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CC 2015 06 22 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING JUNE 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Laufenburger, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilwoman Tjornhom STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, Greg Sticha and Roger Knutson PUBLIC PRESENT: John Chadwick 4477 Manitou, Excelsior David Shingledecker 464 Lake Drive Margaret & Claire Requet 9248 Hearthstead Lane, Eden Prairie nd Mike McCabe 2645 E. 2 Avenue, Denver, CO 80206 Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to the council meeting. Those of you that are in the chamber with us as well as those watching on Mediacom Cable Channel 8 at home. Welcome. First action is to review the agenda. Council members are there any modifications to the agenda? And if not we’ll proceed with the agenda as printed and excuse me a moment. Just need a writing utensil. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: INVITATION TO THE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. Mayor Laufenburger: I want to begin with a public announcement this evening. This is, this nd year Chanhassen will be celebrating it’s 32 Annual Fourth of July celebration and I want to read this invitation to all people, not only in the community but also surrounding communities as well. I’m excited to invite everyone to the City of Chanhassen’s largest community event of the ndndrd year, the 32 Annual Fourth of July celebration. This celebration will be held on July 2, 3 th and 4 and the event is presented by the City of Chanhassen and sponsored by the 2015 nd community event sponsors of which there are many. The event begins on Thursday, July 2 with a family night at the carnival from 3:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. and if my dates serve me ndrdrd correct Thursday, July 2 yes. Then Friday, July 3. Friday, July 3 the activities begin at 3:30 p.m. and include the Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. The Chanhassen Rotary Taste of Chanhassen and beer and wine garden. There will be carnival rides and concessions. A 3 on 3 basketball tournament. There will be live music by Ragtown and the ever Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 popular street dance featuring Casablanca Orchestra from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Now that’s on rdth Friday, July 3. Then on Saturday, July 4 events start early again with the adult fishing contest on Lake Ann at 7:00 a.m. and there are other events throughout the day at City Center Park which include live music from American Bootleg, carnival rides and concessions. The Rotary Taste of Chanhassen and beer and wine garden. The Chanhassen Rotary Classic Car Show which is always a big hit and then at 2:30 is the parade sponsored by the Chanhassen Rotary Club. Be sure to join us for a spectacular fireworks display over Lake Ann at 10:00 p.m. Bring your families, neighbors and friends for 3 days of fun and I look forward to seeing everyone thth there. And just as a reminder you can see, you can buy 4 of July tickets. Excuse me, 4 of July t-shirts at City Hall. I’m going to pause just for a moment. I think we may have a technical issue. Do you have a technical issue or not? I guess we’re okay. Alright. The last one is that be sure to join us for a spectacular fireworks display over Lake Ann at 10:00 p.m. Bring your families, neighbors and friends for 3 days of fun. I look forward to seeing everyone there and we also have t-shirts available at City Hall. Beautiful gray, red and light blue t-shirts available for many residents. Many citizens of Chanhassen that would like to come and buy their apparel for that particular day. I know that will be a fun day. Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: The display we have in the council chambers. Mayor Laufenburger: Yes it is. It’s very attractive. Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yes Mr. Mayor. What is the cost of the t-shirts? Todd Hoffman: Eight dollars. Mayor Laufenburger: The cost of the, I’m glad you asked that question councilman. The t-shirts are $8 each and they can be purchased by cash or credit card at City Hall, is that correct Mr. Hoffman? And we have an ample supply. Enough for 2 or 3 shirts per family I would say. Todd Gerhardt: Oh yeah. th Mayor Laufenburger: Or more. Anyway the 4 of July. It’s one of the community events in Chanhassen that sets us apart all across the country. I mean this is a truly an all American event. Fourth of July in Chanhassen and we’re lucky it’s Thursday, Friday and Saturday this year. Okay. Next is our consent agenda. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Laufenburger: Is there any item to be considered separately at this time? If not. Councilman McDonald: If I could Mr. Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald, yes. 2 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Councilman McDonald: I have a question about item 7. Did we as a council ever get around in our work session to approving that? Mayor Laufenburger: Actually Mr. Sticha do you want to answer that question? This is an item D(7). Greg Sticha: Item D(7) is the letter of intent that we discussed in the work session this evening so that is part of the consent agenda. If you wanted to have a separate discussion on it we could do that. Councilman McDonald: Well I just want to make sure that we as staff had, if we needed to take a vote on it or you know voice opinion that we had an opportunity to do that. Mayor Laufenburger: Would you like to have that item off the consent agenda Councilman McDonald? Councilman McDonald: No, I think Mr. Sticha has answered by my question unless one of the other council members feel the need to do so. I don’t. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. There being no item to be taken off the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Councilman McDonald: So moved. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Is there a second? Councilwoman Ryan: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Ryan. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 1.Approve City Council Minutes dated June 8, 2015 2.Approve Planning Commission Minutes dated June 2, 2015 3.Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated May 27, 2015 Resolution #2015-40: 4. Approval of Resolution Removing Parcel from the Rural Service District, 1551 Lyman Boulevard 3 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 th 5.800 West 78 Street Sign Variance: Approve Request to Allow Signage with a Logo to Exceed 30% of the Sign Display Area, Byerlys, Applicant: Lund Food Holdings, Inc./Owner: IREP Properties 6.Approve Plans for Spent Lime Treatment Device for Lake Susan; Approve Maintenance Agreement Resolution #2015-41: 7. Approval of Resolution Authorizing Staff to Sign a Letter of Intent to Participate in the Metro Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative. 