CC 2017 01 23
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened
with the Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Laufenburger, Councilman McDonald,
Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Petersen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd
Hoffman, and Roger Knutson
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Nick Preisler 701 Xenia Avenue So. Suite 3000, Minneapolis
Nicole Nejezchleba 2851 No. Manor Road
Chad Herman 2851 No. Manor Road
Karen Henrickson 9651 Flintlock Trail
Jeannine Hubbard 2841 Washta Bay Road, Excelsior
Manuel Jordan 6347 Minnewashta Woods Drive, Excelsior
Christopher Erickson 2731 Sandpiper Trail, Excelsior
Paul Prenevost 6351 Minnewashta Woods Drive, Excelsior
Will & Elizabeth Ahern 1191 Homestead Lane
Don Nicholson 2901 Washta Bay Road, Excelsior
Michael Gilmore 2911 Washta Bay Road, Excelsior
Matt Duffy 7760 France Avenue So. #1100, Edina
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to this evening’s council meeting. Those of you
that are present here in the chambers as well as those who are watching on Mediacom cable
channel 8 or 107.2 or live stream via the Chanhassen website/agendas. Just for the record let it
be known that all council members are present this evening and let’s see, our first item on the
agenda is action. Agenda action. Are there any modifications to the agenda? Council members.
If not we will proceed with the agenda as printed.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Laufenburger: Our first item on the agenda is a public announcement. We’re beginning
a new year and a new season of festivals here in Chanhassen. The City of Chanhassen is proud to
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announce the very first community event of 2017. This is the 24 Annual February Festival.
Feb Fest as we call it. This is the first in a year long series of special events that are sponsored
by the City of Chanhassen, local service organizations and the local business community. Feb
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Fest will be held Saturday, February 4 and I invite area residents, their families and friends to
Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
join me on Lake Ann. Events will begin at 12:00 noon and will include ice skating, sledding,
sleigh rides, bonfires, a medallion hunt and of course an ice fishing contest. Hot food and
concessions will be sold by, sold on the ice by Chanhassen Rotary and also by Culver’s. And
Boy Scout Troop 330 will be selling both live bait and S’mores kits, and of course every year I
caution you to be sure not to confuse the two. The ice fishing contest will run from 1:00 to 3:00
p.m. Includes over $6,000 in prizes. Each Feb Fest attendee will receive one free door prize
ticket at the event for a chance to win over $3,000 in door prizes. Ice fishing tickets are $10 per
person and are available at City Hall. For more information watch the Chanhassen Villager or
visit the City’s website and I look forward to seeing everyone there. Now Mr. Hoffman, $6,000
in prizes for a fishing contest. If I want to be in the $6,000 prize pool I can buy a fishing
application but I don’t have to fish do I? I can just buy the fishing application?
Todd Hoffman: You can be in one of either drawings. You can be in the fishing contest or in
the door prize drawing and the door prize drawing is free and there’s $3,000 in that. You buy a
fishing ticket you’re going to want to fish and you’ll maybe catch probably a sunfish or maybe a
small perch and you’ll be on the board.
Mayor Laufenburger: I’ll tell you Feb Fest, America what a wonderful country. Join us folks.
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It’s always a good time and it’s the, how many? 24 Annual February Festival. Hope to see you
all there.
CONSENT AGENDA:
Mayor Laufenburger: Does anyone wish to remove an item and consider it separately at this
time?
Councilwoman Ryan: I do Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. And which one is that?
Councilwoman Ryan: D-7.
Mayor Laufenburger: Item D-7. Alright, with your permission then we will take that up
immediately after the other consent agenda items. Any other item to be considered separately?
Alright may I have a motion to approve consent agenda items D-1 through 6.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor I’ll make the motion to consider consent agenda items D-1
through D-6.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, is there a second?
Councilwoman Ryan: Second.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
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 January 9, 2017
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated January 3, 2017
Resolution #2017-06:
3. Adopt Resolution Approving Fox Woods Preserve Master Plan.
Resolution #2017-07:
4. 2016 Infiltration/Inflow Project No. 16-02: Accept Bids and
Award Contract.
Resolution #2017-08:
5. 2017 Street Rehabilitation Project (Lake Susan Hills): Approve
Plans and Specifications; Authorize Advertising for Bids.
6. Consider Approval for Cartegraph Software Upgrade.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
D(7). ADOPT RESOLUTION APPROVING APPLICATION FOR FUNDING FROM
THE CARVER COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
COMMUNITY GROWTH PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE PROGRAM FOR THE
FRONTIER REDEVELOPMENT SITE.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let’s immediately address consent agenda item D-7. Do we have a staff
report please?
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. Again this is a request by the
staff for the Carver County Community Development Agency on behalf of the redevelopment
for the United Properties and the Aldi project. Again we’re looking for an opportunity to
leverage the $60,000 for $120,000 for the demolition of the building. Whether this project goes
forward or not is independent so this project would have to qualify on it’s merits. The staff does
believe it meets the intent for redevelopment and resolving some blighted property so we believe
that it would be a successful project and we are recommending the council’s endorsement. We
do need a resolution of support in order to submit an application and I’d be happy to answer any
questions that you would have on that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilmember Ryan did you have a question?
Councilwoman Ryan: I did and I know we had, thank you Mayor. I know we had the discussion
in the work session but I just wanted to bring it up again because, and I appreciate the
clarification that just because the approval of the resolution does not mean that it’s, that the
project is necessarily going forward. Can you just explain again the process of the application of
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
$60,000 or applying for the $60,000. How many times a year we can do this and if, if we are
granted the $60,000 you know in this first application then are we eliminated from any grant
money coming back towards the City later in the year?
Kate Aanenson: Sure. Maybe I’ll address a couple other questions too. So this project, any
project in the city has to go through site plan review which would require a public hearing before
the Planning Commission and then ultimately the City Council so this project will have to go
through that process. Both those uses are permitted uses in the district but as we’ve heard from
some of the council the architecture is an issue so we’ll be working on that so that’s one process.
There’s also the TIF district so there’s two other tests that they have to go through. Getting the
TIF district approved which would also be part of your jurisdiction or the EDA to approve that
so that would be one of the steps too so this process, working through the CDA gives us an
opportunity to leverage $60,000. In order to get that $60,000 the developer would have to
submit receipts of $120,000. Again removal of the buildings for the underground parking would
meet that qualification. The CDA has two opportunities, twice a year for that. If this project on
it’s merits doesn’t prohibit us from applying again for any other application. As we stated in the
work session we’re not aware of any other project that’s coming forward but that wouldn’t deter
us. The Chick-fil-A project which we did was $30,000. This one’s $60,000. That we would
still have an opportunity if it met the criteria of the Community Development Agency for the
County. If it met that criteria then we would certainly submit another application on behalf of
somebody for that.
Councilwoman Ryan: And do they give a percentage sometimes or if you ask for 60 is it 60 or
could they give you $30,000?
Todd Gerhardt: The Board has direction to reduce but typically they either award or deny based
on your request.
Councilwoman Ryan: And if, and you made a comment earlier Mr. Gerhardt so if, if we don’t
get the $60,000 through this grant then it will be added for part of the TIF request?
Todd Gerhardt: If we do not apply for the grant on our, then we may have to add it to the TIF.
Councilwoman Ryan: And that was based on what United Properties had told you that in order
for them to move forward they wanted this?
Todd Gerhardt: That was staff’s negotiations with the applicant, yes.
Kate Aanenson: Again it’s a good faith effort to see if they qualify. We believe they qualify, a
good faith effort to submit the application. That’s what we said we would do as part of the
negotiations.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Councilwoman Ryan: And you don’t see it, even though I know there’s no glass ball in terms of
predicting what’s going to come down you know in the next 10 months, you don’t anticipate the
need, knowing that they spread it around not necessarily just going to stick to Chanhassen but if
they, when they do the evaluation you don’t anticipate us needing that $60,000 for another
project for the rest of this year?
Todd Gerhardt: Well I think the application deadline is.
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Kate Aanenson: February 1 to have it in by.
Todd Gerhardt: First for the first round.
Kate Aanenson: For the first round. So there’s always another round which would bring another
qualification in but as far as any other project that’s ready to go that would meet the criteria, we
do not have anything else that we can put together on this.
Councilwoman Ryan: And the next round is when? In the fall?
Kate Aanenson: September I think.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah I think it’s end of August, September.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other questions Councilmember Ryan?
Councilwoman Ryan: No thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. We have a staff report. Is there any further discussion or would
anyone like to make a motion?
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor I’ll make a motion that we adopt the resolution and direct
City staff to make the application by February the first for this grant.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any further discussion?
Councilwoman Ryan: Mr. Mayor, I just want to say the reason why I’m going to vote against
this motion is because of my concern that we jeopardize the opportunity to use this grant money
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
for another project that could potentially come before the City. So I just wanted to explain my
reasoning.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sure. That’s perfectly acceptable. Any further discussion?
Resolution #2017-09:Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
that the City Council adopts a resolution approving application for funding from the
Carver County Community Development Agency Community Growth Partnership
Initiative Program for the Frontier Redevelopment Site. All voted in favor, except
Councilwoman Ryan who opposed and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Laufenburger: At this time anyone in the council chambers wishing to address the
council on a matter not on the agenda tonight would you please step to the podium, stating your
name and your address for the record. And while you’re thinking about doing that, just a
reminder if you wouldn’t mind, if you’ve just recently arrived we would ask that you record your
presence by signing in at the table over underneath the map of the city. Thank you very kindly.
That way we know you were present this evening if you can do that. And by the way visitor
presentations is intended to be an open forum for anyone who wishes to address the council on
any matter, except something that is specifically on the agenda for the evening and it’s often
used as an opportunity to raise an issue that members of the community have or want to raise an
item that deserves recognition or acknowledgement of something good in the city so that’s what
the visitor presentations are for and we conduct these visitor presentations at every City Council
meeting. Alright there being no visitor presentations at this time.
Michael Gilmore: Excuse me sir, I apologize. I realize that the discussion you had was about a
grant but my understanding is under that proposal was also a proposal for a street and road
improvement project 16-2.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah and that, the item that you’re referencing is on the agenda tonight
and there will be a public hearing associated with that.
