environmental impact (or
can use the petition process to initiate consideration of species impacts)and state the reasons for believing these effects
environmental review. • Park lands or wild and scenic rivers may occur The evidence can relate to impacts on any of
-- L_.M. ..'Mill MN .__ __ .,,_..._r_-......._.1011111 11111..1-•11111L. JINNI__AM. MN
E = II=1 I I MN MIll NM = I I NM NM =111 . . . . .
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, ,
.
The EAW process contains the following steps.The consulting firm is hired to assist the RGU with the
THE ENVIRONMENTAL process typically requires 2-3 months to complete. analysis and the document. TYPES OF PROJECTS WHICH
REVIEW PROCESS L The RGU determines if an EAW is needed for the proj- 7. Any person can review and comment on the draft EIS REQUIRE EAWS OR EISS.
ect. for a period of at least 25 working days after notice of
2. The RGU obtains data needed for completion of the the draft EIS is published in the EQB Monitor.A press
The Minnesota Environmental Policy Act of 1973 es- EAW form from the project's proposer. release is sent to a local newspaper.A public meeting
tablished a formal process for reviewing the environ- 3. The RGU completes the EAW form and distributes it to must be held to receive verbal comments. Projects of the following category types may require
mental impacts of major development projects.The pur- reviewing agencies.The member agencies of the EQB 8• The EIS is revised into final form based on the corn- pct r requires of n EAW or tal r Whether depends a not oa n given
pose of the review is to provide information to units of ments received. project requires environmental review depends on the
receive and review all EAWs as do other local,state and magnitude and location of the project as well as its type.
government on the environmental impacts of a project federal agencies.
before approvals or necessary permits are issued. After 9. The RGU makes an official decision on the adequacy of Airport Projects
projects are completed, unanticipated environmental 4. Notice of the EAW is published in the EQB Monitor and the EIS.A notice of the impending decision is pub-
a press release is lished in the Monitor at least 10 working days in Animal Feedlots
consequences can be very costly to undo, and environ-
advance.given to a local newspaper. g y Barge Fleeting
advance.The adequacy decision is based on 3 criteria: 9 9
mentally sensitive areas can be impossible to restore.En- 5. Any interested person can review the EAW and submit (1)were all scoped issues for which information was Commercial Developments
vironmental review creates the opportunity to anticipate written comments to the RGU for 30 days following reasonably available addressed?(2)were all legitimate Electric Generating Facilities
and correct these problems before projects are built.The the Monitor notice.Comments may address the accu- comments on the draft responded to?and (3)were
process operates according to rules(legally-binding regu- racy and completeness of information,additional en- proper Fuel Conversion Facilities
, this eci followed?b In exceptional the QB in-
lations)adopted by the Environmental Quality Board,but vironmental effects or corrective actions that should Hazardous Waste Facilities
in-
is carried out by a local governmental unit or state agency be considered and the stances, this decision may be made by the EQB in-
g y potential for significant en- stead of the RGU. Highway Projects
(which is termed the "RGU," for Responsibile Govern- vironmental effects due to the project. Industrial Developments
mental Unit). The primary role of the EQB is to advise 6. The RGU considers the EAW information and the Marinas
local units and state agencies on the proper procedures for comments received and officially decides if the project
environmental review and to monitor the effectiveness of WHO DECIDES IF AIY EIS OR Metallic Mineral Mining and Processing
"has the potential for significant environmental ef- Nonmetallic Mineral Mining
the process in general. fects."If yes,an EIS must be ordered. If no,the en- EAW IS NEEDED?
vironmental review process is over.(Any appeal of this Nuclear Fuels Processing
decision must be made in district court.) Paper and/or Pulp Processing Mills
THE EIS AND EAW esponsibility for making case-by-case decisions on Parking Facilities
The EIS process contains the following steps.Nine to R the need for EISS and EAWs and for determining if an Petroleum Refineries
12 months is a normal time frame for completion of the EIS or EAW is mandatory lies with local governmental Pipelines
nor to any governmental approval of a project with process. units and state agencies.For almost any project,the rules
"potential for significant environmental effects," Recreational Developments
p (EIS) P 1. The RGU determines if an EIS is needed. identify the governmental unit which has this responsibil- Residential Developments
an Environmental Impact Statement EIS must be re- ity. This unit is termed the Responsible Governmental
pared.An EIS identifies the likely environmental impacts 2. An EAW form is completed by the RGU and the proj- Unit,or"RGU."Appeals of the decisions of the RGU must Sewage Systems,including sewer extensions
of the project along with ways to lessen or avoid significant ect's proposer as an aid in'scoping'the EIS.The EAW
g be made in district court.The EQB provides assistance to Solid Waste Facilities
impacts either through alternative means of accomplish- is distributed to reviewing agencies and noticed in the
P EQB Monitor.A press release is provided to a local
ing the project or by redesigning aspects of the project. governmental units in interpreting the rules and carrying Storage Facilities
out their responsibilities,but the EQB is not involved in
newspaper. Stream Diversions
There are two routes to an EIS—it may be mandatory or it the decisions,except in specific,limited circumstances. Transfer Facilites
3
may be ordered by a unit of government upon the deter- . A 30-day scoping period follows the notice allowing for Environmental Review is intended to be used as an infor- Transmission Lines
mination that a project has"the potential for significant public review of the EAW and input into a decision on mation source in the decision-making processes.In order'
environmental effects." EISS are mandatory for projects the issues to be analyzed. A public meeting is held Underground Storage
ry P 1 to serve its purpose,Environmental Review must be built
whose nature, size, or location makes it inevitable that during this period to receive verbal comments. The into decision-making processes at an early stage,before Impoundments
there is the potential for significant environmental effects. purpose of'scoping'is to focus the EIS analysis on the approvals are given for the project. For this reason,the
When not mandatory,case-by-case decisions on the need pertinent issues and to determine what "reasonable rules prohibit governmental units from making a final de- Projects Which Would:
for an EIS are based on a four-page"questionnaire"about alternatives"will be compared to the project as pro- g 1
the project and its potential environmental effects called posed. cision to grant any permit or approval necessary to a proj- Convert land use from agriculture or forest
ect until Environmental Review is completed. However, to a more developed use
an Environmental Assessment Worksheet(EAW). 4. The RGU makes an official scoping decision which decisions to deny permits can be made before Environ- Affect Natural Areas
outlines the contents of the EIS. mental Review is completed since these decisions stop
An Environmental Assessment Worksheet(EAW)may be P P Affect Protected Waters or Wetlands
prepared for two reasons.Most are required by mandatory 5. A summary of the scoping decision is published in the the project and eliminate the need for Environmental
EQB Monitor and a press release is supplied to a local Review. Appropriate Water
categories in the rules,which cover projects of a nature. P PP
size,or location which"may have the potential for signifi- newspaper.(The Monitor notice is termed an EIS Prep- The environmental review program rules detail the cir-
cant environmental effects."Other EAWs are ordered by aration Notice). cumstances in which an EAW or EIS is mandatory for each
governmental units either on their own initiative or as a 6. The scoped issues are analyzed with economic and project type.A listing of this"mandatory categories list"
result of a citizen petition when the facts indicate the proj- sociological impacts being considered in addition to is available from EQB. +
ect"may have the potential for significant environmental environmental impacts.The results of the analyses are
effects." compiled into a draft EIS document. Frequently, a
if
1
How much would taxes increase if other land was purchased for
this exact purpose? '
Yes and resell it to developers for homes . Why not bring in
more tax dollars from a prime property location?
I ' ll probably have to leave my house as a widower with
limited social security income if taxes go any higher -
however, I do not favor the church.
Reduce taxes however possible.
A portion of . '
Would like some of this property for park, schools. 174
acres should not be all tax exempt property. The total pro-
perty is too expensive for us.
At a logical amount, yes, but not $15 million. Could it be
used for other commercial development?
Do like the City did with Highways 7 and 41, southwest
corner. Sit on it and collect taxes for 20 years and THEN
decide what to do with it.
-6-
We could use the property, but find some other method. Taxes
' - too - high now.
What is going to stop Eckankar from purchasing other land in
' Chanhassen?
Limit the area of tax exempt property to building site.
' Higher taxes will hurt property values. Chanhassen has the
highest tax rate of any metro city now.
' (NOTE: Is the real reason to buy the property because some
people don ' t like their religion?)
' ABSOLUTELY NOT! Chanhassen already has some of the highest
property taxes in the nation and it appears as though the
only reasons someone suggested this hair brained idea was to
keep Eckankar from practicing their religion in our com-
munity. what about each of our basic constitutional right to
freedom of religion. Does that mean except in Chanhassen?
' Have them give the City some land?
We don 't belive this would be the best use of limited funds .
' I would think you people would be embarrassed to send us
this, knowing we are already the highest taxed city in the
' state! If you want this property so bad, condemn it or use
eminent domain - No more taxes!
' Lower the taxes first!
The Eckankar people ought to appear, not merely their lawyer.
A compromise should be explored, but our taxes are already
' too high!
I don 't see how we could possibly afford it! "We" meaning
the City. It seems to us that a small portion of the land
that their "church building" gets on the only tax exempt part
of thir holdings, and that the rest of the land they should
pay full taxes on.
Are you people nuts?
' You don' t need property by the lake. Use fiscal management.
Look for cheaper property! There is already a park there.
This poll is a waste of my money! !
' There must be some other alternative rather than the taxpayer
getting stuck again!
Invalid Vote - Comments
Simply block them from building in Chan.
-5-
IML
But only have so many acres of land available for tax-exempt
status . 174 acres is too much!
This is your problem from years ago. You pay for it.
If taxes continue to rise, we would have to sell our house
because we couldn 't afford it.
Burn them out.
Keep property on tax rolls !
I am certain the price will be extremely inflated.
What is it really going to cost to purchase and develop. ,
Change regulations to limit the amount of tax exempt property
in Chanhassen.
