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CC 2017 11 27 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 27, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Laufenburger, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Petersen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman and Roger Knutson PUBLIC PRESENT: Steve Scharfenberg 1470 Lake Susan Hills Drive Lita & Randy Cantin 6694 Nez Perce Drive Balakrishna Chintaginjala 8982 Southwest Village Loop Jamie Studnicka 7497 Saratoga Drive Meredith Petouvis 7041 Mill Creek Lane Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to this council meeting. Those of you that are present in the chambers this evening as well as those of you that are watching on Mediacom cable channel 8 or 107.2 or through livestreaming from the Chanhassen City Council website. For the record let it be known that all 5 members of the council are here this evening along with Mr. Gerhardt and Mr. Knutson. First item council members is the agenda. We have a printed agenda in front of us this evening. Are there any modifications to the agenda this evening? If not then we will proceed with the agenda as printed. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Laufenburger: We have a public announcement this evening. This is the invitation to the annual holiday tree lighting ceremony. With the holiday season approaching I’m excited to invite everyone in our community and surrounding communities to our annual Chanhassen tradition, the 2017 Tree Lighting Ceremony presented by the City of Chanhassen in conjunction with Buy Chanhassen, Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Transit and the Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center. I invite all area residents, their families and nd friends to join me on this Saturday, December 2 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. on the plaza at City Center Park. People of all ages will enjoy activities including the official lighting of the City Center Park. Refreshments. Caroling. Gingerbread house displays. Live reindeer and a special visit from Santa Claus and the entire event is free and registration is not required. For more information feel free to contact City Hall. And Mr. Gerhardt I understand you ordered up perfect weather for Saturday evening is that correct? Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Todd Gerhardt: Hopefully I haven’t wasted it all this week so, if we could have it tomorrow that would be great. Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah wouldn’t it though. Anyway regardless of the weather it’s still a fun event. There’s Mr. Hoffman fires up, I think he fires up a fire. Todd Hoffman: Bonfire. Mayor Laufenburger: Bonfire. Marshmallows and there’s cider and coffee and cookies. Todd Hoffman: Live reindeer. Mayor Laufenburger: Live reindeer, absolutely so, and I know that also that evening Southwest Transit is doing a toy drive so anybody who comes to the event please bring a new toy that can be given to somebody in need in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area so that’s this Saturday night, 5:00 til 6:00 p.m. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 1. Approve City Council Minutes dated November 13, 2017 2. Resolution #2017-71: Approve Purchase of Fire Department Replacement Ladder Truck No. 11. 3. Approval of Upholding Monetary Limits on Tort Liability as Established by Minnesota Statute 466.06. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE. Mayor Laufenburger: Chief Johnson you’re up first. Welcome Chief. Chief Don Johnson: Thank you Mayor, council. Appreciate it. Tonight is our report for the month of October. First off I know on the consent agenda the council approved our, the replacement of our ladder truck so Mr. Gerhardt and council from all of us at the fire department we appreciate your support. Assistant Chief John Murphy joined me tonight. With him and his crew, it’s been over a year of planning for that replacement. It’s a very large piece of equipment. 2 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 It has an integral part of our response to this community and we appreciate the support that you’ve shown in allowing us to replace that vehicle so. Mayor Laufenburger: How long does it take to give birth to that ladder truck Chief? Chief Don Johnson: Well they’ll start the process this week after we get some signatures on the st contract and we have a delivery date of October 1 so we had to move that up. Mayor Laufenburger: 2018. Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Wonderful. Chief Don Johnson: So we hope to have that so we have some time to plan before the weather gets real cold and do some training on that vehicle so. Secondly I’d like to talk a little bit about. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor? Chief Don Johnson: Oh sorry Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council, I just want to recognize Chief Johnson and Chief Murphy for their efforts and the rest of the volunteer fire department. Don puts a crew together to spec out the fire truck and Chief Murphy led that crew and they didn’t just stick around Minnesota. They toured around to look at different fire trucks so they put a lot of time and effort into selecting this truck and I want to personally thank them for their time and effort that they put into this. It just, it’s amazing what goes through. The one thing that they don’t have to make a decision on is the color and but there are probably 25 different red’s but it’s not like something when you go buy a vehicle out of a car lot. There’s a lot of different things you have to take into account. Some things that fit with our equipment, our existing equipment and so hats off to Don and his crew for the time and effort that you put into it. I know there’s a lot of time and it’s appreciated by staff and mayor and council so thank you. Chief Don Johnson: Thank you. On a more serious note. Ice rescue. We were out on Saturday, as maybe some of you have seen we ended effecting a dog rescue. Right now the ice is extremely unsafe and with this weather you wouldn’t think we’d be dealing with 60 degree weather. I just slows down the ice making process. We had a dog owner that had a dog off leash. The dog went after some birds which is what dogs will do and ended up getting itself into trouble so