Michael Gilmore: Later than.
Mayor Laufenburger: Later in the evening.
Michael Gilmore: Thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. I appreciate your question if we can clarify that for others.
FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright tonight’s meeting also includes our fire department and law
enforcement update. Chief Johnson, you want to give us your fire department update?
Welcome.
Chief Don Johnson: Good evening Mayor and council. Thank you for having us.
Mayor Laufenburger: Happy new year.
Chief Don Johnson: Happy new year to you sir. The fire department’s annual report finishing
up for 2016, our staffing ended with 39 of 45 firefighters. I’ve got one firefighter on medical
leave and 2 firefighters on military leave. Hopefully we’re getting one of those back at the end
of the month. In 2016 we’ve had 5 firefighters retire from service and 3 resign prior to 10 years
of service. We did hire 6 firefighters and we hope to have them fully trained and operational by
the end of, or by the beginning of May here of ‘17. Our ‘16 calls came in at 690 which is 1 less
than last year. We’ve experienced a slight decrease in medical calls from 2015 and a significant
increase in calls that we’ve been dispatched and cancelled to. Motor vehicle accidents were up
slightly and we are working currently with Ridgeview and the sheriff’s office to try to get a
handle on why we’re getting paged out and cancelled so I hope to have a little bit more
information on that a little later on in the year. Significant calls for November-December. We
had an assist to Chaska with a boat crew and an incident command for a body recovery in the
Chaska lake there. We assisted Carver County sheriff’s office with multiple crews over several
days for a search of Lake Waconia and filled several mutual aid requests which were higher than
normal for us that year. Training we’ve continued our fire ground command procedures training.
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Initial response to structure fires. The fire department annual meeting was held on January 9
which we brought in a consultant to talk about dealing with change on the fire service. And of
course our EMS training is in full swing at the beginning of this year. Other activities we’ve
had, worked with the Carver County sheriff’s office and emergency management to, through an
active shooter drill at the Arboretum. Table top exercise that we just finished up. Assistant
Chief Van Asten and Murphy played as role players there. We did put Engine 13 in service.
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The duty crew mini pumper on November 27 and in January replaced all of our 800 megahertz
radios so we’ve had a busy year. Just a couple of other tidbits on numbers. We did respond to
21 structure fires in 2016. 12 of those were mutual requests where we took our crews to other
cities and assisted with their fires. We had 9 fires in Chanhassen. 4 of them were commercial
equipment fires in a commercial structure in Chan. We had 3 minor residential fires and 2
significant loss fires. One at Arboretum Village and the other one was a detached garage at Nez
Perce. That’s my report for this evening. I can stand for questions.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions of Chief Johnson? Thank you Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Alright, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Lieutenant Kittelson.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. I have the monthly law
enforcement update for you this evening. Towards Zero Deaths update. So we did our holiday
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parties DUI enforcement from November 23 through December 30. There were 24 DUI
arrests county wide. 11 of those DUI arrests were in Chanhassen. Deputy Heitz made 4 arrests
and Deputy Peterson made 4 arrests during that time and Deputy Amberg had a test result of .33
which is over 4 times the legal limit so that was our TZD contribution to the statewide effort. I
have the 2016 year end crime stats. So as you know you received 2 reports. January through
May was the Minnesota Criminal Justice Reporting System which we’ve discussed previously
was a summary based reporting method and then June through December you had the National
Incident Based Reporting method and we’ve talked about maintaining benchmarks and apples
and oranges and I think I’ve found a way to at least compare 2 different types of apples so more
on that but I have a verbal report for you this evening. First I want to start out with misdemeanor
investigations. In 2016 we had 108 assigned cases. 75 of those were closed and the clearance
rate was 74 percent. Again to differentiate they’re closed and assigned are 2 different things.
The 74 percent reflects a clearance rate of the 75. So 74 percent of the 75 that were closed were
cleared. A national benchmark for case closures is 37 percent so.
Mayor Laufenburger: And repeat again what.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: We were at 74 percent.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: And so we’re over double the national average for successful case resolution
so that was an excellent job by Sergeant Breunig and his investigator in that. As a comparison in
2015 we had 266 assigned cases. 192 closed and a clearance rate of 39 percent which was pretty
similar to the national average. For traffic crashes I’m very happy to report in 2016 we had zero
fatalities. We had 62 injury crashes and 494 property damage crashes. In 2015 we had 1
fatality, 54 injuries and 460 property damage crashes and if you look back to 2012 to 2016 we’ve
seen a pretty steady injury and fatal crash stats have remained relatively consistent. The property
damage crashes have increased about 5 to 10 percent per year for the last 5 years and some of
that can be explained by simply more traffic and more development and what not. For DUI in
2016 there were 92 arrests in the city of Chanhassen. As a comparison in 2015 there were 80. In
2014-98. 2013-48 and 2012-61 so those numbers are up slightly. So I took the NIBRS data.
The Part I and Part II Minnesota CJRS data and what we’ve done and Sergeant Puphal was
instrumental in helping me with this is, we basically are trying to make this, we’re trying to
apply the NIBRS filters to the old data points and so I’ve just picked out some that we can verify
for now that I can give you kind of a comparison. So assaults, burglaries, property damage and
theft have all decreased and drugs, fraud, and DUI have increased. For example in 2016, and
this is where we have to remember under NIBRS when I say assaults now we’re reporting all
assaults. Whereas before Part I and Part II differentiated between felony and misdemeanor level
so we would still have to drill down deeper to see where that increase was and some would be
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
more concerning than others so in 2016 we had 41 assaults compared to 50 in 2012. Burglaries
were at 49 in 2012. 46 in 2013. Fast forward to 2016 and we’re down to 29.
Mayor Laufenburger: Down?
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Down. Property damages in 2012, 13, 14, 15 were in the low 90’s. We’re at
53 for last year and theft went from 230 in 2012 to 174 in 2016. The increases are drug arrests.
Now again this could be anything from a misdemeanor, possession of a small amount of
marijuana to felony drug case but it is still all drug related. We went from 81 in 2012 and a
pretty consistent increase to 112 in 2016. Fraud we went from 76 in 2012 to 145 in 2016. And a
lot of that is identify theft and internet based and then again the DUI numbers which I gave you.
So there’s at least a snapshot of where we’re at in trying to re-establish you know how do we
compare what’s going on in our community for the last several years with this new NIBRS
reporting system so we’ll be able to continue to develop that I think. I’m pretty confident that
we’ll be able to do that. So I have the 2017 City of Chanhassen law enforcement work plan as
well. Our mission is to develop an atmosphere of policing that works in partnership with the
community to creatively problem solve and deter crime. Our goal is to coordinate and to tailor
the delivery of police services in a manner that is aligned with city and county core values, goals
and strategies. Some of the methods we’re going to utilize in 2017, first and foremost we’re
going to continue the 2016 work plan goals as they become customary and accepted methods of
delivery of police services to the city so those don’t go away because we have a new year.
We’re going to incorporate that into the manner in which we police. We’re going to complete a
comprehensive overview of the SRO misdemeanor investigator positions. Those are our 2
specialty positions in the city and Sergeant Bruenig’s going to evaluate the effectiveness of each
program and implement any identified improvements. We’re going to continue, so we talked
about pedestrian safety last year in our pedestrian safety project so as we review and we’re
working on our performance evaluations and what not, I happened to be watching the news at
home while I was doing this and I saw that, and I was thinking where do we go with pedestrian
safety project. Minnesota reached a 25 year high for pedestrian fatalities in 2016 and so we’re
obviously going to continue that program and I believe the number last year was 60 from, so it’s
almost doubled basically in the last 25 years so we’ll continue that program and Sergeant
Anderley’s going to take the lead on that. In looking at the National Citizen Survey we saw that
we were similar to other departments or had a slight decrease in the feeling of safety in the
neighborhoods and our goal in Chanhassen is to be above the national average so we’re going to
maintain neighborhood vitality by deterring theft and quality of life crimes through proactive
preventative patrol and community engagement and patrols will consist of routine and variable
patrols as determined by our crime mapping dashboards. We’re going to conduct weights and
scales enforcement to maintain and preserve city infrastructure. This will be accomplished
through traffic details completed by uniquely trained staff with specialized equipment, i.e.
Sergeant Anderley and we’re going to.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is he bringing that skill and equipment with him from where he was is that
right?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Lt. Eric Kittelson: He is. Well what he’ll do is he’ll take our weights and scales truck and use
that on specially identified shifts during the weights and scales enforcement periods. And then
Sergeant Puphal is going to work with myself and the City to evaluate and redesign the law
enforcement component of the City website to increase transparency and more closely blend the
contracted services with City goals, missions and announcements to be in line with other
divisions of services provided directly by the City. So that’s some of the work plan. February
Fest you mentioned. We are ready to go. We have our snowmobile patrol, ATV and about 4 or
5 deputies will assist with Chief Johnson’s staff to make sure everyone has a fun and safe event
so we’re looking forward to that as well. And I am very excited to have the entire Chanhassen
division law enforcement staff here all in the same room on the same evening and so with that
I’m going to call each of their names and have them come in and fill around me here. So on the
Team 1 night staff is being led by Sergeant Peter Anderley. And the Team 2 night staff will be
led by Sergeant George Puphal. These 2 sergeants are the additions to our team this year and the
remainder of the staff with the exception of the investigator has changed. We have Sergeant
Jason Bruenig working extremely closely with me Monday through Friday during the day and
also supervising both day shifts as well as the SRO position and the misdemeanor investigator.
On your Team 1 day shift is Deputy Michael Hanson and Deputy Cory Hanson. Not related.
Mayor Laufenburger: Are you sure? They look an awful lot alike.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: If you guys want to come in here too that’s fine. And then your other day
shift is Deputy Jamie Horvath and Deputy Adam Hastings. And then our investigator is Charles
Possert and I reminded him earlier that we were at 74 percent clearance rate last year which is an
all time high and that those expectations remain for this year.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well even greater. Just even greater, remember that. We want to see the
same kind of improvement.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: And our School Resource Officer, Deputy Bob Zydowsky. Also known as
Officer Bob at the high school. And if the next group wants to come in here that’d be great.