Why not zone it commercial? Our taxes are already too high.
It' s prime commercial land.
We'd like to see it zoned commercial to take the tax burden
off of us .
Advise purchasing only if property can be converted to
taxable property, i .e. for sale to private developer.
City owned property will not increase tax income! We are in ,
Minnetonka School District and prefer to remain.
It would be a good idea, but I cannot afford - pay $7 ,500 per ,
year already!
No way! Our taxes are too high now! Minnetonka Schools.
Limit amount of tax-free land.
Prefer private use. You asked the wrong question - Let' s get '
this land back on the tax rolls .
I would believe if it were confired in writing. '
I can' t afford an increase in taxes.
Is Eckankar a willing seller? '
No way! No way in Hell!
There wouldn' t be this uproar if it were the Lutherans or
Catholics . No way!
You 've got to be kidding!
It' s too bad the land was sold originally. I am not in favor
of Eckankar, but they are here. Containment should be
democratic process .
-4-
The City has no right to interfer with how citizens use their
property.
I am against the Eckankar purchase but this form fails to
address legal and public policy issues adequately.
Such hypocrisy is appalling! Be honest! State the real
' reason! ( 163 . 50 x 14 = 2 , 289 . 00) Hate and fear are not
free. Does it ( the question) have to be posed in a positive
form?
' Why is the City in this matter, unless they treat each group
the same.
I do! Let your voice be heard, lower the property tax rate -
now.
The city doesn ' t provide the services we need now for the
taxes we already pay!
' You can 't manage your costs now! The city can 't afford this .
However, if any more than 30 acres is listed as tax exempt,
we will not vote for anyone currently holding a City Council
' seat.
A cult is not a church - make them pay taxes .
' Definitely against increased taxes! Why not vote against
Eckankar Church building which would eventyally force them to
' the land for other commercial.
Definitely not.
' Question - It this Russia or America, the difference is moot!
Can ' t afford to improve till 1994 or 1995.
This land should have been purchased long ago - too late now.
After 4-10 meetings , I ' ve changed my vote to no.
$223 . 50 x 14 years = $3 , 129 . 00
' We do not want our taxes going up. They' re too high already.
I feel very strongly about this !
' Taxes are too high now!
Purchase only part! Not all !
' Only if they are prepared to buy out every other church in
Chanhassen.
' Taxes are too high already. School taxes keep going up also.
-3-
I/
But have industrial park so revenues are generated.
Park expansion going to need this.
I would rather see a limit set on the amount of land a tax ,
exempt organization may own. If this is not possible then I
would vote yes .
No Vote - Comments '
Absolutely not ( 6)
No way ( 2 )
Emphatically no. Do what is necessary to lower property tax. ,
It is not necessary to purchase entire site.
Who were the idiots who sold this property to Eckankar? '
Let them have part of the land taxes free. Just not all of
it, if that is what the problem is.
Absolutely no more taxes !
Taxes too high already.
Not for purposes stated. Possibly to resell.
Reduce amount of property that can be "tax free" .
Emphatically no - expensive exercise in xenophopia (at my ,
expense) !
There is plenty of "other" land out here to purchase for
parks and schools . To try and force Eckankar to sell is
discriminatory.
Property taxes are alreagy too high. Responsible local
government should act to reduce them!
It is silly to raise taxes this much for this purpose. It is
motivated by religious intolerance. A nice property. A high
price.
Definitely don' t need a TAX increase. 1
CLEAR ENOUGH
This would be a ridiculous and very unnecessary expense to
the property owners of Chanhassen.
How can you buy property you have no plans for?
Tax exempt land should include only a "reasonable" amount for
church building.
-2- 1
1
COMMENTS NOTED ON RESPONSE CARDS ARE SUMMARIZED BELOW
Yes Vote - Comments
' Limit the amount of acreage - only "yes" if they are not
allowed to buy anywhere in Chanhassen.
Looks like a good value even at $5 million.
Buy with possible resale for industrial use.
' Can you stop them from buying more property here?
' At fair market value, not at an inflated price that may be
asked and if they do build only the land used by the church
should be tax exempt.
I 'm disappointed that there wasn 't a "Theodore Wirth" for
Chanhassen (he saved the lake shores for Minneapolis) .
Your fault not the citizens.
Recommend Bill Boyt' s recommendation that part of the 174
' acres (probably adjoining Hwy. 5 ) be rezoned for industrial
so that it wouldn 't all be tax-exempt land and part could
bring revenue to the city.
Buy with bonds, taxes already are absurd.
Not for park land. Put the property back on teh tax rolls or
' school.
But not at tax payers expense! That land should have been
' purchased when Dunn and Curry lost it. Why should we pay for
your mistake.
The land should be an extension to Lake Ann Park, but not for
' 3 . 5 million, the land is not worth that much.
Or condemn.
' And exercise public domain condemnation action.
Absolutely not, we don ' t want them here.
' We need more law enforcement.
Only if it can be bought for $ 3 million or less.
Buy a portion, say I of it and impose a maximum of 5 acres
tax free.
' We feel they should be allowed to build their church, but a
limit should be put on tax exempt Property for a church. We
' would be in favor of purchasing a portion of the property.
-1-
8Aw Monday/April 17/1989/Star Tribune
Church property Those feelings have been intensified Since Eckankar submitted the church Risky method
• Site of Eckankar by the refusal of Eckankar officials to plans in January,however,its lack of
Continued from page IA attend public meetings or divulge visibility in Chanhassen has stirred
PPP' plans for the rest of the land. rumors and ugly emotions.One man of oil cleanup
group that teaches"soul travel,"has told Council Member Jay Johnson
Tom Hickey,a Chanhassen resident that Chanhassen residents were pre-
recei ed preliminary approval to who works in real estate develop- gets tryout
build the church in the middle of a Lake '¢ p pared to lynch the first Eckankar
174-acre parcel that it owns near innewashta Lake meet,said it's inappropriate to take member who came to town.
Lucy V Lotus residential land in "the heart of a
downtown Chanhassen. The City o tako community and pop a church right in Others have made references to the
Council is expected to vote on the Z ake the center.Not that it wouldn't have Jonestown cult in Guyana, in which in Alaska
issue next Monday Ann a place in the community, but not more than 900 members committed
•
The proposal has sent waves of ncr- Hwy.5 right in the heart." mass suicide.There were reports that Associated Press
The proposal
and charges of religious per- W.78th St. reclusive Prince,who owns land near
secuties through the city of 9,225 Land `�a H .5 "They deal in the dark. They deal the Eckankar site, was involved. Valdez,Alaska
residents,many of whom have toad- through lawyers instead of face-to- Beck denied that at a recent City State and federal officials examinee
ed the hustle of city life for the seren- '" i purchased Chanhassen face,"said Leneda Rabe,an organiz- Council meeting. Exxon's shoreline cleanup plan Sun
ity of countryside and lakes. f by Eckankar Dinner er of Concerned Citizens for Chan- day as an environmentally risk
f� Theater hassen, a group of 20 families that Beck, who has appeared at many steam-cleaning method was tested m
f formed after the Planning Commis- public hearings around the Twin Cit- rocks blackened by .America's woos
The controversy also could play a Sion meeting. "If they're a church, ins,said he's never heard such direct oil spill.
• role in shaping development trends why can't they just come forward like religious prejudice as that which he's
''4'('' that have established Chanhassen as ",''
fP the newest hot spot in the Twin Cit- • , c'` l a normal church?" encountered during meetings in Oil, mostly in the form of tar ball
ics' historic southwest trail of afTlu- CHANHASSEN Chanhassen. and mousse-like foam, thrcatcnci
'II:. core. ""' <' CARVER COUNTY Eckankar officials Tried that approach Homer and other ports on fish-rid
after they bought the land in 1985 In recent weeks Concerned Citizens Cook Inlet.
Once regarded as "the boonics" by One mile and sought approval to build their for Chanhassen has circulated a pelt-
people who lived as close as Minne- international headquarters campus Lion and obtained 2,576 names of With winds mainly from the south
' and publishing operations. Public people who approved of having the there was no sign of oil advancint
•
( :, tonka, Chanhassen is a third-ring hearings disintegrated into nasty ar- city acquire the land.The group cited toward Kodiak and rich crab water
Yf'''' • suburb whose growth in recent years B P
has accelerated with spillover Bevel- �,, Area of guments about the group's beliefs, a need for land to build schools for a nearby, said Coast Guard Lt. Jin
opmcnt from Eden Prair e.With sub- detail 2;V prompting Eckankar to scrap the burgeoning youth population that is Madden.
, plan. It bought a building in New already straining classroom capacity
divisions popping up across the city - Nv+9• e9 , Hope and relocated its headquarters Homer residents complained of do•?" and housing permits rising, Chan- .•
` hasscn's population already may from Menlo Park,Calif. But the price could be more than lays in placing log booms they has
i•;'P. • have exceeded the Metropolitan Star Tribune map Chanhassen can afford.The city has built to protect their town. Exxor
3 Council's projection of 10,000 rest- Eckankar President Peter Skelsky mailed a survey asking if residents officials say the booms are being
said the decision to relocate in Min- are willing to tax themselves another stockpiled at nearby Port Graham ti
_? dents h}2000 ncsota was primarily guided by an 7 to 10 percent to buy the land.The make them easier to deploy when the
inner.vision_ of Harold Klemp, most the city could sell in bonds is$4 oil strikes.