8.Approval of Summary Ordinance 606 for Publication Purposes, Rezoning Children’s Learning Adventure from A-2 Agricultural Estate District to Planned Unit Development (PUD). All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE. Mayor Laufenburger: This is the night of our monthly law enforcement and fire department update. I would like to invite Lieutenant Eric Kittelson from the Carver County Sheriff’s Office to address us. Good evening Lieutenant. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. Before I get to the calls for th service I just wanted to address a couple things with the 4 of July celebration coming up next week. Fireworks are illegal. Any substance or combination of substances or article prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion or detonation. The term does not include sparkling items which are non-explosive and non aerial and contain 75 grams or less of chemical mixture so basically if it flies or goes boom it’s illegal. If you can purchase it at a local reputable retailer it’s not illegal but that’s the long and short of the fireworks. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you for that clarification Lieutenant. st Lt. Eric Kittelson: And we concluded the informal seatbelt survey on May 31. There were 97 citations county wide for non use of seatbelt and 18 of those were in Chanhassen and the post enforcement survey revealed a percentage usage rate of 97.3 which is extremely good and th something that we like to see. And then finally it’s kind of an early announcement but the 8 Annual Public Safety Forum. We’re going to be hosting that at the Chanhassen Rec Center on th September 16 and drug awareness will be the topic of discussion and the time for that is yet to be determined. Into the calls for service we had 145 citations for traffic violations. 328 4 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 warnings for traffic violations and our total calls for service were 1,127. Of those Part I crimes were 43. Part II crimes were 35 and then non-criminal and traffic were 1,049. And then finally I just wanted to offer another message. Parks and trails, more and more people are out enjoying the parks and trails and please be aware of others running, biking, roller blading, and utilizing the parks and we ask everyone to respect each other’s personal use of the park and obviously we’ll be out doing extra patrols of the parks now that it’s warmer and school’s out and what not so, and obviously if any time you see anything unusual or concerning call 911. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, any comments or questions for Lieutenant Kittelson? Okay. Just a brief comment. I know that there’s an event that happens during the summer. Every, the first Saturday of every month there is a mass congregation of car enthusiasts over on Audubon near the Autoplex and I know that that can stretch people’s tensions just a little bit and I know that I think I’ve seen a report that you’re in dialogue with Autoplex to see if there might be a way to reduce the, what’s the word? Lt. Eric Kittelson: Congestion. Mayor Laufenburger: Congestion. Can you just talk a little bit about that? Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yes, it’s called Cars and Coffee. It’s at the auto Motorplex as you said the first Saturday of every month. 7:00 to 10:00. What time does it actually start? Chief Don Johnson: 8:00 to 11:00. Lt. Eric Kittelson: It starts from 8:00 to 11:00 and we have an officer there from 7:00 to noon I believe and yes, Fire Chief Johnson and I and the Fire Marshal met with the organizer of the event last week and are discussing some alternative solutions to relieve the congestion in the neighborhoods at that time. Mayor Laufenburger: We certainly don’t want to impede people from coming to Chanhassen to enjoy that but we recognize that anytime you have an influx of that many people and automobiles and you know onlookers it just requires a little bit of extra patience on people’s part, is that correct? Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yeah and it’s just something we need to evaluate and continue to re-evaluate. I think we learned last week that it’s become one of the largest in the country and it’s yeah, it’s quite popular so last year it started growing to and I think it’s probably doubled since then. Since last summer alone so it’s gotten pretty large in a short period of time. Mayor Laufenburger: Well we appreciate your efforts along with Chief Johnson’s efforts to make sure that that event continues in a way that can be both safe and enjoyable for everybody so thank you very much for your work. 5 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yep. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Lieutenant. Next we have Chief Johnson from the Chanhassen Fire Department. Welcome Chief. Chief Don Johnson: Mayor thank you. Council. I’d just like to expand a little bit from the legalities of the fireworks. Obviously the law enforcement part of town has to deal with that. I th would encourage that we do support a fun 4 of July here but the fire department has to recognize that once you let those aerial devices go, you have no control over them so we encourage the public to be safe and have a good time but stay within the boundaries of the law and try not to light things on fire with your aerial fireworks. Just to expand, and for council’s awareness the Autoplex actually, the Cars and Coffee is separate from the Autoplex owners. This is a sanctioned event. A national event. It’s held in several cities. They have been very compliant with the interior of the Autoplex for the fire department access and some of the law enforcement but as Lieutenant touched upon and yourself Mayor is we’ve had some significant issues with access for people coming into the city. Where to park. How to get there and obviously how to get out so I believe we’ve got a staff meeting that planning is going to be scheduling for us to kind of find out what we can do and how we can help and at least start working through some of these problems. They’re obviously compliant and this is a big event for Chanhassen but it is getting to the point where it’s very large on that Saturday morning both, in all directions of traffic and all areas of that whole location there so. th Mayor Laufenburger: And Chief just, the first Saturday in July is July 4. Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Mayor Laufenburger: So will, do we assume that there will be an event that day? Chief Don Johnson: Yes Mayor. th Mayor Laufenburger: So that means it will, that will occur right on top of all of the other 4 of July activities that we have going on here. Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. Chief Don Johnson: And the Fire Marshal or myself or both have visited the site each time this year and again the parking in the complex itself and the compliance with staying away from the hydrants and the no parking zones, they are following. It’s a matter of now it’s spreading out so far into the general public and access that it’s becoming more of a pressure for both law enforcement and the roadways here in Chanhassen when that’s going on. 6 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger: Well we trust that the two of you working together with staff and the organizers of the event will keep it a safe place for that day. Chief Don Johnson: Correct. My report for May. We did have our staffing is still staying at 44. nd I am happy to report that we’ve had a lot of action on our hiring process. On June 2 7 candidates went through 2 panels. One of fire fighters and one of command staff. From that panel we did pass 5 onto the next and new health strategies occupational therapy pre-placement for fire fighters. We did have an occupational health company come in and run the actual pre- physical demands testing for us this year. All 5 of those candidates did pass. At the end of the day we did, and today I’m happy to report that we did offer 4 conditional offers for fire fighters th starting on July 13. Those are conditional based on passing a fingerprint background check and a medical physical for fire fighters. It will be done by our health strategies occupational therapist th so we hope to, we hope to be putting on 4 people on July 13. We do have one person for station 2 and 3 for station 1 and we do have, we are hiring another female so I’m excited that we continue to grow in our diversity in this department so I’ll report on, report on their progress as we know more going forward. In May we’ve had, we did have 53 calls for service. Our average calls for service this month, or this year so far is about 55. We responded to 3 structure fires. One is a detached garage here in Chanhassen on Chanhassen Road and 2 mutual aid responses. One in Chaska and one in Excelsior. 25 EMS calls with 2 being motor vehicle accidents with injuries. Our monthly training was a live burn training in Edina. At the Edina Burn Tower. EMS training. Stand pipe operations and officer training where we did do some pre-plan visits of the Olive Branch Senior Housing and Centennial Hills Apartments. We continued with all of our compliance requirements for MFPA. We did, we finished our vehicle maintenance for the year. Our annual hose testing for the year. Our annual ladder testing for the year so all of our compliant, equipment compliance are done for this year and then there’s a list of inspections that the Fire Marshal’s active in currently right now. We do not have a cause for the Chanhassen Road fire as of yet. It’s difficult with a detached garage and electrical equipment so the insurance company’s hired a private investigator and we’ll be working with them to determine a cause. Nothing suspicious but they like to find out what happened and why. And then of significant for the Fire Marshal’s side of things, we did have and started our first inspection on a residential sprinklered home up on Strawberry Lane so anything over 4,500 square foot will require sprinkler systems and we had the first plan and we’ve started our reviews so that will be similar to a commercial building that’s putting in a fire sprinkler. We’ll have to see the rough in, the finish and do the final on that so kind of an interesting standpoint for Chanhassen. We understand that several other plans are coming in for that. Included some graphics for your packet. Nothing really stands out on the last page there. I’ve got our projected actual fire calls at about 664 if we stay on pace so we’re starting to climb as far as year over year. We’re averaging about 2 calls per day and that’s pretty consistent for this year so that concludes my report and I can stand for questions. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Chief. Any questions or comments for Chief Johnson? Your fire department was on TV. What was that about Chief? 7 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Chief Don Johnson: Yes it was. One of our fire fighters applied and was accepted into a TV show. A reality show over the last few months so surprised enough the show required or asked if some fire fighters could come and support her on that and we did send a contingent out there to help with the show. Mayor Laufenburger: Very cool. Had some good reviews apparently for those fire fighters. Chief Don Johnson: Thank you Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Chief. Chief Don Johnson: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Very much. PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR AN ON-SALE BEER AND WINE LICENSE, DAVANNI’S INC. DBA DAVANNI’S PIZZA AND HOT HOAGIES, 464 LAKE DRIVE, SUITE 100. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council, Davanni’s Inc is requesting an on-sale beer and wine license at 464 Lake Drive, Suite 100. Staff has completed a background check on the managers and the officers of Davanni’s Inc and it came back clean. This is a public hearing. Staff would ask that you open the public hearing for citizen comments. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you Mr. Gerhardt. First of all are there any questions of Mr. Gerhardt by council? Okay there being none, at this time I would open the public hearing. Is there anybody present that would like to make comment regarding the application for a liquor license by Davanni’s? There being none I will close the public hearing and bring this back to council for either comment or motion. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I’d like to make a motion then. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Councilman McDonald: I would propose that the City Council approves the request for an on- sale beer and wine license from Davanni’s Inc doing business as Davanni’s Pizza and Hot Hoagies. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you for the motion Councilman McDonald. Is there a second? 8 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Councilman Campion: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilman Campion. Any discussion? Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the request for an on-sale beer and wine license from Davanni’s Inc. dba Davanni’s Pizza & Hot Hoagies. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. 8610 GALPIN BOULEVARD INTERIM USE PERMIT: REQUEST FOR AN INTERIM USE PERMIT FOR GRADING IN EXCESS OF 1,000 SQUARE FEET OF APPROXIMATELY 50 ACRES OF PROPERTY ZONED AGRICULTURAL (A2); APPLICANT: CHADWICK GROUP, INC./OWNER: HOLASEK FARMS, L.P. Mayor Laufenburger: Do we have a staff report? Paul Oehme: Yes Mayor, City Council members. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme. nd Paul Oehme: Thank you. This item was brought before the Planning Commission on June 2. nd The applicant is Chadwick Group and Holasek Farms. There was a public hearing at the June 2 meeting. The vote was 7 to 0 in favor of the interim use permit. The subject site again is 8610 Galpin Boulevard which is just south of Galpin Boulevard and north of the Twin Cities rail, Twin Cities Western Rail line that runs through Chanhassen on the western side of town. The applicant is requesting a grading permit specifically for excavation of approximately 52,478 cubic yards of poor soils. They also would like a, to truck in or and stockpile about 91,000 cubic yards of material in anticipation of future development. The applicant has applied for and did receive a building demolition permit for this project or for this site already. The grading plan is shown here. The applicant has taken soil borings and has installed some piezometers on the site. The areas that are in question for poor soils for future development are shown here in these two locations. Those are the sites, areas that potentially would need to be corrected if it’s future development. The areas here shown are the stockpile areas. These are temporary stockpile areas so as the developer, property owner removes material, he needs to stockpile material in and eventually fill in some of these areas. As I had mentioned the developer has taken soil borings. Piezometers. A lot of the site is hydronic soils which means that they’re muck soils or unsuitable for building so there’s going to be, have to be a lot of grading work potentially would take place on the site. In conjunction with that soil analysis staff did review the soils in the soil borings and piezometer readings and we estimate that there are potentially some wetland characteristics out on the site so we have identified areas that we would like further study for potential wetland and specifically wetland delineation on the site consistent with Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act and federal guidelines as well so the excavated area here on the north side, we feel that doesn’t 9 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 show any wetland characteristics or potentially wetland areas. That area seems to be okay. The area to the south, this area is still in question. That’s why we’re requesting that the developer, property owner investigate this site for potential wetland areas as well. And again the two stockpile sites are shown in this area and again they’re both temporary stockpile sites. So with that staff does concur with the application and does recommend approval for the interim use nd permit. Like I had mentioned June 2 a public hearing was held for this item so if there’s any questions I’d be more than happy to try and answer them. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Oehme. Any member of council have a question for Mr. Oehme? I just have one. Paul you said or in the staff report it says that since the Planning Commission meeting staff has received additional information about the existing conditions of the site. Is there any information that you’ve received that would preclude us from moving forward at this time? Paul Oehme: Not at this time. It’s consistent with the background. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And the reason this is coming before the council is because of the volume of dirt that they want to move, is that correct? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. In our code staff can permit for up to 1,000 cubic yards of material. This is well over that allotted limit so that’s why it has to be brought back to council for consideration and approval. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Is there any other comment or motion from the council? Councilwoman Ryan: Mayor, I have a quick question. Mayor Laufenburger: Certainly, Councilman Ryan. Councilwoman Ryan excuse me. Councilwoman Ryan: That’s okay. In the packet it says for the hours of operation, the word expected kind of jumped out at me. 7:00 to 7:00. Do we have guidelines set for the hours of operation and have they agreed to work within those hours? Paul Oehme: So the City does have standard working hours that they have to abide by and basically those are the hours so if they want to go above and beyond that they would have to come back to staff and potentially to the council for modifying those working hours. Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. But so far they’ve agreed to work within the constraints. Paul Oehme: Work within the allotted city working hours that’s in our code. Councilwoman Ryan: Okay, thank you. 10 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger: And Mr. Oehme as is our practice you’ve communicated with all the property owners within 500 feet of this property, is that correct? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Mayor Laufenburger: And have you received any questions or comments back from any of those parties regarding this? Paul Oehme: We work with planning. Kate Aanenson: Yeah, no. Nobody was at the Planning Commission on that but I would add, back to Councilwoman Ryan’s, we also require that a trucking route be identified too so, as far as the hours of operation where it’s expected to go and that they maintain the streets clean because sometimes that’s a concern too. Paul Oehme: And that’s part of the NPDES permit that the applicant has to follow too to make sure that the streets and everything is up to that permit as well. Mayor Laufenburger: Good, okay. Alright, may I have a motion? Councilwoman Ryan: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan. Councilwoman Ryan: Chanhassen City Council approves the Interim Use Permit to allow site grading subject to the amended conditions of approval and adopts the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second? Councilman Campion: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman Campion, thank you very much. Is there any discussion? Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approve the Interim Use Permit to permit site grading up to 52,478 cubic yards of excavation and 91,000 cubic yards of stockpile as shown on the plans prepared by Ronald C. Hedlund, dated April 27, 2015, revised May 1, 2015, subject to the following conditions and adoption of the Planning Commission’s Findings of Fact and Recommendation: 11 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 1.Prior to grading within the pipeline easement the applicant must provide the pipeline company a copy of the grading plan and obtain any necessary permits. 2.Before grading operations commence the applicant must provide the Engineering Department with the proposed haul route. Any changes to the haul route must be communicated as needed throughout the grading operation. 3.Before grading operations commence the applicant must provide adequate evidence that the areas with the potential to meet the criteria for classification as jurisdictional wetland are either; a.not wetland due to failure to present with adequate hydrology, or b.are delineated according to the methodologies set forth in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual and a report must be submitted to the city for review and approval in accordance with the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act. 4.No excavation may occur within delineated wetlands that would not be considered no-loss of wetland under MN Rules sections 8420.410, 8420.0415 and 8420.0420 or without meeting proper sequencing and mitigation in accordance with the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act. 5.A security in the amount of $1,000.00 shall be provided for erosion control, vegetation and site stabilization. 6.The interim use permit shall terminate on November 1, 2016. 7.Before grading operations commence, the proposed grading area south of pipeline must be delineated according to the methodologies set forth in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual and a report must be submitted to the city for review and approval in accordance with the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Paul Oehme: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much. Enjoy your dirt moving. And just for clarification it’s Holasek, is that correct? John Chadwick: The emphasis is on the first syllable. Mayor Laufenburger: Holasek. Okay. John Chadwick: I’ll accept that. Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Holasek, that you very much. 12 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 CONSIDER RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY SOLAR GARDEN WITH OAK LEAF ENERGY PARTNERS FOR SOLAR GARDEN AT METROPOLITAN COUNCIL BLUE LAKE FACILITY. th Greg Sticha: Yes, good evening Mayor and City Council. At the June 8 City Council work session meeting council was addressed by a developer from Oak Leaf Energy Partners and by staff about the potential for participation in a community solar garden to be located at the Blue Lake Wastewater Treatment facility operated by Met Council Environmental Services. During that evening council was updated on the project and some of the parameters of the project. This evening we’ve invited Michael McCabe from Oak Leaf Energy Partners to once again review the project with council as well as the public to give the opportunity for council to ask any additional questions they might have for the developer or staff and then as well afterwards to consider a resolution which would authorize participation of signing a subscriber agreement with Oak Leaf Energy Partners in the community solar garden to be located at Blue Lake. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Sticha. Welcome Mr. McCabe. Would you just for the record give us your name and address please. nd Michael McCabe: Yes, my name is Michael McCabe. My address is 2645 East 2 Avenue and that’s in Denver, Colorado. Mayor Laufenburger: Wonderful, nice to have you here. Michael McCabe: Thank you Mr. Mayor and council members for having me again. I apologize the presentation is very similar to what we gave just a few weeks ago. We did a few new slides so hopefully those will be, will be helpful. Mayor Laufenburger: For the citizens this is brand new. Michael McCabe: It will be brand new so those people who have not seen it before, okay. Who have not seen it before hopefully this will be helpful into what a community solar garden is and what the opportunity is for the City. So as background, the community solar gardens program was a legislative initiative that was passed in 2013 by again the State Legislature to allow for the community solar garden. It took about 18 months for the Public Utility Commission to finalize those rules and so in late December of this year the program was officially started by Xcel Energy. The concept of a solar garden is to allow those who either are not able to or who do not want to install solar on their roof or at their waste water facility or on one of their city hall buildings to participate in solar and realize the same economic benefits and the same sustainability benefits that you would normally get if you were to put solar on your own property. The law requires that there are at least 5 subscribers to each solar garden. Each subscriber can take no more than 40 percent so the goal is to have as many individual subscribers as possible. A subscriber can be a government. It can be a corporation and it can be a resident. It can be an individual homeowner. The key is also that the, any subscriber must be in the same 13 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 county or a contiguous county. As you’ll hear here, what we’re trying to do here is do a 4 mega watts of solar gardens in Scott County which is of course just adjacent to Carver County so the City of Chanhassen does qualify as a subscriber. Just briefly Oak Leaf, we’re one of the nation’s largest solar developers. We work almost exclusively with municipalities. Be it a local city. A county. A state agency and we often operate at critical infrastructure facilities so water treatment plants. Excuse me, waste water treatment plants. Airports. These are important areas for us because they typically have enough land for us to site these solar farms and they also have a lot of electrical usage which we find is critical for any kind of solar facility. I mentioned we’re going to do 4 solar gardens at the Met Council Blue Lake Waste Water Treatment Facility. We have a map later. We’ll show you where that exactly is but if you know where Valley Fair is, that’s pretty good indication about you’re