And then at night you have Deputy Carlie Amberg and Deputy Andrew Burt working together.
And on the other team you have Deputy Adam Peterson, Deputy Adam Heitz, and Deputy
Joseph Derosier and if you’ve ever seen a really big military truck parked somewhere in the city
lot outside Deputy Derosier collects those and occasionally treats us with driving them to work.
So this is your 2017 Chanhassen staff.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well I was thinking the same thing as Chelsea. What a great photo
opportunity.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yeah and we can certainly move forward there or if Dick wants to.
Mayor Laufenburger: No, don’t get too close to us here.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Lt. Eric Kittelson: And with that in mind sir this is the only time this year where I’ll be able to
ask you now that concludes my report. Do you have any questions?
Mayor Laufenburger: I do have a question. Do you understand how valuable each of you are to
this community and to the citizens of Chanhassen? Do you understand that? Our survey has
shown us year after year after year that one of the significant reasons why people come to
Chanhassen and stay here is because they feel safe in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in the
downtown area and that’s directly attributable to the work of you folks. I was going to ask this
question. I know there was an unfortunate accident recently but I see at least one of the people
that was in the accident is with us today so you’re back in business Carlie, is that right?
Deputy Carlie Amberg: Yes sir.
Mayor Laufenburger: Nice to have you back. So on behalf of the entire community, Lieutenant
Kittelson and all of you I just want to say a huge thank you for all that you do for this
community. Thank you.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: And I just wanted to close with this is the same team returning from last year
and so to have that continuity and consistency I think is really great and we’ve added some really
talented supervisors at night and a new investigator so very happy to have that and I think that’s
a reflection upon the community and the desire to work in Chanhassen so.
Mayor Laufenburger: I think it’s also important you highlighted that as good as they are, and as
strong as they are it’s still worthwhile to review the procedures and review the plans just to make
sure that we stay sharp you know. It’s sharp is important. You do a nice job for all of us. Thank
you very much.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thanks Lieutenant. I wonder if their presence was intimidating for the
visitor presentations. Nobody wanted to say anything that would get a look.
PUBLIC HEARING: 2016 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
(MINNEWASHTA MANOR): ACCEPT BIDS AND AWARD CONTRACT;
ASSESSMENT HEARING.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme is this your’s tonight?
Paul Oehme: It is. Mr. Mayor, City Council members, thank you. For tonight’s meeting, again
this is for the Minnewashta Manor. It’s actually a 2016 street project. As you may recall the
project was tabled for last year and rebid out later this year for construction proposed in 2017,
this summer. So with that, with the agenda for tonight I’d like to just briefly go through is the
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
project. I’d like to talk a little bit about the project background. Review the proposed
improvements. Talk about the cost and how the project is proposed to be funded and go through
the schedule and how construction would potentially take place. Notifications, those type of
things, and then I’d request that an assessment hearing be held. So with that the project is
Minnewashta Manor again. It’s just north of Lake Minnewashta. Just south of Highway 7.
Incorporates about a 1.1 miles of streets for improvements. They include North Manor Road,
Minnewashta Bay, Tanagers Lane, Sandpiper Trail, Minnewashta Woods Drive and then
Orchard Lane as well. These areas were constructed in either about 1971 or 1974 depending on
the street in question. The project was originally proposed again like I said in 2016 but we’re
looking at constructing in 2017. The streets in this area are old and cannot be maintained very
effectively with minor maintenance such as just filling of potholes or sealcoats or those type of
things. The streets have deteriorated to the point and got old basically to the point where a major
reconstruction is recommended. The numbers that are shown on the drawing here, I don’t know
if you can see it is our pavement condition index. There’s 37’s, 9’s, the highest area is in the 47
and that indicates that the pavement is within the reconstruction area so basically from 100
representing a new street down to a zero basically being a gravel street. That’s the range for the
pavement condition that the City uses. We do review these surveys or look at each of the streets
once every 3 years so we try to keep up to date on the pavement conditions for this area. Again
this area is in the lower ranges for the pavement condition index. On average for this
neighborhood it’s about a 28 which is, falls below the threshold or in the threshold for
reconstruction. Anywhere between zero and 45 is our typical practice where we like to see a
reconstruction project take place. Here’s a couple photos of some of the streets. Very heavily
patched at this point in time. A lot of alligatoring on the pavement itself. Older pavement. Very
brittle. Some edge cracking here as well. Some again alligatoring and some depressed areas
throughout the neighborhood. This section is on Minnewashta Bay I believe. These photos. So
with that the City, the staff is proposing to reconstruct the street which means replacing the
whole entire pavement section with a new pavement section so we’re looking at digging up and
replacing the asphalt and the granular aggregate that’s there and replacing it with a heavier,
beefier pavement sections. We’re looking at about 18 inches of select granular which is
basically sand material. We’re looking at putting back about 10 inches of Class V which is the
aggregate that will go over, below the asphalt and then about 3 ½ inches of asphalt that we’d be
replacing with. We are proposing to put curb and gutter on the streets as well on both sides.
And then also draintile in back of the curb. This draintile helps prolong the life of the pavement
section. It takes the water away from the pavement section. Keeps it drier so it’s not, so it’s
structurally sounder. Property owners will have the opportunity to tie in their sump pumps to
this draintile at no cost to the City. To them. Basically just ask for a no fee permit so we know
that that connection’s been made properly. And then also right now what we did, we are
proposing a high back curb which is B-618 curb and gutter so there’s an 18 inch gutter line here
and then the high back curb is over here. It’s about a 6 inch lip. The, we did have a meeting
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with the neighborhood back in January, or I guess last week already. January 18 at the, at an
open house and we did hear some concerns about the proposed high back curb that is being
proposed by staff at this time. Staff did include the high back curb in the proposal just to be
consistent with what we have done in past reconstruction projects. We feel that there is, the curb
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
does not allow for vehicles to go on people’s property so it keeps the traffic where it should be
on the road. It’s actually it’s better drainage type of curb than say the surmountable curb. It just
it carries a little bit more water and it doesn’t, especially in say in the heavier rain events it
doesn’t, the water doesn’t jump the curb as well. As much and getting in people’s properties.
And then also the public works department likes the high back curb a little bit better just because
we typically do not see as much sod damage associated with ice and snow control. The plow
drivers have ability to find that curb a little bit better than the surmountable curb. And it is a
little bit cheaper as well than the surmountable curb but with that we understand the property
owners concerns. There is surmountable curb already in the neighborhood. People that we’ve
talked to like the idea of the surmountable curb just because they can run their mowers over it a
little easier. Bike can drive over it a little easier than other vehicles and trailers and what not.
Getting back of your property so from a City’s perspective or staff’s perspective we prefer the
high back curb but we understand that the surmountable curb is probably the preference for the
neighborhood. If there are any questions regarding the street section at this time or what’s being
proposed.
Mayor Laufenburger: That’s a good place to pause just for a second. Any questions of Mr.
Oehme regarding the project? The layout and the plans for the curb. Any questions at this time?
Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Yes Mr. Mayor. Mr. Oehme. Then if I understand what’s in the
proposal would be the high back curb but you’re willing to go to the surmountable curb?
Paul Oehme: Yeah we’re, the City does allow or does put in the surmountable curb especially
for newer developments. Some of the newer developments in this neighborhood already have
the surmountable curb so we’ve heard from property owners that they’d like to be, the curb to be
consistent with those neighborhoods as well so we’re willing to work with the property owners
on the curb. You know we prefer the high back curb but we understand their preference for and
why they prefer some of the surmountable curb.
Councilman McDonald: Well at this point there’s no curb whatsoever in the roads is that right?
Paul Oehme: Most of the streets do not have curb. I think there’s one street out there,
Minnewashta Woods has the, some surmountable curb in it right now.
Councilman McDonald: So at least going to the surmountable curb that does give more
definition to the street and it would alleviate a number of problems but it would also solve what
the residents are looking for.
Paul Oehme: Yeah I guess I don’t want to speak completely for all the residents but I mean
based upon some of the emails that we’ve received, I think the council has received some of
those emails and some of the discussions we’ve had and communications we had with the
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
property owners, there is some passion for and some desire to have that surmountable curb
replacing the high back curb.
Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you Mr. Oehme. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other questions? Councilmember Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Yes thank you. Other than the sod damage that you mentioned with the
plows, the negative impacts to going with the surmountable, is it mostly water runoff?
Paul Oehme: Yeah from our perspective I think it’s just, it carries water a little bit better and
more efficiently. It carries more water. It’s not going to allow, especially in the higher say
storm events, not allow some of the water to get on people’s properties so it keeps the water in
the street and the gutter where we think it should be.
Councilwoman Ryan: Are you concerned with flooding in streets or yards?
Paul Oehme: No I don’t think so. I mean Nick Preisler is here from WSB. He designed, helped
the City design the project and the specifications and we looked at you know how many, how
many inlet structures are needed to, so we don’t have any drainage issues or flooding issues so
there’s been a design completed that’s included in the plans and specs to make sure we’ve got
enough inlet capacity. The pipes are sized properly to handle you know flooding issues.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay and then my last question. Thank you. And we still, the City still
puts in the surmountable curb so it’s not that the City has chosen to go away and just put in high
back curbs.
Paul Oehme: Right. I mean we would recommend that a curb style be put in there. We just feel
that adding a curb helps structurally the paving section. We think it will help the pavement last a
little longer. We don’t have the edge cracking like we would with, there wouldn’t be any on the
pavement if there wouldn’t be any curb. It defines the street a little bit better. It helps with
drainage. Those type of things so.
Councilwoman Ryan: Right but when we go into new neighborhoods we don’t just do high
backs. We do both so this isn’t out of the norm for what we’re doing when we reconstruct curb.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Councilwoman Ryan: To go with the surmountable curb.
Paul Oehme: Yeah correct. For the new developments that would come in that have just been
platted typically we would put in the surmountable curb because with new developments, new
driveways we don’t know exactly sometimes where those driveways are going to be.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay.
