CC 2014 05 27
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to
the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman
Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ernst, and Councilman Laufenburger
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman and Roger Knutson
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everybody here in the council chambers as well as those
watching at home tonight. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would like to add
one item to our agenda under new business and that would be to consider appointments to the Planning
Commission. We’ll bring that up as item number 4. Are there any other changes or modifications from
members of the council with regard to the agenda? If not without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda
as published.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Furlong: Tonight we have the honor to welcome in and swear in our new Fire Chief Don Johnson
so I’m going to invite Mr. Johnson and his wife Renee to join us up front. Todd if you’ll join me down
there as well. Don’s going to be our first full time Fire Chief in the city of Chanhassen so we thought
we’d honor that with a swearing in. Ceremony of swearing in and then a badge ceremony as well so,
raise your right hand.
Mayor Furlong swore in Don Johnson as the first full time Fire Chief for the City of Chanhassen.
His wife, Renee Johnson pinned the badge on Fire Chief Don Johnson.
Todd Gerhardt: Renee, a gift from the City. There are going to be nights still where he’s not going to be
there and we appreciate your support. And you want to introduce your family here? Your son and
daughter.
Chief Don Johnson: This is my son Shawn. A college student at NDSU Fargo. My daughter Emily is
still in high school in Farmington.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Welcome. Thank you very much.
Todd Gerhardt: Do we have any other guests here maybe from Lakeville? If any of the Lakeville Fire
Department would stand I would appreciate it.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent, thank you for coming.
Todd Gerhardt: I don’t know why they’re all smiling. Thank you for teaching Don everything so he had
a great time today. You want to explain how you put out a fire today, or attempted to try to put out a fire?
Chief Don Johnson: Yes, I did actually make it to my first fire as Chief. It was a trash can fire at the end
of a road and I was not able to put it out by myself. I did put myself in for some remedial fire
extinguisher training…
Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: At least he found Creekwood with all the detours. I think you have two different sets of
detour routes.
Chief Don Johnson: Ed was very nice even though I didn’t have the fire out, he was very easy on me.
Mayor Furlong: Any other thoughts or comments?
Chief Don Johnson: Yes. This is a great opportunity. The fire service as a whole is a pretty family
oriented environment and to see my extended family and my new family, it’s been wonderful that the City
of Chanhassen is a great city. The fire department’s a great fire department. As welcoming as City
management has been, as welcoming as my new fire department has been, it’s a great time for me to look
at a group of professional men and women who are dedicated to the City in just the 2 weeks I’ve…so
we’re highly trained. Very dedicated towards professional service and I look very forward to being a part
of this family.
Mayor Furlong: Welcome.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you. Thank you for this honor.
Mayor Furlong: We have some cake.
Todd Gerhardt: We have cake.
Mayor Furlong: Yep, so we’re going to take a quick recess from the council meeting.
(The City Council meeting was recessed for a short time to distribute cake.)
Mayor Furlong: We’ll call the meeting back to order and let’s move on with the next items on our
agenda.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve
the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations:
1. Approval of City Council Minutes dated May 12, 2014.
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated May 6, 2014.
3. Approve Amendment to City Code Concerning Solicitor and Peddler Licenses.
4. Approval of Resolutions Revoking Conditional Use Permits Issued by the City:
Resolution #2014-33:
a. #2003-08, 8170 Mallory Court
Resolution #2014-34:
b. #1997-05, 1905 Stoughton Avenue
Resolution #2014-35:
c. #1984-20, 7300 Galpin Boulevard
5. Deleted.
Resolution #2014-36:
6. Approve Resolution Accepting $500 Donation from KleinBank
Chanhassen for the Senior Center Life-Long Learning Program.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
7. Next Steps Learning Center: Approval of Site Plan Review for a 3,000 square foot building
expansion, 1430 Park Court, Lot 1, Block 2, Rome Park; Applicant: Jeremy Spaude.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
None.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening Sergeant.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Good evening Mr. Mayor, City Council. I’m Sergeant Walling, the TZD
Coordinator for the sheriff’s office. Just wanted to let the community know the sheriff’s office has been
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beginning on May 19, we’ve been participating in the statewide mobilization with over 400 other law
enforcement agencies in the state for the May Click It or Ticket seatbelt mobilization. That enforcement
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effort runs through June 1, upcoming this Sunday. If you weren’t aware Minnesota has a primary
seatbelt law that requires all occupants of a vehicle to be buckled up. Front seat passengers. Back seat
passengers and then law enforcement can issue a citation to anyone who isn’t buckled. Some statistics in
the last 5 years on Minnesota roads, that being 2009 through 2013 there were 1,423 motor vehicle
occupant deaths out of which 587 were not buckled. In Carver County during this 5 year period 8 of
those motorists were unbelted. Some pre-enforcement efforts that we do at the sheriff’s office. We do
pre-enforcement surveys prior to the enforcement wave at one of those locations. At Highway 212 and
Powers Boulevard. Survey indicates that roughly 95% of motorists in Chanhassen are wearing their
seatbelt. A post enforcement survey after the enforcement wave last year conducted on June 6, 2013
showed that motorists at this same intersection were at 92% use so efforts to increase seatbelt use are
having their effect. The Click It or Ticket seatbelt mobilization and education and seatbelt enforcement
education is a component of the State’s towards zero death program. Primary vision of the TZD program
is to create a safe driving culture in Minnesota in which motorists support a goal of zero road fatalities by
practicing and promoting safe driving behavior. Again the message to our citizenry when we make stops
for seatbelts is buckle up. We value your life. That’s what I have. Do you have any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for Sergeant Walling?
Councilman Laufenburger: I have one.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Sergeant, you can help educate me and others that are watching at home.
There was a time in maybe a few years ago I thought that getting stopped for not having your seatbelt
buckled was not the only offense. If you were stopped for some other reason and they caught you with
your buckle unbuckled they could ticket you for that. Is that still true today? Or first of all, was that true
at one time Sergeant?
Sgt. Mike Walling: It was true prior to, I want to believe 2008 or 2010. That you needed, that the
seatbelt law wasn’t a primary offense.
Councilman Laufenburger: So you called it a primary offense which means that you can be stopped if the
only thing you’re doing wrong is driving without visibly noticeable buckle, is that correct?
Sgt. Mike Walling: Correct. Legislation passed within the last few years made the not wearing your
seatbelt a primary violation which you can be stopped for and cited.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Councilman Laufenburger: So all those people that think that they can only be stopped if they don’t have
their buckle, if they’re stopped for a broken light or something like that, that’s not true. Primary law
means if you’re not buckled you can be stopped.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Correct. Primary means it’s a primary violation. If you’re seeing any occupant. It
could be a passenger. The driver could be wearing their seatbelt and the passenger could be unbelted and
we could conduct a traffic stop and issue a citation to that occupant for not wearing their seatbelt.
Councilman Laufenburger: Alright. Thank you for that clarification Sergeant.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Mayor, question.
Mayor Furlong: Yes Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Just to that end I’m wondering, and I don’t want to let your secrets out but how
can you really tell if a person has their seatbelt on or not?
Sgt. Mike Walling: Generally, you know daytime efforts increase. It’s easier to spot. Night time belts
are a little bit more difficult but generally it’s readily apparent. There’s some different things that we
look for. You know depending on what type of clothing they’re wearing, you know you can tell if there’s
a differentiation of the belt coming across the shoulder. It’s a giveaway too if you can just see the silver
buckle right up above the left shoulder so.
Councilman Laufenburger: Oh that’s the secret.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Yeah so, but.