there is a certain element of risk that comes to that when we have to go out and do this kind of work. Despite the equipment there’s still some exertion and there’s some things that have to happen to make that successful and if we didn’t do that type of work owners are going to 3 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 take some unnecessary risks so I would ask that we responsibly take care of our animals. We’ve got beautiful parks that have a lot of water here and I know people like to take them off leash and let them run a little bit but until we get about 4 to 6 inches of ice it’s just really unsafe to be out there and I don’t want to, I don’t want to continue to work on the ice if we don’t have to. It’s dangerous for everyone involved. Secondly, recreational fires. Right now there was a news story in Stillwater this past weekend where a resident was burning some leaves and branches in their back yard. Lost control of that and started a grass fire. Again something we don’t normally end up talking about at the end of November but since we have no snow cover we have very exceptionally dry conditions out there. In Chanhassen we have two types of fires. We have a permitted burn and we have a rec fire and a rec fire would be defined as something you’d cook hotdogs and S’mores and things over so residents aren’t allowed to burn their leaves and those type of things in fire pits so I would ask that we be safe and be responsible with what we’re doing so we don’t end up in another situation where we’ve got a large amount of fire out there that’s very difficult to control for us in a grass setting where the fuel is abundant right now so hopefully we, I don’t normally wish for snow but let’s get some snow on the ground and kind of get, move onto our winter activities. That would be nice. Mayor Laufenburger: Well you’d have a lot of support in those who are wishing for snow . Chief Don Johnson: Yeah. Mayor Laufenburger: But then you’d also have a lot of people who are saying don’t so. Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Thanks for those good reminders Chief. Chief Don Johnson: You bet. So moving on, October we had 79 calls for service. Our average is about 55 so in October we ran 79 calls. Currently at that time during the month we were at 639 and running about 9 percent ahead of where we were the past 2 years. I can tell you right now as of today we have 693 calls which is more than we’ve had in the past 2 years and we still have another month to go so we’re running a little bit ahead of where we’ve been. 42 EMS calls in October with 4 motor vehicle accidents. One mutual aid assist to structure fire to Excelsior and one passenger vehicle fire on Highway 212. Training that’s occurring right now, we have hazardous materials response training. We had some officers training and then tonight, in the last 2 trainings we’ve had this month have been focused on EMS. One last update for fire education, we’ve totaled our numbers and we had 1,500 children from local schools either visit the fire department or we’ve done in school visits and daycare visits through the month of October so I’m pretty proud of our crew and our volunteers that make that happen and the new fire marshal has been kind of baptized by fire so to speak of how we do things here in Chan so Fire Marshal Nutter has done a great job of making sure the community’s needs are based on that and it’s always nice to meet with the community when they’re not having a bad day so I can stand for questions. That takes my report. 4 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Chief. Any questions or comments for Chief from the council? Alright, thank you Chief. Chief Don Johnson: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: What color is that fire engine going to be? Chief Don Johnson: The only color a fire engine should be sir, red. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Todd Gerhardt: An option is yellow as Roger is telling me. Mayor Laufenburger: Next up is our monthly law enforcement update from Lieutenant Kittelson. Welcome Lieutenant. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. I have the monthly law enforcement update for you this evening. The monthly calls for service October summary. We had 41 Group A crimes. 7 Group B crimes. We had 432 miscellaneous and non-criminal calls for service. 451 total traffic incidents. 29 administrative calls for service for a total of 960 in the month of October. Arrests, citations and verbal warnings summary. We had 14 individuals who were arrested and charged with 29 crimes in 14 separate incidents. We issued 80 citations. The majority of those for speeding, driving after suspension. We issued 256 verbal warnings and 233 of those were on traffic stops. Our training update for last month, all staff attended our in-house training at the sheriff’s office and the topics included legal update and Below 100 which is a national program to reduce the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Their emphasizes wear your vest, watch your speed and wear your seatbelt. Community relations update. I attended and participated with Agent Amanda Groneman in a panel nd discussion at Minnetonka Middle School East on November 2. It was a partnership with the FBI and the Minnetonka School District and I facilitated the opioid prevention program called th Chasing the Dragon. We did a number of break out sessions and we covered the entire 8 grade th and I participated in the same program at Minnetonka High School on November 16 as well th and on that day we covered the entire 10 grade. I also attended Act on Alzheimers on th November 14. Attended the Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce luncheon on November th 15 and Sergeant Breunig attended the Lunch and Learn session at the Chanhassen Library th focusing on Alzheimer’s awareness on November 17. Winter parking reminder. On street stst parking is prohibited by Chanhassen city ordinance between November 1 and April 1 between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. and it’s also prohibited when there are 2 inches or more of snow on a street until the street has been plowed from curb to curb and that concludes my report. I’ll stand for questions. 