Those homes,ranging in price from and a place to get haircuts. dents remain among the highest Eckankar's Living ECK Master and million. The city,which expects the
}1,-`" $I O0,00O to more than$500,000,lie taxed in Minnesota.City officials ex- spiritual leader The group looked survey results before the council "'If the fishermen in this town fishes'
t;.. finance an extension of a geographic corri- Mayor Don Chmicl said the idea is pert that to change in the 1990s when around the Twin Cities and eventual- meeting, has appraised the land at like Exxon deploys boom.you'd nes
dor of affluence from the Kenwood "to be as much of a community as we bonds to nance improvements ly found the Chanhassen site with the $3.5 million. Eckankar said it has Cr see a fish on the dock,"said Lei
',1-:i.. area of Minneapolis around the possibly can by developing the down- through tax-increment districts will help of Peter Beck,a land-use altor- received an offer for$7.5 million. McCabe,a resident who was huildint
Chain of Lakes and through Edina, town area." be paid off.
f:• P ncy with Larkin, Hoffman, Daly & booms.
west Bloomington and Eden Prairie. Lindgren. Beck said Eckankar is willing to dis-
In Chanhassen,the sense of commu- With Hwy 5 slated to be widened to cuss selling some of the land,but not On Block Island.Exxon-paid worker
"The development of Eden Prairie nity is split between two school four lanes through Chanhassen in the Skelsky said fears about Eckankar are until the permit issue is resolved. tested cleanup methods yesterday,in
had to fill in first," said Lee Max- districts, Minnetonka and Chaska. next two years,officials say,the pres- unfounded. Eckankar, founded in eluding high-pressure, hot-water
field, a Twin Cities real estate ana- Mail bears postmarks from Chanhas- sure for more residential growth will 1964, is described as a spiritual Chmiel,who lives near the Eckankar sprayers. The company has about
i lyst,explaining the burst in housing sen, Chaska or Excelsior Northern increase as access to the rest of the teaching that dwells on relationships site, said he's troubled by that ap- 200 of the sprayers,but they have not
permits in Chanhassen at a time residents shop in Minnetonka while Twin Cities improves. with spirits and teaches the soul to proach."I don't think they're dealing been used previously with salt water
when construction is declining those in the south go to Chaska.The leave the body.It has 290 ECK cen- a full deck with us,"he said."If all
across much of the Twin Cities, topography around Chanhassen's The largest undeveloped parcel in tors, or meeting rooms, around the they want to do is build their church, Cold-water techniques, even those
Chanhassen also has grown through eight lakes unites neighborhoods and town,served by sewers and zoned for world.The proposed church in Chan- then think about putting it on 20 using high pressure, have little im•
its proximity to the south shore of isolates them at the same time.Most residential use,is the land owned by hassen would be Eckankar's first. acres and sell the rest.I've got build- pact on microorganisms and small
Lake Minnetonka,Maxfield said. of the city's 22 square miles lies in Eckankar on the northwest corner of Eckancar has 400 members in the ers that arc willing to buy some of marine life. But the jets of high.
Carver County,but 150 acres of busi- Hwy 5 and County Rd.I7. Twin Cities, Skelsky said, but he that.They(Eckankar officials)don't pressure steam upend rocks, strip
The growth has not been missed by ness property is in Hennepin County. would not disclose worldwide mem- want to take that position. Why, I away sand and gravel and kill beach
retailers. Chanhassen is one of the From a zoning standpoint, there bership. don't know" life.Scientists say it takes up to two.
few Twin Cities suburbs to carve out There was virtually no commercial seems to be little dispute about Eck- years for life to return.
a freestanding downtown shopping or industrial activity in Chanhassen ankar's plans,which call for an 800- "People(in Chanhassen)arc afraid of But City Council Member Johnson,
district,situated on W 78th St.Once in the mid-1970s,But with tax-Mere- seat sanctuary on a 9-acre site. Resi- the unknown," he said. "Once you who conducted a self-st}led investi- Adm. Paul 1 ost. the Coast Guard
a bar strip surrounded by industrial ment financing districts and a re- dential zoning allows for churches, get to know us,there's not a problem. gation of Eckankar and attended one commandant sent by President Bush
firms,the street has a new strip mall bounding economy,the city has add- provided they have a conditional-use ,• We kind of blend into the corn- of its services, finds no reason to to hasten the work,said he belies es
opposite the dinner theater complex. ed 2,500 jobs in the past five years permit. The Chanhassen Planning munity We don't stand out for any oppose the permit. "If the Eckists the steam method is the only one
the second phase of a redevelop- and relocated former downtown in- Commission approved the permit by reason, we just go about our busi- live the way their teachings show, that can cleanse the sound's shore
meet plan will add a medical arts dustrial firms into industrial parks. a 4-I vote on March 1 and sent the ness." they put a lot of us Christians to line
building this year The final phase, Four printing-related firms have giv- recommendation to the City Council. shame," he said. "They could very
including a Super Valu,probably will en the city a major presence in the Beck said Eckankar's beliefs aren't at well be an asset to our community if The wreck of the tanker Exxon Val
be finished in two years. direct-mail industry Another 1,200 But since the meeting, a swarm of issue."Even if they were the Moon- they live by example." dee on March 24 released 111.1 and
jobs will be created this year, and city residents has pressed a well- ics, they would still fall under the lion gallons of oil into Prince Wil
"We're creating a downtown that several firms are expanding into the organized campaign to prevent the First Amendment,"he said. team Sound.
looks like a downtown," said City city, including Rosemount Inc. and church from being built.Some vehe-
Manager Don Ashworth.While some McGlynn Bakeries from adjacent mcntly oppose allowing what they
residents hase criticized safety and Eden Prairie. view as a questionable cull to cstab-
• road designs in the downtown area, lish an international flagship in their W.
few dispute the need for stores. By shedding its bedroom-community city Others say the church, while
Downtown is not intended to corn- image, Chanhassen achieved a goal seemingly permissible by law, .a ' ,e
pctc with Sowhdalc or Eden F'rairie of having 35 to 40 percent of its tax amounts to poor land use because its
Oar
(enter. but nether n vide sc hale d by «•sal tx.e' itic wiilove I'
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V.�G y 1v,,, i.,a tk i.; 4{& Aw .
ener / x' Yw
Andrew Work, 9; Henry Heinerscheid, 6, and Luke Keller, 10, experienced a lull in Juice sales Sunday along West River Rd. in Minneapolis. However, the boys puller
respectable 66.10 in one hour of sales(even though Luke drank some of their wares).The day's high temperature of 73 brought many people out.
Economics, rely ion Wright seeks g As property■ taxe uick action•
dash �n Chanhas q sen ■House Speaker Jim Wright,
in an effort to put the ethics so d® cries of-...
By Paul Klauda controversy over his personal
And while rock star resident Prince finances behind him as quick- By Dane Smith
Staff Writer stays out of sight, his ultramodern ly as possible,has offered to Staff Writer 10 Paisley Park recording studio is a waive some of the rights he must Once again, the Leoggi:
Without really trying, Chanhassen rubberneck's favorite along Hwy. 5. would enjoy under the next When John and Mary Lou Becker must deal problem the prop
has acquired a marquee reputation as stage of the House ethics bought their modest home on Lake touchy problem. prOF
a
popular place to visit, even though But the prospect of a pyramidal committee's procedures. Minnetonka in 1964, they 'relief.' Page TA.
rush-hour traffic makes it hard to get church rising above a rolling section y paid about
there. of undeveloped land near the middle IN No matter how the ethics $400 annually in property taxes. "My taxes now consum ri
p
of town has many residents fearful charges against Wright are Since then, largely because of the JohnBecker,who works
The Chanhassen Dinner Theatres that Chanhassen will attract the resolved,the controversy has demand for lakeshore property, their and is nearing retirement
complex attracts thousands of visi- wrong kind of people. set off a clamor in the House property value has increased almost duced income. "I'm goin
tort annually and has anchored the for reform of the standards of sevenfold, from $30,000 to more forced out of a house that's
town for 30 years. The beauty of the Eckankar, a little-known religious conduct for its members.
University of Minnesota arboretum than $200,000.to more But their$5,000,or 13 paid for."
lies entirely within the city limits. Church continued on page 8A Stories on Page 3A. ballooned to more than$5,000,or l3
•• times as much. The Backers have joined th
Davis says he Prisoner in U.S. may hold Almanac Tradition-
won tback down Greek regime's -
Marvin Davis, unwanted suit future Monday, led to sot.
or of Northwest Airlines,told 107th day;258 to go this year •
-Gov. Rudy Perpich in San By Doyle McManus district, a 34-year-old banker named Sunrise:6:26.Sunset:8:01
-Francisco Sunday that he in- Los Angeles Times George Koskotas. Associated Press
tends to buy the company, Today's weather/
:Perpich said. Davis has of- Salem,Mass. Sheffield,England
fared$90 said. Davis has of- The county A year ago, Koskotas was the Donald A chance of morning showers,high in Imagine paying about$7 to st
y jail in Salem was built in Trump of Greece, a brash young the mid-40s.
billion, for Northwest. "I was 1813, the year after Charles Dickens wheeler-dealer who thought he could bodies hours inside a against you cog
hoping to hear that they were was born,and Dickensian is the word show the Establishment how to do two
1-12D K Editorial 10,14E basics chants fueled you ant
going to back off," Perpich for it: crumbling bnck walls, grimy business. Today, fighting extradition Calendar 12K Movies 4E ing to chants fueled by cents
told a Twin Cities television cells and clanging steel gates. to Athens on charges of fraud, he is Comics Variety Obituaries 6B
tradition and gallons of beer
Station last night. "Instead, the chief witness in a spreading scan- Corrections 3A TV,Radio Varies
i,:' I've been informed that they'll It is an improbable base of opera- dal that could topple Andreas Papan- Crossword Variety Weather 86 stadium um that was 40 yebars scei
I be announcing their financial tions for a fugitive millionaire who dreou, Greece's Socialist prime min- Classifieds
'1.,1ackage(today).They're go- may soon bring down the govern- ister. 1-11K World War II began and you f
4; .ing to go to the mat,is what I ment of Greece. But in a dank little idea of what it's like to w
1)1eard. 'Page 1B. cell, next to a man accused of killing Papandreou's Classifieds 372-4242 soccer game in England.
his girlfriend's baby, g p government, which Circulation 372 4343
• g y, paces the one-
~, 1 time blly wonder of Athens'financial Koskotas continued on page 9A , Copyright 1989�StarTribune That mixture of traditions, ri
Volume VIIIiNu.Tiber 13 6 cPrr;n„e and facilities appears to be
April 8, 1989 I
8341 Galpin Boulevard
Chanhassen, MN 55317
II
Chanhassen City Council I
690 Coulter Drive
P.O. Box 147
Chanhassen, MN 55317 I
Dear Council Members:
Since we live in rural Chanhassen, it probably does not have an impact on
our land value to have the Eckankar "cult" locate near the City of Chanhassen.