Councilwoman Ernst: But if the buckle’s behind the window you may not be able to see it.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Yeah correct. Correct but roughly I mean we’re approaching 95% as far as a, of
where we’re at for pre-enforcement surveys for what we did this year for 2014 for those numbers so it’s
showing the vast majority of motorists in Carver County are wearing their seatbelts so.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: And if I saw it correctly the numbers dropped a little bit post but that could just be the
margin of error in terms of.
Sgt. Mike Walling: It certainly could be. That was the 92% was from a post-enforcement survey done
after the enforcement wave for last year.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Sgt. Mike Walling: And a pre-enforcement survey done this year was at 95% so between June of last
year and May of this year that percentage has increased.
Mayor Furlong: Is a slight increase, okay.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Slight increase, yep.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: So it’s going in the right direction yet it could be a margin of error but it’s going in the
right direction.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Yes Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Okay perfect. Okay, thanks for clarifying that. Any other questions for the Sergeant this
evening? Very good, thank you.
Sgt. Mike Walling: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Appreciate your report. Chief Johnson is here with the Chanhassen Fire Department.
Good evening Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Mayor, council. Don Johnson, Fire Chief of the City of Chanhassen. Updates for
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the month of April. We’re working on an orientation evening we held on April 29 for potentially new fir
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fighters. On May 6 we did a physical agility which included some very physical things for those folks
that wanted to be on the fire department to do including climbing our ladder so it was an interesting
evening by all. Everyone passed the physical agility exam. We’re planning on moving forward with
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interviews for June 17 or 18. We’re picking one of those days to finish out the interviews and then
we’ll work with staff and council figuring on what we’re going to do for hiring right now. Currently
we’re sitting at about 45 total fire fighters with, we’ve got 4 on leave and we’ve got 4 that are brand new
on probation that we hope to be passing here soon in the month of July. Calls for the year, we’re sitting
at about 219 calls at the end of April compared to about 183 from last year. We have had a slight up tick
in calls. Our hours are sitting about 870 hours compared to 690. 689 hours for staff time which was
explained a little bit by Chief Wallis last year and some of the standby crews that we were doing for storm
related issues. We’ve had some staff hours that are attributed to that. Our training hours are actually
down. 627 for this year so far with 2,066 in 2013 and comparably so we’ve got, we ramped up a lot of
training last year with the command. Staff in command stuff that we were doing and this year that’s
starting to level off for us. We finished off with this month with our officer training and doing right front
seat training which built on the staff and command training that we did for our chief officers last year and
prepares them for on scene command and staff command for these unseen officers when they arrive in the
fire trucks. We have chief officer duties and then we have fire officer duties while they’re in doing the
emergency stuff so that’s what we finished with this month. For the compliance issues we’ve got ladder
testing that was actually just completed. It took our ladder out of service for about a week. We had some
hydraulic lines that needed to be replaced. It was timely because we were already sending it out for a seat
replacement so we do have that ladder back and back in service now. On the fire prevention tone we are
working with, we set up a meeting in June with the managers from our apartment complexes in the city to
review severe weather, fire and security issues so Beth with our Crime Prevention and Mark and I with,
the Fire Marshal and I will work with the apartment complexes and the managers to talk a little bit about
emergency response there and we’re also planning on bringing our kitchen fire simulator to that. We’ve
had some pretty good, pretty good response to that so. There are no updates for the fire that we had back,
the fatality fire yet that I can give you and that’s where we’re sitting right now with the fire report.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Chief Johnson? Thank you. Again welcome.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Move on now with the next items on our agenda.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
ND
BLACK WALNUT ACRES 2 ADDITION; 6260 CHASKA ROAD, OUTLOT A, BLACK
WALNUT ACRES; FAZEL AND SARIKA HARIS: APPROVE RESOLUTION APPROVING
PRELIMINARY AND FINAL PLAT WITH VARIANCES TO SUBDIVIDE 2.4 ACRES INTO
ONE LOT ZONED SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the council. This item appeared before the Planning
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Commission on May 6 and they did recommend approval of the subdivision, or the replat. The
property’s located on 6260 Chaska Road. A portion of this property does go into Shorewood which I’ll
go into a little bit more detail in a minute. Gets access again off of Chaska Road and the property itself is,
was originally 3.27 acres and a home was built on this property and this was put into an outlot. So the
property that’s in Shorewood, when this came in in 1966 when the house was built Shorewood put a
condition on there that the city should provide access to this property and one of the concerns we had with
people looking at that is, there’s some wetlands. Significant trees in the area. Whether or not that would
be prudent to build a house back there or how that would work out so the applicants have talked to
Shorewood. Have offered to donate to Shorewood. If not then we would put a conservation easement on
that property so, because really you wouldn’t want to put an access coming off the, on the slip on lane
onto Highway 7. It’s not good access and it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to come through this
property so the, again the family that’s going to be building on that was patient when we tried to resolve
all of these issues. Working with Shorewood to make sure we’re not land locking a piece of property
which is not good planning. So this is what it looks like right now. The existing home on Lot 1, Block 1
and the outlot is what’s being platted tonight and that’s the 2.4 remnant acre so this is actually a replat. In
the original report that went to the Planning Commission we looked at extracting park and trail fees.
Because it’s a replat we can’t do that so it was modified for your staff report. So the zoning and the land
use.
Mayor Furlong: And I’m sorry Ms. Aanenson, if I can interrupt. When you say replat, the most recent
platting of this property called it an outlot.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And now it’s going to be.
Kate Aanenson: A lot that’s.
Mayor Furlong: Of record.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah so you would have taken the fee at the time with the outlot.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So we’re looking at our ordinances when we do that. We did a few of those back, we
had areas of 1 per 10 where we looked at providing that so we’ll look at our ordinance right now. We
didn’t provide for that when we did, we haven’t done that many of them recently but there are some that
are sitting out there.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Kate Aanenson: Going forward if we were to do anymore of those. The land use and the zoning is for
low density and that’s what this house would come in at. Meeting the requirements of the low density. If
you recall there was a subdivision of the lots just immediately to the west of this. There’s one existing
house that got replatted but the applicants are looking at just putting one home on there. It’s pretty hilly.
There’s some wetlands there so trying to get a driveway back in through here. Try to get another lot it’s
you know you’re, and as you look at that slip on lane, saving those trees provides for noise attenuation. A
better buffer so they found a house that works on there for them with good access and the other thing I
wanted to point out is this neighbor did show up to the Planning Commission. Had some concerns about
tree removal so this is the only area that’s being disturbed in that this is kind of the limits of the grading
of that site so the home that sits back here then, they would still be preserved by the existing trees and
there is no preservation or conservation on this area because of what’s being preserved it provides the
stormwater extraction so that, because they’re not really disturbing very much at all so the proportionality
is related to how much is being disturbed. Just to make sure that we’re being consistent on how we apply
those applications.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
Kate Aanenson: So with that we are recommending approval. I did hand out for you. We are, because
there’s no public improvements or development contract, there is a resolution that needs to be approved
with this so that was handed out to you. It was noted. We did do a revised staff report. But we are
recommending approval of the preliminary and final plat to create this lot and then adoption, and Findings
of Fact and adoption of the resolution and with that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Just a couple clarifying questions before I open it up to council. The
resolution that you distributed.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Is that consistent with the recommendation within the staff report?
Kate Aanenson: Yes it is.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. And then the item on the agenda that was published indicated variances.
Are there any variances being sought here or is that just for publication?
Kate Aanenson: We’ve learned to notice it with variances because if we discover them later then we have
to republish them so just in case when we’re going through it we do find a variance so.
Mayor Furlong: But at this time have there been any variances found?
Kate Aanenson: No.
Mayor Furlong: There are no variances.