within spitting distance of the solar gardens. Here’s a diagram that describes the relationships between all the entities. There are again the subscribers I mentioned before could be a resident. Could be a business. Could be a city. There’s us as the developer and the owner of the solar system and then Xcel Energy so 3 different groups are involved. What happens is we go out and establish relationships with subscribers such as the City of Chanhassen. Met Council will be a subscriber to these gardens as well. We then will on our own dime finance 100 percent of the cost of the solar garden to both build it and to operate and maintain it on the long term basis. And then we establish a relationship with Xcel Energy such that we sell the power directly to Xcel. They will actually get that and then provide the city and all the subscribers a bill credit on your bill. And the bill credit, the whole key is the bill credit needs to be more than whatever the City and other subscribers are paying to us. That delta between those two, between the bill credit and the payment to Oak Leaf represents the economic benefit to in this case the City. So the 4 projects will reside immediately adjacent to each other. Again very close to Valley Fair at the Met Council site. It’s about 20 acres of what the total site will accommodate and it will be just over 15,000 panels. About 6 ½ million kilowatt hours will be generated annually from the solar systems. All 4 of them. Met Council, because they’re treated as 2 different subscribers by Xcel will receive about 80 percent of the kilowatt hours with the remaining 20 percent going to at least 3 other subscribers. What we’re proposing to do tonight is to provide the City of Chanhassen with 18 percent or certainly up to 18 percent of that, of that subscription. The balance, the remaining 2 percent would likely go to some other government entities that would, that reside more closely to the solar gardens itself. The subscription term is 25 years and as we’ll see here too, and I think it’s in your council packet, the economic benefit if you do some projections over 25 years expands greatly because our price to the City is flat for the entire 25 years whereas the bill credit itself is projected to grow at the same rate that typical energy prices will go up which is on average about 3 percent. The goal is to start construction in 2015. Just at the end of it and that’s to get the permitting. Have all the agreements in place and of course we’ll wait until about March before we start the actual construction because it’s hard to do so over the winter months. So what’s the opportunity itself? Again 20 percent of the remaining garden subscription is about 1.3 million kilowatt hours. We’re looking for the City to subscribe up to 18 percent. There is no up front cost to the City. Everything is born by Oak Leaf. Instead the City only pays for every kilowatt hour that it receives as a bill credit on it’s own bill so it’s a very clear obligation or opportunity for you. You’re never going to pay for something that you did not receive a bill credit in return for. We 14 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 originally went out to the 30 plus communities that are served by the Blue Lake Waste Water Treatment Facility plus Scott County as the host county and that’s again about 30 communities. We’ve had very good feedback and again we’re very close to our goal of 5 different subscribers. The City of Chanhassen would be the second largest subscriber behind Met Council which is treated as transit as one and their environmental services as a second so it is a big opportunity and the City would be a big component of this project. So we had put together a few savings estimates just based on scenarios of different subscription options. At the very top level again is what we think would all hope the City would be able to pursue which is an 18 percent subscription. The net present value of those savings over the 25 year term represents just under three-quarters of a million dollars and also about 28 percent of the City’s usage. The other 2 scenarios represent different subscription percentages depending on if Scott County and the City of Shakopee elect to participate and the reason that’s important is Met Council has said that those 2 entities as the host city and county have first dibs to actually get as much of the subscription as they would like to up to 6.7 percent. Currently it doesn’t appear that’s going to be the case. I think we’re going to have an up to 18 percent for the City. I think that’s a very realistic opportunity again with the city and the county participating at a much lower level. That’s in part because they’re served by municipal utilities so they do not have as many Xcel accounts as the City does. So here’s a graph just depicting that dynamic I mentioned before. In year one the actual saving to self are in fact net positive but it’s not as large as it will be over time. Our rate to you again is flat over time and, which is the blue line, and then the top line, the green line illustrates the projected bill credit that you’ll receive each month from Xcel Energy. And just a note, it looks like the blue line is going down slightly. That in fact is the case only because the way solar systems work is each year they slightly degrade so the same, or fewer kilowatt hours are generated each year but again the same rate and that’s why you see that line there. So that’s the presentation. We do have a couple of graphics in case anybody is interested in understanding more about where this is. You can see in the yellow outline here, this is a parcel map. Scott County parcel map. On the right of that is the Blue Lake Waste Water Treatment Facility and to the left of that is the Valley Fair. Just to give you an idea about where this land is. It’s treated as buffer land. Here’s another slide here that still came out the other way but if north is to the right as you look at this photo and the solar panels as you can see are using this buffer land that sits between the waste water treatment facility, which is the bottom of this picture, and there’s actually a forest service, or Fish and Wildlife facility just to the north in this photo. Just to the top of this photo and then of course Valley Fair. For those of you who have never seen a large solar farm, it’s relatively new to Minnesota but we’ll see hundreds of these mostly likely in the next 2 to 3 years. This is typically what you’ll see is a long row of panels. They’re obviously spread out so they don’t shade each other and inbetween are native grasses so they’re actually very environmentally friendly. Very little storm water runoff concerns at all. Again here after the grass is grown in you can kind of get a better idea about what the system itself will look like and then of course roadways that surround this. These 4 facilities will be very close to County Road 101. County Highway 101 I should say and so, and I think right now there’s 39 million people, some very large number of people who travel this road each year and so there will be a very highly visible solar gardens which again will be part I think of the City’s potential PR benefit. So that’s all I had in the presentation. I’d love to entertain any questions. 