5 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions or comments for Lieutenant? Lieutenant Kittelson I do have a question I’d like you to speak to. Earlier this evening in our work session we’re in dialogue regarding downtown and I’m wondering if it’s possible for you to speak to what you do or what you in cooperation with city staff do to maintain pedestrian safety in the downtown area. Can you just speak a little bit to that? Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yeah actually about 2 years ago when I, 2 ½ years ago when I first was assigned to Chanhassen I recognized right away that pedestrian and cycling safety was a fairly large concern from both motorists, cyclists and pedestrians and runners so what we did is we partnered with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and I had all Chanhassen staff, all deputies assigned to Chanhassen complete two different training sessions for a total of 4 hours. I worked with Mr. Knutson’s office on the criminal side and we looked at how we could emulate some pedestrian safety traffic details that St. Paul Police was doing and so we met with the City Attorney’s staff just to make sure we reviewed statute. Reviewed our training. Reviewed the program to ensure that we’d have successful resolution in court if we did end up issuing citations and then we picked 10 intersections 2 years ago that we know, we knew to be problematic and then this year as the program’s kind of evolved we’ve done it more on a per request basis. Most recently Mr. Oehme and I have been discussing some potential signage that we could use particularly in the downtown area to make things more visible and more safe for pedestrians. The biggest thing is greater tolerance by everybody would go a long way but the law actually states, all motorists have to drive with due care at all times. However the statute on pedestrians says that a pedestrian crossing at a marked crosswalk, a lighted intersection or unlighted intersection has to yield to the pedestrian. Mayor Laufenburger: So the pedestrian has the right-of-way at a marked crosswalk, either lighted or not lighted. th Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yep, and so an example of that would be if you’re going west on 78 Street from here, just before Target there’s a marked crosswalk that’s not at an intersection per se and same if you’re going east just before the Dinner Theater is a similar intersection. Or a similar marked crosswalk. Mayor Laufenburger: So the one by the Dinner Theater, you’re thinking of Axel’s. Right by Axel’s there. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yes, exactly. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so that’s a marked. Lt. Eric Kittelson: So that’s a marked crosswalk not at an intersection. Mayor Laufenburger: And not lighted, okay. 6 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Lt. Eric Kittelson: But a stop light intersection or any intersection a pedestrian is attempting to cross is considered, they have the right-of-way. Mayor Laufenburger: So who has right-of-way there? The pedestrian. Lt. Eric Kittelson: The pedestrian. If a pedestrian is crossing in an area where there are, and especially in suburban areas you might have long stretches of road where there are no crosswalks or intersections nearby. It is legal then for them to cross but then they have to yield to the vehicle and then the only other thing I would say to that is, the only time it would be jaywalking per se according to statute is if you’re crossing inbetween two marked crosswalks or two marked intersections. So if you’re in a more suburban or more gridded out area where there’s, you can see two intersections to your left and right. If you cross in the middle there then you actually could be cited for that but in absence of a marked crosswalk or intersection crossings then it is legal to cross there. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so what was the phrase that you used? Something from everybody. More people. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Just a greater tolerance on everyone’s part. Mayor Laufenburger: Oh tolerance, okay. Lt. Eric Kittelson: You know everyone wants to commute. They want to ride their bicycles. They want to run and that’s all possible and I think it would be, you know even better, because signage only goes so far so just a greater tolerance and awareness of everybody would be great. Mayor Laufenburger: So motorists being more aware of pedestrians present and pedestrians being more aware of motorists present. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Correct, and the cyclists as well. Mayor Laufenburger: And the cyclists. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Especially you know we have a lot of road bikes that people are going 25 miles per hour on those at certain times so. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, well you mentioned something about you were working with Mr. Oehme for signage. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yep we’ve recently been looking at some additional signage to potentially put in some of the downtown areas and reviewing some different potential locations as well as types of signs. 7 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Thank you. Go ahead Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: One of the things I noticed on Facebook this past week, being Thanksgiving I had a little extra time sorting through there and it said to give thanks to our law enforcement officers and our firemen because they’re on 24/7 and 52 weeks out of the year and I just want to thank you and the crew that supports Chanhassen and Don and his crew that are on call and those duty crews that serve Chanhassen and they’re doing it during the holidays and when they go out on the holidays you’re supposed to be with your family and friends and celebrating and they’re responding to incidents that are probably not a happy situation. Especially some of the things that we went through past weekend which we had many calls so thank you for your service and it’s appreciated. I know my mayor and City Council are on 24/7, 52 days a week too but you guys get to see the down and the dirty and I just think about you when we had this weekend and I’m not talking about rescuing dogs even though that is dangerous but there were other events that weren’t as pleasant as that so thank you for your service. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Lieutenant. Lt. Eric Kittelson: You’re welcomed. Mayor Laufenburger: And the thing we can learn from what you just shared Mr. Gerhardt is you found something valuable on Facebook. Todd Gerhardt: Yes. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, good. ADOPT PARKS AND RECREATION SYSTEM PLAN. Mayor Laufenburger: Do we have a staff report? Is this your’s Mr. Hoffman? Todd Hoffman: Yes it is. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, Mr. Hoffman go ahead. Todd Hoffman: Thank you Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. On behalf of the Parks and Recreation System Plan Advisory Committee and the Park and Recreation Commission it is my honor to present the City’s first Parks and Recreation System Plan. This evening the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council adopt the plan. The plan is similar to the City’s Parks and Open Space section of the Comprehensive Plan but with much greater detail and in this case with much greater community involvement and so at our comp plan open house we had a handful of individuals present and throughout this plan we 8 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 had anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 comments and inputs depending on how you count them so we had great citizen input and comments throughout this entire 14 month process. The full document which you see on the screen is 81 pages in length. It includes the recent changes and modifications recommended by the mayor and City Council so those are included in this final draft document dated October, 2017. Adopting the plan does not bind the City Council to any future action but what does the plan do? So in an executive summary, what is the plan? It’s the 2017 Chanhassen Parks and Open Space, or Chanhassen Parks and Recreation System Plan. It sets the direction for parks and recreation in Chanhassen for the next 20 years. The system plan ensures that the parks and recreation system continues to meet community needs now and into the future. The system plan weighs community needs and desires with financial realities to ensure the system is economically sustainable and responsible with tax dollars and the system plan determines priorities for the future investment and contains in total 6 goals, 52 policies, and 54 initiatives. It’s important to remember as we talked about at our last meeting during work session was that it’s guided by the development. It’s guided by the City’s vision as well as the following principles. Stewardship, connectivity, engagement and it has to be adaptable. So again it’s with pleasure that we recommend that the City Council adopt this plan. One thing of note, one of the most talked about future initiatives throughout this process was the expansion of Lake Ann Park and we’re at the point in time where that conversation will become real in the next coming months and the next coming years. It’s an important initiative and what is contained in this document, what is solidified by this document as a part of that, the future expansion of parks and greenways around Lake Ann. The trail, continuation of the trailway is all laid out in this plan and to have that input from our citizens and adopted, recommended by our parks commission and adopted by our City Council really means something when that conversation comes to bear so that’s just one example of what’s contained in the plan and it’s my pleasure to make this recommendation on behalf of the Park and Recreation Commission that you adopt it. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you Mr. Hoffman. Appreciate that. Any questions or comments or action from the council? Councilmember Tjornhom, go ahead. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Thank you for your work, park and recreation committee. This is the first time we’ve ever had a document like this that you can go to the table of contents and if you’re wondering about plans or if you’re wondering about new initiatives you can see the page number and section and go right to it. So it’s a well put together report. I have just some real concerns about why the council has to approve this. For me then does this mean that this is going to be a document that can be interpreted as future plans. That this is what we’re going to do and because the council has approved it. I understand that if you as a rec committee want a guiding plan for it or if you want to know the community’s thoughts or if you want something to hand to new committee members or whatever it may be, this is interesting and it’s valuable information but I don’t want this to be something that is going to be a guiding source for the park plans for the next 10 to 15 years. There are some initiatives in here that are pretty hefty and I would hate to have, because the council has adopted or approved it set that in place and where it snowballs to all of a sudden well the council approved whatever it may be. You know I do have 9 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 some concerns about some of the initiatives in here. I don’t think they’re bad ideas. I’m just concerned that they could be put on the backs of developers or other people to pay for them. As the arts or the artist designed parks and park amenities and it talks about implementation of that. How that would happen and it was the first part of it is devoting a portion of new construction projects to public art. That sounds all wonderful but who pays for that? Who is going to have that burden to pay for that park or that art part of the park? As a developer are they going to come in and have lots and go through that whole design portion and then there’s the park that they had to dedicate land to and then we’re going to also ask them to put in some sort of art feature. I think that we’re dabbling into areas that we’ve never had to dabble in before. I think that the straight forward part of it where the parks are identified and the needs are there and the upkeep plan is there is important but when we start adding new amenities without necessarily saying how they’re going to being paid for, it makes me a little nervous that all of a sudden this will be part of a final plat that because it’s adopted by the council it has to be there and they have to pay for it. So these are just some of the things I’m a little concerned about. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilmember Tjornhom. Mr. Hoffman or Mr. Gerhardt do you want to speak to that at all? Todd Hoffman: I’d be glad to. Again as I said the plan does not bind any future negotiation. Any future council but it does talk about what’s desirable or what is considered desirable so as we enter into development conversations at Lake Ann and the Prince property, we want those developers to know that it’s a desirable thing. It’s an action step that we would like to retain a portion of that property around Lake Ann Park and so those things are identified in here. If you consider them valuable then that’s valuable input. Some people may not support that but again the action is not solidified by this plan. It’s simply a steering guideline to future negotiations so nothing is concrete because you adopt this plan. It’s simply saying that there would be some value in that conversation. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Hoffman I think there were a number of, as I reviewed the plan there were a number of places where I specifically asked that language be changed from will do this to consider the development of, things like that so while I certainly understand and appreciate Councilmember Tjornhom’s concern, and by the way regardless of how we identify this City Council there will be people who will interpret this as you said you were going to do this and it may be necessary for us to say and reinforce well actually what the City Council did, if we choose to adopt this plan is we adopted a guiding document to help us focus our attention on the things that are valued in our community and focus not on those things that are not valued in our community so. So like Councilmember Tjornhom I also have concern about that but I know that even though we have language that specifically says, even as Mr. Hoffman has said, this does not bind the council. There will be some people that will say hey, you said you were going to do this. Why aren’t you doing that so but that’s part of the education process that we have as a council and as city staff. Professional city staff to make sure people do understand. I will also compare it, this document to a certain extent to the Comprehensive Plan. Comprehensive Plan was adopted in November of 2008. The most recent one and that Comprehensive Plan identified 10 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 certain things about the community that essentially represent the vision for the community in general. Land use. Protection of resources. Housing. Transportation. Ms. Aanenson can enumerate the rest but periodically we have changed that Comprehensive Plan. I think the most recent example was the stuff we did down on CSAH 61, if I’m not mistaken so yes it is a road map but not only this council but future councils will have an opportunity to contemplatively consider whether or not the plan works. I specifically asked that language be incorporated into identifying community needs and change it and modify the document to reflect identify the changing community needs because we know the community needs are going to change over the time so while I absolutely appreciate and understand that some people will say you said you were going to do this, we just need to be firm and say no we didn’t. We adopted a plan that was going to guide our decision. It wasn’t going to make our decision. It was going to guide our decision so did you want to say anything else Councilmember? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I think you probably explained my concern better than I was expressing it. I guess I don’t understand why we have to adopt this. Why can’t it just be a report and a plan? Why does it take council action for this? Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt, do you want to speak to that or Mr. Knutson, either of you? Todd Gerhardt: Well I’ll give you the management side of it and Roger can give you the legal side of it. The management side is that a lot of time and effort went into this from a staff perspective. Park and Rec Commission side of it and a group of volunteers and also the public provided you input on their thoughts. Their visions. Their ideas of what the future of our park and rec system should be in Chanhassen and I think you should formalize that in a motion. And I’m telling you this that that formal motion is not binding you to anything. We tell you that when you approve the CIP plan and you approve millions of dollars in that CIP plan and we keep bringing those back to you for formal approval of anything over $20,000. In this city, as long as I’ve worked here has never, I don’t think there’s ever a council that has felt cornered that because they approved something or that you bound a future council that you were bound to something when staff said you’re not going to be. What this is is a culmination of efforts and I think that the council recognizing those efforts and also recognizing that we’ve invested a lot of money into our park system and just like our homes sometimes we need to make repairs to them and in here, I think in my heart one of the most important things is to have a schedule for replacement of our playgrounds. Our basketball courts. Our pickleball courts. You know our equipment in the Rec Center. Whatever it may be from a capital side that we have a schedule to work off of and we inventoried every piece of equipment that we’ve either built, purchased in our Park and Rec System Plan and just like our road system, roads don’t last forever. Playgrounds don’t last forever. I was here when we had wooden playgrounds that had entrapments where children could get their legs stuck in them and/or arms and nobody wants to be you know there when a child gets hurt. The playground industry recognized that and has designed their new playgrounds without entrapments now. We have safe playgrounds and we made the decision to replace those wooden ones that had entrapments and I think this council and future councils want to replace equipment that isn’t safe and that is worn out and that that 11 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 neighborhood deserves a new piece of equipment that is 25 plus years old. I think this document is a working document similar to that fire plan I’ve been talking about all night and the plan that we’re trying to develop for