Kate Aanenson: No, there are no variances, that’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Being requested as part of this.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you for the clarification.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Kate Aanenson: I guess we were looking at that if we couldn’t resolve the issue with Shorewood
providing access that might have created a variance for having a public/private drive.
Mayor Furlong: And that makes a lot of sense for efficiency standpoint but I just wanted to confirm that
there weren’t any because I didn’t see it.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for staff by council? Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Kate can you, when I’m looking at the grading and the drainage, can you talk a
little bit about the water runoff and I’m looking at it in terms of where, how far is it from when it flows to
either side of the house? It looks like there’s some work being done there but I’m just curious to know
what that looks like.
Kate Aanenson: As far as the location here?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yep.
Kate Aanenson: Of this area. Well the minimum would be 10 foot setback. I’m sorry I don’t have the
survey in front of me but it’s at least 10 feet for the minimum.
Councilwoman Ernst: So this is before it flows into the wetland.
Kate Aanenson: Correct, yes. And there’s, there’ll be buffer around that too so. So the Water Resources
Coordinator looked at this and it does meet all the city requirements for ordinances for stormwater
management.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for staff?
Kate Aanenson: I can answer that question more specifically. In the staff report it does state that the new
grading will raise the elevation as much as 8 feet to direct the water either side of the proposed house
before it flows into the wetland so.
Councilwoman Ernst: Right and I was just curious on you know what that distance was on either side of
the house. But I think you already talked about that.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. The applicant or the homeowners are here, they may be able to address that
question. The Haris’s.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other questions for staff? Ms. Aanenson real quick clarification question on
the first condition under Engineering Conditions it talks about, on the resolution it talks about stormwater
management fees, park dedication fees and GIS fees. Is that still an accurate requirement.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. That should be struck, park dedication fees.
Mayor Furlong: Stormwater management fees are still being assessed?
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Kate Aanenson: Let me look at that. No.
Mayor Furlong: So stormwater management fees are not required as part of this replatting?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And then I did notice, I think it was in the staff report that the, under assessments page 7
of the staff report it talks about the assessment for the street project that was completed last year.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: And this says here that at time of final plat this assessment must, plus additional accrued
interest must be paid or reassessed. Should that be included in this engineering condition or is that
somewhere else in this resolution already? And I’m just glancing through it so maybe it’s already in
someplace else.
Todd Gerhardt: We can add it.
Mayor Furlong: Under Engineering Conditions?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. We want to for that as assessments. We’ll incorporate that sentence from page 7
of the staff report.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you for catching that.
Todd Gerhardt: Mr. Mayor, council members?
Mayor Furlong: Yes.
Todd Gerhardt: On page 6 it also references the setbacks so ordinance is 30 feet front and rear. 10 feet
on the sides and it looks like they’re exceeding that with 30 feet on the sides and 25 feet on the buffer.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Are the Haris’s here or?
Fazel Haris: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening. If you’d like to come up if there’s anything you’d like to add to this.
Fazel Haris: Good evening.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening. If you could state your name and address, and we’ll remove the napkins.
Fazel Haris: Fazel Haris. We currently live in a rental townhome.
Sarika Haris: And Sarika Haris and our address is 16893 Saddlewood Trail, Minnetonka, 55345.
Fazel Haris: And our children, Samika and Seona.
Mayor Furlong: They picked a good night to come to the council meeting.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Fazel Haris: Yes they did.
Sarika Haris: The cake.
Mayor Furlong: Or the cake, yeah. We don’t have cake all the time so that’s good. That was good.
Anything you’d like to add or any comments you’d like to make.
Fazel Haris: No, it’s been a pleasure working with the City. We have been, we want to make sure that
we work within all the ordinances and all the legalities around it so we’ve been diligent in getting the
wetland. One question I could address.
Mayor Furlong: Sure.
Fazel Haris: The one about that assessment.
Mayor Furlong: Yes.
Fazel Haris: That was, I think the note was from end of the year. At the time of purchase we did pay that
off.
Mayor Furlong: Oh that was already assessed. Already cleared. Okay.
Fazel Haris: Yeah. And then there was some other drainage conditions. We are working with a surveyor
to make sure we meet all that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Fazel Haris: We have a list of things we’re working on. It should all be ready within a week or so.
Getting close.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Very good. Any questions of Mr. and Mrs. Haris? No. Thank you.
Fazel Haris: Thank you.
Sarika Haris: Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: I also just want to compliment Sharmeen Al-Jaff who worked on this with them and
yeah, I think everybody found a good solution. We had a few problems just trying to get things started
but ended up with a good solution here to get a nice house for this family.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Mr. Laufenburger, question or.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah I do have a question. Kate, can you just talk a little bit about the
intersection between city of Chanhassen and city of Shorewood and managing that conservation
easement. How do we make that happen? Can you just speak to that a little bit please?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, we have a pre-condition, it’s on a site plan agreement and so, and what we asked
is that if Shorewood could use it for stormwater management, which they said they may like, that he
would dedicate and describe that property. Give that to them. Or he could put a conservation easement
on it because we’ve, otherwise we’ve created a landlocked by not putting the driveway in and Shorewood
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
is agreeable to either one of those. If they don’t want then they would be willing to accept a preservation
or easement on there so some family in the future doesn’t try to then come in for variances. Have a piece
of property there and try to get access to it.
Councilman Laufenburger: So most importantly that, the use of that land is really subject to city of
Shorewood guidance with those two stipulations. One of those two things, is that what you’re saying?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So there’s nothing, we at City of Chanhassen, we don’t have a
responsibility to watch that property. It is the City of Shorewood’s responsibility, correct?
Kate Aanenson: But for that there was a condition on the previous plat that said that they wanted to make
sure that there was an access to that property so that’s the condition we’re trying to resolve. Because
we’re taking that condition off providing access by conveying it in a way that it doesn’t, it no longer is
necessary. So this is what I’m saying, this was one of the hurdles we tried to work out so it took a lot of
meetings between City of Shorewood trying to resolve that.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So we don’t want that to come up later at a future date so we’re taking away the
condition by either giving it to Shorewood or providing it in a conservation so it’s not buildable.
Councilman Laufenburger: But clearly there will be no access to that land from city of Chanhassen?
Kate Aanenson: What we’ve learned sometimes is sometimes properties go tax forfeit and then there’s an
unintended consequences of some action and that’s what we’re trying to resolve.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Thank you Kate. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any thoughts or comments by members of the council?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: It seems pretty cut and dry. It always good to see a family moving to town.
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely. Absolutely. It seems fairly straight forward. If somebody, Councilwoman
Tjornhom would you like to make a motion?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Sure. Is it on this screen?
Mayor Furlong: We’ll get there and there will be the resolution.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Let’s see. I make the recommendation that the City of Chanhassen, I’m sorry
the Chanhassen City Council recommends. I’m sorry. The Chanhassen Planning Commission
recommends the City Council approve A, the preliminary and final plat to create Lot 1, Block 1, Black
nd
Walnut Acres 2 Addition and adoption of the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation. And
adoption of the resolution.
Mayor Furlong: And for the resolution we had talked about striking the surface water management fees
under Engineering condition number 1. Park dedication fees. And I guess Mr. Knutson, even though
they said they paid the assessments we should probably include a statement any assessments need to be
paid.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Roger Knutson: That’s fine.
Mayor Furlong: If there aren’t any, there aren’t any.
Roger Knutson: Sure.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. If that, Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Sure, yep.
Mayor Furlong: Is that okay for the resolution?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. So the motion for the City Council to adopt the preliminary and final plat as
stated by Councilwoman Tjornhom has been made. Is there a second?