15 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. McCabe. Any questions of Mr. McCabe from the council? Councilman Campion. Councilman Campion: I have one. So during the subscription period can the subscribers cancel their subscription at any point? Michael McCabe: So the proposal to you is no. That this is a 25 year agreement between the two entities and in fact there is no way. You can get out of the agreement but there’ll be some kind of penalty to do so but no it is a 25 year term. Councilman Campion: Okay. Michael McCabe: And presumably if you believe in the projections which granted there are some variables in there, some inputs that you need to play with, it should be a winning proposition for each of those 25 years. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yes sir. I’ve got a question. Need to kind of clarify what I thought I heard but on the subsidy that where we get the bill credits for. If that were to go down or to go away to where now the cost is we’re paying more for this, for the electricity than what we’re receiving, wasn’t there something about we would be able to stop the contract at that point? Michael McCabe: So there is not no. That’s one, and as we discussed last time. That is one of the risks that if for some reason that bill credit were to go down, and it would have to go down pretty significantly but if it were to go down that would still be an obligation the City would have to bear going forward. Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: But Mr. McCabe is it also true that the agreement that we would enter into with a subscription through Oak Leaf Partners, your company, isn’t there also a, kind of an arrangement that we have with Xcel that Xcel agrees to participate in this program for a period of time. Is that true? Michael McCabe: That’s absolutely true. So there’s a document that the City itself signs with Xcel that speaks to that relationship. Xcel’s guaranteeing these payments for 25 years. Mayor Laufenburger: Right. And as we see on this screen the blue line represents the payments to Oak Leaf and as you say the performance of the solar panel over time is predicted to go down, which is understandable but our, we would continue to pay a certain rate for all of the power that we use according to the subscription but the green represents the bill credits that are anticipated 16 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 based on, what are they based on? Are they based on utility rates from Xcel? Is that what they’re based on? Michael McCabe: That’s exactly right. It’s a little more complex formula than that but basically it’s meant to, intended to follow the price of power and historically that’s gone up at least 3 percent annually. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so this is a projection. This is not a. Michael McCabe: This is. Mayor Laufenburger: It’s not a historical graph. This is a graph of what people would suggest the future will look like. Michael McCabe: That’s correct and so the very first data point in year one, that’s an actual number if we were to produce a kilowatt hour today, you would get that bill credit but you’re right. It is a projection of 3 percent per year. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And one more thing, I think you said this but the cost of building this solar farm, or this solar garden. Building a garden, are you planting flowers by the way? Michael McCabe: We are not planting flowers but. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright so this solar garden that you’re building, you are absorbing that cost and obviously you recover that initial investment over a period of time based on the subscription that you have, is that correct? Michael McCabe: That’s correct so we. Mayor Laufenburger: But there’s no cost to Chanhassen? We don’t have to kick in 10 grand or 100 grand to help you get off the ground right? Michael McCabe: That’s a great point. No up front cost to the City. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. Now you also answered another question. Is there anything environmentally unkind about a solar garden? Michael McCabe: Well we certainly don’t think so. Obviously there’s a construction period when you have trucks out there doing you know construction work but other than that they typically sit there. They’re very friendly neighbors and they don’t pollute. There’s no emissions of any kind and no noise so in our view they’re fantastic neighbors. 17 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger: Is there any light reflection that would impede airplane traffic or anything like that? Michael McCabe: There is not. We’ve spent many a year with the FAA. We’re the largest provider of solar farms at airports around the country. We helped the FAA create their guidelines around glare studies which is part of the whole glare issue and they do not. Now at a perfect angle they could but we have an agreement with Scott County that, and the City of Shakopee that if it were to do that we would adjust the panels but typically no. They would not glare in this instance. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Do they make any noise? Michael McCabe: They don’t make any noise. If you’re very close to the inverter, which is the smart device which I showed a brief picture of, you could hear something but you’d have to be about from here to Greg I think in order to hear it. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Well we stay that far away from Greg. Thank you Mr. McCabe. Appreciate your coming to address the council tonight. Michael McCabe: Okay, thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Sticha is there anything you’d like to add? Greg Sticha: No I think Mr. McCabe very eloquently presented exactly what he had presented to council 2 weeks ago. The project itself, staff had a high level of interest in it. It was thoroughly vetted by the Met Council. Their legal team had gone through the process. They’ve worked with the developer on negotiating the subscriber agreement so staff feels confident that because of that and who our participating partners are, that it’s going to be a very good relationship. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. And Mr. Sticha just to, any comments or questions from council for Mr. Sticha? Alright, could you just restate for us, for those that are in the chamber as well as those watching at home, if we were to enter into this subscription agreement with Oak Leaf, based on our current usage, what would our likely savings be in the first year based on our participation. Utility savings. Greg Sticha: Assuming that we are participating at an 18 percent subscription. That no other entities subscribe at larger amount, that we are at the 18 percent we’d save about, a nominal amount the first year. $5,000. That’s based on our 28 percent of the City’s total eligible load for solar garden participation. Obviously $5,000 then possibly would increase by 3 percent per year. Mayor Laufenburger: And then assuming that the graph on the screen that we see here, assuming that those bill credits from Xcel Energy follow the likely rate of that cost of energy from Xcel, we would expect that $5,000 to grow incrementally over the 25 years, is that correct? 18 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Greg Sticha: That’s the expectation, yep. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Okay. Let’s bring this back to council. Is there anything else that you wanted to say Mr. Sticha? Greg Sticha: No. Mayor Laufenburger: Let’s bring this back to council. Any comment, discussion or motion? Councilwoman Ryan: Mr. Mayor I’ll make a motion. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Ryan. Councilwoman Ryan: The City Council approves a resolution authorizing participation and signing of a subscriber agreement with Oak Leaf Energy Partners to be located at the Blue Lake Waste Water Treatment Facility operated by the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman Campion: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilman Campion. Any further discussion? Resolution #2015-42: Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves a resolution authorizing participation and signing of a subscriber agreement with Oak Leaf Energy Partners to be located at the Blue Lake Waste Water Treatment Facility operated by the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Sticha and Mr. McCabe. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Laufenburger: Any council presentations? I have one. Last council meeting I made reference to a number of student athletes in the Easter Carver County School District and also the Minnetonka School District who were participating in State athletic competition and one of those that I highlighted was that the Chanhassen Storm High School baseball team had qualified for the State tournament and the team advanced through the State tournament to the point that they reached their final game against Lakeville North. Well apparently Lakeville, the Lakeville Mayor felt pretty strongly about his team competing very favorably against the Chanhassen High School team and as a result of that made a wager and the wager was that whichever team won, the mayor of the losing city would have to wear the hat from the winning team at the next 19 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 televised council meeting. Well you notice that I’m not wearing a Lakeville hat at this council meeting and that’s because the Chanhassen High School Storm baseball team last Monday night defeated Lakeville North at Target Field in the State Class 3A title game by a score of 2 to nothing. And during the game I was keeping Mayor Matt Little up to date on the score via social media and, by the way it was social media that this wager was made. Is there a statute about me doing that Mr.? Roger Knutson: I’ll have to disqualify myself Mayor. I have a conflict of interest. Mayor Laufenburger: Oh that’s right. You represent both the City of Lakeville and the City of th Chanhassen don’t you which means you will be present on Monday, July 6. Roger Knutson: Yes sir. Mayor Laufenburger: At the Lakeville City Council meeting when I come in with my Chanhassen hat and place it on the head of Mayor Matt Little. Is that correct? Roger Knutson: That’s absolutely correct Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor, I think you need to bring two hats and show which city that he favors. Roger Knutson: I didn’t participate in the wager Mayor. Councilman McDonald: It doesn’t make any difference. Todd Gerhardt: We already know who Roger really favors. Roger Knutson: You betch ya. Mayor Laufenburger: Anyway I certainly join with the rest of the council in congratulating the Chanhassen High School baseball team for being the winner of this year’s Class 3A title game. And as a matter of fact, at a celebration following the game I was present and I spoke to the team and I read a proclamation making June 15, 2015 Chanhassen High School Storm Baseball Day and that proclamation was delivered to the high school. And I also had the pleasure of giving to each of the 11 seniors of that team a key to the city reminding them that that key didn’t open any doors except it may open doors to their future so anyway that was, that was news that I wanted to give at this time. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. 20 Chanhassen City Council – June 22, 2015 Mayor Laufenburger: Any administrative presentations Mr. Gerhardt? Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. It is a tradition here with the City Council we always try to cancel one meeting during the summer and so we’ve done some scheduling and it looks th like we can cancel our Monday, July 13 meeting and then our next City Council meeting would thth be July 27 at 7:00 here in the council chambers. So our July 13 Monday meeting will be cancelled so you can have a couple extra days to relax and enjoy these beautiful weather we’re th having and come off of that great 4 of July celebration which the t-shirts were broadcast. We th couldn’t see them but they were broadcast to the public and wish everybody to have a safe 4 of July celebration. th Mayor Laufenburger: Alright and just a reminder to council, the night of July 13 though there will be no council meeting, the fire department will be having their black hat ceremony and I think you might have received an invitation so if you want to be part of that, let’s make sure we note that as a public, potential public meeting Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Yes I will. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 21