Paul Oehme: So instead of putting the high back curbs in there and then estimating where those
driveway curb cuts should be, we put in the surmountable so there’s no, they can put the
driveways anywhere.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other comments? Mr. Oehme, how many. Let me clarify something.
You said you had worked with the residents. Your desire or you would not have surmountable
curb right next to a home that has high back curb. You would choose to do one or the other on
sections of streets, is that correct? Or would you either do high back curbs everywhere or
surmountable curbs everywhere?
Paul Oehme: Yeah our preference would be to change. Everything in the design right now or
most of the streets in the project area are with the high back curb. The proposal would be to
switch out the high back curb with the surmountable curb so there’s basically more, there’s
uniformity through the development.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright so that answers that question. You would want uniformity.
Mr. Oehme how many residents, just your estimate, how many residents have come forward with
requests to drop the high back curb for the surmountable curb?
Paul Oehme: Alyson, Ms. Fauske and I we’ve probably heard from a half a dozen property
owners.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And that may or may not include some of the people that are here
tonight.
Paul Oehme: That could be correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. And how many resident homes are in this Minnewashta area?
Paul Oehme: 59 property owners are proposed to be to benefit from this project.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so 59. Let’s call it 50 and you’ve heard maybe a little bit over 10
percent, something like that. Okay, alright. And if Mr. Oehme do you have a dollar amount
attributed to or that can be attributed to the surmountable curb versus the high back curb in the
project?
Paul Oehme: Yes so we originally talked to WSB about switching out the high back curb to the
surmountable. They gave us an estimate of anywhere between a dollar and 2 dollars to switch
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
that out just because there is more concrete associated with the surmountable curbs. A little bit
wider and the design’s a little bit different. And there might be some attributed installation
issues. Little higher installation costs with the surmountable versus the high back as well too but
we did talk to the low bidder on this project and they gave us a price of a $1.08 for switching
from the high back to the surmountable curb. So if there’s about 11,500 linear foot of high back
curb that’s in the contract. So basically to switch out the high back to the surmountable again
it’s about $12,400 more to do that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. Mr. Knutson this might be a question for you. Let’s assume for a
moment that we chose to direct Mr. Oehme to change from the specification based high back
curb to a now a new specification called surmountable curb. Would it be within our prerogative
and the council working with city staff to do that or would we have to rebid with new
specifications for surmountable curb? You understand my question Mr. Knutson?
Roger Knutson: Mr. Mayor yes I do and you would not have to rebid.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so it would be within our purview to direct staff to do it that way.
Roger Knutson: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay very good. Alright. And Mr. Oehme would it be your intent, if we
directed you to do that you would add that to the overall cost and then the assessment for
everybody would be slightly larger is that correct?
Paul Oehme: Whatever.
Mayor Laufenburger: Whatever the council says.
Paul Oehme: Whatever council…
Mayor Laufenburger: We could say give it to them for free. Well not for free, no, no, no.
Don’t, please. Okay so what you’re saying is we’ve identified the cost. If we go there that cost
will have to be covered in some manner.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Okay. Any other questions on what the curb looks like?
Alright, Mr. Oehme you want to continue with your report.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor. So just some other improvements that staff is looking at
making includes one of the biggest challenges on this project was the storm water improvements.
The runoff. There’s very little opportunity to do a typical storm water retention pond area. The
neighborhood is all built out and there is no city property that we could use to utilize to leverage
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
storm water improvements so we did a lot of looking for opportunities to alternative, best
management practice for storm waters and this is the design that we’ve come up with. So there
is one opportunity to put a rain water garden at the corner up here by Minnewashta Bay that
would capture some of the runoff from this area. Another opportunity is to put in some
infiltration down by the lake. Down by Sandpiper Trail and Tanagers, at the intersection there so
they’re trying to infiltrate some water down there. Try to slow the runoff before it ends up in the
lake. And then also the City’s going to be looking at redoing or enhancing a wetland and storm
water feature in this location here after the project is done. We also are looking at putting in
environmental manholes. There’s 6 of them that are currently in the contract and they’re shown
here in yellow so those structures are basically storm water manholes that capture both floatable
debris that potentially ends up in the road and ends up in the storm sewer system but also
captures some of the sediments, sands and some other smaller particulates before it ends up in
say a rain garden or in the lake as well so we’re trying to do as much as we can along the, in the
project area as we can to try to treat the water. Slow the water down before it ends up in Lake
Minnewashta. The watermain in this area is, dates back to when the streets were built so we
have, and it is cast iron pipe. We have documented 10 watermain breaks in the area. We feel
that the watermain should be replaced at this time in conjunction with the street project. We’re
proposing that the watermain be replaced, the cast iron be replaced with PVC pipe. That’s our
standard material that we use now. We have had zero problems with breaks with using PVC in
the 20 years, 25 years since we used it. And then also new service stubs, those are the services
that go to the properties. Property lines into the property curb stop boxes. Those will all be
replaced in conjunction with this project as well. Sanitary sewer. The sanitary in this area is
PVC. It’s in fair good condition. However there are 3 settled sagged areas in the pipes that does
collect debris from time to time that we have to jet so we’d like to replace those sagged areas
with new PVC pipe so they flow a little better and then also we’ll put in I and I barriers on all the
sanitary manholes. This is to insure or help prevent surface runoff or ground water from getting
into our sanitary sewer system. With that the construction of the project, we are proposing to
open cut the watermain. We did have a bid alternate for directional boring the project. Boring
the watermain. That came in a little higher than we expected so we would still like to go with
the open cut method. It’s a little bit slower but it is I think about $250,000 less expensive than
the directional bore method. Temporary watermain would be installed so no property owner
would be without water for any significant amount of time but there will be some temporary
pipes on their property and hooked up to their spigot in their house for a temporary time til the
new watermain is installed. Construction inspection will work, we’ll work with the contractor to
coordinate work and notify residents of upcoming construction in from of their house you know
at least the day or two before so if we’re going to be working in front of somebody’s house you
know they’ll have the opportunity to get their vehicle or what have you out of the driveway
before we start that work. The post office requires that all the mailboxes be removed for these
construction areas so we’re going to be working with the contractor and the post master to
identify a central location for the mailboxes to be located in. The post master hasn’t indicated
exactly where he would like that bank of mailboxes to be located at this time but we’ll let the
property owners know as soon as we do on that. Garbage collection is always a big concern as
well but we do allow the garbage collection vehicles in the project areas and we do work with the
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
garbage haulers on picking the refuse on the specific date that they need to pick up their material
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at so. Bids were received back in December 6 at 2:00. We did receive 9 bids and they’re listed
here. The lowest responsible bidder for the project, and we did check errors as well so and GMH
Contracting was the low bidder at a little over $2.8 million dollars. They have worked on several
other street projects of various sizes over the years and their work has been acceptable. We did,
as I indicated bid the project originally out in March of 2016 and we only at that time did receive
one bid and the council did elect to reject that bid and rebid the project at a later date so by
rebidding the project from in December we did save a little over $308,000 from the bid that we
received in March to the bid that we see from GMH in December. When we add up the
construction costs from GMH Construction with all the indirect costs, the engineering, the legal
fees, the soils investigations, other engineering and some indirect costs this is the total that we’re
looking at so for the street project costs we’re a little over $1.9 million just for the street
improvements. The storm sewer is described. That’s $591,000. A little over. For the sanitary
sewer improvements we’re talking about $119,000 and for the watermain improvements
$741,000 and some change so what the total cost of $3.367 million dollars. This has been
budgeted for in the 2017 CIP and is within the engineer’s estimate. With these type of projects
there is a assessment practice that the City has followed of assessing 40 percent of the street
costs back to the benefitting property owners so the calculating the proposed assessment the
benefitting street costs, that 40 percent is calculated at $481,000 and over 59 assessment units,
property owners in this area that are proposed to be benefitted by the project, that amounts to
$8,156.30 per unit for benefitting assessment and that assessment is, can be assessed over a 10
year period and right now the interest rate is at 5.75 percent. That’s the prime rate plus 2 percent
for our carrying costs and bonding costs at the City so that’s how the 5.75 percent interest rate is
calculated. If the project were to move forward the contractor would like to start in May. We
have to remove some trees. Some installation of the temporary watermain. We’re not going to
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allow them to do any utility work until school’s out so sometime in June, June 12 the project
would kick into high gear so there is two phases of the project that staff has, is looking at. The
green here is the first phase so all the utility work, including storm water and the watermain and
the sanitary sewer work would be completed in the first phase. We would not have the
contractor start in the yellow area until a majority of the green area is completed. We would
anticipate starting utilities in the second phase in mid-July then and substantial completion,
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weather permitting would be September 1. And then next year 2018 we would propose to
install the wear course. That’s that final lift of asphalt over the entire project area. Resident
communication is always important to let people know when things are going on. What’s
happening so things that we’ve used in the past are planned to be used this year is door knockers.
Door hangers when say water’s going to be disrupted. Website updates. We’ll try to keep our
website updated as much as we can. We send out postcards on occasion just for major schedule
changes that may be going on and then also person to person communication. Not just with the
contractor but with our resident inspector will be meeting with property owners on and residents
will have his cell number if he needs to get a hold of him on a minutes notice too. So
notifications will be sent to those who live outside of the project area as well since there are
neighbors in developments that aren’t going to be touched but have access to this neighborhood.
They’ll also be notified when the project is going to be may potentially disrupt their access to
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
their property. So with that if there are any questions I’d be more than happy to answer them. I
do would request that a assessment hearing be held at this time as well but public testimony
should be received for this project and property owners should be reminded that if they wish they
must file a written objection with the City either prior to or during the actual project hearing.
The assessment hearing. Objections after the assessment hearing are invalid and to date the City
has not received any objections to the project. With that I stand for questions.
Mayor Laufenburger: When you say the City has received no objections to the project. The
project in total but let the record reflect that some people have said use surmountable curb rather
than high back.
Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Yeah I should clarify. Objections for the assessment and doing the
project.
Mayor Laufenburger: Ah okay. Well before we go to the assessment hearing let me just pause
for a second. Council members any questions whatsoever of Mr. Oehme regarding this project?