Councilman Laufenburger: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote.
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the City Council
approve a Preliminary and Final Plat for Black Walnut Acres Second Addition to replat 2.4 acres
into one lot on property zoned Single Family Residential (RSF) and located at 6260 Chaska
Road (Outlot A, Black Walnut Acres), Planning Case 2014-12, as shown in plans dated Received April
4, 2014; adoption of the attached Findings of Fact and Recommendation; adoption of Resolution 2014-
37, and subject to the following conditions:
Engineering Conditions
1.Before the final plat is recorded the GIS fees must be paid as well as any recording fees not
collected with the final plat application.
2. At the time of final plat all unpaid assessments plus additional accrued interest must be paid
or reassessed.
Environmental Resource Conditions
1.The applicant shall plant one 2½” diameter overstory tree in the front yard.
Building Official Conditions
1. Appropriate permit(s) required for the demolition or moving of any existing structures.
2. A final grading plan and soils report must be submitted to the Inspections Division before
building permits can be issued.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
3. Retaining walls over four feet high require a permit and must be designed by a professional
engineer.
4. Each lot must be provided with separate sewer and water services.
Water Resources Coordinator Conditions
1.Prior to any earth-disturbing activities, the applicant shall provide a completed wetland
delineation report and a Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act Application for Approval of
Wetland Type and Boundary. Upon concurrence with the delineated boundary, construction
activities may proceed.
2.Wetland buffer monuments will need to be placed along the wetland buffer consistent with
section 20-411 of Chanhassen City Code.
3.A detailed erosion control plan consistent with Chapter 19 of Chanhassen City Code will be
required with the site plan/building permit application.
Engineering Conditions
1.The developer must submit a soils report to the City indicating the soil conditions,
permeability and slope.
2.The grading plan must show drainage arrows for proposed and existing water flow.
3.The developer’s survey shall show the benchmark location and elevation on the plan.
4.In order to understand the proposed grading, more spot elevations must be added. The plan
needs to show a spot elevation at the center of the driveway at the curb line as well as the
proposed elevation at the corners of the proposed building.
5.The plan shall be revised to show locations of any proposed stockpile areas.
6.The grades must be revised so that no slope is steeper 3:1.
7.The driveway must be revised to have one access from Chaska Road instead of the horse-
shoe driveway shown.
8.The driveway must be outside of the 10-foot sideyard setback from the property line.
9.The services for the proposed house must be directionally bored to the water main and sewer
main located on the south side of Chaska Road.
10.Partial water and sewer hook-up fees are due at the time of final plat.
11.The developer shall make revisions as necessary to address comments from MnDOT and
other stakeholder agencies.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Planning Conditions
1.Approval of the subdivision is contingent upon the applicant dedicating a conservation
easement and restriction over the vacant parcel located in the City of Shorewood to remain as
open space.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you everybody. Appreciate your good work and welcome. Let’s move on.
THTH
3010 WEST 78 STREET REZONING, NORTHWEST CORNER OF WEST 78 STREET AND
HIGHWAY 41, WESTWOOD COMMUNITY CHURCH: REQUEST FOR REZONING FROM
RURAL RESIDENTIAL (RR) TO OFFICE/INSTITUTIONAL (OI) OF 1.25 ACRES.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor, I think it’s appropriate that I recuse myself for this particular
item.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Let’s start with a staff report then on this rezoning request of the property
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located at 3010 West 78 Street.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. This item did appear before the
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Planning Commission at their May 6 meeting and they did recommend approval of the rezoning and
land use amendment. So again there’s two actions for you. This property is located off of Highway 41
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and West 78 Street. The corner of the property. The church bought this property and another property
and combined them and I’ll go through that in a minute but the land use for this area is actually guided for
public/semi-public. The one house that we’re speaking of is actually low density residential and the
zoning for this is office institutional. The church actually when they bought the properties, they have one
PID which is kind of anomaly but since they’re owned and we were going through the comp plan
amendment which we just found out last week for the Cove was approved. This missed that application
but we are going to go forward with a land use amendment on that since it’s owned by the church and it
makes sense as we’re cleaning up the areas and replatting in the area. So I just wanted to go through the
history of the property so this illustration shows when the church bought the property there was two
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homes on West 78 and when we did the sewer project back through there and then the Arbors came
through, the church bought both those homes and removed one to get that through. We actually put a
public street through there to give them additional access to their parking lot so they, in their due
diligence to expedite that construction bought that house and then so now they own this whole property
which is called the Hope House. Again it’s under the same PID so really what the intent here is to, to
kind of clean up the situation as it exists out there today and reflect what’s really happening and that’s
owned by the church. Again this does require a land use amendment. Normally you don’t re-guide
something that’s inconsistent but it’s our intention as is stated in the Comprehensive Plan, if you’re
showing that it’s your intention to go through with that, then that would be fine and it is our intention to
clean that up. The plat that’s coming through on the Cove will also clean up some of the right-of-way
here because they just put it through the church property where.
Mayor Furlong: I’m sorry, could you, we’re still looking at the.
Kate Aanenson: I’m sorry.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: When you say here it’s, yeah.
Kate Aanenson: Here you can see me go like this.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, and then over here there’s, yeah.
Kate Aanenson: I get in my zone. Over here.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So this is, I’m sorry. Here’s the two properties right here. Does that help you?
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Yeah, that’s helpful.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, I’m sorry about that.
Mayor Furlong: We were still following it. It’s just.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. It’s always better with a picture. So these two homes were the ones that
were bought by the church. This one was removed but it was just a description of property. It wasn’t a
clean title on that so with that home being removed and this going forward now with the plat and the
Cove, we’re cleaning up all of this. There’ll be separate. The Cove will plat up to a certain point and
then the church will come back and clean up this plat and get that resolved so it will all, really it’s the
opportunity to clean up all this area. So.
Mayor Furlong: So by clean up are they going to, right now.
Kate Aanenson: To plat it.
Mayor Furlong: It’s a separate parcel.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah it’s all metes and bounds.
Mayor Furlong: To plat it.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, it’s all metes and bounds.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Fair enough.
Kate Aanenson: And so the descriptions overlap so we’ll get that cleaned up with this plat and then the
church will come back through and plat their property on this house so it’s got the same PID which is
unusual that the County would do that because of the descriptions but.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So that’s the intent is really to clean up what we have down there. Let me see if there’s
anything else. Zoning, you didn’t need to look at that. Here’s the location map in case you wanted to see
that. So really it’s pretty straight forward. So the staff is recommending that we rezoning the 1.25 acres
located at the corner from Rural Residential to Office/Institutional and we adopt the attached Findings of
Fact so.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Questions for staff. Ms. Aanenson. The land use for the main church
property and what is being proposed for this one to change to is public/semi-public. From a land use
Comprehensive Plan standpoint but the zoning is the Office/Institutional. Why the difference?
Kate Aanenson: Well.
Mayor Furlong: And I’m maybe.
Kate Aanenson: The church is using it as part of their institutional.
Mayor Furlong: No I guess I’m trying to understand if the Comprehensive Plan is guiding the use as
Public/Semi-Public, why aren’t we zoning it Public/Semi-Public instead of Office Institutional?
Kate Aanenson: That’s a good question.
Mayor Furlong: And I think that’s, that’s how they’re currently, the main site is also guided.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: As Public/Semi-Public but it’s zoned Office/Institutional and I don’t have any problem
with matching up the zoning but I guess I’m just curious from a.
Kate Aanenson: It should be consistent with what the church has which is the.
Mayor Furlong: Office/Institutional.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Do we need to amend the Comprehensive Plan then?
Kate Aanenson: Yes we do and that’s why I stated.