But, if it become a reality, we probably will be referred to as the "cult"
City rather than the City of Chanhassen. I
When the initial negotiations took place for them to purchase this property,
I talked with Mayor Hamilton concerning the purchase of this land. II Apparently he had his "blinders" on as he said that in his research, they
congregated to read the Bible and were not any different from the churches
in our area. It was apparent that Mr. Hamilton could easily be manipulated.
Since Eckankar sold their property in San Francisco for approximately II 80 million dollars , it seemed appealing to have someone come into our
community and occupy a large parcel of land and bear the cost of roads, water
and sewer. How could the Council reject such a proposition? Prior to this , I
Mr. Hamiltion ' s position, with Norwest Banks, was to comprise a plan which
would minimize any disaster that could occur. Obviously, he overlooked the
possibility of a few small children that could light a fire that totally
destroyed their building and created havoc in their operations the the next II
few years. This should tell you something of his ability, and the Council ,
to comprehend what the impact the Eckankar decision would have on our
community in the future. Again, a total disaster.
II
I am not critizing Mr. Hamilton ' s action in approving the Eckankar purchase
of this land as maybe, if I were in the same position, I would have made
the same decision. What I am saying is , we both would have made the
I
wrong decision.
Now, where do we go from here. Do we purchase the land or convince them
in some way to locate in rural Chanhassen. It seems obvious that purchasing
the land is beyond our financial capability so to satisfy the organized
complaint of the adjacent property owners , we suggest they sell the land
and locate in a rural Chanhassen area.
II
Personally, we do not want this "cult" to locate within 1 , 000 miles of
Chanhassen but they were allowed to purchase the land and have every right II to occupy it.
Our Purpose in writing this letter is that you not make some sort of
compromise, in a land swap, to relocate them in the rural area of Chanhassen. II
You have a difficult decision to make, which was predicated by the Mayor
and his Council a few years ago, and I trust you will make a decision that
II
is in the best interest of the citizens of Chanhassen.
Sincerely, I
, u ,2` ..-- _ i
i APR 1 i 1989
Gerald & Lois Gu tafson
's / CITY..OF CHANHASSEN II
me
' April 18, 1989
Mayor Don Chmiel
City of Chanhassen
P.O. Box 147
Chanhassen, MN 55317
Dear Mayor Chmiel:
The debate regarding the Eckankar issue has forced me to no longer remain
silent and to strongly express my growing dissatisfaction with the City
Council, city officials and many of my fellow citizens. I normally wouldn't
become active in such issues except I am becoming quite concerned and perhaps
' truely afraid that all the noise, reasons and rationalizations prepared to
exclude Eckankar are merely a weak guise to deny them their basic constitutional
freedom of religion.
If Eckankar had been guilty of some disreputable actions or beliefs I would
support some kind of action limiting their access to Chanhassen. In fact, no
information exists. The only thing Eckankar could be accused of to date is
being silent about who they are so as to raise the perceived value and thus
the price of any property they might sell back to Chanhassen. This caused by
our own provincial attitudes.
' Let's stop this nonsense and wake up! If Chanhassen doesn't grant to Eckankar
their right to build a church on property they own, then it must prepare for
potential lawsuits, damages and liability. I am not interested in paying for
' that.
I am also not interested in buying back some or all of Eckankars 174 acres.
The last election's mandate seemed to be: hold down taxes. Must we dig ourselves
into a deeper tax hole? By committing tax dollars to repurchase this property,
we are denying ourselves better use of that money for other more worthy city
projects.
Let's pass an ordinance restricting the amount of land a tax-exempt organization
can own and be done with it!
Yours truly,
' Mary B. Hoffman
6470 Fox Path
Chanhassen, MN
I/
MK
Page 2
Let's put some things in perspective in this community. 11
Religious freedom is a right granted to all citizens of the
United States . Purchasing land, raising taxes, threatening
condemnation procedures will only to serve to alienate this
community. There has been so much negative press lately about
Chanhassen and the council, not only in this issue but others .
Can't we put all this behind us, work toward the future, and bond
to make this community wonderful. I have only lived here for
three years, and I can hardly believe the continuous turmoil .
Chanhassen is in a growth state, and growth does cause turmoil.
But let's learn to grow and handle it in a healthy way.
Let's also realize that citizens do not have deep pockets . We
are already tapped to the limit on our taxes . If people are so
willing to have their taxes raised, let's get everybody assessed
at the 90% level, as recommended by the state, and then talk
about raising taxes to purchase land that has no immediate or
critical use. If a council member or citizen of this community
votes to purchase this land and increase taxes, they better be
willing to show the public that their home and property is fairly
assessed at the 90% level and that they are paying their fair
share of taxes . I'm willing to bet this will eliminate about 80%
of the voters .
I strongly urge the Mayor and all council members to vote no on
the purchase of this land. The reasons for purchasing, the
community center and land for school, are only being used as an
excuse to stop an organization that some people don't like.
There is no legitimate need for the purchase of this land at this
time. Nor is there a legitimate reason for denying the request 11 of Eckankar to build a church on this property.
Sincerely,
Kathy Mandy
6210 Near Mountain Blvd.
Chanhassen, MN 55317
470-0465 '
1
.._
April 17, 1989
ICity of Chanhassen
City Council
690 Coulter Drive
IChanhassen, MN 55317
Dear Mayor and City Council Members:
It is with great interest that I have been following the
discussions with Eckankar and the property they own. I have very
strong feelings that the city should not purchase this land.
During the recent council elections, I supported, voted, and
encouraged others to vote for Chmiel, Dimler, and Workman. Now
the thought that my taxes could increase for property that
doesn't have a specific purpose is ludicrous . Council members
should be able to see by the no votes on recent referendums that
I people are not willing or able to pay for community centers,
trails, and services that are not necessary.
The argument that the 174 acres will be taken off tax rolls by
the use of Eckankar and asking the city to purchase the land for
schools and community centers does not hold water. The land will
still be tax-exempt. If a community center is built, we will
I then be asked to pay fees to use the community center. I don't
even live in the Chaska school district. I pay taxes to
Minnetonka school district. Therefore, if my taxes increase to
' pay for land for a Chaska school, isn't this double taxation?
Where is the benefit to a private landowner?
I support and appreciate the research that Jay Johnson has done
I on this project. I also believe in the right of religious
freedom. Nothing that I have seen or heard to date supports the
fact that this is a cult group and will harm our community and
I children. There does not appear to be a lot of religious freedom
in this community.
A statement was made that Eckankar was not willing to show its
financial records to the council. Have all organizations,
including other religious groups, been asked to show their
financial records to the council and city before they can build
in this city? Or is this just a special request of a special
group that some feel have undesirable qualities . Are requests
being asked of Eckankar that have not been asked of other
potential members of this community?
I
AP R
19 1989
' CITY.OF CHAMBASSt.N
r
I suggest that the Council direct it 's efforts toward ,
settling the Eckankar issue in a quick , decisive manner to
defuse the emotional festering of a portion of the
community , and to bring Chanhassen back on track .
Sincerely , ,
A -r/-e-- z Cc
1
1
Page -- 2 1
MI
1
1 Robert W . Anderson
7090 Tecumseh Lane
Chanhassen , MN 55317
I
April 17 , 1989
1
City Council
1 City of Chanhassen
690 Coulter Drive
Chanhassen , MN 55317
' Gentlemen:
I believe it necessary to enclose an explanation as to why I
must vote NO to the purchase of the Eckankar property . The
so-called proposed city uses of the land are nothing more
than thinly veiled excuses to prohibit the apparent lawful
right of property owners to build their church . Since the
property owners have met City , State and Federal
requirements , and have no demonstrated history of illegal or
immoral activities , refusal to allow construction is wrong ,
and tantamount to discrimination .
' As a resident of Chanhassen , it is disappointing to think
that the City Council would even consider purchasing the
land without first having a detailed plan and demonstrated
' need for its use . It is also disappointing that the City
misleads the residents in the tax impact of the possible
purchase of the property , as indicated in the attached
1 ballot . I cannot believe that the indicated tax cost is
nothing more than an educated guess and does not include a
realistic purchase price , the cost for the inevitable
litigation and damage awards to the property owners , and the
' costs for building some as yet undefined public facility .
Surely , the final tax burden will be much greater than
currently quoted .
The Council 's extended effort to "listen" to the people has
only increased the emotional level and fears of some
residents , and has generated much negative publicity for the
' city , and , as a result , is doing more long term damage to
overall image and economic conditions of Chanhassen . Those
concerned about loss of property value if Eckankar were to
' build , should be more concerned that property values will
surely decrease with increased property taxes that would
result from the purchase and development of the land by the
City .
1
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cal basis , eacn parcel having its own referendum .
|�
The green card is being responded to in an atmosphere N�
of desperation . People are making their choice based upon
the lessor of two evils ; i .e . , several hundred dollars an-
nually in additional property taxes being preferable to that
of oermztting Eckankar to locate in the City . N�
I trust that the green card response will indicate an
overwneimzng "yes" vote . Such a decision has been made has-
tz / v and in a climate of fear . This crises atmosphere is
not conducive to a carefully considered long-range plan for
tnzs , or any other , parcel . I therefore object to the use
of the green card (and the expenditure already incurred in
its mailing) . I also object to any referendum (and its ad-
dzrzonai expense) that would involve the Eckankar property . N�
One final note : I strongly recommend that the City ser- N�
ious| v consider an annual review of all Conditional Use Per- =°
mzrs in order to monitor compliance with conditions set by
the City .