Okay, none at this time. Then at this time I would like to open the public hearing. This is a
public hearing which means anybody who would like to speak either in favor of or in opposition
to this project specifically as it relates to the assessments, but I recognize that some may choose
to expand their view beyond just the assessment, you’re welcome to do so. All I ask is that you,
the public hearing is open and I ask that you just step up to the microphone. Tell us your name
and your address and whether or not you’re in the project area. I think that’s a key thing and
then state your comments. Good evening, thank you.
Mike Gilmore: Good evening Mr. Mayor and council. My name is Mike Gilmore. I am in the
project and my address is 2911 Washta Bay Road.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, very good.
Mike Gilmore: And as was raised in some discussion in your meeting was a concern over the
curbs and I really have 5 points as it relates to that. Some of them were made earlier. The first is
safety. A lot of people walk those neighborhoods with strollers. Kids with small bikes and with
high backs curbs it’s, and those roads are narrow as they turn in there and it is harder to get off
the streets with oncoming traffic. With the surmountable curbs it’s easier to get off the roads
with a stroller. With a bike with small children so the first thing is safety. The second thing is
reconstruction. On our road alone in the last 10 years there’s been 3 teardowns with
reconstruction. Relocation of the driveways. One remodel and one new construction in an open
lot and a lot of the houses were built in the 50’s and the 60’s and I could see a fair amount of
additional reconstruction and/or remodeling with relocations of driveways. I’ve heard, currently
I serve as the homeowners association president for Minnewashta Manor and heard from a
number of our residents that they also have concerns over this. One of them was brought up as it
relates to just the ease of mowing with riding lawnmowers or even push mowers. Just the high
back curbs it’s a lot easier as far as mowing and maintenance. As well as ease of access so a
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
number of individuals, including myself have let’s say a back garage or a separate garage door or
a storage unit and high back curbs would make it more difficult to get up and over the curb into
the yard to access those other locations. And then the last one would be, again was talked about
somewhat aesthetics in the neighborhood. There are 4 adjoining roads to these proposed road
reconstruction and that’s Washta Bay Court, Tanagers Point, Piper Ridge Lane and Minnewashta
Woods. All of them adjoin and all of them have the surmountable or the low back curbs so I
would ask for your consideration of changing the current proposal to include the surmountable or
low back curbs.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gilmore before you go may I ask you a question?
Mike Gilmore: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: You said that you’re president of the homeowners association.
Mike Gilmore: Correct there’s a small informal homeowners association. We maintain the
signs. The Minnewashta Manor signs and just you know more welcoming people into the
neighborhood so it’s not a formal assessment type of an association.
Mayor Laufenburger: How many members in that association Mr. Gilmore?
Mike Gilmore: It is I believe about 52. There’s one road that’s in this reconstruction that’s not
technically part of the Minnewashta Manor plat.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Gilmore.
Mike Gilmore: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is there anybody else who would like to speak?
Nicole Nejezchleba: Good evening.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good evening.
Nicole Nejezchleba: My name is Nicole Nejezchleba and I’ve been before the council before.
Actually a couple of times last year. My address is 2851 North Manor Road so my road is part
of the reconstruction project.
Mayor Laufenburger: And you said it’s Nicole?
Nicole Nejezchleba: Nicole yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Nicole Nejezchleba: And I have before me a petition signed by 16 of the residence. Not
residents as in people but homes that are in the reconstruction project all opposing the high back
curb and gutter. I did talk to the City last year about presenting the petition but the bid came in
so high that at that time I was told to hold off to see where this was going to go. Just like my
neighbor stated the major concern people have is right now the majority of the neighborhood has
no curb and gutter and the safety is our number one concern. We like how our neighborhood
looks. If we do high back curb and gutters it would change the neighborhood drastically. I have
2 children. They bike. Our road though you wouldn’t think so actually is high traffic because
people go from Highway 7 all the way to the back of the neighborhood we have a lot of teenage
drivers. Many times you have to get out of the road quickly. If you’re biking with a 3 year old a
high back curb and gutter is not a good idea. Also I’ve driven in the neighborhood where I’ve
had to get out of the way of a child that has maybe gotten away from their mom.
Mayor Laufenburger: Noooo.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Noooo, never happens, not in our neighborhood or a ball rolls into the
street and you’ve kind of got to swerve. Again that high back curb and gutter added with snow,
you don’t have a lot of wiggle room so I would like to present this petition formally at this time
if I may.
Mayor Laufenburger: You may do so. If you present it right there to Mr. Oehme, he’ll make
sure that it’s part of the record okay.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Yes, thank you.
Paul Oehme: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other comments Nicole?
Nicole Nejezchleba: I actually just had one quick question just because I did not hear it. Last
year we talked about the fact that North Manor Road will only have one side with curb and gutter
because it’s a very narrow road and there’s a ditch for drainage and there was some talk about
adjusting the cost because there’s less benefit on that road and I’m not sure where that was last
year we talked about that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme, do you recall that?
Paul Oehme: Yeah I remember talking to Nicole specifically about her street. So we treat
everybody equally.
Mayor Laufenburger: Every parcel is considered equally beneficial.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Paul Oehme: Exactly so and the City picks up 60 percent of the project cost so a lot of the
nuances between the City you can, between each of the streets that theoretically are picked up by
the City so.
Mayor Laufenburger: And this is a practice that we’ve been doing for many years.
Paul Oehme: For many, many years correct. Right.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Nicole.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Thank you. I think there’s some of my neighbors who still would like to
speak so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Really?
Nicole Nejezchleba: Yes. Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: They have more to say than you?
Nicole Nejezchleba: Always. Thank you so much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Nice to have you here Nicole. Thank you. Before you give us your name
I just want to raise a question. Mr. Oehme would you just remind us that you showed us a
budget of I think there were 4 different items. There was the street and then there was the storm
water, sanitary. There. What is the City’s practice on paying for storm water and sanitary and
water utilities?
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor. So for those utilities the funding for those improvements
would come out of the utility fund associated with those improvements so those funds are, would
not be, or those improvements are not assessed back to the property owners in this neighborhood.
Mayor Laufenburger: And again that’s a practice that we’ve been following for a number of
years is that correct?
Paul Oehme: Correct, right. So it’s going to be roughly over a $3.3 million dollar project and
we would be asking to assess $481,000.
Mayor Laufenburger: Which is about 40 percent okay.
Paul Oehme: Well total. Yeah $3.3 million.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Manuel Jordan: Good evening Mayor, council members and staff. My name is Manuel Jordan.
I live at 6347 Minnewashta Woods Drive and I am here to ask you as the rest of my neighbors
have to consider changing from the high back curb to the surmountable curb. Part of the biggest
reason why has already been illustrated by some of my neighbors but I wanted to bring up one
other point too that I had asked some of the staff to kind of get a better idea of the exact benefits
of the high back curb versus the surmountable curb when it comes to a large weather event and
what I’m looking, and I think this is kind of a difficult question to ask staff but I ask it
nonetheless is what specific type of weather event do we looking at meaning is this an event that
we would expect to see once every 5, 10, 50, 100 years or so what type of weather event from
that number one. And then number two, depending on how often we see that what are the major
benefits of having the high back versus the surmountable because it seems to me that unless it’s a
significant difference of being able to, because it sounds like to me that the capacity for moving
water and for making sure that ponding isn’t going to happen has already been accomplished by
the design so it seems to me that whole idea of having it just for that purpose seems like it’s not
necessarily, I don’t want to say valid because it certainly is a valid point. I understand where
they’re coming from but it seems like there’s a lot more room for negotiating than maybe in a
different situation. For some of you that may not have been through our neighborhood we do
have lots of kind of slopes kind of going up and down and when it comes to the kids moving
around on their bikes, especially those new ones they’re starting to get going, when gravity gets
ahold of them going down one of those streets you know understand those of you that have
younger kids that there’s going to be some skin left on someplace from some of those kids
experiencing that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Aren’t those great learning experiences? Do you remember those when
you were growing up too?
Manuel Jordan: Absolutely and it felt great to land on the grass.
Mayor Laufenburger: We didn’t have grass where I was growing up. It was gravel.
Manuel Jordan: Right, right. So again I’d like to ask that but at the same time I wanted to let
you folks know that in our conversations, the ones that I’ve had personally with staff have been
very forthcoming. Given us information whenever we requested it and some of the things that
have already been done since the first meeting we had last year. One of the things that I brought
up is are you guys going to be doing some pruning to kind of create a work space so then private
trees don’t get damaged, things like that. That’s already happened so city staff has already taken
care of that and I don’t think that has been brought up yet as a positive because we’re talking
about all the things we want to change but I wanted to thank staff for that because that seemed to
get kind of lost in the shuffle so again thank you for your time and please give consideration to
our request.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you for acknowledging the work that has been done. You’re
right, is it Mr. Jordan is that correct?
Manuel Jordan: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: City staff is in tune with these things so thank you. Mr. Oehme, Mr.
Jordan raised, you want to know exactly what are the benefits and I think you appropriately
identified that there are benefits on both sides. You said that the high back curb handles the
drainage of the water better than the slope. I understand that especially if it’s a large rain.
Whether it happens once a year. Once every 5 or 10. You also said less sod damage. Just talk a
little bit about that. How does high back curb provide less sod damage?
Paul Oehme: So our public works employees when they’re out ice and snow control on their
trucks they can’t always see where the curb is so basically the wing of the plow, they can
actually feel the wing bunting up against the high back curb a lot easier than the surmountable
curb so they don’t know exactly sometimes where the surmountable curb is but they can
typically most of the time feel where the high back curb is located so.
Mayor Laufenburger: And I know that there has been times when the surmountable curb does
create sod damage from the plows. What’s the City’s, what is the City’s general practice on
repairing that sod when it comes time, spring time? What’s been our practice in the past?
Paul Oehme: Yeah so our practice is to try to get out there as soon as we can. As soon as the
property owner or if we find that there’s sod damage.
Mayor Laufenburger: If they report it. They let us know.
Paul Oehme: If they report it we go take a look at it. If it’s on days like today where it’s a little
bit warmer and we can actually fold the sod back, we try to do that as quickly as we can and if
the sod is gone, we can’t find it anymore we would be out there in the springtime putting down
some topsoil and then seeding that area.