Mayor Furlong: Should the.
Kate Aanenson: The comprehensive, yeah. Go ahead.
Mayor Furlong: But should the Comprehensive Plan be from low density to Office/Institutional as
opposed to Public/Semi-Public?
Kate Aanenson: No.
Mayor Furlong: What’s the difference in the?
Kate Aanenson: All the churches and schools we have in the city, including the regional park, Camp
Tanadoona, Landscape Arboretum are all guided for Public/Semi-Public.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: So is Eckankar. Those are what they’re all guided.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Kate Aanenson: What I stated is that because this is inconsistent with that, with what our comp plan says
is it’s your intention. The City Council. So you’re stating your intention to make this consistent with this
action and we’ll be coming back with a Land Use Amendment for consistency.
Mayor Furlong: Okay and I guess I’m, I’m just, typically if we have something guided for low density
residential and we change the zoning to match the guiding is there, I guess my question would be, why do
we use Public/Semi-Public as a guiding but use an Office/Institutional as the land. As the zoning.
Kate Aanenson: Because that’s how our Zoning Ordinance is within that zoning district. That’s all.
Mayor Furlong: And is that consistent across the rest of the city too?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Yes.
Mayor Furlong: So do we have any land that’s zoned Public/Semi-Public? I don’t know Mr. Knutson.
It’s just, it’s an inconsistency that I generally don’t see in the staff reports.
Kate Aanenson: No. No. I can.
Mayor Furlong: And again I’m fine going forward with what’s being asked.
Kate Aanenson: No that’s how we have, all the schools are, would be Office/Institutional.
Mayor Furlong: So Chanhassen High School is Public/Semi-Public with an Office/Institutional zoning or
use?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. I’m going to just verify this.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, Council members, the property is currently guided Residential low density and
that’s not what the property’s being used for. It’s not the long range plans for the use of that facility and
so what we’re doing is two things. We’re going to rezone and then re-guide.
Mayor Furlong: And I guess my only question is, and maybe it’s a technical question with no difference
but typically if something is guided for a particular land use, that’s what the zoning gets changed to.
Todd Gerhardt: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Here’s we’re changing, we’re guiding it to a Public/Semi-Public use.
Todd Gerhardt: Right.
Mayor Furlong: But we’re being asked to zone it to an Office/Institutional.
Kate Aanenson: Can I give you another example of that?
Mayor Furlong: Why don’t we just do it to the Public/Semi-Public?
Kate Aanenson: Because in our Zoning Ordinance we have high density zoning but we don’t say what
that’s going to be. So within that high density we say this could be up to 16 units an acre but when it
17
Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
comes in for a specific application, it may be a PUD zoning. It may be you know some other type of, so
there’s different iterations within that.
Mayor Furlong: Let me ask this question then. What type of uses are allowed in a Public/Semi-Public?
Kate Aanenson: I’ll go to the City Attorney. Yeah so churches, fire stations, public health, hospitals,
nursing home, post office, public open space, schools. All the schools in the city. Churches are all
Office/Institutional.
Mayor Furlong: Office/Institutional? Would they also be Public/Semi-Public?
Kate Aanenson: Correct, for the land use. Right.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And maybe I’m, maybe I’m the only one confused but okay. Let me ask this
question. If the property, you just read off the Office/Institutional?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Group. Is Public/Semi-Public a different list or are they the same?
Kate Aanenson: Public/Semi-Public is a land use designation that doesn’t have the same specific uses in
it per se. If we were to look at the Comprehensive Plan I could, if you give me one second I’d look at that
too.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Let me ask you this question.
Kate Aanenson: Sure.
Mayor Furlong: If the use and, well. Public/Semi-Public provides for, and the Office/Institutional is an
acceptable zoning within Public/Semi-Public?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Is that a fair statement?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Then we’re good.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
Kate Aanenson: So it could be Eckankar. Again recognizing that it’s not consistent today with the zone
change.
Mayor Furlong: Yep.
Kate Aanenson: Our Comprehensive Plan says if the City Council states it’s our intent so I didn’t want to
come back with that 1 1/2 acre land use amendment. We have another land use amendment going
forward that will come with this that that’s your intent.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: So we’re going to do them at the same time. The amendment. The land use
amendments?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah with another one that’s coming forward.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And that’s for efficiency that.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Mayor Furlong: And consistency.
Kate Aanenson: Right and that’s what our comp plan, if you state that that’s your intention, that’s how I
read it.
Mayor Furlong: Yep, okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Is a representative from Westwood
Church here?
Scott Sturm: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Anything you’d like to address the council on sir? Welcome.
Scott Sturm: Thank you Mr. Mayor, City Council. Scott Sturm, 1051 Anthony Way, Victoria. Really as
the summary report indicated this is an administrative clean up in terms of the legal description. Just with
the opportunity, with the Arbor Cove sale that was approved last month we just thought we would bring
consistency to the entire plat and this is just part of that. Part of that clean up process.
Mayor Furlong: Fair enough.
Kate Aanenson: And again that notification went in to the Met Council. It had already been in for a
number of days and so we couldn’t go back and amend that one so that got approved so we don’t
anticipate any problems bringing this one forward for the same reason but we’re waiting for another
application that’s coming in to go with it.
Mayor Furlong: Got it. Okay, good. Thank you. Any questions?
Councilman McDonald: I’ve got one.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: The current house that’s on there, what do you all use that for?
Scott Sturm: Has varied use. Right now we have some missions who have been sent by Westwood.
They’re living there right now and we’ve had mission families come in and out of there, pardon me, based
on their schedules and it’s available for church members or members of the community who are in
distress. Through home fires, what have you. Any sort of other personal situations so it’s available
housing for really the membership or the community at large.
Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any other information or any comments by members of the council?
Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: To follow State Statute the first state should be a re-guiding and then the rezoning. So I
think our comp plan says something different but State Statute kind of trumps our comp plan so tonight
staff is asking council not to take action on this item and do the re-guiding first and then the rezoning. So
that there’s a.
Mayor Furlong: Do we need to take any action on the re-guiding tonight and hold off on the rezoning?
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Mayor Furlong: Or is there no action required for the re-guiding?
Roger Knutson: The re-guiding will be coming back to you.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Roger Knutson: It will be coming to you.
Mayor Furlong: At which Ms. Aanenson just said.
Roger Knutson: Yes. So for tonight you could just table action on this until that comes back.
Mayor Furlong: And then when that comes back.
Roger Knutson: Deal with them both at the same time.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah we have to send notice. Get approval from Met Council before it comes back to
you so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Prior to tabling it then, action tonight, any thoughts or concerns or any
information, additional information that anyone from the council would like to receive so when it does
come back we can deal with it as efficiently as possible? Will be comfortable with going forward once
we go through the steps in the right order? Yes? I’m seeing heads going up and down so.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: So for anybody reading the Minutes of this meeting they will know that there heads
nodding and not going back and forth.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Alright. With that then I guess at this point it would be appropriate to move
to table this item to bring it back to a future council meeting. Would somebody like to make such a
motion?
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Mayor? I make a motion that we table this action at this time.
Mayor Furlong: To a future meeting, thank you. And is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second it.
Mayor Furlong: Motions to table are no debatable so we’ll proceed with the vote.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council table action on
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the rezoning of 1.25 acres of property located in the northwest corner of Highway 41 and West 78
th
Street (3010 West 78 Street). All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of
4 to 0.