6incere| y ,
7:77)?.;77
Monte Eastvold
cc : Don Ashworth , City Manager N�
- -
APR8�� 1 7 �O�O N�
� ' .�w�
CITY OF CHANNASSEN
I [ �Y. . ..~^ ~~~._ ' �� '
� � � ���� � ��
IMonre Eastvold ' -` ^ � '���_ �'�/( i v �xu�
'V51 Pimlico Lane �
Chanhassen , MN . 55�1 ;'
II
���� �� D�
937-5387 (H) , 224_i500 kW/ ...,"�nnauox �ummnovv^ =�
r . yon unmieIN
Ma\ or
710o | ecumseh Lane
Cnanhassen , MN . �5J17
II
kE : ECLANKAH LUNDl | IUNAL USE PEkMIT/POTENTIAL REPLhENuUM
I
Honourable Mayor Chmiel ,
~~ 1 am writing in response to the City-sponsored "green
card" asking whether the City should hold a referendum re-
II�� �
gardzng the oossible purchase of the Ecankar property by
w� the city . The future use of this property should not be de-
termined ny a referendum (neither binding nor advisory in
II nature) .
have a Master s degree in Urban & Hegional PlanningIi.
Prior to my current employment , I served as Planning/ Zoning
*dmznzstraror (as well as city Hdministrator) for nine years
in waconza , MN . I authored the City' s Comprehensive Plan
and totally' revised the Lity s Zoning and Subdivision Ordin-
ances .
IChanhassen s Comprehensive Plan must reflect and ad-
ad-
dress the most appropriate land use for the Eckan� ar parcel .
If the current Comprehensive Plan has determined that the
Iparcel zs best suired for some form of resiuentia| use and
if a church ( Judeo-Christian based or otherwise) is allowed
within a residential district with a Conditional Use Permit ,
and it the Eckaniar representatz�es state that they will a-
bide by the conditions stipulated by the Planning Commission
and the City Council , tmen the Conditional Use Permit must
Ibe aoproved . This zssue is purely a land-use questzon , not
a religious question .
lf , however , the City's staff , the City Council or tne
I
general oub | zc nave oetermined that the parcel s highest and
best use should be reviewed and oossibl / cnanqed , then the
change snou| d occur following oeliberations by the City's
N�
staff , the Planning Commission , the City Council , in public
-- hearings and , finally , by an amended Comprehensive Plan .
long-range | and-use plan is not adopted on a parcel by par-
II
Ala
111-
1
te pf
I I- ic) V"D-6_. 0
a
?", a J
/ 3 .5-T`riV
cr-4 rriA cv
Lay i 4 '-'1) „Tr-. -a--yyrD >< a- -75-1-(2-0-
I
1
' STATE CSI• MINNESOTA L)ISTRICT COURT - CIVI1. I)1VISION
COUNTY OF OLMSTEI) THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT
1
Northpointe Plaza, a Minnesota
Partnership consisting of Jon K.
Finstrom and John A. Klop, Jr. ,
' Plaintiff, FILE NO. 87-C-7060
' vs. CLERK'S NOTICE OF FILING
City of Rochester,
Defendant.
' TO: Thomas B. Humphrey, Jr.
Attorney at Law
' 7900 Xerxes Avenue S #1500
Bloomington, MN 55431
Robert G. Suk
' Attorney at Law
18 SW 3 Street #200
Rochester, MN 55902
Frederick S. Suhler, Jr.
Rochester City Attorney
Room 1 City Hall
Rochester, MN 55902
' You are hereby notified that, on the date hereof, a Findings of
Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order for Judgment was duly filed in the
' above-entitled matter.
Dated at Rochester, Minnesota this March 16, 1989.
' JEANNE A. HABEN
COURT ADMINISTRATOR
VOCIT
Deputy Clerk `i
II
II I�'ISICt�L D
STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT - CIV _ -- II
JUDICIAL DISTRICT __---
COUNTY OF OLMSTED __________
?:crthpoi::te Plaza, a Minnesota II consisting of Jon K.
Finsc rcm and Johr. A. Klop, Jr. ,
Plaintiff ,
FINDINGS OF FACT, II
CONCLUSION OF LAW, AND
�,s, ORDER FOR JUDGMENT
I
City of Rochester, File No. 87c060
lil
Defendant. ---------------------------------------
The aKovegertinle
d action came on for trial before the 88 Honorable
table
Krieger on the 6th and 13th days.innesotaem The parties were
Olmsted G. '
provide memoranda of law and the final
Olmsted County Courthouse in Rochester, 1969•
granted additional time to Phe Court on January 20,
memorandua, was received by Minnesota and
Attorneys Thomas E. Humphrey, Jr. of Bloomington,
Robert G. Suk Rochester,
Minnesota appeared on behalf of the II
.
ederick S. Suhler, Jr. of Rochester, Minnesota
Plaintiff. Attoto rney FrFr
appeared on behalf of the Defendant.
t having heard the arguments of counsel and having
o otherwise II
The Court, f. and proceedings herein, s of thcr,
makes the following Finding
reviewed the entire filings` fully advised in the premises,
Conclusions of Law and Order for Judgment:
FINDINGS OF FACT II
1. F partnership consisting II
1985, Plaintiff , a p regiment with
of Jon or about June John flop, entered a purchase agreement
of
Ashland lon FOil, nd John eramerica) , for the p II
Inc.Zn (herein after Sup contingent
property.Cil, purchase the property,
property. Superamerica was to P approvals and
parties receiving the requisite zoning pp
upon the from to build a gas station/convenience store on
permits from the city I
the property.
was originally zoned R-1 PUD-R-36.
ro erty in Question II
2. The
was then rezoned to ar l-beclassifi tion. lThees on
Ordinance (R P §uses o
Rochester Zoning including "automotive services." R.Z.O.R
a E1-b district, II
R.Z.O. 61.301 provides that a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) may
3• findings are made:
not be granted unless the following
proposed use will not be detrimental to or endanger
are; U The
public health, safety, convenience , or general
iim
b. The proposed use will not be injurious to the use and
' enjoyment of other property in the neighborhood and w•i: _'
not significantly diminish or impair the values of such
property;
' c. The proposed use will not impede the normal and orderly
development and improvements cf the surrounding property;
d. Adequate utilities, parking, drainage, and other necessary
facilities will be provided;
e. Adequate ingress and egress will be provided to minimize
traffic congestion in the public streets;
f. The traffic generated by the proposed use can be safely
' accommodated on existing or planned street systems;
g. Adequate measures have been taken or proposed to prevent
or control offensive odor, fumes, dust, noise, vibration, or
' lighting which would otherwise disturb the use of neighboring
property; and
' h. The applicant for the conditional use will agree to such
limitations or conditions as may be deemed appropriate by the
approving body, including, but not limited to, such matters
' as location, construction, maintenance, landscaping,
operation, and duration.
4 . On or about October 7, 1985, Superamerica, on behalf of itself
' and plaintiff, filed an application for a CUP with the defendant' s
zoning administrator.
' 5. After an initial hearing before the Planning and Zoning
Commission (PZC) , the original site plan was revised consistent
with staff recommendations.
' 6. At a second public hearing, the plaintiff submitted a report
from Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc. This report concluded that
' the proposed use would have no significant impact on traffic in
the area.
7. The PZC denied the CUP based upon findings that the
' application did not comply with items a) , b) , e) , and f) , of
R.Z.O. §61.301 .
8. Plaintiff and Superamerica appealed the decision of the PZC to
the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) .
9. David L. Olson, Assistant Zoning Administrator, found the
application in compliance with R.Z.O. 61.301, and recommended
approval of the application, subject to several conditions. The
Supervisor, Planning Division., and the Planning Director of the
' Rochester Consolidated Planning Department all concurred.
1
.F `u�
grant t* e C'
the 78 decided to grant wEl. ,..
December 4 , . The plaintiff and P
1°' On conditions. , cr,1, r.
to seven dition- , n to te
to meet those con 7.Pa� s decision dent appealed the
A t resident hear.
11 . city .-ton-As�'Ed use would Council. • e it two 2 a- o_ yet..
Cour. Council had before Q that the proposed
any safety
12 • h Inc. reQ°rts indicating
traffic , nor present The common tra-
Assoclate- significant impact °r•
not have a
improve 36th and
concerns•
aware of plans to ,
was made testified .n �II
Common Council ti°n '
13 . N.V.
Association
ssoc is meeting cf
s m
37th Street t Neighbor' `. 21 , 1986, proposed use
nth Street January the that
14 • Members °f 5aintifhe ex e at sed concerns levels , and decrease
The}, expressed noise ye
I
would
opposition Co pail' ens, raise n
Common traffic problems, O�,
the property.
R
would create tra- ,. from
the their prop to it a letter I
of
the value of to Department
epartmen the impact
also had available about
of Common Council engineer with the concern also a meter °_
lS• district also was admitted in
a dis This letter Mr. Larson ent with this
Larson,ortatiOn• on traffic. . r, Larson th
s proposed Association• involVem
of
Transportation.
t 37th er Neighbor's
department had no di` ct _ art 21
Street
the that his CUP at the en
the letter were
denied Plaintif`_ s for the denial
case. The findings and
d a Council basis
16. The Coon Findings °f fact decision. Council at not
1986 meeting.ubmitt contemporaneously
adopted by the ommon m
erica were II
tf and d at the
not issue fitted to1g86. Plaintiff be hear II
were submitted r,itY to
basis February 3 ,
and an opportunity i
meeting d with notice � several
provide tang' 1,8 , maker application.6 meeting.