Mayor Laufenburger: And that repair that we offer on the surmountable curbs where there’s
more damage as opposed to the high back, do we charge the citizens for that?
Paul Oehme: We do not.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. You also said that the high back curb is slightly cheaper okay.
Alright, thank you. Next. Somebody else?
Jeannine Hubbard: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thanks for your work on this project. My name is
Jeannine Hubbard. I live at 2841 Washta Bay Road and am part of the project and my one
question with respect to, because we have obviously in our neighborhood among neighbors
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
proponents of both styles of high back and surmountable. I personally give more credit to the
children in our neighborhood to navigate. However my biggest concern is the lake water quality.
Is there a benefit to using high back versus surmountable for the water quality? For any kind of,
any benefit one way or the other?
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme you want to try to address that?
Paul Oehme: Sure. I don’t think there really is a defined benefit from using one style of curb to
the other.
Mayor Laufenburger: You’re going to have the storm sewer places in the same place.
Paul Oehme: Same location. Same capacity and it’s going in the same location so it’s going to
get there at the same rate as it would with either style of curb so really there is no water quality
benefit using one curb versus the other.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. It’s a good question Ms. Hubbard though.
Jeannine Hubbard: Great.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let me hypothesize. I don’t, I’m not familiar with all of the curbs here
but is there anyplace where the water, because of the gradient of the street, if a surmountable
curb is used that the water would increase in it’s capacity as it’s working it’s way towards that
storm drain right. Is there anyplace where the curb of the street would be such that the
momentum of the water would actually go up over the surmountable curb and into the grass and
then would pick up I don’t know, any vegetation or.
Paul Oehme: End up in somebody’s yard?
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah somebody’s and then end up in the lake. Could that happen?
Paul Oehme: I can’t really think of anything. Maybe Nick.
Nick Preisler: I can take. So when this project was designed with the B-618 curb.
Mayor Laufenburger: Which is the high back?
Nick Preisler: Correct. We did take a look at surmountable curb and how that would impact
flows in the curb line and switching to a surmountable curb, we design for what we call a 10 year
storm event. I would not expect the momentum of water to go over a surmountable curb within
the storm event that we designed for. That would be interchangeable with the B-618 and the
surmountable.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. I think that answers your question.
Jeannine Hubbard: It does, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Ms. Hubbard. Anybody else?
Christopher Erickson: Hello.
Mayor Laufenburger: Hello.
Christopher Erickson: Hi I’m Christopher Erickson. I’m in the project at 2731 Sandpiper Trail
so thanks for your time tonight. I would reiterate the surmountable curb request. Two additional
things with the surmountable curb. We have people that live in the Dartmouth community where
you guys have already done projects.
Mayor Laufenburger: That would be to your west right?
Christopher Erickson: To our west yes and they got the high back curbs and they completely
hate them to be honest. Before the road was wider and they could have cars parked on either
side of the road and still have two way traffic and now they cannot so for me we have, my kids
have friends there and when they have gatherings at these homes the kids will park on the streets
and you’re unable to pick up your kids from these houses because you can’t get, traffic is
impossible to get through there so I don’t want to see that in our neighborhood.
Mayor Laufenburger: So you’re, Mr. Erickson you’re saying that the surmountable curb would
allow the tires to actually go over the surmountable curb onto the grass to get more room.
Christopher Erickson: Right and keep the width where it is because we’re able to park that way
now.
Mayor Laufenburger: Does that pose another problem? Wear and tear on the grass? Ruts in the
grass?
Christopher Erickson: Not that I’ve seen so far. The only damage that we’ve seen is the plow on
the curbs. Curves. There’s on the straight away’s there not ever any grass damage and quite
frankly the seeding doesn’t accomplish the replacing of the sod. It mainly ends up being weeds
that come up in those areas so I don’t, just to say to your point. My home in general at 2731
Sandpiper Trail is the I believe one of the lowest points in that neighborhood. I have a drain at
the end of my driveway so as part of that my yard and any major rain becomes a lake in my front
yard so a surmountable curb would also I think hinder what little drainage I have right now in my
yard so I’m wondering in your plan, have you planned on any back fill to make sure the yards
slope properly into the yards as well?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Sounds like you’re, you said Sandpiper Trail?
Christopher Erickson: Yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: So you’re near.
Christopher Erickson: I’m the second house on the left as you turn into Sandpiper when you
pass the pond.
Paul Oehme: I believe we’re moving that catch basin from your driveway.
Christopher Erickson: You are?
Paul Oehme: Yes.
Nick Preisler: What’s your address?
Christopher Erickson: 2731 so yes you’re actually cutting that off and filling it and then moving
that?
Paul Oehme: Yep, yeah exactly.
Christopher Erickson: But my front yard to the south fills with water and my back yard
everybody else’s yards drain into my back yard and it comes out on either side of my yard to
drain into the street so I’m wondering on other people’s properties as well as mine have you
planned to drain those yards properly when you redid a road and then the property across from
us, if the street comes up, they have a U shaped driveway so if the street comes up at all the
water’s going to run right into their garage. On the curve so I’m curious.
Paul Oehme: Typically we lower the streets a couple of inches so, I don’t know if you found the
cross sections then or not but that’s one thing that WSB looks for. One of the first things we
look for when we set the grades of the road is to make sure that we’re not going to have any back
pitch into people’s driveways and in people’s yards. Make sure that everything should drain to
the street so.
Christopher Erickson: Yeah and I really appreciate you guys moving the drain at the end of the
driveway because it’s fallen in 4 times so it’s been a pain. I think that was it.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright.
Christopher Erickson: Without reiterating everything that’s been already said.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you Mr. Erickson.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Christopher Erickson: Yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else?
Donald Nicholson: My name is Donald Nicholson. My wife and I live at 2901 Washta Bay
Road and I think you all got my email last week so I won’t repeat all that stuff. Two things I’d
like to point out. I feel that this has come a long a little quickly on us. The first I learned about
what the curb design choice was, was last Wednesday at the meeting when I came up here. I’ve
been speaking to staff last year about concerns about the curb. My wife signed this petition last
year but I didn’t know the decision had been made on this high back curb until I came up here so
we haven’t had much of an opportunity to organize a consensus of the neighborhood. I spoke to
our city engineer and I think staff might agree that getting that input really isn’t the residents job
but maybe the City’s job. If the residents have a preference one way or another it’s something
that should be solicited by the City not the City proposing something and the residents have to
organize opposition. I’ve spoken to at least a half a dozen people who use riding lawnmowers
who are in my situation and very much oppose the high back curb but I haven’t spoken to
everybody. Spoke to Judge Ivy just 2 hours ago and he said he’d write a letter in support of us
but he was going skiing tonight. Anyway.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good of him to get out of town.
Donald Nicholson: He’s just going to Buck Hill but the one thing I would point out to you, and
maybe if you want to put a map up there so they can see it. These 2 poor neighbors here live on
Washta Bay Court on one side and Washta Bay Road so if you put a high back curb in they’re
going to have, Mr. Christensen’s going to have high back on this side of his property and the
surmountable on this side of the property. Same thing with this neighbor here and Mr. Gilmore I
think pointed out these other neighborhoods. Tanager Place is all surmountable. This is all
surmountable. And there’s another neighborhood over here that’s surmountable but I don’t
know exactly where it is.
Mayor Laufenburger: Farther up in Orchard Lane you mean?
Donald Nicholson: I don’t know. I don’t drive over there very much but I understand there is an
older neighborhood over here that has surmountable in it so but I understand staff’s position
where they’d like to see the City going. I’d like to point out that our surrounding neighborhood
isn’t all high back. In fact the project area is really all surrounded by surmountable curbs. Not
high back. The thing I would encourage the council to consider, if you’re going to make a
decision tonight I think it’s a little unfair to those of us that would like to organize what our
neighborhood feels about this and give you some feedback. I also want to see the project go
forward. Embrace the project and I’m thrilled we’re going to get our streets fixed but I do think
that it’s only fair that the neighbors have input on this so.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Nicholson do you feel that the neighbors had a chance to provide
input both tonight as well as over the last week and a half? Do you feel that way? I mean I’ve
got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Let’s add 15 members of the petition. That’s 21 or 20 and I feel like, at least
I feel like I’ve heard what the neighbors have said. Do you feel like the neighbors have not had
their voice heard?
Donald Nicholson: Probably. And that’s because we did get the postcard notice for the wrong
date the first time. Right date the second time on this opportunity to come see about the project.
Mayor Laufenburger: Right.
Donald Nicholson: I’m not sure what the level of interest among the neighbors was to come see
that or their availability or whether they’re even in town. I travel a good bit myself.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sure, sure.
Donald Nicholson: So it wasn’t a very organized way to get that input. My email to you was the
result, happened at about the same time that I circulated about 20 of our neighbors who are on an
email chain. I don’t know how you communicate with everybody other than an affirmative
response from people.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well I think you need to give yourself a little bit more credit than you are
with this because I think your voice perhaps was a little bit of an inspiration for other people to
speak up as well so.
Donald Nicholson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you.
Donald Nicholson: Thank you for listening to me tonight.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Nicholson. Anybody else?
Paul Prenevost: Thank you for the opportunity. My name’s Paul Prenevost. I live at 6351
Minnewashta Woods Drive and have since 1986 so I’ve raised my 3 children and now I have a 4
year old grandson so I’m concerned about the gutters. I appreciate that you’re listening to us and
I think we all have valid points and I agree with all of them. One of the things that I noticed
since 1986, I’ve never had my grass damaged by any snowplow so I have to give the snowplow
drivers credit for the great job they’ve been doing.
Mayor Laufenburger: We’ll make sure that they hear that.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Paul Prenevost: Yes well the other thing is that when we have the heavy winters and the snow
and they’ve come by and pushed the snow back, I would expect to have damage and I’ve never
had anything so I just wanted you to know that we do appreciate what they do and appreciate
your listening to us and I appreciate the rest of my neighbors.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good, thanks Paul. 31 years in the community. That’s wonderful.
Paul Prenevost: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else?
Chad Herman: Hello.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yes sir.