DISCUSS FEES FOR GRAVES AT THE CHANHASSEN PIONEER CEMETERY.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. Back in November of 2013 council directed staff to complete
a survey on grave fees paid by local municipalities that have cemeteries and churches. Attached in your
report is a comprehensive survey showing that. In summary the municipal cemeteries grave fee, some of
them broke them out as resident/non-resident. We had a high of $1,000 for a resident and $1,000 for non-
resident. As a low, which was us, the $200 for resident/non-resident and the average of $554 as an
average for resident and then $713 dollars average for non-resident. We also did survey some of the local
churches with cemeteries. On the high for a member of the church was $1,000. For non-members it was
$1,500. On a low, member of the church paid $350 and a non-member paid $500. Again on the average
for the churches, $648 for a member. $909 for a non-member. Back in November staff did a, kind of a
cost benefit of expanding on the cemetery and the numbers that we used to look at plot prices or grave
fees, we used $200 as a resident and $500 for a non-resident and if you wanted to go with one flat fee it
was roughly $300 on an average grave site for a fee so. To hit our revenues to make everything cost
neutral staff would recommend not going below $300 for a grave site.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Questions for Mr. Gerhardt.
Councilwoman Ernst: I have two questions.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, start with Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: So Todd can you, as I’m looking at the analysis that was done, and I’m looking at
the total, the total annual revenue.
Mayor Furlong: This is the one that was distributed with our November packet correct?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah. Well it was the one that was sent today.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And it was in the November packet but that’s fine. Go ahead.
Councilwoman Ernst: So the total net revenue per year is $1,295.52 and that’s based on a $200
residential and a $500 non-residential, right?
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: Is it, where does that money go? I’m just curious with that revenue because this is
a self supporting, it’s self-supporting so I’m just wondering what, where does that revenue go?
Todd Gerhardt: That’s another thing that I’d like to talk to council about. In establishing a special fund
for the cemetery so you can track your revenues and expenditures in that account and for the council to do
that I would have to bring back a separate resolution for you to approve. If that’s something the council
would like and direct staff to do we can do that and then you could also transfer monies out of there to
allocate that expense that the taxpayers paid for. So refund those dollars back for the expenses in
operating that cemetery. So Karen’s time. Time that our park department might be out there checking
out markers for sale of grave sites.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? I guess from a question standpoint with regard to Mr. Gerhardt setting
up basically it would be part of our fund accounting or financial reporting, we would set up a separate
fund for the cemetery.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: And operate it and track it similar to how we do that with other, other funds. Other
special funds.
Todd Gerhardt: Cable TV.
Mayor Furlong: Cable TV would be a good one.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and as part of the analysis that Councilwoman Ernst talked about, that did show
in their cost that were incurred over the past several years for some of the care and maintenance of the
cemetery. It also looked at cemetery sales over those several years as well as funds initially received, and
just to clarify that the funds received from the cemetery association, when the cemetery was, when the
City took responsibility for the cemetery as well as the funds that the City has received from the sale of
the cemetery plots, since that time, was more than any cost that the City has incurred during that same
time period so there has been no net taxpayer dollars used to maintain the cemetery to date and the goal of
setting up the cemetery fund, as I understand it and I would support this, is to better segregate the funds
associated with the cemetery so it can be clear what the funds are. What the revenues are. What the
expenses are and make it clearer accounting.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. That’s correct Mayor. What you would do is establish a fund, similar to Cable
TV fund that everybody’s familiar with and have a Pioneer Cemetery fund and then transfer dollars out to
reimburse the City for any expenses that the taxpayers pay for. So the cemetery would be a stand alone
business and operate that way.
Mayor Furlong: Right. So I think that would be an exercise to go back and take a look at what the in’s
and out’s have been and to establish an initial balance that could come across, making sure that any funds
that were expended are properly covered by the cemetery funds. Either the revenues or the monies that
were originally contributed.
Todd Gerhardt: And we can do that yet this year. We just need to have council approve the resolution.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Right, okay. Alright. As far as any other questions on this? Again I think it was pretty
clear when we talked about this in November, the main issue at that time was whether or not we wanted
to, not expand the physical boundaries but to prepare the back part of the cemetery for additional graves
and the council was I believe unanimous on that, or certainly supported as a council that part of it but it
came up at that point with that information that, that the fees for the grave sites, which I don’t think Mr.
Gerhardt have been changed since, probably since it came under the City’s responsibility.
Todd Gerhardt: We took ownership in 1987 and we’ve been operating with the same fees and a survey
shows you know, most communities are above $300. More in the $500 dollar range. Some do charge a
resident, non-resident different rate and staff is looking for mayor and council to have a discussion and
see you know what direction you would like to go in that vein.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So I guess thoughts and comments. I guess first of all we could consider whether
or not a different fee for resident versus non-resident would make sense. We do have some services such
as the Chanhassen Rec Center, there is a different fee for residents and non-residents now in that
situation. The residents through property taxes paid for the building of the Rec Center and so it makes
sense to charge a separate rate there because there were different costs incurred by the taxpayers. Here
there wasn’t a separate cost by the taxpayers for the acquisition of the property. The funds have basically
covered that. At the same time there is some risk. Some time that the council is involved as we are
tonight and others so I think I’d be open to ideas and thoughts from council on whether or not a separate
rate between residents and non-residents, pros and cons or thoughts and discussion on that. Councilman
Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I have a couple thoughts. Number one I would
support a higher fee for non-residents versus residents. Now don’t ask me right now to put a measure on
that but I think it’s reasonable to identify that a non-resident of Chanhassen should be expected to pay
slightly more for that which a resident of Chanhassen would pay. I’d like to make a comment about the
special fund that was a subject of discussion. May I do so?
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely, yep.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah. I would support the special fund but I think it’s also important for us
to move the clock forward a long time to that day at which there is no longer any revenue for the
cemetery yet there will still be expenses so if we do establish a special fund we have to keep
consideration that at some point in time there will be no revenue from the sale of plots or sale of plats or
the sale of units of a columbarium and yet there still will be maintenance costs so, I guess my question
and I don’t know that we solve it right now. We can certainly direct city staff but they would need to be
prepared for that day when revenue no longer is able to match the expenses that would be incurred by the
City. Does that make sense?
Mayor Furlong: It does and I think that’s the advantage of having a separate fund.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: So similar to our utility funds which we look at every year and we evaluate the fund
balance and the expected revenues coming into the fund. The expected expenses required. The expected
capital improvements which we’ve seen in the past. There are capital improvements for this property.
For this use. Service so I think that’s the advantage of having that special fund. We already have an
initial look and with some of the, you know at the market rate dollars that we’re going to be discussing in
a minute. I think that will put us into good position even at that point in time when there’s no revenue
coming in from grave sites to have sufficient fund dollars but that’s I think, you raise a good point and
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
that’s what the special fund will allow councils to do is to better manage and look ahead and to anticipate
those situations before they occur. I don’t want to interrupt the discussion on that but I do want to
introduce one other comment and that is, is it appropriate for us to establish a citizen advisory
commission on the cemetery to make judgment on things like what’s an appropriate current cost for those
things? What’s an appropriate way for the cemetery to be maintained? I just thought of that. I think that
there are some other communities across the state that have groups of people, maybe it’s just 2 or 3
people but they act as the advisory group to the decision making body. A City Council in this case
regarding specific action of the actions related to the cemetery. I just bring that up as an idea.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah if other council members want to respond to that. I guess my thought is, the
activity here is such that I think Mr. Gerhardt we basically have one internment or one grave site sale per
month on average.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: I mean so it’s about 12 per year.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: So the activity is rather limited and I don’t think at this point there are any plans to
change the level of maintenance from what we’ve had in the past. I have not received any comments or
recommendations on different level of maintenance so maybe that’s something that if it becomes an issue
that’s certainly an option that we could look to, or talk about that but I don’t know at this point if you
want, I think you want to do that when the need is there but I’m not hearing that that’s a need. What
really started driving this whole discussion was, we were running out of grave sites.