the downtown vision, that it’s working documents for us to follow to establish outcomes that we will accomplish at a certain period in time. But not without mayor and City Council’s blessings and that we would have to bring it back but we do have to make a tough decision of how to budget for these replacements and so I’m sitting here and telling you, we have to come up with a way and the estimate that Hoisington-Koegler is giving us is around $250,000 a year so that’s something that we’re going to have to plan for and, but that’s our vision statement. We’re providing for today and planning for the future and that’s what this document does. And if opportunities come up down the line, you know some art that has happened that I really, the little child out by the library was a donation. I call that artwork that’s sitting on the bench and that was a donation given to City Center and to the City. I believe the veteran’s monument sitting out in City Center Park is art. That was donated by a variety of people with Mark Undestad being probably one of the key people to make that happen. And then also the art that’s in front of the Chanhassen fire station. Some people call that recognizing the fallen firefighters and those that have served but if you look at that piece of art is what I call it to recognize those people, that was a gift by a variety of different people and their names have been recognized in the past but that’s what we’ve always looked to. We’ve never tried to do it all on our own and we always look for a partner and Todd’s got partners that donate close to $75,000 to his playground programs every year. They send out letters and look for donations so I’m very proud of this document. Hoisington has done a fantastic job and I want to thank those people that have served on the committee and please consider adopting this but Roger can give you the legal opinion if you have to or not. Mayor Laufenburger: Is there a legal opinion on the adoption of a Park System Recreation Plan? Roger Knutson: Mayor, members of the council. Mayor Laufenburger: Are you on there? Roger Knutson: I believe I am. Mayor Laufenburger: Yes you are. Roger Knutson: Nothing in this document commits you to do anything. It’s just guidance going forward so you can adopt it. If you choose to you could ignore it. I assume you wouldn’t but you could. This is not an ordinance. This is not a legal requirement. You don’t have to do this but as you staff said it’s a good idea to provide some vision. Some guidance. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Knutson. Any other? Go ahead council member. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Going back to what Todd said. I totally agree with you when it comes to art and I think some of the key phrases that you used were donations and that it was 12 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 community led and they’re great features. What I don’t want to see is having a document that forces somebody to do something in order to proceed with a development or whatever they’re doing and that’s all I’m saying is I don’t want this document to be something that forces people to do things when they don’t want to do them and I don’t want it to be something where 2 years later someone is bringing the document. They’ve highlighted something in the initiatives and said you adopted this. This is what you said you wanted to do. You know now what are you going to do about it? I think that’s the only thing I’m concerned about is I don’t want this to be something that forces somebody in a corner in the future at some point because council’s taken a formal action to put their blessing on it and so that’s all I’m saying so if I can be assured that nothing in here, it’s all great content when it comes to our park system. Inventory. What needs to be repaired. All of that’s great information. What we have. How much it’s going to cost so you can plan for the future. That’s just, that makes sense but I just don’t want I guess it’s probably Section 5 to be something that binds future developers. Future councils. The whole community into doing something they really didn’t ever intend to do. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor may I add? Mayor Laufenburger: Just you’ve got one minute. Todd Gerhardt: Okay. I agree with you 100 percent and when we built the veteran’s monument State law Roger, back then did not allow taxpayer’s dollars to be used for a veteran’s monument. Not a single taxpayer’s dollar went into that veteran’s monument and they changed that law now. Cities are out building veteran’s monuments all over the place and I can tell you the people that volunteered to dig that trench. To put in that footing for that monument have more pride when th they go there for veteran’s day or the 4 of July than when a city hires somebody to build a veteran’s monument. There’s sweat and tears that went into that veteran’s monument and it means more. Same thing with the fire station monument and that would always be my recommendation to this council that we team with somebody to do something because it means more. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Any other comment from council? Councilmember Ryan, go ahead. Councilwoman Ryan: Yes, thank you Mayor. I prepared some thoughts as I had the privilege of serving on the advisory committee so I just wanted to share some of those thoughts. Mayor Laufenburger: Just make sure your microphone’s in front of you there. Councilwoman Ryan: Oh sure. Just because I thought this process and this plan was truly comprehensive in nature and really done the right way. As Mr. Hoffman said it was about a 14 month process and it was done right because we engaged various sectors of the community. We had representation and opportunity to participate. There was the advisory committee which was made up of member reps of the Park and Rec Commission, the Senior Commission, Planning 13 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Commission. There were reps from youth and community sports organizations. There were members representing the county health board. The arts community. Youth reps from both Minnetonka High School as well as Chanhassen High School and members that were just at large members on this committee so this mix of people was very deliberate and brought tremendous value to all of our