° 6 lica
February 3 , 1986, on February 3a the CUP apse arding
resolution adopted for dentin- concerns regarding
the
17 . The reSol gating the balls categories. compatibility °` s II
findings indicating into threregarding the and, concern
These proposed use findings safety; concerns in9 zoning district; '
fic and underlY
traffic with the developer,
regarding 9 fumes and noise. property to another
the 5365,0OO.O0
Superamerica regar able to sell 500 0, instead of
this was a
c was but for $312 , wing costs,
18. Plaintiff After closing
associates ,
ad offered• costs of
difference h$4 ,782. tiff incurred I
difference °` 6 buyer,, plaintiff
itemized as follows:
for another
19. While waiting f These costs
holding the property.
II
II
im
1"
IIa. Taxes : Northpainte $1 , 1` 1 . 30
Seville $92c . 24
' b. Interest and Finance Expenses :
Ncrthpointe $7,'r`€ .91
Seville $2, 732.60
c. Attcrney Fees: $4 ,750.00 h.
d. Maintenance: $441 .80
e. Insurance : $205 .88
f. Miscellaneous: S220.00
TOTAL $18,299.33
In addition, plaintiff claims to have lost $9,540. 00 in interest
that it would have earned from investing the proceeds had
' Superamerica bought the property. The $9, 540.00 in lost
opprotunity, however, is speculative, and therefore, not
recoverable.
20. Less than six months after denying plaintiff and
Superamerica 's CUP application, defendant granted a CUP for, not
only a gas station/convenience store on the property, but a
' shopping center as well. This use had t-e potential of producing
more traffic than plaintiff and Superamerica's proposed use.
' CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1 . Plaintiff's interest in the CUP rises to level of a protectible
interest.
' 2. Plaintiff was given notice and an opportunity to be heard at
the January 21 , 1986 meeting, in which the common council voted to
deny its CUP application. Therefore, plaintiff's procedural due
process rights were not violated.
3. The complaint ' s of the 37th Street Neighbor's Association and
the letter from Roy Larson, are the only pieces of evidence
supporting the basis for the Common Council 's decision. They
both, however, are factually insufficient reasons for the
' decision. Therefore, the Common Council 's decision was arbitrary
and irrational , and violated plaintiff's substantive due process
rights.
4 . Although the Common Council 's decision was arbitrary, there is
no evidence of purposeful and intentional discrimination.
' Therefore, no violation of equal protection rights occurred.
5. Because plaintiff's contract with Superamerica was contingent
on the defendant's actions, there could be no breach of that
' contract. Thus, plaintiff cannot prove a breach cf contract, and
its tortious interference with contract claim fails.
6. Because plaintiff succeeded on it 42 U.S.C.$19E3 substant_ve
due process claim, it is entitled to reasonable attcrney fees
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. S 1988.
7. As a direct result of defendant ' s violating plaintiff's
substantive due process rights, plaintiff suffered damages in t:.e
following amounts: 546, 782.00, which is the difference, after
closing costs, between the contract price to Superamerica and the
price plaintiff received for the property; and, $18,299. 33 in
holding the property until another buyer was found. The total
damages amount to 565 081 . 33.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
1 . Judgment is entered against defendant in the amount of 11$65,081.33, as a result of defendant violating plaintiff's
substantive due process rights.
2. Judgment is entered against defendant for the amount of
plaintiff's reasonable attorney fees.
3. The attached memorandum is incorporated herein by reference
and made a part of this Order.
(LET JUDGMENT BE ENTERED ACCORDINGLY. )
Dated this Jy day of March, 1989. '
BY THE COURT:
Hon. Harold G. Kriege
District Court Judge
I
MEMORANDUM
FACTS
On or about June 24 , 3985 , plaintiff Korthpointe, a pnrtnorsi;.
consisting of Jon Finstrom and John Klopp, entered into a purchase
agreement with Superamerica The subject of the agreement was a piece
of property which plaintiff owned in northwest Rochester. Under the
terms of the agreement Superamerica would purchase the property, with
the sale contingent upon obtaining a zoning certificate and building
Ipermit for the construction of a gas station/convenience store on the
site.
At the time the parties entered the agreement, the property was
Izoned as a 131-b classification. In order to build the proposed
facility on the site, the parties had to obtain a conditional use
permit (CUP), pursuant to R. Z.O. 61. 301. This ordinance provides that
a CUP shall not issue unless the planning and zoning commission
determine that:
a. The proposed use will not be detrimental to or endanger
the public health, safety, convenience, or general welfare;
b. The proposed use will not be injurious to the use and
I enjoyment of other property in the neighborhood and will
not significantly diminish or impair the values of such
property;
1 c. The proposed use will not impede the normal and orderly
development and improvements of the surrounding property;
d. Adequate utilities , parking, drainage, and other necessary
facilities will be provided;
e. Adequate ingress and egress will be provided to minimize
traffic congestion in the public streets;
f. The traffic generated by the proposed use can be safely
accommodated on existing or planned street systems ;
g. Adequate measures have been taken or proposed to prevent
I
or control offensive odor, fumes , dust , noise , vibration , or
lighting t.hich would otherwise disturb the use of neighherir.g
property; and
h. The applicant for the conditional use will agree to c.:;11
limitations or conditions as may be deemed appropriate t.., !.e
approving body, including, but not limited to, such matters
as location, construction, maintenance, landscaping, o}'eratir-'
and duration. Id.
In plaintiff' s case, however, the commission determined that the I
situation did not warrant a permit.
Plaintiff appealed the commission's decision to the City' s Zoning
Board of Appeals, who reversed and granted the permit. A City resident I
appealed the Board' s decision to the Common Council. The Common
Council sided with the zoning commission and denied the permit, stating '
that plaintiff failed to satisfy factors a, b, c, d, and e, of R. Z.O.
61 . 301. SEE Plaintiff's exhibit #31.
As a result of the Common Council ' s decision, the purchase
agreement between plaintiff and Superamerica :issolved. Plaintiff was
able to sell the land to another buyer, but at a lower price. Less
than six months after denying plaintiff' s CUP, the defendant granted a
CUP for the subsequent buyer' s proposed gas station and convenience
store.
In its initial complaint, plaintiff alleged seven causes of
action. Not all of these claims were litigated. The claims remaining '
at trial were: 1) claims under 42 U. S.C. <1983 alleging violations of
plaintiff's substantive and procedural due process , and equal '
protection rights; 2) a claim for tortious interference with contract;
and, 3) a claim for attorney' s fee, pursuant to 42 U. S.C. <1988.
ANALYSIS
2 1
11
A. 42 U. S.C. <1983 CLAIMS
In order to state a claim under 42 U S. 0 < ]081 a plaintiff r !:st
show the existence of a federally protected property interest . 51,01_
' v. City of College Station, 754 F. 2d 1251 , 1256 ( 5th Cir. 185)( c :: (r,g
Bishop v. Wood, 426 U. S. 341 , 343 ( 1Q761 ) Thus , the threchoid
issue is whether plaintiff' s interest in obtaining a conditional use
permit constitutes a federally protected property right .
A federally protected interest may arise from a state law which
' supports certain benefits and claims of entitlement to those benefits.
Midway Manor Conval . & Nursing Home v. Adcock, 386 N.W. 2d 782, 785
(Minn. Ct. App. 1986)(quoting Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U. S. 564,
577 ( 1972)) . An interest in a benefit constitutes a federally
IIprotected property interest when the state law establishes "statutory
or regulatory measures that impose substantive limitations on the
exercise of official discretion. " Craft v. Wi:lf, 836 F. 2d 412, 417
' (8th Cir. 1987) . The burden is on the plaintiff to show that the
state, or in this case the city, "has developed particularized
standards or criteria which guide the state decisions maker. " Id.
(citing Littlefield v. City of Afton, 785 F. 2d 596, 600-602) .
Most of the cases using the above standard involved statutes or
ordinances which clearly stated the level of discretion left to the
agency. For example, the statute at issue in Craft gave the South
' Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission broad discretion to grant cabin
' permits. The only limit the statute placed on the Commission's
discretion was that the decision serve the needs of the public. Id.
' Because of this broad discretion, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
3
held that the plaintiffs did not have a protectible property interest
in the issuance of a cabin permit..
Discretion left to an agency negated a protectible property '.'.
Jacobson v. Hanniflin, as well . 627 F. 2d 177 (r)th Cir, lcSt` ) At ,
issue in Jacobson was whether the plaintiff had a protectible
property interest in a casino license. The relevant statute gave the
"Gaming Commission ' full and absolute power and authority to deny any
application for any cause deemed reasonable' . " Id. at l80 (quoting
Nev. Rev. Stat. <463. 220(6) ) . The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held 1
that this language negated the plaintiff' s claim to a protectible
interest. Id.
In contrast to the above cases, the courts find a protectible
property interest when the relevant statutes, ordinances, or state law,
mandate that the agency grant the benefit when all the statutory 1
conditions are met. In Parks v. Watson, the '.inth Circuit found that
the plaintiff had a protectible property interest in a street vacation. ,
716 F. 2d 646 (9th Cir. 1983) . The Court based its decision on the fact
that the statute mandated that the governing body vacate the streets
when the statutory factors were satisfied. Id. at 657.
Similarly, in Littlefield the Eighth Circuit held that the
plaintiff had a protectible property interest in a building permit. 785
F. 2d at 596. The Court interpreted Minnesota law and the ordinance to
require that an agency grant a building permit when an applicant
complied with the ordinance. Id. at 652.
The Fifth Circuit also looked to state law and found a protectible
interest in Shelton. At issue in the case was whether the '
plaintiffs' interest in a w ing variance constituted a protectible
4 11
i
interest for the purpose of their 42 U. S C. 1U83 claim. The Fifth
ICircuit analyzed the state' s case law, which provided a remedy f-,r
arbitrary and unreasonable zoning actions . Shelton_v Cit•: -f Cc '. :,, "
Station, 754 F. 2d at 1256. Based upon this cash law, the Court f(•u;,d
a protectible interest stating,
Texas law recognizes that the right of the owner of
a property interest to use his property for a lawful
purpose cannot be arbitrarily and discriminatorily re-
stricted by governmental zoning action. This right,
judicially enforceable under state law, is, in our view,
sufficiently a property right - a "legitimate claim of
11 entitlement. " Id. (citation omitted) .