Chad Herman: My name is Chad Herman. I live at 2851 North Manor Road. I won’t talk about
the gutters or the curb. I just have one question about the financial.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well wait a minute, I think I want to hear. How do you feel about the
gutter? You know your voice is important.
Chad Herman: Well my wife talked about it and she brought the petition so I let her.
Mayor Laufenburger: So if you’re on the petition. If you’re on the petition then we’ll consider
your voice.
Chad Herman: Yes I’m on the petition as well.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sorry to interrupt.
Chad Herman: No that’s okay. I’ve got a question regarding the finances basically. I’m trying
to just understand and kind of wrap my head around. I understand how the City chooses to just
divvy it up everybody equal on the 59 properties. It’s very simple math. Take the value, divide
by 59, that’s what you get. Boom. I guess and I understand that it’s been done for a number of
years. I guess my question is, and it’s kind of a couple phased questions so I apologize for that
but has the City considered looking at other opportunities or other ways to divvy up that cost? I
know that you could argue or discuss numerous ways to do it. You could also argue is it equal
versus is it fair because not always equal equates to fairness. At least in my opinion. And then I
guess my other question, which is slightly different would be how did the City determine the
interest rate of 5.75 percent and is the City actually borrowing funds to pay for this to assess the
owners of the properties or is this being totally funded by the City and then the assessment just
goes back and replenishes the pool that the City had to use?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Let’s consider the first question and I think Mr. Gerhardt wasn’t
feeling well, is that correct? Yeah. So has the City considered other ways of doing this? Mr.
Oehme, you’ve been here how many years?
Paul Oehme: Since 2004.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so you’ve been here over almost 13 years now. Was this practice
in place 13 years ago when you began? The practice of assessing the street repair, 40 percent to
the property owner and 60 percent to the balance of the City.
Paul Oehme: Yes it has. It was before my time.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s been in place a long time.
Paul Oehme: Exactly right.
Mayor Laufenburger: Council members do, Councilwoman Tjornhom you’re the long term one,
do you recall has this practice been this way for as far as you know?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: As long as I’ve been here.
Christopher Erickson: May I say something to that?
Mayor Laufenburger: Go ahead Mr. Erickson. Sure.
Christopher Erickson: I was told by.
Mayor Laufenburger: Why don’t you speak into the microphone yeah.
Christopher Erickson: I was told by people at the City that City Council voted in ’92 to change
it. I’m not sure what it was. I’m assuming it was residents were responsible for street and gutter
because that was my specific question when I asked. And it was changed and taken effect in
1993 to this 60/40 split.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. That, Kate do you have any history on that? Yeah. That seems
reasonable. I think the, I can just speak to some other cities. Other cities don’t, ah here’s Mr.
Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: I heard my name.
Mayor Laufenburger: The question is, the question Mr. Gerhardt relates to the financing. Has
the City ever considered other ways to proportion the cost of the street repair? You know we use
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
40 percent to the property owner and 60 percent to the City. Has the City ever considered
anything else as far as you know? Can you give us some history?
Todd Gerhardt: The council in the past has looked at other alternatives. We do not bond for
this. It’s kind of an internal fund. Kind of a self funding improvement fund that we have where
the assessment that you pay come back and for future projects. And then there’s also a levy that
goes in there and then at the end of the year if there’s any leftover money from our budgets that
money’s transferred into that account so we kind of watch that fund from year to year. But we
do not have sell bonds and charge you a higher interest than what we’re selling bonds for.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt is, are you familiar with other cities practices and how they
do streets?
Todd Gerhardt: It’s very similar. Every city does it somewhat different. If you go to
Minnetonka they’re going to pay 100 percent of the project even if it’s a total reconstruction or a
mill and overlay. That’s their practice. Other cities will sell bonds and at the cost plus bonding
costs of financial advisors, rating companies, bonding attorneys. As to the assessment practice,
very similar to you know we wanted to look at it as a rate that you would go out and get if you
were to get a second mortgage or financial loan with your home.
Chad Herman: So can I ask a follow up question to that?
Mayor Laufenburger: Have we answered your questions so far?
Chad Herman: I think so. I understand that all cities kind of do it differently and.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah well ultimately regardless of how the cities do it ultimately the cost
of the infrastructure in a community is paid for by the taxpayers in the community. Does that
make sense?
Chad Herman: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: So whether it’s instantly or whether it’s over a period of time the residents
in the community are going to be paying for the infrastructure that’s in the community.
Chad Herman: Be it an assessment. Be it a general fund that comes from property taxes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Property tax levy, whatever it might be yeah okay.
Chad Herman: Yeah. There’s just different ways to skin the cat.
Mayor Laufenburger: That’s correct.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Chad Herman: For lack of a better word.
Mayor Laufenburger: Your follow up.
Chad Herman: So I guess my follow up to that is, so it sounds like the City is funding this
without any bonds being sold or anything so then where does the 5.75 percent come into play?
Because if a City already has the money I could see, I can see you just charge the assessment but
why charge the interest rate?
Mayor Laufenburger: Well let me speak to one thing. First of all the interest rate only comes
into play if you choose to pay over a period of time. All of the assessments can be paid for right
away and then there’s no interest rate.
Chad Herman: Understood but you’re also asking the residents to cough up $8,000 like that too.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well do we have to pay the contractor right away?
Paul Oehme: We do.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so somehow the money has to come forward. Mr. Gerhardt you
want to answer that?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah the interest rate is prime plus, what was it? 2 percent and so you know
that’s typically what you’re going to get a loan for and you know this is a practice that we’ve
been doing for going on 15 years and on and off council’s looked at changing it but they just
have not wanted to change it because now you’re going to start treating people differently than
what you’ve done in the past. So it’s trying to be consistent and treating people the same along
the way.
Chad Herman: So then that extra money just goes back into the city fund then?
Todd Gerhardt: It goes back into that improvement fund yeah.
Chad Herman: Yeah.
Todd Gerhardt: It doesn’t go to any you know balance in the budget or anything like that. It
goes back into our reconstruction fund.
Chad Herman: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much.
Chad Herman: Thank you.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Appreciate your questions. Anybody else like to raise questions or
comments? Okay with that I will close the public hearing and bring this back to the council for
comment. There we go. Council members, any comments, questions or suggestions?
Councilwoman Ryan: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: I’d like to maybe bring it back to council in terms of discussing about the
changing the motion to include surmountable curbs versus the high back.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay you can do this one of two ways Councilmember Ryan. You can
make a motion that includes that.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Or you can make the motion. Have that motion receive a second and then
offer an amendment so however you’d like to do it you know but ultimately the council will
decide but how would you like to do it?
Councilwoman Ryan: I’ll make the motion with the surmountable curb. I just have to figure out
where. Where would you like that in there?
Mayor Laufenburger: Well I think why don’t you make the motion with the understanding that
directing staff to use surmountable curb versus B.
Paul Oehme: 618.
Mayor Laufenburger: 618.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. I’d like to make the motion that the City Council adopts the
attached resolution accepting the bids and awards the contract for the Minnewashta Manor Street
and Utility Improvement Project number 16-01 to GMH Asphalt Corporation in the amount of
$2,809,118.75. The City Council adopts the assessment roll and resolution for the Minnewashta
Manor Street and Utility Improvement Project number 16-01. With the surmountable curbs.
Mayor Laufenburger: Instead of.
Councilwoman Ryan: Instead of the high back curb.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. McDonald. So Mr. Knutson is that a valid
motion?
Roger Knutson: Mayor it is.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Alright. So what we have here is a motion to accept the
recommendation as presented with one exception and that is use surmountable curbs versus the
B-618. Mr. Oehme. Is there anywhere in this project site where surmountable curbs could
present a danger to the public safety? A significant danger to the public safety and it would
make more sense to use a stretch of B-618.
Paul Oehme: I can’t think of one right now so I feel comfortable moving forward with council’s
direction to replace the, with surmountable curb.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Any further discussion?
Resolution #2017-10: Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that
the City Council adopts the attached resolution accepting the bids and awards the contract
for the Minnewashta Manor Street and Utility Improvement Project No. 16-01to GMH
Asphalt Corporation in the amount of $2,809,118.75 with direction to staff to use
surmountable curb instead of the B-618 curb. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Resolution #2017-11: Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that
the City Council adopts the assessment roll and resolution for the Minnewashta Manor
Street and Utility Improvement Project No. 16-01. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Ladies and gentlemen thank you for your participation tonight. You’ve
seen local government process in action. Thank you.
YOUNGSTEDT’S SIGN VARIANCE – 50 LAKE DRIVE EAST: APPROVE REQUEST
TO INSTALL AN 80 SQUARE FOOT MONUMENT SIGN LOCATED AT 50 LAKE
DRIVE EAST FOR YOUNGSTEDT’S CAR WASH, COLLISION CENTER, AND TIRE
& AUTO SERVICE.
Mayor Laufenburger: Whose is this?
Kate Aanenson: It’s mine.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you very much.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Kate Aanenson: Thank you. This item appeared before the Planning Commission on January
rd
3. The Planning Commission voted 4-0 to approve the variance for a sign at 50 Lake Drive
East. The applicant, Matthew Duffy, owner Steve Youngstedt. I have quite a few slides here but
in the interest of time I’m going to kind of breeze to the main issue. MacKenzie Walters on our
staff did a great job explaining the nuances of this. There was a variance granted before. That
being that there’s 3 properties involved in the existing sign that’s off premise. 30, 40 and 50
Lake Drive East so they currently have an off premise sign. A highway sign. Each of those, two
of those parcels that have frontage on are allowed those so they were given a variance in order to
accommodate them all on one post. And I’m not going to go through all the zoning. So there
has been other variances in the area. Okay, goodness sakes. Okay so these are the 3 properties
that are included at 30, 40 and 50 Lake Drive East and there was some other variances which I’m
not going to spend a lot of time going through those but they were granted a variance and that
sign sits out on Highway 5 right now and it’s got all 3 users of Youngstedt’s. Different
businesses on that sign and that sign, I’ll go to this one. Looks like this. This is the existing sign
so the main issue there is that the sign, the proposed sign would have a 4 foot height variance
which was granted before and a 16 foot area so by putting in the message center, which is
allowed as part of this package, in filling this in it adds about an additional 20 square feet. The
staff felt comfortable with that recommendation of giving the variance. We had already given a
variance to the existing sign. We think it’s appropriate to keep all the signs at one location as
opposed to the two separate which could be taller so, and in looking at this and the fact of giving
them the message center they had some visuals that were included in the packet that show
looking at it from a distance. Very hard to read that small script so and this way you’re getting
the opportunity, the message center for all 3 businesses so the staff did support that as did the
Planning Commission. So again we are supporting the variance. The applicant, a representative
is here so we are recommending that you allow the 12 foot high ground low profile sign with the
80 foot square foot display area with the conditions in the staff report which would require
getting a permit. So existing posts would stay in place. We’re just changing the internal
formation on that so with that I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Ms. Aanenson. Council members any questions for staff?