Todd Gerhardt: Right.
Mayor Furlong: And so to expand it with that, that brought up this issue of you know as a city we haven’t
changed the cost that we sell grave sites for since 1987. Now one thing I will mention and I think this
was brought up at our November meeting there’s, when somebody buys a site there’s no opportunity as I
understand it for them to profit off of that.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: The City retains a right of first refusal on any future sale of that. The right to buy it back
and that right to buy it back is at the price that that person paid for it or the price of the current, that
they’re currently being sold for, whichever is less. So we don’t have to worry about people trying to you
know.
Councilman Laufenburger: Grave site futures.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah exactly. Exactly. And that’s, and I think we would all support that because that’s
not the purpose of this. The purpose of this is to provide a service for our residents. Other thoughts and
comments about, Mr. Laufenburger talked about agreeing that there should be, or he would support a
different price for residents versus non-residents. Does the rest of the council agree to that as well?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst, thoughts and comments and again this is open discussion so.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes and I agree that we would have two different rates and I would actually go
with staff’s recommendation, having the two different rates. The $200 for residential and the $500 for
non-residential.
Mayor Furlong: Other thoughts on differential rates? Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilman McDonald.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, no I’m in agreement with staff’s recommendation also.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. I mean one of the things I guess as I, I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: No, nothing. Go ahead.
Mayor Furlong: I’m concerned with the, and I know that the numbers that were used for the analysis
back in November showed the $200 and the $500. I don’t know that there’s necessarily a
recommendation coming out here at this point.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: That’s what I was going to say.
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, so just to clarify Councilwoman Ernst. I think that was used just for the
calculation.
Councilwoman Ernst: Even though it’s on here?
Mayor Furlong: That was back in the November packet, right.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Tonight what I heard Mr. Gerhardt say is, you know take a look at the market rates and,
but don’t go below $300 on average. My thought is, and I think something higher than that $200 would
be appropriate. That’s been the same price since 1987 and values have changed and I think we’ve seen
that with the market rates of the other ones.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well but I’m thinking of it in terms of taxpayers. For the residentials, they’re the
ones that are paying for the operating supplies and the maintenance of the cemetery. Is that correct?
Mayor Furlong: Yeah.
Councilwoman Ernst: So when we talk about the taxpayers, Mr. Gerhardt could you speak to that
because I guess I need to be clear on when you’re saying that this money could go back to the taxpayers.
For the residents.
Todd Gerhardt: You know the sale of the grave sites, if we’re using taxpayer’s dollars to pay for Karen
or Adam’s time to mark graves and transfer title from grave sites, we would transfer those dollars out of
the Pioneer Cemetery fund back into the general fund to reimburse the City so no taxpayer’s dollars are
used. But what Councilmember Laufenburger is talking about, he wants to ensure that we have a
perpetual care fund that once all the grave sites are sold, that you have enough money to pay for the long
term maintenance of mowing. Fixing grave, what is it? Graves that may be settling. Headstones and any
other maintenance that might go along with the gate or adding a fence or whatever it might be.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: So that’s something we can work on. A perpetual, like a revolving assessment fund. We
want to make sure that we have enough money in this account for the long term maintenance now and
into the future so basically once all the grave sites are sold, the only revenue would be in the interest
earnings.
Councilwoman Ernst: So I guess I’m just curious Mr. Mayor what would be your argument then for
raising it other than the fact that it’s been the rate since 1987? For the $200.
Mayor Furlong: I think as Mr. Gerhardt just said, as Mr. Laufenburger was referring to, the analysis that
was done shows that at those prices there are sufficient money but this is a perpetual care that needs to be
had after those, the additional grave sites are sold. I think the other thing is from a marketplace
standpoint is trying to be fair. You know I think we need to look at what our cost to operate. Make sure
we have sufficient funds there. Part of the analysis that was done, I think Mr. Gerhardt that didn’t include
any inflation costs for any maintenance too so there will be, the costs will be higher than what’s in there.
It was an efficient analysis that was done so I think looking at something that make sure that we’re in a
better position of having, covering the costs. Being near market rates and making sure that we have
sufficient funds at a future date when the revenue from the sales of grave sites no longer exist because the
cemetery has been sold out. Making sure all those are in place.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well if I remember correctly when we’re looking at our sister city they charged,
Chaska for example was at $300 and $500.
Mayor Furlong: $300 and $500. Eden Prairie was at $400, $600. Shorewood’s at $1,000 and $1,000.
Councilwoman Ernst: So I mean even if we went an average of $300, if we still hypothetically, if we left
the $200 for the residential and we went $600 for the non-resident, it’s still that $300 average mark that
you were looking for that we shouldn’t go below.
Mayor Furlong: Well that’s yeah, that’s a bare minimum based on this.
Councilwoman Ernst: Right.
Mayor Furlong: But I think with Mr. Laufenburger’s concern is something to think about. Other
thoughts and comments?
Councilman McDonald: Well yeah. I’m in favor of the two rates. It should be market rate. I don’t know
what that is right now either. Mr. Laufenburger brings up a good point but I’d like a little bit further.
How much longer will the current funds last? I mean this will become a problem. This is not like the
sewer where every year we’re able to replenish that by it’s rates. At some point it runs out. When’s the
projected time based upon average maintenance that the fund runs out. What are we going to go? I’d like
to see some plans for that as to how do we cover future maintenance and I’d like to get an idea of what’s a
rough estimate of what is the maintenance on this per year and stuff to look at. So I think there’s still
some more questions to be answered but.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Councilman McDonald: If you’re looking for direction, go with two rates. I’m all in favor of that.
Mayor Furlong: So two rates. Market rate. Make sure costs are covered.
Councilman McDonald: Yep.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: And that there is sufficient funds at the end of, when the, what do we want to use for the
term here? Got to be careful with a cemetery.
Todd Gerhardt: You know in my assumption we took 27 years.
Mayor Furlong: 27 years. So this isn’t going to happen. We’re sold out right now so, but with the
expansion that was approved back in November but really it’s the perpetual fund. Maybe that’s, if you’ll
allow me to call it that.
Councilman McDonald: Right.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor I think what we’re really doing is we’re attempting to serve the
current need for grave sites yet at the same time trying to, or plan for creation of an endowment. An
endowment is, call it a body of funds that will remain in place into perpetuity. Until such time that that
endowment is no longer needed and then the funds are distributed by whoever’s in charge at that time but
that endowment essentially becomes the basis for maintaining. Now at some point in time the only thing
that will be done will be maintenance. There won’t be anymore platting of new graves.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: There won’t be any more building on a new columbarium. There will be no
other, well there may be some tree maintenance. Some tree planting perhaps but there will be a time at
which the only monies that will be spent at any point and in a year is simply, what should be considered
minimal maintenance.
Mayor Furlong: Maintenance or you’re right.
Councilman Laufenburger: Or just.
Mayor Furlong: Replacement of the arch or, but that would be…
Councilman Laufenburger: So I think that we, it’s, we would not be financially responsible to just let’s
make sure we have funds available until that point in time when the graves are no longer available for
sale. We have to go far beyond that and who knows when that is you know. I do want to bring up one
point Councilwoman Ernst. She’s right. Today we use taxpayer funds to pay for the people who are
doing the work and this special fund will essentially reimburse the dollars back to where we took from the
taxpayer money so.
Mayor Furlong: But, but to clarify that. The grave sales have come into the general fund as well.
Councilman Laufenburger: Oh that’s also true. Yes, yes.