meetings. The items that were discussed were debated as we all know at great length and before finalizing all the opinions and viewpoints were shared and we had a lot of exchange and engagement looking always for the right outcome. From a public facing standpoint, and I know it’s in your report Todd, Mr. Hoffman but I wanted to point it out as well as over the course of the 14 months we had a number of interactions with the public so there were pop up booths to collect input at the City Center Farmer’s Market. Football games. The dog park as well as a public meeting held at the Chan Rec Center that brought in a number of people that had boards similar to what you did with the vision study where people could share their thoughts where there would be trail links. Missing trail links or extensions. Missing features that they wanted to see and it was just a great opportunity for the public to have interaction with both the park and rec committee as well as the advisory board and we really just did receive copious amounts of input that evening. And then as if that wasn’t enough we had an opportunity for the public to provide input online. Again placing dots or making comments where there was something that was missing that they would like to see. But to kind of touch on what we’ve discussed here tonight is that this plan is really just that. It’s a plan and in our view it in no way obligates the City to do anything so we’re not obligated to spend a dime. I know that there has been some conversation over the course of the last few months that somebody is trying to commit the council or the city to spend $25 million dollars on a Rec Center or art as the conversation goes tonight but just because there are costs included in this plan it doesn’t mean that the City, as Mr. Knutson pointed out, it is not a binding document. It’s just a guiding plan. So no one up here is committed to anything and we are simply using this plan and using it as a tool for planning purposes. As valuable as it will be for the City Council to use, I think it will be a very invaluable resource for the Park and Rec Commission as they spend a lot of time and energy engaged in the community in planning for CIP so it’s going to be a great tool for them but again it obligates us to do nothing. So as I said at the very beginning I really believe that this process was done right. We took the time, 14 months to engage the community and get their feedback and I was truly proud to be in meetings with a great group of people that were hard working, thoughtful, passionate and very committed to every single one of those meetings. So in conclusion I’d like to thank the members of the advisory committee for your countless hours that you spent at meetings but also spent outside of meetings reviewing documents. Providing feedback to Mr. Hoffman as well as the consultant. I’d like to thank the Park and Rec Commission for your review and fine tuning. I know there was a lot of debate that went back and forth at the Park and Rec Commission so I appreciate that. Hoisington-Koegler for your consulting services and really getting us through this very comprehensive process. And finally Mr. Hoffman for your leadership as you were at all the meetings and you kept moving the train along so I appreciate that so I think everybody that was, had a fingerprint on this overall plan should feel really proud in the efforts that are resulting in our very first Park and Rec System Plan so just really appreciate everybody’s efforts and I think it’s a great guiding document. And so with that I would like to make a motion. 14 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Please do. Councilwoman Ryan: I would like to make a motion that the City Council adopts the Park and Recreation System Plan. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you. And just for the record it’s the one dated October, 2017. Councilwoman Ryan: Yes. Mayor Laufenburger: Correct, okay. Alright. We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilman Campion: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Campion. Any further discussion? Councilman McDonald: Yes Mr. Mayor. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. McDonald, go ahead. Councilman McDonald: I too would like to express my thanks to the community and to staff for putting this together but I also have a hesitation about it and my hesitation is because again we have put numbers to a lot of these priorities. I think that every council needs to evaluate this based upon input that it receives. I think the danger is, is suddenly we’re locked into a budgetary plan that over the years we know because of cost of inflation and those things, it’s not going to cost what it is and I think that also is going to be a hindrance to future councils. I do think the plan is needed. I think the first 5 chapters of it are you know very good and it is something that can be used in the future. My only concern is again that last section where we try to nail down costs and priorities and I think each council, each commission of the park and rec each year that is something that they need to look at is what are they going to bring forward to the City Council and the City Council needs to look and evaluate that based upon what are those costs. Is that a priority with everything else that the City does so that is my only hesitation about the plan is the fact that I think that that detail will tend to come back and haunt future City Councils. I hear what everybody says. It’s not binding but I’ve been through this enough to know that if you write something down you’re bound by it years into the future so that’s my only hesitation about the plan. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you Mr. McDonald. Anybody else? Well I just have a couple comments. Certainly I want to echo the thanks that have already been given. Mr. Hoffman make sure your entire team, the advisory team, park and rec commission, just make sure they know how much we appreciate the work that they put into this. I think it’s also 15 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 important to remember that we have operated for, as a community for 50 years without a Park and Recreation System Plan, is that correct Mr. Hoffman? Todd Hoffman: That’s correct. Mayor Laufenburger: And while it’s true this plan does not obligate us to spend any money, without this plan we will be spending money and we’re going to be spending it using the best possible guidance we can based on what we know at that time. That is no different than what our actions will be even with this plan in place. There’s another important element too, at least from my perspective and that is, as people consider making Chanhassen their home. Whether it be families, businesses, whatever entities, I think they want to look and see what does Chanhassen view is the future. Whether it’s our Comprehensive Plan or what does Chanhassen view as their Park and Recreation System Plan? Yes, this does not obligate us but let’s not presume this document to be so wishy washy that we can sign it. Put it on a, or legitimize it with our adoption. Put it on a shelf and never look at it again. I think we as a council, and I’m saying future councils, we have an obligation and a responsibility whenever dollars come to us to be spent for whatever the reason is, we have an obligation to justify in our minds and to the taxpayers that we’re going to spend money. I think this plan is not a wishy washy document. I’m going to roll this forward 3 or 4 years. Whoever sits on this council at that time, if Park and Recreation comes forward with something that is not in this plan I would say why, you know how does this deviate from the Park and System Recreation Plan. Or Park and Recreation System Plan that was adopted. So it becomes not only a guiding document for, because of what’s in it but also because of what’s not in it so, yes. There is a risk that if we put something, if we as a council legitimize something by putting our stamp of acceptance on it, we do that when we adopt a resolution in support of building a highway or whatever it might be. Yes we’re going on record that says we agree with this plan. It does not mean that we agree with spending any amount of money but even if we don’t agree with this plan, Mr. Gerhardt has made it clear to us, we’re going to have to spend close to $250,000 a year, is that correct? Todd Gerhardt: It’s up for debate. Mayor Laufenburger: Oh okay so, some number. If we choose. If we choose to maintain our park and recreation system we’re going to have to spend some money. I appreciate that the, in my view the stewards, the primary stewards of this Park and Recreation System Plan are the city staff, the park and recreation department in cooperation with the Park and Recreation Commission and the truth is that Park and Recreation Commission is going to be, have different make up over the next 10 years than it does right now unless we, can we lock them into, can we do that? Todd Gerhardt: Sure. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. So but I view this as a road map and we can choose to go down this road or we can not choose to go down this road but I think there is great value in having a 16 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 document that tells not only future council, future park and recreation, future park and recreation departments and commission members, but also tells the interested public in knowing what’s the result of the information that was sought and what’s going to put kind of the guardrails on what we do in the next 10, 15, 20 years so any further comment? Alright we have a motion to adopt the Park and Recreation System Plan dated October, 2017. All people have spoken that choose to. Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the Chanhassen City Council adopts the Park and Recreation System Plan dated October, 2017. All voted in favor, except Councilwoman Tjornhom who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you council. That concludes our formal business. At this time, thank you Mr. Hoffman. Todd Hoffman: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: And I’m assuming you’ll have whatever paperwork is necessary for me to sign tomorrow is that correct? Okay. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Laufenburger: Administrative presentations Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: I’ve got two quick ones. I’d like to thank Mayor Laufenburger and Paul Oehme, our Public Works Director, Katy Sen from Messerli and Kramer in our continued efforts to sell the idea of the reconstruction of State Highway 101 from Pioneer Trail to Flying Cloud Drive and today’s contestant who we were trying to persuade was Brennon Furness. Mayor Laufenburger: Furness. Todd Gerhardt: And his is the Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Mark Dayton and Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith and he gave us at least a half hour of his attention. He wrote copious notes and appreciated our contribution towards this project already in the preliminary design. The environmental review. Working with Carver County, MnDOT and putting money towards the future of this project which he thought was key and that the Governor always looks towards partnerships when people come forward for bonding projects and we’ve done that and we proved that to him. We gave him the letters of support. We showed him the design of the road and he is going to take our message to budget and management who could not make the meeting today and send our message to, I think it was Liz. I forget her last name but or we’ll have a meeting with her in the future and Katy Sen is going to talk to her directly on the phone about the need for this 17 Chanhassen City Council – November 27, 2017 project so again thank you to the Mayor and Paul Oehme for selling our idea of the future of reconstructing State Highway 101, which is a high priority. And the second thing that I’d like to do is to extend my birthday wishes to the birthday boy Mayor Laufenburger who’s birthday is today and he’s spending it working hard, like I talked about mayors and councils are on the clock 52 weeks out of the year. 24 hours a day so thank you and happy birthday. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Gerhardt. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay just a reminder council is going to return to work session to deal with item number 3 on our work session agenda. Small cell wireless facility ordinance and also we are going into executive session regarding evaluation of City Manager’s performance. With that may I have a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 18