Councilmember Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Ms. Aanenson just for clarification, I know it was in the report but, and I
believe the Planning Commission asked this about safety on Highway 5.
Kate Aanenson: Yes.
Councilwoman Ryan: If you could just touch on that please.
Kate Aanenson: Sure. That’s been an issue. A lot of it comes up with the lums. How bright it
is so that’s something that the applicant will have to show and is a condition on there that they
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
show how bright the intensity is. And then how often it changes and those sort of things so those
are regulated by the sign ordinance.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay perfect, thank you. Nothing further.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you. Anybody else have any questions? Could you flash
the action that you’re looking for? There we go. Anybody wishing to make that motion?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll make the motion Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald yes.
Councilman McDonald: I make a motion that the Chanhassen City Council approves a variance
request to allow a 12 foot high ground low profile sign with 80 square feet of display area subject
to the conditions of approval and adopts the attached Findings of Fact and Decision.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Campion. Any further discussion?
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council
approve the variance request to allow a 12 foot high monument sign with 80 square feet of
sign display area, and adopts the attached Findings of Fact and Decision, subject to the
following conditions:
1. The applicant must apply for and receive a sign permit from the City.
2. The existing landscaping around the sign must be either maintained or replaced in kind.
3. The Electronic Message Center must comply with the City’s Electronic Message Center
Standards.
4. The ground low profile sign must meet the City’s design standards.
5. The ground low profile sign shall be located in the same position as the existing
monument sign or at least 10 feet south of Lots 1 and 2’s common north property line.
6. The materials and color of the brick used in the supports shall be consistent with the brick
and colors used on the buildings on Lots 1 and 2.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
7. All businesses built on Lots 1, 2 and 3 shall share the monument sign facing Highway 5
and may not construct separate detached business signage.
8. Directional signage must comply with Sec. 20-1265. General location restrictions, and
Sec. 20-1255(2). Directional signs.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much. Congratulations on your sign.
Matt Duffy: Thank you. I would just like to thank the council for placing me on the agenda in
such a place that I was able to get an education on high back and low back curbs.
Mayor Laufenburger: Duly noted and by the way, council meetings are open to the public
second and fourth Mondays every month. Nice to have you here Mr. Duffy.
APPROVE AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 10 OF THE CHANHASSEN CITY CODE
REGARDING ON-SALE INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSE FOOD TO LIQUOR
SALES RATIO REQUIREMENT.
Mayor Laufenburger: Who’s got this one?
Todd Gerhardt: I’ve got this one Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: Staff is asking that the council remove the requirement that on-sale wine and
beer and on-sale intoxicating liquor licenses serve a 50 percent food to liquor ratios. Right now
our restaurants have to have a 50/50 ratio of at least 50 percent food to liquor and staff has done
numerous surveys and have found that this trend is going away with the micro breweries and
things like that popping up. That more establishments, restaurants are serving more liquor than
food because of the price of the liquor and so staff is recommending that change and eliminating
the 50 percent attributed to the sale of food. And open it up for any questions the council may
have.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you Mr. Gerhardt. Do you have something on the screen or
should we refer to the?
Todd Gerhardt: You can refer to the staff report. The proposed motion.
Mayor Laufenburger: Item I-2, okay. Any questions or comments for Mr. Gerhardt?
Councilman McDonald: I have a question Mr. Mayor.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: So if we amend Chapter 10 and take out the ratio will that apply to
existing establishments with a liquor license in Chanhassen?
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. I mean they’re still going to serve food. There’s the restaurant definition
of it. Right now our ordinance doesn’t allow a pure bar to open up with the exception of a
lounge that’s attached to a hotel like High Timber. So if you wanted to open up just a pure bar
you cannot do that unless you’re attached to a hotel. There always has to be the definition of a
restaurant and that’s clearly defined in our code what a restaurant is.
Councilman McDonald: Okay now I’m confused. Does that mean I could now open a bar in
Chanhassen?
Todd Gerhardt: Only if you’re attached to a hotel.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. Okay thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: So Mr. McDonald if you want to build a hotel then you can build a bar
right?
Councilman McDonald: And not serve any food in it yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Campion.
Councilman Campion: So Mr. Gerhardt then, does that mean that they would have to serve some
amount of food greater than zero percent or?
Todd Gerhardt: They would have to meet the definition of a restaurant. So you have to have a
number of seats. You have to have a commercial kitchen. The definition of restaurant is quite
detailed.
Roger Knutson: Mayor you have to provide for people to buy the food but you’re not requiring
them to buy it. It has to be available to purchase.
Councilman Campion: So then the, to make the allowance for you know the brew pubs or you
know the micro breweries that would be additional code modification required?
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: If they wanted to have an establishment where the ale is actually produced
on site that would be a different ordinance.
Councilman Campion: Right.
Todd Gerhardt: There’s a variety of different applications that exist out there. There’s some
where they use you know a restaurant may use other people’s micro brews and serve them but
they’re not producing it on site so that would be, you would still have to provide food with that.
Now when you’re manufacturing the liquor, the brew that’s something we have not defined in
our code of where that would be located so until we have an application we’ve held off on
finding where those are permitted because in some cases they can get, if they’re going to get into
the heavy manufacturing and distribution planning may look at that as a manufacturing industrial
type use. But if you’re going to manufacture and kind of sale on site and have it associated with
you know just selling the brew that’s called a tap room so that would fall under, we’d have to
create a separate ordinance for that. Correct Roger?
Roger Knutson: Correct. I mean there are brew pubs, tap rooms, cocktail lounges. New terms
seem to come up every year.
Kate Aanenson: So to the City Manager’s point there’s a lot of, a lot more detail needs to go into
where is the appropriate location for some of these. Like should it be a retail? Would it be
industrial? So we want to look at, so if we move in that direction it just needs a lot more
research on the zoning code.
Mayor Laufenburger: Did your question answered?
Councilman Campion: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Okay so now I’m confused again. If we undo this why have I done?
Am I allowing what to come into the city and what about the current businesses, do I have any
effect on them?
Todd Gerhardt: What you’ve done is you’ve allowed the current businesses not to give audited
reports of their annual sales to liquor ratios and you’ve given the flexibility of potential micro
brewery that isn’t going to produce a micro brew on site but wants to sell other micro brews on
site but also sell food. They have to meet that definition of the restaurant. Making food
available.
Councilman McDonald: Okay but they don’t have to sell 50 percent of their.
Todd Gerhardt: Right.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Roger Knutson: And if you’re required to have a restaurant today, if you adopt this you’ll be
required to have a restaurant tomorrow.
Councilman McDonald: Okay and then the whole thing about the brew pubs is a different
discussion at some future date.
Todd Gerhardt: Well the tap room portion, the manufacturing of it depending on what level you
want to go with that.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And so that’s once we get an application then we can process it because you’ve
got to figure out if you’re going to do a brew and you want to mass produce it that’s going to be
looked at more as an office industrial type of business and then you’d have a tap room off of
there for people to come in and sample and that’s an appropriate use for an office industrial but
to put something like that in Market Square would be difficult with the truck access and things
like that but we want to understand fully how that business may operate so we have not even
tried to attempt to change the ordinance until you know what that operator’s intent is but this
would allow a business to come in and sell other people’s micro brews and not have to be bound
by the 50 percent food ratio.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: But would have to still have a restaurant.
Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you for the clarification.
Mayor Laufenburger: One of the most important elements I think of this is that as Mr. Gerhardt
said this removes the regulation of these businesses having to submit an audit report showing
their sale dollars of liquor, sale dollars of food. We’ve essentially this, this new ordinance would
remove that.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Councilman McDonald: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: So all of the restaurants or all of the establishments that have on-sale
liquor licenses today they will continue to have their on-sale liquor licenses as long as they
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
maintain their restaurants and as long as the product that they sell is not made on premise but
rather delivered through some distributor of some sort.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Any other questions or confusion?
Councilman Campion: Crystal clear.
Mayor Laufenburger: Clear? Crystal clear.
Councilman McDonald: If you’re ready Mr. Mayor I’ll propose a motion.
Mayor Laufenburger: Please do.
Councilman McDonald: Okay I propose that the City Council approves the amendment to
Chapter 10 of Chanhassen City Code removing the requirements that on-sale wine and beer and
on-sale intoxicating liquor licenses serve a 50 percent food to liquor sales ratio.
Mayor Laufenburger: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Ryan: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any further discussion?
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded that the City Council
approves the amendment to Chapter 10 of the Chanhassen City Code removing the
requirement that On-Sale Wine and Beer and On-Sale Intoxicating Liquor Licenses serve a
50 percent food to liquor sales ratio. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you council.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Tomorrow morning is the Carver County Leaders Meeting where they invite all
the township Mayors and to talk about a variety of issues and the topic of choice tomorrow is
going to be the Wheelage and Sales Tax and I know that’s one of our goals so council’s invited if
anybody would like to participate but I do plan on asking Lyndon or Dave Hemze or
commissioners to come and present at a work session also.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 23, 2017
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright and by the way that meeting is at 7:30 at the County Courthouse
in the, it’s in the conference room in the basement entering through the court side. Yeah the
court side. Not to be confused with the tennis court side but it’s the judicial court side.
Anything else Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: That’s it.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion 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 8:50 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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