Mayor Furlong: And the $16,000 that was contributed by the cemetery fund when the City took
responsibility came into the general fund.
Councilman Laufenburger: That came in, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: So there has not been a net expense to the general fund associated with the cemetery.
Councilman Laufenburger: Right.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: I tried to clarify that so, so the purpose of setting up a separate fund is to better track
that.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: But to be clear there has not been a net expense to taxpayers for the cemetery. If that.
Councilman Laufenburger: Well as long as, if we can go back and say that the expenses of the people
you mentioned, Karen, Adam, staff, as long as that has not been greater than the monies that have come in
since 1987.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah our estimated annual cost is $1,100 and there’s also, we charge a fee for marking
the cemetery so we get reimbursed for that.
Mayor Furlong: But now there again I think that’s one other thing. That’s been at $50 since 1987. If that
was appropriate at the hourly rates and the costs of the time. The time to do what they were doing for $50
hasn’t changed so I think in fairness we need to take a look at that one too but what I’m hearing from Mr.
McDonald and others is, let’s consider our costs for doing it but let’s also consider market rates as well.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, the thing we haven’t done is projected out how much money do you need in a fund
to.
Mayor Furlong: And that can be done.
Todd Gerhardt: You know have it self perpetuating.
Mayor Furlong: And maybe what I would suggest is, there’s no immediate issue to this. We want to
bring it back. Once the grave sites become available we’ll need to establish a new fee. Currently our
ordinance says $200 and I think if nothing else we’ll put, we’re not going to pre-sale any of those.
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Mayor Furlong: At this point.
Todd Gerhardt: We are getting calls.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: We have a wait list.
Mayor Furlong: And just take names and numbers but what I would suggest is, part of the answer to the
question of what’s, how much of this endowment do we need to perpetually fund the maintenance is we
need to know how much, what’s the net dollars going into that special fund and so maybe what we can
do, based on the direction that we’ve had here tonight is bring this back to a future meeting. Once we
figure out how much money is going into the special fund then we’ll have a sense of what the need is
going to be at some point in the future. We can try to look at options there. Does that make sense?
Councilwoman Ernst: Just so I understand then we’re not going to establish a rate tonight? That’s going
to be at another?
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Right. We’ll bring that back at the same time that we bring back the special fund
because then we’ll know how much money is going to be set aside in the special fund. We’ll know what
our starting point is. Once we know what our starting point is, what our projected, what some of the
options are for the future revenues and what our expectations are for future expenditures, then we’ll be
able to have a sense of where we need to be to Mr. Laufenburger’s point is looking out into the future. So
that we can plan ahead appropriate as well as we can plan for 27 years into the future. Does that make
sense to everyone?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yep.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. So we’ll tackle more when this comes back. Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Alright, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: I don’t think we need any action to table.
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Mayor Furlong: We’re just looking for.
Todd Gerhardt: No, thank you for your direction.
Mayor Furlong: You got sufficient direction. Thank you.
APPOINTMENT TO PLANNING COMMISSION.
Mayor Furlong: Last, 2 weeks ago and again this evening the City Council interviewed three residents
who were interested in serving on the Planning Commission. All three residents brought, were certainly
qualified. Brought different perspectives. Different attributes to the commission and as was said at the
work session this evening it’d be nice if we had more than one position available because I think we had
three very well qualified candidates. However what I would do is place nomination and ask for a second
to appoint Dan Campion to the Planning Commission to serve a 3 year term that would, if I’m doing the
math right, expire on March 31, 2017.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Furlong: Does that sound right? Okay. I think that was right because it was April 1, 2014 initial.
Motion’s been made and seconded. Is there any discussion or comments on the process? Hearing none
we’ll proceed with the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to appoint Dan Campion to a 3 year term
expiring March 31, 2017 to the Planning Commission. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: I’d like to just go on record and make sure that it’s in the Minutes to extend our City’s
thanks and appreciation to the American Legion for hosting the Memorial Day event. Between the
American Legion members, the Auxiliary, the Color Guard and the Color Guard, as many of you know
started early in the morning. Most of us got there at noon. They were out 6:00-6:30 getting ready and
went to multiple cemeteries and such so they do, do a great job so thank you to everybody that came and
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
especially to the American Legion and to the city staff for their good work and support of that event. Any
other comments? Mr. Laufenburger, do you know the score of the game?
Councilman Laufenburger: I don’t. I will soon.
Mayor Furlong: The opener’s is this evening is it not?
Councilman Laufenburger: This evening is the home opener for the Chanhassen Red Birds. This is our
st
fifth season of the 21 century of the new and emerged Red Birds. I just want to highlight a couple of
things. Yes tonight is the home opener but we have two games that are coming up. This Friday night is
called the Bountiful Basket Border Battle and the Chanhassen Red Birds are working in conjunction, in
cooperation with the Chaska Cubs and with the Bountiful Basket Food Shelf that serves eastern Carver
County and this is an opportunity for both of our ball clubs to be passionate about not only baseball but
also filling the food shelves so that those in need in eastern Carver County can get the food that they need.
Bountiful Basket is a wonderful organization and frankly their shelves have been depleted of late and
we’d like to do what we can as both the Red Birds and the Cubs organization to help do this and
hopefully we can get people who come out to the game will bring non-perishable food items. This is
Friday night at Storm Red Birds Stadium here in Chanhassen. Game starts at 7:30 and you can bring non-
perishable food or also non-perishable cash is worthwhile too so that’s Friday night. And then the
rd
following Wednesday. Is it Wednesday night? June 3 is Chanhassen Employee Recognition Game and
this is a game against the Shakopee Indians so all Chanhassen city employees, volunteers, commissioners,
council members even can get in free. It’s our way, Red Bird’s way of saying thanks to the City of
Chanhassen for hosting amateur baseball. And there are other things coming up in the future as well but
I’ll share those in a more timely basis so thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other council presentations? Oh, Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I wanted to add on top of what you had said. You know the Mayor did give the
I guess commencement speech for Memorial Day and everything and I have to say that yesterday, all of
your speeches have been really good but yesterday for some reason it was very I think on point. On target
to what it was we were going through so your trip to Washington really kind of coincided I thought really
nicely and it looked as though at least the younger generation of Chanhassen, we probably don’t have to
worry too much about them. They will do the right thing so I’m glad you were able to take that trip and
bring it back and to really kind of fold it into your speech because it was very, very good. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: You’re welcome. Mr. Gerhardt.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Todd Gerhardt: I have nothing to add tonight. I’m sorry, I didn’t bring anything. Our projects are
moving ahead. Hopefully this dry weather will let us keep going. We need the rain but we’ve got to get
our roads done so, but everything’s going well. We’ve got some detour signs up for people to get to the
Mustard Seed, Bluff Creek Golf Course so it seems to be working. I did talk to the Mustard Seed
individual today and he’s very happy and we’ve been working with them.
Mayor Furlong: Good. Okay. Have they started the river crossing project yet and those detours as well?
I know the, where are the detours now? Pioneer Trail and 101 and Lyman Boulevard? Are those the
closed?
Todd Gerhardt: 101 south of Pioneer is closed.
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Chanhassen City Council – May 27, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Right.
Todd Gerhardt: You can get through on Pioneer at this point.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And then 101 is still opened down to Pioneer south of Lyman but that will also be
closing, I’d like to give you a date but it’s all dependent on weather and the detour takes you down to
Audubon. Not Bluff Creek and so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Those people that may know that’s a shortcut may use it but.
Mayor Furlong: But they didn’t hear it in a public meeting.
Todd Gerhardt: We’re not encouraging it, no so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, good. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was
adjourned at 8:35 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
31