The language of R. Z. O. <61 . 301 is different from the statutes and
ordinances in the above cases. Unlike the statutes and ordinances in
I . Craft or Jacobson, R. Z.O. 61 . 301 does not expressly leave broad
discretion to the City. Unlike the statutes and ordinances in
Littlefield and Parks, the ordinance here does not expressly
mandate that the city grant a CUP when the ei ht enumerated conditions
.I are satisfied. Rather, R. Z.O. 61 . 301 states that the Commission shall
Inot grant the CUP unless the eight conditions are satisfied. While
this language does leave some room for discretion on the City's part,
the existence of this discretion does not automatically negate the
finding of a protectible interest.
In Parks v. Watson the Ninth Circuit found a protectible
property interest, despite the fact that the relevant statute left some
discretion to the agency. The statute required that the commission
consider three factors when ruling on a street vacation permit . Parks
v. Watson, 716 F. 2d at 657. One of the three factors was "whether the
public interest will be prejudiced by the vacation. " Id. at 657
(citation omitted) . Acknowledging that the statute left room for
I 5
me
discretion, the Court nonetheless held that "the statutory srhrme
placed significant substantive restrictions on the agency' s ac t. if
as to confer due process rights . " ld. While the plain lai ;tic f
R. Z.O. 61 . 301 does leave some discretion to the City, the findingc the '
City must make before granting a CUP place A significant limitation on
the exercise of that discretion
On the facts of this case, the limitations the ordinance places on
the City' s discretion, standing alone, may not he sufficient to
establish a protectible property interest. There is , however, another ,
consideration. This case is similar to Shelton, which the Eighth
Circuit has cited with approval . Littlefield v. City of Afton, 785 ,
F. 2d at 601. Like Texas , Minnesota recognizes a remedy for property
owners aggrieved by arbitrary and unreasonable zoning decisions . See
Zylka v. City of Crystal, 283 Minn. 192, 167 N.W. 2d 45 ( 1969) . Thus, 1
the reasoning the Fifth Circuit applied in SL'lton applies here, and
a state right to be free from an arbitrary and unreasonable zoning I
action rises to the level of a protected property interest.
R. Z.O. <61. 301 has imposed limitations on the City' s discretion in
granting CUPs . The City cannot grant a CUP unless it makes eight '
specific findings. The Court finds that this limitation on discretion,
when coupled with case law prohibiting arbitrary and unreasonable '
zoning decisions, raises the plaintiff' s interest in the CUP to a
protectible property interest.
1 . Procedural Due Process ,
A person is entitled to procedural due process when a state's
action may deprive her of a protectible property interest. Midway ,
Manor Conval . & Nursing Home v. Adcock, 386 N.W. 2d at 785 (citing
6 ,
'I
' Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U. S. 564 , 576-577( 1972) ) . Mith regards
to all application for a CUP, due process requires reasnnnt le nv,t iLe anal
a reasonable opportunity to he heard. Nletsclita v. LeSueurCnunty
' Board of Commissioners, 277 N.W. 2d 404, 405 ('1inn. 14-4t . This trot ice
and opportunity to be heard must he afforded before the deprivation
of the protected interest. Bell v. Burson, 402 U. S. 535 , 542 ( 1971 )
(citations omitted) .
The Common Council voted to deny the plaintiff's permit
application on January 21, 1486. See Plaintiff' s Exhibit 30. At a
subsequent meeting on February 3, 1986, the Common Council voted to
adopt Resolution No. 90-86, which contained the reasoning for the
denial of plaintiff' s permit application. See Plaintiff' s Exhibit
31. Plaintiff' s were given notice and an opportunity to be heard at
all Common Council proceedings regarding their application, except for
the February 3, 1986, meeting. According to plaintiff, the failure to
notify them of the February 3, meeting constituted a violation of due
process. The Court, however, disagrees with plaintiff. As stated
above, procedural due process rights should he afforded before the
' deprivation of a protected interest. The Common Council voted to deny
plaintiff's application at the January 21, meeting; plaintiff' s had
been given notice of this meeting, and were present at the meeting.
The fact that the defendant did not receive notice of the February 3,
' meeting appears irrelevant because plaintiff had already been deprived
of its protected interest. Titus, plaintiff' s procedural due process
' rights were not violated.
' Even if the Common Council had violated plaintiff' s procedural due
process rights, the violation would not have been a basis for rewarding
me --
the requested damages . In order to receive compensatory damages in a
42 U. S.C. 'l983 procedural due process claim, the plaintiff mist '.i:• c.
that the violation was the cause of the injury Graham v. Bai: 3:• ,
772 F. 2d 441 , 446 ( 8th Cir. 1485) . Plaintiff , however, did me prn,hVP
evidence suggesting that its presence at the February 3, meeting woul,i
have changed the Common Council ' s decision. The decision had already '
been made, and plaintiff had notice of the decision.
Although plaintiff's procedural due process rights were not
violated, defendant did engage in a procedural snafu. Minnesota
requires that a body denying a CUP must contemporaneously record the
basis and reasons for the denial. Metro 500, Inc. v. City of Brooklyn ,
Park, 297 Minn. 294 , 211 N.l,' 2d 358, 362 ( 1973) . Failure to do so is
prima facie evidence of an arbitrary decision. Id. at 363. In the
case at hand, defendant issued itsreasons for denying the permit almost
two weeks after voting to deny it. To avoid problems in the future,
the defendant must follow the rule set out by the Minnesota Supreme ,
Court in Metro 500.
2. Substantive Due Process
Plaintiff next claims that the Defendant' s denial of its CUP
applications was arbitrary and irrational , and therefore violated its
substantive due process rights. Substantive due process rights '
guarantee the right of a property owner to be free from arbitrary or
irrational zoning decisions. Littlefield v. City of Afton, 785 F.2d ,
at 607; Hope Baptist Church v. City of Belefontaine Neighbors, 655 F.
Supp. 1216, 1218 (E. D. Mo. 1987) .
Despite the Littlefield decision in which the Eighth Circuit '
recognized a substantive due process claim for the denial of a zoning
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permit , the defendant questions the propriety of such a claim
' Defendant bases his argument. on Lemke v Cass County Nobras.PS , h..F
F. 2d 469 (8th Cir. 1987) . The concurring opinion in Lenl c gai.ct ; •ne'l
' the propriety of recognizing a substantive due process clnHm arising
from the denial of a zoning permit . Nevertheless , the per calriam
opinion stated that " Iw-hether a substantive due process claim may
arise from a denial of a zoning permit is an open question in this
' circuit. " Id. at 470. Regardless of Lemke, Littlefield is still
' good law. Thus, the Court does not find defendant' s arguments
persuasive. Relying on Littlefield and Minnesota law the Court
recognizes plaintiff' s substantive due process claim. Therefore, the
Court must determine whether the defendant' s zoning decision was
IIarbitrary or irrational .
A city' s zoning decision will be deemed arbitrary and irrational
if it is not legally sufficient and supporter with a factual basis.
Chase v. City of Minneapolis, 401 N.W. 2d 408, 412 (Minn. Ct. App.
1987) . Here, the defendant denied plaintiff' s CUP application because
' of concerns regarding alleged traffic and safety violations,
' compatibility with the underlying zoning district, and, concerns
relating to fumes and noise. See Plaintiff' s Exhibit 31. The
evidence in the record supporting the defendant ' s concerns came from
two primary sources : a neighborhood opposition group; and, Roy Larson,
a district engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
' The plaintiff' s CUP application met with strong neighborhood
opposition. Residents surrounding the property formed a group called
the 37th Street Neighbors ' Association. Members from this group wrote
letters to, and testified before the defendant at the proceedings
9
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concerning plaintiff ' s application. The gioup evprecsc.d concern that II
the proposed use would result in increased traffic, raise safety
II
concerns, decrease their property values , and was not consistef:t h
the underlying zoning classification. See P'laintiff ' s Exhibit I
Unfortunately for the defendant, neighborhood opposition is not a
legally sufficient reason to deny a permit request . Scott County II
Lumber v. City of Shakopee, 417 N.W. 2d 721 (Minn. Ct . App. 1988) .
II
Thus , the defendant could not base its decision on the concerns
expressed by the 37th Street Neighbors ' Association. I
Aside from the Neighbors' Association, the only other evidence
supporting the Common Council' s findings was a letter from Roy Larson. I
The opinion of someone of Mr. Larson' s^position would normally be a II
sufficient basis upon which to base a zoning decision. Here, however,
the situation is similar to that in Scott County Lumber. In that
II
case, the city of Shakopee denied a CUP, base-. partially on the
testimony of an expert. Id. at 726. The Court of Appeals reversed I
the City' s decision, and discounted the credibility of the City' s
expert. The Court of Appeals pointed to the facts that the expert had II
"made but a cursory examination of all the reports, test results ,
II
proposals and recommendations ," was not aware of conditions imposed by
the city, and was not aware of the "applicants proposals to meet those I
conditions." Id. at 728. In addition, the Court of Appeals indicated
that the expert had clients whose interests competed with the I
applicants. Id.
II
Like the expert in Scott County Lumber, Mr. Larson was not
sufficiently familiar with the case. Larson admitted that his agency I
"had no direct involvement" with the property in question. Larson also
II
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had a direct interest in the case as he was a member of the 37th Street
Neighbors ' Association, and n property owner in the affected area . In
fact , Larson signed one of the petitions opposing the plaintiff ' s
Based on the above, the Court finds that the evidence the
defendant relied upon to deny plaintiff' s CUP was legally
' insufficient. Therefore, the defendant 's decision denying plaintiff' s
CUP application was arbitrary and irrational, violating plaintiff' s
right to substantive due process. Aside from legal insufficiency of
the evidence, the Court ' s decision is swayed by another factor. Less
than six months after denying plaintiff' s CUP application, the
' defendant approved a CUP application for an expanded use on the same
property. Plaintiff had proposed only a gas station/convenience store
' for the property. After plaintiff sold the property, the next owner
was allowed to build, not only a gas station/convenience store on the
site, but a shopping center as well. The gra Ling of this CUP less
than six months after denying plaintiff' s application strikes the Court
as almost prima facie evidence of an arbitrary and irrational zoning
' decision.
3. Equal Protection
Plaintiff also argues that the defendant violated its equal
' protection rights. This violation allegedly occurred when the
defendant granted a CUP for a similar use on the same property less
than six months after it denied plaintiff' s application.
' Equal protection requires the law to treat alike those who are
similarly situated. In Re Platter of Harhut, 385 N.W. 2d 305, 310
' (Minn. 1986)(citing Plyler v. Doe, 457 U. S. 202, 216 (1982) ; Price
v. Amdal , 256 N.W. 2d 461 , 468 (Minn. 1977) ) . In order to find an
11
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equal protection violation, a court must make a finding that the
persons treated disparately are in fact similarly situated. Starry_ ,
Lutsen Resort , Inc , 310 N.W. 2d 495 (Minn. 19R1 ) . Even if the Tar: :,
are similarly situated , the "unequal application of the statute bv I
state officers is not a denial of equal protection unless the
challenging party shows by a clear preponderance of the evidence the
there was intentional or purposeful discrimination. " State by liumphry i
v. RI -MEL, Inc. , 417 N.W. 2d 102, 107-108 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987) .
• In this case, the plaintiff and the subsequent buyer, Urban ,
Associates most likely were similarly situated. The Court, however,
need not reach this issue because plaintiff has presented no evidence
of intentional or purposeful discrimination. While the defendant' s
decision was arbitrary, this does not mean the disparate treatment was
intentional or purposeful . Therefore, plaintiff' s equal protection '
claim must fail.
1
B. TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACT
In addition to the 42 U. S.C. <l983 claims, plaintiff also brought
a claim alleging that the defendant tortiously interfered with '
plaintiff' s contract with Superamerica. Municipalities , such as
defendant , normally have immunity from this type of tort. Minn. Stat. '
<466. 03 ( 1988) . This immunity falls into the category of affirmative
defenses, which are defined as those defenses which bar the claimant' s
recovery, but do not relate to the validity of the claim. 1 D. Herr 6 ,
R. liaydock,Minnesota Practice <8. 5 ( 1985) . The rules of procedure
require that defendants must specifically plead affirmative defenses.
1
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Minn. R. Civ. P. 8. 03. Failure to do so results in waiver of the
' defense. 1 D. Herr. E R. Haydock, Minnesota Practice <8. 5 ( 1085)
Defendant argues that it was not required to plead imm ui v
because it is not one of the affirmative defenses listed in rule 8 1.
this argument is without merit. The plain language of the rule clearly
' indicates that the list of affirmative defenses is not intended to he
' exclusive. The rule states that a defendant must plead specifically,
I'
not only the defenses listed, but "any other matter constituting an
avoidance or affirmative defense. " Minn. R. Civ. P. 8. 03. Here,
defendant waived the defense of immunity by failing to plead the
defense. Therefore, defendant may be liable for tortious interference
II with contract.
To succeed on the tortious interference with contract claim the
' plaintiff must show:
1. The existence of a contract;
2. The defendant's knowledge of the contract;
3. Breach of that contract;
4. Damages.,- and,
5. Lack of justification for the interference. Furlev v.
Sales & Associates , Inc. , 325 N.W.2d 20 (Minn. 1982) . These
' elements are the same regardless of whether a party is bringing suit
for inducing the breach of a contract, or for interference with
' contract. Aslakson v. Home Say. Assn, 416 N.W. 2d 786, 788 (Minn. Ct.
' App. 1987) .
The contract allegedly interfered with was for the purchase of
' property. The contract, however, was contingent upon a variety of
occurrences, including the parties obtaining a conditional use permit
' from the defendant. See Plaintiff's Exhibit 5. When a contract is
conditioned on third-party approval, a breach of that contract cannot
' 13
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occur. Id. at 789. "If the event required by the condition do( s not
occur, there can be no breach of contract , since the contract is
unenforceable. " Id. (citation omitted) . Based upon this ;a; g : i;,
from Aslakson, it will he impossible for the plaintiff to shot. 'try I
of contract, because the contract was contingent upon the defendant ' s
approval . Therefore, the plaintiff' s tortious interference with '
contract claim fails.
C. DAMAGES
Although plaintiff succeeded on only one of its claims , the
requested damages are justified. In a civil rights action, actual ,
compensable injury "means physical injury, monetary expenses, lost
earnings, impairment of reputation, personal humiliation, or mental
anguish. " Mpls . Police Dept. v. Mpls. Civ. Rights Comm, 402 N.W. 2d '
125, 132 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987)(citing Memphis Community School
District v. Stachura, U. S.—, 106 S.Ct. 253- , 2543 (1986)) .
Plaintiff has shown that the violation of its substantive due process
rights resulted in plaintiff incurring monetary expenses, and suffering
loss of earnings . The Court may award these damages, provided they are
not too speculative or conjectural . Henning Nelson Construction, Co.
v. Fireman' s Fund, 383 N.W. 2d 645, 653 (Minn. 1986) . '
If the contract between plaintiff and Superamerica had proceeded,
Superamerica would have bought the property for $350,000. See
Plaintiff' s Exhibit 55. Due to defendant' s actions, this sale did not
occur. The plaintiff did sell the property at a later date, but only
received $312,500. Taking into account closing costs, plaintiff' s lost
$46, 782 on the sale. In addition, plaintiff claims it lost $9,540 in
14 ,
interest and lost opportunity because defendant thwarted the sale to
Superamerica. Supposedly, plaintiff a wild have earned this amount lnd
it invested the money from the sale to Superamerica. Bit , r'iHint , f(
may not have invested the money. Perhaps plaintiff could ha‘o usni it
' to pay off hills . Perhaps plaintiff would have invested the money, but
' not received the projected 10. 5% interest rate. There are too many
"ifs" concerning this interest and lost opportunity. Therefore, the
' Court views the $9,540 as speculative, and will not award it to
plaintiff.
' After defendant denied plaintiff's CUP permit, plaintiff had to
' hold the property until resale, and incurred substantial holding costs.
These costs amounted to $18,299.33 and included taxes, refinancing
' expenses, interest on bank notes, and maintenance expenses.
Based on the above, plaintiff is entitled to $65,081. 33 in damages
from the defendant.
D. 42 U. S.C. <1983 ATTORNEY FEES
The plaintiff has also brought a claim for attorney fees pursuant
to 42 U. S.C. <1988. This provision provides that the prevailing action
' in a <1983 may be awarded attorney fees . Attorney fees are available
' when a party prevails "on a constitutional claim by demonstrating a
threatened deprivation of federal rights." L.K. v. Gregg, 425 N.W. 2d
' 813, 818 (Minn. 1988) .
Although plaintiff did not prevail on all of its constitutional
' claims, it did demonstrate that defendant violated its substantive due
process rights. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to attorney fees.
15
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CONCLUSION I
Plaintiff did prove that defendant violated its substa;,. :t•e
process rights by arbitrarily and irrationally denying its ^"
application. This violation is sufficient to entitle plaintiff t � I
requested damages, and attorney fees pursuant to 42 U. S.C. c "9FF .
utg
Dated this '�i day of 'larch, 1964.
BY Tll COURT:
1•
■
lion. Harold G. Krieger 1 ,
District Court Judge
1
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1
36 1
1 �,
CITY OF
CHANHASSEN
690 COULTER DRIVE • P.O. BOX 147 • CHANHASSEN, MINNESOTA 55317
' (612) 937-1900
1 MEMORANDUM
TO: Don Ashworth, City Manager
FROM: Stephen Hanson, Planning Directo
' DATE: April 20, 1989
SUBJ: Eckankar
i
Mayor Chmiel contacted me this morning regarding the Eckankar
1 property on the following matters.
EAW Process
1 I advised the Mayor that the project does not require EAW review,
however, because the applicant voluntarily submitted an EAW,
Roger Knutson has adviesd me that the City Council could submit
1 the EAW to the EQB Monitor for publication and a 30 day comment
period.
1 Barrels on the Site
The Mayor requested that I research the barrels that were on the
site previously and identify the materials, locations, and
1 methods of disposal. The Mayor mentioned there is a barrel
on the property now. I had not found a barrel on the property
in my visits to the site previously. Scott Harr and myself drove
' the property today ( 4-20-89) specifically to look for barrels or
other possible hazardous material. We found two ( 2 ) barrels on
the property. The one container was very weathered and rusted
with scrap metal in the bottom. The barrel is standing upright
1 with no top. The other container was found near what appears to
have been a horse training area. This barrel was partially
crushed, had no lid and has been painted, similar to barrels used
1 in horse training arenas .
At this time I have not contacted PCA to ask them to come out
1 and evaluate these barrels or to look for others . If you or the
Mayor feel this should be done, I can contact the PCA Hotline
( 296-7789) .
1
1
Mr. Don Ashworth
April 20 , 1989
Page 2
Regarding other barrels on the site that have been removed, I
have talked with PCA and am trying to follow-up on what was
removed and where it went. Peter Beck previously informed me
that prior to Eckankar ' s purchase, the owner (First National Bank
of St. Paul) had the property investigated for hazardous
materials. As a result, they had several barrels removed from
the property and subsequently disposed of them in an approved
disposal site in Illinois. I talked with Peter Beck this after-
noon and requested information on the materials that were _
removed. He agreed to find the information and provide us copies
for review.
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